Translating the Vatican: Paul Cullen, power and language in nineteenth-century Ireland

Abstract

This paper examines how one of the most influential figures in nineteenth-century Ireland, Cardinal Paul Cullen, used language and translation to further his career and his vision for the Catholic Church in this period. It shows how Cullen's language skills served him throughout his life in his role as an agent and liaison, a linking figure between different worlds. The paper demonstrates how Cullen's linguistic abilities and translations gave an early jump-start to his career and subsequently expanded his sphere of influence from the confines of the Vatican to the vast expanses of the Catholic English-speaking world. Through language, Cullen positioned himself as a vital conduit for Irish–Vatican relations and came to be the dominant force in Irish Catholicism for almost thirty years, connecting Ireland to Rome and translating his ambitions and those of the Vatican into reality in Ireland. The paper will demonstrate how language was a forceful tool for change and an instrument of power when wielded by Cullen.

Keywords::

• translation
• Paul Cullen
• language
• Ireland
• religion

Notes

^1. See the many articles on various aspects of Cullen's career in Keogh and McDonnell, Cardinal Paul Cullen. Eamon Duffy has called him “the father of modern Irish Catholicism” (“The Age of Pio Nono,” 47). Diarmuid Ferriter has said he was “the towering figure of modern Irish Catholicism” (“Cardinal Paul Cullen and his World”).

^2.The Times, October 25, 1878, qtd in Barr, “‘An Ambiguous Awe,’” 414.

^3.Bowen, Paul Cardinal Cullen, xi.

^4. Cullen to Hugh Cullen, January 22, 1821, in Mac Suibhne, Paul Cullen and his Contemporaries, 1.78.

^5. James Maher to Margaret Cullen, April 5, 1821, in Mac Suibhne, Paul Cullen and his Contemporaries, 1.84.

^6. James Maher to Margaret Cullen, July 17, 1821, in Mac Suibhne, Paul Cullen and his Contemporaries, 1.89.

^7. Cullen to Hugh Cullen, January 1822, in Mac Suibhne, Paul Cullen and his Contemporaries, 1.99.

^8. Cullen to Margaret Cullen, c. August 10, 1822, in Mac Suibhne, Paul Cullen and his Contemporaries, 1.109.

^9.Mac Suibhne, Paul Cullen and his Contemporaries, 1.359.

^10. Cullen to Hugh Cullen, January 25, 1829, in Mac Suibhne, Paul Cullen and his Contemporaries, 1.142.

^11. The Sacred Congregation de Propaganda Fide, whose official title is “sacra congregatio christiano nomini propagando”, is the department of the pontifical administration charged with the spread of Catholicism and with the regulation of ecclesiastical affairs in non-Catholic countries. The seminary of the Propaganda is known as the Collegium Urbanum (Urban College) and it is there that Irish students in Rome conducted their studies.

^12.Korten, “Converging Worlds,” 40.

^13. Even in his earliest years in Rome, Cullen was called upon to translate: in 1823 he presented a pastoral letter from Dr Doyle to the Rector of Propaganda who then made him translate it into Italian. Cullen to Margaret Cullen, 7 December 1823, in Mac Suibhne, Paul Cullen and his Contemporaries, 1.121. Cullen even had to translate into Italian for the Propaganda the letter from Dr Doyle requesting that Cullen be sent back to Ireland to work as a professor in Carlow College. Cullen to James Maher, October 10, 1829, in Mac Suibhne, Paul Cullen and his Contemporaries, 1.149.

^14. See Venuti, The Translator's Invisibility.

^15. See, in particular, the archival material held in the Pontifical Irish College Rome (PICR), CUL/NC/2 relating to this period in Cullen's life.

^16.Mac Suibhne, Paul Cullen and his Contemporaries, 1.10.

^17. PICR, CUL/NC/2/186. See also PICR, CUL/NC/2/172.

^18. Cullen to James Maher, October 10, 1829, in Mac Suibhne, Paul Cullen and his Contemporaries, 1.149.

^19. Mac Suibhne states that Cullen

was associated with Wiseman in his work for the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain in the early thirties. He was on the translation committee and among the works they arranged to translate was a history of Mecca and a history of the Circassian dynasty of the Mamelukes. (1.10)

^20. PICR, CUL/NC/1/42.

^21.Russell, Life of Cardinal Mezzofanti.

^22.Korten, “Converging Worlds,” 40.

^23.Russell, Life of Cardinal Mezzofanti, 297–8. Russell continues by saying that Mezzofanti subsequently met

a Turkish student, named Hassun, now archbishop of the United Greek Church at Constantinople. He at once entered into conversation with Hassun in Turkish. This he speedily changed to Romaic with a youth named Musabini, who is now the Catholic Greek bishop at Smyrna. From Greek he turned to English, on the approach of Dr. O'Connor, an Irish student, now bishop of Pittsburgh in the United States. As the unwonted sounds began to attract attention, the students poured in, one by one, each in succession to find himself greeted in his native tongue; till at length, the bell being rung, the entire community assembled, and gave full scope to the wonderful quickness and variety of his accomplishment. (Ibid., 298)

This was the multilingual environment in which Cullen lived for many years.

^24. PICR, CUL/NC/3/3/28. See also the high regard he shows for Mezzofanti in Cullen to Margaret Cullen, January 1833, in Mac Suibhne, Paul Cullen and his Contemporaries, 1.201.

^25.Korten, “Divine Language,” 137.

^26.Barr, “The Irish College, Rome,” 112.

^27.Barr, “‘Imperium in Imperio.’”

^28. Examples of these letters with requests for Cullen's linguistic interventions include: PICR, CUL/1551, February 28, 1847 (letter from W. Higgins); PICR, CUL/NC/4/1838/11 (letter from Dr Murray, Archbishop of Dublin); PICR, CUL/NC/4/1844/47 (letter from P. Cooper).

^29.Korten, “Divine Language,” 146.

^30. See Carroll, “‘Spiritual Government of the Entire World,’” 72–82. Carroll notes that by 1783 “Propaganda Fide was pressing for a kind of cultural homogenization where Italian as much as Latin would be the lingua franca” (ibid., 82).

^31. In performing this role, Cullen was continuing a tradition of Irish intermediaries in Rome, a role occupied in previous centuries by figures such as Luke Wadding and Peter Lombard. On the former, see, for example, O'Connor, “Luke Wadding's Networks.”

^32. Cullen to Fransoni, September 26, 1849, Archives of Propaganda Fide (APF) SC, Irlanda, vol. 30, ff.214 (r)–215 (v). The eventual appointment of Cullen himself to the vacant see of Armagh is discussed in Macaulay, “‘Strong Views.’”

^33. Cullen to Fransoni, October 7, 1849, (APF) SC, Irlanda, vol. 30, f.213 (r+v).

^34. Brian Condon: Diary of John Thomas Hynes, 1843–1868, http://www.library.unisa.edu.au/condon/Hynes/July1843.htm (accessed July 2013).

^35.Larkin, “Paul Cullen,” 32.

^36. Cullen to Fransoni, June 26, 1852, (APF) SC, Irlanda, vol. 31, ff.197–200 (v). Other examples of Cullen translating for Irish priests for the Vatican include: Cullen to Barnabò, January 7, 1859, (APF) SC, Irlanda, vol. 33, f.836 (r); Cullen to Fransoni, February 21, 1853, (APF) SC, Irlanda, vol. 31, ff.394–395 (v); Cullen to Fransoni, January 12, 1853, (APF) SC, Irlanda, vol. 31, ff.348–349 (v).

^37. Cullen to Kirby, June 8, 1852, Pontifical Irish College Rome (PICR), KIR.NC.1.1852.35. For an example of Cullen's use of Kirby to translate documents in order to influence ecclesiastical affairs in Scotland, see Barr, “‘Imperium in Imperio,’” 640.

^38. Cullen to Smith, October 21, 1851 (Bernard Smith Papers, Rome). Also Cullen to Smith, March 29, 1851, (PICR), KIR.NC.1.1851.26; Cullen to Smith, April 24, 1852, (APF) SC, Irlanda, vol. 31, ff.166 (r)–167 (v).

^39. Cullen to Kirby, October 26, 1863, (APF) SC, Irlanda, vol. 35, ff.121 (r)–122 (r). See also Cullen to Kirby, May 30, 1852, (PICR), KIR.NC.1.1852.33; Cullen to Kirby, February 16, 1853, (PICR), KIR.NC.1.

^40. Cullen to Kirby, January 10, 1851, (PICR), KIR.NC.1.1851.3. In a subsequent letter, Cullen hopes to have the pastoral published also in a Roman paper. Cullen to Kirby, March 1, 1851, (PICR), KIR.NC.1.1851.16.

^41. For example, Cullen to Barnabò, D., August 1866, (APF) SC, Irlanda, vol. 35, ff.812 (r)–813 (r). See also Kirby to Propaganda, February 8, 1851, (APF) SC, Irlanda, vol. 30, f.556.

^42. Cullen to Kirby, Octave of St. John (January) 1860, (PICR), KIR/NC/1/1860/3.

^43. Cullen to Barnabò, March 2, 1864, (APF) SC, Irlanda, vol. 34, ff.1085 (r)–1090 (r).

^44. See also:

The forenamed priest has written a letter to me about this matter, which I am enclosing in the original for Your Most Reverend Eminence, knowing that Monsignor Rinaldini will be able to read it in English, or Your Eminence will be able to have it translated into Italian by Fr. Moran or by Monsignor Kirby. (Cullen to Barnabò, January 23, 1863, (APF) SC, Irlanda, vol. 34, ff.605 (r)–606 (v))

See also Cullen to Barnabò, January 13, 1853, (APF) SC, Irlanda, vol. 31, ff.351–352 (v).

^45. Cullen to Fransoni, March 25, 1856, (APF) SC, Irlanda, vol. 32, f.757; Cullen to Barnabò, March 4, 1867, Dublin Diocesan Archives (DDA), CLB 5; Cullen to Barnabò, March 9, 1866, (DDA), CLB 5.

^46. Both Cullen and Kirby were supremely confident in Italian: a former student said of his first meeting with Kirby in Rome, “Now and then, during our conversation, he made use of Italian words, and then explained himself in English” (McCrea, “The Late Most Rev. Dr. Kirby,” 770).

^47. Cullen to Kirby, March 20, 1851, (PICR), KIR.NC.1.1851.25.

^48. (PICR), KIR/NC/1/1860/103. For more on Cullen's involvement in the Papal Brigade, see O'Connor, “The Pope, the Prelate”; O'Carroll, “Papal Brigade of St. Patrick.”

^49. Cullen to Kirby, January 3, 1852, (PICR), KIR.NC.1.1852.9.

^50. Cullen to Barnabò, January 31, 1865, (DDA), CLB 5, 186–9.

^51. Cullen to Barnabò, September 9, 1863, (APF) SC, Irlanda, vol. 35, ff.105 (r)–109 (v).

^52. Cullen to Barnabò, July 2, 1858, (APF) SC, Irlanda, vol. 33, f.725.

^53. Cullen to Franchi, April 9, 1877, (APF) SC, Irlanda, vol. 37, ff.927 (r)–928 (v). See also Cullen to Bishop of Liège, D., February 1871, (DDA), CLB 4, 495–6.

^54. See Bowen, Paul Cardinal Cullen, 18. Cullen, however, fell out with Bernard Smith by about 1855.

^55.Macaulay, “The Irish College,” 190.

^56.Larkin, “Paul Cullen,” 16. On Cullen's ultramontanism, see also Rafferty, “Ultramontane Spirituality.”

^57.Andrews, Lion of the West, 21.

^58. Some of his translations include: Moore's Melodies into Irish (1841); The Way of the Cross as Toras na Chroice (1854); translation into Irish of Pentateuch (1861); Homer's Iliad (Bk. 1, 1844; Bk. II, 1851; Bk. III, 1851; Bk. IV, 1857; Bks. V and VI, 1860; Bk. VII, 1871). For a comprehensive list, see Andrews, Lion of the West, 311–16.

^59. On some of the many flashpoints between Cullen and MacHale, see Barr, Paul Cullen; Andrews, Lion of the West, 215–29; Moffitt, “Conversion of Connemara.”

^60.Lee, Modernisation of Irish Society, 425.

^61. On the French influence, see Corish, Maynooth College, 26–32. Corish goes as far as to call Maynooth a “rustic Sorbonne” (ibid., 60). On Cullen's denunciation of Maynooth's Gallicanism to Rome, see, for example, Cullen to Fransoni, December 2, 1855, (APF) SC, Irlanda, vol. 32, f.588.

^62. See, for example, Fenning, “Irishmen Ordained at Rome.”

^63. Cullen to Kirby D., August 1852, (PICR), KIR.NC.1852.41. He was also critical of the French language skills in Ireland: Cullen to Simeoni, April 13, 1871, (PICR), CLB 5.

^64. Cullen to Unknown, Y-M-D (DDA), CLB, 593–4.

^65.Bowen, Paul Cardinal Cullen, 25.

^66.Korten, “Divine Language,” 146.

^67.McCrea, “The Late Most Rev. Dr. Kirby,” 775.

^68. For example, one student, James Wood, wrote that Cullen obtained a master in Latin and Italian for him and that he could study those the rest of the year. James Wood to John Baptist Purcell, February 26, 1838, II-4-g A.L.S., http://www.archives.nd.edu/cgi-bin/author.pl?cal1838.htm+Wood (accessed July 2013). The active use of Italian in the Irish College declined in the years following Cullen's and Kirby's rectorships when they were no long present to drive home the importance of mastering the language. See Sweetman, “‘Waving the Green Flag,’” 211.

^69. Cullen to Barnabò, May 26, 1869, (DDA), CLB 5.

^70. Cullen to Barnabò, D., May 1872, (DDA), CLB 5.

^71. For example, Fr. Burke in Cullen to Barnabò, February 16, 1865, (APF) SC, Irlanda, vol. 35, f.200 (r); Fr. O'Hagan in Cullen to Unknown, July 13, 1873, (DDA), CLB 5.

^72. Cullen to Kirby, September 5, 1856, (PICR), KIR.NC.1.1856.43. See Lonergan, “Dove ‘l sì sona.” In her article, Lonergan details the high-profile court case and subsequent media coverage in 1856 over the appointment of Basilio Angeli to the chair of Italian and French at TCD (see 16–19).

^73. See Barr, Paul Cullen, 209. Marani was also responsible for teaching Spanish; see also Barr, Finelli, and O'Connor, Nation/Nazione.

^74.Barr, Paul Cullen, 213–15.

^75. Like Cullen, Tobias Kirby is reported to have only ever used a handful of Irish words in his writing; see Olden, “Tobias Kirby (1804–1895),” 136.

^76. Cullen to Barnabò, April 1, 1864, (APF) SC, Irlanda, vol. 35, ff.43 (r)–46 (v). He is also mentioned as being present during a discussion with the Pope on the possible Irish origins “of a new work of Sir William Betham, Etruria Celtica – in which an attempt is made to establish the identity of the Irish and Etrurian languages, and in which the celebrated Eugubian inscriptions are explained as Irish.” It is said that Dr Cullen recounted the nature and object of the work to the Pope. See Russell, Life of Cardinal Mezzofanti, 423.

^77. Cullen to Margaret Cullen, November 12, 1831, in Mac Suibhne, Paul Cullen and his Contemporaries, 1.191.

^78. Cullen to Simeoni, October 4, 1878, (APF) SC, Irlanda, vol. 38, f.143 (r+v).

^79.Ó Tuathaigh, “Reassessing Paul Cullen,” 437.