DOUAI COLLEGE LISTS, 1660-79.
These ten lists are important because the second half of the seventeenth century is the blankest period in the history of Douai College. The Fifth Diary ended on 25 April 1654.1 When Robert Witham , President of the College, was searching for records of its history in 1725, he could find almost nothing from 1654 until the Sixth Diary began in 1676.2 The Sixth Diary covered the years from 1676 to 1692 ; but unfortunately it cannot now be traced. The Seventh Diary which began in 1715, is preceded by a very brief summary covering the years 1689 to 1715, compiled in 1720.3 But the total amount of information for the sixty years from 1654 until 1715 is very small. The first six of the following documents (relating to the period from 1660 until 1667) are from the archives of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (Propaganda)-they are to be found in volume 373. Father Godfrey Anstruther, O.P. kindly provided notes relating to them, and the full transcripts which follow have been derived from a microfilm. Of the remaining four lists, two are from the Barberini collection in the Vatican Library (volumes 2693 and 8623), one is in the archives of the Archbishop of Westminster (volume A. 34), and one is in the archives of the parish ofSt. Gregory Weld Bank, Chorley , Lancashire. It should be noted that the word nobilis whichfrequentlyoccurs in these lists, does not usually mean of noble birth, but rather of gentle birth.
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1 C.R.S. , vol . 11 529. 2 Ibid., 539
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3 C.R.S. , vol. 28, 7-30.
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