John Chapman OSB
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John Chapman (25 April 1865 – 7 November 1933) was an English
Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
Abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the head of an independent monastery for men in various Western Christian traditions. The name is derived from ''abba'', the Aramaic form of the Hebrew ''ab'', and means "father". The female equivale ...
of
Downside Abbey Downside Abbey is a Benedictine monastery in England and the senior community of the English Benedictine Congregation. Until 2019, the community had close links with Downside School, for the education of children aged 11 to 18. Both the abbey ...
of the
English Benedictine Congregation The English Benedictine Congregation (EBC) is a congregation of autonomous Abbey, abbatial and Priory, prioral monastic communities of Catholic Church, Catholic Benedictine monks, nuns, and oblate (religion), lay oblates. It is technically the o ...
from 1929 until his death, and a
New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...
and
patristics Patristics, also known as Patrology, is a branch of theological studies focused on the writings and teachings of the Church Fathers, between the 1st to 8th centuries CE. Scholars analyze texts from both orthodox and heretical authors. Patristics e ...
scholar. He is best known for having founded one of the
private schools A private school or independent school is a school not administered or funded by the government, unlike a public school. Private schools are schools that are not dependent upon national or local government to finance their financial endowme ...
in
Britain Britain most often refers to: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...
: Worth, in
West Sussex West Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Surrey to the north, East Sussex to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Hampshire to the west. The largest settlement is Cr ...
.


Anglican background

Henry Palmer Chapman was born in Ashfield, Suffolk, the son of an Anglican
canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the material accepted as officially written by an author or an ascribed author * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western canon, th ...
of
Ely Cathedral Ely Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Ely, is an Church of England, Anglican cathedral in the city of Ely, Cambridgeshire, England. The cathedral can trace its origin to the abbey founded in Ely in 67 ...
. Because of delicate health, Henry was, at first, educated privately at home, and then later at
Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church (, the temple or house, ''wikt:aedes, ædes'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by Henry V ...
(1883–1886), where he received a first-class degree in Classical Greats. He stayed for a subsequent year at Oxford studying theology, in which he took a
third Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system Places * 3rd Street (di ...
(cf. the "gentleman's C" in the U.S.). It was an important year for him, however, because in this time he decided to be ordained in the
Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...
. Having trained at Cuddesdon near Oxford, Chapman was ordained as a
deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian denominations, such as the Cathol ...
in the Church of England in 1889 and began a curacy in the parish of St Pancras, London. He found himself increasingly troubled during this time about the position of the Church of England and left the parish soon after Trinity Sunday.


Conversion to Catholicism

In December 1890, Chapman was conditionally baptized in the
Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
at
Brompton Oratory Brompton Oratory, also known as the London Oratory, is a neo-classical late-Victorian Catholic parish church in the Brompton area of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, neighbouring Knightsbridge, London. Its name stems from Oratorian ...
. In April 1891 he entered the
Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
novitiate at Manresa House, Roehampton (now Parkstead House), but decided to leave after eight months. He subsequently entered the Benedictine Maredsous Abbey in Belgium, where he had been preceded by a friend from Cuddesdon, Bede Camm. Chapman was given the
religious name A religious name is a type of given name bestowed for religious purposes, and which is generally used in such contexts. Christianity Catholic Church Baptismal name In baptism, Catholic Church, Catholics are given a Christian name, which should n ...
of "John", and professed simple vows on 25 March 1893. He made his solemn vows on Whitsuntide 1895. After his priestly ordination in 1895, he went to Erdington Abbey, near
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
, where he stayed until 1912, serving the community as
novice master In the Christian Church, a novice master or master of novices (), is a member of an institute of consecrated life who is responsible for the training and government of the novitiate in that institute. In religious institutes for women, the novice ...
and later as
prior The term prior may refer to: * Prior (ecclesiastical), the head of a priory (monastery) * Prior convictions, the life history and previous convictions of a suspect or defendant in a criminal case * Prior probability, in Bayesian statistics * Prio ...
. Having spent nine months at Maredsous, in February 1913 Chapman was made temporary superior of the Caldey island community (now based at
Prinknash Abbey Prinknash Abbey (pronounced locally variously as "Prinidge/Prinnish") (International Phonetic Alphabet, IPA: ) is a Catholic Church in England and Wales, Roman Catholic monastery in the Vale of Gloucester in the Diocese of Clifton, near the vill ...
), when it was received into the Roman Catholic Church in 1913–14. At the outbreak of World War I, Chapman became a Professor of Theology at Downside Abbey, joining the many monks who had fled Maredsous to England. In early 1915, when these monks moved to Ireland, he became army
chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secular institution (such as a hospital, prison, military unit, intellige ...
to the British forces. After initial training, his brigade arrived in France in July 1915. He lived in the trenches in the autumn of 1915, until a persistent knee injury led to his hospitalization in November 1915. He was later stationed at Boyton Camp, Wiltshire, for several months, and then returned to France. At the end of 1917, he was transferred to Switzerland, where multilingual chaplains were needed for the
POW POW is "prisoner of war", a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict. POW or pow may also refer to: Music * P.O.W (Bullet for My Valentine song), "P.O.W" (Bull ...
camps. He remained there until the armistice.


4th Abbot of Downside

In 1919 Chapman transferred his monastic stability to
Downside Abbey Downside Abbey is a Benedictine monastery in England and the senior community of the English Benedictine Congregation. Until 2019, the community had close links with Downside School, for the education of children aged 11 to 18. Both the abbey ...
. He spent most of 1919 to 1922 in Rome, though, working on a commission on the revision of the
Vulgate The Vulgate () is a late-4th-century Bible translations into Latin, Latin translation of the Bible. It is largely the work of Saint Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels used by the Diocese of ...
translation of the Bible. He returned to Downside in 1922, where in 1929 the community elected him as abbot. As the fourth abbot of Downside, during his short term of four years, he helped transform Downside into a modern abbey in the mainstream of the Benedictine tradition and in 1933 became the founder of Worth Priory (which became independent of Downside in 1957 and Worth Abbey in 1965).


New Testament and patristics scholar

John Chapman not only read both Greek and Latin with facility, but also read and wrote French, Italian, and German. Many of his contributions to biblical scholarship and patristics have proved of lasting value, especially his work on
Cyprian Cyprian (; ; to 14 September 258 AD''The Liturgy of the Hours according to the Roman Rite: Vol. IV.'' New York: Catholic Book Publishing Company, 1975. p. 1406.) was a bishop of Carthage and an early Christian writer of Berbers, Berber descent, ...
,
John the Presbyter John the Presbyter was an obscure figure of the early Catholic Church who is either distinguished from or identified with the Apostle John and/or John of Patmos. He appears in fragments from the church father Papias of Hierapolis as one of the ...
, and on the priority of the Gospel according to Matthew that, so Chapman argued in support of the early Church tradition, was the first Gospel account to have been written (see also Synoptic Problem). Among the novices that Chapman clothed in the monastic habit was in 1932 John Bernard Orchard, who soon felt drawn to follow his Abbot into researching the priority of the Gospel according to Matthew in the light of the patristic evidence, and eventually, after also constructing a synopsis of the four Gospel accounts in Greek and English for the easier study of the compositional sequence Matthew-Luke-Mark-John that is supported by certain early Christian writers, produced what by hindsight may be considered a synthesis of his and his mentor's insights.


Spiritual director

In his day Chapman was a much sought-after spiritual director. He published a collection of letters under the title ''Spiritual Letters''.


Works

Chapman made a number of contributions to the ''Catholic Encyclopedia'' on the Early Church Fathers and Councils. * ''St Irenaeus and the Dates of the Gospels'', ''JTS'' 6 (1904-5): 563–9. * ''Notes on the Early History of the Vulgate Gospels'', Oxford 1908. * ''John the Presbyter'', Oxford 1911. * ''St Paul and the Revelation to St Peter'', ''Rev. Ben.'' 29 (1912): 133–47. * ''Studies on the Early Papacy'' (1928, repr. 1971). * ''Spiritual Letters'', posthumously, London 1935. * ''Matthew, Mark, and Luke'', posthumously (ed. J. M. T. Barton), London 1937. * ''The Condemnation of Pope Honorius'' (London, Catholic Truth Society, 1907).


References


External links


"St. Cyprian on the Church and the Papacy"

"The Condemnation of Pope Honorius"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chapman, John 1865 births 1933 deaths Military personnel from Suffolk People from Ely, Cambridgeshire 19th-century Anglican deacons Converts to Roman Catholicism from Anglicanism 19th-century English Roman Catholic priests 20th-century English Roman Catholic priests 19th-century Christian mystics 20th-century Christian mystics English Benedictines English Christian mystics Royal Army Chaplains' Department officers World War I chaplains British Army personnel of World War I Benedictine biblical scholars Patristic scholars Abbots of Downside Benedictine mystics English military chaplains Burials at Downside Abbey Contributors to the Catholic Encyclopedia 20th-century Christian abbots