Mace and Chain
Encyclopedia
Mace and Chain is the youngest of the eight "landed" secret societies
Secret society
A secret society is a club or organization whose activities and inner functioning are concealed from non-members. The society may or may not attempt to conceal its existence. The term usually excludes covert groups, such as intelligence agencies or guerrilla insurgencies, which hide their...

 at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

.

History

The society was founded by Thornton Marshall with the help of poet and Yale professor Robert Penn Warren
Robert Penn Warren
Robert Penn Warren was an American poet, novelist, and literary critic and was one of the founders of New Criticism. He was also a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. He founded the influential literary journal The Southern Review with Cleanth Brooks in 1935...

 in 1956 (four years after Manuscript
Manuscript Society
Manuscript Society is a senior secret society at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Toward the end of each junior year, 16 undergraduates are "tapped" to be inducted into the society, which meets twice weekly for dinner and discussion...

). Warren had encouraged Marshall "to start something which is a little closer to reality and that can exist in the sunlight," in contrast with other senior societies. Mace and Chain became inactive in the 1960s, a period of hostility among Yale students towards senior societies, but was revived in the 1990s with significant financial and logistical support from older delegations. In 2001, it acquired a regular meeting place (called a "tomb"—a 190-year old, late Colonial-style house in downtown New Haven). Its interior crown moulding is said to have been salvaged from Benedict Arnold's house in New Haven.

Mission

Like other societies at Yale, Mace and Chain conducts meetings on Thursday and Sunday evenings. The central activity of the group is the "bio," in which each member takes one evening to relay their life story and personal development to the rest of the group. The name Mace and Chain is rooted in discussions amongst the founders about chivalry
Chivalry
Chivalry is a term related to the medieval institution of knighthood which has an aristocratic military origin of individual training and service to others. Chivalry was also the term used to refer to a group of mounted men-at-arms as well as to martial valour...

. The society has traditions of rotating student leadership each week and is unique among Yale's societies in allowing each new "delegation" (new senior class) to determine its own ground rules.

Members

Mace and Chain is said to have done an excellent job attracting exceptional candidates over older societies in recent years. Group members have often included top-tier athletes, editors of the Yale Herald and Yale Daily News
Yale Daily News
The Yale Daily News is an independent student newspaper published by Yale University students in New Haven, Connecticut since January 28, 1878...

, Yale College Council officers, and campus political operators.
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