The first foundation for students was made by Monsgr. Vives
for the _alumni_, priests or secular clergyman of whatever
nation destined for the Propagation of the Faith throughout the
universe.
The second foundation was made by Cardinal Antonio Barberini
with the _jus patronatus_ reserved, so far as nomination was
concerned, to his family. This was destined for six nations,
each one of which ought to supply two students. These nations
were the Georgian, Persian, Chaldean, Melchite, Jacobite and
Copt. Urban VIII. gave a Bull—_Altitudo Divini_—erecting these
foundations, on the 1st of April, 1637. In this he subjected
the _alumni_ to the rule of the College, and to the oath
conceding to them all the privileges, faculties and exemptions
already enjoyed by the other collegians.
The third foundation was also by the same Cardinal Barberini.
It was for seven Ethiopians or Abyssinians, and for ex-Brahmins
in Eastern India. Urban VIII. gave a Bull erecting these in
1639—_Onorosa pastoralis Officii_. In this he added that if
young men could not be found in one of these nations they
should be taken from the others; and if in neither, they should
be taken from the Armenians in this order, that they should
be first those of Poland, then those of Constantinople, then
from Tartary, Pericop, Georgia and Armenia the Greater, and
Armenia the Less, and finally from Persia. The examination
of these also belonged to the family of the Barberini. These
students were also placed under the same oath, privileges,
etc., as the others. The dotation was assigned for maintaining
them, the protector and his faculties. As a crown to such
great beneficence the same Cardinal gave in 1646 to the Sacred
Congregation the houses which constitute the Island of the
College valued at 56,233 scudi. In order to bring the fabric
to its present form the same Sacred Congregation spent 96,496
scudi. He died the same year, and left heir to all his estate
the Sacred Congregation, to which he also left 1000 scudi of
pension which he had from certain episcopal sees.
In 1701 Monsgr. Scanegatti, Bishop of Avellino, left the Sacred
Congregation his heir, with the obligation of maintaining five
students, reduced to four in 1733.
In 1704 Cardinal Barberini founded a new place to be added to
the others of his house.
In 1708 Clement XI. gave 4000 scudi for the maintenance of a
student.
In 1715 an Albanian Catholic gave to the Sacred Congregation an
offering of 1600 scudi for the education of an _alumnus_, with
the right of alternative nomination.
In 1719 Cardinal di Adda left the Sacred Congregation his
heir, with the obligation of maintaining as many students
as it could support by his income. All these being free,
the Sacred Congregation assigned one to the Basilian and
one to each of the four Irish Archbishops. But so far as it
concerned the Irish, in 1726, the Sacred Congregation, having
been requested if these places were conceded perpetually,
replied affirmatively, until the Sacred Congregation should
decide otherwise. It is to be here borne in mind that in this
concession there is a derogation from a decree of 1644, which
laid down that no students should be received from nations
which had colleges either in Rome or outside of Rome.
In 1743 the Sacred Congregation, with 100 LL. M. M., given by
John Dominic Spinola, assigned two places to the Bulgarians
and one to the Servians, as was found in the College of Fermo,
reunited to the Urban College in 1746.
There were also two supernumerary, one Swedish, and another
Algerine. The post maintained by Cardinal Albani, the second by
Cardinal San Clemente.
The piety of the Emperor Charles VI., in order to provide for
the spiritual welfare of the Greek Wallachians of Transylvania,
in the year 1736, ordered that the chamber of that province
should pay annually the sum of 432 scudi for the purpose of
maintaining three _alumni_ in this College. This assignment
was accepted and confirmed by the Pope. The first _alumnus_
was Monsgr. Avon, afterwards Bishop of Biaritz. To this bishop
was afterwards assigned certain funds with the obligation of
maintaining twenty _alumni_ in the province, and to pay for the
support of the three to the Propaganda. In the end negotiations
were opened in order to diminish such expense, but the issue of
them is unknown.
In 1772 two Scotch foundations were instituted, with funds
given by Cardinal di Burnis, and coming from the legacy
Montesisto of the codex.
1772. In the College the monks sent by the Patriarch of Cilicia
were received.
1754. The Chaldeans of Mossul obtained two places. For ten
years the alumni were reduced to thirty-four.
By the reunion of the College of Fermo, and by the places
having been brought up to the ancient number, the _alumni_
were sixty-four in 1759. Of these foundations some are of free
collation, and others of the _jus patronatus_ of the Barberini
family. The Monsignor Secretary presents to the said family
the students, and they forward the diplomas. They cannot,
however, be admitted without the previous approbation of the
Sacred Congregation. In the absence of ecclesiastics, even
a lady—as was done by Cornelia Costanza—can use the right
acquired. For the rest, that illustrious family being rendered
so well meriting of the College, it enjoys the right to have a
copy of all the works which issue from its printing office. In
what pertains to the admission of the students, no one can be
received if he has not been previously admitted by the Sacred
Congregation. Therefore, Bishops and Vicars-Apostolic do not
use arbitrary means in sending them, as happened on other
occasions.
But if they do not receive them from the Sacred Congregation,
the Congregation is bound to accept them for compassion, and
with its own loss.
The _alumni_ ought to be sound, without defect of body, of good
disposition and morals, of Catholic family, civil, and with
the credit of having goods of fortune, sufficient to pay the
expenses of the voyage to Europe.
There are the following recent foundations:—Six places were
founded by Father Michael Doyle, of Dublin, an ex-student,
about the year 1850.
Foundations for Scotland by the Cardinal of York, who left for
that purpose the Roman suburban tenement called the Loazzo.
On the 25th of June, 1853, Don Armando Heljen, _ex-alumnus_,
left two foundations to the Propaganda for Belgium.
One was left in 1879 for the Diocese of Port Main, in the
United States.
One place was founded by Monsignor O’Bryen, for America, in
1883.
Dr. Backhouse also left, for Sandhurst in Australia, as much
as will perhaps sustain three students. He was an _Alumnus_
of Propaganda, and left considerable means for the benefit of
the diocese in which he laboured long and successfully, and of
which he was the first Vicar-General.
From the College here described, thousands of apostolic men have gone
forth to distant lands, and not a few of these have won the crown of
martyrdom. The visitor to Rome now meets with representatives of every
race under heaven who come to that Urban College for an ecclesiastical
education to fit them for the ministry in their several nations. Amidst
the various bands of young students bearing the Propaganda uniform he
sees the Red Indian of the American Forests, the dark son of Central
Africa, the islander of the Southern Seas, the young Chinaman destined
for one of the provinces of his Emperor’s Celestial Kingdom, the native
of Corea, the child of the Arabian Desert, the soft-featured Circassian,
the swarthy Syrian, and occasionally a fair-haired son of Albion; but
never can he miss from the _camerate_ of the Propaganda the tall,
muscular forms of that wonderful Celtic race, which from the very opening
of the Urban College, has never ceased to form a part, and even a great
part of its _alumni_. The Irish come to it from their island home,
although no less than three distinctive colleges for their nation exist
in Rome. A mitigation in their favour was made in a rule permitting no
nation which had a special College of its own in Rome to send _alumni_
to the Propaganda. Notwithstanding this rule the four Archbishops of
Ireland obtained places for students. And then the same missionary race
sent _alumni_ as Irish as the Irish at home, from America, Canada,
Australia, India, and other lands which the vast migrations of its people
had evangelised. No polyglot exhibition of the many which have been given
in the Propaganda has ever been wanting in Irish names—a proof in itself
of the wonderful extent and influence of Irish faith in the missionary
labours of the Church. The number of Irish Propaganda students who have
rendered distinguished services to religion in foreign lands is very
great; and since the formation of the Church in North America, the number
of the sons of Irishmen, educated also in Propaganda, who have there
attained considerable eminence, is specially remarkable. It may be also
well to state that the schools of the Propaganda, directed by the Sacred
Congregation, and under the immediate superintendence of the Cardinal
Prefect, are attended by the _alumni_ of several Roman missionary
Colleges, amongst which I may number the Irish College students, and
those of the Greek, Armenian, and North and South American Colleges.
They are all taught gratuitously; and their Colleges, as well as other
Missionary Colleges not taught in the Propaganda Schools, share in the
solicitude of the Sacred Congregation, which watches over every concern
of a missionary character in the city and in the world—_in urbe et in
orbe_.
Besides the Urban College, and the great schools for sacred science there
are other departments taught within the precincts of the Propaganda
Palace, most interesting, not only to the Catholic, but to the learned of
every nation. Foremost amongst these comes