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5 The Modernist and the Mystic Albert Houtin’s Une grande mystique C. J. T. Talar Each of the protagonists develops a vision of this history consistent with the interests linked to the position he occupies within the history; the different historical accounts are oriented according to the position of their producer and cannot claim the status of indisputable truth.1 For those whose musical horizons encompass the recent revival of interest in Gregorian chant, Solesmes perhaps will not be entirely unfamiliar. The identification of this French Benedictine abbey with plainchant dates back well into the nineteenth century and its debates over how to interpret authentically the musical manuscripts of earlier eras.2 In the course of that century, Solesmes became synonymous with the liturgical revival more broadly, its prominence dependent in no small measure on the efforts of its founder, Dom Prosper Guéranger (1805–1875).3 82 1. Pierre Bourdieu, Science of Science and Reflexivity (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004), 9. Bourdieu continues, “One sees, in passing, one of the effects of reflexivity: what I have just said puts my listeners on their guard against what I am going to say, and puts me on my guard too, against the danger of privileging one orientation or against even the temptation to see myself as objective on the grounds for example that I am equally critical of all positions.” 2. See Pierre Combe, Histoire de la restauration du chant grégorien d’après des documents inédits (Sablé sur Sarthe: Abbaye de Solesmes, 1969). Restoration of Gregorian Chant: Solesmes and the Vatican Edition, trans. Theodore N. Marier and William Skinner (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2003). 3. See Dom Olivier Rousseau, The Progress of the Liturgy (Westminster, Md.: The New- Albert Houtin’s Une grande mystique 83 Properly speaking, Guéranger restored Benedictine life at Solesmes. A priory had been established on the site in the early eleventh century and, despite natural and human disasters, monastic life continued until its suppression in 1791 under the directives of the French Revolution. As a diocesan priest, Guéranger and several companions commenced living a common life there in 1833, according to a modified Benedictine Rule, and they assumed the Benedictine habit three years later. In 1837 the constitutions received papal approval and Solesmes was raised to the status of an abbey and head of the new Benedictine congregation of France. Guéranger made his monastic profession and was appointed abbot, without having made a novitiate or been a simple monk. Thus, when Benedictine life was resumed at Solesmes, those who undertook it did not have direct experience of monastic formation. The title of founder applied to Guéranger thus is not inappropriate.4 Already during his seminary years Guéranger had come under the influence of the Mennasian movement and its ultramontanism. While he would distance himself from La Mennais as the latter’s positions grew more extreme, the ultramontaine influence would endure. At Solesmes it found expression in the use of the Roman Missal, the Roman Breviary , support for Roman doctrines, and especially in its campaign for liturgical reform and liturgical restoration. Guéranger and Solesmes loomed large in the fight against the Gallican party in France and the adoption of the Roman rite in dioceses that followed other traditions. Guéranger saw in this effort a means both to unify the church and to counter views of religion as individualistic, moralistic, rationalistic, or nationalistic.5 man Press, 1951), ch. 1–3 and 8. Dom Delatte, third abbot of Solesmes, wrote a biography of his predecessor, Dom Guéranger. Abbé de Solesmes, 2 vols. (Paris: Plon-Nourrit, 1909–1910). Resolutely chronological, it makes large demands on its reader to detach and reconnect themes that developed over time. Dom Guy-Marie Oury, Dom Guéranger. Moine au coeur de l’Église (Solesmes: Éditions de Solesmes, 2000), was written to remedy that defect. 4. On the beginnings of Solesmes under Guéranger, see Dom Alphonse Guépin, Solesmes et Dom Guéranger (Le Mans: Edmond Monnoyer, 1876) and Dom Louis Soltner, Solesmes and Dom Guéranger 1805–1895, trans. Joseph O’Connor (Brewster, Mass.: Paraclete Press, 1995). 5. For the controversies over the restoration of the Roman liturgy in France, see R. W. Franklin, Nineteenth-Century Churches: The History of a New Catholicism in Wüttemberg, England , and France(NewYork:GarlandPublishing,1987),ch.VIII–XI;CuthbertJohnson,Prosper Guéranger (1805–1875): A Liturgical Theologian (Rome: Pontificio...

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