"The recrudescence of Islam, the possibility of that terror under which we lived for centuries reappearing, and of our civilization again fighting for its life against what was its chief enemy for a thousand years, seems fantastic. Who in the Mohammedan world today can manufacture and maintain the complicated instruments of modern war? Where is the political machinery whereby the religion of Islam can play an equal part in the modern world? I say the suggestion that Islam may re-arise sounds fantastic - but this is only because men are always powerfully affected by the immediate past - one might say that they are blinded by it. Cultures spring from religions; ultimately the vital force which maintains any culture is its philosophy; its attitude towards the universe; the decay of a religion involves the decay of the culture corresponding to it - we see that most clearly in the breakdown of Christendom today. The bad work begun at thew Reformation is bearing its final fruit in the dissolution of our ancestral doctrines - the very structure of our society is dissolving." -Hilaire Belloc
why isn't Constantinople indicated on this map, which was sacked in the fourth crusade? or Tunisia and Egypt, against which king saint Louis IX of France has led his campaigns? Or the Baltic states and the parts of Russia which the Teutonic knights had ruled over? if this map had every city on it where during the Crusades some brutal incidents happed, it would be also quite full of dots.
The Crusades could have been a success had we gone straight to Damascus and chopped the head off the satanic dragon. Instead, we wrongly opted to liberate the holy shrines associated with the life of our Lord in the Holy Land while clinging to a useless 500-mile seaside stretch of kingdoms on the pilgrimage route.
"The recrudescence of Islam, the possibility of that terror under which we lived for centuries reappearing, and of our civilization again fighting for its life against what was its chief enemy for a thousand years, seems fantastic. Who in the Mohammedan world today can manufacture and maintain the complicated instruments of modern war? Where is the political machinery whereby the religion of Islam can play an equal part in the modern world? I say the suggestion that Islam may re-arise sounds fantastic - but this is only because men are always powerfully affected by the immediate past - one might say that they are blinded by it. Cultures spring from religions; ultimately the vital force which maintains any culture is its philosophy; its attitude towards the universe; the decay of a religion involves the decay of the culture corresponding to it - we see that most clearly in the breakdown of Christendom today. The bad work begun at thew Reformation is bearing its final fruit in the dissolution of our ancestral doctrines - the very structure of our society is dissolving." -Hilaire Belloc
ReplyDeletewhy isn't Constantinople indicated on this map, which was sacked in the fourth crusade? or Tunisia and Egypt, against which king saint Louis IX of France has led his campaigns? Or the Baltic states and the parts of Russia which the Teutonic knights had ruled over? if this map had every city on it where during the Crusades some brutal incidents happed, it would be also quite full of dots.
ReplyDeleteThe Crusades could have been a success had we gone straight to Damascus and chopped the head off the satanic dragon. Instead, we wrongly opted to liberate the holy shrines associated with the life of our Lord in the Holy Land while clinging to a useless 500-mile seaside stretch of kingdoms on the pilgrimage route.
ReplyDelete