English College, Douai - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The English College, Douai (also previously spelled Douay, and in English Doway, referring to a city now in Northern France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

) was a Catholic

Catholic

The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

seminary

Seminary

A seminary, theological college, or divinity school is an institution of secondary or post-secondary education for educating students in theology, generally to prepare them for ordination as clergy or for other ministry...

associated with the University of Douai

University of Douai

The University of Douai is a former university in Douai, France. With a Middle Ages heritage of scholar activities in Douai, the university was established in 1559 and lectures started in 1562. It closed from 1795 to 1808...

. It was established in about 1561, and was suppressed in 1793. It is known for a Bible translation referred to as the Douay-Rheims Bible.

A University of Douai

As part of a general programme of consolidation of the Spanish Low Countries, in 1560-1562, a university was established in Douai by Philip II of Spain

Philip II of Spain

Philip II was King of Spain, Portugal, Naples, Sicily, and, while married to Mary I, King of England and Ireland. He was lord of the Seventeen Provinces from 1556 until 1581, holding various titles for the individual territories such as duke or count....

, in some sense a sister-university to that founded at Louvain

Leuven

Leuven is the capital of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region, Belgium...

in 1426. The University of Douai

University of Douai

has emerged in recent studies as an important institution of its time. Of an avowedly Catholic character, it had five faculties: theology, canon and civil law, medicine, and arts. In the early years there was a strong English influence, several of the chief posts being held by professors who had fled Oxford. It was there, too, that after taking his licentiate in 1560, William Allen became Regius Professor of Divinity.

An English College

The foundation of this University coincided with the presence of a large number of English Catholics living at Douai, in the wake of the accession of Elizabeth I and the reimposition of Protestantism in England. These included the university's first chancellor, Richard Smith, who had studied at Oxford and thus had already brought the new University under Oxford influences.

It was William Allen who first had the idea for a seminary for English Catholic priests, with studies linked to those of the university. He had the idea in a conversation with Dr. Jean Vendeville

Jean Vendeville

Jean Vendeville was a law professor and a bishop of Tournai.-Life:Vendeville was possibly born in Lille, the son of Guillaume Vendeville and Marie Des Barbieux. He went to school in Menin, and from the age of fifteen in Paris, where he studied law, beginning a legal practice in Arras...

, then Regius Professor of Canon Law in the University of Douai

University of Douai

and later Bishop of Tournai (Allen and Vendeville went on a pilgrimage to Rome together in autumn 1567). The foundation began to take definite shape when Allen leased a house at Douai on Michaelmas Day, 1568, and the College was founded in 1569. Similar colleges also came about at Douai for Scottish

Scottish College, Douai

The Scottish College or Scot's College at Douai was a seminary founded in Douai, France, for the training of Scottish Roman Catholic exiles for the priesthood...

and Irish

Irish College, Douai

The Irish College was a seminary at Douai, France, for Irish Roman Catholics in exile on the continent to study for the priesthood, modelled on the English College there...

Catholic clergy, and also Benedictine, Franciscan and Jesuit houses.

The aim of Allen and the College was to gather together some of the many English Catholics living in exile in different countries of the continent and provide them with facilities for continuing their studies (in what was effectively a Catholic University of Oxford in exile), thus producing a ready-made stock of educated English Catholic clergy ready for England's re-conversion to Catholicism (expected by Allen in the near future). At the same time the college was the first of the type of seminary ordered by the Council of Trent

Council of Trent

The Council of Trent was the 16th-century Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church. It is considered to be one of the Church's most important councils. It convened in Trent between December 13, 1545, and December 4, 1563 in twenty-five sessions for three periods...

, and so received papal approval shortly after its establishment. It was also taken under the protection of King Philip II of Spain

Philip II of Spain

, who assigned it an annual grant of 200 ducats. Other seminaries or houses of study on European Continent

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

for the training of priests from and for England and Wales (all known typically as English Colleges) included ones in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

(from 1579), Valladolid

Valladolid

Valladolid is a historic city and municipality in north-central Spain, situated at the confluence of the Pisuerga and Esgueva rivers, and located within three wine-making regions: Ribera del Duero, Rueda and Cigales...

(from 1589), Seville

Seville

Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...

(from 1592) and Lisbon

Lisbon

Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...

(from 1628).

Nevertheless, in the early years Allen's college had no regular income and was reliant on private donations from England and the generosity of a few local friends (especially the neighbouring monasteries of Saint-Vaast at Arras, Anchin, and Marchiennes, which, at the suggestion of Dr. Vendeville, had from time to time subscribed towards the work). Allen continued his own theological studies and, after taking his doctorate, became Regius Professor at the University, though he donated his whole salary to the College to keep it afloat. A few years after the foundation Allen applied to Pope Gregory XIII for regular funding. In 1565, Gregory granted the College a monthly pension of 100 golden crowns per month, which continued to be paid down to the time of the French Revolution.

When the open re-conversion of England did not materialise (since the Marian Catholic bishops were dead, imprisoned or in exile, and the Catholic priests who had stayed in England were dying out or converting to Protestantism), the College began to supply missionary priests or "seminary priest

Seminary priest

Seminary priests were Roman Catholic priests who were trained in English seminaries or houses of study on the European Continent after the introduction of laws forbidding Roman Catholicism in Britain. Such Seminaries included that at Douay, from 1568, and others at Rome from 1579, Valladolid from...

s" to enter England covertly, minister to existing Catholics and attempt re-conversion. Operating as a Catholic priest was legally high treason at the time (with the penalty of being hanged, drawn and quartered), and of the over 300 priests Douai sent into England by the end of the 16th century, more than 160 (mainly the secular clergy, known as the Douai Martyrs

Douai Martyrs

More than 160 priests trained in the English College of Douai, France, returned to England and Wales and faced arrest, torture, and execution by English authorities. They were martyred in England and Wales during the century following the foundation of the famed college by Cardinal William Allen in...

) are known to have been executed in this way, with many more imprisoned and nearly 160 banished back to the continent. Back in Douai, the College was granted a special privilege of singing a solemn Mass of thanksgiving each time news reached them of another marytrdom of a Douai priest.

Only a few years after foundation, Allen's personality and influence had attracted more than 150 students to the College. A steady stream of controversial works issued from Douai, some by Allen himself, others by such men as Thomas Stapleton

Thomas Stapleton

Thomas Stapleton was an English Catholic controversialist.-Life:He was the son of William Stapleton, one of the Stapletons of Carlton, Yorkshire. He was educated at the Free School, Canterbury, at Winchester College, and at New College, Oxford, where he became a Fellow, 18 January 1553...

and Richard Bristowe. It was at the English College at Douai that the English translation of the Bible known as the Douay-Rheims Version

Douai Bible

The Douay–Rheims Bible is a translation of the Bible from the Latin Vulgate into English made by members of the English College, Douai, in the service of the Catholic Church...

was completed in 1609. However, the College did see opposition from the University and town, with all the English at Douai expelled in 1578 and the College finding a temporary base at Rheims. The College did hold onto the house at Douai, however, and returned to it in 1593 (though without Allen, who had been called to reside in Rome, where he died on 16 October 1594).

17th and 18th centuries

Under Allen's successor, Dr. Richard Barrett

Richard Barrett

Richard Barrett was an American lawyer, white nationalist, and self-proclaimed leader in the nationalist Skinheadz movement. Barrett was a speaker and editor of the All The Way monthly newsletter...

, the work was extended to include a preparatory course in humanities, so that it became a school as well as a college. In 1603 under Dr. Thomas Worthington

Thomas Worthington (Douai)

Thomas Worthington, D.D. was an English Catholic priest and third President of Douai College.-Life:...

, the third president, a regular college was built, opposite the old parish church of St-Jacques, in the Rue des Morts, so called on account of the adjoining cemetery. The town at that time formed a single parish, whereas in the 18th century it was to be divided into four parishes, and the present church of St-Jacques dates from that time. Blessed Arthur Bell, the Franciscan, taught Hebrew at Douai in the 1620s.

Disputes occurred between the secular priests and regular priests in the 17th century similar to the disputes affecting English Catholic affairs in general. Dr. Worthington, though himself a secular priest, was under the influence of the Jesuit Father Parsons, and for a long time the students attended the Jesuit schools and all the spiritual direction was in Jesuit hands. A visitation of the college, however, found many shortcomings in its administration and in the end Worthington was replaced as president by Matthew Kellison

Matthew Kellison

Matthew Kellison was an English Roman Catholic theologian and controversialist, and a reforming president of the English College, Douai.-Life:...

(1631–1641), who succeeded in restoring the reputation of the college and gradually arranged for tuition to be given once again by the College itself rather than the Jesuits.

In the latter half of the 17th century and the early years of the 18th century, the English College went through a troubled time. During the presidency of Dr. Hyde (1646–1651), the University of Douai

University of Douai

obtained certain controlling rights over the college, but Hyde successfully withstood these. His successor, Dr. George Leyburn

George Leyburn

George Leyburn was an English Catholic priest, who became President of the English College, Douai.-Life:He was born in Westmoreland, and was admitted a student in the English College at Douai on 13 March 1617, under the name of George Bradley. He studied philosophy under Thomas White, and was...

(1652–1670), fell out with the body of secular priests in England known as the "Old Chapter

Old Chapter

The Old Chapter was the body in effective control of the Roman Catholic Church in England, from 1623 to 1850 .-Origin:...

", which in the absence of a bishop, was governing the Catholic Church in England. Leyburn attacked Thomas White, alias Blacklo, a prominent member of the "Old Chapter", and arranged a condemnation of his writings by the University of Douai

University of Douai

. (In the meantime Douai had been captured by the French in 1677.) In the end, however, Leyburn himself found it necessary to retire in favour of his nephew, Dr. John Leyburn, who was afterwards Vicar Apostolic in England. Hardly was the dispute with the "Blackloists" finished, when a further storm of an even more serious nature arose, the centre being Dr. Hawarden who was professor of philosophy and then of theology at the English College for seventeen years. His reputation became so great that when a vacancy occurred in 1702 he was solicited by the bishop, the chief members of the university, and the magistrates of the town to accept the post of regius professor of divinity. His candidature, however, was opposed by a party headed by the vice-chancellor. The Jesuits also declared against him, accusing him, and through him the English College, of Jansenism

Jansenism

Jansenism was a Christian theological movement, primarily in France, that emphasized original sin, human depravity, the necessity of divine grace, and predestination. The movement originated from the posthumously published work of the Dutch theologian Cornelius Otto Jansen, who died in 1638...

. In the end, Dr. Hawarden retired from Douai and went on the mission in England; and a visitation of the college, made by order of the Holy See, resulted in completely clearing it of the accusation.

Douai became ever more important to English Catholics when their hopes of England returning to Catholicism were finally ended by the defeat of the Jacobite Uprisings. Under the presidency of Dr. Robert Witham (1715–1738) the English College at Douai was rebuilt on a substantial scale and rescued from the overwhelming debt into which it had been plunged when it lost nearly all its endowment in the notorious "South Sea Bubble".

French Revolution

As a town Douai suffered less than many others at the beginning of the French Revolution

French Revolution

The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...

and at first the university and its associated Colleges held onto its Catholic character, but during the Reign of Terror

Reign of Terror

The Reign of Terror , also known simply as The Terror , was a period of violence that occurred after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between rival political factions, the Girondins and the Jacobins, and marked by mass executions of "enemies of...

it suffered the same fate as many similar establishments. When all the clergy of the town were called upon in 1791 to take the "Civic Oath", the members of the British establishments claimed exemption in virtue of their nationality. The plea was allowed for a time but, when Louis XVI was executed and England declared war, the superiors and students of most of the other British establishments realised their immunity was at an end and fled to England.

The members of the English College, with their president, Rev. John Daniel

John Daniel (priest)

John Daniel was an English Roman Catholic priest, and the last effective head of the English College, Douai.-Life:...

, remained in the hope of saving the college. However, in October, 1793, they were taken to prison at Doullens

Doullens

Doullens is a commune in the Somme department in Picardie in northern France.Its inhabitants are called Doullennais and Doullennaises.-Geography:...

in Picardy, together with six Anglo-Benedictine monks who had remained for a similar purpose, and Dr. Stapleton (President of St Omer) and his students. After suffering in prison, the English Collegians were allowed to return to Douai in November 1794 and a few months later Stapleton managed to gain their release and permission to return to England, though the College would never return to Douai. In England, the Penal Laws had recently been repealed, and they founded two colleges to continue the College's work, at Crook Hall (afterwards removed to Ushaw College

Ushaw College

Ushaw College was a Roman Catholic seminary near Durham, England that closed in 2011. Ushaw was the principal seminary in the north of England for the training of Catholic priests.-History:...

, near Durham) in the North and St Edmund's College, Old Hall, at Ware in Hertfordshire in the South. The Roman pension was divided equally between these two until the French occupied Rome in 1799, when it ceased to be paid.

After the Revolution, Bonaparte united all the British establishments in France under one administrator, Rev. Francis Walsh, an Irishman. On the Bourbon Restoration

Bourbon Restoration

The Bourbon Restoration is the name given to the period following the successive events of the French Revolution , the end of the First Republic , and then the forcible end of the First French Empire under Napoleon – when a coalition of European powers restored by arms the monarchy to the...

, a large sum of money was paid to the English Government to indemnify those who had suffered by the Revolution, though none of this reached the Catholics. It was ruled that as the Catholic colleges were carried on in France for the sole reason that they were illegal in England, they must be considered French, not English, establishments, though the buildings were restored to their rightful owners and most of them were sold.

Alumni

See Alumni of the English College, Douai.

A University of Douai

An English College

17th and 18th centuries

French Revolution

Alumni

See also