Editing Episcopus vagans (section)

=== Old Catholics and Old Roman Catholics ===
Arnold Mathew, according to Buchanan, "lapsed into the vagaries of an ''{{lang|la|episcopus vagans}}''".<ref name="Buchanan2006" />{{rp|page=335}} Stephen Edmonds, in the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', wrote that in 1910 Mathew's wife separated from him; that same year, he declared himself and his church [[seceded]] from the [[Union of Utrecht (Old Catholic)|Union of Utrecht]].<ref name="=Edmonds2013">
{{cite ODNB|year=2013|orig-year=2012|last=Edmonds|first=Stephen|title=Mathew, Arnold Harris (1852–1919)|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/103378}}
</ref> Within a few months, on 2 November 1911, he was excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church.<ref>
{{cite journal
 |location         = Rome
 |publisher        = Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis
 |journal          = [[Acta Apostolicae Sedis]]
 |volume           = 3
 |issue            = 2
 |date             = 11 February 1911
 |publication-date = 15 February 1911
 |author           = Pope Pius X
 |author-link       = Pope Pius X
 |title            = Sacerdotes Arnoldus Harris Mathew, Herbertus Ignatius Beale et Arthurus Guilelmus Howarth nominatim excommunicantur
 |type             = [[motu proprio]] type [[Ecclesiastical letter#Letters of the popes in modern times|apostolic letter]]
 |language         = la
 |pages            = 53&ndash;54
 |url              = https://www.vatican.va/archive/aas/documents/AAS%2003%20&#91;1911&#93;%20-%20ocr.pdf
 |access-date       = 11 May 2013
 |archive-url       = https://web.archive.org/web/20130303051043/https://www.vatican.va/archive/aas/documents/AAS%2003%20[1911]%20-%20ocr.pdf
 |archive-date      = 3 March 2013
 |url-status          = live
 |df               = dmy
}}
</ref> He later sued ''[[The Times]]'' for [[libel]] based on the words "pseudo-bishop" used to describe him in the newspaper's translation from the Latin text "''{{lang|la|pseudo-episcopus}}''", and, lost his case in 1913.<ref name="=Edmonds2013" />

[[Henry R.T. Brandreth]] wrote, in ''Episcopi Vagantes and the Anglican Church'', "[o]ne of the most regrettable features of Mathew's episcopate was the founding of the [[Order of Corporate Reunion]] (OCR) in 1908. This claimed to be a revival of [[Frederick George Lee]]'s movement, but was in fact unconnected with it". Brandreth thought it "seems still to exist in a shadowy underground way" in 1947, but disconnected.<ref name="Brandreth1987">
{{cite book|location=San Bernardino, CA|publisher=Borgo Press|last=Brandreth|first=Henry R. T.
|title=Episcopi Vagantes and the Anglican Church|year=1987|orig-year=First published in 1947|isbn=0893705586|oclc=17258289}}
</ref>{{rp|page=18}} Colin Holden, in ''Ritualist on a Tricycle'', places Mathew and his {{abbr|OCR|Order of Corporate Reunion}} into perspective, he wrote Mathew was an ''{{lang|la|episcopus vagans}}'', lived in a cottage provided for him, and performed his conditional {{abbr|OCR|Order of Corporate Reunion}} acts, sometimes called according to Holden "bedroom ordinations", in his cottage.<ref>
{{cite book|location=Nedlands, W.A.|publisher=University of Western Australia Press|series=Staples South West Region publication series|issn=1030-3359|last=Holden|first=Colin|title=Ritualist on a Tricycle: Frederick Goldsmith, Church, Nationalism and Society in Western Australia, 1880-1920|year=1997|isbn=187556098X|page=272|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=INLXz6614cUC&pg=PA272|access-date=10 May 2013}}
</ref> Mathew questioned the validity of Anglican ordinations and became involved with the OCR, in 1911 according to Edmonds, and he openly advertised his offer to [[Conditional sacrament|reordain]] Anglican clergy who requested it. This angered the Church of England.<ref name="=Edmonds2013" />

In 1912, D. J. Scannell O'Neill wrote in ''The Fortnightly Review'' that London "seems to have more than her due share of bishops" and enumerates what he refers to as "these hireling shepherds". He also announces that one of them, Mathew, revived the OCR and published ''The Torch'', a monthly review, advocating the reconstruction of Western Christianity and reunion with [[Eastern Christianity]]. ''The Torch'' stated "that the ordinations of the Church of England are not recognized by any church claiming to be Catholic" so the promoters involved Mathew to [[Conditional sacrament|conditionally ordain]] group members who are "clergy of the [[Established Church]]" and "sign a profession of the Catholic Faith". It stipulated Mathew's services were not a system of [[simony]] and given without [[wiktionary:simoniac|simoniac]] expectations. The group sought to enroll "earnest-minded Catholics who sincerely desire to help forward the work of [c]orporate [r]eunion with the Holy See". [[Nigel Yates]], in ''Anglican Ritualism in Victorian Britain, 1830-1910'', described it as "an even more bizarre scheme to promote a Catholic Uniate Church in Britain" than Lee and [[Ambrose Lisle March Phillipps de Lisle]]'s [[Association for the Promotion of the Unity of Christendom]].<ref name="Yates1999">
{{cite book|publisher=Oxford University Press|last=Yates|first=Nigel|author-link=Nigel Yates|title=Anglican Ritualism in Victorian Britain, 1830-1910|year=1999|isbn=0198269897|oclc=185544754|pages=298&ndash;300|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=55aaZGqqh6oC&pg=PA298|access-date=10 May 2013}}
</ref> It was editorialized by O'Neill that the "most charitable construction to be placed on this latest move of Mathew is that he is not mentally sound. Being an Irishman, it is strange that he has not sufficient humor to see the absurdity of falling away from the Catholic Church in order to assist others to unite with the Holy See".<ref name="ONeill1912">
{{cite journal|location=Techny, IL|publisher=Arthur Preuss
|journal=The Fortnightly Review|lccn=15001974
|volume=19|issue=18|date=September 1912|editor-last=Preuss|editor-first=Arthur|editor-link=Arthur Preuss|title=The Revised Order of Corporate Re-Union|last=O'Neill|first=D. J. Scannell|pages=515&ndash;516|hdl=2027/nyp.33433068283641?urlappend=%3Bseq=187
|url=http://hdl.handle.net/2027/nyp.33433068283641?urlappend=%3Bseq=187|access-date=12 May 2013}}
</ref>{{efn|''The Torch'', no date or page cited by O'Neill.<ref name="ONeill1912" /> Date given as 19 June 1912 by Persson, but cited without page number or article title.<ref name="Persson 2000">{{cite book |last1=Persson |first1=Bertil |title=The order of corporate reunion |date=2000 |publisher=St. Ephrem's Institute |location=Solna, Sweden |isbn=91-85734-07-1 |pages=24–25}}</ref><ref>
{{cite journal|title=The Revived Order of Corporate Reunion [constructed title] |date=19 June 1912 |location=London|publisher=[s.n.]|journal=The Torch, A Monthly Review, Advocating the Reconstruction of the Church of the West and Reunion with the Holy Orthodox Church of the East|oclc=504100502}}
</ref>}} Edmonds reports that "anything between 4 and 265 was suggested" as to how many took up his offer of reordination.<ref name="=Edmonds2013" />