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We all grew up, even a nice Jewish boy like me,
但凡國人--包括像我一樣的猶太人
with the idea that the English reformation was a historic inevitability,
都自幼被灌輸著一個觀念 即英國宗教改革 是歷史之大勢所趨
the culling of an obsolete, unpopular,fundamentally un-English faith.
它淘汰了原有的陳腐 過氣 從根本上有悖英格蘭精神的信仰
But on the very eve of the Reformation,
然而宗教改革前到來的前夕
Catholicism in England was vibrant, popular and very much alive.
天主教在英格蘭卻如日中天 生機盎然
This is Walsingham in Norfolk,once the home of the miracle working shrine of our Lady of Walsingham.
此地是諾福克郡的沃爾辛厄姆 曾是沃爾辛厄姆圣母行神跡的圣祠所在
Along with the Becket shrine at Canterbury,
同坎特伯雷的貝克特圣祠一樣
Walsingham was the must-see place for all serious 16th-century pilgrims,
對十六世紀虔誠的朝圣者而言 沃爾辛厄姆是必見的圣地
a tradition revived this century by High Church Anglicans.
這是本世紀才被高教會派重拾的傳統
Today, you get only the faintest echoes of what Walsingham once was,
時至今日 沃爾辛厄姆曾經的繁華已消失殆盡
a gaudy, rowdy mix of hucksterism and holiness,piety and plaster saints;
這里曾喧鬧而俗麗 既有圣潔與虔誠 亦有強賣的石膏圣像
the kind of place you'd expect to find, say, in Naples or Seville,not in the depths of sober East Anglia.
這樣的地方 你大概覺得會在那不勒斯或是塞維利亞見到 而絕非冷僻的東英格蘭深處
But even then, as today,not everybody approved.
但往昔亦如當代 并非未得到所以人認可
Erasmus, the Catholic scholar superstar of the age,came here on a monk pilgrimage
當年的天主教學術巨星伊拉斯謨 作為一個修士來此朝圣
and poured scorn on tales of sacred milk and chapels airmailed in from the Holy Land.
對神圣的牛奶的故事 或是從圣地降臨的教堂 都不屑一顧
But his was the minority intellectual view,safely expressed in Latin and tolerated, though not necessarily endorsed,by members of the ruling Tudor dynasty.
但他所持不過是少數知識分子的觀點 安全地用拉丁文表達 都鐸王朝的掌權者們對其態度是容忍但不支持
