Tuesday, 14 December 2010
Notes for an MC at Missa Cantata
Posted by Arthur Crumly at 13:00 1 comments
Labels: MC, Rubrics, Serving at Missa Cantata
Wednesday, 27 October 2010
The Apostle of Bedford
There are many photographs, mainly of Protestant churches: Fr Warmoll was an Anglican minister before he became a Catholic; so were a number of his ancestors, another was a Congregationalist minister.
We meet him in chapter five; in chapter eight we become aware of his Catholic life when he is baptised sub conditione by Canon Henry Edward Manning, Provost of Westminster, when he received the name of John. Mr Warmoll had previously known the Canon as Archdeacon Manning; he was later Archbishop of Westminster and Cardinal.
After attending the Pian College (now the Beda) in Rome and ordination in 1863 in St John Lateran, Fr Warmoll was appointed to the pro-Cathedral of Northampton. At the time the diocese covered seven counties, had thirty-four churches, four convents and twenty-one priests. With so few priests, the newly ordained soon found themselves in charge of missions. So it was that in the year of his ordination Fr Warmoll was sent to establish a mission in Bedford. There was only one chapel in Bedfordshire at the time.
From chapter ten, the author charts the course of the Bedford Mission. Father Warmoll arrived in the town on Christmas Eve 1863 with two pounds in his pocket. His first Christmas Masses were celebrated in the small house of one of the few Catholic families in the town. Three rented rooms in a house formed the first mission building: an ill-furnished room for the priest to live in and the other two knocked into one to form a chapel.
To provide income for the mission, he wrote to the Catholic publications, The Tablet, The Universe and The Weekly Register. He pleaded, “Not only have we no chapel, schoolroom nor house in this town, but, at present, no means of obtaining them”. Many begging letters later, he was able to build a presbytery and chapel-schoolroom and celebrated the first Mass there on 31 March 1867. The mission territory was the whole of Bedfordshire; the other chapel in the county, at Shefford, was temporarily closed the same year Fr Warmoll opened his new building. People came from as far as sixteen miles away to hear Mass.
The numbers of Catholics increased, thanks to Fr Warmoll’s efforts, and the number of Catholic children over-flowed the schoolroom. Afraid the school inspectors might close the school, he began to build the Church of the Holy Child and St Joseph beginning with the sacristy so that it could be used as an extra schoolroom.
The foundation stone was laid by Bishop Amherst on 10 October 1872. Donations for the building of the high altar and sanctuary were collected from children around the country, even from those of East London and of the London Oratory. The book containing their names was buried below the altar. It was discovered in 1986 during the process of re-ordering the sanctuary.
Father Warmoll applied for the high altar to be made a privileged altar. In signing the application, he described himself as formerly a student in Collegio Piano Anglorum. Jack Robbins records that the present rector of the Beda suggests ‘Piano’ was possibly a familiar term for ‘Pio Nono’, which shows how little Latin the clergy now have. It is, of course, ‘Pian’, of Pius, as in ‘abito piano’, the crimson-trimmed, purple-sashed habit, which was introduced by that pope, and is worn as undress by bishops.
In July 1873, Fr Warmoll was appointed a canon. His church was opened, partly built, the following year and completed in 1912. “The opening ceremonies began with Pontifical High Mass at 11.00 am, Bishop Amherst being the celebrant... After the Gospel, the Most Reverend Dr Manning, Archbishop of Westminster entered, ‘at once recognised from his ascetic looks’, preceded by a cross-bearer.” He preached for about forty minutes and then retired to the sacristy.
There was quite a lot of preaching: “On Sunday, sermons were preached by Rev. Prior Wilberforce, OP in the morning and by Fr Anderton, SJ in the evening to crowded congregations. Father Anderton also delivered lectures on Monday and Tuesday ‘on points of dogma and devotion on which non-Catholics had erroneous impressions.' "
Once the church was open, Canon Wamroll turned his attention to a new school.
The author deals well with the matter of Catholic education. The canon opened his schools to government inspection, so a grant could be received. Although the 1870 Education Act was to provide a place for every child, voluntary schools received nothing from local taxation and were affected by the rule which allowed schools to give religious instruction, provided “no religious catechism or religious formulary which is distinctive of any particular denomination shall be taught.”
By the time of his death, Canon Warmoll was the Provost of the Chapter. He died on the Feast of St Valentine, 14 February 1885. His funeral, celebrated by the Bishop of Northampton, Dr Riddel, was attended by five Anglican ministers.
John Priestley Warmoll: His Life, Times and Family
by Jack Robbins, pb, £8,95
(Available from: 21 Ryston End, Downham Market, Norfolk PE38 9AX)
Posted by Arthur Crumly at 09:19 0 comments
Labels: Apostolate, Catholic Books, Catholic England
Tuesday, 26 October 2010
Corpus Christi - Triumph Over Heresy
Posted by Arthur Crumly at 11:08 0 comments
Labels: Catholic England, Corpus Chisti, Fortescue, Liturgy
Saturday, 23 October 2010
The Gordon Riots
In June 1780, the City was burning, a mob was rampaging through the streets, buildings were sacked, prisons burning, distilleries and breweries broken into by drunken rioters who stormed through the streets unchecked by those whose place it was to bring them to order. The Bank of England was stormed, Catholics were being attacked and raped and their home sand chapels burned; this was London for over a week that June.
It was then a City without a police force. There were the Bow Street Runners, thief-takers employed on a sort of semi-official, commission basis by the Bow Street Magistrate (at first the novelist Henry Fielding, but by this time his brother, Sir John, "the blind beak"). The only official guardians of the peace were parish constables often appointed against their will and serving with reluctance, and watchmen most of whom were old and feeble; nicknamed "Charlies" they were generally figures of fun. They were of little use and certainly not against rioters. When things got out of hand, order had to be maintained by the armed forces of the Crown. It was not until 1829 that the Metropolitan Police Force was formed.The Solicitor General introduced a Bill to establish a London police force in 1780,but there had been considerable opposition at all levels of society to the formation of such a force which was regarded as a form of foreign, especially French, tyranny and the Bill was lost.
Riots were not unusual in England, and especially in London, in the eighteenth century, or, indeed, earlier - medieval apprentices were forever at it. For the voteless underclass, it was the only Way to protest about their lot and make their voices heard. They had rioted against the Gin Act, an act to control the sale of spirits, to the extent that the act was made unworkable, and it was only some thirty years before there had been riots against the Calendar (New Style) Act of 1752which ordained that eleven days be deleted from the year 1752 to replace the Julian Calendar with the Gregorian one, they then being eleven days out of step; the mob thought eleven days had been stolen from their lives "give us back our eleven days" they demanded. There had also been a number of outbreaks against the presence of large numbers of Irish peasantry who were thought to be ready to work for lower wages than the pitiable amounts the English received. It may be that anti-Irish prejudice was a contributory cause of the "no-Popery" riots; a public house - not an obvious choice for destruction - was smashed up in Golden Lane; its keeper was named Murphy.
At the end of the eighteenth century the hatred of Catholics by ordinary Englishmen was mostly unreasoning and largely due to anti-Jacobite propaganda by the Whigs. Daniel Defoe, the author of Robinson Crusoe, said there were in London forty thousand stout fellows that would spend the last drop of their blood against Popery that do not know whether it be a man or a horse.
However, a more tolerant attitude was beginning to creep in. Among educated people fear of Papists was starting to disappear; the Jacobite threat was reduced after 1745 and the Grand Tour had made Continental Catholicism familiar to the wealthier classes, and the Pope less of bogeyman. The eighteenth century had become more tolerant towards Catholics; Lord North's Government had already recognised the status of the Catholic Church in Canada.
It could be said that the reason for the relaxation of penal laws against Catholics was the need of the Army to recruit more men. The need for soldiers was urgent and it was desirable to remove the restrictions which prevented Catholics from serving in the Army. In 1770, General Sir John Burgoyne, soon to be Commander in Chief of British Forces in America during the Rebellion there, proposed that Catholics be permitted to join the Army after taking a modified oath of allegiance. The Bill was rejected. However, by 1775 the American Rebellion had begin and there was the further possibility of war on the European continent; the combined French and Spanish fleets were in the Channel. Much needed recruits could be obtained from the largely Catholic Scottish Highlands and from Ireland if it were not for the problem of the anti-Papal content of the oath of allegiance.
The Government sent an emissary to Bishop Hay, Vicar Apostolic of the Lowland District in Scotland, concerning a proposed Act. The Bishop advised that Bishop Challoner, Vicar Apostolic of the London District, should be approached, but the Government was unwilling to consult with "Romish Bishops" who by the laws of the time should be in prison. The negotiations were, therefore, mostly handled by laymen, chief among them Lord Petre. As a result of these negotiations the first Catholic Relief Act for England received the Royal Assent on June 3rd 1778 making it no longer a felony to be a priest and allowing soldiers to enlist without taking an oath against the Pope, just one of loyalty to the Crown.
In 1779 when it was proposed to pass similar laws for Scotland there was rioting in Edinburgh and Glasgow. A Protestant Association was established to resist any attempt to relax the laws against Catholics.
In February of the same year, a meeting was held in Coach makers' Hall, Foster Lane in London at which a Protestant Association for England was formed. In November of that year, Lord George Gordon, a younger son of the Duke of Gordon and an anti-Papist fanatic who had been active in the campaign in Scotland was invited to become its President.
Some idea of the thinking of the more hostile anti-Catholic Londoner can be gained from what John Wesley, the father of Methodism, wrote on January 12th 1780, "I consider not whether the Romish religion be true or false: I build nothing on the one or the other supposition: therefore away with all your commonplace declamations against intolerance and persecution for religion: suppose every word of Pope Pius' creed were true, suppose the Council of Trent to have been infallible yet, I insist upon it, that no government, not Roman Catholic, ought to tolerate men of the Roman Catholic persuasion".
On Friday June 2nd 1780, a hot sunny day,a large number of Protestants assembled at St George‘s Fields in Southwark. About noon they moved off and marched to the House of Commons wearing blue cockades in their hats, carrying Lord George Gordon on their shoulders and crying "No Popery". They were to present a monster petition against the Relief Act to the House of Commons. When they arrived, Gordon, who was a Member of Parliament, entered the House while the mob remained outside.
At first they did little more than jostle MPs as they came from or went to the House,but gradually under the influence of agitators they became more violent. They beset Parliament and assaulted some of its members. They turned over' the coaches of peers whom they considered most favourably inclined towards the Relief Act. The Archbishop of York was made to shout "No Popery!" and to wear a blue cockade. Lord Mansfield, the Lord Chief Justice, had his coach smashed up about him as he rode in it.
For more than a week the mob roamed the streets of London clamouring for Protestant orthodoxy, had they known what that was. The Commons could not sit because of the mob. During all this, the authorities made no move to act against the rioters. The anger and violence of the mob was directed mainly against Catholics, but they also raided distilleries and breweries and robbed and looted as and where they pleased. One of the largest distilleries in London was owned by a Catholic, a Mr Langdale. The mob attacked it, got roaring drunk and set it on fire, with the result that many of them were burned to death. They' broke open the gaols, set fire to Newgate Prison and released about 300 of its prisoners. The King's Bench and Fleet Prisons and the new Bridewell were also burned.
The Bank of England was attacked, but was one of the few buildings to be defended by the authorities. John Wilkes,the Member of Parliament for Middlesex,who became Chamberlain of the City in 1774, acted with resolution against the mob, directing the Guards outside the Bank. When they ran short of ammunition, its defenders melted down ink pots to make bullets to resist the drunken crowd. The rioters were repulsed, but with heavy losses to the soldiers. As a result of this attack the picket of the Guards was nightly posted at the Bank until abolished by Harold Wilson's Government.
The "No Popery" rioters burned the Bavarian Embassy Chapel in Golden Square. They moved on to the Sardinian Embassy in Duke Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields and burned the chapel there. The Blessed Sacrament was removed from the chapel just in time and taken to the Ship Tavern in Little Turnstile. Bishop Challoner lived only about ten minutes walk away from the Embassy in which he often celebrated Mass. He was persuaded to take refuge in a neighbouring house which happily the mob failed to find. On Saturday morning, he was driven to Finchley, then a small village outside London, where he celebrated Mass the next day.
On Sunday afternoon a Catholic chapel in Ropemakers's Alley was destroyed along with a number of houses of Catholics, the chapel in Moorfields and the house of the resident priest in the same street were attacked along with the houses of other Catholics in Moorfields. The rioters stripped the priest's house of furniture and piled it up in the street together with the ornaments and vestments of the chapel, they tore out the altars, pulpit and pews and made a bonfire of them and burned most of the chapel archives, leaving nothing but bare walls. Owing to the ill treatment he suffered in the riots Mr Richard Dillon , the Missionary Rector of the Chapel, died the same year. Two more chapels were destroyed on Monday, in Wapping and East Smithfield
The Irish in Wapping formed themselves into a defence organisation for Catholic property and offered their services to the Home Secretary, but he declined the offer on the grounds it might lead to disturbance!
Because he was known to favour the Catholic Relief Act, a Protestant mob wrecked Lord Mansfield's house in Bloomsbury and destroyed his valuable library. Later, he was to preside over the trial of Lord George Gordon with conspicuous fairness. His house, Ken Wood, at Hampstead was saved from destruction by the presence of a squadron of Light Horse. Lord Petre's London house, however, was destroyed.
As the rioting continued unabated, King George III called a special meeting of the Privy Council at Buckingham House at which he observed that the soldiers could not act as no magistrate was prepared to read the Riot Act. The Riot Act had been passed in 1715 and was intended to prevent civil disorder. It made it a felony for an assembly of more than twelve people to refuse to disperse after being ordered to do so and having been read a specified portion of the Act by a magistrate. The Attorney General advised His Majesty that as the mob was engaged in a felony, the reading of the Riot Act was unnecessary. The King accepted that advice and issued a Proclamation calling out the military, ordering them to open fire and bring the rioters under control.
Although there were eventually as many as ten thousand soldiers on the streets, it is probable that it was less due to their efforts that the rioting ended, it is as likely that the mob had run out of steam and things just ran down. By Friday, order had almost been restored and what Lord Petre called "the most serious public disorder ever seen in this country" came to an end.
Twenty one people of the lower classes were hanged, bizarrely one of them was a fourteen year old boy who was executed for pulling down the house of the Bow Street Magistrate. Presumably he had some assistance.
About 450 people were killed or wounded in the riots.
By June 9th, everything was about over and Lord George Gordon was lodged in the Tower of London. He was acquitted at his trial. Later, he gave up the Protestant cause and became a convert to Judaism after being refused admittance to the Quakers. In 1788 he was imprisoned for a libel on the Queen of France, Marie Antoinette. No-one would stand surety for his good behaviour and he remained in prison until he died of gaol-fever five years later, in the same year the Queen he had libelled was guillotined, with her husband Louis XVI, by the French revolutionaries. Gordon was refused burial in the Jewish burial ground. The site of the Anglican church, St James', where he was interred instead now lies under Euston station.
After the riots, Catholics were compensated for the damage done to their property. They rebuilt their chapels, and the priest at Moorfields started a new register to replace what had been burned by the rioters and entered onto its flyleaf a note of all the baptisms and weddings he could remember having conducted before the destruction of the records.
When the Catholic Emancipation Act was passed in 1829 there was no Lord George Gordon to lead violent reaction to it and it passed peaceably into law.
Posted by Arthur Crumly at 09:44 1 comments
Labels: Anti-Catholicism, Catholic Emancipation Act, Catholic England
Saturday, 31 July 2010
SERVING AT MISSA CANTATA ( Additional Notes)
Posted by Arthur Crumly at 18:28 2 comments
Labels: Serving at Missa Cantata
SERVING AT MISSA CANTATA (The Torchbearers at Missa Cantata)
Procession to altar
When you are to be a Torchbearer walk with the other Torchbearers, not carrying your candle, immediately behind the Acolytes in the procession to the altar, keeping in pairs.
Preparatory Prayers
When you come before the altar, genuflect with your partner, turn inwards to face him and bow to him. He will also bow to you. Then turn away from him and go to your place at the seat which has been prepared for you. When the Mc kneels down, kneel also.
Incensing of altar
When the Celebrant goes up to the altar after the Preparatory Prayers, stand up.
Introit to Gloria
Remain standing until the Celebrant sits down during the Gloria in excelsis Deo if this is sung, and stand again when the Celebrant does so.
Collect to Alleluia/Tract
Stand for the Collect (1). If there is a Sequence, sit down when the Celebrant does. Sit down during the Epistle.
Gospel
When the Mc, Thurifer and Acolytes genuflect to go to the place of the Gospel, stand for the Gospel.
Sermon
If there is a Sermon, sit and listen to it.
Credo
Stand while the Celebrant recites the Creed. Genuflect at Et incarnatus est de Spiritu Sancto ex Maria Virgine: et homo factus est when the Celebrant does so. When he has finished the Creed, he goes to sit. Sit also. Bow when Et incarnatus est, etc. is sung if you are sitting, but kneel during them if you are still standing when they are sung. (2). Bow when the words simul adoratur are sung. When the Celebrant stands, stand up at the Offertory.
After the celebrant has sung Dominus vobiscum and Oremus, sit. When the Thurifer comes to cense the Torchbearers, stand. When he bows to you bow back to him, and when he has censed you, bow to him again. Leave your place to stand at the centre of the sanctuary, lined up with the other Torchbearers in pairs ready to go to the sacristy to collect your torch candle. When the Thurifer comes to join you, genuflect to the altar with him and follow him to the sacristy to collect your torch.
Secret to Consecration
At the start of the singing of Sanctus, follow theThurifer, carrying your torch candle, (3) back to thesanctuary, genuflect with him, go to the place where youhave been told to kneel, and kneel there with the otherTorchbearers, making a line across the sanctuary, facing towards the altar and holding your torch candle up straight.
Consecration to Communion
Look up at the Blessed Sacrament when the Celebrant elevates It. Say "My Lord and my God" when you look on the Sacred Host.
Communion
If you are to receive communion, remain where you are when the other servers go up to the altar to receive the Blessed Sacrament. When the Celebrant has given communion to them, ne will come and give connunion to you where yui are krieeling with your torch candle (4). Once the Vt ssed Sacrament has been placed in the tabelnacl, uhe ihurifer will give you a sign for you to gt:),t up, turn and face the altar and genuflects with the :ither Torchbearers and follow the Tnurifer, walking in pairs ar.rain, back to the sacristy. Put away your torch and follow the Thurifer, walking in pairs c::ain, back to the sanctuary, genuflect in pairs and turn and bow to your partner as you did at the beginning of Mass, and return to your place.
Ablutions to end of Mass
You may sit down if the Ablutions are still taking place or if the Celebrant is reading the Communion Verse. Stand when he sings Dominus Vobiscum before the Postcommunion (5). Kneel for the Blessing, and stand for the Last Gospel, genuflect at Et Verbum caro factum est.
After Mass
When the Last Gospel is finished, go to stand at the centre, ready to follow the Thurifer and Acolytes back to the sacristy. Genuflect when the Mc does and follow behind the Thurifer and Acolytes back to the sacristy in the same order as at the start of Mass.
_______________________________________________
Notes for the Torchbearers
(1) At Masses for the Dead and at Ferial Masses in Advent, Lent, Passiontide, the September Ember Days, and Vigils of the II or III class (i.e. when the vestments are black or, on a weekday, but not on a Sunday, violet), kneel for the Collect.
(2) Properly, only those standing at the time when the words Et incarnatus est, etc. are begun kneel for the chanting of them; however, it has long been the custom in England and Wales for all except the Celebrant (and the Sacred Ministers at High Mass) to kneel even after they have sat. Do what the Mc tells you to do.
(3) When you are walking to or from the altar carrying your torch candle hold it in your outside hand, i.e.: the hand on the opposite side to the server who is walking beside you.
(4) This is the present custom. Previously, other servers took the torch candles from the Torchbearers, after they had themselves received communion, so the Torchbearers could go up to the footpace to receive there. It seems to me that the method described in the text is far better than the older form, but do whatever the Mc tells you to do.
(5) At the Masses listed in Note (1) above, kneel for the Postcommunion Prayer.
Posted by Arthur Crumly at 18:11 0 comments
Labels: Serving at Missa Cantata
SERVING AT MISSA CANTATA (The Acolytes at Missa Cantata)
Procession to altar
Preparatory Prayers
Incensing of altar
Introit to Gloria
Collect to Alleluia/Tract
Stand at the credence table during the Collect (2), Epistle, Gradual, Alleluia Verse or Tract (and Sequence); if the Celebrant goes to sit down during the singing, sit also.
Gospel
Sermon
Credo
Posted by Arthur Crumly at 16:50 0 comments
Labels: Serving at Missa Cantata