Traditionally it has been seen as the most aristocratic college. It has produced thirteen British Prime Ministers (the most recent being Sir Alec Douglas-Home in 1963 – 1964 ), which is more than any other Oxford or Cambridge college (and two short of the total number for Cambridge University, at fifteen). However today the proportion of undergraduates from maintained and independent schools is roughly equal, which is typical of most Oxford colleges.
Christ Church is the only college in England which is also a cathedral (one of the smallest in England), the seat ( Cathedra ) of the Bishop of Oxford . Its corporate title is The Dean, Chapter and Students of the Cathedral Church of Christ in Oxford of the Foundation of King Henry the Eighth, and the Visitor of the House is the reigning British Sovereign . The cathedral has a famous men and boys' choir, and is one of the main choral foundations in Oxford. The Governing Body of Christ Church consists of the Dean and Chapter of the Cathedral, together with about sixty "Students", who until the 19th century had no governing powers, but are now equivalent to Fellow s in other colleges. There is a Senior and a Junior Censor (formally titled the ''Censor Moralis Philosphiæ'' and the ''Censor Naturalis Philosophiæ'') who are responsible for undergraduate discipline. A ''Censor Theologiæ'' is also appointed to act as the Dean's deputy.
Student life
As well as rooms for accommodation, the buildings of Christ Church include the cathedral (which also acts as the college chapel), a great hall, two libraries, two bars, and Common Room s for dons, graduates and undergraduates. There are also gardens and a neighbouring sportsground and boat-house.
Accommodation is provided for all undergraduates, and for some graduates, although some accommodation is off-site. Accommodation is generally spacious with most rooms equipped with sinks and fridges. Many undergraduate rooms comprise 'sets' of bedrooms and living areas. Members are generally expected to dine in hall, where there are two sittings every evening, one informal and one formal (where jackets, ties and gowns are worn and Latin grace is read). The Buttery next to the Hall serves drinks around dinner time. There is also a college bar (known as the Undercroft), as well as a Junior Common Room (JCR) and a Graduate Common Room (GCR).
There is a college lending library which supplements the university libraries (many of which are non-lending). Law students have the additional facility of the college law library, which has received large financial supplements from Christ Church law graduates. Most undergraduate tutorials are carried out in the college, though for some specialist papers undergraduates may be sent to tutors in other colleges.
Croquet is played in the Master's Garden in the summer. The sportsground is mainly used for Cricket , Tennis , Rugby and Soccer . Rowing and Punting is carried out by the boat-house across Christ Church Meadow . The college owns its own punts which may be borrowed by students or dons.
The college Beagle pack, which was one of several in Oxford, is no longer connected with the college or the university, but continues to be staffed and followed by undergraduates from across Oxford.
In June 2005, for the first time in 15 years, Christ Church held a white-tie Commemoration Ball .
History
In 1525 , at the height of his power, Thomas Cardinal Wolsey , Lord Chancellor of England and Archbishop Of York , suppressed the Abbey of St Frideswide in Oxford and founded Cardinal College on its lands, using funds from the dissolution of Wallingford Priory . He planned the establishment on a magnificent scale, but fell from grace in 1529 , before the college was completed.
In 1531 the college was itself suppressed, and refounded in 1532 as King Henry VIII's College by Henry VIII , to whom Wolsey's property had escheated. Then in 1546 the King, who had broken from the Church Of Rome and acquired great wealth through the dissolution of the monasteries in England, refounded the college as '''Christ Church''' as part of the re-organisation of the Church Of England and made it the cathedral of the recently created diocese of Oxford.
Major additions have been made to the buildings through the centuries, and
Wolsey's Great Quadrangle was crowned with the famous gate-tower designed by Sir ) every night for the 101 original scholars of the college. In former times this signalled the close of all the college gates throughout Oxford.
The college arms, adopted (as with those of most Oxford colleges) apparently without authority, are those of Cardinal Wolsey, and are blazoned: Sable, on a cross argent engrailed, a lion passant gules between four leopards' faces azure; on a chief or a rose gules barbed vert and seeded or between two Cornish choughs proper. The arms are depicted beneath a red cardinal's hat with fifteen tassels on either side, and sometimes in front of two crossed croziers.
There are also arms in use by the cathedral, which were confirmed in a visitation of 1574 . They are emblazoned: Between quarterly, 1st & 4th, France modern (azure three fleurs-de-lys or), 2nd & 3rd, England (gules in pale three lions passant guardant or) on a cross argent an open Bible with seven seals proper inscribed with the words "In principio erat Verbum, et Verbum erat apud Deum" imperially crowned or.
Grace
Before formal Hall each evening, the following Latin grace is recited by a scholar of the House:
''Nōs miserī hominēs et egēnī, prō cibīs quōs nōbis ad corporis subsidium benignē es largītus, tibi, Deus omnipotēns, Pater cælestis, grātiās reverenter agimus; simul obsecrantēs, ut iīs sobriē, modestē atque grātē ūtāmur. ''
''Per Iēsum Christum Dominum nostrum.''
The remaining words of the full grace replace ''Per Iēsum Christum, etc.'' on special occasions:
''Īnsuper petimus, ut cibum angelōrum, vērum panem cælestem, verbum Deī æternem, Dominum nostrum Iēsum Christum, nōbis impertiāris; utque illō mēns nostra pascātur et per carnem et sanguinem eius fovēāmur, alāmur, et corrōborēmur.''
There is also a similarly long formal grace intended for use after meals, but this is rarely heard. Instead, when High Table rises, by which time the Hall is largely empty, the senior don simply says ''Benedictō benedīcātur''.
"The wind had dropped. There was even a glimpse of the moon riding behind the clouds. And now, a solemn and plangent token of Oxford's perpetuity, the first stroke of Great Tom sounded." Chapter 21, Zuleika Dobson (1922), Max Beerbohm
"I must say my thoughts wandered, but I kept turning the pages and watching the light fade, which in Peckwater, my dear, is quite an experience -- as darkness falls the stone seems positively to decay under one's eyes. I was reminded of some of those leprous facades in the vieux port at Marseille, until suddenly I was disturbed by such a bawling and caterwauling as you never heard, and there, down in the little piazza, I saw a mob of about twenty terrible young men, and do you know what they were chanting 'We want Blanche. We want Blanche!' in a kind of litany." Brideshead Revisited (1945), Evelyn Waugh
"By way of light entertainment, I should tell the Committee that it is well known that a match between an archer and a golfer can be fairly close. I spent many a happy evening in the centre of Peckwater Quadrangle at Christ Church, with a bow and arrow, trying to put an arrow over the Kilcannon building into the Mercury Pond in Tom Quad . On occasion, the golfer would win and, on occasion, I would win. Unfortunately, that had to stop when I put an arrow through the bowler hat of the head porter. Luckily, he was unhurt and bore me no ill will. From that time on he always sent me a Christmas card which was signed "To Robin Hood from the Ancient Briton"" Lord Crawshaw , House Of Lords , Hansard , Tuesday 8 Jul 1997
External links
Oxford Cathedral , King's Handbook of Cathedrals (1865): The Cathedral, History of the See
