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The Ascetic Tradition and the English College at Valladolid

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Michael E. Williams
Michael E. Williams*
Affiliation:
Trinity and All Saints’ College, Leeds
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Extract

The history of English Roman Catholicism from the end of the sixteenth century right through to the nineteenth has as one of its main features the rivalries between seculars and regulars, especially between the seculars and the Jesuits. As this dispute primarily, but not exclusively, concerns the clergy it is most clearly seen in the history of those colleges which provided clergy for the English mission. The early history of the English College in Rome is not only the story of English and Welsh rivalry, but of frequent objections to the Jesuit administration and accusations by the seculars of the enticement of students to join the Society. Similar cases are to be found in the history of Saint Alban’s College Valladolid, but in this college there is an added dimension. Not only did the seculars complain about the Jesuits but the Jesuits complained of students being enticed away to the Benedictines. Later, a certain amount of bitterness arose out of the establishment of a college directed by the seculars in Lisbon. The Jesuits considered that they should have been placed in charge. What is more, there were even quarrels among the catholics detained in Wisbech castle. The ‘stirs’ there bore a remarkable resemblance to those at the college in Rome. As Aveling remarks about English Roman Catholicism ‘Historians have been defeated by its immense complexities of ecclesiastical intrigue and embarrassed by its sheer ferocity’. The quarrels not only provoke a feeling of distaste in the modern mind — why couldn’t these people resolve their differences and get on with their spiritual mission? They also instil puzzlement – are these disputes to be explained solely as political intrigue and in-fighting within the Catholic party? If so, how could such a cause appear attractive or plausible? How could such a house divided against itself, stand? I want to suggest that there is an element often overlooked which, although not explaining fully these intrigues and dissensions, nevertheless might help us to understand better what was going on. This can be called the positive attraction of the ascetic ideal. Bossy has stated in reference to the history of the English Catholic community ‘martyrology pointed this subject historiographically speaking up a cul-de-sac’. I want to suggest that cul-de-sac or no, the consideration of martyrdom and of life as a preparation for martyrdom is a path that can lead to a vantage point from which one can view this clerical back biting and contentiousness in a clearer light. Evenett in his Birbeck Lectures in 1951 pleaded for a better integration of the history of spirituality into ecclesiastical history and in particular devoted some space to a consideration of the origins of the Catholic revival in Spain. He pointed out the overlap of those who abandoned the world with those who remained in it, reforming its practice. Speaking of the Carthusians of the sixteenth century he said ‘A larger interest and practical usefulness in the external affairs of the Church were manifest by them at this period than we are accustomed to associate with modern Parkminster or Miraflores’. Following these lines let us turn to certain aspects of Spanish spirituality and its relationship to England.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 22: Monks, Hermits and the Ascetic Tradition , 1985 , pp. 275 - 283
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1985

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References

1 T.G. Law, A Historical Sketch of conflicts between Jesuits and Seculars in the reign of Queen Elizabeth (London 1889).

2 Aveling, J.H. The Handle and the Axe (London 1976) p. 68 Google Scholar>

3 Bossy, J., The English Catholic Community 1570–1850 (London 1975) p. 3. Google Scholar

4 Evenett, H., The Spirit of the Counter Reformation (Cambridge 1968)Google Scholar.

5 There were several contemporary lives of Doña Luisa, the best known being El Licenciado Luiz Muñoz, Vida y Virtudes de la Venerabile Virgen Doña Luisa de Carvajal y Mendoza, su jornada a Inglaterra, y successos en aquel reyno. Based on this is a life in English; Lady Georgina Fullerton, The Life of Luisa de Carvajal (London 1873). The most modern treatment is Camilo M Abad, Una Misionera Española en la Inglaterra de Siglo XVII (Comillas 1966).

6 Luis de la Puente, Vida Maravillosa de la Venerable Virgen Doña Marina de Escobar (Madrid 1665).

7 Dures, A., English Catholicism 1H8-1642 (London 1983) p. 62 Google Scholar.

8 I. Iparraguirre, Historia de la practica de los ejercicios espirituales de San Ignacio (Roma 1958) pp. 474–494; M. Nicolau ‘Espiritualidad de la Compania de Jesus en la España del siglo XVI’ in Corrientes Espirituales en la España del siglo XVI (Barcelona 1963) pp. 341–361.

9 ‘We ask not for freedom but for discipline’ [M.A.] Tierney [ed, C. Dodd, Church History of England 5 vols (London 1839–43)] 2 p. cccxlviii.

10 At the end of his life Weston became the first English rector of Saint Alban’s College Valladolid. For the rules adopted at Wisbech under Weston see Tierney 3 CAP. 4.

11 Lunn, D. The English Benedictines 1540–1688 (London 1980) pp. 19–23 Google Scholar, 57–61.

12 The missionary oath first prescribed in the English College Rome and later extended to other colleges, originally obliged students to take orders when called to them and return to work in England. In 1624, forty five years later, the oath was altered to include a ban on joining a religious order or becoming a professed religious until five years after leaving the college. But membership of a religious order did not necessarily exclude a return to England.

13 Luis Rodriguez Martinez Historia dei Monasterio de San Benito El Real de Valladolid (Valladolid 1981).

14 Archives of English College Valladolid Serie II Legajo i.

15 Clancy, T.H. Papist Pamphleteers (Chicago 1964) p. 140 Google Scholar.

16 Diego de Yepes Historia de la Persecución de Inglaterra (Madrid 1599).

17 Yepes views are shared by Pedro de Ribadeneira Historia Ecclesiastica del Schisma (Madrid 1588).

18 Ibid Liber III cap XXX.

19 Meyer, A.O. England and the Catholic Church under Queen Elizabeth. (London 1916) pp. 108–109 Google Scholar.

20 Delumeau, J. Catholicism between Luther and Voltaire (London 1977) p. 46 Google Scholar. ‘The thirst for mortification, this rejection of the world and nature, were essential if the unbelievable tortures to which certain missioners were subjected were to be endured.’