Free Republic

PARIS, France (AP) -- The heart of the 10-year-old heir to France's throne was cut from his body when he died in prison, pickled, stolen, returned, and DNA-tested two centuries later. Next week, Louis XVII's heart will be placed in France's royal crypt north of Paris now that genetic testing has persuaded many historians that the tiny petrified heart is almost certainly the real thing. In ceremonies on Monday and Tuesday, European royalty will honor the little boy who became a pawn of the French Revolution, dying alone in a filthy prison. After a Mass on Tuesday, his heart will...

A SURPRISING DEFENCE It is true that a man who believed things completely contrary to the convictions of today's fundamental preachers and educators could be exalted and defended by them. Of course, I believe this is done primarily because our fundamental brethren know little of what either Dr. Westcott or Dr. Hort really believed and taught.

CHRISTIANITY AND CONTRADICTION IN HISTORYChristopher Dawson | 1939 Is history a reasonable process or is it essentially incalculable and irrational? It seems to me that the Christian is bound to believe that there is a spiritual purpose in history -- that it is subject to the designs of Providence and that somehow or other God’s will is done. But that is a very different thing from saying that history is rational in the ordinary sense of the word. There are, as it were, two levels of rationality, and history belongs to neither of them. There is the sphere of...

A TALE OF TWO REVOLUTIONS Foundation for Economic Education (FEE). by Robert A. Peterson The year 1989 marks the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution. To celebrate, the French government is throwing its biggest party in at least 100 years, to last all year. In the United States, an American Committee on the French Revolution has been set up to coordinate programs on this side of the Atlantic, emphasizing the theme, "France and America: Partners in Liberty." But were the French and American Revolutions really similar? On the surface, there were parallels. Yet over the past two centuries, many observers...

The common view [by the liberal establishment] of the French Revolution is that it was a justified rebellion of oppressed lower classes against a tyrannical king, corrupt nobilities, and an insensitive church. Some try to portray the French Revolution as similar to the American Revolution--a blow for freedom and self-government struck against tyranny. The high middle age kingdom of Louis IX was destroyed by the wars of religion, by the absolutism created by Cardinal Richelieu, by the extravagance of Louis XIV, and by the corruption of Louis XV. The results for France were the creation of a parasitical nobility, which...