William Montgomery Brown

"Bad Bishop" William Montgomery Brown, 1934.

William Montgomery Brown (1855 – 1937), sometimes called "Bad Bishop" Brown, was an Anglican clergyman and author. Brown, of Galion, Ohio was consecrated a Bishop of the Episcopal Church, but is best remembered as the first Anglican Bishop to be tried for heresy since the Reformation, and the first of any creed in America to be deposed for heretical teachings.

Biography

William Montgomery Brown was born on September 4, 1855, on a farm west of Orrville, Ohio, the son of a Joseph Morrison and Lucina Elzina Cary Brown. Orphaned during the Civil War, he was raised by a kindly farmer’s home. Mary Scranton Bradford a wealthy socialite of Cleveland, Ohio, sponsored his education as an Episcopal clergyman and, in 1883, he became vicar of Grace Church in Galion, Ohio. Brown married Bradford’s daughter Ella in 1885. In 1891, he became the archbishop for missionary work in the Diocese of Ohio and wrote his famous and popular The Church for Americans, which explained the beliefs of the Episcopal Church. This placed him in the national spotlight. He was consecrated assistant bishop of Arkansas in 1898 and succeeded to the bishopric after the death of Henry Niles Pierce.

His 1907 book The Crucial Race Question, which pandered to the views of segregationists, greatly angered the Northerners who usually contributed substantial sums to support his poor diocese. Brown created the Helen Dunlap School for Mountain Girls and a seminary to train a local ministry in Arkansas. From 1909 to 1910, he engaged in a sharp conflict with Trinity Cathedral in Little Rock (Pulaski County) over the issue of control over the cathedral and the refusal of the dean to read and compliment the bishop’s new book, The Level Plan of Church Union. This dispute further alienated many in Arkansas. The Level Plan rejected many practices of the Episcopal Church and angered many supporters, who promptly insisted he leave. In 1911, he returned to Galion, Ohio, and formally resigned as bishop of Arkansas in 1912, although he remained a bishop without a diocese.

Brown began reading Charles Darwin and other authors promoting a materialistic view of the world. After two years of reading and thinking, Brown announced his “conversion to science” in July 1913. He wrote to Episcopal bishops informing them of his “new” position. He rejected the historical Jesus. Most of the bishops ignored him.

Brown's evolution from Bishop of Arkansas (1899-1912), to finding an interest in Marxism, socialism, and Communism during the 1910s, to author of Communism and Christianism (1920), dramatically increased and challenged his influence in the church. It led to his heresy trial by the House of Bishops in 1924-25.

There he tried to prove to his fellow Bishops that they did not believe in a strict interpretation of the Bible any more than he then did. Nonetheless, Brown was deposed and excommunicated. However, while awaiting the final verdict on his deposition as Bishop in October 1925, he was offered a place in both the Russian Orthodox Church, which was heavily influenced by Soviet authorities at the time, and the Old Catholic Church. He opted for the latter and was consecrated an Old Catholic bishop in a ceremony conducted in his own study (originally St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church) in Galion. Because Old Catholic orders were accepted as valid by the Episcopal Church in the USA, Bishop Brown's position as a bishop in Apostolic Succession could not be challenged by his former church. Many Old Catholic bishops and churches of the present count Bishop Brown as in the line of succession of their bishops.

Brown felt that his real ministry began at age 71 when he started lecturing to the working class and writing a wider variety of books. This continued until his death in 1937.

Brownella Cottage in Galion Ohio was Brown's home from its construction 1885-1887 until his death, except for the years in Arkansas. It was built for Brown and his wife, Ella Scranton Bradford, by her aunt and adoptive mother, Mary Scranton Bradford, the wealthy philanthropist of Cleveland. The house reflected both the Bradford wealth and the high style of 1880s architecture in the United States. The house still stands as part monument to Brown, part museum for the town of Galion.

Works

File:Cover of Teachings of Marx for Girls and Boys by William Montgomery Brown 1935.jpg

Cover art for the paperback edition of Teachings of Marx for Girls and Boys (1935).

• The Church for Americans, (1891)
• The crucial race question, (1907)
• Communism and Christianism, analyzed and contrasted from the Marxian and Darwinian points of view. At least after 1928, Galion, Ohio, Bradford Brown educational company, inc.
• Teachings of Marx for girls and boys. 1935
• Human meaning of Christian doctrines
• My heresy; the autobiography of an idea. New York, John Day, 1926.
• Why I am a Communist. Galion, Ohio, Bradford Brown Publ. Co., 1932 .
• Communism, the new faith for a new world. Bishop Brown's appeal to Chicago's World Parliament of Religion [sub-title from cover]. Galion, Ohio The Bradford-Brown Educational Co. 1935
• Science and History: For Girls and Boys
• The Christian Way Out: A Criticism
• The Level Plan for Church Union
• The Bankruptcy of Christian Supernaturalism from the Viewpoint of the Trial
• The Bankruptcy of Christian Supernaturalism from the Viewpoint of Other Heretics in the Episcopal Church
• The Bankruptcy of Christian Supernaturalism from the Viewpoint of the World and the Church
• The Bankruptcy of Christian Supernaturalism from the Viewpoint of Science
• The Bankruptcy of Christian Supernaturalism from the Viewpoint of Philosophy
• The Bankruptcy of Christian Supernaturalism from the Viewpoint of Sociology
• The Bankruptcy of Christian Supernaturalism from the Viewpoint of the Bible
• The Bankruptcy of Christian Supernaturalism from the Viewpoint of History

Further reading

• In the Matter of the Presentment of Bishop William Montgomery Brown Church Advocate's Brief on Appeal (1924)
• William Montgomery Brown