Hilaire bellco biography channels
Hillaire Belloc's View of History
Hilaire Belloc's View of History
By John J. Mulloy
I. Europe and The Faith
In a time like our own, when previously separated cultures and civilizations have been brought together and led to participate in a cosmopolitan civilization, one of the subjects of greaterest interest is what is the meaning of world history and what is the significance of the present within it. This question has been answered by a number of different philosophies of history, which have sought in some secular goal the meaning of mankind's destiny. Starting at least with the 18th-century Enlightenment, the purpose has been to replace the Christian conception of history with one or another secular ideology, presented in strongly messianic terms. Their hope has been to create a new heavenly city on earth, and to see the Christian hope for eternal happiness as merely "pie in the sky," as Marxists like to call it. Thus we have the progress theory of the Enlightenment, the idea of Hegel that the Prussian state was the culmination of history, the Marxist claim that the classless society was the destined end of history, the Nietzschean belief that the coming of the Superman was the goal towards which history is moving, and various nationalist interpretations which saw this or that individual nation as being the means by which mankind's salvation was to be achieved. Possibly the most influential of these latter was the ideology which gave birth to National Socialism and to its New Order based on blood and soil, which Hitler strove to make a reality.
Now, as against all these secular ideologies, which adhere in one form or another to Nietzsche's doctrinaire statement -- "I beseech you, my brothers, , and do not believe those who speak to you of otherworldly hopes" -- there still remain advocates of a Christian and Catholic conception of history. Among these we may include John Henry Newman from the 19th century, G.K. Chesterton, Christopher Dawson, Etienne
Hilaire Belloc was born in La Celle-Saint-Cloud in France on 27July 1870, to a French father and an English mother. Less than two months after his birth, the French suffered a catastrophic defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. In 1871, revolution came to Paris followed by brutal suppression. A year later, Belloc’s father died. His mother returned to England, taking the young Hilaire with her. She unwisely invested her money with a fraudulent stock broker and much of the family fortune was lost. These dramatic events shaped Belloc’s life. He remained ever vigilant of German (‘Prussian’) territorial ambitions, fearful of revolution and distrustful of financial institutions.
The young Belloc was a brilliant scholar and gained a 1class honours degree from Balliol College, Oxford. He became President of the Oxford Union and was renowned as a gifted orator and debater. In 1896 he married an American, Elodie Hogan. He had met her some years earlier in London when she was visiting England with her mother. Belloc travelled to America to gain her hand in marriage, making his own way across the continent to her home in California. The journey – much of which was taken on foot – took many weeks and demonstrated not just his love for Elodie but also his determination to overcome all obstacles, no matter how great.
By 1906, Belloc was living at Kings Land in Sh Hilaire Belloc, then a history scholar of Balliol, was our star performer ... and I agree with Lord Birkenhead that he was 'undoubtedly a great orator'. The full tones of his resonant deep-pitched voice might have come from the throat of his hero, Danton. His wider range and his imaginative outlook, together with the intensity of the feelings to which he gave utterance, made an unforgettable impression. Mr. Belloc, Balliol, who had already taken a fair share in the conversational rhetoric of the debate, spoke as a Roman Catholic, a Frenchman and a Democrat. He abused the aristocracy, of whom he has quite primitive ideas, he abused the Church (of England) and he abused the preceding speaker. He cannot help being eloquent and whatever he says must always be listened to, for it is always interesting and well said. But it is a pity he does not always confine himself to the question at issue. My retirement from Parliament at this moment is necessary under the present electoral law. Without a second ballot, without proportional representation, nothing but a very great expenditure or some particular hold upon the locality can give a man a chance against the two official candidates. Had I fought South Salford an official Liberal would have been put against me, and the sum of £600 to £1000 would have been put at his disposal, and an expenditure of £600 would have been necessary upon my side. The official Liberal would have received anywhere from a thousand to two thousand votes, proceeding from convention, tradition, Non-Conformist opposition to a Catholic, and so forth. My quarrel would not have been that the Conservative would have got in, for it does not matter in this election who .Spartacus Educational
Primary Sources
(1) Viscount Simon wrote about Hilaire Belloc at Oxford University in an article for the Sunday Times published on 9th June 1946.
(2) Isis Magazine (19th January, 1895)
(3) Hiliare Belloc, letter to A. C. Tait (29th November, 1910)