Glasney College was founded in 1265 at Penryn

Penryn, Cornwall

Penryn is a civil parish and town in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated on the Penryn River about one mile northwest of Falmouth...

, Cornwall

Cornwall

Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

, by Bishop Bronescombe

Walter Branscombe

Walter Branscombe was Bishop of Exeter from 1258 to 1280.-Life:...

 and was a centre of ecclesiastical power in medieval Cornwall

England in the Middle Ages

England in the Middle Ages concerns the history of England during the Medieval period — from the end of Roman rule in Britain through to the Early Modern period...

 and probably the best known and most important of Cornwall's religious institutions.

History

The site at Glasney was at the head

Source (river or stream)

The source or headwaters of a river or stream is the place from which the water in the river or stream originates.-Definition:There is no universally agreed upon definition for determining a stream's source...

 of a small creek

Stream

A stream is a body of water with a current, confined within a bed and stream banks. Depending on its locale or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to as a branch, brook, beck, burn, creek, "crick", gill , kill, lick, rill, river, syke, bayou, rivulet, streamage, wash, run or...

. Much of the building was modelled on Exeter Cathedral

Exeter Cathedral

Exeter Cathedral, the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter at Exeter, is an Anglican cathedral, and the seat of the Bishop of Exeter, in the city of Exeter, Devon in South West England....

, and as a defence Bishop Bronescombe built three towers, forming one block that acted as a defence both for the college and for the town of Penryn.

After its founding in 1265, during the later Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

, Glasney was the largest clerical body in Cornwall, as large as any of the ancient monasteries

Monastery

Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...

 had been, and with an equivalent income, mainly derived from the rector

Rector

The word rector has a number of different meanings; it is widely used to refer to an academic, religious or political administrator...

ial tithes of Budock, Colan

Colan, Cornwall

Colan is a village and civil parish in mid-Cornwall, UK. It is situated approximately three miles east of Newquay.Fir Hill Manor, which once belonged to the Hoblyn family of Colan, was the subject of a BBC Bristol documentary, The Curse of Fir Hill Manor...

, Feock

Feock, Cornwall

Feock is a coastal civil parish and village in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is situated approximately 5 miles south of Truro at the head of Carrick Roads on the River Fal. To the south, the parish is bounded by Restronguet Creek and to the east by Carrick Roads and the River Fal...

, Kea

Kea, Cornwall

Kea is a civil parish and village in Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is a "large straggling parish" in a former mining area south of Truro.Kea village is situated just over one mile southwest of Truro....

, Manaccan

Manaccan

Manaccan is a civil parish and village on the Lizard peninsula in south Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The village is situated approximately five miles south-southwest of Falmouth....

, Mevagissey

Mevagissey

Mevagissey is a village, fishing port and civil parish in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The village is situated approximately five miles south of St Austell....

, Mylor, St Allen

St Allen

St Allen is a civil parish in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The church town of St Allen is an isolated hamlet and the main settlement in the parish is Zelah which is situated on the A30 trunk road four miles north of Truro....

, St Enoder

St Enoder

St. Enoder is a civil parish and village in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The village is situated five miles southeast of Newquay.The nearest village is Summercourt half-a-mile to the south and other settlements include Fraddon, Penhale, Indian Queens and Trevarren.The parish church is 15th century...

, St Gluvias

St Gluvias

St Gluvias is a civil parish and settlement in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The village is now a suburb on the northern edge of Penryn which is situated two miles northwest of Falmouth.-Church history:...

, St Goran

St Goran

St. Goran is a coastal civil parish in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The church town, Gorran Churchtown, is situated approximately six miles south-southwest of St Austell. However, the largest settlement in the parish is the coastal village of Gorran Haven, a mile to the east.The parish is bounded by...

, St Just in Penwith

St Just in Penwith

St Just is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The parish encompasses the town of St Just and the nearby settlements of Trewellard, Pendeen and Kelynack: it is bounded by the parishes of Morvah to the north-east, Sancreed and Madron to the east, St Buryan and Sennen to...

, Sithney

Sithney

Sithney is a village and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is named for Saint Sithney, the patron saint of the parish church....

, and Zennor

Zennor

Zennor is a village and civil parish in Cornwall in England. The parish includes the villages of Zennor, Boswednack and Porthmeor and the hamlet of Treen. It is located on the north coast, about north of Penzance. Alphabetically, the parish is the last in Britain—its name comes from the Cornish...

.

There were no monks at this college or collegiate church

Collegiate church

In Christianity, a collegiate church is a church where the daily office of worship is maintained by a college of canons; a non-monastic, or "secular" community of clergy, organised as a self-governing corporate body, which may be presided over by a dean or provost...

, but it had an establishment of one provost

Provost (religion)

A provost is a senior official in a number of Christian churches.-Historical Development:The word praepositus was originally applied to any ecclesiastical ruler or dignitary...

 and 12 secular canons and held the patronage

Advowson

Advowson is the right in English law of a patron to present or appoint a nominee to a vacant ecclesiastical benefice or church living, a process known as presentation. In effect this means the right to nominate a person to hold a church office in a parish...

 of sixteen parishes.

Miracle plays were performed here and elsewhere in Cornwall

Cornwall

Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

 in the Cornish language

Cornish language

Cornish is a Brythonic Celtic language and a recognised minority language of the United Kingdom. Along with Welsh and Breton, it is directly descended from the ancient British language spoken throughout much of Britain before the English language came to dominate...

. Only a few Cornish-language plays survive today, but those that do include several composed at Glasney, the Ordinalia

Ordinalia

The Ordinalia are three medieval mystery plays written in Cornish from the late fourteenth century. The three plays are Origo Mundi, , Passio Christi and Resurrexio Domini...

: The Creation of the World, The Passion of our Lord, The Resurrection of Our Lord; and Bewnans Meriasek

Beunans Meriasek

Beunans Meriasek is a Cornish play completed in 1504. Its subject is the legends of the life of Saint Meriasek or Meriadoc, patron saint of Camborne, whose veneration was popular in Cornwall, Brittany, and elsewhere...

, the Life of St Meriasek, patron saint of Camborne

Camborne

Camborne is a town and civil parish in west Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is at the western edge of a conurbation comprising Camborne, Pool and Redruth....

.

Destruction of Glasney

King Henry VIII

Henry VIII of England

Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...

's dissolution of the monasteries

Dissolution of the Monasteries

The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their...

, between 1536 and 1545, signalled the end of the big Cornish priories, but as a chantry church

Chantry

Chantry is the English term for a fund established to pay for a priest to celebrate sung Masses for a specified purpose, generally for the soul of the deceased donor. Chantries were endowed with lands given by donors, the income from which maintained the chantry priest...

 Glasney survived until 1548, when it suffered the same fate. The smashing and looting of the Cornish colleges at Glasney and Crantock

Crantock

Crantock is a coastal civil parish and a village in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The village is approximately two miles southwest of Newquay....

 brought an end to the formal scholarship that helped sustain the Cornish language and the Cornish cultural identity, and played a significant part in fomenting the opposition to cultural 'reforms' that led to the Prayer Book Rebellion

Prayer Book Rebellion

The Prayer Book Rebellion, Prayer Book Revolt, Prayer Book Rising, Western Rising or Western Rebellion was a popular revolt in Cornwall and Devon, in 1549. In 1549 the Book of Common Prayer, presenting the theology of the English Reformation, was introduced...

 of 1549.

Apart from being sorely missed centres of indigenous cultural excellence, many in Cornwall saw these institutions as bridges to the Celt

Celt

The Celts were a diverse group of tribal societies in Iron Age and Roman-era Europe who spoke Celtic languages.The earliest archaeological culture commonly accepted as Celtic, or rather Proto-Celtic, was the central European Hallstatt culture , named for the rich grave finds in Hallstatt, Austria....

ic past, back even to the Christianised paganism of their forefathers.

When traditional religious processions and pilgrimages were banned in 1548, commissioners were sent out to destroy all symbols of Cornish Roman Catholicism. In Cornwall, this job fell to William Body, whose desecration of religious shrines angered many. Along with other assaults on Cornish legal rights, culture, language and religion, this led to his murder on 5 April 1548 at Helston

Helston

Helston is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated at the northern end of the Lizard Peninsula approximately 12 miles east of Penzance and nine miles southwest of Falmouth. Helston is the most southerly town in the UK and is around further south than...

.

Legacy

Today the only surviving remains of Glasney are a length of wall and an arch. In 1986 the Friends of Glasney College Society was established in Penryn

Penryn, Cornwall

Penryn is a civil parish and town in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated on the Penryn River about one mile northwest of Falmouth...

 by Dr James Whetter

James Whetter

James C. A. Whetter is a noted Cornish historian and editor of The Cornish Banner , a Cornish journal. His books include The History of Glasney College Padstow: Tabb House, 1988; Cornwall in the Seventeenth Century. Padstow: Lodenek Press, 1974; and The History of Falmouth Redruth: Dyllansow...

, who in his book The History of Glasney College describes the destruction of Glasney as a damaging blow to the history and spirit of the Cornish nation.

Memorial

At the present-day Tremough

Tremough

Tremough Campus is a university campus situated in Penryn, Cornwall. It is the only such university project in Cornwall currently. The name Tremough derives from the Cornish word for "pig farm"....

 campus of University College Falmouth

University College Falmouth

University College Falmouth is a British university college in Falmouth, Cornwall. Founded in 1902, it had previously been the Falmouth School of Art and then Falmouth College of Arts until it received taught degree-awarding powers in March 2005...

 and the University of Exeter

University of Exeter, Cornwall Campus

University of Exeter, Cornwall Campus is a campus of the University of Exeter at Tremough, in Penryn, Cornwall. Since 2004 it has housed all the university's operations in Cornwall, previously scattered across a number of different sites. It is set in of countryside, but close to the towns of...

, the student accommodation has been named Glasney Parc.

External links

• The Friends of Glasney College. Aims to promote an interest in Glasney College, to protect the area, to encourage methodical investigation of the site and its history.
• The Gatehouse article on Glasney College. The Gatehouse is a "comprehensive gazetteer
  Gazetteer
  A gazetteer is a geographical dictionary or directory, an important reference for information about places and place names , used in conjunction with a map or a full atlas. It typically contains information concerning the geographical makeup of a country, region, or continent as well as the social...
  
  of the medieval fortifications and castles of England and Wales."
• History of Glasney College
• History of Glasney College (published by Soskernow)
• Glasney at the Roseland Institute
• Penryn Museum