Everything about Glasney College totally explained
Glasney College was founded at
Penryn,
Cornwall in 1265 by
Bishop Bronescombe and was the centre of ecclesiastical power in Cornwall's
Middle Ages and probably the best known and most important of Cornwall's monastic institutions. Much of the building was modelled on the existing
Exeter Cathedral. The site at Glasney was at the head of a small creek and as a defence Bishop Bronescombe built three towers, forming one block which acted as a defence both for the college and the town of Penryn.
Miracle plays were performed here and across Cornwall in the
Cornish language. Only a few Cornish-language plays survive today including several that were composed at Glasney,
The Creation of the World,
The Passion of our Lord,
The Resurrection of our Lord,
Bewans Meriasek (The Life of
St Meriasek - the patron saint of
Camborne).
Destruction of Glasney
Henry VIII's
dissolution of the monasteries, between
1536 and
1545, signalled the end of the big Cornish priories but as a
Chantry Church, Glasney held on until
1548 when it suffered the same fate. The smashing and looting of Cornish colleges such as a Glasney and
Crantock brought an end to the formal scholarship that had helped sustain the Cornish language and Cornish cultural identity and played a significant part in fermenting opposition to forthcoming cultural 'reforms' which led to the
Prayer Book Rebellion of
1549. Apart from being sorely missed centres of indigenous cultural excellence many in Cornwall would have seen these institutions as being a bridge to the
Celtic 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 smash all symbols of Cornish Catholicism. In Cornwall this job fell to
William Body, whose desecration of religious shrines angered many and along with other assaults on Cornish legal rights, culture, language and religion, led to his murder on
April 5th 1548 at
Helston.
Present site
Today the only surviving remains of Glasney are a portion of wall and an arch. In 1986 the "Friends of Glasney College Society" was established in Penryn by
Dr James Whetter, 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.
Footnotes
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