August 10, 2010 – 7:17 am
On 10 August 1557, the combined forces of Spain and England defeated those of France at the Battle of St. Quentin. This was the first military victory of Philip II as King of Spain.
At this time, Philip II, also the Holy Roman Emperor, was allied with England as a result of his marriage to Queen Mary of England. Spain and France had been at war for some years over which country would have greater dominance over Europe.
The battle took place on the feast day of Saint Lawrence, so Philip constructed the palace El Escorial [now the Monastery of Saint Lawrence] as a memorial to the victory and in the saint’s honor. One tradition holds that palace was constructed in the shape of a gridiron which was the shape of the instrument of Lawrence’s martyrdom. Others argue that the palace was constructed in the shape of the Temple of Solomon. The palace was completed in 1584.
Spain’s victory did not have much of an effect on the kingdoms of France, Spain or England but it did enable the Duchy of Savoy to obtain its independence from France.
August 9, 2010 – 10:33 am
On 9 August 1483, vespers were celebrated in the Sistine Chapel by Pope Sixtus IV, whose name would become associated with the chapel. One week later on the 15th of August, Pope Sixtus IV celebrated the first Mass in the chapel on the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Sixtus IV restored and dedicated the chapel to the Assumption. The restored chapel was intended for private liturgies of the pope and included artwork by Pietro Perugino, Sandro Botticelli, and Domenico Ghirlandaio. The original chapel had existed since 1368 and had fallen into ruin.
It is in the Sistine Chapel that the conclaves for the elections of new popes take place. Other important religious services also take place here.
While the chapel is perhaps best known for Michelangelo’s paintings, these only appeared in 1512 during the papacy of Julius II.
On 8 August 1910, Pope Pius X issued the decree Quam singulari stating that all children were obligated to receive their first communion and first confession by the time they obtained the age of reason. Pius asserted that this age was approximately the age of seven.
Pius X condemned the belief that only those who had a “full knowledge” of the faith should receive Communion as being contrary both to the history and teachings of the Catholic Church as expressed at the Lateran Council of 1215 and was harmful to the spiritual life of the child. For, denying Holy Communion and Confession to a child because the child did not have “full knowledge” of the faith risked forcing the child to live in a state in which the had child was subject to the temptation to sin without the ability to receive the grace that came from the Eucharist.
Quam Singulari did not condemn the traditional Eastern practice of the reception of Holy Communion by infants, indeed Pius X used the Eastern tradition to demonstrate how “full knowledge” of the faith should not be a condition for reception of the Eucharist. Rather, Quam Singulari is intended to set an age by which a child should receive their first communion not the age at which they should receive.
Quam singulari
On 7 August 1814, Pope Pius VII issued the bull Sollicitudo omnium ecclesiarum or “The care of all churches” which ended Clement XIV’s 1773 suppression of the Society of Jesus and restored the order throughout the world.
Clement XIV had been compelled to suppress the Jesuits due to the strong feelings against them by the various governments of Europe. The Society of Jesus was seen as the most powerful and public element of the Catholic Church in the years before the French Revolution, a time in which secular governments wished to enhance their position relative to that of the papacy. The desire to confiscate Jesuit wealth also encouraged the movement toward suppression.
When the governments of Europe threatened to break away from the Catholic Church unless the Jesuits were suppressed, Clement XIV felt he had no choice but to give into their demands. However, while the Jesuits were suppressed throughout the world, the Orthodox Russian Empress Catherine II refused to permit their suppression in her domain and there the Society of Jesus would survive until their later restoration.
Pius VII read the bull publically from the Jesuit church Il Gesu in Rome showing his great support for the Society of Jesus as a key element of his opposition to the forces of revolution which had contributed to the Napoleonic Wars. The Jesuits were to become tools in the new conservative movement that spread throughout Europe. Those nations that had previously sought the end of the Jesuits had also come to see the forces of the French Revolution as a greater threat.
On 6 August 1806, the Emperor Francis II abdicated ending the Holy Roman Empire which had existed from the time of Otto I in 962.
After Napoleon’s defeat of the Austrian armies at the battles of Ulm and Austerlitz in 1805, Francis II was forced to sign the Treaty of Pressburg on 26 December 1805. This treaty required the Francis to cede much of his German territory, including Bavaria and Wurtemberg, to Napoleon and his allies. Napoleon would use this territory to form his Confederation of the Rhine.
While Francis II held the title of Holy Roman Empire, this empire was really understood as the German Empire and as a later letter from Napoleon to the Diet of the Holy Roman Empire noted, now that Bavaria and Wurtemburg as well as other fourteen other German states belonged to the Confederation of the Rhine, it was inappropriate to speak of the continued existence of a unified Holy Roman Empire. The end of the Empire did not cause much of a stir in Europe, Goethe noted that news of it concerned him less than an argument involving his coachman. Indeed, the decline of the Holy Roman Empire had been taking place for quite some time.
With his abdication, Francis II Holy Roman Emperor became Francis I Emperor of Austria.
On 5 August 1716, the Austrian Empire overcame the Ottoman empire at the Battle of Petrovaradin or Peterwardein – now in Serbia.
The Austrian army, led by Prince Eugene of Savoy, though outnumbered by the Ottoman forces 83,000 to approximately 120 to 150 thousand inflicted a significant defeat on the Ottoman forces. The Ottoman commander, Silahdar Damat Ali Pasha, was slain as were approximately 6,000 Ottoman soldiers. While the early stages of the battle appeared to indicated a victory for the Ottomans, the eagerness of their attack left their right flank exposed – a weakness that Prince Eugene was quick to spot and exploit.
After the battle, a church commemorating the victor was built on the hill over the battlefield. The church of Our Lady of Tekije or Snowy Mary is held in honor by both Orthodox and Catholics. It has an Orthodox and a Catholic altar and is used as worship by the two faiths.
On 4 August 1879, Pope Leo XIII issued the encyclical Aeterni Patris [Of the Eternal Father] which addressed the importance of authentically Christian philosophy and called for a increased attention to the works of St. Thomas Aquinas.
Leo believed that secular philosophy failed to lead people to the fullness of the truth – either by denying truth or at least by being unable to the highest truths which were known only by faith. Leo did not believe that faith and reason were opposed to one another but that reason needed and should lead one to faith. Authentic theology should, in turn, be based on philosophy.
While Leo noted the authentic relationship between faith and reason as expressed in the history of the Catholic Church, the foremost example of how theology should be done was reflected in the work of St. Thomas Aquinas. For this reason, Leo called for a return to a study of the scholastic theologians, especially Aquinas. It should, however, also be noted that Leo did not intend for philosophers or theologians to imitate Aquinas if, “there be anything that ill agrees with the discoveries of a later age, or, in a word, improbable in whatever way”.
Leo’s support of Aquinas contributed to the revival of Thomism at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century and would influence the work of such philosophers and theologians as Karl Rahner, Bernard Lonergan, Jacques Maritain and Étienne Gilson.
One year later, on 4 August 1880, Leo would designate Aquinas the patron of all Catholic colleges, schools and universitis throughout the world.
Aeterni Patris
On 3 August 435, the former Patriarch of Constantinople, Nestorius, was exiled by Emperor Theodosius II to a monastery in the Great Oasis of Hibis in Egypt.
Nestorius had been condemned at the Ecumenical Council of Ephesus in 431 for his belief that the divinity and humanity of Jesus Christ were completely separate – Mary was Christotokos or Christ bearer not Theotokos or God bearer. Nestorius believed that if the divinity and humanity were joined in Christ than Christ would not be either like us in our humanity nor like God in his divinity. At Ephesus, his main opponent Cyril of Alexandria argued that if the divinity and humanity of Christ were completely separated than our humanity too remained completely separated from God and we were not saved. Cyril claimed that Nestorius believed that Christ was composed of two persons in one body.
Unfortunately for Nestorius, Cyril did not wait until Nestorius’ supporters arrived at the Council of Ephesus before he demanded a vote condemning Nestorius. Nestorius’ supporters would hold a rival council condemning Cyril but the emperor would side with Cyril against Nestorius. Nestorius’ supporters facing persecution would move into Persia and establish what is today known as the Assyrian Church of the East. While the Assyrian Church of the East recognizes Nestorius as a saint, it does not follow all of his teachings.
August 2, 2010 – 10:15 am
On 2 August 1552, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V granted religious freedom to his Lutheran subjects – ending thirty years of civil war in his domain.
While Charles V had hoped to unify the Holy Roman Empire under the Catholic faith, he was unable to overcome the strength of the German Protestant alliance with the Kingdom of France. Therefore, he chose to grant religious freedom to his Lutheran subjects and bring an end to the Thirty Years War. These freedoms would be confirmed at the Peace of Augsburg in September 1555.
The Peace of Passau and later Peace of Augsburg would only grant religious freedom to Catholics and Lutherans in the Holy Roman Empire, as Calvinism spreads into the Empire and replaces Lutheranism as the dominant Protestant faith religious conflict will again erupt.
On 1 August 1800, the Parliament of Ireland approved the Act of Union which, in conjunction with the earlier approval of union by the Parliament of Great Britain on 2 July 1800, united Ireland with Great Britain and established the United Kingdom of Britain and Ireland on 1 January 1801.
While Ireland and Great Britain had been united in a personal union under the monarch of Great Britain and Ireland since 1603, political union would come much later.
The Parliament of Great Britain sought closer union with Ireland after the French Revolution of 1789 and the Irish Rebellion of 1798. It was fearful that the majority Roman Catholic population obtained the right to elect Catholics into the Irish Parliament that such a Catholic Parliament would attempt to break away from Britain and turn toward France. A united kingdom would prevent any attempt by Ireland to abandon its connection to England and Scotland.
Indeed, in order to get Irish Catholic support for Union which would abolish the separate Irish Parliament for a united Parliament in Britain, the Catholics were promised Emancipation which would allow Roman Catholic members of Parliament. However, after the passing of Union King George III refused to permit Catholic Emancipation on the grounds that it would be a violation of his oath to defend the Church of England. So, Irish Catholics could elect members of Parliament but no Irish Catholic could take a seat in the Parliament.
Catholic Emancipation would not be achieved until 1829.
catholicunderthehood.com 