FEATURE
The scholar priest Charles A. Coulombe remembers linguist and adventurer Adrian Fortescue
A
mongst both Latin-Mass going Catholics and very high Anglo-Catholics there is a book that for many decades has been the bible for Masters of Ceremonies: The Ceremonies of the Roman Rite Described, or else simply “Fortescue,” after its author. Given its high erudition and specialisation, the reader might be forgiven for thinking that the writer was a cloistered monk, or perhaps a scholar sequestered in some Oxbridge library. Nothing could be further from the truth. In reality, Fr Adrian Fortescue (1874-1923) led such an exciting life that he is often described as an “adventurer” by biographers. In her 1939 book, There’s Rosemary… There’s Rue , British writer Rosemary Fortescue told of an incident regarding Fr Adrian. A friend had told her husband, historian Sir John Fortescue, that the fascinating priest was not in fact related to them. On hearing about this rumour, Fr Fortescue wrote Sir John: “We were cousins in the 14th century. Mine is the elder but undistinguished branch. It did remain however loyal to its King and Faith which is more than yours did." Lady Fortescue went on to comment that “We discovered him to be, in spite of his early middle age, a man of immense learning. He was a marvelous linguist, and enjoyed learning abstruse and difficult tongues and dialects. He knew and loved the desert tribes; had traveled in the east disguised as an Arab and once had to kill a man in selfdefence. He was an expert on old church music, on the liturgy, ritual and vestments of the Roman Catholic Church of which he was an ordained priest; a very good watercolour artist
SUMMER 2021
Fr Adrian Fortescue: no label easily fits him, except one - Catholic
39
