Arthur Howarth (1868-1942)
ARTHUR William Howarth (son of Thomas Howarth and Anne Collins) was born 1868 in Bradford, Yorkshire and became the Bishop of Corby (Glen). He was only one to hold the post.
Originally a Methodist, Fr Howarth was appointed Roman Catholic priest in the village in 1900.
Everything went well until in he was consecrated in 1919 as a Bishop by Arnold Harris Mathew, who unfortunately had no power to do so.
Fr Arthur Howarth did for confessions what Henry Ford did for the motor car. He mass produced them and made them profitable.
He advertised mail order confessions, where the ‘sinner’ sent 10 shillings to Corby RC Church and they were forgiven en masse.
Whole cartloads of mail from Ireland were delivered from Corby Station.
This enabled him to build himself a rather fine house in the village.
He was eventually excommunicated by the Pope in 1925.
But he wasn’t finished. He wrote a pamphlet called the Tyrannies of the Roman Catholic Church, which caused uproar in the Vatican.
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