Bishops at Large

by Peter F. Anson

"This story is one of the strangest and most fantastic religious movements to be found in the whole range of what may be described as the erratic "goings on" of the ecclesiastical underworld." -ADAPTED from the INTRODUCTION. The independent Catholic movement has branches all over the world. It constitutes one of the most interesting and diverse movements in Christian history, one worthy of greater visibility and academic attention. Here is the classic history of the various successions claimed by most independent jurisdictions. This is the most sought-after book in the movement's history, now back in print after forty years from the Apocryphile Press.

Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Peter Frederick Anson was a marine artist and author of many books on fishing life and religious orders. For fourteen years a brother in an Anglican monastery, he moved over to the Cistercians in the Roman Catholic Church. Coming to the Moray Firth, he spent six years with the fishermen of Buckie and twenty years at Macduff, where he became involved with the Scottish national movement. His most famous book is Fishing Boats and Fisher Folk on the East Coast of Scotland, but his Fisher Folklore is also a standard work.

Reviews

[Chels S · Rating 1 out of 5]

Interesting book but both the writer of the introduction and the author are Modernists i. e confused, ecumenical, moral fence sitters. The author is retarded in that he thinks he is qualified as a layman to write this history of wicked schismatics and heretics, but not without first declaring in the introduction that he is not qualified to pass judgement on whether they were justified or not in being wicked schismatics and heretics.

[Michael Adam Reale · Rating 5 out of 5]

an excellent resources for the winding pathways and side trails of churches within the Independent Sacramental Movement.

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

A DETAILED HISTORICAL STUDY OF VARIOUS "INDEPENDENT" BRANCHES OF SACRAMENTAL CHURCHES

Peter Frederick Anson (1889-1975) was an English writer who wrote books such as 'Call of the Desert,' 'Churches - Their Plan and Furnishing,' 'The Hermit of Cat Island,' etc.

He wrote in the Foreword to this 1964 book, "The subject matter of this book is schism; a noun derived from the Greek 'skhisma,' meaning a rent or split. It deals in particular with rents or tears made in the garment of the Bride of Christ during the past hundred years, all of which resemble each other... having been made by for the most part by men who became dissatisfied with this or that form of organized Christianity, resulting in deliberate and formal separation from the unity of the Church, or from bodies which were already in schism...

"Few of the bodies dealt with in these pages were the outcome of theological scruples; almost all arose because the founders found fault with the particular organization to which they belonged and wanted to remedy the situation. The only way open to them was to set up a rival church... My object has been to record facts, and let the reader form his or her opinion from them." (Pg. 24-25)

He notes, "very few of the bodies dealt with in these pages have the right to call themselves 'Old Catholic,' since only two or three of them are in communion with the Utrecht Union of Old Catholics, which has been in full communion with the Church of England since 1931, and has been formally accepted since then by other parts of the Anglican Communion." (Pg. 29-30)

He recounts that Joseph René Vilatte "'learned that a famous French priest, Father [Charles] Chiniquy, who was devoting his life to preaching against Roman error, announced in Montreal a series of sermons... I attended with great fear several of them and returned to seminary with my mind quite disturbed'.... During this period he was much troubled by religious doubts... he abandoned his studies at McGill University and, having been reconciled with the Roman Church, retired to the house of the Clerics of St. Viator...

"After about six months, still in a very unsettled state, he met Pastor Chiniquy again, and discussed his spiritual problems with this apostate priest. The advice given was that Vilatte should ... go to Green Bay, Wisconsin, where there awaited him a wonderful field of apostolate among the Belgian settlers, who... were ripe for conversion to Protestantism, for they were drifting from Romanism into spiritism and infidelity." (Pg. 92-93)

He observes, "Some twenty bodies in North America, Africa, and Europe claim the Vilatte succession---more so indirectly. Through him, they maintain, their orders are derived from the Jacobite Patriarchate of Antioch, by way of the Independent Catholic Church of Goa and Ceylon...

"By 1917 people in North America who were not satisfied with either the Roman or the Protestant Episcopalian presentations of Catholicism could take their choice of three varieties of non-papal and non-anglican character: (1) The American Catholic Church; (2) The Old Roman Catholic Church; and (3) The Catholic Church of North America." The last two bodies had been formed by bishops Carfora and Brothers of the Mathew succession. If you were a Slav, there was the Polish National Catholic Church.... there was the Liberal Catholic Church... Throwing off the yoke of either Rome or Canterbury... had not helped to bring about the Unity of Christendom in North America." (Pg. 253)

He observes, "During the forty-three years of Arnold Harris Mathew's priesthood, and the twelve years of his episcopate, he changed his religious opinions so often and so suddenly, that it is never safe to attribute any convictions to him at any stage of his erratic career. It is improbable that ... [he] wished that any of the sects of which he was the progenitor should remain as his lasting memorial." (Pg. 324)

Although often critical, the detailed (and otherwise very hard to find!) information contained is this book will make it of great interest to anyone studying "independent" Catholic/Anglican/Orthodox or other sacramental churches.