Peter Hitchens on the Monarchy, Religion, and Culture

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Queen and Vicar

The world's two most esteemed leaders take centre stage in ancient Scotland; one a pious, if not infallible pope, and the other an illustrious queen, in a divine gathering of holiness and majesty. Other than that, we leave it to the considerable wisdom and faculty of His Grace to properly speak of the symbolism and significance of this all too rare and noble coming together.

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A delicious new book for monarchists (and republicans who have not been completely de-spiritualised)

A Review of Secret Places, Hidden Sanctuaries
Uncovering Mysterious Sights, Symbols and Societies
by Stephen Klimczuk and Gerald Warner of Craigenmaddie
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Those in search of spiritual food and an escape from the grim reality of hypermodernity presently plaguing our little planet - i.e., society's unfortunate tendency to embrace mass secularism and transform itself into a soulless homogeneity - would do well to dash off to the Amazon and purchase Secret Places, Hidden Sanctuaries.

This is Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code (the best selling English language novel of the 21st century) without the bunk, a thrilling adventure to the world's most secretive sites and sacred shrines, but without the rank nonsense of bogus conspiracy theories, historical fabrications and other arse gravies of the worst kind. Superbly navigated by two globetrotting monarchists, Stephen Klimczuk and Gerald Warner, the book opens with a quote from the prophet Isaiah, "And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places..." - evidence alone that both authors, to use the analogy of C.S. Lewis, have their tap root to Eden firmly intact. This is a playscript for Spiritual Man not carnal man, and a welcome retreat from the fashionable trends that have de-sacralised our world to such an extent, that we are starved of the mythological space for divine concepts like Monarchy and Religion to properly live and thrive.

Indeed, lamentably it is the case that both pillars, once instinctively understood and universally valued, are increasingly esoteric notions, provoking little more than blank stares and puzzled faces, if not downright hostility. Secret Places, Hidden Sanctuaries is a valiant determination to repair some of the damage, by taking us on a stimulating and tantalising tour to many of the world's most fascinating places. In one chapter, the reader travels on a mystical journey in search of the temple, ark and holy grail; in another, we are guided through a museum of holy crowns, sacred oil, swords and lances and other totems of antiquity. We begin to recover our lost senses...the question of why we dream of exploring mysterious islands or finding lost treasures; of why we value such hidden relics and attach almost divine significance to mystical regalia; is a curious one. Extrinsically, the Magna Carta of King John, and the Coronation Stone, are almost worthless objects; one is a discoloured old parchment, the other is made of mere sandstone; their value lies in sentiment alone. Destroy sentiment, however, and all that the human race holds dear vanishes with it; one might as well be a cow. One might as well be - dare we repeat it - a completely de-spiritualised republican.

Republicans may be drab, but even they cannot deny this primordial impulse to explore and understand the mysterious or unknowable, or this sacred attachment to worthless artifacts. They too have their heroes and relics - the gruesome spectacle of Cromwell's head, for example - also magnificently covered in the book - being repeatedly buried and unearthed, makes for one of the most irresistible and interesting passages. There are other "grottoes", "grotesques" and "gothic nightmares" (to borrow the authors' exquisite vernacular) that make for easy speed reading: For instance, the pace quickens as the murderous and mutinous forces under the nominal command of the Holy Roman Emperor descend upon 16th century Rome, forcing the Pope to flee for his life through the Passetto di Borgo, barely escaping the appalling slaughter behind him. Similarly, the satanic story of Himmler's "Black Vatican" at Wewelsburg Castle, where an evil Order of SS murderers is established by the Nazis to sanctify mass extermination, is also wickedly told. That such an odious perversion of chivalry could escape fully noticed, is undeniably a product of a thoroughly dispirited people, who were left emotionally drained by the Great War, and the resulting collapse of the monarchical order. For when Monarchy and Religion lose their authority in all aspects of social life and governance, one is invariably left with the negative and dehumanising effects; namely fallen virtues and soulless values, not to mention impoverished spirits and a dreary disposition to gobble easy poisons.

The authors' belief that everything of value lies within us ("the kingdom of heaven lies within") is a timely antidote against the great toxins of today, including materialism and inclusiveness. The human condition may desire community and material well-being, but if a theoretical physicist has zero inclination to share a martini with a group of slack-jawed yokels, it is because his natural compunction is to congregate with like-minded individuals, not to hang out with people he has nothing in common with. The thirst for "inwardness", this compelling need for privacy and sanctuary so deep-seated in the human psyche (especially the male species) - what the authors theorise to be our instinctive gravitation back to the womb - is at least equally enticing, and the reason why we are intrigued by secret societies, travel to secluded enclaves, join socially restricted clubs, or even just dine at exclusive restaurants and retreat to the inner sanctums of our own private homes. Two marvelous chapters are devoted to this inclination for restricted fellowship, beginning with elite university societies (e.g, Yale's Skull and Bones, the Bullingdon Club of Oxford and the Apostles of Cambridge...) and ending with the lore, elegance and humour of London's great private clubs. The authors telegraph the point that we are really a vast multiplicity of tiny and exclusive communities, not the all-inclusive, politically-correct fantasy of one big open society, so routinely perpetrated against the people by their governments. Society, especially English-speaking societies, with its complex network of hideaways, activities and instititions, is a vastly more dynamic social order than modern-day utopians care to appreciate. Vandalous attempts to ban activities and homogenise society into a politically-correct straight-jacket, does a great disservice indeed to the glory, mystery and inherent dynamism of the human spirit.

Secret Places, Hidden Sanctuaries brilliantly luminates that enterprising human spirit, and there is much for the royalist and other high spirits to sink their teeth into. From "citadels of chivalry" to the world's "holies of holies", from "hidden totems" to "talismans of antiquity", from "mysterious heritage" to "modern-day bolt-holes", we are treated to an intriguing and eclectic preview of ancient orders, sacred temples, secret banking, transcendant places and other mythical sites, symbols and societies.

This jolly good book takes a skeptical, yet enthusiastic look at uncovering these "inscrutable workings of Providence", and in so doing, appeals to our eternal solar principle. For life is supposed to be an exercise in nobility and adventure; a tantalising quest for spiritual knowledge and a grand exploration, if you will, for deeper meaning. The authors have done their work...let the sleeping king arise!

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A Loyal Birthday Address to Her Majesty

To Her Gracious and Sacred Majesty Elizabeth, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, The Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Saint Christopher and Nevis and her other realms and territories; Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.

YOUR MAJESTY,

Whereas your Parliaments, dominated as they are by Wreckers, Levellers, Traitors and Malcontents, may neglect to send Your Majesty a Loyal Address on the Occasion of Your Majesty's 84th Birthday,

And whereas Your Majesty's Crown, and the beloved constitution hallowed by the dust and the blood of our Fathers ought to be at the centre of our national life, and the protection of the same our chief care,

Therefore I, the least of Your Majesty's loyal subjects, have taken it upon myself to present to your most Gracious and Excellent Majesty this Loyal Address, upon Subjects Patriotic and Loyal, wherewith to confound Your Majesty's enemies, and for the maintenance of the loyalty which is your and our chief protection against Levelling Modernism and the Paineite Rabble who wish to destroy our honour, our history, our liberty, and Your Majesty.

Madam, this year marks the fifty-eighth of your reign. You have conducted yourself with grace, dignity and responsibility to all your subjects, and all your peoples. Your contribution to our stability and well-being has often gone un-noticed. You have never complained, but have unfailingly continued steadfast in your duties. For this, I salute you.

You stand at the end of a proud tradition, stretching back into the mists of time. Your Majesty sat upon the Stone of Destiny, upon King Edward's chair. You were anointed, hallowed, consecrated unto God by the Primate and Metropolitan of All England. You were crowned, acclaimed, and recognised, by right of blood succession, Queen regnant of this and your other Realms. You were lifted up above us "by the power, authority and ordinance of Almighty God". For this, I salute you, and Praise God for his grace unto us.

Your Majesty is a Christian Prince, a link in the chain between your people and God's Justice. As such, you are the Mother of your people, stretching out your hand to protect us from politics, politicians and their grubby electioneering. Your Majesty is the focus of our unity, above politics, answerable to no-one but God and your conscience. For this, I salute you.

You are the symbol of all that is decent, and good, and stable in our tradition. You are the personification of our law, and God's Law. You are united to your peoples, and they to you. You are a symbol of continuity, a rock in the midst of change. You are the link between the Motherland and her many outposts, independent, yet always united, in culture, law, language, sport and love of our collective Queen. Those who have left the Commonwealth too, hold you in high esteem. Your Majesty's devotion to the welfare of all your people makes you welcome everywhere. Sir Winston Churchill had it right when he said: ""We honour her because she is our Queen. We love her because she is herself".

Because you are our Queen, and because you are yourself, Your Majesty, on your 84th birthday, your peoples around the world salute you.

God Save Her Majesty our Sovereign Lady Elizabeth!
LONG LIVE THE QUEEN!

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O God, Our Help in Ages Past

A little Sunday morning inspiration for you, courtesy of Padre Benton

On Sunday morning, August 10, (1941) Mr Roosevelt came aboard H.M.S. Prince of Wales and, with his Staff officers and several hundred representatives of all ranks of the United States Navy and Marines, attended Divine Service on the quarterdeck. This service was felt by all of us to be a deeply moving expression of the unity of faith of our two peoples, and none who took part in it will forget the spectacle presented that sunlit morning on the crowded quarterdeck...... the American and British chaplains sharing in the reading of the prayers.. I chose the hymns myself.

We ended with "O God, Our Help in Ages Past" which Macaulay reminds us the Ironsides had chanted as they bore John Hampden's body to the grave. Every word seemed to stir the heart. It was a great hour to live. Nearly half those who sang were soon to die.

- From The Second World War by Winston Churchill Volume III page 345.

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Charles the First

Posted by Theodore Harvey

Three hundred and sixty years ago today the English Puritans dared to murder their anointed King. Kings had of course been killed before, but never so openly and never with the claim of "legality."

The American Society of King Charles the Martyr will hold its annual mass and meeting tomorrow at S. Stephen's Church in Providence, Rhode Island. The British SKCM of course commemorates the anniversary annually as well.

In this excerpt from Cromwell, Alec Guinness movingly portrays the King's final moments.

On the 131st anniversary (1780), as Americans were engaged in another rebellion against another King, the heroic loyalist Rev. Charles Inglis, rector of Trinity Wall Street, preached this sermon on "The Duty of Honouring the King." Other materials related to King Charles the Martyr can be found here.

Remember!

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O Magnum Mysterium

I am still working on two or three posts which will finish my preliminary series on the Monarchy. Mr. Holden can call upon a vast reservoir of past thought and opinion. He has been evangelising and thundering from the pulpit of the Holden Republic with little opposition for some years. When he responds to me, he has the world-weary tone of an aged uncle bothered by mosquitoes, and he attempts to swat me with an excess of verbiage, links, and a tone which suggests that he could say more, but he has more important things to do.

Ah, well. We mosquitoes are small, but we are persistent. As Anne Shirley said, one mosquito can keep me awaker than a bad conscience. Confident that with time, we will catch up, and assured that Mr. Holden has a conscience to be kept awake by, we will continue in our efforts to stir it.

But I have a few thoughts to contribute first on reason and truth.

Sir Laurence Olivier speaks some very wise words in the official Coronation documentary, A Queen is Crowned. Facing the High Altar of Westminster Abbey, under the eye of Christ and His Apostles, and the great and ancient heritage of the English Church, he says:

In the knowledge of the mystery of human life, this ceremony is performed.

I confidently expect republicans of every stripe to call this metaphysical and subjective clap-trap, of the kind which occurs after too much sunshine, or too much sentimental music. I never read one of Mr. Holden's hyperbolic denunciations of my hyperbole without feeling like one of those quivering women at the WI in twin-set and pearls, rushing over to greet the dear Vicar. He even suggests, with kindly condescension, that he will probably disagree with my next post, because he has a more "rational" approach than I do. (I think he means "rationalistic", because I don't think I am technically insane, at least not in the Bill Wilmot category, I hope).

After I had got over the worrying Wordsworthian implications of this, and dismissed the mental imagery of me prancing through daffodils and saying with a dramatic sigh Bickerstaff, have you no soul!, I thought about reason, and the crimes committed in its name.

The right public use of reason is as a tool to access truth. By the use of reason, we apprehend what is true, or as Locke puts it, what corresponds to reality, what is real. Reason is not an end in itself, but a means by which we arrive at Truth. Further, reason is not applied in a vacuum or a void. By the use of reason, I can make out a case for the abolition of the social safety net, optional infanticide up to age three, or letting Irish peasants starve to death so as to reduce the surplus population.

Yes, that is hyperbole, but like all my uses of it, it makes a point. We can have abstract debates about all kinds of things, and in a vacuum, make rational cases for all kinds of things we would never dream of actually doing. The rationalism advocated by many republicans is the sort of ideology which rams through reform for our own good, and in actual despite of the facts of real life as we know them. It divorces reason from truth, and hence reality.

Fides et Ratio calls both faith and reason wings by which we approach ultimate truth, by which we apprehend (note the word) mystery.

Lewis makes a very nice abstract case for a republic, which I will go on to answer in rational terms later. But I am hammering this point past endurance for a reason; the Monarchy is about more than abstractions or pragmatics, it is about truth, and transcendent truth at that. And that truth is actually real.

It is not fashionable to believe in a communicable human nature, or in truth, or in transcendence any more. But in practice, they exist, and we act as if they do. They aren't subjective feelings, but deep human impulses. The desire for truth. The appreciation of mystery. The craving for a personification of the body politic, in times of joy and sadness, in times of national grief and pain. These desires are answered in the Monarchy, and if it does not exist, we have to invent institutions that approximate it. Those "useless Monarchist fripperies" which Lewis condemns as simply gilding the sow are actually one of the primary points of the Crown. (As he would know had he read Montesquieu properly).

In the knowledge of the mystery of human life, this ceremony is performed.

Life is a great mystery. And when we travel through it, we need reminders of our noble ideals, our best intentions, our most gracious and unselfish selves. That is what Her Majesty does. Do you think she is called "Your Majesty" for no reason? No, it is because she personifies Sovereignty, grace and majesty. Mercy and justice are the attributes of Princes, and courtesy follows in train. Even when Kings are evil, wicked and dull, they maintain the nature of their office, and that ideal is a noble one. I'll back it against a misused and jerrymandered "political equality" any day of the week.

Lewis writes that to elevate, ennoble and personify, the Queen must be seen, and the Governor-General is de facto New Zealand's head of State, since HMQ is foreign. Leaving aside the endearing old-fashioned nature of this argument (I saw the Queen this morning on television looking very nice at the Commonwealth Day service, and then I read her message this afternoon on the internet), the Governor-General derives much of his moral, social (and legal) authority from the fact that he is the Queen's representative. To the extent that we listen to Sylvia Cartwright or Anyand Satyanand, it is because they speak with our voice, and with the Queen's. They say what she would say, they speak as she would speak, they are as she is. They are covered with her mantle, and bear her authority. They are the ensigns of mystery.

I am fully expecting this post to be completely and flatly misunderstood. I am rather looking forward to enraged emails denouncing mystical clap-trap, and theocracy. You get it, or you don't. You hear the great music, or you are deaf to it.

But either way, it exists. The mystery is real. When we say that the Queen commands our allegiance, we are not pledging allegiance to a flawed human being in fancy dress, but to what she represents. The mystery and the nobility of human life, and to the ideals and virtues which the monarchy personifies, even when the monarch is not virtuous.

To them we fly, on them, we stand, and for them, we fight.

You get that, or you don't.

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The Joy of Order

Thomas Paine said in his 1790 pamphlet The Rights of Man: "I have a dislike to Monarchy. It is against human dignity". The argument that a supposed "unequal" social order, and specifically that monarchy, is against the dignity of man has not gone away. It has been repeated in just the last week, by SubversNZ and Lewis Holden, of the NZ Republican Movement. I, unsuprisingly, reject it, on both theological and secular grounds, one for each opponent.

Human dignity comes from the imago dei, the fact that we are created in the image of God. And God, in both His divine and human nature, is ordered, even hierarchical. The Son proceeds from the Father. The Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son. Even the Son of God, when he came to earth, obeyed His Father to the death. And He also respected the natural human hierarchies, between parents and children. Between rulers and their subjects. Romans 13 explicitly affirms this: "Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities, for they are God's ministers, to execute wrath on the evildoer. Give honour to whom honour, respect to whom respect". God recognises order, and He is a God of order. Yet, in order, and even in hierarchy, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost do not lose their individuality, their equality, or their divinity. They are co-equal, and co-substantial. Yet they are ordered. The Son, when He obeys His Father, does not lose His dignity, but He adds to it. So also we, when we obey God, are not slaves, but sons.

Likewise, the universe, the community, and the individual, are in harmony when we are in divine order, in our place. As Williams puts it in the April 2005 Touchstone , Matter obeys soul, soul obeys Reason, which reflects the mind of God.

I believe in natural hierarchies. Not tyrannies. C. S. Lewis, in the Abolition of Man, writes that respect, for instance, to a parent, or to the aged, is a natural response. Patriotism is a natural repsonse. Reverence for God is a natural response. And while there are natural responses which are disordered, respect for the Crown is not one of them. When we reverence the Queen, as a Christian Prince, we show our reverence to the God who appointed her. Hannah More, in her response to Thomas Paine, put it this way: "He [Paine] does not wish to destroy Kings, but He by whom Kings reign". Having become disconnected from God, our ultimate authority, it follows that we also rebel against the Queen He has appointed for us, and the church He has given us. Republicanism is a sign of rebellion. It is un-natural, and dis-ordered. Perhaps, if we could return to the Old Testament, and have God ruling over us directly, it would be better. But God comes to us, and will come, as a King. Oops. No majority vote there. He has given us the Queen, as, in a sense, a placeholder for Himself. When He comes, He will receive the government. Until then, He has entrusted it to Elizabeth, his servant and viceregent against evil.

Reverencing hierarchy does not mean the Queen should be an absolute tyrant. Modern thinking assumes that "leadership" means superiority. But the monarchy reminds us of the older idea of Headship. The Queen is a woman, and in that sense is equal with her subjects. But by her covenant with them and with God, she becomes more than that. At her coronation, the Lords Temporal and Spiritual take her hands, and lift her up onto the Throne, to become the servant of her people. Married to England, in Elizabeth I's phrase. And the people cry out "Vivat Regina!"-The acclamation, the recognition, the acceptance. The Queen is the epitome of servant leadership, and carries that burden, promising in fact to respect and uphold the dignity of all her subjects. "Maintain the laws and liberties of all your respective peoples...stop the growth of iniquity....Cause Justice with mercy to be done in all your lands....Protect the Holy Church of God and the true profession of the gospel...." The coronation is an affirmation of human dignity, for it is a part of dignity to recognise government. The coronation thus includes three parts. The anointing, where God recognises the Queen, and the Queen recognises and covenants with God. The acclamation, where the people recognise the Queen, and she them, promising to defend their liberties. And the enthroning, where the nobility, Spiritual and Temporal, raise her up above them, to become Queen regnant. That is why American republicanism, with all its many strengths, is flawed. It has a strong conception of human dignity, but no transcendent framework with which to protect it. So, "human dignity" in the United States, is often translated to "rights" or "freedoms". Yes, liberty is important. But it protects human dignity, it is not the same. When republicans demand the abolition of monarchy because of human dignity, they are really demanding the abolition of monarchy because of freedom, or "the Rights of Man". The Queen, and social order generally, puts curb on freedom, and stops liberty becoming license. A conception of an over-arching moral and social order sets one free to do what is right, not what one wants. That is why order is a conservative virtue.

Reverence for, and submission to, order is a natural response. Burke puts it this way:

"We have real hearts of flesh and blood beating in our bosoms. We fear God; we look up with awe to kings; with affection to parliaments; with duty to magistrates; with reverence to priests; and with respect to nobility. Why? Because when such ideas are brought before our minds, it is natural to be so."

To be a loyal subject is not a loss of personhood, but a glory. To affirm the monarchy is not a loss of dignity, but an affirmation of it.

Pitt the Younger (originally posted here)

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