Highways and Byways in Cambridge and ElyConybeare, John William Edward
History
Highways and Byways in Cambridge and Ely
Conybeare, John William Edward
Cambridgeshire (England) -- Description and travel; Isle of Ely (England) -- Description and travel
The church which was thus so long profaned is of late Perpendicular
architecture. Huge galleries have been inserted for the accommodation
of such undergraduates as may attend; the nave being appropriated to
the Master of Arts. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
the east end was filled with tier above tier of semicircular benches
for the seniors of the University, from whose prevailingly bald heads
this elevation became profanely known as "Golgotha." All is now
arranged in decent fashion, and since the building of the Senate House
the church has only been used for strictly ecclesiastical purposes.
Here each Sunday afternoon is preached the "University Sermon," the
preacher being some clergyman selected by the Council of the Senate.
No service is held in connection with this sermon, but the preacher,
before commencing, reads from the pulpit what is known as the "Bidding
Prayer"--a long list of subjects for intercession, comprising the
various authorities in Church and State, the Clergy, and (as the
source of their supply) the Universities and Colleges. Amongst these
"as in private duty bound" the preacher specifically names the College
to which he himself belongs, finally concluding with the Lord's
Prayer.[83] The sermon is officially attended by the Vice-Chancellor
and Proctors, who gather in the Senate House and cross the street in
procession to the West door of the church. One of the Proctors carries
the University Bible, a ponderous tome suspended by a chain; and in
front is borne the silver mace of the University, by an official
designated the "Esquire Bedell."
[Footnote 83: On the Sunday after All Saints' Day, when the "Lady
Margaret Preacher," appointed by the Vice-Chancellor, officiates, he
begins by reading the long roll of benefactors to the University from
the earliest times; in itself a specially inspiring predication.]
The church has witnessed various vicissitudes of doctrine. Here,
during the first outbreak of Protestantism, the Missal was solemnly
torn up and burnt amid the hooting of the crowd; and when, a century
later, the Puritans gained the ascendancy, a like fate befell the Book
of Common Prayer, Cromwell himself presiding at the ceremony. This was
on Good Friday, 1643, when the Vice-Chancellor and several other Heads
of Colleges were, for refusing to abet the proceeding, shut up in the
church "all the long cold night, without fire or candle." They were
afterwards haled to London, and, after being pelted through the City,
were subjected to a sort of Black Hole treatment, under hatches on
board a hulk in the river, with all port-holes closed, and no air
"save such as they could suck from each others' breaths," as the
"Querela Cantabrigiensis" piteously complains.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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