Tuesday, December 20, 2016

I Can't Speak French

Being unable to understand French, I ran through an online automatic translator the instructions put out by the Cardinal Archbishop of Paris, back in 1874, for the customs to be retained when introducing the Roman Rite. This produced some hilarious results:

The custom of giving screams during Mass as well as vespers to the singers who are tonsured, and even to those who are not so, if they are allowed to wear the cassock in the Community where they are admitted.

…Indians may be admitted to High Mass... 
…we can use two apologists for the incensing of the Choir… 
…during the period of the Uffizi… 
The canons, the Celebrant and his assistants, if they are in a hat… 
The inclination is poor when you greet superiors, equals and Chorus.

All rise to render salvation to the Priest or Superior of the place.

…sometimes after the lessons precede the epistle… 
…Ave stella husbands… 
During the Magnificat, one is standing, without relying on mercy.

During the singing of memoirs, one standing shot Choir.

If some of MM. The Priests believe that in view of the number of Communists and the smallness of their church, two low Masses can not satisfy the need of the Faithful; they must address themselves to His Eminence, who will examine what number of Masses it is necessary to grant them.

Parisian jumpers carry on their backs a fairly typical cross… 
The practice existed almost everywhere in France, that during certain pieces sung, two singers "beat the chorus"… 
"We could not find the date of the introduction of the Indians into the Parisian Liturgy. The Missal of 1666 mentions them as serving the Metropolitan Church." 
When the clergy is standing shot in choir, those in the stalls rely on the mercy… 
…they do not rely on mercy when the choir is facing the altar.

The Canons can sit as soon as the last of them has been praised… 
The rule of Nicaea subsists in filigree in the Roman ritual… 
In fact, for the candlestick of Darkness… 
Many girls Updates to the tomb to be found in churches served the ceremony…

5 comments:

  1. I was very amused at this - it shows well the perils of automatic translation!

    I was intrigued as to how Indians featured at High Mass and (having found the mentioned document by Googling '1874 archeveque Paris rit romain') found the answer. It was the word 'indut' which had foxed the translator which does not seem to appear in today's dictionaries so I presume it is no longer in use. However the internet provided the answer - an 'indut' was a member of the clergy serving the deacon and sub-deacon at High Mass.

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  2. 'During the Magnificat, one is standing, without relying on mercy'-- ha, ha. I can surmise what the French is here (in choir, one rests against, upon a 'misericord' during some parts of the rite but certainly not during the singing of the Magnificat). Some of these, though, I'm clueless about. Thanks for the amusement!

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  3. As it happens, what Google first returned for me was Henri de Villiers's post at the Schola Ste Cécile site about Mons Guibert's instruction. De Villiers points out that les induts were historically either clerks or laymen serving as deacons or subdeacons at High Mass &c. His note 13:

    Induts (from the Latin indutum) are clerks or laymen who perform a [liturgical] office not possessed (vested in the proper garments, including the wearing of the dalmatic or tunicle). The custom of pious laymen serving as deacon or subdeacon is an old one in France. See the rest of the Instruction's note on this point: "We haven't been able to discover the date when induts were introdcued in the Liturgy of Paris. The Missal of 1666 mentions their service in the Metropolitan Church.... In the diocese of Reims, where Cardinal Gousset continued their use (under the name procédents), Induts are mentioned in the most ancient printed missals, notably that of Cardinal de Lorraine (who assisted at the Council of Trent); their existence is therefore attested well before the Liturgy that Paris abandons today [i.e. that established in the Missal of Mons de Vintimille, 1736-1738-- note of H. de V.] for that of the Church that is mother and mistess of all the others."

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  4. Marc Pukett's comment seems more correct than my own. I had taken 'hommes d'eglise' to mean clergymen. It would appear that the word 'indut' has stumped several of the online translators - one gives the English for Indut as 'indut' which of course was not much help.

    I was also intrigued by the 'Parisian jumpers' mentioned and see that the original was 'chasubles parisiennes.' The automatic translator online obviously had not heard of a chasuble!

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  5. Merry Christmas to you both! and many thanks for your blog, Joshua.

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