13 May 2015

"The English Orthodox"

I am glad that Fr Anthony Chadwick is keeping alive a lovely little booklet (I have a 1988 edition) by the late Raymond Winch, called The Canonical Mass of the English Orthodox. This attempts to establish that the form of the Eucharist known to Anglo-Saxon Christians is the canonical entitlement of modern "English Orthodox"; in other words, to be Orthodox you don't have to be Byzantine. (This would seem to be a necessary distinction to make in order to sustain a belief that the collection of Particular Churches collectively and popularly known as "the Orthodox" constitute the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.)

And that Anglo-Saxon Mass is, of course, substantially the Roman Rite as brought to this country by the Augustinian Mission. Winch attempted to establish how this rite should be done; which, of course, is a distinctly broader question than the mere establishment of texts. But you can't celebrate the Eucharist without texts; and Winch's attitude here is surefooted: you wo'n't find any nonsense in him about "correcting" the rite by inserting a Byzantine Epiclesis. But there is one detail where I'm not sure that Winch's conclusion can be sustained.

"... una cum famulo tuo Papa nostro N ... communicantes ...". It is commonly held that this use of papa goes back to a time when it did not exclusively mean the Bishop of Rome (or Alexandria!). It refers to the local bishop (of course, in the local Church of Rome, from which this liturgy comes, the local bishop was the Bishop of Rome). So "English Orthodox" clergy should, at that point, just name their own bishop, and not the Bishop of Rome and (also) not their own "Patriarch" or autocephalous Archbishop. Just the one name! And this is ecclesiologically attractive in as far as the local "particular" Church is "The Church".

The problem is that in a very convincing paper by L. Eizenhofer (Sacris Erudiri VIII, 1 (1956), the writer argues that the Memento is originally diaconal and that the logic of the Canon brackets together una cum ... with communicantes ....  (I firmly believe this.) He then deploys texts from Tertullian, Cyprian, Optatus, Augustine, Leo, Felix, Simplicius and Gelasius, to build up the argument that this collocation is designed explicitly to assert the necessity for communion with the Petrine See of S Peter. I quote: "Communicare und communio sind die Worter, um die sich dann fast alles dreht in den Briefen und Traktaten, die die Papste, besonders Gelasius I  (492-496), der auch die Briefe seiner beiden Vorganger Simplicius (468-483) und Felix III (483-492) verfasst hat, gegen das Akacianische Schisma (484-519) schrieben. Da begegnen sie uns sozusagen auf jeder Seite und in jedem Kapitel, oft in vielfacher Wiederholung. Hie communio Acacii, hie communio Sancti Petri. Wer mit solchen Communio halt, die von der romischen Communio ausgeschlossen sind, der ist selbst excommuniziert". (No umlauts ... I dunno how to do them, or, for that matter, accents in French; and I leave it untranslated because I'm nervous about making a howler ... if some benevolent Germanist were to translate it on the thread, out of gratitude I will offer a Mass for his/her intentions.)

If, in the terminology of the Roman Church in those centuries, this passage of the Canon asserts or assumes the necessity of being in communion with Rome, or of Rome as a test of Catholic Communion, there would be a problem about using una cum papa nostro N to name the local bishop, as Winch and others suggest, unless they really are willing to assert that communio with their local bishop is ecclesiologically an essential marker of Catholic Communion.

But then, wouldn't you expect there to be some problem about using a a text crafted in Rome, in an ecclesial context out of communion with the Roman See?

(I would prefer any comments to engage with Eizenhofer's paper rather than with my summarising.)

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Communicare and communio are the words around which nearly everything revolves in the letters and tractates which the popes wrote against the Acacian schism, especially Gelasius I (492-496), who also penned the letters of both his predecessors Simplicius (468-483) and Felix III (483-492). There they encounter us, so to speak, on every side and in every chapter, often in multiple repetition. Here the communio Acacii, there the communio Sancti Petri. He who holds Communio with such as those who are excluded from the Roman Communio is himself excommunicated.

Anonymous said...

Quote "Communicare und communio sind die Woerter, um die sich dann fast alles dreht in den Briefen und Traktaten, die die Paepste, besonders Gelasius I (492-496), der auch die Briefe seiner beiden Vorgaenger Simplicius (468-483) und Felix III (483-492) verfasst hat, gegen das Akacianische Schisma (484-519) schrieben. Da begegnen sie uns sozusagen auf jeder Seite und in jedem Kapitel, oft in vielfacher Wiederholung. Hie communio Acacii, hie communio Sancti Petri. Wer mit solchen Communio haelt, die von der roemischen Communio ausgeschlossen sind, der ist selbst excommuniziert".

(Umlaute korrigiert)

The text reads (in my poor English):

"Communicare and communio are the words, which are in the primary focus in the letters and tracts, which the popes wrote, especially Gelasius(492-496), who also was the author of the letters of his two predecessors Simplicius (468-483) and Felix III (483-492), against the schism of Akacian (484-519). Here we meet them (e.g. these words) so to speak on every page and in every chapter, often repeated several times. Hie communio Acacii, hie communio Sancti Petri. He who is in Communio with those, who are excluded from the Roman Communio, is excommunicated himself."

Marcus, der mit dem C said...

"Communicare und communio sind die Wörter, um die sich dann fast alles dreht in den Briefen und Traktaten, die die Päpste, besonders Gelasius I (492-496), der auch die Briefe seiner beiden Vorgänger Simplicius (468-483) und Felix III (483-492) verfaßt hat, gegen das Akacianische Schisma (484-519) schrieben. Da begegnen sie uns sozusagen auf jeder Seite und in jedem Kapitel, oft in vielfacher Wiederholung. Hie communio Acacii, hie communio Sancti Petri. Wer mit solchen Communio hält, die von der römischen Communio ausgeschlossen sind, der ist selbst excommuniziert"

"Communicare are communio the words, which are of importance in letters and tracts, which the popes, especially Gelasius I (492-496), who composed also the letters of his two predecessors Simplicius (468-483) and Felix III (483-492), against the Akacianische Schism (484-519) have written. We met them (the words) on every page and in every chapter, often in multiple repetition. Here communio Acacii, there communio Sancti Petri. Who stays in Communio with such, who are seperated from the roman Communio, is excommunicated himself

ref mutated vowels: http://www.lsa.umich.edu/german/hmr/schreiben/umlaute/umlaute_ASCII_html.html

um die sich alles dreht: literally on whom everything turns (a center of sth. important)


regarding mass

missa votiva in honorem Sanctus Irenaeus Ludgunensis

oratio sec.: pro defensione ecclesiae

oratio ter.: contra persecutorem ecclesiam

if applicable, favorable on 28th of June.

Intentionem: Pro Card. Burke and other defenders of depositum fidei and magisterium and my poor soul.

Josephus Muris Saliensis said...

No umlauts, but if we omit them then one must insert the E which they represent - Woerter, roemishen. I think in most modern machines one keeps one's finger down, and bunch of accented option presents itself, often allied, mysteriously, to the numeral keys.

Otherwise, fascinating. Danke schoen, Herr Pfarrer!

Victor said...

"Communicare and communio are the words everything rotates aboutin the letters and tractates that the popes - especially Gelasius I (468-483) who also formulated the letters of both his predecessors Simplicius (468-483) and Felix III (483-492) - wrote against the Akacian Schism (484-519). Here we encounter them so-to-speak on every page and in every chapter, often in manifold repetition. Communio Acacii here, communio Sancti Petri there. He who has communio with those who are excluded from the Roman communio, is himself excommunicated".

I am a German native speaker and did my best. Perhaps you can flatten it out, grammar-wise.

Patrick Sheridan said...

Dr Winch died a disillusioned man.