CHAPTER III.
The third President of the College was Rev. William Hart, alias Holdcroft, a native of Lancashire, whose administration, both in its immediate and subsequent results, was very disastrous. He held the office for three years, from 1634 to 1637, when he was deposed for mismanagement and recalled to England.
Dodd says of him: "He was a person of singular parts, learning and conduct."
During the period which elapsed until the Rev. Peter Clarence, who had been educated at Seville, was nominated to the dignity, Father Daniel, one of the original students from Douay who at that time was Senior Superior, supplied the place of President. Father Clarence arrived in June, 1638, but did not enter upon his duties till the following year. In the April previous to his arrival the founder of the College, Don Pedro Coutinho, died. His funeral obsequies were performed with a degree of splendour, till then unexampled in Portugal in the case of a private person. All the Religious Communities in the city, together with the majority of the Secular clergy attended, and great numbers of the poor, to whom his purse had always been open, swelled the procession. His body was interred in the Franciscan Church of St. Jozè de Ribamar, to which he had been a benefactor. It is situated on the right bank of the Tagus, about five miles below Lisbon, where his tomb may be seen with the following epitaph inscribed upon it.
Aquijaz quern foi Dom. Pedro Coutinho.
(Here lies he who was Dom. Pedro Coutinho.)
In assuming the government of the house, Father
