The Cross & The Stake

Interested parties who wish to receive documentary evidence held against Illtyd Thomas should contact Bishop Seán Manchester. In the meantime, the following facts, supported by witness testimony, are communicated to clear up any ambiguity or uncertainty that may exist:

—— When Bishop Seán Manchester and others in his church who accompanied him first made contact with Illtyd Thomas in early 1990, they did so as an existing church that Bishop Seán Manchester led.

—— At no time during Bishop Seán Manchester’s period preparing for diaconation, ordination to the priesthood and episcopal consecration was he under an Oath of Canonical Obedience to Illtyd Thomas.

—— At no time did Bishop Seán Manchester sign anything resembling an Instrument of Canonical Obedience to Illtyd Thomas. He has always maintained his independence.

—— It was always understood during Bishop Seán Manchester’s preparation for Holy Orders that he did so as an extant and independent church and, therefore, remained autocephalous before, during and after the threefold ordinations that transmitted lines of apostolic succession, which was the sole object of the exercise.

—— Three bishops took part in the episcopal consecration of Bishop Manchester in October 1991, including Bishop Michael Weston of Ealing, London, and Bishop James Henry Vermeulen of Holland.

It is uncanonical for Illtyd Thomas or anyone else to lay claim to possess power to “laicise” Bishop Seán Manchester. Illtyd Thomas claimed this after falling under the influence of a convicted felon and pseudo-occultist by the name of David Farrant in early 2007. Such allegations instantly render the claimant suspect as any action of this kind would be regarded uncanonical and without meaning by other churches. David Farrant had been waging a malicious vendetta against traditional Christians in general and Bishop Seán Manchester in particular for a great many years. Farrant had criminal convictions for malicious vandalism in a cemetery, indecency in a churchyard, tomb desecration by the use of black magic, threatening witnesses in a colleague’s sex case with voodoo “death dolls” transfixed with pins (Farrant’s colleague was later found guilty of sexually assaulting a young boy), illegal possession of a firearm, and theft from a hospital. Farrant was sentenced to a term of four years and eight months imprisonment at London’s Old Bailey in June 1974. He evinced absolutely no remorse following his release and exponentially worsened with time.

A member of the Ecclesiastical Law Society brought to our attention documentary evidence that Illtyd Thomas had a criminal conviction for theft, has blessed homosexual “unions” and has wittingly “ordained” sexually active sodomites. Illtyd Thomas also cultivated a close association with the one of the most notorious paedophiles in criminal history in the UK – Roger Gleaves – who “ordained” him sub conditione (we now possess copies of the “Instruments”) despite Illtyd Thomas always having strenuously denied this allegation against him. He is also known to have had associations with various other paedophiles, many of whom are now deceased. It had been known for a long time that Illtyd Thomas had had innumerable occult connections – including Masons, Theosophists and sundry occultists – some of whom he illicitly ordained. David Farrant, possibly Britain’s most infamous self-publicist in phoney witchcraft and pseudo-occultism, befriended Illtyd Thomas in early 2007, having been an invited guest to Illtyd Thomas’ Muswell Hill home in north London. Farrant, who lived on state benefits throughout his entire life (23 January 1946 - 19 April 2019), resided less than a mile from Illtyd Thomas in an attic bed-sitting room occupied since his parole release from prison.

Since colluding with Farrant in early 2007, Illtyd Thomas had been the subject of much discussion and concern by innumerable Old Catholic jurisdictions in the UK. It had already been decided to excommunicate Illtyd Thomas upon discovery in December 2006 that he was still alive. He had been investigated thoroughly with due consideration since documentary evidence was received in 2002.

Hence, at thirteen hundred hours, ie 1.00 pm (GMT), on the Feast of St David, the former bishop of the autocephalous Old Catholic jurisdiction known as the “Celtic Catholic Church” was duly excommunicated on the grounds of violating the sacred species and his office by ordaining and consecrating sexually active homosexuals, paedophiles, occultists and criminals; being guilty of heresy by accepting sexually active homosexual, paedophile and occultic clergy, and colluding with a malefic individual who is a pseudo-occultist, ie David Farrant, to do harm to the ministry, church and person of another autocephalous jurisdiction overseen by Bishop Seán Manchester. The excommunication was officiated and led by Bishop Manchester using the traditional formula in the Roman Rite.

Bishop Seán Manchester’s statement (published March 1st 2007) on Illtyd Thomas

“It was brought to our attention toward the end of 2006 that, much to our surprise, Illtyd Thomas still remains alive. Due to his age and infirmity, we had thought him long since deceased. Illtyd Thomas evinces no website, no internet presence, no known clergy and no known ecclesial activity beyond occasionally ordaining inappropriate candidates. In the last handful of years he has ordained and consecrated active homosexuals who were also openly Theosophist with transparent occult leanings and esoteric involvement.

“We have not maintained contact since last seeing Illtyd Thomas soon after our episcopal consecration by Bishops Vermeulen, Weston and Thomas on the Feast of St Francis of Assisi 1991. The time spent with Illtyd Thomas was less than fifteen months in which period we witnessed nothing seriously untoward save on our very last visit to Illtyd Thomas’ home in Muswell Hill, London. Homo-erotic material in the form of a calendar depicting naked males was on display which Illtyd Thomas attributed to a visitor whom he was allowing to stay at his home. We consequently never visited again and severed all contact. We had approached Illtyd Thomas in spring of 1990 as an extant Church, established some seventeen years prior, with view to the transmission of lines of Apostolic Succession. This much was achieved with our diaconation in June 1990, ordination to the priesthood in July 1990, and elevation to the episcopate in October 1991. At no time during all this were we under an Instrument or Oath of Canonical Obedience to Illtyd Thomas.

“The comments about Illtyd Thomas on pages 91-92 of the book about our ecclesial history and its roots, The Grail Church (1995), were made in good faith. Illtyd Thomas was at that time given the benefit of the doubt. Then came Simmons’ overture to a member of our Church who had been with us from the beginning as a founder-member of Ordo Sancti Graal inaugurated at Easter 1973 (as recounted at the time in public annals and The Grail Church). The disturbing opening line from the pederast John Simmons in a letter, dated April 1st, 1995, to Br Keith Maclean states: ‘My good friend Bishop Illtyd Thomas has passed me your address and suggested that I should write to you.’ Simmons then went on to say that Illtyd Thomas mentioned to him that Br Keith Maclean was working towards his ordination and Simmons was ‘urgently looking for those interested in the priesthood.’

“John Simmons, quite apart from being invalid (Illtyd Thomas informed us that no evidence existed of him ever being diaconated which allowed for the Instrument of Release and Degradation issued in 1986 to be an appropriate course of action), had been subsequently anathematised and not without good reason. Simmons was a man with a history of deception resulting in imprisonment, who associated with pederasts, and who lived with a former rent boy. He extracted large sums of money from strangers, mostly individuals visiting from America, looking to be ‘ordained’ and ‘consecrated’ by Simmons (all on the same day) in his small garage. When John Simmons died there was no provision made for a religious service (he received a secular one), and his male lover was quickly evicted by his mother from the house they had occupied. Yet nine years after being released and degraded by Illtyd Thomas, this man was allegedly given a private address in order to write and offer to one of the twelve founder members of Ordo Sancti Graal an ‘ordination.’ This we found unacceptable in the extreme and impossible to reconcile with respect for our autocephalous Catholic Church.

“Let us remind ourselves of the offences that we know about which resulted in John Simmons receiving a jail term:

“Mr Simmons was given two-year concurrent sentences for nine admitted offences of obtaining property or services by deception in January 1984, when he asked for 45 similar offences to be taken into consideration.” (Kentish Express, March 20th, 1986).

“John Simmons, 44, has started an 18 months prison term for deception. Simmons pretended to be a missionary in West Africa to obtain sacred items from convents which he then sold by mail order from his Ashford home. Knightsbridge Crown Court was told it was not the first time Simmons has been in trouble. In 1984 he was jailed for two years for obtaining property or services by deception. And in 1986 Simmons left a trail of bad debts around Ashford. He has since been declared officially bankrupt. During the two-week trial Simmons denied six counts of obtaining property by deception and attempted deception. Some of the vestments and church ornaments he stole were said to be extremely valuable.” (Kentish Express, October 4th, 1990).

“Then there are the ‘ordinations’ received by Illtyd Thomas from Roger Gleaves. Though he has strenuously denied in the past that these ordinations took place, we received in 2002 evidence in the form of copies of the ‘Instruments’ themselves which clearly show that Illtyd Thomas was diaconated and priested sub-conditione by the notorious pederast and convicted felon Roger Charles Augustine Gleaves, Bishop of Medway of the Episcopal Apostolic Church on July 23rd, 1977, at the Oratory of St Michael the Archangel, Muswell Hill, London. This association with Gleaves is impossible to explain away. We only came into possession of these documents when a lawyer and member of the Ecclesiastical Law Society, now also a bishop, included them when he communicated the following:

“Thomas on this evidence is a liar, a thief, a sodomite, and a sexual pervert who has the temerity to describe his foul behaviour on his own church notepaper. He was ordained to all his Orders up to the priesthood by Roger Gleaves, probably the most infamous paedophile in British legal history.” (Correspondence received from Bishop Barry Peachey, May 29th, 2002).

“The documents all bear Illtyd Thomas’ very recognisable handwriting and signature. One in particular, for example, is written on Illtyd Thomas’ notepaper with his familiar seal imprinted by a rubber stamp. It is dated February 11th, 1986, and written to ‘John.’ It begins:

“I have sent the letter to Bishop Dominic, also I have enclosed the photograph of Mark, it is not a good one but no doubt it will give you some idea of what he looks like. He has a fine good body and a joy to see when he is naked.” (Correspodence from Illtyd Thomas to ‘John,’ February 11th, 1986).

“It continues for the remainder of the page in the most pornographic and unrepeatable fashion imaginable, eventually signing off with a postscript about the arthritis in his fingers. We have seen enough examples of Illtyd Thomas’ handwriting, syntax and style in the past to know this correspondence to be authentic. ‘Bishop Dominic’ is clearly Dominic Pyle-Bridges who was convicted of serious sex offences, and was reported by Russell Hotten in the Friern Barnet Chronicle, May 30th, 1985, to have been ‘consecrated’ by ‘Illtyd Thomas, an archbishop in the Celtic Catholic Church’ in a service at the Muswell Hill Centre, Hillfield Park. In the previous year, Pyle-Bridges appeared in a London court under the name Stanley Bridges and was fined £80 for committing gross indecency with two male teachers in a Soho theatre. Why would Illtyd Thomas want to even consider ordaining sex perverts such as Pyle-Bridges and Simmons while receiving superfluous ordinations himself sub-conditione from one of the most vile pederasts to have ever drawn breath?

“A point that often puzzles non-Catholics is that once valid Holy Orders have been bestowed, according to normative Roman Catholic canon law, there is no power on earth that can remove them. This applies even if the priest or bishop has been criminally convicted, regardless of his state of sin, and also in the event that he is heretical or simonistic. The Donatist heresy established many centuries ago that the validity of a sacrament is in no way dependent on the character or actions of the clergyman concerned. Illtyd Thomas, therefore, would remain until his death in valid Holy Orders. His lines of Apostolic Succession derived from such as +W A Barrington Evans, +A W J Williams and +Bertil Persson, and those who inherit them such as our Church, are obviously unaffected.

“The right to excommunicate, however, is an immediate and necessary consequence of the fact that the Church is a society. Every society has the right to exclude and deprive of their rights and social advantages its unworthy or grievously culpable members, either temporarily or permanently. This right is necessary to every society in order that it may be well administered and survive. The fundamental proof, therefore, of the Church’s right to excommunicate is based on her status as a spiritual society, whose members, governed by legitimate authority, seek one and the same end through suitable means. Members who, by their obstinate disobedience, reject the means of attaining this common end deserve to be removed from such a society. Notice was, therefore, served early in 2007 by Ecclesia Vetusta Catholica (a traditional Old Catholic Church in Great Britain), that Illtyd Thomas, former Bishop of an autocephalous jurisdiction known as the ‘Celtic Catholic Church’ would be excommunicated on March 1st, 2007.”

Response to Ecclesia Vetusta Catholica from David Sattman

“When I had first heard that Bishop Illtyd Thomas had been formally excommunicated with bell, book, and candle, a most solemn and ancient rite rarely used in modern times, I thought Bishop Manchester had overreacted or perhaps even overstepped his bounds. I especially thought so in light of Bishop Thomas’ advanced old age and the likelihood that some amount of dementia has set in.

“But then upon further reflection I considered how long Bishop Thomas has been associating with the avowed enemies of Bishop Manchester and the level of vitriol these people have heaped on Bishop Manchester for all these decades. Furthermore Bishop Thomas has chosen to befriend this notorious band of cut-throats and be taken into the bosom of hell by his own free will. No one forced him to do it, it was his own decision. I believe that he understands what it was he was doing and that the consequences of association with these vile necromancers and diabolists would lead to his excommunication.

“Perhaps some people may think that Bishop Manchester was rather melodramatic using the ancient rite as he did, but the gravity of falling out of the grace of the Church of God must be pointed out in no uncertain terms and that the solemn gravity of excommunication via bell, book, and candle was necessary to drive home this point.

“I pray for the possibility that Bishop Thomas may still, even at this late stage of the game, recant his association with the sworn enemies of Bishop Manchester, repent of his sins, and perhaps still enjoy a return to Christ. It seems however, that his hard heartedness will not allow this. Too bad!

“I wish the Roman Pontiff would excommunicate a few bishops within the fold of the Latin Rite. But then there is the danger of one of these people claiming ‘martyrdom’ as a sort of ‘sacrificial lamb’ on behalf of the liberals and the onset of schism.”

Response to Bishop Seán Manchester from Brother Keith Maclean OSG

“It is difficult to say anything with regard to Illtyd Thomas — you have said it all. Simmons and Thomas seem to have been birds of a feather, along with Gleaves. The early connection with Gleaves is indicative of the worst. All I can say is that you have handled the matter perfectly. That malefic and vicious opposition which you face from such people is a seal of approval on your ministry.”

Response to Ecclesia Vetusta Catholica from an Old Catholic Bishop

“We agree that the action which Illtyd Thomas threatened would be both uncanonical and unwise. He is, however, clearly very frightened of David Farrant and his judgement is impeded by this.”

Illtyd Thomas seated between diabolists Gareth Medway (far left) and David Farrant (far right).

“Ever since I became aware that Highgate Cemetery was the reputed haunt of a vampire, the investigations and activities of Seán Manchester commanded my attention. I became convinced that, more than anyone else, the president of the Vampire Research Society knew the full story of the Highgate Vampire which is probably the most remarkable contemporary account of vampiric activity and infestation ~ and cure. Can such things as vampires really exist? The evidence seems to be overwhelming and the author [of The Highgate Vampire book] is to be congratulated on his knowledgeable and lucid account of the case which is likely to become one of the classic works on this interesting and mystifying subject.”

~ Peter Underwood, President of the Ghost Club Society, Life-Member of the Vampire Research Society, highly respected paranormal investigator and author of over fifty books about the supernatural.

In 1990, Peter Underwood retold the events of the Highgate Vampire case (up to the first discovery of the suspect tomb in Highgate Cemetery) in his book Exorcism! He commented in chapter six: “The Hon Ralph Shirley told me in the 1940s that he had studied the subject in some depth, sifted through the evidence and concluded that vampirism was by no means as dead as many people supposed; more likely, he thought, the facts were concealed. … My old friend Montague Summers has, to his own satisfaction, at least, traced back ‘the dark tradition of the vampire’ until it is ‘lost amid the ages of a dateless antiquity’.”

In his anthology, The Vampire's Bedside Companion (1975) which contains a chapter with photographic evidence from the Vampire Research Society, written and contributed by Bishop Seán Manchester, Peter Underwood wrote: “Alleged sightings of a vampire-like creature ~ a grey spectre ~ lurking among the graves and tombstones have resulted in many vampire hunts. … In 1968, I heard first-hand evidence of such a sighting and my informant maintained that he and his companion had secreted themselves in one of the vaults and watched a dark figure flit among the catacombs and disappear into a huge vault from which the vampire … did not reappear. Subsequent search revealed no trace inside the vault but I was told that a trail of drops of blood stopped at an area of massive coffins which could have hidden a dozen vampires.” And probably did! In the previous year, two schoolgirls had reported seeing the spectre rise from its tomb. One of these would eventually be interviewed by Bishop Seán Manchester. The case of the Highgate Vampire was about to open.

Bishop Manchester, then as now, held fast to traditional Christianity, having also studied the paranormal and the occult. During the 1970s and 1980s he sometimes operated covertly within occult circles to gain first-hand intelligence. This much became apparent in 1988 with the publication of From Satan To Christ and in 1997 it was again confirmed in The Vampire Hunter's Handbook.

The reason why Bishop Seán Manchester initially wrote his bestselling book (The Highgate Vampire) was due to so many people contacting him to ask what really happened. Letters ran into hundreds, and this accumulated following the commission from Peter Underwood and his publisher, Leslie Frewin Books, to give an account of events up to and including the failed exorcism of August 1970. Bishop Manchester thought this might stem the flow, but the case itself was not yet solved, and reports of unsavoury incidents continued to filter into the columns of local newspapers. Hence the complete and unexpurgated account first published in 1985. A more intimate account was given in a special edition published by Gothic Press in 1991 where the rear fly on the dust jacket states:

“[The author] recognises the immense public interest in the Highgate Vampire case which is why he has written the present volume as a final comment on what, in his own words, is ‘hopefully the last frenzied flutterings of a force so dight with fearful fascination that even legend could not contain it’.”

It was never Bishop Manchester's intention to try and convince anyone of the existence of the supernatural; yet still he receives correspondence asking him to do precisely that. Nor was it his wish to stimulate undue interest in these matters; though he accepts this has been an unintended consequence. By writing a comprehensive recounting of those events surrounding the mystery, he merely sought to provide a record of his unearthly experience for those who wanted to read about it.

In the wake of his book, and personal appearances where he discussed its contents, some individuals were not slow to engage in shameless exploitation of his work. The majority of enthusiastic readers of Bishop Seán Manchester's work, however, have shown immense empathy and encouragement.