[HN Gopher] Confessions of a Country Parson
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       Confessions of a Country Parson
        
       Author : backuprestore
       Score  : 38 points
       Date   : 2024-01-14 16:51 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (unherd.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (unherd.com)
        
       | cbfrench wrote:
       | As an eighteenth-centuryist by training and an Anglican priest by
       | vocation, I am sorry to say I had never run across Fr.
       | Woodforde's diary. But I have dutifully ordered a copy and look
       | forward to digging into it.
       | 
       | I did find it interesting to note that he "noted down prayers for
       | the recently deceased." This certainly would not have been a
       | feature of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer which he would have
       | used, and, in fact, many of the English reformers had taken great
       | pains to try to stamp out prayers for the dead. But here is a
       | country parson in what is generally considered one of the low
       | points of the English Church praying for the dead. Guess it goes
       | to show that, regardless of what the official position may be on
       | such matters, there is still a residual observance of such forms
       | of obsequy. (And it's worth noting that the vast majority of BCPs
       | have come around on that question and have re-introduced prayers
       | for the dead.)
       | 
       | For anyone interested in the observances of another country
       | priest, I highly recommend Eamon Duffy's _Voices of Morebath,_ a
       | diary of a priest who recorded his life before the Reformation,
       | then through the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary, and
       | (IIRC) into the reign of Elizabeth. It's a fascinating account of
       | a priest trying to do his best amidst the "changes and chances"
       | of those turbulent times. Fascinating reading.
        
         | tomcam wrote:
         | Thanks for this perspective. I obviously need to deal with one
         | of the most important questions raised by this essay: what is a
         | "pert and saucy" servant in the good parson's context? I'm
         | pretty sure my mental image of Kate Beckinsale playing the part
         | in an appropriate outfit isn't the same as yours ;)
        
           | cbfrench wrote:
           | Lol, I would doubt Parson Woodforde's maid resembled Kate
           | Beckinsale--either in an appropriate or an inappropriate
           | outfit. ;) My guess is he probably meant she was a little
           | mouthy and stubborn for his standard of a servant. Both of
           | those terms generally meant someone who was impudent,
           | although "saucy" at the time did have connotations of
           | lasciviousness. So, although he was a bachelor and a priest,
           | it's not to say that his use of the term would have been
           | entirely angelic, haha.
        
             | tomcam wrote:
             | Nice to know there might have been some ambiguity! I was
             | sure you'd be describing my grammar school teacher Mrs
             | Hedgecock.
             | 
             | I shall continue envisioning Kate in this role.
        
       | dash2 wrote:
       | If you want even older Norfolk stuff, there's the Paston Letters
       | from the 15th century: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43348
        
       | felixthehat wrote:
       | He's an excellent follow on mastodon (and Twitter)
       | 
       | https://mastodon.social/@parsonjameswoodforde
       | 
       | https://twitter.com/JamesWoodforde1
        
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       (page generated 2024-01-14 23:00 UTC)