Montague Summers
| Montague Summers | |
|---|---|
| Born | Augustus Montague Summers 10 April 1880 Clifton, Bristol, England |
| Died | 10 August 1948 (aged 68) Richmond, Surrey, England |
| Resting place | Richmond Cemetery |
| Pen name | Reverend Alphonsus Joseph-Mary Augustus Montague Summers |
| Occupation | Author and clergyman |
| Nationality | British |
| Alma mater | Trinity College, Oxford |
| Subject | Occult |
| Notable works | Malleus Maleficarum |
Augustus Montague Summers (10 April 1880 – 10 August 1948) was an English author and clergyman. He is known primarily for his scholarly work on the English drama of the 17th century, as well as for his idiosyncratic studies on witches, vampires, and werewolves, in all of which he professed to believe. He was responsible for the first English translation, published in 1928, of the notorious 15th-century witch hunter's manual, the Malleus Maleficarum.
Montague Summers was the youngest of the seven children of Augustus William Summers, a rich banker and justice of the peace in Clifton, Bristol. Summers was educated at Clifton College before studying theology at Trinity College, Oxford with the intention of becoming a priest in the Church of England. In 1905 he received a fourth-class Bachelor of Arts degree. He then continued his religious training at Lichfield Theological College.
Summers was ordained as deacon in 1908 and worked as a curate in Bath and Bitton, in Greater Bristol. He never proceeded to higher orders, however, probably because of rumours of his interest in Satanism and accusations of sexual impropriety with young boys, for which he was tried and acquitted. Summers' first book, Antinous and Other Poems, published in 1907, was dedicated to the subject of pederasty.
Summers also joined the growing ranks of English men of letters interested in medievalism, Catholicism, and the occult. In 1909 he converted to Catholicism and shortly thereafter he began passing himself off as a Catholic priest and styling himself the "Reverend Alphonsus Joseph-Mary Augustus Montague Summers", even though he was never a member of any Catholic order or diocese. Whether he was ever actually ordained as a priest is a matter of dispute.
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