Tea at Trianon: A Reed Shaken by the Wind

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 20, 2021

A Reed Shaken by the Wind

From One Peter 5:

They could not have known that earlier that very morning the priest had stared into the abyss. He had had a vision of himself, standing before his bishop and being given the ultimatum: give up the old Mass and sacraments or be banished without faculties into the world. He was reminded of his vow of obedience to the bishop, solemnly sworn before God and his brother priests on the day of his ordination. But he was torn; his conscience unquiet. What would he say?

He had been reading and praying over this. What is the duty to obey an unjust order? Who is to decide whether a superior’s order is unjust? What is the duty of a priest to his parishioners? Can a successor of the apostles be wrong? Would this be happening if Pius X were pope? Is his own soul in peril if he submits? (Read more.)

From Father Z:

Today’s Bolletino (daily notices from the Holy See Press Office) has a document from the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments. The document includes an introduction from the Prefect to Presidents of Bishops Conferences and “responses” to several “questions” (dubia) allegedly posed to the Congregation about the implementation of the cruel Traditionis custodes.

I’m dubious about the dubia.

I must say that, reading through the questions, I have a very hard time believing that these are actual questions that came from outside the Congregation, unless they were collaborations, like that risible exchange between the Prefect and the Archbishop of Westminster. I strongly suspect that the “dubia” were concocted inside the Congregation. I also do not believe for a nanosecond that the “survey” sent to bishops came back with even a sliver of evidence that something had gone awry with Summoum Pontificum. In essence, I suspect that we are being lied to. They are simply imposing their will. (Read more.)