Rebellious English Seminarians

I'm afraid this is not an exclusive story concerning our modern seminaries but rather the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when many of the English Colleges (all of which were 'in exile' overseas) were supporters of the Jacobite cause.

Hopefully I'll be able to tell you a bit more later because tonight I'm attending a lecture at the parish hall of the Farm Street Jesuit church, organised by the Royal Stuart Society. It's being given by Dr Jonathan Oates (hopefully not a relation of Titus) and is entitled: 'A school for sedition? Jacobitism and the English Colleges.' It begins at 7pm and is preceded by a glass of wine.

UPDATE
Well, it was an interesting lecture - but I misunderstood the title. Catholic historians often speak of the 'English Colleges,' like those at Douai, Rome and Valladolid, and so I assumed that this talk was about these seminaries overseas. I know for a fact that the English College, Rome, was notorious as a centre of Jacobitism.

But it just shows that we tend to live in a 'Catholic bubble': the talk was about English colleges, yes, but English universities and schools. It was interesting enough - the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, Winchester College and Westminster School were all centres of Jacobite support. Indeed, in 1715 only the wardens of the Oxford Colleges of Jesus, Wadham and Merton were known to be Whig and therefore anti-Jacobite. There were various Jacobite clubs, though these eventually became little more than drinking clubs. Such are the enthusiasms of youth!

A fellow blogger was there, the author of Emitte lucem tuam, so we had a quick glass of organic ale (Whistable Bay) in a local hostelry before going our separate ways.