Tea at Trianon: Pope Gregory VII

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 15, 2011

Pope Gregory VII

Speaking truth to power. The Mad Monarchist reports.

Purely in terms of the Catholic Church, Gregory VII was a great reforming pope. He brought about a revival in the understanding of the “true presence” and in the character and quality of the clergy as he was greatly distressed, upon taking the throne, to see how many priests and bishops were living immoral lives, were ignorant of many basic teachings and who had obtained their offices in irregular ways. Celibacy was made, unequivocally the rule and selling Church offices was condemned. He cleaned up, reformed and improved the Church in a big way, however, those clerics who gained their positions in an “irregular” way was something that caused a great deal of trouble in dealing with. This led to what is known as the “Investiture Dispute” between Pope Gregory VII on one hand and the Holy Roman Emperor on the other. Originally, this was a dispute over who had the right to appoint bishops; the Pope or the Emperor. At heart, however, it was a clash between the power of the Church and the State such as would be seen time and time again throughout history.