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XXIV. A short Chronological Account of the Religious Establishments made by English Catholics on the Continent of Europe. By the Abbé Mann
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 July 2012
Extract
If the subject which I take in hand appears little interesting at a time when the reigning spirit of several nations is far more disposed to destroy all the monuments of the piety of their ancestors, than to preserve any memory of them, and has already destroyed the greatest part of these I am going to mention; I hope it will appear in a different light to the learned Society of Antiquaries, whose chief care is to collect and preserve to futurity a faithful remembrance of whatever concerns former ages.
If a time should ever come when an exact account of this small part of the British nation shall be found interesting, the following lists of these establishments, collected with care and exactness, may not prove unwelcome, as they may lead to sources where a complete account of each of them may be found.
I shall make no farther apology for this essay than to beg it may be considered rather as a testimony of my profound respect for the learned Society to which I have the honour of presenting it, than for any intrinsic value which I attribute to it.
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- Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1800
References
page 258 note [a] The following curious particulars respecting these nuns were communicated by the learned Mr. Corrêa de Serra, F, S. A. &c. in a letter to the Secretary, dated Pentonville, 10th of Márch, 1800.—“Sir, from the two Portugueze books, quoted in the end of this note, and which are in the library of chevalier d'Almeyda, our ambassador, I have been able to collect the following information.
“On the fourth day.of May, in the year 1594* arrived in the port of Lisbon fifteen English nuns of the order of St. Bridget, with a novice, accompanied by three fathers of the same order. They were the only remaining part of the community of Mount Sion-near London, which before the abolition of that monastery consisted of sixty nuns and twenty-five friars, who after that disastrous event had wandered through France and Flanders, in an unsettled state, and forced by the wars to change often their asylum On their arrival at Lisbon they were hospitably received by the Franciscan nuns of the monastery of our Lady la Esperanca, and in that convent they lived, till Isabel de Azevedo, a noble lady, made them a gift of some houses and grounds; in the place called Mocambo,. where they built their church and monastery. The then reigning sovereign Philip the IInd. endowed them with a pension of two mil res's per diem ( II shillings I penny halspenny), and twelve mayos of wheat yearly (36 English quarters), paid from the revenue of the Fens belonging to the crown at Santarem. This revenue they enjoy at present, and besides that, several legacies of houses and lands. As far back as 1712 their revenue was valued at five thousand cruzados. The sacraments are administered to them by two secular priests, one of whom is also the administrator of the temporal concerns of the community.
“On the 17th of August, 1651, both church and monastery were burnt to the ground, and the nuns of Esperanca afforded again for five years an asylum to the distressed English nuns. In the same year, 1651, on the second of October the first stone was laid in the foundations of the new building, and in 1656 they returned to their present monastery. The church was finished same time after, by the benefaction of Ruy Corrêa Lucas, and his wise D. Milicia, who remained with the honours and profits of the advowson.
Geograsia Historica of Lima, T. II. p. 150.
Corograsia Portugueza of Carvatho, T. III. p. 515, and following.
I have omitted on purpose several accounts of miracles and prophecies related by this last author, p. 516 and 519, because they are useless to the history, and do little credit to our clergy.