1. Major Mathew was son of Major Arnold Nesbit Mathew, of the Indian Army, and his Italian wife, Contessa Eliza Francesca, daughter of Domenico Povoleri di Nagarole, a Marquis of the Papal State; through this descent the Rev Arnold Mathew claimed the title of Count Povoleri di Vicenza.
Major Arnold Nesbit Mathew was allegedly the son- born only five months after his parents' marriage- of the 1st Earl Landaff, sent to live with an uncle in light of the circumstances of his birth.
Arnold Mathew was a relative of Theobald Mathew, the noted "Apostle of Temperance".
Arnold Mathew received a Doctor of Divinity degree from Pope Pius IX.
Arnold Mathew became a Dominican in 1878 but only persevered a year, moving around a number of dioceses: Newcastle, Plymouth, Nottingham and Clifton.
Arnold Mathew lost faith in the biblical inspiration and in the divinity of Christ.
Arnold Mathew was never officially received into the Church of England, neither did he formally leave the Roman Catholic Church.
In 1897, Arnold Mathew had met Father Richard O'Halloran and became curious about the suggestion of an Old Catholic Church in Great Britain.
Arnold Mathew's election was to some extent a precautionary endeavour by those anticipating a precipitate action by the Government regarding the Ritual Commission's findings, there were only a small number of Old Catholics in England.
The result was that those who had taken part in Arnold Mathew's election were able to remain within the Anglican Communion.
Arnold Mathew was consecrated in St Gertrude's Cathedral, Utrecht, on 28 April 1908, by the OKKN Archbishop Gerardus Gul of Utrecht, assisted by two OKKN bishops, Jacobus Johannes van Thiel of Haarlem and Nicolaus Bartholomeus Petrus Spit of Deventer, and one Catholic Diocese of the Old Catholics in Germany bishop, Josef Demmel of Bonn.
Arnold Mathew proposed the acceptance of the 1673 Synod of Jerusalem's doctrines.
Arnold Mathew expressed fears that the trend of Continental Old Catholicism was towards Modernism, perhaps because of the growing association with Anglicans and Lutherans, and hoped for a return to the traditional principles of the Church of Utrecht.
Moss wrote that Arnold Mathew thought they were becoming "steadily more Protestant".
In June 1910, he secretly consecrated, without agreement of the IBC, Beale and Howarth, both of whom did not accept or sign the Convention of Utrecht, and Arnold Mathew informed the Holy See of these consecrations.
In December 1910, concluded that Arnold Mathew had "given up communion with the other Old Catholics" when he acted against the Convention of Utrecht.
Arnold Mathew sued The Times for libel, on the grounds that the newspaper was apparently endorsing the Pope's characterization of him as a "pseudo-Bishop" who had given aid to a "wicked crime".
The trial revealed that in 1897 Arnold Mathew restated that he had apostatized in 1889 and had circulated the printed announcement but by 1897 had concluded that his change in belief was a mistake; he therefore recanted the 1889 document, in 1897, which during the trial he said that he never wrote.
Arnold Mathew testified that he was hypnotized in Bath and so the announcement was written without his knowledge.
Arnold Mathew's attorney argued that publication of the excommunication by The Times in English was high treason under a 1571 law re-enacted in 1846.
Now an archbishop, Arnold Mathew was in contact with people interested in expanding the Eastern Orthodox Church's presence in Western Europe.
Olga Novikov, along with Baroness Natalie Uxkull-Gyllenband, encouraged and financially assisted Arnold Mathew and according to Anson, one of them introduced Arnold Mathew to Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch Archbishop Gerassimos Messara, Metropolitan of Beirut.
Arnold Mathew retired to South Mimms, a village in the English countryside in Hertfordshire, and contented himself with assisting at services in a CoE parish church.
Arnold Mathew died suddenly, on 20 December 1919, at South Mimms and was buried in the churchyard at South Mimms.
Anson wrote that, for at least two years, Arnold Mathew was "in close touch with leading Theosophists, apparently without investigating the orthodoxy of their beliefs," and believed that Arnold Mathew "had no excuse" for not understanding the cult of Maitreya beliefs held by the majority of his clergy.
In 1916 Frederick Samuel Willoughby, who had been consecrated by Arnold Mathew, consecrated Gauntlett, King, and Wedgwood.
Later that year, before the end of World War I, the schism which separated from Arnold Mathew's group was renamed the Liberal Catholic Church and Wedgwood became the first presiding bishop.
Arnold Mathew declared autonomy from the UU on 29 December 1910, and asserted of canonical rights and prerogatives for the continuation and perpetuation of the Old Roman Catholic Church from Utrecht.
Arnold Mathew wrote that a surreptitious consecration, under false pretenses and on presentation of false documents, can not be recognized as valid, even if the rite of ordination had been accurately performed by real bishops.