DOWNSIDE
149
DOWNSIDE
latter was convinced of the fraud, and testified openly
to Father Downes's innocence, but was unable to pro-
tect him from the malice of the plotters who succeeded
in getting him arrested and sent to the Gatehouse
prison where he died.
Carthew, Hundred of Laundilch, Pt. 11, 720; Foley, Rec- ords of the English Province. I. 274; V, 251 sq.; VII, 208 and 891; Challover. Memoirs of Missionary Priests (1742), II. 40.5; Oliver, Col- lectanea: ralladolid M6. Diani: Gillow Bibl. Did. Eng. Cath., s. v. Montfort.
J. M. Stoxe.
Downside Abbey, near Bath, Somersetshire, England, was founded at Douai, Flanders, under the patronage of 8t. Gregory tlie Great, in 1605 by the \'eneralile John Roberts, first prior, and some other English monks who hatl received the habit and taken vows in the Spanish Benedictine Con- gregation. In 1611 Dom Philip de Caverel, Abbot of .Saint Vaast's at Arras, built a monastery for the community in Douai, and conse- quentlj' is revered as its founder. For some years the foundation was embroiled in attacks from without, and also in disputes as to a union with other English Bene- dictines, all of which were settled in 1633 bv the Bull " Plantata " of Urban VIII.
From the first a school or college for lay pupils, sons of English Catholic gentry, has been an integral part of the institution. This undertaking, conducted on traditional English public school lines, has always absorbed much of the energies of the community, whose other chief external work has consisted in sup- plying various missions or parishes in England. When Charles II established for his queen a Catholic chapel royal at St. James's palace, the community to serve it was supplied from St. Gregory's at Douai, and certain relics and church-plate then presenteil are still in e.xistence at Downside. On the outbreak of the French Revolution the school was dis- banded and the monks put in prison, where they remained nearly two years. At length in March, 1795, they were allowed to proceed to England where an asylum was supplied by Sir Edward Smythe, fifth Baroni't, a former pupil, who lent his .Shropshire seatof Acton Burnell to his old ma.sters for use as a monastery and school. In 1S14 the establishment was moved to Mount Pleasant, Downside, a small manor-house
the Holy See for the suppression of the monastery
on the ground of some alleged flaw in its canonical
erection; after much litigation the pope decided in
favour of the monks on every point. Since then the
establishment has increased steadily in size and im-
portance, new buildings being added in 1S23, 1S5.3,
and almost continually since 1870. In 1899 Pope
Leo XIII raised the priory to ab-
batial rank, the forty-fifth prior,
Dom Edmund Ford, being elected
first abbot, on whose resignation
in 1900, Dom Cuthbert Butler was
chosen to succeed him.
Six monks of St. Gregor\s have died martyrs for the Catholic Faith and are already pronoimced Vener- able, viz. Dom George Gervaise, martyred 1608; Dom John Rob- erts, the first prior, 1610; Dom Maurus Scot, 1612; Dom Ambrose Barlow, 1641 ; Dom Philip Powell, 1646; and Brother Thomas Pick- ering, 1679. Besides these the commimity has given to the Church three archbishops, Dom Bede Folding and Dom Bede Vaughan, the first two archbishops of Syd- ney, New South Wales; and Dom Bernard LTlathorne, first Bishop of Birmingham and titular Arch- bishop of Cabasa, weU known as an ascetical writer. Also six bishops, Dom Philip Ellis, Dom Laurence York, and Dom Gregory Sharrock, all three successively Vicars Apostolic of the Western District ; more recently, Dom Placid Morris, Vicar Apostolic of Mauritius and for many years assistant to Cardinal Wiseman ; Dom Joseph Brown, first Bishop of Newport and Menevia; and Dom Henry Davis, Bishop of Maitland, New South Wales. From many other notable names may be mentioned Dora Serenus Cressy, author of the "Church History of Brittany"; Dom John Huddle- stone, who was instrumental in saving Charles II after \\'orcester and reconciled him to the Church on his death-bed; the .\b- bot Sweeney, the well-known preach- er; Dom Jerome \'aughan, founder of the .-Vbbey of Fort Au- gustus, N. B.; Dom Aidan Gasquet the historian. Abbot President of the Eng- lish Benedictines and also head of the Pon- tifical Commission for the revision of the Vulgate. Among the alumni of St. Gregory's School, though not monks in the community, were Bishop Charles Walmesley, who con- secrated Dr. Carroll the first Bishop of Baltimore, U. S. X.; John Steevens, editor of Dugdale's" Monas-
(From the South-east)
with sixty-six acres of land, bought for £7000, largely ticon"; Henry Carey, author of "God save the King";
the savings of the economy of the previous nineteen Sir John Day, one of the best known English jiidges;
years. In 1823 Dr. Baines, Vicar Apostolic of the West- and Bishop Patrick J. Donahue, of ^\^leeling, U. S. X.
em District, proposed to the community that they The abbey buildings now consist of a monastery for
should abandon the monastic state and become a kind about fifty monks; school buildings for 1.340 boarders;
of diocesan .seminary under himself. This extraordi- guest-hou.se, the original building bought in 1814 ; and
nary suggestion being rejected, the bishop applied to the abbey church, for exterior view of which see The
