Chapter III: The Urban College

Through the zeal of John Baptist Vives, one of its consulting prelates, the Sacred Congregation came into possession of the necessary property and the buildings which are now occupied by offices attached to Propaganda and by a college for the education of missionaries destined to carry out its principal aim in evangelizing the nations. The immediate successor of Gregory XV. was the celebrated Urban VIII., a member of the illustrious Barberini family. This great Pontiff earnestly resumed the work of his predecessor in the matter of the Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda Fide. To him, Monsgr. John Baptist Vives, acting, as Moroni tells us, under the direction of his own confessor, Michael Ghislieri, of the Order of Theatines, offered his place in the Piazza di Spagna. This residence previously belonged to Cardinal Ferratini, from whom the street called _Via Fratina_, which at present leads directly from the Corso to the Propaganda, takes its name. Urban VIII. gladly accepted the offer; and with further aid from Vives, established the famous college to which he gave his own name—a name it bears to this day—COLLEGIO URBANO DE PROPAGANDA FIDE. Moroni thus speaks of this gift:—“Matters progressed so far that Monsignor Vives decided to devote all he had to this purpose (the foundation of the college), and he employed Father Ghislieri to draw up a plan for changing his palace into such a college. With these admirable sentiments the Prelate Vives made an offer of the Palace to Urban VIII. (_Barberini_). This illustrious Pontiff being animated with the liveliest interest for the augmentation of the Catholic religion and for the greater glory of God, approved of the gift of the good Prelate, and with the authority of the Bull ‘_Immortalis Dei_’ given on the Kalends of August, 1627, canonically instituted in the same palace an Apostolic College or Seminary for youths of every nation who should be promoted to orders after one year, and afterwards to the Priesthood, and he placed the College under the invocation and patronage of SS. Peter and Paul. He put it moreover under the protection of the Apostolic See, and under the rule and laws which he and his successors should be pleased to make for its government. He assigned to it perpetually the oblation of the well-deserving Vives, consisting of one hundred and three places on the mountain and other estates, yielding yearly about seven hundred scudi in rent, besides other revenues which that Prelate left it at death. On the principal façade of the building was placed the following inscription:—

“COLLEGIUM DE PROPAGANDA FIDE PER UNIVERSUM ORBEM.

“And afterwards the same Urban VIII. caused to be substituted for this another, which was placed beneath his own arms, and still subsists, and which runs as follows:—

“COLLEGIUM URBANUM DE PROPAGANDA FIDE.”

The palace of Monsignor Vives was greatly improved by Urban VIII., who employed the celebrated Bernini to construct the offices of the _Computisteria_, or finance department, on the ground floor; the _Segretaria_, or business portion, on the first floor; and the _Stamperia_, or printing office, on the upper floor. Alexander VII., the next successor but one of Urban VIII., carried the buildings on towards the Church of St. Andrea dei Frati. He also built the beautiful College Chapel in the form in which it is to be found to-day. He employed in both works the rival of Bernini, Francesco Borromini. Leo XII. removed the printing offices to the ground floor, at the end of the building; and in the part where these were placed before, he formed apartments for the Cardinal Prefect, so that the latter might be always on the spot for watching over the many important interests of the Congregation. On the highest story were also provided the apartments of the Secretary of the Propaganda, and the famous Museum connected with the Institution.

Besides the gift of the site and the Palace, Monsignor Vives provided also ten places in the College for students destined to carry the Gospel wherever the Sacred Congregation might send them. Almost at the same time with this gift, came another valuable donation from Cardinal Antonio Barberini, the brother of Urban VIII. This was the perpetual foundation of twelve places for as many students, who should be taken in the proportion of two from each one of the Persian, Georgian, Coptic, Nestorian, Jacobite, and Melchite rites or nations. The zealous Cardinal, elevated the number of students to three of each nation, soon afterwards, making eighteen in all, of his own foundation. And from that to this, these far-off peoples have been supplied with a constant stream of well-educated pastors from the centre of Christendom by the zeal of this good Prince of the Church, who was in his lifetime also one of the Cardinals attached to the Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda. His zeal did not finish here. Before his death, Moroni tells us, that he founded thirteen places in the Urban College for the nations of Ethiopia, Abyssinia, and Brackmania. Wise regulations were in all cases laid down for the giving of these places, and for the discharge of the obligations of those who profited by them. Urban VIII. attached this College perpetually to the Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda, and Innocent X. increased it by the funds and the _alumni_ of a small Maronite College previously established in Bologna. So the College continued to advance in its sphere of Church utility; and with it arose and progressed institutions necessary for its own work and for the work of the Sacred Congregation, which, with prudence and zeal, continued to direct the whole of the missionary responsibility of the Holy See from the days of Gregory XV. to those of Leo XIII.

I will here quote for you a remarkable document furnished me by Monsignor Conrado, the present, erudite, zealous, and greatly beloved Rector of the Propaganda College. It is interesting, and manifests the sources from which the educational funds of the College were derived. Translated from the original Italian, it is as follows:—

NOTICE OF THE URBAN COLLEGE,
TAKEN FROM THE ARCHIVES OF THE PROPAGANDA.

Before commencing to speak of the institution of the Urban
College, from whence have gone forth so many personages
illustrious for the profundity of their knowledge, for the
sanctity of their lives, and for their zeal for religion,
it is necessary to give an idea of the origin of the Sacred
Congregation destined for the propagation of the Faith.
Because, however divided one from the other, these two pious
establishments were in the beginning, the College owes its
existence, certainly, to the Sacred Congregation. The immortal
Gregory XV., called to the consideration of the duties of the
supreme authority of the Church, saw amongst the very first
that of carrying the Gospel light amidst the darkness of the
Gentiles, that of uniting in the bond of charity those who
lived disjoined from it, and that of bringing back to the
true belief those who found themselves immersed in error; he,
therefore, in the second year of his pontificate, instituted
this Sacred Congregation, to which he confided the propagation
of the Faith throughout the universe. It was composed of
thirteen Cardinals, two Prelates, and one religious _della
Scala_. The Cardinals met together for the first time on the
6th of December, 1622. In this first meeting the Cardinal
Ludovisi having mentioned the motive of its creation, asked his
colleagues to manifest openly their sentiments regarding the
best manner of propagating the Faith. It was resolved that all
the Nuncios of the Holy See should be written to, in order that
they should send information regarding the state of religion in
the provinces and kingdoms committed to them; also, that the
heads of Religious Orders should receive instructions to send
accounts of the state of the missions conducted by them amongst
heretics and infidels. And first of all it was resolved that
the Bishop of Cozentino should be written to for the papers
which he held in charge regarding the propagation of the Faith
in the time of Clement VIII.

The Bull of the erection, the revenues necessary, the purchase
of a palace which should be an asylum for the converted, the
residence for the _alumni_ destined for the service of the
missions, and the material foundation of the Congregation
itself, were also matters of deliberation in that first
session. Monsignor Vives of Valencia in Spain, Ambassador of
Isabella, the illustrious Infanta of Spain and Governor of
the Belgian Provinces, a personage of singular piety, offered
for the purposes of the Congregation the Ferratina Palace,
where even at present the most eminent Cardinals meet to
decide upon religious questions which arise in different parts
of the world. On the 4th of February following, the second
Congregation was held. The principal things then considered
were the faculties, the relations to be made to the Pope after
each Congregation, and the manner by which a revenue might be
created for that pious establishment. Amongst other projects
the Cardinal of Saint Susannah proposed the application of
the Cardinal’s rings. This project was pleasing to all, and
the Pope by inserting it in his Bull approved of it, and it
still subsists. The same Gregory, at the canonization of Saint
Ignatius and Saint Isidore, gave two thousand five hundred
golden crowns; also when he prescribed that the Congregation
should meet once a month before the Pope he offered ten
thousand scudi. Nor did this limit his pious liberality, since
other acts are found of his munificence.

The Bishops of Christendom also received impulses to collect
alms for the promotion of this holy work in the Lenten times.
A certain obligation, it appears, arose, since by reason of
the pious contributions, great acquirements were made for the
work. In consequence, regulations were drawn up regarding the
administration. Two Cardinals, with the Cardinal’s Secretary,
were elected every year to superintend the temporal interests
of the Congregation. Finally, there was besides instituted a
special judge, an agent, and a notary. Matters thus progressed
until, on the 8th July, Gregory XV. passed to a better life.
The Cardinal Barberini succeeded him, and took the name of
Urban VIII. On the 4th September the first Congregation
was held under the new Pontiff. Urban VIII. by his Bull,
_Immortalis_, ordained the erection of the Congregation on the
1st of August, 1627. The spirit of the Bull is as follows:—The
holy Pontiff first mentions the grave burden which he feels
in the government of the Universal Church. He mentions the
supplication of Monsigr. Vives, by which the intended College
is reduced to some form, and by which the latter gives his
palace and all its annexes, together with all the rest of his
goods, with the reserve of the use only during his natural
life. He institutes the College on the condition that if it
does not become a reality during his own pontificate; it
should obtain it in that of his successors. He speaks of the
instance of Monsigr. Vives, and the confirmation accorded
with the condition expressed in the instrument. He then
institutes after the acceptation of the donation, after the
confirmation of the conditions, and after the making good of
any defects, the Pontifical College or Apostolic Seminary,
under the invocation of SS. Peter and Paul, by the name of
the Urban College, for the defence and Propagation of the
Faith, called the Propaganda. (By the form of the Bull, _Ne
nova_, of the 13th of March, 1640, it is forbidden to every
college or seminary to take that designation.) He orders that
the _alumni_ from the secular state can be taken from every
nation. They should be of sound maxims, of pure morals, and of
sound piety. They should serve throughout their whole lives,
encounter dangers, sufferings, and, if need be, martyrdom. He
assigns the dotation for the maintenance of the econome, of
the rector, of the masters, and of the students, deputing as
administrators three Canons of the three patriarchal basilicas,
at the death of whom he reserves to himself the nomination of
their successors, to be taken from that basilica to which the
deceased belonged. He accords to these ample faculties to elect
and remove rectors, economes, officials, and masters; to make
rules and give orders conformable to the canons and apostolic
constitutions; to change these, to correct them and interpret
them. He exempts all the individuals of the College from every
jurisdiction of the vicar, senator, conservator, and rector of
studies, as well as from whatsoever tax whether of land or sea.
He takes the college under his own immediate protection and
awards to it every privilege conceded to the German, English
or Greek Colleges. He inhibits any one from molesting either
the college or the officials. He wishes that no one should
regard as defective, fight against, suspend, call in judgment
for vice of nullity or intention, whomsoever should be there
found residing, and declares null all that which could be
attempted, knowingly or unknowingly, against his constitution.
He orders the Bishops of Ostia, the Vicar, and the Auditor of
the Apostolic Camera to execute this Bull, so that no one under
whatsoever pretext could molest it. He threatens censures and
the secular arm against its contraveners. He finally terminates
his Bull with the most ample derogatory forms.

The College remained divided from the Sacred Congregation
until 1641. But on the 16th of May of that year the same Urban
VIII. gave another Bull—_Romanus Pontifex_. In this he revoked
and annulled the faculties given to the three Canons of the
Patriarchal basilicas. He unites the College to the Sacred
Congregation, but leaving the administration, government and
direction of it to the Cardinal of St. Onefrius “having taken
counsel, as we hope,” says the Bull, “with the Congregation of
the before-mentioned Cardinals, and with the approbation of the
Roman Pontiff in affairs of greater importance.”

FOUNDATIONS FOR STUDENTS.

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