When the Constable de Bourbon laid siege to Rome in 1527, the Capranica students were among the few defenders of the Porta di S. Spirito, and all of them with their rector died when Rome was breached. The word "Almo" ("who gives life") in the title remembers them. The rector, according to the university custom of those days, was elected by the students and was always one of them until Pope Alexander VII decided that the rector should be appointed by the protectors of the college. In 1971 Pope Paul VI instituted an Episcopal Commission, composed of three former students, a cardinal and two bishops to direct the seminary.