In 1568, the Catholic priest and former canon of York, William Allen, founded the English College in Douai. The city, which is now in France, belonged to the Spanish Netherlands at that time. Ten years later, the Dutch took over control. The college moved to Rheims, where it remained until 1593.
Before it became a cadre school for fanatical Catholics, it had enjoyed a good reputation as an educational institution. Initially, Allen only wanted to give English Catholics in exile the opportunity to continue their studies and thus have a base of priests to be used in England as soon as the re-Catholicisation of the country had begun.
After Allen realised that this would not happen in the foreseeable future, he made the college a training centre for "seminary priests". The term was used to distinguish them from the "Marian priests". The term was used to distinguish them from the "Marian priests". The latter were Catholic priests who had been ordained in England before or during the reign of Mary I (1553-1558). After Elizabeth I’s accession to the throne, they were better off under criminal law, which even included the possibility of remaining in the country under certain conditions. Seminary priests, on the other hand, were forbidden to enter England or even to stay there under threat of death, as they were considered high traitors. The seminary trained these priests specifically to do missionary work in England and bring people back to the Catholic Church. Apart from that, the level of education at the college was very high.
In 1587 Marlowe applied for admission to the Master of Arts degree at Cambridge, but this was not granted because there must have been a rumour that Marlowe had been in Rheims during his studies. Nothing has survived in writing from the university, but there is a copy of a letter from the Privy Council, dated 9 July 1587, confirming that Marlowe had never been in Rheims and expressing the wish that Marlowe be awarded his degree.1
Nevertheless, some biographers suggest that Marlowe was in Rheims. However, the seminary kept very accurate records and no Marlowe – of any spelling – is recorded for the period in question.2
