Seminary priest

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Seminary priests were Roman Catholic priests who were trained in English seminaries or houses of study on the European Continent after the introduction of laws forbidding Roman Catholicism in Britain. Seminaries existed at Douai (from 1568), Rome (from 1579), Valladolid (from 1589), Seville (from 1592) and Lisbon (from 1628). It should be said that the English College at Douai was transferred to Rheims during the years 1578–1593.^[1]

The term "seminary priest" distinguishes these men especially from those trained at an earlier period in England. In particular, those ordained in the time of Queen Mary I are often called "Marian Priests". These latter priests and others ordained at a still earlier period were not "seminary priests" in any sense because in the Catholic Church of their day the system of training priests in seminaries had not yet been introduced. The institution of seminaries followed the Council of Trent. The first of the seminary priests to die for his faith was Saint Cuthbert Mayne and for this he is sometimes referred to by the title of "protomartyr of the seminary priests".^[1]

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