Tea at Trianon: Galileo Revisited

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

Monday, June 11, 2007

Galileo Revisited

The Western Confucian has several links covering the gross anti-Catholic distortions of the Galileo controversy. Share

2 comments:

Anonymous said...: During my sophomore year in college, I took a religious studies class titled The Church. Thanks to Augustinian friar professor who taught the class, I got the record straight on Galileo!
Blasemphy was punishable by the church at the time as I recall.; June 11, 2007 at 5:17:00 PM EDT
elena maria vidal said...: Hi, Elisa! In many Catholic countries (and in Protestant ones, too, for that matter)in times long past, blasphemy was punished by the civil law. St Louis King of France had strict laws against blasphemy. Usually, it was not the church who punished people. The Church court might try someone and then hand them over to the secular authorities, if found guilty. Galileo did not blaspheme, as I am sure you are aware, but was censured for disobedience.; June 11, 2007 at 5:25:00 PM EDT