Heythrop College, University of London, was a constituent college of the University of London between 1971 and 2018, last located in Kensington Square, London. It comprised the university's specialist faculties of philosophy and theology while also having strengths in the social sciences. It offered undergraduate and postgraduate degree courses, and had five specialist institutes and centres to promote research.
The college had a close affiliation with the Roman Catholic Church, through the British Province of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) whose scholarly tradition went back to a 1614 exiled foundation in Leuven, Belgium, and whose extensive library collections it housed. While maintaining its denominational links and ethos the college welcomed all faiths and perspectives, women as well as men.
Through Heythrop's close links with the Jesuits, it also served as the London centre for Fordham University, a Jesuit university in the United States. Other external groups, including A Call To Action (ACTA, British Catholic Association), also used meeting facilities on the site.
Following unsuccessful negotiations with St Mary's University, Twickenham, another British university, and amid some controversy, in June 2015 the college's governing body decided that the college would cease to be an independent constituent of the University of London in 2018. It formally terminated operations and left the University of London on 31 January 2019. It was the first significant UK higher education institution to completely close permanently (not including mergers and name changes) since the dissolution of the original University of Northampton in 1265.
Twentieth-century name
The college acquired its name, Heythrop, from its 46 years at Heythrop Hall, a Grade II* listed early 18th-century country house in Italian Baroque style, southeast of Heythrop village in Oxfordshire. The English province of the Society of Jesus bought the dilapidated house and grounds in 1926 as a training centre for their scholastics. During its stay, the house was altered and enlarged, not always in a style sympathetic to the original architectural concept. In 1926 two wings were added to the north front built of Hornton ironstone from north Oxfordshire, much darker and browner than the stone used to build the original house in the 18th century.
In 1952, the indoor real tennis court was converted into a chapel and in 1965, a library was added. In 1960, two halls of residence were added in the grounds in contemporary style.
In 1970 the Jesuit province moved its facilities to London after it had negotiated for the centre's faculties of theology and philosophy to become part of London University. It sold its Oxfordshire estate to the National Westminster Bank Group which turned the house and its precincts into a training and conference centre.
History Beginnings in exile
Due to continuing anti-Catholic persecution during the reign of James I, a network of English religious schools was established in Western Europe. Likewise the Society of Jesus preferred to establish its school for boys and its faculties of theology and philosophy for training English Jesuit candidates overseas. Under John Gerard it founded them in Leuven in 1614, before moving them to a newly constructed college in Liège in 1616, which became the . William Baldwin (1563–1632) was a professor of moral theology at the college in Louvain. He, like Gerard, was implicated in the Gunpowder Plot.
In 1624 the English Jesuit college obtained patronage from Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria, and his wife, hence the colours of the elector's coat of arms were incorporated into its own coat of arms. The Liège college was protected in the Austrian Netherlands and continued relatively undisturbed for 178 years, through the suppression of the Society of Jesus in 1773 under the personal authority of Bishop François-Charles de Velbrück, until French troops surrounded the city in 1794.. Notable teachers and alumni included: John Carroll (1735–1815), first Roman Catholic bishop (and Archbishop of Baltimore) in the United States and founder of Georgetown University Charles Carroll (1737–1832), Maryland delegate and one of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence Charles Plowden (1743–1821), Jesuit priest, writer and administrator; first rector at Stonyhurst Francis Plowden, Jesuit priest, barrister and writer. Taught at the college during the suppression of the Society of Jesus John Howard SJ was head of Liège College (1773–1783) William Strickland SJ was head of Liège College (1783–1790) Marmaduke Stone SJ (1748–1834), final director of the college (1790–1794), led the evacuation to England
Repatriation to England and Wales
During the French Revolutionary Wars, the continuity of the college is owed principally to two men: Marmaduke Stone SJ, who led the Liège college move to England in 1794 and an Old Boy of Watten and Bruges English College, and Thomas Weld (of Lulworth), who generously donated his family seat, of Stonyhurst, a property in Lancashire, where the evacuees settled for the foreseeable future. While the environment in England was relatively benign for Catholics, the Catholic Church had suppressed the Jesuit order during the English province's exile in Europe. They resolved therefore to accept the authority of the only remaining valid Jesuit province which was in the Russian Empire under superiors, Gabriel Gruber and Tadeusz Brzozowski. The latter became Superior General of the Society of Jesus in 1814, although still confined to Russia, when Pope Pius VII lifted the ban on the order. The former Liège college staff located its faculties on two sites, philosophy at Stonyhurst College in Lancashire and theology at St Beuno's College in Denbighshire.
In 1840, Stonyhurst was recognised as an affiliated college of the University of London, which had been created in 1836. This allowed students to sit examinations for University of London degrees. Among the notable teaching staff were: Henry James Coleridge (1822–1893), professor of Scripture, religious preacher and writer Alfred Weld (1823–1890), professor of Science and Astronomy, Director of the Stonyhurst Observatory, grandson of the college founder Sylvester Joseph Hunter (1829–1896), Jesuit priest and educator John Morris (1826–1893) taught canon law in 1867 George Tyrrell (1861–1909), an Irish Jesuit, taught philosophy at Stonyhurst (until his expulsion from the Jesuits) and was condemned for Modernism Franz Xavier Wernz (1842–1914), professor of canon law in 1882 at St Beuno's. He served as the 25th Superior General of the Society of Jesus and was rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome
Among its alumni were: James Brodrick (1891–1973), Jesuit priest and historian Richard Clarke (1839–1900), Jesuit priest and theologian. First Master of Campion Hall, Oxford Aloysius Cortie (1859–1925), Jesuit priest and astronomer Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1899), Jesuit priest, poet and professor Joseph Rickaby (1845–1932), Jesuit priest and philosopher Martin D'Arcy SJ (1888–1976) was a philosopher of love, and a correspondent, friend, and adviser of a range of literary and artistic figures including Evelyn Waugh, Dorothy L. Sayers, W. H. Auden, Eric Gill and Sir Edwin Lutyens. He has been described as "perhaps England's foremost Catholic public intellectual from the 1930s until his death".Richard Harp, "A Conjuror at the Xmas Party", TLS, Dec. 11, 2009.
Heythrop years In 1926, the faculties came together at Heythrop Hall, Oxfordshire. As a Collegium Maximum, the college's right to admit its students to degrees was confirmed by the Holy See in 1932.Agenzia della Santa Sede per la Valutazione e la Promozione della Qualità delle Università e Facoltà Ecclesiastiche (AVEPRO), http://www.avepro.va/ Accessed 1 November 2012. (in Italian and English) In 1964, the college was raised to the status of a Pontifical Athenaeum, named as the Heythrop Faculties of Theology and Philosophy, open to lay men and women and clerics from outside the Society of Jesus. However, the college now also sought integration with the British educational system.
Rectors and principals, 1926–1970 1926–1937: Edward Helsham SJ 1937–1944: Ignatius Scoles SJ 1944–1950: Edward Enright SJ 1950–1952: Desmond Boyle SJ 1952–1959: John Diamond SJ 1959–1964: David Hoy SJ 1964–1970: William Maher SJ
Alumni, 1926–1970
John A. Saliba, Jesuit priest and professor of religious studies Salvino Azzopardi (1931–2006), Jesuit priest and philosopher Frederick Copleston (1907–1994), Jesuit priest, philosopher and historian Ralph Coverdale (1918–1975), soldier, behavioural psychologist, management consultant and trainer Mark Elvins (1939–2014), Warden of Greyfriars, Oxford Clarence Gallagher, Jesuit priest and theologian. Former Dean of the Faculty of Canon Law and Rector of the Pontifical Oriental Institute (1990–1995). Gerard W. Hughes (1924–2014), Jesuit priest, spiritual guide and author of God of Surprises Paul Lakeland (1946– ), Professor and chair of the centre for Catholic studies of Fairfield University Peter Levi (1931–2000), former Jesuit priest, poet, archaeologist, travel writer, biographer, critic and Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford Bernard Lonergan (1904–1984), Jesuit priest, philosopher and theologian Peter Milward (1925–2017), Jesuit priest and literary scholar Joseph A. Munitiz (1931–2022), Jesuit priest, theologian and librarian. Former editor of the Heythrop Journal and master of Campion Hall, Oxford Gerald O'Collins (1931–2024), Jesuit priest, author, academic, and educator Stephen Perry (1833–1889), Jesuit priest and astronomer James J. Quinn (1919–2010), Jesuit priest, theologian and hymnwriter Frederick Turner (1911–2001), Jesuit priest, archivist, librarian and former headmaster at Stonyhurst College Edward Yarnold (1926–2002), former Master of Campion Hall, Oxford from 1965 to 1972
Constituent of the University of London For this purpose it moved to London in 1970, and obtained a royal charter of incorporation as a "school" of the University of London in the faculties of theology and arts on 11 March 1971. It began to award University of London degrees.Catholic Directory, 1971 on. After its move to London, to a Grade II listed Georgian townhouse, a former convent, at nos. 11–13 Cavendish Square in the Marylebone area, the college retained the name "Heythrop College". In 1993 the college moved to its final location, in the Maria Assumpta Centre at 23 Kensington Square, initially sharing the site with several other organisations, most notably the Westminster Pastoral Foundation (WPF), a reputable and long-established counselling training institute. In 2000 Heythrop College announced it needed more space for its library and delicate negotiations began with WPF. The college had assembled one of the largest philosophy and theology-related libraries in Britain. Eight years later, WPF were finally persuaded to uproot and vacate their extensive purpose-built premises, about a quarter of the Maria Assumpta site.
In January 2014, the college received decrees from the Congregation for Catholic Education of the Holy See officially reactivating its ecclesiastical faculties under the patronage of saint Robert Bellarmine. These ecclesiastical faculties were grouped together as the Bellarmine Institute. In June 2014, Heythrop College celebrated the 400th anniversary of its two original faculties. While the college still retained the English Jesuits' original function of training future priests of the Catholic Church, its contemporary teaching staff and student body had become much wider, more international and diverse.