PATERNOSTER built churches and Our Father pulled them down

Insights

Religious Transformation

The proverb symbolizes the disruptive effects of religious change, specifically the transition from Catholicism (with Latin liturgy) to Protestantism (with English vernacular worship). It suggests that reforms meant to purify faith ironically led to the decline of sacred institutions.

Irony of Reform

It reflects the paradox that reforms or new ideals, intended to improve society or religion, can inadvertently destroy what was once considered valuable, warning of unintended consequences in the pursuit of progress.

Loss of Tradition

Represents the idea that abandonment of tradition (symbolized by the Latin 'Paternoster') may result in the erosion of the cultural or physical legacy those traditions built.

Historical Symbolism

‘Paternoster’ refers to the traditional Latin Lord’s Prayer of Catholic worship, associated with church building and the visible flourishing of the faith. ‘Our Father’ stands for the English vernacular adopted after the Reformation, often linked in popular imagination with the neglect or even destruction of church property. The proverb thus encodes anxieties about religious change and cultural loss in post-Reformation England.

Literary and Cultural Resonance

Appearing in sermons and moral tracts of the 17th century, the saying echoes the tension in English society regarding the effects of the Reformation. It parallels other European proverbs lamenting the decline of religious or moral values following reformist zeal, making it a potent cultural artifact.

Psychological Dimensions

The proverb reveals a nostalgic longing for a perceived golden age and the psychological tendency to associate loss with change. It exposes the human impulse to blame newness (or progress) for decline, projecting anxieties about social disruption onto changes in religious language and practice.

Rhetorical Devices

Antithesis

The proverb’s structure relies on direct contrast—building versus pulling down, Latin versus English, old versus new—which sharpens its critique and makes its message memorable.

Irony

There is deep irony in the suggestion that the prayer meant to invoke divine blessing ('Our Father') should be implicated in the undoing of the very churches it serves.

Allusion

References to 'Paternoster' and 'Our Father' allude to both linguistic and theological shifts, compacting complex historical processes into a single, pithy phrase.