in pre-industrial Catholic societies. As I write, 'Perhaps a society creates the dissidents that it deserves.'
Michael Davies (1936-2004) was from the 1970s until his
death the foremost lay advocate of the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM). His books,
particularly the trilogy Cranmer’s Godly Order, Pope John’s Council, and
Pope Paul’s New Mass, were an enormous influence on a generation of
Catholics attached to the TLM, and set the terms of the debate. He rejected the
extreme claims made by some, that the reformed Mass was invalid or that recent
popes were not real popes, and when he died he was praised by Cardinal Joseph
Ratzinger. Nevertheless his support for the Traditional Mass and the
traditional teachings of the Church were uncompromising.
Leo Darroch’s biography starts with Davies’ early life. He was born into a Protestant family with Welsh roots, and attended a Grammar school. Instead of doing National Service he joined the regular Army, and served in Malaya. Back in civilian life he became a Catholic, married Maria Milosh, a Yugoslavian teacher who had been studying in England, and became a teacher himself. The young Davies had a growing family and was devout, conscientious, and intelligent, but those who met him in the 1960s would have had little reason to imagine that he would devote the second half of his life to writing, speaking, and campaigning about the Church’s teaching and liturgy, with unrelenting industry and very little earthly reward. It is interesting to ask what radicalised him.
