Journal in France in 1845 and 1848 with Letters from Italy in 1847: Of Things and Persons Concerning the Church and EducationAllies, T. W. (Thomas William)
Religion
Journal in France in 1845 and 1848 with Letters from Italy in 1847: Of Things and Persons Concerning the Church and Education
Allies, T. W. (Thomas William)
France -- Church history -- 19th century; Italy -- Church history -- 19th century
that a pious Roman Catholic, coming to England, so far from being
touched by the purity of our faith, or the warmth of our love, would
probably be shocked at every step by a subtle irreverence, which has
affected our whole tone of thought and mode of action in holy things.
It is become the atmosphere which we breathe, by which even the
instinct of the true Christian mind is so deadened, that it cannot be
aware, without going out of it, how much we have lost
On the other hand, there are parts of the Roman discipline which have
struck me very unfavourably. First, the employment of the Latin
language in all the administration of sacraments, and in most of the
public services. That in the middle ages, before modern languages had
attained order, consistency, and beauty, and while they still appeared
mere hewings of Latin by the barbaric sword, ecclesiastics
should have been unwilling to desecrate, as it were, so solemn a
service as the Mass, by rendering it into misshapen ever-changing
sounds, I can well conceive. But this state of things has long passed
away: nor can I imagine how a devout population can endure to have the
Psalms of David chanted, and the most holy and most beautiful form of
words which ever was put together, recited in a tongue they understand
not. Even those who can fully enter into the stateliness and
imperishable beauty of the Latin tongue must surely feel it a grievous
disadvantage, that devotions, which should carry the whole heart with
them, are not presented through the medium of that mother tongue, the
accents of which speak to every man's heart by the force of a thousand
nameless associations, as those of no other tongue can. How, indeed,
in country parishes, where there is little music, interest can be kept
up in the services, I do not understand. It is true the Sacrifice of
the Mass does not depend on the language by enunciating which it is
consummated; but was that sublime harmony of thoughts and words the
most elevating intended to be inaudible? For even at a Low Mass, when
I had the book before me, and the officiating priest at the distance
of ten feet, the whole Canon of the Mass was inaudible. In a chanted
Mass it is out of the question distinguishing any words. I should feel
this more than I can express. Besides that it gives scoffers the
pretext of saying that the Roman Church aims at making her services a
mere spectacle, or mainly a spectacle,--an infamous calumny indeed,
but which this unhappy locking up her praises and prayers in the Latin
tongue tends to substantiate. Sure I am that if the Anglo-German race
be ever restored to the communion of the Latin Church, as I fervently
pray that mercy may be reserved for them by God, this custom as
regards _them_ must be changed. It is a matter of discipline, merely,
of course; or, whatever I might be tempted to think of it, I should
not so speak.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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