Catholic Myths
Evan Morgan, Viscount Tredegar
Evan Morgan’s religious conversion to the Roman Catholic faith is a mystery….
MYTH
Evan Morgan was a Chamberlain to Two Popes
MYTH
Evan Morgan was the “right hand man to the Pope….”
MYTH
Evan Morgan frolicked in Rome’s Protestant Cemetery over the grave of Percy B Shelley….
MYTH
THESE MYTHS ARE CONSIDERED BELOW
EVAN MORGAN'S RELIGIOUS CONVERSION TO THE ROMAN CATHOLIC FAITH IS A MYSTERY ........MYTH
Evan’s conversion to Roman Catholicism is not a mystery. From 1914 at Oxford University instead of attending Christ Church College, Evan partied, and later became known at Lady Ottoline’s Morrell’s safe house of Garsington Manor, a walled establishment kitted out for those whose mothers helped their sons opt out of war service or had health issues, or both.
Evan failed to take a degree at Oxford but even after being sent down he continued to socialise there and rented rooms. He was influenced by Oxford Catholic men like Father Ronald Knox and G K Chesterton, and in London at Farm Street Chapel by Father C C Martindale.
At first the allure was the Catholic Church’s pretty posy of novice monks and angelic young priests, then it was more to do with Evan’s headiness for choosing a way of upsetting his father, Lord Tredegar; the Morgans were largely non -Catholic. Press headlines from 1920 of Evan becoming a monk were entirely designed to irk his father. In reality Evan had arranged to stay for a short time in several Catholic retreats in the USA, to build up his crippled lungs.
It would be churlish, despite Evan’s darker proclivities and seedy life style to take away from him an intention to gain a certain knowledge of the Catholic faith, his poetry and later lectures to the Royal Society of Literature expound with Catholic imagery, albeit it was made clear as crystal on a visit to the present day Rector and staff at Beda College in Rome in 2009 that Evan’s studies there in the 1920s ended in disgrace over a homosexual affair. The College records of Evan's study years have been destroyed. Short lines survive in the Archives of when Evan entered and when he left Beda College.
EVAN MORGAN WAS A CHAMBERLAIN TO TWO POPES..... MYTH
Research in Rome and documents held ( and published in several of my books on Evan ) from the Vatican Secret Archives found under the personal guidance of the Vice Prefect, Father Marcel Chappin, indicate that in 1922 Pope Benedict XV died before Evan had secured his lay post as a Chamberlain and he had to resubmit his case to the new Pope, Pius XI. The result of this is that Evan was only confirmed as a Chamberlain to one Pope. Pius XI. Although the post of Chamberlain was for life, Evan was not allowed to continue in the role after Pius died in 1939.
EVAN MORGAN WAS "RIGHT HAND MAN TO THE POPE"..... MYTH
This is a incredulous statement, the only person who thought so was Evan himself, with talk of phoning the Pope most weeks. All the Catholic scholars approached are clear that no Pope would have been that accessible to a lay Chamberlain without a Cardinal’s close involvement, and even then the layman would be kept at arm’s length.
Evan was for instance only in the Pope’s presence at special ceremonies e.g. when he [ Evan] was presented to King George V and Queen Mary as an English Chamberlain ( along with others) on their visit to the Vatican in the 1920s.
Evan’s personal case in Rome of being a convert who wished to study for the priesthood was familiar to several Cardinals – who dined with Evan- and Shane Leslie refers to this in his memoirs. Shane was appointed an Irish Chamberlain at the same time as Evan. Evan’s unsuitability for the priesthood soon became apparent as did revelations and cover ups about his homosexual proclivities, and Leslie refers to the advice given ( from on high, certainly at Cardinal level and with nodding agreement from the Pope) that Evan should leave Rome and marry. Although an absurd idea, a "matrimonial essay " was exactly what followed in 1928 when Evan married Lois Sturt.
EVAN MORGAN FROLICKED IN ROME'S PROTESTANT CEMETERY OVER THE GRAVE OF PERCY B SHELLEY...MYTH
Any truth of Evan’s noctural, naked frolics, with suggestions of conducting a black mass ritual in the Protestant Cemetery in Rome over the grave of Percy B Shelley are not corroborated by reliable sources.
Although this claim is mentioned in the memoirs Robin Bryans, he was not a eye witness, Evan was only trying to impress his young teenage lover, Bryans was barely aged 16 when he entered Evan’s bed.
Clothed, the spectacle of Evan in a dark cloak and showing his ‘beak’ through the slit of a mask is not matched with any evidence or a reference or narrative from those in Rome who were residents and regulars and Evan’s chums in the Eternal City. Those like Augustus John, Gerald Berners, Shane Leslie and Sir Alec Randall – who have all written first- hand accounts of Evan’s Roman phase- make no mention of any such outrage of him performing a black mass or Celtic or poetical incantation, although the latter act from a fellow bard in earshot of Shelley, or Keats would be innocent enough, even worthy.
Evan was befriended by the Archbishop of Cardiff, by English Cardinals Gasquet and Bourne –and other senior clergy in London and in the Vatican. He was thought a fantasist who lived in a fantasy world, someone who was adept in circumventing the confessional, but he could be forgiven and offered absolution since he was a very rich Catholic patron in Rome and South Wales.
ANY COMMENTS ON THIS POSTING PLEASE E-MAIL THE AUTHOR WILLIAM CROSS
TO BE CONTINUED