Chapter One

THE BEGINNINGS OF BELMONT
IT WAS ON November 21, 1859, that the official opening of
the monastery of St Michael took place, and the monastic
life returned to Herefordshire after a lapse of some three
hundred years. As may be imagined, it was an event that
greatly astonished the neighbourhood and gave much food
for thought. Its consequences have been incalculable. How
did this monastery come into existence, and why at that
precise time, and in that precise place?

It is to be recalled that in 1850 diocesan Catholic bishops
were once again given to England and Wales, for the first
time since the reign of Queen Mary Tudor. Previous to this
'Restoration of the Hierarchy' the Church in this land had
been governed by prelates known as 'Vicars Apostolic', and
from 1685 to 1840 England and Wales were divided into
four 'Districts', each with its own Vicar Apostolic. In 1840
these Vicariates were increased from four to eight, until in
1850 the whole system was swept away by the setting up of
normal church government under diocesan bishops.

In the past it had been usual for one of the Vicars
Apostolic to be a regular, and when, in 1840, the number of
Vicariates was increased to eight the Holy See decided that
one of these should have a Benedictine bishop. In consequence, on October 28, 1840, the Prior (i.e. the Superior) of Downside Priory, Dom Joseph Brown, was consecrated Bishop of Apollonia and Vicar Apostolic of the newly-formed Welsh District, which included also Herefordshire and Monmouth shire. The new bishop at once found himself faced with an appalling task, for Catholicism in Wales was at its lowest ebb, and financial resources were extremely scanty. With only seventeen chapels in the whole District and some five
2 THE HISTORY OF BELMONT ABBEY
thousand Catholics, there was a vast amount to be done if
the Church in Wales were to survive at all, let alone to
expand. Herefordshire had only three chapels (at Hereford,
Weobley and Courtfield), and Monmouthshire had eight.
Even in Cardiff the only place used as a chapel was a small
room, the window of which had been taken out so that those
who could pack into an adjoining shed might hear Mass;
while at Merthyr a congregation of seven hundred had to
worship in a low dark loft with a leaking roof, which was
situated over a portion of the public slaughter-house.
Similar conditions prevailed over the rest of Wales. As for
finance, the annual collection for the bishop's maintenance
produced only ten pounds, and there were no funds what-
ever for building churches or schools. In these circumstances
the poverty of the average priest may be imagined, especially
as most of them depended entirely on the Sunday collections,
and in one reported case these amounted to two shillings
and sixpence per week. In addition to all this Catholicism
had to face bitter sectarian hostility and complete ignorance
as to the actual teachings of the Church. All these things
called for a fortitude that was in no way short of the heroic, 
and an unlimited confidence in the help of God; and in 
these virtues the bishop set a notable example to his clergy.

In such circumstances it was natural that Bishop Brown 
should turn for help to his monastic brethren, though it was 
not until nine years after his consecration that he made 
formal application to them, as distinct from private suggestions. At first he asked them only for help as regards the supply of sorely needed priests for his Vicariate, and proposed that they should allow him to send to the Benedictine monasteries young men who wished to become monks, that at his expense they might be trained for service in the Welsh District after their ordination. They were to be personally subject to the Visitation and correction of their own 
Superiors, but the bishop was to have power to appoint 
them to any mission in his District. But the monastic 
authorities considered that this proposal (almost identical 
with that which had been made in 1823 by Bishop Baines to 
the Downside monks, and of which Bishop Brown, at that

THE BEGINNINGS OF BELMONT 3

time a simple monk, had himself been the chief opponent) 
involved a material deviation from our Constitutions, and 
therefore they rejected it. Nothing further was done in the 
matter until after the restoration of the Hierarchy in 1850, 
when Dr Brown became Bishop of Newport and Menevia, 
at the same time losing the northern half of Wales which was 
detached from his diocese and became part of the see of 
Shrewsbury until 1895. On becoming bishop of the new see 
Dr Brown again wrote to the Regimen of the English  
Benedictines, this time suggesting that they should try to 
make Wales their particular sphere of work; and the monks
in their rather vague reply promised to second his efforts to 
restore religion in those parts. 
But Bishop Brown wanted far more than that, and in 1851 he made the very important offer that the Chapter of his diocese should be composed entirely of monks, that so the 
country might have one of those monastic Chapters which 
had been so distinctive a feature before the Reformation.
Writing to Abbot Alban Molyneux, the President-General
of the English Benedictines, on November 19, 1851, he
declared:
'. . . The only means of preserving some portion of your ancient privileges is by constituting Regular Chapters, but more than one of these would probably not be admitted, and more than one would burden you too much, while one such may benefit the Order and all Regulars in England. That one is naturally the Chapter of the united Sees of Menevia and Newport. This I sought the sanction of the Bishops to propose to you, and if you choose to agree to supply it, they will all concur in recommending the appointment to the Holy See. Time, however, will not admit of long deliberation, and your negative decision will be irrevocable. 
Are you, then, willing to form the Cathedral Chapter of
Newport? It will require, at least, four Canons with a Dignatory, and to be increased, as means permit, to ten Canons. If you agree to this, and establish yourselves at Newport, and there perform the choral duties, the eyes of the Catholic Body will be fixed with admiration on you, and the E.B.C. will gain much before God and men.. . .' 
In the weeks that followed there was much criticism of
the scheme from leading Benedictines, the Welsh connection
4, THE HISTORY OF BELMONT ABBEY
being particularly unpopular, as being likely to lead to the
loss of our English missions, and to the E.B.C. becoming a
mere 'Welsh confraternity'; but ultimately, after two meetings
on December 2 and December 30, the President and
Regimen approved the scheme, with reservations. The plan
involved the building of a monastery, presumably for
housing the Canons, and there were two rival schemes. Of
these, one was the transference ofSt Gregory's from Down-
side to Newport; the other was to revive at Newport the old
Abbey of SS. Denis and Adrian, formerly at Lambspnng in
Germany. There was as yet no mention of a Common
Noviciate or of a House of Studies. Apparently that was not 
mooted until a year later (1852), when such a project was 
suggested by some Fathers at Downside. But at some un
specified date Pope Pius IX, in an audience which he gave
to Bishop Brown, expressed a strong desire that such a house should be set up. Thus, of the two 'entities' that were 
subsequently established at Belmont, the Monastic Chapter
of Newport was the first to be thought of, although in fact
it was the House of Studies and Common Noviciate that was
first brought into existence, the Chapter following it a year
later At one time it was proposed that Downside should
build the new monastery to be erected at Newport, but when
it came to ways and means many difficulties arose, and the
somewhat impatient bishop had many stormy passages of
arms with the Congregation on the subject. Meantime on
April 22 1852 a Decree came from Rome authorising the
setting up of the Benedictine Monastic Chapter of Newport
and Menevia, but reserving the right to appoint a secular
bishop if Rome should think fit.1

It is not necessary to enter in detail into the complicated
negotiations that followed and the many difficulties that were
encountered. They were largely connected with the task of
finding the money for the building of the new monastery,
and with the degree of control that the bishop was to exercise
over the monks. But one problem in particular, that of the
site of the new foundation, must be mentioned here. This
question provoked great differences of opinion, and indeed

This document will be found on p. 34, infra.

THE BEGINNINGS OF BELMONT 5

the discussion dragged on for two years. The bishop was
striving to obtain help for his poverty-stricken diocese. He
was intent on getting priests and a centre wherein he could
have his cathedral, his chapter, and if possible a seminary.
He wanted them, of course, at Newport, or as near to it as
might be, and he offered to give an acre of land in that town,
or alternatively a small plot at Chepstow; while in the spring
of 18^2 he offered a site at Coedangred, a very remote place
near the village of Skenfrith; and a year later a property
called Bartholey, near Usk, was proposed. Nor was this all;
for a little later Colonel Vaughan of Courtfield offered Poole
Hall near Abergavenny. But none of these was satisfactory,
and it was then that the situation took a new turn by the
appearance on the scene of Mr F. R. Wegg-Prosser of
Belmont. Much more will be heard of him later, but for the
moment it suffices to say that he was a very recent and ardent
convert, that he had already built a small chapel and some
almshouses, and that he was contemplating building a large
church in thanksgiving for the grace of his conversion. He
did not at that time visualise a religious community at
Beimont, but wanted to found a mission from which mission
ary work could be done amongst the surrounding Protestants
He first approached the Jesuits who were then in charge of
the mission at Hereford, and then applied to the Mansts,
but neither of these bodies was enthusiastic, and it was then
that he heard that the Benedictines were looking lor a site
on which to build a monastery. This information came to
- him through a letter to him from Bishop Brown dated
September g.1 As this first contact between the two men is, in
view of the sequel, of special interest, the salient portions of
these two letters are here transcribed.

Talacre Hall,

Rhyl

My Dear Mr Wegg Prosser

You will not, I feel confidebt, be dissatisfied with me for
complying with a request urged upon me. It may not be known
to you that the Chapter of my Diocese is to be composed of
Benedictines, after the form of so many Cathedral Chapters in England prior to its alleged Reformation. Accordingly the Benedictines 
2 The originals of these historic letters are at Belmont.
6 THE HISTORY OF BELMONT ABBEY
 are endeavouring to devise means for establishing themselves in a Monastery, which need not necessarily be within the town of Newport at present, and which cannot be therein until Providence furnish the Congregation of English Benedictines with means far beyond what they now possess, to enable them to meet the high cost of land in the above town.

Now it has occurred to some of them that if they could obtain
on easy terms some acres of land near your proposed Church, the advantages might be mutual. They would have a Church which would be the Cathedral until one could be erected together with a Monastery at Newport, and you might approve of the advantage of choral services therein, with several Masses daily.
I replied that I would submit the proposal to you, though I
feared that, as your estate is entailed, you could not grant more than a short lease of the land, such as would not suit their purpose to build thereon a Monastery; and that probably you have not any means of granting them security of tenure on easy terms.
For their satisfaction you will doubtless favour me with an early letter. . . .' 1

In the second letter, written because he had had no reply
from Mr Wegg-Prosser to the above, he re-stated the matter
with rather more detail, thus:
'. . . The Cathedral Chapter of my Diocese is, by a special act
of the Holy See, to be composed of members of the ancient
English Benedictine Congregation, which constituted very many of the Cathedral Chapters in this country prior to its schism.
Great advantages to the whole Diocese must follow from its
possessing a Monastery, such as is contemplated.
A great difficulty however has to be overcome, the want of
pecuniary resources, at the commencement of such an undertaking.
There is not a Monastery, existing elsewhere and having sufficient means for its support, which now contemplates a mere translation to another locality; everything has to be provided, except subjects; these being offered me.
Mr Vaughan of Courtfield, near Ross, has munificently
tendered a grant of 35 acres a few miles on the Abergavenny
road towards Hereford; but there exists no building at that place, neither Church nor Monastery. 
Now, you are about to erect a beautiful Church, and it has 
occurred to others as well as to myself, that your zeal and piety would rejoice to have it provided with several priests, and daily choral service. These important advantages would be secured, were that Church to be made the Cathedral of my Diocese, until such time as we can establish a Cathedral Church and Monastery in the City of Newport, of which I see no probability within any period to which I can look forward; and the Holy See allows that

THE BEGINNINGS OF BELMONT 7

provisionally both may be erected in any other part of the
Diocese.
I wrote therefore to enquire whether you approved of making
your Church the Cathedral of the Diocese? But I anticipated a
difficulty which may be conclusive against it. If the entail of
your estate prevent you from not selling only, but granting even
a long lease, of the Church itself, of the ground which the pro-
jected Monastery would require, and of some acres of land
serving as an enclosure for the Community, the scheme must be abandoned; at least, unless you can provide for compensation of the outlay to be incurred by the Benedictines, on their ejection.
But, should it be otherwise, so that you can by any legal means secure possession of the requisite quantity of land, where you propose to build the Church, or elsewhere, if you think proper, be so good as to inform me, what quantity of land can be so assigned and on what terms of purchase or rent, about 40, or at least 30 acres connected therewith, may be secured1. . . .' 

Immediately on receipt of the first of these letters on
September 3, 1853 (the eve of the day of the year on which
seven years later the monastery church was consecrated),
Mr Wegg-Prosser wrote to the Benedictine President-
General, offering to build a church for them at Belmont,
asking how much land was wanted, and desiring to know
whether the monks would build a monastery there. By a
coincidence, only the previous day, Fr Heptonstall, a
prominent Benedictine, had written to one of the Definitors
that he wished that this property might be offered to us.
He had heard of it through Charles Blount of Usk.
*I am told', he wrote, 'he (Mr Wegg-Prosser) is going to build avery large church. There can be no particular need of this as a mere Mission. If he would build it for us and assist us to get up our monastery, there would be a grand object. . . .'

The offer of the church had now been made, together
with that of seven acres of woodland on a lease of 999 years
at a peppercorn rent when called for, and Mr Wegg-Prosser
also offered to give 3^100 a year towards the cost of upkeep.
This generous proposal was favourably received, but no
decision was taken for several months until Bishop Brown
intervened with a demand for an immediate decision. But
in spite of the bishop's enthusiasm at this time for Belmont,
the very influential Dr Ullathome, Bishop of Birmingham,
1 Actually only seven acres were at first offered.

8 THE HISTORY OF BELMONT ABBEY

argued that the chapter and monastery ought to be at New-
port. 'If it is at some out of the way place', he wrote, ' ... it
will be a sham. . . . Take hold of Newport, and you take hold
of the diocese.' He added that the commercial business of
the diocese and its influence could not come to a corner of
Herefordshire. 'I feel so strongly on that point', he concluded,
'that if it were my affair I would break through stone walls
to get at a proper centre from the first.' But at last a decision
was at hand, and the matter was settled by the General
Chapter of 1854 which decided when it met in July that
the new foundation would be undertaken, and that it was
to be at Belmont.
This left two further important problems to be settled:
(i) What was to be the nature of the new house? Was it to
be merely for the Canons, with perhaps a diocesan seminary
attached; or was it also to be a House of Studies, and even
a Common Noviciate, for the Congregation? (2) Where was
the money to come from ? As to the first of these, almost all
thought it must be a house of studies, but opinion was very
divided as to the wisdom of setting up a common noviciate.
In fact the very objections which Prior Ford and Abbot
Butler of Downside were to put forward against the commonnoviciate thirty to fifty years later were also expressed in 1853: amongst others, the disadvantages of professing novices who, because of their absence for several years at Belmont, were practically unknown to their own communities, and also the loss of the distinctive spirit of each house; as well as the fact that the absence of the novices and juniors made it impossible to maintain adequately the choral services in the various monasteries. However, Bishop Brown was by now strongly in favour of both projects, and both he and Bishop Ullathorne were present by invitation at the General
Chapter of 1854, at which Bishop Brown strongly urged that
the new monastery should be both a Common Noviciate
and a Common House of Studies. To this the General
Chapter agreed, though not unanimously, and there was
especial opposition to the idea of having a Common Novi-
ciate—chiefly because it was contrary to Benedictine
tradition.

THE BEGINNINGS OF BELMONT 9

The second of the above-mentioned problems concerned
the finding of the money for the building of the monastery.
It must be remembered that in those days there were only
three monasteries in the Congregation: St Gregory's at
Downside, St Lawrence's at Ampleforth, and St Edmund's
still at Douai in France, and none of the three was at that
time by any means prosperous. The schools at the three
houses were, of course, very much smaller than they are
today, and so was the number of monks, and all three houses
were faced with financial difficulties. It was hard to see
whence money was to come for the building of St Michael's,
if the three existing houses were to find it all. In the end,
as it turned out, the cost was met almost entirely by Bishop
Brown. He promised his brethren an endowment of £3,000
towards the maintenance of his cathedral, and it very
fortunately happened that recently the Holy See had
appointed him administrator of the funds of the almost
extinct English Franciscan Observants amounting to £2,000,
which sum he had succeeded in increasing to £17,000. He
now asked Rome that ^5,000 of this money might be used
for the building of the monastery, and that the interest on
the residue should be applied to the support of the Chapter.
This was granted, as regards the ^5,000, but the money
carried with it the obligation of saying six hundred Masses
annually. But £3,000 more was needed for the building
fund, and the bishop succeeded in raising two-thirds of this
by an appeal to the Catholic laity, thus leaving only one
thousand pounds to be found by the English Benedictines.
It is clear, then, what a debt of gratitude the Congregation
owes to Bishop Brown in this matter. Actually he gave more
than this, for when it was found that it was impracticable to
house the Diocesan Seminary and the General Noviciate in
the same building and it was necessary to substitute a
'Little Seminary' (i.e. a species of preparatory school) for a
Great Seminary, he still agreed to contribute £150 a year
to the upkeep of the house, this being the interest on the
£3,000 which he had originally promised for the maintenance
of the Chapter at Newport. And to this he added a sum for
each of his students for as long as the little school lasted

B
30 THE STORY OF BELMONT ABBEY
(which was until 1874). In return the monks undertook to
receive the secular clergy of the diocese for their annual
retreat, and to provide 'supplies' to the diocesan missions
when reasonably required by the bishop.

In this way, then, the initial financial difficulties were
overcome, though many more problems lay ahead. But
before considering these something must be said of the man
who perhaps more than anyone else, had made the new
foundation possible, and who has been officially and rightly
designated the Founder of Belmont. Francis Richard Wegg-
Prosser was born on June 19, 1824, at Nuneham Courtney
in Oxfordshire, but to explain just who he was it is necessary
to go back to a certain Rev. Richard Prosser (1746-1839),
Prebendary and Archdeacon of Durham Cathedral, and a
man of some wealth. This cleric married in 1796 Sarah
Wegg, youngest daughter and eventually sole heiress of a
very wealthy banker, and in his old age he bought the Bel-
mont estate which had belonged to the Matthew family, to
which some years later he added nine hundred acres from
the Clehonger property, the former estate of the Aubrey
family. Thus at his death he owned all the land between
Eaton Bishop, Dewsall, Hunderton and the river. But it
happened that his sister, Frances, had also made an advan-
tageous marriage, her husband being William Parry who
owned estates at Ewyas Harold in Herefordshire, and the
children of this marriage were three sisters, of whom the
youngest (and eventually the last survivor), Lucy, inherited
all the property. She married a certain Francis Haggitt who
had inherited estates in Yorkshire, and who, curiously
enough, was another Prebendary of Durham Cathedral and
later was Rector of Nuneham Courtney. It is their son,
Francis Richard Haggitt (who later assumed the name Wegg-
Prosser) in whom we are now interested, and he was heir-
presumptive not only to the Yorkshire estates of the Haggitts,
but also to those of his Prosser great-uncle in Herefordshire,
as well as those of his maternal grandfather, William Parry.
The boy was educated at Eton and Balliol, and he was
only fifteen when he inherited the Prosser fortune on condition
that he changed his name to Wegg-Prosser. After graduating
THE BEGINNINGS OF BELMONT11

in 1845, he became interested in politics, and was elected
Member for Herefordshire in 1847. It is said that he rode to
the polling-booth on horseback at the head of his tenants,
and after the declaration of the poll his supporters chaired
him through the streets of Hereford in the gorgeously up-
holstered and decorated 'shelter' which was kept in the
ShirehaU for that purpose. Two years later he assumed by
Royal Licence the name of Wegg-Prosser, and in 1850 he
married Lady Harriet Somers-Cocks, second daughter of
the second Earl Somers of Eastnor. But now the decisive
event of his life, his conversion to the Catholic Faith, was
close at hand.

In pre-Reformation days Herefordshire had always been
a strongly religious county, and throughout the penal times
it had had the secret ministrations of priests. In the mid-
eighteenth century Mass was said more or less publicly in
Hereford in the garret of a house, 38 Church Street, but it
was not until 1792 that a chapel was built in Broad Street
on the site of a former convent of St Catherine, whose
silver seal was found during excavations in 1801. But after
the passing of the Catholic Emancipation Bill in 1829, this
small chapel was pulled down, and Mass was said for a time
in Norfolk House, across Wye Bridge, until in 1837 the
foundation stone was laid of the present church in Broad-
Street, which was opened in 1839. It was five years after this
that Francis Haggitt appears to have first shown any
interest in Catholicism, for in 1844 there was held a series of
public disputations on faith and morals between a priest in
Hereford and the local vicar, and the young man followed
the proceedings with close interest. In the following year
came the conversion of Dr Newman, and within the next
five years the two events which had a decisive effect on
Francis Haggitt's views (as they also had on those of
Manning): the appointment of Dr Hampden (condemned
by Oxford University for heresy) to be Bishop of Hereford
in 1847, and the famous Gorham Case in 1850. On Decem-
ber 14, 1852, he was received into the Church at Southwark
Cathedral by Bishop Grant, to the shocked amazement of
his wife and friends. An act so contrary to his heredity and
12 THE HISTORY OF BELMONT ABBEY

environment had something heroic about it, and those who
knew him fifty years later could still observe a certain exaltation in his religious outlook.
At once he set out to discover what he could do for the
Church in his own neighbourhood, and his first thought was
to have a chapel. Thus began his interest in building which
was to last the rest of his long life and in the end swallowed
up his fortune and crippled his estates: a sacrifice which he
gladly made for the glory of God and the advancement of
the Faith.
At the junction of the Haywood and Abergavenny roads
was a small farm, past which a side road ran to join the
main road to Hunderton, where, with the idea in his mind
of later constructing an imposing drive to Belmont House,
he had built a large and handsome home farm. Lower down
the road he was then actually building some almshouses,
which in those days took the place of old-age pensions for
elderly servants. At the west end, then, of these almshouses
he added a small chapel which was opened on Candlemas
Day, 1853, and which was served by two secular priests,
Frs Berry and Broderick, until Fr D. Lambe took charge at
the end of that year. But it was never intended to be a
permanent chapel (it soon became a dwelling-house), and
already on July 26 of the same year the first Mass was said
in the school-chapel of SS. Peter and Paul (the present-day
Library) which had been quickly built, together with a tiny
convent near the edge of a wood some distance from the
almshouses. At its opening it was announced that Mr Wegg-
Prosser intended to build close by 'a magnificent cathedral
church and a presbytery'. Presumably there were already
Catholics at hand, possibly introduced by the Matthews of
Clehonger Court, and more were no doubt attracted by
news of what was going on, for the school was opened at
once under the care of Sisters of Charity ofSt Paul, who came
from Selly Park, Birmingham, and lived in the little convent
adjoining until 1859, when secular teachers were introduced.
The chapel-school continued to be the elementary school
for the district, with one short break, until 1947, and the
schoolmaster lived until 1916 in the house which had been

THE BEGINNINGS OF BELMONT 13
the convent. Such, then, was the situation around Belmont
when Mr Wegg-Prosser first came into contact with the
Benedictines. As has been seen, he already had ambitious
plans for the setting up of a large missionary centre for the
district, but now these were altered to fall in with the projects
of Bishop Brown and the English Benedictine Congregation.

It has already been said that the monks finally accepted
Mr Wegg-Prosser's offer of Belmont in July, 1854; but there
followed three years of indecision on the part of the Regimen
and of Bishop Brown, owing to the rise of differences of
opinion between them and the donor, and several times the
negotiations were on the verge of being broken off. More
than once the bishop threatened to give up the Belmont
scheme altogether and to build at Newport instead, which
was the natural place for his Chapter. But in spite of all this
Mr Wegg-Prosser was determined to go ahead with his plans
for building a large and imposing church at Belmont,
whether the Benedictines took it over or not, and on
November 15, 1854, the foundation stone was laid by Bishop
Brown, but its exact position has been forgotten and built
over in the many additions and changes which have been
made in the course of time. Probably it was near the last
station of the cross, on the outside angle of the transept
There was a large gathering of clergy and laity from all
over England for the occasion, and the work once begun, it
was pushed on at remarkable speed, and the church was, in
fact completed in less than three years. And while the walls
were rising the bishop, the monks, and Mr Wegg-Prosser
hammered out their differences as regards the monastery.
For even the bishop and the monks did not see eye to eye
in this matter, nor were even the monks themselves by any
means united on the subject. To understand this one has to
realise the circumstances of the time. England was only just
emerging from the penal times, and it was the conditions of
the penal times that had determined the nature and the
work of the English Benedictine Congregation. For three hun-
dred years it had been an essentially missionary body, intent
on supplying priests for the hard-pressed English missions,
and the composition of its governing body reflected this fact.
14 THE HISTORY OF BELMONT ABBEY
For the Congregation was then ruled by a President-General,
who had many of the absolute powers of the Generals of
more modern Orders, and who was assisted by 'Definitors
of the Regimen'. The missions did not at that time belong to
the various monasteries, but to the Congregation as a whole,
and they were controlled by two Provincials, of York and
Canterbury respectively, who had, in effect, complete con-
trol over the destinies of the monks, no matter to which
monastery they belonged; for at the request of the Provincials
the President-General could order any monk to leave his
monastery and undertake missionary work. In fact what we
would now call parochial work was the normal life to which
every monk must at that time look forward, and the monas-
teries were occupied for the most part only by monks who
were either very young and untrained or else very old. Thus
the vigour and strength of the monasteries was perpetually
and systematically drained away by the missions, and they
were held of little account. They were ruled by Priors,
generally young men, and these had but a very secondary
standing in the General Chapters.

Thus conditions and outlook were very different from that
to which we are accustomed today: the change came with
the introduction of the 'Abbatial System' at the turn of the
century as a result of the reforms insisted upon by Pope
Leo XIII. But even in 1850 the voice, though timid and
weak, of reformers began 'to be heard in the land', and this
accounted for some of the differences of opinion as to what
the functions of the new monastery at Belmont were to be. It
was a matter of serious controversy whether the three
existing monasteries, and the one about to be built, should
devote themselves almost entirely as heretofore to the needs
of the missions of the country, or should take up again the
observance of the traditional monastic life, and therefore
give themselves not merely to the training and supply of
missionary priests, but also to the service of the choir office,
the development of liturgical worship, and the claustral
conventual life. But, so far as Belmont was concerned, one
point at least was settled at this stage, for on May 13, 1855,
a Decree from Rome granted that the church at Belmont

THE BEGINNINGS OF BELMONT 
should provisionally be the Cathedral of tlie Newport
Diocese but added that the Cathedral at Newport was to be
built as soon as possible. Thus the new monastery was to
have the distinction, unique in England that .its church was
to be raised if only temporarily, to the dignity of a Pro-
Cathedral and therein the bishop was to have his throne.
Many years later, by the issuing of the Bull Cambria Celtica in
1916 it attained the full status of a Cathedral.
But if the monks were not unanimous in their view of the
functions of the new monastery Mr Wegg-Prosser, for his
part had very definite ideas of his own, and he, besides
being  the Owner of the land and the donor of the church,
So a strong-willed man: a fact which held up matters
for a considerable period. His three fundamental conditions
which he was determined to enforce, were that the monks of
Belmont should minister to the Catholics of the district
should not undertake the work of school-teaching, and should
use no figured music, but only plain chant, in the church
cervices On these points he would not yield, and he was so
insistant on them, and attached such importance to them
that he decided to insert into the contract some form of
forfiture in case of violation of these conditions. Thus, m a
letter to his lawyer on September .5, 1856, he said that the
great point to be decided in the matter of the agreement^h
theBenedictines was that of the penalty for violation of the
contract He thought there should be some form of forfeiture,
and his object was to guard against later possibilities eg
laxity with consequent disregard of the terms. In that case,
he said the monks would probably do the one thing he was
determinede they shall l not do, i.e. make the monastery into a
sem-secular college. He asked the lawyer whether in case
of forfiturethis should be applied only to the church land, or should include that wheron the monks build their monastery. He thought the latter should be included: and finallyhe did not wish the forfiture to be to his heirs, but to a Roman Catholic body, and if it were possible he would
have preferred forfeit direct to Rome.
About this time also Articles of Agreement were drawn
up between Bishop Brown, Abbot Burchall (President-
16 THE HISTORY OF BELMONT ABBEY

General), and Mr Wegg-Prosser, and these include an
indenture by which the last-named gives three pieces of land
on which to build, while in return the President agrees to
the following:

1. The Congregation will forthwith constitute a house on this
land with cells and religious.

2. The church will act as the parochial church of an assigned
district as well as the monastic oratory; therein the Offices
will be solemnly celebrated, as customary in full and well-
regulated monasteries.

3. The priests will perform missionary work in a district assigned by the Bishop.

4. If the monks should cease to use the church in this parochial fashion, and so continue for three months after due notice from the Bishop, the latter is to take possession of the church and other erections of Mr Wegg-Prosser, and may appoint priests to assume the cure of souls in that church.

5. A cemetery is to be appointed for parishioners in addition to that of the monks.

6. No building to be erected on this land is to be used as a college or establishment for the education of young persons intended for secular pursuits, other than children not exceeding six in number who may be assisting in the performances of the Offices of the Church, or who, being children of the poor, may be resident in the neighbourhood; it being the intent and meaning by all the parties hereto that the said Monastery is not to be or to become subservient to a College for the education of boys intended for secular pursuits.

7. For Mass and Office in the church, the chant called 'figured'
is never to be used.

8. Normally, one of the priests, at request, will say Mass daily
in the house of Mr Wegg-Prosser, unless reasonably hindered, or forbidden by the Bishop.

9. A Mass shall be said (an agreed number of times) a year,
during the lifetime of Mr Wegg-Prosser, for his intention; for
ever after his death for the repose of his soul, and intention.
10. In case the monastery, church, or land come to be sold by the trustees or their successors, no sale shall take place without the assent of the Bishop and Mr Wegg-Prosser (after his death, that of the owners of the Belmont Estate, being Catholics).

The Bishop ratifies the foregoing for himself and his succes-
sors, and engages to give effect thereto. To the President Mr
Wegg-Prosser promises that, the Congregation fulfilling their
engagements, shall receive from him the yearly sum of £100 in quarterly payments. . . . This agreement is to be entered in
the Minutes of the next Chapter for its perpetual memorial.

THE BEGINNINGS OF BELMONT , 17

Bishop Brown greatly resented the forfeiture clauses,
which, in case the conditions were broken, gave Mr Wegg-
Prosser and his heirs right of re-entry and to expel those
holding the premises, and on principle he strongly objected
to being dictated to by a layman on ecclesiastical subjects,
and in this he was supported by Bishop Ullathorne. He also
sought to induce a concession in favour of the education of
youths destined for priestly work in his diocese. But it was
the clause barring figured music that aroused the greatest
bitterness. It is, however, unnecessary here to follow the
details of the prolonged wrangle which lasted some three
years, during which the fiery bishop several times threatened
appeal to Rome and/or abandonment of Belmont altogether
in favour of Newport. Mr Wegg-Prosser was fully alive to
this possibility, and on July 3, 1856, wrote to one of the
clergy:
'My apology for again troubling you is that the information
conveyed in your letter (which confirmed what I previously
supposed) seems to me of a nature which renders it doubtful
whether all our arrangements and plans will not be at once put
an end to. I am well aware that such is not your wish nor that of
your confreres, but it is plainly the Bishop's wish (at least so far as the Cathedral Chapter is concerned) that we should part.
Now you will readily perceive that if, after the expense and
trouble I have undergone in order to enable the Benedictine
Community to establish themselves, the whole scheme is over-thrown, it becomes necessary for me to think what I shall do withthe Church and the land surrounding it. Of course I can readilyunderstand that it is better for the diocese that the Chapter at Newport; but I have all along had at heart together
with the good of the diocese the conversion and spiritual benefit of my own neighbourhood, and if you should be prevented from establishing yourselves there, I should be anxious to find (if I could) other Religious who would do so. So that I am very desirous of learning, as soon as may be, how matters are likely to go, and I beg you will do me the favour to give me early intelli-gence of the answer you receive from Rome.
I quite feel with you that great and good works usually meet
with difficulties and have to work their way up hill, and I do not
doubt that all will in the end go well and for the good of Religion; but I fear that if the Bishop gives the Holy See to understand that it is his wish the Chapter should be established at Newport, such being naturally the wish also of the Holy See, there is very little
18 THE HISTORY OF BELMONT ABBEY
probability of their being located at Belmont. I do not know
what you would in that case do with your noviciate, but I pre-
sume that you would establish it wherever the Chapter may be
placed. 
I am quite satisfied that the rupture of our negotiations will be
against your wishes and feelings as much as mine, but I confess I expect such to be the result. . . .'

In the end Mr Wegg-Prosser had his way, in spite of
bishops and monks alike, and when at last on August 18, 
1857, the contract was signed between him and the Bene-
dictines, the following covenants were inserted: i. The lessees
must erect certain messuages and buildings according to
plans already approved by the lessor (i.e. the monks must
build a monastery); 2. No school for boys intended for the
lay professions is permitted; 3. No music but Gregorian 
Chant may be used at solemn Mass or in the solemn liturgical
service in the church. By that time (the midsummer of
1857) the church appears to have been completed,1 for the
founder wished it to be consecrated then, but Bishop Brown
objected that it would be better to wait until the monastery
was completed and the community in possession: and the
building of the monastery had in fact not yet begun. And so,
at this stage, Mr Wegg-Prosser had achieved his purpose of
building an imposing church to the glory of God in thanks-
giving for the grace of his conversion, and looking back we
can now realise (despite all the strong objections raised at
the time) how very fortunate the Congregation was to have
the church and lands thus provided for them. It remained
now for the monks to fulfil their part by erecting the
monastery.

1 It would seem that the church was completed even earlier, for the Hereford Times of November 29, 1856, contains a full and appreciative description
of the church and of the stained-glass window at the east end.