Cambridge Apostles

The Cambridge Apostles, also known as the Cambridge Conversazione Society and The Apostles, is an elite intellectual secret society at Cambridge University and was founded in 1820 by George Tomlinson along the lines of a Masonic Lodge.

This secret society was called the Cambridge Apostles, because they should join the twelve talented students from Cambridge University, he was an allusion to the twelve apostles. The active members are mostly students. The company was traditionally located at King's College and Trinity College, which is no longer the case today.

Activities and membership

The Cambridge Apostles were a debating essentially. Meetings were held once a week, traditionally on Saturday evenings, where a member gave a presentation on any topic, and later led a discussion on this topic. During the meeting sardines were eaten on toast, which they called " whales ". There were no restrictions on where the subject of the article subject - neither moral, legal or ideological borders should hinder the freedom of the talk.

The apostles managed since its inception a leather diary, in which a Secretary logged the issues discussed. The active members, who are mostly students, are called " Apostles ", former members are called " Angels". In general, the " Apostles " were when they completed their studies or an assistant, who accompanied doctoral studies assumptions to "Angels". "Angels" then looked for new members among students. Every year all "Angels " to a " Apostles ' dinner" in a Cambridge college, were in the greatest secrecy, invited.

Students who have been considered for membership into consideration, were referred to as " embryo " and " embryo parties " invited, where existing members decided whether an "embryo" should be included or not. The students attended these parties without knowing that they were drawn up for a membership into consideration. To become an " Apostle " had an oath of secrecy to be stored and a lecture to be heard, the original of the Apostle Fenton Hort ( theologian since 1851 ) was written.

There were few female members. The first woman ( an American Ph. D. - student of social anthropology ) in 1985 Member, 165 years after the " Cambridge Apostles " were founded.

Critics say that the secret nature of the Apostles, together with the low number of female members and the significant proportion of the "Angels" who received a scholarship to Cambridge, as well as jobs in the media, the government and the church, the defined ideals of University would be undermined. Former members spoke of a lifelong covenant which bound them to each other. The philosopher Henry Sidgwick wrote in his memoirs about the apostle: " the tie of attachment to this society is much the strongest corporate bond Which I have known in my life" ( the binding to this company is the strongest that I knew in my life have ).

The Cambridge spy ring

The Cambridge Apostles were known in 1973 by the Cambridge spy ring. 1979 Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher came before the House of Commons and announced publicly the deputies one of the biggest espionage scandals in the history of Great Britain. At least four men who have access to the highest levels of the British government had (two of them were former apostles ) were transferred to have passed information to the KGB. The four secret agents were: Guy Burgess, an MI6 officer and secretary to the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs; Anthony Blunt, MI5 officer, director of the Courtauld Institute and Art advisor to the British Queen; Donald MacLean, senior officials of the Foreign Ministry; and Kim Philby, the MI6 officer and journalist. Although only four men were unmasked, there were rumors of a fifth man who allegedly leading officer of the British Secret Service, which was never found. Many of these rumors referred to Victor Rothschild, 3rd Baron Rothschild ( 1910-1990 ), another apostle, who provided facilities for the meeting of the spies in London. However, there was no evidence that he knew about the espionage activities. The American writer Michael Straight (1916-2004), former editor of the New Republic, was also temporarily suspected in this context.

Among the mentioned spies there were two homosexuals, Guy Burgess and Anthony Blunt, who were both members of the Cambridge Apostles. At that time it was said that the secret society is marked by homosexuality and Marxism. The communist Anthony Blunt had been the first, who was recruited by the KGB in 1933, when he was in the Soviet Union. Back in Britain he had more students recruited in Cambridge quickly at the direction of the KGB, including Michael Straight. But according to the writer Russell Aiuto it should not have been Blunt, who recruited Burgess, Philby and MacLean.

Former members

Cambridge Apostles were (the year of accession in parentheses if known):

  • Noel Annan, a member of MI5 and rector of the University of London
  • Julian Bell, poet
  • Francis Birrell, critic and journalist
  • Anthony Blunt, art historian and Double Agent ( MI6 and KGB spy )
  • Rupert Brooke, poet (1908 )
  • Arthur Buller, lawyer
  • Charles Buller
  • Guy Burgess, Double Agent ( MI6 and the KGB)
  • Erasmus A. Darwin, brother of Charles Darwin ( 1823)
  • Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson, historian and philosopher
  • Roger Fry, painter and art critic (1887 )
  • Arthur Hallam, poet (1829 )
  • Godfrey Harold Hardy, Mathematician
  • Eric Hobsbawm, historian
  • Aldous Huxley, writer
  • John Mitchell Kemble, historians
  • John Maynard Keynes, economist
  • Paul Levy ( writer ), Restaurant critic
  • Geoffrey Lloyd, classical scholar
  • Frederick Denison Maurice, literary scholar and theologian
  • James Clerk Maxwell, physicist (1852 )
  • Desmond MacCarthy, columnist and critic
  • John McTaggart Ellis McTaggart, philosopher
  • Charles Merivale, historians
  • George Edward Moore, Philosopher (1894 )
  • Raymond Mortimer, art critic and journalist
  • Victor Rothschild, banker
  • Bertrand Russell, philosopher (1892 )
  • John Tressider Sheppard, classicist
  • Gerald Shove, Economist (1909 )
  • Henry Sidgwick, Philosopher ( 1857)
  • C. P. Snow, writer and physicist
  • John Sterling, writer
  • James Strachey, journalist ( biographer of Sigmund Freud )
  • Lytton Strachey, author and critic (1902 )
  • Michael Straight, journalist and KGB spy
  • Alfred Tennyson, writer
  • Stephen Tomlin, sculptor
  • George Tomlinson, theologian (1820 )
  • Richard Trench, writer and theologian
  • George Macaulay Trevelyan, historian
  • Robert Trevelyan, poet and translator
  • Saxon Sidney Turner, writer
  • Arthur Waley, sinologist and historian
  • Leonard Woolf, publisher and writer, husband of Virginia Woolf (1902 )
  • Brooke Foss Westcott, theologian
  • Alfred North Whitehead, mathematician and philosopher (1884 )
  • Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosopher (1912 )
George Tomlinson (bishop) Fenton John Anthony Hort Cambridge Five Elizabeth II Communism Noel Annan, Baron Annan G. H. Hardy Brooke Westcott Journal of Homosexuality
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