Tea at Trianon: Perversion and Iconoclasm

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 25, 2007

Perversion and Iconoclasm

Yes, I am going over my quota today. But Daniel Mitsui has a superb but disturbing article about the modern trend of destroying the sense of the sacred by perverting it. When an actress was enthroned as the goddess of reason in the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris during the French Revolution, it opened the door to the profanations of the future.

When therefore you shall see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place: he that readeth, let him understand. (Matthew 24:15) Share

3 comments:

Anonymous said...: This article was very disturbing. It makes perfect sense and put words to things I have been thinking and noticing for years but did not know how to articulate.

It is not just 'personal preference' or 'taste in art' .... it is a diabolical twisting of truth, loveliness and beauty.

So many American Catholics have been subjected to this trash for so long that they have become like the proverbial frog in the kettle.

Now I know why when I look at some of this 'art' or wreckovations the hair on the back of my neck stands up....; June 25, 2007 at 10:11:00 PM EDT
Anonymous said...: Or profaning the church in San Francisco a few years back by having cross-dressers prancing around the Sacristy.; June 25, 2007 at 10:14:00 PM EDT
elena maria vidal said...: Margaret, I also thought Daniel very succinctly put together many things i had been thinking and reading about in other places.

Yes, alaughland, that is certainly another example of the profanation of sacred worship.; June 25, 2007 at 10:20:00 PM EDT