Holy Church Research Articles

The Liturgical Movement in Germany

Towards the close of the nineteenth century Ernest Renan wrote: ‘I have studied Germany and believed I entered a temple. All I have found there is pure, elevated, moral, beautiful and moving. O my soul, it is a treasure indeed, it is the continuation of Jesus Christ. Their morality fills me with admiration, how sweet and how strong they are! I believe that Christ will come to us from there.’What he meant by ‘Christ’ was: ‘A pure cult, a religion without priests and without exterior practices, resting entirely on the heart's feelings, on the imitation of God, on the Immediate relation of our conscience with the Heavenly Father . . . Jesus founded religion in humanity as Socrates philosophy . . . Jesus founded absolute religion, excluding nothing, determining nothing except the sentiment.’ That is one of the strong currents which Germany sent into the maelstrom of modern European civilisation. Kant, Hegel, Strauss, ‘Baur, Goethe were the sources.”In 1936 Abbot Ildefons Herwegen spent four weeks in Italy. In an audience the late Pope said that he had himself been able to establish that liturgical life in Germany was on the increase, and that this was a strong support for Holy Church in these days of strife and suffering. And this is another current of which Maria-Laach is the source.Europe is one. Its unity is not an opposition of races and nations overcome by commercial, diplomatic or cultural contacts.

The Scriptures and the Elizabethan Stage

S O WELL known is the violence of the Puritan attack on the Elizabethan stage and so thoroughly did the Puritans proclaim the damnation of all players and playmakers that one is in danger of thinking the Elizabethan drama a product of godlessness, ushered in without benefit of clergy at the Old Devil Tavern. That there should have been among the minions of the devil who created the drama any interest other than malicious in Holy Writ or in Holy Church was unthinkable to the Puritans, and it is almost as unrealized by students of the present day. That the Bible was a storehouse of material which dramatists at times used effectively on the full-grown Elizabethan stage is largely overlooked. That Elizabethan players and dramatists took any interest in religious matters other than controversy is matter for skepticism. It is not my intention to picture the professional dramatist with an open Bible everlastingly before him, or to pin upon any playwright or player a badge of piety, but I do wish to suggest that the Bible was more useful in the theaters than we have been accustomed to believe.'

“One holy, catholic, and apostolic church.”

“One holy, catholic, and apostolic church.”

XIX. An Account of an ancient Seal of Robert, Baron Fitz-Walter, produced at the Society of Antiquaries, 30th January 1777. In a Letter to the Hon. Daines Barrington, Vice-President. By John-Charles Brooke, Esq. of the Herald's College

The elegant Seal [a] produced by you at the last meeting of the Society, belonged to Robert the 5th Baron Fitz-Walter, who was son of Walter, and grandson of Robert, Lord Fitz-Walter, Marshal of the Army of God and Holy Church, as appears by the shield of arms under the horse's head, which bears the coat of his 2d wife, who was a Ferrers.