IRISH
160
IRISH
nuns, both of which exist at the present day, the
former at Corpo Santo, Lisbon, and the latter at
Belem in the vicinity.
In Belgium. — Louvain.^XV bile the colleges in the Peninsula were doing good service for the preservation of the Faith in Ireland, other colleges for the same purpose were established in Flanders. In 1624 a college for the education of priests, with the title "Collegium Pastorale", was founded at Louvain, in virtue of a charter granted by the Holy See at the instance of the Most Rev. Eugene Macmahon, Arch- bishop of Dublin. Urban VIII gave a donation for the support of the college, and the Sacred Congre- gation of Propaganda bestowed upon it an aniuial allowance of 240 scudi. Burses were also founded by various benefactors, the aggregate value of which amounted to 7.3,217 florins. The fir.st rector of the college was Nicholas Aylmer. The students at the commencement were six in number. In 1643 there were four priests, and three students in philosophy. At the close of the eighteenth century the numl^er had increased to forty. Many distinguished Irish eccle- siastics were students of the pastoral college at Louvain. One of its rectors, Thomas Stapleton, held also the office of rector of the university for several terms.
Besides the secular colleges, convents for the Irish regular clergy were established at Louvain. Of these the most ancient and the most celebrated was the Franciscan College of St. Anthony of Padua, founded in 1606 at the request of Florence Conry, Archbishop of Tuam. The number of Irish friars at St. An- thony's in the seventeenth century was about forty. In this convent lived Jolm Colgan, the celebrated Irish hagiologist, author of the "Trias Thauma- turga ", and of " Lives of the Irish Saints ". Here, too, lived Hugh Ward, Father Mooney, Brendan O'Con- nor, and Bonaventure O'Doherty, who so ably assisted Michael O'Cleary in collecting materials for the great work known as the "Annals of the Four Masters". The Franciscans of St. Anthony's did great service to the cause of religion by printing books of instruction in the Irish tongue. At Louvain were printed the Irish Catechism of Bonaventure O'Hussey (160S), "The Mirror of Penance", by Hugh MacCaughwell (161S), "The Mirror of Religion", by Florence Conry (1626), O'Cleary's vocabulary (1643), "The Paradise of the Soul ", by Anthony Gernon (1645), and a moral treatise in English and Irish, l)y Richard MacGioUa- cuddy (Arsdekin) (1667). It has been truly said of the convent of St. Anthony of Padua at Louvain, "No Franciscan College has maintained with more zeal than this, the character of the order as expressed in their motto Doclrina et Scientia." At the close of the eighteenth century the number of friars at St. Anthony's was seventeen. In 1796 the convent was closed to the Irish, and sold. There existed also at Louvain a convent of Irish Dominicans founded in 1608, and known as the convent of Holy Cross. In 1627 there were twelve fathers in this convent. A letter of the nuncio at Brussels, in 1675, gives the names of thirty-three Dominicans, who had gone from Holy Cross to labour on the mission in Ireland. The Irish Dominican convent at Louvain was clo.sed in 1797. A convent of Irish Benedictine nuns was established at Ypres in 1682 where for more than two centuries Irish women aspiring to religious perfection found a home. This convent has survived to the present day (1910). The colleges, .secular and regu- lar, at Louvain during the two centuries of their ex- istence gave to the Church in Ireland 32 bishops and about 300 priests, of whom 200 at least were graduates in arts of the University of Louvain.
Anhverp.—ln 1629 a pastoral college was founded at Antwerp by the Ucv. Lawrciu-c Sedgrave, a Lein- ster priest, who, (cigc-lhcr with his nephew, the Rev. James Talbot, expended 13,220 florins on the estab-
lishment of the college, and became its first rector, as
his nephew became its second. After their time the
college suffered much from poverty and was on the
point of being closed and sold to meet the claims of
creditors. But during the rectorate of John Egan,
prothonotary Apostolic, it received a fresh impulse.
Donations were received, and creditors satisfied.
Through the pro-nimcio at Brussels, the Holy See
sent subventions from time to time. The number of
students, usually about twelve, increased eventually to
thirty. They attended lectures, at the Jesuit college
at Antwerp, where their distinguished countryman,
Fr. Richard Archdeacon (.\rsdekin), S.J., died in 1690.
The pastoral colleges at Louvain and at Antwerp con-
tinued to flourish until 1795, when they were closed
on the occupation of Belgium by the French.
At various times the bishops of Ireland made repre-
sentations to the Belgian Government with a view
to obtain the transfer of the burses to Ireland, and
they have been so far successful that at the present
time the annual revenue of the burses is paid through
the medium of the British Foreign Office for the
education of students at Maynooth College.
Tournai. — An Irish college was founded at Tournai by Christopher Cusack. In 1689 there were eight ecclesiastics at Tournai, with an income of 200 scudi. Choiseul, Bishop of Tournai, in a letter to Innocent X, speaks thus of the Irish college: "We have here a College or Seminary of Irish youth where some poor students are supported, receive a Christian educa- tion, and are taught the Humanities. They attend the classes at the Jesuits, and are generally the first in merit.' The Tournai college, like those at Lou- vain and Antwerp, was closed in 1795. In 1833, at the instance of the Most Rev. Dr. O'Higgins, Bishop of Ardagh, the Belgian Government consented to transfer to the Irish college in Rome the sum of 4000 francs from the funds of the old Irish college at Tournai.
In France. — The colleges in the Peninsula and in Flanders rendered great service to the Church in Ireland. But the most important of all the Irish colleges on the Continent were those established in France.
Douai. — The most ancient amongst these was the col- lege at Douai, founded about 1577 by the Rev. Ralph Cusack. Douai was then included in the Flemish territory subject to Spain, and in 1604 Philip III conferred on the Irish college in that town an endow- ment of .5000 florins. In 1667 Douai was taken by Louis XIV, and the Irish college there became subject to French authority. For some years means of sub- sistence were scanty and precarious, but in 1750 the college recovered its prosperity. It was subject to a board of provisors who nominated the rector from a list of three candidates presented by the superiors of the Irish college in Paris. The students, about thirty in number, attendctl lectures at the University of Douai. In 1793 the college was closed, and in 1795 the buildings, valued at 60,000 francs, were alienated by the French Government.
Lille. — An Irish college was founded at Lille by Ralph Cusack in virtue of letters patent granted in 1610 by the Archduke Albert, and Isabella, Infanta of Spain, then Governors of the Netherlands. Founda- tions were maile for the education of students from the Province of Leinster, more particularly for those from Meath. The right of nominating the rector was vested in the superior of the Irish Capuchins at Bar-sur-Aube. The college suffered much from poverty. Its means of support were derived partly from collections maile at the church doors, and partly from fees received for the services the students ren- dered by carrying the dead at futierals. The study and use of the Irish language was encoin-aged, and no one unacquainted with that tongue was eligible to the office of rector. The students numbered from
