Tea at Trianon: Pius VI on the Death of Louis XVI

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

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Pius VI on the Death of Louis XVI

A few months after Louis XVI was executed, the pope denounced the regicide in his allocution of July 17, 1793, Pourquoi Notre Voix:

The most Christian King, Louis XVI, was condemned to death by an impious conspiracy and this judgment was carried out. We shall recall to you in a few words the ordering and motives of this sentence. The National Convention had no right or authority to pronounce it. In fact, after having abolished the monarchy, the best of all governments, it had transferred all the public power to the people -- the people which, guided neither by reason nor by counsels, forms just ideas on no point whatsoever; assesses few things in accord ance with the truth and evaluates a great many according to mere opinion, which is ever fickle, and ever easy to deceive and to lead into every excess, ungrateful, arrogant, and cruel.

Sylvia said...: . . .the people which, guided neither by reason nor by counsels, forms just ideas on no point whatsoever; assesses few things in accordance with the truth and evaluates a great many according to mere opinion, which is ever fickle, and ever easy to deceive and to lead into every excess, ungrateful, arrogant, and cruel . . .

What are your thoughts on the upcoming election?; October 17, 2008 at 12:41:00 AM EDT
elena maria vidal said...: I must say it is fascinating (and scary) to watch the rising and falling of the poll numbers. How quickly some people change their opinion after a single speech or debate. Such swift changes of opinion seem to have a great deal to do with surface things, and little to do with the deeper issues that are at stake.; October 17, 2008 at 11:31:00 AM EDT
Anonymous said...: Ah, democracy. The People led by a few elite who make them *think* they are being led by themselves--and that their "opinions" are their own. The great part of the game is that they actually get The People to go to war for this fantasy, supporting it with missionary enthusiasm.

Sheeple will always be sheeple.; October 17, 2008 at 4:31:00 PM EDT