"little of what was once thought distinctive about the nature of the church in Celtic lands is any longer accepted"

University of Glasgow

"The idea of a Celtic church has its roots in the Reformation.  For Protestants, the early Celtic saints embodied evangelical purity and a church wholly independent of Rome; the Reformation represented a return to the values of the indigenous British Christianity of a golden age.  This interpretation came to dominate historical perceptions in the succeeding centuries, and from it was born, in the 19th century, the concept of the 'Celtic church'. . . . [But] The concept of the Celtic church can no longer easily be defended. . . .  little of what was once thought distinctive about the nature of the church in Celtic lands is any longer accepted. . . .  All this being said, we may nevertheless notice a number of striking common features among the churches of the Celtic peoples. . . ."

     John Reuben Davies, Oxford dictionary of the Middle Ages, sv Celtic church (vol. 1 (2010), pp. 358-359, with starter bibliography).

"When some one inquired which were more in number, the living or the dead, [Anacharsis] rejoined, 'In which category, then, do you place those who are on the seas?'"

     Diogenes Laertius, Lives of eminent philosophers I.8 (Anacharsis).103-105, trans., R. D. Hicks, Loeb classical library, vol. 1 (Cambridge, MA:  Harvard University Press, 1959), 109.

"'Think of all the great songs and epics you have known and the men who wrote them. And think how few of them, how very few, were ever worthy of what they sang or said. Far away upon the terraces of Antiquity, the voice of our father Ovid cries aloud for all the poets, his children: Video meliora proboque; deteriora sequor—"The better things I see and I approve them; but it is the baser that I follow". The sin I would not, that I do—and through the ages there have been prophets prophesying and poets testifying to eternal truths; but hardly ever a man behind them; hardly ever a strong, sane, balanced, complete man to follow them. The poets sit in the throne of Dante; whatsoever they command you to do, that do; but do not after their works. For they say and do not.'"

     The poet in G. K. Chesterton's The surprise (1932; first pub. 1952), act 2, scene 3; The collected works of G. K. Chesterton 11, Plays and Chesterton on Shaw, compiled and introduced by Denis J. Conlon (San Francisco:  Ignatius Press, 1989), 330.  I am told that this is p. 52 in the original of 1952.  I have not yet read the whole play.

Creative single agency, redemptive double agency

   "Obj. 6: Further, man is justified by virtue. But Augustine commenting on Jn. 15:11: He shall do greater things than these, says: He who created thee without thee, will not justify thee without thee [(qui . . . fecit te sine te, non te iustificat sine te)]. It is therefore unsuitable to say that God works virtue in us, without us. . . .

   Reply Obj. 6: Infused virtue is caused in us by God without any action on our part, but not without our consent. This is the sense of the words, which God works in us without us. As to those things which are done by us, God causes them in us, yet not without action on our part, for He works in every will and in every nature."

     St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae I-II.55.4, trans. Aquinas Institute, but with the Latin of Augustine, Sermon 169.13, supplied by the Past Masters version of CAG, which has fecit rather than Aquinas' creauit, following (strangely) PL 38, p. 923 ll. 17-18, not CCSL 41Bb (2016), pp. (400-425), as given in Clavis Clavium.

"in us love is set in order by virtue"

"per virtutem enim ordinatur amor in nobis."

     St. Thomas Aquinas, following St. Augustine, Summa theologiae I-II.55.1.ad 4, trans. FEDP (i.e. Shapcote).

The person who does the right thing habitually is more admirable than the one who manages to do it occasionally

"We are said to merit . . . in two ways.  First, . . . by merit itself . . . [i.e.] acts [(merit by meriting)].  Secondly, . . . by the principle by which we merit [i.e. act (merit by the power of meriting, i.e. virtue or habit)]."

"aliquo dicimur mereri dupliciter. Uno modo, sicut ipso merito, eo modo quo dicimur currere cursu, et hoc modo meremur actibus. Alio modo dicimur mereri aliquo sicut principio merendi, sicut dicimur currere potentia motiva, et sic dicimur mereri virtutibus et habitibus."

     St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae I-II.55.1.ad 3, trans. FEDP (i.e. Shapcote).  Latin from Corpus Thomisticum.