Ordinations in Rome. Information on the English Martyrs from the Roman Vicariate.

Abstract

In the archives of the Vicariato di Roma are preserved the ordination books from 1505 onwards. Apart from an unfortunate gap, 1575-80, they run consecutively, but they do not by any means contain all the ordinations held in Rome. For the period 1603-25 there are 35 ordinations recorded in the Liber Ruber of the English College, Rome, which are not given in these books, and the reasoh is not clear. These books are not numbered, but are known by the year with which they begin. The only ones that concern us here are: (i) 1580-88; (ii) 1588-95; (iii) 1596-1601; (iv) 1602-08; (v) 1609-17; and an odd volume (which I here call Vic. 6) giving supplementary ordinations 1-6901612. After 1618 there are two series, Generales and Particulares, but the distinction is not rightly adhered to. The ordinationes generales were on the four Ember Saturdays and were invariably in the Lateran, die parish church of Rome. Then as now, orders were normally conferred by the vice-gerent, delegated by the cardinal-vicar. This office was held by Thomas Goldwell, exiled bishop of St Asaph, till his death in 1585 and nearly all orders, not only those of English students, were conferred by him. Later a few were conferred by Owen Lewis, Welsh bishop of Casano, and later still (especially for the English College) by cardinal Bellarmine. The ordinationes particulares were also sometimes in the Lateran, but mostly elsewhere. Goldwell ordained at S. Silvestro in Monte Quirinale, but more often in the chapel of the English College, even when no English students were involved. Until about 1600 the tonsure and the four minor orders were conferred on different days (usually fairly close together) but after 1600 there is a tendency to confer them all at once.