The Cambridge Apostles (also known as the Conversazione Society) is or was an intellectual society at the University of Cambridge founded in 1820 by George Tomlinson, a Cambridge student who became the first bishop of Gibraltar.
History
Student George Tomlinson founded what he called the "Conversazione Society" at the University of Cambridge on 1 April 1820. This intellectual society soon was called the Cambridge Apostles because of its twelve original members. This was also the decade when the society's last known members graduated from Cambridge, leading one writer to question in 2023 whether or not the Apostles were still active. The debate at each meeting was called the discussion on the Hearth Rug because the speaker stands with the moderator on a hearth rug when speaking if one were present.
The Apostles retained minutes of meetings and a leather diary of their membership, the Photo Book, stretching back to its founding. These include handwritten notes about the topics on which each member had spoken.
Members
Alfred Tennyson joined the Apostles in 1829, probably through the invitation of his friend Arthur Hallam. Bertrand Russell and G. E. Moore joined as students, as did John Maynard Keynes, who invited Ludwig Wittgenstein to join. Russell had been worried that Wittgenstein would not appreciate the group's unseriousness and style of humour. Wittgenstein was admitted in 1912 but resigned almost immediately because he could not tolerate the level of the discussion on the Hearth Rug. He also had trouble tolerating the discussions in the Moral Sciences Club. He rejoined in the 1920s when he returned to Cambridge.
Soviet spies Anthony Blunt, Guy Burgess and John Cairncross, three of the Cambridge Five, and Michael Straight were all members of the Apostles in the early 1930s.