Michael E. Williams

Lisbon College in the Nineteenth Century: The Story of a Relationship Between English Catholics and the Church Abroad

Founded in the seventeenth century the College of Saints Peter and Paul at Lisbon was for many years one of the overseas seminaries that provided for the education and formation of the secular clergy of England and Wales. When at the beginning of the nineteenth century seminaries began to be established in England the need for these foreign colleges grew less apparent. But the English bishops not only saw special reasons for continuing and strengthening the connection with Rome, but also decided to continue to support the two colleges in the Iberian Peninsula. There were similarities between the situations at Valladolid and Lisbon but the distinct histories of the Church in the two countries provided nuances and shades of difference that were sometimes not fully appreciated by the hierarchy. This article which uses hitherto unpublished material to be found in the archives of Lisbon College, treats of that College between the years 1807 and 1883 when the difficult conditions in Portugal called for special qualities in those English priests whose responsibility it was to maintain the College in being.

The Origins of the English College, Lisbon

With the publication of the Register, the name of the English College of SS Peter and Paul, Lisbon, can now be added to the list of those English establishments at Douai, Rome and Valladolid whose registers of students are available to the public in print. It is twenty years since the College ceased to take students and the property has been disposed of, but a full history remains to be written. As a prelude to this it is worth considering how there came to be a college there in the first place. The story is not at all simple since the foundation of the English seminary in Lisbon contrasts markedly with the setting up of similar colleges in neighbouring Spain. Within the five years, 1589 to 1594, Robert Persons S.J. had created colleges at Valladolid and Seville and a residence at Sanlucar, and in 1611 a legacy provided for the beginning of a further college in Madrid. But although there was a residence for English priests in Lisbon before 1594, it was only in 1622 that the Papal Brief for the foundation of an English seminary was issued. The first students did not arrive from Douai until 1628. Although he sent priests to Lisbon in 1596, Fr. Persons did not consider that the time was yet ripe for opening a college. When an English college was eventually founded nearly thirty years later, it was a further six years before any students arrived. Was there something special about conditions of life in Lisbon or was it simply that during the union of the two crowns of Portugal and Castile, Portuguese affairs did not command the immediate attention that was given to English Catholic establishments in Spain?

Lisbon College—The Final Years

A previous article gave an account of the difficulties besetting Lisbon College at the beginning of the twentieth century. These were due both to the unsettled state of Portugal where the new Republic was hostile to the Church and to the failure of Mgr James Warwick to win the support of his staff in revitalising the college after the long and rather monochrome presidency of William Hilton. Warwick’s failure led to an unfortunate difference of opinion among the staff of the college and in the absence of an Apostolic Nuncio in Lisbon, the traditional Protector of the College and the court of appeal, Cardinal Bourne sent Mgr Bernard Ward of Old Hall, Ware, to make an official visitation and report on the state of affairs in Lisbon.

Lisbon College: the Penultimate Chapter

It is more than twenty-five years since the English College Lisbon closed. While it may still be too soon to give a complete account of that closure, one can consider some of the events in its more recent history that preceded its final end. The closure cannot be attributed solely to the conditions obtaining in 1971 and the decline in the recruitment to the secular clergy of England and Wales. In that year vocations to the priesthood had not yet reached their lowest point. Moreover, throughout its 350 years Lisbon had not depended for its viability on enrolling a large number of students. It had always been a small college. Although its primary purpose was to prepare men for the priesthood it had frequently found itself having to fulfil other functions in addition to those of a seminary.