The Letters of Baron Friedrich von Hugel and Maude D. Petre: The Modernist Movement in England (review)

For roughly half a century serious scholars pursuing the truth about the Roman Catholic Modernist crisis or about the life and thought of Baron Friedrich von Hügel have had access to von Hügel's manuscript letters to Maude Dominica Petre and the one complete remaining letter of Petre to von Hügel, first in the British Museum and now in the new British Library. These letters are a priceless source for following the development of von Hügel's ideas on mysticism, for understanding his sense of what the Modernist movement was all about and what his role in it really was, and for just gaining a sense of the man himself. Consequently, to have a critical edition of these letters in print, and thus readily accessible, should be a boon both to scholars and to educated individuals interested in religious history.

Unfortunately, James Kelly's edition of these letters is not such a critical work, and it will be a disappointment to scholars and intelligent readers alike. For scholars a definitive establishment of the actual text is crucial and the absolute first requirement for a printed edition of manuscript material. Anyone who knows von Hügel's handwriting knows how difficult it can be at times to transcribe accurately. But such accurate transcription is the sine qua non for printed critical texts. In Kelly's text over and over one finds proper names from the letters mangled: Vistue for Bishop Virtue, Laotze for Professor Lotze, Newham for Newnham College, Magle for Sydney Mayle, Hilton for the Pembroke estate at Wilton, and so on and on. If the editor really understood the given letter's context, if he were widely read in von Hügeliana and relevant related materials, these mistakes could not have occurred. Moreover, in several places the editor leaves a blank where he claims a word in a letter is illegible. Others, however, using the same manuscripts have been able to read the supposedly illegible word, as for instance nimbleness on page 18. And other words are just mistakenly transcribed, as for instance on page 137 help becomes keep, and on page 157 telling becomes taking.

The unsatisfactoriness of this printed edition of the letters for the intelligent reader who is not a scholar is simply overwhelming. Almost every one of these letters has to do with huge personal and ecclesiastical problems in the lives of Maude Petre and von Hügel, and of Catholics generally. Most of the letters discuss these things without any clarification that would help an outsider of nearly a century later understand what is being written about. Here the editor could have, should have, supplied helpful notes to shed light on the letters' meanings. For instance, von Hügel's discussion of Edmund Bishop might have used Bishop's manuscript letters to the Baron for a note of explanation. Articles in The Times and The Tablet are mentioned frequently with the assumption that Petre and von Hügel had both read the articles, but no note explains what the articles were about or why they were important. Again, a note might have explained what was meant by "off to Wilton for 12 days Christmasing," and why in 1903 von Hügel cryptically asks Petre to "pray for us all at Wilton." Or again, why in 1906 "Loisy's troubles" had "been specially painful" for von Hügel. On almost every page brief informative notes could have made these letters fascinating for the non-specialist reader. The impression given here is that the editor himself does not know what the letters are talking about.

Kelly's Introduction adds nothing new to the reader's knowledge of von Hügel or of Modernism, and his interpretations are heavily influenced (despite disclaimers) by Maude Petre's prejudices and the interpretations of several more...