What is a diver? as per Douay

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Roseeurekacross

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This is from the Douay Catechism of the 1600s.

What is a diver?

Q. 957. Why doth the priest, ascending to the Altar, kiss it in the middle?
A. Because the Altar signifies the church, composed of divers people, as of divers living stones, which Christ kissed in the middle, by giving a holy kiss of peace and unity, both to the Jews and Gentiles
 
Roseeurekacross said:
This is from the Douay Catechism of the 1600s.

What is a diver?

Q. 957. Why doth the priest, ascending to the Altar, kiss it in the middle?
A. Because the Altar signifies the church, composed of divers people, as of divers living stones, which Christ kissed in the middle, by giving a holy kiss of peace and unity, both to the Jews and Gentiles
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It is an archaic way of spelling the word “diverse”.
 
There was a significant shortage of e’s back then - it’s ‘diverse’ likewise doth for does! 🙂
 
Divers means “many” but could refer to a situation where all the various ‘things’ are the same or similar.

While diverse means that the is a variety of ‘things’ that are somehow different from each other. Think ‘ethnic diversity.’ Diverse only applies if there are differences or distinctions.

They’re two different words, not just two spellings of the same word.
 
Reepicheep said:
Divers=diverse=sundry or various or many/different.
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They don’t mean the same thing.

Divers vs. diverse

The archaic adjective divers means various or many. Diverse means having great variety. For instance, a group of three can be called diverse if all three elements differ from one another, but we wouldn’t call the group divers because three are not many. Still, divers (usually pronounced DIE-verz) has given way to diverse in the sense meaning various, and in the many sense it gives way to other synonyms. The word has not been widely used in over a century, and even in the 19th century it was mainly a poeticism.
 
Thanks for your answers.

Although quite old, and I am not sure if newer Catechism has changed,

This old version has a lovely description of whats happening in Mass.
 
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