Charles Henry Sharpe, MA

Charles Henry Sharpe, M.A. (Oxon), Clerk in Holy Orders by Brian Torode (copyright rests with Richard Barton) Being an avid reader and collector of the works of Peter Anson, I have always been fascinated by his ‘Call of the Cloister’, in which he studies the history of the development of monastic life in the Church of England. One of the communities which he traces is ‘The Brothers of the Common Life’, which was established at Stroud in 1912 by the Reverend Charles Henry Sharpe. Anson concludes his chapter on this Community with these words: ‘Father Sharpe subsequently joined the Roman Catholic Church’. (According to the Stroud RC Registers he was received on 7th September 1919 by Father Lionel Goodrich at Farmhill. R.J.B.) Why, I wondered, and what happened to the Community? Charles Henry Sharpe was born c 1859 into the Gloucestershire family of that name at Longhope. In 1883 he gained his B.A. at Oxford and the following year he was ordained Deacon, serving his title at St Helen’s Ryde, Isle of Wight. He was priested in 1885 and 1 remained at St Helen’s until 1887 when he was appointed to the staff of Saint Mary’s Church, Southampton, remaining there until 1890. From his earliest years he had a yearning for the religious life although he was not certain which form it should take. Private tutors at home, private and then public schooling followed by Oxford did not dampen his enthusiasm to enter the Church. However, after receiving deacon’s orders, he almost lost his faith but was supported in his struggles by a fellow priest. He soon realised that he had a wonderful gift – that of extempore speech and this gradually developed in him the desire to work as an evangelist in the mission field. All this took place in the Isle of Wight. As he increased in spiritual awareness and became more involved in the ‘career’ he had chosen, so also he was brought into contact with people who subscribed to traditions within the Church which were not part of his experience. One evening, he happened to start reading the life of Pere Lacordaire who had re-established the Dominican Province in France in 1840. Inspired by his own High Church acquaintances, he began attending courses run by well-known Anglo-Catholics of the time – Father Stanton of Saint Alban’s Holborn who had been born in Stroud; Father Body and Father Ignatius, the Monk of Llanthony – all of whom seemed to direct him towards the Catholic movement within the Anglican Church, with evangelism through the Sacraments. In 1887 Charles Sharpe spent some time at Llanthony with Father Ignatius and while there he celebrated ‘Dr Cranmer’s version of the Mass’ and for the first time in his life he wore Eucharistic vestments. His visit to Llanthony re-kindled his desire for the religious life and on his return to his curacy in Southampton, he turned his room into an oratory and observed the ‘Hours’, at the same time ‘renouncing property and marriage’. From 1890 to 1893 Father Sharpe was acting chaplain to the Forces at Aldershot and during this period he came into contact with Archbishop Benson, the Cowley Fathers at Oxford and Aelred Carlyle, founder of the Anglican Community of Benedictines on Caldey Island which later was received into the Roman Catholic Church and became what we know today as Prinknash Abbey. In 1885 a Mission College had been founded at College Green, Gloucester, and from 1894 the Reverend C.H. Sharpe was one of the four assistant Missioners, a post with which he was still credited in 1913. It is probable that he held this position even after he had started the Community at More Hall, which he may well have ‘inherited’ as early as 1906. From an Appeals brochure of c1968, issued by the Benedictine Sisters of Our Lady of Grace and Compassion, I learned that ‘Moor Hall’ (sic) was occupied by Father Sharpe’s Community from 1912 to 1916, and during this time a small Chapel was added to the western corner of the 1582 main building. It was a Miss Lee, of the Lee and Perrins family, who restored the once dilapidated house at the turn of the century and gave it to Father Sharpe. (Actually it was Frances Isabel Seddon (nee Perrins) R.J.B.) According to J.N. Langston, the Manor was built in 1460 and derives its name from the fact that Saint Thomas More wrote there, part of ‘Utopia’ in 1516, but there is no evidence to support this. 2 Most of the information so far obtained came from the More Hall Journal, bound copies of which I found by chance on the shelves of the Local Studies Room in Gloucester Library. In the Journals’ Community Letter, Father Sharpe began to outline for the reader the story of his early years in the Church and the events which led him to found the Community at More Hall. Unfortunately, before he could accomplish this task, financial difficulties made it necessary for the Journal to cease publication in October 1916 and what one can learn about the Community at More Hall must be pieced together from the jottings and notes on other pages of the Journals, and from any correspondence which may exist. The Community was established in 1912 and appears never to have been large in numbers nor very prosperous. Frequent appeals for funds appeared in the pages of the journals and every quarter grateful acknowledgements were made of gifts received from benefactors, some of whom were titled and influential High Church Anglican. In a letter to one of the Caldey monks who had not been received into the Catholic Church and who was obviously still trying his vocation, Father Sharpe wrote: Eastertide 1913 “We aim at the Religious life, perhaps especially for laymen, three months probationship before novitiate, two years novitiate before profession, life vows not before thirty – though exceptions may be made in exceptional circumstances. We rise at 5.45 a.m. and all the 7 ‘Hours’ are said through the day and Compline – the last service, is at 9 p.m.. Professed can give themselves to lives of prayer or prayer and study or to mission and parochial work. If you think of the matter further I would like to ask you if you have some references especially as to vocation as well as your characteristics etc; and also whether you realise what the calls are, especially to religious poverty, celibacy and obedience; the life is impossible to those who have not the call, while no other life is happy, or endurable, to those who have. It would do you as well no harm if you come without previous hopes of having a vocation.” 3 In this same year Father Sharpe was in correspondence with Aelred Carlyle and later in the year he offered More Hall as a refuge to those of the Caldey Community who had not gone over to Rome, showing his obvious desire to make More Hall the rallying point for the Caldey remnant. From More Hall Father Sharpe travelled far and wide conducting Missions at Wotton-under- Edge, Swindon, London, Oxford, Cardiff and Nottingham, to name but a few of the places which called on his services. At home, the Hall was in constant use as a retreat centre, often providing a place of rest and quiet for those who were trying to escape the horrors of war in the industrial towns. In 1913, Ronald Knox, then still an Anglican, stayed at More Hall on retreat. In his ‘Spiritual Aeneid’ (1918), he describes More Hall as… ‘…a beautiful country house, the centre of a religious community and an admirable place for use during the last three weeks of August. I lived in complete solitude apart from the presence of a lay brother who looked after all my wants. I had a Chapel where I could celebrate daily with the Blessed Sacrament reserved.’ In fact, the Hall was used as a Christmas, Lent and Easter preparation centre and the hearing of confessions appears to have been introduced in 1913. All the above information deals with Father Sharpe’s Anglican days but what still intrigued me was what persuaded him to become a Roman Catholic. Where could I go for this information? The More Hall Journal revealed nothing, no clues existed in the parish magazine of Randwick, More Hall’s nearest parish, and searches in the Stroud newspapers had nothing to add to what was already available. Surely there had to be some correspondence at Clifton or even at the Gloucester Records’ Office. I tried the latter first and learnt that some of the Sharpe papers were in fact deposited at Prinknash Abbey. A visit there showed that there was quite a collection consisting mainly of correspondence dealing mainly with matters relating to the conversion of the Caldey Community. I was excited, but this elation soon turned to disappointment. I was in sight of the treasure so to speak only to discover that someone else had found it before I had. Dr Don Withey of Charlton Kings had also been researching Father Sharpe and the results of his research had been accepted by the Catholic Archives Society to be published later this year. Shortly before he died, Father Sharpe offered More Hall to the Prinknash Community, but the offer had to be declined. Prinknash did, however, obtain some of the library, the rest being bought by Downside. Father Sharpe was received into the Church in 1917 and ‘thereafter worked energetically by pen and voice for the Catholic cause, though the latter years of his life were spent quietly in retirement at More Hall.’ He became a close friend of Bishop Burton and Abbot Butler of Downside.

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