In 1563, among the provisions enacted by the final sessions of the Council of Trent, there was specific legislation for the education of the clergy. Each diocese was charged with founding a seminary for the spiritual and cultural education of all those who aspired to the priesthood. At the same time, ways and means for the upkeep and maintenance of these institutions were to be found.

The Jesuit church with the façade of the former Jesuit college in a recent photograph.

In 1575, Mgr Pietro Dusina, Apostolic Delegate and Inquisitor of Malta, decreed that a seminary was to be erected in the Maltese islands. This decree was upheld by the 1575 and 1591 Maltese Diocesan Synods. During the latter convocation, funds were earmarked for the upkeep and maintenance of the proposed seminary, which was to be sited at Mdina. But the Mdina seminary was not destined to be erected before the 18th century and, in its stead, there came into being a Jesuit college. The deed for its erection was signed on November 12, 1592.

In 1553, Bishop Mgr Domenico Cubelles had invited St Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuit Order, to set up a college in Malta. The scope of the college was, however, to be limited to training Jesuit missionaries for North Africa. Nothing resulted from the proposal but it seems that the Jesuits remained keen to open a college at Malta.

The magistracy of Grand Master Jean l’Evesque de la Cassiere (1572-81) was a troubled one which culminated with his removal by rebellious knights and his reinstatement by Pope Gregory XIII. This troubled magistracy is an indication of how difficult it was to maintain the traditional life and standards of a medieval, religious and aristocratic order as the years rolled on.

The diocesan clergy did not really want to build a seminary but wanted to prevent the erection of the Jesuit college

One of the order’s council’s envoys to Rome sent to justify the deposition of La Cassiere was the knight Fra Cosimo di Luna who, on April 21, 1581, wrote to a certain Mgr Speciani suggesting that 12 Jesuits be sent to Malta to help the knights reform and live up to the ideals of their vocation. This idea was better than the one of 1553 and the Pope showed himself in favour of opening a Jesuit college, as evinced from a letter sent to Grand Master Hughes Loubenx de Verdalle in 1582. Yet, notwithstanding all this anxiety and goodwill, a further 10 years had to pass before matters came to a conclusion.

The tombstone of Bishop Gargallo at the Jesuit church, Valletta.

On the insistence of the knight Fra Catiliano Casati, who went to Rome on purpose, matters were finally brought to a conclusion. On March 28, 1592, Clement VIII addressed two briefs to Grand Master Verdalle and to the bishop, Mgr Tommaso Gargallo, respectively. The briefs speak of the Pope’s intention to set up a college of Jesuit priests in “the city of Malta” (civitate Melitensi) for which the grand master was to make a monetary contribution and assist the bishop in its erection. The bishop was ordered to provide a site for the college to be built on and to transfer to the Jesuits the income which the 1591 local synod had earmarked for a new seminary.

Twelve Jesuits, led by their superior, Fr Casati, arrived in Malta, and, on November 12, 1592, a public deed published by Notary A. Sillato was signed in the Magisterial Palace by which the new Jesuit college was erected. The Jesuits had to open a school for the teaching of the Humanities (scholas aperire humanitatis et grammaticae) which would be taught by two of the 12 priests which the agreement required to live on the premises. There were also assigned the following properties:

The property mentioned in the 1591 Synod, namely: a) 200 scudi annually from the bishopric’s and the cathedral’s income; b) the four ecclesiastical benefices of San Nicola ta’ Mitariffe, Ta’ Borgialat, Ta’ Santa Margherita and Il-Chysajjem ta’ Bunoxeb; c) five per cent tax on all the benefices of the Maltese islands, known as the mediadecima.

A 1602 map of Valletta. The Pope expressly said that he wanted the Jesuit college to be in Valletta. Map courtesy of Dr Albert Ganado

Other property, namely: a) an unfinished church of St Paul and its surroundings where the college was, in fact, built; b) a site which had formerly been acquired for building a seminary; c) the site where Bishop Gargallo had planned to construct his palace and known as Il-Quattrum.

Four ecclesiastical benefices which were the prerogative of the bishop, namely, the benefices of Ta’ Cotaffe, Ta’ Mazzara, Ta’ San Mark, and Ta’ Wied l-Imdina.

Disagreements, protests and disputes followed the formal erection of the college. At a meeting held on December 4, 1592, the Università (Town Council) of Mdina protested against the erection of the Jesuit college mainly because Maltese benefices were being allotted to foreigners in direct contradiction to the 1521 Apostolic Letters of Pope Leo X, which stated that Maltese ecclesiastical benefices had to be solely given to Maltese clerics. The Cathedral Chapter insisted that there should be no impediment to the erection of a seminary which could come into being together with the Jesuit college. It was held that the latter, therefore, should be provided with a different source of revenue for its upkeep. The Chapter also interpreted the phrase in civitate Melitensi to mean Mdina.

Grand Master Hughes Loubenx de Verdalle.

However, the Pope affirmed that in his briefs he was referring to the new city, namely Valletta. Through Cardinal Mattei, Pope Clement also asked the Inquisitor of Malta, Mgr Innocenzo del Bufalo, to investigate the matter and see if the two institutions could be erected in Valletta and Mdina respectively. Meanwhile the payment of the mediadecima was temporarily suspended.

In January 1597, the Inquisitor wrote back that the diocesan clergy did not really want to build a seminary but wanted to prevent the erection of the Jesuit college. In 1601, therefore, the Pope ordered Bishop Gargallo to hand over the assigned properties and the mediadecima to the Jesuits. But matters dragged on till, in 1671, an agreement was reached with the Jesuits regarding the mediadecima tax. The holders of the taxed benefices agreed to pay a single lump sum and thus redeemed their holdings from the annual tax.

After a diocesan seminary was finally actually established in Mdina in 1703, a lawsuit ended thus: the four benefices mentioned in the 1591 Synod were taken away from the Jesuits and allotted to the new seminary. This judgement was decided by Rome in 1706 and confirmed, after an appeal had been lodged, in 1710.

Bishop Mgr Tommaso Gargallo’s portrait at the sacristy of the Jesuit church, Valletta.

Meanwhile, the college had taken shape. In 1593, the Jesuits had already started teaching in an old house at Valletta which was converted into a temporary school. They started construction work on the college in the same year and, in 1595, the school moved to the new premises. However, when the dispute with the local clergy was at its peak, the Jesuits petitioned the Pope to authorise them to sell their immovable property and leave Malta in favour of another college abroad. This led to the above-mentioned papal orders of 1601.

The college was governed by statutes based on the Jesuit Society’s Ratio Studiorum. Here, they taught subjects found in a common grammar school, but the college was also a substitute for a seminary, so its purpose was ecclesiastic, not scientific. By time, the college also received endowments such as the profits accruing from the Maglio, which went towards a Chair of Mathematics, and Abbate Baldassare del Brio’s endowment of the Chair of Scholastic Theology.

Fr Claudius Aquaviva SJ, Superior General of the Jesuits, who authorised the Jesuits sent to Malta to run the Jesuit college and to sign the Foundation Deed in his name on November 12, 1592.

Undoubtedly, education in Malta owes a lot to the Jesuit fathers. The foundation of their college in November 1592 is regarded as a milestone in the history of education in Malta since it catered, to some extent, for the cultural formation of aspirants to the priesthood. In 1727, the college obtained the faculty to confer degrees, and a Studium came into being. Both the college and the Studium came to an end in 1768 when Grand Master Emanuel Pinto de Fonseca expelled the Jesuits from Malta.

Dr Joseph F. Grima is a retired Assistant Director of Education and former casual lecturer in History whose publications include Żmien il-Kavallieri f’Malta (1530-1798) and The Fleet of the Knights of Malta – Its Organisation during the Eighteenth Century.