| Admin_History | The English College of SS. Peter and Paul at Lisbon (or, as it is more commonly known, Lisbon College) was founded by Pedro Coutinho in 1624 as a college for English students training for the priesthood and mission work in England. As a pontifical college it was awarded the same privileges and rights as other colleges centrally controlled by Rome, such as the English College in Rome, whose aim was the maintenance of the Catholic faith in England, Scotland and Ireland. The driving force behind the college in its early years was William Newman. Although he was never to become president, Newman founded the college from property entrusted by the estate of the late Nicholas Ashton, a Catholic chaplain in Lisbon. Initial progress was slow until the arrival of a group of English students and teachers from the English College at Douai in 1628. The first president, albeit briefly, was Archdeacon Joseph Haynes who died the following year. The reputation of the college as a centre of academic excellence and its relevance as an English institution in Lisbon attracted patronage from varied sources during the seventeenth century, including Pedro da Costa and Maria de Oliveira Leitoa who transferred important funds to the College in exchange for daily masses for their special intention. In 1679, Pope Innocent XI granted the College the privilege of being considered as a High Altar of Christ on the Cross. In spite of its wealthy benefactors and papal patronage, the college faced a number of challenges in the following centuries. In 1755, Lisbon was shaken by a terrible earthquake in which 20,000 people died and 60,000 houses and 60 palaces and convents were destroyed. The college suffered badly both in terms of the physical devastation of its buildings and the mental well-being of many of its students and superiors who, like most of the population of Lisbon, chose to live under tents in the gardens of the college rather than risk being inside in fear of another quake. The college suffered another setback when it was occupied by French forces during Napoleon's invasion of Portugal in 1807 and, just days before the second French invasion, the president decided to close the college down, with all students being sent to an Anglo-Portuguese school in England until the war ended in 1814. The college was finally closed in 1973. Since the passing of the Roman Catholic Relief Act in Britain in 1829, the college's raison d'etre had ceased to exist although it's high reputation as a teaching and training establishment enabled it to survive for another 144 years. |