VILATTE, JOSEPH RENE (ARCHBISHOP MAR TIMOTHEUS): Old Catholic; b. in Paris
Jan. 24, 1854. After service in the Franco-Prussian
War, Villatte passed two years in Canada as
teacher
and lay assistant to a French mission-priest, followed
by one year in the House of the Christian Brothers at
Naumur, Belgium, and a second devoted to private
preparation for the priesthood, before entering the
Seminary of St. Laurence, Montreal, Canada. Sev
eral anti-Roman lectures of ex-Father Chiniquy,
heard in the interval between the third and fourth
years, caused spiritual conflict from doctrinal
doubts. Unable to continue consistently his semi
nary studies, an invitation of the president of The
Presbyterian College, Montreal, was accepted, and
two years' study there convinced him both of papal
additions to the primitive Catholic faith, and of
defective Protestant interpretation of its traditional
teachings. Unwilling, however, to leave the Roman
Church, he now entered the monastery of the
clerics of St. Viator at Bourbonnais, Ill., but after
six months' stay, continuing inner conflicts impelled
him to seek counsel from Chiniquy, who advised him
to begin mission-work among the French and Bel
gians of Green Bay, Wis., and send a statement of
his doctrinal difficulties to Pere Hyacinthe of Paris
(See
Loyson, Charles Jean Marie Augustin Hyacinthe).
The latter replied urging a personal
conference regarding Roman Catholic reform in
America, and a proposed ordination as priest by
Bishop Eduard Herzog (q.v.) of Bern. Circum
stances forced Vilatte, however, to follow Hya
cinthe's alternative advice to consult with the
Episcopal Bishop Brown of Wisconsin, who wished
to ordain him in the Protestant Episcopal Church,
but Vilatte, adhering to the original counsel of
Hyacinthe, later left America for Bern, and was
ordained to the priesthood by the Old Catholic
Bishop Herzog in 1885.
Vilatte's missionary activity among the French
and Belgians in Wisconsin soon won many adher
ents, including several ex-Roman priests as assist
ants. Reports of his successful movement in Amer
ica led the Old Catholic priests and bishops of
Holland to submit a proposal, which was accepted,
to attach the clergy and missions to their hierarchy
instead of remaining in quasi-connection with the
Episcopal diocese of Fond du Lac. The successor
of Bishop Brown, hoping to avert the prospective
separation, addressed Archbishop Heykamp of
Utrecht, asserting the orthodoxy of Anglican teach
ing and the validity of its episcopal succession, and
concluded with the proposal that Vilatte be conse
crated abbot-bishop with monastic jurisdiction only,
instead of with the anticipated diocesan authority
of a Catholic bishop. The bishops of Holland still
insisting, as a necessary condition of conferring the
episcopate, on the cessation of all ecclesiastical rela
tions with the Episcopalians, the required separa
tion was formally effected. But the promised con
secration was withheld, and soon after the Russian
Bishop Vladimir of Alaska, approving the confes
sion of faith and the official acts of Vilatte in seek
ing to obtain a bishop for the Old Catholics of
America, intervened and referred their status to the
Holy Synod for determination.
While awaiting its decision, Vilatte also con
sulted with Archbishop Alvarez of Ceylon who, as
the leader of a large number of Portuguese Roman
Catholics, had received archiepiscopal consecration
from the legate of the Patriarch of Antioch, assisted
by two Syrian metropolitans. Alvarez, likewise
approving Vilatte's confession of faith and official
acts, offered to come to America and consecrate
him bishop; but after a number of months' waiting
without a decision from the Holy Synod on his
status, Vilatte left America for Ceylon to receive
the offered episcopate. After a careful consideration of his ecclesiastical position, the Patriarch of
Antioch authorized his elevation to the hierarchy,
and his consecration as archbishop of the archdiocese
of America, which was conferred in May, 1892.
Soon after Vilatte's return to America, Polish
Roman Catholic priests in Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago, and other cities placed themselves and their
parishes under his jurisdiction, and new missions
were begun in other places for which Vilatte ordained priests as needed. The steadily increasing
growth of this movement gave hope for the organization of a coherent Polish Catholic Church in
America. After successive annual conferences of
the priests and delegates from their parishes, the
proposal to elect a Polish suffragan bishop was approved, and in 1897 Father Kaminski of Buffalo
was chosen. Father Kozlowski of Chicago, the disappointed candidate, unwilling to acquiesce in the
result, called in that city &. second convention of his
partizans, which elected him as rival bishop, but
when he sought confirmation, Vilatte was consistently compelled to refuse him recognition. Failing
after repeated attempts to secure the promise of
consecration, Kozlowski left America for Europe,
and was later consecrated rival bishop by Herzog of
Bern. Factional strife among the Polish priests
soon destroyed all prospect of an organized Polish
Catholic Church, and Vilatte, becoming finally convinced that deliberate defiance of the canonical
authority of their Roman ordinaries, rather than
Catholic reform, was the impelling motive of the
movement, advised them either to accept fully and
freely the Old Catholic' principles, or to return to
the Roman Church. The evident unwillingness to
accept required doctrinal reforms left Vilatte no
alternative but to withdraw his approval of their
movement; and in 1898 he consecrated Father
Kaminski of Buffalo as suffragan bishop for those
priests and parishes which accepted them. Soon
after this, Vilatte left America for Paris to consult
with advisers regarding his future course, interrupting his journey to ordain to the priesthood Father
Ignatius (see
Lyne, Joseph Leycester)
and another monk of Llanthony, Wales. Being advised in
Paris to visit Rome, after a retreat at the Benedictine monastery at Liguge, Vilatte personally offered
his acceptance of the plea of the pope to Eastern
prelates for union with the Holy See; but after the
solemn recognition of his episcopal character by the
Holy Office, followed by months of waiting for a
decision on his status, and a required retreat in the
Trappist monastery of Mt. Mellary, Ireland, later
developments compelled him to recall his acceptance on his return to Rome.
His presence in Paris impelled Paolo Miraglia, the
leader of Roman Catholic reform in northern Italy,
to write to him regarding the movement and concerning consecration to the episcopate. After careful consideration, the request was granted, and on
that religious worship in the new colonies should be
conducted according to the usage of Geneva; and
he was also joined by a number of soldiers and ad
venturers. Sailing from Havre, Villegagnon
reached
the bay of Rio de Janeiro in Nov., 1555. He built
a fort on an island in the bay, but provisions ran
low and the soldiers and workmen were hard to
control. Desiring to offset them by the more tract
able Calvinists, Villegagnon sent letters to Coligny
and Calvin, asking for more pious Protestants and
also for preachers. Pierre Richer and Guillaume
Chartier were commissioned the first Protestant
missionaries in America, and they were joined by
eleven others. At Paris the company, headed by
Philippe de Corguilleray, Sieur du Pont, was in
creased by many more colonists, including a cer
tain Cointa of the Sorbonne. In Nov., 1556, they
embarked at Honfleur, under the command of Ville
gagnon's nephew, Bois le Conte, and in Mar., 1557,
the three ships arrived, with nearly 300 colonists.
But disputes arose over the Lord's Supper, Cointa
and Villegagnon making requirements contrary to
Genevan usage, branding Geneva as evil, and finally
withdrawing from participation in religious serv
ices. A delegation headed by Chartier left for Ge
neva (June, 1557) to obtain the final decision of
Calvin, the administration of the Lord's Supper
meanwhile being discontinued. Then Villegagnon,
relieved of the presence of the energetic Chartier, at
tempted to impose the doctrine of transubstantia
tion, and finally forbade all religious services. At
this juncture, while the Protestants were holding se
cret meetings, a neutral ship arrived, and a number
of colonists declared their intention of leaving.
These Villegagnon drove from the island, confisca
ting all their possessions; and finally they set sail in a
neutral Breton ship on Jan. 4,1558. The ship proved
unseaworthy, and five of the colonists in a small
boat reached a French village on the coast, where
Villegagnon happened to be. He received them on
condition that they would hold no converse on re
ligion, but later ordered them brought before him,
and as they persisted in their religious beliefs, he
had them executed as heretics (Feb. 10, 1558).
In the mean time, the ship carrying the other
colonists, after many disasters, on May 26,?.558,
made the Breton harbor of Blavet, where many of
the survivers died or were made seriously ill by
being fed too generously after semi-starvation. The
remainder pushed on a few days later, and scat
tered at Nantes, the most of them returning to their
families. Shortly afterward the Brazilian colony
broke up entirely; Villegagnon returned to France;
the Portuguese destroyed the fort, put to death as
heretics those who remained, and carried the French
guns in triumph to Lisbon. Villegagnon finally
retired to the estates of the Knights of Malta at
Beauvais, where he died loathed by Protestants and
suspected by the Roman Catholics. The colony is
noteworthy as the first missionary enterprise of
the Protestant Church, and as the first attempt of
Calvinism to plant a colony in the New World.
(Eugen Lachenmann.)
Bibliography:
A
list of the works of Villegagnon may be
found in the
British Museum Catalogue,
under "Durand
de Villegagnon," and in Hauck-Herzog.
RE, xx. 646.
May 3, 1900, Miraglia was consecrated in Piaoenza
bishop regionarius for Italy. Returning to America,
Chicago was chosen in 1902 as the permanent archiepiscopal seat, and a mission begun by Father
Kanski. In 1903 Vilatte was urged by several
Anglican clerical adherents to come to England to
assist their proposed Catholic reform. The new
movement seemed to promise success, and after
being assured of the acceptance of the required
principles by their designated leader, a married exAnglican cleric, he was first successively ordained
de novo subdeacon, deacon, and priest, and then
solemnly consecrated as a Catholic bishop. This
third episcopal consecration conferred by Vilatte is
especially noteworthy because the bishop-elect was
not, like the two preceding priests, a celibate. The
precedent of Vilatte was followed by Archbishop
Gul of Utrecht in consecrating several years later
Arnold H. Mathew of England, who had married
after his ordination in the Roman Church. In
1906, after the abolition of the concordat concluded
with the Roman Church by the Emperor Napoleon,
Vilatte was summoned to Paris by a league of
French laymen, directed by Mon. Henri de Houx,
members of different parishes in various cities, who
were desirous of detaching themselves from the
Roman Church, and accepting the associations law.
He remained during a part of 1907, assisting their
preliminary movement for the eventual organization of an independent French Catholic Church.
In 1909, after the death of Father Ignatius of
Llanthony, the two senior surviving Anglican monks
requested him to ordain them in succession to their
departed abbot. Their petition for the priesthood
being approved, the ceremony was performed in
Winnipeg, Canada, where Vilatte was then staying
during a visitation of his mission-stations in that
part of America. During the last two years, Vilatte
has been preparing for the establishment of a
second center of missionary activity and the building of a monastery for the training of celibate clergy
in the South for which land is to be selected and
settled by immigrants both from America and
Europe, for whose spiritual and secular welfare the
brothers are already active.
Ernest C. Margrander.
