[Onderdonk, Benjamin T.]:

$350 · Offered by William Reese Company

[SAMMELBAND OF EIGHT PAMPHLETS RELATED TO THE TRIAL OF BISHOP BENJAMIN T. ONDERDONK OF NEW YORK]. Volume of collected pamphlets concerning the trial of Bishop Benjamin T. Onderdonk of New York. Onderdonk led a movement to reawaken the Catholic and Anglican heritage of the Episcopal Church, known as the Oxford Movement. "Onderdonk failed to perceive, however, that other Episcopalians preferred their Protestant heritage and, moreover, were uneasy about a drift toward Catholicism at a time when many Catholics were immigrating to the United States from Ireland and Germany. The seeds of Onderdonk's eventual downfall, however, lay not so much in what he believed as how he chose to promote those beliefs. Whereas Hobart charmed most of his hearers, Onderdonk seemed to bludgeon them into compliance.... The year before, Onderdonk had stirred controversy by ordaining Arthur Carey, a youth suspected of Roman Catholic tendencies. At the same time, an eccentric priest, James Richmond, began to collect stories of the bishop's alleged misbehavior - tales about Onderdonk's supposed drunkenness and familiarity with women - that had been circulating in the church for some time. Supported by four women who said they would testify against the bishop, Richmond went to the general convention in Philadelphia in September 1844. There, several evangelical bishops, opponents of Onderdonk's Catholic tendencies, engineered a trial against him on charges of 'immorality and impurity.' The trial began in No

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