Tea at Trianon: St. Ignatius in London

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, December 3, 2018

St. Ignatius in London

I never knew St. Ignatius was ever in London. From Nobility:

In the summer of 1530, Ignatius came to London. That year was a fatal one to England. The question of the divorce was agitating not this country alone, but the whole Christian world. The most celebrated Universities were consulted on the subject, and by means of bribery and intrigue, not to say open violence, favorable answers, real or pretended, were obtained from Oxford and Cambridge, as well as from Bologna, Padua, and Ferrara. In Germany, however, not a single public body, including even Protestant consistories, could be induced to espouse the cause of Henry — perhaps not to displease the Emperor Charles — and at Paris the different Faculties, despite the known wishes and expressed commands of Francis, remained decidedly hostile; until by dexterous management a plurality of voices was secured in a single instance, and an attested copy of the vote thus extracted was forwarded to England, and published by Henry as the free and formal decision of the whole University. To a menacing remonstrance dictated by Henry, but which purported to come from the English nation. Pope Clement replied that he was ready to show the King every indulgence compatible with justice, but that he would not violate the immutable commandments of God. Henry was embarrassed, and even declared in private his intention of abandoning his purpose, when he was confirmed in his resolution by the unscrupulous counsels of one bold, bad man. (Read more.)