medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Paul F. Schaffner wrote:
> . . . the word was in use in the middle of the sixteenth
> century--indeed it was in use in English as early as 1350 (Midland Prose
> Psalter, p. 193: "Who so wyl be sauf, nede it is to hym..žat he holde že
> catholich faiže.")
This is, of course, a Middle English translation of the "Quiqunque Vult," the
Athanasian Symbol/Creed.
> Placed as it is in the mouth of a Tudor, my guess is that the word is
> meant to attach the role of defender of the faith firmly to the crown, and
> implicitly to defend the reformation under Henry VIII as precisely
> a defense of the catholic faith both in the universalist sense that
> Protestants continue to use when they claim the word, and in the
> specifically Anglican sense used by defenders of the Anglican
> settlement who wish to see the English church as a legitimate
> heir of the historic western church. If I'm right, it sounds like
> something Hall would have wanted to say.
Henry VIII and the Continental (Protestant) Reformers did not use the word "catholic"
in the same manner. Or, the word "protestant," for that matter. Remember, Henry was
given the title "defender of the faith" (fidei defensor) by Pope Leo X, in 1521,
because of Henry's book against Lutheranism. As long as Henry was alive, the Mass
continued to be celebrated in Latin. By the way, in England the word "protestant" meant
"Catholic but not papal," whereas on the Continent the word "protestant" meant
non-Catholic.
John Briggs wrote:
> I'm sure we can do better than that. It occurs, of course, in the Book of
> Common Prayer of 1549 (as 'Catholike' and 'Catholyke fayth'), and must have
> been in Cranmer's English Order of Communion of 1548.
No, the word "Catholic" does not appear in the 1548 English "The Order of the
Communion," issued on March 8, 1548, in London, in the second year of the reign of
Edward VI. Remember, the 1548 Order of Communion is NOT a Eucharistic Rite. It is an
order of administering the Sacrament to the people (in English) which was interpolated
into the existing Latin Eucharistic Rite, which was celebrated without change. In fact
the rubric at the beginning of the 1548 Order of Communion says:
¶ The time of the Communion shall be immediately after that the
Priest himself hath received the Sacrament, without the varying of
any other rite or ceremony in the Mass, . . . .
It should be noted that the first complete Eucharistic Rite in English was in the first
(1549) _Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and other Rites and
Ceremonies of the Church. . ._. The Eucharistic Rite is titled "THE SUPPER OF THE LORDE
AND THE HOLY COMMUNION, COMMONLY CALLED THE MASSE."
I misunderstood the original question about being able to use "Catholyke" as a tool for
dating a text. I assumed that the questioner was asking about the spelling of the word
Catholic as "Catholyke". That would have to do with the fluidity of English spelling,
at that time. So far as using the term "Catholic" as a word (irrespective of how it is
spelled), one could only say that it would allow one to conclude that the manuscript in
question most probably dates after the time of the Arian Heresy.
There is a prayer in the "The Order for the Visitation of the Sick" (in the American
BCP-1928, of the Anglican Catholic Church, it appears on pp. 316-317):
"O GOD, whose days are without end, and whose mercies cannot be numbered; Make us, we
beseech thee, deeply sensible of the shortness and uncertainty of human life; and let
thy Holy Spirit lead us in holiness and righteousness, all our days: that, when we
shall have served thee in our generation, we may be gathered unto our fathers, having
the testimony of a good conscience; _in the communion of the Catholic Church_ [Emphasis
added]; in the confidence of a certain faith; in the comfort of a reasonable,
religious, and holy hope; in favour with thee our God, and in perfect charity with the
world. All which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. _Amen_."
It should go without saying, that the aforesaid prayer does not envision any death-bed
conversions to the Roman Obedience. ;) LOL
Terrill
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