The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-04-12
THE CONVERT MONKS OF
ENGLAND.
How They Broke With AneIicanism,

The London Catholic Times of
March 7th contains some deeply inter-
esting details regarding the history of
the convert monks at Galley, Eng
land. The community had been estab-
lished some fifteen years ago by Angli-
can authority in the hope of reviving
the old time religious life in the
Church of England But their very
faithfulness to the rule of st. Bene-
dict under which they had been estab-
lished led them slowly away from
Anglicanism. The final break came
when the community refused to sub
nit to certain anti-Catholic regula-
tions imposed by their Anglican
Bishop. The regulations which the
monks rejected were: The property
of the institution must be legally Sc
cured to the Church of England. The
monks in Orders must use the liturgy
of the Book of Common Prayer and
recite Mathis and Even-song in the
manner of the Church of England.
The practice of Exposition and Bene-
diction of the Blessed Sacrament must
be abandoned. The doctrine of the
Immaculate Conception and of the
corporal Assumption of Our Lady
must be eliminated from the monks
breviaries and missals. The monks
declined these conditions. Dom Bede
Camm, o. S. B., one of the world S
best known Benedictine monks, writ
ing in the Times, quotes from letters
which tell the story:
Some private letters addressed by
younger member of the Com
munity to his Abbot in Lent, 1912,
which have been kindly shown me,
seem to put the question in nut
shell He writes: The question we
are considering and the desire of the
| Community that some definite de-
cision should be made have arisen
l believe, chiefly from a general con
viction that we cannot possibly go
on much longer as we are, posed
between two religions; we must
eventually throw in our lot with the
submission to the Holy See. Nomi
nally we are Anglicans, or as, it was
put to us yesterday, we are a prod
uct of the Church of England but
in reality the Community has been
brought up on Roman Catholic food
if I may put it in that way; there
fore our breviary, missal and devo
tional books contain doctrines which
are not compatible with the teach
ing of the Church of England, e. g..
the doctrine of Papal Supremacy
We have of necessity turned to the
Roman Church for our liturgical
and devotional books, and their con
slant use has naturally created feel
ings of gratitude and sympathy to
wards their great communion where
the religious life and all that we
hold most dear is found in it's per
lection, and above all, it has fostere6
in us keener sense of our isola
ton from the rest of the Catholic
Church than most Anglicans car
feel or understand. We have Dor
rowed practically everything we have
from the Roman Church, and now i
may be that we shall have to look t.
Rome for that authority and recog
milton of our faith and practice
which surely no Anglican Bishop
true to his principles can give u.s."
Their own Bishop could not give
them the authority and recognition
they needed; all he could do was tt
set down the conditions given above
the rejection of the very founda
lions of the faith that was in them
And of course they could not sub
NIT. AS Dom Bede Camm writes