In 1542 the College of Coimbra, in Portugal, arose. In 1546 St. Francis Borgia founded the College of Gandia. In 1556 the College of Ingolstadt was founded. In 1552 a college was founded at Vienna, and in 1556 one at Prague. In 1553 the Roman College was fully founded. And in 1568 the colleges at Lima, Peru.
The German College founded in Rome by St. Ignatius produced many remarkable men.
From it came 1 pope, Gregory XV, 24 cardinals, 6 electors of the Empire, 19 princes, 21 archbishops, 121 titular bishops, 100 bishops in partibus infidelium, 6 abbots or generals of religious orders, 11 martyrs of faith, 13 martyrs of charity, and 55 others, conspicuous for piety and learning.
This was at the end of the eighteenth century. In our own time in one classroom Father Cardella counted seventeen different orders of all different nationalities present at the lectures of theology in the Roman College.
The Roman College was the type of the Jesuit College. It was begun by Francis Borgia, in 1551, at the foot of the Capitol in Rome, with fourteen members of the Order and Father John Peltier, a Frenchman, as Superior.
The professors taught rhetoric and three languages,—Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. There were present there at a given time 2107 students, 300 in theology. The most eminent professors filled the chairs: theologians like Suarez and Vasquez; commentators such as Cornelius à Lapide and Maldonatus; founders of national history schools, as Mariana and Pallavicini; Clavius, reformer of the Gregorian Calendar; Kircher, universal in the exact sciences, while the other colleges throughout the world remained provided with their own required forces and maintained their own prestige.
From this college came forth distinguished men in every line of intellectual life, and general eminence, men of elevated thought and of noble and generous minds. In particular three characters came—young men that were to fill with admiration of their greatness the succeeding century.