Ren Vilatte From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [hide]This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. This article may be too long to read and navigate comfortably. (October 2013) This article may contain an excessive amount of intricate detail that may only i nterest a specific audience. (December 2013) Joseph Ren Vilatte Joseph Ren Vilatte.gif Vilatte after his consecration in 1892 Successor Frederick Ebenezer Lloyd Personal details Born January 24, 1854 Paris, France Died July 8, 1929 (aged 75) Versailles, France Nationality French (along with Canadian and American) Denomination Old Catholic, American Catholic Church (ACC) Parents Joseph R. Vilatte, Marie-Antoinette Chorin Motto Soli Deo honor et gloria (Honour and glory be to God alone) Signature {{{signature_alt}}} Coat of arms {{{coat_of_arms_alt}}} [show]Ordination history of Ren Vilatte Joseph Ren Vilatte (January 24, 1854 July 8, 1929), or his religious name of Mar Timotheus I, was a French naturalized American Christian leader active in France and the United States. He was associated with several Christian denominations b efore his ordination as a priest by a Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland ( CKS) bishop at the request of a Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America (PECUSA) bishop for service in a PECUSA diocese.[4] He was later con secrated as a bishop by Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church bishops. His was expell ed from multiple denominations and was an example of episcopus vagans.[2] Although never a bishop within an Old Catholic denomination or sect, and denounc ed by the Union of Utrecht Old Catholic churches, he is known as the "first Old Catholic bishop of the United States".[5](p1) Contents [hide] 1 Early life and conversion to Roman Catholicism 2 Episcopal and Old Catholic 3 Priest 3.1 St. Anne Colony 3.2 Society of the Precious Blood 3.2.1 Sturgeon Bay seminary 3.3 Dyckesville 3.4 Russian Orthodox 3.5 Malankara Orthodox Syrian 3.5.1 Goanese schism in British Ceylon 3.5.2 Consecration 4 Archbishop 4.1 Green Bay 4.1.1 Emery colony 4.2 Chicago 4.3 Consecrations 4.3.1 Stephen Kaminski 4.3.2 Paolo Miraglia 4.3.3 Others 4.3.4 Frederick Lloyd

4.3.5 George Alexander McGuire 4.4 Ordinations 4.4.1 Edward Donkin 4.4.2 Joseph Lyne 4.4.3 William Brothers 4.4.4 Other ordinations 4.5 St John's Home 4.6 Des Houx 4.7 Vilatteville, Mexico 5 Founding the American Catholic Church 6 Reconciliation and death 7 Occultists 8 Vilatte Orders 8.1 Order of the Crown of Thorns 8.1.1 1883 foundation story 8.1.2 1891 foundation story 8.2 Order of the Lion and the Black Cross 8.2.1 Valensi affair 8.3 Condemnation by the Catholic Church 9 Validity of orders 10 Works or publications 11 Notes 12 References 13 Further reading 14 External links Early life and conversion to Roman Catholicism[edit] Vilatte was born in Paris, France, on January 24, 1855.[1](p91)[4](p66) He was r aised by his paternal grandparents who were members of the Petite glise (P),[4](p6 6) an independent church separated from the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) after th e Concordat of 1801. Vincent Gourdon says that, for some, accepting the Concorda t of 1801 offended their royalist convictions; others refused to accept the secu larization of church property; but most were upset by a Papal claim of authority to remove a bishop. The P lost their pre-Concordat clergy when the last priest d ied in 1852. Gourdon wrote that the P had about 4,000 adherents at the time of Ja nssen's book.[6] Peter Anson, in Bishops at large, says that Vilatte's parents were members of th e P and that he was probably baptized by a layman.[1](p91) Boyd wrote that Vilatt e was validly baptized and educated by parents who held Gallican beliefs.[7](p18 1) Some accounts say that Vilatte was born Roman Catholic.[8](p55) Marx and Blied wrote that Vilatte "lost his parents at a tender age".[9](p1) He was raised in a Parisian orphanage operated by the Brothers of the Christian Sch ools where he was conditionally baptized; and, the sacrament of confirmation was conferred on him in Notre Dame de Paris cathedral.[1](p91)[9](p1) His sister wa s an Augustinian nun, evicted during the enforcement of 1905 French law on the S eparation of the Churches and the State from a Montrouge, Paris, convent.[4](p66 )[7](p181)[10] Vilatte, not yet sixteen, served during the Franco-Prussian War in the battalion of the National Guard militia commanded by Jules-Henri-Marius Bergeret, the fut ure member of the Comit de vigilance de Montmartre.[4](p66) Vilatte intended to be a Roman Catholic priest but, after the war and the Paris Commune, he went to Canada and became a member of the Methodist Church in Montre al.[4](p66) Vilatte spent two years as a teacher and lay assistant to a French mission pries

t.[11](p187) He worked as a catechist in a small school near Ottawa and led serv ices.[1] After Vilatte returned to France in 1873, according to Bernard Vignot in Le phnomn e des glises parallles, he was called up for military service but refused to obey. He then took refuge in Belgium.[12](p31) He spent one year in the House of the Christian Brothers at Namur.[11](pp187 188) Vilatte then emigrated to Canada in 18 76.[1](pp91 92) Vilatte spent a second year devoted to private preparation for the priesthood be fore entering, in 1878, the Congregation of the Holy Cross Fathers' College of S t. Laurent, Montreal, Canada.[9](p1)[11](pp187 188) Marx and Blied wrote that he s pent three years at the College of St. Laurent and left voluntarily.[9](p1) In t he interval between his third and fourth seminary years, Vilatte attended severa l anti-Catholic lectures by Charles Chiniquy, a priest who left the RCC and beca me a Presbyterian pastor, which led to Vilatte's doctrinal doubts.[11](p188) Chi niquy, a French Canadian, was a gifted public speaker; Yves Roby, in the Diction ary of Canadian Biography, compared Chiniquy to French Bishop Charles Auguste Ma rie Joseph, Count of Forbin-Janson, of Nancy and Toul, in his "spectacular preac hing methods" and wrote that Chiniquy's preaching produced "genuine religious tr ansformation".[13] Chiniquy was dubbed the apostle of temperance.[14] Anthony Cr oss wrote, in Pre Hyacinthe Loyson, the Eglise Catholique Gallicane (1879 1893) and the Anglican Reform Mission, that "some made a living by attacking the Roman Ch urch and the Society of Jesus in particular," he included Chiniquy among a numbe r of excommunicated Roman Catholic priests, such as former Barnabite friar Aless andro Gavazzi, who "became anti-Catholic 'no popery' propagandists" and "receive d ready support from Protestants."[15](pp73 74) "Even some Protestants became indi gnant," according to Roby, eventually at how "Chiniquy conducted an unremitting campaign" of "unrestrained attacks on the Catholic Church, its dogmas, sacrament s, moral doctrine, and devotional practices" for five years.[13] Nicholas Weber, in the Catholic Encyclopedia, wrote that Vilatte apostatized chiefly owing to t he influence of Chiniquy.[16] Apostasy is the renunciation of a belief or set of beliefs; specifically, the renunciation of one's religion or faith.[17] According to Ernest Margrander, in the Schaff Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Kno wledge, Vilatte was unable to continue his seminary studies consistently and tra nsferred to The Presbyterian College, Montreal where two years' study convinced him of both papal additions to a primitive Catholic faith and defective Protesta nt interpretation of its traditional teachings.[11](p188) Anson contradicts Marg rander; according to Anson, there was "no record of Vilatte as a student" at Pre sbyterian College.[1](p92) John Shea wrote, in The American Catholic Quarterly Review, that Vilatte was unw illing to leave the RCC so he entered a house of the Alexian Brothers, and subse quently became a cook among the Clerics of Saint Viator at Bourbonnais Township, Kankakee County, Illinois.[18](p535) But he stayed only six months.[11](p188) T here, it seems, he became reacquainted with Chiniquy, who lived in nearby St. An ne, Illinois. Chiniquy advised him to begin missionary work among a group of Fre nch and Belgians, who had abandoned Catholicism, in Green Bay, Wisconsin.[4](p66 )[11](p188) In April 1884, he was appointed, by the Presbyterian Church in the U nited States of America (PCUSA) Board of Home Missions as pastor of a French lan guage mission in Green Bay.[19] He preached against the RCC and distributed Chin iquy's tracts there as well as Fort Howard, Marinette, and other parts of Wiscon sin.[18](p535)[g] Although Vilatte did not succeed to any extent, according to S hea, he was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in August, made an addition to h is chapel, and in October invited Chiniquy to come and dedicate it.[18](p535) Th is seemed to close his career as a Presbyterian. Chiniquy introduced Vilatte to another former Roman Catholic, Hyacinthe Loyson, a former Carmelite priest who had been excommunicated in 1869. Loyson married in

London in 1872.[21] "Although Loyson was sometimes in contact with such anti-Ca tholic propagandists" analogous to Chiniquy, "he was wary of the violence of the ir language." According to Cross, "Loyson was too profoundly Catholic to associa te with such extremists."[15](pp73 74) Marx and Blied identified Loyson as the sou rce of Vilatte's interest in the Old Catholics' schism.[9](p2) Cross wrote that the Eglise Catholique Gallicane (ECG), founded by Loyson in 187 9, was "the Paris mission established under the auspices of the Anglo-Continenta l Society [?(ACS)?] with oversight of a bishop of the Scottish Episcopal Church" and "a bridgehead in a culture war which had been waged by Anglicans, admittedl y at a fairly low level of activity, for nearly twenty years."[15](p4, 6 8, 13) Th e endeavor "was one of a number of Anglican reform mission interventions in Roma n Catholic heartlands" among the culture wars that were being fought in Germany, Haiti, Italy, Mexico, Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland.[15](pp6, 204) William E wart Gladstone, "played an important part in encouraging the foundation" of the ECG.[15](p1 2) Loyson collaborated with the ACS "in his effort to recall Frenchmen to the principles and practices of the ancient Galilean Church before it was co rrupted by Papal innovations." The ACS was an ecumenical organization which saw the "hope of Christian Europe appears to rest on the progress of a de-Vaticanise d Catholicism and a derationalised Protestantism."[22] "It was," Cross emphasize s, the ACS "which master-minded the extraordinary venture in Paris which resulte d in the founding" of the ECG.[15](p172) Robert Nevin, the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America (PECUSA) rector in Rome, "seems to have b een present at every juncture in the planning" and "appears to have been, with [ Frederick] Meyrick, the principal strategist in winning Anglican episcopal backi ng."[15](p123, 175) Although official Anglican support and "regular substantial financial subsidy" was withdrawn from the ECG at the end of 1881,[15](pp6, 19) i t remained unofficially supported.[15](pp19 20) According to Peter-Ben Smit, in Ol d Catholic and Philippine Independent Ecclesiologies in History, Loyson "was a s ource of concern" for the Union of Utrecht's (UU) International Old Catholic Bis hops' Conference (IBC) because "the Dutch did not want to have anything to do wi th him and others could not."[23](p196) It was ceded to the archdiocese of Utrec ht in 1893,[15](p13) although most parishioners were Gallican Catholics.[9](p3) Loyson founded the glise gallicane in France.[citation needed] Shea wrote that, the Old Catholics' schism in the United States, originated with and was managed by the PECUSA.[18](p535) Loyson directed Vilatte, c.?1884, to a pply to PECUSA Bishop John H. Brown of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, the nearest Anglo -Catholic bishop.[4](p66)[5](p2)[9](pp2 3) Marx and Blied wrote that Loyson was a proponent of the branch theory within Anglicanism when "Vilatte met Loyson",[9]( p3) and Margrander wrote that Loyson wanted to personally talk with Vilatte rega rding Catholic reform in America, and proposed that Vilatte travel to Europe for ordination as priest by a Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland (CKS) bishop , Eduard Herzog of Bern, Switzerland.[11](p188) In 1890, Loyson denied personall y knowing Vilatte.[24](p17) Marx and Blied did not known if the two also met dur ing Loyson's second, 1893 1894, American tour.[9](p3) Episcopal and Old Catholic[edit] There were two notable missions in the Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac, one to the Germans under the leadership of Karl Oppen, formerly a Lutheran minister, th e other to the French and Belgians on the Door Peninsula along the Green Bay of Lake Michigan, known as the Old Catholic Mission under the leadership of Vilatte .[25](pp157 158) The Belgian settlement was spread out over parts of Brown, Door, Kewaunee counties. It stretched from the city of Green Bay, the county seat of B rown County, to the city of Sturgeon Bay, the county seat of Door County. Brown's successor, Bishop Charles Chapman Grafton wrote: Bishop Brown was singularly and specially interested in these two movements beca

use they seemed to him to promise a practical solution of the difficult problem of how to deal with the question of Catholic reform among the foreign population drifting from the old moorings in the unrest of our American life.[25](p158) A feature of area was the number of nationalities represented; Shea described th e Roman Catholic Diocese of Green Bay as one where the faithful were poor, scatt ered, and spoke many languages. The bishop had to find priests able to give inst ructions and hear confessions in English, French, German, Holland Dutch, Walloon , Bohemian, Polish, and Menominee, a nation of Native Americans living in Wiscon sin. In a small congregation of a hundred families a priest might find three lan guages necessary for the exercise of the ministry. It was not easy to obtain pri ests able to take charge of these missions, or to prevent their becoming discour aged when they found even the scanty allowance expected by a priest almost impos sible.[18](p540) Grafton wrote that it had been said that nearly seventy-per-cen t of the population were foreigners or descendants of foreigners. Grafton also l isted Swedes, Belgians, Norwegians, Danes, Icelanders, Bulgarians, Italians, Gre eks, and Armenians. Grafton wrote that if the Episcopal Church was Catholic in i ts doctrine and worship it certainly could reach members of those several nation alities and supply their spiritual needs. The Episcopal Church planted in locali ties where most of the people were Swedes or Bulgarians or Belgians had found a footing and congregations had developed. Some adaptation and accommodations were made. Episcopalian converts from Lutheranism, for instance, were carefully trea ted in respect to their confirmations. With the advice of some of his fellow bis hops, Grafton ruled that he did not require the adult Lutherans to come publicly forward for confirmation. He noted that they had already both witnessed their b elief in Christ before a Christian congregation and also had received a pastoral blessing. On being admitted to the Episcopal Church, Grafton only asked them to come to a separate service and receive the laying on of hands by a bishop to ga in the grace of confirmation.[25](pp170 171) Brown had no use for Vilatte as an Episcopal priest, having no French Episcopali ans for Vilatte to minister to.[18](pp535 536) A number of Roman Catholics situated in Door County, who were mostly Belgian, ha d broken away from the Holy See and had taken the position of Old Catholics.[25] (p171) Brown laid the situation before the Episcopal bishops in council. They agreed to let Brown take charge of the work as bishop and permitted the use there of the Old Catholic liturgy as used in Switzerland. The intention was to form a type of separate rite within the Episcopal Church. Brown informed Grafton of these fact s and Bishop John Williams, the Presiding Bishop, also, when Grafton became bish op, he confirmed this intention.[25](pp171 172) A pamphlet published in connection with Vilatte's mission admitted to what Shea considered as fraud and dishonesty; Shea quoted: This course was decided upon on account of the religious prejudices on the part of the Belgians for whose religious wants Bishop Brown had selected him. If he h ad gone as an American priest among them, he would have been ignored as a Protes tant minister. Anglican orders, particularly when derived from an episcopate off icially styled "Protestant," are in disrepute with all Roman Catholics; the very name of Protestant is hateful and makes them shrink back; in short, they will h ave nothing to do with anything connected with Protestantism. On the other hand. Old Catholic orders, like the Greek, are held to be valid by them. The Bishop o f Fond-du-Lac had the sagacity to see this and decide accordingly.[18](p537) Hjalmar Holand wrote, in History of Door County, Wisconsin, the County Beautiful , that "the term Episcopalian was not familiar to the Belgians [so] he represent ed himself as Old Catholic, a term which is sometimes used synonymously," accord

ing to Holand, "and has a more commendable sound to Catholic ears."[26](p417) Margrander said that Vilatte followed Loyson's alternative advice to consult wit h Brown.[11](p188) Vilatte "had joined the Protestant Episcopal Church in Americ a."[8](p55)[27] Priest[edit] Vilatte became, according to their official record, a candidate for Holy Orders in the Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac. Vilatte entered the Episcopal Diocese o f Milwaukee's Nashotah House seminary in Nashotah, Wisconsin.[5](p2)[28](p18) Ac cording to the Journal of the eleventh annual council of the Protestant Episcopa l Church in the Diocese of Fond du Lac, he was recommended as candidate for ordi nation as a priest in April 1885;[29](pp13, 28) and in May, he was recommended f or ordination as a deacon;[29](p14) but, the journal does not note that during t he annual council, June 2 3, 1885, he was in Europe and would be ordained within d ays. An unorganized mission called Good Shepherd, located in Fond du Lac, is men tioned but not associated with a missionary by name.[29](p8, 28) Brown sent Vilatte to Herzog.[h] Shortly after the CKS synod in Bern, Vilatte ar rived with dimissorial letters from Brown.[27] Herzog was advised by Charles Reu ben Hale to proceed.[8](p56) Herzog, acting for Brown and at his request "with a generosity which should never be forgotten in the annals of the American Church ", ordained Vilatte within three days of his arrival.[8](p56) This was done "und er peculiar circumstances" "to advance the candidate to the priesthood more spee dily than the canons of the American Church permit."[27] He was presented for or dination by Hale, "whose share in this transaction ought also gratefully to be r emembered."[8](p56)[27] His ordination took place in Bern's Old Catholic cathedr al in the following order: minor orders and subdiaconate, June 5, 1885; diaconat e, June 6, 1885; and, priesthood, June 7, 1885.[4](p66)[5](p2) Vilatte took his canonical oath of obedience to the Bishop of Fond du Lac.[4](p66)[8](p56)[25](p1 72) It was not until the next year, 1886, that his ordination, "at the request o f the Bishop of Fond du Lac", is noted in the Journal of the twelfth annual coun cil of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Fond du Lac. Without me ntioning any dates, Brown said that Herzog, at Vilatte's ordination, "had pledge d him to canonical obedience to the Bishop of Fond du Lac" and sent him "not as a missionary responsible to himself [...] but as a priest under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of this diocese." Brown then added Vilatte to the diocesan cleric al list, as a missionary priest, and made "this public statement of the peculiar circumstances of the case."[31](pp5, 28 29, 46) Grafton revealed years later, in the Journal of the fourteenth annual council of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Fond du Lac, that sending Vilatte to Bern "seemed [...] more e xpedient, as the Canons [...] would have compelled at least a year's delay in [. ..] Vilatte's ordination [...]"[8](p56) Herzog ordained others in a similar way. Alexander Robertson described the case of Ugo Janni, in Campello and Catholic Reform in Italy. After failing to establi sh a self-sustaining mission in Rome,[32](p133) which was supported by the ACS t hrough "a committee of direction and aid" led by Nevin,[32](pp84 85) Count Enrico di Campello, a canon of St. Peter's Basilica who resigned and left the RCC,[32]( pp33, 63, 72) turned to Arrone, in Umbria's Nera river valley, which seemed suit ed for re-establishing his reformation efforts.[32](p133) In 1889, Campello visi ted San Remo, on the Italian Riviera, as Robertson's guest where he was introduc ed to the syndic and "to many other persons of influence in the town" on his fir st visit.[32](pp177 178) He visited a second time. "To secure as influential and r epresentative an audience as possible, admission was made by tickets" to Campell o's discourses held, with permission of the syndic, in the town theater.[32](pp1 79 180) "All were, evidently, earnest students and followers of Mazzini," accordin g to Robertson. Therefore, Campello argued that Giuseppe Mazzini's idea was real ised in his sect, the Chiesa Cattolica Riformata d'Italia, although, according t o Campello, Mazzini's philosophy was defective.[32](p182) Those supporters, in S

an Remo, decided to establish an exclusive church in San Remo.[32](pp183 185) Robe rtson wrote that a "fact in connection with the San Remo church is this. All its members gave evidence of their Christian knowledge and character before they we re admitted; and their admission was only given in answer to their own written a pplication."[32](p185) It included "men of education, position, and influence."[ 32](p184) Robertson added that "the English visitors, who reside there during th e winter, have, as a whole, taken a lively interest in Campello's movement, and have extended to it their support."[32](p186) Although Janni was only trained by Campello and evangelized in Arrone, "the time had come for him to receive ordin ation" so he "would then be in a position to organize a congregation at San Remo and administer the sacraments." Campello communicated on this matter with John Wordsworth, the Church of England's Bishop of Salisbury, "who, after fully satis fying himself as to the candidate's fitness by examination and by other ways," r ecommended Janni to Herzog, who then ordained him.[32](p184) According to Christ ian Oeyen, in Religion Past & Present, in 1901 Janni converted to the Waldensian Church.[33](p345) Also, two years before Vilatte's ordination, Herzog was commi ssioned by the PECUSA to conferred confirmation on Episcopalians in St Paul's Am erican Episcopal Church in Rome, assisted by Nevin.[34] Holand wrote that John B. Everts, a spiritualist who was previously a bar owner in Green Bay, came to the town of Gardner in 1880 and held sances in private hous es. Many people were interested and became followers, particularly in 1885 when 40 Belgian families "renounced all allegiance to the church and joined the ranks of the spiritualists."[26](pp209, 416 417) They organized their own church.[35](p 161) Holand included an account about the events from the Door County Advocate w hich printed that a "religious war is imminent in this town between the Catholic s and the spiritualists" as a description.[26](p417)[36] Wisconsin towns are uni ncorporated political subdivisions within a county similar to civil townships in other states; they are not human settlements commonly also known as towns. As a newly ordained priest, Vilatte went to the tiny settlement of Little Sturge on, Wisconsin, and secured a log cabin about 3 miles (4.8 km) south, fronting on Green Bay. He divided the log cabin into a dwelling section and a chapel sectio n. This was called the Bon Pasteur mission, Little Sturgeon.[28](p19)[i] Classif ied as an "unorganized mission" in the Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac, Bon Pas teur was established in 1885 with Vilatte designated as the missionary priest ta king charge on July 16, 1885.[31](p5, 8, 46) He received a missionary stipend.[9 ](p4) Grafton wrote that Vilatte was given charge of an Old Catholic mission, th e property of the church and buildings belonging to the Episcopal Diocese of Fon d du Lac. He was partly supported by funds from the Episcopal diocese, sat in co uncil along with the other priests belonging to the diocese, and was visited by the bishop, who confirmed his candidates and was, like any other clergy, under t he bishop's jurisdiction.[25](p172) It was listed as a rectory without a church or chapel or other property.[31](appendix E) Bon Pasteur was reclassified for on e fiscal year as a "non-reporting unorganized mission" and did not report financ ial data.[37](appendix F) Grafton wrote that Vilatte gave exaggerated reports ab out his work.[25](p172) Cornelius Kirkfleet wrote, in The White Canons of St. Norbert, that after he was ordained, Vilatte erected a church and parsonage midway between two Roman Catho lic parishes in Door County.[38](p222) In 1888, Bon Pasteur was reclassified aga in as an "unorganized mission" with Vilatte designated as the missionary priest; that year, 1888, the Old Catholic Mission supported one married priest with his wife and child, two single priests, and two students.[8](pp75 76) This was called the Precious Blood mission, Little Sturgeon (Gardner).[28](p51)[j] A p 4 8 spiritualist church was also built in 1888 and became a frequently visited sto on a traveling mediums circuit.[26](p209)[k] It is located within .9 miles (1. km) of the Precious Blood mission.[39][40][41] Although it was admitted in 188 as an "unorganized mission", the Precious Blood mission was reclassified for t

he first time as an "organized mission" in 1889, with Vilatte designated as the missionary priest taking charge, years earlier, on July 4, 1885; that year, 1889 , the Old Catholic Mission supported two priests, one brother and two students.[ 42](pp24, 68 69) Kirkfleet wrote that Vilatte's "'revised' religion spread rapidly in the peninsu la" and obtained a foothold even in Green Bay.[38](p222) But Marx and Blied thou gh "it never attained virility" among the Belgians.[43](p62) According to Jean Ducat, in Brabanons au Nouveau Monde, Vilatte tried to discredi t Adele Brise and her work in Robinsonville (Champion), but the Belgian colonist s and priests continued to trust in the "providential work" such as the first fr ee school in the area. Ducat wrote that the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help beca me a place of Christian pilgrimage the importance of which grew steadily and con tributed to maintaining the Catholic religion in a region plagued by heresy.[44] Brise's reputed mystical visions became, over 150 years later, the first and on ly Marian apparition in the United States approved by a Roman Catholic diocesan bishop.[45] In 1890, Vilatte proposed to Grafton to be consecrated as a "bishop-abbot" to th e American Old Catholics and as a suffragan bishop to Grafton;[1](p99)[25](p172) but the PECUSA canons did not allow for that and, as Grafton had no authority t o do so, he refused Vilatte's request.[25](pp172 173) Grafton thought Vilatte was neither "morally or intellectually fit for the office" of bishop.[25](p173) Being ambitious to become a bishop, after Brown's death in 1888, Vilatte applied to the Old Catholic Church of the Netherlands (OKKN).[25](p172) He claimed that he was elected to the episcopate by the Old Catholic families themselves, at a synod held at the St. Mary's mission.[4](p66)[l] The first time Vilatte sought to reconcile with the RCC is recorded in an August 12, 1890, letter from Bishop Frederick Katzer, of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Green Bay, to Vilatte, in which, Katzer wrote that Vilatte would have to public ly retract and make a retreat in a religious community.[46](p113) Marx and Blied wrote that "Vilatte wanted to function as a priest," so, "Katzer added that the Holy See would judge his orders and prescribe what theological studies he shoul d make."[46](p113) Vilatte thanked Katzer for the letter and "remarked that he w ould prefer to see his flock Catholic rather than Protestant."[46](p114) Anson w rote that nothing further developed.[1](p101) Grafton suspended Vilatte for six months after his council declared on March 31, 1891 that, in their opinion, "Vilatte abandoned the Communion of this Church an d renounced its ministry."[47](p16, 38) Grafton consulted with Williams as to what he should do. Acting under Williams' advice, Grafton wrote to the OKKN Archbishop Johannes Heykamp of Utrecht that he would transfer Vilatte, if Heykamp so wished, from his jurisdiction to that of Heykamp. In this way the PECUSA would be relieved of Vilatte and not responsible for having any connection with him. Grafton pointed out to Heykamp that all the property of the mission belonged to the Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac and wa s legally held by it. In case of his accepting Vilatte, Vilatte would be obliged to leave this work and Grafton would appoint a replacement.[25](p173) Heykamp w rote to Grafton that after he understood the situation between Vilatte and Graft on, he "had declined having any further correspondence" with Vilatte.[48](p38) T he OKKN declined accepting Vilatte. Subsequently Vilatte repudiated Grafton's ju risdiction and left the PECUSA, whereupon, according to PECUSA canons, Grafton d eposed him.[25](p173)[48](p41) Vilatte witnessed the complete abandonment by his first congregation.[5](p4)[16] The congregation of the Precious Blood mission w as "unfaltering in its allegiance" to Grafton, as was Gauthier, and declared "th e unity existing among themselves and their loyalty to the Diocese of Fond du La

c."[48](p38) When he left, Grafton wrote that Vilatte had lost the confidence of all their clergy and people.[25](p173) An alternative narrative also can be found: Vilatte suggested to Brown that his (Vilatte's) Presbyterian mission should be t aken over by the Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac as an Old Catholic outpost.[ci tation needed] Brown seized on this as a means of building a bridge with the Old Catholics in Europe and agreed to support Vilatte. In 1888 Brown, who had supported Vilatte morally and financially, died and was s ucceeded by Grafton. Grafton, unlike Brown, did not favor Vilatte and conflicts soon arose. In order to correct the canonical situation created by Brown, Grafto n demanded that Vilatte surrender ownership of his missions to the diocese which had paid for them in the first place; Vilatte complied in August 1890. Despite this, however, the relationship between the two deteriorated fast. At the heart of the dispute was the conflicting vision for Vilatte's missions he ld by Vilatte and Grafton. Vilatte hoped that Grafton would continue Brown's pol icy of financing these missions in the hope of converting Roman Catholics to non -papal Old Catholicism and of using these missions as a springboard to founding the Old Catholic Church in North America. Grafton, on the contrary, wished to in tegrate these missions into his Episcopal diocese. Adding to the dispute was Vilatte's refusal to break with the Franco-Belgians' a damant rejection of Anglican orders as invalid, while accepting the validity of Old Catholic orders; an attitude carried from Roman Catholicism. Brown had been willing to countenance this but Grafton took this as an affront to the legitimac y of his own orders as a bishop.[citation needed] In the meantime Heykamp, hearing of Vilatte's difficulties with Grafton, wrote t o him to disassociate himself from Episcopalians. In reply, Vilatte asked whethe r the OKKN would consecrate him as the Old Catholic bishop for North America. Wh en Grafton was informed of these developments he wrote to the Ultrajectines that he would not oppose their consecrating Vilatte as an Episcopal coadjutor bishop for the Fond du Lac diocese.[citation needed] As the OKKN and the Catholic Diocese of the Old Catholics in Germany and the CKS delayed answering Vilatte until they had met in the First International Old Cat holic Congress in Cologne, Vilatte next sought to affiliate himself with the Rus sian Orthodox Church (ROC). He began correspondence with the ROC Bishop Vladimir Sokolovsky of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. When Grafton learned of these developments he published warnings to Episcopalian s to stop supporting Vilatte. He also demanded that Vilatte cease operating from the Old Catholic missions owned by the Episcopal diocese. In response Vilatte a nnounced in September 1890 that he was severing relations with the PECUSA and fo unded a new independent mission near Green Bay. St. Anne Colony[edit] Further information: Charles Chiniquy Society of the Precious Blood[edit] Not to be confused with Society of the Precious Blood or Sisters of the Precious Blood. The Society of the Precious Blood (SPB) was founded in 1887 in Wisconsin by Vila tte, under the name Socit Missionnaire du Prcieux Sang pour l'vanglisation des campag nes. There were French Canadians in the northern part of Door Peninsula who work ed as laborers and foresters. It was an environment similar to Gatineau in Quebe c, where Vilatte had worked as a teacher.

Others joined the church, including John B. Gauthier. He had been a teacher in O ttawa and in Illinois. After his ordination for the Precious Blood mission in 18 89, he became master of novices and gave SPB a great impulse. He was a spiritual man and a good pedagogue. The children liked him and several became religious[c larification needed] under his influence. Certain came with him to Quebec, to mi nister in the Berthier and Maskinong counties and in Montreal. One of them was St ephen Ct, who is at the origin of the parish of Greater Montreal. The Christian Catholic Church would not have developed as it did without the mis sionary activity of the religious of the Precious Blood.[who?] They preached Chr ist according to Scripture. Their goal is always to do pastoral work under this impulse. The first nuns, Sister Mary Ashmun and Sister Anne Schoen, joined the S PB in 1894. They were teachers and worked in Wisconsin. Marx and Blied wrote that a letter "indicates that two self-styled sisters who o perated among the Belgians were induced to join Vilatte for temporal benefits" a nd there was extremely little evidence that the women may have belonged to a Jan senist sisterhood of St Martha.[43](p62) The SPB tried different formulas, including the Benedictine Abbey of St. Dunstan in Wisconsin (1908) under Dom Bernard Harding, and Vilatteville in Mexico,an ec umenical community devoted to holistic wellbeing (through biological agriculture ).[citation needed] Sturgeon Bay seminary[edit] Main article: Vilatte seminary at Sturgeon Bay In March 1887, Vilatte, pastor of the Precious Blood mission, visited The Indepe ndent newspaper office, in Sturgeon Bay, and informed the newspaper that: he had solicited funds for building a seminary and "secured several thousand dollars f or commencing the work", plans were being made in Chicago, furnishings were secu red, and "construction will be commenced in June". He was asked about his order and responded that the "order has a large number of adherents" in Europe and "is doubling every three years" in some of those countries. Curiously, the article did not mention the name of the order.[49] In April, the Door County Advocate re ported Vilatte visited Sturgeon Bay on April 25, 1887 to obtain a suitable locat ion for the establishment of a college of his order.[50] Although months earlier Vilatte said "construction will be commenced in June", by the end of May, the D oor County Advocate reported, only that, he had "signified his willingness to es tablish a seminary in this city provided our people see fit to donate the requir ed real estate", and that, a benefactor, who "will give the society other materi al aid if it is necessary to secure the institution for this city", donated 1 ac re (0.40 ha) of land.[51] In July, land "which has been purchased by the donatio ns of our citizens" for the college, was transferred and work was to start on bu ildings in September.[52] The next day the city council permitted "himself and f amily" to reside in a vacant school building; he was to operate a school in that building until his seminary was completed.[53] In October, he began visiting ci ties along the East Coast of the United States "in quest of funds with which to erect the proposed seminary."[54] He was away for several months. But a week aft er his return from touring the East Coast of the United States,[55] Vilatte shoc ked Sturgeon Bay. His "contemplated seminary" would not be established there but elsewhere, wrote The Independent, in an article titled "Can this be true?" whic h exasperated that, "[t]he reasons given for this change are so extraordinary th at we are not prepared to accept the statements made without further testimony." Vilatte wrote to Chris Leonhardt, President of the Business Men's Association, the group which facilitated the land purchase and aided him, that, Our intention to build as about to be carried because or ill-feeling itizens against us and in this city a college for students of our denomination w out, but after mature deliberation we find it necessary, and strong antipathy on the part of some of your fellow-c our work, to postpone the matter until better days, [...]

on many occasions [...] members of our family who have been spending the winter in this city have been publicly insulted in the streets and other places, and y ou will see how necessary it is that we protect the honor and the feelings of ou r students from such unpleasant occurrences and to guard them from such sad exam ples of ill-breeding and uncivilisation. [...] Since a large property in grounds , buildings, library and other requisites for a seminary are offered us elsewher e, we can afford to wait. Therefore, [...] we are compelled, by circumstances de pending upon the conduct of your citizens alone, to withdraw for a while from yo ur place, which is the center of our operations.[56] His letter was seen as a deleterious depiction of their community. The Independe nt editorialized: This city is endeavoring to increase its population and resources by inviting ma nufacturers and others to locate here. A seminary to accommodate a large number of students was about to be built, all preliminary arrangements having been made , but that seminary is now lost to us because, as its projectors allege, they ha ve encountered "ill-feeling, antipathy, and public insults" from some of our cit izens. That we should lose an institution which would have annually distributed thousands of dollars among our merchants, farmers and others, is bad enough but to have it charged that our bigotry, bad manners and uncivilization have driven away one of the very institutions which many of us are striving to obtain is a f oul blot upon the reputation of Sturgeon Bay and will cost us dearly unless it i s removed.[56][m] Brown died within weeks of Vilatte's announcement, on May 2, 1888. By 1889, his scheme was apparent and he was seen as a scoundrel; building a mona stery or college, the Door County Advocate wrote, "at any rate is the talk" neve rtheless "without ever accomplishing anything" substantial. What would be thought of a business man who would strike a town and under the pr omise of erecting a manufacturing establishment obtain the necessary site from t he citizens, and after obtaining what he was after, turn around and tell the dup ed ones that their society was not up to his standard? This is precisely what [. ..] Vilatte did right here. He induced our people to give him several acres of l and for a college site, and after he had secured this he immediately sought else where for a location, using his success here as a lever to induce other towns to do a little better for him. Why, if a man did such things in the transaction of ordinary business he would be branded as a fraud at once, and he might consider himself fortunate were he not arrested for obtaining goods under false pretense s.[57] Emma de Beaumont, wife of Father Ernest, the Episcopal priest who assisted Vilat te since 1887,[58] wrote to the Door County Advocate that, regardless whatever V ilatte had said, nothing had been done "toward building a college elsewhere" sin ce Brown's death "upset whatever may have been the plan". [Brown] ordered us here, [...] from New York to take charge of the new college, and after waiting [...] over ten months, during which we suffered much, we were left by [... Vilatte]. [...] We have been the first to suffer from the many chan ges you speak of in [...] Vilatte. We have given our time and spent our money, a nd are yet patiently waiting for a new bishop. [...] It is also true that [...] Vilatte intends to convert Little Sturgeon into a monastery, but we consider the matter as one of the many utopias of his reverence, and do not see how he can d o so without his bishop's consent. [...] we received a communication from [...] Vilatte which stated in effect that he intended abandoning the work, and immedia tely afterward he turns about and commences the erection of a new church at Dyck esville. So you see one cannot well put any faith in what he says, he is so chan geable, not considering a project before beginning it. I think it is well that y

ou should know that there is no college anywhere; that the bubble burst long ago , and that any statement made to the contrary is false. [...] Our furniture and other possessions have been packed [...], we are here waiting, wiser, but much p oorer, for having seen the work of [...] Vilatte.[59] This project was never carried out and the land was returned to the donors.[28]( p20) Dyckesville[edit] A second congregation, classified as an "unorganized mission" in the Episcopal D iocese of Fond du Lac, was established in 1888 with Vilatte designated as the mi ssionary priest taking charge on June 1, 1888.[42](pp24, 72) This was called the St. Mary's mission, Dykesville (Duvall).[28](p50)[l] By October 11, 1889, less than two years after his Sturgeon Bay seminary scandal, a church, 93 ft (28 m)??3 6 ft (11 m), and a parsonage, 30 ft (9.1 m)??30 ft (9.1 m), was completed, locate d on 2 acres (0.81 ha) of land including a cemetery. The Independent reported th at Gauthier sailed to Europe where he would be ordained and that Vilatte receive d a letter from Heykamp "informing him that an [O]ld [C]atholic bishop will in a short time be selected to take charge of the [C]hurch in this country."[61] He later received a gift of over 100 antique theology books, "many of them are more than two centuries old", from Heykamp and Jacobus Johannes van Thiel, of the Ol d Catholic seminary in Amersfoort.[62] Grafton attempted to remove Vilatte from the St. Mary's mission in 1891.[9](p5) Herzog and Reinken's investigation concluded that Vilatte was an Episcopalian, a ccording to Marx and Blied, Herzog wrote to Vilatte on March 24, 1891 and "ended his letter bluntly: 'I want to have nothing more to do with you'."[9](p6)[24](p p22 23) An anthology of correspondence excerpts was published, c.?1893, as Ecclesiastica l Relations between the Old Catholics of America and Foreign Churches in respons e to an 1892 Second International Old Catholic Congress resolution.[24](pp1 2)[fur ther explanation needed] In Marx and Blied's opinion, this compilation was proba bly edited by Vilatte.[43](p62) Russian Orthodox[edit] Isolated from both the Episcopalians and the Old Catholics, Vilatte turned once again to another denomination. The text of a widely republished and translated 1 891 document, purportedly from the Russian Orthodox Church through Bishop Vladim ir Sokolovsky of San Francisco and Alaska, announced Vilatte's conversion from a n Old Catholic confession of faith to an Old Catholic Orthodox confession of fai th under Russian Orthodox Church patronage.[further explanation needed] It also declared that only the Holy Synod of the Russian Church or Sokolovsky can prohib it or suspend Vilatte's religious functions; and, states that any action contrar y to the declaration is null and invalid, based on the liberty of conscience and unspecified United States law but without mention of Russian Orthodox Church ca non law.[n] Sokolovsky "appears to have granted him some form of recognition," a ccording to Brandreth.[2](pp32, 48) In 1891, Sokolovsky visited Vilatte at the S t. Mary's mission.[65][l] Margrander wrote that Sokolovsky intervened, approved Vilatte's confession of faith and his official acts, and referred him to the Hol y Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church.[11](p188) He "found himself unable to ac cept these communities and permit the continued use of the Roman Catholic rites and customs."[66](p1070) Sokolovsky was removed, soon after, in the wake of a se ries of scandals.[o] Harding also corresponded with Russian General Alexander Ki reev.[24](pp24 25)[p] However, "owing to the constitution of the Russian Church, V ilatte could not hope to obtain the episcopate from that source, or at least not without great difficulties."[5](p6) While waiting for the Russian Holy Synod's decision, Vilatte also consulted with

Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church Bishop Antonio Francisco Xavier Alvares. Alvar es offered to come to America and consecrate him bishop;[11](p188) Vilatte respo nded that he would travel to Ceylon. Anson believed that Vilatte did not want Al vares to realize the diminutive size of the schism.[1](p106) After months of wai ting for a decision from the Russian Holy Synod, Vilatte sailed to Ceylon to rec eive the offered episcopate.[11](p188) Malankara Orthodox Syrian[edit] For more details on Saint Thomas Christians, also called Syrian Christians or Na srani, see Saint Thomas Christians. Susan Bayly wrote, in Saints, Goddesses and Kings, the St. Thomas Christians wer e by the 1880s fragmented and included a "bewildering array", based mostly on Ch ristian evangelicalism, of "wildfire sects, breakaway churches and messianic Chr istian guru figures"; and, unlike in the past, they were then shunned as rituall y polluting by caste Hindus.[71](pp286 287) There was, and still is, a caste syste m among Indian Christians. To gain group status, they engaged in mass conversion campaigns, with a goal of increased adherents with maintained caste affiliation of the converts. For example, according to Bayly, baptized low caste Christians were "hived off into separate churches of their own" and not permitted to worsh ip together.[71](p315) According to Robert Frykenberg, in Missions and Empire, t here are at least six identified communities which claim apostolic tradition tha t are the historic Saint Thomas Christians.[72](p123) Writing about the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church prior to its regaining Catholic ity, William Richards wrote, in The Indian Christians of St. Thomas, that their history shows a constant effort to obtain bishops, of Syrian descent, in communi on with the Holy See.[73](p62) Finally, in 1896, three Roman-Syrian priests were consecrated as titular bishops, and sent to Travancore and Cochin as vicars apo stolic. All the Roman-Syrians are under these Metrans and they use the Syriac la nguage in their churches.[73](pp62, 64)[q] This is not the denomination that con secrated Vilatte. Goanese schism in British Ceylon[edit] For more details on the Goanese schism in British Ceylon, see Antonio Francisco Xavier Alvares. The denomination that consecrated Vilatte was a part of the Malankara Orthodox S yrian Church that had a Latin Rite patrimony. V. Nagam Aiya wrote, in Travancore State Manual, that Alvares "describe[d] his Church as the Latin branch of the S yrian Church of Antioch."[77] The Holy See sought to consolidate two co-existing jurisdictions, the Padroado j urisdiction and the Congregation for Propagation of the Faith jurisdiction.[5](p 6) As part of the transition, churches served by Goan Catholic priests remained under the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of the East Indies until 1843. Later, th is transition was delayed and extended until December 31, 1883. In British Ceylo n, it ended in 1887 with the appearance of a papal decree that placed all Cathol ics in the country under the exclusive jurisdiction of the bishops of the island . That measure met resistance. Alvares and Dr. Pedro Manoel Lisboa Pinto founded in Goa, Portuguese India, an association for the defense of the Padroado. Then, according to G. Bartas, in Echos d'Orient, they complained that the new diocese and vicariates, were headed, almost exclusively, by European prelates and missi onaries, and petitioned the Holy See for the creation of a purely native hierarc hy. Bartas did not state if there was a response, but wrote that Alvares settled the difficulty by reinventing himself as the head of his schism, appearing on C eylon, and settling into the main old Goan Portuguese churches in the village of Parapancandel.[clarification needed (place name)][78] Alvares was a Roman Catho lic Brahmin.[r] Aiya wrote that Alvares, an educated man and the editor of a Cat holic journal, was a priest in the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Goa. Failing to m aintain amicable relations with the Patriarch of the East Indies, Alvares left t he RCC and joined Mar Dionysius the Metropolitan in Kottayam who consecrated Alv

ares as bishop.[77][s] Later, he returned with title of Alvares Mar Julius Archb ishop of Ceylon, Goa and the Indies, and involved about 20 parishes in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Jaffna and in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Colombo on the island in his schism.[9](p6)[78] Consecration[edit] According to Marx and Blied, "several shady characters claim to have given him t he information" about Alvares but Brandreth and others attribute Harding as the source.[2](p32)[9](p7) Vilatte "never had a sizable income" according to Marx an d Blied but could accumulate money for travel. For example, the people of Dykesv ille donated $225 for his journey.[9](p8) and being elected bishop by his small flock (according to the records of the Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac, Vilatte had about 500 adherents), Vilatte sailed to Ceylon. There Alvares and two other Jacobite bishops consecrated him with the permission of the Patriarch of Antioc h as Timotheos I, Jacobite Old Catholic Bishop of North America on 29 May 1892; Pinto, acting as the U.S. Consul,[citation needed] attested to the consecration. When news of this reached North America the PECUSA excommunicated Vilatte. Archbishop[edit] After an investigation forced him to wait nine months on the island,[4](p67) Alv ares, Bishop Athanasius Paulos of Kottayam and Bishop Gregorius Gewargis of Nira nam consecrated Vilatte to the episcopate in 1892 and named him "Mar Timotheos, Metropolitan of North America", probably with the blessings of Syriac Orthodox C hurch Patriarch Ignatius Peter IV.[83] Grafton thought they were deceived by Vil atte statements as to his relation to Grafton and the extent of his work.[25](p1 73) There are claims that nobody has ever seen the original Syriac language form of this document.[4](p67)[83](p159) According to Brandreth, no Syraic authority had authenticated the signatures depicted in a photostatic copy of a purported translation of the Syraic document.[2](p34) mile Appolis wrote, in Revue d'histoire de l'glise de France, that Vilatte was tit led "Old Catholic Archbishop of Babylon" (archevque vieux-catholique de Babylone) and his cachet was an archiepiscopal cross, with the motto Ex Oriente Lux from th e east, light.[4](p67) Likewise, Vignot included an excerpt, of Georges Aubault de la Haulte-Chambre description of Vilatte, from La Connaissance, in which Vila tte was also called the "Old Catholic Archbishop of Babylon".[12](p33)[84] For its part, the Episcopal Church, on March 21, 1892, having already degraded f rom the priesthood and excommunicated Vilatte, stated in its General Convention of the same year that it did not recognize his consecration as it took place in a Monophysite sect which does not accept the dogmas of the Council of Chalcedon. [4](p67) The Episcopal Church bishops declared Vilatte's episcopal orders to be void. The work in the Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac has gone on, Grafton had three parishes under three priests, where the Old Catholic services were continu ed. In all this difficult matter, Grafton consulted his Presiding Bishop and fol lowed his counsel; they did not wish to further a scheme which would make Vilatt e a bishop, nor did they wish to offend the Old Catholics of Holland. Williams b elieved they had saved the Episcopal Church from what might have become a great scandal.[25](pp173 174) Returning to America and to his work in Door County, he ultimately moved to Gree n Bay, where he erected his cathedra.[38](p223) During this time, Vilatte used t wo church buildings: St. Joseph's church in Walhain, and St. Mary's mission in D ykesville.[43](p60)[l] He no longer used the Precious Blood mission which belong ed to the Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac.[43](p61) A request was sent from Bishop Sebastian Gebhard Messmer of the Roman Catholic D iocese of Green Bay, Wisconsin, to the Premonstratensian abbot of Berne Abbey in Heeswijk, Netherlands, for priests needed to minister to the Belgian and Dutch settlers involved in Vilatte's schism; beginning in 1893, priests whose special

mission would be to minister to their spiritual needs were sent.[85] Vilatte "di d not give up without a struggle" and "[n]umerous letters from him are in the ar chives of St. Norbert Abbey, some of them of a threatening nature, all giving in direct testimony to the fact that the early Norbertines were successful in stemm ing the tide of [...] doctrines and religious practices which were disturbing th e peace of the Catholic Belgians on the peninsula." The missionaries succeeded, according to Kirkfleet, by "appealing to the native Catholic instinct of the Bel gians rather than by refuting the doctrines of the apostate."[38](p228) In 1893, Vilatte had a booth at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago, al though he was not an invited delegate. Carlos Parra wrote, in Standing with Unfa miliar Company on Uncommon Ground, that "Despite the spectrum of religious tradi tions and theological views displayed at the Parliament, not everyone was welcom e as a delegate. John Barrows emphatically stated that 'the Parliament was rigid ly purged from cranks. Many minor sects, however, tried earnestly to secure a re presentation, for which there was neither time nor fitness'."[86][87] Vilatte wa s not invited. Barrows wrote, in The World's Parliament of Religions, that peopl e sought unsuccessfully to use the parliament for propaganda.[87] According to P arra, "a character like Vilatte embodied the worst possible nightmare about reli gious indifferentism for a Catholic mind. As a result, he was kept at the margin s of the Parliament."[86] He did not take an official part in it.[1](p111) At this time, Vilatte began his dalliance with Polish Roman Catholics who, dissa tisfied with non-Polish Roman Catholic priests, sought to set up an independent Catholic church at the urgings of the priests Anthony Kozlowski and Franciszek H odur. Green Bay[edit] For more details on the 1894 c.?1895 independent confederation of churches, comp osed of congregations which individually separated from the Catholic Church, fou nded by Anton Francis Kolaszewski and Alfons Mieczyslaw Chrostowski in the Unite d States, see American Catholic Church (1894). On February 23, 1894, Vilatte bought land and built a small frame structure, his cathedral dedicated to St. Louis IX of France, in the city of Green Bay that ye ar.[88](p28) Later that year, the first convention of the American Catholic Chur ch (1894) (ACC1894) appointed Vilatte as its ecclesiastical head "without arbitr ary powers".[89] Constantine Klukowski wrote, in History of St. Mary of the Ange ls Catholic Church, Green Bay, Wisconsin, 1898 1954, that the 1894 Green Bay city directory lists Vilatte's cathedral "as 'American Catholic'" and its officials a s: Vilatte, archbishop metropolitan and primate; Anton Francis Kolaszewski, vica r general; Stephen Kaminski, consultor; and, Brother Nicholas, church manager.[8 8](p28) In 1895, C. Basil, SPB, was listed as rector of St. Louis's cathedral.[8 8](p28) During this time, Vilatte used three church buildings: St. Louis's cathe dral in the city of Green Bay, St. Joseph's church in Walhain, and St. Mary's mi ssion in Dykesville.[43](p60)[l][further explanation needed] He no longer used t he Precious Blood mission which belonged to the Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac .[43](p61) Shortly thereafter, reduced to penury, Vilatte traveled the East Coast offering the sacraments to, and soliciting monetary aid from, Episcopalians and Roman Cat holics, but was rebuffed; in some places he was driven away by the Franco-Belgia n Catholics.[1](pp110 111) Vilatte sought a second time, c.?1894 c.?1900, to reconcile with the RCC. In Mar ch 1894 he approached Archbishop Francesco Satolli, Nuncio to the United States, who wrote to Messmer that Vilatte wished to reconcile; the next month, Vilatte wrote to Messmer that he was preparing his people for reconciliation.[1](p111) M ore correspondence took place between Satolli, Messmer and Vilatte. Later that y ear, the RCC offered to pay the expense of Vilatte's journey to Rome. His case d ragged on for almost four years until, in 1898, Satolli wrote to Messmer that Vi

latte was ready to reconcile.[1](p111) But Vilatte remained indecisive.[1](p112) Messmer "realized that there was no hope for a sincere conversion" and wrote to Satolli: For the present, he has an asylum among the schismatic Poles, who will pay him c ourt until he will be infatuated and foolish enough to consecrate one of them fo r the episcopate. Then they will cast him out, and being in such an extremity, h e will probably have one more recourse to the Catholic Church, asking for money and pardon. But will it be sincere?[1](p112) In 1898, the name was changed from St. Louis cathedral to St. John church and A. A. Mueller was listed as rector.[88](p28) On February 10, 1898, Vilatte signed over his cathedral church to the company which foreclosed on him; it sold the ch urch to Messmer on the next day. Messmer's dedication of the church as St. Mary of Czestochowa Church, which took place about two weeks later, included a proces sion accompanied by a city marching band.[88](pp33 34) Marx and Blied did not stat e the disposition of St. Joseph's church but wrote St. Mary's mission was lost a t the same time.[43](p60)[l] "Vilatte's cathedral was never known as Blessed Sac rament cathedral, as some claim," wrote Klukowski.[88](p28) Another mission was founded in Green Bay; it became the PECUSA Church of the Blessed Sacrament in 19 08 and a priest ordained by Koslowski was placed in charge.[28](pp21, 55)[88](pp 28, 31) During this time he consecrated Kaminski and voyaged to Europe where he stop at Llanthony Abbey, to ordain Joseph Leycester Lyne, and "explained that he was in a hurry, on his way to Russia at the special invitation or the Holy Synod of Mos cow" but that was improbable.[1](pp114, 118) In early 1899, he was in Rome and most Catholic newspapers reported that he soug ht reconciliation with the RCC instead of union with the ROC.[1](p118) Messmer d isclosed that "Vilatte had admitted to him personally that he had never been in good faith" and both Messmer and Katzer advised the Holy Office to delay passing judgement on his orders to test his sincerity. A Congregation of the Holy Offic e Consultor, Father David Flemming, issued Vilatte's abjuration statement and a Roman Curia official, Bishop John Joseph Frederick Otto Zardetti wrote to Messme r that Flemming had the case under control.[1](pp118 119) He made a "solemn recant ation of his errors" February 2, 1899, but, according to Weber, he "relapsed wit hin a short time" after he outwardly reconciled to the Roman Catholic Church.[16 ] Vilatte disagreed with authorities in Rome and as a result did not return to t he RCC; authorities would not recognise him as a licit bishop.[90] He did not ta ke a solemn vow of abjuration and was not reconciled with the RCC for second tim e.[1](p119) By early 1900, Vilatte was in the Benedictine Ligug Abbey, near Poitiers. "He app ears to have told" the monks that he wanted to make a careful study of ordinatio ns in the Syro-Malabar Church, so that he could convince the authorities in Rome of the validity of his episcopate.[1](p119) Aubault wrote a picturesque descrip tion of when, in the monastery, he met Joris-Karl Huysmans and Vilatte.[1](pp119 1 20) While living as a guest of the Benedictines of Poitiers, Vilatte did not cease h is subversive, anti-Catholic activities, although conducted secretly. News of th is reached Cardinal Franois-Marie-Benjamin Richard, Archbishop of Paris, who, on 17 April 1900, circulated a warning among his clergy to be on their guard agains t men who claimed to be ordained or consecrated by Vilatte.[1](p120) Emery colony[edit] The Advocate in Sturgeon Bay reported August 14, 1897, that Vilatte, living in G reen Bay, had bought 160 acres (65 ha) of land in Price County, Wisconsin, and p lanned to erect a church and a monastery. "It is his plan to found a colony of h

is people about the church as a center, the immigrants to come from Germany, Swi tzerland and portions of this country. [...] He expects to begin operations righ t away and will have fifty families, in the colony before winter."[91] Soon, acc ording to the September 1, 1897 Milwaukee Journal, a Milwaukee German language n ewspaper printed a letter from Messmer warning people that women were soliciting funds using Messmer's and Katzer's names without authorization. They were seen and reported; when police arrived, "the priest who accompanied the sisters was c alled before the chief and questioned and cautioned as to obtaining money by any misrepresentations," according to the Milwaukee Journal. Vilatte felt the incid ent may have "left some wrong impressions" as they solicited funds, for developi ng the 160 acres (65 ha) of forest, near Emery, Wisconsin; as Vilatte noted, all within 1 mile (1.6 km) of a logging road. "These sisters were in Milwaukee last week soliciting aid for the asylum, and in some quarters were denounced as frau ds," he said. Then, similar to how the Sturgeon Bay seminary scandal began in 18 87, he added, "we shall begin active operations within the next month" although "plans for the buildings have not been entirely completed as yet." He envisioned , "[t]he purpose of the church is to found a monastery" as an "agricultural brot herhood of the Old Catholic Church" with a seminary, and an orphanage to bring c hildren "up to agricultural pursuits". A real estate agent working for the Wisco nsin Central Railway added that, during his negotiations with Vilatte he visited his "large and flourishing congregation" in Green Bay. The agent said they purc hased "fine agricultural land" covered with hardwood forest.[92] Less than six m onths later, his diocese lost possession of its foreclosed cathedral.[88](pp33 34) Chicago[edit] Vilatte acquired U.S. citizenship then returned to the United States.[4](p68) He settled in Chicago in 1902, and used a mission begun by Father Francis Kanski a s his next permanent cathedra.[11](p189) At this time, he had severed all relations with Alvares' Independent Jacobite Ch urch of Ceylon, Goa and India, the Indian Orthodox Church and the Old Catholic C hurches of Europe.[citation needed] The establishment of the PNCC and Hodur's co nsecration was the final blow to his hope of being recognized as the Old Catholi c Archbishop of North America.[citation needed] Vilatte used, among other publications, nontrinitarian Jehovah's Witnesses publi cations for his religious education; in a letter attributed to him, in Zion's Wa tch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence, he said: "I do certainly believe that the 'little flock' will be an instrument by whom all the families of earth will be blessed; because all the churches are in a very poor situation and the world in great desolation."[93] Vilatte's career has been described as "a gigantic ecclesiastical mess caused by one man's egotism".[citation needed][94] Consecrations[edit] Vilatte's "unilateral arrogation of status as an Old Catholic prelate did not, [ ...] reflect objective fact," according to Laurence Orzell, in Polish American S tudies. The "European Old Catholics neither sanctioned his consecration nor appr oved of his attempt to spread Old Catholicism to America."[95](p41) After succes sive annual conferences of the priests and delegates from parishes, a proposal t o elect a Polish suffragan bishop was approved, and in 1897 the convention chose Kaminski from Buffalo, New York.[11](p188) Father Antoni Kozlowski, a losing ca ndidate from Chicago, called a second convention in Chicago, which elected him a s bishop; Vilatte refused to recognise him.[11](p188) When Vilatte advised the O ld Catholics against Kozlowski's consecration, his "ecclesiastical antics" were taken into account and they "probably regarded such advice as all the more reaso n to proceed with the consecration."[95](p43) Kozlowski traveled to Europe, and, on November 21, 1897 Herzog, Gul, and Theodor Weber elevated Kozlowski to the e piscopate in Bern. Although Vilatte adherents saw a conspiracy, according to Orz

ell, it remains unclear if Grafton actively promoted Kozlowski's consecration.[9 5](pp43 44) Herzog, who ordained Vilatte, assured Grafton, in 1898, that "a desire to counter the French 'rouge' served as a major motive behind the Chicago pries t's consecration" and asked Grafton to support Kozlowski and "develop friendly r elations with him".[95](p44) Stephen Kaminski[edit] Main article: Stephen Kaminski Kaminski was born in West Prussia.[3](p44) According to Waclaw Kruszka in Histor ya Polska w Ameryce, Kaminski did not attend any college, but learned how to pla y the organ from a local organist.[3](p44) After leaving the army, he forged off icial documents for which he received a two year prison term.[3](p44) Upon his r elease, he emigrated to the United States where he clung to various priests as a n organist. He felt called to the religious life and joined the Franciscan order in Pulaski, Wisconsin, but was expelled and moved to Manitowoc, Wisconsin, wher e he worked in various menial jobs.[96](p101) He was organist at the independent Sweetest Heart of Mary Church in Detroit, Michigan (which Vilatte consecrated i n 1893[95](p42)) but later quarreled with and wrote in newspapers against the pa stor, Dominic Kolasinski, and left.[3](p44) When Vilatte visited Kolaszewski, his vicar general, in Cleveland, Ohio, to dedi cate the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church building and cemetery on August 18, 189 4, he ordained Kaminski.[97](pp50 55) The dedication ceremonies were marred by a r iot, caused by protesters in the streets, that included a stabbing and shooting. [98](pp49 51) In 1895 Kaminski and a faction of his adherents occupied the Polish parish churc h of St. Paul, a Roman Catholic church of the Diocese of Omaha in South Omaha, N ebraska, where he conducted devotion "in his own way".[96](p102)[t] Kaminski wou nded a man and then shot at the altar to create the impression that he had also been shot at.[96](pp101 103) Later that month, Kaminski was called "a Polish natio nalist who posed as a priest" by Elia W. Peattie, in the Omaha World-Herald. She wrote that he "barricaded himself in the sanctuary and used firearms to retain control, wounding Xavier Dargaczewski and Frank Kraycki." Peattie quoted in her article: "The priest, he say: 'I never leave this town till I see the bare bones of this church!' And he is seein' 'em!"[99] It was rumored he started the fire that burned the church, at the end of that month, to a pile of rubble and ashes; Kaminski's faction damaged fire hydrants so there was no way to extinguish the fire. Kaminski was arrested.[96](pp102 103) Kruszka described the Buffalo situation as being the same that took place in Oma ha.[3](p43) He wrote that, in June 1894, that Alfons Mieczyslaw Chrostowski's Ju trzenka, in Cleveland, printed that Kolaszewski and Wladyslaw Debski arrived in Buffalo to establish an independent parish.[3](p39) Hieronim Kubiak wrote, in The Polish National Catholic Church in the United Stat es of America from 1897 to 1980, that the first independent parishes in the Unit ed States were organized by German, Irish, and French Catholics. A "pattern of a parish conflict" was already in place when Poles set up their independent paris hes.[100](p85) "As long as the conflict continued, the parish most often divorce d itself from the jurisdiction of the accused bishop and stood independent of hi m, which did not mean that the parish did not consider itself belonging to the C atholic Church symbolized by the Pope. In the division with the bishops, the par ish kept very strictly to the rules of the norm of religious life, finding in it a further support for the rightness of their cause." Return to the previous sta te of affairs, exist in isolation and then vanish, or create "a self-determined religious movement" are the three alternative results, according to Kubiak.[100] (pp86 87) According to Kruszka, the causes of this "social ulcer"[u] can be found several

years earlier when Poles began immigrating to Buffalo in large numbers. They had only one church prior to 1886; they built an additional church, without waiting for the permission of Bishop Stephen V. Ryan of the Roman Catholic Diocese of B uffalo, but a storm demolished it; they demanded another church and only under p ressure from the Congregation for Propagation of the Faith was a second church b uilt. Even so, there was by this time resentment and bitterness among the people which created prejudices against the clergy. That "social ulcer"[u] burst in 18 95 when a group demanded that Ryan relinquish ownership and management of their church; Ryan did not agree to the conditions, so the rebels schismed from the RC C and organized an independent parish. Their parish did not develop at all, beca use everyone thought their pastor, Antoni Klawiter, was morally bankrupt. Klawit er eventually left, intent on reconciling with the RCC, and Kaminski, who was ac cording to Kruszka another notorious adventurer like Klawiter, replaced him.[3]( pp42 43) From 1896 until May 3, 1907, Kaminski was pastor of Holy Mother of the Ro sary Parish in Buffalo.[101](pp189 190) According to Kruszka, Kaminski once counte d under his jurisdiction a parish in Buffalo, a parish in Chicopee, Massachusett s, and a parish in Baltimore, Maryland.[102](p50) Kaminski failed to persuade Gul to raise him to the episcopate.[1](p113)[5](p12) Soon after, Kaminski was to be consecrated bishop by Vilatte, but this was dela yed over the fee charged for consecration.[3](p43) It was deliberate and premedi tated simony, the act of buying and selling an ecclesiastical office,[103] Vilat te demanded money for the consecration but Kaminski did not have enough to give. [3](p43)[95](p42) Only after Vilatte was bankrupt and had sold his house and cat hedral in Green Bay was he less demanding and agreed to consecrate Kaminski.[3]( p43) Kaminski was consecrated, on March 20, 1898, by Vilatte[101](pp189 190) as su ffragan bishop for those Polish priests and parishes which accepted Vilatte's do ctrinal reforms.[11](p188) In the end, he received $100 in cash from Kaminski an d promissory notes for a few hundred dollars more.[3](p44) Kaminski threatened t o take Grafton to court after Grafton publicly criticized him.[95](p42) "Notices were sent out," according to Anson, that stated both Cardinal James Gib bons of Baltimore and Archbishop Sebastiano Martinelli, the apostolic delegate t o the United States, "would assist at the ceremony. It is hardly necessary to ad d that neither of these prelates put in an appearance."[1](p113) However, the ne w bishop fled the United States to Canada because of creditors. He was excommuni cated by Rome and he abandoned Vilatte. Kaminski was consecrated after the 1889 establishment of the Old Catholic Church es' Union of Utrecht and its IBC, "the orders of episcopi vagantes in general, a nd specifically those of [...] Kaminski, [...] and of all those consecrated by t hem, are not recognized, and all connections with these persons is formally deni ed" by the IBC.[23](p197) On September 9, 1898, Vilatte was excommunicated by Ignatius Peter IV for consec rating Kaminski in a way contrary to the canon law of the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch.[4](p67) Anson wrote that in his agreement with Alvares, Vilatte ack nowledged that if he "deviated from their Canons and Rules, he would be subject to dismissal from the dignity of Metropolitan."[1](p108) Bishops were consecrate d by Vilatte "without authority" from the Patriarch of the Syriac Orthodox Churc h of Antioch, who "therefore does not recognize such consecrations or their deri vative consecrations and ordinations."[66](p1070)[80](pp39 40) For both Kaminski and olated in the Polonia C, but rather because ons of Polonia toward Kozlowski, according to Kubiak, "their movements became is community, not so much because of the propaganda of the RC of the public opinion negative assessment of the associati the dissenters."[100](p116) Kubiak wrote:

There is no doubt that in many cases, [...] the same followers and inspirers of the independent parishes were activists in [...] unions and [...] the Socialist

party. In any case, in many instances independent parishes and groups of the Pol ish Socialist Alliance arose at the same time. The social postulates, [...] even the language of their propaganda, seems to indicate to a large extent a converg ence in the two movements, [...][100](pp116 117)[v] Just before the Revolution in the Kingdom of Poland and wider Revolution of 1905 in the Russian Empire, Stanislaw Osada, in Historya Zwiazku Narodowego Polskieg o i rozwj ruchu narodowego Polskiego w Ameryce Plnocne, wrote in the United States , that Russian agents endeavored to draw believers into Old Catholicism, not for faith but for "implanting in the womb of Catholicism"[w] the basis for Polish d iscord, to facilitate the Russification of the Catholic Church.[104](p502) Kubia k quoted Osada: "There exists yet another danger, namely that in recent times th e leaders of that movement (independent) quite unequivocally help spread among t he Polish masses the slogans of the Revolutionary-Socialists."[100](p117)[104](p 502)[x] From 1898 to 1911 he edited and published a weekly Polish newspaper Warta, an or gan of his independent church. He died in Buffalo on September 19, 1911.[101](pp 189 190) After his death, the Buffalo center of the independent movement ceased to exist and most of his parishioners affiliated themselves with the Polish Nation al Catholic Church (PNCC), the Scranton center of the independent movement.[100] (p95)[106] Paolo Miraglia[edit] Main article: Paolo Miraglia-Gulotti Paolo Vescovo Miraglia-Gulotti was a priest from Ucria, Sicily, who in 1895 was sent into Piacenza, in Northern Italy, to preach the May sermons in honor of Mar y; there he was embroiled in a series of either scandals or conspiracies. He ope ned his Oratorio di San Paolo, Chiesa Italiana Internationale Paulina Irby wrote , in National Review that it began in a former stable of an old palazzo with chu rch furnishing principally provided by Mazzini's niece. His congregation had jus t that church, and "is spoken of contemptuously as the congregation of Signor Ab bate's stable", she wrote, as the Abbate family own the palazzo.[107](pp111 113) O n April 15, 1896, Miraglia, who resided in Piacenza but was a priest of the Roma n Catholic Diocese of Patti, Sicily, was excommunicated for, what was called, hi s "incredible, audacious, and obstinant scandals which long troubled the Roman C atholic Diocese of Piacenza".[108] That year, Nevin introduced in The Churchman the "modern Savonarola", Nevin wrote "he has placed himself under wise guidance, and will not be apt to do anything rashly or ignorantly" but failed to include any specifics.[109] The following week, The Churchman only hinted at the secular side of that movement by publishing a story from Milan's Corriere della Sera wh ich wrote: "The struggle is now not only religlious, but civic. The partisans of the bishop will hear of no truce with the partisans of Miraglia, and whenever t hey can, remove them from the employments that they hold."[110] Within a year, o n August 31, 1897, he attended the 4th International Old Catholic Congress in Vi enna.[111] By 1900, two reformation groups in Italy elected bishops for their churches: one group in Arrone elected Campello as its bishop and the other group in Piacenza elected Miraglia as its bishop.[112] Campello was licenced in 1883 by Bishop Abr am Newkirk Littlejohn, of the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island, to work as a pri est "wherever there may be lawful opportunity" for Campello's reformation effort s in Italy,[32](pp88 92) and by that time, Nevin already knew Campello for many ye ars.[32](p96) Campello was elected bishop by a synod of his church in 1893 and a sked Herzog for consecration, who in turn brought Campello's case to the IBC.[23 ](p196)[33](p345) The IBC refused to consecrate Campello in 1901, according to O eyen, "because of his limited number of baptisms and marriages and his close rel ationships with Anglicans, Methodists, and Waldenses".[33](p345) The Church of U trecht thought Campello was to Protestant.[23](p196) Miraglia, by then a leader of reform in northern Italy, wrote to Vilatte regarding the movement and consecr

ation.[11](pp188 189) On May 6, 1900, while the Holy See examined Vilatte's case, he consecrated Miraglia in Piacenza. Miraglia was a popular speaker known for hi s relations with Ferdinando Bracciforti, who represented Milanese liberal Protes tantism.[12](pp33 34)[113] According to Smit "the orders of episcopi vagantes in g eneral, and specifically those of [...] Miraglia, and of all those consecrated b y them, are not recognized, and all connections with these persons is formally d enied" by the IBC.[23](p197) On June 13, 1900, the Congregation of Universal Inq uisition declared that major excommunication was incurred by both Miraglia and V ilatte.[108] The next day, June 14, 1900, the Alexandria Gazette reported that h is anti-Catholicism offended the sensibilities of an American Methodist Episcopa l Church in Rome that the "majority of the Protestant congregation interrupted" his discourse "with angry protests against his abuse of the pulpit and the polic e were finally called to prevent an open riot."[114] In 1901, Tony Andr Florence, in a report about the liberal movement in Italy presented to the International Council of Unitarian and Other Liberal Religious Thinkers and Workers in London, wrote that Miraglia's "desire to be at the head of a personal movement, after s eparating him from the Old Catholics whose ideas were akin to his, threw him sud denly into a false path." His consecration by Vilatte "lost him the sympathy of many, and his profession of faith completed their disappointment." Florence wrot e that Miraglia's "reformatory movement, therefore, is now in suspense," after h e was obliged to refuge abroad.[115] While the ACS reported, in The Times, that although the "discreditable incident" of Miraglia "having arrogated to himself t he dignity" of bishop-elect and his consecration happened, the work of the "real bishop-elect", Campello, was going on independently, with headquarters at Rome. [116] It is unclear if the two juxtaposed groups were concurrent factions of one movement. In 1904, the IBC refused to recognize Miraglia's consecration as valid when he p resented himself to the sixth International Old Catholic Congress in Olten, Swit zerland.[117] Already a convicted fugitive who evaded Italian justice, Miraglia was then invol ved with religious associations in France.[4](p82) For example, a parish church in Piedigriggio, Corsica, was confiscated by the government from the Roman Catho lic Diocese of Ajaccio and devolved to a religious association formed on Decembe r 11, 1906. The parish's priest disappeared after he signed a declaration of adh erence to the sect. From May, 1907, Jacques Forcioli, a Miraglia ordained priest working for that religious association, conducted schismatic services. In Novem ber, a lawsuit was filed by a replacement priest appointed to serve the parish b y the Bishop of Ajaccio, against the mayor and Forcioli, demanding the restituti on of the church. The court rendered a judgment which condemned the mayor, decla red that religious association illegal, and ordered restoration of the property to the RCC's priest.[4](p80) Miraglia intended to ordain a priest for Christmas there; but he fled and evaded a French deportation order against him on Christma s Eve. A few days later Forcioli was arrested for stealing items from the church ; the mayor and members of the sect were arrested for complicity. Fearing assass ination, the mayor refused to implement the restitution on February 25, 1908. Fi nally, the Court of Appeal in Bastia dismissed Forcioli and restored exclusive p ossession of the Piedigriggio church property back to the RCC's priest. On March 14, 1908, La Croix emphasized that the scope of the Bastia decision was of spec ial importance, not only because it was the first judgment on the subject, but a lso because of the principles of law it invoked.[4](pp82 83)[118] Vilatte and Miraglia united in a joint effort, and except for the brief interval , c.?1906 c.?1907, when Vilatte unsuccessfully attempted to organize a religious association in France, their work had chiefly been in the Midwestern United Sta tes.[16] According to Thomas E. Watson, in Watson's Jeffersonian Magazine, after being "arrested like a common criminal" Miraglia was deported from the United S tates, on August 4, 1910, "as though he were [...] an enemy to society."[119] Tw o days before his deportation, the New York Times reported that Miraglia, "self-

appointed head" of the Catholic Independent Church of Rome, was detained on Elli s Island "on the charge that he is an undesirable citizen" after being apprehend ed in Springfield, Massachusetts. He admitted that "while in Piacenza and Parma he served several terms and was heavily fined for libel, and while a professor a t the Patti University he forged the signatures of [f]aculty to fake diplomas, w hich he sold to deficient students."[120] On February 15, 1915, The Evening Worl d reported that he was "charged with obtaining alms under false pretenses," afte r the Bureau of Charities went to his mission and "found only an empty shack," a nd arrested along with two of his alleged accomplices by detectives. While in co urt, a Deputy United States Marshal arrested him "on the charge of writing vicio us letters" to a woman.[121] Others[edit] Over the next few years Vilatte, according to Joanne Pearson in Wicca and the Ch ristian Heritage, "carried on travelling and consecrating, truly a 'wandering bi shop'".[80](p40) In the middle of 1903, Vilatte was back in South Wales and he raised Henry Marsh -Edwards, a former Anglican priest, to the episcopate with the title of Bishop o f Caerleon. The next day both men consecrated Henry Bernard Ventham with the tit le of Bishop of Dorchester. The Church of England (CoE) found Marsh-Edwards to be "incapable of holding pref erment" after he was required to "answer charges against his moral character."[2 ](p39) Although Marsh-Edwards was married, Vilatte consecrated him as a bishop. Mandatory clerical celibacy was required by Old Catholics, according to Oeyen, i n Switzerland until 1876, in Germany until 1878, and in the Union of Utrecht unt il 1922.[122](p298) Margrander explains that this third episcopal consecration, of Marsh-Edwards, conferred by Vilatte is noteworthy because the bishop-elect wa s not celibate; Vilatte's precedent was followed by Gul in consecrating Arnold M athew several years later.[11](p189) Mathew, a former Roman Catholic priest who resigned and left the RCC, was married by the CoE.[123][y] "It is probable", Anson noted, that Vilatte consecrated Carmel Henry Carfora in 1907. "But there is no documentary evidence", he added, of the event.[1](p123) C arfora, a Franciscan priest, was sent as a missionary from Italy to the United S tates where he fell into heresy.[clarification needed] In 1913, Vilatte consecrated Victor von Kubinyi in South Bend, Indiana.[124] Frederick Lloyd[edit] Main article: Frederick Ebenezer Lloyd Frederick Ebenezer John Lloyd was elected coadjutor bishop of the Episcopal Dioc ese of Oregon in 1905.[125] Nelson Crawford wrote, in American Mercury, that som e laity opposed Lloyd's election and sent a letter containing "numerous objectio ns" to the hierarchy.[125] The letter was influential and Lloyd withdrew his nam e from consideration.[125] He was not confirmed and was not consecrated by the P ECUSA.[125] In 1907, Lloyd was degraded from the priesthood by Bishop Cortlandt Whitehead of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh and converted to the RCC that year.[2](p40) In 1909, he reverted to the PECUSA.[126] He was a member of the Illinois legisl ature.[125] Vilatte's sect was incorporated in 1915 in Illinois under the name American Cath olic Church (ACC);[127] Lloyd was an incorporator along with Vilatte and Ren Loui s Zawistowski.[2](pp35 36) Vilatte consecrated Lloyd later that year.[2](p40) At the conclusion of the service Vilatte said to Lloyd:

It needs no prophet to foretell for you and the American Catholic Church a great future in the Providence of God. The need for a Church both American and Cathol ic, and free from paparchy and all foreign denomination, has been felt for many years by Christians of all the denominations. May your zeal and apostolic minist ry be crowned with success.[1](p125) He succeeded Vilatte as head of the ACC in 1920.[2](p40) According to Brandreth, Lloyd proselytized and the spread of the ACC was "largel y due to his initiative."[2](p36) Lloyd founded his Order of Antioch (OoA), which was, according to Douglas, a gro up for Anglican clergy who were ordained by Lloyd.[2](xvii) According to Douglas , Lloyd created a "loose organization in which he was looked to as the central e piscopus vagans" that consisted to a greater degree of "an underground clientle o f Anglican clergymen" who were members of the OoA and to a lesser degree of chur ches.[2](xvii xviii) Douglas noted that the OoA attracted "an appreciable, if not large, membership, which was diffused all over England" but did not include an e stimate of its membership.[2](xviii) Lloyd's assistant, John Churchill Sibley, who Lloyd consecrated in 1929, spread the OoA, surreptitiously according to Douglas.[2](xviii xix, 43) From about 1928 u ntil 1934, Lloyd and Sibley used Saint Sarkis' Armenian Apostolic Church in Lond on. In 1934, the Armenian priest informed his hierarchy, after being apprised by Douglas, that the Syrian Orthodox Church had repudiated Vilatte's apostolic suc cession; the Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem then instructed its priest to "to c ease all relations with Sibley and the Order".[2](xviii) Lloyd and Sibley together operated a parallel business entity, called the "Inter collegiate University" (IU), in which Lloyd was president and Sibley was chancel lor.[2](xix)[128] According to the 1924 Year Book of the Churches, "in order to establish a legal bond with the American Catholic Church", the College of Church Musicians (CoCM) was reorganized and incorporated as IU in Illinois.[128] George Alexander McGuire[edit] Main article: George Alexander McGuire George Alexander McGuire was an Antiguan and a baptized Anglican who graduated f rom a Moravian theological seminary and served as a Moravian Church pastor on Sa int Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. He was married and had one daughter. After he im migrated to the United States in 1894, during the nadir of American race relatio ns, he was eventually ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church.[129][130](pp 246 247) After various assignments, from 1905 he held "the highest position open t o a black man serving the church within the United States" as Bishop William Mon tgomery Brown's archdeacon for colored work in the Episcopal Diocese of Arkansas . The General Convention of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America considered proposals for the creation of black bishops, either in missionary di stricts independent of local dioceses or as suffragan bishops of local dioceses. [129] Brown, a proponent of social Darwinism, proposed that black people should be racially segregated into a separate denomination.[129][130](p103) Theodore Na tsoulas wrote, in Journal of Religion in Africa, that McGuire wrote an addendum to a diocesan annual report which endorsed Brown's "Arkansas Plan".[131](p82) He in and Shattuck point out that Brown later apostatized and became a Communist; h is "extreme theological and social views" eventually led to his removal.[130](p1 09) As Brown's archdeacon, "under his own initiative,