Collect of the Week - 23
Collect for the 22nd Sunday after Trinity:
Familiam tuam, quaesumus, Domine, continua pietate custodi; ut a cunctis
adversitatibus te protegente sit libera, et in bonis actibus tuo nomini sit
devota.
Per Dominum . . .
BCP:
Lord, we beseech thee to keep thy household the Church in continual
godliness; that through thy protection it may be free from all adversities,
and devoutly given to serve thee in good works, to the glory of thy Name;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Whatever else one thinks of Cranmer, he was usually a pretty competent
Latinist, but this translation contains a major blunder, as Goulburn points out:
'But to proceed - "to keep thy household the Church in continual
godliness." This is a mistaken translation. The Latin, indeed, "continua
pietate custodi," might possibly mean this, but as a fact it certainly does
not. And it is noticeable that the mistake is repeated in the Collect for
the Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany, where the first clause of the original
is the same (word for word) as we have here, and where the translation runs
thus; - "We beseech thee to keep thy Church and household continually in
thy true religion." But pietas, the original of our word "piety," does not
here mean either "godliness" or "true religion." It might, indeed, have
this sense; for it does very often mean right sentiments towards God, such
as we call "godliness" or "religion." But had the petition been that the
Church should be kept in godliness or true religion, the preposition "in"
would have been prefixed to the word "pietas." And we have only to turn to
the Collects for the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Sundays after Trinity to see
what the true meaning is. The first of these runs thus: - "Keep, we beseech
thee, O Lord, thy Church with thy perpetual mercy;" the second thus: - "O
Lord, we beseech thee, let thy continual pity cleanse and defend thy
Church." Similarly, the translation here should be; - "We beseech thee to
keep thy household the Church with" (not in, but with . . .) "thy continual
pity." The truth is that pietas denotes not only man's sentiments towards
God (as in our word "piety"), but also God's sentiments towards man (as in
our word "pity") . . .
'And it is singularly interesting to observe that three times in the
Collects God's mercy is invoked to keep or defend his Church, though each
time a distinct word is used, which gives a distinct aspect of the mercy
sued for. In the Collect for the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity the word
used is propitiatio, which means mercy through atonement . . . In the
Collect for the Sixteenth Sunday it is miseratio, which means merely
compassion excited by a spectacle of suffering. While here (and in the
Fifth Sunday after Epiphany) it is pietas . . . "Keep thy household the
Church with thy perpetual fatherly pity." It is not only pity, but pity as
it finds place in the breast of a master who is also a father . . .'
"Familia" is well translated as "household" rather than "family"; what is
envisaged is an establishment of servants. Such a household is the subject
of the Gospel for the day, Matthew 18:21 ff., the story of the king who
takes account of his servants, and finds that one owes him ten thousand
talents. Yet a "familia" can also be a family, and this is suggested by the
word we have noted, 'pietas' which is perhaps best translated 'fatherly
affection'. The reformers felt it necessary to add the explanatory "the
Church".
The latter part of the collect is translated rather freely by the reformers;
a more literal rendering would be 'let it be devoted to your Name in good
works.' English has a much more fixed word-order than the Latin, and some
re-arrangement of the words is entirely necessary for an English
translation, but there is a loss in the process, for the words of the Latin
are carefully ordered. This is observed rather well by Goulburn, who
concludes his account,
'[St Paul] prays in the Epistle of the Day for the Philippians [Philippians
1:11], that they "may be filled with the fruits of righteousness" . . . The
Collect, however, while it does not omit these fruits, places them in their
true order, - after, not before, grace. Having first experienced fatherly
compassion and fatherly protection, the Church then gives her heart to God,
and walks in good actions. At least such is the teaching of the original
Latin prayer, and you will agree with me that we have lost a valuable truth
by the substitution in the translation of a different idea.'
Oriens.
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