Scots College (Rome)

Henry Benedict Stuart, Cardinal Duke of York from a picture in the Scots College

The Scots College was established by Pope Clement VIII on 5 December 1600, when it was assigned the revenue of the old Scots' hospice.[1] At first the college was sited in a little house in what is known today as Via del Tritone, opposite the church of Santa Maria di Costantinopoli.[2] The college opened in 1602 with only eleven students.[3] In 1604 it was transferred to Via Felice, now called Via delle Quattro Fontane, where a bust of the last of the Stuarts, Henry Cardinal Duke of York can be seen. The college remained there until 1962.[4]

From 1615 to 1773, the Rectors of the Scots College were drawn from the ranks of the Society of Jesus.[5] After the Jesuits were suppressed in 1773 by Clement XIV, by his brief Dominus ac Redemptor, the College was administered by a series of Italian clerics until 1800 and the arrival of Paul MacPherson, a Scot, who served as Rector for 38 years.[6] Since then the Rectors have all been drawn from the ranks of Scotland's secular clergy.

The college was abandoned during the Second World War and students did not return until 1946. Among the first students to arrive in that year was Thomas Winning.

The other long term Rector of the College, who also served for 38 years was Monsignor William Clapperton who served as Rector from 1922 until 1960. After his retirement he remained in Rome as canon of St John Lateran until his death in 1969 and was buried in the college plot at the Campo Verano cemetery in Rome.

In 1959, the Scottish Bishops decided to build a new college on the outskirts of the city and a location was chosen on the Via Cassia some 4 miles from the city centre. In 1962, the old college was vacated and the seminarians spent the interim years at the college villa in Marino. The new college was designed by Renato Costa and was officially opened by Pope Paul VI on 18 November 1964.

The chapel of the new college was designed an in the shape of an irregular heptagon complete with high altar, an altar to Saint Andrew, Lady altar, choir stalls and pipe organ. Beneath the chapel there is a crypt, the main body of which was dedicated to Saint Margaret, with altarpiece by Arthur Fleischmann. The crypt also complete with altars of Saint Patrick, Saint Ninian and Saint Columba, each with their own mosaics. Fixed to the walls of the crypt were the original tombstones of James Francis Edward Stuart, Charles Edward Stuart and Henry Benedict Stuart. The stairways around the chapel and crypt were decorated with twenty stained glass windows created by Giovanni D'Aloisio depicting scenes from the history of the Church in Scotland. The subjects of these windows were suggested by Monsignor David McRoberts while Monsignor Charles Burns acted as historical adviser to the artists. The windows were accompanied by Latin inscriptions telling the story of each scene.[3]

In 1984, Pope John Paul II visited the college and celebrated Mass in the chapel.

Recent History

Seminarians at the Pontifical Scots College in Rome spend their first two years studying Philosophy at the Angelicum. After completion of Philosophy, and depending on their fluency in Italian, they take up the study of theology either at the Pontifical Gregorian University or the Angelicum, where theology is also offered in English. Priests taking part in postgraduate theology courses continue to stay at the College.[4] The celebration of the Feast of St Andrew is a high point of the Scots College year.[7]

On 14 April 2016, the community of the Scots College were granted a private audience with Pope Francis at the Apostolic Palace to mark the 400th anniversary of its becoming a seminary.[8] In 2017, seminarians from the college were invited to serve at the Easter Vigil at St. Peter's Basilica.[9][10] After a 2020 review projected unaffordable upgrade costs for the Via Cassia seminary, the Scottish Bishops announced a plan to relocate to a more central location in Rome beginning in 2021.[11] A temporary moved was announced in May 2023 to the Beda College in September 2023, until a permanent location is found.[12]

Among the first students, who arrived at the college in 1602, were Robert Phillip; who later joined the French Oratory and was confessor to Henrietta Maria of France, and George Strachan of the Mearns; a Humanist scholar, Orientalist and traveller.[15] Another student, George Conn, who arrived in 1619 and left in the same year, later became a Franciscan, canon of San Lorenzo in Damaso, secretary to Cardinal Francesco Barberini and honorary chamberlain of Pope Urban VIII. Conn also acted as papal agent at the court of Queen Henrietta Maria.[16]

William Ballantine, a student from 1641 to 1646, was named the first Prefect of the Scottish Mission in 1653 and was imprisoned in London for two years by order of Oliver Cromwell. Ballantine was later succeeded by another former student of the college, Alexander Dunbar Winchester. During the fabricated Popish Plot, which gripped the kingdoms of England and Scotland, Alexander Lumsden, a former student of the college and Dominican Friar, was condemned to death in London. He was later acquitted on the grounds of his nationality and could not be said to have "acted as a priest in England" within the meaning of the Jesuits, etc. Act 1584.[16] John Paul Jameson (c. 1659–1700) was a priest and antiquarian who studied at the college in the latter half of the seventeenth century.

Charles Erskine was educated at the college under the protection of Henry Benedict Stuart from 1748 until 1753. Erskine became a papal diplomat and was named Cardinal in 1801. Walter Lovi (1796–1878) was a priest and architect active in the mid-nineteenth century who studied at the college from 1823 until 1825.[16]

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries there were several notable students. Frederick Rolfe (1860–1913), better known as Baron Corvo; a writer, artist, photographer and eccentric, was expelled from the college without receiving ordination.[17] Canon John Gray (1866–1934), English poet and founding parish priest of St Peter's Morningside Edinburgh, studied at the college from 1898 until 1901. Adrian Fortescue (1874–1923), priest and polymath, studied at the college from 1891 until 1894. Basil Fielding (1873–1906), the son of Rudolph Feilding, 8th Earl of Denbigh, also studied at the college and was ordained. [18]

George Thompson (1928–2016) entered the college in the 1950s and left without completing his studies. He later became a teacher and then a Scottish National Party politician and Member of Parliament. Later he resumed studies for the priesthood at St John's Seminary, Wonersh and was ordained in 1989.

Paul Laverty (born 1957), a screenwriter and lawyer, studied for priesthood but did not continue to ordination and obtained a degree in philosophy from the Pontifical Gregorian University.[19]

Bishops

• Abbe Paul Macpherson, History of the Scots College, Rome, 1600-1792, John S. Burns, 1961

• Official website
• Seminaries associated with the Roman Catholic Bishops' Conference of Scotland
• Address of Pope Francis to the Staff and Students of the Pontifical Scots College, 14 April 2016

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