Patrick Comerford
During my visits to Cambridge last week, one of the churches I visited is Saint Clement’s Church on Bridge Street, standing opposite Saint John’s College.
Saint Clement’s is a Grade II* listed building in the central Cambridge conservation area. Because is only a few minutes’ walk from Sidney Sussex College, I was familiar with Saint Clement’s over the years when I was studying at the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies. But last week was my first opportunity to see inside the church and to see the splendid east wall mural by Frederick Leach, and the icons by Aidan Hart.
Saint Clement’s is a traditional church with a liturgy based on the Book of Common Prayer, and it stands within the Catholic tradition of the Church of England. The church is also home to the Parish of Saint Ephraim the Syrian, an English-speaking Russian Orthodox parish in the Diocese of Sourozh.
The church was built in the first half of the 13th century, and it is believed to stand on the site of an earlier building. The walls are of rubble with some brick with freestone dressings.
The building initially consisted of the four west bays of the north and south arcades of the nave. The nave arcades and the south door remain from the 13th century. The east bay of the arcades appears to have been rebuilt in the 14th century. The first pier on both sides was rebuilt in 1538, the clearstory and aisle windows were added, and north and the south aisles were rebuilt and widened.
The advowson passed from Saint Radegund’s Priory to Jesus College.
The present chancel, built in brick, was added in 1726, replacing an earlier one that was demolished in 1568. In place of the usual east window, the east wall has a fine mural painted in 1872 by Frederick Richard Leach (1837-1904), a master decorator, mural and stained glass painter based in Cambridge.
Leach worked with the architects George Frederick Bodley and George Gilbert Scott Junior, the designer William Morris and the church craftsman Charles Eamer Kempe on many Victorian Gothic revival churches, Cambridge college interiors and church restorations.
Leach’s mural in Saint Clement’s depicts Christ in Glory surrounded by angels and saints, and is widely regarded as Leach’s finest piece. It is possible he may have designed the mural and the decorative scheme for the whole church interior.
The iconography of the mural is informed by High Church, Tractarian and Anglo-Catholic teachings. The mural shows Christ surrounded by all the Fathers and saints of the Church, each with their traditional emblems, including Saint Peter with the keys to heaven, Saint Mary Magdalene with a box of ointment, and Saint Clement, the patron saint of the church, with his emblem, the anchor.
The words Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum (‘The Peace of the Lord be always with you’) are painted above the altar and also appear in the fresco of Saint Clement in the Basilica of San Clemente in Rome, from which his likeness is said to have been taken.
Leach may have painted himself into the mural, most likely as the 15th-century fresco painter, Fra Angelico, recognisable by his palette and brush and by his nimbus which is painted as individual rays of light rather than a full halo (he was not beatified until 1982).
In the mural, Christ is the central figure, surrounded by eight angels, four on each side. The lower two angels are offering incense, the spiralling smoke trails of which are depicted around the thuribles.
Christ is depicted as the High Priest in his vestments, including a long white alb, a stole, and a chasuble. His right hand is raised in blessing and in his left hand he holds the Blessed Sacrament. His wounds are shown in his hands and feet so he is the Crucified and Risen Christ, offering his sacrifice in heaven.
A scroll below Christ’s feet has the words Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum (‘The Peace of the Lord be always with you’).
The two figures kneeling, each holding a chalice at either end of this scroll, are Saint Clement (left) and Saint Augustine of Canterbury (right). Saint Clement of Rome is regarded as the second Bishop of Rome and the first Apostolic Father of the church. The emblem of his martyrdom is an anchor, as he was executed by being tied to an anchor and thrown into the sea.
Saint Augustine of Canterbury was the first Archbishop of Canterbury and the Apostle to the English, sent to Anglo-Saxons by Pope Gregory I in 595.
Flanking Saint Clement and Saint Augustine are the scholastics Saint Bernard of Clairvaux and Saint Thomas Aquinas.
Next there is a group of three saints on each side: Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Cecilia and Saint Etheldreda (left); Saint Teresa of Avila, Fra Angelico, and Saint Edward the Confessor (right).
On the extreme left is Saint Leo the Great, and on the extreme right is Saint Athanasius of Alexandria.
The next two figures on each side are of the four Fathers or Great Doctors of the Latin Church: Saint Ambrose of Milan and Saint Augustine of Hippo (left), and Saint Jerome and Saint Gregory the Great (right).
The other saints include Saint Paul the Apostle, Saint Peter, Saint James the Great, the Virgin Mary and Saint John the Evangelist.
Other features inside the church include an octagonal, perpendicular font, and the oldest memorial to a Mayor of Cambridge. The French inscription on the tombstone of Eudo of Helpringham, who died in 1329 during his sixth term as mayor, gives an early version of the modern form of the name of the town, ‘Caunbrege’.
A chapel was created in the south aisle in 1933, with screens in Anglo-Baroque style, in memory of a former vicar, Canon Edmund Gough de Salis Wood. In the north aisle there is a beam with a carved punning inscription from ca 1538. It is thought to indicate that Thomas Brakyn, who lived in the parish at the time, contributed to the cost. He is buried in Saint Clement’s churchyard.
The tower was designed by Charles Humfrey. A spire was added in 1821-1822, after a bequest by William Cole. The architectural historian Sir Niklaus Pevsner describes the tower as ‘somewhat silly’. A vestry was built on the site of the former north chapel in 1866. The spire was removed from the tower in 1928.
A notable Vicar of Saint Clement’s was the Revd Arthur Robert Ward (1829-1884). He was a keen cricketer and President of the University Cricket Club until his death. He played in 12 first-class cricket matches for Cambridge University and amateur sides in the 1850s.
Ward was the curate at All Saints’ Church, Cambridge until 1860, and then the Vicar of Saint Clement’s from 1860 until he died in 1884. He was a very stout man and of very High Church persuasion, so that he was known as ‘The Real Presence’, while his curate, a thin man, was known as ‘The Wafer.’
He was succeeded at Saint Clement’s by his former curate, Canon Edmund Gough de Salis Wood (1841-1932), who was curate in 1865-1885, and then Vicar in 1885-1931.
Wood was a Tractarian who followed ritualistic liturgical practices, although he adhered strictly to the Book of Common Prayer. In 1873, with his brother, he founded the Society for the Maintenance of the Faith, to hold patronage for Anglo-Catholic parishes. He was a leading figure in the Societas Sanctae Crucis (SSC, Society of the Holy Cross) and served several terms as Master of the society.
Wood was also a noted authority on ecclesiastical law. His opinions on the Church were held inflexibly and it is said he did not suffer fools gladly. However, he was an excellent priest to his small parish, compassionate and loving and respected for his pastoral guidance. He was made an honorary Canon of Ely in 1911.
He lived in the Old Vicarage, and was buried in the churchyard, where his grave is one of the few that remains marked. The chapel in the south aisle of the church is a memorial to Canon Wood.
His successor was the barrister-priest Father James Tait Plowden-Wardlaw (1873-1963), Vicar in 1931-1941, who often published as ‘Father Clement’ or ‘Clement Humilis’ and maintained the Anglo-Catholic tradition. He argued for church unity with an Anglican ‘Uniate Patriarchate of Canterbury’.
Later priests included Father Cuthbert Cubitt Keet, the Ven David Walser and Father Ian McMahon.
The church hosted a Greek Orthodox parish of Saint Athanasios from 1968, until it moved to a church on Cherry Hinton Road. Saint Clement’s is now home to the Parish of Saint Ephraim the Syrian, an English-speaking Russian Orthodox parish of the Diocese of Sourozh.
As a traditionalist catholic parish, the PCC of Saint Clement’s passed resolutions A and B of the Priests (Ordination of Women) Measure 1993, rejecting the ordination of women to the priesthood. The parish requested to receive alternative episcopal oversight from the Bishop of Richborough, but it has since rescinded these resolutions and is under the episcopal care of the Bishop of Ely.
The Revd Andrew Christopher Day, currently Non-Stipendiary Curate at St Mary the Great with St Michael, Cambridge has been thee Priest-in-Charge of Saint Clement, Cambridge, since September 2021. He is also the Associate Priest at the University Church, Saint Mary the Great. Prior to ordained ministry, he worked in both the independent and state education sectors.
Saint Clement’s recently embarked on a process of renewal. This includes opening the church on afternoons from Wednesday to Saturday for quiet prayer and for visitors, and promoting Christian social engagement with the world.
The churchyard offers a green oasis on Bridge street, and the Old Vicarage adjoins the churchyard.
• Sung Mass is at 11 am each Sunday in Saint Clement’s. The liturgy is based on the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. The language is traditional and the ceremonial is catholic. The Ordinary of the Mass is typically sung to Merbecke, and music in the service is supported by the choir. It lasts about an hour and concludes with the Angelus, followed by conversation, coffee and tea.
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