Cambridge Apostles

The Cambridge Apostles, also known as the Cambridge Conversazione Society, is an elite intellectual secret society at Cambridge University, founded in 1820 by George Tomlinson, a Cambridge student who went on to become the Bishop of Gibraltar.

Activities and membership

The society is essentially a debating club. Meetings are held once a week, traditionally on Saturday evenings, during which one member gives a prepared talk on a topic, which is later thrown open for discussion, while the members eat sardines on toast, called "whales". There are no constraints regarding which topic may be raised and how it is approached: members may raise any idea they can mount an argument for, no matter how controversial or politically incorrect.

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The Apostles retain a leather diary of their membership stretching back to its founder, which includes handwritten notes about the topics each member has spoken on. The diary is retained by the secretary of the society. The members referred to as the "Apostles" are the active, usually undergraduate members; former members are called "angels". Undergraduates usually agree to become angels after graduating or being awarded a fellowship; they then look out for new members among the undergraduate population. Every year, amid great secrecy, all the angels are invited to an Apostles' dinner at a Cambridge college.

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Undergraduates being considered for membership are called "embryos" and are invited to "embryo parties," where members judge whether the embryo should be invited to join. The students attend these parties without knowing they are being considered for membership. Becoming an Apostle involves taking an oath of secrecy and listening to the reading of a curse, originally written by Apostle Fenton Hort, the theologian, in or around 1851.

Related Topics:
Embryos - Secrecy

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There have been very few women members. The first woman to join, an American Ph.D student in social anthropology, became a member in 1985, 165 years after the society was founded.

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Critics say the society's secretive nature, combined with the small number of women members, and the significant percentage of angels who have acquired fellowships at Cambridge, and positions in the media, government and the church, places the Apostles at odds with the meritocratic ideals the university espouses. Former members have spoken of the life-long bond they feel toward one another. Henry Sidgwick, the philosopher, wrote of the Apostles in his memoirs that "the tie of attachment to this society is much the strongest corporate bond which I have known in my life."

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