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Reformation & Seminaries


The Penal Laws made it unthinkable, at least at first, to have the new institutes anywhere in Scotland, and so we looked to friendly parts of Europe to give us a home for these seminaries, as they were called. Pope Clement VIII founded one for Scotland in Rome in the year 1600 – the Pontifical Scots College – which survives to this day. Others were Ratisbon (1559), with Erfurt and Wurzburg, all in Bavaria; two were founded in France, at Douai (1576), and Paris (1603), and one in Spain at Madrid (1627) which later moved to Valladolid (1771) and Salamanca (1988). This last is now used for the propadeutic period recently required by Church Law as a period of preparation for those going to Rome, or other seminaries used by the Scottish Bishops. The photo is of a stained-glass window in the Pontifical Scots College, Rome, depicting now Saint Paul VI at the opening of the new college on the Via Cassia in 1965.

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