I received your letter and its contents all quite right and hold the balance 11 francs 30 cts. at your disposition.

I am glad to hear of the revival of the Palm Sunday Procession

Het is voorlopig onduidelijk waarover het hier gaat. In de 16de eeuw organiseerde de Jeruzalembroederschap jaarlijks een Palmprocessie. Aanvankelijk ging de processie rond de Jeruzalemkapel, in 1522 kwam er toelating om het traject te verruimen tot aan de Predikherenbrug zie: Noël Geirnaert (red.), ”Adornes en Jeruzalem: internationaal leven in het 15de- en 16de-eeuwse Brugge”, catalogus, Brugge, 1983, nr. 57. In de 19de eeuw bestond de broederschap niet meer. Benoit Kervyn doet melding van een palmprocessie, georganiseerd door de Sint-Anneparochie, die vertrok van de Jeruzalemkapel naar de Sint-Annakerk (mail 24/05/2022). Tot het einde van de 18de eeuw was er ook processie van de kapucijnen op Palmzondag, richting Sint-Salvator ter ere van O.L.V. van Zeven Smarten, maar dit was geen liturgische palmprocessie, zie: Jean Luc Meulemeester, ”Processies in West-Vlaanderen: inleidende en kritische beschouwingen als bouwstenen voor verder onderzoek”, Kortrijk, 2015, p. 164. Of gaat het om een palmprocessie in Roeselare?

I should like the ballads in whatever style you think would be most likely to become popular.

Weale bezorgt Gezelle enkele Engelse ballades ter vertaling, omdat hij bij Gezelle een uitstekende kennis en een uitstekend dichterlijk gevoel voor de Engelse taal opmerkt. Om welke ballades het gaat, is niet bekend. Zie ook de brief van James Weale aan Guido Gezelle van 04/04/1860.

The Manual

Een publicatie met die titel is niet terug te vinden in de bibliografie van Weale. In 1859 publiceerde hij wel ”Belgium, Aix-la-Chapelle and Cologne: An entirely new guide book for travellers“, Londen, 1859 en in 1862 ”Bruges et ses environs: Déscription des Monuments, Objects d'Art et Antiquités, précédée d'une notice historique“, Brugge en Londen, 1862, meerdere herdrukken. (Wikipedia)

I will try & find out about Jan Praet. I am very glad Mr Lefevre is pleased; if he wishes to have the interior & the shutters painted I will gladly make him a design. I should however like to know what he means to put inside a crucifix or a Madonna as the diapre ofthe centre should be in harmony therewith on exterior of shutters. I would suggest scrolls with legends. I shall probably run down & see you next week & will talk this over. Meantime I enclose the crosses for decorations.

I am afraid that many of your clerical confreres will be startled with my pamphlet

Zie: brief van James Weale aan Guido Gezelle van 04/04/1860. James Weale schrijft een repliek op het artikel van Alberdingk Thijm in: ’Bulletin périodique de la ’Dietsche warande’’. N° 4 & 5 (du 5me volume). In: ”Dietsche Warande”: 5 (1860) 4 en 5, p.17-34. Hij verdedigt de christelijke kunst in België, maar erkent de liberaliserende tendensen in vele kunsttakken, o.a. in de versiering van kerken.

I commence by thanking Alb. Thijm for his defence of iconographical principles & show that the greater the authority of the writer who puts forth an error the more necessary it is to support the tradition of Xtian Christian art against novelties. After this I speak of modern artists, how little they care about putting their production in harmony with church requirements, how little they know of symbolism or rubrics. Then I speak of consequences of this neglect of what I hold to be their bounden duty to inform themselves on . I then describe the actual state of our churches as constrasted with what they were. I then give a description of a grand high mass. Then I quote 2 or 3 persons on the decay of reverence & religion in Belgium, try to show the causes of this. Show that it is impossible to have Christian art without Xtian Christian Education. Show who introduces the evil results of Pagan Education. Who its patrons were & who opposed it. Their lives contrasted. Paganism in life produced Pagan art. Quote Bps Bishops who recommend preceptors to teach youth morality out of Plato &c rather than out of Bible, the former persuading to virtue while the latter is apt to disgust by its simplicity & severity. Show that this love of prettiness is at bottom of all modern ideas. Our artists quite at ease when you ask for a painting or statue of Me rcury God of thieves, Mars god of war, Jupiter god of adulterers. Venus goddess of love &c but know nothing of Saints.-. The state to which Renaissance has brought us. Dangers a f t present day. Means to avoid them. Picture of what Europe would become if Christian principles were generally adopted.

Now what will not be liked are the fearful proofs - all irrefutable - of Pagan lives of all the chief promoters of Renaissance. Popes Emperors Cardinals Bishops, downwards. But this I believe to be a sad necessity. I think that even you will be astonished at the length to which I prove the Renaissance people dared to go; E.g. repr representing Our B Beloved Lady in an Assumption under the form of Venus with nothing on but a gauze girdle and the bracelet of that impure goddess. Yet this basrelief exists in a t he Church of St. Denis. I believe that my pamphlet will be eventually productive of good. Our principles must win. It is impossible to win the fight if we are not armed with Xtian Christian weapons.