Anglicans, Episcopalians, and the Unification of Italy

Abstract

In 1853, Rev. Frederick Meyrick promoted the creation of the Anglo-Continental Society with the aim of making the principles of the Church of England known to Catholic Europe through the publication and dissemination of Anglican theological books and treatises. From the beginning Italy was the main field of activity of this society, which, relying on the network of English chaplaincies, fostered the circulation of the Italian translations of the Book of Common Prayer in Italy. After 1870, the Anglo-Continental Society closely followed the developments of the Old Catholic movement in Italy and, between 1881 and 1903, promoted Enrico Campello’s National Catholic Church of Italy. One of the agents of the Anglo-Continental Society most active in Italy, the former Maltese Catholic priest Michel Angelo Camilleri, prepared a revision of the Italian Prayer Book, edited by the SPCK, that was published multiple times between 1861 and 1929.