Institutes of Higher Studies

INSTITUTES OF HIGHER STUDIES. - This name designates the athenaeums or universities for ecclesiastical studies, where instruction is imparted in a scientific manner, in the university style. Mentioned here in particular are those existing in Rome (in the order in which they appear in the Annuario Pontificio), which welcome students from all parts of the world; of those existing outside Rome, reference is made under the entries of the individual dioceses where they are found.

I. PONTIFICAL GREGORIAN UNIVERSITY

The beginnings of the Pontifical Gregorian University go back to 1551, when St. Ignatius of Loyola, with money received from St. Francis Borgia, rented a modest house at the foot of the Capitoline and there opened the Roman College on February 18. The following year Julius III, with the bull Sacrae religionis, granted the faculty to establish chairs of philosophy and theology (which were erected in 1553) and to confer on the students the doctorate in philosophy and theology with all the privileges of the other universities. When both the first and the subsequent temporary premises became insufficient to accommodate the students who, having come from every part of Europe, already by 1567 numbered more than a thousand, Gregory XIII wished to give to this seminary of all nations and all languages, as he defined it, a suitable endowment and a dignified seat built by the architect Ammannati and inaugurated in 1584. In memory of the Pontiff, who was truly "fundator et parens" of the Roman College, this assumed in the course of time the name of Pontifical Gregorian University. In 1773, the Society of Jesus having been suppressed, the University was entrusted to the secular clergy under the high direction of a cardinalitial commission that governed it until 1824, when Leo XII, with the brief Cum multa, entrusted its direction once more to the Society of Jesus. Following the political events of 1870 the Roman College was deprived of its seat; the literary schools were suspended (they resumed later with the foundation of the Istituto Massimo alle Terme) while the Faculties of philosophy and theology continued in the nearby Palazzo Borromeo. In 1876 Pius IX added to it the Faculty of canon law, and it had new developments under his successors, so that, the Palazzo Borromeo having become insufficient, in 1930 it moved to the new seat in Piazza della Pilotta built by the architect G. Barluzzi. New faculties and new chairs were instituted while the associated Biblical and Oriental Institutes arose and developed, so as to carry out the will of Pius XI who in the motu proprio Quam maxime wished the Pontifical Gregorian University to be a "true and perfect University of all ecclesiastical studies fully adapted to the needs of the times." It is, in the expression of Pius XI, the true and proper University of the Pope; the grand chancellor is the cardinal prefect of the S. Congregation of Seminaries and Universities himself, and the rector is appointed by the Holy Father.

It is recognized as a pontifical University by the Italian State and by virtue of the Lateran Pacts enjoys particular privileges.

It comprises 8 faculties (Theology, Canon Law, Philosophy, Ecclesiastical History, Missiology, Sacred Scripture and the Ancient East [in the Biblical Institute], the Modern East [in the Oriental Institute]); an Institute of higher religious culture for the laity, a higher school of Latin letters and special chairs of ascetics and mysticism, of economic and social sciences, of the history of religions, etc.

It is attended by students from every part of the world; about 50 nations, 500 dioceses, 70 religious Orders and Congregations are represented there; the official language is Latin.

The purpose of the Pontifical Gregorian University is to form, under the vigilant and paternal gaze of the vicar of Christ, these chosen ranks of young ecclesiastics in the purity of Catholic doctrine and in the spirit of Christian Romanity, and to prepare them for an effective apostolate. Indeed the characteristics of its teaching have always been "sentire cum Ecclesia" and adherence to the reality and the needs of the apostolate.

In its four-century-long history it recalls eminent masters such as Toledo, R. Bellarmine, De Lugo, F. Suárez, G. Vázquez, G. Maldonado, Cornelius a Lapide, Silvestro Mauro, C. Clavius, L. Taparelli, G. Perrone, G. B. Franzelin, L. Billot, F. X. Wernz, F. Ehrle, etc.

Among the many thousands of its students there are 6 canonized saints, more than 30 blesseds among the ranks of confessors and martyrs, while there are hundreds of those who gave their blood for the faith. From its halls have come 13 popes, from Gregory XV to Pius XII, a great number of cardinals, bishops, superiors of religious Orders and Congregations, not to speak of preachers and missionaries, and very numerous professors of seminaries who in all parts of the world have carried and carry the influence of the Pontifical Gregorian University into the formation of the clergy.

The Library, begun again after 1870, numbers 260,000 vols. It publishes two scholarly journals: Gregorianum, Periodica de re morali canonica liturgica, 4 collections: Analecta Gregoriana, Textus et documenta, Miscellanea historiae pontificiae, Studia missionaria*, and numerous books printed in its own press, heir to the ancient press of the Roman College, founded in 1556, the first and model of those that were later established in the Society of Jesus.

Paolo Dezza

II. PONTIFICAL BIBLICAL INSTITUTE

Ever since the time of Leo XIII the founding of an institute to promote biblical studies and to train professors of the biblical sciences had been planned, but only in 1909 was Pius X able to carry out the plan, thanks to the generous offer of the necessary capital by the noble French family du Coëtlosquet. The Institute, established in Rome, at via della Pilotta 25, was entrusted to the Society of Jesus; its material and scholarly organization was overseen by Fr. Leopold Fonck, the Institute's first rector (d. 1930). A branch in Jerusalem, intended especially for the study of archaeology and biblical geography, planned from the outset, could be opened only in 1927.

The purpose of the Institute is to train professors of Sacred Scripture and of related sciences, especially Oriental ones, to create a library well supplied with all the works and journals necessary for such studies, and to publish books, articles and journals on biblical and Orientalist subjects. Instruction is given in two faculties: the Biblical Faculty (from the outset) and the Faculty of Ancient Near Eastern Studies (canonically erected on 7 Aug. 1932). The Orientalist Faculty comprises 4 sections: Semitic, Assyriological,

Egyptological, and Sanskrit-Iranian. Both Faculties confer academic degrees: the licentiate after two years of study (three in the Orientalist Faculty), and the doctorate no earlier than four years after the beginning of the curriculum.

In the academic year 1950-51 the Institute has 25 professors. It is attended by 203 students: 74 secular priests, 127 religious, and two laymen, belonging to 29 different nations. The Institute publishes the three journals Biblica, Orientalia, Verbum Domini, and four series of monographs: Scripta Pontificii Instituti Biblici (so far 100 issues), Analecta Orientalia (28 issues), Monumenta Biblica et Ecclesiastica, Biblica et Orientalia. So far the Institute has trained more than 600 professors of Sacred Scripture.

Agostino Bea

III. PONTIFICAL INSTITUTE FOR ORIENTAL STUDIES

Benedict XV founded it with the motu proprio Orientis Catholici of 15 Oct. 1917. Its tasks and organization were set out, and later completed and perfected in the constitution Rerum Orientalium of Pius XI and in the statutes of the Institute drawn up and approved following Deus scientiarum Dominus (1932). The Institute, whose activity includes teaching and the publication of scholarly works on the Christian East, has the twofold aim of revealing to Latin priests the treasures of the East and of completing in Orientals, including non-Catholics, their instruction in their own rite and their own Church, while nevertheless emphasizing the truth of Catholic teaching. The Institute intends to be a meeting point between East and West in order to remove, through scholarly research, the many prejudices born of mutual misunderstanding, which represent one of the most serious obstacles to union.

The course of study comprises three years, at the end of which the degrees of bachelor, licentiate and doctor are conferred in succession. All the disciplines that illuminate the Christian East are taught: theology, patrology, history, liturgy, ascetics and mysticism, archaeology, liturgical and modern languages. There is a plan to erect a special faculty for Oriental canon law. In 1926 Pius XI established a chair of Islamology.

The first pro-president of the Institute, which opened its classrooms on 2 Dec. 1918, was Fr. Antonio Delpuch, of the White Fathers, formerly a professor at the Melkite Seminary of Jerusalem. The teaching staff was composed of specialists drawn from the various religious Orders, from the secular clergy and from the laity. In 1919 the abbot Fr. Ildefonso Schuster, later cardinal archbishop of Milan, was appointed president. In 1920 Benedict XV gave the Institute the faculty of conferring degrees. On the proposal of the president, Pius XI entrusted the Institute in 1922 exclusively to the Society of Jesus, transferring it from its original seat in Piazza Scossacavalli to the Pontifical Biblical Institute and giving it in 1926 its present seat on Piazza S. Maria Maggiore. In this new period the presidents have been Fr. Michel d'Herbigny (1922-31) and Fr. Emilio Herman. Among the deceased professors, mention should be made of the illustrious Fr. Guillaume de Jerphanion (v.).

The Institute possesses a rich specialized library of about 60,000 volumes. The number of ordinary students fluctuated in normal times between 25 and 30, to whom must be added an equal number of "guests" who attended certain lectures. In the academic year 1950-51, the professors number 24, the students 48. In 1923 the Institute began the series Orientalia Christiana, which, after reaching 100 fascicles in 1934, split into two: Orientalia Christiana Analecta, a continuation of monographs (of which 34 numbers have appeared) and Orientalia Christiana Periodica, a biannual journal begun in 1935. Furthermore, the Institute has begun two monumental works, namely the edition of the Anaphorae Syriacae quotquot in codicibus adhuc repertae sunt (so far 3 fascicles) and that of the acts of the Council of Florence (so far 6 fascicles). To these books must be added many other works of the professors, concerning all the sectors of the Christian East.

Ignazio Ortiz de Urbina

IV. PONTIFICIO ATENEO LATERANENSE

It traces its first origins to the moment of the suppression of the Society of Jesus, when the schools of the Roman College were entrusted to the secular clergy. Once the Society was re-established and the Jesuits had returned to the Roman College (1814), the Roman Seminary had as its seat the building of the College near S. Apollinare, keeping its own schools with the faculty of conferring academic degrees in theology, and in 1828 Leo XII added to it the faculty of conferring them in philosophy as well. In 1853 Pius IX founded alongside the Roman Seminary the Pius Seminary for the young ecclesiastics of the dioceses of the Papal State and added schools of canon and civil law with the faculty of conferring academic degrees (Oct. 3); in this way he constituted the Athenaeum of the Pontifical Roman Seminary.

In 1878 Leo XIII added to it a historical-juridical Academy and in 1885 the Leonine Institute of advanced literature, which after a brilliant beginning declined and ceased to exist. In 1913 Pius X founded the Minor Seminary with its own seat; and to the Major Seminary he assigned as its own seat a new building on the Caelian Hill, on land adjacent to the Lateran Basilica, where the schools of the philosophical and theological Faculty were also transferred; while those of the juridical Faculty had their seat first at the Leonine College in the Prati district, then again at S. Apollinare in 1920. In 1932, in application of Deus scientiarum Dominus of May 24, 1931, there came the new reorganization of studies and the Athenaeum was given as Grand Chancellor the cardinal vicar of Rome. Finally, in order to foster the development of scientific activity, Pius XI erected a new building for the schools on the same Lateran ground and he personally inaugurated it in the presence of the Sacred College and the Roman prelature on Nov. 3, 1937; from then on the Institute was called the Pontifical Lateran Athenaeum and the seat of the juridical Faculty was also transferred there. The Institute is entrusted to the secular clergy, is open to students of every nation, and in its teaching masters from the two clergies and of different nationalities alternate. It is provided with a library rich in many thousands of volumes, pamphlets and journals particularly on philosophical, theological and juridical subjects, which the students and also other scholars consult for their research. From the Institute have come many illustrious cardinals, bishops, prelates of the Curia and persons of high worth.

In the juridical Faculty taught Aliprandi, G. Sebastianelli, F. Cavagnis, M. Lega, P. Gasparri, F. Maroto, Albertario; in the theological Faculty F. Satolli, R. Tabarelli, M. Hertzenhauer, Vizzini, T. Armellini, G. Antonelli, etc., not to mention the living. From the Athenaeum have come many among the most illustrious cardinals, bishops, diplomats and officials of the Curia and scholars of recent times.

It publishes the periodicals: Lateranum, since 1935, for historical-theological studies; Apollinaris, commentarius iuris canonici; Studia et documenta historiae et iuris, almost as a continuation of the celebrated periodical of the same name published by the historical-juridical Academy since 1880.

Pio Paschini

V. PONTIFICAL URBAN ATHENAEUM DE PROPAGANDA FIDE: v. ATENEO URBANO « DE PROPAGANDA FIDE » (PONTIFICIO).

VI. PONTIFICAL ATHENAEUM « ANGELICUM »

This Athenaeum succeeded the College of St. Thomas in Rome, founded at the Minerva on Aug. 4, 1577 by Msgr. G. Solano, bishop of Cuzco. Erected in the years 1908-1909 in Via S. Vitale by the most reverend father G. M. Cormier, the Angelicum began its academic functioning in Nov. 1909, with three Faculties: Theology, Canon Law and Philosophy. Directed by the Dominicans, it is attended by Dominican and non-Dominican students, both ecclesiastics and regulars, and laymen. Pius XI in the encyclical Studiorum ducem of June 29, 1923 praises the « Angelicum ubi Thomam tamquam domi suae habitare dixeris ». The first regent was father Sadoc Szabo (1909-27).

In the summer of 1932 the Angelicum moved to the Salita del Grillo near the church of Sts. Dominic and Sixtus at Magnanapoli. To the three ecclesiastical Faculties there was added in 1936 a lyceum or propaedeutic course for the Faculty of philosophy. Since 1948 the International Convict S. Tommaso d'Aquino has housed ecclesiastical students who wish to attend the Angelicum. The Athenaeum in 1949-1950 numbers 46 professors in the three Faculties and 620 students.

The library exceeds 70,000 volumes. Since 1924 the journal Angelicum has been published; the Kalendarium and the Status personalis give the norms and the annual statistics of the Athenaeum.

Among the deceased professors are fathers E. Hugon, A. Zacchi, R. M. Schultes, M. Sales, J. Noval, P. E. Barbado, H. Pope, J. M. Vosté, J. Woroniecki, M. Cordovani. Former students occupy high positions in the ecclesiastical hierarchy and in pontifical and civil universities.

Angelo Walz

VII. PONTIFICAL ATHENAEUM OF S. ANSELMO

Erected by Innocent XI with the constitution Inscrutabili of 22 March 1687 for the Benedictines of the Cassinese Congregation, it embraced the studies of philosophy, theology and canon law, with the obligation for professors to follow in the theological sciences the orientation of St. Anselm of Canterbury.

From that seat at St. Paul Outside the Walls came an illustrious array of masters (M. Armellini, Bibliotheca Benedictino-Cassinensis, 2 vols., Assisi 1731-32), among whom was G. B. Chiaramonti, later Pius VII, who was a student there (1763-66) and then professor of theology (1772-81). Interrupted by the Napoleonic suppression (1810), the College died out in 1837 (the year of the cholera in Rome). Reopened under Pius IX for a very brief time (1867-70), it was reconstituted by Leo XIII, who destined it for all the Congregations of the Black Benedictines (brief Abhinc appressa of 4 Jan. 1887). Inaugurated a year later (4 Jan. 1888) in the Palazzo dei Convertendi, it was transferred in 1893 to the Palazzo in Bocca di Leone, and in 1896 to the new seat built by the Pope on the Aventine. The right to confer academic degrees, already granted by Pius IX for Theology, conceded by Leo XIII to the three Faculties of theology, philosophy and canon law, was renewed by Pius X "pro alumnis universi cleri, tam regularis quam saecularis" (motu proprio Praeclara inter of 24 June 1914). By decree of the Sacred Congregation of Seminaries and Universities of Studies of 15 Jan. 1933 the Anselmian Institute was decorated with the title of "Pontifical." The Athenaeum publishes the collection Studia Anselmiana (26 fascicles, Rome 1933-51). In 1950 a liturgical institute was erected there, Societas Anselmiana studiis cultus christiani augendis.

Agostino Mayer

VIII. PONTIFICIO ATENEO ANTONIANO

In 1883 the minister general of the Franciscans, Fr. Bernardino Del Vago da Portogruaro, founded the International College of St. Anthony of the City [dell'Urbe]. The courses began on 20 Nov. 1890. In 1905 six Faculties were erected (Sacred Scripture, Dogmatic Theology, Canonical-Moral Sciences, Philosophy, Ecclesiastical History, Sacred Eloquence). In 1923 an "Institutum Biblicum Franciscanum" was annexed to the Antonianum in Jerusalem, for the further training of students of Sacred Scripture. From 1924 for a decade there was a higher course for the preparation of missionaries. Following the Deus scientiarum of Pius XI, and the new academic order, the seat of the Institute was enlarged, and by decree of the Sacred Congregation of Seminaries and Universities dated 17 May 1933 it was canonically erected as an Athenaeum with the Faculties of theology, canon law and philosophy. By a subsequent decree of 14 June 1938 it received the title of Pontifical.

In 1946, Fr. Pacifico Perantoni, minister general, began new enlargements of the building for the library, the seminaries, the schools and above all for the grand aula magna (aula Assumptionis B. M. Virginis) inaugurated on the occasion of the dogmatic proclamation of the Assumption on 30 Oct. 1950.

The Central Library of the Order, with more than 150,000 volumes and more than 200 scholarly journals, is at the disposal of the Athenaeum. The Athenaeum publishes the quarterly periodical Antonianum and various scholarly collections (Spicilegium Pont. Athenaei Antoniani, Bibliotheca Pont. Ath. Ant., Studia Antoniana, Editores Pont. Ath. Ant.). It also hosts other cultural institutions such as the Commission for the critical edition of the works of G. Duns Scotus and the International Marian Academy.

Alberto Ghinato

IX. PONTIFICAL INSTITUTE OF SACRED MUSIC

The Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music was founded in 1910 by His Holiness Pius X at the urging of the Jesuit Angelo De Santi (v.); it then bore the title of Higher School of Sacred Music and began to function on 3 January 1911. The same Pontiff granted it full approval with the brief Expleverunt (4 November 1911); on 10 July 1914 he declared it Pontifical, granting it the faculty of conferring academic degrees. His Holiness Pius XI gave it its statute on 22 November 1922, confirming its direct dependence on the Holy See; on 24 May 1931, with the apostolic constitution Deus scientiarum Dominus, he designated the "School" an "Institute," numbering it among the pontifical universities.

The Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music has an international character, and is intended to train students who can promote an ever greater diffusion, knowledge and perfection of sacred music, according to the spirit of the motu proprio of His Holiness Pius X, De musica sacra (22 November 1903). The Institute's courses are four: Gregorian chant (ordinary course: 3 years); Gregorian chant and musicology (higher course: 3 years); sacred composition (5 years); organ (4 years). The Institute confers the diplomas of baccalaureate, licentiate, magisterium and doctorate.

Presidents of the Institute were: Fr. Angelo De Santi (1911-21); Abbot Paolo M. Ferretti, Benedictine (1921-1938); Abbot Gregorio M. Suñol, likewise a Benedictine (1938-46). Since 1946 the president has been Prof. Msgr. Igino Anglès.

Luisa Cervelli

X. PONTIFICAL INSTITUTE OF CHRISTIAN ARCHAEOLOGY

Founded by Pius XI (11 Dec. 1925) in Rome in order to "give to the study of sacred archaeology new encouragement and assistance, adequate to the importance of the discipline, to the results that have been achieved and to those no less great that we must still await...".

In order to respond worthily to the initiative of Pius XI, Monsignor G. P. Kirsch (v.), appointed director, outlined the activity that the Institute was to carry out: 1) to gather together all the scientific material for the complete study of the documents and institutions of primitive Christianity, so as to be able to examine the various aspects of the monuments themselves and to establish their true value for the knowledge of the Christian life of the early Church. 2) Then to initiate and promote scientific studies on the Christian monuments of Rome and of the ancient world, on the various problems that may arise from their examination, as constructive elements for ancient Christian culture. 3) Finally, to train true and methodical scholars in the field of Christian archaeology; to make them acquainted de visu with the various Christian monuments of Rome, to initiate them into personal research on individual questions; to make them capable of teaching sacred archaeology and the history of the early Church, to train them in the preservation and publication of the sacred monuments scattered throughout the various regions of the Christian world.

The Library of the Institute, established from the time of its foundation, has been enriched by donations from Pius XI, from the Pontifical Commission of Sacred Archaeology, from Monsignor Kirsch, from Monsignor Wilpert, from Mrs. Strong and from others, and is also supplied by the periodicals that arrive in exchange for the Rivista di archeologia cristiana, founded in 1924 by the Pontifical Commission of Sacred Archaeology in place of the Nuovo Bollettino di archeologia cristiana, and which since 1927 has been published at the expense of the Institute itself. Monsignor Kirsch established four series of publications: 1) Monumenti di antichità cristiana; 2) Le iscrizioni cristiane di Roma e d'Italia dell'antichità e del Medioevo; 3) Studi di antichità cristiana; 4) Sussidi per l'archeologia cristiana.

The Institute is enriched by the collection of watercolors executed for Wilpert's "Pitture delle Catacombe" and "Musaici e le pitture cristiane dal VI al XIII sec."; it also possesses a rich photographic archive.

The Institute furthermore promoted and organized the last two International Congresses of Christian Archaeology, namely the III at Ravenna in the autumn of 1932 and the IV at Rome in the autumn of 1938; the fruit of these Congresses are the publications of the "Atti," in which the most recent discoveries in the field of Christian archaeology are illustrated, and especially the studies relating to the origins and developments of the buildings of Christian worship.

Since 1932 the teachers of the Institute constitute the permanent committee for the organization of future international congresses of Christian archaeology.

In its twenty-five years of life the Institute has been assiduously attended by students from the secular and regular clergy and by laypeople belonging to the following nations: Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, England, Ireland, Italy, Yugoslavia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Holland, Poland, Spain, United States, Switzerland, Turkey, Hungary. The young men trained at the Pontifical Institute of Christian Archaeology have become teachers in theological universities in Rome, in Italy, in France, in Holland, in Spain, in Germany, in Canada; they carry out their fruitful activity in the historical section of the S. Congregation of Rites and in other S. Congregations; in the Pontifical Commission of Sacred Archaeology, in museums of sacred art, in episcopal archives, etc. The current director is Monsignor Luciano De Bruyne, one of the first students of the Institute itself.

Enrico Josi

XI. PONTIFICAL THEOLOGICAL FACULTY OF THE CONVENTUAL FRIARS MINOR

The present theological Faculty, erected on 24 January 1905 by rescript of the Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars, in the International College of the Conventual Friars Minor, was elevated to the rank of Pontifical by decree of 13 June 1935 of the Sacred Congregation of Seminaries and Universities of Studies, which approved its new statutes in conformity with the apostolic constitution Deus scientiarum Dominus.

It links back to the ancient General Schools of Theology, with university rank, which flourished in the Franciscan Order from the first half of the 13th century (Paris, Oxford, Cambridge, and then Toulouse, Bologna, etc.), and especially to the celebrated College of St. Bonaventure, founded by Sixtus V in the Roman convent of the SS. XII Apostles with a bull of 17 December 1587: a true theological Faculty, which had a glorious life until 1873, when it was suspended because of the law suppressing religious Orders. Among the professors and students of this latter period (1905-50) should be remembered: H.E. Msgr. D. Jaquet, bishop of Jassy in Romania

(d. 1931); the canonists Msgr. L. Bondini, apostolic visitor of the Armenian Catholic patriarchate of Cilicia (d. 1936); Fr. F. S. D'Ambrosio (d. 1943); the striking historian Msgr. S. N. Falcoi Folgorani (d. 1940); Fr. D. Sparacio (d. 1929), a writer of Franciscan history; Fr. S. Ignudi (d. 1943), author of a commentary on the Divine Comedy. Attached to the Faculty is a library of about 30,000 volumes.

Gaetano Stano

XII. THEOLOGICAL FACULTY OF THE INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE OF DISCALCED CARMELITES

The first international college of the Order in Rome was the Seminary of the Missions decreed by the General Chapter of 1605, inaugurated in 1620, suppressed in 1873. The present International College owes its foundation to the General Chapter of 1920.

It was inaugurated in 1926; erected into a Theological Faculty by pontifical decree of 16 July 1935. Curriculum: licentiate 5 years; doctorate 6 years. Present status (1949): 17 professors; 51 resident students, 10 non-resident. Library: 40,000 vols. Periodical publication (historical-doctrinal): Ephemerides carmeliticae. Benno di San Giuseppe

For the PONTIFICAL LATERAN ATHENAEUM (IV): see plate XX.