The Beginnings: early English connections with Rome

The links between England and Rome go back to 597 when Pope Gregory the Great sent St Augustine to convert the English. Around the year 727, Ine, King of Wessex, created a Saxon settlement in the Borgo, an area of Rome very close to St Peters. Though little is known about the settlement, it almost certainly included a hospice for pilgrims from England: indeed the strength of the Saxon presence in Rome, down to the Norman conquest of England in 1066, still echoes down to the present day in the name of the church on the very site of the settlement, Santo Spirito in Sassia.

Though the Saxon settlement and its hospice appears to have dwindled away after 1066, the English link with the site was very much kept alive through membership of the Confraternity of the Church of Santo Spirito in Sassia by many people from England and Wales; down to Henry VIII’s break with Rome, membership included numerous members of the English royal family.

The first Jubilee within the Christian Church was celebrated in 1300 and, on the occasion of the second Jubilee, in 1350, many English and Welsh pilgrims found themselves in difficulties with regard to board and lodging, there no longer being a pilgrim hospice available.

To meet this shortcoming, in 1362 a guild of English residents bought a house owned by John and Alice Shepherd, rosary bead sellers, in via di Monserrato and turned it into a pilgrim Hospice. As the new hospice stood at the end of the ancient Via Francigena pilgrim route from Canterbury to Rome, it was dedicated to the Most Holy Trinity and St Thomas of Canterbury. Within the hospice, up to 100 pilgrims could find bed and board, usually for anything between three to eight days, or, if they fell ill, until they recovered or succumbed to illness. This charitable endeavour was supported from rental income from an extensive portfolio of property across the city of Rome purchased by the lay founders of the Hospice.

As it expanded, the Hospice took on an additional diplomatic role and, by the reign of Henry VII, king of England from 1485 to 1509, it was known as the King’s Hospice, as its central location in Rome allowed convenient access to the Roman Curia for the transaction of business relating to the English crown. Four wooden corbels that once supported the Hospice church roof are now on display on the Cardinals’ Corridor, while a beautiful original Gothic window and other stone relics can be found in the College garden.

 
 

An artist’s impression of the English Hospice, via di Monserrato

 

Foundation of the College

By the time of the Reformation, the Hospice was in decline and the Church authorities decided to turn it into a seminary. The first six students came from Douai in 1577 and attended lectures at the Jesuit-run Collegio Romano, precursor of the Gregorian University. The following year students began taking the missionary oath, promising to serve faithfully as missioners in England and Wales after the end of their studies in Rome and their ordination as priests. Pope Gregory XIII issued the bull of foundation of the English College on 1 May 1579: nowadays Founders’ Day is celebrated annually on 1 May to mark this important date.

As soon as the College had been founded, the Liber Ruber, the historic red leather register book, which to this day records the names and details of every student in the College, was begun: it is now into its ninth volume.[1]

The first student to be thus registered, following the formal creation of the College as a pontifical seminary, was St Ralph Sherwin (1550–1581), who swore to return to England “hodie quam cras” (“today rather than tomorrow”).

But the new College got off to a shaky start with acerbic disputes between students and the College authorities which were in time resolved.


[1] A digital version of the first manuscript volume of the Liber Ruber, covering the period from 1579 to 1783, is available in the part of this website entitled Preserving religious archives, in the section referring to the Catholic Record Society.

 
 

The Age of the Martyrs

After ordination, students returned to England where they led a secretive existence, in constant danger of betrayal, arrest and execution. Over the next 100 years 44 former students were martyred, most by being hung, drawn and quartered, the brutal execution method of the day. St Ralph Sherwin was racked to extract information about his comrades. The date of his execution at Tyburn, 1 December 1581, is celebrated by the College and all its alumni as Martyrs’ Day.

Hanging above the altar in the College church is the Martyrs’ Picture, painted in 1583 by Durante Alberti. When news of a student’s martyrdom reached the College, the students would gather under this picture to sing the Te Deum. That tradition continues on 1 December every year.

When the persecution ended, the College was able to expand and develop until the arrival of Napoleon’s troops in 1798 who commandeered and ransacked the entire building, forcing the students to return to England. The College remained closed until 1818. Ten years later, under the able leadership of Nicholas Wiseman, it was flourishing once more; he later became the first Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster. Thomas Grant succeeded him and his tenure as Rector saw the rebuilding of the Church as well as the creation of the Collegio Pio, later the Beda College, set up for late vocations.

 

The Martyrs’ Picture by Durante Alberti (1583) hangs over the sanctuary in the Venerable English College church.

 
 

The Twentieth Century

THE SECOND EXILE

When Italy entered World War II on the side of the Axis, the College had no alternative but to leave Rome. In May 1940 students were fitted out with civilian clothes and made their way by train up through Italy to Le Havre, ahead of the Nazi invasion of France. Ten days later a major evacuation began up the coast at Dunkirk. The community first assembled at Ambleside before settling at St Mary’s Hall, Stonyhurst. Meanwhile in Rome the Knights of Malta used the College as a hospital thus ensuring its protection. The Community returned to Rome in 1946.

SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL AND BEYOND

Vatican II brought many changes to the Church and to the College, with new liturgical practices and a different approach to formation. The buildings continue to be restored and refurbished, much of the internal and external work in recent years being generously funded by Urs and Francesca Schwarzenbach.

Thus, after more than 400 years, the oldest English institution abroad is well set to continue to fulfil its mission of training able men to serve as priests in England and Wales.

FROM MONTE PORZIO TO PALAZZOLA

Every year the College would escape the heat of a Roman summer to a villa in the Castelli. In 1920 Mgr Arthur Hinsley sold the College’s much loved but cramped villa at Monte Porzio and bought a former Franciscan convent, Palazzola, overlooking Lake Albano. Today this villa, in its idyllic location, has been beautifully restored and is used and enjoyed all year round by students, pilgrims, holidaymakers and wedding parties.

 

Rectors of the Venerable English College, 1579–present day

1579–1579   Morys Clynnog (c.1520/21–c.1581)

1579–1586   Alfonso Agazzari, SJ (died 1602)

1586–1588   William Holt, SJ (1545–1599)

1588–1589   Robert Persons, SJ (1546–1610)†

1589–1592   Joseph Creswell, SJ (c.1557–1623)

1592–1594   Muzio Vitelleschi, SJ (1563–1645)[1]

1594–1596   Girolamo Fioravanti, SJ (died 1630)

1596–1597   Alfonso Agazzari, SJ [second term of office]

1597–1598   Muzio Vitelleschi, SJ [second term of office]

1598–1610   Robert Persons, SJ [second term of office: first Rector to die in office]

1610–1618   Thomas Owen, SJ (c.1556–1618)†

1618–1639   Thomas Fitzherbert, SJ (1552–1640)†

1639–1644  Thomas Leedes, SJ (1594–1668)†, alias Courtney, a former student

1644–1647   Robert Stafford, SJ (c.1593–1659), vere Stanford

1647–1650   Joseph Simons, SJ (c.1594–1671), vere Emmanuel Lobb or Loeb, a former student

1650–1653   Thomas Babthorpe, SJ (c.1598–1656), alias Smith

1653–1655   Edward Leedes, SJ (1599–1677), alias Courtney

1655–1658   John Manners, SJ (1609–1695), alias or vere Simcocks

1658–1664   John Stephens, SJ (1602–1671), vere Poyntz, alias Campion, alias Scripsam

1664–1667  Christopher Anderton, SJ (1613–1694)

1667–1671   Edward Leedes, SJ, alias Courtney [second term of office]

1671–1672   John Clarke, SJ (c.1604–1672)†

1673–1683  Christopher Anderton, SJ [second term of office]

1683–1686   William Morgan, SJ (1623–1689)

1686–1686   Charles Campion, SJ (1622–1686)†, vere Wilkinson

1687–1687   Christopher Anderton, SJ [third term of office]

1687–1693   Anthony Lucas, SJ (1633–1693)

1693–1699   Ralph Postgate, SJ (1648–1718), a former student

1699–1704   Robert Mansfield or Mansfeld, SJ (1652–1708)

1704–1707   Ralph Postgate, SJ [second term of office]

1707–1712   Francis Powell, SJ (1658–1733)

1712–1716    Richard Plowden, SJ (1633–1729), alias Saville, alias Simeon, alias Joseph Richards

1716–1724   Thomas Eberson, SJ (1660–1733), alias Beveridge

1724–1731   Levinius Brown, SJ (1671–1764), a former student

1731–1734   Percy or Peter or Joseph or Thomas Plowden, SJ (1672–1745)

1734–1737   Joseph Marshall, SJ (1683–1739)†

1737–1744   Henry or Joseph Sheldon, SJ (1686–1756)†

1744–1750   Christopher Maire, SJ (1697–1767)

1750–1756   Henry Sheldon, SJ [second term of office]

1756–1762   Nathaniel Elliott, SJ (1705–1780), alias Sheldon

1762–1766   Charles Booth, SJ (1707–1797), alias Brown

1766–1773   William Hothersall, SJ (1725–1803)

On the suppression of the Society of Jesus in 1773 and the dismissal of the College’s Jesuit administrators, the cardinal protector of the College, Andrea Corsini (1735–1795), assumed control and appointed the Italian secular priest, Giovanni Giovannucci, as the temporary Vice-Rector. He was succeeded by:

1784–1787   Marco Magnani, sometimes referred to as Rector

1787–1798   Stefano Felici

Stefan Felici served as Rector until the French sequestrated the College, following their invasion of Rome in 1798. 

The College was suppressed from 1798 to 1818.  In the latter year, it was returned to the secular clergy of England and Wales who have administered the College since that date, under the following Rectors:

1818–1828   Robert Gradwell (1777–1833)

1828–1840  Nicholas Wiseman (1802–1865)

1840–1844  Charles Michael Baggs (1806–1845)

1844–1851   Thomas Grant (1816–1870)

1851–1857   Robert Cornthwaite (1818–1890)

1857–1863  Louis English (1826–1863)  Died in office

1863–1867  Frederick Neve (1806–1886)

1867–1888  Henry O’Callaghan (1827–1904)

1888–1913  William Giles (1830–1913)

1913–1917   John McIntyre (1855–1934)

1917–1929   Arthur Hinsley (1865–1943)

1929–1939   William Godfrey (1889–1963)

1939–1952   John Macmillan (1899–1957)

1952–1964   Gerard Tickle (1909–1994)

1964–1971   Joseph Leo Alston (1917–2006)

1971–1978   Cormac Murphy O’Connor (1932–2017)

1978–1984  George Hay

1984–1991   John Kennedy (1930–2016)

1991–1999   Adrian Toffolo

1999–2004  Patrick Kilgarriff

2004–2013  Nicholas Hudson

2013– 2021  Philip Whitmore

2021– Stephen Wang


[1] Superior General of the Society of Jesus, 1615–45

†  indicates that the Rector died in Rome and was buried in the College Church.