Page:Historical account of Lisbon college.djvu/19

 has since been conducted on nearly the same system as prevailed at Douay. Though a variety of select pieces composed by the early Professors and students of the College were lost in the confusion occasioned by the French invasion early in the last century, there are still in existence many Latin poems of a later date, which bear testimony to the attention which was given at the College to this department of Classical education.

At what time and by whom the uniform worn by the students was introduced there seems to be no record. It consists of a cassock of black lustrous material, a girdle and biretta. On occasions of ceremony, and when in public beyond the precincts of the College, over the cassock is worn a loose habit without sleeves, to which is attached a stripe of red cloth in the figure of an oar, the extremities of which fall over the shoulders behind, whilst the middle part is curved over the breast. This ornament is emblematic of the occupation of St. Peter the fisherman, under whose patronage, and that of his co-apostle St. Paul, the College is placed. The dress of the superiors was the same as that of the students, except that the cassock was of serge, and in place of the habit, in public they wore a black full length cloak, or ferraiolo, of the same material.

During his term of office Blacklow was ably seconded by the Rev. William Clifford, alias Mansel who, after ten years labour on the Mission, was sent to Lisbon in quality of Vice-President and arrived there in the same year as Blacklow, 1630. The difficulties with which he had to contend were very grave, both from the strange humour of the Founder and the extreme poverty under which&quot; the College laboured, yet by his patience with the one and his wise conduct and management of the other, he so far overcame all, that soon he was able to leave the College in a flourishing condition. He was next employed in the government of Tournay College, which Cardinal Richelieu granted to the Bishop of Chalcedon for the education of the English clergy. After some years he retired to the Hôpital des Incurables in Paris,