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Corpus Christi College, Oxford, is 500 years old in March 2017. This book is the first history of the College in over a century and covers the full chronological range from its foundation by Richard Fox in pre-Reformation Oxford to the present day. Corpus Christi was founded with self-consciously high intellectual ambitions in the Renaissance and, although it has sustained those ambitions better at some periods than at others, its intellectual pedigree has remained a constructive challenge throughout its history. Many of the great changes of English history from the sixteenth century onwards-the Reformation, the Civil War, the Glorious Revolution-have had their repercussions and sometimes their participants within the College. The book weaves the history of the College together with the strands of internal domestic history, intellectual history, and the political and religious history of England and Europe.
List of contents
- 1: The Founder and his Foundation
- (i) Fox's career
- (ii) The buildings and the change of plan
- (iii) The name Corpus Christi
- (iv) The statutes
- 2: Corpus and the Reformation
- (i) Corpus and religious changes under Henry VIII and Edward VI
- (ii) The Eucharist: in what sense corpus Christi?
- (iii) Jewel in the reign of Elizabeth
- (iv) Hooker on the Eucharist
- 3: Rainolds and Hooker
- (i) Conflict in Corpus 1558-1568
- (ii) John Rainolds
- (iii) Richard Hooker
- (iv) The Library in 1589
- (v) Life in Corpus under Elizabeth
- (vi) The buildings renewed
- vii) Rainolds, the Hampton Court Conference, and King James's Bible
- 4: Corpus before the Civil War
- (i) Divisions in Corpus: Calvinism, tutors, and the shape of the College
- (ii) The presidency of Thomas Anian
- (iii) Thomas Jackson: harmony in College, conflict in the country
- 5: The Civil War and the Restoration
- (i) The early careers of Newlyn and Staunton
- (ii) Newlyn's first period as President and the First Civil War
- (iii) Corpus under Staunton
- (iv) Newlyn's second period as President
- 6: Corpus from Turner to Randolph, 1687-1783
- (i) Turner's Presidency
- (ii) The Presidency of John Mather
- (iii) The Presidency of Thomas Randolph
- 7: Corpus from Cooke to University reform, 1783-1855
- (i) Thomas Burgess as Tutor
- (ii) College teaching and the effects of inflation
- (iii) Tutors and Lecturers
- (iv) Corpus under President Bridges and the Tractarian Movement
- (v) Corpus and the University reforms of 1854-5
- 8: Corpus 1855-1914
- (i) From the 1855 Statutes to the 1882 Statutes
- (ii) The agricultural depression and its effects
- (iii) College sport and societies
- (iv) Charles Plummer
- (v) Sidgwick and Case
- 9: Corpus 1914-1969
- (i) The First World War
- (ii) After the War: the last years of Case, 1918-24
- (iii) The Presidency of P. S. Allen
- (iv) The Presidency of Livingstone, the Second World War and its aftermath
- (v) The 1950s and 1960s
- 10: Corpus 1969-2015
- (i) Student troubles and co-residence
- (ii) The Library, the Librarian, and the President
- (iii) Collegiality: the beehive and the swarms
- 11: Epilogue: The Founder's speech as imagined by John Rainolds
About the author
Thomas Charles-Edwards was Jesus Professor of Celtic and Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford from 1997 until 2011, after 27 years as Fellow and Tutor at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, an Honorary Member of the Royal Irish Academy, a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales, and a Fellow of the British Academy.
Julian Reid studied English Language and Medieval Literature at Durham University before training as an archivist at Liverpool University. Having worked previously in local authority archives, he has been the archivist of Corpus Christi and Merton Colleges, Oxford, since 2002. In 2011 he was one of the curators of the Bodleian Libraries' exhibition Manifold Greatness: the Making of the King James Bible, and was a contributing editor of the accompanying book.
Summary
Corpus Christi College, Oxford, is 500 years old in March 2017. This book is the first history of the College in over a century and covers the full chronological range from its foundation by Richard Fox in pre-Reformation Oxford to the present day. Corpus Christi was founded with self-consciously high intellectual ambitions in the Renaissance and, although it has sustained those ambitions better at some periods than at others, its intellectual pedigree has remained a constructive challenge throughout its history. Many of the great changes of English history from the sixteenth century onwards—the Reformation, the Civil War, the Glorious Revolution—have had their repercussions and sometimes their participants within the College. The book weaves the history of the College together with the strands of internal domestic history, intellectual history, and the political and religious history of England and Europe.
