THE TABLET ylTi^eekly N ew s p a p e r
DÜM V O B I S GRATULAMUR AN IM O S E T IA M ADDIMUS UT I N IN CCEPTIS V E S T R I S CONSTANTER MANE AT I S
From the Brief of His Holiness Pius IX to The Tablet, June 4,1870.
V ol. 157. No. 4,737. London, February 21, 1931.
Sixpence.
R e g i s t e r e d a t t h e G e n e r a l P o s t O f f i c e a s a N e w s p a p e r
Page
New s and Notes .................. 233 Scotland’s Empty Cradles 237 Christ and the Critics . . . 238 Imaginary Law Reports — IV . . . ................24 0 From The Tablet of Ninety
Years A g o ............................241 Coming Events .................. 241 Reviews :
A Jewish Life of Our
Lord .............................. 241 Frederick II ................. 242 Not Good Enough . . . 242 Mattia da Said ................. 242 “ Proputty, P rop u t ty !” 244
CONTENTS
R e v ie w s ( Oontd.) :
Page
A Vindication of Prayer 244 Misnamed ............................ 244 New Books and Music . .. 245 Books Received .................246 “ HVJ Calling ” .............. 246 Lenten Pastorals : Westminster .............. 248 The Sovereign Pontiff’ s
Anniversary .................249 Ch e s s .................................. 249 Correspondence :
Rome (Our Own Corre
spondent’ s Weekly Setter from) ............................ 251
Page
Sermons for the Times . . . 253 Funeral of the Bishop of
Clifton .............. . . . 255 W i l l s 255 E t Ce t e r a .............................. 256 Catholic Education Notes 257 Ob it u ary .............................. 258 L etters to th e E d it or :
Lonely Parishes .................259 Sunday ............................ 259 New Tax Concession to the Clergy ................. 259 A Coming-of-Age ................. 259
Orbis Terrarum :
Page
England, Scotland and Wales 260 Ireland 260 Belgium 261 Canada 261 France 261 India 262 Palestine 262 Spain 262 Syria 264 Venezuela 264 Yugoslavia 264 So c ia l and P ersonal 264
N O T A N D A “ The Pope on the Wireless.” Last week’s memorable address “ to the whole world.” H ow it was heard in Westminster Cathedral (pp. 246, 251).
Contardo Ferrini. A n address in which the H oly Father recalls, from personal knowledge, the person and virtues o f the saintly professor (p. 252).
The late Bishop o f Clifton. A funeral tribute, by the Archbishop o f Liverpool, to one who was loved as a friend and honoured as a master in Israel (p. 253).
A Presbyterian divine’s remarkable paper on Birth Prevention. “ Full Garages and Empty Cradles ” (p 237).
Greece. Fulfilling a painful duty, The Tablet formally contradicts Plis Excellency the Greek Minister in London. An appeal to the papers o f all denominations (p. 234).
“ Ex-priest Ruthven.” His downfall at the age o f seventy-seven (p. 236).
Spain’ s new Government. Some Tablet Notes on this week’s events in Madrid (p. 235).
The School Attendance Bill. H ow the Anglican Bishops voted (p. 234).
NEWS AND NOTES W ITH Ash Wednesday just behind us, we are
* ’ in full Lent. Next week will be the Lenten Ember Week.
“ After the Ashes, the Embers.” So spoke, last year, one of those amiable Protestant pastors who like to toy with Catholic feasts and fasts. He could hardly have packed more mistakes into five words if he had tried his hardest. As any housemaid could have told him, embers come before ashes, not ashes before embers. Further, it is certain that Ember Days have nothing at all to do with cendres or embers or any other residues found on hearthstones.
. N ew S er ie s . Vol. CXXV. No. 4,136.
To say what the word “ Ember ” does mean in this connection is less easy than to say what it doesn’t. Our own opinion favours its derivation from the Anglo-Saxon word ymbren, meaning something which completes its cycle and “ comes round.” The four Ember Weeks, or quatuor tempora, approximate to the Four Seasons and therefore naturally call up the notion of recurrence. But there are savants who derive “ Ember ” from tempora and tell is that the German word quatember is a corrupt shortening of quatuor tempora. Others assure us poetically that we must think of imber, which means a shower.
Although the philologist may throw out imber, the liturgiologist cannot help wishing it were a sound etymology. Imber, of course, means not only a heavy downpour o f rain, but any other copious bestowal, such as a shower o f congratulations and a shower of blessings. The original Catholic Ember Days were not preparatory to Ordination Days— that arrangement came later— but were Christian adaptations of those seasonal festivals by which the pagan Romans thanked the Gods for the harvest or besought heavenly blessings upon ploughings and sowings. The Mass-Proper for the autumnal Ember Wednesday suggests a good vintage for which we ought to “ take a pleasant psalm with the harp, and blow the trumpet.” But let us not forget that the four sets of Ember Days are jejunia quatuor iemporum days of fasting and prayer, as well as days of thanksgiving.
The practical point towards which the foregoing paragraphs have been working is this. At Embertide it is meet and right to ask for temporal, as well as for spiritual blessings. We and our fellow country-men are living in bleak and dark days ; and it seems to be beyond the wisdom o f our statesmen to lead us out into warmth and brightness. Therefore we may make the Liturgy of next week’s Ember Days our prayer-book. “ Deliver us, 0 God, from all our necessities ” ; “ In Thee, 0 my God, I put my trust ” ; “ The troubles of my heart are multi
