The Stripping of the Altars

I don`t think I ever got round to discussing the Eamon Duffy book, "Stripping The Altars" which I read a while back. I read it quite quickly, and it was a fascinating, though at times difficult read.

It was obviously inteneded to be a scholarly read, and some quotations were in Latin, with no translation provided. I have a smattering of Latin from school, but some of them defeated me.What was even more embarrassing was that some of the medieval English quotes I struggled with, and I have studied Chaucer and many other medieval writers in the original in University....
Actually, I fared better with the Latin on the whole, than I did with the English - go figure !

It has inspired me to really pick up my Latin studies again; I would like to be able to read St Benedict`s Rule in the original Latin, for instance.
There is a brilliant online Church Latin course here which might be of interest. I am working my way through it slowly, and looking in charity shops for old Latin prayer books and in the - so far vain- hope that I might even find a Latin bible :-)

Anyway, I digress. The Duffy book is really interesting, and so very sad in places. It must have been desperately confusing and heartbreaking for so many people, to find their churches and services being altered, and cherished customs thrown out of the window, so to speak. It made me think how I would feel if I was suddenly told one day that the Oecumenical Patriarch had decided that XYZ were no longer essential parts of our belief, and that all our icons were to go, and that none of the Dormition Paraclesis services were to be held , etc.etc.

The confusion, disruption and sadness could only be imagined if all the wonderworking Icons were to be publically burnt and the pilgrimage churches pulled down. All this happened in England, so it is no wonder there were revolts in Tudor England during the Reformation.......

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