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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 September 2015
This article is based on documents in the National Historical Archive in Madrid and concerns the expulsion of the Jesuits from St. Alban’S College Valladolid. The connection with English Catholicism may appear at first to be remote since, although nominally an English college, there were only two English students resident at this time and the Jesuit staff who administered the college together with the servants were all Spaniards. But the English Vicars Apostolic, however critical they may have been towards the Jesuits, continued to regard the three colleges at Valladolid, Madrid and Seville as English, their purpose being to prepare priests to serve on the home mission in England and Wales. The response to the events of 1767 was swift and the colleges, although lost to the Jesuits, were retained for England since the three were merged into the one college at Valladolid and placed under the direction of the English secular clergy. There had been a precedent in the French government’s seizure of the English College at St. Omer in 1762, but the way in which His Catholic Majesty Charles III engineered the expulsion of the Jesuits from his kingdoms was remarkable for its thoroughness.
A.G.S. Archivo General de Simancas
A.H.N. Archivo Historico Nacional (Madrid)
E.C.V. Archives of English College Valladolid.
1 I have used two documents from A.H.N, (a) Jesuitas Legajo 72. Rollo Principal de autos hechos para la ocupación de temporalidades de el Colegio de San Albano Seminario de Ingleses de la Ciudad de Valladolid. This is a collection of documents on papel sellado (official paper) bound in vellum, 64 folios. Most of this is a daily account of events at S. Albano between April 2 and August 14 1767. (b) Jesuitas Libro 407. Rollo N. 3. Quaderno que compreende 14 piezas y son tos Inventarios de bienes muebles y rayces, casas, juros, censos y otros efectos de el Colegio de San Albano Seminario de Ingleses de la Ciudad de Valladolid; ventas de ganados y otras cosas; cuentas ajustadas con varias personas, las tomadas al Padre Procurador y al administrator de la Hacienda de Portillo el arrendamiento de un Molino sito en el lugar de el Cardiel; y otras papeles, recardos de cuentas, y autos que justifican los probeidos de el rollo principal. This is a collection of fourteen documents on official paper bound in vellum, 335 folios. It comprises inventories of furnishings of the college and of its houses, censos and juros, accounts and bills, and matters relating to college property at Portillo and Cardiel. Although there are papers, including inventories, relating to the other two Jesuit houses in Valladolid, in the National Archives, I have not discovered for either of these such a detailed account of the taking possession of the house by the government. In the National Archive at Madrid the only detailed account is of St. Alban’s. At Simancas (A.G.S. Gracia y Justicia 972) there is a record of events at the Colegio Imperial in Madrid. However, this is not so detailed, being simply fourteen foolscap pages folded to form a 52 page booklet and it is not a contemporary record, being signed and dated October 28 1772.
2 For the seizure of St. Omers see: Geoffrey, Holt ‘Bishop Challoner and the Jesuits’ in Challoner and His Church. Ed. Eamon Duffy. London 1981 pp. 137–151.Google Scholar
3 For the early days of St. Alban’s under secular administration see: Williams, M. E. ‘Philip Perry, Rector of the English College, Valladolid (1768–1774)’ Recusant History vol. 17 (1984) pp. 48–66 CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Williams, M. E. St. Alban’s College, Valladolid. Four Centuries of English Catholic Presence in Spain. London/New York 1986 pp. 71–95.Google Scholar
4 In later lists of St. Alban’s Jesuits in exile, Navarette and not Gonzalbo is named together with Torrano and Ramos.
5 The doctor’s medical certificate is to be found in A.H.N. Jesuitas Libro 407.
6 An account of the expulsion of the Jesuits is to be found in Memorial en Nombre de las Cuatro Provincias de España de la Compañia de Jesus Desterrados del Reino a Su Majestad Carlos III. By Padre José Francisco de Isla. Madrid 1882 (Reprinted from El Siglo Futuro) Isla only devotes a paragraph to S. Albano and mentions the four who left on the first night, saying nothing about the sick brother who was left behind. Nor does he mention the Procurator or even the existence of the English students. But he does record that the escribano who assisted the judge behaved harshly towards the priests since he did not allow them to take their licences to confess and preach, saying muy à lo teologo that they were no longer allowed to exercise their functions in Spain, and outside Spain the licences would not apply. He also refused to allow them their ordination certificates, but when they pointed out that without them it would be impossible to prove they were priests, he yielded to the request with bad grace. This incident finds no place in the notary’s own record of the proceedings.
7 At this time the Inquisition was very much a servant of the Spanish Crown. For the constitutional conflict between Philip V and Pope Clement XI for the control of the Spanish Inquisition which resulted in 1704 in the disgrace of the Inquisitor General, Baltasar de Mendoza y Sandoval see Cueto Ruiz, R., Los Hechizos de Carlos II y el Proceso de Fray Froilán Díaz Confesor Real. Madrid 1966.Google Scholar
8 What happened to the four Jesuits after they left the college finds no record in the account of the occupation of the college. From Isla’s Memorial we know that a similar order concerning bedding was received at S. Ambrosio and that a body of Jesuits entered Santander on Palm Sunday (April 12) and were greeted by the populace with olive and palm branches, to announce that their via crucis had begun. He does not state exactly when they left the port, but it was in a convoy of ships that conveyed Jesuits from Bilbao and Gijon and they were escorted by two warships, the San Jenaro and San Juan Nepomuceno.
9 This chair was of comparatively recent foundation (1716) A.G.S. Graciay Justicia 947.
10 The Decree is remarkably detailed. Books are to be divided into printed works and manuscript, and classified according to size, folio, quarto, octavo etc. They are to be listed in alphabetical order of author and in printed works there is to be indicated the edition with the place and date of publication. Manuscripts are to be identified by the first and last lines of text. Books of sermons, prayer books and theological works are to be included among the printed works, and books found in places other than the library such as private rooms are to be put in the general index and removed to the general library or a nearby room if there is no space in the library. Manuscript papers, bills, deeds, accounts are to be classified and no paper is to be omitted however insignificant it might appear to be. Similar rules are to apply to books and papers found in property belonging to the college: it is hardly surprising that there was a reluctance to undertake the task of indexing or that it took so long. For difficulties caused by the Decree at the Colegio Imperial in Madrid see A.G.S. Gracia y Justicia 685.
11 Grimaldi to Masserano June 28 1767; Masserano to English bishops July 21 1767. E.C.V. Series III legajo 1.
12 Challenor to Masserano July 26 1767; Grimaldi to Masserano September 14 1767. E.C.V. Ibid.
13 Masserano to Challoner October 20 1767; Challoner to Perry November 26 1767. E.C.V. Ibid.
14 Williams, M. E. St. Alban’s College Valladolid pp. 80–91.Google Scholar
15 E.C.V., Ibid.
16 The subsequent history of the Jesuit community at S. Albano can be traced in A.G.S. Gracia y Justicia 668; Tesoro: Inventario 27, Leg 12 & 13 and also in Jesuit records held in the archive at Loyola. Joseph Ramos died in 1781, Manuel Duque in 1785, Francisco Xavier Torrano in 1788, Juan Chrysóstomo Saseta in 1803 and Juan Andrés Navarette in 1811. Navarette distinguished himself as a writer. See Alejandro Gallerani S.J. Jesuitas Expulsos de España. Literatos en Italia. Salamanca 1897 pp. 68–73.
17 See note 6 above.
18 For the attitude of the Spanish bishops in support of the Royal Decree see A.G.S. Gracia y Justicia 686. Also Ronald Cueto, Panfilos y ‘cucos’ Historia de una polemica Segoviano. Madrid 1984 esp pp. 229–257 which treats of their defence of the royal privileges.
19 For the situation of Spanish seminaries at this time see: Francisco Martín Hernández and José Martín Hernández, Los Seminarios Españoles en la Epoca de la Ilustración. Madrid 1973; Francisco Martín Hernández, ‘La formación del Clero en los Siglos XVII y XVIII’ in Historia de la Iglesia en España Ed Ricardo García Villoslada vol. IV pp. 523–582.
20 New Statutes of the College were published in 1770 and are prefaced with a Royal Proclamation. While the choice of the Rector depends on the bishops of England, he has to receive authorisation from the Royal and Supreme Council of Castile before he can take possession of his office.