Cambridge Apostles

Cambridge Apostles
Founded	April 1, 1820 University of Cambridge
Type	Secret society
Status	Unknown
Emphasis	Debate
Scope	Local
Chapters	1
Alternative name	Conversazione Society
Headquarters	Cambridge, England United Kingdom

The Cambridge Apostles (also known as Conversazione Society) is an intellectual society at the University of Cambridge founded in 1820 by George Tomlinson, a Cambridge student who became the first Bishop of Gibraltar.

History

Student George Tomlinson founded the Conversazione Society at the University of Cambridge on April 1, 1820. This intellectual society soon was called the Cambridge Apostles because of its twelve founders. These founders were Tory evangelical Anglican students from St John's College, Cambridge.

The society was essentially formed as a discussion group to explore ethics and religion. Meetings are held once per week, traditionally on Saturday evenings, during which one member gives a prepared talk on a topic, which was later thrown open for discussion. Members also shared poetry and dance lessons. In the early 20th century, the Cambridge Apostles were consider by some "as a haven for overt, full-blooded—almost aggressive—homosexuality." After reading her son's letters, an Apostle's mother called the group "a hotbed of vice".

The society became first admitted women in the 1970s. As of 2023, the society's annual dinner has become an "erractic occurance". Its last know members graduated from Cambridge in the 1970s, leading one writer to question whether or not the Apostles are still active. The Apostle's papers, through 1930, are housed at King's College, Cambridge archives.

Traditions

The Apostles retained a leather diary of their membership, the Photo Book stretching back to its founder, which includes handwritten notes about the topics on which each member has spoken. It was included in the so-called Ark, a cedar chest containing collection of papers with some handwritten notes from the group's early days, about the topics members have discussed, and the results of the division in which those present voted on the debate. It was a point of honour that the question voted on should bear only a tangential relationship to the matter debated.

Active members referred to as the Apostles and called each other Brethren. Upon retirement from the soceity, Apostles "taken wings" and become Angels. Undergraduates applied to become angels after graduating or being awarded a fellowship. Every few years, amid great secrecy, all the angels were invited to an Apostles' dinner at a Cambridge college. There used to be an annual dinner, usually held in London.

The members meet weekly to eat sardines on toast, called whales, and discuss an essay written by a member. The debate at each meeting is called the discussion on the Hearth Rug because the speaker stands with the moderator on a hearth rug when speaking, should such a rug be present.

Membership

Membership consisted largely of undergraduates, but there have been graduate students and members who already have held university and college posts. The society traditionally drew most of its members from Christ's, St John's, Jesus, Trinity and King's Colleges. Although, in the 20th century, the majority of its members came from King's College and Trinity. Women first gained acceptance into the society in the 1970s.

Undergraduates being considered for membership were called embryos and are invited to embryo parties, where members judged whether the student should be invited to join. The embryos attended these parties without knowing they were being considered for membership. Becoming an Apostle involved taking an oath of secrecy and listening to the reading of a curse, originally written by Apostle Fenton John Anthony Hort, the theologian, in or around 1851. There are only twelve members at any given time, and membership in the Cambridge Apostles is secret.

Notable members

Main article: List of Cambridge Apostles members

Alfred Tennyson joined the Apostles in 1829, probably through the invitation of his friend Arthur Hallam. Bertrand Russell and G. E. Moore joined as students, as did John Maynard Keynes, who invited Ludwig Wittgenstein to join. Russell had been worried that Wittgenstein would not appreciate the group's unseriousness and style of humour. He was admitted in 1912 but resigned almost immediately because he could not tolerate the level of the discussion on the Hearth Rug (the matter for debate at any given meeting, so called because the speaker stands with the moderator on a hearth rug when speaking, should such a rug be present); he also had trouble tolerating the discussions in the Moral Sciences Club. He rejoined in the 1920s when he returned to Cambridge.

Soviet spies Anthony Blunt, Guy Burgess and John Cairncross, three of the Cambridge Five, and Michael Straight were all members of the Apostles in the early 1930s.

Bibliography

• Allen, Peter (1978). The Cambridge Apostles: The Early Years. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-21803-0.
• Deacon, Richard (1986). The Cambridge Apostles: A History of Cambridge University's Elite Intellectual Secret Society. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 978-0-374-11820-4.
• Levy, Paul (1980). Moore: G. E. Moore and the Cambridge Apostles. Holt, Rinehart and Winston. ISBN 978-0-03-053616-8.