2013 Annual Report - Jesus College - University of Cambridge

138 JESUAN IN ROME I Jesus College Annual Report 2013
Farewell to Rome
Nicholas Hudson
In our series of occasional reminiscences by old members, Nicholas Hudson
(1978-81) looks back over nine years as Rector of a seminary in Rome
Your boss has been shot!” That was how
“ my fellow-historian James Cowderoy
broke to me the news of an attempt on the life
of Pope John Paul II in St Peter’s Square. It
was May 13th 1981; and I was revising on a
bench opposite the cricket pavilion when
James brought me this shocking news. James
knew that I was due to begin training for the
Catholic priesthood at the English College in
Rome the following autumn: he was
thoughtful in seeking me out to tell me.
Little could James and I have imagined,
that fateful day, that the same Karol Wojtyla
would still be Pope in 2005 when I had the
privilege, as Rector of the College, to present
to the Holy Father a group of illustrious
English heroes: Dallaglio, Catt, Shaw,
Lewsey, Worsley, Haskell, Abbott – yes, the
Rugby World Cup-winning champions!
“Sono i Campioni del Mondo”, I heard Italian
pilgrims murmur as these athletes made their
progress through the Square and up onto the
papal podium.
Like so many before them, this band of
Englishmen had stopped at the English
College on their way to St Peter’s because they
knew it to be “the English place in Rome”.
The English College is indeed the oldest
English institution outside of England. First
it was a hospice for pilgrims and then a
seminary; and has served as an informal
embassy ever since Edward III sat on the
English throne – right through to the twentyfirst
century. The English Hospice was
established in 1362 by a Confraternity of
Englishmen resident in Rome; established to
cater for the needs of pilgrims visiting from
our shores. From Plantagenet times, it
enjoyed royal patronage: Henry VII named it
the King’s Hospice; Henry VIII called it Our
Pope Benedict XVI greets Monsignor Hudson