V2nd - the ecclesiastical history read

[Joseph Tracy]

  On 9/22/2010 8:59 AM, Mark Kohut wrote:
> 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?
How bout baroque collage in 3 layers
> 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)
>
>
>
>
>
>
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