Item 124 - ‘Vindication of Stonyhurst by Fr Plowden in 1819’

Copy of letter from Fr Charles Plowden SJ. Addressed to English prelates. Refers to the suppression of the Society, to the establishment of Stonyhurst as a seminary to supply missioners to other parts of the English province, and to the papal brief obtained by the College from Pope Pius VI. States that, in spite of this brief, restrictions were placed on the members of the College, which forced each of them to serve the mission in his own native vicariate, and prevented them from being presented to ‘a different V.A.’. Refers to reports spread by Sir Hippesley and others, which had a negative impact on Stonyhurst, and to other complaints against the institution, including that made by Dr Gregory Stapleton. States that a papal decree re-confirmed the rights of Stonyhurst, and explains that this document may not have been communicated to his (Plowden’s) present addressees.