Roger Vaughan
Encyclopedia
Roger William Bede Vaughan (9 January 1834 – 18 August 1883) was an English Benedictine
monk of Downside Abbey
, and the second Roman Catholic Archbishop of Sydney
from 1877 to 1883.
, Herefordshire
in England
in 1834, one of 14 children. His father, lieutenant John Francis Vaughan, belonged to one of the oldest recusant families in England, his mother was Elizabeth Louise Rolls, a convert. His brother was Cardinal Herbert Vaughan. All his siblings, save three, entered Holy Orders
.
Vaughan was probably afflicted with congenital heart disease. At 7 he was sent briefly to a local school, but his mother worried over his health and he was educated at home in a religious atmosphere. In 1850 he was sent to St. Gregory's College at Downside
, near Bath. His mother's death in 1853 prompted serious thoughts of a religious vocation and on 12 September 1853 he took the Benedictine habit as Brother Bede.
In 1855 at his father's request and expense, he was sent to Rome for further study under the guidance of the Italian scholar and reformer, Angelo Zelli-Jacobuzzi. He was ordained priest by Cardinal Patrizi in the basilica of St John Lateran on 9 April 1859.
At the age of six Vaughan was sent to a boarding school
at Monmouth for three years, but his health proved to be delicate and for some years he was privately tutored at home. In September 1850 he was sent to the Benedictine school of St Gregory's at Downside
near Bath. In September 1853 he entered the Benedictine community, and in 1855 went to Rome
for further study, and remained there for four years.
He had taken minor orders in 1855, and passing through the various stages he was ordained priest on 9 April 1859. He returned to Downside in August, in 1861 was appointed professor of metaphysics and moral philosophy at Belmont, and a year later was elected prior of the diocesan chapter of Newport and Menevia and superior of Belmont.
He held this position for over 10 years. He contributed to leading reviews and published his most important literary work, his Life of St Thomas of Aquin, on which he had spent endless pains, in 1871–2. In 1866 he met Archbishop Polding, then on a visit to England, who was much attracted to Vaughan and several times asked that he might be made his coadjutor.
It was not, however, until February 1873 that this was agreed to. Vaughan arrived at Sydney on 16 December 1873 and immediately devoted himself to two important movements, the provision of education for Catholic children and the completion of the building of St Mary's cathedral.
; living very simply and it has been recorded that his sitting-room had no carpet, and he made few personal friends. This is not to suggest that he was in any way unpopular, rather the reverse, for in all his visitations in the country he was received with enthusiasm by both the clergy and the laity.
He became a doughty fighter in the controversies that raged during his period, and in 1876 came into conflict with the Freemasons in connexion with an address delivered on 9 October on opening the Catholic guild hall at Sydney, and published under the title Hidden Springs. Other publications included Christ and His Kingdom (1878), and two series of Lenten lectures Arguments for Christianity (1879) and Christ's Divinity (1882).
passed an education act under which government aid to denominational education ceased at the end of 1882. Vaughan's views on this question may be found in his Pastorals and Speeches on Education, which appeared in Sydney in 1880.
He initiated moves towards the foundation of St Patrick's Seminary, Manly
, construction of which started soon after his death.
Act of 1829, the largely Irish formed Maynooth Seminary clergy were educated to understand that the refined English Catholic bishops in sectarian
and atavistic
terms. They also felt strongly that the form of church advocated by the Benedictines was less suited to the majority of Irish Catholic adherents than the Cullenist form.
The harsh eighteenth century Penal Laws of the British and Anglo-Irish Ascendency era Irish Parliaments and the on and off sectarian religious struggles since the Act of Supremacy
had bred deep resentment between some of the Irish and English settlers. The consequences of the dissolution of monasteries
during the Reformation
had left Vaughan deeply committed to the primary vision of restoring monasticism in English speaking lands such as this new church in Australia.
This was not a vision the authors of the revived authoritarian devotional form of Catholicism in Ireland foresaw for the Irish Catholic diaspora in Australia, New Zealand or North America. Ireland had managed to preserve a number of pre-Reformation monastic foundations as well as found the Irish College
in Rome.
This was an ideological battle Vaughan fought through his episcopate, the outcome of which would not be largely determined until his successor Cardinal Patrick Francis Moran, a nephew of Paul Cullen and avid devotee of his vision was appointed.
Benedictine
Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...
monk of Downside Abbey
Downside Abbey
The Basilica of St Gregory the Great at Downside, commonly known as Downside Abbey, is a Roman Catholic Benedictine monastery and the Senior House of the English Benedictine Congregation. One of its main apostolates is a school for children aged nine to eighteen...
, and the second Roman Catholic Archbishop of Sydney
Catholic Bishops and Archbishops of Sydney
Sydney has had a Catholic Archbishop since 1842.-List of incumbents:# John Bede Polding OSB, 1842-1877.# Roger Bede Vaughan O.S.B., 1877-1883.# Patrick Francis Moran, 1884-1911.# Michael Kelly, 1911-1940.# Norman Thomas Gilroy, 1940-1971....
from 1877 to 1883.
Early life
Vaughan was born near Ross-on-WyeRoss-on-Wye
Ross-on-Wye is a small market town with a population of 10,089 in southeastern Herefordshire, England, located on the River Wye, and on the northern edge of the Forest of Dean.-History:...
, Herefordshire
Herefordshire
Herefordshire is a historic and ceremonial county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire" NUTS 2 region. It also forms a unitary district known as the...
in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
in 1834, one of 14 children. His father, lieutenant John Francis Vaughan, belonged to one of the oldest recusant families in England, his mother was Elizabeth Louise Rolls, a convert. His brother was Cardinal Herbert Vaughan. All his siblings, save three, entered Holy Orders
Holy Orders
The term Holy Orders is used by many Christian churches to refer to ordination or to those individuals ordained for a special role or ministry....
.
Vaughan was probably afflicted with congenital heart disease. At 7 he was sent briefly to a local school, but his mother worried over his health and he was educated at home in a religious atmosphere. In 1850 he was sent to St. Gregory's College at Downside
Downside
Downside can refer to:*Downside Abbey, a monastery in Somerset, England*Downside School, a public school in Somerset, England*Downside, a sub-district of Redhill, Somerset, England*Downside, Surrey, a small village in the county of Surrey, England...
, near Bath. His mother's death in 1853 prompted serious thoughts of a religious vocation and on 12 September 1853 he took the Benedictine habit as Brother Bede.
In 1855 at his father's request and expense, he was sent to Rome for further study under the guidance of the Italian scholar and reformer, Angelo Zelli-Jacobuzzi. He was ordained priest by Cardinal Patrizi in the basilica of St John Lateran on 9 April 1859.
At the age of six Vaughan was sent to a boarding school
Boarding school
A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
at Monmouth for three years, but his health proved to be delicate and for some years he was privately tutored at home. In September 1850 he was sent to the Benedictine school of St Gregory's at Downside
Downside
Downside can refer to:*Downside Abbey, a monastery in Somerset, England*Downside School, a public school in Somerset, England*Downside, a sub-district of Redhill, Somerset, England*Downside, Surrey, a small village in the county of Surrey, England...
near Bath. In September 1853 he entered the Benedictine community, and in 1855 went to Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
for further study, and remained there for four years.
He had taken minor orders in 1855, and passing through the various stages he was ordained priest on 9 April 1859. He returned to Downside in August, in 1861 was appointed professor of metaphysics and moral philosophy at Belmont, and a year later was elected prior of the diocesan chapter of Newport and Menevia and superior of Belmont.
He held this position for over 10 years. He contributed to leading reviews and published his most important literary work, his Life of St Thomas of Aquin, on which he had spent endless pains, in 1871–2. In 1866 he met Archbishop Polding, then on a visit to England, who was much attracted to Vaughan and several times asked that he might be made his coadjutor.
It was not, however, until February 1873 that this was agreed to. Vaughan arrived at Sydney on 16 December 1873 and immediately devoted himself to two important movements, the provision of education for Catholic children and the completion of the building of St Mary's cathedral.
Coadjutor of Archbishop Polding
From 1874 Vaughan was Rector of St John's College, University of SydneySt John's College, University of Sydney
]St John's College, or the College of St John the Evangelist, is a residential College within the University of Sydney.Established in 1857, the College of St John the Evangelist is the oldest Roman Catholic university college and second-oldest university college in Australia, and is one of the...
; living very simply and it has been recorded that his sitting-room had no carpet, and he made few personal friends. This is not to suggest that he was in any way unpopular, rather the reverse, for in all his visitations in the country he was received with enthusiasm by both the clergy and the laity.
He became a doughty fighter in the controversies that raged during his period, and in 1876 came into conflict with the Freemasons in connexion with an address delivered on 9 October on opening the Catholic guild hall at Sydney, and published under the title Hidden Springs. Other publications included Christ and His Kingdom (1878), and two series of Lenten lectures Arguments for Christianity (1879) and Christ's Divinity (1882).
Archbishop of Sydney
He became Archbishop of Sydney on the death of Archbishop Polding, on 16 March 1877. He then resigned the rectorship of St John's College which he had taken over in 1874, but his interest in this college never flagged. He spoke vigorously on the education question, but his words had little effect on parliament. In 1880 Henry ParkesHenry Parkes
Sir Henry Parkes, GCMG was an Australian statesman, the "Father of Federation." As the earliest advocate of a Federal Council of the colonies of Australia, a precursor to the Federation of Australia, he was the most prominent of the Australian Founding Fathers.Parkes was described during his...
passed an education act under which government aid to denominational education ceased at the end of 1882. Vaughan's views on this question may be found in his Pastorals and Speeches on Education, which appeared in Sydney in 1880.
He initiated moves towards the foundation of St Patrick's Seminary, Manly
St Patrick's Seminary, Manly
St Patrick's Seminary, Manly was the leading seminary of the Australian Catholic Church from its foundation in 1889 to its closure in 1995.Conceived by Archbishop Vaughan, it was built from 1885 in Perpendicular Gothic style by Sheerin and Hennessy on a spectacular site overlooking the Pacific...
, construction of which started soon after his death.
Difficulties
Vaughan experienced resistance from the largely Irish Catholic junior hierarchy and priesthood in Australia, who supported a church based on the devotional, penitential and authoritarian model envisioned by Irish Cardinal Paul Cullen. Despite the stated policies of the Catholic EmancipationCatholic Emancipation
Catholic emancipation or Catholic relief was a process in Great Britain and Ireland in the late 18th century and early 19th century which involved reducing and removing many of the restrictions on Roman Catholics which had been introduced by the Act of Uniformity, the Test Acts and the penal laws...
Act of 1829, the largely Irish formed Maynooth Seminary clergy were educated to understand that the refined English Catholic bishops in sectarian
Sectarianism
Sectarianism, according to one definition, is bigotry, discrimination or hatred arising from attaching importance to perceived differences between subdivisions within a group, such as between different denominations of a religion, class, regional or factions of a political movement.The ideological...
and atavistic
Atavism
Atavism is the tendency to revert to ancestral type. In biology, an atavism is an evolutionary throwback, such as traits reappearing which had disappeared generations before. Atavisms can occur in several ways...
terms. They also felt strongly that the form of church advocated by the Benedictines was less suited to the majority of Irish Catholic adherents than the Cullenist form.
The harsh eighteenth century Penal Laws of the British and Anglo-Irish Ascendency era Irish Parliaments and the on and off sectarian religious struggles since the Act of Supremacy
Act of Supremacy 1559
The Act of Supremacy 1558 was an Act of the Parliament of England, passed under the auspices of Queen Elizabeth I of England. It replaced the original Act of Supremacy 1534 issued by Elizabeth's father, Henry VIII, which arrogated ecclesiastical authority to the monarchy, and which had been...
had bred deep resentment between some of the Irish and English settlers. The consequences of the dissolution of monasteries
Dissolution of the Monasteries
The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their...
during the Reformation
Reformation
- Movements :* Protestant Reformation, an attempt by Martin Luther to reform the Roman Catholic Church that resulted in a schism, and grew into a wider movement...
had left Vaughan deeply committed to the primary vision of restoring monasticism in English speaking lands such as this new church in Australia.
This was not a vision the authors of the revived authoritarian devotional form of Catholicism in Ireland foresaw for the Irish Catholic diaspora in Australia, New Zealand or North America. Ireland had managed to preserve a number of pre-Reformation monastic foundations as well as found the Irish College
Irish College
Irish Colleges is the collective name used for approximately 34 centres of education for Irish Catholic clergy and lay people opened on continental Europe in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. The Colleges were set up to educate Roman Catholics from Ireland in their own religion following the...
in Rome.
This was an ideological battle Vaughan fought through his episcopate, the outcome of which would not be largely determined until his successor Cardinal Patrick Francis Moran, a nephew of Paul Cullen and avid devotee of his vision was appointed.