The book that I’m currently finishing off is called The Crisis of Civilization by the great 20th century Catholic writer Hilaire Belloc. I’ve read a few books of his before. In fact, in my recommended reading list, I have his book How the Reformation Happened. This book has a similar theme, but there is something more.
I’m well on record saying that 1,000 to 1,300 AD was the golden age of Christianity. Guess who agrees with me? If you guessed Hilaire Belloc, you’re correct. On page 64 of this book, he talks about that golden age. He starts it around 1020 and 1030 and ends at 1300 AD, so I’m 95% correct. Not bad eh?
He also explains what caused the decline that followed from 1,300 to 1,500 AD. In the 1,300’s we have the great Western schism where there are multiple claimants to the throne of St. Peter. Obviously this lowered the prestige of the Papacy in the eyes of a lot of people. This was especially the case since the nations of Europe aligned themselves with their own Pope or antipope for political reasons.
In the 1,400’s we see a rise in unofficial Donatism. The 14th century heretic John Wycliffe had revived this ancient heresy of the Donatists which was that the sacraments performed by an immoral priest are invalid and without grace. In the following century a lot of people believed this, though not because Wycliffe said so. The people were wondering this because their clergy were behaving so immorally.
Now, despite Belloc and I agreeing on the golden age of the Church, we also agree on why the reformation happened. Over the last year I’ve been doing a ton of research to figure out why the reformation happened. I have a theory and up until this book, I only know one other person who held it. Belloc agrees with my view 100%. Eventually when I get my Youtube channel up and going I will post a video on the reason why the reformation happened. This will be very soon.
This book is a collection of lectures that Belloc gave at Fordham University in 1937. Fordham is a Jesuit institution. The Jesuits have been apostate for a long time, even before Vatican II. The current order probably agrees with the disaster world that we live in. For those of you who don’t know the Jesuits, Pope Francis is one of the more conservative Jesuits. Think about that for a while.
So why did the reformation happen? You’ll either have to read this book or wait for my Youtube video. I mentioned in my last post that I’m studying the origins of Protestantism and Islam. Protestantism is a lot more fun to study. This is simply because of the plethora of sources available to us. With Islam the opposite it true. You have some early fragments and later chroniclers like Al-Tabari and St. Theophanes the Confessor. It doesn’t mean that I won’t dig for the answer though. May God help us all.
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