SEMINARY EDUCATION

In ecclesiastical writings "seminary" designates a special type of school dedicated to the spiritual, moral, and intellectual formation of the clergy. It is derived from the Latin word seminarium, which was commonly used to describe a place where young seedlings were prepared for eventual transplantation. The first official use of this word to describe institutions for clerical training dates back to the Council of trent (Sess. 23, c.18), which did not invent the term as such but accepted it from some of the writings of the period, by men such as Cardinal Reginald pole, St. John fisher, and St. ignatius of loyola.

Tridentine Discipline. The Council made it obligatory for every diocese to erect a seminary for the purpose of educating the local clergy. Whenever possible, this institution was to be built near the cathedral church so that the young aspirants to the priesthood might serve a sort of apprenticeship there by participating, each according to his rank, in the divine offices presided over by the local bishop. If an individual diocese was too small or lacked the necessary funds, it could join with other dioceses for the construction of a provincial or interdiocesan seminary. Those to be admitted had to be born of lawful wedlock and had to be at least 12 years of age. They were obliged to possess certain minimal educational requirements and to have a sincere desire to dedicate themselves wholeheartedly to the service of the Church. Special preference was to be given to the children of the poor; the children of the rich, however, were not to be excluded if they paid for their training. The young men were to study letters, humanities, chant, liturgy, Sacred Scripture, and dogmatic, moral, and pastoral theology. Their spiritual formation required daily assistance at the Eucharistic Sacrifice even though, according to the practice of the time, they were permitted to communicate only on the days indicated by their spiritual directors. Their moral development was also to be supervised to the extent that the disorderly and incorrigible were to be punished and, if necessary, expelled. Special priests were to be chosen by the local bishop himself as instructors and spiritual guides for the young candidates. The courses also were to be determined by the decision of the bishop, who was the primary judge as to what would be necessary for the particular circumstances of his diocese. The seminary was to receive its support from an intricate system of benefices in addition to taxes imposed on the revenues of bishops and other ecclesiastical dignitaries and institutions. The chief administrator of the school was to be the local bishop himself, who would be aided by two administrative boards, one to assist him in disciplinary and spiritual matters, and the other to help him with temporalities.

Origins of the Tridentine Decree. The Council's legislation de seminariis was not a new creation. It presented, rather, a restoration and renovation of the traditional manner in which young clerics received their formation. Fundamentally, it presented a return to the concept of the cathedral school, where from the earliest times in the Church, young men were prepared for the priesthood. With the breakdown of feudalism and the rise of the universities, this ancient system of clerical formation became either impoverished or generally abandoned. As a result, a large segment of the late medieval and pre-Reformation clergy received inadequate training and were very often ordained for an office they were not sufficiently equipped to exercise. Even though the question of clerical formation had been mentioned by the preparatory commission and had come to the fore not only in the discussions on the teaching of Sacred Scripture but also in the work of the fathers at Bologna, it was not until the 23d session of the Council that the problem was given a sound and practical solution.

It is commonly admitted that the immediate source of the Tridentine seminary legislation was canon 11 of the synodal legislation promulgated for England in 1556 by Cardinal Pole. This is quite evident from the first draft of Trent's decree, which closely parallels the corresponding section in Pole's Reformatio Angliae. As early as 1562 the entire text of the English cardinal's legatine synod was available at Trent and so, when the members of the commission studying abuses in the administration of the Sacrament of Orders took up the problem of seeking a means whereby the intellectual and moral training of the clergy might be assured, their attention focused easily upon the late cardinal's solution: the erection of seminaries at every cathedral church. The fathers of the council leaned upon Pole's solution to the problem, and the first draft of their own legislation de seminariis erigendis presents a striking similarity to it. Even though the final ratification of the decree promulgated in the 23d session differs considerably from the 11th canon of Pole's synodal legislation, the essence of his program was largely preserved.

Several proximate sources of the Tridentine seminary decree may be enumerated also. First of all, there were some documents presented to the Council in 1563 that highlighted certain abuses and remedies in connection with the administration of the Sacrament of Orders. Mention might be made of the Memoriale de quibusdam abusibus in ecclesia corrigendis submitted by Louis Beccadelli, Archbishop of Ragusa, who suggested that a seminarium clericorum be established; the Articuli super reformatione sacramenti ordinis presented by the archbishop of Reims, who advised the establishment of special schools attached to cathedral churches; and the petitions of Emperor Ferdinand, who urged the erection of special collegia for the clergy near the universities. Secondly, there was the influence of the Jesuits as illustrated by the work of Claude Le Jay in Germany and by the establishment of the Germanicum in Rome. During his mission to Germany (1542 to 1545) Le Jay constantly insisted upon the necessity of providing adequate means for clerical formation. He spoke of this urgent need to bishops, to civil rulers, and to the Council fathers themselves. He insisted that special schools be established with the express purpose of preparing young men for the ministry. Through the instigation of Cardinal John Morone, Le Jay's ideas found fruition, at least in Rome, in the Germanicum, established there in 1552. This institution was not a seminary in the Tridentine sense, but rather a collegium, in which the students lived under a determined rule while they attended classes at the Roman College. Finally, other proximate sources were the contemporary attempts to restore the cathedral schools as places of clerical formation. It suffices here to cite the work of three men: Gian Matteo giberti, Bishop of Verona, who restored and improved the already well-known Acolyte School of Verona; Johannes geiler von kaysersberg, the renowned German preacher, who in vain urged his bishop, Albert of Bavaria, to open a theological school in connection with the cathedral church; and, of particular ecumenical interest, Thomas cranmer (1489 to 1556), Archbishop of Canterbury, who supervised the revision of the cathedral school of Canterbury and legislated for improved clerical formation by means of the section de scholis habendis in ecclesiis cathedralibus, a considerable portion of his famous Reformatio legum, which was completed in 1553.

Remote sources of Trent's seminary legislation included not only particular and general councils of the Church but also the pastoral concern of certain popes. As early as 826 Pope eugene ii, in a council held at Rome, legislated that next to every cathedral church a dwelling should be erected in which young clerics would be formed in ecclesiastical discipline. In 1179 the Third Lateran Council laid down the general injunction that every cathedral in the universal Church was to establish a benefice for the support of a schoolmaster who would be charged with teaching the clerics attached to the church. Almost 40 years later, in 1215, the Fourth Lateran Council once again formulated legislation regarding this matter and added that every metropolitan church was to employ a theologian who would be entrusted with the instruction of priests in Sacred Scripture and pastoral theology. As good examples of papal concern for the betterment of clerical education, mention should be made of the Super specula of honorius iii (d. 1183) and the Cum ex eo of Boniface VIII (d. 1298). Even though the above constitutions did not themselves envision the establishment of institutions of learning, nevertheless they did adapt the residence laws in such a way that many clerics were released from their obligations of living in their benefices while pursuing higher studies. They also gave added impetus to the desire of setting up a permanent, workable solution to the problem of inadequate clerical formation.

Implementation of the Tridentine Decree. Almost immediately after its promulgation, plans were made for the law's implementation. In 1565 Pope pius iv erected a seminary for the Diocese of Rome, and sections de seminariis erigendis were incorporated into the canons of many provincial councils. One of the most outstanding proponents of the seminary decree was St. Charles borromeo, Archbishop of Milan. He opened a major seminary under the patronage of St. john the baptist with facilities for 150 students. Also, recognizing that all candidates for the priesthood did not have the intellectual capacity to be admitted to this institution, he established "La Canonica" for about 60 students who would be prepared for the care of souls by classes in Sacred Scripture, case studies, and the fundamentals of the faith as laid down in the Tridentine Catechism. In various parts of his archdiocese he also founded three preparatory seminaries: one for older students, another for adolescents, and a third for younger boys. From these institutions the candidates would pass either to the major seminary or to "La Canonica." In the beginning Borromeo staffed his seminaries with Jesuits, but later on he placed them under the direction of the Oblates of St. Ambrose, an order that he founded himself. His Institutiones ad universum Seminarii regimen pertinentes are valuable amplifications of the Tridentine decree.

In France the cardinal of Lorraine who was archbishop of Reims took the first steps to implement the seminary legislation. The Wars of Religion occasioned such a turmoil, however, that very little of a constructive nature was done before the beginning of the 17th century. St. vincent de paul, John J. Olier, and St. john eudes were the most outstanding contributors to the establishment of seminaries in France, institutions that were to have considerable influence later on in the erection of similar houses of study in the British Isles, Canada, and the United States. Vincent de Paul's work in this field had its origins in a series of spiritual conferences and instructions he was accustomed to give to young men about to be ordained to the priesthood. At first these lasted only for a period of ten days, but later on they developed into a twoor three-year course given between the completion of philosophical studies and actual ordination to the priesthood. In 1635 he established a seminary at the Collège des Bons-Enfants for students of theology; later on he founded Saint-Lazare for young candidates who were studying the humanities; and in 1642 he erected a junior seminary, which he dedicated to St. Charles Borromeo. Prior to the french revolution, his congregation directed one-third of all the French seminaries; 53 of them were major, and nine were minor.

Olier, the founder of the sulpicians, began his contribution to the seminary system by establishing such an institution in 1642 within the boundaries of the parish of St. Sulpice. It was his intention that this should serve as a national seminary, and within two years there were representatives in attendance from 20 dioceses in France. In 1651 the rules for this seminary were adopted by many of the other institutions that were being constructed throughout France, even though it was not his original intention to found a congregation for the direction of seminaries. His intention had been merely to lend his priests to help in their establishment. A great number of requests from bishops led him to modify his plans to the extent that he finally accepted the task of staffing seminaries permanently.

St. John Eudes, a member of the Oratory and later the founder of the Society of the Sacred Hearts, played a significant role in the establishment of seminaries. In 1663 he erected his first seminary at Caen, and by the 18th century his priests staffed 40 seminaries.

The upheavals of the 18th century—the French Revolution, josephinism, and the enlightenment—had disastrous effects upon the seminary system of western Europe. Many were closed and others were entirely suppressed. The 19th century, however, saw the reestablishment of many seminaries and the construction of countless others. In Ireland, Maynooth was erected in 1795 and All Hallows, in 1842; England witnessed the opening of St. Edmund's, Ushaw, and Oscott; and in the United States, St. Mary's Seminary was opened at Baltimore in 1791.

In the United States

Historical Development. The origin of seminaries in the United States can be traced to Baltimore in the 1780s, where Bishop John carroll, seeing the isolation of American Catholics from Europe after the American Revolution and the need for priests, made plans to develop a native American clergy. His efforts resulted in the establishment of Georgetown Academy in 1789, and in an offer by the Society of St. Sulpice to begin a seminary in the new diocese of Baltimore. Carroll intended Georgetown Academy (later georgetown university) as a preparatory school to educate Catholic laymen and provide candidates for seminary study.

The arrival of four Sulpician priests with five seminarians in 1791 to open St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore marked the formal beginning of Catholic seminary education in the United States. From 1799 to 1852 the Sulpicians conducted a lay college affiliated with the seminary that provided institutional support to maintain the small seminary program. In 1808 the Sulpicians opened Mount Saint Mary's College at Emmitsburg, Maryland. The small enrollment of young aspirants to the priesthood, however, soon led them to open the school to boys who did not intend to become priests in order to bring in more revenue and sustain the college. In 1826 the Sulpicians ceded control of Mt. St. Mary's to a corporation of diocesan priests under the direction of the Reverend John dubois. It was an example of a "mixed" seminary, that is, one in which a theologate for seminarians stood side by side with a college for laymen.

In 1848 the Society of St. Sulpice opened St. Charles College in Catonsville, Maryland, and four years later closed the lay college that they had run in connection with the seminary in Baltimore. Thus St. Mary's Seminary became the American prototype of a "freestanding" seminary, that is, one in which the seminarians and clerical faculty devoted themselves exclusively to the task of clerical formation in an environment separated from other activities. Similarly St. Charles Seminary was the country's first freestanding minor seminary.

Diocesan Seminaries. There were 22 dioceses in the United States in 1845. Some bishops sent seminarians to Baltimore and Emmitsburg for training, but most were eager to start their own diocesan seminaries. By 1843 there were 22 seminaries in the country with a combined enrollment of 277 or an average of 13 students per seminary. Most of these local seminaries collapsed during the 1840s and 1850s for one or more reasons: a lack of local youth attracted to the priesthood, the uneven supply of immigrant seminarians, the lack of clerical personnel to conduct them, and the lack of regular funding to sustain their operation.

As dioceses were promoted to the rank of archdiocese with neighboring dioceses grouped around them to form ecclesiastical provinces, efforts were made to form a regional seminary in each province. Thus the Cincinnati archdiocese opened Mount Saint Mary's Seminary of the West at Cincinnati in 1851; the New York archdiocese opened St. Joseph Seminary at Troy, New York, in 1864. St. Francis Seminary, established by the archdiocese of Milwaukee in 1856, became a regional center for clerical formation especially for German-speaking Catholics. Philadelphia had its local St. Charles Seminary since the 1830s, and in 1871 relocated it in a spacious and costly building in the suburb of Overbrook. These seminaries were what social historians of 19th-century life label "total institutions" whose internal life is ordered for one specific purpose: in the case of seminaries, the training of priests.

Religious orders of priests also sponsored and staffed diocesan seminaries. The vincentians, established a seminary for the St. Louis archdiocese in 1818, and conducted diocesan programs at their colleges for laymen at St. Vincent's College, Cape Girardeau, Missouri (1858), and at Niagara College, Niagara Falls, New York (1857). Likewise, Benedictine monks from German-speaking Europe came to the United States to serve German communities. In connection with their monasteries they operated schools for laymen, and educated diocesan and monastic seminarians for the priestly ministry. This was the case in St. Vincent's Archabbey and Seminary established in 1846, near Latrobe, Pennsylvania, St. John's Abbey and Seminary, Collegeville, Minnesota established in 1857, and St. Meinrad Archabbey and Seminary established in 1854. Italian Franciscans were invited to western New York in 1863 where they started a lay college and seminary that became st. bonaventure university.

The dependence of the American Catholic Church on Europe led to various proposals for establishing seminaries in Europe near the sources of funding and students. In 1857 an American College was established in the shadow of the Catholic University at Louvain, Belgium. During the first half century of the college's history, it trained many Europeans, especially Germans, for the American missions. In 1859 Pope pius ix ordered the opening of an American College in Rome exclusively for American seminarians.

Religious Orders. Religious orders experienced a parallel development. As early as 1834, the Dominicans founded their first studium generale in the United States at Somerset, Ohio. About 1860 they established a similar institution on the West Coast at Monterey, later transferred to Benicia, where it remained until 1932. By 1820 the Vincentians had begun a log rectory-seminary at Perryville, Mo., that continued until about 1868 when St. Vincent's Seminary was opened at Germantown, Pennsylvania.

The redemptorists opened their first house of studies in 1849 in New York City. It moved two years later to Cumberland, Maryland, and in 1907 to a farm at Esopus, New York. The origins of the Franciscan School of Theology now at Berkeley, California, can be traced back to rudimentary beginnings in 1854.

In 1823 the jesuits established a novitiate at Florissant, Missouri, outside St. Louis, where they taught philosophy and theology. By 1837 Jesuit scholastics were studying at St. Louis University. In the East, Jesuit scholastics studied at Georgetown which had received in 1833, from the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, the power to grant ecclesiastical degrees in philosophy and theology. In 1869, however, the Jesuits unified their seminary program in a single national freestanding seminary, the College of the Sacred Heart, at Woodstock, Maryland, near Baltimore. Woodstock College, as it was known, remained the Jesuits' national seminary until the early 20th century.

Until more information is assembled and analyzed, we may assume that the above patterns were somewhat typical for religious orders through much of the nineteenth century. The growing number of religious seminarians kept pace with the increase of diocesan seminarians. By 1900 there were some 76 seminaries, minor and major, diocesan and religious, enrolling 3,395 seminarians. Religious orders and congregations continued to establish free-standing seminaries into the era of Vatican Council II. These houses of study remained "total institutions," fully staffed with their own professors and with a student body made up entirely of members of the order or congregation. There seem to have been many such foundations that lasted only a few years before they were moved or closed.

Program Content and Duration. The vision of ministry in the developing American Catholic Church influenced the kind and length of all seminary programs. The urgent need for priests to minister the Sacraments to the rapidly growing Catholic immigrant population required quick training. Dogmatic and moral theology "tracts" or short articles on theological topics bound together in "manuals" were the basis of instruction with other subjects secondary or not offered. There was no Church legislation governing the length of the program. Moreover, the volume of seminary activities, substantial though it appears by the 1870s, did not produce the priests needed for the growing Catholic population. To resolve this and other pressing issues in the American Catholic community, the American bishops convened for their Third Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1884.

The Council's seminary decrees were aimed to improve the content and length of seminary training by requiring a six year course for minor and major seminaries. The major seminary decree listed and described the courses of the curriculum giving unprecedented attention to formerly neglected subjects such as Biblical studies, homiletics, and Church history. The minor seminary decree aimed to prepare students for the major seminary with an education that was firmly grounded in the humanities, classical languages, and the rudiments of clerical spirituality and culture. Diocesan seminary educators now had the guidance of a curricular program for a prescribed number of years, though it would be years before all seminaries complied fully with the six-year requirement for the major seminary.

The Third Plenary Council initiated action that led to the establishment of a national university in Washington, D.C. The catholic university of america opened in 1889. Although the Catholic University was originally intended for priests doing graduate study, it acted as a magnet attracting seminarians to the city. The Paulists and other religious orders established residences and houses of study near the university so that their members could take advantage of the university's philosophy and theology programs. In 1905 the dominicans opened their own house of studies as a free-standing seminary across the street from the university where their seminarians could pursue the Order's distinctive theological program and pontifical decrees without recourse to the university.

The training offered in seminaries in the 20th century continued the methods of spiritual formation of the kind pursued since the 17th. Moreover, the separation of seminary communities from lay culture was more complete within the self-contained world of the free-standing seminary and under the more rigorous standards decreed by Church authority. The methods of formal learning in most diocesan seminaries and in many seminaries of religious orders were similar. Dogmatic and moral theology dominated the subjects of study.

Preconciliar Period. By the 1950s seminary educators began to develop among themselves a sense of common concerns. The initiative was taken by various religious orders engaged in educational activities, either through their own seminaries or through seminary education for dioceses. They discussed the need for reform and for common educational policies. It was, however, the seminary department of the national catholic educational association (NCEA) that provided the national forum for seminary educators. The annual convention offered an occasion for the discussion of seminary concerns and the exchange of ideas.

In 1958 the NCEA appointed a full-time executive for the seminary department, Reverend J. Cyril Dukehart. Father Dukehart was a persistent advocate of ways to bring the seminary out of its isolation from the rest of the educational world that often regarded the Catholic seminary as inferior. He targeted three major areas for seminary reform: first, the importance of accreditation so that unordained former seminary students and clerical alumni would have academic records and degrees that would be recognized in the educational world; second, the formation of an American Association of Catholic Theological Seminaries as a means to improve the standards of seminaries and to establish a professional degree for seminaries; and third, the acute problem of the weakness of over 100 minor and major seminaries having fewer than 50 students.

In 1959 the seminary department of the NCEA reported that there were 381 seminaries, major and minor, diocesan and religious, in the United States, representing a 28 percent increase during the decade. By 1961, the total number of all seminarians, diocesan and religious, was 42,349 in 402 seminaries and houses of religious formation. These institutions ranged in size from great freestanding seminaries of large dioceses and large religious orders, many of them having been established after 1900, to programs of small religious orders training a handful of seminarians. The high enrollments were tributes to the attractiveness of the priesthood to youth born and raised in American Catholic culture. Many seminary educators believed that the growth would continue indefinitely and the need for improvement of seminaries was therefore urgent.

By 1962, the year of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, the main lines of an agenda of seminary reform in the United States had been determined. The following decade saw the implementation of most reforms that were designed to end the isolation of the seminary and to enlarge its educational purposes. These changes were accompanied by both the theological renewal brought by the Second Vatican Council that would alter the content of seminary learning, and the rapid cultural changes taking place within the American Catholic community that would change the attitude of young men toward entering the seminary.

Normative Documents. The immediate impetus for change in seminary curriculum and style of life came from the documents of Vatican II that in one way or another related to priesthood and priestly formation, especially Presbyterorum ordinis and Optatam totius. Optatam totius, the decree that dealt specifically with priestly formation, posited three fundamental principles: first, along with the decree on the priesthood, Presbyterorum ordinis, it stated clearly a doctrine of "the unity of the Catholic priesthood." Second, it affirmed, seemingly as a corollary to the foregoing, that the same "priestly formation is required for all priests—secular, religious and of every rite." Third, it assumed that the diocesan priesthood with its parochial ministries is the analogue according to which the appropriateness of all priestly training is measured.

Optatam totius and Presbyterorum ordinis were the bases of the Ratio fundamentalis for priestly formation issued January 1970 by the Congregation for Catholic Education. The Ratio uses the term "seminary" in the general sense of "institutions organized for the formation of priests" (n. 1). This usage is symptomatic of the erosion of the older distinction between seminarium, the diocesan institution, and the studiorum domus (house of studies) of religious orders, a distinction that has also disappeared from the new Code of canon law.

When the first edition of The Program of Priestly Formation (PPF) was published by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops in 1971 in accordance with the provisions of the Ratio fundamentalis of the previous year, it contained a special section on "The Religious Priest's Formation." The preface to the document noted:

The Conference of Major Religious Superiors of Men … agreed to accept the Program as the recommended program for religious priests' formation, if there were added to the Program a short section prepared by them on religious life (Part Four). The National Conference approved the Program as the one program for all seminarians, diocesan and religious, and the addition of Part Four (pp. xii–xiii).

Thus, within the short period between the publication of the Ratio and the publications of the first edition of the PPF, "seminaries" of the orders and congregations found that their training, for the first time in history, seemed to require episcopal approval.

The second edition (1976) of the Program contained the same Part Four unchanged. The third edition (1981), however, dropped this section on religious priests because, according to the "Statement from the Conference of Major Superiors of Men,"

Religious and diocesan priests share an increasingly pluriform priesthood; their needs for priestly formation as such do not differ…. Thus the Conference of Major Superiors of Men adopts the program of priestly formation as the one program for all United States religious seminarians (p. 3).

All three editions of The Program of Priestly Formation (1971, 1976, 1981) were the result of collaboration among the bishops of the United States, personnel involved in priestly formation programs, and other knowledgeable individuals. This document, approved in the name of the holy see by the Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, concerns itself with all aspects of formation at the theologate, college, and high school level. According to the PPF, the three principal components of formation are: "spiritual and personal formation through community life and worship and personal spiritual guidance; academic preparation through humanistic and theoretical studies; and pastoral training through supervised practical experience" (n. 39).

Besides the omission of the special section on the formation of religious priests, the 1981 edition made several major changes: new emphasis is given to safeguarding the distinctive training and life style of priests (n. 19); formation for celibacy (n. 22); acceptance of older candidates (nn. 24–25); and preparation for social justice (nn. 26–28). Finally, a section on the significance of the seminary for the life of the Church is added (nn. 29–33).

The 1983 Code of Canon Law embodies legislation for seminaries in 33 canons (nn. 232–264), substantially longer than the 19 canons governing the establishment and direction of seminaries in the 1917 Code (cc. 1352–1371). The revised code emphasizes the entire process of preparing a person to be a cleric rather than on the seminary as an institution. Unlike the 1917 code which treated seminaries in the section dealing with the ecclesiastical magisterium, the 1983 code places the section, "The Formation of Clerics," in Book II of the code which treats "The People of God." This new placement reflects the fact that seminary training is broader than doctrinal education.

Significant points in the 1983 Code include the recognition of candidates of a more mature age and the need of programs to assist them; an extensive summary of Vatican II teachings on the spiritual formation of a priest; and the need of pastoral training which includes ministerial field experience. It reiterates the need of four full years of theological studies with distinct professors for all the major disciplines. Only faculty who have a doctorate or licentiate from a university or faculty recognized by the Holy See are to be appointed by bishops to teach in the major disciplines. The latter is stricter than previous legislation. Canon 242 calls for the episcopal conference of each nation to prepare a program of priestly formation adapted to the pastoral needs of their region. While restating the norm of the earlier code that each diocese should have a major seminary, the 1983 code recognizes that this is not always possible and collaborative efforts on the part of several dioceses may be necessary. It supports minor seminaries, but it no longer requires them of dioceses.

The Ratio fundamentalis for priestly formation was revised in 1985 to bring it into closer conformity with the 1983 Code of Canon Law. The new version contains very few emendations to the original edition: it highlights the study of Thomistic philosophy, and notes the need of background in the "economic questions" of parochial administration.

Post Vatican II. It is against this general background, and especially against the impact of Vatican Council II, that the dramatic series of relocations and reorganizations of seminaries and houses of study that took place in the post-conciliar years must be viewed. Between 1966 and 1970 a large number of theologates related themselves in a variety of formal and informal ways to other religious bodies and institutions of learning. Some of the major changes included the formation of the Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, which originated in 1967 from the joint sponsorship of provinces of several religious orders. A somewhat similar arrangement came into force at the Washington Theological Union, which was incorporated in 1969 as the Washington Theological Coalition. In Berkeley, Calif., Franciscan, Dominican, and Jesuit theologates associated themselves with the Graduate Theological Union and the University of California in the late 1960s. Several diocesan seminaries closed during this period, but most retained their free-standing status. All of the formal clusters or unions and most of the individual schools soon became affiliated with the Association of Theological Schools and accredited by it. The first such affiliations took place in 1968.

Bibliography: Seminaria ecclesiae catholicae (Vatican City 1963), a detailed and carefully documented history of seminary development, with extensive bibliog. Enchiridion clericorum (Rome 1938). m. barbera, "L'Origine dei seminari a norma del Concilio di Trento," La civiltà cattolica 91.3 (1940) 215–21. g. culkin, "The English Seminaries," Clergy Review 35 (1951) 73–88. a. degert, Histoire des séminaires français jusqu'à la Révolution, 2 v. (Paris 1912). m. f. dinneen, "St. Mary's Seminary of St. Sulpice, Baltimore," American Ecclesiastical Review 16 (1897) 225–41. h. jedin, "Domschule und Kolleg," Trierer theologische Zeitschrift 67 (1958) 210–23. l. mcdonald, The Seminary Movement in the United States (1784–1833) (Washington 1927). w. s. morris, The Seminary Movement in the United States (1833–1866) (Washington 1932). a. mulders, "Het Trentsche Seminarie-decreet," Nederlandsche katholieke stemmen 28 (1928) 226–39. j. a. o'donohoe, Tridentine Seminary Legislation: Its Sources and Its Formation (Louvain 1957). b. poÜan, De seminario clericorum (Louvain 1874).

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