難句譯注
1. The Douay Bible 杜埃圣經(羅馬天主教會核定的英譯本圣經,于1582年及1609——1610你年又羅馬天主教學者將新舊約分別從拉丁文譯成英語在杜埃出版,可見當時杜埃是天主教勢力的集中地之一。
2. St. Ignatius Loyola 圣•羅耀拉 1491——1556 西班牙軍人及天主教教士,耶酥會的創始人。
3. Cecil (William Cecil) 西塞爾 1520——1598,英國政治家,女王伊麗莎白的得力大臣。
4. Men were still for from recognizing that two religions could exist side by side in the same society; they believed that the toleration of another religion different from their own. And hence necessarily false, must inevitably destroy such a society and bring the souls of all its members into danger of hell.
[結構簡析] 用分號連接的兩個分句,分句中都有that 是引導的賓從。
[參考譯文] 人們遠遠沒有意識到兩個宗教可以并存于同一個社會中;他們認為容忍不同于他們自己的宗教,因為也必然是錯誤的教派,不可避免的會破壞這樣一個社會,從而把所有的成員的靈魂帶進地獄的危險。
5. Against England, the most important of all the Protestant nations to reconquer, military might was not yet possible because the Catholic Powers were too occupied and divided: and so, in the 1570’s Rome bent her efforts, as she had done a thousand years before in the days of Saint Augustine, to win England back by means of her missionaries
[結構簡析] the most important of all the Protestant nations to reconquer, 這句話是同位語,說明England. As she had done a thousand… ,這里的as =just to 義:就像,正如。
[參考譯文] 對付英國,需要重新征服的所有基督教國家中最重要的一國,動用軍事力量不可能。因為天主教大國們太忙,太分裂;因此羅馬于1570年代就像一千年前,在圣•奧古斯都統治時期它曾做過的那樣,竭盡權力想通過傳教方式把英國贏回來。
寫作方法與文章大意
這篇文章論及“羅馬教皇采用文武兩手政策在歐洲,特別在英國,恢復舊教——天主教。”采用一般到具體的寫作手法。可以說由大到小。大的歐洲背景,最后落實在英國的具體做法。重點在英國。