Collegium Germanicum et Hungaricum

The Collegium Germanicum et Hungaricum or simply Collegium Germanicum is a German-speaking seminary for Roman Catholic priests in Rome, founded in 1552. Since 1580 its full name has been Pontificium Collegium Germanicum et Hungaricum de Urbe.

The Collegium Germanicum was established on 31 August 1552 by Pope Julius III with the bull Dum sollicita. Cardinal Giovanni Morone and Saint Ignatius Loyola were instrumental in its establishment, and Saint Ignatius formally opened it on 28 October. The direction of the college was given to the Jesuits. After the Almo Collegio Capranica, this is the oldest college in Rome. The initiative towards its foundation was taken by Cardinal Giovanni Morone and Ignatius Loyola. Pope Julius III approved of the idea and promised his aid, but for a long time the college had to struggle against financial difficulties. The first students were received in November 1552.

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 gamberi cotti (boiled lobsters). 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. He also drew up the first rules for the college, which served as models for similar institutions. During the pontificate of Pope Paul IV the financial conditions became such that the students had to be distributed among the various colleges of the Society in Italy. 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 a short time 200 boarding students, all belonging to the flower of European nobility, were received. This state of affairs lasted till 1573. Under Pope Pius V, who had placed 20 of his nephews in the college, there was some idea of suppressing the camerata of the poveri tedeschi. Pope Gregory XIII, however, may be considered the real founder of the college. He transferred the secular department to the Seminario Romano, and endowed the college with the Abbey of S. Saba all' Aventino and all its possessions, both on the Via Portuense and on Lake Bracciano; moreover he incorporated with it the Abbeys of Fonte Avellana in the Marches, S. Cristina, and Lodiveccio in Lombardy. The new rector P. Lauretano, drew up another set of regulations.

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