Luther, Robespierre, Che Guevara – three faces of the Revolution
The historical stages of this process that has been going on for a number of centuries are the three great revolutions of the history of the West: Protestantism, the French Revolution and Communism. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira thus summarized this process:
“1) The Pseudo-Reform was a first revolution. It sowed the spirit of doubt, religious Liberalism and ecclesiastic Egalitarianism, even if to different extents, in the various sects that originated from it.48
“2) It was followed by the French Revolution, which was the triumph of egalitarianism in two fields. In the religious field, under the form of Atheism, enticingly labelled as Secularism. And in the political sphere, with the false theory that every inequality is an injustice, every authority a danger and freedom is the supreme good.49
“3) Communism is the transposition of these maxims to the socio-economic field.”50
For Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira the origins of this process date to the fourteenth century, when in Christian Europe a transformation of mentality begins that becomes increasingly clearer during the fifteenth century.
“The thirst for earthly pleasures became a burning desire. Diversions became more and more frequent and sumptuous, increasingly engrossing men. In dress, manners, language, literature, and art, the growing yearning for a life filled with delights of fancy and the senses produced progressive manifestations of sensuality and softness. Little by little, the seriousness and austerity of former times lost their value. The whole trend was toward gaiety, affability, and festiveness. Hearts began to shy away from the love of sacrifice, from true devotion to the Cross, and from the aspiration to sanctity and eternal life. Chivalry, formerly one of the highest expressions of Christian austerity, became amorous and sentimental. The literature of love invaded all countries. Excesses of luxury and the consequent eagerness for gain spread throughout all social classes.”51
This moral atmosphere contained the aspiration to an order of things that was fundamentally different from that of the Middle Ages. It is in this mood, in these “tendencies”, that the great doctrinal errors and the historical disturbances of the subsequent centuries took root.
Notes:
48. On protestantism, fundamental is the criticism by Jaime Balmes, El protestantismo comparado con el catolicismo, 2 , Madrid, BAC, 1967, 1842-4. The developments of Protestantism should be followed especially in the English sects of the seventeenth century and in the movement that erupted in the English Revolution. For Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, the English Revolution of the seventeenth century occupies a prominent position in the tragic history of the crisis of the West. “Along these lines, along with the variants that always exist when history repeats itself, Charles I is really a pre-figure of Luis XVI, Cromwell a precursor of Robespierre or Saint-Just, and the English revolution a foretaste of the French Revolution” (P. Corrêa de Oliveira, “Figuras que encarnam concepções de vida”, Catolicismo, no. 77, May 1957). On Protestant sects generally, Cf. R. de Mattei, Alta ruet Babylon – L’Europa settaria del cinquecento, Milano, IPL, 1977. Among those who openly criticize the French Revolution, there are many Protestant authors today. Cf. Aa. Vv., Révolution et christianisme. Une appréciation chrétienne de la Révolution française, Lausanne, L’Age d’Homme, 1992; and particularly Jean Marc Berthoud, of whom Cf. “La Révolution française et les Révolutions”, Résister et Construire, no. 8-9, July-November 1989.
49. For an overall view of the French Revolution, seen in its essence and in its true causes, in the light of the thinking of Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, Cf. Despreocupados… rumo à Guilhotina. A autodemolição do Ancien Régime, edited by J. S. Clá Dias, São Paulo, Edições Brasil de Amanhã, 1993.
50. P. Corrêa de Oliveira, Revolution and Counter-Revolution, p. 4.
51. P. Corrêa de Oliveira, Revolution and Counter-Revolution, p. 14.