Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/201

 IRISH

161

IRISH

eight to ten, exclusively from Leinster. The college, which was valued at 20,000 francs, was confiscated and sold in 1793.

Bordeaitx. — In 1603, the Rev. Dermit MacCarthy, a priest of the Diocese of Cork, made his way to Bordeaux with about forty companions. These Irish exiles were hospitalily received by Cardinal de Surdis, Archbishop of Bordeaux, who gave them a house and placed them in charge of the church of St. Eutropius. The rules of the Irish community were approved by the archbishop in 1603, and again in 1609, and were finally ratified by Paul V, in the Bull "In supremo apostolicae dignitatis", 26 .^pril, 161S. The Irish students at Bordeaux, like those at Lille, derived their support from alms collected at the doors of the churches in the city, and from fees received for their services at funerals. In 10.53, at the conclusion of the War of the Fronde, about 5000 Irish troops, previously in the service of Spain, at the suggestion of Father Cornelius O'Scanlan, rector of the college at Bordeaux, elected to take service vmder the flag of France. In acknowledgment of the zeal of Father O'Scanlan for the interests of France, the queen regent, Anne of Austria, bestowed on the college an endowment of 1200 livres for the support of ten priests and ten clerics, and conferred on the students the privilege of naturalization to enable them to receive gifts and possess benefices in the kingdom. On the same occasion the title of " Sainte-Anne-la- Royale" was given to the college. Besides the en- dowment of Anne of Austria, various bequests were made by benefactors; yet in 1766 the total annual revenue of the college amounted only to 2.531 francs. From twenty in the seventeenth century, the number of students increased, in the eighteenth, to thirty, and eventually to forty. They attended the classes at the Jesuit college in the city. There were also little colonies of Irish students resident at Toulouse, Auch, Agen, Cahors, Condom, and P^rigueux, all subject to the authority of the rector of the Irish college at Bordeaux. The rector of the college was chosen by the votes of the students, and confirmed by the archliishop for a period of three years. The system of appointment by election led to frequent disputes and was eventually abolished. Dr. Robert Barry, Bishop of Cloyne, Dr. Patrick Comerford, Bishop of Waterford, Dr. Cornelius O'Keefe and Dr. Robert Lacy, Bishops of Limerick, Dr. Dominic Bellew, Bishop of Killala, and Dr. Boetius Egan, Archbishop of Tuam, were for some time students at Bordeaux. Here, too, Geoffrey Keating is said to have been a student. The Abb(5 Edgeworth and Dr. Richard O'Reilly, subsequently Archbishop of Ar- magh, studied for a short time at Bordeaux, whence the former proceeded to Paris, and the latter to Rome. The last superior of the college was the Rev. Martin Glynn, D.D., a native of the Diocese of Tuam, who suffered death Ijy sentence of the Revolutionary triljunal, at Bordeaux, 19 July, 1794. The vice- rector of the college, Dr. Everard, escaped. The students were thrown into prison, but were even- tually liberated and put on board a vessel bound for Ireland. The college church, valued at 21,000 francs, was confiscated in 1793. The college was also seized but was saved from confiscation by the vigi- lance of an Irish priest named James Burke. After the Revolution, all that remained of the property of the college at Bordeaux was placed by decree of the first consul under the control of the board of ad- ministrators of the Irish college in Paris. In 1885 the property at Bordeaux was sold for 285,635 francs, and the price invested in French securities in the name of the " Fonda tions Catholiques Irlandaises en France".

Toulouse. — From the commencement of the seven- teenth century there existed at Toulouse a little colony of Irish ecclesiastical students. The Irish VIII.— 11

college in that town owes its origin to Anne of Aus- tria, who bestowed upon it, at the same time as upon the college of Bordeau.x, the title of " Sainte-Aime- la-Royale", with an endowment of 1200 livres a year for the support of twelve priests. The endowment was confirmed by Louis XIV in 1659. At Toulouse the number of students never exceeded ten or twelve, chiefly natives of the Province of Munster. Small though the number was, the system of appointing the rector liy the votes of the students led to division, and it was judged expedient to submit the rules of discipline to Benedict XIV, who approved them by a letter addressed to the Archbishop of Toulouse on 31 August, 1753. The course of studies extended over a period of eight years, after which the students re- turned to the mission in Ireland. When the French Revolution broke out, the college possessed an annual revenue of 10,000 francs. In 1793 the college build- ings and furniture, valued at 30,700 francs, were con- fiscated and sold by the French Government.

Nantes, on the coast of Brittany, was also the seat of an Irish college founded about 1080. In 1728 a new and more commodious college was constructed, and in 1765, by royal letters patent, the priory of St-Crispin was united with it. The number of students, at first about thirty-six, increased to sixty in 1765, and by 1792 it had reached eighty. The college was subject to the Unii^ersity of Nantes, but it had its own staff of professors — two for phi- losophy, and two for theology — who were obliged each term to report to the authorities of the univer- sity the names of their students and the treatises they were to explain. The last rector of the college was Dr. Patrick Byrne, subsequently president of May- nooth College. In 1793 the students of the college were cast into prison and then put on board a vessel which brought them in safety to Cork. The college was not reopened in the nineteenth century. The buildings which escaped alienation were placed imder the control of the administrators of the Irish college in Paris. They were sold, with the sanction of the Minister of Public Instruction, in 1857, and the proceeds of the sale (100,000 francs) invested in the name of the "Fonda tions Catholiques Irlandaises".

Poitiers. — A college of the Irish Jesuits was founded at Poitiers, in virtue of letters patent granted by Louis XIV, in April, 1674. Five burses for the education of students for the secular priesthood were founded here, two in 1738 by Mrs. John Maher, an Irish lady resident at Barcelona, and three by Jere- miah Crowly, of Cork, in 1735. On the suppression of the Jesuits in France, these five burses were trans- ferred to Paris. The college buildings, valued at about 10,500 francs, were alienated by the French Government. The Abb6 Thomas Gould was a stu- dent of this college; known as the Missionary of Poitou, he preached with great success in French, and published several works in that language.

The Irish Franciscans had convents in provincial France, at Bar-sur-Aube, at Sedan, and at Charle- ville, and for some years a convent in Paris.

Paris. — The most important of all the Irish estab- lishments in France, and on the Continent, was the Irish college in Paris. Tliat venerable institution, which has preserved its existence to the present day, owes its origin to the Rev. John Lee, an Irish priest who came to Paris, in 1578, with six companions, and entered the College Montaigu. Having completed his studies he became attached to the church of Saint Severin, and made the acquaintance of a French nobleman, John de I'Escalopier, President of the Parliament of Paris. That charitable man placed at the disposal of the Irish students in Paris a house which served them as a college, of which Father Lee became the first rector about 1605. By letters patent dated 1623, Louis XIII conferred on the Irish priests and scholars in Paris the right to receive and