When Father Robert Persons became Rector of the English College at Rome in 1597, a custom was introduced whereby each intending scholar was set a series of questions concerning his family, upbringing, education, state of health, religious history, and intentions in coming to the seminary. About a year later this requirement
was incorporated in the new Statutes of the College (the Constitution Omnis Reipublicae Status) promulgated by Cardinals Farnese and Borghese. In accordance with this rule, during most of the seventeenth century, the majority of students entering the English College wrote autobiographical accounts of their lives up to that moment. It is these autobiographical statements, known as the Responsa Scholarum, which form the material of this and the next volume of the Catholic Record Society's publications. The present volume contains the Responsa of scholars admitted between 1597 and 1621.
