Customer Reviews

How the Reformation Happened

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"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...

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.

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!

Two things I can say about Hilaire Belloc; he doesn't take sides where right and wrong are concerned, and he doesn't pull any punches. He just tells it like it was.

The author, rightly so, refuses to put the blame on just a few reformers, and he also refuses to exonerate Holy Mother Church's role in this. Reading this book made me feel like he was saying, "Everyone we can find who is responsible will be held responsible, whether protestant or Catholic."

To sum up (and this is explained more fully in chapter 9), the author puts the causes of the Reformation as thus:

1) A "special, personal hatred of the Faith" that has existed even as far back as Calvary;

2) The revolt was originally and essentially a protest against the spiritual power of the clergy and the financial power of the Church's heirarchy;

3) The movement was provoked by the very corrupt condition into which the official Church had fallen, notably the Papal court;

4) A new doctrine of unquestioned right in Princes to absolute rule, helped by the weakening of the Papacy (Popes leaving Rome, rival anti-popes); and

5) The ability to get stinking rich by the looting of Church property.

A good book showing that arguments in doctrine had nearly nothing to do with the first few decades of the revolt; that the revolt was nearly purely political, and after the looting of the monasteries began, the revolt was further fueled by the chance for extreme wealth and power.

Another great job by a great author. Five stars.

In this wondrously readable text, Belloc provides a terrific expose' of the course of events and factors behind what he calls the shipwreck of European Civilization, the Protestant Reformation. Belloc herein aruges persuasively that it was Ann Boelyn, through her insistence on becoming Queen, rather than mistress to Henry VIII, who was the pivot of the English Reformation, without which Western Civilization would have remained predominately Catholic. He further illustrates the aristocratic nature of the Huguenot uprising in France and the insidious and powerful nature of Calvin's writings. Belloc further illuminates the influence of the wealthy merchants and money traders in the splitting of Protestant Holland and Catholic Belgium. Finally, Belloc elucidates how Richilieu's French nationalism got the best of his Catholicism in his action of arraying the great warrior King Gustav Adolphus of Sweden against the Hapsburg forces in support of what emerged as Protestant Northern Germany and, ultimately, Prussia. This is truly a magnificent work and critically important to the understanding of the saga of Western Civilization.

Belloc's book was written in 1928, and has the integrity of real, non-politicized scholarship. He correctly points out that most accepted histories of the Reformation were written by English and German Protestants, which may be self-serving or self-affirming. The need for an alternative point of view, i.e., from the Catholic side, is very much needed for balance and perspective. Anyone seeking to educate himself about the Reformation should include Belloc's book in his historical review. Belloc's account also has profound meaning for theological differences among Christians today, as well as for the dangers of the encroachment of secular belief into Christian doctrine and practice.

This is a blazing, gloves off history of the Reformation! Belloc highlights the political and military struggles of the period (almost leaving the religious turmoil as an afterthought). Belloc uses this as a device to show the reader that the events surrounding this period were far more than a religious quarrel, it involved conspiracies between zealots who allowed church lands to be looted and people who favored the absolute power of the monarchy over and above any temporal papal power. It's a good and quick read that engages the intellect.

This book is a must-read for anyone who wishes to hear a truly Catholic perspective of the Reformation. I dare say, one will not hear this in any typical American Western Civ class--yet how tragic this is! Belloc's position is that the Reformation would have gone down as but one of the many uprisings in the Catholic Church over the centuries, akin to the Arian, Nestorian, and Albegensian heresies before it, were it not for the certain economic and socio-political forces at work at the time, which allowed the Protestant movement to achieve its lasting foothold upon much of Northern Europe. It is from this political perspective that Belloc brilliantly explains nation by nation how Europe was prevented from returning in unity to the Catholic Church. A truly fascinating and illuminating read, of which no true scholar of western civ can afford to deprive himself!

Mr. Belloc does not give us a detailed history with references to primary sources. Instead, he notes the major currents of thought that shaped history and the missed opportunities that might have deflected those currents from creating the reformation. His history is a macro-history covering the currents created by such factors as the Black Death, rising nationalism, corruption of morals, and more. He asserts, convincingly I believe, that the Protestant reformation was based on the lie that each individual was his own judge of what was right thinking (see more on this in Great Heresies). Further, he asserts, this heresy of man as his own arbiter of truth likely would have failed had it not been for the focus provided in John Calvin's systematic theology.

Whether Protestant or Catholic or Orthodox, it is important to understand the historical currents and the waves that brought about the world as we know it today. America, in particular, with all that is good or bad in it, is a creation of those currents. The cold reasoning that rejects all that is mystical and intangible in modern thinking is also a creation of those currents. It is the fall of man all over again which rejects any authority outside one's self. Protestant and Catholic alike decry this disunity. It is in our interest to understand the causes and effects. Mr. Belloc gives us the broad thinking approach to see the root cause which so many other historians have missed getting lost in the details.

The other written reviews hit the nail on the head so I won't waste time restating their good work. As a convert from Lutheran to Catholic I bought this book to learn more about the change I'd made. After reading this I was firmly convinced I made the best decison one could make in a lifetime. If your a Protestant you owe it to yourself to understand your own history. And and accurate, full history, not a jaded one presented by most Protestant historians. As I was, you've been lead down the very destructive path of living a realitive life, one where your soul has been improperly seperated from the Church. Belloc clearly shows how Protestantism has lead to Industrial Capitalism and also the very destructive modern way of living a life based on Realitivism according the the structure presented by the Frenchman John Calvin. The Reformation was clearly destructive to the unity that Christianty had invested 1,500 years in building.