ANTIQUITIES. 



425 



considerable appearance, and 

 at last fell to nothing. 



8. St. Omer's College. 



This was established in the year 

 1 ^Q^, by the zeal and industry 

 of father Parsons, and it con- 

 tinued to be the principal esta- 

 blishment of the English Jesuits 

 till their suppression in France, 

 on which occasion those who 

 occupied it removed to Bruges, 

 in Flanders, where they insti- 

 tuted a greater and lesser col- 

 lege; the first of which ceased 

 on the extinction of the society 

 in 1773, and the other soon 

 afterwards came to nothing 

 under some English Domini- 

 cans, who had been put into 

 jt by the government of the 

 Low Countries. The great 

 college at St. Omer's, in the 

 year 1764, was put into the 

 hands of the English clergy of 

 Douay, in thequalityof a royal 

 college and it remained so till 

 it was annihilated by the all- 

 devouring French revolution 

 in 1793. 



9. Benedictine Nuns at Brussels. 

 This was the first nevy convent 



erected on the continent by 

 religious persons of the English 

 nation. It took place in the 

 year 1598, by the zeal and 

 industry of lady Mary Berkely, 

 who was first abbess of it, and 

 of lady Mary Percy, a Bene- 

 dictine nun. Besides their re- 

 gular duties as religious, they 

 were occupied in the educa- 

 tion of young ladies. On the 

 approach of the French to 

 Brussels, in June, 1 794-, these 

 religious ladies fled out of the 

 Low Countries. 



10. English .Seminar jf in Paris. 

 This scniiuary was begun fibout 



the year I6OO, being intended 

 not only for taking degrees in 

 the university of Paris, but 

 also for maintaining a number 

 of learned men, who were to 

 be employed in writing books 

 of controversy, in opposition 

 to a like design of Dr. Sutt- 

 cliffe in founding Chelsea-col- 

 lege. But this establishment 

 was several times interrupted, 

 and the members dispersed, 

 until the year 1667, when the 

 foundation was considerably 

 augmented by a Mr. Carr, 

 alias Pickney, a member of 

 Douay-coUege. Yetitwasnot 

 entirely completed till many 

 years afterwards, when Dr. 

 Betham was put at the head 

 of it ; and he, by the help of 

 benefactions, bought a hand- 

 some house and garden in the 

 Rue des Pastes, Fauxbourg St. 

 Marceau, calling it St. Gre- 

 gory's Seminary, and obtaining 

 the confirmation thereof from 

 the French king by letters pa- 

 tent of the year I7OI. This 

 establishment, like all the rest 

 within the sphere of the French 

 revolution, was destroyed in 

 1793. 

 11. Poor Clares at Gravelines. 

 This convent of religious women 

 of the order of St. Francis, 

 was erected in the year l603, 

 by the endeavours of the re- 

 verend John Gennings, a re- 

 ligious of the branch of the 

 same order called Recollects. 

 Several colonies from this mo- 

 ther-house settled afterwards 

 at different places. It sub- 

 sisted till 1793, when it un- 

 derwent the fate of all the 

 other religious establishments 

 in France. 



