A decision made in April 1836 by the Bishop of Podlasie to close down the seminary and the library of the Institute of the Apostolic Union of Secular Priests in Węgrów was the first controversial move for the Bartholomites. Soon after, in 1839, their provostry was finally dissolved when Bishop Gutkowski appointed a diocese priest the parish priest of Węgrów. The Bishop’s decisions ran counter to the will expressed by the founder Jan Dobrogost Krasiński, who had established the provostry in the 18th century. In consequence, superior rev. Kacper Jaworski filed a complaint with the government, in which he reiterated Jan Krasiński’s will to leave his legacy to the Institute. Nonetheless, the Bishop made other attempts to show that Krasiński’s legacy had been bequeathed to the parish, which proved entirely unfounded. Finally, with the other bishops remaining passive, the dispute led to a complete dissolution of the Institute in 1850.