Creation of a Secular Clergy
generous offer because the young college founded by the zealous Father Augustine Gardet was at this time a parish institution that belonged to :ind went with the parish as its school. The Jesuit Superior did not feel that it was right to take both the school and the parish from their de- voted pastor. 41 J\fcer further exploration of the problem, Father Artola made formal application on July 30, 1876, to Bishop Pellicer for permission to establish a seminary and college in San Antonio or Seguin. He explained that for three years the Jesuit Fathers had been in the city of San Antonio with- out a regular assignment, other than preaching occasional missions and helping out where needed. The founding of a seminary and school for boys would give the members of the Community regular employment and provide them the means for a livelihood. If in the opinion of the Bishop, it was not advisable to begin another college in San Antonio, he sug- gested that Seguin might be a likely location. At this time Seguin was :> settlement of about 2000 persons built on the railroad line. There were about a dozen Catholic families and a small parish church, explained · Father Artola, and some eight or nine Protestant churches.•: Establishment of t/1e Guadalupe Seminary and College at Seguin. Bishop Pellicer gladly acceded to the request, but pointed out that the establishment could not be made in San Antonio. He was happy, how- ever, to cede to the Jesuit Fathers the administration of the district of the Guadalupe and to put in their care the missions of Seguin, San Marcos, Lockhart, Gonzales, and all the stations on the Galveston-Harrisburg line that lay between Luling and Cibolo, comprised within the district. At the same time, he gave the Jesuits permission to set up a Seminary-College in Seguin. Father Artola lost no time in going to Seguin, where he bought the building of the former Guadalupe Female College, which had recently been closed shortly after Dr. Franklin had tried in vain to keep it alive as the Guadalupe School for Young Ladies. He took over the little parish church of St. James, named Father MacLaughlin, S.J., pastor because he could speak English, and in the next few days from September 22 to 24, 1876, moved the seminarians and Fathers from the San Antonio house to their new quarters in Seguin. Finding the building he had purchased in Seguin too small, he put up an additional frame building
41 /bid. . 330-332. 42 /bid., 332.
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