HILAIRE BELLOC:

Joseph Hilaire Pierre Rene Belloc was born on July 27, 1870 at La Celle, St. Cloud in France. Belloc’s father (Louis Belloc) was a distinguished French lawyer and his mother (Elizabeth Parker) a famous suffragist and writer. After his father’s death, the family moved to England where Belloc began his schooling at the Oratory School in Edgbaston (Warwickshire), run by John Henry Cardinal Newman. Belloc was awarded for his achievements in mathematics and literature however, growing restless, he returned to France in 1887.

Belloc entered the Catholic affiliated College Stanislas in Paris, where he was placed in the Naval class, remaining there for little more than a term. Returning to London, Belloc began employment in 1888 as a land agent on a Sussex farm. He started writing poetry which was first published in the Irish Monthly and the Pall Mall Gazette. In 1889 Hilaire Belloc left Sussex to start his own monthly literature review, Paternoster with Arthur Hungerford Pollen, but this only lasted for six (6) issues.

Belloc returned to France in 1891 to join the French Artillery as a driver in the 10^th Battery of the 8^th Regiment. He again left France in 1893, entering the Balliol College in England and graduated in 1895 with first class honours in history. Hilaire Belloc then began a lecture tour of the U.S.A in 1896, marrying Elodie Hogan in Napa, California and publishing the little acknowledged Verses & Sonnets. Over the next six (6) years, Belloc published a number of varied pieces including-

1900 – Paris (a personal essay)
1901 – Robespierre (an historical essay)
1902 – The Path to Rome (a spiritual autobiography)

In 1903 Hilaire Belloc became a British subject and, through growing disillusionment with British politics, ran for a seat in Parliament. Proclaiming his Catholicism during the campaign Belloc won a Liberal seat in January 1906. Becoming disgusted with party politics Hilaire Belloc edited a paper with Gilbert Keith Chesterton, called Eye Witness, intending to expose Socialism, and express his personal political views. During World War I Belloc produced military analyses for the Land and Water Journal, having lost his wife and son (Louis), and returned to Sussex at the cessation of hostilities to write novels.

Pope Pius XI decorated Hilaire Belloc in 1934 with the Grand Cross of the Order of St. Gregory for his services to Catholicism. Dying in 1953, Hilaire Belloc left a legacy of 153 books of essays, fiction, history, biography, poetry and light verse as well as a vast amount of periodical literature.

The Great Heresies is possibly the greatest book written by Hilaire Belloc. Calling upon his vast knowledge of history, he outlines in simple terms for his readers, not only the meaning and influence of heresy against the Catholic Church, but the impact on the entire world of five of the greatest heresies of all time: Arianism. Mohammedanism (Islam), Albigensianism, Protestantism and the "Modern Attack".

In this book, Belloc answers the question: "What made Europe?" He was well aware of the theory that Europe grew out of the ruins of the Roman Empire, was rejuvenated by barbarian blood, and came into its own with the Protestant Reformation. It was to expose this fantasy and present the true story that he wrote Europe and the Faith. Here he boldly states that the Catholic church saved what could be saved of the Ancient Roman Civilization, converted it, perfected it, transformed it and carried it on, far beyond the extent to which it would normally have survived on its own, and in the process created from it the base of what Europe was to become and what it is today.

Characters of the Reformation may well be the most universally fascinating book ever written by Hilaire Belloc. Here he sketches 23 famous men and women of the Reformation period, analyzing their strengths, weaknesses, mistakes and motives and pinpointing deeds that changed the course of history.

The Crusades were essentially a conflict between Christendom and Islam. To be specific they were a conflict between Christian civilization and Islam as adopted by "the Turk," those savage, destructive Mongol tribes from Asia. After the terrible Christian defeat at Manzikert in Turkey (1071A.D.), not only the ancient Christian civilization in the Holy Land, but Europe itself lay in mortal peril.

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Revised 10 December 2005