Tea at Trianon: God's Jury

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

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

God's Jury

There is a new book which blames the Inquisition for all the atrocities of modern times. It seems a little far-fetched to me. It is not as if religious persecution began with the Inquisition. Sadly, people have used religion as an excuse to be cruel to each other throughout history. In ancient times, the Jews were horribly tortured by the Greeks for keeping the Jewish religion, as later the Christians were persecuted by the Romans, and so on and so forth. Catholics were tortured and interrogated in the British Isles by Protestants. To base an entire book on the premise that the Inquisition was the foundation for modern tyranny is going a little too far. According to the WSJ:

Do such explicit comparisons serve, as Mr. Murphy asks rhetorically, to "establish a firm link between now and then—between suggestive cultural practices in our own time and the reality of events that occurred centuries ago"? The answer is surely "no." Historians can never establish "the reality of events that occurred centuries ago." They can only reconstruct those events for which adequate sources remain—and they must always stand ready to consider new sources that alter the apparent "reality." The link between "now and then" can never be "firm." (Read entire post.)

lara77 said...: Wow!!! Talk about a stretch!! I am sure since the beginning of time any group of people that were different were viewed with suspicion and concern. You name the country and the century and there will be numerous examples of bigotry and torture and murder. The Catholic Church?? I don't see examples of Christians strapping on bombs in crowded markets and blowing up innocents by the hundreds. Where are the voices of moderate Moslems condemning such barbarism? This is the 21st century and though many in the West may disagree on many issues; violence and bloodshed is abhorrent to most people. Why in parts of the world is it still an issue? This WSJ article is so far fetched it is almost comical. We ALL choose our actions; we all bear the consequences.; February 9, 2012 at 11:28:00 AM EST