Tea at Trianon: God Never Loses

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

Saturday, October 3, 2020

God Never Loses

From Archbishop Chaput at First Things:

Roland and his comrades fought because that was their duty. But they sacrificed their lives because their love was greater than their fear—their love of God, of their king, of their brothers in the pass, and of one another. The root of that word “sacrifice” is telling. It comes from the Latin words sacrum facere: to make sacred, to make holy. When we dedicate our lives to something, we acknowledge and reinforce the truth that it’s higher and more important than ourselves. We sanctify it—either with our blood, or with our time and the passion of our hearts.

It’s unlikely that any of us here today will be asked to die for our faith, or the things we hold dear because of our faith. But if we take our faith seriously, we all have the duty to live our faith and fight for the truths it teaches. We need to do that peacefully, with respect for the dignity of others, even when they’re bitter and wrong—but we still need to do it, without embarrassment and without excuses. A good spouse knows an alibi when he or she hears it. So does God.

We’re honoring Attorney General Barr today, and I have a word to say about that. It’s “amen.” I heard him speak at Notre Dame last October, and I was deeply impressed by two things: the content of his remarks, and the fact that he obviously meant them. Throughout my life, the men and women I’ve most admired have all had the same qualities: a thinking Catholic brain, a character of substance, and a moral spine. General Barr has all three. As an added bonus, he’s disliked by all the right people. I want to thank the various and interesting critics of General Barr for confirming me in that judgment. (Read more.)