Tea at Trianon: The Reign of Terror in Vienna

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, December 23, 2020

The Reign of Terror in Vienna

From Charles Coulombe at Crisis:

Despite authorities’ initial claim that the murderer was a one gunman, according to the Viennese daily Der Standard: “It is known that several jihadists met in July 2020. They are said to have been in a Whatsapp group in which IS terrorist videos were shared.… The network in Austria was also tight. Arrested the night of the attack, a total of at least 20 people are being investigated, some of whom have a relevant criminal record. There are now ten people in custody. Their main hearings will take place in a month to see if they can stay in prison.” Shortly afterward, the government ordered six mosques that the gunmen had frequented to be closed.

Severe as the lockdown has been, while the Austrian churches remain open, the bishops themselves forbade public Masses (which, however, resumed on December 7). This past week, church visitors in Vienna have been aware of a renewed police presence around churches—and assumed it had something to do with enforcing the Covid lockdown. As it happens, it is nothing of the sort. Instead, the new taskforce shall be keeping an eye on things until after Christmas for the express purpose of preventing further terrorist attacks on churches.

On November 11, in the wake of the shooting and subsequent investigations, Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz made a remarkable announcement: “In the fight against political Islam, we will create a criminal offence called ‘political Islam’ in order to be able to take action against those who are not terrorists themselves but who create the breeding ground for such.” (Read more.)