THE UNREPENTANT CATHOLIC’S CAUTIONARY CALENDAR
Dedicated to Pierre Bayle (1647-1706), Author of the First Anti-Christian Dictionary—Because Turnabout is Fair Play
The Unrepentant Catholic’s Cautionary Calendar is intended for three fold use:
- First of all, as a guide to the development of our dreary, one-dimensional Global Fatherland since its remote origins in the 1000’s A.D. It is, for this purpose, divided into four seasons (Preparation Season, Eruption Season, Consequence Season and Denial Season) and Twenty Six Sets of Parallel Weeks, each representing contrasting anti-Catholic and pro- Catholic themes. These follow the chronological development of modernity through an entire millennium. A Commemoration captures the sense of each week and moves the dismal story forward. Suggestions are given for ways in which each week can best be remembered and exploited, if not for living a human life, at least for teaching purposes;
- Secondly, as a day-to-day reminder of the personalities and events connected both with the assault upon and defense of the Catholic world view. Each day is provided with “meditations” designed to deconstruct the web of contradictions that shapes the Constitution of Our Universal Slag Heap;
- Finally, as an aid towards “laughing through the tears”.
I. Preparation Season
(1000’s--1700’s)
“Imagine all the people living for today”
II. Eruption Season
(1700’s-1800’s)
“It’s Easy if You Try”
III. Consequence Season
(1900’s)
“Nothing to kill or die for”
IV. Denial Season
(1900’s)
“Hey! I’m not the only one!”
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I. Preparation Season
(1000’s-1700’s)
1. Life is Hell Week
Wherein we Commemorate the Beginning of Modernity’s Construction of Happiness Upon the Believe that Everything in the Universe is Fetid and Vile. (1000’s Onwards)
1/1: All Grist to Mani’s Mill Day
Mani (217-277), the founder of Manicheanism, a gnostic sect, sought to “deconstruct” and reinterpret every religion, its sacred books and its customs according to his own belief that creation was evil.
Canossa (1077): Emperor Henry IV(1056-1106) asks forgiveness from St. Gregory VII (1073-1085)
“Wall of Separation” (Jefferson’s letter to D.C.B.A., 1802): Call for separation of Church and State
Louis Blanqui (1805-1881), French radical socialist thinker, dies (1881)
German Communist Party founded (1919)
Fidel Castro takes power in Cuba (1959)
Wake up much too early from your New Year’s Eve hangover, curse all of existence, take a copy of the Gulag Archipelago down from your bookshelf, deconstruct it and accept the fact that it treats of the gender roles of the alien forces that have cloned human beings on the earth on the model of their own riff-raff in a galaxy billions of light years away.
1/2: Roll Out the Bulgars Day
Some gnostics, deported from Asia Minor to the area of present-day Bulgaria, began in the 1000’s to go on missionary journeys to the West, especially to Italy and to southern France, to found or reform Manichean churches. Other gnostics traveled to Bulgaria for better instruction in the evils of the universe.
Fall of Granada to Ferdinand and Isabella (1492)
Perhaps your neighbors were deluded into thinking that they enjoyed their Christmas holidays; that they have had so much fun! Go and wake them up as well! Bring the Gulag with you. They also may have mistakenly thought that it dealt with the Soviet Union and labor camps. Lift up their hearts to the Truth!
1/3: Dual to the Death Day
Manicheans were “dualists”, believing in the existence of a good, Hidden God and an evil Creation. Some thought that the Creator of evil was built into the very nature of things, some that he represented a kind of emanation from the good God gone bad. The evil universe, in general, and our evil flesh in particular, keep us separate from the good, spiritual and hidden God. The serpent in the Book of Genesis is a positive force opening our eyes to the wickedness of the Garden of Eden.
Martin Luther excommunicated by Pope Leo X (1521)
Birth of Mgr. Félix Dupanloup (1802-1878), Bishop of Orléans, and Liberal Catholic (1802)
Resignation of Jean Villèle, one of the Legitimist Ultra leaders and chief Minister of Charles X (1828)
Your neighbors react with ill will and bad behavior to your early morning disturbance. Explain to them, as they toss you out the door, that both your misery and their uncouth behavior is perfectly understandable in this worst of all possible worlds.
1/4: We’re Perfecti, You’re Defecti Day
A small group of “Perfect Ones”, who fled the nightmare of an inherently-evil world, formed the elite (and only true, complete members) of Manichean churches. The rest of men, the “Hearers”, hopelessly stuck in the mud of life, might, however, dream that the perfecti could do something to pull them out of the muck and raise them to the Hidden God as well.
Death of T.S. Eliot (1965)
Battle of Rivoli, helping to assure Napoleon’s victory in Italy (1797)
Compare yourself with the neighborhood wretches. You are different. You are Everysplendor! Return to the streets to spread the Good News!
1/5: Endura Day
The most perfect of all Manicheans underwent the ceremony called the endura, and starved themselves to death.
Council of Ferrara, which affirms Papal power and attempts to reconcile the Eastern Churches with Rome, opens (1438)
Spartacist (Communist) Revolt in Berlin (January 5-15, 1919)
You have always wanted to show your mettle. Go to it! The holidays are over and you are sick of food anyway. Start with a total renunciation of egg nog. You might even give up water, so long as you keep the scotch sours flowing. Have the neighbors pour them, though, just to maintain the purity of your hands.
1/6: Why Can’t a Woman Be Like a Man Day
An evil world really has no right to grow. Hence, the Manicheans loved contraception and hated both childbirth and the women responsible for it. Some would avert their faces and spit when they saw a newborn child appear before them.
Birth of Melchior von Diepenbrock (1798-1854), Prince-Bishop of Breslau, and firm opponent of secularism
Birth of Georg Phillips (1804-1872) , one of the founders of the Historisch politische Blätter, a major journal of the 19th century German Catholic revival, and Ultramontanist canon lawyer
Longinqua oceani, first encyclical dealing with Americanism (1895)
Mortalium animos, encyclical dealing unfavorably with Ecumenism (1928)
If you are a woman, change into men’s clothing, go to a street corner, spit and curse at everyone you see. If you are a man, change into women’s clothing, then back into men’s clothing, go to a street corner, spit and curse at everyone you see. The permutations on this theme are endless.
1/7: Watch Those Free Sparks Fly Day
Our spirits were said to be little sparks of good trapped in flesh. Free those sparks, by making them aware of their complete difference from the wicked body, and they will soar to undreamed of heights.
Death of Catherine of Aragon (1485-1536), first wife of Henry VIII
Birth of François Poulenc, composer of Dialogue des Carmélites (1899)
Neither aristocratic, nor bourgeois, nor proletariat morality holds you any longer. Your spirit floats above it all. The devil makes your body do anything that seems wrong to other people. Seize the moment! Let your spirit fly and your wicked body shove a copy of the Gulag down your neighbor’s throat.
Song of the Week: Happy New Year
Happy New Year, Happy New Year.
People dying everywhere,
Hate and fear fill the air.
Happy New Year, Happy New Year.
Thus Endeth Hell Week
2. Romantic Love Week
Wherein is Commemorated Catholicism’s Insistence Upon God’s Love for the World, Thereby Demonstrating to Modernity Christianity’s Notorious Hatred of Mankind (1000’s Onwards)
1/8: Mine, Not Thine Day
Church Fathers, such as St. Irenaeus of Lyons (130?-202?), fought to prevent gnostics from twisting the Bible to serve their own purposes. His works are an early, major source for understanding the whole nature of the orthodox conflict with Gnosticism.
Graves de comuni, encyclical dealing critically with Christian Democracy(1901)
Czech National Church set up to contest papal authority (1920)
1/9 Inner Mission Day
Pope Innocent III (1198-1216) believed that the Church inside Europe needed crusading, missionary work as much, if not more, than it was needed elsewhere; that she was, in fact, unworthy in her present condition to carry out the external crusade successfully. The Dominicans were crucial to carrying out this “inner mission”, with respect to the gnostic Catharist menace.
Birth of Scipione de’Ricci (1741-1810), Bishop of Pistoia, who held a
regalist and Jansenist-minded Synod in his city (1786), condemned by Papacy in 1794
Birth of Simone de Beauvoir (1908)
1/10 It’s Not His Fault Day
The anti-Manichean crusaders wanted to make it clear that God is not responsible for the evils of the universe; bad use of human will is the culprit.
Death of Ignaz von Döllinger, German Catholic historian and opponent of Vatican One (1890)
Sapientiae christianae (1890)
1/11 Pride and Prejudice Day
Everyone is saved by recourse to the same graces; thinking otherwise is dangerous arrogance. There are no divisions between Perfecti and Hearers.
Concordat with Spain, weakening papal power enormously (1753)
Birth of Otto F. von Gierke (1841)
1/12: One Good Leads to Another Day
Building upon Scripture, Plato and ordinary experience, medieval thinkers such as St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1154), demonstrated the “hierarchy of values” leading from good earthly things to even better supernatural perfections.
Banishment of Joseph Fouché , regicide and founder of Napoleon’s police force (1816)
Birth of Louis Billot (1846)
1/13 Crèche Day
Assisi was a Manichean center. St. Francis developed the use of the crèche at the Christmas season as a means of fighting gnostic flesh and child hatred, and demonstrating to the population what was truly at stake in this conflict.
Roman population’s attack vs. Bassville and La Flotte, French revolutionary representatives (1793)
Death of Joseph Kleutgen, Neo-Thomist and Vatican One peritus (1883)
1/14: What Else Did You Expect? Day
A dignified use of the human body is inextricably tied together with a sense of the goodness of God’s creation, the reality of human freedom, and the need to use that freedom to follow the Divine Plan rather than to reject it. Thus is was no surprise that some gnostics believed that once the spiritual “sparks” inside them had learned about their distinction from their evil bodies, they could then consider themselves to be liberated, allowing their flesh to sink into the mud of vice to which it belonged. An example of this type of Manichean were the “Free Spirit” heretics active in varied places by the 1200’s/1300’s.
Murder of the Papal Legate in Toulouse (1208)
Revolt of the Lazzari in Naples versus the French (1799)
Death of Paolo Sarpi , anti-papal Venetian priest (1623)
Orsini’s bomb against Napoleon III (1858)
Thus Endeth Romantic Love Week
3. There Ought to Be A Law Week
Wherein is Commemorated Modernity’s Pursuit of Its Love of Order and Justice Through Slavish, Uncritical Adulation of Ancient Thought and Jurisprudence (1000’s Onwards)
1/15: If This is Classical It Must Be Good Day
Some medieval thinkers were so aware of the glories of ancient Greece and Rome that they were ready to treat anything coming from these sources as obviously good. This had a great impact once the full body of texts on Roman Law started to become available in the 1000’s, and when Aristotle’s works were translated into Latin in the 1100’s and 1200’s.
Theophilanthropy at Chapel of Catherinettes (1797)
Birth of Pierre Proudhon, early French anarchist (1809)
Death of Rosa Luxembourg and Wilhelm Liebknecht , Spartacist leaders (1919)
1/16: Angry Bureaucrat Day
Civil servants from ancient Rome and Constantinople were often upset by the intrusion of Christian ideals and institutional influence in the life of the God-State. Growing medieval civil services began to feel the same irritation as they gained deeper understanding of the fullness of Roman Law from the 1000’s onwards.
Death of Edward Gibbons (1794)
Proclamation of the Reconciliation of Jews and Christians in The Globe , the Saint-Simonian newspaper (1832)
Birth of H. Denifle, Ultramontanist historian-theologian (1844)
1/17: Petulant Ambitious Student Day
Students gathering in centers such as Bologna, where Law was especially studied, left University looking for positions. Some were available with the newly growing bureaucracies. Legal graduates eager for honors could help to provide learned justifications for the anger of bureaucrats.
Gregory XI to Rome (1377)
Birth of Pius V (1504)
Marriage as Civil Contract in Austria (1783)
Treaty of Montluçon (1800)
Birth of Léon Harmel (1829)
Virchow’s call for Kulturkampf (1873)
1/18: Little Caesar Day
France became an early center for student-bureaucrat alliances. French kings, from the early 1200’s onwards, were told that they could act in their own realms as Roman Emperors had done.
Pius II, Execrabilis (1460)
Birth of A. Gemelli (1878)
Birth of Cardinal Schuster (1880)
Liberi e forti (1919)
1/19: Far Fetched Flimsy Excuse Day
Philip the Fair (1285-1314) of France began to take serious action against the prerogatives of the Church and other institutions in French life in order to build up the power of a model Roman State. Cases were developed on the basis of distorted documents, propaganda and the calling of stage-managed assemblies to show the existence of popular support for his crimes.
Maupeou vs. parlements (1771)
Birth of Auguste Comte (1798)
Formation of the Popolari (1919)
1/20: Procedural Hoo-Ha Day
Philip the Fair and his legal advisors were none too squeamish regarding those procedures to be followed, twisted or ignored entirely. This was clear in their actions versus Boniface VIII (1294-1303) and the Templars (1307), both of whom they accused of devil worship.
Vision of Marie Alphonse Ratisbonne (1842)
1/21: Imperialist Contradiction Day
The Holy Roman Empire became deeply involved in the legalist-student-heresy game in the early 1300’s, when William of Ockham (c. 1285-1349) and Marsilius of Padua (1290-1343) joined hands in support of Louis IV (1314-1347). Arguments in support of absolute imperial power also emphasized the importance of basing of absolute power upon a democratic base of support, but one that was sufficiently manipulated as to yield the desired “spontaneous”, “popular” results.
First Anabaptist Baptisms at Zollikon (1525)
Procession vs. Placards (1535)
Birth of Droste-zu-Vischering (1773)
Death of Louis XVI (1793)
Martyrs of Laval (1794)
Roman Republic (1849)
Thus Endeth, There Ought to be a Law Week
4. The Law Can Be an Ass Week
Wherein is Commemorated that Catholic Subservience to Authority Which is Shown Through Self-Sacrifice, Death and Merciless Soul-Searching
(1000’s Onwards)
1/22: Beat Him Till He Confesses His Innocence Day
Tertullian already demonstrated in the 190’s and early 200’s the contradictions of the Roman State’s approach towards the Christians. For example, one normally used “persuasion” in order to get a confession of guilt from suspected criminals. Christians, on the other hand, were tortured until they confessed that they were innocent of the charge of embracing Christianity, so that the government could let people whom it knew to be law-abiding in every other respect go free.
Calvary of Lazzari (1799)
Falk becomes Minister of Education (1872)
Testem benevolentiae (1899)
Roe vs. Wade (1972)
1/23: Sailing to Byzantium Day
Roman pontiffs in the 500’s and 600’s had to answer to the Emperors in Constantinople for their actions. These would kidnap them, torture them and starve them in exile if they “disrupted the legal order”, even when that legal order had no business dictating its teachings to the Church. Pope St. Martin I (649-655) and his Greek adviser St. Maximus Confessor (580-662) were, perhaps, the most famous victims of this procedure.
Gloriosam ecclesiam (1318, vs. Fraticelli)
Birth of Stendahl (1783)
Parthenopean Republic (1799)
Birth of Gransci (1891)
Abolition of Jesuits in Spain (1932)
1/24: Recuperation Day
Many Christians thought that apostolic tradition required treating the Emperor as the highest authority in the Church as well as in the State. Gregory VII (1073-1085) showed that this was a false “custom”, ennobled by years of abuse, and very much tied with an unacceptable adulation of the Emperor Constantine. The Church, to be truly apostolic, needed freedom over her own internal life.
Invasion of Russia (1812)
Vera Zasulich’s assault on Trepov (1878)
1/25: Don’t Play With Matches Day
Some canon lawyers were so enamored of Roman Law as a universal model as to presume that the Church herself could be treated as a kind of legal business. St. Bernard warned against this mentality to his protegé, Pope Eugenius III (1145-1151), insisting that it would lead to a bureaucratization of the Roman Church.
Holy Synod (1721)
Birth of Görres (1776)
Cardinal Ruffo granted authority by the King (1799)
Destruction of the ecclesiastical states (1803)
Concordat of Fontainebleau (1813)
Antwerp Declaration of Chambord (1872)
Concilium (1964)
1/26: Make My Day Day
Boniface VIII, himself a lawyer, faced down the absolutist, legalist designs of Philip the Fair. He courageously offered “even my neck” to the bullies sent by the French King to work him over in his castle at Anagni in 1302.
Pius IV Confirms Trent (1564)
Holy Synod (1721)
Birth of Görres (1776)
Cardinal Ruffo granted authority by the King (1799)
Destruction of the ecclesiastical states (1803)
Concordat of Fontainebleau (1813)
Antwerp Declaration of Chambord (1872)
Death of Gambetta (1882)
Concilium (1964)
1/27: You Cannot Be in Two Places at Once Day
Alas, the legalist mentality was accompanied by the development of an ever more bureaucratized Roman Church. It offered arguments justifying the appointment of Roman bureaucrats to bishoprics and abbatial positions to obtain revenues which could be used to pay them. Such appointments generally insured that dioceses would never see their bishops, who stayed at their curial posts in Rome. Absenteeism was especially guaranteed when one man would be given the title of Ordinary in more than one place at the same time.
Birth of Mozart (1756)
Organic Law in Italy (1802)
1/28: Aggravated Avignonitis Day
After the Papacy moved to Avignon in 1312, it succumbed to ever greater bureaucratization, legalization and open money grubbing. Avignon became a by-word for corruption.
Death of Charlemagne (814)
Thus Endeth The Law Can Be an Ass Week
5. Merely Words Week
Wherein is Commemorated Modernity’s Beginning Eagerness to Re-learn the Ancient Sophist Lesson That It Does Not Matter What You Say But How You Say It (1300’s Onwards)
1/29: If It Makes Sense, It Must Be Meaningless Day
Extreme Nominalists, like William of Ockham, were convinced that any philosophical attempt to go beyond the appreciation of pure “data”, and any effort to make meaningful statements about important concepts such as “justice” were absolutely hopeless. The result could be nothing more than the production of hot air.
Birth of Thomas Paine (1737)
Death of La Rochejaquelun (1794)
1/30: It Could Have Been the Opposite Day
Nominalists believed that God’s omnipotence involved God’s unlimited will to do what He wished. He made a world in which good deeds were rewarded and bad ones punished. But He was so powerful he could have done the opposite if he had wanted to do so.
Charles Executed (1649)
Excommunication of Duke of Parma (1768)
Third Republic (1875)
Resignation of MacMahon (1879)
1/31: Unexamined Faith Day
Nominalists said that Faith alone could give solid information about truth, goodness and beauty. But Faith could not in any way be explored and understood through the use of philosophy, which, they explained, cannot tell us anything meaningful.
Helvetius’ De l’Esprit condemned (1759)
Birth of Ludwig von Pastor (1854)
Death of Franz Josef von Buss (1878)
Exile of Trotsky (1929)
2/1: Let’s Hang On to What We’ve Not Day
The 1300’s were a pretty awful period generally. Medievals like Petrarch (1304-1374), who admired the ancients, felt that one way out of the current mess would be by means of exploring what the ancients would have done to deal with their problems. One needed to turn back to the roots, but most especially to those that had been neglected, like literary, historical, and generally more “human” roots, as opposed to logical and mathematical themes, which had already been explored ad nauseam.
The Congregation (1801)
Murder of King of Portugal and heir (1908)
Death of R. Ibarra y Gonzalez (1917)
2/2: Second Childhood Day
Going back to one’s roots is fine, so long as he does not think that nothing has happened in the interim to alter his life, perhaps even irrevocably. A revived childhood is not an original childhood , but second childhood and often ridiculous in consequence.
Crowning of Otto (962)
Occupation of Rome (1808)
Gregory XVI (1831)
Birth of Ayn Rand (1905)
France Closes Embassy at Vatican (1925)
Crusade of Prayer (1930)
Restoration of Religious Orders in Spain (1939)
Prohibition ends? (1933)
2/3: Uninvited Guest Day
Admirers of Greek and Roman literature and Platonic philosophy, might have expected only good to come from their efforts to revive knowledge of such disciplines. But the ancients had many temptations ranging from skepticism to cynicism to magic and to immorality. Bring ancient life back uncritically and you might get more than you bargained more!
(Nothing?)
2/4: Never Cross a Humanist Day
Humanists proved to be eager for positions to support their work. They could be vicious if not rewarded. When they turned vicious, all their new-found abilities with Latin, Greek and Hebrew were aimed, with bitter satire, at reviling those who had thwarted them. The historical record has been badly distorted in consequence.
Revolution in Papal States (1831)
Cardinal de Bonald condemns manual of Dupin (1845)
Yalta (4-11, 1945)
Thus Endeth Merely Words Week
6. More Than Words Can Tell Week
Wherein is Commemorated Catholicism’s Thickheadedness, Displayed by
Its Avoiding Temptations to Abandon Either Truth or Beauty (1000’s-1500’s)
2/5: Balanced Diet Day
Christians were already learning from the time of Clement of Alexandria (100’s), Origen (200’s) and St. Gregory of Nyssa (300’s), the need to combine Tradition and Scripture on the one hand with the Classical Tradition on the other. The early medieval educational focus on the alliance of Christianity with the “Seven Liberal Arts” reflected this concern.
Françoise Mézière guillotined (Laval), 1794)
Birth of J. von Geissel (1796)
Birth of O.P. Gerbet (1798)
Birth of J.K. Huysmans (1848)
Quod nunquam vs. Prussia (1875)
Mexican Constitution (1917)
2/6: Translation Day
Educated ancients knew both Greek and Latin, and therefore did not need translations. Such a need did develop by the 400’s, but could not satisfactorally be addressed at that time. Instead, translation of Greek works into Latin, sometimes directly, sometimes through Arabic, was only extensively undertaken in the 1100’s and 1200’s, primarily in Spain and Sicily.
Charles of Anjou defeats Manfred (1266)
Grand Duke flees Tuscany (1849)
Guevara y Lera becomes archbishop of Caracas (1853)
Birth of Fanfani (1908)
Paris Riots (1934)
2/7: Hit the Books Day
The High Middle Ages saw the possibility of developing more profound learning in the institutions which came to be called universities. Built on the models of the Universities of Bologna or Paris, such centers became the pride of Popes, Emperors and Kings, all of whom encouraged study within their precincts.
Attack on Jesuits in Parma (7-8, 1768)
Belgian Constitution (1831)
Death of Pius IX (1878)
2/8: Watch Your Reductionist Step Day
There was much literary focus in schools that never became universities, like the one at Chartres. Universities proper, however, tended to become focused mostly on legal or Aristotelian philosophical studies. Men like John of Salisbury were frightened by this trend, and warned of its one-sided consequences.
Death of Mary, Queen of Scots (1587)
Ruffo begins Counterrevolution (1799)
Nobilissima Gallorum Gens (1889)
2/9: There’s Always Room for More Day
One branch of learning that was still missing in the 1300’s was that of Greek studies, including the study of Plato. A new knowledge of Greek and Plato added to the store of western scholarship by the 1400’s, although this, too, could be, and was often, turned into a one-sided obsession.
Proclamation of Roman Republic (1849)
Death of Heinrich (1891)
2/10: Here’s How You Do It Day
Despite the reductionism of so many Humanists and philosophers, the 1400’s also saw the work of great Christian Humanists, who were still able to combine theology, philosophy and literary studies in a harmonious way. Some of these men, like Nicholas V, became popes as well.
Last Mass in Basel (1529)
Treaty of Paris (1763)
Berthier arrives in Rome (1798)
Blessing on Italy (1848)
Neapolitan Constitution (1848)
Arcanum (1880)
Death of Stepinac (1960)
2/11: Lift Up Your Heads Day
Mysticism flourished in the 1300’s and 1400’s, partly due to the desire present in every age to raise the spirit above purely earthly things, but especially now as a reaction to the previous era’s exaggerated emphasis on the glories of logic.
French occupy Rome (1798)
Vehementer nos (1906)
Lateran accords (1929)
Thus Endeth More than Words Can Tell Week
7. Apocalypse Now Week
Wherein is Commemorated Modernity’s Temptation to Build
Hope for the Future Upon an Abandonment of Existing Reality
(1000’s-1500’s)
2/12: We’re on the Road to Atlantis Day
The calling of the First Crusade (1095) unwittingly encouraged certain popular apocalyptic notions. Mobs, often thinking that they were headed towards the Heavenly Jerusalem, as opposed to the earthly one occupied by the Turks, stampeded through the Rhine Valley, purifying the world while passing through. Clergy, as well as Jews, were among their favorite targets.
Birth of Darwin (1809)
Murder of Duc de Berry (1820, or 13th?)
First papal radio broadcast (1931)
2/13: It’s Just Around the Corner Day
The apocalyptic spirit reached a fever pitch by the 1100’s and 1200’s. One exegete whose work became important in developing it was Joachim of Fiore (1132-1202), who spoke of the “three ages of the world” and the imminent coming of the reign of the Holy Spirit.
Birth of Talleyrand (1754)
Suppression of Perpetual Vows (1790)
Massacre of Catholics at Uzès (1791)
Suppression in Italy (1807)
2/14: Dirty Rats in the Way Day
The coming of the Holy Spirit required purification of the corruption of this world, by angelic priests and popes. Boniface VIII was despised by many apocalyptic believers as an agent of corruption responsible for removing a holy but politically naive “Angelic Pope”, Celestine V (1294).
Sack of St. Germain l’Auxerrois (1831)
Lyon strikes (1834)
2/15: Divestment Day
Preparation for the reign of the Holy Spirit also called for an end to property. The Spiritual Franciscans, who took St. Francis’ call to poverty literally, balked at restrictions on its rigor. Some became apocalyptic in attitude, turning poverty into the highest of virtues, even more important than charity.
Birth of Galileo (1564)
Formulary vs. Jansenists from Regiminis apostolicus (1665)
Peace of La Jaunaie w Vendèe (1795)
Roman Republic (1798)
Sack of archbishopric of Paris (1831)
2/16: The Proof is in the Bubos Day
The Black Death began its first of many visits to Europe in 1348. The suffering and devastation that it brought in its train convinced many, like the wandering Flagellants, that the end must truly be near.
Birth of Henry Adams (1838)
Spanish Republic (1873)
Au milieu des sollicitudes (1892)
Popular Front victory in Spain (1936)
2/17: New World Symphony Day
Apocalyptic thinking in no way led everyone to despair. Many thought that the “end times” would usher in a thousand years of paradisical conditions. The idea of a “New World” as a place for a “fresh start”, free from the corruptions of the past, wherein such paradisical conditions could flourish, appealed to a vast audience.
Bruno burned (1600)
Birth of Edgar Quinet (1803)
French Senate versus Pope’s spiritual authority (1810)
Tuscan Constitution (1848)
Ausgleich (1867)
2/18: You Can’t Make an Omelette Without Breaking Eggs Day
Still, the idea of a purification period before the new age might be welcomed, seemed appropriate to many. The years preceding and accompanying the start of the Reformation were rich in attempted purifications, such as in the work of Thomas Münzer (1489-1525) and the Anabaptists at Münster (1534-1535).
Death of Luther (1546)
Consecration of Méndez in Caracas (1828)
Trial of Dom Vital (1874)
Thus Endeth Apocalypse Now Week
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8. Don’t Hold Your Breath Week
Wherein is Commemorated Catholicism’s Dampening of
Apocalyptic Fun By Reminding People of Continued Daily Chores
1000’s-1500’s
2/19: Get a Map Day
The Church, since the time of their first appearance with the Montanists of the 200’s, has never encouraged apocalyptic marches on Heavenly Jerusalems. This is one of the reasons why she has regularly been the target of seers and false prophets.
Death of Mother Agnes Arnauld (1672)
Treaty of Tolentino (1797)
2/20: What You See is What You Get Day
The Church, following the arguments of the Fathers, has taught that the conditions under which we live will last until the end, and not be purified by any reign of the Holy Spirit. The Kingdom of God is to be established now, under present conditions, working with the realities of an unchangingly sinful mankind.
Death of Joseph II (1790)
Pope forced to leave for Tuscany (1798)
Execution of Andreas Hofer (1810)
Birth of Georges Bernanos (1888)
2/21: The Bums You Will Always Have With You Day
From the time of the Donatists, fought so ably by St. Augustine, the Church has made it clear that good and bad are inexorably mixed together, even in the highest ranks of the hierarchy. No sorting out will occur before Judgment Day.
Religious Neutrality (1795)
Birth of J.H. Newman (1801)
Death of Andreas Hofer (1810)
Birth of Heinrich Rommen (1897)
Death of Cardinal Tisserant (1972)
2/22: Preferential Option for Everybody Day
The voluntary embrace of poverty can be a very good thing. Still, it can become evil if it is treated as a necessity, or if those who adopt it also adopt an arrogant attitude towards anyone possessing goods. Fights over this issue reached a peak of excitement during the reign of Pope John XXII (1316-1334).
Inter cunctas and In eminentis (1418) vs. Wycliffe
Paris processions (1848)
Birth of Edward Kennedy (1932)
2/23: Just Another Precipice Day
The Black Death was not necessarily a harbinger of the end. It did not even strike everywhere in Europe. Still, those looking for grounds for Penance could use it as a call to action, as they also could the eruption of the Ottoman Turks into Europe in the 1300’s, their capture of Constantinople in 1453 and the horrific scandal of the Great Western Schism, which divided Christendom in allegiance to two and three popes (1378-1415).
Apotheosis of Duphat (1798)
Assassination of Leo Neinricks (1908)
2/24: New World Odor Day
Fresh beginnings still involve the activity of fallen men carting old baggage along with them to their fresh venues. The discovery of the New World quickly brought in its train many evils, including the widespread rebirth of slavery.
Clericos laicos (1294/1296)
Birth of Charles V (1500)
Seven Articles of Schlechtheim (1527)
Abdication of Louis-Philippe (1848)
2/25: Cold Westphalian Shower Day
The reign of the pure in Münster in 1534-1535 turned almost immediately into a macabre horror show, hardly reminiscent of the work of the Holy Spirit.
Deposition of Elizabeth (1570)
Dissolution of Ecclesiastical Principalities (1803)
Napoleon declares Four Gallican Articles (1811)
Hernani (1830)
Thus Endeth Don’t Hold Your Breath Week
9. A Thousand Sins Week
Wherein is Commemorated Protestantism’s Great Boost to Human Dignity
By its Insistence upon Just How Wretched People Really Are
(1500’s Onwards)
2/26: Backwoods Bellowing and Bonfire Day
Wittenberg was a provincial backwater in the midst of a building boom and under the control of a prince who wished to demonstrate how important his capital really could be. Much of the support for Luther (1483-1546) came from provincial rage against the centers of cosmopolitan Catholic culture.
Death of Joseph de Maistre (1821)
Call for Catholic Associations in Spain (1843)
Death of Merry del Val (1930)
2/27: No Redeeming Value Day
Men, for Luther, were totally depraved after Original Sin. Nothing that they could do could please God. Even their so-called good deeds masqueraded a thousand sins. They were only allowed eternal life on sufferance, as a heap of dung covered by the snow of God’s grace.
Condemnation of Febronius’ De statu ecclesiae (1764)
Signing of order vs. Jesuits (for March 31-April 3, 1767)
Tract 90 (1841)
2/28: They Thought They Were Free Day
There was no possibility of free action in Luther and the other initial Reformers’ theology. Men were doomed to do evil. Ergo, in its inimitable way, modern logic finds such figures to be eminently suited to enter into its pantheon of freedom fighters.
Birth of Renan (1823)
Birth of Albert de Mun (1841)
Second Carlist War ends (1876)
3/1: Read It, Rip It Apart, Rewrite It Day
For Reformers like Luther, who had adopted both Nominalism and Humanism, only Faith, as taught in literary texts could be redemptive. The Bible became the source of all Christian Truth, though that same Bible had to be interpreted in line with their initial theory of Total Depravity. If sections of the Bible did not lend themselves to such an interpretation, they could be rejected.
Vassy (1562)
Spectator (1712)
Birth of Cardinal de Richard (1819)
Dissolution of Worker Priests (1954)
3/2: Cherchez La Femme Day
Some Reform was honestly pursued by women, such as Jeanne d’Albrette of Navarre. Some Reform was instituted because of problems with women, such as those of Henry VIII (1509-1547).
Birth of Leo XIII (1810)
Birth of Claude Plantier (1813)
Birth of Herman Schaepman (1844)
Death of Francis Parker (1902)
Comintern Founded (1919)
Birth of Gorbachev (1931)
Pope Pius XII (1939)
3/3: Too Many Chefs Day
Protestantism rapidly divided into innumerable sects. This became an argument against its validity, exploited by apologists such as Bishop Bossuet (1627-1704) of Meaux.
Luddites (1811)
Maignan’s “L’Americanisme mystique” (1897)
Fusillade of Champels (1906)
Eighth Bolshevik Congress (1919)
3/4: Act Before You Think Day
Protestants were aware that their divisions were an apologetic problem. This was one of the causes for the growth of Pietism, which became, in effect, the state religion of the Kingdom of Prussia in the 1700’s. Pietists avoided doctrinal discussions, focused, ironically enough, given Protestantism’s founding principles, on Christian good deeds and understood God’s blessing to have descended upon their labors if their activity proved to be successful.
Frederick Barbarossa (1152)
First tavern in North America-Boston (1634)
Ordination of Coudrin (1792)
Reestablishment of Dutch dioceses (1853)
Thus Endeth a Thousand Sins Week
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10. Sinners in the Piazza Navona Week
Wherein is Commemorated Catholicism‘s Supposed Failure to Understand the Whole Man and His Dreams By Its Recognition of Both the Reality of His Flaws and His Need to Rise Above Them (1400’s Onwards)
3/5: Useless Chatter Day
The Great Western Schism was, indeed, a disaster. Many suggestions for resolving it were bandied about, especially at the University of Paris. One solutions was to re- solve and rebuild the Church on the basis of the power of Councils--Conciliarism. Unfortunately, Councils such as that at Pisa (1409) worsened the Schism. Even the Council of Constance (1414-1418), which ended it, helped to strip the Church of needed resources and make it more nationally-focused and secular in character.
Appeal versus Unigenitus (1717)
Birth of Karl Rahner (1904)
Death of Stalin (1953)
3/6: Self-Indulgence Day
Practically everyone seemed to be secular-minded in the 1400’s. The Popes, stripped of resources, dedicated much of their time to the exploitation of the Papal States; Cardinals, bishops and priests to the accumulation of benefices and the reduction of spiritual labors; laity, to the retention and extension of privileges over Church affairs.
Act of Restitution (1629)
3/7: Gasping For Spiritual Breath Day
Genuine Church reformers among popes, cardinals, bishops and religious found the hunt for restoration of a more spiritual outlook very trying. Still, joint clerical-lay movements like that of the Brethren of the Common Life, along with Franciscans and others eager to follow their founders’ Rule more closely, did begin to make some progress. Indeed, practically all of the great forces that would labor in the Catholic Reformation were in place before the Protestants began their own dubious reform activity.
Restoration of Jesuits in Russia (1801)
Excommunication of Loisy (1908)
Charles attempts coup in Hungary (1921)
Dollfuss suspends Parliament (1933)
Death of Leonid Feodorov (1935)
3/8: You Simply Never Know Day
The Spirit blows where He wills. No one would have expected that the corrupt Farnese Pope, Paul III (1534-1549) would be the one to set the Catholic Reformation in motion with official support.
Excommunication of Loisy (1908)?
3/9: Self-Correction Day
The Catholic Reformation involved an enormous self-purification effort. One official stimulus to this came with the report on the “crimes” of the Church commissioned by Paul III, which placed much of the blame on the corruption of the Papacy itself. Another was, of course, the Council of Trent (1545-1563).
Birth of Count Mirabeau (1739)
3/10: Elegant Sufficiency Day
The Jesuits and other Catholic reformers believed that men had to work, freely, with grace in order to lift up all of nature to the “greater glory of God”. God had given to His People sufficient gifts to fulfill this task with style. Hence, the Catholic world burst forth in that hymn of nature to the Divine which characterized Baroque architecture and city planning.
B. Hubmaier burned (1528)
Birth of Friedrich Schlegel (1772)
Pius VII vs. Civil Constitution (-April 13, 1791)
Revolutionary Tribunal (1793)
Vendée Uprising (1793)
Roman Constitution (1848)
Death of Mazzini (1872)
Karl Lüger dies (1910)
3/11: All Roads Lead to Rome Day
The Catholic Reformation made the Papacy a central force in Church reform. It also beautified Rome. But, perhaps most importantly, it coincided with a world-wide extension of Catholic missionary activity, which Rome was eager to have a guiding role in directing through such institutions as the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith.
Birth of G. Perrone (1794)
Death of Edgar Mortara (1940)
Thus Endeth Sinners in the Piazza Navona Week
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11. With Friends Like This, Who Needs Enemies Week
Wherein is Commemorated the State’s Efforts to Defend Christianity
By Redefining What it is and What it Can Do ( 1500’s-1700’s)
3/12: Enough is Enough Day
Religious wars abounded in the years from the 1540’s until 1648, and even beyond. These generally became entangled with all sorts of political and social issues. By the time of the Treaty of Westphalia (1648) political leaders wanted Church interference in international affairs reduced to a minimum, seeing it to be something dangerous for the stability of the ruling dynasties.
Knights of the Faith and the coup of Bordeaux (1814)
3/13: Simply Divine Day
One obvious way of trying to deal with internal religious divisions was to emphasize the Divine Right of the state, embodied in the King, himself a scion of a particular Dynasty, as the final judge and guarantor of Order.
Birth of Joseph II (1741)
Revolt in Vendée (1793)
Vienna Revolution (1848)
Death of Montalembert (1870)
Assassination of Alexander II (1881)
3/14 It’s None Of Your Business Day
Divine Right kings and other rulers did not appreciate the interference of Rome in the affairs of the Church in their bailiwicks. Hence, Bourbon support of Gallicanism, which emphasized local French rights, and other parochial phenomena.
Death of Einhard (840)
Election of Pius VII (1800)
Statuto in Rome (1848)
Death of Marx (1883)
Mit brennender Sorge (1937)
3/15: Tiresome Allies Day
Portugal, Spain and then France tried very hard to maintain control over the Missions, often with very little interest in pursuing missionary goals. Hence, Rome and the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith often found themselves locked in battle with their supposed protectors.
Falloux Law (1850)
Resignation of Liénhart (1968)
Feast of Clement Hofbauer
3/16: Touchy, Touchy Day
States became very sensitive about offenses to their “honor”. Their “honor”, unfortunately, often involved allowing their embassies in Rome to be used as havens for outlaws and other riffraff who could be utilized to embarrass the Papal Government.
Concordat with Spain (1851)
Birth of F. Hitze (1851)
Birth of C.A. von Galen (1878)
3/17: See How Very Strong They Are Day
Certain countries untroubled by Rome, doctrinal disputes and the interference of powerful Church forces in secular affairs became rich and powerful, like eighteenth century Britain and Prussia. Their success, alone, seemed reason enough to justify their use as models by other lands.
Suppression of Freedom of Education in France (1808)
Conference of Napoleon and J.A. Emery (1811)
Italy (1861)
Assassination of Jules Ferry (1893)
3/18: Not Too Spicy Day
Mysticism seemed to be pointless in a world that became more and more concerned for order, prosperity and power along the lines of what could be observed in Britain and Prussia.
Burning of Templars (1314)
Milanese Five Days (17-23, 1848)
Iamdudum cernimus (1861)
Commune uprising (1870)
Death of Tacchi-Venturi (1956)
Thus Endeth With Friends Like This Who Needs Enemies Week
12. Incoherent Fumbling Week
Wherein is Commemorated Catholicism’s Demonstration of its Monolithic Steam Roller Character by Indulgence in Self-Debilitating Internal Quarrels
(1600’s-1700’s)
3/19: Tiresome Dispute Day
The Council of Trent taught that Grace and Free Will were both needed to achieve Redemption, but did not go into great depth as to the exact relationship of the two. Dominicans and Jesuits argued furiously, often uncharitably and, ultimately to no avail about these issues, leading to general frustration with doctrinal dispute.
Cadiz Constitution (1812)
Pius VII freed (1814)
Louis flees Paris (1815)
Prussian Revolution (1848)
Birth of Joseph Pohle (1852)
Divini Redemptoris (1937)
3/20: Who’s Afraid of the Celestial Kingdom Day
Another object of dispute was Jesuit missionary methods in China, bitterly contested, ultimately to the detriment of the Jesuits, by many Dominicans and Franciscans. One motive for the dispute was the extent to which cooperation with the local culture was valid; another was the seeming support Jesuit admiration of China gave to the idea that a high civilization could be constructed on a philosophy such as Confucianism, with no knowledge of the revealed Law of God.
Death of Isaac Newton (1727)
Execution of Duc d’Enghien (1804)
Birth of Frédéric de Mérode (1820)
3/21: Could You Please Be Quiet Day
Miguel de Molinos supported a mystical approach called Quietism, which presumed the need to sit and wait for the activity of the Holy Spirit, without personal involvement in one’s sanctification. His condemnation in 1687, while justifiable, was deadly for mysticism in general. Great clerics like Fenelon were attacked for supporting ideas that could be made to appear to have much in common with Molinos, even when they did not.
Birth of Juarez (1806)
Second Coming (1843)
L’Action Française (1908)
Bela Kun in Hungary (1919)
Versus Sex Education and Eugenics (1931)
3/22: Leave Us Alone Day
Gallicanism in France, and Febronianism in Germany, were both eager to assure local bishops independence from Rome. The argument was that this would allow them to operate more in union with local customs. In practice, however, it meant that they were more subject to the desires of the local rulers, local pressures or whatever it was that the formulators of public opinion in modern society claimed to be essential for the growth of progress.
Arrival of Pius VI in Vienna (1782)
Birth of A. Reichensperger (1808)
Death of Mounier (1950)
3/23: Try It, You’ll Soil It Day
Jansenists were crypto-Protestants who were convinced that the Jesuit attitude towards consecrating the world to God was corrupting those affected by it. They found numerous ways, both theological as well as pastoral to teach their message of a simplified religion, based on the wretched condition of mankind.
Hat and Cloak Riots (1766)
War declared in Austria (1848)
Novara (1849)
Fasci formed (1919)
3/24: Bitter Dregs Day
The battle of Jansenists versus Jesuits became extremely brutal and bitter, through many episodes from the 1640’s onwards. The publication of the papal bull Unigenitus (1713) unleashed yet another major war between these factions. The Jansenist journal, Nouvelles ecclesiastiques, was a powerful, scandalous, propaganda force helping, in the long run, to discredit the Church and also prepare the role of the Press as a primary tool for the formation of public opinion.
Death of Hébert (1794)
Roman Revolution (1849)
3/25: See You in Court Day
Jansenists had allies in the legal profession, which was itself locked in battle, through the institutions called parlements, with the royal authority. The royal authority in France sided with the Papacy against the Jansenists, especially after the bull Unigenitus (1713). Jansenists, lawyers and judges then plunged France into endless litigation throughout the course of the 1700’s.
Death of Catherine of Siena (1347)
Birth of Mariano Soler (1846)
Triangle Fire (1911)
Thus Endeth Incoherent Fumblind Week
13. Let There Be Light Week
Wherein are Commemorated Enlightened Literati Who Ushered the
Huddled Masses Into the Light-Hearted, Free-Spirited World of
Mathematical Equations and Bunsen Burners
(1600’s-1700’s)
3/26: Weighing and Measuring Day
Magicians were always looking for the spiritual qualities of material substances in a way that threatened divinizing nature and reintroducing paganism. By the 1600s, many people who were horrified by magic had become convinced that matter had to be treated as something completely separate from spirit so as to avoid this pagan temptation. One way of de-spiritualizing matter was to declare it to be something that could be dealt with by weighing and measuring it alone, something that could be examined on a purely mathematical basis. René Descartes (1596-1650) and Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) took this route.
Luther at Worms (1521)
Execution of Babeuf (1797)
Paris Commune set up (1871)
Death of Whitman (1892)
Estado Nuovo (1933)
3/27: Observation Day
Many others, by the same era, had become convinced that the only way that earthly substances could be understood was by means of observing and experimenting with them to found out their true hidden qualities. Francis Bacon (1561-1626) is an example of this second approach towards de-spiritualized matter.
Birth of Franz Xavier von Baaden (1765)
Death of Edgar Quinet (1875)
3/28: The Micro Shall Lie Down with the Macrocosm Day
Christianity had convinced the West of the order and purpose of the universe on the one hand, and the freedom and dignity of the individual on the other. Many thinkers simply took these themes for granted, even when they were abandoning their religious beliefs. Hence, they did not see any problems with combining together the idea of an ordered, clock-like universe with the individual demigods that they claimed that universe was supposed to serve.
Invalidation of Declaratio Ferdinanda (1629)
Crown offered to Prussia (1848)
Proclamation of Commune (1871)
Firmissimam constantiam to Mexican bishops (1937)
3/29: Oh What A Beautiful Morning Day
Once the world would be weighed, measured, observed and experimented with by free demigods, endless vistas previously unseen would open up to mankind, leading to the construction of the New Atlantis. Isaac Newton (1643-1727), whatever his own personal doubts about the question, seemed to indicate through his laws of motion that “laws” would soon be found to explain everything. Galileo and Newton together had shown that the sub-lunary and the endless lunary world were subject to the same rules.
Death of Condorcet (1794)
Execution of Charette (1796)
Ferdinand VII denounces Salic Law (1830)
More anti-Jesuit and anti-religious laws in France (1880)
Spanish Civil War ends (29-30, 1939)
3/30: How Should I Progress Day
“Idols”, opposed to the free use of experimentation and its results, stood in the way of the opening new vistas. Such “idols” could be summed up in one word: Christianity.
Birth of Umberto Benigni (1862)
Poisoning of J.I. Checa y Barba (1877)
3/31: Useful Icon Day
Men like Descartes, Galileo and Newton could be held up as practical heroes, opposed to the useless parasites honored by a Church constructing “idols”. The trials of Galileo were a perfect symbol for wisdom persecuted by obscurantism.
Jesuits expelled from Spain (31 March-3 April, 1767)
Allies enter Paris (1814)
US versus Oregon (1924)
4/1: Where There’s a Wit, There’s a Savant Day
Philosophy and science are one thing; clever writing and propaganda is another. The Enlightenment would not have got very far without the satirical distortions of everyone from Pierre Bayle (1647-1706) through F.M. Arouet, a.k.a. Voltaire (1694-1778).
Birth of Joseph de Maistre (1754)
Flight of Boulanger (1889)
Charles dies (1922)
Arrest of A. González-Flores (1926)
Thus Endeth Let There Be Light Week
14. Dat Old Black Magic Week
Wherein is Commemorated that Catholic Irrationality Which is Clearly Demonstrated By Catholic Fears Concerning Irrationality (1600’s-1700’s)
4/2: Knowledge is Power Day
Plato and the Church Fathers believed that knowledge was for the glorification of God. Francis Bacon said that its purpose was for the attainment of power. Obviously, the latter must more enlightened and conducive to the progress of mankind, since the wise men of the age declared it to be so.
Death of Mirabeau (1791)
Birth of Giacomo Antonelli (1806)
Birth of Léon Gambetta (1838)
4/3: Ignored Difficulty Day
Philosophes were literary men, the contemporary equivalent of popularizing journalists. They were after a “good argument” rather than scientific accuracy. Hence, they regularly ignored the warnings of men like Isaac Newton that math and science could not really explain everything in the universe with iron-clad “laws”, which actually served merely as good working hypotheses for action.
Expulsion of Jesuits from Spain (1767)
Decades and Republican Feasts Obligatory (1798)
Creation of Black Cardinals (1810)
Death of Slowacki (1841)
New Roman Liturgy (1969)
4/4: Witchdoctor Day
Men of Reason said that they were eager for people to believe the testimony of their eyes. Most peoples’ eyes told them that the sun went around the earth. The fact that the earth went around the sun made the “observations” of the learned seem to have a kind of “witch-doctor” character about them, turning the scientist into a man whose observations could themselves not be observed by others.
Charles recognized as Emperor by Constantinople (812)
Birth of Prosper Guèranger (1805)
Approval of Imperial Catechism (1806)
4/5: The War of the Ancients and the Moderns Day
The Enlightenment was made as an alliance between admirers of the classical world and enthusiasts for math and science. Modern math and science far surpassed the achievements of the ancients by the 1600’s. Should one, therefore, stick with the old or ring in the new? Such queries promised trouble in the illuminated Magical Kingdom.
Petitions of Gueux (1566)
Birth of Thomas Hobbes (1588)
Death of Danton and Desmoulins (1794)
Birth of Jules Ferry (1832)
4/6: If This is Reason, Where is Faith Day
Men of the Enlightenment developed an unquestioning Faith in Reason. Since they had defined themselves as the infallible voice of Reason, anyone who thought them to be in error and sought rational clarification of their confusions had to be a voice of superstitious nonsense and a subject for ridicule rather than reasoning. Hence, the Age of Reason actually ended rational critique of Faith.
Committee of Public Safety (1793)
Petite Eglise (1803)
French invasion of Spain (1823)
Manning becomes Catholic (1851)
4/7: You’ve Got Some Nerve Day
What was a human individual in the Great Machine of Nature other than a machine part? What was the key to this individual machine? Cabanis said it was the nerve endings. Another victory for human dignity!
Birth of Rudigier (1811)
Versus Holy Office in Portugal (1821)
Death of Louis Veuillot (1883)
4/8: Who’s Behind This Day
It was, indeed, difficult for Enlightenment thinkers to promote their ideas, at least in the early part of the 1700’s. Hence, the success of Freemasonry, officially organized from 1717 onwards, and spreading from Britain to the Continent. Many future revolutionary leaders, European and American, became part of Freemasonic lodges.
Birth of Guillaume J. Chaminade (1761)
Organic Articles (1802)
Thus Endeth Dat’Old Black Magic Week
15. On the Inside Looking Out Week
Wherein is Commemorated Modernity’s Conviction That Observation is in
the Eye of the Beholder (1700’s) Nota especially bene: Those Enlightenment thinkers who placed a greater emphasis on individual freedom than on the iron-clad order of the universe began to demonstrate more and more the way in which all judgments about life were affected by personal passions and actions.
4/9: Your Cause Has No Effect Day
David Hume (1711-1776), the Scot historian-philosopher, showed that basing scientific “laws” upon observation destroyed all possibility of law, since one could not observe every cause and effect continually for all eternity. “Laws”, therefore, involved a leap of faith in the order of the universe, easy enough for the Christian to make, but which people who had abandoned Christianity could simply not justify.
Death of J. Necker (1804)
Birth of Charles Pierre Baudelaire (1821)
Silk revolt in Lyons (1834)
4/10: I Wish You Weren’t Fertilizer Day
Denis Diderot, editor of the French Encyclopedia (1751-1777), came to realize that Enlightened observation demonstrated the impossible fragmentation of all order under the power of human passion. He was not happy about this, since it destroyed the very faith in beauty with which he, as a literary man, had begun his illuminated search for truth and goodness. But that’s life! Even love, ultimately, given human decay, turns out to provide nothing other than fertilizer for the future.
Death of Ockham (1349)
Solemn Proclamation of Concordat (1802)
Sacré of Louis XVIII (1814)
Death of Teilhard (1955)
Death of Evelyn Waugh (1966)
4/11: No More Ancients Jumping On the Bed Day
One good thing could come of modern scientific and mathematical discoveries. At least one did not have to live and die in slavish obedience to each and every intellectual and cultural dictate of the classical world.
Treaty of Paris-end of Albigensian Crusade (1229)
Birth of de Spinola (1910)
Stresa Front (11-14, 1935)
Arrest of Slipyi (1945)
4/12: I’m Pleased As Punch to be Me Day
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) showed, in his Confessions, that everyone who stripped himself of his pretensions and hypocrisy, and thus revealed his “natural” character, had to be accepted for what he was. Hence, he himself had to be accepted as a good man, despite tearing his child away from its mother to send to a work house, since he had revealed that the labor involved in raising the brat would have rattled his nerves.
Capture of Constantinople (1204)
Abolition of Mass in Zurich (1525)
Dom Gerle’s Proposal (1790)
Bell melting decree (1792)
Return of Pius IX (1850)
Death of Roosevelt (1945)
4/13: You’ve Got to Be Me Day
Rousseau “knew” that everyone could be just as honest as he was, but was stopped from it by selfish interests. For the world to be natural and good it must, therefore, abandon its hypocrisy and become a carbon copy of himself.
Edict of Nantes (1598)
Civil Constitution condemned by Pope (1791)
Roman Catholic Relief Bill (1829)
Katyn (1943)
4/14: Not Me, Not Free, Cease to Be Day
Some pathetic souls who could not become like Rousseau. They thus proved themselves to be not only enslaved to hypocrisy; they actually demonstrated that they were not even human. Such enemies of mankind must be eliminated for the sake of human well-being as a whole.
Cardinals (1059)
Dagger Day (1791)
Edict vs. Carbonari in Naples (1814)
Abdication of Alfonso XIII (1931)
4/15: I Believe For Every Ding An Sich That Goes, Conviction Grows
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) was convinced that outside “reality” could never be known through scientific observation. One could, however, restore universal laws upon the realization that everything the individual believed all people must follow, himself included, just had to be true.
Death of Danton (1794)
Birth of J.B. Heinrich (1816)
Birth of J.B. Franzelin (1816)
Birth of de Segur (1820)
Young Europe (1834)
Thus Endeth On the Inside Looking Out Week
16. Don’t Look Too Deeply Week
Wherein is Commemorated Catholicism’s Disdain For Knowledge, Displayed By Worry Over Willfulness (1700’s)
4/16: Hidden Blessing Day
Justice where justice is due! At least Hume and Kant knew there was a problem with basing everything on rational scientific observation.
Culloden (1746)
Pasque Veronesi (16-17, 1797)
Conversion of F. Schlegel (1809)
4/17: Anything Goes Day
Still, once the knowledge of cause and effect is denied, preventing the formulation of any natural law, the only thing left to build one’s life upon is “custom”, separate from any question of truth or goodness. Similarly, the ground for judging what ought to be universally applicable to all men might actually be nothing other than individual willfulness.
Death of Benjamin Franklin (1790)
Birth of Khruschev (1894)
4/18: Is There Really Nothing Wrong Day
Here lies the crux of the problem. Is our nature flawed, after Original Sin, or not? If it is flawed, then stripping ourselves down to our “natural desires” and “natural will”, or “time honored customs” may just be a recipe for the victory of evil, and a disaster for us and for all around us.
Refusal at Worms (1521)
Abolition of Josephinism (18-23, 1850)
4/19: I Know Paranoia When I See It Day
Rousseau’s desire to make the whole world a copy of himself in order that it could be honest and natural was accompanied by intense paranoia. Those “enemies of the people” who did not express an interest in becoming Rousseauian clones were, as we have seen, ipso facto monstrous, and, by necessity, eager to destroy the one whole and good man. It was a duel to the death between Rousseau and all
hypocritical anti-men. En garde, evil legions!
Protestants (1529)
Death of Cardinal Pacca (1844)
Death of C. Darwin (1882)
Formation of TSPJNJO in Spain (1937)
4/20: I Know Pornography When I See It Day
Rousseau’s ideas, adopted by the myriad of cheap late eighteenth century journalists, became a justification of the superiority of the mediocre, forced to suffer under the hypocrisy of the outside world. They also allowed for the validation of vulgarity and pornography, which the naturally honest man knew that everyone, is his heart of hearts, was dying to embrace.
Jesuits ordered out of Portugal (1759)
French declaration of war (1792)
Milanese vs. French (1814)
Birth of Maurras (1868)
Humanum Genus on secret societies (1884)
Separation in Portugal (1911)
4/21: Sic’Um Ding Day
Kant argued that it was impossible to know things as they really were. But if there are really DINGS out there that can be known, they will strike back against individual’s distorted, but self-proclaimed “natural” ideas of what they are, and destroy them.
Birth of Rome (753 B.C.)
Jesuits ordered out of Portugal (1759)
Law vs. refractory priests (1792)
Separation in Portugal (1911)
4/22: Dead Men Don’t Bleed Day
Individuals’ distorted ideas of reality give birth to what is called “ideology”, which seeks to bend the reality (which cannot be known) to its will. The results can be hell on earth.
Hildebrand elected (1073)
Birth of Isabella (1451)
Birth of Lenin (1870)
Death of Mora y del Rio (1928)
Thus Endeth Don’t Look Too Deep Week, and, with it, Preparation Season
II. Eruption Season: “It’s Easy if You Try”
(1700’s-1800’s)
17. Hammer Week
Wherein is Commemorated a Panoply of Illuminated Forces Eager to Begin to Punish Church and People for their Unforgivable Flaws
4/23: Not So Strange Bedfellows Day
By the middle of the eighteenth century an alliance of anti-Catholic forces was ready to go on the offensive. At first glance, they seemed to be an incoherent group, involving Jansenists, Enlightenment thinkers, civil servants and capitalists. On second glance, it was not so incoherent after all. Indeed, it was simply an updated version of the same forces that had been linked together since the 1200’s.
Decree vs. Jansenists (1654)
Monarchists demonstrate in Spain (1873)
4/24: Those Who Work and Fight Day
Secularists were interested in earthly improvements that could be weighed and measured. Thus, they were only keen on work and its results. Dynasties around Europe were chiefly interested in the power gained from improved weaponry and economic conditions, brought about by the labors of mathematicians, scientists and other practical men. Britain and Prussia, as we have seen, were the chief objects of admiration of all power seekers.
Mühlberg (1547)
Revolt in Tuscany vs. de Ricci (1790)
Dogmatic constitution Dei Filius (1870)
Encyclical of Errazuriz y Valdivieso (1923)
4/25: Watch Your Manners Day
A focus on practical work and unified national fighting ability was wrecked by disagreements over ideas, especially religious ideas. It was necessary to turn people away from whatever diverted them down such dangerous pathways. What really counted in dealings with one’s fellow countrymen was civility and the good manners that would shrink in horror from useless debates and rancor.
Birth of Louis IX (1214)
Catholic Association in Ireland (1823)
Death of J. Fessler (1872)
4/26: Putting Out the Candles Day
Religion wasted so much money which could be diverted to good purposes, like warfare. Hence, the Emperor Joseph II (1780-1790) controlled religious spending, and especially limited candle wax usage.
Pazzi Conspiracy (1478)
Lay confraternities suppressed in Italy (1806)
Second Carlist War (1872)
Popular Front victory (1936)
4/27: No More Sittin’On the Stoop Day
Religious people also wasted much time in prayers, processions, religious holidays and merriment. This had to stop; productivity demanded it. The Grand Duke Leopold of Tuscany, Joseph II’s brother and future Emperor (1790-1792), was one of many introducing reforms cutting back on useless festivities and recreation.
Birth of Gibbons (1737)
Birth of Maurice Baring (1874)
Birth of Guizar Valencia, Bishop of Veracruz (1878)
Salazar in Portugal (1928)
4/28: Jesuit Under the Bed Day
The Jesuits, accused of everything from recruiting a private army in Paraguay to assassinating rulers, were the chief targets of the practical man’s disdain. Much effort was spent on destroying the Society of Jesus, beginning with the Kingdom of Portugal (1759).
In eminente vs. Freemasons (1738)
Arrest of B. Antonio de Macedo Costa (1874)
Birth of Salazar (1889)
Death of Mussolini (1945)
4/29: Upping the Ante Day
It was not enough for dynasties to undertake the destruction of the Jesuits on their own steam. They demanded that the Papacy itself join in the kill, and take part in many other secularization measures as well.
Death of Tanucci (1783)
Birth of Paul Cullen (1803)
Pope refuses to join war (1848)
Thus Endeth Hammer Week
**********************************************************
18. Anvil Week
Wherein is Commemorated the Catholics Compounding of Their Crimes by Trying Different Means of Protecting Themselves (1700’s)
4/30: Try and Try Again Day
The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were replete with efforts on the part of Church authorities to fend off the assault on the supernatural in the name of power politics and practicality.
Dissolution of National Guard in France (1827)
Caroline de Bourbon in Marseilles (1832)
Les Paroles d’un croyant (1834)
5/1: Recruitment Sergeant Day
A sign of the Papacy’s weakness in this regard was its inability to fend off forcible recruitment of soldiers by the Great Powers in the Papal States and in Rome itself.
Birth of Bernard Overberg (1754)
Birth of T.M.J. Gousset (1792)
Imperial Catechism (1806)
May laws (1873)
Birth of Teilhard (1881)
New Hampshire issues liquor licenses (1903)
Catholic Worker (1933)
Dutch episcopacy vs. pluralism (1954)
5/2: I Wish I Were In Coena Day
The Papacy complained of abuses by governments in a bull every Holy Thursday called In Coena.
Death of St. Antoninus (1459)
Dos Mayos vs. Napoleon (1808)
Birth of Carlo Passaglia (1812)
Carlists defeated (1872)
5/3: Keep Your Mouth Shut Day
The last thing that dynasties wanted was to hear recriminations. Hence, the many attempts made, in the name of their “honor”, to end the practice of In Coena. These were ultimately successful under Pope Clement XIV in 1770.
Birth of Machiavelli (1469)
Lateran Council, (1512)
Louis XVIII takes Paris, 1814
Death of Groot (1878)
Anarchist revolt in Barcelona (3-10, 1937)
5/4: Praising Those That Kill You Day
But why stop with a mere imposition of silence. Better to get one’s victim to express approval of being victimized! The reign of Pope Clement XIV (1769-1774) was one long expression of pleasure over papal self-humiliation.
Birth of Horace Mann (1796)
5/5: No Land in Sight Day
The Jesuits were deported from their missionary centers and, if they were lucky, from Portugal and Spain as well, starting in 1758. Those that stayed were often imprisoned under miserable conditions. Those that embarked found that no country wanted them to disembark. Many were stranded on the high seas for some time.
Events leading to Formosus trial (896)
Opening of Estates General (1789)
Birth of Kierkegaard (1813)
Restoration of the Index and Inquisition (1814)
Death of Napoleon (1821)
Birth of Baron von Hügel (1852)
Garibaldi sails (1860)
New May Laws (1874- 1875)
Anticlerical laws in Spain (1931)
5/6: Pointless Travel Day
Pope Pius VI (1775-1799) tried to fight off Josephinism by taking a trip to complain of secularizing measures directly to the Emperor himself in Vienna (1782). It achieved little.
Fall of Rome (1527)
Death of Jansen (1638)
Kolping’s First Association (1849)
Birth of Juan Donoso Cortes (1809)
Thus Endeth Anvil Week
19. Terror Week
Wherein is Commemorated the French Revolution’s Simultaneous Reprimanding of the Past For Having Put Obstacles in its Path, Having Nevertheless Prepared It, and For Having Ever Existed at All (1700’s)
5/7: Old Time Alliance Day
The medieval alliance of heretics, capitalists and those eager for a strengthening of centralized, bureaucratic government was clearly active as a main cause of the French Revolution. The government of the Ancièn Régime was too Catholic, too economically diverse and too weak to be acceptable to it.
Decree of Cult of Supreme Being (1794)
5/8: I Am Not What I Am Day
Men think of the French Revolution as leading to a victory for “the People”. It was actually a victory for a quite small number of money men, one of whose first actions was to end the kind of democratic voting that elected the Estates-General. This was replaced by a restricted vote, based on property, and a still more restricted access to office, based on a yet greater personal worth.
Act of Uniformity (1559)
Death of Pombal (1782)
Death of E.F. de Choiseul (1785)
Lavoisier guillotined (1794)
Death of O. Spengler (1936)
5/9: Who’s In Charge Day
France was not used to be being ruled by a National Assembly. Cities organized their own municipal governments, backed by their own National Guards. The Paris Commune, in effect, took the King and National Assembly prisoner, bringing them to the capital and leaving open the question of who was actually responsible for national affairs.
Birth of Donoso Cortes (1809)
5/10: Bottom’s Up Day
Paris was a center for political clubs, ward centers and smutty political journalism. All manner of men who would never have had a chance to influence politics under the Ancièn Régime were now able to crawl out of the woodwork to take advantage of a shaky new set of institutions. Their only serious competitors were capitalists who, nevertheless, cooperated with them, since they, too, had gained from the Revolution, and did not exactly know, as their “allies” did, how to operate in the world of political ideology.
Meeting of St. Cyran and Jansenius (1623)
Lodi (1796)
Failure of Babeuf (1796)
5/11: I Never Did Like Dad Day
The Revolution became an assault on everything that retained a trace of the supernatural and truly diverse past of France. All had to be destroyed, as the bones of the Kings buried at St. Denis were exhumed and dispersed by the new lovers of mankind.
Death of Ricci (1610)
Death of Maury (1817)
May Laws (11-14, 1873)
Birth of Philip Hughes (1895)
Convent burning (1931)
5/12: Ineluctable Logic Day
Will power being the only determinant of thought and ethics left to modern man, the Revolution swiftly fell into the hands of the most willful of all of its supporters. Men like Maximilien Robespierre (1758-1794) spoke eloquently of the need to move ever more logically to the creation of a new kind of virtuous citizen.
Day of Barricades (1588)
End of Venice (1797)
Catholic Association in Ireland (1823)
Death of L. Lambruschini (1854)
Death of Huysmans (1907)
5/13: Your Defense is My Offense Day
Disagreements in the ranks of the revolutionaries became more severe by 1794. Purges reached insane proportions. In classic Rousseauian fashion, defending oneself could be proclaimed proof of hypocrisy by whomsoever was strongest.
Birth of Pius IX (1792)
Birth of Khomiakov (1804)
Law of Guarantees (1871)
Fatima (1917)
Thus Endeth Terror Week
20. Bring Out Your Dead Week
Wherein is Commemorated Catholic Discovery of the Disadvantages of Being Free, Equal and Fraternal (1700’s)
5/14:Treason of the Clerks Day
The clergy itself was involved in Enlightenment and revolutionary activities, from the calling of the Estates-General through until the fall of Robespierre. A case is point is Bishop Talleyrand-Périgord (1754-1838), who abandoned his clerical state, voted for the death of the King and built himself an extremely successful secular career.
François Ravaillac murders Henry IV (1610)
5/15: Someone’s Got to Pay Day
The primary practical reason for the beginning of the Revolution was the government’s bankruptcy. No one wanted to pay extra taxes. Nationalizing and then selling the property of the Church in 1789, using the justification of its existence for the common good, got everybody else off the hook.
Emperor flees Vienna (1848)
Victory of Garibaldi in Sicily (1860)
Law of Guarantees refused (1871)
Rerum novarum (1891)
Quadragesimo anno (1931)
5/16: Priestly People Day
Jansenists had grown more and more eager for a “democratic” Church in the course of the 1700’s. Secularists wanted to democratize the Church to destroy its canonical character and tie with Rome. The Civil Constitution of the Clergy (1790) achieved all three goals simultaneously.
Napoleon as Emperor (1804)
MacMahon’s coup of 1877
5/17: Unexpected Travel Day
Almost every bishop, as well as half of the clergy, could not accept the Oath to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. Most fled the country between 1790 and 1794. Pius VI himself died while being carried off into exile in 1799.
French enter Venice (1797)
Annexation of Papal States (1809)
Press Laws (1819)
Commissum Divinitas (1835)
Death of Talleyrand (1838)
5/18: Desecration Day
The so-called “Enraged Ones” began a full-scale attack on religion in 1792, their most famous actions involving desecrating cemeteries and rededicating Churches to secular purposes. Former priests often led such activities.
Fall of Acre (1291)
Call for burning of book of Nicholas of Autrecourt (1346, done 1347)
Death of Pompanazzi (1525)
Frankfurt Assembly (1848)
Birth of Bertrand Russell (1872)
5/19: Up To One’s Neck in Water Day
The Catholic population of the Vendée could not endure the attack on the Church. The Republic crushed the Vendée in 1793 and undertook the first genocide in history. One of its most cruel butcheries were the Noyades (drownings) of Nantes.
Birth of Fichte (1762)
Anne Boleyn beheaded (1536)
5/20: Is This the Evening of the Day Day
The death of Pope Pius VI in Valence on the way to a French prison in 1799 was hailed by revolutionaries as the end of the Infamous Thing. Perhaps many Catholics thought so themselves.
Wounding of Ignatius (1521)
Beginning of White Terror (1795)
Birth of Balzac (1799)
Birth of J.S. Mill (1806)
Dollfuss in Austria (1932)
Thus Endeth Bring Out Your Dead Week
21. Order in the Courtroom Week
Wherein is Commemorated the World Turned Upside Down Suffering Vertigo By Illogically Trying to Set Itself Right Again and Climb to Former Heights (1800’s)
5/21: Self-Made Man Day
Napoleon (1769-1821) was a man of order who, nevertheless, could never have “made it” in France without the shake-up caused by the Revolution. Therefore, he tried to combine order and tradition on the one hand with novelty on the other. Ultimately, the sole reliable pillar of his power was the army.
Birth of Philip II (1527)
Birth of Fouché (1759)
Entry into Paris (1871)
Death of Jane Addams (1935)
5/22: Bless Them All Day
The Church tried to work with whatever regime would give it some space to operate. Hence, it accepted the Concordat with Napoleon in 1801.
Death of Victory Hugo (1885)
Comintern abolished (1943)
5/23: Business as Usual Day
“Legitimist” governments claimed that everything would work out well so long as there were a “return to normalcy”; i.e., to the monarchies legally in power in 1789.
Execution of Savonarola (1498)
Death of Savonarola (1498)
Election of Carafa (1555)
Defenestration (1618)
Birth of T. Florentini (1808)
Death of J.D. Rockefeller (1937)
5/24: Russian Roulette Day
One of these Legitimist governments was also Russia. Its Emperor, Alexander I, claimed to wish to protect Christianity versus the Revolution. Would the Orthodox Russian Empire be open to Catholic practices?
Return of Pius VII to Rome (1814)
Birth of Valere Fallon (1875)
Birth of Bob Dylan (1941)
5/25: Check and Balance Day
Perhaps Liberal, English-style governments, which came to power in countries like Belgium, might also prove to be beneficial to the Church’s cause? A number of Catholics in the 1830’s and 1840’s thought this a distinct possibility.
Death of Gregory VII (1085)
Edict of Worms (1521)
First National Synod in France (1559)
Birth of R.W. Emerson (1803)
Death of Emile Combes (1921)
5/26: Juste Milieu Day
France gained a liberal government in 1830 under Louis-Philippe (1830-1848), and one that claimed an interest in prudent, non-violent change. Might this be a working partner, too?
Flight of Michael of Cesena and William of Ockham (1328)
Editio saepe (vs. Luther) (1910)
Birth of Jack Kevorkian (1928)
5/27: I’ve Shot Them All Day
Army officers, following the Bonapartist route of coups d’état, took over power in various countries, in Iberia in particular. Might they be tradition-friendly?
Death of T. Münzer (1525)
Death of Jean Calvin (1564)
Refractory priests deported (1792)
Thus Endeth Order in the Courtroom Week
22. No Catholics Need Apply Week
Wherein is Commemorated Catholic Grasping of the Modern Virtue of Trusting No One (1800’s)
5/28: Throne and Groan Day
Legitimist governments everywhere were pro-Christian so long as the Christians understood that their mission was to defend the status quo. In Russia, pro-Christian did not mean pro-Catholic, even in Catholic areas like Poland. Greek Catholicism was prohibited almost entirely.
Birth of Reichensperger (1810)
Death of Grégoire (1831)
Portuguese coup (1926)
Death of Marc Sangnier (1950)
5/29: Close the Door, Lock the Key Day
Being a zealous bishop could prove to be a recipe for a prison sentence, as Bishop von Droste-zu Vischering of Cologne came to realize from 1836-1840.
Fall of Constantinople (1453)
Birth of G.K. Chesterton (1874)
5/30: School’s Out Day
Liberal governments were no better, however. Catholic schooling was especially despised by them, particularly on the secondary and university level. It was still presumed to be alright for little children, however, who needed to learn by all means possible that it was wicked to steal bourgeois property.
Arrest of Quesnel (1703)
Birth of de Sousa (1855)
Birth of Bakunin (1814)
Death of Cardinal Suhard (1949)
5/31: Little Brothers Day
The 1830’s was the season for the destruction of the Franciscans and Dominicans at the hands of the liberal government of Spain.
Cum occasione (vs. Jansenists, 1653)
Frederick II ascends throne (1740)
6/1: Jesuits Under the Bed Again Day
Liberal professors like Jules Michelet and Edgar Quinet in their courses in Paris in 1843, taught that the Jesuits were at it again, trying to prevent prudent Progress. Jesuits had to learn to change homes regularly, as their own prudence dictated leaving town. They also had to resign themselves to seeing themselves ridiculed in cheap novels.
Death of John Dewey (1952?)
6/2: You Just Can’t Win Day
Catholics discovered that participation in liberal government did not mean that they were allowed to benefit from it. When Catholic candidates won election, they were regularly excluded from taking office, since they did not share “the right spirit”. The Kingdom of Sardinia was particularly unpleasant in this regard.
De Sade’s birth (1740)
Gordon Riots (10 days, 1780)
Girondin overthrown (1793)
Birth of Pius X (1835)
Birth of Emile Mâle (1862)
6/3: You Are Black But Beautiful Day
Still, perhaps the Church could be considered acceptable if she came to learn that the seed of her message had been preserved and developed in birth after rebirth (palingenesis) until now, when it was best represented by liberalism.
Birth of Jefferson Davis (1808)
Emile Combes in France (1902)
Thus Endeth No Catholics Need Apply Week
23. I Could Have Been An Accountant Week
Wherein is Commemorated the First Presentation of an Abundant Supply of Materialist Demands to the Underproductive and Underconsuming Masses (1800’s)
6/4: Active Citizen Day
The French Revolution defined citizenship on the basis of property ownership. The richer one was, the more “active” as opposed to “passive” his citizenship could be.
Constitution octroyé (1814)
Magenta (1859)
Emily Davidson dies (1913)
Death of Maurice Blondel (1949)
6/5: Want a Job Day
With the Industrial Revolution, salaried employment became more and more the norm. The ability to keep passive citizens alive fell into the hands of their active compatriots, who were deeply concerned that they get enough physical exercise to build their characters.
Birth of Adam Smith (1723)
Birth of J.J. Gaume (1802)
Riots in Paris (1832)
6/6: Speed’Um Up Day
Trains made transportation faster, allowing for a swifter supplying of ever more heated consumption. People working in factories had to be sped up in their production as well.
Birth of A. Müller (1779)
Ligurian Republic (1797)
Tugendbund (1808)
Death of Jeremy Bentham (1832)
Carlist War ends (1840)
Death of Cavour (1861)
Vs. Jesuits in France (1879)
Catholic victory in Belgium (1880)
6/7: Beautiful is Expendable Day
Utilitarianism became a standard philosophy for the speed’um up generation. And Utilitarianism had no time for any idea of beauty that was not practical and materially productive. Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) is one of Utiliarianism’s most famous proponents.
Lateran Accords (1929)
6/8: Chelsea Living Room Day
And Utilitarianism was so efficient! Once you knew exactly how mechanical people were, you could predict how everyone would act anywhere in the universe. Hence, Jeremy Bentham’s comment that he could legislate for all of India without leaving his home in London.
Birth of Prokopovich (1681)
Birth of Consalvi (1757)
Feast of Supreme Being (1794)
Death of T. Paine (1809)
Death of J.P. de Villeneuve-Bargemont (1850)
Death of G.M. Hopkins (1889)
Czech cacophony (1900)
6/9: Bigger and Better Weapons Day
Existing governments might not be thrilled with Industrialization in and of itself. But supporting it gained such beautiful new weaponry! Being prepared for war meant opening the doors to the fresh winds of capitalism.
Prairal Laws (1794)
Cum primum vs. Poland (1832)
6/10: Homogenization Day
It was already becoming clear in the early 1800’s that each step in the path of Industrialization generated further mechanization and standardization. Would these “black, satanic mills” homogenize everything lovely out of existence?
Excommunication of Napoleon (1809)
Congress of Vienna ends (1815)
Thus Endeth I Could Have Been an Accountant Week
24. Brother Can You Spare a Dime Week
Wherein is Commemorated the Lamentation and Penance Done by the Consumption-Challenged for Their Failure to Purchase (1800’s)
6/11: Is That All There Is Day
Romanticism complained that the mechanist mentality did not understood the mystery and the diversity of human life. It was not possible to build a decent civilization on utilitarian pillars, because these only gave scope for the recognition of half of the human personality, and that half the lower element.
Death of Metternich (1859)
Il fermo proposito (1905)
Pope apologizes for Editio saepe (1910)
6/12: Room For a View Day
Space had to be allowed for the non-utilitarian to thrive. Hence, Dicken’s Sissy in Hard Times, understood that the definition of a horse was not exhausted by a recounting of the number of its teeth, but by the realization of how its use by a masterful ride ennobled both the animal and the man.
Montlosier’s Memoires on Index (1826)
Beginnings of Liberal revolt in Belgium (1846)
Arreglos (12-21, 1929)
6/13: Scraps From the Table Day
What did the workingman get from Industrialization? Bad housing, miserable working conditions, isolation from traditional community life and terrible boredom to boot. No matter! Proper economic education would demonstrate that, given the right circumstances, and by doing violence to his soul, one out of a thousand might also be placed in a position where he, too, could exploit his fellow men.
Luther’s marriage (1525)
Ruffo attacks Naples (1799)
Law of Guarantees (1871)
Birth of Gilson (1884)
6/14: Poor But Happy Day
Poverty was one thing; pauperism quite another. Dom Margotti, active in Italy in the middle of the nineteenth century, in a book entitled Rome and London Compared, showed that many poor people survived in “backward” Italy with their human dignity intact, while industrialized London saw the poor transformed into paupers who combined poverty with an atomistic, hopeless and inhuman culture.
Querzy (877)
Ruffo captures Naples (1799)
Marengo (1800)
Che Guevara born (1928)
6/15: Chicago Fire Day
One of the bizarre features of industrial capitalism was that it made money off of everything. In fact, stability and happiness caused satiety and limited consumption. Disaster could prime the pump of the economy much better, reconstruction bringing with it more work and more profits. Hence, every normal human reaction was turned by capitalism on its head.
Exsurge Domine (1520)
Nuncio ordered out of Portugal (1760)
Election of Pius IX (1846)
Suppression of Prague Revolt (1848)
Bonnetty attacked (1855)
Eximiam tuam vs Günther (1857)
Nazis dissolved in Austria (1933)
6/16: Don’t Compromise, Organize Day
It was inevitable that there would be reaction against the position into which workingmen had been thrown by industrialism. One obvious reaction took the form of unionization of labor.
Martignac vs. Jesuits (1828)
Pius elected (1846)
Death of H.L.C. Maret (1884)
6/17: Inevitable Anger Day
Various forms of Socialism, ill-defined, inchoate and often in conflict with one another, were yet another form of reaction to abuse. Some of these could become violent, as the riots in Paris in 1848, fueled by desperation in the midst of economic crisis, demonstrated.
National Assembly (1789)
Forced resignation of Consalvi (1806)
French National Council (17-5 August, 18ll)
De Tijd (1845)
Thus Endeth Brother Can You Spare a Dime Week
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25. The More the Merrier Week
Wherein is Commemorated the Flourishing of the Banner of Democracy From Ever More Dizzying Vistas (1800’s)
6/18: Give Me Five Minutes More Day
Democrats argued that Robespierre was prevented from completing the Republic of Virtue just as it was at its moment of fruition. Would that he (and the guillotine) have had just a tiny bit more time to finish the job at hand!
Waterloo (1815)
6/19: Big Rock Candy Mountain Day
The natural man, as Rousseau had demonstrated, was a fount of goodness. Who could doubt the heights that would be climbed and the benefits that would be accumulated once this natural goodness of the People in general was tapped and set to work?
Execution of Emperor Maximillian (1867)
Death of Lord John Acton (1902)
6/20: Silent Majority Day
The Abbé Félicité de la Mennais (1782-1854) was one of those who, in Catholic ranks, was also convinced of the supreme merit of the People. He reached this conclusion, to begin with, from a counterrevolutionary standpoint, by noting that the People had been mostly opposed to the ravages of the radicals against religion and the old monarchy. Did this not prove that they formed a reliable silent majority on which the Truth could firmly count for support?
Iconoclasm in Zurich (-2 July, 1524)
Tennis Court Oath (1789)
Mob invades the Tuilleries (1792)
“Peace” in Italy (1797)
Death of Sièyes (1836)
Libertas (1888)
Birth of Sartre (1905)
6/21: Mystical Energy Day
The Abbé de la Mennais, as a Catholic, was also convinced that this goodness and truthfulness of the People proved that the Holy Spirit was working through them. The Holy Spirit’s work was particularly clear when the People manifested vibrancy and energy in their actions.
Birth of Swiss Guards (1505)
Varennes (21-25, 1791)
Singulari nos (1834)
Bloody Week, Paris (1871)
Arreglos (1929)
6/22: Consciousness Raising Day
Alas! The Silent Majority was just that--silent! It lacked the vibrancy and energy that it needed to display to prove that the Holy Spirit was behind it. What it needed was to be pushed by a Vanguard of the People to express more enthusiastically what it must, surely, think. Who better to express the true wishes of the Silent Majority than an already energetic prophet like the good Abbé?
Death of Fischer (1535)
Birth of J.L. Colmar (1760)
Birth of G. Mazzini (1805)
Birth of J.P. Sartre (1905)
6/23: Act of Faith Day
Was one not convinced of this truth? And yet the Holy Spirit had spoken! Obviously, an act of Faith was required for a full understanding of the mystery.
Program of King (1789)
June Days begin (1848)
Banishment of Bonapartists and Orleanists (1886)
6/24: Palingenesis Day
Democrats of many stripes who did not wish to condemn the entire western past, argued that the seed of the Christian message had fallen into the soil on a number of occasions, appearing to have died, only to be reborn again in new and more glorious form. The discovery that the infallible voice of the Holy Spirit was to be heard through the prophetic message of charismatic energizers of the People who made them realize that this was Christianity’s latest and most perfect form of expression.
Field of Lies (833)
Foundation of Grand Lodge of England (1717)
Solferino (1859)
Thus Endeth the More the Merrier Week
26. The One is Not the Many Week
Wherein is Commemorated the Democratic Love of What Turn Out to be Masquerade Balls (1800’s)
6/25: Shall We Dance Day
Legitimist governments had not proven to be necessarily reliable from the Church’s point of view. Liberalism had not created an exactly brilliant record for itself either. Perhaps the Church ought to try her luck with democracy? Maybe reliance on the Silent Majority would prove to be more effective!
Fall of Münster (1535)
Singulari nos (1834)
Death of D.A. Affre (1848)
Jesuits expelled from Germany (1872)
6/26: What Goes Up May Not Come Down Day
Democracy proved to be a difficult tool. After all, it needed to be interpreted, by its prophets, in the “right spirit”. Perhaps the People would never match the prophets’ expectations. Perhaps they would never see things in the right spirit. Why, perhaps the silent People would never become the energetic People after all ! Orthodox Catholicism never thought the People were infallible to begin with. Still, they did exist, and their right to existence as something other than a plaything of Prophets was sacrosanct.
Death of Julian the Apostate (363)
Luther’s Debate with Eck (26-16 July, 1519)
Birth of J.S. Maury (1746)
6/27: The State is Not the Church Day
Lamennais had been angry with Legitimate governments for interfering with the life of the Church. Hence, he wanted a separation of Church and State. Unfortunately, everything that he claimed to be “spiritual” required much more political activity and submission from the State than ever before in Catholic History. What one got, then, was a charismatic, democratic Church-State that called fraudulently itself a secular government.
Death of Kaunitz (1794)
6/28: Chameleon Day
What, really, did the People think, even supposing that it was truly the People’s voice that was being heard and not that of its Prophets and interpreters? Could its thoughts change from day and day, and Truth and Morality along with them? Could murdering one’s grandmother be bad yesterday if a majority believed it, and good today if that same majority changed its mind?
Birth of F.W. Faber (1814)
Birth of Rousseau (1712)
Assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand (1914)
6/29: Dialogue Day
Pius IX (1846-1878) was ready to admit that a little good will could go a long way. Hence, he began his reign in 1846 with a call for dialogue, with democrats included in it.
Birth of Leopardi (1798)
Aeterni Patris (1868)
Diuturnum illud on politics (1881)
Satis cognitum (1896)
Non abbiamo bisogno (1931)
Mystici corporis (1943)
6/30: I Think I Made a Blunder Day
Things did not work out as Pius IX hoped that they might. The “hidden agenda” of the charismatic prophets of democracy, obviating the Catholic will of an existing majority, became more clear and more ominous. It was time for a change of track.
Albornoz appointed (1353)
Expulsion of Jesuits from France (1880)
Prayer after Mass for Russia (1930)
Warning vs. Teilhard (1962)
7/1: Shall We Party Day
If Parliaments were going to be elected, and large numbers of people were going to vote, would it not be better for Catholics to organize political parties to push an acceptable program of their own? Could they not thus allow for the expression of a true majority will?
Permission to Jesuits in France (1565)
Carbonari Rebellion (1820)
Osservatore Romano (1861)
Italy dissolves Monasteries (1873)
Death of Bakunin (1876)
Spanish pastoral (1937)
Thus Endeth the One is Not the Many Week
***********************************************************
27. Love It or Leave It Week
Wherein is Commemorated the Burying of Different Nations’ Heads in Infertile Soil (1800’s)
7/2: Each His Own Day
Romantic thinkers, themselves emerging out of the Enlightenment context, began to argue that every ethnic group was so different, one from the other, that each had its own specific way of understanding truth, goodness and beauty.
Sacred Heart Feast (1765)
Death of J.J. Rousseau (1778)
Carbonari Revolt in Naples (1820)
Birth of Pereira y Castellón (1863)
7/3: Stirring Up Day
God had created each distinct ethnic group as it was. To understand the puzzle of the universe, each piece had to deliver its particular message. It could not do so unless it were united and politically free. Each nation had to come together and gain independence.
Hugh Capet elected (987)
Horns of Hattin (1187)
Return of Pius VII to Rome (1800)
French enter Rome (1849)
Sadowa (1866)
Lamentabili (1907)
7/4: Be What is Becoming Day
There were as yet no Germans or Italians since they had no united nation. In order to be true Germans and Italians one had to cease to be what everyone thought was a German or Italian up until that moment in time. Unfortunately, the new, “real” Germans and Italians, all tended to look like modern, liberal or democratic Englishmen or Frenchmen.
Birth of Garibaldi (1807)
Expulsion of Jesuits from Germany (1872)
7/5: Deus Lo Vult Day
Since God is behind the creation of independent nations, anything that was done to bring them into being involved doing God’s will; anything done to prevent their creation involved alliance with the Evil One.
Laetantur Caeli (1439)
Nine Sisters Lodge (1776)
Salazar as Prime Minister (1932)
7/6: Poles Apart Day
No one was more convinced of the support of God in the creation of an independent nation than Polish revolutionaries, many of whose spokesmen were in exile in Paris. Poland, especially Russian Poland, became the image of the suffering, Christ-Nation; its nationalists, prophets of a better world to come.
Condemnation; of Hus (1415)
Death of More (1535)
Swedish landing (1630)
Coblenz as emigré center (1791)
Laws and Persecution (1798)
Birth of von Reisach (1800)
Deportation of Pius VII and Quand memoranda (1809)
7/7: This is the Moment Day
1848 saw nationalist movements bursting into violence in Italy, Germany and Hungary. Attempts were made to use the opportunity to create united nations in all of them.
Ab Aegyptus vs. novelty (1228)
White Terror begins in south France (1815)
Belgian Union (1828)
Carlist War (1834)
Kuyper victory in Netherlands (1901)
7/8: What About Me Day
None of these movements succeeded at the time, although most of Italy was united by 1861, much of Germany in 1871, and Hungary given equal status with Austria in 1866. But what about the other ethnic nationalities in Europe? Did God not want them to create and fit in their piece of the divine puzzle as well?
Arrest of Ultramontanist bishops (1811)
Death of Shelley (1822)
Abolition of Catholic Bureau in Germany (1871)
Thus Endeth Love It or Leave It Week
28. Who’s to Judge Week
Wherein is Commemorated the Fact that Burying Heads in the Soil Causes Asphyxiation (1800’s)
7/9: We’re All in This Together Day
Christ was meant for all people of all ethnic backgrounds. If each understands Truth, Goodness and Beauty in its own way, then their is no common science, morality and salvation. German Chemistry, French Physics, English Virtue and Italian virtue lie just around the corner!
Gorkum Martyrs (1572)
Birth of Zeger van Espen (1646)
F. of Martyrs of Orange (6-26, 1794)
Cisalpine Republic (1797)
Death of Jaime Balmes (1848)
7/10: Why Must a Nation Be Like a State Day
The Church is not inevitably destroyed by existing in different States; neither need an ethnic group be thereby obliterated. Politics is one thing; a coherent culture another. Indeed, nationalists actually had an ideological political agenda which gave them little in common with the culture of the peoples whom they claimed to liberate but, in reality, disfigured and exploited.
Portuguese bishops and popular union (1913)
Scopes Trial (10-21, 1925)
Lifting of Action Française ban (1939)
7/11: Blow’Um Up, Run’Um Down Day
How were you going to create unified nations in areas where many ethnic groups were mixed? Would minorities have to be deported? Killed? Assimilated? And what about practicing Jews, who seemed to be at home nowhere? Would they have to create their own Nation-State?
Death of Erasmus (1536)
Birth of Léon Bloy (1846)
Speech of Gasser in Rome (1870)
7/12: Global Sprawl Day
Since nationalists were really ideologues, enamored of modern, English and French models, what they were doing was actually creating one, similar, world-wide “nation”, and a materialist one to boot.
Henry II’s penance (1174)
Civil Constitution (1790)
God sanctions polygamy (1843)
Religious riots in New York (1871)
7/13: Don’t Nationalize, Temporize Day
Because of the fact that what really counted to the nationalists was an abstract, non-existent, ideological “homeland”, the true, existing nation could be sacrificed by them. Thus, in order to “create Italy”, part of Italy, Nice, the home of Garibaldi, was sacrificed by them to France, in exchange for the help of Napoleon III. Help to do what? To build Italy.
Death of Henry II (1024)
Birth of J.A. Eyzaguirre (1783)
Death of Marat (1793)
Birth of José Manuel Estrada (1842)
Death of Ketteler (1877)
Von Galen (1941)
7/14: Pay and March Day
One of the grand dreams of the unifiers of nations was simply that of ensuring a greater political power that demanded conscription of large armies and the payment of significantly increased taxes.
Birth of Quesnel (1634)
Real Cedula (1765)
Death of Marat (1793)
Enfantin’s new book (1832)
Death of AB Mora (1930)
7/15: Oh What A Holy War Day
With one power-hungry nation after another seeking a place in the sun, war of all against all was only a matter of time. But, given that this type of nationalism was said to be God-willed, perhaps bloody modern warfare was a Divine necessity?
Return of Papal Government in Rome (1849)
Thus Endeth Who’s to Judge Week
29. Kinks in the Machinery Week
Wherein is Commemorated the Growing Willingness to Show that Blood is Thicker Than Reason (1800’s)
7/16: All in the Blood Day
Some mechanists thought that they had found the key to the meaning of life through the study of biology: it was the blood of the specific group to which one belonged that determined everything.
Anne Askew burned (1546)
Signing of Concordat (1801)
Execution of Nicholas II (1918)
Beginning of Nationalist China evacuation (1949)
7/17: Blood Sport Day
The blood of one ethnic group had to be tested against that of the others, since nature has decreed the struggle of all against all as one of its most basic laws.
Luther enters monastery (1505)
Anne Askew burned (1546)
Massacre in Champs de Mars (1791)
Martyrs of Compiegne (1794)
Riots vs. clergy in Madrid (1834)
7/18: Obvious Selection Day
The best blood will infallibly rise to the top through such a contest, and humanity progress in consequence. Any loser who does not understand this truth does not understand it precisely because he belongs to an inferior blood group that cannot possibly understand it.
Dogmatic Constitution Pastor Aeternus (1870)
Death of Juarez (1872 )
Spanish Civil War (1936)
7/19: All That Which is Excellent is Ours Day
Everything that has ever been of value to human culture is best exemplified in the works of the superior blood line. All that which is excellent is ours!
Birth of Seipel (1876)
Resignation of Falk (1879)
Birth of Mussolini (1883)
7/20: Measuring Up Day
No one wants his blood group polluted, lest progress be inhibited. Hence, the need to measure skulls, noses, brains, blood types and the like, so that dubious misfits and interlopers can be discovered.
Birth of Petrarch (1304)
Dissolution of Sonderbund, refused by Catholics (1847)
Plombières (1858)
Pius X (1903)
Von Galen (1941)
Assassination attempt on Hitler (1944)
7/21: And We Shall Purify Day
Legal action would be required once the interlopers were identified. The blood could not be mocked. Culture would triumph. Purity would most certainly be restored.
Inquisition established (1542)
Dominus ac Redemptor (1773)
7/22: All The Nations Shall Adore Thee Day
It was not enough simply to be the best. The purified nation with the superior blood line had to be recognized as such by everyone throughout the globe. What fun was being best if no one else admitted that you were?
Godfrey of Bouillon (1099)
Death of J. Fisher (1535)
Slaughter of Berthier, last Intendant (1789)
Thus Endeth Kinks in the Machinery Week
30. Out of the Game Week
Wherein is Commemorated the Refusal of Those Unfit to Loosen the Laces of the Sandals of Others to Accept the Invitation to Remove Themselves
(1800’s)
7/23: Bloody Nonsense Day
The Church could not accept the idea that people could be categorized entirely on the basis of their racial background. The head of the Catholic Centre Party in Germany even made the point by adopting an African.
Méan denounces Philosophical College (1825)
7/24: All Pain, No Gain Day
Towards what was one progressing through all this struggle? Was the struggle worth the effort? Was it not permissible at least to ask that question?
Death of Matilda, Countess of Tuscany (1115)
7/25: Eye of the Beholder Day
Far from being obvious that any one group was better than another, such estimations were based upon pompous, arbitrary, self-flattery, and backed by nothing other than the material strength of the “race” in question. Truly high culture, as usual in history, is placed on a secondary level.
Henry IV abjures Calvinism (1593)
Manifesto of Duke of Brunswick (1792)
Arrest of Robespierre (1794)
Custoza (1848)
Murder of Dollfuss (1934)
Comintern and Popular Front (25-20 August, 1935)
7/26: Dubious Genetics Day
Great minds and cultural achievements have manifestly come from many different places. The racists get around this problem by insisting that people have mistakenly attributed the wrong bloodline to geniuses. All that which is excellent becomes indeed theirs! Michelangelo becomes an Aryan. Plato a Nordic. Dubious genetics triumph across the board.
Birth of Rautenstrauch (1734)
Execution of Robespierre (1794)
7/27: Stranger than Fiction Day
The “scientific” tools used to wean out the unfit are irrational enough to be worthy of the entire evolutionary vision, filled as it is with dubious missing links and leaps of faith. Appropriately enough, many of these tools were developed first in California.
Excommunication of Spinoza (1656)
Robespierre joins CPS (1793)
Three Glorious Days (1830)
Birth of Hilaire Belloc (1870)
7/28: Bloody Mess Day
What, practically, would one do with the interlopers when identified? Sterilize them so that they do not reproduce? Exile them? Perhaps dispense with them entirely? Purification requires a refiner’s fire!
Death of Robespierre? (1794)
Birth of Feuerbach (1804)
Sentence of Macedo Costa (1874)
Suppression of Opera (1904)
Death of Houtin (1926)
7/29: Two Way Street Day
Nations wishing to display their power on a world wide level had to build Empires. Empires required roads. Roads could lead the inferior subject peoples into the homelands of their masters. Impurities could increase rather than diminish.
Battle of Kleidan (1014)
Unfrocking of Hidalgo (1811)
Aeterni Patris (1868)
Aeterni Patris (1879)
Murder of Umberto (1900)
Humanae vitae (1968)
Thus Endeth Out of the Game Week
31. Real Class Week
Wherein is Commemorated the Understandable Penchant of Fraternal Equality to Develop a Mean Streak (1800’s)
7/30: Nowhere to Lay Their Heads Day
The mass of people in bourgeois industrial society survived by salary. They owned nothing, and were therefore part of the proletariat. Democrats and palingenesists were concerned to do something about it. Trade unions actually did.
Death of Diderot (1784)
Laws vs. Church in Portugal (1832)
Austrian Concordat revoked (1870)
Birth of Werner Jaeger (1888)
7/31: Spontaneous Combustion Day
The proletariat was said by Marxists to be engaged in inevitable struggle with the bourgeoisie. Class war was a fact of life that could be seen as a key to the machine of nature.
Approval of Spiritual Exercises (1548)
Commission on Church reform in Portugal (1833)
John Ireland, B of St. Paul (1884)
Ley Callas (1926)
Suspension of Church services in Mexico (1926)
8/1: Unbounded Love Day
The problem, as far as anarchists were concerned, was authority, including, especially, the authority of property owners. Get rid of authority of all kinds, and pure love would enable everyone to build the perfect world. Getting to the stage of an anarchist world might involve violence, but such unpleasantness need not take that long.
Marriage of clergy denounced (1022)
Death of Adhemar of Le Puy (1098)
Assassination of Henry III (1589)
Birth of Ludwig von Haller (1768)
Total war vs. Vendée (1793)
Fall of Bela Kun (1919)
Suspension of religious services in Mexico (1926)
8/2: Professorial Patience Day
Marx did not think that unbounded love would solve anything. A proper world would only come about according to a mechanical evolution, which might require centuries for some countries to achieve.
Torquemada on Inquisition (1483)
Death of Antoine Arnauld (1694)
Refusal of Fundamental Law of Broglie (1815)
Feast of St. Alphonsus Liguori
8/3: Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner Day
Attempts at establishing joint action on behalf of the proletariat brought trade unionists, anarchists and Marxists together in the First International (1864). It’s members were not happy campers.
Messianic war at Cuzco (1814)
Death of Eugene Sue (1857)
Von Galen (1941)
8/4: Mixed Marriage Day
Another attempt, involving a mix of trade unionists and Marxists, created the Second International (1889), with headquarters in Brussels and the exhortation, followed in many countries, to create Social Democratic Parties.
Inter multiplices vs. Gallicans (1690)
Abolition of Feudalism (1789)
Succession of Pius X (1903)
8/5: Be True to Your School Day
Different interpretations about what to do with Social Democratic Parties developed. Some “orthodox” Marxists said that they could accomplish nothing other than consciousness-raising among workers, who would have to wait for the historical cycle to move them towards communism, the last stage of development. Others, so-called “Revisionists”, said that they needed to be used to effect serious change through the political process. Still others, like Lenin, argued that an elite party which would neither sell-out the Marxist message to vulgar, trade-union demands, nor feel itself condemned passively to await the outcome of history, had to be constructed.
Birth of Napoleon (1769)
Bruno Lanteri’s death (1830)
Agreement of Chambord and Orleans (1873)
Thus Endeth Real Class Week
32. Mass Moving Week
Wherein is Commemorated the Prodding by a Thousand Stimuli of the Same Dull Mob (1800’s)
8/6: Dangled Tidbit Day
Many people could be tempted to support capitalism by holding out to them the lucky achievements of a handful of others. Also, people could be won to the support of nefarious capitalist changes because they could not possibly understand their horrible consequences until such time as whole nations and vast numbers were subject to their ravages.
Death of Mother Angelique Arnauld (1661)
Parliament bans Jesuits in France (1762)
Birth of O’Connell (1775)
End of HRE (1806)
Murder of Garcia Moreno (1875)
Hiroshima(1945)
8/7: Self-Perpetuation Day
Rousseauian ideas about the glorification of the People allowed for individuals to “speak” for everyone else, and thereby perpetuate their own personalities in all those worthy to be called human. Moreover, palingenesis allowed for every new philosophical, political and social force to gain a hearing by calling itself nothing other than the necessary development of absolutely traditional Christian values.
Birth of Franz von Fürstenberg (1729)
Suppression in Italy (1809)
Sollicitudo omnium ecclesiarum (1814)
Birth of Charles Peguy (1873)
8/8: Firm Hand Day
The idea of firm hand, like that of a Bonaparte or another “man on horseback” began to demonstrate its democratic appeal by the last two decades of the nineteenth century. One example was the “Boulangist” movement in France in the 1880’s.
Treaty of Verdun (843)
Failure of Fifth Crusade in Egypt (1221)
Mary on Throne (1553)
Calling of Estates General (1788)
Polignac (1829)
Death of Haeckel (1919)
Death of Sturzo (1959)
8/9: I Love a Parade Day
Nationalist, militarist themes appealed to the mob as well. The mother of August Bebel, the head of the German Social Democratic Party, was indignant over suggestions by hear son’s associates that she stop attending parades in Berlin. “I vote for Bebel, but run for the Kaiser”, was her response.
Adrianople (378)
Western Schism (1378)
Juarez named Minister of Justice (1855)
Pius X (1903)
Benedict’s peace proposals (1917)
Nagasaki (1945)
8/10: There Goes the Neighborhood Day
Racists found the mob an easy target, especially in places like Vienna, which had to deal with immigration problems from all over Austria-Hungary and Russia as well.
Attack on Tuilleries (1792)
Birth of Adalbert Falk (1827)
8/11: A Penny For Your Thoughts Day
The Press became a mass political influence by the latter half of the nineteenth century in countries like England, France and the United States. Here, mass tabloids, costing a pittance, could be used to create war fever and unthinking responses to major national and international issues.
Death of Tetzel (1519)
Death of Newman (1890)
Death of E.M. Hostos (Positive education, 1903)
8/12: Over the Rainbow Day
Another stimulus to mass movement wee the dreams unleashed by migration to America and, in some cases, to the new colonies being obtained by European countries in Africa after the Berlin Congress of 1888.
Birth of Pierre Parisis (1795)
Death of Pierre Buchez (1865)
Birth of George Soros (1930)
Humani generis (1950)
Thus Endeth Mass Moving Week
33. Beating Dead Horses Week
Wherein are Commemorated the Final Attempts of a Dying Civilization to Squeeze the Last Drops of Water From Already Dried-Out Sponges
(1800’s-1900’s)
8/13: Cultural Improvement Day
Culture Wars, Kulturkämpfe, beginning in the Kingdom of Sardinia/Italy, extending into the new German Empire, the French Third Republic, and, for a time, in Austria-Hungary and the Lowlands as well, were unleashed as a means of getting rid of the last Christian “idols” standing in the way of Progress.
Titus Oates Plot (1678)
Birth of AB Michael Augustine Corrigan (1839)
8/14: Children's Safari Day
The latter part of the nineteenth century witnessed a variety of countries establish mandatory educational systems in which students were deprived of religious training and even raised in an anti-Christian spirit. Reaction on the part of Catholic parents in places like the Lowlands was ferocious.
Death of Pius II (1464)
Oath to Liberty/Equality (1792)
Jesuits welcomed back to Austria (1820)
Polish defeat of Reds (14-16, 1920)
Atlantic Charter (1941)
8/15: Emptying the Convents Day
Similarly, new assaults on religious orders and congregations, especially those which were involved in education, were pressed to the utmost.
Ignatius at Montmartre (1534)
Acceptance of Concordat in Rome (1801)
Suppression of Jesuits in Spain (1820)
Mirari vos (1832)
Italian National Association (1857)
8/16: Separation Day
Separation of Church and State was always a major concern of revolutionary governments, from those that were liberal to the most radical. Pursued with renewed fervor in this age, the most important separation which took place was that in France in 1903.
Death of von Senestry (1906)
Death of J.C. Murray (1967)
8/17: Cloak and Dagger Day
Many groups became ever more engaged in secret organization, terrorism, counter-terrorism and acts of civil disobedience as the era drew to a close ”It will come, it will come”, some anarchists sang; “every bourgeois will have his bomb”. Fanatical national societies were not the lest of such perilous political participants.
Death of Frederick II (1786)
8/18: Solidarity Day
Enthusiasts for global solidarity and eternal peace could be found in ever increasing numbers by the turn of the century. Andrew Carnegie was one of them; various Social Democrats were others. Unfortunately, the philosophies underlying the different expressions of hope for peace were ones that insisted upon the omnipresence of struggle in nature and human life, or gave no ground for being able to identify, objectively, anything that was right or wrong.
French Concordat (1516)
Suppression of religious orders (1792)
Execution of Ugo Bassi (1849)
Austrian Concordat (1855)
8/19: Prisoners of War Day
Propaganda for war as a purifying, progressive force became ever more strident by the turn of the new century as well. Futurists even saw it as a source of artistic beauty, some of them arguing that bodies twisted by shrapnel or barbed wire were objects of splendor.
Death of Johann Friedrich (1917)
Thus Endeth Beating Dead Horses Week
34. Fingers in the Dike Week
Wherein is Commemorated Catholic Opening of Umbrellas During Monsoon Season 1800’s-1900’s
8/20: Into the Tower Day
Civilization is dying all around us, some Catholics argued. The only way to deal with our problems is to hide within the confines of the parish and Church organizations and let the curtain come down on the whole corrupt
structure.
Death of St. Bernard (1153)
Montalembert at Malines (1863)
Death of Pius X (1914)
8/21: Out of the Tower Day
Nonsense, others responded. The structure itself is morally indifferent. Catholics must play an open role within it and thereby compel it down an acceptable direction.
Death of Peter Lombard (1160)
Montalembert at Mâlines (1863)
Birth of Michelet (1798)
Death of Trotsky (1940)
8/22: Hopeless Admonition Day
Some Catholics who were convinced that civilization was collapsing, but who nevertheless wished to try to do something to save it, wanted the Papacy to give instruction to believers regarding the rights and wrongs of contemporary society. The first fruits of this enterprise was the publication by Pius IX of the Syllabus of Errors (1864), a list of eighty principles of modernity which Catholics could never accept.
Birth of Pierre de Tencin (1680)
8/23: Social Doctrine Day
The Syllabus of Errors focused on the mistakes of the Enlightenment and the Revolution. Was there a positive, Catholic teaching that could serve as a guide for dealing with current political and social problems? Leo XIII (1878-1903) began the process of formulating just such a substantive Catholic Social Doctrine.
Reform Commission (1535)
Levee en masse (1793)
Austria excluded (1866)
Hitler-Stalin Pact (1939)
8/24: Party Day
The presumption of those who wished to come out of the tower was that Catholic political parties should be formed to contest elections. These parties could run into major problems over specific policies beyond the purely defensive ones of standing guard over the rights of the Church.
Death of Genghis Khan (1227)
St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre begins (1572)
Birth of Bartholomé Herrara (1808)
Revolution in Portugal (1820)
Death of Chambord (1883)
8/25: King and Country Day
Legitimism was reinvigorated as a political movement emphasizing its pro-Catholic characteristics in the work of men such as Charles Maurras and his Action Française. “Politics first!” was its motto, indicating its conviction that the salvation of religion was dependent upon the reestablishment of a traditional monarchy dedicated to the maintenance of the French nation and all that made it great.
Death of David Hume (1776)
Capture of Marseilles by Republicans (1793)
Belgian Revolution (1830)
Death of Nietzsche (1900)
Death of Sillon (1910)
8/26: Wrong Side of the Tracks Day
Some Catholics were horrified by liberal capitalist flouting of economic morality and social considerations. Others were outraged by socialist assaults on individual property ownership. If political activism there had to be, each said, then let it be in union with others who thought similarly, regardless of their religious affiliations. Alas, each group considered the other to be on the wrong side of the tracks.
Declaration; of Rights of Man (1789)
Refractory ordered out (1792)
No religious habits (1792)
World Council of Churches (1948)
Thus Endeth Fingers in the Dike Week
35. Anything Goes Week
Wherein are Commemorated the Currents Mindlessly Taking All Refuse to the Sea (1890’s-1914)
8/27: Boundless Optimism Day
Many people, fed by Social Darwinism, Marxism, continued Liberal beliefs and insipid popular Enlightenment writers were as pleased as punch with their era, and could see nothing but hope for the future.
Birth of Hegel (1770)
Declaration of Pilnitz (1791)
Birth of Mother Theresa (1910)
8/28: Hopeless Pessimism Day
Many others, aware of the endless divisions of thought in the modern world and the fanatical commitment of the various proponents of this myriad of positions became convinced that they lived in the worst of eras, and one that was headed towards an inevitable cataclysm.
Death of Augustine (430)
Decision on Grace (1607)
Birth of Amalie Gallitzyn (1748)
Auctorem fidei vs. Pistoia (1794)
Birth of Jaime Balmes (1810)
Fall of Venice (1849)
8/29: Lurid Passion Day
All that matters is individual, some cried. Indulge those passions, the more base, the better. Hence, the sense of decadence pervading much of turn of the century culture.
Mohacs (1526)
Death of Ulrich von Hutten (1523)
Birth of Locke (1632)
Death of Pius VI (1799)
Birth of Henri Périn (1815)
Death of Paul von Hoensbroeck, anti-Jesuit (1923)
Hitler/Stalin Pact (1939)
8/30: Atonal Day
With no rules left to guide life, the arts were free to go insane as well. Why should there be any guidelines for colors, shapes, keys, word definitions or anything else?
Anne Hutchinson condemned (1637)
Creation of Decade Cults (1796)
Birth of Emmanuel d’Alzon (1810)
Religious instruction compulsory in Belgian State Schools (1895)
Attempt on Lenin (1918)
8/31: Song of the Deed Day
Anarchists were convinced that a few simple “deeds” of a new type of knight errant could ring out the old and bring in the new. These deeds could be assassinations; they could also be the unleashing of General Strikes.
Beginning of Directory attacks on religion; in Belgium (1796)
Pope approves Benedictines in France (1837)
Birth of Georg von Hertling (1843)
Death of Baudelaire (1867)
Sacrorum antistitum (1910)
9/1: Welcoming Armageddon Day
Nihilists believed that nothing had any meaning. The great benefit of the twentieth century, which, as Nietzsche described it, would be a century of war, revolution, disease, famine and massive inhumanity, was that it would demonstrate this meaninglessness infallibly to everyone.
9/2: Destroying What Other Men Cherish Day
Would some people be horrified by the coming Armageddon? Of course! This was due to the fact that they did not want to get rid of the security blanket of ideas that convinced them that there was some truth and goodness guiding life. No matter! The only real good was the revelation of meaninglessness; the destruction of what other men cherished.
Nördlingen (1634)
Death of Nicholas von Hontheim (1790)
Prison massacres (2-5, 1792)
Thus Endeth Anything Goes Week
36. Where is This Going Week
Wherein is Commemorated the Reality that Enlightenment and Progress are Dropping Dead (1914)
9/3: What’s the Point and Where’s the Joy Day
Optimism was not hope; it was not built upon anything more solid than sentimental desire. The Enlightenment thinker seeing nothing but building blocks to a better future coming from his vision of life was only examining half of the evidence.
Invasion of Italy (1494)
Death of Cromwell (1658)
Condemnation of Encyclopedia (1759)
French Constitution (1791)
Expulsion of Jesuits from Switzerland (1847)
9/4: What Else Did You Expect Day
Of course the reduction of life to nothing but nature had to unleash all of the endless conflicting desires of the lower side of man’s character. All the divisions and passion for destructive struggle had been predicted by the Church since the beginning of the modern era.
Terror decreed (1793)
Separation of Church and State (1794)
Coup of 18 Fructidor vs. Regalists (1797)
Persecution of the Second Directory (-18 June, 1799)
Birth of C.M.Curci (1810)
9/5: Rites of Spring/Reality of Summer Day
The unleashing of passion was now bearing its fruit in the mindless descent into war by August of 1914.
Oath of hatred. Mass deportation and execution (1797)
Chambre introuvable dissolved (1816)
W.G. Ward received in Church (1845)
9/6: Mud Day
The idea of a quick, glorious, purifying war quickly degenerated into a dreadful trench conflict, alternating mass boredom and mass butchery under daily living conditions of subhuman character.
Consecration of Michael Heiss at Green Bay (1868)
9/7: Manpower Day
The veneer of civility still remaining over the wound of the Enlightenment was swiftly pulled away by the war. A decline of the language reflected the growing indifference to life and the dignity of man. Hence, as Karl Kraus noted, the willingness to refer to “manpower” needs as one had once made reference to “horsepower”.
Anagni (1303)
Birth of Erastus (1524)
Three Kaisers League (1872)
9/8: Papal Treason Day
Benedict XV (1914-1922) had the temerity to express the conviction that everyone was at fault in this conflict, and that governments should be satisfied with the damage that they had already done. Men on both sides of the trenches could consider him wanting for not recognizing the obvious moral superiority of their cause.
Unigenitus vs. Quesnel (1713)
Excommunication of Appellants (1718)
Attack on Bautain (1840)
Pascendi (1907)
9/9: War to End All Wars Day
Woodrow Wilson could not endure the Papal suggestion that the war end by negotiation of both guilty alliance systems. The Entente Powers were the Good combating Evil Personified. A fight until victory would ensure that this would be a War to End All Wars.
Louis vs. Parlement (1730)
Parlement declares Temporal Power independent (1731)
Madame Pompadour (1745)
Condemnation of the Emile (1762)
September Laws vs. Press in France (1835)
National Prohibition Party (1869)
Thus Endeth Where is this Going Week and, with it, Eruption Season
III. Consequence Season
“Nothing to kill or die for”
(1900’s Onwards)
37. Triumph of the Will Week
Wherein are Commemorated the all too Impressive Imprints Left by A Few Persons’ Choices on Most Persons’ Lives (1900’s)
9/10: Magic Mountain Day
Thomas Mann’s novel, The Magic Mountain, presents for us a sick western world, paralyzed by the clash of its manifold contestants for an intellectual hearing, now reduced to a perpetual, ineffective, debating society. Mynheer Peeperkorn, the man of mindless will and strength, shows how easily these paper tigers can be bent to follow his commands.
Non expedit (1874)
Murder of Empress Elizabeth (1898)
9/11: Elan Vital Day
Many thinkers approved of the need to rely on the guidance of the willful and the strong. Any manifestation of such vitality was a revelation of life, the truth that brings life and whatever “god” stands behinds this. The thrust of vital spirit was irresistible. Henri Bergson was one of the most important promoters of this argument.
Invasion of Papal States (1860?)
9/12: Take My Lead Day
Observation of front line soldiers during the First World War demonstrated the possibility of uniting the endlessly varied factions of modern life in obedience to officers in the trenches. Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) deduced from this the argument that transposing the “leadership principle” from the crisis of the front to the crisis of daily civilian life might be equally effective.
Swiss centralization (1848)
Birth of H.L. Mencken (1880)
Birth of J.C. Murray (1904)
Attack on Fiume (1919)
9/13: Buddies Each and Every One Day
One of the most appealing features of life on the front for a man like Mussolini was the fact that it made comrades of everyone in the trenches, regardless of their class background. Again, perhaps the answer to endemic class strife was the introduction of the front-line experience into the life of the population behind the lines as well.
Marignano (1515)
Return of Calvin to Geneva (1541)
Death of Montaigne (1592)
Death of Philip II (1598)
Fall of Quebec (1759)
Vs. Carbonari (1821)
Death of Feuerbach (1872)
Grand Orient eliminates belief in God (1877)
Apostolicae curae (1896)
9/14: Me Ne Frego Day
Mussolini formed his bands (fasci) of “peacetime” front-line soldiers in Milan in 1919, outfitting them in blackshirts evocative of anarchist symbolism. Their only overriding command was to obey the leader, the Duce. If asked what, specifically, they were proposing to cure Italy’s ills, their response was “I don’t give a damn”, thereby indicating that the answer would only emerge out of the vital will of the leader, action by action, and not from any preformed ideas.
Death of T. Masaryk (1937)
9/15: Who Wants Them Anyway Day (a.k.a. Margaret Sanger Day)
Mussolini had many imitators, one of them, Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), adding racial theory to the leadership principle. Anyone who accepted him as leader would have to agree to the need for the leading race to protect itself and guide the world.
Birth of J. Hergenröther (1824)
Removal of J.J. Keane from Catholic U. (1896)
Nüremberg Laws (1935)
9/16: Feel Those Muscles Day
Some religious minded thinkers, concerned for the question of how, more effectively, to evangelize the world, both outside and inside Europe, began to espouse the theory of the need to merge with the vital energies that they encountered around them. Only be thus abandoning oneself could a narrow individualist become a true “person”.
Italian Concordat (1803)
Execution of Amadeo Bertoncelli (1809)
Attack on Anglo-Catholic (1864)
Thus Endeth Triumph of the Will Week
38. Where There’s a Will There’s a Bill Week
Wherein is Commemorated the Catholic Desire to Demure at the Honor of Being Chosen By Strongly-Willed Acquaintances (1900’s)
9/17: Ease Off and Keep Your Distance Day
Strong, willful personalities can be nothing other than an irritating and permanent pain in the neck. Catholics prefer every protection against their mindless, predatory behavior that is possible.
Myriocephalon (1176)
Absolution of Henry IV (1595)
Law of Suspects (1793)
Birth of H. Pesch (1854)
Revolution in Spain (1868)
Pardon of Brazilian bishops (1875)
9/18: Cold Shower Day
Orthodox Catholic teaching takes it for granted that one has to lose his soul in Christ in order to gain it more fully. Looking to one’s own will for guidance is a recipe for collapsing into a meaningless abyss. Modernity requires a bath in self-denial.
Birth of J.H. Frankenberg (1726)
Pistoia (18-28, 1786)
Castelfidardo (1860)
9/19: Stop, Look and Listen Day
War is not man’s normal condition, and it ought not to be the case that people blindly follow the equivalent of a field officer in ordinary civil life.
John II Casimir abdicates to become a Jesuit (1668)
9/20: A Table For One Day
Constant communal activity, without any space for individual meditation and action, can, in the long run, be just as soul-killing as liberal atomism.
Western Schism (1378)
Galileo Punished (1633)
Divorce (1792)
Valmy (1792)
Carlsbad Decrees (1819)
Takeover of Rome (1870)
9/21: Definition Day
Aristotelian logic does not disappear, simply because many people disagree with one another. The principle of non contradiction is not abolished due to the imposition of the will of the more powerful. You, personally, may not give a damn about things, but things will come back to give you hell for neglecting them.
Burning of Gabriel Malagrida (1761)
Death of Schopenhauer (1860)
Birth of H.G. Wells (1866)
9/22: Sitting Ducks at Lourdes Day
Everyone is endangered, theoretically, when the leadership principle is the sole guide for civil society. In practice, security depends on the personality of the leader. Mussolini was gentle; Hitler was not. Since the racially impure are considered to be sick elements in the body politic, they are a bit like pilgrims at a sacred healing site, the difference being that the ill go to the shrine for a cure and the untermenschen line up to be shot.
Proclamation of French Republic (1792)
Birth of Gaspar Mermillod (1824)
Bismarck (1862)
9/23: Left Over Lamennais Day
“Personalists”, as the religious opponents of liberal individualism called themselves, were in many respects merely resurrecting Lamennais’ ideas, along with his grant of power to determine what was or was not a legitimate “energy” to charismatic prophets.
Concordat of Worms (1122)
Birth of J.A.M. Crétineau-Joly (1803)
First Organic Law on education in Belgium (1842)
Death of Freud (1939)
Thus Endeth Where There’s a Will There’s a Bill Week
39. Dizzy With Success Week
Wherein is Commemorated the Hangover Left by Exaggerated Love for Parties (1900’s)
9/24: Puppet Day
Lenin wanted to give all power to the Soviets because he realized that his Bolsheviks could easily control them. He had no interest in giving power to them in and of themselves.
Death of Pippin (768)
9/25: The Party’s Over Day
The party as Lenin conceived it required a tight administration to function properly. A General Secretary was needed to keep the structure under control. Unfortunately, the party, under Joseph Stalin, ended by being nothing other than an instrument of the Secretary.
Peace of Augsburg (1555)
9/26: Machine Man Day
The Party controlled by Stalin was a mindless machine demanding the labors of mindless minions of the General Secretary--apparatchiks.
Holy Alliance (1815)
Birth of Cardinal Pie (1815)
Birth of Holy Alliance (1815)
Condemnation of Hermes (1835)
Surrender of Komorn (1849)
Birth of T.S. Eliot (1888)
Birth of M. Heidigger (1889)
Suppression of Leonine Prayers (1964)
9/27: Who Need’s To Eat Day
Collectivization from 1929 onwards involved an enormous amount of suffering on the part of the entire Soviet population. It also led to the first man-made famine in world history, and the death of some millions of people, Ukrainians at the head of the list.
Regimini militantes ecclesiae (1540)
Plutarco Calles in Mexico (1924)
9/28: Spring Cleaning Day
Some Party members could not convincingly play the role of apparatchiks. Others could, but remembered the days before Stalin came to full power with nostalgia. Others were simply personae non gratae. Time to open the windows and toss the rubbish to the winds!
Election of Clement VII as Antipope (1378)
Quirinal Mass for Louis (1793)
Leo XII as Pope (1823)
9/29: Hegelian Flip-Flop Day
Marx, following Hegel, believed that history evolved. What was true yesterday might not be true today. In Soviet Russia, the General Secretary, a.k.a. the Party, a.k.a. the interpreter of history knew when it was time for yet another evolution. Enemies today, friends tomorrow!
Frederick II excommunicated (1227)
Peace of Augsburg (1555)
Birth of Comte de Chambord (1820)
Death of Zola (1902)
9/30: Love is Blind Day
Some western anti-fascists wanted to believe that life was glorious in the Soviet Union. Hard as they looked amidst the dead and dying bodies, everything for them was coming up roses.
Return to Rome (1420)
Birth of Morelos y Pavón (1765)
Thus Endeth Dizzy With Success Week
40. Run For Your Life Week
Wherein are Commemorated the Checking of Excess Christian Population and the Provision of Fresh, Cold Air to Many Others (1900’s)
10/1: The East is Dead Day
The hierarchy and monastic culture of Russian Orthodoxy was devastated by the Soviets in the course of the 1920’s and early 1930’s. No new Patriarch could be chosen after the death of Nikon in 1924. Seminaries and most churches were closed, many of the most venerable torn down or devoted to other purposes, including service as prisons. The Society of the Godless directed propaganda and often violent action versus Christians. Latin Christians and Protestants also suffered under this Reign of Terror.
Decree of Convention vs. Vendée (1793)
Birth of C.L. Gay (1815)
Birth of Othmar Spann (1878)
First 5 Year Plan (1928)
Franco as head of State (1936)
10/2: Mexican Peasant Day
The Mexican revolutionary government took a radically anti-Catholic turn in the 1920’s as Masonic, and then Marxist elements became more and more daring in their attacks. The Church fought back by prohibiting all service in 1926. The armed resistance of Catholic peasants, the Cristeros, took the government by surprise, its fury and success only being undercut by the betrayal of the Arreglos of 1929.
Birth of Augustin de Barruel (1741)
Death of Sam Adams (1802)
End of Warsaw uprising (1944)
10/3: Peace and Brotherhood Day
Soviet foreign policy was resolutely opposed to cooperation with other political forces before 1933. After 1933, fear of Hitler caused the Comintern to promote Popular Front movements, seeking to unite all anti-fascist groups in a fraternal effort to maintain the Versailles settlement. Many feared that these “front movements” were solely designed to promote Soviet interests.
Feast of St. Therese of Lisieux
Saladin takes Jerusalem (1187)
Venice given to Italy (1866)
10/4: Rain in Spain Day
Spain was one country where a Popular Front movement took power, in 1936. It immediately proceeded down an often violent anti-Catholic direction, culminating in the murder of the Catholic party leader, Calvo Sotelo, and occasioning the uprising of the Generals in July of the same year. The Republic gradually came to be dominated by the small Communist segment of the loyalist population in its conflict with the Nationalists.
Birth of Peter Pázmány (1570)
Royalist demonstration at Versailles (1789)
Belgian independence (1830)
Birth of Dollfuss (1892)
10/5: No Matter Which Way You Turn Day
The alliance of the Soviets with the Anglo-Americans in the Second World War proved to be a disastrous dilemma for the Catholics. Most would have been happy to see the Nazis defeated by the latter; the idea that this would lead also to the victory of the former made it seem as though all consequences of the conflict were intolerable.
Women’s March on Versailles (1789)
Adoption of Revolutionary Calendar and de-christianization (5-24 November, 1793)
Christianity abolished (1793)
Napoleon vs. Royalists (1795)
Portuguese Republic (1910)
10/6: Useful Prelate Day
Stalin changed policy towards the Russian Church in 1941, seeing in it a useful ally versus Germany. Orthodox prelates continued to be willing spokesmen for the foreign policy goals of the regime even when its friendliness disappeared under Khruschev. East Bloc countries, after the war, also witnessed the attempt by Marxist governments to interest so-called “Pax priests” in the struggle for tranquility and equality against the warmongering and grasping policies of the capitalist nations.
Mormons renounce polygamy (1890)
Death of Albert de Mun (1914)
10/7: Liberation Day
Worker priests, clerics in labor and concentration camps and Personalists all began to argue by the 1940’s that Catholics could only “win” by abandoning themselves to the “energy” released by the pro-Marxist masses seeking liberation from capitalist exploitation. Once again, charismatic prophets of Marxist orientation were said to be needed to stimulate this energy, through training for liberation in base communities. South America became a center for such activity, but often at the hands of European activists who were first aroused by the “energy” unleashed in Vichy France.
Lepanto (1571)
Wiseman’s letter (1850)
Death of Giuseppe Toniolo (1918)
Thus Endeth Run For Your Life Week
41. From Burgher to Burger Week
Wherein is Commemorated the French Frying of the Medieval City
10/8: Man Without a Country Day
International Capitalism grew in the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, convincing not only nationalists, abut ordinary patriots as well, that it had no particular commitments to any given land. Its homeland was wherever profit could be gained.
Council of Chalcedon (8-31, 451)
Birth of Mgr. de Quelen (1778)
Attack on Archbishop's palace in Vienna (1938)
10/9: Nothing to Do With the Market Day
Profits more and more seemed to have nothing to do with production. Markets go down when employment is high; they go up before a commodity even exists. Moreover, after 1960, the things that are produced seem to have little to do with any discernable basic human need.
Entry of Republicans in Lyon (1793)
Newman a Catholic (1845)
Rome made capital (1870)
Birth of Jackson de Figueredo (1891)
Death of Pius XII (1958)
10/10: Mature Debtor Day
In the nineteenth century, Balzac took for granted the bad consequences of debt upon a man’s reputation. In the second half of the twentieth century, he would have been forced to catalogue the evil effects on a person’s reputation of failure to owe enough money. Woe to the solvent!
Frederick I and Pope Adrian fight over supremacy (1157)
Birth of Hugo Grotius (1583)
Death of Giuseppe Lahoz (1799)
Birth of Antonio Ballerini (1805)
10/11: Pointless Change and Useless Motion Day
As global capitalism requires more and more tricks to survive, it is forced to encourage a constant changing of every fashion and of every consumer good. Failure to sell becomes the equivalent of death. But there grows less and less reason to change anything or go anywhere, since all things are ever more similar.
Death of Zwingli (1531)
Apotheosis of Robespierre (1794)
Birth of Dostoyevski (1821)
Birth of Mauriac (1885)
10/12: Importuning Tourist Day
Tourism is an important source of money-making for some of the machine parts of the growing Global Fatherland. Tourists, however, are bothered by many of the unfamiliar practices of the lands that they visit. They also dislike the local population’s failure to perform the quaint dances expected of them on demand. More pointless change is, therefore, required.
Birth of Christopher Dawson (????)
10/13: Moveable Feast Day
Holidays are good for shopping, but bad for business if they disrupt the work week. Why not move them all to Mondays, so as to increase the shopping potential of the weekend with the least damage to the work wee? Who cares if they mean nothing any more?
Arrest of Templars (1307)
Patent of Toleration (1781 or 1784)
Miracle of the Sun (1917)
Death of Anatole France (1924)
10/14: Global Shopping Day
Why should one be forced to strain the mind to understand the difference of goods sold in lands visited on holiday? Why shouldn’t goods that one comes to appreciate be sold everywhere at every moment? To hell with distinction! It interferes with immediate gratification.
Banning of Theophilanthropy (1801)
Thus Endeth From Burgher to Burger Week
42. Save the Neighborhood Week
Wherein is Commemorated the Shameless Effort of Disreputable Rednecks to Avoid Suicide
10/15: Whistling Dixie Day
Louis XVI’s Minister of War already noted in June of 1789 that everything had been sold, lock, stock and barrel to the capitalists. It was not that he thought that they should have no say in life; simply that they should not have the sole control of it. One of the values that should have some continued influence is patriotic devotion to the land of birth or choice, even if more money can be made by betraying it.
Birth of Nietzsche (1844)
Arrest of Dreyfus (1894)
Ignaz Seipel in Austria (1926)
Long March (1934)
10/16: Bring Your Own Bottle Day
Flourishing trattorias which everyone could afford are repeatedly replaced by a market that bears no relation to reality with restaurants that are the sole preserve of the wealthy, who will abandon them and the quarters in which they are located very swiftly. Ah, for the days when one could bring his own bottle to the local dive! Or, at least, pay a price bearing some relation to its true cost.
Urban’s brief return to Rome (1367)
Ad sacram beati Petri sedem on meaning of Jansen’s words (1656)
Protests over seminary in Belgium (1786)
Execution of Marie Antoinette (1793)
Battle of Nations (1813)
L’Avenir (1830)
10/17: Ebenezer Scrooge Day
No self-respecting nineteenth century banker would lend money to people who were continuously in debt. In fact, no self-respecting person would lend a dime to a friend similarly cursed. Holding on to what one has got until being certain of the ability to pay for what he desires might not be a bad principle after all.
Feast of St. Margaret Mary
Birth of Saint Simon (1760)
Defeat of Vendée at Cholet (1793)
Campo Formio (1797)
Death of J.F. Hubert (1797)
Birth of Franz Ehrle (1845)
Chambord’s statement (1873)
10/18: Participatory Democracy Day
Why should the neighborhood change anyway, against the will of those who live there? If democracy has any significance and value anywhere, surely it ought to be on the local level.
Placard Affair (1534)
Poissy (1561)
Revocation of Edict of Nantes (1685)
10/19: Don’t Arch Your Back for the Visitors Day
The whole rhythm of a culture, including what it eats and drinks, how it celebrates, when it conducts its festivals and what it is that they include ought not to be solely determined by the profit motive. It will become fraudulent and ultimately die.
Birth of M. Ficino (1433)
Ratification of Union (1596)
Retreat from Moscow (1812)
Death of Plutarco Calles (1945)
10/20: Deep Freeze and Paralysis Day
Events and individuals have a meaning. To change them from their context is deadly to their character. It is another stab at the quality of life in general.
Birth of Palmerston (1784)
Arrest of Franckenberg (1797)
Birth of John Dewey (1859)
Moreno’s rules in Ecuador (1873)
Birth of Louis de Bonald (1754)
10/21: Local Tomato Day
It is not good for the interconnection, globally, to be such that a nation which has the possibility of supplying its needs locally should devote itself solely to one or two profitable goods that can be exported, everywhere. One had an example of this at the time of the Sea Peoples. It was disastrous.
End of People’s Crusade (1096)
Trafalgar (1805)
Press Laws (1814)
Civil War in Switzerland (1847)
Concordat with Portugal (1848)
Thus Endeth Save the Neighborhood Week
43. Novus Ordo Saeclorum Week
Wherein is Finally Commemorated the Entry of Sanctifying Grace into Political and Social Life
10/22: Can Anything Good Come Before 1776 Day
Americanists believe that the appearance of their nation and its Teaching is the significant event of history. How sad for those who lived before salvation was offered to the peoples and every valley exalted and hill made low.
Death of Charles Martel (741)
Official Dreikaisersbund (1873)
Death of Augustyn Hlond (1948)
10/23: Mos Maiorum Day
But where does Americanism come from? Partly, it is an inheritance from the Anglo-Saxons and their traditional dislike of doing things differently from what has been handed down to them, lest they rock the boot and disturb order.
Licet iuxta doctrinam vs. Marsilius and John of Jandum (1327)
Meeting at Hendaye (1940)
10/24: Rock of Ages Day
Another element in the formation of Americanism is the Puritan, with its conviction of the need for a radical Reformation of religious practice.
Westphalia (1648)
Formal ending of German Confederation (1866)
Birth of UN (1945)
10/25: Noah’s Ark Day
The Puritans were convinced that they needed to get away from a wicked Old World to come to a New one which could serve as a City on a Hill, whose saints would serve as a model for the sinners trapped outside the ark of salvation.
Pavia Council vs. Simony (1046)
10/26: All and Sundry Day
People from a seemingly endless diversity of ethnic backgrounds and cultures poured into the United States, especially from 1848 onwards.
Death of Gilles de Rais (1440)
Birth of Danton (1759)
Law of Decades (1795)
Death of Gioberti (1852)
10/27: Keep’Um Out Day
Many Americans, concerned for the purity of the Ark, wished, like the Nativists and Know-Nothings, to keep these newcomers out.
Birth of Raymond of Toulouse (1156)
Death of Servetus (1553)
Chambord refuses tricolor (1873)
Assisi (1986)
10/28: Rein’Um In Day
Others believed that the way to keep the Ark pure was to make certain that the rest of the world shared its benefits...whether it wanted to or not.
Surrender of La Rochelle (1628)
Death of Locke (1704)
Birth of P.P. Cahensley (1838)
Statue of Liberty (1886)
March on Rome (1922)
Thus Endeth Novus Ordo Saeclorum Week
44. Tumultuous Monotony Week
Wherein is Commemorated the Fact that the Action Goes Nowhere
10/29: I Remember Mama Day
History did not begin in 1492 or 1776. All that happened at those dates was that representatives of old existing cultures found a new venue to develop or disfigure old existing cultures.
Closing of Port Royal (1709)
Death of D’Alembert (1783)
Hughes before State Legislature in New York (1842)
Failure of Charles second coup (1921)
10/30: Don’t Rock the Boat Day
The Anglo-Saxon tradition in America basically meant that people, the Framers included, did not want anything to “rock the boat”, an increasingly difficult problem given the number of diverse groups populating the country after 1848.
Entry into La Rochelle (1628)
Birth of Feodor Dostoievsky (1821)
Flight of Queen Isabella (1868)
Birth of Ezra Pound (1885)
October Manifesto of Nicholas II (1905)
10/31: Schizophrenia Day
While the Anglo-Saxon tradition wanted nothing to rock the boat, the Puritan tradition, with its emphasis on destruction of the past, wanted to rock everything religiously and politically, a phenomenon which increased in significance once secularized Puritans adapted its original principles to a demand for individual freedom in all realms. Thus was created a schizophrenia in which freedom and order were demanded with an equal passion.
The 95 Theses (1517)
Birth of Etienne A. Bernier (1762)
Carlist uprising (1900)
11/1: Multiplication Day
The only way that order could be maintained in a land of diverse migrant groups dedicated simultaneously to the principle of anarchical freedom was by setting all groups against one another, multiplying factions as much as possible, and making it impossible for a victory of any one group having a significant meaning. What was being done was to create a permanent war of all against all, ever expanding in its extent.
Prague Manifesto of Münzer (1521)
Lisbon Earthquake (1755)
Congress of Vienna (1814)
Fall of Vienna (1848)
Immortale Dei (1885)
Munificentissimus Deus (1950)
Axis (1936)
11/2: Sucking Dry and Sticking a Finger In Your Nose Day
It is dangerous for each group to use its freedom to promote distinct ideas and a distinct culture. It could be “divisive”. Hence, each one has to learn to strip away its offensive distinctiveness and fit in with all the others, while still insisting upon its freedom.
Birth of Marie Antoinette (1755)
Expropriation (1789)
Mentana (1867)
Margaret Sanger’s birth control league (1921)
Death of Shaw (1950)
11/3: Systematic Sin Day
The only permissible application of freedom for a given group or individual is really on the level of what can be understood by all other groups and individuals and appeal to their animal instincts; i.e., whatever is sinful.
Act of Supremacy (1534)
Birth of Jansenius (1585)
Versus Jesuit in Naples (1767)
Birth of Menéndez Pelayo (1856)
Mentana (1867)
11/4: E Pluribus Nothing Day
Christianity protected diversity by insisting on self-abandonment to the One God; i.e., ex unitate, plures. By looking to one’s boring, sinful self for guidance, one achieves nothing but drab conformity; e pluribus, nothing.
Directory formally established (1795)
Cavour as Prime Minister (1852)
Thus Endeth Tumultuous Monotony Week
45. Lobotomy Week
Wherein is Commemorated the Weight of the Head Ceasing to Oppress the Bulk of the Body
11/5: Integral Confusion Day
Jacques Maritain felt that all ideas and groups seeking goals defined by the same words at least shared an analogical unity. Thus, Catholics and Communists, both pursuing human dignity, were unified by commitment to the words if nothing else.
Constance opens (1414)
Gunpowder Plot (1605)
Landing of William of Orange in England (1688)
Civic Festival (1793)
Catholic Truth Society (1884)
11/6: Becoming a Person Day
Personalism was, as its name indicates, concerned for the production of persons as opposed to individuals, who were said to be trapped in themselves and in their parochial world views.
Philippe Egalité killed (1793)
11/7: One Mystique Leads to Another Day
Persons were created by abandoning oneself as an individual to the mystique of a group with a particular energy that wished to affirm itself. There could be as many of these as there were particularly enthusiastic forces.
Decree for devastating and renaming Vendée (1793)
Gobel denounces his priesthood (1793)
Birth of Trotsky (1874)
Birth of Manriquez y Zárate (1884)
11/8: Book Burning Day
The Personalist believed that it was not possible to accept and promote the various energetic mystiques surrounding one unless connection with one’s own culture and the training designed to understand it were rejected.
White Mountain (1620)
K. Vogelsang’s death (1890)
A. Kuyper’s death (1920)
11/9: Down the Memory Hole Day--Zany Diversity Day
The result of this is that whole cultures disappear down the memory hole very quickly, only to be replaced by the zany diversity that an entertainment based civilization can produce. This itself is guided by personalities stimulated by...what?
Brumaire (1799)
Qui pluribus (1846)
End of Prussian Revolution (1848)
Collapse of MacMahon’s coup of 1877
11/10: Lost in Space Day
Is one fearful of exactly where the acceptance of many irrational mystiques would lead? There is no need to fear, Teilhard de Chardin argued. The Holy Spirit was leading all natural contradictory mystiques to a cosmic union under the Cosmic Christ through the leadership of the Holy Spirit.
Goddess of Reason (1793) in Notre Dame
Birth of Pobedonostsev (1827)
Death of Diego Antonio Feijó (1843)
11/11: They Die and Yet They Smile Day
Slavish obedience to abandonment to mystiques was ensuring the death of many established cultures. No need to be upset, though. One ought to smile through the demise.
Versus Lay Investiture (1078)
Fourth Lateran Council (11-30, 1215)
Election of Martin V (1417)
Mayflower Compact (1620)
Day of Dupes (1630)
Jacobins closed (1794)
Execution of Fra Diavolo (1806)
Concentration Camps (1900)
Non expedit ends (1919)
Thus Endeth Lobotomy Week
46. Sauve qui Peut Week
Wherein are Commemorated the Efforts of the Scattered Remnants of Western Civilization to Seek Out Perches From Which to Hang for Dear Life
11/12: Thanks, But No Thanks Day
The nineteenth and twentieth centuries have been filled with people who have rejected the spirit and much of the form of what modernity has to offer them.
Death of Spinoza (1677)
Birth of J.E. Clara (1827)
Toast of Lavigerie (1890)
Charles abdicates (12-13, 1918)
11/13: Everyone’s Gone to the Mall Day
Some have thought that the city centers were the problem and have fled to the suburbs and countryside, only to discover themselves pursued by modernity there as well.
Death of St. Nicholas I (867)
Cum inter nonnullus vs. poverty (1323)
Iniunctum nobis for Profession of Faith of Council of Trent (1565)
Synod of Dort (1618)
Opening of Catholic University (1889)
11/14: Every Move You Make Day
A failure to understand the theological, philosophical, historical, sociological and psychological aspects of the modern world lead people who instinctively wish to escape it to adopt one form or another of its basic errors.
Birth of John McCarthy (1908)
Russian Civil War ends with Wrangel’s flight (1920)
Stalin’s victory over Trotsky and Zinoviev (1927)
11/15: Back to the Roots Day
The only way to grasp the full nature of modernity’s mistake is by going back to the roots of our civilization to understand its character and what it is that distorted it so badly.
Zara (1202)
Hébert’s birth (1757)
Ceasing of l’Avenir (1831)
Death of Pellegrino Rossi (1848)
Death of Charles Maurras (1952)
11/16: Dangerous Isolation Day
Alas! Discovery of the extent of the evil can lead one to a feeling of isolation that is dangerous for a person’s psychological health.
Death of Pierre Nicole (1695)
Assassination of Pelligrino Rossi (1848)
Birth of Léon Daudet (1867)
Amadeo of Savoy in Spain (1870)
11/17: Hangman’s Humor Day
An absolutely essential way of dealing with the problem of modernity is to maintain one’s sense of humor in whatever conditions of life one is living and to remember that it is the spirit of the corrupt civilization which is at fault, not its cities or countryside as such.
Call for Albigensian Crusade (1208)
Arrest of P. Zenger (1734)
Death of Pico (1494)
Death of Reginald Pole (1558)
Death of Mary (1558)
Menshevik-Bolshevik split (1903)
“Right” Communists expelled (1929)
11/18: That Which Does Not Destroy Me Makes Me Stronger Day
Friedrich Nietzsche is, indeed, part of the problem, but one of his aphorisms contains a truth pertinent to traditionalists’ situation today: that which does not destroy us makes us stronger.
Unam Sanctam (1302)
Birth of Jacques Maritain (1882)
Thus Endeth Sauve qui Peut Week and, with it, Consequence Season
IV. Denial Season
“Hey! I’m not the only one!”
(From Adam and Eve to the Present)
47. Pointing Week
Wherein are Commemorated the Efforts of Those Responsible for the Modern Nightmare to Identify and Expel The Innocent From Polite Company
11/19: It’s the Pope Day
The Lawyers, Conciliarists and heretics of the late Middle Ages argued that society would function smoothly if only the Pope were put in place. Things were falling apart because he was not.
French offer of support to overthrow all governments (1792)
11/20: It’s the Scholastics Day
The Renaissance, with its literary concerns, was convinced that things were falling apart because of the logical obsessions of scholastic thinkers. Get rid of them all would be well.
Coelestis Pastor vs. Molinos (1687)
Attack on Jesuits in Naples (1767)
Estates General summoned (1787)
Imprisonment of Droste (1837)
Mediator Dei (1947)
11/21: It’s the Anabaptists Day
Mainline Protestants admitted certain problems with the areas affected by their reforms. If only the radicals, like the Anabaptists were not on the scene to abuse the insights of Luther or Calvin!
Birth of F. Schleiermacher (1768)
Birth of B. Clemente Munguía (1810)
Death of F. Josef (1916)
11/22: It’s the Christians Day
The naturalist Enlightenment thinkers argued that the problems of life would be dealt with if only the “infamous thing”, the monstrous civilization deformed by Christianity, were abolished.
Birth of Madame Swetchine (1782)
Birth of Clemens Schrader (1820)
Birth of Gide (1869)
11/23: It’s the Other Wing of the Enlightenment Day
Mechanists of the Enlightenment thought that the universe was guided by inexorable scientific laws that allowed no scope for individual freedom. Atomists thought that it was the realm of pure freedom, with no space for laws. Each blamed the problems of life on the other.
Birth of Otto I (912)
Death of Louis de Bonald (1840)
Death of Fr. Pro (1927)
11/24: It’s Intolerance Day
The Americanist pluralists were convinced that all ideas and all cultures could be mixed together. Problems only came from failure to allow tolerance for all views.
Death of Lorenzo Ricci (1775)
Adoption of Revolutionary Calendar (1793)
Birth of Taparelli d’Azeglio (1793)
Pope to Gaeta (1848)
Death of Clemenceau (1929)
11/25: It’s Everything We Believed Until Yesterday Day
Conservatives of all stripes are firm defenders of whatever exists. If what exists today does not exist tomorrow, then what exists today must be abandoned with the fervor that it was defended yesterday.
Paris condemns Ockham’s books (1339)
Birth of General Pinochet (1915)
Thus Endeth Pointing Week
48. J’Accuse Week
Wherein is Commemorated the Erection of a More Accurate Target for Sharpshooting Pleasure
11/26: Thomas More Day
The Legalists, from the time of Philip the Fair onwards, were building a world where only power counted. Hence, the willingness, blatantly, to play with Truth and Justice, always disguising what one was doing with reference to the need for “public order”.
Jesuits expelled from France (1764)
Death of Mickiewiecz (1855)
Birth of Sturzo (1871)
11/27: Anti-Gorgias and Protagoras Day
The Renaissance and then the Enlightenment wanted to displace Aristotelian logic. Those who live by Sophism, die by Sophism.
Clermont (1095)
Oath to Civil Constitution imposed (1790)
Miraculous Medal(1830)
Capture of Fr. Pro? (1927)
11/28: Bossuet Day
Protestant principles end by justifying irrational, personal, charismatic manipulation of texts and truths. They also lead to the potential for endless division, as was already clear by the 1600’s.
Super soliditate vs. Febronianism (1786)
Birth of Engels (1820)
Birth of Gonçalves de Oliveira (1844, Vital)
Punctation of Olmütz (1850)
Pulpit Law (1871)
11/29: Dialogue of the Carmelites Day
The attack on the supernatural realm as a dangerous obstacle to natural development created the image of believers as parasitic sub-human sores on the body politic. Hence, the willingness to dispense, brutally, with useless trash. Unfortunately, each powerful faction added its less powerful, but still pro-revolutionary competitors to the list of parasites.
Death of Philip the Fair (1314)
Death of Michael of Cesena (1342)
Death of Edmond Richer (1631)
Decree vs. refractory priests (1791)
Birth of C.S. Lewis (1898)
11/30: Syllabus of Errors Day
The whole of modernity was shot through with erroneous, self-destructive principles. Identifying them was the goal of Pope Pius IX’s Syllabus of Errors (1864).
Laetare Jerusalem (1544)
Jesuits welcomed back to Germany (1848)
Codreanu garrotted (?)
12/1: Moat and Fence Day
One ought to be intolerant of things which are untruthful and unjust, lest they win out and destroy the good while claiming that they are being tolerant of it. Moats and fences serve their purpose in a difficult world. There are no friends without enemies.
Death of Campion (1581)
Birth of De Ravignan (1795)
Calles President (1924)
Kirov Assassination (1934)
12/2: Open Your Eyes Day
Shutting one’s eyes to the truth or falsity of a given energetic group was not a guarantee that the Holy Spirit would guide the enthusiast to safe port. It was a recipe for fanaticism.
Emperor (1804)
Austerlitz (1805)
Birth/ death of Vincent de Paul Bailly (1832-1912)
Franz Josef (1848)
Coup d’etat (1851)
Thus Endeth J’Accuse Week
49. Poseur Week
Wherein are Commemorated the Justification of Some Vices By Other Vices
12/3: Jutting Chin Day
Those who are at the forefront of modernity have to cover their flaws by looking intelligent, soulful, authoritative and compassionate at one and the same time. The right pipe helps; so does the right hat and the correct thrust forward of the chin.
Death of Mary Baker Eddy (?)
12/4: Bauhaus Day
Artistic madness can be covered by a great deal of sneering at the stupidity of those who fail to understand one’s genius. It is important to remember to demand humor from everyone else, chastising lack of it as a sign of totalitarian aspirations, while possessing none oneself, since such matters are “too serious” for joking.
End of Trent (1563)
Death of Richelieu (1642)
Kolping dies (1865)
Birth of Franco (1892)
Marquis de la Tour du Pin dies (1924)
12/5: Lamenting One’s Perversity Day
Of course, some people recognize that they are guilty of various flaws. To err is human! To forgive, divine! After having divinely forgiven themselves, the modernists proceed to continue their path to perdition.
Death of Mozart (1791)
Trial of King opens (1792)
Soviet Constitution (1936)
12/6: See How Much I Work Day
Modern man prides himself on his work. Therefore, he competes with others to demonstrate just how little time he has left over from his important enterprises. How he can perform his tasks seriously if he has so little chance to breathe is another question.
Judging of John XII (963)
Birth of V. Dechamps (1810)
Catholic-Calvinist alliance in the Netherlands (1889)
Abrogation of the Concordat (1905)
12/7: See How Sensitive I Am Day
But the working hero of modernity also has to insist, at least vocally, upon his compassion. And compassionate he is, so long as that towards which he is being sensitive is another flaw.
Declaration of the Holy Office vs. Jansenists (1690)
Birth of J.A. Huerta (Peru, 1823)
Birth of Gabriel Marcel (1889)
12/8: Cocktail Party Education Day
Intelligence is essential to the working, compassionate man. Alas! He has almost no time to obtain it. Still, bits and pieces of impressive phrases can be strung together to make conversation with other equally pressed individuals at cocktail parties.
Ineffabilis Deus (1854)
Syllabus (1864)
Death of Herbert Spencer (1903)
Death of J. Lennon (1980)
12/9: Dangerless Outrage Day
Modern man is also fearless. He says so often enough. But that fearlessness cannot interfere with work or with pleasure. It is best to be fearless about past historical events.
Guadalupe (1531)
Singulari quadam (1854)
Anarchist bomb in Chamber of Deputies (1893)
Thus Endeth Poseur Week
50. Authenticity Week
Wherein is Commemorated the Moment for That Consistency Which is the “Hobgoblin of Little Minds” To Have Its Time in the Sun
12/10: All Ye Humbly Virile Day
Virility does not have to be proclaimed to exist. In fact, its proclamation already makes it a suspicious phenomenon.
?????????
12/11: All Ye Starving Artists Day
There is not much room left in the modern world for those creative people who do not toe the party line of the style that is in for a season to survive.
Gravissima inter vs. Frohschammer (1862)
Denunciation of Concordat (1905)
Birth of Solzhenitsyn (1918)
Quas primas (1925)
12/12: All Ye Painfully Embarrassed Day
Sins, when recognized, need to be rejected. There are those sinners who recognize what they have done. The usual response is a painful embarrassment.
Vendée defeat at Le Mans (1793)
Jean Villèle as Prime Minister in France (1821)
Sonderbund established (1845)
Catholic Center Party (1870)
Papal nuncio expelled from Switzerland (1873)
Anticlerical vs. fourth centenary of Guadalupe (1931)
12/13: All Ye Hopelessly Exhausted Day
Sensible human beings realize that work is draining, and that the modern world so drains one that nothing other than mindless behavior can follow a day bent under its demands.
Death of Frederick II (1250)
Abdication of Celestine V (1293)
Opening of Trent (1545)
Declaration of Independence of Belgium (1789)
12/14: All Ye Struggling Friends and Couples Day
It is extremely difficult for friends and couples to maintain their loyalty and their moral obligations in a world where all of the institutions, the economy and the entertainment system urge them to do the exact opposite.
Assassination of Sidonio Pais, democratic dictator of Portugal (1918)
12/15: All Ye Unpublished Scholars Day
How much work is left in the shadows or not even undertaken because of the domination of the publishing world either by enemies of the truth or friends purely of the profit motive?
Assassination of John VIII (882)
All French occupied lands to adopt revolutionary institutions (1792)
Birth of Bernard John McQuaid (1823)
Testament of Lenin (1922)
12/16: All Ye Exposed Necks Day
The anti-modernists are the ones who really risk their careers and their lives in the current environment. They suffer the penalty not only of being destroyed, physically, but also of being identified as cruel oppressors as they are brutally crushed.
Birth of François Quesnay (1694)
Death of Rasputin (1916)
CEDA advances (1934)
Thus Endeth Authenticity Week
51. If Not Us, It’s the Fascists Week: Their Version
Wherein is Commemorated a Certain Rediscovery of Sin, Which, Happily is Found To Have No Hold Over the Powerful
12/17: Because Our Name is Different Day
Fascists are people who bear the name Fascist. We do not call ourselves Fascists. We fought Fascists. Therefore, only our enemies can be Fascists.
?????????
12/18: Because We’re Powerful Day
The United States and the Soviet Union won the war against the Fascists. They are strong and they say that they are not Fascists. Therefore, you will be hit on the head if you do not say that their enemies are Fascists and that they cannot be Fascists.
Foundation of Le Monde (1944)
12/19: Because We Got a Jump on the Others Day
It becomes ridiculous to call many different people Fascists. Whoever uses the terminology after the War first has the edge on others trying to adopt it. The United States and the Soviet Union were first. Therefore, their enemies are Fascists.
Retaking of Toulon (1793)
Pope awards Caroline Islands to Spain (1885)
12/20: Because We’ve Abolished History Day
Why would you want to learn, historically and philosophically, exactly what Fascism is? Fascism is what we have told you that it is. Anyone delving deeper into its study must himself be a Fascist!
John Hughes, Bishop of New York (1842)
Closing of University of St. Petersburg (1861)
Frequent Communion (1905)
12/21: Because Only Someone on the Rubbish of History Would Think Otherwise Day
Of course, there are people who do not seem to be Fascists themselves who persist in accusing the victors of Fascist behavior. Why would they do so? From the Soviet standpoint, it must be because of the absurd class outlook of the idiot concerned.
Capture of Rhodes (1522)
Birth of J.H. Fabre (1823)
Birth of Prince Kropotkin (1842)
Tuas libenter (1863)
12/22: Because Only A Red Would Think Otherwise Day
From the Pluralist standpoint, the person accusing the “Free World” of Fascist tendencies, if not a Fascist himself, may very well be part of what rapidly, after the War, became fair game for being accused of Fascism along with the real thing: the Red World.
Death of Isaac Hecker (1888)
Dreyfus convicted (1894)
12/23: Because Only A Madman Would Think Otherwise Day
Still, why bring politics into the picture, disturbing the united front of the old war days? Someone accusing either the Soviets or the Pluralists of Fascism is clearly a madman! Bring out the drugs! Bring in the psychiatrists!
Ex supremae clementiae dono vs. Dionysius Fouillechat (1368)
Murder of Duc de Guise (1588)
Magnum Domus bull of Union (1595)
James II escapes (1688)
End of the Vendée militaire (1793)
Birth of M. Claret (1807)
Ubi arcano (1922)
Thus Endeth Their Version of If Not Us, It’s The Fascists Week
52. If Not Us, It’s the Fascists Week: Our Version
Wherein is Commemorated the Calling of a Spade a Spade
12/24: You Ride the Train, You Pay the Fare Day
One really cannot flee the Socratic principle of non-contradiction. Something cannot be true and false at the same time. You got what you deserved. Accept it like a man.
Deportation of republicans from France (1800)
First Holy Year since 1775 (1824)
12/25: What’s Left But Irrational Faith Day
In fact, insofar as one truly, in his heart of hearts, insists that his ideas did not have the consequences that they obviously do have, it demonstrates that his modus operandi is really that of a Faith, and, far from a Catholic Faith, an irrational one, that does not see why logic should apply to it at all.
Charlemagne (800)
Stephen of Hungary (1000)
Games prohibited in Plymouth (1625)
Consulate (1799)
Birth of José Manuel Groot (1800)
Cattolica in Milan (1920)
Death of P.P. Cahensely (1923)
12/26: What’s Left But Willfulness Day
Insofar as one insists that he does not wish his ideas to have these consequences, the analogy with Fascism becomes still more clear. The Triumph of the Will is still the guiding principle.
First Congregationalist Church (1620)
Death of Helvetius (1771)
Conversion of P. Claudel (1886)
Birth of Mao (1893)
Arrest of Mindszenty (1948)
12/27: What’s Left But Brute Force Day
In fact, with Reason exiled from the picture, the only way that the contradictory will of confused modern man can ever be maintained is by the application of brute force. At least, that is to say, until nature itself revolts against its own violation.
Birth of Joseph Pignatelli (1737)
Assassination of General Duphat (1797)
Foundation of Assumptionists (1850)
12/28: Illogical Remnant Day
Until the day of nature’s complete rejection of the irrationality and brutal willfulness of the contradictory ideology imposed upon it, it can continue to survive due to the illogical retention, occasioned by a mindless conservatism, of some logical remnants of Truth which have not yet succumbed to the general madness.
Death of Pierre Bayle (1706)
End of Decade cult (1800)
Quod apostolici muneris vs. socialism (1878)
Pike (Freemason) vs. Popes (1886)
12/29: Pro-Choice Day
Abortion is, perhaps, the most blatant crime of modernity, since it strikes at the most innocent. This, too, is a fascist action, both historically as well as in its justification. Why not call its supporters the Pro Triumph of the Will promoters?
Becket (1170)
Alfonso XII accepted (29-31, 1874)
Prohibition of Action Française (1926)
12/30: Cynical Cover-Up Day
Of course some of the supporters of the modern barbarism know exactly what it is that they are doing. But why admit this openly? To paraphrase Cavour, speaking of Constitutions and Parliaments, it is possible to accomplish so much more with sweet-sounding words!
Arrival of Lamennais in Rome (1831)
Murder of Rasputin (1916)
Thus Endeth Our Version of If Not Us, It’s the Fascists Week
Addenda
12/31: Feast of All The Catholicophobes
Love is never having to say your sorry for studied ignorance, vile slander and barbaric cruelty. Come on! Let’s accept them for one day, and love them just the way they are!
Vandal/Sueve/Alan invasion across the Rhine (406)
Wycliffe dies (1384)
Revolutionary calendar’s last day (1805)
Birth of Léon de Grandmaison (1868)
Casti connubii (1920)
Divini illius magistri (1929)
2/29: You Never Know Day
History throws curve balls. Although it may well seem that the Catholic world view is completely dead, it could re-emerge stronger than ever. Think of the sociologist who would have finished his book on the character of Arabia the day before Mohammed began to preach in the city of Mecca.
Suggestions For Monthly Commemorations & Other Week Names
1844 End of the World
Joachim of Fiore and all the Millenarians
Progress Day-Imagine what will happen when all potential cures are discovered!
January
(Commemorations of Joachim of Fiore and Mani)
(Commemoration of Prohibition)
(Commemoration of the Christiade
February
All month Commemorations
(Pope Expelled from Rome, 1798)
(Prohibition ends? 1933)
March
(Third International-Comintern-Month, 1919)
August
(Frequent Communion, 1643)
(Bildersturm, 1566)
September
(Poissy, 1561)
November
(Mitraillades of Lyon, 1793)
War as hypocrisy week? Now that we are growing older week? (For baby boomers)
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