Hilaire Belloc
In The Last Rally, Belloc narrates with clarity and vigor a central episode in the decline of the English Monarchy. Restored to the throne following the interlude of Cromwell’s “Commonwealth,” Charles II devoted his life as King of England to maintaining the integrity of the throne against all the forces arrayed against it: the power of the great landowners who worked through the Parliament; the influence of the Lawyer’s Guild; and the irresistible mercantile and financial strength of the City of London. The story that Belloc brings to life is thus one of survival: the story of a ship of state brought “through peril and storm under a great captain.” It is also the story of manhood and determination in the face of overwhelming odds; as such it is a story that Hilaire Belloc was eminently qualified to write.
“If kingship would have remained, the Peasantry would have been saved. Also there would have been a considerable and well-organised traditional Catholic body, which might have been a quarter of the nation, or at least a sixth . . . As it was, with the fall of the Stuarts, the Catholic Church in England was utterly crushed out. “ — Hilaire Belloc, 1939
Distributist Perspectives is a collection of essays by leading thinkers of the school of English Distributists that in the 1920s and 1930s articulated a humane vision of social and economic life based upon the Social Doctrine of the Church. Subtitled "Essays on the Economics of Justice and Charity," and including essays by Hilaire Belloc, G. K. Chesterton, George Maxwell, Harold Robbins, Cdr. Herbert Shove, H. J. Massingham, and Eric Gill, this first collection of Distributist writings serves as an introduction to the depth and coherence of the Distributist position on such essential topics as the nature of work, the role of tradition, the dangers of industrialism, and the importance to the family and the State of the widespread distribution of ownership of productive property. Volume I of the series offers a rare glimpse through true, primary source material, of the seriousness and persuasiveness of the critique of modernity by some of the finest English Catholic minds of last century. This first volume of Distributist Perspectives also offers a newly edited edition of the Distributist Manifesto, written by Arthur J. Penty for the Distributist League in 1937.
Chesterton's visit to Ireland in early 1918 resulted in this unique, readable, and thought-provoking book on Ireland and the Irish situation of the early 20th-century from one of England's greatest essayists. In Irish Impressions, familiar Chestertonian themes — distribution of property, industrialism, the Faith and Christian society — are discussed in the context of Ireland's struggle for national and cultural independence from the Britain of the early 1900s. Not mincing words, Chesterton points out both the strengths and weakness of the English and Irish positions during that crucial period, always with wit and wisdom — and an appreciation of religious, cultural, and economic essentials, which is characteristic of Chesterton's work. Originally published: London, 1919.
IHS Press is extremely pleased to be able to offer with this newly edited, extensively footnoted edition, a new Preface by Dr. Dermot Quinn.
Dr. Quinn is an Associate Professor of History at Seton Hall University, and an intimate friend and colleague of Fr. Ian Boyd of Seton Hall's Chesterton Institute. Quinn received his doctorate from Oxford University, is author of Patronage and Piety: The Politics of English Roman Catholicis, 1850 — 1900 (Stanford University Press, 1993), and is a frequent contributor to The Chesterton Review.
Sister Catherine Goddard Clarke, M.I.C.M.
“I could not put it down.” Such enthusiastic responses as this are typical upon reading this powerfully written his-tory of the Church as illustrated in the challenging pontificates of ten of her more illustrious champions of orthodoxy. As one reads through the first forty-two pages, one is virtually taken on a journey through some four hundred years of tempus ecclesiae, from the momentous entrance of Saint Peter into the fearsome capitol of Satan’s doomed empire, to the triumph of the last Christological Council, Chalcedon, held under the pastoral eye of Leo I, the first Pope that Catholic posterity dared to call “the Great.” Sister Catherine vividly brings to life the painful and virile maturation of the Church Militant from its infancy in Jerusalem to its full manhood as expressed by the Toma of Leo solemnly read at Chalcedon in 451. The remaining bulk of information dovetails into the major periods of religious crises and tells of those heroic Popes who steered the Church through these gravest trials. For example, see how the little known Greek Pope Saint Zachary fought the Moslem influence which generated eastern Iconoclasm; see the Gregorys form the temporal city of God into the vibrant and monolithic power that Jesus intended; and see how the two Pius’s re-establish orthodoxy with one sword and humiliate the brazenly open anti-Christian forces with the other — burying them — for a time. This is a book that can restore hope and confidence in the might of the papacy.
Ireland, in its halcyon years, was commonly called the land of saints and scholars by a grateful Christendom. And, although the emerald isle, like other Catholic nations, had not only its peaks of sanctity but its lows of spiritual tepidity (as we see manifest everywhere today), the land of the Gaels has rarely, if ever, been without her martyrs. Be it at the hands of pagan Viking marauders, Puritan savages or the rapacious imperialists of perfidious Albion, Ireland has drunk from the Lord’s chalice deeply and often. This stirring account of a very crucial period in Irish history was written by historian Timothy T. O’Donnell, a worthy son of the illustrious O’Donnell clan, who now serves as president of Christendom College. With that Catholic reverence that only a filial piety nurtured in the holy Faith can generate, the author brings to life a somewhat obscure slice of Irish history that ought to stand out prominently in the annals of heroic struggles against draconian injustice. This is the story of the Catholic uprising of the three Hughs: Hugh O’Donnell, Red Hugh, his valiant son, and Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone, master dissembler and cunning diplomat, whom Queen Elizabeth preferred to call "Beelzebub." Beginning in 1595, the war for liberty and the reign of Christ the King grew in strength victory by victory, such wise that by 1599 all of Ireland was ruled by native Irishmen as an independent Catholic Kingdom. It was to be a short-lived independence ending with the pathos of the "Flight of the Earls" in 1603 and the toxic murder in Spain of Red Hugh, "the son of prophecy," by an English spy. The battle cry of the mighty warriors of "The O’Donnell," Red Hugh, may now be silent, though not ever silenced: "Papa Aboo!" (The Pope to victory!) For in Gaelic hearts "the visible King" of the isle will forever be the Vicar of Christ.
Bishop Jacques Bossuet
This history of the true religion, written some three hundred years ago by the “Eagle of Meaux,” Bishop Jaques Bossuet, is a study of the Old and New Testaments in the light of the continuity of God’s interactive and faithful presence in the salvific affairs of His people. There is no book which better explains the meaning behind the types and figures of so many seemingly enigmatic commandments given to the patriarchs and prophets of old by the Lord God. No book better illustrates God’s particular and permissive providence in the rise and fall of nations and empires demonstrating, too, how those powers willfully estranged from the true religion cannot act outside of the Creator’s universal economy of salvation. Bossuet’s genius for teaching and lucidity of style merge beautifully in this unequaled masterpiece of pious erudition. As you read this book you will understand how it is that nothing of the ancient covenant was left unfulfilled in Christ and/or in the Church, His extended body. This is scriptural theology for clergy, religious, or laity. It is the complete story, this side of heaven, of man’s fall and his consequent restoration in Christ through the Church. Another chapter of this continuity of religion yet remains to be completed — an everlasting one, the Author of which is the Word of God — we pray we may all read the final chapter in heaven.
Dr. Paul Lavin & Robert Lavin
Without knowing anything about the man whose life is recounted on these pages, The Iron Man of China may seem a curious title. Except for a year furlough home in the states, Father Lavin served the Chinese people for twenty years (1932-1953), traversing thousands of miles by foot or bicycle, and exposing himself every day to life threatening dangers. In 1953 the Communists expelled him from the mainland threatening him with death if he should ever return. This well-documented book, written by the Iron Man’s nephew, illustrates one of the reasons why there are ten million Catholics, loyal to Rome, in China today.
Caryll Houselander is best known for the intensity of her vision of the suffering Christ and His immeasurable love for us, a theme that she frequently spoke of with breathtaking luminosity in her many books about Him. Few know, however, of the many remarkable stories she wrote for Catholic children – delightful tales that are simple but not shallow. Indeed, like her books for adults, they manifest a tender love of Christ and His little ones not commonly found among us these days. Here are twelve of Houselander’s best tales, charmingly illustrated with Renee George’s lively drawing of pirates and princess, castle’s and kings. Through the tale of Jack and Jim, even young children will grasp the meaning of Christ’s suffering; in Racla the Gypsy, they’ll discover the charity which is at the heart of the Eucharist; in the Cure’s Guest, they’ll see how Christ makes up for the sins of others. Other stories touch on other Catholic themes, but these tales are not really catechetical. Yes, they do take for granted that Catholicism plays a large role in the lives of these children, especially prayer and the Mass. But they do something more… and more important. Tale after tale introduces children to the tender love that Jesus has for each of them, and to the fire of love for Him that can burn in the heart of Catholics – even in the hearts of little ones like themselves.
