The Scots College

The Pontifical Scots College (Italian: Il Pontificio Collegio Scozzese) in Rome is the main seminary for the training of men for the priesthood from the dioceses of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland. History The Scots College was established by Pope Clement VIII on 5 December 1600, when it was assigned the revenue of the old Scots' hospice. At first the college was sited in a little house in what is known today as Via del Tritone, opposite the church of Santa Maria di Costantinopoli. The college opened in 1602 with only eleven students. In 1604 it was transferred to Via Felice, now called Via delle Quattro Fontane, where a bust of the last of the Stuarts, Henry Cardinal Duke of York can be seen. The college remained there until 1962. From 1615 to 1773, the Rectors of the Scots College were drawn from the ranks of the Society of Jesus. After the Jesuits were suppressed in 1773 by Clement XIV, by his brief Dominus ac Redemptor, the College was administered by a series of Italian clerics until 1800 and the arrival of Paul MacPherson, a Scot, who served as Rector for 38 years. Since then the Rectors have all been drawn from the ranks of Scotland's secular clergy.