Cambridge Camden Society - Results

Results

In the end, the Cambridge Camden Society's accomplishments were so pervasive that they have often been taken for granted. Historian James F. White states that "even buildings built in contemporary styles, with few exceptions, use the liturgical arrangement developed over a century ago by the Cambridge Camden Society. Here, many have felt, is the 'correct' way of building churches, and thousands of parishes all over have adapted their worship to fit this variety of building." Pews bought by money have vanished entirely thanks to the Society's campaign and chancels have been a normal feature in Neo-Medieval churches since the 1860s. Although the Society did not win the Anglican Church over so wholly with its arguments promoting medieval ritual, it did help to draw attention to injustices committed in the Church and initiated much-needed reform. Even the music of the Church was affected by the Cambridge Camden Society. Under the auspices of the society, John Neale published the Hymnal Noted, a collection of more than one hundred hymns, among which was Neale's "O come, O come, Emmanuel", which he translated from 12th century Latin.

Although a society of undergraduate students could hardly be expected to change the very nature of church building and worship across the world, the Cambridge Camden Society came very near to doing so. Incubated in Architectural Associationism, Romantic notions of the Middle Ages, and the Oxford reform movement, the Society sought to return England to its medieval past, and in its quest helped to rediscover the beauty of Gothic architecture and to rejuvenate the Anglican Church.

The last issue of The Ecclesiologist in 1868 was able to claim, with some truth, that "we have the satisfaction of retiring from the field victors".