 The Catholic Encyclopedia Via Dolorosa or the Way of the Cross. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Daniel W. James Joyce in context volume one, Telemachus. The Catholic Encyclopedia Via Dolorosa or the Way of the Cross. Also called Stations of the Cross Via Crucis and Via Dolorosa. These names are used to signify either a series of pictures or to blow representing certain scenes in the Passion of the Christ, each corresponding to a particular incident or the special form of devotion connected with such representations. Taken in the former sense, the stations may be of stone, wood, or metal, sculptured or carved, or they may be merely paintings or engravings. Some stations are valuable works of art, as those for instance in Antwerp Cathedral, which have been much copied elsewhere. They are usually ranged at intervals around the walls of a church, although sometimes they are to be found in the open air, especially on roads leading to a church or shrine. In monasteries, they are often placed in the cloisters. The erection and use of the stations did not become at all general before the end of the 17th century, but they are now to be found in almost every church. Formally, their number varied considerably in different places, but 14 are now prescribed by authority. They are as follows. Number one, Christ is condemned to death. Number two, the cross is laid upon him. Number three, his first fall. Number four, he meets his blessed mother. Number five, Simon of Cyrene is made to bear the cross. Number six, Christ's face is wiped by Veronica. Number seven, his second fall. Number eight, he meets the women of Jerusalem. Number nine, his third fall. Number 10, he is stripped of his garments. Number 11, his crucifixion. Number 12, his death on the cross. Number 13, his body is taken down from the cross. And number 14, laid in the tomb. The object of the stations is to help the faithful to make in spirit, as it were, a pilgrimage to the chief scenes of Christ's sufferings and death. And this has become one of the most popular of Catholic devotions. It is carried out by passing from station to station, with certain prayers at each, and devout meditation on the various incidents in turn. It is very usual, when the devotion is performed publicly, to sing a stanza of the Stabbat Mater, while passing from one station to the next. Insomuch as the way of the cross, made in this way, constitutes a miniature pilgrimage to the holy places at Jerusalem, the origin of the devotion may be traced to the Holy Land. The Via Dolorosa Jerusalem, though not called by that name before the 16th century, was reverently marked out from the earliest times, and has been the goal of pious pilgrims ever since the days of Constantine. Tradition asserts that the Blessed Virgin used to visit daily the scenes of Christ's passion, and Saint Jerome speaks of crowds of pilgrims from all countries who used to visit the holy places in his day. There is, however, no direct evidence as to the existence of any set form of the devotion at that early date, and it is noteworthy that Saint Sylvia, around 380, says nothing about it in her Pergrinatio Adloca Sancta, although she describes minutely every other religious exercise that she saw practiced there. A desire to reproduce the holy places in other lands, in order to satisfy the devotion of those who were hindered from making the actual pilgrimage, seems to have manifested itself at quite an early date. At the monastery of St. Sophano at Bologna, a group of connected chapels were constructed as early as the 5th century by St. Petronius, Bishop of Bologna, which were intended to represent the more important shrines of Jerusalem, and in consequence, this monastery became familiarly known as High Jerusalem. These may perhaps be regarded as the germ from which the stations afterward developed, although it is tolerably certain that nothing that we have before about the 15th century can strictly be called a way of the cross in the modern sense. Several travelers, it is true, who visited the Holy Land during the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries, mention a via sacra, that is, a settled route along which pilgrims were conducted, but there is nothing in their accounts to identify this with the via crucis, as we understand it, including special stopping places with indulgences attached and such indulgence stations must, after all, be considered to be the true origin of the devotion as now practiced. It cannot be said with any certainty when such indulgences began to be granted, but most probably they may be due to the Franciscans, to whom, in 1342, the guardianship of the holy places was entrusted. Ferraris mentions the following as stations to which indulgences were attached. The place where Christ met his blessed mother, where he spoke to the women of Jerusalem, where he met Simon of Cyrene, where the soldiers cast lots for his garment, where he was nailed to the cross, Pilate's house, and the Holy Sepulchre. Analogous to this, it may be mentioned that in 1520, Leo X granted an indulgence of 100 days to each of a set of sculptured stations, representing the seven Dolores of Our Lady, in the cemetery of the Franciscan friar at Antwerp, the devotion connected with them being a very popular one. The earliest use of the word stations, as applied to the accustomed halting places in the Via Sacra Jerusalem, occurs in the narrative of an English pilgrim, William Way, who visited the Holy Land in 1458 and again in 1462, and who describes the manner in which it was then usual to follow the footsteps of Christ in his sorrowful journey. It seems that up to that time it had been the general practice to commence at Mount Calvary and proceeding thence in the opposite direction of Christ to work back to Pilate's house. By the early part of the 16th century, however, the more reasonable way of traversing the route by beginning at Pilate's house and ending at Mount Calvary had become to be regarded as more correct, and it became a special exercise of devotion complete in itself. During the 15th and 16th centuries, several reproductions of the holy places were set up in different parts of Europe. The Blessed Alvarez, death 1420, and his return from the Holy Land built a series of little chapels at the Dominican friary of Cordova, in which, after the pattern of separate stations, were painted the principal scenes of the Passion. About the same time, the Blessed Eustochia, a poor cler, constructed a similar set of stations in her convent at Messina. Others that may be enumerated were those at Gorlitz, erected by George Emeryke about 1465, and at Nuremberg by Ketzl in 1468. Imitations of these were made by Louvain in 1505 by Peter Steckes at St. Gertru at Nbamburg in 1507, at Fribourg and at Rhodes about the same date, the two latter being in the commandaries of the Knights of Rhodes. Those at Nuremberg, which were carved by Adam Croft, as well as some of the others, consisted of seven stations, popularly known as the Seven Falls, because in each of them Christ was represented as either actually prostrate, or as sinking under the weight of his cross. A famous set of stations was set up in 1515 by Romané Boffin at Romans in Delfin, an imitation of those at Fribourg, and a similar set was erected in 1491 at Feralo by the Franciscans there, whose guardian, Blessed Bernardino Caimi, had been custodian in the holy places. In several of these early examples an attempt was made, not merely to duplicate the most hallowed spots of the original via Dolorosa Jerusalem, but also to reproduce the exact intervals between them, measured in paces, so that devout people might cover precisely the same distances as they would have done if they had made the Prilgrimage of the Holy Land itself. Boffin and some of the others visited Jerusalem for the express purpose of obtaining the exact measurements, but unfortunately, though each claimed to be correct, there is an extraordinary divergence between some of them. With regards to the numbers of stations, it is not at all easy to determine how this can be fixed at 14, for it seems to have varied considerably at different times and places, and naturally, with varying numbers, the incidence of the passion commemorated also varied greatly. Ways account, written in the middle of the 15th century, gives 14, but only five of those correspond with ours and of the others, seven are only remotely connected with our via Crutis, the House of Dives, the City Gate through which Christ passed, the Probiatic Pool, the Eche Homo Arch, the Blessed Virgin School, and the Houses of Herod and Simon the Pharisee. When Roman A. Boffin visited Jerusalem in 1515 for the purpose of obtaining correct details for a set of stations at Romans, two friars there told him that there ought to be 31 and all, but in the manuals of devotion subsequently issued for the use of those visiting the stations, were given variously at 19, 25, and 37, so it seems that even in the same place, the number was not determined very definitely. A book entitled Jerusalem Secut Christi Tempore Floruit, written by one Andrew Comius and published in 1584, gives 12 stations which correspond exactly with the first 12 of ours, and this fact is thought by some to point conclusively to the origin of the particular selection afterward authorized by the church, especially as this book had a wide circulation and was translated into several European languages. Whether this is so or not, we cannot say for certain. At any rate, during the 16th century, a number of devotional manuals giving prayers for use when making the stations were published in the Low Countries, and some of our 14 appear in them for the first time. But whilst this was being done in Europe for the benefit of those who cannot visit the Holy Land and yet could reach or one of the other reproductions of the Via Dolorosa, it appears doubtful whether, even up to the end of the 16th century, there was any settled form of the devotion performed publicly in Jerusalem for Zualardo, who wrote a book on the subject, published in Rome in 1587, although he gives a full series of prayers, etc., for the shrines within the Holy Sepulchre which were under the care of the Franciscans provides none for the stations themselves. He explains the reason thus. It is not permitted to make any halt, nor to pay veneration to them with uncovered head, nor to make any other demonstration. From this it would seem that after Jerusalem had passed under the Turkish domination, the pious exercises of the way of the cross could be performed far more devoutly at Nuremburg or Louvain than in Jerusalem itself. It may therefore be conjectured, with extreme probability, that our present series of stations, together with the accustomed series of prayers for them, comes to us not from Jerusalem, but from some of the imitation ways of the cross in different parts of Europe, and that we owe the propagation of the devotion, as well as the number and selection of our stations, much more to the pious ingenuity of certain 16th-century devotional writers than to the actual practice of pilgrims to the holy places. With regard to the particular subjects which have been retained in our series of stations, it may be noted that very few of the medieval good talents make any account of either the second, Christ receiving the cross, or the tenth, Christ being stripped of his garments, whilst others, which have since dropped out, appear in almost all of the early lists. One of the most frequent of these is the station formerly made at the remains of the Eche Homo Arch, that is, the balcony from which these words were pronounced. Additions and omissions such as these seem to confirm the supposition that our stations were derived from pious manuals of devotion rather than from Jerusalem itself. The three falls of Christ, the third, seventh, and ninth stations, are apparently all the remain of the seven falls, as depicted by Kraft at Nuremberg and his imitators, in all of which Christ was represented as either falling or actually fallen. In explanations of this, it is supposed that the other four falls coincided with his meetings of his mother, Simon Cyrene, Veronica, and the women of Jerusalem, and that in these four, the mention of the fall has dropped out, and it survives in the other three, which have nothing else to distinguish them. A few medieval writers have taken the meeting with Simon and the women of Jerusalem to have been simultaneous, but the majority represent them as separate events. The Veronica incident does not incur in many of the earlier accounts. Whilst almost all of those that do mention it place it as having happened just before reaching Mount Calvary, instead of earlier in the journey as in our present arrangement. An interesting variation is found in a special set of 11 stations ordered in 1799 for the use in the diocese of Vienna. It is as follows, the agony in the garden, the betrayal by Judas, the scourging, the crowning with thorns, Christ condemned to death, he meets Simon of Cyrene, the women of Jerusalem, he tastes the gall, he is nailed to the cross, his death on the cross, and his body is taken down from the cross. It will be noticed that only five of these correspond exactly with our stations. The others, though comprising the chief events of the Passion, are not strictly incidents of the Via Dolorosa itself. Another variation that occurs in different churches relates to the side of the church on which the stations begin. The gospel side is perhaps the more usual. In reply to a question the Sacred Congregation of Indulgences in 1837 said that although nothing was ordered on this point, beginning on the gospel side seemed to be the more appropriate. In deciding the matter however, the arrangement and form of a church may make it more convenient to go the other way. The position of figures in the Tableau, too, may sometimes determine the direction of the route, for it seems more in accordance with the spirit of the devotion that the procession in passing from station to station should follow Christ rather than meet him. The erection of the stations and churches did not become at all common until towards the end of the 17th century. And the popularity of the practice seems to have been chiefly due to the indulgences attached. The custom originated with the Franciscans but its special connection with that order has now disappeared. It has already been said that numerous indulgences were formally attached to the holy places at Jerusalem. Realizing that few persons comparatively were able to gain these by means of a personal pilgrimage to the Holy Land innocent the 11th in 1686 granted to the Franciscans in answer to their petition the right to erect the stations in all their churches and declared that all the indulgences that had ever been given for devoutly visiting the actual scenes of Christ's passion could thence force be gained by the Franciscans and all others affiliated to their order if they made the way of the cross in their own churches in the custom manner. Innocent the 12th confirmed the privilege in 1694 and Benedict the 13th in 1726 extended it to all the faithful. In 1731 Clement the 12th still further extended it by permitting the indulgences stations to all churches provided that they were erected by a Franciscan father with the sanction of the ordinary. At the same time he definitely fixed the number of stations at 14. Benedict the 14th in 1742 exhorted all priests to enrich their churches with so great a treasure of few churches now without the stations. In 1857 the bishops of England received faculties from the Holy Sea to erect stations themselves with the indulgences attached wherever there were no Franciscans available. And in 1862 this last restriction was removed and the bishops were empowered to erect the stations themselves either personally or by Delia anywhere within their jurisdiction. These faculties are quinquennial. There is some uncertainty as to what are the precise indulgences belonging to the stations. It is agreed that all that have ever been granted to the faithful for visiting the holy places in person can now be gained by making the via cruchis in any church where the stations have been erected in due form. But the instructions of the sacred congregation approved by Clement the 12th in 1731 prohibited priests and others from specifying what or how many indulgences may be gained. In 1773 Clement the 14th attached the same indulgences under certain conditions to crucifixes duly blessed for the purpose, for the use of the sick, those at sea or in prison, and others lawfully hindered from making the stations in a church. The conditions are that, while holding the crucifix in their hands, they must say the Pater and Ave 14 times and then the Pater, Ave and Gloria 5 times, and the same again once each for the pope's intentions. If one person hold the crucifix, a number present to gain all the indulgences provided that the other conditions are fulfilled, such crucifixes cannot be sold, lent or given away without losing the indulgences. The following are the principal regulations universally enforced at the present time with regard to the stations. If a pastor or a superior of a convent, hospital, etc. wishes to have the stations erected in their places, he must ask permission of the bishop. If there are Franciscan fathers in the same honor city, their superior must be asked to bless the stations or delegate some priest, either of his own monastery or a secular priest. If there are no Franciscan fathers in that place, the bishops who have obtained from the Holy See the extraordinary of Form C can delegate any priest to erect the stations. This delegation of a certain priest for the blessing of the stations must necessarily be done in writing. The pastor of such a church or the superior of such a hospital convent, etc. should take care to sign the document the bishop or the superior of the monastery sends so that he may thereby express his consent to have the stations erected in their place for the bishops and the respective pastors or superior's consent must be had before the stations are blessed otherwise the blessing is null and void. Pictures or tableaux of the various stations are not necessary. It is to the cross placed over them that the indulgences is attached. These crosses must be of wood, no other material will do. If only painted on the wall the erection is null. If for restoring the church, for pacing them in a more convenient position or for any other reasonable cause the crosses are moved this may be done without the indulgences being lost. If any of the crosses for some reason have to be replaced no fresh pressing is required unless more than half of them are so replaced. There should if possible be a separate meditation on each of the 14 incidents of the Via Crucis, not a general meditation on the passion nor on other incidents not included in the stations. No particular prayers are ordered. The distance required between the stations is not defined. Even when only the clergy move from one station to another the faithful can still gain the indulgences without moving. It is necessary to make all the stations uninterruptedly. Hearing mass or going to confession or communion between stations is not considered an interruption. According to many the stations may be made more than once on the same day and the indulgences may be gained each time, but this is by no means certain. Confession and communion on the day of making the stations are not necessary provided the person making them is in a state of grace. Ordinarily the stations should be erected within a church or public oratory. If the Via Crucis goes outside, that is in a cemetery or cloister, it should if possible begin and end in the church. In conclusion it may be safely asserted that there is no devotion more richly endowed with indulgences in the way of the cross and none which enables us more literally to obey Christ's injunction to take up our cross and follow him. A perusal of the prayers usually given for this devotion in any manual will show what abundant spiritual graces apart from the indulgences may be obtained through a right use of them and the fact that the stations may be made either publicly or privately in any church renders the devotion especially suitable for all. One of the most popularly attended ways of the cross at the present day is that in the Colosseum at Rome where every Friday the devotion of the stations is conducted publicly by a Franciscan friar. End of the Catholic Encyclopedia Via Dolorosa, The Way of the Cross Recording by Daniel W. Song of Myself, Section 51 Read for LibriVox.org by Alan Davis-Strake. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recorded by Alan Davis-Strake. Song of Myself, Section 51 by Walt Whitman. The Past and Present Will. I have filled them, emptied them and proceeded to fill my next fold of the future. Listener up there what have you to confide to me? Look in my face while I snuff the saddle of evening. Talk honestly no one hears you I stay only a minute longer. Do I contradict myself very well then I contradict myself I am large I contain multitudes I concentrate towards them that are nigh I wait on the door slab Who has done his day's work who will soonest be through with his supper who wishes to walk with me will you speak before I am gone will you prove already too late and a song of myself and a song of myself Section 51 Matthew 26 and 27 Dewey Reigns This is a LibriBox recording All LibriBox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriBox.org Recording by Tricia G James Joyce in Context Volume 1 Telemachus Matthew Chapters Chapter 26 Chapter 26 And it came to pass when jesus had ended all these words he said to his disciples you know that after two days shall be the Pash and the son of man shall be delivered up to be crucified then were gathered together the chief priests and ancients of the people into the court of the high priest who was called Caiaphas and they consulted they might apprehend Jesus and put Him to death, but they said, not on the festival day, lest perhaps there should be a tumult among the people. And when Jesus was in Bethania, in the house of Simon the Lepper, there came to Him a woman having an alabaster box of precious ointment and poured it on His head as He was at table, and the disciples seeing it had indignation saying, to what purpose is this waste? For this might have been sold for much and given to the poor. And Jesus, knowing it, said to them, Why do you trouble this woman, for she hath brought a good work upon me? For the poor you have always with you, but me you have not always, for she, in pouring this ointment on my body, hath done it for my burial. Amen, I say to you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, that also which she hath done shall be told for a memory of her. Then went one of the twelve who was called Judas Ascariot to the chief priests, and said to them, What will you give me, and I will deliver him unto you? But they appointed him thirty pieces of silver, and from thence forth he sought opportunity to betray him. And on the first day of the azimes the disciples came to Jesus, saying, Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the pash? But Jesus said, Go ye into the city to a certain man and say to him, The master saith, My time is near at hand, With thee I make the pash with my disciples. And the disciples did as Jesus appointed to them, and they prepared the pash. But when it was evening he sat down with his twelve disciples, and whilst they were eating he said, Amen I say to you, that one of you was about to betray me. And they being very much troubled began everyone to say, Is it I, Lord? But he answering said, He that dipeth his hand with me in the dish, he shall betray me. The son of man indeed goeth, as it is written of him, But woe to that man by whom the son of man shall be betrayed. It were better for him if that man had not been born. And Judas that betrayed him answering said, Is it I, Rabbi? He sayeth to him, Thou hast said it. And whilst they were at supper, Jesus took bread and blessed and broke, and gave to his disciples and said, Take ye and eat, this is my body. And taking the chalice he gave thanks and gave to them, saying, Drink ye all of this, for this is my blood of the New Testament, which shall be shed for many unto remission of sins. And I say to you, I will not drink from henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I shall drink it with you new in the kingdom of my father. And a hymn being said they went out unto Mount Olivet. Then Jesus sayeth to them, All you shall be scandalized in me this night, for it is written, I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be dispersed. But after I shall be risen again, I will go before you into Galilee. And Peter answering said to him, Although all shall be scandalized in thee, I will never be scandalized. Jesus said to him, Amen I say to thee, That in this night before the cock crow, Thou wilt deny me thrice. Peter sayeth to him, Ye, though I should die with thee, I will not deny thee. And in like manner said all the disciples. Then Jesus came with them into a country place which is called Gethsemane. And he said to his disciples, Sit you here till I go yonder and pray. And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to grow sorrowful and to be sad. Then he sayeth to them, My soul is sorrowful even unto death. Stay you here and watch with me. And going a little further, he fell upon his face, praying and saying, My Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from me. Nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt. And he cometh to his disciples and findeth them asleep. And he sayeth to Peter, What, could you not watch one hour with me? Watch ye and pray that ye enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Again the second time he went and prayed, saying, My Father, if this chalice may not pass away, but I must drink it, Thy will be done. And he cometh again and findeth them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. And leaving them he went again, and he prayed the third time, saying the self-same word. Then he cometh to his disciples and said to them, Sleep ye now and take your rest. Behold the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man shall be betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us go. Behold, he is at hand that will betray me. As he yet spoke, behold Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with him a great multitude with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests and the ancients of the people. And he that betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that is he, hold him fast. And forthwith, coming to Jesus, he said, Hail Rabbi, and he kissed him. And Jesus said to him, Friend, where to art thou come? Then they came up and laid hands on Jesus and held him. And behold, one of them that were with Jesus, stretching forth his hand, threw out his sword, and striking the servant of the high priest cut off his ear. Then Jesus saith to him, Put up again thy sword into its place, for all that take the sword shall perish with the sword. Thinkest thou that I cannot ask my father, and he will give me presently more than twelve legions of angels? How then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that so it must be done? In that same hour, Jesus said to the multitudes, You are come out, as it were, to a robber with swords and clubs to apprehend me. I sat daily with you, teaching in the temple, and you laid not hands on me. Now all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then the disciples all leaving him fled. But they holding Jesus led him to Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the ancients were assembled. And Peter followed him afar off, even to the court of the high priest, and going in he sat with the servants that he might see the end. And the chief priests and the whole council sought false witness against Jesus that they might put him to death. And they found not, where as many false witnesses had come in. And last of all there came two false witnesses, and they said, This man said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and after three days to rebuild it. And the high priest rising up said to him, Answerest thou nothing to the things which these witness against thee? But Jesus held his peace, and the high priest said to him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us if thou be the Christ the Son of God. Jesus saith to him, Thou hast said it, Nevertheless I say to you, Hereafter you shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of the power of God and coming in the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest rent his garments, saying, He hath blasphemed, what further need have we of witnesses? Behold, now you have heard the blasphemy. What think you? But they answering said, He is guilty of death. Then did they spit in his face, and buffeted him, and others struck his face with the palms of their hands, saying, Prophecy unto us, O Christ, who is he that struck thee? But Peter sat without in the court, and there came to him a servant made, saying, Thou also was with Jesus the Galilean. But he denied before them all, saying, I know not what thou sayest. And as he went out of the gate, another maid saw him, and she saith to them that were there, this man also was with Jesus of Nazareth. And again he denied with an oath, I know not the man. And after a little while they came that stood by and said to Peter, Surely thou also art one of them, for even thy speech doth discover thee. Then he began to curse and to swear that he knew not the man, and immediately the cock crew. And Peter remembered the word of Jesus which he had said, Before the cock crow thou wilt deny me thrice, and going forth he wept bitterly. CHAPTER 27 And when morning was come all the chief priests and the agents of the people took counsel against Jesus that they might put him to death, and they brought him bound and delivered him to Pontius Pilate the governor. Then Judas, who betrayed him, seeing that he was condemned, repenting himself, brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and ancients, saying, I have sinned in betraying innocent blood, but they said, What is that to us? Look thou to it. And casting down the pieces of silver in the temple, he departed and went and hanged himself within halter. But the chief priests, having taken the pieces of silver, said, It is not lawful to put them in the corbona, because it is the price of blood. And after they had consulted together, they bought with them the potter's field to be a burying place for strangers. For this cause that field was called Hassel Dama, that is, the field of blood, even to this day. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was prized, whom they prized of the children of Israel. And they gave him unto the potter's field, as the Lord appointed to me. And Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, saying, Art thou the king of the Jews? Jesus, sayeth to him, Thou sayest it. And when he was accused by the chief priests and ancients, he answered nothing. Then Pilate sayeth to him, Dost not thou hear how great testimonies they allege against thee? And he answered him to never a word, so that the governor wondered exceedingly. Now upon the solemn day, the governor was accustomed to release to the people one prisoner whom they would. And he had then a notorious prisoner that was called Barabbas. They therefore being gathered together, Pilate said, Whom will you that I release to you, Barabbas or Jesus that is called Christ? For he knew that for envy they had delivered him. And as he was sitting in the place of judgment, his wife sent to him saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man, for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him? But the chief priests and ancients persuaded the people that they should ask Barabbas and make Jesus away. And the governor answering said to them, Whether will you of the two to be released unto you? But they said, Barabbas, Pilate sayeth to them, What shall I do then with Jesus that is called Christ? They say all, let him be crucified. The governor said to them, Why, what evil hath he done? But they cried out the more, saying, Let him be crucified. And Pilate seeing that he prevailed nothing but that rather a tumult was made, taking water washed his hands before the people saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just man. Look you to it. And the whole people answering said, His blood be upon us and upon our children. Then he released to them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered him unto them to be crucified. Then the soldiers of the governor, taking Jesus into the hall, gathered together unto him the whole band. And stripping him they put a scarlet cloak about him. Then plating a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head and a reed in his right hand. And bowing the knee before him they mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews. And spitting upon him they took the reed and struck his head. And after they had mocked him, they took off the cloak from him and put on him his own garments, and led him away to crucify him. And going out they found a man of sireen named Simon, whom they forced to take up his cross. And they came to the place that is called Galgotha, which is the place of Calvary. And they gave him wine to drink, mingled with Gal. And when he had tasted, he would not drink. And after they had crucified him they divided his garments casting lots, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, saying, They divided my garments among them, and upon my vesture they cast lots. And they sat and watched him. And they put over his head his cause written, This is Jesus, the King of the Jews. Then were crucified with him two thieves, one on the right hand and one on the left. And they that passed by blasphemed him, wagging their heads and saying, Va, thou that destroyest the temple of God, and in three days dost rebuild it, save thy own self. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross. In like manner also the chief priests, with the scribes and ancients mocking, said, He saved others, himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross and we will believe him. He trusted in God, let him now deliver him if he will save him, for he said I am the Son of God. And the selfsame things, the thieves also that were crucified with him reproached him with. Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over the whole earth until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with the loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, Lama sabachthanai, that is, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And some that stood there and heard said, This man calleth Elias. And immediately one of them running took a sponge and filled it with vinegar and put it on a reed and gave him to drink. And the others said, Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to deliver him. And Jesus again crying with a loud voice yielded up the ghost. And behold, the veil of the temple was rent in tube from top even to the bottom. And the earth quaked and the rocks were rent. And the graves were opened and many bodies of the saints that had slept arose and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection came into the holy city and appeared to many. Now the centurion and they that were with him watching Jesus, having seen the earthquake and the things that were done, were sore afraid, saying, Indeed this was the Son of God. And there were there many women afar off who had followed Jesus from Galilee ministering unto him, among whom was Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee. And when it was evening there came a certain rich man of Arimathea, named Joseph, who also himself was the disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded that the body should be delivered. And Joseph, taking the body, wrapped it up in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his own new monument, which he had hewed out in Iraq. And he rolled the great stone to the door of the monument and went his way. And there was there Mary Magdalene and the other Mary sitting over against the sepulchre. And the next day, which followed the day of preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees came together to Pilate, saying, Sir, we have remembered that that seducer said, while he was yet alive, after three days I will rise again. Command therefore the sepulchre to be guarded until the third day, lest perhaps his disciples come and steal him away and say to the people, he is risen from the dead, and the last error shall be worse than the first. Pilate saith to them, you have a guard, go, guard it as you know. And they departing made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone and setting guards. End of Matthew 26 and 27 Dewey Reams The Nicene Creed, English. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Anne Cheng. James Joyce in context, Volume 1, Telemachus, The Nicene Creed, English. We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of God, light of light, very God of very God, begotten not made, being of one substance with the Father by whom all things were made, who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man, and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried, and the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father. And he shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and the dead, whose kingdom shall have no end. And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeded from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets. And we believe one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins, and we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen. End of the Nicene Creed, English. The Nicene Creed, Latin. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Anne Cheng. James Joyce in context, volume one, Telemachus, the Nicene Creed, Latin. Credo in unum deum patrem omnipotentem, factorum celi etere, visibilium omnium et invisibilium. Et in unum dominum Jesum Christum, filium dei unigenitum et expatre natum ante omnia secula, deium de deio, numende numene, deium verum de deio vero, genitum non factum, consubstantialem patri, per quem omnia facta sunt, propter no somines et propter nostram salutem, descendit de celis, et incarnatus est, de spiritus sancto, ex maria vergine, et homo factus est, crucifixus etiam pronobis, subpuntio pilato, passus et sepultus est, et resorexit tertiadie, secundum scripturas, et ascendit in celum, sedet ad dexeram patris, et itrum venturus est, con gloria, judicare vivos et mortios, cuius regi non erit finis, et in spiritum sanctum, dominum et vivificantem, qui expatre filio que precedit, qui compatre et filio simul adorato et con glorificato, qui locutus est per profetas, et unum sanctum catolicum et apostolicum ecclesiam, confiteo unum baptisma in remissionem pecatorum, et expecto resorexionem mortuorum, et vitam venturis seculi, amen. End of the Nicene Creed, Latin. Paradise by Dante Alighieri, Canto 17. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Martin Giesen. James Joyce in context, Volume 1, Telemachus. Paradise by Dante Alighieri, Canto 17. As came to Climine to be made certain of that which he had heard against himself, he who makes fathers' cherries still to children, even such was I, and such was I perceived by Beatrice and by the holy light that first on my account had changed its place. Therefore my lady said to me, send forth the flame of thy desire so that it issue imprinted well with the internal stamp. Not that our knowledge may be greater made by speech of thine, but to accustom thee to tell thy thirst that we may give thee drink. O my beloved tree, that so dost lift thee that even as mines terrestrial perceive no triangle containeth two obtuse. So thou beholdest the contingent things air in themselves they are, fixing thine eyes upon the point in which all times are present. While I was with Vigilius conjoined upon the mountain that the souls doth heal, and when descending into the dead world, were spoken to me of my future life some grievous words, although I feel myself in sooth, four square against the blows of chance. On this account my wish would be content to hear what fortune is approaching me, because foreseen an arrow comes more slowly. Just did I say unto that self-same light that unto me had spoken before, and even as Beatrice willed was my own will confess. Not in vague phrase in which the foolish folk ensnared themselves of old, ere yet was slain the Lamb of God who'd take its sins away, but with clear words and unambiguous language responded that paternal love hid and revealed by its own proper smile. Contingency, that outside of the volume of your materiality extends not, is all depicted in the eternal aspect. Necessity, however, thence it takes not, except us from the eye in which it is mirrored, a ship that with the current down descends. From thence, enus that cometh to the ear, sweet harmony from an organ, comes in sight to me the time that is preparing for thee. As forth from Athens went Hippolytus, by reason of his stepdame false and cruel, so thou from Florence must perforce depart. Already this is willed and this is sought for, and soon it shall be done by him who thinks it, where every day the Christ is bought and sold. The blame shall follow the offended party in outcry as is usual, but the vengeance shall witness to the truth that doth dispense it. Thou shalt abandon everything beloved most tenderly, and this the arrow is, which first the bow of banishment shoots forth. Thou shalt have proof how savoureth of salt the bread of others, and how hard a road that going down and up another stairs, and that which most shall weigh upon thy shoulders will be the bad and foolish company with which into this valley thou shalt fall. For all ingrate, all mad and impious will they become against thee, but soon after they and not thou shall have the forehead scarlet. Of their bestiality their own proceedings shall furnish proof. So it will be well for thee a party to have made thee by thyself. Thine earliest refuge and thine earliest inn shall be the mighty Lombard's courtesy, who on the ladder bears the holy bird, whose such benign regard shall have for thee that twix due twain in doing and in asking. That shall be first, which is the other's last. With him shalt thou see one who at his birth has by this star of strength been so impressed that notable shall his achievements be. Not yet the people are aware of him through his young age, since only nine years yet a round about him have these wheels revolved. But ere the Gaskon cheat the noble Henry, some sparkles of his virtue shall appear in caring not for silver nor for toil. So recognised shall his magnificence become hereafter that his enemies will not have power to keep mute tongues about it. On him rely and on his benefits. By him shall many people be transformed, changing condition, rich and mendicant. And written in thy mind thou hence shalt bear of him, but shalt not say it. And things said he incredible to those who shall be present. Then added, son, these are the commentaries on what was said to thee. Behold the snares that are concealed behind few revolutions. Yet would I not thy neighbours thou shouldst envy because thy life into the future reaches beyond the punishment of their perfidies. When by its silence showed that sainted soul that it had finished putting in the wolf into that web which I had given it warped, began I, even as he who yearneth after being in doubt some counsel from a person who seeth and uprightly wills and loves. Well see I, father mine, how spurreth on the time towards me, such a blow to deal me as heaviest is to him who most gives way. Therefore with foresight it is well I arm me, that if the dearest place be taken from me, I may not lose the others by my songs. Down through the world of infinite bitterness and all the mountain from whose beautiest summit the eyes of my own lady lifted me. And afterward through heaven from light to light I have learned that which, if I tell again, will be a savor of strong herbs to many. And if I am a timid friend to truth, I fear lest I may lose my life with those who will hear after call this time the olden. The light in which was smiling my own treasure which there I had discovered flashed at first as in the sunshine at the golden mirror. Then made reply, a conscience overcast or with its own or with another's shame will taste foresooth the tartness of thy word. But nevertheless all falsehood laid aside make manifest thy vision utterly and let them scratch wherever is the itch. For if thine utterance shall offensive be at the first taste, a vital nutriment will leave thereafter when it is digested. This cry of thine shall do as doth the wind which smighteth most the most exalted summits and that is no slight argument of honor. Therefore are shown to thee within these wheels upon the mount and in the dollar a spally only the souls that unto fame are known because the spirit of the hearer rests not nor doth confirm its faith by an example which has the root of it unknown and hidden or other reason that is not apparent. End of Canto 17 of Paradise by Dante Alighieri. Recording by Martin Giesen in Hazelmere Surrey. Purgatory by Dante Alighieri, Canto 27. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Martin Giesen. James Joyce in Context, Volume I, Telemachus. Purgatory by Dante Alighieri, Canto 27. Translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. As when he vibrates forth his earliest rays in regions where his maker shed his blood, the Ebro falling under lofty Libra and waters in the Ganges burnt with noon, so stood the sun. Hence was the day departing when the clad angel of God appeared to us. Outside the flame he stood upon the verge and chanted forth, Beati Mundo Corde, invoiced by far more living than our own. Then no one farther goes soul sanctified if first the fire bite not, within it enter and be not deaf and to the song beyond. When we were close beside him, thus he said, Wherefore, in such became I when I heard him as he is who is put into the grave. Upon my clasped hands I straightened me, scanning the fire and vividly recalling the human bodies I had once seen burned. Towards me turned themselves my good conductors and unto me Vigilius said, My son, he may indeed be torment but not death. Remember thee, remember, and if I on Geryon have safely guided thee, what shall I do now I am nearer God? Believe for certain, shouldst thou stand a full millennium in the bosom of this flame, it could not make thee bald a single hair. And if perchance thou think that I deceive thee, draw near to it and put it to the proof, with thine own hands upon thy garment's hem. Now lay aside, now lay aside all fear, turn hitherward and onward come securely. And I still motionless and against my conscience. Seeing me stand still motionless and stubborn, somewhat disturbed, he said, Now look thou, son, Twix Beatrice and thee, there is this wall. As at the name of Thisby, Oped his lids the dying Pyramus, and gazed upon her, what time the mulberry became the million. Even thus my obduracy being softened, I turned to my wise guide, hearing the name that in my memory evermore is welling. Whereout he wagged his head and said, How now shall we stay on this side? Then smiled as one does at a child who's vanquished by an apple. Then into the fire in front of me he entered, beseeching Stacious to come after me, who a long way before divided us. When I was in it, into molten glass, I would have cast me to refresh myself, so without measure was the burning there. And my sweet father, to encourage me, discoursing still of Beatrice went on, saying, her eyes I seem to see already. A voice that on the other side was singing directed us, and we, a tent alone on that, came forth where the ascent began. When it a Benedicti Patris May, sounded within a splendor, which was there such it all came me, and I could not look. The Sunday parts it added, a night cometh, tarry ye not, but onward urge your steps, so long as yet the west becomes not dark. Straight forward through the rock that path ascended, in such a way that I cut off the rays before me of the sun that now was low. And a few stairs we yet had made a say, ere by the vanished shadow, the sun setting behind us we perceived, I and my sages. And ere in all its parts immeasurable, the horizon of one aspect had become, and night her boundless dispensation held, each of us of a stair had made his bed, because the nature of the mount took from us the power of climbing more than the delight. Even as in ruminating passive grow the goats who have been swift and venturesome upon the mountaintops ere they were fed, hushed in the shadow while the sun is hot watched by the herdsmen who upon his staff is leaning and in leaning tendeth them. And as the shepherd lodging out of doors passes the night beside his quiet flock, watching that no wild beast may scatter it, such at that hour where we, all three of us, I like the goat and like the herdsmen they, begirt on this side and on that by rocks. Little could there be seen of things without, but through that little I beheld the stars more luminous and larger than there won't. Thus ruminating and beholding these, sleep seized upon me, sleep that often times before a deed is done has tidings of it. It was the hour I think when from the east first on the mountain Citharia beamed, who with the fire of love seems always burning. Youthful and beautiful in dreams me thought I saw a lady walking in a meadow gathering flowers and singing she was saying, know whosoever may my name demand that I am Leah, and go moving round my beautiest hands to make myself a garland. To please me at the mirror here I deck me, but never does my sister Rachel leave her looking-glass and sit as all day long. To see her beautiest eyes as eager as she is I am to adorn me with my hands, her seeing in me doing satisfies. And now before the anti-Lucan splendors that unto pilgrims the more grateful rise as home returning, less remote they lodge, the darkness fled away on every side and slumber with it, whereupon I rose, seeing already the great masters risen. That apple-sweet which through so many branches the care of mortals goeth in pursuit of, today shall put in peace thy hungering. Speaking to me, Virgilius of such words as these made use, and never were there the girdens that could in pleasantness compare with these. Such longing upon longing came upon me to be above, that at each step thereafter for flight I felt in me the pinions growing. When underneath us was the stairway all run awr and we were on the highest step, Virgilius fastened upon me his eyes and said, the temporal fire and the eternal sun, thou hast seen, and to a place art come aware of myself, no farther I discern. By intellect and art I hear of brought thee, take thine own pleasure for thy guide henceforth, beyond the steep ways and the narrow art thou, behold the sun that shines upon thy forehead, behold the grass, the florets, and the shrubs which of itself alone this land produces. Until rejoicing come the beauteous eyes which weeping caused me to come unto thee, thou canst sit down and thou canst walk among them. Expect no more or word or sign from me, free and upright and sound is thy free will, and error were it not to do its bidding, thee or thyself I therefore crown and mitre. End of Purgatory by Dante Alighieri, Canto 27. Recording by Martin Geeson in Hazelmere Surrey. The Apostles Creed, Latin Version. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Philippa. James Joyce in Context, Vol. 1, Telemachus. The Apostles Creed, Latin Version. Credo indeum pacem omnipotentem, creatorem celi et terre. Et in Jesum Christum filium eus unicum, dominum nostrum, qui conceptus est de spiritus sancto, natus ex maria virgine, pasus sub ponti opilato, crucifixus mortus et sepultus, descendit ad inferna, terti adiae resurexita mortus, ascendit ad celus, sedet ad dexteram dei patris omnipotentis, indeventurus est judicare vivus et mortus. Credo in spiritum sanctum, sanctam ecclesiam catolicam, sanctorum cumunionem, remissionem pecatorum, carnis resurexionem, vitam eternam. Amen. End of the Apostles Creed in Latin. The Apostles Creed in English. This is a Librivox recording. All Librivox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Librivox.org. Recording by Daniel W. James Joyce in context volume 1, Telemachus. The Apostles Creed in English. I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord, who is conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under a Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again, he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come again to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the forgiveness of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. End of the Apostles Creed in English. Recording by Daniel W. The Acts of the Apostles. Chapters 6 and 7. This is a Librivox recording. All Librivox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Librivox.org. Recording by Linny. James Joyce in Context. Volume 1. Telemachus. The Acts of the Apostles. Chapters 6 and 7. In the ebos Altem Ilis, crescente numero discipulorum factus est murmur, graicorum adversus rebraios, eo co-dispicarentur in ministerio cotidiano, widua eorum. Con vocantes Altem, duodecim multitudinem discipulorum, diccerunt. As aicumnos de relinquerem verbum dei administraremensis. Considerate ergo, fratres viros exuobis, boni testimoni septem, plenos spiritu et sapientia, cos constituamos superhoc opus. Nos vero orationi administerio verbi instantes erimus. Et placuit sermo corum omni multitudinem, et elegerunt stefanum, widum plenum fide et spiritu sancto, et filipum, et procorum, et nicanorem, et imonem, et parmenam, et nicolaum aduenam antiocherum. Hos statuerunt ante conspectum apostolorum, et orantes imposuerunt eismanos. Et verbum dei crescebat et multiplicabatur numerus discipulorum, in Jeruselem, o al de multa etiem turba sacerdotum oboidebat fidei. Stefanus Altem plenus gratia et fortitudinem e facchebat prodigia et signa magna in popolo. Sur exerunt Altem, widum de sinagoga, quai apelatur libertinorum, et chirenensium, et alexandrinorum, et eorum, qui erunt aschilicia et asia disputantes cum stefano. Et non poterunt resistere, sapientia et spiritui, qualo coebatur. Tung submiserunt widus, quai dicerent se audise eum dicentem werba blasfemiai in mosen et deum. Cum ouerunt et aque pleben et seniores et scribas, et concurentes rapuerunt eum et aduxerunt inconquilium. Et statuerunt testes falsos, dicentes homoiste non quesat loqui werba adversus locum sanctum et legem. Audimus enim eum dicentem cuoniam Jesus nazzarenus hig destruet locum istum et muttabit traditiones coa stradidit nobis moses. Et intuentes eum, omnes quesat deban inconquilium, widetunt, fachem eius, tampum fachem angeli. Dixit altem prinke psa kerdotum, si haik ita se habent. Quii ait, wiri fratres et patres, audite deus gloriae aparuit patrinostru abraham, eset in mesopotamiam prius coa moraretur incarram. Et dixit ad ilum, eksi de terra tua et decognatione tua et veni in terram coa mtibi monstrauero. Tung eksi it de terra caldeorum et habitauit incarram et inde pos coa mortus est patereius transtulit ilum in terram istam incanun quos habitatis. Et non dedit ili hereditatem i nea nec passum pedis et repromisit dare ili eum in posessionem et semini eius post ipsum cum non habetet fidium. Locutus est altem deus, cuya erit semen eius, acola in terra aliena et servituti eius subikient et male tractabunt eus anis quadringentis. Et gentem cui servierin judicabo ego, dixit deus, et post haik exibunt et der servient mihi in loco isto. Et dedit ili testamentum cil conquisionis et sik genvit isaak et cil conquidit eium die octawa et isaak jacob et jacob duodekin patriarchas. Et patriarchai ai mulantes, josef, vendi derund in aigiptum et era deus cum eu. Et eripuit eium ex omnibus tribulatioibus eius et dedit ei gratium et sapientium in conspectu faraonis regis aigiptum et constituit eium praipositum superaigiptum et superomnem domum sua. Venit altem fames in universum aigiptum et kanaan et tribulatio magna et non invenieban cibus patris nostri. Comaldis et altem jacob esse frumentum in aigiptum misit patris nostrus primum. Et in secundo cognitus est josef afratribus suis et manifestatum est faraoni genus eius. Mitens altem josef akercivit jacob patrem suum et omnen cognationem in animabus septuaginta quinkui. Et descendit jacob in aigiptum et defuntus est ipsi et patris nostri. Et translatis sunt in sigem et positis sunt in sepucro quod emit Abraham pretio argenti afiliis emor filii sigem. Cum ad propinquaret altem tempus repromisionis quam confesus era deus abrahae creuit populus et multiplicatus est in aigiptum. Coadus ques su rexit rex alius in aigiptum qu'i nonski ebat josef. Hic kicum veniens genus nostrum ad flixit patris ut exponerent infante suus ne wi wi fi carentur. Quodem tempore natus est moses et fui gratus deus qu'inutritus est tribus mensibus in domo patris sui. Exposito altem ilu sustulit eum filia faraonis et inutrivit eum sebi infilium. Et eruditus est moses omni sapientia aigiptiorum et erat potens in werbis et inoperibus suis. Cum altem impleretur ei quadraginta anorum tempus ascended in coreius ut visitaret fratris suus filios israhel. Et cum widiset quendum in iudium patientem vindicavit ilum et fechit utionim ei qu'in iudium sustinebat percuso aigitio. Exestimabat altem intelegere fratris qu'onium deus permanum ipsius daret salutem ilis at ili non intelexeront. Sequenti werodie aparuit ilis litigantibus et reconciliabat eus in pachem dikens widi fratris estis ut quidnoketis alterutrum. Qu'altem in iudium fechiebat proximo replit eum dikens quis deconstituit prinkipen et iudikem supernos. Nun quid interficere metu vis quem ad modum interfecistii heiri aigiptium Fugit altem moses in werboisto et factus est aduena interramadiam ubi generavit filios duos. Et expletis anis quadraginta aparuit ili in deserto monticina angelus in igne flama irrubi. Moses altem widens admiratus est visum et a kedente ilu ut consideraret facta est wokdomini. Ego deus patrim tuorum deus abraham et deus isaak et deus jacob treme factus altem moses non audebat considerare. Dixit altem ili dominus solve calciamentum pedum tuorum locus eni in costas terra santa est. Widens widi adfitionem popli mei quies in aigiptu et gemitum eorum audiiui et descendi liberare eus et nun queni et mitam te in aigiptum. Hunk moses quem negawerun ticantes quies de constituit principem et judicem hunk, deus principem et redem torem misit cum manu angelii quies aparuit ili in rubo. Hic eduxit ilos facians rodigia et signa in terra aigiptii et in rubro marii et in deserto anis quadraginta. Hic est moses quidixit filis israev. Profetum wobe suskitabit deus de fratribus westeris tam quame. Hic est quie fuit in eclesia in solitudini cum angelo quilo qu'e batur ei in montesina et cum patribus nostris quie akepit werba wi taidare nobis. Quii nolwerun oboidire patres nostri set repulerunt et aversis un koribus suis in aigiptum. Dicantes adarun fac nobis deus quie praikedan nos moses enim Hic quie eduxit nos de terra aigiptii nesquimus quidfactum sit ei. Et wittum fekerunt in ilis diebus et doptulerunt hostiam simulacro et laitabantur in operibus manum suarum. Convertit autem deus et tradidit eus servire militi aicaili sicut scriptum est in Libro profetarum nun quid victimas aut hostias obtulistis mihi anis quadraginta in deserto domus israev. Et suskepistis tabernacum moloc et situs dei westeri remfam figuras quas fekistis adorare eas et transferam vos transbabilonem. Tabernacum testimoni fuit patribus nostris in deserto sicut disposuit loquens atmosent un facherent ilud secundum formum quam widerat. Quad et induxerunt suskepientes patres nostri comiesu imposesionem gentium quas expulit deus a facche patrum nostrorum usque indiebus dauit qui inwenit gratiam antedeum et petit ut inwenire tabernacum deo aiacob. Salomon altem edificavit ilidomum sed non excelsus in manufatis habitat sicut profeta dikit. Caelum mihi sedis est terra altem scabilum pedum meorum quam domum edificavitis mihi dikit dominus alt quis locus requietionis mea est non e manus mea fechit haik omnia dur a kerweke et inkir cunkisi koribus et auribus wos semper spiritui sancto resistitis sicut patres westeri et wos. Quem profetarum non sunt persecuti patres westeri et ochiderunt eus qui prainuntiavan de adwentu iusti quios wos nunc et homicidae fwistis quia che pistis legem indispositionem angelorum et non custodistis Audientes altem haik disicabantur koribus wos et stridevan dentibus in eum quam altem es et plenus spiritu sancto in tendens in Caelum widit glorium dei et yesum stantem a dextris dei et ai eke widio Caelus apertus et filium hominis a dextris stantem dei ekslamantes altem woke magna continuerunt aure suas et impetum fekeerunt uni animiter in eum et ai qientes eum ekstras qivitatem lapidabant et testes deposuerunt westimentas suas secuspedes adulescentis qui wokabatur saulus et lapidabant Stefano in wokantem et ikentem dominuesu sus kipe spiritu meum posetis altem genibus klamawit woke magna dominie nestatuas ilis hokpe katun ekun hok diksisit opdormi wid saulus altem eret consentiens neki eus and the Acts of the Apostles Chapter 6 and 7 LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Martin Giesen James Joyce in context Volume 1 Telemachus The Decay of Lying An Observation Part 1 by Oscar Wilde A Dialogue Persons Cyril and Vivian Seen the library of a country house in Nottinghamshire Cyril coming in through the open window from the terrace My dear Vivian don't coop yourself up all day in the library it is a perfectly lovely afternoon the air is exquisite there is a mist upon the woods like the purple bloom upon a plum let us go and lie on the grass and smoke cigarettes and enjoy nature Vivian enjoy nature I am glad to say that I have entirely lost that faculty people tell us that art makes us love nature more than we loved her before that it reveals her secrets to us and that after a careful study of coco and constable we see things in her that had escaped our observation my own experience is that the more we study art the less we care for nature what art really reveals to us is nature's lack of design her curious fluidities her extraordinary monotony her absolutely unfinished condition nature has good intentions of course but as Aristotle once said she cannot carry them out when I look at a landscape I cannot help seeing all its defects it is fortunate for us however that nature is so imperfect as otherwise we should have no art at all art is our spirited protest our gallant attempt to teach nature her proper place as for the infinite variety of nature that is a pure myth it is not to be found in nature herself it resides in the imagination or fancy spirited blindness of the man who looks at her Cyril well you need not look at the landscape you can lie on the grass and smoke and talk Vivian but nature is so uncomfortable grass is hard and lumpy and damp and full of dreadful black insects why even Morris' poorest workman could make you a more comfortable seat than the whole of nature can nature pales before the furniture of the street from which Oxford has borrowed its name as the poet you love so much once violently phrased it I don't complain if nature had been comfortable mankind would never have invented architecture and I prefer houses to the open air in a house we all feel of the proper proportions everything is subordinated to us fashioned for our use and our pleasure egotism itself which is so necessary to a proper sense of human dignity is entirely the result of indoor life out of doors one becomes perfect and impersonal one's individuality absolutely leaves one and then nature is so indifferent so unappreciative whenever I am walking in the park here I always feel that I am no more to her than the cattle that brows on the slope or the burdock that blooms in the ditch nothing is more evident than that nature hates the mind thinking is the most unhealthy thing in the world and people die of it just as they die of any other disease fortunately in England at any rate thought is not catching our splendid physique as a people is entirely due to our national stupidity I only hope we shall be able to keep this great historic happiness for many years to come but I am afraid that we are beginning to be overeducated at least everybody who is incapable of learning has taken to teaching that is really what our enthusiasm for education has come to in the meantime you had better go back to your wearisome uncomfortable nature and leave me to correct my beliefs Cyril writing an article that is not very consistent after what you have just said Vivian who wants to be consistent the dullard and the doctrinaire the tedious people who carry out their principles to the bitter end of action to the reductio ad absurdum of practice why? like Emerson I write over the door of my library the word whim besides my article is really a most salutary and valuable warning if it is attended to there may be a new renaissance of art Cyril what is the subject Vivian I intend to call it of lying a protest Cyril lying I should have thought that our politicians kept up that habit Vivian I assure you that they do not they never rise beyond the level of misrepresentation and actually condescend to prove to discuss to argue how different from the temper true liar with his frank, fearless statements his superb irresponsibility his healthy natural disdain of proof of any kind after all what is a fine lie simply that which is its own evidence if a man is sufficiently unimaginative to produce evidence in support of a lie he might just as well speak the truth at once no, the politicians won't do something may perhaps be urged on behalf of the bar the mantle of the sophist has fallen on its members their feigned orders and unreal rhetoric are delightful they can make the worse appear the better cause as though they were fresh from leontine schools and have been known to rest from reluctant juries triumphant verdicts of acquittal for their clients even when those clients as often happens were clearly and unmistakably innocent but they are briefed by the prosaic and are not ashamed to appeal to precedent in spite of their endeavours the truth will out newspapers even have degenerated they may now be absolutely relied upon one feels it as one wades through their columns it is always the unreadable that occurs I am afraid there is not much to be said in favour of either the lawyer or the journalist besides what I am pleading for is lying in art shall I read you what I have written it might do you a great deal of good Cyril certainly if you give me a cigarette thanks by the way what magazine do you intend it for Vivian for the retrospective review I think I told you that the elect had revived it Cyril whom do you mean by the elect Vivian oh the tired the list of course it is a club to which I belong we are supposed to wear faded roses in our buttonholes when we meet and to have a sort of cult for Domition I am afraid you are not eligible you are too fond of simple pleasures Cyril I should be black bored on the ground of animal spirits I suppose Vivian probably besides you are a little too old we don't admit anybody who is of the usual age Cyril well I should fancy you are all a good deal bored with each other Vivian we are this is one of the objects of the club now if you promise not to interrupt too often I will read you my article Cyril ah you will find me all attention Vivian reading in a very clear musical voice the decay of lying a protest one of the chief causes that can be assigned for the curiously commonplace character of most of the literature of our age is undoubtedly the decay of lying as an art a science and a social pleasure the ancient historians gave us delightful fiction in the form of fact the modern novelist presents us with dull facts under the guise of fiction the blue book is rapidly becoming his ideal both for method and manner he has his tedious document humain his miserable little point de la création into which he peers with his microscope he is to be found at the Librarie Nationale or at the British Museum shamelessly reading up his subject he has not even the courage of other people's ideas but insist on going directly to life for everything and ultimately between encyclopedias and personal experience he comes to the ground having drawn his types from the family circle or from the weekly washer woman and having acquired an amount of useful information from which never even in his most meditative moments can he thoroughly free himself the loss that results to literature in general from this false ideal of our time can hardly be overestimated people have a careless way of talking about a born liar just as they talk about a born poet but in both cases they are wrong lying and poetry are arts arts as pinto saw not unconnected with each other and they require the most careful study the most interested devotion indeed they have their technique just as the more material arts of painting and sculpture have their subtle secrets of form and color their craft mysteries their deliberate artistic methods as one knows the poet by his fine music so one can recognize the liar by his rich rhythmic utterance and in neither place will the casual inspiration of the moment suffice here as elsewhere practice must precede perfection but in modern days while the fashion of writing poetry has become far too common and should if possible be discouraged the fashion of lying has almost fallen into disrepute many a young man starts in life with a natural gift for exaggeration which if nurtured in congenial and sympathetic surroundings or by the imitation of the best models might grow into something really great and wonderful but as a rule he comes to nothing he either falls into careless habits of accuracy Cyril my dear fellow Vivian please don't interrupt in the middle of a sentence he either falls into careless habits of accuracy or takes to frequenting the society of the aged and the well informed both things are equally fatal to his imagination as indeed they would be fatal to the imagination of anybody and in a short time he develops a morbid and unhealthy faculty of truth telling begins to verify all statements made in his presence has no hesitation in contradicting people who are much younger than himself and often ends by writing novels which are so life like that no one can possibly believe in their probability this is no isolated instance that we are giving it is simply one example out of many and if something cannot be done to check or at least to modify our monstrous worship of facts art will become sterile and beauty will pass away from the land even Mr. Robert Louis Stevenson that delightful master of delicate fanciful prose is tainted with this modern vice for we know positively no other name for it there is such a thing as robbing a story of its reality by trying to make it too true and the black arrow is so inartistic as not to contain a single anachronism to boast of while the transformation of Dr. G. Kill is dangerously like an experiment out of the Lancet as for Mr. Rider Haggard who really has or had once the makings of a perfectly magnificent liar he is now so afraid of being suspected of genius that when he does tell us anything marvellous he feels bound to invent a personal reminiscence and to put it into a footnote of a cowardly corroboration nor are our other novelists much better Mr. Henry James writes fiction as if it were a painful duty and wastes upon mean motives and imperceptible points of view his neat literary style his felicitous phrases his swift and caustic satire Mr. Hall Cain it is true aims at the grandiose but then he writes at the top of his voice he is so loud that one cannot hear what he says Mr. James Paine is an adept in the art of concealing what is not worth finding he hunts down the obvious with the enthusiasm of a short-sighted detective as one turns over the pages the suspense of the author becomes almost unbearable the horses of Mr. William Black's fairton do not soar towards the sun they merely frighten the sky at evening into violent chromolithographic effects on seeing them approach the peasants take refuge in dialect his olephant prattles pleasantly about curates lawn tennis parties domesticity and other wearisome things Mr. Marion Crawford has immolated himself upon the altar of local colour he is like the lady in the French comedy who keeps talking about Le Bouchiel d'Italie besides he has fallen into the bad habit of uttering moral platitudes he is always telling us that to be good is to be good and that to be bad is to be wicked at times he is almost edifying Robert Ellesmere is of course a masterpiece a masterpiece of the genre the one form of literature that the English people seem thoroughly to enjoy a thoughtful young friend of ours once told us that it reminded him of the sort of conversation that goes on at a meat tea in the house of a serious non-conformist family and we can quite believe it indeed it is only in England that such a book could be produced England is the home of lost ideas as for that great and daily increasing school of novelists for whom the sun always rises in the east end the only thing that can be said about them is that they find life crude and leave it raw in France though nothing so deliberately tedious as Robert Ellesmere has been produced things are not much better Monsieur Guy de Moupasson with his keen mordant irony and his hard vivid style strips life of the few poor rags that still cover her and shows us foul sore and festering wound he writes lurid little tragedies in which everybody is ridiculous bitter comedies at which one cannot laugh for very tears Monsieur Zola true to the lofty principle that he lays down in one of his pronunciamentos on literature L'homme de génie n'a jamais d'esprit is determined to show that if he has not got genius he can at least be dull and how well he succeeds he is not without power indeed at times as in germinal he is being almost epic in his work but his work is entirely wrong from beginning to end and wrong not on the ground of morals but on the ground of art from any ethical stand point it is just what it should be the author is perfectly truthful and describes things exactly as they happen what more can any moralist desire and no sympathy at all with the moral indignation of our time against Monsieur Zola it is simply the indignation of Tartuffe on being exposed but from the stand point of art what can be said in favour of the author of La Samoire Nanna and Pobouille nothing Mr Ruskin once described the characters as being like the sweepings of a pentonville omnibus but Monsieur Zola's characters are much worse they have their dreary vices and their dreary virtues the record of their lives is absolutely without interest who cares what happens to them in literature we require distinction charm, beauty and automotive power we don't want to be harrowed and disgusted with an account of the doings of the lower orders Monsieur Daudet is better he has wit a light touch and an amusing style but he has lately committed literary suicide nobody can possibly care for De La Belle with his il faut lutter pour l'air or for Val Majour with his eternal refrain about the nightingale or for the poet in Jack with his mot cruelle now that we have learned from 20 ans de ma vie d'itéraire that these characters were taken directly from life to us they seem to have suddenly lost all their vitality all the few qualities they ever possessed the only real people are the people who never existed and if a novelist is base enough to go to life for his personages he should at least pretend that they are creations and not boast of them as copies the justification of a character in a novel is not that other persons are what they are but that the author is what he is otherwise the novel is not a work of art as for Monsieur Paul Bourget the master of the roman psychologique he commits the error of imagining that the men and women of modern life are capable of being infinitely analysed for an innumerable series of chapters in point of fact about people in good society and Monsieur Bourget rarely moves out of the Foubourg Saint-Germain except to come to London is the mask that each one of them wears not the reality that lies behind the mask it is a humiliating confession but we are all of us made out of the same stuff in full stuff there is something of Hamlet in Hamlet there is not a little of full stuff the fat knight has his moods of melancholy and the young prince his moments of coarse humour where we differ from each other is purely in accidentals in dress, manner, tone of voice, religious opinions personal appearance tricks of habit and the like that analyses people the more all reasons for analysis disappear sooner or later one comes to that dreadful universal thing called human nature indeed as anyone who has ever worked among the poor knows only too well the brotherhood of man is no mere poet's dream it is a most depressing and humiliating reality and if a writer insists upon analysing the upper classes he might just as well write of match-girls and cost among girls at once however my dear Cyril I will not detain you any further just here I quite admit that modern novels have many good points all I insist on is that as a class unreadable Cyril that is certainly a very grave qualification but I must say that I think you are rather unfair in some of your strictures I like the deemster and the daughter of Heth and Ludisipl and Mr. Isaacs and as for Robert Ellesmere I'm quite devoted to it not that I can look upon it as a serious work as a statement of the problems that confront the earnest Christian it is ridiculous and antiquated it is simply Arnold's literature and dogma with the literature left out it is as much behind the age as Paley's evidences or Colenzo's method of biblical exegesis nor could anything be less impressive than the unfortunate hero gravely heralding a dawn that rose long ago and so completely missing its true significance that he proposes to carry on the business of the old farm under the new name on the other hand it contains several clever caricatures and a heap of delightful quotations and Green's philosophy very pleasantly sugars the somewhat bitter pill of the author's fiction I also cannot help expressing my surprise that you have said nothing about the two novelists whom you are always reading Balzac and George Meredith surely they are realists both of them Vivian ah Meredith who can define him his style is chaos illumined by flashes of lightning as a writer he has mastered everything except language as a novelist he can do everything except tell a story as an artist he has everything except articulate somebody in Shakespeare Touchstone I think talks about a man who is always making his shins over his own wit and it seems to me that this might serve as the basis for a criticism of Meredith's method but whatever he is he is not a realist or rather I would say that he is a child of realism who is not on speaking terms with his father by deliberate choice he has made himself a romanticist he has refused to bow the knee to Baal and after all even if the man's fine spirit did not revolt against the noisy assertions of realism his style would be quite sufficient of itself to keep life at a respectful distance by its means he has planted round his garden a hedge full of thorns and red with wonderful roses as for Balzac he was a most remarkable combination of the artistic temperament with the scientific spirit the latter he bequeathed to his disciples the former was entirely his own the difference between such a book as Monsieur Zola's La Saint-Moire and Balzac's Illusion Perdue is the difference between imaginative realism and imaginative reality all Balzac's characters said Baudelaire are gifted with the same ardour of life that animated himself all his fictions are as deeply coloured as dreams each mind is a weapon loaded to the muzzle with will the very scullions have genius a steady course of Balzac reduces our living friends to shadows and our acquaintances to the shadows of shades his characters have a kind of fervent fiery coloured existence they dominate us and defy skepticism one of the greatest tragedies of my life is the death of Lucien de Ruban-Prey it is a grief from which I have never been able completely to rid myself it haunts me in my moments of pleasure I remember it when I laugh but Balzac is no more a realist than Holbein was he created life he did not copy it I admit however that he set far too higher value on modernity of form consequently there is no book of his that as an artistic masterpiece can rank with Salambo or Esmond or the Cloyster and the Harth or the Vicente de Brajelon Cyril do you object to modernity of form then? Vivian yes it is a huge price to pay for a very poor result pure modernity of form is always somewhat vulgarising it cannot help being so the public imagine that because they are interested in their immediate surroundings art should be interested in them also and should take them as her subject matter but the mere fact that they are interested in these things makes them unsuitable subjects for art the only beautiful things as somebody once said are the things that do not concern us as long as a thing is useful or necessary to us or affects us in any way either for pain or for pleasure or appeals strongly to our sympathies or is a vital part of the environment in which we live it is outside the proper sphere of art to arts subject matter we should be more or less indifferent we should at any rate have no preferences no prejudices no partisan feeling of any kind it is exactly because Hecuba is nothing to us that her sorrows are such an admirable motive for a tragedy I do not know anything in the whole history of literature sadder than the artistic career of Charles Reid he wrote one beautiful book that cloister and the hearth a book as much above Romula as Romula is above Daniel Deronda and wasted the rest of his life in a foolish attempt to be modern to draw public attention to the state of our convict prisons the management of our private lunatic asylums Charles Dickens was depressing enough in all conscience when he tried to arouse our sympathy for the victims of the poor law administration but Charles Reid an artist scholar a man with a true sense of beauty raging and roaring over the abuses of contemporary life like a common pamphleteer or a sensational journalist is really a sight for the angels to weep over believe me my dear Cyril modernity of form and modernity of subject matter are entirely and absolutely wrong we have mistaken the common livery of the age for the vesture of the muses and spend our days in the sordid streets and hideous suburbs of our vile cities when we should be out on the hillside with a polo certainly we are a degraded race and have sold our birthright for a mess of facts end of the decay of lying an observation part one recording by Martin Giesen in Hazelmeyer Surrey