The Irish standard., 1906-03-31

Edward Donkin, Bishop of Santa
Eroce Of Antioch" and holder of sew
/! eral other self conferred ecclesiastical
titles, is dead in London. He was one
of the most picturesque small swim
dlers in the world, says the New York
Sun.
For fifteen years he ranged the world
from, Australia to Milwaukee, obtain,
ing money and getting credit upon his
pretensions of ecclesiastical position
and great piety. He posed at various
times as priest Of the Greek Catho-
lics, the Old Catholics and the Church
of England, as well as Of the Roman
Catholics.
He worked monasteries by the doz-
en-. and his changes of faith were
swifter and more dazzling than those
Sof the Vicar Of Bray. Yet SO pious
,s}were his ways and so great was his
learning in theology that there re-
i manned hundreds of people in Eng
/ land who believed until last year that
he was a prosecuted and unfortunate
holy man.
Il He was exposed in 1905 by Labou-
chere in London Truth. and a part Of
his life was made public. At that time
The was arrested for obtaining money
+ under false pretences. but managed
TO crawl out through holes in the Law.
Just who Donlxin was no one knows.
It is said that he was born in England
OF good family. He appeared first in
l. Australia in the early '9os.
j. He represented himself there as an
4 oxford n. A. The fathers were de-
ceived by his apparent piety and he
was taken into the monastery as a
novice.
y He did not remain long. Just why
he left has never been told, but it
{ is easy to guess. He was a man of
4 very low life, and many Of his cam
q paigns ended with a scandal.
In 1893 he appeared in England.
Here he made his first change Of re-
\ ligion. He represented himself as an
Anglican priest. and got curacy in
Y the diocese of Bath and Wells.
He had presented forged creden-
tials, and when this was discovered
he was deposed. He bobbed up again
/ as Roman Catholic at Glastonbury.
4 There he asked for admission in q
/ h French monastery, representing him.
self as young man Of fashion who
was tired Of the world.
u Things were going we'll, when 1t was
4 discovered that he had rolled up large
d debts in the neighborhood on the
strength of his connection with the
4 monastery. That ended him there. The
monks paid the debts to save the good
I, Il name of the order.
u At Downside, near Bath, he tried it
on another monastery. That time he
was an Anglican clergyman who want
h ed to enter the Roman Catholic faith,
Il and he presented forged letters of Or
Il dination from the very Bishop Of Bath
4 who had deposed him from his curacy.
This was discovered before very
tong, but not before he had touched
Roman Catholic clergymen in London
during one of his absences from the
monastery. Next he caught the fa-
NOUS Father 1gnatius. superior of
Llanthony Abbey. It was the same
Il old game-an English clergyman who
had been attracted to Rome.
Father Ignatius was duped for a
long time, but an accident proved to
him that Donkin had been telling him
string Of lies about his family and
property. The Catholic papers Of Eng
{ land bulletined him as a fraud. and
he left the country for the time being;
After that he abandoned the church
graft for a time and worked Paris az
British nobleman. A year or two
later party Of monks from Downside
>und him in Benedictine monastery
Rome. There he was fairly caugh,
did term in jail for the frauds
4 he had perbetrated in the name
monastery.
his release he tried England
cry nearly persuaded the
q Capuchin establishment t.
In as converted Anslical