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Philip Perry, Rector of the English College, Valladolid (1768–1774)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2016

Mitchell Williams
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Extract

It was in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries that colleges were first established in the Iberian Peninsula for the provision of Catholic priests to serve on the English mission. The first to be opened was at Valladolid in 1589; this ‘was followed by Seville in 1592 and Madrid in 1611. They were supported by the alms of the faithful, taken under the protection of the Spanish Crown, and administered by the Society of Jesus. Smaller establishments, residences, were in existence at Lisbon and San Lucar de Barrameda (near Cadiz) serving as points of entry and departure for students and priests on their journeys between Spain and England. Eventually, in 1622, a College was established at Lisbon but from the beginning, this college differed from the others in that it was always administered by the English secular clergy and not by the Jesuits. The golden age of the Spanish colleges was in the first fifty or sixty years of their existence when they not only provided many missioners, including martyrs, but also exercised a political influence on the English Catholic scene by reason of their Jesuit administration and their situation in Spain. However, by the eighteenth century a decline had set in. There were complaints about the administration, and the recruitment of students was low so that few missioners returned to work in England. In fact, between 1739 and 1756 the College at Valladolid was closed to students while rebuilding took place. Partly because of the poor recruitment and partly because of their antipathy to the Jesuits, the Vicars Aṕostolic were dissatisfied and almost lost interest in these three colleges, relying on the establishments at Douai and Lisbon which were under the direction of the seculars.

Type
Research Article
Information
British Catholic History , Volume 17 , Issue 1 , May 1984 , pp. 48 - 66
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 1984

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References

Notes

1 Registers of the English College at Valladolid 1589–1862. Edited by Canon Edwin Henson. C.R.S. 30.

2 Robert Persons, S.J., Annals of the English College at Seville, with an account of other foundations at Valladolid, San Lucar, Lisbon and St. Omer’s. Contributed by Rev. J. H. Pollen S.J. in C.R.S. 14. A Register of the Students of St. Gregory’s College at Seville, 1591–1605. By the late Canon Edwin Henson and Albert Loomie S.J. Recusant History 9, pp. 163–170.

3 The English College at Madrid, 1611–1767. Edited by Canon Edwin Henson. C.R.S. 29.

4 Croft, J., Lisbon College (London, 1901).Google Scholar

5 Michael, Sharratt, ‘Bishop Challoner and Lisbon College’, Ushaw Magazine, vol. 92, no. 258 (December 1981), pp. 3–18.Google Scholar

6 Douai College Documents, 1639–1794, ed. P. R. Harris. C.R.S. 63, pp. 150, 341.

7 The Council of Castile, the highest authority for this part of Spain.

8 Douai had been under some pressure from the Gallican regime in France as a result of a decree of 1749. See Seventh Douai Diary, 1715–1778, C.R.S. 28, pp. vi, vii, xvii, 274. It is worth noting that at Valladolid Perry frequently refers to the College as the Royal English College, thus acknowledging the role of the King in its re-establishment.

9 Douai continued in the Colleges at Ushaw and Old Hall; the Venerable English College in Rome was restored to the English secular clergy under Gradwell in 1818.

10 For Perry, see Gillow, Bibliographical Dictionary of English Catholics; Kirk, Biographies of English Catholics in the Eighteenth Century; Anstruther, Seminary Priests, vol. 4. Most of the information about Perry’s rectorship contained in this article is to be found in the Archives of St. Alban’s College, Valladolid, especially in the correspondence. My thanks are due to the present Rector of the College, Mgr. John Ryan, for access to the archives and permission to quote.

11 Kirk records Bishop Hornyold’s opinion of Perry: ‘fidei morumque integritate, scientiae laude ac zelo animarum apprime commendabilis, atque ideo in Hispaniam ob ardua cleri Anglicani negotia delegatus, vel potius compulsus a nobis et Venerabilibus Fratribus et Coepiscopis Nostris.’

12 See later in the article p.64.

13 De Causa Matrimonii Serenissimi Regis Angliae Liber, Joanne Roffensi Episcopo Auctore. Compiuti apud Michaelem de Eguia. Mense Augusti anno 1530. There is written in Perry’s hand ‘Hujus copiae originale impressum est in Biblioth, Excelmi. Ducis de Medina Coelis in Classe “Scholasticorum” unde transcriptum est, partim a meipso D. D. Philippo Perry, partim ab amicissimo mihi D. D. Joanne Geddes Scotorum in Hispania Rectore; Opus incoeptum die 2 Augusti, absolutum die 8 ejusdem mensis anno 1770.’

14 Needham to Perry, 15 August 1768.

15 25 November 1769. Later in the century there was further dissatisfaction with the discipline at Douai. See D. Milburn, History of Ushaw College (1964) pp. 12–18.

16 The Missionary Oath, dating from the early days of the College, was the promise to return after ordination to work on the English mission. C.R.S. 30, p.xl.

17 One of the reasons for such permission was the need to issue a pass for a foreigner to leave the Kingdom.

18 Bannister to Shepherd, 7 August 1768.

19 Bannister to Shepherd, loc.cit.

20 One of the scientific societies that were encouraged by Charles III, often to the disadvantage of the older established colleges and universities.

21 Lynch, Killykelly and Morony to Perry, 12 August 1768.

22 For Charles III’s scheme to reform the Spanish seminaries and the Cedula of 1768, see Historia de la Iglesia in España. Dirigida por Ricardo García Villoslada, vol. 4, especially pp. 557–9. (Madrid 1979.)

23 Alvarez de Morales, A., La Ilustración y la Reforma de la Universidad en la España del siglo XVIII (Madrid 1971)Google Scholar

24 Previous to the expulsion of the Jesuits there is mention in Campomanes’ Dictamen (n. 308) of the College of St. Alban (wrongly called the Irish College) possessing certain privileges.

25 Chapter Three of the 1770 College Statutes lays down the rules for study. For a general description of the studies at Douai see C.R.S. 63, pp. 139–142.

26 Maurice, Taylor, The Scots College in Spain (Valladolid 1971)Google Scholar.

27 St. Alban’s Archives, Series III, Legajo 4.

28 C.R.S. 30, p.201.

29 His account book of 1768 records ‘To my Spanish master for a month’s teaching’

30 John Strype (1643–1737), collector and annalist: his Protestantism did not prevent Perry from consulting his works on the Reformation.

31 Benito Jeronimo Feijoo y Montenegro, O.S.B., (1676–1764), polymath and author of Teat Critico.

32 Laura Rodrigues Diaz, Reforma e Ilustración en la España del siglo XVIII, Pedro Rodríguez de Campomanes (Madrid 1975) pp. 79, 84.

33 Tomsich, M. G., El Jansenismo en España (Madrid 1972) p. 43.Google Scholar

34 Shepherd to Perry, 25 November 1769. Giuseppe Augusto Orsi, O.P., (1692–1761) a Cardinal, was opposed to Jesuit moral teaching and author of De Irreformabili Romani Pontificis in definiendis fidei controversiis Judicio.

35 Louis Ellies Du Pin (1651–1719), a church historian associated with the Jansenist party in France.

36 There are ten bound volumes in MS, most of them being inscribed in Perry’s hand ‘Ex dono P. Perry’ or ‘P. Perry auctor dedit Coll. S. Alban’ But they also carry the bookplate of Bishop Cameron. Alex Cameron was Rector of the Scots College in Valladolid from 1780 to 1798, when he was consecrated bishop in Madrid prior to returning to Scotland as Vicar Apostolic. He did not know Perry but, as he succeeded Perry’s friend John Geddes as Rector, it would seem that these bound volumes were found among Geddes’ property and that they were brought back to Scotland by Cameron. Cameron returned to Scotland in 1802, when conditions were very unsettled in Spain and the future of both colleges must have been in doubt.

37 This volume was not in the original collection but was purchased at an auction (see Innes Review, 1977, p. 121) Probably it did once belong to the original volumes but there is no Cameron bookplate.

38 Gillow, vol. 5, gives a very incomplete account of the writings of Perry.

39 It is worth remarking that in 1719 Challoner had defended a thesis on the infallibility of the Pope according to St. Thomas (Summa Theologica IIa IIae Q4.a.1.ad 10). The Rector of the University at Douai wrote to the President of the English College advising that the thesis should be deferred until the Gallican curia had been consulted. The President refused to do this and the thesis on papal infallibility was proposed in the Academy. The Bishop of Arras said that Challoner was acting rashly because of the circumstances of the time. Seventh Douai Diary C.R.S. 28, p.58.