St Thomas' Hospice (1362–1579) The English Hospice of the Most Holy Trinity and St Thomas was founded in the
Regola quarter of Rome in 1362 when the English community in Rome purchased a house from the rosary sellers John and Alice Shephard. The
Jubilee Year of 1350, which had seen the influx of over a million pilgrims anxious to gain the Plenary
Indulgence offered by
Pope Clement VI, had exposed the notorious shortcomings of accommodation in the Eternal City. English pilgrims had paid extortionate prices to stay in damp and filthy hostels far from
St Peter's Basilica and the
Holy Door through which they had come to pass. Innkeepers gave rooms designed to accommodate four people to groups of eight or more and often treated the pilgrims with violence and extortion. Many had drowned in the Tiber after the collapse of a temporary bridge and others died from the disease endemic to their rat-infested lodgings. The foundation of the Hospice was in direct response to this situation, with the stated aim of caring for "poor, infirm, needy and wretched persons from England". The Hospice of St Thomas grew into the major centre for English visitors and residents in Rome. In 1376 a Chapel was erected on the site of the present College Church, and remnants of the impressive structure still remain in the College Garden. The new Chapel attracted royal patronage and by the reign of
Henry VII the institution had become known as "The King's Hospice", as might William Holdernes (fl. 1396) During the 237 years of its existence, the English Hospice received many thousands of pilgrims, one of the most famous being the mystic,
Margery Kempe, who visited in 1416. In 1481, 218 pilgrims stayed here, and during the plague of 1482, the Hospice cared for 96 sick pilgrims. However, two events in the early sixteenth century led to a radical decline in the fortunes of the Hospice. During the
Sack of Rome in 1527 troops of the Holy Roman Emperor broke into the Hospice and carried away the greater part of its gold and silver ware, its movable property and its extensive archive of papers and manuscripts. The decision of
Henry VIII to break with Rome almost entirely impeded the flow of English pilgrims to Rome.
Pope Paul III took over the Hospice in the year 1538 and placed it in the hands of Cardinal
Reginald Pole, himself cousin to Henry VIII. When Pole returned to England as Archbishop of Canterbury under
Mary I, it seemed that the Hospice would revive as a pilgrim institution, but the accession of
Elizabeth I brought darker days. Acting as little more than a refuge for a few decrepit chaplains and exiles, the Hospice spent less than a tenth of its income on welcoming guests.
Foundation of the college (1579) In 1576, with the encouragement of
Gregory XIII,
William Allen converted the moribund Hospice into a seminary, known as the
Collegium Anglorum or English College. Allen had already founded a seminary, the
English College at
Douai (now in France) in 1568 and had drawn to it 40 students. Its first students arrived there from Douai in 1577 and Gregory XIII issued the Bull of Foundation in 1579. Division and disorder overhung the first years of the English College. A Welshman,
Maurice Clenock (Morus Clynnog), was made perpetual warden in 1578, an appointment unpopular with both the students and the Hospice chaplains, whom he had just expelled. He was accused of unduly favouring his Welsh fellow-countrymen at the expense of the English students, who numbered thirty-three as against seven Welsh students. Clenock, together with
Owen Lewis, an influential curial official, saw the new College as a home for exiles which would wait for the restoration of the old order. Students were encouraged to learn Italian so that they could take up posts in Italy while they waited for England's conversion. However, many of the students shared the missionary ideals of the
Society of Jesus, equating the jungles of heathen South America with the woods of Protestant England. What they wanted was a house of studies preparing ordinands for immediate mission. For over a year, the two factions circulated petitions and memorials, including one that called the Welsh barbarous savages who dwelt in a remote mountainous corner of Britain. Students waylaid the Pope to ask for his assistance, and the future Martyr,
Ralph Sherwin, drew his sword in the refectory (the kitchen of the present-day building). In April 1579, the Pope appointed a Jesuit, Alfonso Agazzari rector, leaving Clenock still warden of the hospital. although plans to build a new oval church with a double dome never materialised. The Jesuit
Andrea Pozzo designed the fresco of the Assumption in the domestic chapel, for which, as College documents attest, he was paid 22 scudi. Between 1682 and 1694 part of the College site was rebuilt as a Palazzo by the Cardinal Protector of Great Britain,
Philip Howard, third son of the
Earl of Arundel. Of particular note is the fresco of St George slaying the dragon on the ceiling of the College Refectory. During the eighteenth century, the College attached itself to
Jacobitism, praying for a restored Stuart monarchy which would be sympathetic to the Catholic faith. The Stuart pretenders, who lived nearby at the
Palazzo Muti, were occasional visitors to the College. Shortly after the death of the "
Old Pretender" (James Francis Edward Stuart) in 1766,
Charles Edward Stuart was received by the Rector and attended Mass here. A rumour spread around Rome that the Prince had been crowned during the service and proclaimed as Charles III. The Pope, who had recently withdrawn his support for the Stuart cause, was furious and dismissed the Rector. However, Jacobite sympathies lingered on in the College until the death of the last Pretender,
Henry, Cardinal Duke of York, in 1807. In 1773,
Clement XIV was persuaded to suppress the
Society of Jesus, which until then had run the affairs of the College. The
General of the Jesuits,
Lorenzo Ricci, was imprisoned in the College for a month before being removed to
Castel Sant'Angelo. The College passed under the supervision of Italian secular priests. ==The college arms==