Tag Archives: Papacy

Interview 043 — Taylor Marshall on Bellarmine and can a Pope become a heretic

On 31 January I appeared on Taylor Marshall’s show to speak on the much vexed question of St. Robert Bellarmine’s teaching in On the Roman Pontiff, book 2, ch. 30, as well as teaching from other works of St. Robert that make his teaching on this point rather clear. I read through the entire chapter, explaining the various points according to St. Robert’s ecclesiology, adding what he says in other works. Join us for a fantastic discussion on the topic:

Relevant citations:

On the Roman Pontiff, book 2, ch. 30; book 4, ch. 1-5; 22
On Councils, book 1 ch. 9; ch. 21.

Also, see the latest translation of Bellarmine’s works, On the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass:

Interview 039—Phillip Campbell on the Nitty Gritty of the Middle Ages, and why most people will hate it

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Today, Phillip Campbell (aka Boniface) of Unam Sanctam Catholicam joins us to talk about the history of the Middle Ages, and why most people, traditional Catholics in particular, who have romantic notions of medieval life, would positively hate it. Not to dissuade one from study or admiring the Middle Ages, this conversation about medieval life is aimed at painting an accurate picture of it. Join us, as we dig into the nitty gritty of the middle ages.

**Warning**: [insert danger Will Robinson]
There are some points in the podcast where profanities are used demonstratively, as in medievals used the word in a title of this or that and we repeated it. Moreover there will be frank discussion of medieval views about sex and modesty and weird perverted things.  There will also be cool medieval music in Latin about bawdy subjects which would could not understand probably. If that offends you, or you thought this would be good for your younger kids, we give fair warning, you will not be happy.

Episode Notes:

Previous interviews with Phillip/Boniface:
Interview 014 on being a mayor in a small town.
Interview 024 on Pope Boniface VIII
Unam Sanctam Catholicam
Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch
Medieval end times views
Medieval Churches used for theater
The Theatre: Three Thousand Years of Drama, Acting and Stagecraft by Sheldon Cheny
Feast of the Ass
Feast of fools
Humility and State in Life
Golliards
Bacche Bene Venies
De Defectibus

Alphonsus Liguori on whether it is licit to have sex in Church
Instructions for Parish Priests by John Myrc (1400s)
Priests working secular occupations (barber/surgeon, lawyer), so common that Lateran II specifically forbid this in 1139
Jacques Fournier records people had sex inside the church (Béatrice de Planissoles)
-Source: Readings in Medieval History
Apostolic Origins of Clerical Celibacy, Cochini
Francis and Joseph Gies
Life in a Medieval Village
Life in a Medieval City

Limbourg Brothers

Related image
Mailoica Plate:
https://athanasiuscmdotorg.files.wordpress.com/2019/02/69d5c-maiolicaplate.jpg

abortion and contraception in the middle ages
Origin of the heart shape is from seed-pod of a Roman contraceptive plant:
(NB: I made a mistake in the podcast, I called if fenellinium, it was actually called silphium, got it all mixed up in my head).
A Cyrenian coin from the 6th century B.C., with a silphium seed imprinted in it.

Catullus on Silphium:
“as the number of Libyan sands that lie in silphium-bearing Cyrene.” (Poem 7)

Virgo Lactans, St. Bernard:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c7/BernhardClairvaux_Lactatio_SourceUnknown.jpg/220px-BernhardClairvaux_Lactatio_SourceUnknown.jpg
Troubador Movement
Liber Facetiarum of Poggio Bracciolini
History of Private Life Part 2
Codpieces
Medieval depictions of walking, sword-wielding genitalia (Danger Will Robinson! Crass, weird, odd, and just— enter at your own risk).
Edward IV
Unfortunate Wives of Philip II
Pope Alexander VI annulled the first marriage of Louis XII.
Pierre Darmon’s 1979 book Trial by Impotence.
For more on Henry VIII, see my own talks on the subject.
Politically active clergy:
Wolsey
Richelieu
Mazarin
Simony
Investiture Controversy
Albrecht of Brandenburg
Fuggers

 

Interview 038 — Fr. Ripperger on the abuse crisis and the theology of the priesthood


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Image result for Wuerl clericalism memeToday we are rejoined by Fr. Chad Ripperger, PhD, to talk about the abuse crisis in the Church in light of the revelations concerning former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the mass cover-ups carried out by bishops in Pennsylvania as revealed by the PA Grand Jury report, and the allegations against the Pope made by Archbishop Viganó. Instead of rehashing what has made the rounds on news, blogs and op-ed pieces, Fr. Ripperger discusses past Church legislation governing seminarians and clergy, and how the Vatican directed seminaries to deal with the problem of corrupt seminarians before Vatican II. He addresses the problem of homosexuality and the wider problem of a failure to keep chastity among seminarians, priests and bishops. Lastly, Father deals with the argument that everything is to blame on “clericalism” and shows that this is a veiled attack on the Catholic priesthood, and what the theology of the priesthood actually is. Not to be missed.

More resources for Fr. Ripperger
Sensus Traditionis
Sensus Traditionis Press
Society of the Most Sorrowful Mother

Episode Notes

Deliverance Prayers (With an imprimatur from the Archdiocese of Denver)

Our Lady of Sorrows
Diocese admits McCarrick violated minors
PA Grand Jury report shows Bishops covered-up
Archbishop Viganó alleges Pope knew about McCarrick
Modernism
Illud Horrendum Scelus of Pius V
Religiosorum Institutio
1917 Canon Law, Canon 2359, §2: “If clergy should engage in a delictum against the sixth commandment of the Decalogue with a minor below the age of sixteen, or take part in adultery, debauchery, bestiality, sodomy, pandering, incest with relatives or affines (kin) in the first degree, they are suspended, declared infamous, and are deprived of any office, benefice, dignity, responsibility, if they have such, whatever, and in more serious cases, they are to be deposed.”
Sacramentum Pœnitentiæ (Latin followed by English)
Rudy Kos

More episode notes will be compiled soon. I have to listen to it all again to make sure we link and source everything correctly.

Interview 035 — Holy Faith TV on St. Robert Bellarmine

Today we joined Jonathon Ross of Holy Faith TV to speak about St. Robert Bellarmine and his place in the Counter-Reformation, his devotion to St. Thomas, his innovations in teaching theology at that time, the Galileo controversy and some final comments dealing with Sedevacantism.
I apologize for some of the audio; my connection wasn’t the best.

See more from Jonathon Ross on Holy Faith TV

Also see Mediatrix Press for the projects I mentioned:
Bellarmine Project
St. Alphonsus Project

Interview 033 — Catholic Reform before Luther on The Mike Church Show

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Today I was a guest on the Mike Church Show to talk about the myths surrounding Luther and the beginning of the “Reformation” and the Catholic reformers that began before Luther even appeared on the scene; so that Luther’s revolt was not due to abuses in the Church, but errors in theology that he embraced.
While we provide our particular interview free, there are hundreds of hours of great content to hear on the Mike Church Show and the Crusade Channel on the Veritas Radio Network! Please support them by subscribing to their podcasts.

Episode Notes

The Spiritual Life and Prayer by Cecile Bruyére
Dom Gueranger
NPR Standard useless history on Luther and the Reformation
For biblical Learning in the middle ages, see the chapter on Wycliffe in St. John Fisher: Reformer, Humanist, Martyr for a scholarly summary.
Luther and the Bible
Erfurt University
Indulgences
Purgatory
***Shameless Plug Alert*** St. Robert Bellarmine’s treatise on Purgatory with copious references to the Greek Father
Tetzel
Myths about the 95 Thesis

For a summary of Luther’s lecture notes on Romans, see Philip Hughes, A Popular History of the Reformation
Exsurge Domine of Leo X
Cardinal Ximenez
Complutensian Polyglot Bible of Ximenez  (I made an error when saying this was done 17 years before Luther, although Ximenez was compiling, directing and paying for it as early as that, it was not actually published until 1520; the point still stands as this was not done in reaction to Luther but a project that began before Luther and was carried out before Luther).
Humility of Heart by Gaetano de Bergamo (New complete translation provided by Mike Church)
University of Louvain
Erasmus
BBC In Our Time podcast on Erasmus
James Latomus (I accidentally said “John” in the podcast)
Ruard Tapper
John Collet
St. Thomas More: A Great Man in Hard Times (with summaries of his positions and his contribution to Catholic Reform)
St. John Fisher 
Sermons of St. John Fisher
Thomas Vio de Gaetano (Cajetan)
Diet of Worms
Marcello Cervini
Frederick the III (The wise)
St. Gaetano de Thiene
Theatines
Comuneros Revolt
Movie on St. Ignatius of Loyola
Simpsons Henry VIII (warning, crass humour)
Lord Nelson buried in St. Paul’s
Capuchins
A Capuchin Chronicle
Man sentenced to Capuchin monastery begs to go to jail because religious life is too hard
St. Charles Borromeo
St. Philip Neri

Interview 031—Eric Ybarra on the Challenge of Eastern Orthodoxy

Part I

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Part II

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Today we are joined by Eric Ybarra, a convert from Anglicanism to talk about the challenge presented by Eastern Orthodoxy. Eric lays out what exactly Eastern Orthodoxy is (Greek, Russian, Middle Eastern, etc.) and their many differences with the Catholic Church (contrary to popular belief, it is much more than simply the papacy and the filioque). Eric also offers us a penetrating analysis into the history of the Papacy in the first millennium and how the filioque is supported by Church Fathers.

Episode Notes

NB: Work in Progress. We will be adding reference links shortly.

Interview 026 – Reconquest with Brother André on St. Robert Bellarmine


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On 23 March I was on Reconquest! with Br. Andre Marie, MICM of the St. Benedict Center in New Hampshire to talk about the life and holiness of St. Robert Bellarmine. The first segment is a summary by Brother André, and in the rest of the show I join him to talk about his life, his holiness, the life of churchmen in the 16th century, and how Bellarmine, being full of holiness and love for the poor, excelled as a cardinal and as a scholar.

de_romano_pontifice_vol2_frontNB: I am preparing to release volume 2 of On the Roman Pontiff, which contains books 3-5. I am currently taking pre-orders discounted $6 from what the retail price will be. If you would like to pre-order, you can do so here and I will notify you when it is ready to ship.

 

 

Resources:

Catholicism.org
Missa Papa Marcelli mentioned in the talk.
Chicory

Interview 022 – Calvin was Wrong on the Mike Church Show


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Today I was interviewed for the Mike Church Show in his series “The Modern Wrong World made Right”, where we discuss the Reformation and my translation of St. Robert Bellarmine. We begin with a discussion of the Reformation and the stage before Bellarmine gets on the scene, and the arguments in Books 1-3 of On the Roman Pontiff.

Mike Church Website

Mediatrix Press

De Romano Pontifice in English

 

Interview 020 – Charles Coulombe revisiting the American Revolution


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Smaller Version:          Part 1          Part 2             Part 3

On Independence day we decided to celebrate in an entirely different way, with a re-examination of the American Revolution against Great Britain, the factors involved, and numerous details not found in your history books.  Charles Coulombe, a writer, researcher and fellow pipe-smoker joins us to shed light on the inconvenient details of early American history hidden from your history books.
NB: After the interview we discussed a matter which should have perhaps prefaced it: many people will be mad at this, especially if you are of tea-party persuasion. The charge of “treason” and “unpatriotic” behavior will be leveled, I’m sure. Patriotism, properly love of the land and countrymen, is a virtue, distinct from the thoughtless worship of the government. We both adhere to the former, as every good Catholic should since true patriotism is a virtue; while have nothing to do with the latter.

Resources for Charles Coulombe:

Charles_CoulombeMuse in the Bottle (my personal favorite)
History of the Popes
Puritan’s Empire
The Pope’s Legion: The Multi-national Fighting Force that defended the Vatican
Haunted Places in America: A guide to spooked and spooky places

Interview Notes

School House Rock: No More Kings
The Quebec Act
Freedoms given Catholics were Denounced by Declaration of Independence: or abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies”
[This is a whole bunch of nonsense, the word “Abritrary government” is an old WASP buzzword for Catholicism, they extended freedom in Quebec which the apostles of “Liberty” found intolerable]
Taxes were Higher after the American Revolution
Cost of the Seven Years War (French and Indian war)
John Hancock smuggled tea
Shays Rebellion over high taxes after the revolution
Unruly Americans (reference to taxes pg. 29)
American Heresy
Lord North
Viscount Howe
Cousin’s wars
For detailed analysis of anti-Catholic propaganda during the English Civil War, see: “The English Civil War: Papists, Gentlewomen, Soldiers and Witchfinders” by Dianne Purkiss. Excellent work.
First legal Catholic Church in the Empire since James II
Appointments in England, Scotland, Ireland, made by Henry, Cardinal Duke of York (brother of Bonnie Prince Charlie).
Rebels tended to be closer to the centers of power or wealth, whereas loyalists tended to be more poor.
War of the Regulators
American President more powerful than any monarchy
For more on recycling of the same propaganda during the American Revolution, see the documentation in Liberty the God that Failed, by Chris Ferrara.
John Pym
Trial of Charles I, claimed that he negotiated with the Pope
Rome ready to offer a red hat to Bishop Laud
Debate between Laud and a Jesuit named Fisher
Scots Highlanders tended to be English Loyalists
Flora MacDonald
Letter of Continental Congress to England concerning the Quebec act (drafted by John Jay for the Congress)
Letter of Continental Congress to Quebec
Father (later Bishop) John Carrol excommunicated by Bishop of Quebec
Traveled to Quebec with Benjamin Franklin
St. Elizabeth Anne Seton
Samuel Seabury
Scottish Episcopal Church
Lord Dunmore offered Freedom to any slave who would join the British Army
Blacks in the Colonies were pro-British
Samuel Johnson opposed Independence
Benedict Arnold
Founding Fathers and Freemasonry
Catholic British Loyalists
Jacobite Rebellion
Aude Sapere 004 – Scottish Independence
History of Scotland: Shadow King (overview of Jacobite Wars through Culloden – No longer available, probably copyright.
Continental Congress offered the Crown of the United States to Bonnie Prince Charlie in 1778
Just in case you are too young to remember Theodoric of York
Culloden Moor
Bishop Hay, vicar apostolic of Scotland

St. John Fisher: Resistance to Tyranny

St.JohnFisher2Today is the feast of the twin martyrs, St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More. There are books yet to be written on both, for all that have been written, but since so many more have been written on the latter I wish to write more on the former.

Now, in the first place, Fisher was a far greater theologian than St. Thomas More, who was a rhetorician and a lawyer, though no less devout a layman than Fisher was a bishop. Fisher established the seminary system in all but name, and made sure good preaching was the norm. This is rather an interesting thing.  In the late Renaissance, patronage, which was designed to move ahead those who were worthy had become instead a way of rewarding friends and picking favorites. Men became pastors and bishops solely due to royal favor, and the Popes tended not to care because they received the first year’s income of that diocese, a sort of Church tax called the Annates. Suffice it to say the whole thing had gone very wrong in the fifteenth century, and now preaching was a rarity. Some Bishops did not preach a sermon in their lives. Many bishops lived elsewhere, and would attempt to have other dioceses consecrated under them, or when those had been exhausted abbeys, so they could live it up in Paris or Rome or some other large city, and appoint a vicar for low pay to administer his diocese. These often did not do so well, particularly since they were not paid for the job. At the time St. Charles Borromeo entered Milan as its Archbishop, there had not been a Bishop who actually resided in Milan for 125 years! Yet that holy reforming bishop had a portrait of two saints in his room, one of St. Ambrose, and the other of St. John Fisher.

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