The word crops up in Shakespeare (“once more unto the breach”), the libretto of Messiah (“unto us a child is born”), and even in the title of an 1860 essay by John Ruskin (Unto This Last). It may be for this reason that the organisers of the papal visit have chosen to translate the phrase as “heart speaks unto heart”, to represent that directness which Newman emphasised.įor those who argue that “unto” is not an English word, sadly the history of the language rather disagrees. So, why did Newman change it? The word ad in Latin is used more often in relation to objects or places, and perhaps it is this more firmly grounded tone that Newman sought in altering the phrase, an implication of directness of speech, without pretense. The translation into English is exactly the same: “heart speaks to heart”. To understand Newman’s motto fully we must go back to St Francis de Sales’s original phrase: cor cordi loquitur. The grammar of the tag is clear: cor ad cor loquitur can only be “heart speaks to heart”. But this is not a translation but a paraphrase that significantly alters the meaning of the sentence. He suggested that a more idiomatic translation would be “what comes from the heart goes to the heart”. A reader recently wrote to The Catholic Herald disputing the visit organiser’s translation, “Heart speaks unto heart”. This was Newman’s motto and is the theme of the Pope’s visit to Britain next month. There is much dispute about the meaning of cor ad cor loquitur. ![]() It is also, clearly, a poetic description to Newman’s spiritual journey. ![]() Unfortunately for those hoping for hidden messages, the tag, translated as “out of shadows and illusions into truth”, is likely to refer to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. Some have gone as far as to claim that the first of the two refers to Newman’s “secret” relationship with Ambrose St John, the Oratorian with whom he was buried. Attention has focused on the two Latin tags associated with the cardinal: one on his tombstone – ex umbris et imaginibus in veritatem – and the other on his coat of arms: cor ad cor loquitur. ![]() The upcoming beatification of John Henry Newman is no different. Odd theories and bizarre interpretations are par for the course for anything related to the Church.
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