Tea at Trianon: Beware of False Prophets

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, July 31, 2011

Beware of False Prophets

Pope Benedict XV described the French revolutionaries, especially the constitutional bishops, as wolves in sheep's clothing.

Yet the liberty predicted by those prophets opened the door not to good but to evil; the fraternity foretold by those prophets did not hail God as the sole Father of all brothers; and the equality proclaimed by the would-be prophets rested not on the identical nature of our origins, nor on our common redemption, nor on the shared destiny of all men. These, alas, were prophets who preached an equality meant to destroy the distinction of class willed by God for our society; prophets who called all men brothers in order to eradicate the idea of the subjection of some men to others; prophets who proclaimed the freedom to do evil, to call darkness light, to confuse falsehood with truth, to prefer the former to the latter, to sacrifice the right and reason of justice and truth to error and vice. It is not difficult to see that these prophets, who presented themselves in sheep’s clothing, were inwardly, in reality that is, ravening wolves: ‘qui veniunt in vestimentis ovium, intrinsecus autem sunt lupi ravaces!’ And little surprise that against these false prophets resounded a terrible word: Beware! ‘Attendite a falsis prophetis!’ (Read entire article.)

Mercury said...: I understand the importance of nobility and that they have been charicatured by the modern world, that a Xhristian nobility is something to admire and cherish.

But I get nervous when I see that "god willed that men be divided into classes", or that some men be subjected to others. Granted, there will alwas be rich and poor, and their will always be leaders and followers. Such is the order of things. But does it have to be hereditary rulers born into that right? Must a poor man settle for always being poor? Did God will that peasants be tied to the land and that nobility would get to travel?

I say this as someone whose origins are most certainly lower class, living in a world where I have a (minimal) say in the affairs oft government, and enjoying rights and freedoms that even many nobles didn't have in the past.

An as an American, where are we even suppose to get royalty from? I think that, whatever its pluses and minuses, its alien to our culture - I just wish we'd go back to a republic with God and tradition holding a place of honor.; July 31, 2011 at 3:58:00 AM EDT
elena maria vidal said...: "But does it have to be hereditary rulers born into that right? Must a poor man settle for always being poor? Did God will that peasants be tied to the land and that nobility would get to travel?"

I certainly do not think so and I do not think that is what the Pope meant or what Our Lord meant when He said: "The poor will be with you always." We are commanded by God in the Scriptures and by Church teaching to work for social justice by helping the poor and needy to better themselves. It is part of the Gospel message. What the Pope is saying is that the message of the Revolution, be it Marxism or Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, is a false message which promises social equality and freedom under false pretenses. For instance, during the French Revolution and under Communism in Russia many people actually lost their freedoms, and even their lives by refusing to go along with the new order.; July 31, 2011 at 8:46:00 AM EDT
Mercury said...: Thanks. That was a great clarification.; August 1, 2011 at 12:47:00 AM EDT