Tea at Trianon: Was Pius V Right to Excommunicate Elizabeth I?

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

Tuesday, March 3, 2020

Was Pius V Right to Excommunicate Elizabeth I?

Yes, St. Pius most certainly was right to excommunicate Elizabeth. The bull Regnans in Excelsis of February 25, 1570 drew a line in the sand for English Catholics, so they knew exactly where they stood. Here is an article from the Catholic Herald which is riddled with errors, especially concerning Mary Queen of Scots. Mary Stuart had three, not four husbands. Mary's first husband was Francis II of France. Her second husband was her cousin Henry Lord Darnley, who was not a King of Scotland; he was a king consort but Mary refused to give him the crown matrimonial. He betrayed her in numerous ways and although she was blamed for his murder, she was innocent of any connivance in it, according to several reputable biographies by Antonia Fraser, John Guy, Alison Weir, and Kate Williams. Mary's third husband was James Hepburn, Lord Bothwell, who forced Mary to be his wife by kidnapping, raping and impregnating her. Mary sought to have the marriage annulled as soon as possible. She later contemplated marriage to the Duke of Norfolk but would never have given up her faith to do so. If Mary would not give up her faith for the crowns of Scotland or England, she certainly would not have given it up for Norfolk.

More on Mary's life, imprisonment and death, HERE and HERE. Share