College Communities Abroad : Education, Migration and Catholicism in Early Modern Europe

From the mid-sixteenth century, Catholics from Protestant jurisdictions established colleges for the education and formation of students in more hospitable Catholic territories abroad. This book draws attention to similarities between colleges which developed in familiar patterns, faced parallel challenges and served analogous functions. One of the more significant developments in university historiography since the 1960s has been the increasing attention devoted to the student experience, an elaboration of the 'history from below' approach which has been so influential in social history. The Collegium Germanicum in Rome was the first abroad college established for the formation of Catholic students from territories under the authority of Protestant reformers. The college opened in the late summer of 1552, the result of an initiative spearheaded by Cardinal Giovanni Morone and the Society of Jesus. The book examines the educational strategies employed by Dutch Catholics, who faced challenges closely related to those of their confessional colleagues across the North Sea. It argues that through the colleges specific Catholic communities in Ireland preserved and sometimes strengthened not only their domestic position but also their transnational and international interests. The book inspects a central issue for all abroad colleges: the role of the college-trained clergy who returned to the domestic churches. Overviewing the Scots, the book addresses the political significance of the colleges, in particular through their relationships to the Stuart monarchy. A study of the Maronite college in Rome uncovers the decisive role played by papal politics, curial interests and, later, Propaganda Fide. '"College communities abroad" addresses the histories of colleges established abroad by Catholics from Protestant and Muslim jurisdictions in the early modern period. The colleges are considered in a transnational framework for the first time, with up-to-date research on different national groups presented in one volume.Irish, English and Scots Catholics founded more than fifty colleges in France, Flanders, Spain, Portugal, the Papal States and the Habsburg Empire during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Meanwhile Catholics in the Dutch Republic, the Scandinavian states and the Ottoman Empire faced comparable challenges and created similar institutions. Until their decline in the late eighteenth century, tens of thousands of students passed through the colleges. Drawing together a group of established scholars and new voices, this collection of essays highlights the similarities between colleges which developed in familiar patterns, faced similar challenges and served analogous functions. Different national groups, it emerges, established colleges following parallel models. The essays illustrate that the colleges were significant not only in the formation of clergy destined to return to the challenges of their home missions (the emphasis in traditional accounts), but in the education of the Catholic laity, the facilitation of social mobility, the overseas extension of domestic networks, the development of migrant communities and the encouragement of cultural transfer. College communities abroad will be essential reading for academics and researchers in early modern European history but will also appeal to the general reader interested in the history of Catholicism' --Back cover This book repositions early modern Catholic abroad colleges in their interconnected regional, national and transnational contexts. From the sixteenth century, Irish, English and Scots Catholics founded more than fifty colleges in France, Flanders, Spain, Portugal, the Papal States and the Habsburg Empire. At the same time, Catholics in the Dutch Republic, the Scandinavian states and the Ottoman Empire faced comparable challenges and created similar institutions. Until their decline in the late-eighteenth century, tens of thousands of students passed through the colleges. Traditionally, these institutions were treated within limiting denominational and national contexts. This collection, at once building on and transcending inherited historiographies, explores the colleges'institutional interconnectivity and their interlocking roles as instruments of regional communities, dynastic interests and international Catholicism. Front matter Contents Notes on contributors Preface Map Introduction – college communities abroad: education, migration and Catholicism in early modern Europe The Society of Jesus and the early history of the Collegium Germanicum, 1552–1584 Colleges and their alternatives in the educational strategy of early modern Dutch Catholics The domestic and international roles of Irish overseas colleges, 1590–1800 The Scots colleges and international politics, 1600–1750 Seminary colleges, converts and religious change in post-Reformation England, 1568–1688 The Maronite college in early modern Rome: Between the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Letters English women religious, the exile male colleges and national identities in Counter-Reformation Index A comparative study of the colleges established by Irish, English and Scots Catholics across Europe through the early modern period.