Arnold Mathew - Life

Life

Mathew was a descendant of Theobald Mathew the noted "Apostle of Temperance". Born in France in 1852 and baptised in the Roman Catholic Church; due to his mother's scruples he was rebaptised in the Church of England. He studied for the ministry in the Scottish Episcopal Church, but sought reconciliation and confirmation in the Church of Rome.

As a Roman Catholic, he was ordained priest in 1877 in the Pro-Cathedral in Glasgow by the Most Revd Charles Eyre, Archbishop of Anazarba, in partibus infidelium Vicar-General of the Western District of Scotland, who became the first Roman Catholic Archbishop of Glasgow after the restoration of the hierarchy to Scotland. Mathew was granted a Doctor of Divinity degree by Pope Pius IX. He became a Dominican in 1878 but only persevered a year, moving around a number of dioceses: Newcastle, Plymouth, Nottingham and Clifton. He remained a Roman Catholic priest until, in 1889, various personal doubts and issues caused him to retire from the Roman obedience. Later in 1891 he was persuaded to "trial" the Anglican ministry and went to assist the rector of Holy Trinity, Sloane Street, London. He was never officially received into the Church of England, neither did he formally leave the Roman Catholic Church.

In 1897, Mathew had met the Revd Richard O'Halloran and became curious about the suggestion of an Old Catholic Church in Great Britain. O'Halloran had been corresponding with the Old Catholic bishops in Holland and Germany and believed that such a movement would interest a large number of disaffected Roman Catholics and Anglo-Catholics. In June 1906 the Royal Commission appointed in 1904 to inquire into "ecclesiastical disorders", afterwards known as the Ritual Commission, presented its report and this was followed by the issue of Letters of Business. It was expected that the Catholic-minded Anglican clergy, with their congregations, might, by Act of Parliament, be forced out of the Anglican Communion. Persuaded by O'Halloran, Mathew decided to join the movement and was elected the first Regionary Old Catholic Bishop for Great Britain and in 1908 the Old Roman Catholic Archbishop of Utrecht was petitioned to consecrate him to this charge.