Trying to Undermine Underwood

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Eleven minutes into a rambling avoidance of actually discussing the vampire theory, which never seems to get examined, Paul Adams mentions in passing that the late Peter Underwood knew both Montague Summers and Seán Manchester. He falsely describes Montague Summers as a "self-styled priest" and incorrectly titles Seán Manchester as "Mister" throughout. In fact, Montague Summers was a bona fide priest and, in the last years of his life, a bishop. Likewise, the correct formality for the Right Reverend Seán Manchester is "Bishop" and not "Mister." But when was Adams ever interested in paying attention to facts that might upset his collaborator David Farrant?

Adams also intimates that without Underwood's The Vampire's Bedside Companion the public would have been none the wiser about the case as it unfolded. This flies in the face of the fact that Seán Manchester was already planning to publish his full and unexpurgated account as soon as the case was satisfactorily resolved. His contribution to Peter Underwood's aforementioned anthology, by far the largest section of the book, was merely a precursor to his own The Highgate Vampire which, curiously, is a work that Paul Adams does not mention or refer to in this first part of the Symposium's alleged discussion of the vampire theory. Yet the account, first published by the British Occult Society and currently available in hardback from Gothic Press, was instrumental in acquainting the wider public with the investigation from start to finish. Peter Underwood's book contained a summary of the case up until and including the exorcism attempt in the summer of 1970.

  

The vampire theory, as far as Highgate is concerned, becomes forgotten as the video progresses, but not before Paul Adams concedes that, more than anyone else, Peter Underwood believed Seán Manchester knew what really happened. A mean-spirited attempt is then made by Adams to excuse Underwood's open support for Seán Manchester's account, but it can be seen for what it is, and does him no favours. The video concludes just as Adams turns to Farrant with mention of the convent girl identified in both Peter Underwood's and Seán Manchester's book who bore bite marks on her neck. Those attending the Symposium were shown on the screen behind the panel a photograph of the girl with the marks on her neck. This is occluded in the video version because no consent was given by Seán Manchester for its use. Its use and abuse, therefore, falls foul of copyright law. No doubt the second part of the Not the Vampire Theory session will commence with Farrant making false and unsupported allegations about a person and incidents of which he knows absolutely nothing.

As already stated, Paul Adams refers to Montague Summers as "self-styled." Here are some facts:

Montague Summers grew up in a wealthy family living in Clifton, near Bristol. Religion always played a large part in his life. He was raised as an evangelical Anglican, but his love of ceremonial and sacraments drew him to Anglo-Catholicism. After graduating in Theology at Oxford he took the first steps towards holy orders at Lichfield Theological College and entered his apprenticeship as a curate in the diocese of Bitton near Bristol. A year or so later he converted to Roman Catholicism. He had been made a deacon within the Church of England, and was diaconated again within the Roman Catholic Church, but it was not until he embraced the Old Catholic Church that he was ordained into the sacred priesthood. He celebrated Mass publicly when travelling abroad, but at home in England he only performed this sacrament in private. This was probably due to the fact that he was ordained into the priesthood outside the regular procedures of the Church. Old Catholic holy orders, albeit valid, are irregular in the eyes of Rome and Canterbury (the latter, of course, being the Church of England, is not accepted as being remotely valid by Rome). Montague Summers, in whose memory Seán Manchester would dedicate the revised and enlarged edition of The Highgate Vampire, entered the Old Catholic priesthood (having been diaconated in 1908 in the Church of England, and later joining the diaconate in the Roman Catholic Church, which he entered a year later). Bishop Summers was consecrated for the Order of Corporate Reunion on 21 June 1927 by Dominic Albert Godwin. He was later consecrated sub conditione on 21 March 1946 by Roger Stephen Matthews and appointed Nuncio for Great Britain. Like Bishop Seán Manchester, he wrote books about demonology whilst placing great emphasis on exorcism. Summers' biographer is the Carmelite Father Brocard Sewell.

None of Montague Summers' close friends doubted the sincerity of his religious faith. Dame Sybil Thorndike wrote of him: “I think that because of his profound belief in the tenets of orthodox Catholic Christianity he was able to be in a way almost frivolous in his approach to certain macabre heterodoxies. His humour, his ‘wicked humour’ as some people called it, was most refreshing, so different from the tiresome sentimentalism of so many convinced believers.”