Tea at Trianon: A Bold Faith

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Sunday, May 20, 2007

A Bold Faith

Cathy has a some delightfully blunt observations about modern Catholics. To quote:

What we need is "in your face Catholicism". It's critical that we are interiorly disposed towards the Faith and we live it and believe it with our whole being. However, we need to quit hiding out. Quit acting like Catholics skulking in the Catacombs. The last time I checked Queen Elizabeth I was still dead so quit acting like she's going to send her troops to kill you for practicing your Faith. And, even if someone is going to kill you for practicing your Faith should you fear that? Think about it. If the Apostles had decided to lie low because they were afraid of death and persecution we would not have a Faith. Almost all of them died horrible deaths. They knew that would probably happen, yet they kept on. Share