COLLECT OF THE WEEK - 9

Deus, cujus providentia in sui dispositione non fallitur, te supplices
exoramus, ut noxia cuncta submoveas et omnia nobis profutura concedas.  Per
Dominum.

[From the Gelasian Sacramentary, and found as the collect for the eighth
Sunday after Trinity in the Sarum Missal.]

I can do no better than quote Goulburn in extenso on this one.  He is
commenting on the BCP translation of 1662:

O God, whose never-failing providence ordereth all things both in heaven and
earth;  we humbly beseech thee to put away from us all hurtful things, and
to give us those things which be profitable for us;  through Jesus Christ
our Lord.  Amen.

'In the Collect now before us, it is not the translator, but Bishop Cosin,
the reviser, who has paraphrased (and very felicitously) the original Latin
of the earlier part.  The literal translation of that part is, "God, whose
Providence, in ordering that which is his own, is not deceived (or
mistaken)."  The translator of 1549 left our altogether the clause, "in
ordering that which is his own," and rendered the invocation thus;  "God
whose providence is never deceived;"  thus dropping altogether the idea of
God's control over events, and retaining only the idea of His Providence or
foresight of them.  And thus the Collect stood in the two Prayer Books of
Edward VI., and in that of Elizabeth.  In 1661, at the last Revision, Bishop
Cosin, who no doubt compared the English Collects with their originals, saw
what a mistake had been made in dropping the idea of God's control.  He
would rather have that to be the prominent idea of the clause.  So he placed
this idea in the direct sentence, and expressed incidentally, by the epithet
"never-failing," the idea of God's Providence never being mistaken in its
calculations, which had occupied the direct sentence of the original Latin.
Moreover, he inserted the words "all things in heaven and earth," which
probably he meant to correspond to, and to be a fuller expression of, "that
which is his own" . . .'

Gentle Punter, you will be aware of the debate, in Augustine and in
Boethius, about whether God brings events to pass or merely forsees them.
Cf especially Boethius, Consolatio, Book 5 proses 3 and 4.  "For if God
beholdeth all things and cannot be deceived, that must of necessity follow
which His Providence forseeth to be to come." [Nam si cuncta prospicit deus
neque falli ullo modo potest, euenire necesse est quod prouidentia futurum
esse praeuiderit.]

I wonder if Cranmer omitted the phrase, precisely because the whole question
of providence/predestination is such a mare's nest?

Goulburn continues:

'The latter part of the Collect, which our present version gives with
sufficient faithfulness, might be rendered more exactly thus;  "We implore
thee as suppliants that thou wouldst remove out of our way everything
hurtful, and grant unto us all things which will do us good."  The word
which I have rendered by "we implore," [exoramus] is a strong one, denoting
such fervour and earnestness as carries its point.  "Suppliants" [supplices]
is rather feebly rendered in our version by "humbly;" - the idea is that the
petitioners prostrate themselves at God's footstool.  - The word rendered
"putting away from us" [submoveas] is one which denotes the removal by
marshalmen, or officers of justice, of persons who obstruct the way of a
magistrate, or refuse to acknowledge him.  - Finally the "hurtful things"
[noxia] to be put away are looked upon, in the phraseology of the original,
as a group or whole block taken all together - "everything" - while the
"things which be profitable for us" are looked at as detached, and given to
us in succession, - "all things," - one after another.'

Goulburn explains this last point in a footnote:

'The "all hurtful things" are cuncta ;  the "all things which will do us
good," omnia.  Cunctus ( = conjunctus) indicates a group in its totality;
omnis, the several detailed particulars of which the group is made up.'

We can imagine Leo, or Gregory, any of these Popes with the status of a
Roman prefect, engaging in a solemn procession, the way through the crowd
being cleared by the appointed officers.  This becomes an image for the
progress of the whole Church, making a pilgrimage to the promised land.
Goulburn again:

'The great idea, which the whole prayer puts before us, is this, that we are
journeying (or making a progress) through life;  that in this progress we
know not what may befall us, and that, if we attempted to conjecture our
future, we might grievously err in our calculations;  that, even if we knew
what might befall us, we might have no control over it, so as to avery what
was really evil;  and that, if the choice of what should befall us were left
to ourselves, we should often choose amiss, being deceived by the mere
outside show of good and evil.  Feeling, therefore, utterly blind and
powerless as to our future career, we throw ourselves down before God's
footstool (whose providence or foresight is infinite, so that He never is
out in any of his calculations, and whose control over events, however many
complications the human will may introduce into them, is absolute), and
beseech Him that He would summarily remove out of our path, as we journey
through the wilderness of this world, such impediments as really block our
progress to the heavenly Canaan, and give us one after another all such
things as may really further us on our road thither.'

Oriens.



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