William Allen (cardinal) - The Great Enterprise

The Great Enterprise

In 1567, he went to Rome for the first time, and conceived his plans for establishing a College, whereby students from the Kingdom of England could live together and finish their theological education. This was his conviction, arising from his experience as a missionary, that the whole future of Roman Catholicism and the Roman Catholic Church in England depended upon a constant supply of trained clergy, as well as apologists, polemics and controversialists, ready to come into the Realm, if Roman Catholicism were to be restored. The idea subsequently developed into the establishment of a missionary college, or seminary, to supply priests to the Kingdom of England, as long as England remained separated from the Pope and the See of Rome. With the help of his friends, and notably of the Benedictine abbots of the neighbouring monasteries, a beginning was made in a rented house at Douai on Michaelmas Day (29 September), 1568, which marked the inauguration of the English College, Douai.

From there, Allen was to be joined by many English exiles. One of the most famous, Saint Edmund Campion was to go on from the College to the Society of Jesus, or the Jesuits. Douai was thought of as a suitable place for Allen's new College because of the recent foundation there of the University of Douai by Pope Paul IV, under the patronage of King Philip II of Spain, in whose dominions Douai was then part of.

The most famous part of Allen's College, although not part of his original plan, was the missions, of missionaries, for the re-conversion of England back to the old faith, against the law of the land. Amongst the "seminary priests", as they were called, over one hundred and sixty former students from Douai were known to had been put to death. Many more were to be put into imprisonment. The surviving students celebrated the news of each martyrdom, and privileged by special dispensation, said a solemn Mass of thanksgiving.