Tag Archives: christendom

The Greatest Title in Christendom

26 Friday Jan 2018

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The empire of the Middle Ages had never been a territorial entity in the sense of being a sovereign state, as the term was understood in the eighteenth and even the nineteenth centuries. Naturally for practical purposes the emperor had to have his own estates but his authority was not derived from such personal property, but from the transcendental, almost religious respect in which the crown was held, which endowed him with the temporal imperium of all Christendom. It was only at the close of the Middle Ages, when the empire was shaken by internal strife, that the emperor felt the need for more tangible support, for without a territorial base, that is without family domains, he ran the risk of becoming merely a puppet in the hands of the ambitious Prince-Electors.

Already by Maximilian I’s time the true import of the crown of Charlemagne was gradually being forgotten as two new concepts infected Europe – the idea of a territorial sovereign state and a growing sense of nationalism. Nevertheless, the title and dignity of emperor were still regarded as preeminent. Even during the time of its decline, when the empire was divested of almost all authority, powerful European monarchs such as Louis XIV still tried to secure for themselves what they considered to be the greatest title in Christendom.

-Archduke Otto von Habsburg, Charles V Empire, State, and Nation

Insignis Austriaca Gens

09 Thursday Nov 2017

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While reviewing my recently acquired copy of The Last Descendant of Aeneas: The Hapsburgs and the Mythic Image of the Emperor, I came across quite an interesting footnote, citing a quote from Nicolaus Vernulaeus’ Virtutum Augustissimae Gentis Austriacae Libri Tres:

Ut sit, illustris et omni pietate insignis Austriaca Gens hæreditarium inde à Conditore suo Eucharistiæ cultum accepit…

The succeeding part of the sentence, et modo Christianum orbem maximâ parte moderator, is for some reason omitted.

It seems most fitting that this simple act of adoration of the Real Presence of God, and not an act of violence or prowess in battle. Of course what was won by Divine blessing was to be preserved through victory on the Marchfeld at Dürnkrut, and in many battles thereafter, yet the goal of this battles was never further war and conquest. Rather it was the return of right order and peace, dramatically symbolized in the act of submission to the Crucifix required of the Princes of the Empire by Rudolf of Hapsburg at his coronation.

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The Queen and the Emperor: 1917

21 Saturday Oct 2017

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In a world of broken promises, the Mother of God had kept her promise. It remained to be seen how many, even yet, would hear and heed her words and help her by their prayers, and by lives more pleasing to God, to change the course of history…

Charles [of Austria] explained that he sought peace not only because of a “military condition”- the strain and losses of war- but above all “as his solemn duty before God, towards the peoples of his Empire and all belligerents.” In a tempestuous ocean of aggressive and intolerant nationalism, here at last a concern for all Christendom from someone other than the Pope- most fitting in the heir to the Holy Roman Emperors who had been responsible for the temporal welfare of Christendom as a whole…

Generally condemned in consequence of these actions[¹] as a disturber of the peace, Charles- the only sovereign of the powers engaged in the First World War who had conscientiously sought peace- was banished to the Portuguese island of Madeira,  without a source of income… Madeira was Portuguese territory, Fátima not so very far away. Had Charles and Zita heard of Our Lady’s coming there? 

-Warren H. Carroll, 1917: Red Banners, White Mantle 

On the 12th of April in 1918, the last chance of a peaceful resolution to the First World  War was destroyed by French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau. Nearly a year before on the 13th of May in 1917, Our Lady appeared to three shepherd children at Fátima in Portugal, calling upon all who would listen to pray the Holy Rosary for the end of the war and the return of peace, which the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XV, had been advocating since the start of the war. No one among the great powers would heed the Pope’s call to peace, save for one devout son of Our Lady, the Most Catholic Emperor whose peace offers the Entente would utterly reject, Karl of Austria.

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Europe is the Empire: Contra the False “Christendom” of The Paris Statement

11 Wednesday Oct 2017

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Nationalism is also present wherever the nation is ranked above communities of even higher value, such as larger communities of people or mankind as a whole… The horrible heresy of nationalism not only destroys the unity of the West, but also corrodes each individual nation from within.

-Dietrich von Hildebrand, Austria and Nationalism

The authors of the so-called Paris Statement or “A Europe We Can Believe In” seem to believe that the true meaning of Europe is incompatible with “political empire” and that “resistance to empire” is part of invaluable heritage which Europe is losing to the “faux Christendom of universal human rights”. The authors admit that the “allure of the imperial form endured,” but that “the nation-state prevailed, the political form that joins peoplehood with sovereignty.” Yet is this really true? Is the nation-state “the hallmark of European civilization” that this manifesto claims it to be?

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Lipka Tatars: Forgotten Heroes of the Battle of Vienna

12 Tuesday Sep 2017

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Our Tatars are entertaining themselves with falcons they have brought with them; they are guarding the prisoners, and are proving to be loyal and trustworthy.

-Jan III Sobieski, Letters to Marysieńka

Justly renowned as the saviors of Christendom, many remember King Jan Sobieski of Poland and his army, particularly the Wing Hussars, as the heroes of the Battle of Vienna of 1683, and rightly so. However, the heroic Polish warriors were only part of a much larger force which it seems popular history has forgotten. Some of the battles participants have been marginalized (such as Duke Charles of Lorraine), others such as Emperor Leopold I have been demonized with nationalistic vehemence. Still others have been simply forgotten by the popular imagination, as is the case of the Lipka Tatars.

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Shadows of the Double-Headed Eagle

07 Monday Aug 2017

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A recent interesting article by Gerald J. Russello published on First Things, recalls the Pan-European vision of Stefan Zweig and its origins in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Though it goes deep into the problem of European Identity and Nationalism, it can only provide the shadows of hints of the solution. Like Zweig himself the article is “pessimistic about the future, but… equally convinced that the European idea remained possible.” Yet as to what the idea truly is, it remains silent. True the last concrete links to the Sacrétemporal Order have been severed, many of them centuries ago. Still the intangible remains, those who have killed the body have not killed the soul of Catholic Civilization. Indeed, the article itself asserts;

no single cultural force has been able to substitute for empire, language, or faith.

These are the three foundations of European Civilization, the Universal Catholic Faith, the Universal Language of Reason and Philosophy, and the Universal Holy Roman Empire. No cultural secularism or nationalism can replace the unity that they bring to the West, and those that have tried have only succeed in bringing wanton bloodshed and tragedy.

Pietas Austriaca

27 Thursday Jul 2017

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By the 19th century the Hapsburgs had acquired the reputation of being the most Catholic of all European reigning houses. The historical tie with the triumphs of the Counter Reformation had left an indelible impression on the European consciousness, and as if to give their own expression to it a special form of Hapsburg piety had evolved, the Pietas Austriaca, in which family traditions clustered about the devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, the Holy Cross, and the Immaculate Conception. The presence of members of the dynasty at the annual Corpus Christi procession in Vienna testified to the vitality even in the 20th century of such family traditions… The Catholic Church undoubtedly owes its survival in Danubia and other parts of Europe to the Hapsburgs… Because a Hapsburg ruler had such a compelling sense of the Grace of God that had established his family in such a position of authority he tended to be excessively scrupulous in making decisions and in weighing their moral implications… Though if often seemed that they had been motivated by dynastic interest rather than ideals, the very quest for power produced as its legitimate consequence a number of political communities in various parts of Europe, and Europeans nations would find shelter and security under Hapsburg rule. The recent tragic experience of the peoples who once composed the most outstanding of these Hapsburg creations, the Austrian monarchy of Danubia, has encouraged observers to take a more nuanced and positive view of the truly unique Hapsburg achievement.

-W.B. Slottman, The New Catholic Encyclopedia The House of Hapsburg 

The Virtue of Patriotism contra Thearchic Nationalism

13 Tuesday Jun 2017

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The Church is now bringing together what that tower had sundered. Of one tongue there were made many; marvel not: this was the doing of pride. Of many tongues there is made one; marvel not: this was the doing of charity. For although the sounds of tongues are various, in the heart one God is invoked, one peace preserved.

-St. Augustine, Commentary on the Gospel of St. John

In my wanderings in this valley of tears, I have always tried to uphold the virtue of Patriotism, the love of my country, the land and its peoples. I have written in the past about the perversion of Nationalism which daily undermines the true Common Good of the countries it infects. Yet as with all philosophical errors it returns under different forms in different ages. As it was invoked against the Universal Church in the Sacred Ages, now the Nationalists dare even to invoke God for their defense in this Age of Godlessness. Continue reading →

The Universality of the Catholic Emperor

23 Tuesday May 2017

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Prayers for the Holy Roman Emperor figured in all Christian (Catholic) missals and, until recently, were recited on Good Friday and Holy Saturday. The election of an emperor (who originally had to be crowned by the pope) became a feast all over western Christendom. In American Catholic missals these prayers appeared until World War II, when they were formally abolished by Pope Pius XII. Such prayers were also recited in Lutheran services, and in Prussia they were cancelled only upon the orders of Frederick II in the eighteenth century… He [the Emperor] was chosen by the electors, and before his coronation he had the title “King of the Romans.”  (The seven, eight, or nine electors were powerful princes, secular or ecclesiastical.) After Frederick III (1440-1493) it became inconceivable that any other but a Habsburg could be elected… as successor of the Caesars, surrounded by the glory of universality: the Pope was the spiritual, the Holy Roman Emperor the temporal head of the world. 

-Erik Ritter von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, The Intelligent American’s Guide to Europe

Reflections on Nobility, the People, and Vocation

12 Friday May 2017

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One nobility belongs to all the faithful, one dignity, one splendour of race, since all are born of the same Spirit and of the same sacrament of faith, and are sons of God and coheirs of the same inheritance; the rich and the powerful have no other Christ besides Him Who is followed by the poor; they are initiated in no other sacraments, and have no higher expectation of the Celestial Kingdom; all are brethren and members of the Body of Christ, of His flesh and of His bones.

The Catechism of Trent, as quoted by Kenelm Henry Digby in The Broad-Stone of Honour

The true Catholic principle regarding the life of man, is of course Vocation; the fulfillment of the unique purpose and mission in accordance with God’s will. It is intrinsically bound up with the final end of Man, the call to holiness and virtue. It is this principle which must be the foundation of any Catholic Nobility. However, since it is true that not only does all of Mankind share in an inherent nobility (disgraced but not debased by the Fall), but also that all of the Faithful share in a Nobility of Royal Priesthood, wherein does the concept of a separate hierarchical Nobility find its justification?

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