Tea at Trianon: "Good Christians"

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, October 8, 2018

"Good Christians"

Actually, the Cathars were not Christian, nor part of any monotheistic religion, since they believed in two gods. And the so-called Cathar castles may have been used by the Cathars but not built by them. From Atlas Obscura:

Catharism was a dualist religion. They believed that God created Heaven, the Kingdom of Light where no evil exists. Whereas the material world, where evil prospers, was created by Satan. Man’s purpose is to free their soul from this “prison of flesh” and reunite it with the mind in the presence of God. This can only happen if the soul attains knowledge, only attained through baptism—not by water, but by “fire and spirit,” as Christ gave to his apostles. Failing this, when the body dies, the soul will pass to another body. This cycle will continue until salvation is attained. In other words, you stay in this cycle until you finally get it right.

The Cathars believed themselves to be “Good Christians,” or “Bon Hommes.” Their priests, both men and women, were called “Parfaits,” or “Perfects,” as in “perfect Christians.” Cathars did not believe in the church hierarchy of archbishops, cardinals and the Pope. They considered the church decadent; this was during a time when the Catholic church was a bit scandalous, and the clergy accustomed to living large. The Parfaits also did not ask the believers for monetary offerings, which had to be a huge selling point.

The simple, trapping-free religion appealed to many, and Catharism grew in popularity. In 1198, Pope Innocent III decided that something must be done. He sent two legates to the Languedoc region, both monks from the Abbey of Fontfroide. But their attempts to convince people to abandon Catharism in favor of Catholicism were unsuccessful. The Pope proceeded to enlist the Abbot Arnaud-Amaury to raise a company of Crusaders. And so, the crusaders won their first victory at Beziers in July of 1209. Then the “ost,” as the army of Crusaders was called, proceeded to Carcassonne, a well-known Cathar haven. (Read more.)