etc., who basically followed his strategy. Clement VIII (1592–1605), Cardinal Aldobrandini since 1585, changed the policy and stood against Philip, after his military defeat by the English. In the latter part of the 16th century, deeming that the reconversion structure needed strengthening, the popes established a number of Scots Colleges, typically through the Jesuits. One of these was the Scots College at Douai, founded by its first Superior, Father William Crighton (P. Gulielmus Creighton), who held the office 1581–1597, according to the records of the college. Apparently Crighton had been asked by "the pope": perhaps Pope Sixtus V (1585–1590) to provide Scottish students for seminary study at Rome. The Scots College at Rome did not receive its foundation bull from Clement VIII until 1600, but the request specifically for Scotsmen evidences an early interest in that direction. How Crighton got Dempster's name remains as unknown as why he was deported from Paris, but Thomas was one of four selected and did not enroll at Louvain, but journeyed straight to Rome. He mentions that Cardinal Aldobrandini was raising an army there and calls him also Clement VIII, perhaps in anticipation of later events. Dempster says that he was in a seminarium Romanum with "the choicest nobility of Italy", which he would not have been if the Scots College had existed then. Scots College of Douai The Roman plan came to nothing when, as Dempster says, "the lethal disease recurred." Acting on medical advice the church authorities returned him to Belgium for a change of climate. After an arduous and dangerous journey north of the Alps he connected at Tournai with James Cheyne, a member of his network of Scottish patrons. Securing funding from "the king of Spain", who must have been Philip II, and "Archduke Albert", Cheyne sent him to the Scottish College, Douai, from which, after a few years, he graduated. The name of Thomas Demster appears as Item Number 64 in the Register of Alumni for the college, applying to the year 1593, with a very brief entry next to his name, "etiam seminarii alumnus." Apparently the college accepted both seminarians and seculars, and this notification identified Thomas as a seminarian. If the 1579 birthdate is true, Thomas would have been 14. Of his stay there he had little to say, only that he took first prize in poetry and second in philosophy. He showed such ability that, when