Patrick Comerford
When I was introducing a friends from Ireland to the Cambridge I have known for almost 20 years, one of the places we received a warm welcome earlier this week was the chapel in Jesus College, where I found myself once again on what I have come to call the ‘Pugin Trail’.
Jesus College Chapel was restored by Pugin in the 1840s, and has a number of Pre-Raphaelite and Arts and Crafts treasures, including works by William Morris, Sir Edward Burne-Jones and Ford Madox Brown. It is the oldest college chapel in Cambridge, and its is unique in that it was not originally designed as a college chapel. It dates back to a time 350 years before the foundation of the college, and to half a century before the creation of the university.
The chapel was originally a large Norman church dedicated to Saint Mary and that served the 12th century Benedictine Convent of Saint Mary and Saint Radegund.
The church took about a century to build. It was begun in 1157 and was completed around 1245. At that time it was the largest church in Cambridge, about 58 metres in length and with proportions similar to those of a cathedral. It was built in the form of a cross, with aisles to the north and south of chancel and nave, and it had a high pitched roof with a belfry or steeple which was visible for miles around.
It served as the church of the parish of Saint Radegund which grew up around the convent, then a semi-rural area just outside the city of Cambridge. The belfry collapsed in 1277, and again in 1313. A fire destroyed much of the surrounding convent in 1376 but largely spared the church itself, causing only some light damage to the tower.
John Alcock, Bishop of Ely, founded Jesus College in 1496, with the formal name of the College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge. He carried out extensive building work to adapt the former convent church. Parts of the church were demolished, the rest was drastically modified, and it was then reconsecrated in the Name of Jesus. The church was previously dedicated to Saint Mary, but there may have been an altar dedicated to the Name of Jesus in the people's part of the church.
Alcock was an architect as well as a bishop and he designed many of the alterations. The changes were intended to create a chapel that was a more suitable size for a small community of scholars.
The first stages were overseen by his friend and a fellow of the college, William Plombe, in 1497-1498. After Alcock died in 1500, his work was continued by Dr William Chubbes, the first master of Jesus College, and the architects Sir John Rysley and Sir Reginald Bray.
The chancel chapels and the aisles of the nave of the church were pulled down and the cloisters were enlarged. The new cloisters were enclosed by walls that had four windows in the Perpendicular Gothic style. The dilapidated belfry was taken down and the high pitched roof was replaced by a flat roof with an oak ceiling. The lancet windows in the east wall were replaced by a plain Perpendicular style window.
Two-thirds of what had been the nave of the church was replaced by college rooms that later became part of the Master’s Lodge. The chapels on the north and south sides of the choir were pulled down and the north aisles became part of the cloister, with the original columns still embedded in the wall. The screen that once divided the congregation at the west end of the crossing was replaced by a more open screen at the east side.
The 13th century arches that divided the aisles from the nave were pulled down to make way for college rooms or were blocked off with stone and hidden behind plaster. Four arches in the chancel and two in the north transept were all filled in and covered over, and Perpendicular windows were placed in the new walls. The east arch in the south transept was also filled in and covered over, two Perpendicular windows were inserted in the east and west walls, and a large Perpendicular window was inserted in the south wall.
Thomas Cranmer was the first of four members of Jesus College to become Archbishop of Canterbury. Jesus College was his home for more than a decade, from 1517 to 1528, and as Rysley Reader in Divinity he taught theology. His connection with Jesus College is marked by a white marble and alabaster memorial in the south transept, designed by the architects Richardson and Gill and sculpted by A Bruce-Joy in 1912.
During the reign of Edward VI, six altars in the chapel and some images in the Master’s Lodge were destroyed in 1549. During the Catholic restoration in the reign of Mary I, John Fuller was appointed Master of Jesus College in 1557 and he restored the old ritual and ornaments in the chapel.
Jesus College returned to a more Protestant ethos in the reign of Elizabeth I, and the chapel services were simplified, although the college did not become Puritan. When James I visited Cambridge frequently, he often worshipped in the chapel in Jesus College.
When Dr Richard Sterne was the master, a new organ was bought in 1634. Two years later new furniture, plate, and candlesticks for the altar were bought in line with the High Church reforms of William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury. At this time, the college was known as a High Church stronghold in Cambridge and chapel services were renowned for ‘good music, elaborate solemnity and attractive decency’.
During the Civil War, the Parliamentarians ordered all colleges in 1641 ‘to displace the Communion table from the east end of their chapels, to take away the rails and level the chancel, and to remove crucifixes, tapers, and basins from the Communion table’.
Charles I called on the fellows to raise a loan of £100 and to send pieces of the college plate to his camp in York. Part of the plate was seized by the Cromwellians before it could be sent from Cambridge, but most of it was taken to York. The Cromwellians arrested the master and the former master, Richard Sterne and William Beale, during a service in the chapel and they were taken to the Tower of London. The fellows took apart the organ and hid the pieces, and what was left of the plate is said to have been buried in the orchard.
The Puritan William Dowsing arrived at Jesus College at Christmas 1643 and ‘digg’d up the Steps there and brake down Superstitions of Saints and Angels, 120 at the least’. All but two of the fellows were ejected from Jesus College and Richard Sterne was deposed as master.
All the chapel windows were filled with stained glass in the first decades of the 16th century, but every one of them was smashed by the Parliamentarians on 23 December 1643. For the next 200 years there was nothing but clear glass, apart from a few coats of arms.
At the Restoration, the chapel was repaired and restored in 1660-1663 by successive new masters, John Pearson and Joseph Beaumont, and the organ was rebuilt and reinstated. In the decades that followed, the chapel was paved with black and white marble, a gallery was built in the chancel, facing towards the altar, and a classical entrance was added in the south wall.
Between 1762 and 1765 the piers and arches of the cloisters were demolished and rebuilt to designs by James Essex, and the organ was dismantled and given to the parish of All Saints.
The Perpendicular east window in the chancel was rebuilt in the 1780s and a major restoration of the chapel was carried out in 1789-1792 to bring it into accord with the popular Classical ideal in architecture.
Major restoration work in the chapel in 1846-1849 was inspired by the Gothic revival and largely reversed earlier repairs. The leaders of this new restoration were the Revd John Gibson, then dean of the college, and the Revd Osmond Fisher. Their aims were to restore the architecture and the ritual of the chapel, to restore music to chapel services and to reinstate the choir. A new organ was designed and bought in 1849 by John Sutton, who formed a choir.
These repairs were supervised by AWN Pugin, the towering figure in the Gothic revival in church architecture and a close friend of John Sutton. On Sutton’s recommendation, the college employed Pugin to direct the chapel restoration.
Under the direction of Anthony Salvin, an 18th century partition wall in the chancel arch was removed, along with the gallery on its east side, a new organ chamber and vestry were built on the east side of the north transept, two arches were unblocked, and two arches were opened unto the north transept below the gallery.
Pugin removed both the 18th century plaster ceiling and Alcock’s low-pitched roof, which he replaced with a high pitched roof in a 13th century style. He rebuilt the choir stalls and the east wall. The reconstruction of the windows in 1846-1849 was based on good archaeological evidence and was guided by Robert Willis, working with Anthony Salvin and then with Pugin.
Pugin began in the lancets above the altar and replaced Alcock’s Perpendicular east window with three tall lancet windows in 1850 with scenes of Christ’s passion in the style of Chartres and Canterbury cathedrals, working with Hardman of Birmingham. The other windows were later glazed in the same style in 1850-1858.
The Norman windows in the north wall of the north transept were rediscovered and were preserved as recessed arches, and the whole wall was restored. New stalls and a new pavement were also supplied for the chancel, and a new organ was installed in the organ chamber. The chapel reopened with a full choral service on All Saints’ Day 1849.
Further repairs were carried out in 1864-1867 by George F Bodley, who was working at the time on All Saints’ Church in Jesus Lane, facing the entrance to the college, and the tower was refaced and restored.
William Morris designed decorations for the panelled ceilings of the nave and the tower and they were painted under his direction in 1867. The windows in the outer chapel were glazed in 1867-1878 with glass designed by William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones and Ford Madox Brown. The windows in the nave and transepts were glazed in 1873-1877 by Morris and Company to designs by Burne-Jones and Ford Madox Brown.
The glass in the two Perpendicular windows on the south wall of the chancel had weathered badly and were replaced in 1912 with designs by Sir Edward Burne-Jones, one depicting the Nativity and the other Christ debating with the Doctors in the Temple. Although their colour is brilliant, they broke a rule of both Pugin and Morris that the subject of each light should be complete in itself.
The windows in the north wall’s lancets depict scenes from the New Testament and Saint Radegund’s life, and those on the south show scenes from the life of Saint John.
Two windows in the north transept have figures representing the three theological virtues, Faith (standing on unbelief), Hope (standing on despair) and Charity (standing on envy); and the social virtues: Patience (standing on impatience); Obedience (standing on disobedience); and Gentleness (standing on ferocity).
The adjoining nave window symbolise the natural virtues and their corresponding vices. The other three nave windows have figures and scenes from the Old Testament.
In the four smaller south transept windows are the four evangelists and scenes from their Gospels, while the Great South window represents the Church in Heaven and on Earth.
The chapel has one of the finest collections of windows by Burne-Jones. But shortly after completing these windows he announced that he would no longer make stained glass for mediaeval churches.
A larger organ was bought in 1887 to complement Sutton’s organ and was installed in a new gallery at the west end of the nave. But the organ and gallery were removed from the west end in the early 20th century and the gallery may now be seen across the street at Westcott House.
Several restorations in the 20th century have revealed more of the building. A new organ by Orgelbau Kuhn of Switzerland was installed in 2006 to replace the organ by Noel Mander installed in 1971.
The chapel has a number of works of art and fine carvings. ‘The Presentation of the Christ child in the Temple’, by Jean Baptiste Jouvenet (ca 1700) in the North Transept was once used as the chapel altar-piece from 1796 to1846. In the inner chapel a large depiction of ‘The Last Supper’ is an example of the work of the Venetian School in the late 16th century and is attributed to Leandro Bassano.
The majority of the richly carved choir stalls and screen are 19th century reconstructions of the 16th century chapel furnishings, although three carved figures have survived from the 1500s. Another remnant of the chapel’s woodwork can be seen at the end of the master's stall in the inner chapel, showing Bishop Alcock at prayer.
The bronze Pietà in the north transept is by the sculptor Gillian Kaufman and was added to the chapel in 2014.
The chapel, Cloister Court, and the names of some rooms, such as the Prioress’s Room, are reminders of the links between Jesus College and the 12th century Benedictine Convent of Saint Mary and Saint Radegund.
As we emerged from Cloister Court to First Court it seemed like Barry Flangan’s ‘Bronze Horse’ was waiting in the late afternoon sunshine to greet us.
Some years ago, one of my photographs of the boathouse of Jesus College Boat Club was used in a funraising appeal brochure launched by the club in 2014. It was good to reacquaint myself with Jesus College once again on a summer afternoon.
• The Revd Dr James Crockford has been the Dean of Chapel since 2019. During term time the Sunday services are: 10 am, Choral Eucharist, 6 pm, Choral Evensong with address from a guest speaker; Saturday services, 6 pm, Choral Evensong; weekday services, 9 am, Morning Prayer, Monday to Friday, 6:30 pm, Choral Evensong, Tuesdays and Thursdays.
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