Mr. Manuel Ángel Feal Antelo tells us in his
magnificent work entitled “THE COLLEGE OF THE CARDENAL DE MONFORTE DE LEMOS.
EVOLUTION OF THE UNIVERSAL TRACE ”that before starting the works of our School
an enemy came out, inside the house itself. It was the Monterrei College, in
Verín, also run by the PP. Jesuits, who at the news of the Monforte
construction project feared outside to their detriment. D. Mauel Feal tells us
this:
“Although it may seem a lie, the first serious enemy of the College of Monforte was his fraternal colleague, the College de Monterrey. Perhaps the skirmish influenced the tension between the House of Monterrey and that of Lemos for a sound lawsuit that had been brought since the early sixteenth century. The truth is that Don Gaspar de Acevedo, V Count of Monterrey, upon learning that in Monforte he was trying to raise another College of the Company, he wrote to Fr. General, asking him “that the Monforte College not harm the General Studies from Monterrey”.
The response of Fr. General was logical and courteous: «Having already accepted the Company and the Cardinal’s foundation – he says on March 15, 1593 – no rate or limitation can be set, nor would it be fair. Nor do we see so much danger in this impediment. The Company, in the foundation of a College, cannot harm any other, nor its founder. But being the College of Monterrey, it will not be harmed by any of those that could be done in the contour ».
Meanwhile, things in Monforte were about. In April 1593, the Provincial informed Aquaviva with unusual optimism: «The Colegio de Monforte will be a matter of great substance. Then the work begins and is done as a thing of the Cardinal, as he suffers our way. If God gives it life, it will end in two or three years, because it takes great hurry and, even if it is not given, I trust it will be the same. It already has 30,000 ducats and more, for this purpose. And won the consensus of the abbots, will give 2,000 ducats of pension income to that College, which will soon take effect.
As you can see, Don Rodrigo had decided to raise the primitive income by 500 ducats. The Provincial, after affirming that in Monforte there were already two Fathers and a Brother of the Company, he added that he hoped to meet the Cardinal shortly, on his trip to Monforte, and arrange the founding deed. “And it is a wonderful thing,” he concludes, “the hobby he has for his school and the desire to see him, and they say that everything is to talk about this.”
After the expulsion of the Jesuits the Colegio de Monterrei was abandoned and its stone was used to pave the streets of Verín.