1This article seeks to discuss the Irish text An Bheatha Chrábhaidh (1647-50), to assess it as a translation, and in doing so examine some of the motives of the translator, as evidenced in his choice of source text and in his style and choice of vocabulary.  In doing so, it is hoped to give this text its place in the wider field of Irish translation activity, especially on mainland Europe, in the first half of the seventeenth century.

3The reason for this call for publication is not difficult to appreciate, even measured against the standards of our own time. The key to the appeal of the text is that it speaks directly to the reader, advising and counselling him on such diverse matters as attendance at mass and frequent communion, on the suitability of friendships and relationships, on the dangers of overindulgence in leisure, and in how to avoid and overcome temptation. Great detail is given in the description of the horrors awaiting sinners and unbelievers in Hell, as well as the eternal paradise of God’s presence awaiting faithful souls.

4The book begins with a considered and lengthy reflection on the need for devotion, in which De Sales urges his reader to meditate on the nature of his or her life, and to resolve to take immediate action in order to cleanse and purify the soul of all sin and intention to sin. Attention is drawn to the fact that man was created to serve God, and that any deviation from this service is sinful. De Sales urges the reader to pray to God to send him a companion, a guide to accompany him on his spiritual journey. De Sales sees this guide as essential to act as a counsellor, a confessor and as one who is on hand to give practical advice as to the best course of action in any set of unforeseen circumstances.

5Once the reader has made the choice and is ready to embark completely upon this path of service, De Sales moves on, in the second section of the book, to techniques involved in prayer, and the correct way to approach and observe the sacraments of penance and communion. The largest section of the work is next, and details the practice of the full range of virtues – from prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance to faith, hope and charity. The practice of these virtues is applied in the text to all facets of daily life, from conversation to proper attire, from table manners to foolish friendships, from chastity to patience, from the dangers of ill-informed judgements to social interaction. Widows are singled out for special advice on virtue, as are virgins and married couples. The fourth section of the work gives the reader practical advice on the nature of temptation and extols him or her to overcome it by all available means, both by practical distraction and by prayer for fortitude in its face. The fifth and final section urges the newly fledged pious reader to periodically renew his devotion and commitment to God, and gives various means by which that can be achieved. It also offers practical advice on what to do should one’s prayer and devotion become stale and uninspiring.

6A striking feature of the style of writing in the text is the depth and wealth of analogy on which De Sales is able to draw in his explanations and instructions. This, when coupled with the emphasis placed by De Sales on the practical implementation of devotion in everyday life, leads one to conclude that this is plainly no dry work of theology or spirituality, but a manual intended to be drawn upon by the ordinary reader for guidance and advice on all matters in life, however trivial. He cites numerous examples of behaviour from the animal kingdom – the honeybee, for example, is used in analogy again and again to illustrate piety in duty and behaviour; the snake is singled out quite often as representative of sin; where the snake puts its head its whole body can go, and in a similar fashion sin, upon initial entrance, can forge its way in completely and take possession of the soul. The elephant, which mates once every three years and takes great care in rearing its young, is offered as an exemplar of best sexual practice, as is the leopard which mates quickly, quietly, and washes itself immediately in a river. There are numerous other similar examples, involving pigs, hens, pigeons, kestrels, worms, all of which continue this demonstration of the text being rooted in, and informed by, the practical experience of every man.

7Broadly speaking, what theory that is included in Introduction à la Vie Devote, that which deals with the practice and implementation of virtue, has its roots in the teachings of Augustine and Aquinas, and frequent reference is made also to the lives and teachings of St. Gregory of Nasiansenus, St. Basil, St. John Chrysostomus and St. Cyril. A lot of examples of piety and devotion in everyday life are given from the lives of the saints, especially St. Francis, St. Theresa and St. Catherine.  Examples of sayings attributed to the saints, and examples of deeds attributed to them, are given repeatedly by De Sales in order to inform the reader of the implementation of his teachings. Another central element in the Introduction is the consistent and detailed reference to the writings and quotations of Saint Paul, to whom De Sales refers simply as ‘the apostle’, another saint who sought to bring Christian teaching to the everyday lives of his readership.

8It can be said, therefore, that De Sales’ Introduction à la vie dévote is a text aimed at a broad and general readership, a manual for the Christian soul seeking counsel in the implementation and integration of church teaching in everyday life. De Sales brings a common touch, and couches his teaching in layman’s terms with all the skill one would expect of a saint said to have swayed the hearts of many with his talent for sermonising and conversion. He uses analogy from the animal kingdom and from the lives of the saints as a vehicle in which to convey his message of devotion, a ready-made frame of reference for the common man.

10The English language translation of Introduction à la vie dévote, as mentioned above, appeared before the final version of the author’s text. In fact, two reprints – in 1614 and 1617 were required of the English translation before the death of De Sales in 1622. A further reprint was made in 1637, and this reprint seems to have sparked off regal proscription, for in an edict dated May 1637 we read

• 4  Proclamations II, Charles I. [1625-1649] London, 1637

By the King. a Proclamation for calling in a book, entituled, An Introduction to the Devout Life [Being a translation by I.Y. from the Frenche of Saint Francis de Sales,] and that the same be publikely burned.4

Such regal censure, however, did not stop further publication of the book. A new translation by priests at Tournai was made in 1648, and by 1701 English reformers had decided that, instead of seeking to ban the book they would be better employed seeking to adapt its counsels and teachings to their reformed faith, and a reformed edition appears in 1701, William Nicholls the translator, entitled thus:

An Introduction to a Devout Life . . . Translated and reformed from the errors of the Popish edition to which is fixed a Discourse of the rise and progress of the Spiritual books in the Romish Church.

11Two main factors can explain these popular motives of the author and, by proxy, of the eager translators. Firstly, the nature and accessibility of the text itself, as outlined above, gave the text a popular appeal which made it an instant hit. Secondly, it came at a juncture in the history of the Catholic Church when it was striving to meet the challenge laid down by the Protestant reformers. An enhanced communication between dogma and man was necessitated, and the spoken word was no doubt an important element of the reforms the Catholic Church felt it needed. The Council of Trent (1545-63) had made particular reference to and provision for the correct training of priests, and a seminary was to be set up in every dioceses. It is to be assumed that in their efforts to give sermons to their assembled congregations, newly ordained priests and missionaries found the Introduction à la vie dévote a most useful and inspiring resource. In effect, the nature of the Church’s relationship with the common man had been changed by the eruption of the Protestant Reformation, and when a new contact was forged in the early years of the seventeenth century, speech would play a central role in contact. De Sales’ Introduction, with its accessible approach and cogent arguments would have been an invaluable weapon in the armoury of any sermoniser. The importance and currency of sermons can be gauged from the fact that what is held to be the most widely printed Irish book in history is a book of Sermons written by James Gallagher in 1732, a book which was no doubt read and re-read by Catholic priests and preachers in order to facilitate and elucidate the teachings of the Church for the common man. Other collections of sermons were copied and disseminated in manuscript form – some written in a phonetic or pidgin script where the scribe had little or no knowledge of the accepted conventions of Gaelic orthography.

14Perhaps the most notable devotional translation into Gaelic carried out in the early 17th century was Sgáthán an Chrábhaidh, or the Mirror of Piety (also known as Desiderius, the name of the principal character), which was translated by Fláithrí Ó Maolchonaire, or Florence Conry, in 1616 in the Irish college at Louvain. It is a translation of the 15^th century Castilian text El Desseoso. It is perhaps the best known because it is in his preface to the translation that Ó Maolchonaire writes about his motives and intentions in translating the work, and this has obvious historical value, as do his less than favourable references to the reformers in Ireland working to propagate the Protestant faith. The translation also contains a significant amount of interpolation on the part of the translator – at one point the Castilian original is interrupted by over 50 pages composed by Ó Malochonaire, extolling particularly the Irish Catholic not to pay heed to the words of the Protestants, which he perceived, of course, as heretical.  

15Most interesting from a literary point of view, perhaps, is Ó Maolchonaire’s stated policy of departure from the norms of Gaelic writing which to a large extent were still in currency among Gaelic prose writers contemporaneous with Conry, who says he purposely employed a relaxed, open style of language in order to include in his readership ‘...daoine simplidhe, nach foil géarchúiseach a nduibheagán na Gaoidhilge’ - those not trained in the complexities and intricacies of the Bardic style of writing. Notwithstanding a tendency among the Franciscans to be self-effacing in the descriptions they give of their linguistic abilities, in this statement of translation policy, we see the practical implementation of the mission of the Irish Franciscan translators – to preach to the Irish Catholic in his own speech.  

18What all this points to is the Irish language, as a medium, becoming enriched and influenced by its contact with other languages in the early seventeenth century. The fact that new styles of writing were being practised generally due to new approaches to communication between the church and its faithful, and coupled with the zeal of the Irish translators to preserve the Catholic faith among their countrymen in Ireland, led to a break from tradition in Irish writing; a break from the conservative, highly convoluted, grammatically complex sentence structures like those of Keating. This zeal made Franciscans such as Ó Maolchonaire, Ó Raghallaigh and Ó Conchúir hungry for raw material, geared towards the common man, which they could convey in their own tongue to their fellow Irish Catholics. Small wonder, then, given the nature and content of De Sales’ Introduction à la vie dévote, that an Irish version of this should have been available less than thirty years after his death.