Upon seeing this really silly picture in Rorate-Caeli’s post - of Assumption Grotto’s Easter Vigil Latin Novus Ordo (many more pictures here) - a passage I recently read in Adrian Fortescue’s Ceremonies of the Roman Rite Described immediately came to mind. After an initial discussion on altar servers, Fortescue remarks:

As a general rule, except in the case of processions and funerals (when an indefinite number of clergy, supposed to be the choir, stand around the hearse holding lighted candles), not more servers should attend than those really needed, who have some office to perform. It does not add to the dignity of a rite that a crowd of useless boys stand about the sanctuary doing nothing. Nor is it in accordance with the tradition of the Roman rite to add useless ornamental attendance. The servers needed for the ceremonies are sufficient to form the procession.

Apparent even in this brief passage is Fr. Fortescue’s sense of humor - a trait which certainly recommends him in our Society! However, as Michael Davies informs us in this excellent article, Fr. Fortescue was no mere jester. He possessed a triple Doctorate, could lecture in eleven languages, was an authority on heraldry, the greatest calligrapher in England, accomplished musician, and, as some perhaps excessively add, the greatest authority on the Roman rite the English-speaking world has ever known. But here at the Cornell Society for a Good Time, we know that humor is the best introduction. Luckily, so does Dom Alcuin Reid, OSB, who in his new edition of Fortescue and O’Connell’s “Ceremonies” provides several quotes from his private correspondence which I know our readers (especially those lay readers who aren’t so likely to have seen it before) will love:

Try to imagine for one solid year of my life…I spent all day comparing Merati & Martinucci & La Vavasseur, to find out where the Thurifer ought to stand before the Magnificat, who takes off the bishop’s left glove, what sort of bow you should make at the Asperges. I had to look serious, and discuss the arguments for a ductus duplex or the other thing, whatever it is called, at each candlestick, when you incense the altar. Conceive a man, said to be made in the image of God, spending his time over that kind of thing. Even now that the burden is over it fills me with rage to think of those days. I could have learned a new language easily in the time. I could have gone every day to the cinema. I could have read the complete works of Maria Corelli. My cat was spending his time in sane and reasonable pursuits, chasing birds in the garden, climbing trees, or sleeping in his basket, while I was describing the conduct of the second MC at pontifical Vespers not at the throne. And they affect to believe that we lead a nobler life than beasts…

You see, Fr. Fortescue wrote this most famous of his works to procure £300 in order to repair his church. Still, if it cannot be said that it was a labor of love, it was certainly one of necessity, for as Michael Davies informs us “until the publication of the Fortescue book, the Catholic clergy in England had relied upon a translation by the Reverend J.D. Dale of an Italian book written in 1839 by the Reverend G. Baldesehi, Master of Ceremonies in St Peter’s Basilica.” Fr. Fortescue spoke of this translation in a most eloquent manner:

It is said that the test of a good translation is that it should read like an original work. According to this ideal Dale comes off very badly indeed. He has such a mania for using Italian words that a great part or his book is not really English at all and can hardly be understood till one has translated it back into Italian. Not only does he use an Italian name on every possible occasion; when the words are English he translates with ruthless exactness all the gorgeous phrases of Italian grand style. For instance in Dale you do not bow to the celebrant, you “proceed to make the customary salutation”; you do not stand, you “retain a standing posture.” Everyone “observes” to do everything: you observe not to kneel, you observe to retain a kneeling posture. The MC. does not tell a man to do a thing, he apprizes him that it should he performed. The celebrant “terminates” the creed; he genuflects in conjunction with the sacred ministers - then he observes to assume a standing posture in conjunction with them. The MC. goes about apprizing and comporting himself till he observes to perform the customary salutation. The subdeacon imparts the Pax in the same manner as it was communicated to him. Everyone exhibits a grave deportment; Imagine anyone talking like this. Imagine anyone saying that you ought to exhibit a deportment. Of course, we have to “ascend” every time; the blessing is always “benediction”; harmful becomes ‘deleterious’ and so on. Frankly I do not think I have ever read a book written in so atrocious a style. The only thing in its favour is that it is extremely funny. However, since the book is meant to be serious it is a pity that someone did not apprize Dale to proceed to observe the customary use of language, in conjunction with people who write English.

Ha!

The second thing that one notes in that short passage against the superfluity of altar servers is the assertion: “Nor is it in accordance with the tradition of the Roman rite to add useless ornamental attendance.” Although I do not have the book presently, and I here note that I am as much a liturgical scholar as I am an astronaut, I remember from reading Fortescue’s “The Mass: a Study of the Roman Liturgy” that he often insisted on the sobriety and reserved character of the Roman Rite. All this talk of Roman gravity, of manly Gregorian chant, and of restraint in the face of Eastern exuberance, especially from a man who was so fascinated by the East, reminds of our august President’s very finely worded post on the effects of freeing the Traditional Latin Mass on men. Anyways, we certainly do hope that one day the West might reaquaint herself with the masculinity which our schismatic brethren never seem to have lost.

The whole point of this post - and the abundance of links I’ve provided - is to convince our readers that Fr. Fortescue is, to put it very mildly, an awesome guy. And, as the man who wrote the Catholic Encyclopedia articles on the Roman Rite, the Liturgy of the Mass, and many other things besides, you can read not a small amount of Fortecue’s wisdom without leaving your computer. Still I would very much recommend purchasing any of his books.
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