Thursday, 21 June 2012

Ignorantia sacerdotum?

Following a council of the English church held at Lambeth in 1281, Archbishop Pecham issued a catechism best known by its opening words, Ignorantia Sacerdotum - the ignorance of priests.

Now, there is not necessarily a relationship between Ignorantia Sacerdotum and the two quotations below:

The majority of Houses of Clergy (26) voted against ...

(From a CofE press release ahead of the July General Synod, summarising how clergy voted in diocesan synods on the Anglican Covenant.)

Most decisive is the collapse of theological literacy among the clergy - again, this is partly a legacy of the 1960s and 70s (made all the worst by the illusion that this was a time of enlightening by sophisticated German Protestant influence) ...

(From a recent John Milbank article on the challenges facing Anglicanism in general and the CofE in particular.)

Perhaps it is uncharitable to suggest that not much has changed since 1281.  Ignorantia sacerdotum?

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