William J. Slattery - Heroism and Genius: How Catholic Priests Helped Build—and Can Help Rebuild—Western Civilization

HEROISM AND GENIUS

William J. Slattery

How Catholic Priests Helped to Buildand Can
Help RebuildWestern Civilization

IGNATIUS PRESS SAN FRANCISCO

Cover art: Alejandro Ferrant y Fischermans, Cisneros, Fundador del Hospital de la
Caridad de Illescas , 1892. Oil on canvas. Fundacion Hospital Ntra. Sra. de la Caridad
Memoria Benfica de Vega.

Cardinal Francisco Ximnez de Cisneros (14361517), the priest who reluctantly became statesman, regent of the Spanish empire, and leading protagonist in bringing his nation into its Golden Age, founding among other institutions the Complutense University of Madrid, and defending the Native Americans. The painting by Alejandro Ferrant shows him directing the construction of the hospital La Virgen de la Caridad at Illescas, near Toledo.

Back cover photo: The author, Father William Slattery, at the
Great Saint Bernard Pass in the Swiss Alps (8,100 ft).

Cover design by Davin Carlson

2017 by Ignatius Press, San Francisco
All rights reserved
ISBN 978-1-62164-014-1 (PB)
ISBN 978-1-68149-788-4 (EB)
Library of Congress Control Number 2014911482
Printed in the United States of America

Cecilia Lawrence, Our Lady, Queen of Chivalry .

To the
woman
clothed with the sun,
with the moon under her feet,
and on her head a crown of twelve stars (Rev 12:1) .

To my father and mother,
Thomas and Margaret,
with deep gratitude for their self-sacrificing love
and for giving me lifes greatest treasure: the Catholic Faith .

To Paul and Hlne,
[M]ay you see your children, and your childrens children, unto the third
and fourth generation: and may your seed be blessed by the God of Israel,
who reigneth for ever and ever (Tob 9:11; Douay-Rheims) .

Historians Have Spoken: The Verdict

Priests: Channels of Lifeblood

Milestones of the Catholic Struggle to Build a New Civilization, circa A.D. 2001300

Part 2: Laying the Foundations of a New Civilization,
circa A.D. 3001000

Night Falls over Rome

Rescuing from a Burning City

Saga of Centuries: The Conversion of Europe

Shouldering Society: Bishops from the Fifth to the Seventh Centuries

Birth of a Remarkable Institution: The Parish

The Hairs Breadth

Ambrose: Defender of the City

Augustine: Converter of Culture

Man of His Century and of Every Century

Intellect and Heart Forged by Priesthood

Blueprints for a New Culture

Blueprints for a New Sociopolitical Order

Standing Upright to the End

Leo the Great: Rome at the Center

Gregory the Great and the Thrust toward the Barbarians

Benedict and the Shaping of the Western Mind

Columbanus and the Irish Monks

D-Days: Disembarking of Columbanus in France and of Columba in Scotland

Who Are These Men?

The Silent Revolution

Plight of Church and Society at the Arrival of Columbanus

The Engine of Renewal: The Irish Method of Confession

Mission Accomplished

Boniface: Seed Sower of Civilization in Germany

The New Alliance: Papacy-Monasticism-Frankish Monarchy

Charlemagne: Rough-Hewnfrom Gnarled Germanic Wood

The Ideal behind Charlemagnes Empire

The Reality

The Idealists around Charlemagne

An International Group

Alcuin

The Man Whom Charlemagne Called My Mentor

Educator of an Empires Educators

Restorer of the Tools of Intellectual Culture

Thrust toward Universal Education

After Alcuin and Charlemagne (8141000)

Relations between Church, State, and Society

The Flame Kept Burning: Renaissance of Culture, Naissance of Christendom

Part 3: Distinctive Features of Western Civilization
That Budded in the Dark Ages

The Ancient Rite

The Embodiment of Catholicism

From Sacrifice to Sacrificial Love

Embedded Deep in the Existence of Catholics

Vigil of Arms

Baptizing Men with Claws

Training Warriors to Wield and Sheathe the Sword

The Silhouette of the Christian Warrior Appears

The Knights Vision of Christ

Idealist of Chivalry: Bernard of Clairvaux

The Man behind the Statutes of the Templars

Background to the Templars: The Crusades

Foundation, Development, and Influence of the Templars

Chivalrys Finished Product: A King, a Hero, a ManLouis IX

Ever Relevant: The Living Symbol of Force Subjected to the Spirit

Romanticism

A Millennium-Long Struggle on Behalf of Women

Birth of Chivalric Romantic Love

Clash: The Chivalric Romantic Ideal versus Troubadourism and Courtly Love

Triumph: A Sublime and Enduring Romanticism

Total Art on the Grandest Scale: Gothic Architecture

The Man behind Gothic: Abbot Suger

Before and After Gothic and Always

Music That Rose into the Night: Gregorian Chant

The Catholic Ideal behind Western Economic Progress

First Incubators of Free Enterprise Principles

Worldly Ascetics: The Priests Who Pioneered Modern Economics

Medieval and Renaissance Economic Thinkers

Sketches of Personalities

Men Alive with New Ideas

Installing the Engine of Free Market Economics

Exile to Intellectual Siberia and Return

Horizons

In Order to Build the Future: Remember!

Migrations and Invasions of the Roman Empire, A.D. 100500

Europe Becomes Christian, 4001450

Renaissance Powerhouses of Western Europe: Celtic Monasteries

Travels and Influence of a Father of Europe: Columbanus, 575615

Celtic Torchbearers of European Renaissance, SixthNinth Centuries

The First Europe: Charlemagnes Empire, circa 800

Plan of a Medieval Monastery

One hot, muggy August afternoon, the inspiration to write Heroism and Genius struck me as I worked in the seventeenth-century rare books room of the library at the Casa Santa Maria, the graduate house of the Pontifical North American College, in Romes historic center.

Thanks to Bishop Nicola de Angelis of the Diocese of Peterborough, I had come back to Rome, most unexpectedly, studying firstly for a licentiate in theology at the Lateran University, and then for a Ph.D. in philosophy at the Gregorian. As those years went by, the mind was quickened and the spirit renewed amid the ancient churches, catacombs, and cobblestoned streets of the Eternal City, where linger not only memories but mystic presence of so many saints and martyrs. How naturally a work like Heroism and Genius can be conceived in that setting where so many men and women creatively and heroically poured out their lifeblood for the most sublime and necessary of idealsthe honor of God through pursuit of the eternal salvation of souls! To stand in spirit among these great Christians is to penetrate not only the past but the present; they provoke you to question the status quo in society, in Church, and, most urgently, in oneself; to leave their presence is to go forth with the soul invigorated unto emulation. Moreover, the closer one gets to these heroes and creators, the better one is able to see, through them, and towering above them, the person of historys one flawless hero and one divine genius. In the most heroic and creative heart that has ever existed, that of the God-Man, one recognizes the source of the ingenuity and courage that, century after century, empowers the Church to have her phoenix hour. Ones conviction that he is the One who matters deepens; and that even a glimpse of him is enough to make life sublimely beautiful while we journey in hope through often dark valleys toward the light of our eternal homeland.