Ampleforth Journal 80:3 (1975) 38-47
Editor's note: Prosper Louis Pascal Guéranger, first Abbot of Solesmes and great liturgical revivalist, died a century ago in 1875. His centenary should not go unmarked in our pages for, through his writings and through the influence he had upon a monk of Ampleforth who became chaplain to the nuns of Stanbrook, he made a significant contribution to the English monastic revival of the late nineteenth century. What follows is an account of the lifework of his principal disciple in England. The author took a First at Oxford in German. In 1935 she entered Stanbrook Abbey, where she became novice mistress and then Prioress. As English-speaking member of the editorial group responsible for Regulae Benedicti Studia, she attended the international congress at Maria Laach, and the Free Association of Benedictine Nuns have also elected her to represent them at the meeting of German abbesses in October.
The way in which James Shepherd first came to Ampleforth was as astonishing as it was disedifying. On a summer day in 1836 the ten-year-old boy was waiting in Liverpool at the Grecian Hotel (owned by his father) for Dr Appleton, Prior of Douai, who was to escort him overseas to be educated at St Edmund's, where his brother Thomas was already a pupil. Suddenly an Ampleforth monk from Seel Street arrived on the scene, and exclaiming, 'Why boy, you are in a high fever!', seized him, carried him upstairs and put him to bed. The monk then came downstairs and explained to Mrs Shepherd that the boy was unfit to travel. Dr Appleton could not delay his journey, so a few days later the Shepherds were persuaded to let James set out for Ampleforth with the monk from Seel Street and a group of three other boys. Considering all that his association with Ampleforth was to mean for James himself and for Benedictines in England, one is tempted to excuse the craftiness of the kidnapper and echo St Augustine's 'Non mendacium sed mysterium'. At the same time it is interesting to note that James inherited his parents' guilelessness, and incidentally also that, owing to genuine ill health in later life, he was not infrequently to fall into the ministering hands of anxious well-wishers.
In many ways James Shepherd was well prepared for school life. He was one of a family of ten and used to discipline, as his father, who had served under Wellington, ruled the household with military precision. Both parents were exemplary Catholics. James had already been at two other schools. At one he had endured the grim experience of spending a night locked into the dormitory along with the corpse of the deceased headmaster!
Once arrived at Ampleforth he remained there for seven years without even going home for the holidays during the first five. He made his First Communion at school and was confirmed not long afterwards. He is said to have worked hard, especially at Latin, and he proved to have an exceptional gift for music. Singing was a delight to him and he played the cello. He was also fond of games and seems to have over-exerted himself physically. Being a particularly agile climber, he was once released from the Penance Walk to swarm up a tree, about to be felled, to attach a rope to it. His brother Ambrose, who followed him to school at Ampleforth, bore witness years later to James's unfailing kindness and patience during the four years they were together.
James's vocation grew naturally and almost imperceptibly out of his school life. Looking back later, he was convinced that, if he had spent more time at home during those early years, his love for music would have carried him away and his vocation would have been lost. As it was, he entered the noviciate, receiving the name of Br Laurence. He was clothed on 14 August, 1843, and solemnly professed on 28 August of the following year, at the age of nineteen. On the day after his solemn profession he was appointed Sacristan.
Fr Anselm Cockshoot, then prior of Ampleforth, being anxious to raise the standard of the training given to the young monks of the house, decided to send Brothers Austin Bury and Laurence Shepherd to the monastery of San Giovanni at Parma. Br Austin was to study philosophy and theology while Br Laurence concentrated on liturgy, ceremonies and chant. It seems not unlikely that Prior Cockshoot's plan set the course of Br Laurence's whole life. He had been marked out as an instrument for the renewal of monastic observance: to that cause he would devote himself. He did in fact pursue this aim with the directness of an arrow making for the bull's-eye. Brother Austin had the more outstanding intellect and was to play a prominent part in the life of the congregation. Actually, as things turned out, they were to champion opposing camps.
The Abbot of San Giovanni, Dom Odoardo Bianchi, welcomed the two young Englishmen with the utmost kindness on their arrival at Parma in September 1845. Designated clerici abbatiales, they were lodged in the abbatial suite, and much of their instruction was given by the abbot himself. In later life Fr Laurence especially recalled how the abbot would take him out for walks, book in hand; undeterred even by rain, they would walk arm in arm, one holding an umbrella and the other the book. At first Brother Laurence dutifully studied ceremonies, but within a few months the abbot wrote to Prior Cockshoot suggesting that he should be allowed to do the course of philosophy and theology along with Brother Austin, to which the Prior willingly agreed. Throughout his whole life Fr Laurence preserved the notes he had made from books by Sordi, Dom Carea, Piccolomini and Taparelli. A side effect of his stay at Parma was that it gave him a life-long prejudice against the system of temporary abbots. There were about half a dozen ex-abbots in that community, and he noticed the complications to which this gave rise.
This educational idyll was brought to an abrupt end by the outbreak of revolution in 1848. Brother Laurence actually witnessed the escape of the Duchess and her family as their carriages dashed through the city gates. When news of the situation reached England, the two English monks were recalled. After a brief visit to Rome they accordingly arrived back at Ampleforth in August 1848. In December of the same year Brother Laurence was ordained deacon, and his ordination to the priesthood took place on 2 December of the following year, 1849.
Prior Ambrose Prest shared the ideas of his predecessor with regard to the role that this young monk was marked out for. He was first given experience as prefect in the school and then, in October 1850, appointed novice master. Four years later he was to be made subprior as well; he also held the office of M.C. and had charge of the lay-brothers. He thus had immense scope for influencing the community.
Fr Laurence threw himself into his work as novice master with a great sense of responsibility; his first two novices were already nearing the end of their noviciate when he took over, but they were followed by five new candidates, with whom he could start from scratch. There seems to have been no adequate tradition in the house at that time regarding the spiritual formation of the novices, and Fr Laurence looked around rather desperately for books on which to base his instructions, feeling that something more was required than Rodriguez and St Francis de Sales. He got hold of several commentaries on the Rule and epitomised Fr Baker's Holy Wisdom for the novices. One day an advertisement arrived for the first five volumes of Dom Guéranger's L'Année Liturgique. Though he had seen and rejected the first volume at Parma, it occurred to him now that these books might turn out to be exactly what he was looking for. As librarian – for he was that as well – he got leave to order them. Their success was immediate; the novices were delighted with the extracts he shared with them, so were the lay-brothers. A new vision of the incalculable dimensions of the Church began to open up before them. Another decisive moment had been reached in the life of Fr Laurence: it was to Dom Guéranger that he would in future look for inspiration in his efforts for monastic reform.
A little knowledge of human nature and experience of community life would be enough to enable one to forecast the next stage in Fr Laurence's career. Harbouring in its midst a sagitta electa may be uncomfortable for a community. Already as Prefect Fr Laurence had been suspected of wanting to substitute patristic readings for the Latin classics, a thing he had no intention of doing. Later he was criticised for introducing Fr Baker's teaching into the noviciate. Growing resentment of his reforming zeal and of the aspirations of his young disciples culminated in a toast being proposed 'Down with the Reformers!' Fr Wilfrid Cooper, who became prior in 1854, was apparently less inclined to support his subprior than his predecessor would have been. Fr Laurence felt unable to face the situation and asked to be sent on the mission. Fr Clement Worsley, then stationed at Bath, begged to be allowed to have him as an assistant.
It was at this critical moment that Fr Laurence paid his first visit to Solesmes. He was to return practically every year until the end of his life. This first visit fulfilled his expectations, and his friendship with Dom Guéranger became something unique in the life of both. The younger monk would sit every evening, pencil in hand, jotting down notes of the abbot's answers to his endless questions about monastic life, theology, history, liturgy or patrology. The friendship strikes one nowadays as exaggeratedly one-sided, and one would wish that Fr Laurence had been more confidently aware of all that he had to offer Dom Guéranger, but in those days it seemed an ideal relationship. The other special friends he made at Solesmes included Dom – later Cardinal – Pitra, Dom Couturier and Dom Bérangier.
Fr Laurence took up his new duties at Bath in July 1855. Life on the mission was not at all to his liking, but he devoted himself generously to the parish, and soon became known for his outstanding gifts as a spiritual director. He did all he could to stimulate appreciation of the liturgy, and for this purpose he had weekly leaflets printed, giving liturgical and historical notes. He distributed them himself at the church door as the people filed out.
Negotiations for the foundation of the new monastery of Belmont and the establishment of a common EBC noviciate were already under way when Fr Laurence went to Bath. When the plan finally materialised in 1859, he was appointed to be one of the members of the resident community. He did not accept the office of novice master, for which he had been designated, but he ranked as a canon and acted as sacristan. He had been full of hopes for all that the common noviciate might mean for the future of the EBC, but full of forebodings too as to what would happen when he found himself back in a monastic context; small wonder that a breakdown occurred. Within nine months his health had completely given way, and he had to accept the invitation of some of his friends at Bath, who arranged for him to have a rest at Weston-super-Mare.
The consecration of Belmont Priory church, at that time Cathedral of the diocese of Newport and Menevia, had been fixed for 4 September 1860, with Dom Guéranger invited to attend the ceremony. Fr Laurence was well enough to act as escort throughout his stay in England. The details of their shared experiences deserve to be recorded. Fr Laurence went to Gloucester to meet the abbot but could scarcely recognise him. Dom Guéranger had been informed at Douai that he could not possibly land in England in a habit. A secular suit and top hat had been rapidly purchased for him, but the suit was so tight that he could only lower his arms with difficulty. All the way to Hereford he discoursed happily to Fr Laurence on the significance of the dedication ceremony, only shouting more loudly when the train entered a tunnel. On their arrival at Belmont they found that first Vespers of the Dedication was about to be sung,. 'There can be no Vespers for what does not exist', said Abbot Guéranger with a smile, and the arrangement was hastily changed. Dom Guéranger was given the honour of singing the Mass next day and he hoped that there would be a sermon on the dedication before the celebrations were over. Both Manning and Ullathorne preached on the 5th but, as Dom Guéranger was disconcerted to learn, the former spoke about unity between secular and regular clergy and the latter on humility.
A few days later Fr Laurence and Dom Guéranger set out on their tour, beginning with Gloucester, Bath, Prior Park and Downside. The abbot was prevailed upon to have his photograph taken in Bath. When he was already posed, the photographers suggested that he should fix his eyes on a rose, suspended possibly for that purpose. He began to expatiate with such enthusiasm on the flower and its symbolism that Fr Laurence had to remind him that the photographers were waiting.
They also visited Cheltenham and afterwards proceeded via Worcester and Stanbrook to Birmingham where, after an excursion to Oscott, they called on Newman. Dom Guéranger greeted him warmly but Newman only responded in monosyllabic fashion, being unable or unwilling to converse in French, Italian or Latin. Fr Laurence accordingly had to act as interpreter. 'Are you engaged on any work at present?' enquired Dom Guéranger. 'No', was the answer. 'But I thought you were thinking of writing a work on the relations between reason and faith?'. Again came a relentless 'No'. After that, however, Newman seems to have thawed a little, for he presented the abbot with one of his books and took him to the library where they both felt more at ease. In spite of this, it is clear that the meeting between the two great men was a non-event. The exuberant enthusiasm of the one must have grated on the sensitive reserve of the other. One can imagine what the unfortunate interpreter must have gone through, attuned as he was to both temperaments.
After visiting Colwich the two of them went on via Derby to York and Ampleforth. Bishop Ullathorne had missed them in Birmingham, having been called away to his dying mother, but they found him now at Ampleforth breaking his return journey. Though Ullathorne's French was notoriously bad, this did not deter him from recounting Irish anecdotes in French to Dom Guéranger. The latter laughed heartily but not, so it is believed, at the incomprehensible stories.
After Ampleforth there followed visits to Peterborough, Croyland and Oxford. The tour ended in London where they were guests of Manning. Their visit to Faber proved a happy one. Their conducted tour around Westminster Abbey must have been embarrassing in the extreme to Fr Laurence, as Abbot Guéranger expressed his feelings by kicking the tomb of Elizabeth I, praying at Mary Stuart's, running up to the shrine of Edward the Confessor, and there falling on his knees to pour out his soul in prayer. Fr Laurence had to interpret to him the guide's angry remonstrance to the effect that, since it was a public place of worship, no one was allowed to pray in it in the way that he was doing.
If Fr Laurence was already a sick man before Dom Guéranger's arrival in England, he was very much worse after his departure. Friends in Bath did their best for him but there seemed little hope of recovery. It was thought that a visit to Solesmes might revive him, so in May 1861 he was persuaded to accept Dom Guéranger's warm invitation. There it was suggested to him that he might be cured by the 'Holy Man of Tours', M. Dupont, renowned for the miracles which took place in his house before a picture of the Holy Face. Fr Laurence accordingly travelled to Tours with a friend from Bath and provided with a letter of introduction from the abbot. M. Dupont welcomed him warmly and listened to details of his malady – chest trouble, with loss of voice and appetite. M. Dupont simply told him to dip his finger in the oil of the lamp in front of the picture and rub his chest with it; then he asked, 'Are you cured? Can you sing?' Fr Laurence tried but no voice came. Three times the ritual was repeated, M. Dupont himself applying the oil the third time. Still no voice came. M. Dupont was perplexed and disappointed but he invited Fr Laurence and his friend to stay to lunch. Fr Laurence declined but his host insisted. It was an excellent lunch and the conversation was so enjoyable that Fr Laurence had eaten everything on his plate before he realised what he was doing; he laughed and felt ready for more. He had certainly turned the corner towards recovery, though he was only gradually to regain strength.
On his return to England Fr Laurence first had a month's holiday at Clevedon, and after that an arrangement was made for him which strikes one now as decidedly odd. He was allowed to reside, as formerly, at the Benedictine house in Bath but, as he was no longer one of the mission fathers, his board and lodging were paid for by one of his devoted secular friends, a Miss Plowden, who later in her advanced old age entered at Stanbrook as a regular oblate. In those days the monastic rule of strict personal poverty did not apply in the same way to priests on the mission. Actually Fr Laurence worked hard for the parish during the next two years. If there was anything he cared still more about than monastic observance, it was the direct worship of God in the liturgy – hence his zeal for the erection of adequate new churches. At Ampleforth he had been the instigator of the plan to build the new church, opened in 1857; at Belmont he had already begun to prepare the newly built cathedral for the day of its dedication, and now at Bath he worked in every way he could to further the building of St John's church and arrange the details of its consecration in October 1863.
Later that same month after much hesitation, self-scrutiny and consultation, Fr Laurence agreed to accept the office to which the rest of his life was to be – of Vicarius Monialium – a chapter appointment which included the duties of chaplain at Stanbrook, and also carried with it the right to attend General Chapter. The previous holder of the office, Fr Bernard Short, had been failing in health, and Fr Laurence had come over to Stanbrook a number of times to supply for him. As a result the community had suggested his name to General Chapter in 1862, but no change was made until the following year. Fr Laurence took up residence at Stanbrook in December 1863.
In the preface to his book on Benedictine nuns, Hilpisch draws attention to the fact that it has been men who have had the clearest vision of the monastic ideal, but women who have put that ideal into practice most wholeheartedly. The effects of Fr Laurence's influence at Stanbrook would seem to support this. If his youthful zeal had been too much for Ampleforth, and early days at Belmont had been too much for an as yet unintegrated Fr Laurence, the more mature man who came to Stanbrook found a community, certainly in great need of his assistance, but ready to respond wholeheartedly to his inspiration. The monastic observance of Cambrai had been rudely shattered by the French Revolution and eighteen months of imprisonment at Compiègne. Seventy years spent successively at Woolton, Abbots Salford and Stanbrook had witnessed valiant endeavour but as yet no adequate restoration of monastic life. Fr Laurence showed great discretion in the way he set to work; he saw to it that abbatial authority, previously undermined when Dr Barber had held the office of President as well as that of Vicarius Monialium, should be restored. He himself would act only with and through the abbess
With the needs of the community of Stanbrook very much in mind, Fr Laurence undertook the formidable task of translating Dom Guéranger's L'Année Liturgique. Few could have guessed what this labour cost him physically. Owing to the weakness of his chest, he had for a time to write standing up. A high desk was made for him, and there he would stand working at the translation for six hours a day or more. The cost of publication also weighed on his mind, but with the help of loans, donations and, as the work continued, with the proceeds from earlier volumes, he managed to publish eleven volumes between 1867 and 1883. Each time a new volume appeared, he would present a copy of it to every member of the community at Stanbrook, and in 1883 he made over to the community the translation itself with all the royalties that would ever accrue from it.
As President Burchall wished to have plainchant introduced at Stanbrook, he appointed Fr Laurence to teach it. The latter himself provided every nun with a Gradual and Vesperal, and spared himself no pains in training the choir, copying and adapting music, and even presiding himself in choir on festive occasions.
For some time a need had been felt at Stanbrook for new Constitutions to replace the old Cambrai ones and give shape to resurgent monastic life. Fr Laurence accordingly translated Dom Guéranger's Declarations, drawn up for the Ste Cécile, Solesmes, and read them to the community. With a few exceptions, the nuns were eager to adopt them. A petition was sent to the President and Regimen, and leave to experiment with the new observance was granted for one year. This was later extended to five. It may be questioned whether it was wise to introduce French constitutions into an English community, since Benedictines thrive from a cultural point of view for the most part on their native soil. There could be little danger in the case of a community so incurably English that in the course of over a hundred and fifty years on the continent it had only recruited one foreign member. These new constitutions were the fruit of Dom Guéranger's painstaking research. It is interesting to note too that the influence of Solesmes was to affect the constitutions of the EBC monks also, though at a later date by a roundabout route via Beuron.
According to these new constitutions at Stanbrook a daily conference had to be given, so Fr Laurence undertook this duty himself. He also conducted an annual retreat from 1870 onwards. Since a competent knowledge of Latin was also expected, he provided each nun with a grammar, a dictionary and a copy of the Enchiridion Benedictinum, and set about teaching them himself.
The need for an adequate monastic church at Stanbrook had become increasingly obvious, so in 1868 Edward Welby Pugin was engaged as architect and building commenced in the following year. Fr Laurence co- operated in every possible way, assisting Pugin with the plans, collecting donations from his friends and actually overseeing the work. He delighted in watching the stone-carvers at work. His old agility as a climber reasserted itself and at an age when ill health had rendered him none too steady on terra firma he would fearlessly scale the scaffolding to any height; indeed it is said that he placed the cross on top of the pinnacle of the tower in position with his own hand. He himself presented organ, bells and clock. On 6 September 1871 the church was consecrated by Bishop Ullathorne. Characteristically, Fr Laurence kept in the background during the ceremony, and on the following day, when a special sermon was preached mentioning those who had been prominent in helping to erect the church and prepare for its dedication, his name was forgotten.
In the following month on his return from a visit to Solesmes, Fr Laurence narrowly escaped being killed in Pugin's house, when part of a ceiling collapsed, and a large piece of plaster just missed his head but hit his arm and tore the skin.
In 1872 Abbess Scholastica Gregson resigned, feeling that a younger superior could more effectively carry out the reforms called for by the new Declarations. The gifted young French nun, Dame Gertrude d'Aurillac Dubois, who was elected to succeed her, had been directed by Fr Laurence even before she actually entered Stanbrook, and she saw eye to eye with him in all that concerned the welfare of the community. Co-operation between Vicarius and abbess was therefore particularly easy, and it says much for Fr Laurence that, realising her competence and energy, he withdrew into the background, leaving as much as possible to her.
In 1874 general chapter appointed a commission to meet at Stanbrook and consider the new Declarations. The commission itself was fully satisfied, but copies of the Declarations were needed for approbation at the next general chapter. This led to one of Fr Laurence's most outstanding and enterprising gifts to the monastery, namely that of a printing press. He insisted that the nuns who worked it should be properly instructed and professional standards maintained. At general chapter in 1878 there was at first some opposition to Stanbrook's new Declarations, but at a judicious moment Fr Laurence drew the attention of the fathers to the printed copies, which were duly admired. Then a new edition of the general Constitutions was needed, and Fr Laurence lost no time in offering to have it printed at Stanbrook. The day was won!
Early in 1875 Fr Laurence was saddened by news of Dom Guéranger's death. He went out to Solesmes for the solemn Requiem on 4 March, the 30th day. His annual visits continued as before. In 1876 he was reluctantly persuaded to sit for his portrait in Paris. The artist, Lavergne, took a great interest in Fr Laurence as a person, and found that the best way to ensure getting a characteristic expression on his face was to ask his own wife to read to him during the sittings. The portrait was to be a gift to Stanbrook from Sister Marcella Plowden, by this time an oblate member of the community.
Cuthbert Pugin was engaged in 1876 to plan a new monastic building at Stanbrook. The following extract from a letter to the abbess and council shows how Fr Laurence combined a spirit of faith with sound business instincts: 'Twelve thousand pounds! Entrust the sum to the Twelve Apostles, (very foolish according to the world's ideas) believing that each of the twelve will get you a thousand to begin with. . . As to my namesake, James the brother of John, you may put him down for a thousand on my security : I mean to say that I hereby undertake to provide £50 a year as long as I am your chaplain, and that 50 will pay the interest on the 1,000 which you will have to borrow, to make up part of the twelve'. A letter to the President in somewhat the same vein wron the consent of the Regimen. The foundation stone was laid in 1878, and when the first block of the new building was finished two years later, the community was able to live in an adequately enclosed monastery.
This achievement marks the culmination of Fr Laurence's work for Stanbrook. In the following year he was to enter upon his Via Crucis. The account of the last four years of his life makes sad reading, for he had the misfortune to live in an age not of dialogue but of diatribe, and he was too sensitive to take opposition lightly. At a time when disputes between secular and regular clergy marred Catholic endeavour in England, communities of the EBC were split up between adherents to the status quo, with its emphasis on the missions, and zealots for monastic observance. The former saw parochial work as the raison d'être of the Congregation and tended to regard the monasteries as seminaries for training subjects; the latter valued monastic life for its own sake and longed to develop its liturgical and contemplative aspects. This division of opinion was fully accounted for by historical circumstances. When the Congregation was revived in the early seventeenth century, conventual life was still prohibited in England, and EBC monks came over from the continent to labour as individuals and in some cases to die as martyrs. The nineteenth century status quo party drew inspiration from such memories; the monastic party looked forward to developments now possible in the England of their own day.
In the summer of 1881 Dom Boniface Krug, claustral prior of Monte Cassino, was sent to England as Apostolic Visitor to enquire into the true state of the Congregation. Stanbrook was not actually subject to this visitation but Prior Krug paid a courtesy visit there. Finding Fr Laurence on the premises, he questioned him about the Congregation in general. Impressed by his sincerity and clear grasp of facts, Prior Krug ordered him to draw up a written statement of the case as it appeared to him. This Fr Laurence reluctantly did, submitting two documents, one in November 1881 and a second in February 1882. He believed that drastic structural changes were needed in the Congregation. He hoped that existing priories would be erected into abbeys, with abbots elected for life and given full jurisdiction over monks working on the mission. He thought that the larger parishes should be staffed by small communities of monks living a conventual monastic life. He also looked forward to new Constitutions based on the Rule.
How right for the most part Fr Laurence's judgment was as to what would best promote Benedictine life in England has been proved by developments in this century. He could not conceivably have foreseen the shift of emphasis in our own day from the apostolic effort of individuals to united community witness, but he paved the way for this unerringly though unknowingly. The provincial system was by then an outdated relic of penal times, and it was time that the authority of the conventual superiors was given constitutional support. On one point, however, Fr Laurence's prophetic insight misled him: it seems unlikely that EBC monks will ever take kindly to the idea of life abbots; In his day the age pattern of the communities was astonishingly young since the older men were out on the mission. Fr Laurence would therefore have had little idea of the disadvantages of incapacitated superiors. Nor, on the other hand, would he have witnessed the example, seen in our own day, of abbots who have retired in very deed and not just in theory like those he had encountered at Parma.
No immediate results followed after Fr Laurence had submitted his statements. Like Rome, Prior Krug acted slowly. His report was not handed in to the Holy See until midsummer 1882. Meanwhile Fr Laurence had been invited to give a retreat at Downside in March 1882. His enthusiastic exposition of the ideals of monastic life impressed not only Prior Gasquet but also other members of the community, such as Dom Cuthbert Butler, Dom Edmund Ford and Dom Gilbert Dolan. It would be hard to overestimate the long-term effects of this retreat, for it was Dom Edmund, later Prior, who was to lead a small group, fired with desire for the restoration of monastic observance, through to final victory in 1900. Dom Aidan Gasquet was to head the commission which drew up the new Constitutions; Dom Cuthbert Butler would prove to be outstanding in his zeal for reform and Dom Gilbert Dolan would also be a prominent member of the group. While giving the retreat, Fr Laurence was a prey to spiritual depression and had the feeling that his conferences were a failure.
In the following year it was Dom Gilbert Dolan who broke the news of the approaching storm in a letter to Fr Laurence dated 6th February, 1883: 'During the last two days certain information has come to us that F. Krug's report has, by fair means or foul, been shown to Prior O'Gorman'. The fair means or foul eventually turned out to have been the intervention of Dom Bernard Smith, EBC Procurator in Curia, who was first allowed to see the report himself and later given permission to show the notes he had made to Prior O'Gorman and Fr Norbert Sweeney. As a result, Fr Laurence was not unnaturally branded as a traitor by upholders of the status quo, who for the time being seemed to have got their own way. In July Prior O'Gorman reported by telegram from Rome that everything was settled: the missions were not to be touched; a few unimportant changes had been suggested. When communicating the news to Stanbrook, President Burchall gave orders that a Mass should be offered in thanksgiving. This Fr Laurence obediently did on the following day.
The next blow which fell was Fr Laurence's exclusion from the deferred General Chapter, finally held at Downside in November and early December 1883. The rescript Cliftoniensis, promulgated in October 1883, excluded all save titolari from Chapter, hence the Vicarius Monialium no longer had a seat. The President's letter breaking this news sounded another warning note: 'I am sorry you wrote your long report to hand to Prior Krug. . . . It seems to have led to inquiries as to how long you have been at Stanbrook.' Fr Laurence was advised to send a protest to chapter since it was doubtful whether Cliftoniensis applied immediately, and the President had refused to allow him to deputise for Fr Worsley. In spite of forebodings and protest Fr Laurence was re-elected by chapter as Vicarius Monialium.
In the following year his health deteriorated in an alarming way, and he complained of pain in the throat. A friend took him to Scotland in June in the hope of reviving him. While he was there news reached him from the new President, Prior O'Gorman, that his faculties for hearing confessions at Stanbrook could not be renewed, as Cardinal Simeoni had insisted that the rule regarding tenure of office by nuns' confessors should be kept. The Abbess of Stanbrook had also been informed, and she passed on the news to Cardinal Pitra, Cardinal Protector of Stanbrook since 1878, who obtained papal confirmation of Fr Laurence's appointment for the quadriennium. At the beginning of July he returned to Stanbrook, slightly better, but with his throat still bothering him. He was careful not to hear the nuns' confessions until President O'Gorman had acknowledged receipt of the induit. In September Fr Laurence paid his last visit to Solesmes and was spiritually strengthened by Père Rabussier, S.J., whom he met there. On his return to Stanbrook progressive illness forced him gradually to relinquish his duties as chaplain, and his last Mass in church was said on 21 November. After that he made use of a private upstairs oratory, in which his very last Mass was celebrated soon after midnight on 1 January 1885.
Strangely enough, although he underwent medical examination in France as well as in England, cancer of the throat was not diagnosed until practically the last moment of his life. He himself attributed his condition to recent events within the EBC: 'I am convinced that it is this chapter affair that has killed me', he stated. He was a saddened man but by no means an embittered one, for he was most genuinely a man of prayer. Like a true Benedictine, In his omnibus superavit propter eum qui dilexit nos. Contemporary devotional emphasis especially fostered a sense of being a victim, and it is known that he had in fact offered his life for the Congregation.
A fortnight before his death he insisted on a hazardous expedition to Bath, where he was anointed by Fr Worsley. A week later he was brought back to Stanbrook and devotedly nursed by the Abbess and Cellarer, a thing still possible, as papal enclosure had not yet been fully established. His last clear words were a loud 'Floreat Ordo!', repeated three times, after which nothing more was audible but a murmur of the Holy Name. He died lying, at his own request, on sackcloth and ashes, on the evening of 30th January 1885.
The funeral was on 4 February. Bishop Ilsley sang the Requiem and Bishop Hedley, one of Fr Laurence's former novices, preached the panegyric. One of the characteristics he singled out for mention was the consistency of his whole life: 'There never was a man who changed less in body or in spirit than Fr Laurence'. The bishop then went on to analyse this changelessness: he thought it was accounted for by a natural unworldliness and simplicity, perfected by knowledge of God and by a spirit of worship. Dom Couturier, Dom Guéranger's successor as Abbot of Solesmes, attended the funeral with Dom 1'Huillier. Twenty monks came over from Belmont and Prior Gasquet brought some of the Downside community as well. Fr Laurence's body was buried in a vault in the cemetery, close to the wall of the church. A side- chapel was later built over the spot, so that his tomb is actually inside the church. On it are inscribed the words Ego dormio et cor meum vigilat.
The grain of wheat had not long to wait for its harvest. By 1900, only fifteen years after the death of Fr Laurence, most of what he strove and suffered for was already achieved. Rome awoke to the fact that reforms, long recommended, had been steadily evaded, and consequently the Holy See intervened to enforce them with the Bulls Religiosus Ordo (1890) and Diu Quidem (1899). The new Constitutions of 1900 provided a structure to support the development of the priories, now erected into abbeys. The opposing parties settled down in a way which did them credit and the rift within the Congregation was healed.
During those final years of contest, Stanbrook helped to encourage the group striving for reform, thus in a small way giving back to EBC monks something of what the community had received from Fr Laurence. The mutual inspiration between the monks and nuns of those days foreshadowed closer co-operation made possible by Vatican II. Fr Laurence stood in a line of Laurentians noted for unsparing service of their monastic sisters. His work at Stanbrook recalled the initial influence of Fr Augustine Baker and anticipated service on a larger scale, but equally devoted, rendered to Benedictine nuns in England at the present day. Perhaps such men have glimpsed the full potential of a united congregation.