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A Short History of England - G. K. Chesterton

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I first heard of this book when I read a quote from it in an Amazon review of The Goodly Word: The Puritan Influence in American Literature by another Amazon reviewer, Joe Tremblay. Previously, this book was only available in Vol. 20 of The Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton, published by Ignatius Press. This is a POD (Print On Demand) version from Book Jungle. As Chesterton's books, some of which are over one hundred years old, slip out of print, many are appearing in new editions, some of them from POD publishers. This particular version is a large, oversize paperback (almost large print), carefully edited for spelling errors and the like, just over 100 pages, well-laid out, and very reasonably priced. Add that it's one of Chesterton's least read and least known works, and it's a reader's bonanza.

G.K.C., in his inimitable style, goes a long way toward dismantling the rickety structure of disinformation which generally passes for British history. A well- read friend calls the British Reformation the British Inquisition for, it appears, good reason. If it were the story of the evil Catholics torturing and killing all the Protestants, I would be all for the Reformation, not for theological but social reasons: the modern sensibility against torture of anyone (I would support Amnesty International no questions asked if they would extend their fight to include torture of the unborn). But a devil named Oliver Cromwell had already been pursuing a policy of "Kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out", and once said Protestants got in power, they tortured and killed the Catholics with, if anything, more zest. This gives some credence to the claim during the French Revolution that the guillotine was a relatvely humane way to depose the ruling elite.

But then the Protestants turned against the common people, taking, for instance, the pattens on which the Host rests during Communion, which Catholics call the Eucharist, which means "Thanksgiving", and making them into paving stones in front of the church. Guards were standing by and anyone who refused to walk on the patten got hauled off to gaol (jail). More on that in Why I Became a Catholic: A Timeless Conversion Story, which is an account by a Canadian official. To put the lightest touch on it, one might quote Bertie Wooster: "faults on both sides".

There followed a nearly unravellable knot of rumor and conjecture. We all know that Henry VII started the Church of England since the pope wouldn't give him a divorce from Catherine of Aragon. But that's not true. The pope was willing to do so but couldn't since he was a prisoner of the Protestant German emperor, Charles V. Then, we all know, the Protestants issued in a realm of tolerance and peace, except their dissenters headed off to the New World to escape them. At the time of the founding of America, there were only two places in the world where it was legal to be Catholic. The colony of Maryland was founded to give tolerance to Catholics, but it was soon taken over by Protestants and Catholicism outlawed. That must be because America got on so well with Britain, but it didn't. The Church of England changed its name to the Episcopal Church to play down the connection with Mother England.

Under Elizabeth I Catholicism was outlawed, Catholics persecuted, and priests became secret agents, bringing their flocks Communion on the sly. There followed "Bloody" Mary, whom Chesterton says, "set herself to burn out 'No Popery' and managed to burn it in" by "the concentration of her fanaticism into cruelty". James I, it were hoped, would restore a civil version of Catholicism, by tolerance, to England, but instead persecuted it all the more fiercely. Well, at least he translated the King James version of the Bible. This isn't accurate either. The foreword to the Authorized Version, commonly called the King James, says that it contains the translation of 1611. But the translation of 1611 is a Catholic Bible, with 73 books. In 1625 it became a Protestant version with 66 books.

The media is quick to distinguish between U.S. presidents, say, to give two random examples, those named Bush and Obama, but it seems somewhat at a loss to distinguish between kings, although there have been many more of those than US presidents in most countries (and queens), and at a total loss to discriminate between popes. It cannot therefore understand why Pope John Paul II would go and pray at a Protestant martyr's grave. Thus, it continually rabbits back the supposed persecution of Galileo by the church, although his first supporters, against the prevailing astronomical community of the time, were the pope and clergy. So-called "Catholic" universities currently cite their supposed knowledge of this incident to protest a visit from Pope Benedict XVI. Merely one more example of Chesterton's dictum that any stick is good enough to beat Christianity with (don't worry, they have an endless supply of sticks). But for those tired of the long campaign of disinformation, here's a short history of England.