St Edward King and Martyr is a

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

located on Peas Hill in central

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

, England. It is dedicated to

Edward the Martyr Edward the Martyr ( – 18 March 978) was King of the English from 8 July 975 until he was killed in 978. He was the eldest son of King Edgar (r. 959–975). On Edgar's death, the succession to the throne was contested between Edward's sup ...

, who was King of England from 975 until his murder in 978. In 1525 it was at St Edward's that what is said to have been perhaps the first "openly evangelical" sermon of the

English Reformation The English Reformation began in 16th-century England when the Church of England broke away first from the authority of the pope and bishops Oath_of_Supremacy, over the King and then from some doctrines and practices of the Catholic Church ...

was delivered, and the church is sometimes labelled the "Cradle of the Reformation". It has been considered a

royal peculiar A royal peculiar is a Church of England parish or church exempt from the jurisdiction of the diocese and the province in which it lies, and subject to the direct jurisdiction of the monarch. Definition The church parish system dates from the ea ...

, not belonging to a diocese, but this is disputed.

History

Foundation

The present church was founded in the 13th century on what is believed to be the site of an earlier

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...

church. In around 1400 the church was rebuilt, creating the present

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

and arches of the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

, though the arch at the base of the tower dates from the original building. There are some pictures and a description at the Cambridgeshire Churches website. When Henry VI ordered the clearing of land in order to create King's College, the church of St John Zachary that was used by both Trinity Hall and Clare was demolished. In 1445, by way of recompense, the living of St Edward's Church was granted to Trinity Hall, and the Chaplain is still appointed by the college. Two 15th-century side-chapels were built in St Edward's, the north chapel used by Trinity Hall, and the south by Clare.

Reformation

St Edward's played a pivotal role in the

. During the 1520s a group of evangelicals led by Thomas Bilney had been meeting to discuss the preachings of

Martin Luther Martin Luther ( ; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, Theology, theologian, author, hymnwriter, professor, and former Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. Luther was the seminal figure of the Reformation, Pr ...

and

Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus ( ; ; 28 October c. 1466 – 12 July 1536), commonly known in English as Erasmus of Rotterdam or simply Erasmus, was a Dutch Christian humanist, Catholic priest and Catholic theology, theologian, educationalist ...

's translation of the

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

. At the Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve 1525, one of the group, Robert Barnes, gave what is believed to be the first openly evangelical sermon in any English church, and accused the Catholic Church of

heresy Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, particularly the accepted beliefs or religious law of a religious organization. A heretic is a proponent of heresy. Heresy in Heresy in Christian ...

. Over the next decade many of the great reformers preached at St Edward's, including the Oxford Martyr

Hugh Latimer Hugh Latimer ( – 16 October 1555) was a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, and Bishop of Worcester during the Reformation, and later Church of England chaplain to King Edward VI. In 1555 under the Catholic Queen Mary I he was burned at the ...

, who was a regular preacher until he left Cambridge in 1531. These events have led to St Edward's being referred to as the "Cradle of the Reformation".

Recent history

The buildings of central Cambridge have led to St Edward's becoming somewhat hidden away from view in its location on the west side of the

Cambridge Guildhall Cambridge Guildhall is a civic building in the centre of the historic city of Cambridge, England. It includes two halls, ''The Large Hall'' and ''The Small Hall'', and is used for many disparate events such as comedy acts, conferences, craft fai ...

. It is surrounded on three sides by its namesake pedestrian alleyway, St Edward's Passage, whose 'Y-shaped' form has remained unchanged since at least the 16th century: there is only a tiny churchyard. It holds Grade II* listed status. During the 1930s, St Edward's served as the

Toc H Toc H (also TH) is a registered charity and an international Christian movement. The name is an abbreviation for Talbot House, "Toc" signifying the letter T in the Royal Corps of Signals#History, signals spelling alphabet#History, spelling alpha ...

church for the east of England, and became popular with students, who referred to it as "Teddy's". The present east window was designed by

George Gilbert Scott Sir George Gilbert Scott (13 July 1811 – 27 March 1878), largely known as Sir Gilbert Scott, was a prolific English Gothic Revival architect, chiefly associated with the design, building and renovation of churches and cathedrals, although he ...

and was added during the restorations of 1858–60. The theologian F. D. Maurice was chaplain at St Edward's from 1870 to 1872. The acting vicar-chaplain is Reverend Dr Mark Scarlata, who is also Old Testament lecturer and tutor at St Mellitus College, London.

References

External links

St Edward King and Martyr church website
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Edward King and Martyr Grade II* listed buildings in Cambridge History of Cambridge