V2nd - the ecclesiastical history read

[Mark Kohut]

All very interesting...

Q: anyone think Catholic-raised TRP's style could be called wild baroque in a 
personal 
imitating the historical kind of way?

And Re "Old Priest": I am reminded of the exploration of Greek [Byzantine] 
Catholicism
in Against the Day........the strain that claims to go all the way back to Him, 
The Word....


----- Original Message ----
From: Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>
To: P-list <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Wed, September 22, 2010 8:51:25 AM
Subject: V2nd - the ecclesiastical history read

Josephinism, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephinism

I was just tickled by there being a religious movement called
Josephinism, promulgated by the Holy Roman Emperor from 1765-1790,
Joseph II (who was probably not holy nor Roman, but seems to have
genuinely thought of himself as an emperor)

whether or not it has anything to do with Fina in the novel,
Josephinism, apparently among other effects, closed down hundreds of
monasteries because old Joseph had a "virulent" hatred of
contemplative orders - so in a way, Josephinism was like the Henry
VIII of Middle Europe, at least if you were a monk or a nun...

he did take a lot of the money and fund new parishes and "welfare institutions"

but on the downside, Joesphinism partook of a certain dourness, "in
accordance with which all musical litanies, novenas, octaves, the
ancient touching devotions, also processions, vespers, and similar
ceremonies, were done away with....Numerous churches and chapels were
closed and put to secular uses; the greater part of the old religious
foundations and monasteries were suppressed as early as 1784."

But, it turns out, Josephinism, big a thing as it was, itself, still,
was only a part of a thing called the Catholic Enlightenment, which
among other effects has inspired some rather enjoyable entries in
Wikipedia (I had nothing to do with them being there, I just am noting
that I found them enjoyable)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Enlightenment, for instance, in
idiosyncratic prose, notes that the baroque mode in art was encouraged
by the Church after the Council of Trent (where they kicked the
Lutherans out), and it was emotionally expressive -  the article sez
(in a tone that Wiki editors have rightly noted as not very objective,
but which I find rather tasty reading)

"The self-conception of Roman Catholicism on the other hand was (and
is) not only the opposite of the Protestants' dry plainness and
austerity, but also of their deliberate provinciality of independent
national churches. The Catholic Church is supranational and was,
especially since the Counter-Reformation, flamboyant and splendidly
baroque in appearance. With respect to its colourful feasts,
processions and iconodule venereration it was in charge of everything
extraordinary in community life..."

(I know, I know, Catholicism probably wasn't so awesome to everybody,
but it's nice to think it had certain charms and may still have)

So if the baroque mode was part of an organized reaction to the world
conditions that also brought about Protestantism, was there an art
mode corresponding to the Catholic Enlightenment?
Or was the Catholic market share diminished so much that it wasn't a
significant factor anymore?
Romanticism, the art form I think I was taught was nascent in the late
1700s and early 1800s, wasn't an expression of Catholic doctrine to
any great extent, was it?

(the whole thing reminds me of a joke I read in Playboy as a teen: the
Enlightenment, an age when reason was enshrined, lasted from the end
of the 18th century to the beginning of the 19th century --- shortest
age ever...)

Also, the Catholic Enlightenment was an organized reaction on the part
of those factions within the Church who saw a necessity to react to
the enshrinement of rationality among the philosophes...
interestingly pitting the Jesuits who were vested in powerful
positions in universities and courts and who saw no need to change,
against various personages who - in order to foster change - according
to the article - also had to suppress the Jesuits, just to get Diderot
and Voltaire published and so forth...


neither one of those is a good enough excuse for this post --- so I've
had to trump up something so I can pretend I saved the best for last:

in this article,  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultramontanism
mention is made of
the Declaration of Utrecht, which became the foundational documents of
Old Catholics (Altkatholische) who split with Rome over the
declaration on infallibility and supremacy, joining the Old Episcopal
Order Catholic See of Utrecht, which had been independent from Rome
since 1723.

and of course, Father Fairing in his sewer diary refers to himself as
an "Old Priest", so he's probably an "Old Catholic" (a big maybe -
this is where the trumping up occurs...)

so Benny, after retreating from Josephinism, is exposed to Old
Catholicism!  (sort of)


(we will meet up with Father Fairing again further into the book...in
a different fold or gather in the fabric of Time)



-- 
"I have left my book,
I have left my room,
For I heard your voice
singing through the gloom" - James Joyce