tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19678732.post112536563406063591..comments2024-03-15T15:12:22.590-05:00Comments on The Blog of the American Chesterton Society: The Bridge and the BelovedNancy C. Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06169395014931291729noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19678732.post-62652168226592685562007-08-27T09:59:00.000-05:002007-08-27T09:59:00.000-05:00Besides the above ref in ILN, there are several pl...Besides the above ref in ILN, there are several places where GKC talks about the meaning of "pontiff" - perhaps the most dramatic and personal is indeed the last sentences of his Autobiography:<BR/><BR/>But for me my end is my beginning, as Maurice Baring quoted of Mary Stuart, and this overwhelming conviction that there is one key which can unlock all doors brings back to me the first glimpse of the glorious gift of the senses; and the sensational experience of sensation. And there starts up again before me, standing sharp and clear in shape as of old, the figure of a man who crosses a bridge and carries a key; as I saw him when I first looked into fairyland through the window of my father's peep-show. But I know that he who is called Pontifex, the Builder of the Bridge, is called also Claviger, the Bearer of the Key; and that such keys were given him to bind and loose when he was a poor fisher in a far province, beside a small and almost secret sea.<BR/>[CW16:331]<BR/><BR/>The other which is excellent as well as deep, and quite clearly an echo of the above memorial to Thompson is this:<BR/><BR/>Sergius, the High Pontiff in Macaulay's ballad, remarked of the secret of the Great Twin Brethren that "he knew, but might not tell." Several explanations of his silence might be suggested; as that he had in actual fact forgotten, being an elderly gentleman; or that the conduct of the Great Twin Brethren was not such as could be suitably described to the boys and old grey-headed men who kept the walls of Rome. But another and better explanation is that, like a true mystic, he knew the meaning of what he saw, but could find no words to embody it. This is the sound Greek meaning of a mystery, and the chief difference between a mystery and a mere puzzle. It is not merely that a mystery generally means something too large to be discovered, and a puzzle something too small to be discovered. It is also that a mystery is not a thing which we do not understand at all, but a thing which we partly understand, and about which we put our hand upon our mouth. [cf Job 39:34] The Pontiff probably felt himself really unequal to doing justice to the subject of Mars and Vesta; and left it to be partly uttered, as all such ancient enigmas have always been partly uttered, in emblem and ritual, in stiff dances or sacramental feasts. And among these ancient enigmas which, as the Pontiff felt, one can fully feel without fully comprehending is, of course, the very title of the Pontiff himself. "Pontiff" means a man who builds a bridge. Why a priest should be a man who builds a bridge is for pedants a puzzle: but for poets it is a mystery; a truth too large to be taken in.<BR/>[ILN Aug 17 1912 CW29:342-3]<BR/><BR/>Quite a lot also appears in <I>The Resurrection of Rome</I>. <BR/><BR/>I hope this helps. If you need more, I suggest you appeal to the Quotemeister or send e-mail to our esteemed Blogg-mistress...<BR/><BR/>--Dr. ThursdayAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19678732.post-14433016820938176162007-08-23T09:19:00.000-05:002007-08-23T09:19:00.000-05:00Consider the Latin word for 'bridge builder' -- po...Consider the Latin word for 'bridge builder' -- pontifex.<BR/><BR/>In ancient Rome, the pontifices were priests who regulated the worship of the various deities. The term probably refers to their connection to a sacred bridge over the Tiber, but it's easy to think of them as 'bridges' between the secular and sacred orders.<BR/><BR/>The term was taken up by the Roman Catholic Church and is of course the origin of the word 'pontiff.'<BR/><BR/>I think Chesterton alludes to this bit of etymology somewhere -- perhaps in his Autobiography? (I'm thinking of the 'man with the golden key' in the toy theater, who was crossing a bridge ... help, somebody?)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com