Abstract
Hugh Edmund Ford (1851–1930), first abbot of the English Benedictine monastery at Downside in Somerset, had a reputation, especially in monastic circles, as a scholarly and reforming monk. He is much less well known than his contemporary confrères, Cardinal Aidan Gasquet and Abbot Cuthbert Butler, lacking Gasquet’s public profile and Butler’s list of much-respected publications. Ford’s considerable political and diplomatic skills were honed in the promotion of a monastic reform movement which transformed the English Benedictine Congregation. He travelled widely on monastic business and also on account of his always delicate health. More surprisingly, in 1918, he acted as an agent for the British government on a mission to neutral Switzerland, where the Benedictine abbey of Einsiedeln provided a refuge for many Germans displaced from Rome when Italy entered the Great War in 1915. Ford made use of the various ecclesiastical networks available to him,including the Benedictine Confederation centred on S. Anselmo in Rome and connections made through the school at Downside. This article places Ford in these and other Catholic networks and demonstrates how they were put to use in the Allied cause during the First World War.
Highlights
In 1814 a community of English Benedictine monks, exiled from Douai, in Flanders, settled at Downside, Somerset, where they established a monastery and boarding school
Ford’s considerable political and diplomatic skills were honed in the promotion of a monastic reform movement which transformed the English Benedictine Congregation
In 1918, he acted as an agent for the British government on a mission to neutral Switzerland, where the Benedictine abbey of Einsiedeln provided a refuge for many Germans displaced from Rome when Italy entered the Great War in 1915
Summary
Hugh Edmund Ford (1851-1930), first abbot of the English Benedictine monastery at Downside in Somerset, had a reputation, especially in monastic circles, as a scholarly and reforming monk. Abbot of Downside, was presumably unaware.[2] They include photographs and postcards that illustrate his closeness to family members and love of travel, newspaper cuttings that confirm his interest in current affairs, and, more strikingly, two passports, issued in 1915 and 1918, together with the travel journal kept on the later occasion Alongside these items, correspondence from the years 1915 to 1921 reveals that Ford enjoyed close contact with officials at the Foreign Office in London and was employed by them as a wartime agent, the serene and scholarly manner of an elderly monk providing the perfect cover for clandestine activities.
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