How the Reformation Happened [Paperback]

Hilaire Belloc (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2009

1928. Two historical problems are of prime importance to our race. To understand them sufficiently is to understand ourselves. To misapprehend them is to misapprehend our own nature: what made our culture and what threatens to destroy it. The first of these problems is the conversion of the Roman Empire to Catholicism. How came the pagan world to be baptized? What made Christendom? The second is the disaster of the 16th century. How came Christendom to suffer shipwreck? What made the Reformation? It is the second question which Belloc approaches in this book.

Product Details

• Paperback: 180 pages
• Publisher: TAN Books and Publishers (May 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0895554658
• ISBN-13: 978-0895554659
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #611,669 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

70 of 71 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Belloc: bold thresher of the grain of history, February 18, 2004

By 

Boileau0663 (Tournai, Belgique) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How the Reformation Happened (Paperback)

"Read history books, my son, there is the true philosophy to be found." Napoleon to his son

In my reading of history books there is a pre-Hilaire Belloc period and a post-Hilaire Belloc period. This is because what Belloc writes and how he writes it is so novel, refreshing, clear and shocking that you simply cannot be the same man after reading his works.

Don't expect a book full of quotes and references to primary sources with an imposing bibliography at the back. There isn't a single quote or reference to a primary or secondary source in any of the books by Belloc that I've read.

Briefly, you will have to take Belloc's word for it that things really happened the way he says they did. The man doesn't really put forward arguments, he simply states his case. And it works! For some, specially people who don't have a conservative mindset or who take methodology very seriously, this will probably be considered a major flaw and they will dismiss Belloc's works as mere propaganda but I didn't bother: I was completely absorbed by his quick and fascinating narrative and mind-blowing historical analysis.

Belloc is not a historian who likes to recreate a historical period by giving the reader a wealth of details about clothing, dietary habits and what not. No, his view is a tend thousand feet view: the main events, the underlying causes, the far-reaching consequences. Everything is said with utmost clarity and almost bluntly: the Reformation was a catastrophe for European civilization and its main driving force was rapacity.

In How the Reformation Happened, Belloc covers the whole period from immediately before AD 1517, when Luther published his theses, to the reign of Louis XIV. This is a long period for a book of less than 150 pages but as I said above Belloc is only interested in the quintessence of history. He leaves aside all the chaff and gives you only the grain.

This book deals only with events and does not go into the doctrinal issues. For this read Belloc's short book on heresies "The Great Heresies" and on the enemies of the Church "Survivals and New Arrivals".

The pace of the narrative is breathtaking but always crystal clear and studded with thought-provoking reflections. Since most of us have been spoon-fed a Protestant and anti-Catholic version of history, most of what he says will appear quite novel but his writing is so cogent that you will end up being convinced. I was for example completely taken aback by his explanation of the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre in AD 1572 .

This book is an eye-opener and a page-turner. And a source of true philosophy...

63 of 67 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Comprehensive, Fair and Clear Analysis, December 10, 2003

By 

Brad Shorr "Brad Shorr" - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: How the Reformation Happened (Paperback)

This is a brief but sweeping overview of the Reformation, concentrating mainly on the political and social forces at work during the whole period. Although Belloc was an ardent Catholic, he is surprisingly balanced in his analysis; for instance he pulls no punches when critiquing the shortcomings of the Church, and is quite mild in his assessment of Martin Luther. (Belloc is most venomous toward the British upper classes, who so shamelessly exploited the Church, Elizabeth, and the common people merely to increase their personal wealth and solidify their political position. His analysis is undoubtedly contrary to mainstream English history, but is compellingly supported by the facts.) Belloc's greatest strength is his ability to distill general principles and underlying causes from the tidal wave of political and social upheaval that was pouring across Europe. Thus the book is a fantastic starting point for a study of the Reformation. Although it is short on details (especially military details) it provides a very clear context.

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Review from the Publisher, March 8, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: How the Reformation Happened (Paperback)

The usual and "accepted" explanation of the Protestant Reformation, says the author, makes sense only if the reader is ignorant of the Catholic Church and its history. This is a much-needed "true view showing how Christendom suffered "shipwreck" in the Protestant Revolt against Christ and His Catholic Church. He traces the struggle, blow by blow, from the Advent of the Disaster, to the opening of the "floodgates" with Luther in 1517, through the "English Accident" and Calvin. He then shows the spiritual, military, political and financial struggles of this conflict among the French, English, Scottish, Dutch and German, describing how by 1648 the battle to keep Christendom united and in the Catholic Faith had failed of exhaustion, ending in a divided Europe, with the Protestant rebellion settling down to permanent possession of certain previously Catholic areas of Europe. No educated person can ignore this presentation of the facts of history. This is history as it happened!