The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-04-08
DONEIN KING OF
SMALL SWINDLERS
Stuck to Churches and Worked
the Whole World
BORN OF A GOOD FAMILY
Interesting Career of "Bishop of Anti
och" and Holder of Several Other
Self-Conferred Titles-Ex-
posed BY Labouchere.
From the Washington Post.

From the Washington Post.
Edward Donl1in, Bishop of Santa croce
of Antioch" and holder of several other
self-conferred ecclesiastical titles. IS dead
in London. lie was one of the most pic
turesque small swindlers in the world
For fifteen years he ranged the world
from Australia to Milwaukee. obtaining
money and getting credit upon his pre-
tensions of ecclesiastical position and
great piety. He swindled all the branches
of the Catholic church impartially posing
at various times as a priest of the Roman
Catholics, the Greek Catholics, the Old
Catholics and the Church of England
He worked monasteries by the Dozen
and his changes of faith were swifter
and more dazzling than those of the Vicar
of Bray. Yet so pious were his ways and
so great was his learning in theology
that there remained hundreds of people
In England who believed until last year
that he was a prosecuted and unfortunate
holy man.
He was exposed in 1905 by Labouchere'
in London Truth, and a part of his life
was made public. At that time he was
arrested for obtaining money under false
pretenses, but managed to crawl out
through holes in the law.
Just who Donlzin was no one knows
1t is said that he was born in England
of good family. lie appeared first in
Australia in the early nineties and en-
tered Benedietine monastery.
IIa ranrpeentad himself there as Ok
ford NJ A., and Roman Catholic The
fathers were deceived by his apparent
piety and he was taken into the monas-
terry as a novice.
He did not remain long. although he
seems to have picked up there the foun-
dations of his prlestly knowledge which
he used afterward. Just why he left the
place has never been told, but IL is easy
to guess. He was a man of very low
life, and many of his campaigns ended
with a scandal
In 1893 he appeared in England. Here
he made his first change of religion. He
represented himself as an Anglican
priest, and got a curacy in the diocese
of Bath and Wells.
But he had presented forged credentials,
and when this was discovered he was
deposed. He bobbed up again as a Roman
Catholic at Glastonbury. There he asked
for admission IN FRENCH monastery,
representing himself as a young man
of fashion who was tired of the world.
Things were going. well, when ii was
discovered that he had rolled up large
debts in the neighborhood on the strength
of his connection with the monastery.
That ended him there. The monks paid
the debts to save the good name of the
order.
After that he abandoned the church
graft for a time and worked Paris as a
British nobleman But a year or two
later a party Of monks from Downside
found him in a Benedictine monastery
in Rome There he was fairly caught and
did a term in iail for the frauds which
he had perpetrated in the name of the
monastery.
The detail of his American career are
NOT DEFINITELY known He was IN Now
least ascanod tha nothe of The noIioa
He came tn Iigbt ogat,, u,her, ba an,,ea,,od
a. Ehiaaoo aed NTiIs,,a,,,,aa ,,a aptat,,o,
f,o,o, So ,,r,o.t ~ - or
Ca,ho1ia - ~. ~, ~, si.s,4,o,,
80 ~ ,aatton, ms o''' ie'i
1vhar p ~ a,,1,-saoa T., ,y,,,,.a,,,,ao -
ne na appp.sieu "a NV siu'se1 ne
80, e,,sa' q. 90 l4' uicn u .ns
, r ~ ~. aus .9sii' luz
Loiiooii. ne iiisu chuleh eieiss u
the uiocese TOOK MN up, ana ne preaeheo
~ seNeiai ehuicnes' ne - remembered
lrere as an ehecliYe preacher.
IN hieh ehurcp circles TINS consecrated
man with the noble ancestry became
SoAnethins u rase' re salhered
many Oh MS ADMIRERS INTO an ecclesias-
ucal iorder OF his own imagination, known
as the Order of the Red Cord.
rms died out only those on the inside