He subsequently went on to study at St Cuthbert's College, Ushaw[3] where he won a gold medal for classics as well earning an MA degree externally from the University of London in 1873.

In 1874 he began specialist theological studies at the University of Louvain, in Belgium,[3] where he also specialised in Eastern languages, an interest first acquired – so he said – through a chance encounter with a book in the Manchester Free Library.

He was seconded to the teaching staff of St Bede's College, Manchester although in 1884 he returned once more to the University of Louvain and gained a doctorate in Oriental literature.

His appeal was rejected and he wrote to Abbot Francis Aidan Gasquet OSB "if the wish did not sound rather an impiety one could almost desire that Cardinal Gotti might have held me suspect of Liberalism and other dreadful things" (1 September 1903).

He was consecrated in St John's Cathedral, on 21 September 1903 by Archbishop-elect Francis Bourne, with Bishops Thomas Whiteside and Samuel Webster Allen as co-consecrators.