Tea at Trianon: Anniversary of the Paris Commune

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, May 25, 2021

Anniversary of the Paris Commune

From the Catholic News Service:

On Paris’ Rue Haxo, a white-brick church commemorates dozens of Catholic clergy who fell victim to one of modern Europe’s bloodiest uprisings. Its 150th anniversary will be marked in the last week of May with a series of commemorative events.

“The Paris Commune was an attempted revolution, and it was essentially anti-religious — seeking not just separation of church and state, but the confiscation of church properties,” explained Father Jacques Benoist, a French theologian and historian.

“It sought to erase the Catholic Church from the public domain and view its functionaries as just private citizens, bound by unconditional loyalty to the prevailing power. This is what provoked such conflict.”

The commune’s proclamation in 1871, just four years after Europe’s royal families had come to Paris for an exhibition of modern fashion and business, shocked the continent. A negotiations offer by President Louis Adolphe Thiers was rebuffed by the rebels, and on March 18, in a blaze of red flags, the workers’ commune was announced.

City factories were turned into cooperatives, wages standardized and empty houses commandeered for the homeless, while a column celebrating victories by Emperor Napoleon was pulled down. Two months later, after shelling Paris, French military forces crossed the River Seine and entered the city. It took them a week to clear Paris of suspected Communards. The military summarily executed at least 20,000 and arrested 43,000 more in what became known as the “semaine sanglante” (bloody week.)

The Communards had targeted France’s Catholic Church, abolishing religious education and using places of worship as political clubs. In early April, some 200 clergy were detained with other prominent figures as hostages against French government army reprisals. They included Archbishop Georges Darboy of Paris.

“For 19 centuries, you’ve stifled free thought in the name of your Christ religion,” Raoul Rigault, the commune’s 25-year-old security chief, told him. “Now it’s the turn of free thought to get the better of you!”

The commune offered to swap Archbishop Darboy for the revolutionary Louis Auguste Blanqui, who had been elected commune president from his government prison cell. Thiers rejected the offer, effectively sealing the archbishop’s fate. On May 24, the archbishop and five priests died against the wall of La Roquette prison; the archbishop is said to have blessed his executioners.

A group of 30 Dominican priests was shot a day later on Rue d’Italie, while on May 26, 11 Jesuit and Sacred Heart priests were marched with other captives to Rue Haxo in the commune’s last northeastern stronghold and similarly gunned down.

“Atheism and internationalism were in the air, inspired by Karl Marx and others, so it was logical the Communards chose to make an example of Darboy and other clergy in a bid to appear strong and resolute,” explained Father Benoist.

“Marx himself, from the safety of London, believed the commune had broken the church’s power and welcomed its anti-religious excesses as the glorious beginning of a new workers’ society.”

With the commune crushed, Thiers claimed to have vanquished the revolutionary cause forever, while photo-montages were used to incriminate the rebels as degenerates. The body of Archbishop Darboy was recovered from a ditch and given a state funeral, while Sacré-Cœur Basilica was built at Montmartre to symbolize the restored moral order. With dozens of its clergy murdered, the Catholic Church made efforts to embrace reforms. (Read more.)