Welcome · Virtual Library

Welcome to the Virtual Library of the Venerable English College, Rome.

Here you can browse a variety of focused online resources: these relate primarily to the post-Reformation history of English and Welsh Catholicism at home and abroad, as well as to allied aspects of that history, but a certain amount of material relating to the pre-Reformation period is also being added.

These resources are drawn from digitized materials already available in the public domain on the following sites, all of which we gratefully acknowledge:

The Ampleforth Journal
L’Armarium – la Bibliothèque numérique du patrimoine écrit, graphique et littéraire en Hauts-de-France (l’Aisne, l’Oise, la Somme, le Nord et le Pas-de-Calais)
Belgica the digital library of the Royal Library Brussels (KBR) –
Catholic Record Society
Centre culturel irlandais, Paris
Gallica – the digital library of the Bibliothèque nationale de France
Google Books
HathiTrust Digital Library
The Internet Archive
Theses.fr – doctoral theses defended in France since 1985
Venerable English College, Rome
Who were the nuns? – A Prosopographical study of the English Convents in exile 1600–1800

Pertinent items still in copyright and stored within The Internet Archive are included in this digital library, but these are fully accessible only to readers who register separately for a free subscription on the latter website.

The site is currently under development.

If you encounter any problem, notice any mistake, or have suggestions for improvement, please do let us know at: researchfellow@vecrome.org

Thank you.

Browse Virtual Library by subject

Anglo-Saxon Church (2)
Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church (8)
- English cardinals (8)
Catechisms (see under *Education–Religious instruction and education*) (0)
Catholic Emancipation, 1829, and earlier discussion of the Catholic Question (5)
Catholic non-jurors (1)
Catholic Record Society (CRS) volumes (1904– (1)
Catholic Who's Who (1)
Cecil Papers (2)
Christian feminism (1)
Converts (1)
Counter-Reformation (2)
Education (60)
- Catholic Institute of Great Britain, 1838 (1)
- Convent education (2)
- Religious instruction and education (10)
  - Catechisms (8)
- Seminaries — arranged by date of foundation (46)
Episcopal registers (pre-Reformation) (1)
Episcopal succession in England and Wales (5)
- Vicars Apostolic (1)
  - Challoner, Richard (1691–1781) (0)
French émigré clergy and laity (1789–1815) (1)
Genealogy (9)
- Blundell family of Crosby, Lancashire (8)
- Plowden family of Plowden, Shropshire (1)
General reference works (13)
Gerard, John, SJ (1564–1637) (1)
History of English and Welsh Catholicism in particular localities (63)
- Aire (1)
- Brussels (1)
- Capheaton, Northumberland (1)
- Dorset (2)
- Douai (7)
- Dunkirk (1)
- East Bergholt (1)
- Ghent (2)
- Gravelines (1)
- Hampshire (7)
- Isle of Wight (1)
- Lancaster (1)
- Lincoln (1)
- Little Crosby, Lancashire (8)
- Liverpool (3)
- London (3)
  - Embassy chapels (2)
  - Lincoln's Inn Fields (1)
- Monmouthshire (5)
- Newton Abbot (2)
- Northamptonshire (1)
- Paris (3)
- Preston, Lancashire (1)
- Rome (11)
- Rouen (1)
- Saint-Omer (8)
- Seville (2)
- Whitby (1)
- Winchester (1)
- York (1)
Hymns (2)
Ireland – ecclesiastical history (4)
Kings and queens of England (4)
- James II (2)
Libraries of English and Welsh Catholic institutions at home and abroad (1)
Literary materials (1)
Liturgy — convents (1)
Liturgy and worship (1)
Lollardy (1)
Louvain (2)
Maps and plans (2)
- Catholic Netherlands (2)
Martyrs, English and Welsh (10)
- Walpole, Henry, SJ (1558–1595) (1)
Medieval Church – England (4)
Missals (post-Reformation) (1)
Missions -- England and Wales (3)
Monasticism (2)
Oath of Allegiance (1)
Penal laws against Catholics (4)
- Penal laws against Catholics in England and Wales (1)
- Penal laws against Catholics in Ireland (2)
- Penal laws against Catholics in Scotland (1)
Periodicals (12)
Plots (1)
- Gunpowder Plot (0)
- Popish Plot (1)
Recusants and recusancy (20)
Reformation (2)
- Reformation in England and Wales (2)
  - The Elizabethan religious settlement (1)
Religious orders (female) (24)
- Bridgettines (Order of St Saviour) (2)
  - English Bridgettines (2)
    - 1415 – Syon Abbey (1)
- English Augustinian canonesses (2)
  - 1629 – Bruges (1)
- English Benedictine nuns (8)
- English Canonesses of the Holy Sepulchre, or Sepulchrines (2)
- English Carmelite nuns (1)
- English Dominican nuns (3)
- English Franciscan nuns (2)
- English Poor Clares (5)
- Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or IBVM, or Institute of Mary, or Congregation of Jesus, or CJ (2)
  - 1686 – Bar Convent, York (1)
- Order of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady, or Conceptionists, or Blue Nuns, Paris (2)
Religious orders (male) (76)
- Order of Preachers (Dominicans) (6)
  - English Dominicans (6)
    - 1657 – English Dominican priory and school at Bornhem, Antwerp (2)
- Order of St Benedict (Benedictines) (33)
  - English Benedictines (32)
    - 1607 – St Gregory's, Douai (3)
      - Downside Abbey (0)
      - Downside School (0)
    - 1608 – St Laurence's, Dieulouard, Lorraine (5)
      - Ampleforth Abbey (4)
      - Ampleforth College (2)
    - 1611 – St Benedict's, Saint-Malo, Britanny (0)
    - 1615 – St Edmund's, Paris (11)
    - 1633 – La Celle-sur-Morin, Seine-et-Marne (1)
    - 1643 – SS Adrian and Denis, Lambspringe, near Hildesheim (1)
    - Baker, Augustine, OSB (1575–1641) (1)
- Order of St Francis (Franciscans) (2)
  - English Franciscans (2)
    - English Franciscans (Recollects), Douai (1)
    - Friars Minor (1)
- Society of Jesus (Jesuits) (35)
Rituals, Breviaries, Manuals, Missals, and Pontificals (pre-Reformation) (6)
- York (6)
Rome (4)
- –1362, English Hospice, Rome (1)
  - English Hospice Rome, Library (1)
- 1622 – Sacred Congregation de Propaganda Fide (1)
- Roman Curia (1)
- Sede vacante in Rome (1)
Sacraments (1)
- Marriage (1)
Saints (6)
- Becket, St Thomas (c. 1118–1170) (1)
- Hugh, of Lincoln, Saint, 1140–1200 (1)
- Newman, St John Henry (1801–1890) (2)
- Sales, St Francis de (1567–1622) (1)
- Winefride or Winifred, St (1)
Schools — arranged by date of foundation (2)
- 1763 – Sedgley Park School, Wolverhampton (1763–1873) and Cotton College, Oakamoor, Staffordshire (1873–1987), also known as St Wilfrid's College (2)
Scotland – ecclesiastical history (1)
Secular clergy (5)
- Secular clergy of England and Wales (5)
  - The Old Chapter (1623–1850) and the Old Brotherhood of the English Secular Clergy (1850– (3)
Sermons (3)
Synods (8)
- -664 – Synod of Whitby (1)
- 1556 – Legatine Synod of London, convoked by Cardinal Reginald Pole (1)
- 1852 – 1st Provincial Synod of Westminster, held at St Mary's College, Oscott (3)
- 1855 – 2nd Provincial Synod of Westminster, held at St Mary's College, Oscott (2)
- 1859 – 3rd Provincial Synod of Westminster, held at St Mary's College, Oscott (2)
- 1873 – 4th Provincial Synod of Westminster, held at St Edmund's College, Ware (2)
Wales – ecclesiastical history (3)
Weld (1)