The Faith of the Millions

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The Faith of the Millions (2nd
series), by

George Tyrrell
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Title: The Faith of the Millions (2nd series)
Author: George Tyrrell
Release Date: November 19, 2003 [eBook #10139]
Language: English
Chatacter set encoding: ISO-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FAITH
OF THE MILLIONS (2ND SERIES)***
E-text prepared by Charles Aldarondo, Tam, Tom Allen, and the
Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team

THE FAITH OF THE MILLIONS
A SELECTION OF PAST ESSAYS
SECOND SERIES
BY
GEORGE TYRRELL, S.J.
1901

"AND SEEING THE MULTITUDES HE WAS MOVED WITH
COMPASSION ON THEM, FOR THEY WERE HARASSED AND
SCATTERED AS SHEEP HAVING NO SHEPHERD." (Matthew ix.
36.)

_Nil Obstat:_ J. GERARD, S.J. CENS. THEOL. DEPUTATUS.
_Imprimatur:_ HERBERTUS CARD. VAUGHAN, ARCHIEP.
WESTMON.

CONTENTS
XIII.--Juliana of Norwich XIV.--Poet and Mystic XV.--Two Estimates
of Catholic Life XVI.--A Life of De Lamennais XVII.--Lippo, the Man
and the Artist XVIII.--Through Art to Faith XIX.--Tracts for the
Million XX.--An Apostle of Naturalism XXL.--"The Making of
Religion" XXII.--Adaptability as a Proof of Religion XXIII.--Idealism
in Straits

XIII.

JULIANA OF NORWICH.
"One of the most remarkable books of the middle ages," writes Father
Dalgairns, [1] "is the hitherto almost unknown work, titled, _Sixteen
Revelations of Divine Love made to a Devout Servant of God, called
Mother Juliana, an Anchoress of Norwich_" How "one of the most
remarkable books" should be "hitherto almost unknown," may be
explained partly by the fact to which the same writer draws attention,
namely, that Mother Juliana lived and wrote at the time when a certain
mystical movement was about to bifurcate and pursue its course of
development, one branch within the Church on Catholic lines, the other
outside the Church along lines whose actual issue was Wycliffism and
other kindred forms of heterodoxy, and whose logical outcome was
pantheism. Hence, between the language of these pseudo-mystics and
that of the recluse of Norwich, "there is sometimes a coincidence ...
which might deceive the unwary." It is almost necessarily a feature of
every heresy to begin by using the language of orthodoxy in a strained
and non-natural sense, and only gradually to develop a distinctive
terminology of its own; but, as often as not, certain ambiguous
expressions, formerly taken in an orthodox sense, are abandoned by the
faithful on account of their ambiguity and are then appropriated to the
expression of heterodoxy, so that eventually by force of usage the
heretical meaning comes to be the principal and natural meaning, and
any other interpretation to seem violent and non-natural. "The few
coincidences," continues Father Dalgairns, "between Mother Juliana
and Wycliffe are among the many proofs that the same speculative
view often means different things in different systems. Both St.
Augustine, Calvin, and Mahomet, believe in predestination, yet an
Augustinian is something utterly different from a Scotch Cameronian
or a Mahometan.... The idea which runs through the whole of Mother
Juliana is the very contradictory of Wycliffe's Pantheistic
Necessitarianism." Yet on account of the mere similarity of expression
we can well understand how in the course of time some of Mother
Juliana's utterances came to be more ill-sounding to faithful ears in
proportion as they came to be more exclusively appropriated by the
unorthodox. It is hard to be as vigilant when danger is remote as when
it is near at hand; and until heresy has actually wrested them to its

purpose it is morally impossible that the words of ecclesiastical and
religious writers should be so delicately balanced as to avoid all
ambiguities and inaccuracies. Still less have we a right to look for such
exactitude in the words of an anchoress who, if not wholly uneducated
in our sense of the word, yet on her own confession "could no letter,"
i.e., as we should say, was no scholar, and certainly made no pretence
to any skill in technical theology. But however much some of her
expressions may jar with the later developments of Catholic theology,
it must be remembered, as has been said, that they were current coin in
her day, common to orthodox and unorthodox; and that though their
restoration is by no means desirable, yet they are still susceptive of a
"benignant" interpretation. "I pray Almighty God," says Mother Juliana
in concluding, "that this book come not but into the hands of those that
will be His faithful lovers, and that will submit them to the faith of
Holy Church." [2] And indeed such can receive no possible harm from
its perusal, beyond