Project Canterbury

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A Correspondence

[between the Benedictines of Caldey Island and the Anglican Hierarchy on the position of their Community within that Communion].

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Letter from Father Abbot to the Archbishop of Canterbury.

THE ABBEY,
ISLE OF CALDEY,
NR. TENBY,
13th December, 1911.

MY LORD ARCHBISHOP,

I think your Grace may have heard of the existence of a Community of Men living under the Benedictine Rule on the Isle of Caldey near Tenby in South Wales.

I trust you will pardon a letter from me as Abbot of the Community; and I am writing to your Grace as a Priest in Colonial Orders to ask you for the usual permission to minister in the Province.

I must explain that Caldey Island is by its ancient Charter and present general recognition extra-diocesan and extra-parochial. The Island became extra-diocesan by Papal privilege granted before the Reformation to the Benedictines who then owned it. This privilege of exemption was extended by Henry VIII at the Dissolution in his grant of the Island property to John Bradshaw from whom it has passed by sale through nine different families until it came into our possession. Caldey is subject to no parochial or county taxation, and its ecclesiastical position as a Peculiar is recognized by the nearest Diocesan—the Bishop of Saint Davids. The Island is very self-contained, and belongs entirely to our Community; and all the people who work here in the little village are employed by us and are under my care.

In the year 1898, after some correspondence and interviews with Archbishop Temple, I was professed under the Benedictine Rule by the then Chaplain of Malling Abbey, who, in a letter which is in my possession, was specially authorized by Archbishop Temple to receive my Religious Profession.

In 1902 a Charter was granted by Archbishop Temple, approving my Election as Abbot of the Community and giving permission for my Blessing and Installation. This took place in 1903, and the ceremony was performed by Bishop Grafton of Fond du Lac, acting by permission of the Archbishop of York—for we were at that time living in the York Diocese, in a house lent us by Lord Halifax.

In 1904 I approached the Archbishop of York with a view to my Ordination; and after considering the matter he decided that, as I was going to America on a visit with a view to the foundation of a Benedictine Community in the Diocese of Fond du Lac, I should take a letter from his Grace to Bishop Grafton saying, that if he would admit me to Holy Orders during my stay in America, he would receive me back to his Diocese as one of his Clergy in Colonial Orders.

The Ordination accordingly took place in November, 1904, and I received the Orders of Deacon and Priest from the Bishop of Fond du Lac while staying with him.

Upon my return I ministered to my Community as a Priest, with permission of the Archbishop, and preached in several Churches of the York Diocese.

In 1906 we purchased Caldey Island from the Rev. W. Done Bushell, and the Community, now numbering thirty-two members, included two Priests of whom I am one.

From the beginning we have tried to live according to Catholic Faith and Practice, and we have always taken care to be obedient to the principle of Catholic Authority. We have never once disobeyed either the commands or the known wishes of the Bishop of the Diocese in which we happened to be; and every step in the life of our Community has been taken with the sanction of Authority.

For the sake of brevity I am giving your Grace the merest outline of the position; and, should you desire to know more, I will send you fuller particulars together with copies of the letters above referred to.

When I returned to the Archbishop of York after my Ordination, he was failing very rapidly in health, and when I asked him for a License said that under the circumstances he did not think it necessary for me to apply to the Archbishop of Canterbury in the usual way; and when we came to Caldey (soon afterwards), I felt it rather premature to write to you for any permission till I knew more exactly what was needed.

The Bishop of Saint Davids will tell you, I think, that he is able to answer for my general trustworthiness. He know something of our work, and has been very kind to us since we came to Caldey; and twice he and his Suffragan the Bishop of Swansea, have held Confirmations on the Island at my invitation.

From time to time the exclusion of my name from Crockford’s Clerical Directory has been brought to my notice, and although the Editor has on several occasions had the various particulars sent to him, he refuses to include my name until I have your Grace’s "permission to minister as Priest in Colonial Orders."

The Ideals and Work of our Community Life are entirely Contemplative; and we undertake no outside work in the way of Missions and Retreats. For myself, I give an occasional Retreat, generally to a Religious Community, and preach an occasional sermon when specially invited to do so. My engagements on the mainland are even fewer than when we first came to Caldey; for we found it necessary at that time to make known something of what we were doing. Now that we are sufficiently well known, and my work at Caldey has so largely increased, I preach but seldom away from home.

Seeing that our Community has now become so firmly established and is growing rapidly, it is necessary for my own ecclesiastical standing to be duly authorized. I am frequently asked about our present relation to Authority, especially as our extra-diocesan position leaves us, I suppose, subject to no Bishop but the Archbishop of the Province. The nature of our work does not appeal to a very large number of Churchmen; but we have many friends, and there are nearly a thousand members of our Confraternity, while our magazine, Pax, has a circulation of more than two thousand copies. A number of Priests and Laymen from all over the kingdom spend their holidays at our Guest House, and many come to us for days of retreat and spiritual refreshment.

If your Grace will send me the Permission to Minister that is usually granted to Priests in Colonial Orders, it will give me the necessary relation to the Episcopate that will help to ensure the stability of a work which has been slowly built up during the last thirteen years.

I should have asked you for this permission when we first came to Caldey, but I was strongly advised to wait until our work had passed the experimental stage and it was seen that our Community could settle permanently on the Island.

I trust your Grace will pardon this somewhat long letter—which I have tried to make as short as possible while yet giving you a sufficient explanation of what is needed.

With great respect,
Believe me, my Lord Archbishop,
Your faithful servant,

(Signed) D. AELRED, O.S.B.
Abbot.
TO THE MOST REVEREND
THE LORD ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.

LAMBETH PALACE,
S.E.
18th December, 1911.

DEAR SIR,

The Archbishop of Canterbury directs me to thank you for your letter of December 13th. His Grace will certainly give full consideration to your request, but I am to say that he would like to have copies of the various letters you refer to, especially those of Archbishop Temple, in order that all the facts may be clearly before him. The letter from Archbishop Temple (sic) to Bishop Grafton is obviously material to the case. Will you further tell the Archbishop what is the ground upon which you speak of Caldey as being extra-diocesan and exempt? The Archbishop had always understood that in the seventeenth century Caldey was regarded as a parish in the Diocese of Saint Davids. Of course this may have been erroneous, but his Grace would like to be in possession of the facts on which you rely. Obviously this point does not necessarily affect the question of the Archbishop’s acceding to your request, but it is in itself a matter of interest.

Yours faithfully,

(Signed) ARTHUR SHEPPARD,

THE ABBEY.
ISLE OF CALDEY,
NR. TENBY.
20th December, 1911.

MY LORD ARCHBISHOP,

I beg to thank your Grace for your reply to my letter, and I am sending you herewith copies of the various letters you ask for. The printed pamphlet contains an account of our work, and among the illustrations your Grace will find photographic reproductions (1) of Archbishop Temple’s letter authorizing my Religious Profession, facing page 20 of the pamphlet and (2) of the Charter of the Community, facing page 32. This Charter was approved by Archbishop Temple, and received his signature.

I am also sending you a copy of the Archbishop of York’s letter to the Bishop of Fond du Lac, when his Grace wrote to him about my Ordination.

With regard to the extra-diocesan character of Caldey, I will put together the various facts of the case, and send them to you later on.

This I think is all your Grace has asked for, and will be sufficient, I hope, to put you in possession of all that you wish to know.

With great respect,
Believe me, my Lord Archbishop,
Your obedient servant in Christ,
(Signed) D. AELRED, O.S.B.,
Abbot.

TO THE MOST REVEREND
THE LORD ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.

BISHOPTHORPE,
YORK.
26th September, 1904.
MY DEAR BISHOP,

The Abbot Aelred, of the Benedictine establishment in my Diocese, has told me that you are prepared to give him Holy Orders when he pays you a visit at this time. On his return I will very gladly welcome him as a clergyman in Colonial Orders, and I do not suppose that the requirements of the Colonial Clergy Act need put any impediment in his way, so long as he remains in his present position. I feel well assured, from all I can learn, that the work which he is carrying on is one for which there is a very real need; and that he is endeavouring to discharge his duties in a devout spirit and in true loyalty to the Church of England.

Be assured of my prayers for a continued blessng on your arduous labours, and believe me,

Your affectionate Brother in Christ,
(Signed) WILLELM: EBOR.
THE LORD BISHOP OF FOND DU LAC

THE OLD PALACE,
CANTERBURY.
23rd December, 1911.

DEAR SIR,

The Archbishop of Canterbury directs me to thank you for the pamphlet which you have sent him.

His Grace is making further enquiry, and giving consideration to the subject.

Yours faithfully,
(Signed). J. V. MACMILLAN,
Chaplain.
THE REV. D. A. CARLYLE.

LAMBETH PALACE,
S.E.
14th February, 1912.
MY DEAR SIR,

I have now given careful attention to the letters which I received from you a good many weeks ago. You are doubtless aware that my time has been greatly occupied with a Diocesan Visitation, and I had also hoped to receive from you the promised papers as to the facts relating to Caldey Island and what you believe to be its extra-diocesan position. That question, though not essential to the matter, bears upon it as regards the working of the provisions of our Church's law respecting clergy ordained outside England. You have offered me strong assurance of your loyalty to the Church of England, and I have beard from independent sources as to the help which you have been able to give to men whose faults or failures have brought trouble upon them. The records before me seem also to show that you have consistently striven to render vigorous aid in Church work in different parts of England. The position, however, is not a simple or ordinary one, and it would be essential that I should be further satisfied upon several points about which at present I know very little. I am anxious in all reasonable ways to support and encourage those who are working in loyalty to our Church, even where the usages of their work and worship are not those which I should personally adopt. Very likely you may be able to give me complete satisfaction in these matters. This could perhaps be best arrived at by means of an interview, when you could lay all the facts before me, and I could make any enquiry of you which seems necessary. Caldey Island is a long way from London, but if you are shortly coming to town for any reason I shall be glad to hear from you and to arrange, if possible, for an interview at a time convenient to us both. My days are necessarily very much occupied, but I would gladly appoint a time and reserve it for you. Until we have had such communication it is difficult, and indeed impossible, for me to give you a decision upon the request which you have put before me, or to say more than that it is my earnest endeavour to give sympathy and support to honest work of what ever kind which is done to the glory of God within the large and reasonable limits of the Church of England.

I am,
Yours very truly,
(Signed) RANDALL CANTUAR:
THE REV. D. A. CARLYLE

THE ABBEY,
ISLE OF CALDEY,
NR. TENBY.
15th February, 1912.

MY DEAR LORD ARCHBISHOP,

Thank you very much for your kind letter. I quite see the need of the interview which your Grace is good enough to offer me, and I will gladly avail myself of it. I am taking one of the Liddon House Retreats for Mr. Trevelyan on Sunday, March 3rd; and as I have various matters to see to in London that week, I can hold myself at your Grace’s disposal at any time and day inclusive from Tuesday the 5th to Friday the 8th of the month.

As a Community, we are face to face with grave issues at the present time; and there are various problems connected with our life that I shall willingly lay before you, so that I may obtain your guidance and advice.

I am enclosing some notes about the extra-diocesan position of Caldey.

Perhaps I may venture to add that I am known fairly well to the Bishops of London, Guildford, Rochester, Winchester, and Oxford. The first three have been very kind to me, and I know them personally; with the last two I have had correspondence, and the Bishop of Guildford has stayed with us here at Caldey.

With great respect,
Believe me, my Lord Archbishop,
Your obedient servant in Christ,
(Signed) D. AELRED, O.S.B.

LAMBETH PALACE, S.E.
16th February, 1912.

DEAR SIR,

The Archbishop of Canterbury directs me to thank you for your letter and to say he will be glad to see you if you can conveniently call at Lambeth Palace on Wednesday, March 6th, at 10.30 a.m. Perhaps you will send me a single line to say whether His Grace may expect you then, and if you will also kindly tell me the address at which letters would find you in London, it would be a gain, in case the Archbishop were compelled to make any alteration in the time for the interview.

He has no reason to think that this will be necessary.

Yours faithfully,
(Signed) ARTHUR SHEPPARD.

THE REV. AELRED CARLYLE.

Father Abbot kept his appointment with the Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth. The Archbishop began by saying that he would listen while Father Abbot said what he wished about the matter under consideration. Father Abbot said it was fifteen years ago almost to the day since he was last in that room with the Archbishop of Canterbury. He gave an outline of what had been done during the fifteen years, and spoke of the present position of the Community at Caldey. He described also the Communities of Nuns and their place in the Congregation.

In respect to the Licence, the Abbot said he felt the time had come for him to seek to obtain such a rcasonable and moderate authorization from the Episcopate as the granting of a Licence would carry.

The Archbishop discussed various points, and said, "I understand that you wish me to give you at the present time a Licence under the Colonial Clergy Act for officiating in the Province of Canterbury, though you neither hold nor ask for Diocesan accrediting, or Licence, or Office." The Abbot agreed to this, and went on to speak of the need of Ordination for some of the Brethren without putting them under the necessity of serving two years in secular parish work. He spoke of the Life and Observances of the Community, and described the special circumstances which he considered justified him in desiring some arrangement in the matter of Ordination as would meet the needs of the case.

The Archbishop then read from notes he had been making "that he understood the Abbot to ask under what conditions could he obtain Ordination for members of the Order who showed Vocation to the Priesthood and who wished to own allegiance to the Order only and not to a Diocesan Bishop, and who would wish to exercise no outside ministration, their work lying wholly within the Community and on the Island, or in one of the affiliated houses at Milford Haven and Llanthony in the Diocese of St. Davids, and Pershore in the Diocese of Worcester."

From this matter of Ordination, the Abbot passed on to the general Faith and Practice of the Community. He told the Archbishop of the use of the Benedictine Breviary and Missal in Latin, and thit the use of these books was confined to the Chapels of the Order, and he described the arrangements at the Caldey Village Church, where the Prayer Book only was used. He contended that the practice was justified on the ground that the Prayer Book was for the use of the people, and that it was unsuitable for members of a Religious Order.
The Archbishop then said that he understood that the men for whom the Abbot sought Holy Orders would be ordained not to use the Prayer Book—save in the Village Church—but to minister in the Latin services recited by the Community, and he referred specially to the fact stated by the Abbot that visiting Priests celebrating at Caldey were asked to use the Prayer Book and nothing else.

The Archbishop said he would go carefully into all the circumstances of the case, and that he would send Father Abbot his decision in due course.

The Archbishop was careful during the interview to avoid expressing any sort of personal opinion, but many times showed himself kindly and well disposed, bearing out in fact, during the whole interview, what he had said to the Abbot in his letters, namely, "that he was anxious to do what he could for all who were engaged in doing good work within the large and reasonable limits of the Church of England."

LAMBETH PALACE, S.E.
20th May, 1912.

MY DEAR FATHER AELRED,

At our interview two months ago you told me before you left that you were in no hurry about a reply to your questions, but that you would like to receive it in May or June. I have had opportunity of thinking over the whole matter quietly, and of taking counsel with some of those who are best qualified to advise me, and I have more than once talked the matter over with thc Bishop of Oxford.

The more consideration I give to the subject the more ccrtain do I feel that if your Community is to hold a recognized place within the Church of England it must conform to the general principles laid down by the Committee of the Lambeth Conference of 1897, in a Report which the Conference commended to the attention of the Church. These recommendations were reiterated by a Committee in the Conference of 1908 and circulated throughout the Dioceses of the Anglican Communion. All this is familiar to you, but I enclose a copy of the Report in question. From what you told me at our interview I do not think that you will be unwilling to conform to the general principles there laid down.

With regard to the Visitorship, I think I am entitled to tell you that the Bishop of S. Davids would, on the whole, prefer (as this is not specially a Welsh question) that an Episcopal Visitor should be elected by the Community rather than that he should hold the position ex officio. (I say this apart from the question you raise as to the inclusion of the Island of Caldey within the Diocese of S. Davids.) I am able to go further, and to say that I have reason to believe that if your Community were to elect as Visitor the Bishop of Oxford, he would not decline to accept the position. It seems to me that if the status of the Community is to be regularized, steps ought to be taken to that end prior to my dealing with the specific question of your receiving licence or permission from me as Archbishop to accept invitations to minister under due Diocesan sanction in the Province of Canterbury. I perfectly realize the distinction which, in conversation with myself, you have very clearly drawn between your ministrations inside and outside the Community walls. But the two, though distinct, are not unrelated to one another, and in each case some Episcopal authority ought to be recognized. You have yourself expressed to me your recognition of the difficulties attaching to the settlement of this matter, and I think, therefore, that you will realize that what I ask is not unreasonable. I have, of course, in mind the communications which passed between yourself and the late Archbishops of Canterbury and of York, and in view of these I do not desire at this juncture, and pending such settlement as I have referred to, to prohibit your officiating on the occasions (you assure me that they are rare) when you are invited to do so in English Parishes within my Province. I am not, of course, over-riding the action of a Diocesan Bishop, which must remain free. But the giving of formal licence or permission requires in all cases circumspection and care, and I prefer to postpone that matter until (I hope at no distant date) you are able to tell me that the question of Visitorship has been satisfactorily arranged.

I am,
Yours very truly,

(Signed) RANDALL CANTUAR:

THE ABBEY,
ISLE OF CALDEY,
NR. TENBY.
23rd May, 1912,

MY DEAR LORD ARCHBISHOP,

Thank you very much for your kind consideration of the various points raised at the interview you were good enough to give me last March. I will read your letter to the Senior Brethren of the Community and discuss the whole matter with them. I will then write to your Grace again.

With great respect,
Believe me, my Lord Archbishop,
Your faithful servant in Christ,

(Signed) D. AELRED, O.S.B.,
Abbot.

THE MOST REVEREND
THE LORD ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.

THE ABBEY,
ISLE OF CALDEY,
NR. TENBY.
24th July, 1912.

MY DEAR LORD BISHOP,

I have been meaning to write to you For some time, but refrained from doing so, owing to the very serious accounts of your health that reached us here. Now, however, I have a note from Dom Francis, your Prior, who gives me the happy news that you are on the way to recovery again; and I rejoice to know that you have come back, as your Brother tells me, "from the very gate of death."

We have now been settled at Caldey for six years; and our Community has grown in strength and number. We have thirty-four Brethren; and our new Monastery buildings, with accommodation for sixty monks, are on the way towards completion. As perhaps you may have heard, we have recently passed through a critical time in regard to the Roman Question. The matter had for some time come up in various ways, and so last Lent we felt that we ought seriously to enter into ourselves as a Community, and see exactly where we stood. We spent much time in careful deliberation, and by Easter we were able to come to a most happy and unanimous decision in regard to our position in the Church of England. It was clearly shown us that GOD had placed us where we are, and that it would be quite wrong for us to surrender our present position, and to transfer our obedience to the Roman Church. From this Resolution there was only one dissentient, and he left us at once to be received into the Roman Communion. Before taking this step, however, he changed his mind again; so that we have come through one of the most difficult of Religious experiences not only without suffering any loss, but with the great gain of a clearer realization of our position, and a unanimity of opinion that would have been impossible unless we had been rightly guided to settle the question in the way we did.

Since then we have been engaged in various matters connected with the settlement of our Community. Our Rule and Constitutions are being revised and printed, and I am in correspondence with the Archbishop of Canterbury with a view to further regularising our status. Five Brethren are making their Solemn Profession in September; and at our Annual Chapter next Pentecost we are hoping to elect one of our English Bishops as Visitor.

There is one further matter that concerns us much at the present time, and it is in this that you may feel able to help us. God has so providentially used your kindness to us in the past in completing my Installation and in giving me Holy Orders that I venture to ask from you yet one more favour.

Out of our thirty-four Brethren we have only three Priests. As you know, from the beginning it has alwavs been our Ideal, as it is yours, that the Order should consist mostly of Laymen. Three Priests, however, are not sufficient for our daily Masses and the ministrations in the Village Church for the Islanders; and we all feel that during this year, when so much is being done towards the firm establishment of our Community, it would be the greatest blessing if we could have two of our Senior Brethren ordained for the purposes of the Monastery. In the Community we have several Juniors who in years to come will doubtless be able to receive Holy Orders in the usual way. But this cannot be for some years, and meanwhile I wish, if possible, to have Dom Samson and Brother Wilfrid ordained.

Both these men are excellent and devout Religious. There can be no question about their stability and their personal fitness; while the positions they hold in the Community make it desirable that they should be able to be useful to me and to the Brethren in every possible way.

The question I put to your Lordship is therefore to ask if you can see your way to ordain these two Monks to the Priesthood for the work in the Monastery, provided that the Archbishop of Canterbury offers no objection. They could very rightly, I think, come to you at Fond du Lac as Monks, to be ordained in your Monastery Chapel; and no legal question need arise, as they would be ordained solely for Community purposes, and they would need to hold no formal Licence.

The Isle of Caldey is extra-parochial and extra diocesan, being in fact a Monastic Peculiar very much like that of Westminster Abbey; so that provided the Archbishop of Canterbury raised no objection, there would be no question of intruding into any Bishop's diocese.

If you find it possible to confer upon us this great favour, we could arrange to send the two Brethren to Fond du Lac after the Solemn Professions. They could leave England I should think about the middle of October, and we could spare them from home for a month; so that they might be with us again by the Festival of All Saints of the Order of Saint Benedict on November 13th.

You have been so good to us and are yourself so deeply and practically interested in the revival of the Benedictine Life, that I feel sure you will at least kindly consider this request, and grant it if it seems proper to you to do so. Meanwhile I do not propose to write to the Archbishop of Canterbury on the matter until I have had your reply.

I am sending you by this same post a copy of the new edition of our Pamphlet which you may like to have. I shall pray much during the next few days that God will guide you and us in a matter of such interest and importance to our Community at the present time.

With my best wishes and respectful regards,
Believe me,
Ever your affectionate and grateful son,
(Signed) D. AELRED, O.S.B.,
Abbot.

BISHOP’S HOUSE,
FOND DU LAC,
WISCONSIN.
5th August, 1912.

MY DEAR DOM AELRED, O.S.B.,
ABBOT OF CALDEY.

MY DEAR SON IN CHRIST,

Your letter greatly gladdened my heart. We had heard of the Roman question being agitated at Caldey, and had daily prayers said for your guidance. I have no doubt your decision was a right one, and pray God’s blessing upon it. If the Church of England is to regain her full Catholic heritages, it must be by men so firmly grounded in the Catholic Faith that Romanism has no attractions for them.

I send you a copy of my sermon on the "Three Religions" which may be useful in your Noviciate.

Our little Monastery of St. Dunstan is the baby Monastery of Christendom. We have been blessed financially. I have been able to give the Monastery well fitted up, and with a beautiful Chapel, to the Order which I have had incorporated. Spiritually, we have had many trials, as is usual in new beginnings. For five months past I have been confined to my house and under the care of professional nprses. It has been a long and painful illness, and prevented my paying my half-weekly visits to the Monastery, as I had begun to do. We began with five members, and some aspirants, but I was obliged to reduce the number, for various causes, till we are, at the present moment, only two. But this is the number with which Cowley began, consisting the first year of Fr. Benson and myself.

Our great Father Benedict’s work was tested in the same way. If the work is of God, and I believe it is, it will in time grow. I have no fear for it. I only earnestly pray that in time to come the Abbey may be known as "The Holy Abbey of St. Dunstan."

I am glad to meet your invitation to ordain two of your members with an affirmative response. It is in humble thankfulness to God that I have been so able to help the Religious Life in the Anglican Communion, as to aid in the foundation of Cowley, to assist by giving the Priesthood to yourself, and now two others, and to found St. Dunstan, and the Sisterhood of the Holy Nativity.

I have not yet recovered enough to be able to take a service, but I think I may be able to do so by the middle of October. I will let you know later. With the permission of the Archbishop of Canterbury I will be glad to give to the two Monks the Holy Order of the Priesthood.

With my sincere and loving regards and benediction.

C. C. FOND DU LAC.
(by Sr. R.)

Letter from Father Abbot to the Archbishop of Canterbury.

THE ABBEY,
ISLE OF CALDEY,
NR. TENBY.
29th August, 1912.

MY LORD ARCHBISHOP,

During the past three months I have been able to discuss with the Senior members of my Community the various points bearing on your Grace1s letter to me of May 20th; and I am now able to write to you about matters that seem to be concerned in the further regularising of our status.

The present year has been an important and critical one for us as a Community; and both in spiritual and temporal affairs a great deal has been done. We have in hand the completion of our Statutes and Constitution, and before the end of the year there will be five Brethren ready to make their Solemn Professions and so to become full members of the Community.

When your Grace saw me in March, I told you we were at that time passing through some difficulty in regard to the Roman question. The matter had come up in various ways, and during last Lent we felt that we ought to face it as a Community and determine exactly where we stood. We spent much time in prayer and study, and by Easter we were able to arrive at a most happy and unanimous decision in regard to our position in the Church of England. We could not doubt that God had placed us where we were, and that it would be quite wrong for us to surrender our present position. From this Resolution there was only one dissentient, and the Brother left us at once to prepare for reception into the Roman Communion. Before taking this step, however, he changed his mind again; so that we have come through one of the most difficult of religious experiences, not only without suffering any loss, but with the great gain of a clearer realisation of the facts of the case, and a unanimity of opinion that would have been impossible had we not been rightly guided to settle the question in the way we did.

Not only are we strengthened by our deliberations and decision about the Roman question; but in the final settlement of our Constitution and our particular Observance of the Rule of Saint Benedict, we are able to fix the method of realising our Vocation to the strictly Contemplative Life. It was sixteen years ago that I began to live under the Rule of Saint Benedict, and it is fourteen years since I made my Solemn Profession of that Rule—with the Authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury. I then waited four years, working at the foundation of our Community; and in 1902 the Archbishop signed the document appointing me to my office as Abbot of the Community. It is now ten years since that date. During these ten years our work has been extended and strengthened, and everything seems to show that we have now reached the point when our status in the Church should be further recognized by Authority; and we believe that in accordance with your Grace’s letter of May 20th, this cannot be better accomplished than by the election of an Episcopal Visitor.

The election of a Visitor will lead on to the settlement of other matters, such as that of my own Licence from you as Archbishop. I should ask for the Licence for myself more as a matter of form and Church Order than for any use I might make of it; and this because I am now able to refuse without exception all outside invitations to preach and conduct Retreats; and I am confining my work absolutely to our own Congregation.

We hold a Chapter every year at Pentecost to decide matters of importance; and I am speaking both for my Brethren and myself when I say that I hope and believe we shall be glad to welcome the opportunity of electing a Visitor in the person of Bishop Gore. For the present we propose to go on quietly with the various things that we have in hand; and meanwhile I will write a preliminary letter to Bishop Gore to tell him what we are doing, and invite him to come and see us at Caldey before next Whitsuntide, when in the ordinary course important Community business will be transacted and the formal Election of a Visitor could take place.
There is, as there always has been from the beginning, on the part of our Community, a distinct recognition of the authority of the Episcopate. Without this authority being sought and obtained, we are assured there can be no true or permanent Religious Life in the sense that the Catholic Church has always understood the Dedication and setting apart of those who felt calied to the service of God under a particular Rule. It is not sufficient that the Rule itself should have been approved as a wise and competent Directory for the manner of life adopted. In the case of the Rule of Saint Benedict it has fourteen hundred years sanction and recognition as the chief of the Cenobitic and Contemplative Codes. But it is essential to the canonical existence of the Community, the exercise of proper authority by Superiors, and the validity of Religious Profession, that the living Authority of the Church should be sought and obtained. No spiritual jurisdiction can be exercised unless Episcopal authority is duly imposed, not arbitrarily or capriciously, but according to the well-known and generally accepted rules of the Catholic Church. These rules, formulated by many Councils and engrafted in the Statutes of Religious Communities, form the legislation that defines and limits the varying degrees of Authority as bearing upon the organisation of the Religious Life. The knowledge of these facts has been a strong influence all through our Community Life in helping us to make sure of our ground and to avoid mistakes. We have had no desire to hurry, and no wish to press matters in any way. We have simply tried to take the right course at each step, and to obtain little by little what was necessary for our existence at that particular time. There is now among the members of the Community a conviction that the time of what may be called the work of Foundation is finished; and we eare in a position to know what is wanted in the practice of the purely Contemplative Life of Prayer under a strict Rule. During these past years we have gained some experience; and we who profess a firm and loyal adherence to Catholic Faith and Practice cannot but feel very grateful to your Grace for your understanding of our need and your readiness to give what is essential to the further growth and development of our work. The point of our history that we are now reaching has been long hoped for and prayed for, and we welcome the opportunity in a spirit of true obedience as Religious who have always steadfastly maintained that there can be no true Monastic Life apart from Catholic Authority.

Considering the actual position of Caldey as extradiocesan, it would not be possible for the Bishop of Saint Davids to be ex officio Visitor; and there can be no question that when we proceed to the election we could not have in our minds a better or more entirely suitable Visitor than Bishop Gore, who is by his learning and experience so well fitted to help us.

In further reference to what I told your Grace in blarch about our need of Priests for the Community, I must say that this need has been pressing upon us very much lately. The Community is of course practically a laymen’s Community. We are thirty-five in number; our new buildings, with accommodation for sixty Monks, will shortly be completed; and we shall be receiving a good many more postulants during the present year. There is no lack of Vocations, but, as your Grace understands, the difficulty has been to get men of our own training ordained from the Community. Besides myself we have at present one other Priest, who was ordained by the Bishop of Saint Andrews, and he returns to Caldey in September, after serving his two years in Scotland. But two Priests are now quite insufficient for the spiritual work of our Society and the needs of the Island. It has always been our ideal that the Order should consist mostly of laymen: but it is strongly felt during this year, when so much is being done towards the firm establishment of our Community, and before we elect an Episcopal Visitor, that it would be the greatest blessing if we could have two of our Senior men ordained for the purposes of the Monastery. We have in the Community several Juniors who in the future will doubtless be able to receive Holy Orders in the usual way. But this cannot be for some years; and meanwhile, to supply our present need, and as an exceptional case, we wish to have these two Brothers ordained. They are both excellent and devout Religious. One has been in the Community for ten years, and stands next in order to myself; the other is Novice-Master, who has the training of all Juniors in his hands. There can be no question about their stability or personal fitness; while the positions they hold in the Community make it desirable that they should be useful to me and to the Brethren in every possible way.

With all this in mind I wrote to our kind old friend the Bishop of Fond du Lac. He has helped us in many ways, especially in giving me Holy Orders and installing me in my position as Abbot. He was himself one of the first founders of the Society of Saint John the Evangelist, Cowley, and is so deeply and practically interested in the revival of the Benedictine Life, that he has, during the last few years, founded a Religious House in his own See city of Fond du Lac. The Bishop well understands our present circumstances, and has very kindly consented to ordain my two men for work in the Monastery, for they can very rightly go to him at Fond du Lac as Monks, to be ordained in his Monastery Chapel. They would, of course, be ordained solely for Community purposes, and would need to hold no formal Licence. The Bishop has been very ill, but he thinks he will be able to receive the Brethren about the rniddle of October. I am anxious to take advantage of what seems to be such a God-sent opportunity, and it is one which may never occur again. The circumstances are exceptional, and I have told the Bishop that I will gladly avail myself of his kind offer provided that your Grace does not forbid my doing so.

With great respect,
Believe me, my Lord Archbishop,
Your faithful and obedient servant,

(Signed) D. AELRED, O.S.B.,
Abbot.

THE MOST REVEREND
THE LORD ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.

LAMBETH PALACE, S.E.
5th September, 1912.

DEAR FATHER AELRED,

I have given careful consideration to your letter of August 29th, which has reached me just as I am starting to spend a week or two in Italy. I am obliged for the moment to write somewhat hurriedly, but it is the outcome of ample thought.

It is a great satisfaction to me to learn that your Community accepts the suggestion that an Episcopal Visitor should be elected with a view to the exercise of responsibilities in connexion with the Society and its life. And as we know that the Bishop of Oxford would be willing to accept that office if elected thereto, I cannot doubt that it will prove to be a wise course to elect him.

One practical and rather immediate question which has arisen would I think have required careful consideration on my part. I refer to the suggestion that two members of your Community should receive Holy Orders at the hands of Bishop Grafton of Fond du Lac. You will have become aware ere now that within the last few days Bishop Grafton has passed away, and that question therefore need not now be answered. The matter must in any case be postponed for the present.

You should now I think follow out your purpose of putting yourself into communication with the Bishop of Oxford in order to ascertain directly from himself how he views the proposal which you contemplate. I am very sure that in the whole matter we must act quietly, deliberately, and with a due regard to the importance of precedents which we may be establishing; and I need hardly assure you that I am prepared, God helping me, to give to the whole subject the calm and unbiassed consideration to which it is entitled. Further questions may doubtless arise, and they must be dealt with regularly and in proper course.
I pray God that we may be guided to do and say what is right and what will serve the best interests of the Church of Christ.

I am,
Yours very truly,

(Signed) RANDALL CANTUAR:

THE ABBEY,
ISLE OF CALDEY,
NR. TENBY.
6th September, 1912.

MY DEAR LORD BISHOP,

From a letter I have this morning received from the Archbishop of Canterbury, I learn that dear old Bishop Grafton has just passed away. He was a good friend to this Community, and to me personally; and we feel that he has a claim on our prayers and grateful remembrance.

Quite recently I had been in communication with him; and, indeed, to-day’s letter from the Archbishop is concerned, among other things, with the subject of our correspondence.

As you are Bishop Grafton’s successor in the See of Fond du Lac, perhaps you will allow me to put you in possession of the facts of the case; and for this purpose I send you herewith a copy of my letter to him written on July 14th, together with a verbatim extract from the Bishop’s reply.

The correspondence is concerned with the Ordination of two of the senior members of this Community. Things are so tied up in England with red tape and distrust of anything definitely Catholic or, in the least, out of the usual course of procedure, that Bishop Grafton’s consent to act in this matter was most welcome, and it seemed to offer us a happy solution of the difficulty.

I have just told the two Brothers of the Bishop’s death, and that I think I am justified in laying the case before you, in the hope that you might find it possible to carry out his intention of giving them Holy Orders.

If your decision inclines you to help us, will you be so good as to send me a note, expressing your willingness, that I may obtain the Archbishop’s permission?

Of course, in any case, the Brothers must put off their proposed visit to Fond du Lac in October; and if they are to come at all, perhaps it might be arranged after I have seen the Archbishop, which I hope to do early in November.

I will not write more. You will be busy enough, I expect, without being troubled by outside affairs just now. If you are good enough to give us what we so greatly desire, it will be a fresh evidence of God’s favour, and of the greatest possible assistance to our Community at the present time.

With my best wishes and prayers for all that must claim your care and attention.

Believe me, in our Lord,
Sincerely yours,

(Signed) D. AELRED, O.S.B.,
Abbot.

THE RIGHT REVEREND
BISHOP WELLER, FOND DU LAC.

RESIDENCE OF THE BISHOP-COADJUTOR,
FOND DU LAC,
WIS.
16th September, 1912.

THE REV. DOM AELRED CARLYLE, O.S.B.
MY DEAR DOM AELRED,

I have your letter of the 6th inst., enclosing a copy of your letter of July 24th, to the late Bishop of Fond du Lac, and the extract from his reply to you of August sth. I may add that he spoke to me of the matter very shortly before his death, and asked me to carry out his wishes in this matter.

I quote from his Lordship’s letter to you of August 5th, "With the permission of the Archbishop of Canterbury I shall be glad to give your two Monks the Holy Order of the Priesthood." On receiving this "permission" I will most gladly ordain the two monks here at Fond du Lac, at your convenience.

Faithfully yours in our Lord,

(Signed) REGINALD H. WELLER.

THE ABBEY,
ISLE OF CALDEY,
NR. TENBY.
3rd October, 1912.

MY DEAR LORD BISHOP,

With regard to my great hope that at our next Annual Chapter, to be held at Pentecost, we may be privileged—in accordance with the wishes of the Archbishop—to elect you as our Episcopal Visitor, it would now be of great use to me in conferring with my Brethren on the subject if you would allow me to tell them definitely that you might be willing to accept such election.

My correspondence with the Primate, since His Grace saw me at Lambeth on March 6th last, has made it abundantly clear that the best method of further regularising the status of our Community will be in the appointment of an Episcopal Visitor, elected by the Brethren and approved by the Archbishop.

To this end, I need hardly say how useful it would be to us all if you could spare time between now and Pentecost to pay us a visit at Caldey and to give us the pleasure, if possible, of staying in the Monastery itself so that you might become personally acquainted with the Brethren, and at the same time have unfettered opportunity to judge of our particular needs and aims.

A preliminary visit would help you to see how the life of the Community is developing; and perhaps you will allow me to repeat what I said to you at Oxford, that we all gladly welcome the opportunity that is coming to us of receiving the proper recognition and sanction of Episcopal Authority for the Doctrine and Practice in which the life of the Community has grown up.

If it were convenient for you to come to Caldey fairly soon, it might be well to do so before the bad winter gales set in. We should gladly welcome you any time from now onwards; and if it were possible for you to arrange to spend a Sunday on the Island, you would see more of the Community and the general life of the place than at other times.

Begging a remembrance in your prayers, and with my respectful regards,
Believe me, my Lord Bishop,
Your faithful servant in Christ,

(Signed) DOM AELRED, O.S.B.,
Abbot.

THE RIGHT REVEREND
THE LORD BISHOP OF OXFORD.

CUDDESDON,
WHEATLEY,
OXON.
7th October, 1912.

MY DEAR ABBOT,

This is a proposal which I will, of course, carefully consider. There are, I think, a good many preliminaries.

The office of a Visitor, as generally understood, is to maintain a certain constitution and rule of devotion, and the consent of the Visitor would be necessary to any alteration in it. Therefore, before a Bishop can become Visitor of a Religious Community he must have considered carefully the constitution, the liturgy, the common devotions, offices, etc. This is what I have done in the case of the Communities of uhich I have become the Episcopal Visitor for the first time. So that what I would ask you to do is to send me your constitution, rules, and rites, other than those contained in the Prayer Book, so that I may have them under my eye and take the opportunity of studying them. I dare say this may involve some difficulty, but it is a difficulty which must be faced to start with, and I am thankful to say that I have had very little difficulty with the eight or nine Communities that I am Visitor of up to the present.

I quite agree with you that I should come and visit the Community, but I am afraid that it is quite certain that I cannot manage that this year, and probably the first stages of our negotiations can be conducted in writing.
I cannot tell you how deeply interested I am in the development of Religious Communities amongst us. I should be exceedingly grateful if I am able to give you any help.

May God bless you and guide you all.

Yours very truly in our Lord,

(Signed) C. OXON.

THE ABBEY,
ISLE OF CALDEY,
NR. TENBY.
21st October, 1912.

MY DEAR LORD BISHOP,

Thank you very much for your letter of October 7th, and for your kind promise to consider the possibility of becoming Episcopal Visitor to our Community at Caldey.

I quite understand that before any definite step can be taken, you must know and approve of our Rule and Constitution and Practices of Devotion; and I will very willingly do all I can to lay clearly before you the different matters concerning our Life and Observance.

It was in the middle of last December that I approached the Archbishop of Canterbury with the simple request for a Licence in the Province, such as was usually granted to Priests in Colonial Orders; but His Grace replied that he felt unable to give me this Licence until he had satisfied himself on several points—of which at that time he knew very little. The Archbishop also expressed his wish to see me at Lambeth, and wrote that it would be quite impossible to give me any decision upon my request till he had talked various matters over with me. My interview with the Archbishop took place in March, just after my visit to you at Cuddesdon; and two months later I received a letter from him saying that he had thought over the whole situation, and considered the status of the Community should be regularised by the appointment of an Episcopal Visitor prior to his dealing with the specific question of my receiving any Licence from him as Archbishop. From what you kindly said when you saw rne, I gathered that you might be willing to act as Visitor; and the Archbishop himself suggested that if you would agree to do so, it would meet with his approval. Acting upon this, and with the cordial consent of all my Brethren, I wrote to you upon the subject.

Our Rule is the Rule of Saint Benedict, which is interpreted for us in detail and in doubtful matters by our "Declarations." These Declarations are purely domestic ordinances, arranged to suit the life of the Community around which they have gradually grown up. These are being printed for the first time from our only MS., and you shall have a copy as soon as it is ready.

In addition to the Rule and Declarations, we have a simple Constitution which is mainly concerned with the external organisation of the Community. This I am having copied for you, and will send you shortly. Our Rites of Clothing Novices and Profressing Monks I shall also send you.

An account of the Liturgical and DevotionaI Practices of the Community will remain for you to see. These, like the Declarations on the Rule, and the Constitution, have grown around the life of the Community to meet the spiritual needs of the Brethren; and a true estimate of their place and value would seem to demand some personal knowledge of the way in which the Contemplative Life is being lived at Caldey; for the Life as it actually exists is the true explanation of our scheme of devotion, which, it seems to me, ought not to be considered altogether apart from its proper setting.

It is for this reason that I regret your inability to come to Caldey this year, as a personal visit would give you a much better and truer idea of what is going on, than to read an account of Rule and Observance without seeing it in actual working.
You will no doubt remember that when speaking to me in March with regard to the action of Episcopal Authority, you suggested that it might be well if two or three responsible Priests were asked to spend a few days at Caldey and to prepare, from their own observations on the spot, a report of the Doctrine and Practice of the Community. This would seem to meet our present circumstances; and as you cannot come to Caldey yourself this year, such a report might be useful to you in considering the subject. If you approve of this suggestion, I should like to have your permission to ask the help of the Reverend W. B. Trevelyan, the Reverend H. F. B. Mackay, and Doctor Darwell Stone; and I need hardly say that if these Priests will consent to prepare such a statement as might be laid before you, I would do all in my power to make their report as full and complete as possible.

I shall hope to post you a copy of the Rule and Constitution towards the end of the month, and the Declarations shall follow as they come in proof from the printer. I am sending you by this post the two last numbers of Pax; and if you have time to glance through the Community Letters you will see what we have been doing lately.

I am so very grateful to you for your kindness in considering our affairs; and on hearing that you approve my seeking the assistance of three Priests to report to you on our Liturgy, Common Devotions, Offices, etc., I will write and invite them to Caldey at any time that may be convenient to them.
With much respect,

Believe me, my Lord Bishop,
Your faithful and obedient

(Signed) DOM AELRED, O.S.B.
Abbot.

THE RIGHT REVEREND
THE LORD BISHOP OF OXFORD.

THE ABBEY,
ISLE OF CALDEY,
NR. TENBY.
21st October, 1912.

MY LORD ARCHBISHOP,

I am now in correspondence with the Bishop of Oxford about the Visitorship of this Community, and I am hoping that in due course I may be able to write to tell your Grace that he has been kind enough to accept the Office.

In your last letter to me your Grace wrote to say that the proposed Ordinations of our two Brethren must of course be put off on account of Bishop Grafton’s death; but since then Bishop Weller, his successor in the See, has written to tell me that the late Bishop, before he died, asked him to carry out his intention. He writes,

"I quote from his Lordship’s letter to you of August 5th, ‘With the permission of the Archbishop of Canterbury I shall be glad to give your two Monks the Holy Order of the Priesthood.’ On receiving this ‘permission,’ I will most gladly ordain the two monks here at Fond du Lac at your convenience."

Although the matter of the Visitorship is not yet settled, I thought it right to tell your Grace of Bishop Weller’s offer, and to say with what gratitude permission from you would be received by us for this particular case of the Ordination of our two Senior Brethren; and I can assure you we should in no sense look upon such permission, if granted, as forming any precedent. The present need is really an exceptional one, and I feel that under the circumstances I cannot do otherwise than ask you to allow me to have the Brothers ordained by Bishop Weller.

With great respect,
Believe me, my Lord Archbishop,
Your faithful and obedient servant,

(Signed) D. AELRED, O.S.B.,
Abbot.

LAMBETH PALACE,
S.E.
24th October 1912.

DEAR FATHER AELRED,

I have received your letter of October 21st and have given consideration to it. The question of the Ordination of the two men to whom you refer is a very grave one, and I am quite clear that nothing in connexion therewith ought to be decided until the election of your Episcopal Visitor has taken place and he is able as Visitor to cooperate in whatever is done. The Bishop of Oxford, to whom I have spoken on the subject, agrees with me that this will be the better course.

I am glad to learn from your letter that you hope to be able before very long to tell me that the election has taken place and that the Bishop has accepted the office.

I am,
Yours very truly,

(Signed) RANDALL CANTUAR:

THE ABBEY,
ISLE OF CALDEY,
NR. TENBY.
25th October, 1912.

MY LORD ARCHBISHOP,

Your Grace will understand that I did not wish to press the question of the Ordinations unduly; and, having laid our need, and the opportunity of meeting it, before you, I submit to your decision; and have written to Bishop Weller to say your Grace tells me that nothing can be settled until the Election of our Episcopal Visitor has taken place.

Believe me, my Lord Archbishop,
Your obedient servant in Christ,

(Signed) DOM AELRED, O.S.B.,
Abbot.

THE MOST REVEREND
THE LORD ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY,
Lambeth Palace, S.E.

Letter from Father Abbot to Bishop Weller of Fond du Lac.

THE ABBEY,
ISLE OF CALDEY,
TENBY.
25 October, 1912.

MY DEAR LORD BISHOP,

In further reference to your kind offer to carry our Bishop Grafton’s intention to ordain our two Brethren, I write to say that I have laid the matter before the Archbishop of Canterbury, and His Grace tells me he is quite clear that nothing in connection therewith ought to be decided until the election of our Episcopal Visitor has taken place and he is able, as Visitor, to cooperate in whatever is done.

This Election of Visitor is a most important matter for us as a Community. There is a good deal of preliminary work to be done before the election can be made; but I am hoping to be able to satisfy the requirements of the Bishop of Oxford, and that we shall be permitted to elect him at our Chapter next Pentecost.

The time has fully come for us to have the recognition of Episcopal Authority behind us. Whatever we might be willing to endure in the way of Episcopal neglect as private individuals is quite impossible for a rapidly growing Community. Without Episcopal authorisation we should be in danger of drifting into a position like that of Father Ignatius at Llanthony; and at my death there would be no security whatever for the continuance of the work. What I have seen of Community Life among us has convinced me that most of the failures to keep men together are due to a want of clear understanding of the necessary conditions and of straightforward appeal to the Bishops. If Community Life is to be stable and permanent, and the Vows of members valid and binding, there must be obedience to properly constituted Authority.

We do not seek much in the way of recognition; and I beg your prayers for our guidance and that we may be granted sufficient help and consideration to place upon a firm footing this Community which has taken twenty years to bring to its present condition. If only the Bishops will realise that we are not a parochial institution for turning out so much work, and that the Contemplative Life has special needs of its own, it will be a great step in the right direction.

I have been continually told by well-meaning people that if only we will be wise and leave the Bishops alone, they will leave us alone. But that is the very last thing to be desired; for our corporate existence depends entirely upon our Rulers. As Catholics we cannot allow ourselves to be looked upon as a sort of private society; and personally I never had the least desire to be a freelance with no dependence upon Superiors. You will understand, therefore, that much as we are feeling the need of Priests at the present time, I willingly obey the decision of the Primate, and must wait until he allows me to accept your kind help.

With my respectful regards,
Believe me in our Lord,
Sincerely yours,

(Signed) D. AELRED, O.S.B.,
Abbot.

THE RIGHT REVEREND
THE LORD BISHOP OF FOND DU LAC,
Wisconsin, U.S.A.

Letter from the Bishop of Oxford to Father Abbot.

CUDDESDON,
WHEATLEY,
OXON.
24th October, 1912.

MY DEAR ABBOT,

Thank you for sending me Pax. It is a most interesting periodical. I heard some one remark the other day that it had the best reviews of books in any periodical.

Will you let me know what is the present position of yourself and the other Priests (how many are they?) who belong to the Community? What I mean is this:— To what Bishop, when you were ordained or on an) subsequent occasion, did you take the oath of allegiance, or have you never taken it at all to any Bishop? What declaration of assent did you take when you were ordained? That taken in America? And when you returned to England, did you ever take the Anglican declaration of assent? I should be glad of an answer to this with regard both to yourself and to the other Priests.

I have the original Rule of St. Benedict in the recent edition of Dom Cuthbert Butler, Freiburg, 1912. I will, of course, await the arrival of your declaration and constitution, and the Rites of Clothing, Profession, etc.

I think the proposal that I suggested when we were talking together of a commission of Priests to report would still be useful. I think two Priests would be enough, and I will write to Stone and Trevelyan to see whether they would consent to act.

Yours truly in our Lord,

(Signed) C. OXON.

Letter from Father Abbot to the Bishop of Oxford.

THE ABBEY,
ISLE OF CALDEY,
NR. TENBY,
4th November, 1912.

MY DEAR LORD BISHOP,

I have been laid up with a chill, or I should have replied sooner to your questions.

There are at present four Priests working on the Island:—

(I) G. H. Tugwell, a Professed Monk, who has been ten years in this Community.

He was ordained for the Community by Bishop Plumb of Saint Andrews—Deacon, 1910; Priest, 1912. He went to St. Peter’s, Kirkcaldy, for his Ordination, and served his two years in the way usual for parochial clergy; and he therefore made the usual oath and declaration of assent in the Episcopal Church of Scotland. He has just finished his time in the North, and, with the Bishop’s consent, has now returned home to continue his monastic life as a Priest.

(2) H. B. Jones, last week admitted to probation in the Community as a Novice.

Ordained in the London Diocese—Deacon, 1908; Priest, 1909. He had been hoping to test his Vocation at Caldey for some years, and is now doing so. At his Ordination he made the customary oath and declaration of assent.

(3) W. G. C. Prideaux, living here as an Oblate of the Community and Warden of our Guest House.

Ordained in the Diocese of Peterborough—Deacon, 1892; Priest, 1893; he made the usual promises. He has been with us at Caldey for five years.

(4) In my own case, I was not asked to, and I did not, make any declarations other than those of the Ordination Service, as the special circumstances of my Ordination did not give any opportunity for thus emphasising either my allegiance to the Episcopate or my Orthodoxy.

I received Holy Orders from Bishop Grafton of Fond du Lac, acting on the following letter from the Archbishop of York, Dr. Maclagan, which I carried with me to America; and His Grace gave me a copy of the letter at the same time.

"BISHOPTHORPE,
"YORK
"26 September, 1904.

"MY DEAR BISHOP,

"The Abbot Aelred, of the Benedictine establishment in my Diocese, has told me that you are prepared to give him Holy Orders, when he pays you a visit at this time. On his return I will very gladly welcome him as a clergyman in Colonial Orders, and I do not suppose that the requirements of the Colonial Clergy Act need put any impediment in his way, so long as he remains in his present position. I feel well assured, from all I can learn, that the work which he is carrying on is one for which there is a very real need; and that he is endeavouring to discharge his duties in a devout spirit, and in true loyalty to the Church of England.

"Be assured of my prayers for a continued blessing on your arduous labours, and believe me,
"Your affectionate brother in Christ,

"(Signed) WILLELM EBOR.

"TO THE LORD BISHOP OF
FOND DU LAC."

From the year of my Profession in 1898, to 1904, we had no Priest in the Community, and were entirely dependent on the ministrations of the parochial clergy in whose parishes we lived. As the Community grew, the need of a Priest of our own was increasingly felt, and I laid the circumstances of the case before the Archbishop of York, who expressed himself ready to do what was possible. After due consideration His Grace thought it best for me to take advantage of an offer that Bishop Grafton had made, and he gave me the letter copied above.

I was ordained Deacon and Priest in 1904, in the Diocese of Fond du Lac, and the Bishop took care during the Ordination Service to express the fact that he was ordaining me for the purposes of monastic work, and not to hold any parochial office, or cure of souls outside the Community.

When I returned to York I at once presented myself to the Archbishop at Bishopthorpe, who gave me permission to minister to my Community, pending his consideration of what form my Licence should take. Towards the end of 1905 the Archbishop’s health began to fail, and it was difficult to get matters attended to. In 1906 the Community moved to Caldey.

On coming here, we decided to wait till it was seen that the Community could remain permanently on the Island, before approaching the Archbishop of Canterbury about my Licence. This I did last December, and my application led on to an interview with His Grace in March, and was followed by his decision in May that nothing could be done till his suggestion of appointing an Episcopal Visitor to the Community had been carried out.

My present position is, therefore, that at my Ordination I promised to obey my Bishop, but made no declaration; and when I returned to England, the Archbishop of York required from me neither declaration of assent nor oath of allegiance.

In my last letter from the Archbishop of Canterbury, His Grace told me that he had discussed with you my desire to have two of our Senior Monks ordained, Bishop Weller of Fond du Lac having kindly consented to give them Holy Orders, with the Archbishop’s permission. His Grace, however, said that he wished nothing to be done in this matter till the Visitorship was settled, so that our Episcopal Visitor might be able to co-operate in whatever was done.

My most earnest endeavour, from the inception of this Community, has been never to take any step without Episcopal guidance; and if you will look at the facts in the printed Pamphlet I am sending you, which contains the history of our Community, pages 12 to 41, and also at the account of our Purpose and Method, pages 64 to 111, especially the section on Authority, page 89, you will find facsimiles of Archbishop Temple’s Authorisation of my Profession in 1898, and his Approval of my Election as Abbot in 1902. The Installation took place at Painsthorpe in 1903, when Bishop Grafton, who was in England at the time, and acting with permission of the Archbishop of York, gave me the Abbatial Benediction.

I know that in the foundation of a new work individual initiative must be the pioneer, and legal and formal action must follow to approve, and if necessary restrain and readjust. Any idea of drifting into a false or unreal position has always been my great dread; and now that this initial work has been carried thus far, and the Community is settled at Caldey with a certain Character and Vocation of its own, it is my desire to obtain the definite approval and sanction of the Church for our manner of life, that it may be blessed by Authority, and rendered solid and lasting.

Believe me, my Lord Bishop,
Your faithful servant in Christ,

(Signed) D. AELRED, O.S.B.,
Abbot.

TO THE RIGHT REVEREND
THE LORD BISHOP OF OXFORD.

Letter from the Reverend Dr. Darwell Stone to Father Abbot.

PUSEY HOUSE,
OXFORD.
12th November, 1912.

MY DEAR ABBOT,

Probably you know that the Bishop of Oxford has asked Mr. W. B. Trevelyan, the Warden of Liddon House, and me to make a report to him concerning your Community in connexion with the suggestion of the Archbishop of Canterbury that he should become your Visitor. I am writing to ask if you will be so kind as to send both to Mr. Trevelyan and to me copies of (I) your Constitution and Rule, (2) all your service books and books of ceremonial, (3) any accounts which you may have of the history of your Community, and (4) any recent publications of your Community or other matter which you think would be useful to us, including an article which I understand was written some time ago in justification of your general position.

Mr. Trevelyan and I think that we shall probably need a conversation with you after we have considered any documents which you may send to us and before we make our report to the Bishop. Is it likely that it would be convenient to you if we were to arrive at Caldey on Thursday, January 2, and to leave on January 4, so as to have the intervening day Friday, January 3, for conference with you? In that case, can the boat be arranged to fit in, if we arrive at Tenby on January by the train which is due at 5.17 p.m. and leave Tenby on January 4 by the train at 10.58 a.m.?

I am afraid that I am giving you much trouble; but it seems necessary.

Sincerely yours,

(Signed) DARWELL STONE.

THE ABBEY,
ISLE OF CALDEY,
TENBY.
15th November, 1912.

MY DEAR DOCTOR STONE,

Thank you very much for your letter of the 12th. I am glad to know that you and Mr. Trevelyan are willing to act in the preliminaries concerning the appointment of our Visitor. I will send you all you ask for as speedily as possible. It will mean a little work and time to get everything together and in order for you, but in about a fortnight I shall hope to post you most of what you require.

Thursday, January 2nd, will be quite convenient for us to receive you and Mr. Trevelyan at Caldey. I will arrange for the steamer to meet your train, and you shall leave in time on January 4th to catch the 10.58 a.m. train from Tenby. I will keep the intervening day quite free for you.

Believe me in our Lord,
Sincerely yours,

(Signed) D. AELRED, O.S.B.,
Abbot.

THE REVEREND DOCTOR DARWELL STONE,
Pusey House, Oxford.

THE ABBEY, ISLE OF CALDEY,
NR TENBY.
15th November, 1912.

MY DEAR MR. TREVELYAN,

I am so glad to hear from Dr. Darwell Stone that you will act with him in reporting to the Bishop of Oxford on various matters connected with our Community Life, as the preliminary step to what we hope will be the consent of the Bishop of Oxford to become our Visitor. I will send the various things that Dr. Stone asks for to you and to him within the next fortnight I gather from his letter that you will each want separate copies of the papers and books.

It will be a great pleasure to see you here again on January 2nd, and I will arrange for the steamer to meet you, and also to take you back on the 4th in time to catch your train could wish that we might have had a little longer time; but I have no doubt that one whole day will be sufficient for you both to obtain what is necessary for your Report.

With kind regards,
Believe me in our Lord,
Very sincerely yours,

(Signed) DOM AELRED, O.S.B.,
Abbot.

THE REVEREND W. B. TREVELYAN,
Liddon House, S. W.

Letter from Father Abbot to the Bishop of Oxford.

THE ABBEY,
ISLE OF CALDEY,
NR. TENBY.
15th November, 1912.

MY DEAR LORD BISHOP,

I have heard from Doctor Darwell Stone that he and Mr. Trevelyan are willing to report to you concerning the life and work of our Community. He sends me a list of subject-matter that he wishes to examine, to form the basis of the Report; and among the various things, he asks for a copy of our Constitution and Rule. I am sending Dr. Stone all he requires; and referring to your own request for a copy of the Constitution, do I understand that you still wish one sent to you direct, as well as that to Dr. Stone, or will the one copy to him be sufficient?

On November 6th your Chaplain wrote to acknowledge the receipt of the Pamphlet, The Benedictines of Caldey Island, which I sent to you on November 4th; but he did not say that you had received my letter of the same date giving you the particulars you asked for about the Priests working on the Island. I am a little afraid that the book may have arrived safely, and the letter perhaps lost in the post. Would you kindly ask Mr. Cooper to tell me about this when he answers my question about the copy of the Constitution for you?

Believe me, my Lord Bishop,
Your faithful and obedient

(Signed) D. AELRED, O.S.B.,
Abbot.

Letter from the Bishop of Fond du Lac, Dr. Weller, to Father Abbot.

FOND DU LAC,
WIS.,
U.S.A.
6th November, 1912.

MY DEAR LORD ABBOT,

I have your kind letter of October 25th, and congratulate you most heartily on your decision to do nothing in connection with the Ordination of your two Brethren, until the election of your Episcopal Visitor has taken place, and he is able, as Visitor, to co-operate in whatever is done.

It is quite clear to me that this is the right course to take, and you may be sure of my earnest prayers for God's guidance of the Order in so vital a matter.

Though I know nothing of the Bishop of Oxford, except from his writings, and his great reputation, I think you could not do better than to secure him as your Visitor.

If I can be of any service whatever to you, it will be a great pleasure.

Sincerely yours in our Lord,

(Signed) REGINALD FOND DU LAC.

CUDDESDON,
WHEATLEY,
OXON.
16th November 1912.

MY DEAR ABBOT,

The Bishop of Oxford asks me to say that in sending the Constitution and Rule to Dr. Stone, perhaps you will be good enough to tell him that it is intended for the Bishop when he and Mr. Trevelyan have done with it. That will suffice.

With regard to the latter half of your letter, the Bishop received the letter giving particulars about the Priests working on the Island.

Yours sincerely,

(Signed) WILFRID COOPER,
Chaplain.

Letter from Father Abbot to the Reverend Dr. Darwell Stone and the Reverend W. B. Trevelyan.

THE ABBEY,
ISLE OF CALDEY,
NR. TENBY.
5th December, 1912.

MY DEAR DOCTOR STONE (MY DEAR MR. TREVELYAN),

I am sending you to-day by passenger train a box containing the various books and papers concerning our Community which the Bishop of Oxford has asked you to report upon.

The reference in the "Ceremonial" to the Caldey Hymn Book concerns a collection of hymns for our own use which is now in the hands of the printers.

A copy of the Declarations, referred to in the Constitution, will be ready for you next week; and at the same time I will send a copy of the article "Benedictinism" which is being reprinted from Pax.

Believe me in our Lord,
Sincerely yours,

(Signed) DOM AELRED, O.S.B.,
Abbot.

THE REVEREND DR. DARWELL STONE,
Pusey House,
Oxford.

THE REVEREND W. B. TREVELYAN,

Letter from the Reverend Darwell Stone to Father Abbot.

PUSEY HOUSE,
OXFORD.
30th December, 1912.

MY DEAR ABBOT,

Mr. Trevelyan and I are hoping to come, as was arranged, on Thursday in this week. By the December "Bradshaw" I see that the train is now due at Tenby at 6.5 p.m., a little later than in November; but we are assuming that this will not make any difference in the possibility of the steamer meeting the train, as you kindly said that it should do.

Sincerely yours,

(Signed) DARWELL STONE.

CALDEY ABBEY,
NR TENBY,
S. WALES.
31st December, 1912.

MY DEAR DOCTOR STONE,

Thank you for your letter. I am expecting you and Mr. Trevelyan on Thursday evening next. I knew that there was no 5.28 train in winter, and surmised that you would arrive at Tenby by the 6.5 p.m. The steamer will be waiting for you at 6.30 to bring you straight over.

If it is very rough and dark and you cannot cross that night, I am arranging for your accommodation at the Cobourg Hotel; and in that case the steamer will bring you over on Friday morning. It will take you back to the mainland on Saturday morning in time to catch the up train.

Believe me,
Sincerely yours,

(Signed) DOM AELRED, O.S.B.,
Abbot.

During the Conference with the two Priests, the Abbot stated the general position of the Community in regard to the proposal that the Bishop of Oxford should become Visitor of Caldey. He said that Archbishop Temple’s Authorisation for his own Profession was given in 1898, followed by the document appointing him as Abbot in 1902. This Sanction was sufficient for the beginning of the Community; but that now a period of fifteen years had passed away, it seemed quite necessary to obtain further and more permanent recognition. The Abbot said that as he had been granted no formal Licence to Minister in the Province of Canterbury, he wrote in December, 1911, to the Archbishop to ask him for the Permission that was usually given to Priests in Colonial Orders. The Archbishop’s reply was that the Community must first of all be regularised by the appointment of an Episcopal Visitor. His Grace suggested that the Bishop of Oxford should be asked to act in that capacity. The Abbot accordingly wrote to Bishop Gore, who consented to consider the proposal, but asked first of all for information concerning the Rule, Constitution, and Religious Observances of the Community. The Abbot then asked the Bishop to pay a preliminary visit to Caldey so that he might satisfy himself about the various matters on the spot. The Bishop replied that as it was not possible for him to do so for some time, he would ask two Priests, to whom the Abbot was to send such particulars as would help them, to draw up a Report for the Bishop that would give him the necessary information. Before actually making their Report, the Priests would come to Caldey to see something of the working of the Community and to ask the Abbot any questions they might think necessary.

The Abbot stated that the general feeling of the Community was that the time had come when further Authorisation and Ecclesiastical Sanction were essential to the development of our work on right lines. Arising out of the Abbot’s application for a Licence, the Archbishop had insisted on the appointment of a Visitor; and the Brethren felt that such an appointment as that suggested might be very welcome, and would meet their present needs. It was felt by the Brethren to be very important that the Abbot should be properly licensed, and that it should be possible for certain of our Monks to be ordained for the Monastery without serving in parish work as ordinary Curates. They considered that the appointment of a Visitor would serve to bring the Community into due relation with the Episcopate, so that it might be quite clear to every one that our Rule and Religious Practices at Caldey were carried out straightforwardly, and in the spirit of true obedience and with the Sanction of Authority. Finally, the Abbot said, we were anxious to do all that was possible to secure the election of Bishop Gore as Visitor.

Doctor Darwell Stone said that he and Mr. Trevelyan had been asked by the Bishop to prepare a Report for him; and that having studied the books and papers the Abbot had sent them, they thought Bishop Gore would wish to have certain points elucidated connected with the Constitution of the Community, the Jurisdiction, the Rite, and the Devotions of Caldey.

Under these heads various matters were discussed; and in final conversation Dr. Stone said he thought they had covered all the points that might be raised by the Bishop, and that he and Mr. Trevelyan would now prepare their Report. Before, however, sending the Report to the Bishop, they wished the Abbot to have a draft copy of it, in order that the Community might know exactly what was being laid before the Bishop, and that the actual statements contained in the Report might be correct, and rightly represent the Practices of the Community. The Report, of course, would not commit the Community to anything; and it was understood that at present we did not ask Bishop Gore to sanction any of our Practices, but that, at the wish of the Archbishop of Canterbury, we invited him to be Episcopal Visitor of Caldey. At the same time, it was quite possible that, after the Bishop had received the Report, he might feel that he could not accede to the wish of the Community unless they could agree to certain conditions and requirements he might think it necessary to make.

Dr. Stone said that any such possible conditions were outside their own work for the Bishop in preparing the Report; and that during the meeting they had therefore refrained from asking any sort of question as to what the Community might, in certain circumstances, be prepared to give up or modify.... Such suggestions would, of course, come from the Bishop of Oxford himself.

Father Abbot read these notes to the Chapter of the Professed Brethren on Sunday, the 5th of January, and he spoke very gratefully of the kindness and consideration shown by Dr. Stone and Mr. Trevelyan in dealing with a matter of such far-reaching importance to the Community.

PUSEY HOUSE,
OXFORD.
6th January, 1913.

MY DEAR ABBOT,

I enclose the draft of a letter to the Bishop of Oxford on which Mr. Trevelyan and I have provisionally agreed. Will you kindly return it? I will send you a copy of the letter which is eventually sent.

I hope that you will let me know if we have made any mistake as to a matter of fact, or if there is any point in which you think that either any fact or any remark of yours can be put more fairly. What seems to me important in the first instance is to get a statement of the salient points which may need consideration.

I am not sure whether I rightly understood you that the year of the licence which mentioned Caldey as well as Tenby was 1838. Will you please tell me whether this is so, or what is the correct date?

Thank you for all your hospitality, and for the kindness with which you have made our task as easy as it can be.

Sincerely yours,

(Signed) DARWELL STONE.

No doubt you will send copies of the "Declarations" soon. We did not think that we need wait for them before making the enclosed draft; but we ought to have them before completing the letter in case any addition is needed.

Letter from Father Abbot to the Reverend Dr. Darwell Stone.

THE ABBEY,
ISLE OF CALDEY,
NR. TENBY.
9th January, 1913.

MY DEAR DR. STONE,

Thank you for letting me see the Draft copy of your letter to the Bishop of Oxford. I have read it to the Senior Brethren, who very much appreciate your kind consideration and the clear and absolutely fair way in which you have stated the salient points you think the Bishop would wish to consider.

You have made no mistakes as to matters of fact; but in regard to the second paragraph of the Draft, I should like to quote a passage from a letter of the Archbishop of Canterbury to me, and one from a letter from the Bishop of Oxford. That from the Archbishop of Canterbury is in reply to my application for a Licence, and was written on May 20th last.

"I have reason to believe that if your Community were to elect as Visitor the Bishop of Oxford, he would not decline to accept the position. It seems to me that if the status of the Community is to be regularised, steps ought to be taken to that end prior to my dealing with the specific question of your receiving Licence or Permission from me; as Archbishop to accept invitations to minister, under due diocesan sanction, in the Province of Canterbury.... I prefer to postpone that matter until (I hope at no distant date) you are able to tell me that the question of Visitorship has been satisfactorily arranged."

I then wrote to Bishop Gore, who replied that he would carefully consider the proposal, and that—

"The office of a Visitor, as generally understood, is to maintain a certain constitution and rule of devotion, and the consent of the Visitor would be necessary to any alteration in it. Therefore, before a Bishop can become Visitor of a Religious Community, he must have considered carefully the constitution, the liturgy, the common devotions, offices, etc. This is what I have done in the case of the Communities of which I have become the Episcopal Visitor for the first time. So that what I would ask you to do is to send me your constitution, rules, and rites other than those contained in the Prayer Book, so that I may have them under my eye and take the opportunity of studying them. I dare say this may involve some difficulty, but it is a difficulty which must be faced to start with; and I am thankful to say that I have had very little difficulty with the eight or nine Communities that I am Visitor of up to the present."

I am sending you with this my notes of what I said to you when we began our Conference, in the form of a little paper that I read to the Brethren at the Chapter Meeting on Sunday. This, and the extracts from the letters, may cause you to word the second paragraph of your Report somewhat differently if you think it necessary. In respect to the extra-diocesan position of Caldey, here are some of the notes I read to you at our meeting. You will see that the date you mention is 1636.

When Caldey of Saint Dogmael's was conveyed to John Bradshaw in 1546, provision was made for Chaplains for the Church and Parish of Saint Dogmael's, £4 yearly, and for the Church at Caldey, £3. 3s. 6d. yearly. It was clearly intended therefore that Caldey should have its own Minister. But this arrangement was never carried out so far as Caldey was concerned; and we believe it is not disputed by any one that through long custom Caldey has become extra-parochial. There are no rates and taxes and no parish machinery of any sort; neither has any one claimed jurisdiction over the Island. The owners of Caldey are refused a vote because it is extra-parochial.

The Diocesan Registrar of Saint Davids says that he believes Caldey has always been considered as extra-diocesan; and there is only one record in the Register between 1546 and 1838, namely in 1636, in which it is mentioned that one John Owen "was licensed to say prayer and perform all duties pertaining to the offices of Curate and Deacon in the Church of Tenby and Caldee." This "Church (not Churches) of Tenby and Caldee "may be and probably is nothing more than a incorrect designation of St. Mary's Tenby. Since the year 1838 there is no entry in the Diocesan Register relating to Caldey, and in particular there is no entry in 1838 which is the year of the restoration of the Island Church. The Diocesan Registrar "thinks there is no doubt that Caldey has always been treated as extra-diocesan."

The position therefore is a simple one—that Caldey does not appear in 1838 or at any other time except in 1636 in the Diocesan Register, and has always been treated as extra-parochial and extra-diocesan. Moreover, in the licence to John Owen in 1636, there are traces of a correction having been made; and, which is very much to the point, when John Rock was instituted to Tenby only four years later, no mention whatever is made of Caldey. It can certainly be taken therefore that the 1636 entry is an error of the scribe.

Moreover, in the official Diocesan Kalendar of Saint Davids, Caldey is always mentioned as being extra-diocesan.

All the other matters seem to be quite fairly stated, and one of the Brothers is hard at work making a copy of the Declarations for you and Mr. Trevelyan. These will be ready to post to you to-morrow.

With kind regards and many thanks for all the trouble you are taking.

Believe me, Sincerely yours,

(Signed) DOM AELRED, O.S.B.,
Abbot.

THE REVEREND DR. DARWELL STONE,
Pusey House, Oxford.

PUSEY HOUSE,
OXFORD.
22nd January, 1913.

MY DEAR ABBOT,

I enclose a copy of the letter which Mr. Trevelyan and I have sent to the Bishop of Oxford. As you will see, we have slightly expanded the part about the reasons which you have for thinking Caldey is a Peculiar, and have put in a few words in the second paragraph on the first page. Otherwise it is exactly the same as the draft which I sent you to read.

Sincerely yours,

(Signed) DARWELL STONE.

Letter from the Bishop of Oxford to Father Abbot.

CUDDESDON,
WHEATLEY,
OXON.
8th February, 1913.

MY DEAR ABBOT,

I have received the report on Caldey from Dr. Stone and Mr. Trevelyan. After considering it there are certain things which it seems to me I must say first of all.

I. A new point to me. I believe I could not become Episcopal Visitor of an institution unless I had satisfied myself that the property of the institution, buildings, etc., were legally secured to the Church of England and were not private property such as might be given or left by any individual or group of individuals to any person or Community without regard to communion with Canterbury.

2. I am quite certain that neither I nor any other Bishop could become Visitor of your Community without the Priests belonging to the Community taking the usual Oath and making the usual declaration before they were allowed to minister. The result of this would be in my judgment that certainly the Liturgy, that is Communion Office, of the Prayer Book, would have to become exclusively the rite in use of the Chapel or Chapels of the Community, and the Priests, whatever else they said, would be bound to the recitation of the Morning and Evening Prayer.

3. I am quite sure that I could not become Visitor of your Community (and I think the same would be true of any other Bishop) until the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin, and I should think the Corporal Assumption, had been eliminated from the breviary and missal. I feel sure that the public observance of these festivals and the public profession of these doctrines, i.e., as part of the common faith, cannot be justified on any other than a strictly Papal basis of authority. You seem to me that you cannot reasonably assume this authority for purposes of devotion and then appeal behind it to justify your position as a Benedictine Community. I cannot help thinking that on reflection you will see the truth of this.

4. I could not possibly become Visitor of a Community unless it were understood that Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and Benediction given with the Blessed Sacrament were abandoned. The same would probably be true of the Exposition of Relics and Benediction given with Relics.

I cannot promise that this list is exclusive. I should have very carefully to attend to a number of details and bear in mind on the one hand the general principle of policy, and on the other hand the exceptional position of your Community. This would involve on both sides a good deal of labour and trouble. I really have not begun at this work, and therefore I make no promises about it. But what I have stated above are preliminaries that seem to me to be obvious and to lie outside all possibilities of bargaining and concession, and I do not think it is worth while going on until these preliminary points are taken for granted. By all means consult Trevelyan and Stone, and let me hear at your convenience. I do earnestly pray that you and I may be guided right.

I sent you a post card from Subiaco which was incomparably more interesting and moving than I had anticipated.

Yours very truly in our Lord,

(Signed) C. OXON:

Letter from Father Abbot to the Bishop of Oxford.

THE ABBEY,
ISLE OF CALDEY,
NR. TENBY.
11th February, 1913.

MY DEAR LORD BISHOP,

Your letter of February 8th, containing your very explicit preliminary requirements, I shall read to my Brethren and discuss with them at our Chapter Meeting next Sunday. I am not able to do so any sooner, as three or four of them are suffering from influenza, and two of the Seniors do not return from Llanthony till Saturday.

I am bound to say that I think your letter may offer considerable difficulty to some of the Brethren. It seems to me hardly fair to the Community to put before them at once what is merely a series of negations that "lie outside all possibilities of bargaining and concession"; and I do not see that we can reasonably expect them immediately (and without any sort of idea as to what you may further demand of them to surrender such practices as the use of the Benedictine Liturgy and the devotions to the Blessed Sacrament to which they have so long been accustomed.

I know the sort of questions that will be asked at the Chapter Meeting; and I can gauge in some measure the general effect that your clear and uncompromising letter will have.

In this important matter the Brethren know well that, apart from the regularising of the status of the Community itself, my Licence and position as a Priest in the Church of England depend upon the Election of an Episcopal Visitor; and they have been looking with great hope for wise and sympathetic guidance from you, both on account of your own connection with the Religious Life, and as a Bishop whose opinion they could accept with confidence as to the Doctrine and Practice of the Church; and also because they know it was the express wish of the Archbishop that you should be asked to become Visitor. They have been prepared for a good deal of self-sacrifice in order to submit loyally to your ruling, so that it would seem a great pity to prejudice their minds before they have any opportunity of knowing yours more fully.

All this being so, I am sure that to read them your letter asking at the outset for the unconditional surrender of what they value so much, will perplex them and cause unnecessary doubt and dismay. The difficulty might, I think, be avoided if you could send me a few words stating your general position, and telling them what, in your opinion, might be allowed by the explicit or implied teaching of the Church of England in regard to dogmatic expressions of our Faith that may be strongly and surely defended by the Catholic consensus to which the Church of England appeals.

As a Community, our Faith and Practice are identical with those of hundreds of Church of England people; and one of the chief questions that will come up is whether we can, as a Community, be allowed to believe and express with due Episcopal sanction what so many others in ordinary parochial life believe and practise as individuals.

A few words from you on the following points would, I know, be most acceptable to the Community, and would be of great assistance to me in supplementing and discussing your present requirements at the Chapter on Sunday.

(I) The Real Objective Presence of our Lord in the Holy Eucharist is to be worshipped and adored, and that, therefore, our custom of singing Adoremus in aeternum Sanctissimum Sacramentum before and after every Choir Office may be allowed as the expression of our Faith.

(2) The Reservation of the Holy Sacrament in one kind at the High Altar for the purpose of communicating the sick (this is of frequent occurrence) and others when necessary outside the time of Mass. That the teaching of our Lord's Presence in the Holy Sacrament need in no wise be suppressed or made a matter of apology.

(3) The Invocation of the Blessed Virgin and the Saints as contained in such representative devotions as the Hail Mary, the use of the Rosary, the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Litany of the Saints, and in the Anthems of the Blessed Virgin, with versicles and collects, as printed at the end of Compline in Benedictine and other Breviaries.

(4) With what restrictions the Benedictine Breviary may be allowed for recitation in the Community.

(5) Prayers and special Masses for the Repose of the Dead, with the use of specific collects containing the names of the departed.

(6) The possibility of sanction for the use of the Communion Service in Latin, with the Canon of the Mass and the Proper and Common of Saints for use in the Chapel of the Order only.

These are I think the essential matters that will at once call for consideration, and I do not think it surprising at the present time that the Community should need some assurance on these points, considering the extraordinary diversity of belief and the restlessness of intellectual enquiry into matters of Faith that make us look upon our position as one of great responsibility. I can assure you that all the Brethren heartily desire to submit loyally to Catholic Authority; and I shall be most grateful if you can help me to give them some sort of idea of what you expect of them, in addition to the restrictions you have already laid down as beyond doubt or question.

Believe me, my Lord Bishop,
Your faithful and obedient

(Signed) DOM AELRED, O.S.B.,
Abbot.

THE RIGHT REVEREND
THE LORD BISHOP OF OXFORD.

Letter from the Bishop of Oxford to Father Abbot.

CUDDESDON,
WHEATLEY,
OXON.
14th February, 1913.

MY DEAR ABBOT,

I think I had rather hold to the method suggested in my letter.

I can, indeed, assure you to start with, that no kind of question would be raised by me about the teaching of our Lord’s Objective Presence in the Holy Sacrament, or the worship of Him in the Holy Sacrament.

On the other hand, I have already answered your question in number 6. I do not think there is any possibility of obtaining sanction for the use of the Latin Liturgy.

But with regard to a number of other matters, there will be need for very careful discrimination. My point was, and remains, that there are certain matters with regard to which I feel sure to start with, and I think we had better arrive at an understanding about them before going further.

I do, indeed, fully sympathize with you in your difficulties.

Yours truly in our Lord,

(Signed) C. OXON:

Letter from the Community of Caldey to the Bishop of Oxford.

THE ABBEY,
ISLE OF CALDEY,
NR. TENBY.
19th February, 1913.

TO THE RIGHT REVEREND
THE LORD BISHOP OF OXFORD.

MY LORD BISHOP,

We have as a Community carefully considered your last two letters, and we are agreed that we cannot conscientiously submit to the demands you make of us.

In view of your Lordship's request for the immediate surrender of Property, Liturgy, and Devotions, together with your definite refusal to give any sort of assurance of what you might further require of us, did we accede to your present wishes, we are sure that our Life as a Contemplative Community under the Benedictine Rule would be quite impossible.

The preliminaries that seem to your Lordship so obvious as to "lie outside all possibilities of bargaining and concession," concern matters which are vital to our conception of the Catholic Faith; and your requirements are so decisive that we are forced to act upon what we believe to be God's Will for us.

With great respect,
We are, my Lord Bishop,
Your faithful servants,

(Signed,) DOM AELRED CARLYLE,
Abbot.

Professed in Solemn Vows

DOM SAMSON CARRINGTON.
DOM HENRY WATTS.
DOM WILFRID UPSON.
DOM LEO PACKER.
DOM ASAPH HARRIS.
DOM LAURENCE GIBBINGS.
DOM DOMINIC DETHERIDGE.

BR. PLACIDUS COOPER
BR. AIDAN ANGLE.
BR. FRANCIS SMITH.
BR. BEDE LLOYD.
BR. JEROME HOLMES.
BR. DUNSTAN WHITSED.
BR. NORBERT COWIN.
BR. RICHARD WHYTINGE ANSON.
BR. JOSEPH WOODFORD.
BR. GILBERT THOMAS.
BR. HUGH GOLDING.
BR. PATRICK LUSCOMBE.

BR. PAUL DAVIS.
BR. BERNARD BROWN.
BR. MAURUS GATER.
BR. MICHAEL BARTON.

BR. CHARLES HUTSON.
BR. CADOC BLANCHARD.
BR. RAYMUND WEEKES.

CUDDESDON,
WHEATLEY,
OXON.
22nd February, 1913.

MY DEAR ABBOT,

I think your letter of February 19th is very much to be regretted. I would earnestly plead that you should take further time to consider, and should consult such persons as Dr. Stone, Mr. Trevelyan, and the Father Superior of Cowley. I really do not know what advice they would give you, but I feel sure there ought to be careful consultation.

Your letter implies a serious misconception. You speak of my "request for immediate surrender of your property." I made no request for surrender, only for a reasonable assurance that the property was held properly in trust for a Community in Communion with the See of Canterbury. And you have taken no notice of the consideration which I wished to press upon you that the authority for some of your devotional practices is so specifically a later Roman authority as to be inconsistent with the appeal behind this authority to the earlier precedent of the Benedictine Rule as giving you the right to your independent organization. It seems to me that you are accepting and rejecting the same authority at different points, and that cannot be a satisfactory basis on which to stand. Also I cannot understand at all what you mean by saying that your acceding to my wishes would render your "life as a Contemplative Community under the Benedictine Rule impossible." Would you also let me know whether there is any minority in each of the four classes of signatories to your letter who take a different view from that expressed?

I have been told that there was a Trust Deed published in Pax which I should probably find satisfactory and adequate. Will you send me the number of Pax containing this Trust Deed?

You will understand that this letter is a request to you to withdraw your final reply and make it the subject of serious reconsideration.

I do pray you may be guided right.

Yours truly in Christ,

(Signed) C. OXON:

THE ABBEY,
ISLE OF CALDEY,
NR. TENBY.
22nd February, 1913.

MY DEAR LORD BISHOP,

When I read the last three letters of our correspondence to the Community, we all felt that we were face to face with an extremely grave situation. It was a grievous disappointment to every one that you felt it right to treat the matters that ase more important to us than anything else in the world in so unconciliatory a manner. At the same time we felt that what you asked of us was the outcome of careful consideration; and we are grateful for your clearly expressed opinion which has been the means of revealing God's Will to the Community.

The whole question narrowed itself down in our minds to that of Authority. All the way through the history of the past fifteen years Authority has been of paramount importance in the growth of our Community Life—which we knew to be impossible without it.

We have appealed to the Authority of the English Church as represented by you, acting upon the wish of the Archbishop of Canterbury. We have submitted an account of our Doctrine and Practice honestly for your decision as an official Teacher of the English Church. We have told you, without any sort of evasion, exactly what to us are matters of the first importance; and we have done this for the purpose of obtaining what had become necessary to the existence of our Life and status as a Community in the appointment of a Visitor whom we could trust to help us to be faithful to our Rule and Observance in the Vocation God has given us.

The appointment of Visitor was rightly made a sine qua non by the Archbishop of Canterbury in the regularising of our status in the Church of England; and every other consideration was put on one side till we had complied with his request. My Licence as a Priest, which I asked for in 1911, was refused. The offer of Ordination for two of our Monks I was forbidden to accept. Our Rules, Constitution, and the Practices of our Devotional Life were asked for without any reference to me as to what I might consider to be our special needs as a Contemplative Community. When I begged you to visit Caldey yourself, to see something of the actual working of our Life, you replied that the first stages of the negotiations could be conducted in writing. I gladly placed everything at your disposal for examination, and I answered faithfully all the questions that were asked. When I came to see you at Wheatley last March I told you just what we did at Caldey, and you agreed with me then that the Practices of the Devotional Life, which had grown up in the course of years, were to be gently and considerately dealt with.

And the result of it all has been a cold formal demand, beginning with a request for the legal security of our Property to the Church of England, and some preliminary requirements that cut away at once the very centre of our Liturgical and Devotional Life. You wrote in no sort of tentative way, but as if you knew perfectly well what you were doing, and you left me no single point of appeal Then, when the Community had delivered itself tied and bound into your hands and had promised to give you what would practically amount to unconditional submission, you wrote that there would be "a number of other matters that would need careful discrimination; that your first list could not be called exclusive, and that you would have to bear in mind on one hand the general principle of policy, and on the other the exceptional position of our Community." Our special spiritual needs do not seem to have deserved any consideration; and upon the chief points you did not give me any chance of discussion. You "thought it was not worth while going on until those preliminary points were taken for granted."

You must pardon me, my Lord Bishop, if I write strongly. I have not been working heart and soul for so many years at what I firmly believe to be my Vocation; and God has not helped me through countless difficulties, for me to find it easy when I am asked practically to deny, what I havc always believed and taught openly, because I felt that with all the anomalies of the Church of England, her formularies were patient of a wide interpretation, and that her boasted Comprehensiveness—holding so many divergent opinions under a common denominator could find a real place, if only a small one, for a body of men who gave themselves entirely to God in the Life of Prayer under the Rule of Saint Benedict.

The needs of the Contemplative Vocation are quite special. They are not in the least like those of an ordinary Anglican parish, and they fundamentally differ from those of an Active Community. As a Community we have always known perfectly well what we believed; our Faith was no new thing,there was never any secret made of it, and never any wilful disobedience.

In accepting a more definite Authority than that granted us in the first place by Archbishop Temple, we knew of course that some necessity for modification would arise, and that possibly we should be asked to give up certain things. To all reasonable demands we were prepared to subrnit; but how could we be prepared in any sort of way for the manner in which you have thought it necessary to treat us? When I began this Foundation I felt that the peculiar needs of the Contemplative Life could only be met upon the traditional lines of the present practice of the great Benedictine Order as it exists throughout the world to-day. Interesting as academical questions may be to students, men who have practical work to do (and in our case it was a real pioneer work) must study the conditions of life as they are; and especially is this true where one is dealing with men so intimately as one must in the organisation of a Religious Community.

It is not the gathering of men together, the adoption of a Rule or Habit, or even the formulation of high ideals, that constitute the chief difficulty of Community Life. The difficulty lies, first of all, in the acceptance of the right men, of the men who are truly called, and the keeping them together in what is at once the freedom and the bondage of a Corporate Life. It is this which constitutes the essential work of a Religious Foundation.

There is all the difference between a Club and a Religious Community. The former has only to deal with external conduct, and rules are easily made and changed; but a Community is a vital organism, and one is dealing at every point with souls, and with those forces, spiritual and psychological, which govern the Interior Life. The living growth towards God, and the complexities of life and conduct, are the primary and essential things that have to be reckoned with. Among these the Doctrine and Practice are not merely external observances that can be lightly changed or given up; they are literally the lines of spiritual life in a House like this, and even your preliminary demands, were they complied with, would throw the whole system into confusion. Please pardon me if I mention matters that are quite well known to you. I do so only to give you our point of view.

It seems to us that the circumstances do not admit of argument or of delay. We are anxious to avoid anything like rashness or hurry, but your letters leave us no hope that delay would be in the least useful. We cannot bargain about what are matters of principle if not of actual Faith. The points at issue between us are to us matters of pure conviction. We cannot say that we will not accept you as Visitor but will try to remain as we are. This would be perfectly impossible, not only on the grounds I have stated above, but because we see clearly what we must do.

Our conclusion is that we are thrown back upon the "strictly Papal basis of Authority," and your dealings with us show us plainly that our hopes and aspirations have failed, at least so far as the Church of England is concerned. On the one hand we cannot possibly give up what we believe; and on the other, we cannot as honest men continue to hold and to practise what we have been asked authoritatively to surrender, and remain in a Church while holding opinions and continuing practices which have been forbidden by its official Teachers.

From this we have no reason to draw any general conclusion for other people. But it is evidently our own duty to turn from the Authority to which we cannot conscientiously submit, to the Church where the Doctrines we believe are taught authoritatively as matters of Faith.

In this great crisis through which as a Community we are passing, there is little or no difference of opinion; upon the main question there is none at all—i.e., it is impossible to submit to your requirements. Apart from this, there is the question of personal conviction. It is an individual responsibility. I myself have decided that it would be wrong for me to remain where I am; and I have ceased to minister at the altar. Each individual has come to his own conclusion in his own way, and our decision is no corporate act except in the sense that what we do as individuals we have decided to do as a Community.

Our Community of Nuns at Saint Bride’s, of whom I am Visitor, belong to our Congregation and keep the same Rule and Observance. They have had the facts laid before them, and in their own Chapter have decided to take the same step. Thus it is that both the Communities of Caldey and Saint Bride's have determined to ask admission to the Roman Church.

Up to this moment I have taken no sort of action, and there have been no negotiations whatsoever with any Roman Catholic. When this letter to you is finished, and I have written a note to the Archbishop of Canterbury, I am going to invite Dom Bede Camm, O.S.B., who has not the least idea of what has been taking place, to come to Caldey to give us his help and advice. I am asking Dom Bede Camm as one who is a convert himself and a Benedictine; but I have never even seen him. I feel sure there will be misunderstanding upon this point, so that I wish to state emphatically that Dom Bede will be the first Roman Catholic I have approached on the subject. We have made no plans of any sort, and there is no idea of making terms with the Roman Authorities. It is just absolute and unconditional submission for us; such submission that we could not give to you because of the conditions you laid down which were contrary to our Faith and conscience. Everything in the future we leave to the good Providence of God. This only is certain, that we can no longer remain in the Church of England.

In your book Orders and Unity, you devote a special chapter to the "Peril of Drifting," and you ask the English Churchman to take a clearer view of his position. You say there are certain Doctrines which cannot be tested by an appeal to Scripture, and that such appeal is beyond question a specific principle of the English Church, as reformed.

In Chapter 7, pp. 225-7, you write that "those who believe the Doctrines of Purgatory and the Invocation of Saints are allowing themselves to drift: there is no sign of the question being adequately faced. The exigencies of spiritual convenience are quite overmastering the obligation of any clear appeal to principle."

In our own case it is to the principle of Authority that we appeal; and we shall make our submission to the Roman Church because we have come to believe that there can be no organised and stable form of Catholic Life outside the Communion of that See from which our English forefathers were torn away. Our present action is a protest against the "policy of drift." We cannot go on as a mere matter of expediency, and we dare not play with what has become clear to us. We have faced the question, and having done so, we must neglect mere spiritual convenience, and do what we are compelled to do with a single eye to God’s Glory and the fulfilment of His Will.

I know you feel strongly yourself about these things, and I am sure you cannot blame us for doing what we believe to be right. We do not in the least desire to influence other people by our action, but, of course, I know there will be a good deal of heart-searching among our friends, and perhaps some indignant protests.

It seems to be often counted a great crime for a man to follow his conscience when it calls him into the Fold of the Roman Church.

I wish to act honestly and straightforwardly, and I cannot make any controversial self-defence. I feel that it will be only right, however, to print some of these letters for those who wish to know the facts. They are not private letters, and I shall print them without any comment of my own, so that people may draw their own conclusions.

I wish to say that in regard to the Property of our Community, I will ask the solicitor who has had the whole of our business in his hands for the last eight years to wait upon you at your convenience and give you all the facts. He will tell you exactly how we stand in regard to our obligations to the outside world. Mr. Robert Cornwall, of the firm of Messrs. Oldman, Cornwall, and Wood Roberts, 3 Harcourt Buildings, Temple, London, E.C., is our solicitor, and I will instruct him to answer any questions you may choose to ask.

To all the kind friends who have watched our work with loving interest and prayers, I am most grateful. No slight part of the pain and the stress of the change is in passing away from them to new spiritual surroundings. I wish to assure you most earnestly that in all business and money matters I should not think of taking any unfair advantage. You shall be fully informed of the state of our affairs, and in doubtful matters I will gladly adopt any method you may suggest that is right and just to those concerned.

In connection with our present action, people will at once think of our decision arrived at last year about the Roman Question. I can only say that our present circumstances are totally different. One of the guiding principles of our Life as a Community has been to take no step until it was evidently right. In every case we have been shown what to do by the force of outside circumstances quite apart from ourselves; and in every case when we have been true to this principle and have refused to follow impulse or expedience, we have been guided rightly. Last year it was quite clear to us that we should be wrong to make any change. There was no sufficient evidence of God’s Will for us, and so we made our decision, and were prepared to remain in the Church of England. For the reasons which I have stated at length we now find that the whole aspect of our Life has changed, and we are no longer in doubt as to what we must do.

From the beginning of my correspondence with the Archbishop of Canterbury, I can see now that the matter has been out of my hands, and I had only to follow step by step to this present conclusion.

I do thank you most gratefully, my Lord Bishop, for all your kind trouble, and the desire I know you have had to help us. We can feel nothing but grateful for the guidance that has been given us; and while the uprooting must mean much personal sorrow, I am sure we can never regret that God has led us into the wider and fuller life of the Catholic and Roman Church. We cannot go back upon our own history, nor can we deny any of the gifts of grace that God has given us in the past; but we have now come to a time of quiet waiting, to gather fuller strength and to learn the further revelation of His Will. Conscious of this we can face the future, whatever it may hold for us, with real hope and confidence; and I commend myself and my dear Brethren to you, asking that you will not think hardly of us, but pray that God will give us grace and strength to be faithful to what we truly believe to be His Divine Will.

With my respectful regards,
Believe me, my Lord Bishop,
Your faithful servant in Christ,

(Signed) DOM AELRED, O.S.B.,
Abbot.

THE RIGHT REVEREND
THE LORD BISHOP OF OXFORD.

Letter from Father Abbot to the Archbishop of Canterbury.

THE ABBEY,
ISLE OF CALDEY,
NR. TENBY.
22nd February, 1913.

MY LORD ARCHBISHOP,

I am writing to tell your Grace that the negotiations between Bishop Gore and our Community about the office of Visitor have been broken off, and that as the result of his Lordship's preliminary requirements, which he has placed outside "all possibilities of bargaining and concession," we find ourselves, as a Community, obliged to ask admission to the Roman Catholic Church.

For the sake of our friends, it will be necessary to have some copies of this correspondence privately printed. There can be no objection to this, as none of the letters are private, and I do not propose to make any comment upon them in my own defence. It is only fair and right that our friends should be able to draw their own conclusions by having the facts placed before them.

With great respect,
Believe me, my Lord Archbishop,
Your faithful servant in Christ,

(Signed) DOM AELRED, O.S.B.,
Abbot.

THE MOST REVEREND
THE LORD ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.

Letter from Father Abbot to the Bishop of Oxford.
THE ABBEY,
ISLE OF CALDEY,
NR. TENBY.
25th February, 1913.

MY DEAR LORD BISHOP,

Our letters have crossed, and you will have found much in my last letter that answered points in yours to me. Very gladly would I have consulted other people, such as Doctor Stone or the Cowley Fathers, had you held out the slightest hope in your second letter that you were prepared to modify your first requirements. But under the circumstances this would have been useless, and I felt it would be nothing but sheer impertinence to write appealing to you a third time after your very explicit second letter.

In the Chapter letter we did not, of course, mean that you requested an immediate surrender of Property in the sense that we were to hand it over unconditionally; but we understood, rightly, I think, that before you would consent to any further negotiations you insisted upon some assurance of the legal security of the Property to the Church of England. As my solicitor, Mr. Cornwall, will be able to tell you, all the property here belongs to me,in that it has been bought with money that has come to me under a settlement: but, of course, I do not hold it in my own name. Our Trust is formed of three Senior Members of the Community, and the Property would only revert to me in the single event of the Community ceasing to exist. This latter contingency is far from being the case; for we are asking reception into the Roman Church as a Community. Altogether we number, counting the Sisters of Saint Bride's, about sixty-four.

With regard to your question about the minority in the four classes of signatories. Apart from the twenty-seven Brethren who signed, there were only four who for various reasons did not sign. One monk in Solemn Vows first gave his signature but afterwards withdrew it: he had been a Nonconformist for many years, and felt that so far as the Community was concerned we could not come to any other conclusion, but that for himself his personal convictions would not allow him to associate himself with the action of the Community. One monk in Simple Vows did not sign because he felt too much disturbed in his own mind to come to any definite conclusion. One novice was told some time hefore the crisis occurred that he had not any Vocation,. and so was leaving the Community in any case; and one oblate felt that he must go away to France for a quiet time before he could make up his own mind. This, I think, answers the question in your letter.

Your remark about accepting and rejecting the same Authority at different points was carefully considered by us; and it helped largely to bring us to the conciusion that with our clear ideas of what we believe, we must, as I said in my last letter to you, take our stand upon the strictly Papal basis of Authority. You see, we had thought all along that our views were shared by many others, and could be rightly held in loyalty to the Catholic Church in England. But you have cleared the mattcr up, and have helped us to realise that we were in a false position, and could not honestly go on holding those views without at the same time being untrue to the teaching of the Church of England, to whose Authority, through you, we appealed.

I am so very sorry for all this and I do regret very much that you were unable to come yourself, if only for a few hours, to see the Life as it is lived here. Had you done so you would have understood what we meant by saying that our "acceding to your wishes would render our Life as a Contemplative Community under the Benedictine Rule impossible." I hope it does not seem in the least invidious to say that at the same time we are certain that God has shown His Will to us through you, and that there is a real feeling of happiness and security in the conviction that we have been led to do what is right. Believe me, my Lord Bishop, Your faithful servant in Christ,

(Signed) AELRED CARLYLE,
Abbot.

THE RIGHT REVEREND
THE LORD BISHOP OF OXFORD.

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