Benjamin Petre (10 August 1672 – 22 December 1758) was an English Catholic prelate who served as Vicar Apostolic of the London District from 1734 until his death.

Life

He was born the son of John Petre (1617–1690) of Fidlers or Fithlers,

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

(who was a younger brother of William Petre the translator), by his second wife, Elizabeth, daughter of John Pincheon of Writtle. He was educated at the English College, Douai, and, after being admitted to the priesthood, became tutor to Lord Derwentwater, who was subsequently beheaded for treason. He was consecrated

titular bishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...

of Prusa on 11 November 1721, and appointed

coadjutor bishop A coadjutor bishop (or bishop coadjutor) ("co-assister" in Latin) is a bishop in the Latin Catholic, Anglican and (historically) Eastern Orthodox churches whose main role is to assist the diocesan bishop in administering the diocese. The coa ...

with right of succession Bonaventure Giffard, at that time vicar apostolic of the London district. Although the penal laws were no longer enforced with extreme rigor, the life of many Catholic priests was still a difficult one, especially in London. On Gifford's death on 12 March 1734, he succeeded to the vicariate. In 1739, Petre asked for Richard Challoner as coadjutor; and Challoner was duly consecrated in January 1741. Petre believed that as vicar apostolic of the London District, he had jurisdiction over all of

British America British America collectively refers to various British colonization of the Americas, colonies of Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and its predecessors states in the Americas prior to the conclusion of the American Revolutionary War in 1 ...

. However, responsibility had been "de facto" held by the English Province of the

Society of Jesus The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rome. It was founded in 1540 ...

. When the

Curia Curia (: curiae) in ancient Rome referred to one of the original groupings of the citizenry, eventually numbering 30, and later every Roman citizen was presumed to belong to one. While they originally probably had wider powers, they came to meet ...

discovered there had been no formal designation, it forwarded the documents to Petre, in January 1757.Vissani, O.S.F., Charles A., "Summary of the Catholic Religion in the English colonies in America", ''United States Catholic Historical Magazine'', Vol. 2, United States Catholic Historical Society., 1888, p. 211] Petre resided chiefly at Fidlers. He was buried in St Edmund's College, Ware. He was succeeded by Challoner.

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Petre, Benjamin 1672 births 1758 deaths Apostolic vicars of England and Wales 18th-century Roman Catholic bishops in England

Benjamin Benjamin ( ''Bīnyāmīn''; "Son of (the) right") blue letter bible: https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h3225/kjv/wlc/0-1/ H3225 - yāmîn - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (kjv) was the younger of the two sons of Jacob and Rachel, and Jacob's twe ...