Charles Anselm Bolton (born c. 1905, obituary published 2 December 1970) was for many years a priest of the Roman Catholic Church, being the Priest of Salford Diocese in 1950,[1] as well as author of numerous books and articles, mostly relating to the history of the Roman Catholic Church.

He was born at Longridge, a small town and civil parish in the borough of Ribble Valley in Lancashire, England.[2] His education was continental, beginning with a Bachelor's Degree from Belgium's Louvain, and with theological diplomas from the Institut Catholique de Paris and from Rome's Collegio S. Anselmo.[1][2] He was ordained as a priest in 1930.[3]

He was a professor of history and of the English, French, Russian and German languages at St Bede's College, Manchester, where he taught for over 20 years.[2] He left after the first year to attend Oxford University, obtaining a master's degree in history and a diploma in education in 1932, and returning to St Bede's.[2]

In 1950, he wrote a history of the diocese of Salford.[2] He was then appointed to the parish at Clayton-le-Moors, a small industrial town two miles north of Accrington in the borough of Hyndburn, his first appointment as a parish priest.[2] He was later made parish priest of the Heaton Norris parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, Greater Manchester.[2] He then moved to St. Louis, Missouri to teach at a Benedictine school.[2] Finally, he went to Belmont Abbey, Herefordshire, from which he retired from the priesthood.[2]

He later followed Friedrich Heiler and others in preaching Reformation doctrines, and became a professor of modern languages at Houghton College, New York.[1] By 1963, Bolton was described in a Delaware County Daily Times article as a "former Catholic priest."[3][4] A 1963 advertisement in the Mansfield, Ohio News-Journal promoted a series of sermons by Bolton, described as "a Modern Martin Luther" who had been ordained to Roman Catholic priesthood in 1930 and converted to evangelical faith in 1962,[5] and the next year an advertisement in The Boston Globe promoted a sermon by Bolton as "the amazing story of a religious leader whose life was changed by reading the Jansenist Reformers."[6]

He died in Pontypridd, Glamorgan at the age of 66.[2]

Writings edit

References edit

  1. ^ a b c Father Charles Anselm Bolton in "Beyond the Ecumenical: Pan-deism?" in Christianity Today, 1963, page 21.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Rev. C. A. Bolton", The Guardian, London, 2 Dec. 1970, page 5.
  3. ^ a b "Belmont Baptists Book Pulpit Guest", Delaware County Daily Times, Chester, Pennsylvania, 25 May 1963, Daily page 8.
  4. ^ "Belmont Has Guest", Delaware County Daily Times, Chester, Pennsylvania, 18 May 1963, page 13.
  5. ^ "Hear a Modern Martin Luther", News-Journal, Mansfield, Ohio, 20 July 1963, page 2.
  6. ^ "My Path into Christ's Joy", The Boston Globe, Boston, Massachusetts, 14 February 1964, page 25.