Part 5

An entirely new translation from the original text was made by Sanctes Marmoschini in 1538, and was reprinted in 1546. Another translation, which appeared in 1547, was remarkable for its poetical version of _Job_ and the _Psalms_. The translation of Antonio Bruccioli attracted still more attention. It was made "de la Hebraica verita", and was ushered in under the patronage of the French monarch, Francis I., in the month of May 1532.

From that date to 1552, twelve editions of this version appeared; but, though, remarkable for its Tuscan dialect, it was inaccurate in many passages, for which reason it was condemned by the Council of Trent. The first Protestant Italian Bible was printed in Geneva as late as 1562, and was little more than a reprint of Bruccioli's version. About fifty years later Diodati's Bible appeared, which is rather a Calvinistic paraphrase than a version; nevertheless, this corruption of Holy Writ has for two centuries held its place as the great Protestant standard of orthodoxy. Even in later times the Catholic Church has presented a new and accurate Italian version to her children, and Anthony Martini, Archbishop of Florence, by the accuracy of his translation, the purity of his style, and his admirable explanatory notes, merited the congratulations and approval of the illustrious Pontiff Pius VI.: "Beloved Son", writes this great Pope, "at a time when vast numbers of bad books are being circulated, most grossly attacking the Catholic Church, to the great destruction of souls, you have judged exceeding well in exhorting the faithful to the reading of the Holy Scriptures; for these are most abundant sources, whence every one ought to be in a position to draw purity of morals and of doctrine, and to eradicate the errors which are so widely disseminated in these corrupt times. This you have seasonably accomplished, publishing the sacred writing in the language of your country, to be understood by all, especially as you declare that you have added explanatory notes, which, being extracted from the Holy Fathers, preclude every possible danger of abuse, etc. Given at Rome on the calends of April, 1778".

Thus, then, so far from the Church being the enemy of the Bible, she was its watchful guardian, and ever cherished it as a sacred treasure. When heresy introduced corruption into the inspired volume, and substituted the word of man for the Word of God, the pastors of the Catholic fold fearlessly raised their voice, and warned the faithful of the snares which were laid for them. When enemies had poisoned the life-giving stream, the Church permitted not her children to drink the deadly draught. But in no country, and at no period, was the Catholic Church the enemy of the Bible; never was its sacred text a sealed book to the faithful; but, on the contrary, the pastors of the Church, the divinely constituted guardians of the inspired writings, were ever zealous in promoting the study of their sacred truths, and in "disseminating the knowledge of God's written word".

We now take leave of the learned Earl of Clancarty. Would it be too much to expect from his candour that he would withdraw the statement which he has made, since, as we have seen, when viewed historically, it is false and groundless in itself, whilst at the same time it outrages the feelings of the whole Catholic Irish nation?

THE SOCIAL MISSION OF THE CHURCH.

The social mission of the Christian Church is a subject to which none can be indifferent. For eighteen centuries and a half the career of the Church has remained unchanged; and amid the revolutions of nations and the migrations of tribes and peoples, her social mission has ever been to educate, to civilize, and to elevate humanity. The civilization of the east had languished into decay, the greatness of Greece was merged in the universal empire of Rome, and the east and the west groaned under the despotism of the Caesars. When this new and strange power appeared upon the earth it was a power insignificant in appearance, and far beneath even the contempt of the haughty emperors; yet that little society, these few poor and despised Galileans were destined to crush the colossus of Paganism, and to erect upon its ruins an empire more extended than that of Rome, and a civilization more refined and more enlightened than that of Egypt or of Greece. These few ignorant men were to purify the philosophy of Greece, to humble the greatness of Rome, to arrest the wandering tribes of the desert and the savage hordes of the north, to civilize them and to lead them within the pale of the Christian Church; slavery was to retire before her influence; the dark clouds of ignorance and barbarism were to be dispelled by her light; and arts, learning, and civilization were to flourish under the shadow of her patronage. Her hands were full of gifts to men; to the slave she was the herald of freedom, to the ignorant she was the bearer of knowledge, and to all she was the teacher of a pure and elevated morality, unknown to the pagan world. Such was the social mission of the Christian Church; how nobly has she fulfilled it!

In three centuries, after persecutions the most dire, the Christian Church won her way from the gloom of the catacombs to the imperial throne of Rome. The hand of power sought to check her progress, but in vain; the sword of persecution raised against her fell from the hand of the tyrant; the insidious breath of heresy could not corrupt her purity, nor the splendid teachings of Athens or Alexandria draw her from her sublime mission of truth. She consoled the slave, she cheered and strengthened the martyr, she elevated and purified all; she struggled with Paganism--with its profane and captivating rites--with its proud philosophy and its millions of refined and luxurious votaries. She won disciples from every grade, and class, and nation, until Christianity became the national religion of the proud and persecuting empire of the Caesars. But now, that very empire which the Church has won is tottering to ruin; new difficulties beset her, and a new mission awaits her. The Goth, the Hun, and the Vandal have seized on the richest provinces of Rome. Her cities lie in ruins, her temples are profaned, and Europe seems again fast sinking into hopeless barbarism; the clash of arms and the yell of triumph has silenced the voice of civilization, and the jargon of her rude conquerors startles the ear in the very streets of Rome; streams of human population pour in from the northern nations--they extinguish the Roman power, and carry into the heart of Europe new traditions, a new mythology, new habits of thought, and new principles of action. And whilst the north was thus violently convulsed by the crash of the western empire, the south was not less violently agitated by the rising greatness of the Saracen. From the Atlantic to the Pacific the sway of Omar extended; and many were the cities ruined, and many were the literary monuments destroyed by these untamed children of the desert. In such perils what is able to save--what spirit could brood over this social chaos and breathe into it order and beauty--what power could move in the track of the desolating host, could collect the half ruined fragments of classic art and construct them again into a still more beautiful temple of learning? What influence could wean that lawless race from the wild ways of rapine and the degrading vices of savage life, and make them rival and excel the polished Roman in all the arts and accomplishments of civilized life? The Church alone could arrest the onward march of barbarism, and restore social order; with prophetic glance she seemed conscious of the perils that beset her, and prepared to overcome them. Augustine, Jerome, Hilary, and Prosper, the last expiring lights of the past civilization, were the devoted children of the Church. In the sixth century, when the schools of the empire were closed, her monasteries were the sole sanctuaries of learning. In them she studied and taught, and opposed an organised resistance to the despotism of the sword, whilst her secular clergy acted, governed, and preserved external order. In this century St. Remus preached with a classic purity, and Avitus of Vienne, the Milton of the Church, sang of the creation and the fall in the thrilling accents of genius. In this period appeared Cesarius of Arles, Gregory of Tours, and Fortunatus of Poitiers, whose learning shed a light upon their age, and whose works marked the birth of a new literature purely ecclesiastical. The learning and sanctity of our own Church relieved the darkness of the seventh century. Columbanus awakened a new spirit in the French Church, he arrested the march of barbarism in southern Germany, and perpetuated the study of antiquity among his numerous disciples. The eighth century marked a new era in letters; Charlemagne and the Church vied with each other; Bede and Bennett adorned England; the Carlovingian schools were organized under the genius of Alcuin, and over the wide dominions of Charlemagne an impulse was given to learning which was felt for centuries. By her Popes, her councils, and her bishops, the Church ever laboured to diffuse knowledge amongst her people. With a willing obedience her monastic institutions responded to her call, and during the eleventh and twelfth centuries awakened a literary activity from the Tiber to the Atlantic. The wonders of the press were yet unknown, but the simple, learned, and laborious monk plied his daily task, and rivalled the press in the extent, variety, and beauty of his labours. These venerable institutions, so often the scorn of the ignorant, were rapidly multiplied over the whole continent of Europe; Clugny and Citeaux spring into life, and each becomes a school of knowledge, a centre of civilization, and a prolific nursery of saintly and learned men. Let the sceptic on this point read Mabillon's book on monastic studies, in reply to De Rance, the venerable Abbot of La Trappe; let him examine the collection of manuscripts found in the eight hundred monasteries visited by Martini in his literary tours; let him look at the contents of the fourteen volumes folio, compiled by Martini and the illustrious band who accompanied him in his antiquarian researches through the monasteries of central Europe; let him glance at the Titan labours of Mabillon, Montfaucon, and the Benedictines of St. Maur; and then let him dilate on the stupidity and ignorance of the monks of the "dark ages". Thus, by the zeal of the Church, and her monks and her missioners, the Christian faith was again spread over Europe, Saxon England was reconquered to the Church, Clovis and his people entered her fold, Germany was won over to her empire, and the fierce children of the north everywhere bowed to her yoke. Their minds, filled with the dim shadows of their native traditions and the bloody deeds of their ancestors, became awakened to all the beauties of Christianity; they yielded to the softening influence of the more genial climate of their conquered home, they cast off the bonds of their gloomy superstition, they entered the Church, and under her guidance they became the founders of the nations and the authors of the mediaeval and modern literature of Europe. The Church moulded with the same skilful hand the sternness and energy of the north, and the more soft and imaginative races of the south, and united the fierce worshippers of Thor with the followers of the giddy Genii of the east, in one grand struggle for the glory of their common creed. She summoned the spirit of chivalry, then in its youthful vigour; she excited a glow of religious enthusiasm that set Europe in a flame; she appealed to the spirit of warlike enterprise, and gathered round her standard that group, who, quitting home, country, and friends, arose at the call of Urban, and put on the badge of the crusader. Yes, the crusades are a great fact in the history of modern civilization; they stilled the voice of domestic strife, which had been productive of so much evil; they united, elevated, and consecrated the chivalry of Europe, and exhibited to the world the power and the glory of religion. These were days of great excitement and of rapid progress; this was the age of the growth and ascendancy of the scholastic philosophy. The Arabic empire of Spain was in its meridian glory. It was in this age Peter preached, and the Cross was raised at Clermont, and Godfrey and Boemond rushed to the liberation of the sacred city. It was in this age the glorious Hildebrand laboured so successfully to eject feudal influence from the sanctuary, to abolish the baneful right of lay investiture, and to give to the Church ministers worthy of their sublime duties. It was in these days the Italian cities were fostered by the protection of the Papal power, and the leagued towns of Germany under their bishops; and the municipal councils were breaking down feudal tyranny, and opening to the peasant mind the path to political and literary distinction, which they have since so nobly trod. In the ninth century Hamburg was the stronghold of tyranny; in the eleventh and twelfth centuries this same city was the nucleus of a great confederation which for centuries influenced the destinies of Europe. In the thirteenth century the spirit of Bernard and Hildebrand was again revived. The genius, the sanctity, the learning, and the courage of Innocent III. guided the destinies of the Church. Rodolph, with the Cross for his sceptre, ruled in Germany; St. Louis governed France; Spain gloried in Alphonso and Ferdinand, and in the victories of Seville and Tolosa; and England, under a Cardinal of the Roman Church, wrung from her king the charter of her rights. This was the age of St. Francis and St. Dominick; of Albertus and St. Thomas, of Bacon and Bonaventure. In these days Oxford boasted of her thirty thousand students; twenty-five thousand trod the halls of Paris; and ten thousand read law at Bologna. Never was there an age more glorious than this age of Christian faith; glorious in great deeds and historic names; glorious in learning and life of the universities with which the Church had studded Europe; glorious in a noble Christian art and architecture; and glorious too in the sublime genius of its poets. And all these great movements, intellectual and social, all pregnant with such grand results for the happiness and enlightenment of mankind, and for the future greatness and civilization of the nations of Europe, were originated and guided to success by the genius of the Catholic Church. The Church was that mysterious power that moulded the nations, and influenced the social condition of successive generations over the whole continent. In the lawless ages of rapine and violence she stood between the tyrant and his victim, and restrained the excesses of feudalism by the sword of her spiritual authority. She was ever the protector of the weak, and the defender of rational liberty. In the words of an eloquent Protestant writer, "The Church was the great bulwark of order, she perpetuated justice and light, and fought the battle of civilization and freedom. The feudal castle could not screen the oppressor of the poor from her vengeance, nor the kingly diadem save the tyrant of his people from her stern maledictions; the Church presided over mediaeval society; her Pontiff reigned with an universal sway, with which the grateful suffrage of Europe invested him; and never was human power exercised with more justice or with more glorious results for the welfare of humanity". And this is the Church which her enemies would shamelessly brand as hostile to the diffusion of knowledge; this the Church that would restrain the freedom of human thought, perpetuate ignorance, and dwarf the intellect of man; the Church of Nicholas, of Leo, and of Benedict; the Church that presided over the revival of Greek learning, and saved the decaying fragments of classic genius; the Church that before the sixteenth century founded fifty-eight universities in Europe, and from her poverty encouraged learning with a munificence which should shame the nations of our day! The Catholic Church cultivated the mind of Petrarch, she inspired the genius of Dante, and listened to the thrilling tones of Ariosto. Calderon was her child, and Tasso loved to linger in her capital. Yes, this is the Church that would dwarf the human intellect! Gothic architecture is her own creation, and the glories of Italian art were developed in the shadow of the Vatican. The palace of Nicholas and of Leo was the temple of learning, and the gifted of every nation flocked to the city of the pontiffs to live in the smile of his favour and on the munificence of his bounty. In his presence the poet felt a new inspiration, the sculptor breathed life into the marble, and the magic pencil of Italy imparted to its matchless productions a more than divine beauty. The same ear that was charmed with the strains of Ariosto could listen with approval to the researches of Flavio or the sublime theories of Copernicus. The Pope during the middle ages was the great high priest of literature, of science and of art, enthroned by the suffrage of Europe; the learned of the age paid to him the tribute of their grateful affection; and the office of his secretary was for centuries regarded as the prize of genius, which the first scholars of the age claimed as the reward of their intellectual greatness.

LITURGICAL QUESTIONS.

Our reverend correspondents on liturgical subjects will hold us excused if we are not able to answer the several questions kindly forwarded to us, as we deem it our duty, in compliance with the request of several friends, to treat of some questions in connection with the ceremonies of Holy Week, which may be deemed useful for the guidance of the clergy in carrying on the solemn functions of that week.

The following questions have been proposed:

1. Can a low Mass be said on the three last days of Holy Week?

2. Can a low Mass be said on Holy Thursday or on Holy Saturday?

3. What is to be done in the country parishes where there is not a sufficient number of priests to have high Mass, and where the other ceremonies cannot be observed?

In reply to the first question we beg to say that low Masses are strictly forbidden on the three last days of Holy Week. When there is a sufficient number of priests, the rubrics require that a solemn high Mass be celebrated, and in those churches not having a sufficient number of priests for high Mass the Memoriale Rituum of Benedict XIII. must be used, which prescribes certain solemnities to be observed by one priest, and requires that he be attended by at least three clerics in surplices, in performing the functions of Holy Week. This ceremonial of Benedict XIII. is to be observed only in case there is a deficiency of priests, and hence it presupposes that a solemn Mass is to be said with deacon and sub-deacon when they can be had, as the Memoriale Rituum was published by order of Benedict XIII. solely with the view of enabling the clergy in the smaller churches to carry out the ceremonies of Holy Week, and accordingly, in reply to various questions as to private Masses on those three days, we find that the answer invariably was, that the ceremonies were to be carried out "servata forma parvi Ritualis S. M. Benedicti XIII., ann. 1725, jussu editi".

2. Thus the following answer was given by the Sacred Congregation of Rites (4904):

1. "An in Ecclesiis Parochialibus in quibus nullus extat clerus sed solum Parochus, possit vel debeat iste facere Benedictionem Candelarum, Cinerum, Palmarum, novi ignis, Cerei Paschalis, Fontis Baptismalis et coeterorum hujusmodi, necnon instituere officium Feriae quintae in Coena Domini et Feriae sextae in Parasceve sine cantu et solum privata voce prout celebratur Missa privata?

"Ad 1. Servetur parvum Caeremoniale a sa. me. Benedicto Papa XIII. ad hoc editum. Die 23, Maii, 1846".

This applies to the last three days of Holy Week; but can a low Mass be said on one of these days, such as Holy Thursday? There are innumerable decrees of the Sacred Congregation of Rites on this subject, and it would be impossible to quote all: we shall give one or two. Thus on the 31st August, 1839, the question was proposed:

"An in Ecclesiis ubi Functiones Majoris hebdomadae fieri nequeunt, Feria quinta celebrari possit Missa lecta. Negative".

And again:

1. "An toleranda sit consuetudo vigens in quibusdam paroeciis, praesertim in ruralibus celebrandi per parochum Missam lectam Feria V. in Coena Domini quin peragi valeant eadem Feria, et sequenti coeterae Ecclesiasticae functiones praescriptae ob clericorum defectum, vel potius obolenda.

* * * * *

3. "An ad eliminandos abusus, siqui irrepserint, sit consulendum Sanctissimo pro revocatione cujuscumque Indulti celebrandi privatim eamdem Missam, (idest in Sabbato Sancto) firmo tamem remanente singulari privilegio aliquibus Ecclesiis, peculiaribus attentis circumstantiis, concesso unam vel alteram Missam lectam celebrandi post unicam solemnem de die?

"Ad. 1. Affirmative et ad mentem: mens est ut locorum ordinarii quoad Paroecias in quibus haberi possunt tres, quatuorve saltem Clerici Sacras Functiones Feriis V. et VI. ac Sabbato majoris hebdomadae peragi studeant, servata forma parvi Ritualis S. M. Benedicti XIII. anno 1725, jussu editi; Quoad alias paroecias quae Cleris destituuntur, indulgere valeant ob populi commoditatem, ut Parochi (petita quotannis venia) Feria V. in Coena Domini Missam lectam celebrare possint, priusquam in Cathedrali vel Matrice Conventualis incipiat. Et ad D. Secretarium cum Sanctissimo.

"Ad. 3. Affirmative juxta votum videlicet--Consulendum Sanctissimo pro revocatione cujuscumque Indulti celebrandi privatim in Sabbato Sancto, firmo tamen singulari privilegio aliquibus Ecclesiis, peculiaribus attentis circumstantiis, concesso, unam vel alteram Missam lectam celebrandi post unicam Solemnem de die prout in dubio, Die 28 Julii, 1821".

With reference to the first decision, it is to be remarked, how the observance of the Memoriale Rituum is inculcated, and that even in case the clerics cannot be had, the parish priest cannot celebrate a low Mass unless he gets permission to do so from the bishop each year (petita quotannis venia), and we may here observe that the only reasons which would warrant the bishop to grant permission for a low Mass on Holy Thursday, are two: first, to give an opportunity to the faithful of making their Easter Communion; and second, to give Communion to the sick. In these two circumstances the bishop can give permission for a low Mass, if he thinks it necessary, on Holy Thursday, but the parish priest, or, much less, any other priest, cannot say Mass even in these circumstances, without the permission sought and obtained every year from the bishop (venia quotannis petita).

Gardellini, in a very valuable dissertation on this decree, has the following words: "Rem tamen noluit in Parochorum ruralium arbitrio relinquere, sed demandavit ut iidem quotannis et peterent et ab episcopo celebrandi veniam obtinerent". In another passage he (Gardellini) quotes the authority of Benedict XIV., who, when Archbishop of Bologna, had granted permission to some of the parish priests to say a low Mass under the circumstances above referred to, and then he adds:

"Praeter parochum in sua parochia, si sacerdos aliquis cujuscumque conditionis aut dignitatis Missam privatam Feria quinta, sexta, ac Sabbato majoris hebdomodae celebrare ausus fuerit, ipsum graviter puniemus et a Divinis etiam interdicemus".