Europe and the Faith

Europe and the Faith

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Title: Europe and the Faith "Sine auctoritate nulla vita"
Author: Hilaire Belloc
Release Date: July, 2005 [EBook #8442] [Yes, we are more than one
year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on July 11, 2003]
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AND THE FAITH ***

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Europe and the Faith
"Sine auctoritate nulla vita"
by
Hilaire Belloc

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION. THE CATHOLIC CONSCIENCE OF HISTORY
I. WHAT WAS THE ROMAN EMPIRE?
II. WHAT WAS THE CHURCH IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE?
III. WHAT WAS THE "FALL" OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE?
IV. THE BEGINNING OF THE NATIONS
V. WHAT HAPPENED IN BRITAIN?
VI. THE DARK AGES
VII. THE MIDDLE AGES
VIII. WHAT WAS THE REFORMATION?
IX. THE DEFECTION OF BRITAIN
X. CONCLUSION

INTRODUCTION
THE CATHOLIC CONSCIENCE OF HISTORY
I say the Catholic "conscience" of history--I say "conscience"--that is,
an intimate knowledge through identity: the intuition of a thing which
is one with the knower--I do not say "The Catholic Aspect of History."
This talk of "aspects" is modern and therefore part of a decline: it is
false, and therefore ephemeral: I will not stoop to it. I will rather do
homage to truth and say that there is no such thing as a Catholic

"aspect" of European history. There is a Protestant aspect, a Jewish
aspect, a Mohammedan aspect, a Japanese aspect, and so forth. For all
of these look on Europe from without. The Catholic sees Europe from
within. There is no more a Catholic "aspect" of European history than
there is a man's "aspect" of himself.
Sophistry does indeed pretend that there is even a man's "aspect" of
himself. In nothing does false philosophy prove itself more false. For a
man's way of perceiving himself (when he does so honestly and after a
cleansing examination of his mind) is in line with his Creator's, and
therefore with reality: he sees from within.
Let me pursue this metaphor. Man has in him conscience, which is the
voice of God. Not only does he know by this that the outer world is real,
but also that his own personality is real.
When a man, although flattered by the voice of another, yet says within
himself, "I am a mean fellow," he has hold of reality. When a man,
though maligned of the world, says to himself of himself, "My purpose
was just," he has hold of reality. He knows himself, for he is himself. A
man does not know an infinite amount about himself. But the finite
amount he does know is all in the map; it is all part of what is really
there. What he does not know about himself would, did he know it, fit
in with what he does know about himself. There are indeed "aspects" of
a man for all others except these two, himself and God Who made him.
These two, when they regard him, see him as he is; all other minds
have their several views of him; and these indeed are "aspects," each of
which is false, while all differ. But a man's view of himself is not an
"aspect:" it is a comprehension.
Now then, so it is with us who are of the Faith and the great story of
Europe. A Catholic as he reads that story does not grope at it from
without, he understands it from within. He cannot understand it
altogether because he is a finite being; but he is also that which he has
to understand. The Faith is Europe and Europe is the Faith.
The Catholic brings to history (when I say "history" in these pages I
mean the history of Christendom) self-knowledge. As a man in the
confessional accuses himself of