Collegium Germanicum et Hungaricum

Pope Julius III approved of the idea and promised his aid, but for a long time the college had to struggle against financial difficulties.

Ignatius formally opened it on 28 October and the direction of the college was given to the order he founded 12 years earlier - the Society of Jesus ("Jesuits").

[1] The administration was confided to a committee of six Cardinal Protectors, who decided that the collegians should wear a red cassock, in consequence of which they have since been popularly known as the "boiled shrimps".

[2] During the first year the higher courses were given in the college itself; but in the autumn of 1553 St. Ignatius succeeded in establishing the schools of philosophy and theology in the Collegio Romano of his Society.

To place the institution on a firmer basis it was decided to admit paying boarders regardless their nationality, and without the obligation of embracing the ecclesiastical state; German clerics to the number of 20 or more were received free and formed a separate body.

In 1574 Pope Gregory XIII assigned it the Palazzi di S. Apollinare (the current seats of the Domus Internationalis Paulus VI and the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross), and in 1575 gave it charge of the services in the adjoining church.

The splendour and majesty of the functions as well as the music executed by the students under the Spaniard Tomás Luis de Victoria,[3] and his successor Annibale Stabile and other celebrated masters (Annibale Orgas, Lorenzo Ratti, Giacomo Carissimi, Ottavio Pittoni, and others) constantly drew large crowds to the church.

As a special mark of his favour, Gregory XIII ordered that each year on the Feast of All Saints a student of the college should deliver a panegyric in presence of the pope.

Mention must be made of the work of P. Galeno, the business manager who succeeded in consolidating the finances of the college so as to raise the revenue to 25,000 scudi per annum.

After Emperor Joseph II in 1781 forbade all students of his realm to study in Rome, and the city was shortly afterwards occupied by French troops, the college was obliged to close in 1798.

On the proclamation of the Roman Republic the property of the foreign national colleges was declared escheated to the Government and was sold for an absurdly small sum.

In 1886 owing to the necessity of having more extensive quarters, the Collegio Germanico was transferred to the Hotel Costanzi in the Via S. Nicola da Tolentino.

At its foundation the defence against the Reformation, improvement of theological training and the education of priests loyal to Rome were the principal aims.