Barbaric Carolingian Christianity

Father of the Western Schism

More and more, I have come to believe that the internal decline or Western-European Christendom as well as the Great Schism between Germanic Christians and Hellenic Christians is ground solely on the insistence of the progeny of Carolingian Civilization to cling to the distinctive, speculative, and innovative doctrines and methods of Latin theology that were unilaterally inaugurated and ratified by Charlemagne as dogmatic.

Indeed, as a matter of Christian History, we need to remember that the special, historical revelation of Christ, the Gospel, and the deposit of faith was once delivered. Moreover, during the period of the Great Councils, the very same faith was fully explicated or reiterated, if you will, in the idiom of then ascendent Greco-Roman intellectual milieu as well as protected against co-option by arid, philosophical rationalization.  Thus, the sum and substance of the same faith was memorialized both in Ireneaus' nascent works of systematic dogmatics, "On Apostolic Preaching" and "Against Heresy," as was later expanded upon in St. John Damascene's "Exact Exposition of the Faith."  In sum and substance, this same faith was universally held by Orthodox Catholic Christians throughout  the Greco-Roman Empire and beyond.

Not until, the Charlemagne, the mighty descendant of the Germanic invaders and despoilers of the western half of the Greco-Roman Empire, ratified as dogma the obscure, sometimes brilliant, but nevertheless innovative, theological speculations of a backwater  bishop from North Africa, who had no facility in the preeminent language of Christian theology (Greek, not Latin), did the divergence the Franks and Byzantine East were in complete dogmatic accord. 

Now, Charlemagne's elevation of Augustine to the level of oracle was for the express purpose of "exposing" the Christian East as pagan Greeks for not adhering to the Latin-only "doctrine" expounded by, or based on, Augustine of Hippo.  For example, the Carolingian Franks accused the East of omitting the filioque from Creed.  And, once the political might of the Carolignian Franks and their Ottonian successors captured control of the great See of Rome from a corrupt, but doctrinally loyal, Greco-Roman aristocratic family, and installed the subsequent string of Popes kowtowing to the Carolingian party line, the Christian West has been engaged in a unilateral sojourn, separated over the  years by ever increasing degrees from the origin deposit of Faith, as Anslem and Aquinas built upon erroneous trajectory of Augustine, with the obviously disasterous results; that is the implosion of European Christendom from within.  (Whereas the Eastern Christendom was defeated by the Scimitar of the Islamic Turk and the poison of Marxism, brewed in the Royal Library in London, and injected in Russia from the Carolingian fatherland.)   

The cure to the malady of Western Christendom, which is nothing more than voluntary separation the original, authentic, uncorrupted Orthodox Catholic Faith, is rapprochement. And, long ago, when St. Vincent of Lerins' contemporaneously observed a certain segment of Germanic Christians coming under the thrall of the dazzling heresies of Augustinian divergences from catholicity and orthodoxy, he penned his "Commonitorium" to guide those of good faith back into well trodden paths of Apostles, Patriarchs, and Fathers of the Church.  Therein, he set out a simple rule for distinguishing between erroneous and authentic Christian teaching:  that which is authentic is not and cannot be innovative, but rather must meet the criterion of QUOD UBIQUE, QUOD SEMPER, QUOD AB OMNIBUS CREDITUM EST -- that which has been believed always, everywhere, by all.

Unfortunately, St. Vincent's sage voice was ignored by the Carolingian West, which had more pressing concerns -- such as contesting with the Byzantine East for control of the old Roman Empire -- than maintaining the integrity of the Christian Faith.  And, if using the theological errors of a speculative Christian theologian who wrote in the Western vernacular (Latin), and who could not be easily rebutted because Westerns no longer read the tongue of the corpus of authentic Christian doctrine (Greek), to widen a cultural and geo-political wedge between the Teutonic and the Greco-Roman, then Charlemagne the Great was not above it.  And today, we, the Christian West, stand firmly entrenched in Karl's legacy of choosing Germanic comitatus above Christianized romanitas; of choosing Barbaric autonomy to the Communion of the Saints.  Hence, we have reaped what or forbearers sowed:  we have return to our tribal ignorance and we have voluntarily "progressed" to a post-Christian civilization.

Christ is Risen!

Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us: therefore let us keep the feast,

Not with old leaven, neither with leaven of malice and wickedness;

But with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I Cor. 7

Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more;

Death hath no more dominion over him.

For in that he died, he died unto sin once:

But in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.

Likewise reckon ye alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 6 Rom. 9

Christ is risen from the Dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept.

For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. 15 I Cor. 20

Glory be the Father, and to the Son, 

And to the Holy Ghost;

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,

World without end.  Amen.

* * * * * * *

Almighty God, who through thine only-begotten Son Jesus Christ has overcome death, and opened unto to us the gate of everlasting life; We humbly beseech thee that, as by special grace preventing us, thou dost put into our minds good desires, so by thy continual help we may bring the same to good effect; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost ever, one God, world without end.  Amen.

The Easter Canticle and Collect -- Book of Common Prayer (1928 U.S.)

Penny for the Guy?

O Remember, remember the Fifth of November

The Gunpowder Treason and Plot

I know of no reason 

Why the Gunpowder Treason

Should ever be forgot

Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t'was his intent

To blow up King and Parli'ment

Three-score barrels of powder below

To prove dear England's overthrow

By God's grace he was catch'd

With dark lantern but burning match

Hurray boys, hurray boys, let the bells ring

Hurray boys, hurray boys, God save our Queen!

St Fridewide

Born the daughter of a Mercian king about 680, Frideswide became and abbess in a double monastery built by her father. Upon her death in 727, she was buried in the monastery, which was the nucleus for the nascent town of Oxford.  She became the patron saint of the University in the early 15th Century, though Cardinal Wolsey suppressed her monastery to provide funds and a site to build his Cardinal College, now Christ Church College at Oxford. More recently, part of her shrine has been reconstructed from fragments recovered from a well at College.

St Edward the Confessor

King Edward was born in 1002, the son of the English King Ethelred and his Norman wife Emma. Living in exile during the Danish ascendency, he was invited back to England in 1042 to become king, and heartily welcomed as descendant of the old Anglo-Saxon royal line.

His reputation for sanctity was on his personal qualities. He was sincerely concerned to maintain peace and justice in his realm and to avoid foreign wars.  He was generous with the poor and hospitable to strangers. In an exchange for the fulfillment of a youthful vow to make a pilgrimage to Rome, he was instead allowed endowed an Abbey on Thorne Island by the Thames, thereby beginning the tradition of royal patronage of Westminster Abbey.

St Edward died on January 5, 1066, and his remains were translated to the Abbey on this day in 1162. 

Blessed Robert Grosseteste

Robert Grosseteste ("Large Head") was born of humble parentage in Suffolk in 1175 but studied at both Oxford and Paris and then taught at the Franciscan house of studies in Oxford. In 1235, he was made Bishop of Lincoln.  That year he attended the unsuccessful Council of Lyons and also travelled to Rome.

His wide ranging interests included maths, optics and many sciences.  He also translated large numbers of theological works from Greek and wrote his own commentaries and works.  Robert is considered the real founder of the tradition of scientific thought in medieval Oxford and, in some ways, the father of the modern English intellectual tradition. He died on this day in 1253.  

Blessed William Tyndale

Regardless what one my think about Tyndale's overall, personal theological outlook, he was dead right (pardon the pun) about one thing: the vernacular scripture.  And, as all of Christianity has come to agree with him, his death was not in vain.

Born in Gloucestershire about 1494, William Tyndale attended Magdalen Hall at Oxford and then at Cambridge. He became determined to translate the Scriptures from Greek directly into English but was thwarted by the Bishop of London. So, William settled in Hamburg in 1524, never returning to England.

When the first copies of his translation arrived in England, his translation was bitterly attacked as subversive by ecclesial authorities. He spent the rest of his life making revisions of his work and writing theological works. He was eventually arrested in 1535.  He was then strangled and burnt at the stake. His last words were, "Lord, open the King of England's eyes."

Ironically, Tyndale's translation, which was original deemed heretical by the English Church became the fundamental basis of the New Testament in the Authorized Version, which is still the official biblical translation of the Church of England. A quick comparison of Tyndale's original and the AV reveals that Tyndale's poetic rendering of Greek into the simple, straightforward, English of his day is what makes the Authorized Versionso beloved to this very day. 

  

St. John Cassian

St. John Cassian is, of course, also known for his rejection if Augustine's sola gratia soteriology . . . . [This is also true of St. Vincent of Lerins, who developed his celebrated canon to combat Augustinian novelties.]  Contrary to Augustine, and like most his contemporaries throughout the Church universal, St. John believed that the [Fall] had subjected humanity to spiritual and physical death but, in so doing, had only partially corrupted the "image and likeness of God" in which Adam had been created. [Indeed, fallen man remained created in the Image of God, but had fallen from Likeness to God.] Moreover, for St. John [and the Orthodox consensus of the Fathers,] one could participate in one's own salvation through ascetic discipline and a refocusing of one's soul toward God [but only incooperation with God's antecedent grace -- a soteriology of asymmetrical synergy, with fits well with the Orthodox and Cyrillian Christology of Asymmetrical Hypostatic Union.] This placed [St. John] well within the [consensus patrum,] but in opposition to Augustine.

For years, historians have mistakenly labelled Cassian as a semi-Pelagian -- an anachronistic and prejudicial label.  In so doing, they have allowed a single author, Augustine, to serve as the [sole] measuring stick of orthodoxy.  Not only is this approach theologically biased, it is historically unsound. John and his coreligionists conformed to a well-developed and widespread view when they advocated the combination of grace and human initiative.  [Indeed,] it was Augustine's anti-Pelagian excessiveness that was theoretically novel.

-- excerpted from George E. Demacopoulos, Five Models of Spiritual Direction in the Early Church (Notre Dame 2007).

Percy Dearmer and the Anglican Formularies

Critics of Percy Dearmer's Parson's Handbook often charge that Dearmer attempted to create a "British Museum Piece" ceremonial for the Church of England. And, Dearmer himself, knew that some portions of his book advocated for the restoration of Old-Sarum practices that had fallen into disuse, yet were nevertheless necessary provisions due to the rubrics of the Book of Common Prayer, especially the Ornaments Rubric. Indeed, he believed such restorations from the vast treasury of British Catholic history to be the 'only way that the credit and peace of the Church' would be advanced, because only that would conform to the directions of the Prayer Book.  And, once cut loose from the moorings of Common Prayer, Dearmer believed that Anglicanism would eventually bound to dash itself upon the either rocks of Puritanism or Papism or both.  His fear has proved to be all to cogent.

Consequently, Dearmer opposed both low-church elements that wanted to ignore the Ornaments Rubric altogether and proceed with a sparse and bare ceremonial out of dislike of ceremonial in general or out of fear of so-called "Romanism," which Old Sarum certainly was not, as well as those so-called Advanced Ritualist that 'favour the customs of a very hostile, foreign church' over those of its own, richly catholic and apostolic church. Indeed, Dearmer saw that both the Evangelicals and the Victorian Anglo-Catholics were in agreement at least on the point that, contrary to the legal authority, "such ornaments as were in this Church of England in the second year of Edward VI should [NOT] be in use," thereby standing the aim of Common Prayer on its head and enhancing ruinous party feeling in the Church of England.

Dearmer firmly believed that, by loyal observance of the formularies of the Church of England, it was perfectly possible to have a form of worship which was properly Catholic and had firm roots in the tradition of Christian worship from the earliest days. He would have nothing to do with rites and ceremonies which were disloyal to the Church of England. Indeed, would that more so-called traditional Anglicans could see Dearmer's good sense on this matter and actually strive to comply with the Anglican formularies with pastoral prudence and with the cure of souls foremost in mind.

See Donald Gray's, Percy Dearmer, Parson's Pilgrimage (Canterbury Press 2000)

St Theodore -- Unifier of the British Church

St. Theodore was born in 602 A.D. in St. Paul's native city of Tarsus in Asia Minor.  He was ordained Archbishop of Canterbury by Pope Vitalian in 668 A.D.

A learned monk from the East, Theodore was sent to Britian at a time of strife between those supporting Celtic or Roman Customs.  Upon his arrival, he established a school in Canterbury, training both Celtic and English clergy, bringing a system of classical education to the Isles which has been maintained without interruption to this day.  

Eventually, he was able to organize the Church in Britain and bring about unity through well-diocesan borders, regular synods, and creating a code of canon law.  The Venerable Bede indicates that the St. Theodore was the first prelate recognized by all Christians in Britain as their Archbishop.  Hence, he may rightly be called the true Father of distinctively British Christianity, which is informed by Eastern and Celtic, as well as Western and Rome, roots.  

St. Theodore died on September 19, 690 and is buried with St. Augustine of Canterbury and others in the monastic church of Saints Peter and Paul at Canterbury. 

Old and New Sarum

The Book of Common Prayer Tradition is one concern primarily with uniformity of Rite, which is comprises the words of the Ordinary of the Services of the English Speaking Church.  And, towards this purpose, the Book of Common Prayer (BCP) did not cut itself from whole clothe Quite to the contrary, depending on edition, it more-or-less constitutes a conservative recension of the Old Sarum Rite used in England and neighboring areas during the Middle Ages.  

The original 1549 addition remains closest to Old Sarum; the United States 1928, the English 1928 (Deposited), and the Canadian 1962 are less so; and the English 1662 remains edition in use that marks the furthest venture from Old Saum -- which is not to say that it lacks authentic catholicity when sympathetically and charitably interpreted -- a higher Christian virtue, which Dom Gregory Dix could not seem to muster in his postmodern deconstruction of the Parliamentary book. 

As for ceremonial, the tersely worded Ornaments Rubric actually provides all the guidance any liturgist would need in putting the BCP into use. Indeed, it simply specifies that, in all things, the outward ceremonial (colloquially called ritual) remained Old Sarum or contemporaneous, local English Uses. No reliance on any foreign tradition, as such, is required at all for formulary Anglicans to have a rich, edifying catholic and orthodox decoration and ceremonial for Holy Communion.  

For instance, Sarum vestments and its seasonal color schemes have provided, and continue to provide, a homely, catholic divinity to Anglicans that have and will avail themselves of their own traditions. Likewise, the traditionally optimistic Christus Rex provides English-Speaking Catholics with a much more accurate understanding of Christus Victor than any Christ-in-Anguish, Roman Crucifix ever has or ever will.

As for minor propers, the Prayer Book Tradition, if not the Book of Common Prayeri itself, again provides an embarrassment of riches.  First, the beautiful English tradition of choral and congregational singing memorialized in many excellent Hymnals, the American 1940 being but one example, provides for not only for a sung (or plainchant) Ordinary in many edifying settings from Merbecke to Willan, but also the singing of hymns in place of the formerly chanted minor provides.  And, for those with a preference for retaining plainchant for the minor propers, which is a fine thing to do and well within the Prayer Book Tradition, need only look to the Canadian 1962 BCP table of introits and grails (graduals).

As for full calendars and for full sets of propers for the saints, one need look no further than the current edition of "Lesser Feasts and Fasts" (used with orthodox-catholic discretion, as some chaff is contained therein) or even better yet the British "Celebrating the Saints" provides excellent collects and lectionary propers for such important, relatively recent Anglican divines as George Herbert, John and Charles Wesely, Thomas Ken, James DeKoven, John Keeble, John Donne, Dame Julian of Norwich, Evelyn Underhill, William Wilberforce, Jeremy Taylor, John Henry Hobart, Edward Bouverie Pusey, Lancelot Andrewes, William Tyndale, the Oxford Martyrs, Alfred the Great, Richard Hooker, Clive Staples Lewis, and Nicholas Ferrar just name a few heroic and saintly Anglicans.  (Notably none of the above are commemorated by the Anglican Missals deemed by some to be so essential to fleshing out the Book of Common Prayer!)

 

In sum, a full, homely, catholic divinity is contained within the rich Old- and New-Sarum traditions of the English Church, without any need to turn to traditions of that church which attempted to destroy both mother England and Anglicanism beginning in 1571 and which still refuses to recognize our orthodox catholicity even when we present ourselves in our lawful, orthodox-catholic, and traditional form, is necessary or even desirable for a healthy English-Speaking Orthodox-Catholic piety and practice. 

Memory Eternal!

I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die.

Unto Almighty God we comment the souls or our brethren departed, and we commit their bodies to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection unto eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ; at whose coming in glorious majesty to judge the world, the earth and the sea shall give up their dead; and the corruptible bodies of the those who sleep in him shall be changed, and made like unto his own glorious body; according to the mighty working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself.

-- excerpted from the 1928 BCP Service for the Burial of the Dead

Orienting English-Speaking Christians

"We and our people -- thanks be to God -- follow no novel and strange religions, but that very religion which is ordained by Christ, sanctioned by the primitive and Catholic Church and approved by the consistent mind and voice of the early Fathers."   --Queen Elizabeth I

"We have returned to the Apostles and the old Catholic Fathers.  We have planted no new religion, but only preserved the old that was undoubtedly founded and used by the Apostles of Christ and other holy Fathers of the Primitive Church."  -- Bishop John Jewel

"See to it that they teach nothing in the way of a sermon, which they would have religiously held and believed by the people, save that what is agreeable to the teaching of the Old New Testament, and what the catholic fathers and ancient bishops have collected from this self-same doctrine."  -- Canon of 1571

"Protestant and Reformed according to the principles of the ancient Catholic Church." -- Bishop John Cosin

"I die in the holy apostolic faith, professed by the whole church before the division of East and West; more particularly I die in the communion of the Church of England, as it stands distinguished from all papal and puritan innovations, and as it adheres to the doctrine of the cross." -- Bishop Thomas Ken

"At the Reformation, the Church of England became protestant in order to become more truly and perfectly Catholic." -- Bishop William VanMildert

"The Anglican Church us Catholic positively and Protestant negatively.  It is Catholic in its essential nature because it maintains the Catholic and apostolic faith and order.  It is Protestant, in the old sense, negatively because it rejects the papal claims to supremacy, infallibility and universal jurisdiction, and the decrees of the Councils of Trent and the Vatican."  -- C.B. Moss

"The Anglican Communion has no peculiar thought, practice, creed or confession of its own.  It has only the Catholic Faith of the ancient Catholic Church, as preserved in the Catholic Creeds and maintained in Catholic and Apostolic constitution of Christ's Church from the beginning."  -- Archbishop Geoffrey Fisher

Mere Anglicanism

"We accept the English Reformation as that which diligently sought the true sources of faith and discredited the many corruptions and distortions of the Middle Ages.  Actually the Articles of Religion found in the Prayer Book were written not as a statement of faith, but to deal with [the] distortions and corruptions of the medieval church.

We do not, however, accept the theology of the Continental Reformation or uncatholic efforts [] to discard the fundamental principles of the historic faith along with the abuses.

We don't accept private innovations intruding into the Church's teachings.  We honor Luther, Calvin, Knox and others for their efforts to explain the faith, but do not accept them as having a prophetic abilities to speak for God.

We do celebrate the historic faith -- [the] fundamental form of Christianity; its [belief], worhsip, teaching, devotions and life -- with joy and love and real thankfulness . . . . We believe this catholic approach to be the most comprehensive and satisfying expression of gratitude for God's unlimited love and mercy."

Excerpted from the UECNA's "What We Believe."

Augustine of Hippo's Catholic Value

"The real insight of Augustine's pychological analogy for the Trinity is not its 'explanation' of the fecund mystery of divine nature but rather its discovery that the [human] mind is a created pattern of Trinitarian existence naturally and supernaturally -- by divine grace -- fit or participation in Uncreated Life."

--excerpted from the "Holy Wisdom" blog site.

Of course, the human body is also, by grace, fit for participation in divine Life.  But, the larger point here is that, when taken as creative, speculative theology (but not dogmatic theology), Augustine's works offer some brilliant insights useful to pious, catholic Christians of both the West and East.

The Filioque and Ethnic Politics

By the 8th century, the Carolingian Empire was competing with the Byzantine Empire for its claim to the be the true heir to the Roman Imperium . . .  In this context, the filioque (as a doctrine as much as liturgical addition) had a two-fold function.  First, it served the interest of Frankish theologians, especially Alcuin . . . .  Second, it was used by Charlemagne, in his political struggle, to question the orthodoxy of the Byzantine court.   It is important to note that the filioque clause was added . . . in Frankish dominions but not those of the Roman See [because the Papacy was still generally controlled by the old Roman aristocracy, which was still loyal to, and perceived itself to be part of, the old Greco-Roman milieu.]

Despite Papal support for the theology of the filioque, which had a firm foundation in the Latin fathers . . . the filioque clause was deliberately not added to the text [of the Creed] by the Popes of Rome.  In fact, the Creed [with filioque] itself was not introduced into the Mass in Rome until the 11th century.  By that time, the Western Empire [including the See of Rome] had [completely] passed from [the old Greco-Roman aristocracy ] to [theologically Frankish] Germans.

--excerpted from the Holy Wisdom blog site.

Christus Victor

By means of this sacrament, our bodies and made capable of the resurrection to Life and eternal Glory. For when we . . . are made partakers of His Body and Blood, we are joined and made one with Him, who did rise again; and when the Head is risen, the Members shall not see corruption for ever, but rise again again after the pattern of our Lord.  If by the Sacrament we are really united and made one with Christ, then is shall be to us in our portion as it was to Him; we shall rise again and shall enter into Glory.  

. . . By this Holy Ministry we are joined and partake of Christ's Body and Blood, and then we become spiritually one Body, and therefore shall receive in our bodies all the effects of that spiritual union; the chief of which . . . is Resurrection from the Grave.

Extracted from At all Times and All Places, Massey H. Shepherd Jr. (Seabury 1953, 1965)