Bishop Arnold Harris Mathew

Arnold Harris Mathew (1852–1919) was the first Old Catholic bishop in the United Kingdom. He was a suspended Roman Catholic priest who became the leading prelate of the Old Catholic sect in the U.K. 1852 was a leap year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... 1919 (MCMXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... The Old Catholic Church (in Switzerland Christian Catholic Church) is not so much a religious denomination, as a community, part of whose member churches split from the Roman Catholic church in 1870. ... A bishop is an ordained member of the Christian clergy who, in certain Christian churches, holds a position of authority. ... The Roman Catholic Church, most often spoken of simply as the Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with over one billion members. ...

Mathew was appointed in 1908 after the Utrecht Union of Churches approved the establishment of a mission in the U.K. Mathew convinced the continental Old Catholic prelates that he had a significant following in the U.K. which, in fact, was a rather small following. He was consecrated by Archbishop Gerardus Gul of Utrecht on April 28, 1908. Assisting Gul was Bishop J. J. Van Thiel of Haarlem, Bishop N. B. P. Spit of Deventer and Bishop J. Demmel of Bonn, Germany. 1908 (MCMVIII) is a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... April 28 is the 118th day of the year (119th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 247 days remaining. ... 1908 (MCMVIII) is a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

He then returned to England and eventually raised a number of men to the episcopacy himself, including two former Catholic priests, Howarth and Beale, who had been excommunicated by the Bishop of Nottingham for embezzling. Mathew then sent documents to Pope Pius X attesting to the consecrations. Upon receipt of these documents, Pope Pius X published the Bull Cravi Iamdiu Scandalo in which he excommunicated Mathew and condemned him as a "pseudo-bishop" and declared him vitandus, a term in church law which meant that Catholics were subject to censure if they had anything to do with Mathew. Pius X also extended his sentence of excommunication to include those who had been consecrated by Mathew. Pope Saint Pius X (Latin: ), born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto (June 2, 1835 – August 20, 1914), was Pope from 1903 to 1914, succeeding Pope Leo XIII. He was the first pope since the Counter-Reformation Pope St. ...

On December 29, 1910 Mathew declared his autonomy from the continental Old Catholics due to disagrements with certain practices and disciplines that Mathew felt deviated from Catholic tradition. December 29 is the 363rd day of the year (364th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 2 days remaining. ... 1910 (MCMX) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ...

Mathew later consecrated Prince Rudolph Edward de Landes Berghes, an Austrian nobleman, in 1913 for work in Scotland. 1913 (MCMXIII) is a common year starting on Wednesday. ... ...

In January 1916, he announced that he would be reconciled to the Holy See, but changed his mind two months later. He then sought union with the Church of England but the Archbishop of Canterbury refused to give Mathew any position as an Anglican clergyman. Mathew retired to a village in the countryside and contented himself with assisting at services in an Anglican parish church as a layman. The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England, and acts as the mother and senior branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion, as well as a founding member of the Porvoo Communion. ... Arms of the see of Canterbury The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior clergyman of the established Church of England and symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion. ...

By this time, he had been deserted by his wife and abandoned by virtually all the priests and bishops he had made. He died suddenly in December 1919 and was buried as an Anglican layman. His episcopal seal and other documents disappeared after his death.