The whitewashing of England’s Catholic history

Last week I was writing about Magna Carta and how the Catholic Church’s role has been written out, in particular the part of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Stephen Langton.

But the same could also be said about much of English history from 600AD to 1600; from the very first law code written in English, which begins with a clause protecting Church property, to the intellectual flourishing of the 13th century, led by churchmen such as Roger Bacon, the Franciscan friar who foresaw air travel.

However, the whitewashing of English Catholic history is mainly seen in three areas: political liberty, economic prosperity and literacy, all of which are seen as being linked to Protestantism.

Yet not only was Magna Carta overseen by churchmen, but Parliament was created by religious Catholics, including its de facto founder, Simon de Montfort – in fact not just devout but a fanatic who was so bigoted he made even his nephew Edward I look like Oskar Schindler in comparison. De Montfort called the rebellious barons ‘the Army of God’ and at Lewes in 1264 said they were fighting for England, God, the Virgin Mary, the saints and the Church. Likewise Robert Fitzwalter, leader of the rebels of 1215, had modestly declared himself to be ‘Marshal of the Army of God and the Holy Church’.

De Montfort ended up losing to the crown and having his testicles hung around his nose, but most of their demands were confirmed under Edward I, as was Magna Carta. And under his grandson Edward III the so-called ‘six statutes’ spelled out the idea of due process of law, which became perhaps the most important plank of freedom in the English-speaking world. All the institutions that would culminate with the political liberties of 1689 were well in place before Luther.

Last week I was writing about Magna Carta and how the Catholic Church’s role has been written out, in particular the part of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Stephen Langton. But the same could also be said about much of English history from 600AD to 1600....the whitewashing of English Catholic history is mainly seen in three areas: political liberty, economic prosperity and literacy, all of which are seen as being linked to Protestantism.

Speaking of whitewashing, the author conveniently left out one of Catholicism's more infamous contributions to English history:

In 1605, 13 young men planned to blow up the Houses of Parliament in what is now called "the Gunpowder Plot". The Gunpowder Plot came about after Queen Elizabeth I died in 1603. English Catholics, who had been persecuted under her rule, were bitterly disappointed when her successor, James I, who had a Catholic mother, failed to be more tolerant of their religion. Their leader Robert Catesby decided to blow up the Houses of Parliament, hoping to kill the King, the Prince of Wales, and the MPs who were making life difficult for Catholics. Among 13 young men was Guy Fawkes, Britain's most notorious traitor and Roman Catholic convert. He was arrested in Parliament's cellar with 36 barrels of gunpowder. Fawkes was tried, convicted, and executed for treason.
Even now, four hundred years later, the reigning monarch only enters the Parliament once a year for the State Opening of Parliament. And before the opening, according to custom, the Yeomen of the Guard searches the cellars of the Palace of Westminster.

Much of Hilaire Belloc' s work in authentic English Catholic history is free on Amazon, you just have to get the free Kindle reading app on just about any platform.

In Europe and the Faith, he says the Reformation might have been a flash in the pan if England hadn't revolted, he lays the blame 900 years earlier on the Romanized, native Breton church hierarchy, the blue faces, who wouldn't send missionaries to the heathen Angles and Saxons, he says they really came up outside the pale, when the last Roman legion March out in the 8th century, they never returned.

The only "whitewashing of history" is that being performed by the author. Writing the Roman Church out is, in fact, the most charitable treatment possible.

In the real world, not only was the Roman Church opposed to Magna Carta, the supposed Bishops "behind" the charter didn't manage to arrive there until almost forty years after the charter was signed, and only then in response to receiving an agree for an enormous tax increase.

http://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-papal-bull-annulling-magna-carta

At the link:

[Pope] Innocent III had already sent a string of letters to England berating the [Magna Carta] barons. Now he explained how, ‘by such violence and fear as might affect the most courageous of men’, they had forced John to accept an agreement ‘illegal, unjust, harmful to royal rights and shameful to the English people’. The Pope declared Magna Carta ‘null, and void of all validity for ever’, a judgement which reached England the following month.

Twenty five of the barons supporting it were excommunicated. The Bull [how appropriate] threatened excommunication to anyone who attempted to enforce the charter.

The Protestant Reformation was the best thing that ever happened to the Roman Catholic Church. By instituting a free debate of religion and forcing the church to concentrate on theology and charitable works rather than government and all the corruption which that entails, it became a unified and credible force for good by the time the various Protestant factions devolved into fighting among themselves by the late 17th century.

It was Catholic armies which stopped the invasion of the Muslim hordes at the gates of Vienna and Catholic navies which stopped the Muslim hordes off the shores of Lepanto at the very same time that John Calvin was having people beheaded and burned at the stake in Switzerland for disagreeing with his theology.

This doesn't excuse the crimes of the Catholic Church as a corrupt wielder of political power in the two centuries or so before these events, but it does put it into perspective.

The only "whitewashing of history" is that being performed by the author. Writing the Roman Church out is, in fact, the most charitable treatment possible. In the real world, not only was the Roman Church opposed to Magna Carta, the supposed Bishops "behind" the charter didn't manage to arrive there until almost forty years after the charter was signed, and only then in response to receiving an agree for an enormous tax increase....Twenty five of the barons supporting it were excommunicated. The Bull [how appropriate] threatened excommunication to anyone who attempted to enforce the charter.

Did you know that some episodes of The Brady Bunch are considered part of the Catholic Church's infallible magisterium?

"Aw dad, He wouldn't shoot anybody! He's a real great guy! Jesse James is my hero."

Gordon De Vol, who played Jesse James on that episode of the Brady Bunch, also appeared in three episodes of Bewitched. Only a full confession [extracted on the rack] saved him from the fire to which sorcerers and their apprentices are normally consigned.

Gordon De Volk, as he appears today:

Bobby Brady [aka, Christopher Knight] poses at his wedding to his third [and now ex] wife, the extent of her talents on full display:

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