Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 1.djvu/480

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AMERICAN •126 AMERICAN to the Dominicans, near their Church of the Minerva. He also bought with liis own money a villa and a vineyard for the use of the college, and made Mon- signor Eyzaguirre protonotary-apostolic. Towards the beginning of 1800 he sent this prelate back to South America as ablegate of the Holy See, to urge the bishops again to co-operate on a larger scale in procuring the necessary means for the support of the college. At the same time he himself contributed a large sum of money to the new house. During the year 1S64 Pius IX sent to the college a great variety of boolis from his own private library, ordered a new chapel to be erected at his own ex- pense, and furnished it with magnificent vestments, and on the 21 November, the sixth anniversary of its foundation, visited the college in person. For all this and many other favours he is considered the principal, if not the first, founder of the South American College. The number of students con- tinually increasing, the superiors had to look for another dwelling. Through the assistance of His Eminence Cardinal Sacconi, protector of the college, part of the old novitiate of the Jesuits, on the Quirinal, which since the year 1848 had been used for a French military hospital, was secured, the house near the Minerva sold, and the new residence occupied on IS April, 1867, the feast of the Patronage of St. Joseph, to whom the college had been dedi- cated. As the centenary of the martyrdom of Sts. Peter and Paul occurred in this year, many South American bishops visiting Rome brought new students, and the number reached fifty-nine. After the festivities of the centenary Pius IX, almost un- announced, went to the new college, assisted at an "academy", and allowed his name to be added to its legal title, making it "Collegio Pio-Latino- Americano". In 1870 the bishops attending the Vatican Council increased the number of students to eigiity-two. In 1871, the Italian government having expelled the Jesuits from the small part of the novitiate they occupied, acceded to the request of the Brazilian Emperor and permitted the South American College to remain where it was until a suitable house should be found. The new rector, the Rev. Agostino .Santinelli, S.J., bought a new site in the Prati di Castello, not far from the Vatican, and near the Tiber. The foundation stone was blessed on 29 June, 1884, by the protector, Cardi- nal Sacconi, in presence of a large assemblage, among whom was the Most Rev. Father Peter Beclcx, General of the Society of Jesus, then living in the American College. The work of building began im- mediately, and Father Santinelli, putting into execu- tion the plans for a grand college he had fostered for very many years, saw the splendid building finished in 1887-88. During this last year the new house received ninety students, but it can accommodate more than 120. It has a splendid chapel, an as- sembly hall with a capacity for 400 persons, a very spacious dining room for the students, and several small apartments for American bishops visiting Rome. It was here that the first General Council of r,atin America (28 May— 9 July, 1899) was held. There were present fifty-three prelates, archbisliops, and bishops, of whom twenty-nine took up their quarters in the college, together with their secre- taries and servants. The solemn opening took place in the college chapel, and all the sessions wore hold there. In the same chapel on 20 March, lOO.'i, the ("ardinal Protector, Joseph C. Vivos y Tuto. solemnly t)ubhshcd the Apostolic Constitution "Sedis Apos- tohca'. providam, by which His Holiness granted the title of "Pontifical" to the college and com- mitted its direction in prrpctmim to the Society of JcsiLs. This constitution, which had boon solicited by I lie bi.shops during the council, and promised by 1.01) XIII, has been completed and given by Pius X; it fixes the fundamental rules of the college already tested by so many years of experience, and on this accoint it is recognized as the Bull of foundation of the college. There were 104 alumni present at the ceremony besides many others; the Very Rev. Aloysius Caterini, S.J., Provincial of the Roman Province, accepted the charge in the name of the General of the Society, absent through sickness. The college, during its existence of nearly fifty years, has seen twenty-five of its former students made archbishops or bishops in their native countries, besides many others created doctors in philosophy, theology, and canon law. The influence of all these upon the development of religion has been immense. A number of the seminaries and one ecclesiastical university in Latin America have taken their pro- fessors exclusively from the alumni of the college. Finally, in 1906, the high tribute of etteem was paid the college by the Holy See, in the choice, from amongst the students formed within its walls, of the first cardinal of Latin America: Monsignor Joa- quin Arcoverde de Albuquerque-Cavalcanti, Arch- bishop of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. P. X. Vella. American Party. See Know-Nothingism. American Protective Association, The, usually known as "the A. P. A.", a secret proscriptive so- ciety in the LTnited States, which became a disturb- ing factor in most of the Northern States during the period 1891-97. Its purpose was indicated clearly enough by its open activity in arranging lectures by "ex-priests", distributing anti-Catholic literature and opposing the election of Catholics to public offices. Of the A. P. A. ritvial and obligations there was frequent publication during the years 1893-94, now- divulged by spies, and now admitted by ex-members. What purports to be a full exhibit of these oaths may be found in the "Congressional Record", 31 Oc- tober, 1893, in the petition of H. M. Youmans for the unseating of Representative-in-Congress William S. Linton. These oaths bound members "at all times to endeavour to place the political positions of this government in the hands of Protestants to the entire exclusion of the Roman Catholics" etc. The first Council of the A. P. A. was established 13 March, 1887, at Clinton, Iowa. The founder was Henry F. Bowers, a lawyer of that town, a Mary- lander by birth, and then in his sixtieth year. The order seems to have spread slowly. Its first out- cropping in local politics occurred in 1891 at Omaha, Neb., where it endorsed the Republican ticket and swept the town (heretofore Democratic) by a large majority. The A. P. A. seems to have moved down the Missouri river from Omaha. In Missouri, Kan- sas City was its first conspicuous base. After the fall election of 1892, a delegation representing the A. P. A. of Kansas City asked Governor-elect Stone to blacklist all Catholics when making appointments. "Your association", replied Governor Stone, "is un- democratic and un-American, and I am opposed to it. I haven't a drop of Know-Nothing blood in my veins". The following cities are among the more important which were generally regarded as under A. P. A. political dominance during all, or a portion, of the period of 1893-90: Omaha, Kansas City, Rock- ford (111.), Toledo, Duluth, Saginaw, Louisville; and, to some extent, Detroit, St. Louis, and Denver. In New York its principal activity was at Buffalo and Rochester. Pennsylvania (where the so-called patriotic societies were numerous), Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island were also overrun, politically, by the new order. It was particularly militant in California. If we except Kentucky and Tennessee, the A. P. A. made but little impre-ssion in the South, althovigh there were mild outcroppings in Georgia and Texas. The most interesting aspect of the movement, the