After an investigation forced him to wait nine months on the island, Grafton thought they were deceived by Vilatte statements as to his relation to Grafton and the extent of his work.
Émile Appolis wrote, in '
, that Vilatte was titled "Old Catholic Archbishop of Babylon" (') and his
cachet was an
archiepiscopal cross, with the
motto ''''—from the east, light. For its part, the Episcopal Church, on March 21, 1892, having already degraded from 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
Miaphysite church which does not accept the dogmas of the
Council of Chalcedon. Vilatte "did not give up without a struggle" and "[n]umerous letters from him are in the archives of St. Norbert Abbey, some of them of a threatening nature, all giving indirect testimony to the fact that the early Norbertines were successful in stemming the tide of [...] doctrines and religious practices which were disturbing the peace of the Catholic Belgians on the peninsula." The missionaries succeeded, according to Kirkfleet, by "appealing to the native Catholic instinct of the Belgians rather than by refuting the doctrines of the apostate." Vilatte was not invited. Barrows wrote, in ''The World's Parliament of Religions
, that people sought unsuccessfully to use the parliament for propaganda. Later that year, the first convention of the American Catholic Church (1894) (ACC1894) appointed Vilatte as its ecclesiastical head "without arbitrary powers". Constantine Klukowski wrote, in History of St. Mary of the Angels Catholic Church, Green Bay, Wisconsin, 1898–1954'', that the 1894 Green Bay city directory lists Vilatte's cathedral "as 'American Catholic and its officials as: Vilatte, archbishop metropolitan and
primate; ,
vicar general;
Stephen Kaminski,
consultor; and, Brother Nicholas, church manager. Asa result, he did not take a solemn vow of abjuration and was not reconciled with the Church at that time. Soon, according to the September 1, 1897
Milwaukee Journal, a Milwaukee German language newspaper 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 called before the chief and questioned and cautioned as to obtaining money by any misrepresentations", according to the
Milwaukee Journal. Vilatte felt the incident may have "left some wrong impressions" as they solicited funds, for developing the of forest, near
Emery, Wisconsin; as Vilatte noted, all within of a logging road. "These sisters were in Milwaukee last week soliciting aid for the asylum, and in some quarters were denounced as frauds", he said. Then, similar to how the Sturgeon Bay seminary scandal began in 1887, 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 brotherhood of the Old Catholic Church" with a seminary, and an orphanage to bring children "up to agricultural pursuits". A real estate agent working for the
Wisconsin Central Railway added that, during his negotiations with Vilatte he visited his "large and flourishing congregation" in Green Bay. The agent said they purchased "fine agricultural land" covered with hardwood forest. Less than six months later, his diocese lost possession of its foreclosed cathedral.
Consecrations Vilatte's "unilateral arrogation of status as an Old Catholic prelate did not, [...] reflect objective fact", according to
Laurence Orzell, in
Polish American Studies. The "European Old Catholics neither sanctioned his consecration nor approved of his attempt to spread Old Catholicism to America." After successive annual conferences of the priests and delegates from parishes, a proposal to elect a Polish suffragan bishop was approved, and in 1897 the convention chose Kaminski from
Buffalo, New York. According to
Wacław Kruszka in '''', Kaminski did not attend any college, but learned how to play the organ from a local
organist. He was organist at the independent
Sweetest Heart of Mary Church in
Detroit, Michigan (which Vilatte consecrated in 1893 The dedication ceremonies were marred by a riot, caused by protesters in the streets, that included a stabbing and shooting. In 1895, Kaminski and a faction of his adherents occupied the Polish parish church of St. Paul, a Catholic church of the
Diocese of Omaha in
South Omaha, Nebraska, where he conducted
devotion "in his own way". 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. "As long as the conflict continued, the parish most often divorced itself from the jurisdiction of the accused bishop and stood independent of him, which did not mean that the parish did not consider itself belonging to the Catholic Church symbolized by the Pope. In the division with the bishops, the parish 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 state of affairs, exist in isolation and then vanish, or create "a self-determined religious movement" are the three alternative results, according to Kubiak. According to Kruszka, Kaminski once counted under his jurisdiction a parish in Buffalo, a parish in
Chicopee, Massachusetts, and a parish in
Baltimore,
Maryland. Kaminski failed to persuade Gul to raise him to the episcopate. Vilatte demanded money for the consecration but Kaminski did not have enough to give. For both Kaminski and Kozlowski, according to Kubiak, "their movements became isolated in the Polonia community, not so much because of the propaganda of the , but rather because of the public opinion negative assessment of the associations of Polonia toward the dissenters."
Paolo Miraglia 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
Mary; there he was embroiled in a series of either scandals or conspiracies. He opened his ,
Chiesa Italiana Internationale Paulina Irby wrote, in
National Review that it began in a former stable of an old
palazzo with church furnishing principally provided by Mazzini's niece. His congregation had just that church, and "is spoken of contemptuously as the congregation of Signor Abbate's stable", she wrote, as the Abbate family own the palazzo. On April 15, 1896, Miraglia, who resided in Piacenza but was a priest of the
Catholic Diocese of Patti was excommunicated for, what was called, his "incredible, audacious, and obstinant scandals which long troubled the
Catholic Diocese of Piacenza". 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. The following week,
The Churchman only hinted at the secular side of that movement by publishing a story from Milan's
Corriere della Sera which wrote: "The struggle is now not only religious, but civic. The partisans of the bishop will hear of no truce with the partisans of Miraglia, and whenever they can, remove them from the employments that they hold." Within a year, on August 31, 1897, he attended the 4th International Old Catholic Congress in
Vienna. 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. Campello was licensed in 1883 by Bishop
Abram Newkirk Littlejohn, of the
Episcopal Diocese of Long Island, to work as a priest "wherever there may be lawful opportunity" for Campello's reformation efforts in Italy, The refused to consecrate Campello in 1901, according to Oeyen, "because of his limited number of baptisms and marriages and his close relationships with Anglicans, Methodists, and
Waldenses". According to Smit "the orders of ''
in general, and specifically those of [...] Miraglia, and of all those consecrated by them, are not recognized, and all connections with these persons is formally denied" by the . In 1901, Tony André 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 separating him from the Old Catholics whose ideas were akin to his, threw him suddenly into a false path." His consecration by Vilatte "lost him the sympathy of many, and his profession of faith completed their disappointment". Florence wrote that Miraglia's "reformatory movement, therefore, is now in suspense", after he was obliged to refuge abroad. While the Anglo-Continental Society reported, in
The Times, that although the "discreditable incident" of Miraglia "having arrogated to himself the dignity" of bishop-elect and his consecration happened, the work of the "real bishop-elect", Campello, was going on independently, with headquarters at Rome. It is unclear if the two juxtaposed groups were concurrent factions of one movement. In 1904, the refused to recognize Miraglia's consecration as valid when he presented himself to the sixth International Old Catholic Congress in
Olten, Switzerland. Already a convicted fugitive who evaded Italian justice, Miraglia was then involved with religious associations in France. Vilatte and Miraglia united in a joint effort, and except for the brief interval, , when Vilatte unsuccessfully attempted to organize a
religious association in France, their work had chiefly been in the
Midwestern United States. Two days before his
deportation, the
New York Times reported that Miraglia, "self-appointed head" of the
Catholic Independent Church of Rome, was detained on
Ellis Island "on the charge that he is an undesirable citizen" after being apprehended 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 at the Patti University he forged the signatures of [f]aculty to fake diplomas, which he sold to deficient students." On February 15, 1915,
The Evening World reported that he was "charged with obtaining alms under false pretenses", after the Bureau of Charities went to his mission and "found only an empty shack", and arrested along with two of his alleged accomplices by detectives. While in court, a
Deputy United States Marshal arrested him "on the charge of writing vicious letters" to a woman.
Others Over the next few years Vilatte, according to Joanne Pearson in
Wicca and the Christian Heritage, "carried on travelling and consecrating, truly a 'wandering bishop'". Margrander explains that this third episcopal consecration, of Marsh-Edwards, conferred by Vilatte is noteworthy because the bishop-elect was not
celibate; Vilatte's precedent was followed by Gul in consecrating
Arnold Mathew several years later. "It is probable", Anson noted, that Vilatte consecrated
Carmel Henry Carfora in 1907. "But there is no documentary evidence", he added, of the event.
Frederick Lloyd Frederick Ebenezer John Lloyd was elected
coadjutor bishop of the
Episcopal Diocese of Oregon in 1905. Nelson Crawford wrote, in
American Mercury, that some laity opposed Lloyd's election and sent a letter containing "numerous objections" to the hierarchy. He was a member of the Illinois legislature. Lloyd was an incorporator along with Vilatte and René Louis Zawistowski. 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 in Illinois. After various assignments, from 1905 he held "the highest position open to a black man serving the church within the United States" as Bishop
William Montgomery 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 districts independent of local dioceses or as suffragan bishops of local dioceses. Hein and Shattuck point out that Brown later apostatized and became a Communist; his "extreme theological and social views" eventually led to his removal. Parascandola called it a "secret
paramilitary group". The "took great pains to demonstrate his legitimacy". Natsoulas wrote that it "was important to its mission that the new church be founded on solid grounds" and quoted McGuire's words that "[t]he Negro everywhere must control his own ecclesiastical organization" yet hold the Apostolic traditions. By the end of 1923 the was no longer an "independent political organization" as it merged with the
Workers Party of America; He represented himself, at different times, as D Benedetto, Comte Benedetto Donkin, Lord , Benedict Donkin, the cousin of the
Earl of Minto, the son of the
Duke of Devon. "In the world's long roll of impostors a prominent place must always be found for 'the Right Rev. Edward Rufane Benedict Donkin, Bishop of Santa Croce, and Vicar Apostolic of the Independent Roman Catholic Church'", begins his
obituary in
Adelaide's
The Chronicle, who committed "a series of frauds" resulting in several imprisonments. Vilatte ordained Donkin. Years later, in 1904, while he represented himself as an Old Catholic Church bishop, Donkin started "what [was] purported to be an Old Catholic Benedictine Oratory" in a house previously "occupied by genuine Benedictines" and "opened almost entirely on credit". By August, "the bubble burst", Warren Fisher, who guaranteed the furnishings, discovered he had been swindled. Donkin "represented that he had been appointed by the Old Catholic Conference as their bishop at Oxford at a salary of £400 a year and that he produced what purported to be the official record of his appointment." Donkin induced him "to guarantee the bill for the furnishing of the Oratory" with a forged check and Fisher was left to pay his guarantee. Fisher then wrote to Vilatte, he responded, and Fisher forwarded his letter to
Truth which published it. Vilatte wrote that when Donkin came to him in 1896, "he posed as 'The Rev Fr Dominic, OSA, Church of England Missioner, St Augustine's Priory, London,' and as such he was asked by the Protestant Episcopal clergy of Milwaukee to preach in their cathedral." And, as Vilatte wrote, "I was completely blinded and did ordain him to the priesthood" but "[a]bout eighteen months afterwards his true character was discovered, and I deposed and degraded him". Vilatte explained that a member of his clergy, who he noted was also "humbugged and swindled", introduced him to the impostor, the alias Lord Cortenay, son of the Duke of Devon; that "he 'took in' the clergy of Milwaukee"; that "Donkin never belonged to any 'community' in our Church"; but, Vilatte did not explain why he ordained Donkin, who he thought was a cleric. Vilatte wrote that later Donkin "posed as a Bishop in Cleveland." Years earlier, in 1890–1891, while Lyne was on his tour of North America raising funds for his work in England, Pearson argues that "concern with ancient, indigenous religions emerging and operating independently of the Church of Rome characterises the heterodox Christian churches of the in England, Wales and France" and "was a theme that was to influence the development of
Druidry and
Wicca." In 1909, after Lyne's death, two surviving Anglican monks,
Asaph Harris and
Gildas Taylor, were ordained, in
Winnipeg,
Manitoba, Canada, where Vilatte was staying during a visit of his missions in that part of North America.
Charles Wood, 2nd Viscount Halifax, wanted Grafton to install Carlyle as abbot of the monastic community living as guests on Halifax's estate in
Painsthorpe. Anson wrote, in
The American Benedictine Review, that after Parrish left, it "appears that his followers were replaced or displaced by a group of young men who had been formed into a Benedictine brotherhood" by Brothers in
Waukegan, Illinois, located outside Grafton's Diocese of Fond du Lac. A "rented-house was named St. Dunstan's Abbey" with Grafton self-appointed as "their absentee Abbot"; The report includes part of an 1898 letter from Grafton, about Vilatte's character, published in
Diocese of Fond du Lac, a newspaper. Grafton warned about Basil in that letter: To further discredit Vilatte in that letter, which Orzell calls one of his "more
vituperative public pronouncements concerning" Vilatte,
Des Houx In 1904, diplomatic relations between the
French Third Republic and the Holy See were broken. In 1905, all Churches were separated from the State and authorized to form self-supporting corporations for public worship. Those
religious associations () were designations given to certain "moral persons" or associations which, by the
1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State, the French Third Republic, wished to incorporate in each diocese and parish to receive as proprietors church properties and revenues, with responsibility of taking care of them. All buildings used for public worship were made over to the
religious associations; in the absence of
religious associations, buildings remain at the disposal of the clergy and worshipers, but an administrative act must be secured from the
prefect or the
mayor. By his August 10, 1906,
encyclical, '''',
Pope Pius X stated that the law threatened to intrude lay authority into the natural operation of the ecclesiastical organization; The Catholic ecclesiastical authorities had forbidden the only kind of corporation which the State recognized as authorized to collect funds for purposes of worship or have the right of ownership for purposes of worship. The State considered previously legally-recognized churches, as no longer existing; and, in cases where no
religious associations were incorporated, took over the property of the churches and turned the property over by decree to the charitable establishments of the respective
municipality; in such cases, the Church lost this property forever. By January 1907, des Houx wanted to create a schismatic Church in Paris and recruited Vilatte, At des Houx's insistence, Vilatte returned to Paris early in 1907. Vilatte together with a few laymen founded a
religious association in the
Church Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, Paris that filed a demand to receive the church and its possessions. In the meantime he resided in the former
Barnabite convent. A public Mass was partly celebrated in the convent chapel by Roussin, from the diocese of Toulouse, in the presence of Vilatte. Much disorder and tumult followed upon Roussin's appearance in the pulpit, which he was speedily forced to quit by missiles flung at him. Vilatte tried to quell the storm from the sanctuary but was also obliged to retreat. The law was modified by a law passed January 2, 1907, permitting exercise of religious worship in churches purely on sufferance and without any legal title; and further by a law passed March 28, 1907, classifying assemblages for religious worship as public meetings, and abolishing in respect of all public meetings the anticipatory declaration required by the Law of 1881 which the Catholic Church refused to make. He began calling himself "Archbishop Vilatte, of Texas". In 1910, with a group of Society of the Precious Blood religious, led by Taylor, who had joined the society after his ordination, Vilatte went to
Candelaria, Texas. From there, they crossed the Rio Grande to an area in the vicinity of San Antonio El Bravo in Mexico where they founded, on 18 July, a
cooperative settlement called Vilatteville located on in the
Chihuahuan Desert. Vilatte felt it was a blessing to live there. He wrote: According to an article published in the
El Paso Herald, only actual settlers could purchase or plots of land along with in the town of Vilatteville from what was described as a "back to the soil" settlement on land the venture purchased in northern
Chihuahua,
Mexico. On October 1, 1910, Vilatte sailed to Europe to recruit settlers. It's unclear from Butler if Vilatteville influenced Mexican schisms but Butler wrote that Pérez was consecrated by Carfora. == Founding the American Catholic Church ==