SIMPLE BUT STRONG

O Lord, from whom all good things do come: Grant to us thy humble servants, that by thy holy inspiration, we may think those things that be good, and by thy merciful guiding may perform the same, through our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Deus, a quo bona cuncta procedunt, largire supplicibus tuis, ut cogitemus te inspirante, quæ vera sunt, et te gubernante, eadem faciamus. Per Jesum Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.

This week’s small jewel is compact and simple, as if it were a quick reminder of basics before the major moments of Ascension Day and Whitsun. Cranmer as usual expands a few Latin nouns and verbs with adjectives and adverbs: te inspirante loses its verb strength but adds “holy”, and te gubernante, in the same way, adds “merciful”. The only real change, though, lies in what, inspired by God, we may think: in the Latin it is quæ vera sunt, things that are true; Cranmer changes that to “those things that be good”. A Platonic equation of the true and the good? A Protestant emphasis on daily life and its moral exigencies? Or simply an echo of the good things in the Acknowledgement?

As for the rhythms, by Classical quantities most would not make clausulæ, and it is interesting that while Cranmer follows the elegant parallelisms, he does not create clausulæ in English either; which, inview of his other perfect ones, I consider supporting evidence of his recognition of, and sensitivity towards, those carefully-constructed rhythmic endings. 

SMALL JEWELS: EASTER 4

DEUS, qui fidelium mentes unius efficis voluntatis, da populo tuo id amare quod præcipis, id desiderare quod promittis, ut inter mundanas varietates ibi nostra fixa sint corda, ubi vera sunt gaudia. Per Christum Do. &c

O almighty God, who alone canst order the unruly wills and affections of sinful men : Grant unto thy people, that they may love the thing which thou commandest, and desire that which thou dost promise : that so, among the sundry and manifold changes of this world, our hearts may surely there be fixed, where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

  

In my occasional contemplation of the Collects in the Book of Common Prayer, the oratio for this week seemed particularly pleasing. Once again we begin with the Latin, compact and tense as always: “God, who makes the minds of the faithful of one will…” – and we see right away that Cranmer has been embroidering. “O Almighty God, who alone canst order the unruly wills and affections of sinful men . . .” Whoa! The Acknowledgement here departs considerably from the Latin. Adding “Almighty” to the Invocation is not a problem, but from there on Cranmer seems to veer off into interpretation. What does he add or change? Let’s follow the order of the Latin and start with “fidelium mentes”. No longer, in the English, does God unite the hearts of the faithful: it is of sinful men that He orders, not the minds or spirits but the wills and affections. Moreover, this is so difficult that He alone can do it. 

It all looks very pessimistic and Protestant, and to some extent it is; but there is more to it than that. I think that the Archbishop has been looking at the Petition and Aspiration, which specify what we are asking and to what end. These, interestingly, he translates simply and straightforwardly: we want to be able to love what God commands and to desire what He promises. But when we think about that, we realise that that is not only peculiar but feels oddly wrong: to love what we are commanded to do feels like not only being told to do something but being ordered to love it, while to desire what we are promised feels like putting the cart before the horse. And that strange wrongness, Cranmer clearly thinks and wants to tell us, comes from our wills and affections being somehow skewed: if we were in heaven, it would come naturally – there would be a natural concord between our will and God’s, so that what He commands would be what we love and what He promises would be what we desire. And conversely: they would all fit together in the perfect chords of His will’s harmony. That this is clearly not so, that we need to ask for it to be made so, shows that our wills and affections are “unruly” and that we the faithful are therefore “sinful men”. Being unruly, said wills and affections need to be “ordered” – as we pray every morning that our doings may be “ordered” by His governance.  Notes of music, duly ordered or well-tempered, make a harmony, among themselves and with the spirit of the composer. 

Once again, we see what a small intricate jewel such a Collect is. And Cranmer can even add some ornaments: the bald mundanas varietates become “sundry and manifold”, adding a pretty rhythm, and fixa is intensified by “surely”, that splendid adverb the richness of which I mentioned in my last post. A miniature treasure, for which we may be truly thankful.

SMALL JEWELS: HOW AND WHAT THEY MEAN

Reciting Collects, those intricate small jewels of language and piety, I sometimes make myself slow down and think about the words and their meanings. For example, consider the Second Collect for Morning Prayer:

O God, who art the author of peace and lover of concord, in knowledge of whom standeth our eternal life, whose service is  perfect freedom: defend us thy humble servants in all assaults of our enemies, that we surely trusting in thy defence may not fear the power of any adversaries; through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

And the original:

Deus auctor pacis et amator, quem nosse, vivere; cui servire, regnare est : protege ab omni oppugnatione suppleces tuos, ut qui in tua protectione confidimus, nullius hostilitatis arma timeamus. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.

It’s fascinating, first of all, to see what Cranmer has done with the Acknowledgement, the relative clause naming the relevant qualities of the Deity. The Latin, with its incomparable brevity, says: God, author and lover of peace, whom to know is to live and to serve is to reign… In this case, Cranmer with his “author of peace and lover of concord” expands the Latin, in my opinion for the sake of the rhythm (with the implication, interesting in itself, that peace and concord are perfect synonyms). He then expands the second term to “in knowledge of whom standeth our eternal life”, thus explaining the bald vivere; and the third term to “whose service is perfect freedom”. This last is where he exercises the greatest liberty: he seems to have found regnarea little too extreme (perhaps with the possible wrath of Henry VIII in mind), and so replaces it with “perfect freedom”, which could, in a pinch, be described as a synonym, as only a ruler is completely free to act. (Incidentally, Milton may have had the Latin Collect and its verbal oxymoron in mind when he wrote that it is “better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven”.)

In the Petition, he translates supplecesas “humble servants” while the Latin more strictly means “those who beseech” or  “those who humbly request”; and to the danger from which they ask to be protected, the simple oppugnatio, attack or assault, he adds the enemies (implicit in the Latin), again I think for the sake of rhythm. 

Then, in the Aspiration, he emphasizes confidimusby adding “surely” (with 16^th-century overtones of “safely”, “securely”, “loyally”, “steadfastly”, and “confidently”); and changes the “weapons of any conflict” to “power of any adversaries”, generalizing the first term and particularizing the second. And even though he has shown himself sensitive to rhythm, in this case he does not attempt to copy or represent the Latin’s elegant combination of a cursus tardus(protectióne confídimus) with a cursus velox(árma timeámus). 

On the whole, Cranmer’s meaning follows the Latin; and what I find fascinating is what we ask to be protected against, and why: defend us in, protect us against, assaults, but not so that we may have a quiet life but so that we may not fear. The point of the whole Collect, in other words, is a prayer against fear. And in the light of the Acknowledgement, the removal of fear will in turn facilitate the knowledge of God that gives us eternal life, and His service that confers perfect freedom. As so often in the case of these orationesthe text, as compact and elegant as a sonnet, when suitably parsed gives us the spiritual wealth of an entire homily.