Private foundations

I'd like to open with some prefatory remarks, continuing our other discussion thread:

First: I have no formal education in Latin. Any knowledge I have of its vocabulary is derived primarily from heavy exposure as a student of history, a student of law, some incidental knowledge of Spanish, and a great deal of boyhood immersion in the traditions of Catholicism and western music which both deploy doses of instrumental Latin. I have studied ancient Greek, so I also have a decent understanding of certain rules the two languages share in common - primarily the importance of noun declensions. But I couldn't identify by sight a specific verb conjugation or case declension. It's enough to make some observations, and I don't want to disown all authority... but let it be clear that I'm not an educated source and any knowledge I might have is quite superficial.

Second: On the matter of liturgy, I've also picked up a lot of my knowledge by osmosis. I was raised by a lay expert on liturgy. Over the years, my father has often worked as a liturgical consultant for various Catholic parishes. Most of my life, I've found his passions to be corny and unreasonable, though I've admired his professional accomplishments - which were clearly infused by his liturgical expertise. It's simply a fact that my father consistently coordinates Masses which are transformative experiences in their own right, and at a level of quality that is hard to find in most parishes. He's very good at what he does. In a lifetime spent arguing with him about every topic under the sun, I've picked up a lot of second-hand information about liturgical theory and history.

In the Catholic tradition, there is an entire body of "Liturgical Law" - the law of ritual practices - which is intellectually distinct from "Canon Law" - the law of theological dogma. Lately, I've been going through a tentative reconciliation with the Catholic Church - I describe myself as a Catholic atheist. A great deal of that is motivated by a dawning realization that liturgy plays a central role in shaping human experience, and possibly by extension, human character. One could argue that my latest overtures to the Church are more like experimental drug use than any essential conversion - I've been experimenting with various practices and noting the physical and intellectual effects which such behaviors induce. For example, the sacrament of reconciliation (aka, "Confession") is a humiliating ritual in the most literal sense - it's a ritual expression of personal debasement. I was surprised to discover, however, that my personal act of confession (which included a frank admission to disbelief in the existence of God) was both intelligible within the Catholic framework and induced a physical experience of high intensity (when I was through, I literally wept and experienced joyful paroxysms). In a similar vein, I've been experimenting with the discipline of the Rosary - essentially a meditative practice that seems to be paying undeniable dividends for sharpening the clarity of my thought.

I'm not out to drop an uncomfortable of saga of personal religious development on you. But, given the centrality of the legal/liturgical distinctions in Kantorowicz, I think it's relevant to lay out the bases of my own authority on the topic - to both give you a sense of its bases and a metric by which to assess its likely biases. I've been engaging in a serious side-investigation into the norms and dictates of liturgical law, and I already have a deep but idiosyncratic acquaintance with it.