Editing Peterhouse, Cambridge (section)

== History ==
[[File:Church of St Mary The Less, Cambridge.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|[[Little St Mary's, Cambridge|Church of St Mary the Less]]]]
[[File:Coe Fen, Cambridge.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Peterhouse, view from [[Coe Fen]]]]

===Foundation===
The foundation of Peterhouse dates to 1280, when [[letters patent]] from [[Edward I]] dated [[Burgh, Suffolk]], 24 December 1280 allowed [[Hugh de Balsham]], to keep a number of scholars in the [[St John's College, Cambridge|Hospital of St John]],<ref name="cooper">{{cite book |last=Cooper |first=Charles Henry |title=Memorials of Cambridge |url=https://archive.org/details/memorialscambri01coopgoog |publisher=William Metcalfe |year=1860 |location=Cambridge}}</ref> where they were to live according to the rules of the scholars of [[Merton College, Oxford|Merton]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=66643|title='The colleges and halls: Peterhouse', A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 3: The City and University of Cambridge (1959), pp. 334–340|access-date=1 July 2008}}</ref> After disagreement between the scholars and the Brethren of the Hospital, both requested a separation.<ref name="walker">{{cite book |last=Walker|first=Thomas Alfred|title=Peterhouse|year=1935|publisher=W. Heffer and Sons Ltd|location=Cambridge}}</ref> As a result, in 1284 Balsham transferred the scholars to the present site with the purchase of two houses just outside the then Trumpington Gate to accommodate a Master and fourteen "worthy but impoverished Fellows". The [[Little St Mary's, Cambridge|Church of St Peter without Trumpington Gate]] was to be used by the scholars.<ref name="walker" /> Bishop Hugo de Balsham died in 1286, bequeathing 300 marks that were used to buy further land to the south of St Peter's Church, on which the college's Hall was built.

The earliest surviving set of statutes for the college was given to it by the then Bishop of Ely, [[Simon Montacute]], in 1344. Although based on those of Merton College, these statutes clearly display the lack of resources then available to the college. They were used in 1345 to defeat an attempt by [[Edward III]] to appoint a candidate of his own as scholar. In 1354–55, William Moschett set up a trust that resulted in nearly {{convert|70|acre|m2}} of land at [[Fen Ditton]] being transferred to the College by 1391–92. The College's relative poverty was relieved in 1401 when it acquired the [[advowson]] and rectory of [[Cherry Hinton|Hinton]] through the efforts of Bishop [[John Fordham (bishop)|John Fordham]] and John Newton. During the reign of [[Elizabeth I of England|Elizabeth I]], the college also acquired the area formerly known as Volney's Croft, which today is the area of St Peter's Terrace, the William Stone Building and the Scholars' Garden.

===16th century onwards===
In 1553, [[Andrew Perne]] was appointed Master. His religious views were pragmatic enough to be favoured by both [[Mary I of England|Mary I]], who gave him the [[Deanery of Ely]], and Elizabeth I. A contemporary joke was that the letters on the weathervane of [[St Peter's Church, Cambridge|St Peter's Church]] could represent "Andrew Perne, Papist" or "Andrew Perne, Protestant" according to which way the wind was blowing.<ref name="walker" /> Having previously been close to the reformist Regius Chair of Divinity, [[Martin Bucer]], later as vice-chancellor of the university Perne would have Bucer's bones exhumed and burnt in Market Square. [[John Foxe]] in his [[Foxe's Book of Martyrs|''Actes and Monuments'']] singled this out as "shameful railing". There is a hole burnt in the middle of the relevant page in Perne's own copy of Foxe.<ref>[[Patrick Collinson]], ‘Perne, Andrew (1519?–1589)’, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press (2004).</ref> Perne died in 1589, leaving a legacy to the college that funded a number of fellowships and scholarships, as well bequeathing an extensive collection of books. This collection and rare volumes since added to it is now known as the Perne Library.

[[File:St. Peter's College Cambridge 3.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|St Peter's College, view from Trumpington Street, 1815]]
Between 1626 and 1634, the Master was [[Matthew Wren]]. Wren had previously accompanied [[Charles I of England|Charles I]] on his journey to Spain to attempt to negotiate the [[Spanish Match]]. Wren was a firm supporter of Archbishop [[William Laud]], and under Wren the college became known as a centre of [[Arminianism in the Church of England|Arminianism]]. This continued under the Mastership of [[John Cosin]], who succeeded Wren in 1634. Under Cosin significant changes were made to the college's Chapel to bring it into line with Laud's idea of the "beauty of holiness".<ref name="walker" /> On 13 March 1643, in the early stages of the [[English Civil War]], Cosin was expelled from his position by a [[Parliament of England|Parliamentary]] ordinance from the [[Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester|Earl of Manchester]]. The Earl stated that he was deposed "for his opposing the proceedings of Parliament, and other scandalous acts in the University".<ref>{{cite book|last=Walker|first=John|author-link=John Walker (clerical historian)|title=The sufferings of the clergy of the Church of England during the great rebellion|year=1863|location=London|page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_yuoCAAAAQAAJ/page/n401 169]|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_yuoCAAAAQAAJ|editor=Robert Whittaker|access-date=26 January 2011}}</ref> On 21 December of the same year, statues and decorations in the Chapel were pulled down by a committee led by the Puritan zealot [[William Dowsing]].<ref name="walker" /><ref>{{cite journal|title=Richard Crashaw|journal=The Living Age|date=28 April 1883|volume=157|page=198|url=http://digital.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=livn;cc=livn;rgn=full%20text;idno=livn0157-4;didno=livn0157-4;view=image;seq=00206;node=livn0157-4%3A1|access-date=26 January 2011}}</ref>

The college was the first in the University to have electric lighting installed, when [[William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin|Lord Kelvin]] provided it for the Hall and Combination Room to celebrate the College's six-hundredth anniversary in 1883–1884. It was the second building in the country to get electric lighting, after the [[Palace of Westminster]].<ref name="PetWebsite" />

The college developed a strong reputation for the teaching of history from the time of [[Harold Temperley]],<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f9UTDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA180 |title=History, Historians, and Conservatism in Britain and America: From the Great War to Thatcher and Reagan |first=Reba N. |last=Soffer |author-link=Reba Soffer |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-19920-811-1 |page=180}}</ref> and during World War II its fellowship simultaneously included four professors in the university's faculty for that subject – [[Herbert Butterfield]], [[David Knowles (scholar)|David Knowles]], [[Michael Postan]] and [[Denis Brogan]].<ref>{{cite book |chapter=W. A. Cole |first=A. J. H. |last=Latham |page=147 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0w-UAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA147 |title=Reflections on the Cliometrics Revolution: Conversations with Economic Historians |editor1-first=John S. |editor1-last=Lyons |editor2-first=Louis P. |editor2-last=Cain |editor3-first=Samuel H. |editor3-last=Williamson |publisher=Routledge |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-13599-360-3}}</ref>

===Modern day===
In the 1980s Peterhouse acquired an association with [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] politics. [[Maurice Cowling]] and [[Roger Scruton]] were both influential fellows of the College and are sometimes described as key figures in the so-called [[Peterhouse school of history|"Peterhouse right"]] – an intellectual movement linked to [[conservativism|philosophical conservativism]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/1999/sep/10/features11.g27|title=Peterhouse blues|date=10 September 1999|access-date=15 June 2009 | newspaper=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref> While often associated with [[Thatcherite]] politics (notably, the Conservative politicians [[Michael Portillo]] and [[Michael Howard]] both studied at Peterhouse), the extent to which [[Margaret Thatcher]]'s economic liberalism was admired within the movement was limited. During this period, which coincided with the mastership of [[Hugh Trevor-Roper]], the college endured a period of significant conflict among the fellowship, particularly between Trevor-Roper and Cowling.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article558995.ece|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110513234955/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article558995.ece|url-status=dead|archive-date=13 May 2011|title=Maurice Cowling Obituary|newspaper=The Times|access-date=8 September 2008 | location=London | date=26 August 2005}}</ref>

Trevor-Roper feuded constantly with Cowling and his allies, while launching a series of administrative reforms. Women were admitted in 1983 at his urging. The British journalist [[Neal Ascherson]] summarised the quarrel between Cowling and Trevor-Roper as:<blockquote>Lord Dacre, far from being a romantic Tory ultra, turned out to be an anti-clerical Whig with a preference for free speech over superstition. He did not find it normal that fellows should wear mourning on the anniversary of General Franco's death, attend parties in SS uniform or insult black and Jewish guests at high table. For the next seven years, Trevor-Roper battled to suppress the insurgency of the Cowling clique ("a strong mind trapped in its own glutinous frustrations"), and to bring the college back to a condition in which students might actually want to go there. Neither side won this struggle, which soon became a campaign to drive Trevor-Roper out of the college by grotesque rudeness and insubordination.<ref name="Ascherson">{{cite magazine
  | last =  Ascherson
  | first = Neal
  | title = The Liquidator
  | magazine = London Review of Books
  | date= 19 August 2010 | url = http://www.lrb.co.uk/v32/n16/neal-ascherson/liquidator
  | access-date = 5 January 2016}}</ref></blockquote> In a review of Adam Sisman's 2010 biography of Trevor-Roper, the ''Economist'' wrote that picture of Peterhouse in the 1980s was "startling", stating the college had become under Cowling's influence a sort of right-wing "lunatic asylum", who were determined to sabotage Trevor-Roper's reforms.<ref>{{cite news
  | title = Not so ropey
  | newspaper = The Economist
  | date= 22 July 2010 | url = http://www.economist.com/node/16636401
  | access-date = 5 January 2016}}</ref> In 1987 Trevor-Roper retired complaining of "seven wasted years."<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gZBpjG9HXJsC |title=An Honourable Englishman: The Life of Hugh Trevor-Roper |first=Adam |last=Sisman  |publisher=Random House |year=2011 |isbn=9780679604730 |page=562}}</ref>

Peterhouse may have been one of the sources of inspiration for [[Tom Sharpe]]'s ''[[Porterhouse Blue]]''.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Sharpe|first=Tom|url=https://www.amazon.com/Porterhouse-Blue-Sharpe-January-2002/dp/B00I61HKG2|title=[Porterhouse Blue]|date=2002-01-01|publisher=Arrow Books/Random House}}</ref>

In the 21st century Peterhouse has established a more modern and welcoming reputation.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}}