Joseph Leycester Lyne

Joseph Leycester Lyne, known by his religious name as Father Ignatius of Jesus^[1]: 7 ((1837-11-23)23 November 1837 – (1908-10-16)16 October 1908), was an Anglican Benedictine monk. He commenced a movement to reintroduce monasticism into the Church of England.^[2]

Early life

Lyne was born in Trinity Square, in the parish of

Ministry

An acquaintance with Bishop

In 1862 Lyne, who henceforth called himself Father Ignatius, issued a pamphlet in favour of the revival of monasticism in the Church of England. This publication excited vehement controversy.[3]^: 495 Together with one or two kindred spirits Lyne formed in Claydon, Suffolk, a community, which was frequently menaced by Protestant violence. His reasons were strong and clear.

Souls are perishing by thousands close to our doors. The Church of England, as she is at present, is wholly unable to grapple with the task. . . . Communities of men — call them colleges, monasteries, or whatever you please — appear to be the most suitable for the object in view. These men should be unmarried and altogether unshackled by earthly cares and domestic ties. Such establishments must be governed by rule. The rule of St. Benedict has received universal sanction, and the veneration of thirteen centuries. It is suitable in almost every way for all ages and times, and is consistent with the most faithful loyalty to the English Church.^[a]

The specific objectives of this order were:

1. The restoration of the ascetic life and continual prayer in the Church of England;
2. home mission work, by preaching, visiting the poor, and teaching the young;
3. to afford a temporary religious retreat for the secular clergy;
4. to raise the tone of devotion in the English Church to a higher standard by showing the real exemplification of the evangelical counsels;
5. to aid in bringing about the union of Christendom.^[b]

There were three orders within the Community. The First Order, to whom the above objects apply, observed the Rule of St. Benedict in its integrity. The novitiate lasted, first for six months, then for four, then for two, then for the year, until the novice was considered really called by God to take the life vows. The

1. Their attendance at the holy mysteries of the Church;
2. Self-examination;
3. The use of a prayer on behalf of the Society;
4. The giving of alms; and
5. Obedience to the Superior.^[b]

The

Ignatius combined the profession of a cloistered monk with the activities of a wandering friar. When the churches were closed to him, he appeared in lecture halls and theatres, and impressed the public everywhere by his eloquence. On 12 December 1872 he appeared as the champion of Christianity in an interesting public encounter with Charles Bradlaugh, founder of the National Secular Society, in the Hall of Science in Old Street, London.^{[3]: 495 [8]} From 1890 to 1891, he made a missionary tour through Canada and the United States where he was cordially invited to preach in the churches of many denominations;^[9] but his zeal for heresy-hunting was not appreciated by the Episcopal Church of America.^[e] On his return he initiated a petition to the archbishops and convocation for measures against historical criticism of the scriptures;^[3]: 495 and at the Birmingham Church Congress of 1893 he denounced future Bishop of Oxford Charles Gore for his 1890 essay "The Holy Spirit and inspiration" in Lux Mundi.^{[3]: 495–496 [f]}

On 27 July 1898, Lyne, an ordained deacon in the Church of England but "unable to receive orders in his own church" for over three decades, was ordained priest by

Lyne was heavily ridiculed by many of his contemporaries, though the Anglican diarist Francis Kilvert described him in his 2 September 1870 diary entry about Kilvert's visit to the Chapel House farm:

He struck me as being a man of gentle simple kind manners, excitable, and entirely possessed by the one idea. [...] His head and brow are very fine, the forehead beautifully rounded and highly imaginative. The face is a very saintly one and the eyes extremely beautiful, earnest and expressive, a dark soft brown. When excited they seem absolutely to flame. He wears the Greek or early British tonsure all round the temples, leaving the hair of the crown untouched. His manner gives you the impression of great earnestness and single-mindedness. [...] Father Ignatius thinks every one is as good as himself and is perfectly unworldly, innocent and unsuspicious. He gave the contractor £500 at first, took no receipt from him. And so on. The consequence is that he has been imposed upon, cheated and robbed right and left.^{[17]: 70–72}

But Kilvert also described in his 15 July 1870 diary entry that Lyne's' brother, Clavering Lyne, told him about "some of the extraordinary visions which had appeared to [...] Ignatius, particularly about the ghosts which come crowding round him and which will never answer though he often speaks to them. Also about the fire in the monastery chapel at Norwich, that strange unearthly fire which Father Ignatius put out by throwing himself into it and making the sign of the cross."^{[17]: 54–55}

Controversies

David Hilliard wrote in Victorian Studies that an "Anglo-Catholic underworld" produced groups "whose members delighted in religious ceremonial and the picturesque neo-Gothic externals of monastic life." Hilliard wrote that those groups did not enforce strict criteria for entry and "it is likely that they were especially attractive to homosexually inclined young men who felt themselves drawn to the male environment of a monastic community and the dramatic side of religion."^[18] An example cited by Hilliard was an incident, published on 17 September 1864 in the Norfolk News,^[g] that occurred at Elm Hill Priory in which a monk, Brother Augustine, wrote a love letter to a boy, an apprentice printer, who sang in the choir. The allegations horrified Norwich. The newspaper included the following passage in an editorial about the situation published a week later:

We tell "Ignatius" plainly, and we tell everybody else connected with this establishment who has the slightest power of reflection, that the herding together of men in one building, with the occasional letting in of young girls—some of them morbid, some of them silly and sentimental—and of boys likewise, with soft, sensitive temperaments, cannot fail to produce abominations.^[h]

A year later the community at Elm Hill Priory was almost destroyed when James Barrett Hughes, known as Brother Stanislaus, rebelled against Lyne's authority, then fled with a boy, Francis George Nobbs, who eventually became known as ex-monk Widdows, from the Guild of St William.

Fr Ignatius's abbey church, which was never completed, fell into disrepair before the Gill family arrived[26] and the roof was removed during the 1930s. In 1967 responsibility for its upkeep was transferred to a new ecumenical body, the Father Ignatius Memorial Trust, of which Fr Brocard Sewell was a founder member. Extensive restoration work was subsequently carried out on both the surviving abbey walls and Ignatius's grave within. As the structure was fundamentally unsound, this work has been only partially successful, and at the time of writing (April 2018) public access is denied.

The Father Ignatius Memorial Trust also cares for the statue of the Blessed Virgin commemorating her alleged apparitions at the monastery in August and September 1880, as well as the memorial Calvary opposite the site of the related ‘holy bush’. A considerable collection of archives and artefacts has been assembled under the auspices of the Trust, most of which is housed at the Abergavenny Museum; the tabernacle which formerly stood on the high altar of the abbey church and various pictures are cared for by the present owners of the monastery but are not normally on view.

Ignatius's effort to revive monasticism in England bore little fruit.^[3]: 496 His persuasive oratory and his courage in the face of persecution were combined with extravagance of conduct and an impatience of authority which rendered him unable to work even with sympathisers.^[3]: 496 The Order of St Benedict founded by Ignatius was not a revival of the Rule of Saint Benedict; Ignatius was independent and erratic, his rules were eclectic.^[5]: 172

Works or publications

• Ignatius, Father, O.S.B. (1870). The Holy Isle: a legend of Bardsey (poetry). London, GB: G.J. Palmer.
  OCLC 50912277.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
  )
• Brother Placidus, and why he became a Monk. Brighton, GB: J. Bray. 1870.
  OCLC 561398825
  .
• Lyne, Joseph L (1886). Smedley, Joseph V (ed.). Mission Sermons. London, GB: W. Ridgway.
  OCLC 647092062
  . Retrieved 4 April 2013.
• Lyne, Joseph L (1871). Leonard Morris, or the Benedictine Novice. London, GB.
  OCLC 56486720.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
  )
• Lyne, Joseph L (1889). Smedley, Joseph V (ed.). Jesus only. London, GB: W. Ridgway.
  OCLC 561415512
  .
• LCCN 04012673
  .