Emmanuel College, Cambridge

Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I.[4]

Emmanuel College
University of Cambridge
Front Court, Emmanuel College
Arms of Emmanuel College
LocationSt Andrew's Street (map)
Coordinates52°12′13″N 0°07′28″E
Full nameEmmanuel College in the University of Cambridge
Latin nameCollegium Emanuelis
AbbreviationEM[1]
FounderSir Walter Mildmay
Established1584 (1584)
Named afterJesus of Nazareth (Emmanuel)
Sister collegeExeter College, Oxford, Eliot House, Harvard, Saybrook College, Yale
MasterFiona Reynolds
Undergraduates500[2]
Postgraduates134
Endowment£86.7m (as of 30 June 2017)[3]
Websitewww.emma.cam.ac.uk
Students' unionwww.ecsu.org.uk
MCRwww.emmamcr.org.uk
Boat clubebc.soc.srcf.net
Map
Location in Central Cambridge
Location in Cambridge

Three members of Emmanuel College have received Nobel Prizes: Ronald Norrish, George Porter (both Chemistry, 1967) and Frederick Hopkins.[5]

History
View of Emmanuel College Chapel, 1690

The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I.[4] The site had been occupied by a Dominican friary until the Dissolution of the Monasteries 45 years earlier. Mildmay's foundation made use of the existing buildings.

Mildmay, a Puritan, intended Emmanuel to be a centre for the training of Anglican preachers.

Like all the older Cambridge Colleges, Emmanuel originally took only male students. It first admitted female students in 1979.[6]

In every year from 1998 until 2016 Emmanuel was among the top five colleges in the Tompkins Table, which ranks colleges according to end-of-year examination results. Emmanuel topped the table five times (2003, 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2010) and placed second six times (2001, 2002, 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2012). Its mean score for 1997–2018 inclusive places it as the second highest ranking college after Trinity.

Buildings and grounds

Under Mildmay's instructions the chapel of the original Dominican Friary was converted into the College's dining hall and the friars' dining hall became a chapel. In the late 17th century the College commissioned a new chapel, one of the three buildings in Cambridge designed by Christopher Wren (1677). After Wren's construction was opened the old chapel became the College library until it outgrew the space. A purpose-built library was completed in 1930.

There is a large fish pond in the grounds, part of the legacy of the friary. The pond is home to a colony of ducks.

The Fellows' Garden contains a swimming pool that was originally the friars' bathing pool, making it one of the oldest bathing pools in Europe and allegedly the oldest outdoor pool in continuous use in the UK. The Garden also contains an Oriental plane tree that is reputed to have lived far longer than is typical for the species.[7]

It has been claimed that the college has the only privately owned subway (underpass) in the UK, connecting the main site to North Court, but in fact Oriel College, Oxford has its own tunnel beneath Oriel Street linking the Island Site with the main college buildings.[8] The Bodleian Library in Oxford also has its own tunnel beneath Broad Street, Oxford.

  • College sports grounds
  • The chapel looking towards the altar
  • Front Court cloisters
  • Front façade from Downing Street

Student life
New Court which was built in 1824–25

The Emmanuel College Students Union (ECSU) is the society of all undergraduate students at Emmanuel College. It provides a shop, a bar, a common room, and funding for sports and other societies. ECSU's Executive Committee is elected at the end of Michaelmas Term each year.[9]

The Emmanuel College Middle Combination Room (Emma MCR) is the society of all postgraduate students at Emmanuel College. The Room itself is a comfortable and well-equipped space in the Queen's Building. The MCR committee organises regular social events for graduate students, including well-attended formal dinners in hall every few weeks.[10]

Sports and societies

There are numerous student societies and sports clubs at Emmanuel College. Sports clubs include Tennis, badminton, cricket, squash, rugby, football, hockey and netball. Societies include the Emmanuel College Music Society (ECMS),[11] the Christian Union, the Mountaineering Club, the recently relaunched Emmanuel College Art and Photography Society,[12] the Emmanuel Real Ice Cream Society (ERICS) and the Politics and Economics Society. The students' favourite society is Emma Circus Society. Funding for societies, old and new, comes from the Emmanuel College Students Union (ECSU).

People associated with Emmanuel
See also: Category:Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge; Category:Fellows of Emmanuel College, Cambridge; and List of Masters of Emmanuel College, Cambridge

Former students
Main article: List of alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge

Emmanuel graduates were prominently involved in the settling of British colonies in North America. Of the first 100 university graduates in New England, one third were graduates of Emmanuel. Harvard University, the first college in the United States, was organised on the model of Emmanuel as it was then run. Harvard is named for John Harvard (BA, 1632), an Emmanuel graduate. Emmanuel and Harvard maintain relations via student exchanges such as the Herchel Smith scholarships, the Harvard Scholarship, the Paul Williams Scholarship, and the Gomes lecture and dinner held each February at Emmanuel in honour of the late Peter Gomes, erstwhile minister at Harvard's Memorial Church.

Early Emmanuel graduates included several translators of the 1611 Authorised Version of the Bible, for example Laurence Chaderton and William Branthwaite.

Fictional characters who have been said to have gone to Emmanuel include Jonathan Swift's Lemuel Gulliver. It is implied that Sebastian Faulks's eponymous Engleby and Thomas Richardson also matriculated at Emmanuel. The protagonist in Samuel Butler's novel The Way of All Flesh also went to Emmanuel. The uncompleted Doctor Who serial Shada was also partly filmed in the college, with the character Professor Chronotis having rooms in New Court.

Miscellaneous

College grace
The Latin grace (Oratio Ante Cibum) is recited before formal dinners at Emmanuel College.
Latin English

Oculi omnium in te sperant, Domine,
et tu das escam illorum in tempore opportuno.
Aperis tu manum tuam
et imples omne animal benedictione.
Benedic, Domine, nos et dona tua
quae de tua largitate sumus sumpturi;
per Christum Dominum nostrum.
Amen.

The eyes of all wait upon thee, O Lord,
and thou givest them their meat in due season.
Thou openest thy hand
and fillest every living thing with blessing.
Bless us, O Lord and these thy gifts
which of thy bounty we are about to receive;
through Christ our Lord.
Amen

The Oratio Post Cibum is sometimes read after dinner:
Latin English

Confiteantur tibi, Domine, omnia opera tua,
et sancti tui benedicant te.
Agimus tibi gratias, omnipotens Deus,
pro universis beneficiis tuis,
qui vivis et regnas Deus per omnia saecula saeculorum.
Amen.

Let all thy works give thanks to thee. O Lord,
and let thy saints bless thee.
We give thanks to thee, almighty God,
for all thy goodness,
who livest and reignest as God for ever and ever.
Amen.

See also

Notes
  1. University of Cambridge (6 March 2019). "Notice by the Editor". Cambridge University Reporter. 149 (Special No 5): 1. Retrieved 20 March 2019.
  2. "University Factsheet 2012" (PDF). University of Cambridge. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
  3. "Accounts for the year ended 30 June 2017" (PDF). Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Retrieved 3 August 2018.
  4. Sarah Bendall; Christopher Brooke; Patrick Collinson (1999). A History of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Boydell Press. ISBN 0-85115-393-3.
  5. "Nobel Prize". University of Cambridge. 28 January 2013. Retrieved 15 March 2019.
  6. "History of the College". Emmanuel College. Retrieved 11 April 2019.
  7. Ron Gray. "The Great Oriental Plane Tree at Emmanuel College". Emmanuel College, Cambridge.
  8. http://www.oriel.ox.ac.uk main site accessibility map 2019.pdf
  9. "Emmanuel College Students' Union". Retrieved 13 September 2014.
  10. "Emma MCR". Retrieved 13 September 2014.
  11. "Emmanuel College Music Society". Retrieved 13 September 2014.
  12. "Emmanuel College Art and Photography Society (ECAPS)". Retrieved 13 September 2014.
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