VENERABLE ENGLISH AN ACCOUNT OF ITS ORIGINS AND WORK LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO. 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON BOMBAY, CALCUTTA, AND MADRAS Barier 1-10-39 37637 PREFACE THIS Volume must not be taken as furnishing a full and complete history of the Venerable English College in Rome. The material which exists is so abundant and the names of those who, in one way or another, have been connected with the Establishment from the earliest period of the old English Hospice are so numerous and distinguished-many of them, indeed, illustrious-that to do adequate justice to the story a work of much greater length would be required. I have, however, tried to set down what I conceive to be the main features of the history, as I could gather them from a rapid survey of the material existing in the Archives of the Venerabile and elsewhere. My immediate purpose was to prepare a record for the celebration of the centenary of the re-opening of the College in 1818. Circumstances arising out of the Great "World-War" made the celebration impossible at the time, and these pages are now published in the hope that, until something better is given to the public by one who can devote more time to the work than I have been able to do, they may serve to awaken or keep alive the memory of the history of what I believe to be one of the most interesting-if, indeed, not the most interesting-of the English Institutions on the continent of Europe. Fortunately, when the College was seized and pillaged by the French at the close of the eighteenth century, when the Republican troops took possession of Rome, a faithful friend was able to carry away and hide the archives. On the restoration of the College in 1818 these valuable papers were all returned to the authorities. Among the documents thus happily preserved are several hundred original Papal Bulls and parchment deeds, which go back to the very beginning of the English Pilgrims' Hostel in the fourteenth |