Abbot Aelred Carlyle, Caldey Island, and the Anglo-Catholic Revival in England (American University Studies. Series VII. Theology and Religion)

Drawing from a wealth of private papers, church records, and newspapers, this book documents the religious career of Abbot Aelred Carlyle (1874-1955). From his early popularity and the establishment of an Anglican Benedictine monastery on Caldey Island, South Wales, to his conversion to Roman Catholicism, Carlyle's life presents a forum of debate for numerous topics of Edwardian religion: the Anglo-Catholic movement, ritualism, lawless clergy, the power or lack of authority of the Anglican bishops, the influence of the religious press, the Anglican Church versus the Roman Church, and the issue of religious conversion. This study also questions the role Benedictine monasticism plays, if any, in the reunion of the Anglican and Roman Churches.