Tea at Trianon: On the 'Anglican Patrimony'

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

Sunday, February 5, 2023

On the 'Anglican Patrimony'

From The Common Man:

That is why the C. of E.’s slow decline into liberal error cuts so deep. Five hundred years ago, the British Crown declared a monopoly on Christianity in its realm. That monopoly, of course, is known as the Anglican Church. For hundreds of years, the Crown violently suppressed any rival sects, be they Catholic (“Recusants”) or Protestant (“Dissenters”).
Now the monopoly is abolishing itself. It is abdicating its mission without surrenduring its privileges. Imagine if the U. S. Postal Service decided to stop delivering the mail… but wouldn’t make way for a new postal service. That’s more or less what the C. of E. is doing now. The great medieval churches that Henry VIII stole from Rome now stand empty. Some are being turned into fun houses, or mosques, or LEGO® brick-building workshops. Most will be left to rot.
Thankfully, there are faithful Anglicans working to keep our traditions safe from their official custodians in the Anglican Communion. Some intrepid souls—bishops, priests, and laymen—choose to remain within the Church of England and the Episcopal Church. Others join the so-called Continuing Anglican movement, including the the Anglican Catholic Church and the Anglican Province of America.
The Antiochian Orthodox Church is also doing some amazing work to forge a new “Western Rite Orthodoxy” based largely on the Anglican tradition. Most of their liturgical materials were adapted from existing Anglican texts like Book of Common Prayer. They’re available through Lancelot Andrewes Press, which also has some great icons of English saints like King Charles the Martyr.
Naturally, though, I’m loyal to the Personal Ordinariates of the Catholic Church. In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI (God rest his soul!) published the constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus, establishing a uniquely English expression of the Catholic Faith—one informed by legitimate liturgical and spiritual progress made during the last five centuries of rupture. At last, our “Anglican Patrimony” entered into full communion with the Holy See. The English branch of Christianity was grafted back onto the Universal Church. (Read more.)