Christ Church, Oxford

Christ Church
Founded:	1546
Head of House:	The Very Revd Christopher Lewis, Dean
Graduates:	174
Undergraduates:	426
Christ Church - Oxford University

Christ Church is one of the largest and wealthiest of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.

The city of Christchurch, New Zealand was named after the college, which was the setting of Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh. The college itself is the setting for Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. More recently the college was used in the filming of the movies of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series.

Organisation

Christ Church is the only Oxford college which is also a cathedral (the smallest in England, and the seat of the Bishop of Oxford), and its corporate title is The Dean, Chapter and Students of the Cathedral Church of Christ in Oxford of the Foundation of King Henry VIII. The cathedral has a famous men and boys' choir, and is one of the main choral foundations in Oxford. The Visitor of the college is the reigning British Sovereign.

The Governing Body of Christ Church consists of the Dean and Chapter of the Cathedral, together with several "Students", who until the 19th century had no governing powers, but are now equivalent to Fellows in other colleges. There are two Censors who are responsible for undergraduate discipline.

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. 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.

Christ Church's sister college in the University of Cambridge is Trinity College, Cambridge, founded the same year by Henry VIII. Since the time of Queen Elizabeth I the college has also been associated with Westminster School, which continues to supply a large proportion of the scholars of the college.

Tom Tower

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 Christopher Wren. To this day the bell in the tower, Great Tom, is rung 101 times at 9:05 GMT (9 o'clock Oxford time) 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 has long been the most prestigious of the colleges of the University due to its wealth and the nobility of its undergraduates. King Charles I made the Deanery his palace and held his Parliament in the Great Hall during the English Civil War.

Christ Church has produced 13 British prime ministers (the most recent being Sir Alec Douglas-Home in 1963-1964), which is more than any other Oxford or Cambridge college.

Famous Former Students

Christ Church's famous Tom Tower, seen from St Aldate's (street).

External Link

Official Website