Corpus Christi College, Oxford

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Corpus Christi College, Oxford
                     
College name Corpus Christi College
Named after Corpus Christi, Body of Christ
Established 1517
Sister College Corpus Christi College
President Sir Tim Lankester
JCR President James McDaid
Undergraduates 239
MCR President Michael Sulmeyer
Graduates 126
Homepage
Boat Club


Corpus Christi College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It tends to perform well academically, and as a small college does surprisingly well in sporting activities within the University (e.g., Women's Rugby and Gentlemen's Cricket). It had won the annual sporting challenge against its larger sister college, Corpus Christi Cambridge, for six consecutive years, until its defeat in 2006. On 9 May 2005, a team representing Corpus won University Challenge.


Contents

[edit] History

The college was founded in 1517 by Richard Foxe, the Bishop of Winchester. Although intended as a traditional training college for secular clergy, under the influence of Hugh Oldham it became the foremost humanist enterprise in Oxford, the model for many subsequent foundations. Foxe was a humanist and interested in classical literature. He founded a library which was very progressive for the time. The library included books in Latin, Greek and even Hebrew – and was praised by Erasmus on a visit to Oxford as a "biblioteca trilinguis". The important Spanish humanist Juan Luis Vives taught at Corpus while tutor to Mary Tudor, later Queen Mary I.

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the college was again involved in religious ferment. Reginald Pole, a fellow of the college in the 1520s, was Archbishop of Canterbury during the reign of Queen Mary, and a candidate for the papacy. John Rainolds, another fellow, and Corpus's seventh President, was involved in the inception and translation of the King James Version of the Bible, published in 1611. John Keble, a leader of the Oxford Movement, was an undergraduate at Corpus at the start of the nineteenth century, and went on to a fellowship at Oriel and to have a college named after him (Keble College, Oxford).

The humanistic ideas of the founder are still important to the college today, with a continued emphasis on the teaching of Latin, Ancient Greek, and ancient history.

The college attempts to select the brightest students regardless of their social background. Corpus Christi has around 350 students (of which roughly 220 are undergraduates), which makes it one of the smallest colleges in Oxford.

The Visitor of the College is ex officio the Bishop of Winchester, currently Michael Scott-Joynt.

[edit] Notable former students and fellows

See also Former students of Corpus Christi College, Oxford

[edit] Academics/teachers

[edit] External links


Colleges of the University of Oxford

Arms of the University

All Souls | Balliol | Brasenose | Christ Church | Corpus Christi | Exeter | Green | Harris Manchester | Hertford | Jesus | Keble | Kellogg | Lady Margaret Hall | Linacre | Lincoln | Magdalen | Mansfield | Merton | New College | Nuffield | Oriel | Pembroke | Queen's | St Anne's | St Antony's | St Catherine's | St Cross | St Edmund Hall | St Hilda's | St Hugh's | St John's | St Peter's | Somerville | Templeton | Trinity | University | Wadham | Wolfson | Worcester

Permanent Private Halls at the University of Oxford

Blackfriars | Campion Hall | Greyfriars | Regent's Park College | St Benet's Hall | St Stephen's House | Wycliffe Hall

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