There are many reasons for the ongoing decline of Western civilization. Chief among them is the current woeful state of Christendom which has been fractured by the Enlightenment, the Protestant Reformation, humanism, modernity, globalism and mass migration. Courtesy of Revolver News I was exposed to an epic Twitter thread from Aristocratic Fury about the Catholic warrior ethos that saved Europe many times from Muslim aggression.
Although Twitter is normally a cesspool of idiotic virtue signaling, occasionally there are diamonds in the rough. This is one such diamond and a must read for all Christians who don’t want to stand idly by while Christendom evaporates.
What follows is the entire thread complete with historical images which I have reprinted for posterity.
Modern Catholics push for domestication of men under rhetoric of “family values”, and John of Austria was the opposite of that. Illegitimate child who had many illegitimate children himself, never married. But he was undoubtedly very religious and pious God-fearing Catholic man!
The idea that Catholic social values revolve around family life is very modern, in the middle ages and renaissance it was a religion of warrior men whose place in life was away from home, on dangerous tournaments, on the open seas, on battlefields, looking for danger and heroism!
The biggest gift of Catholicism to Europe was idea of martyrdom and losing fear of death, the ideal of a warrior-martyr knight. This is what Christian piety of European chivalric aristocracy revolved around, and not around some community-life and sexuality like modern Catholicism.
You can observe this to the most noble extent in the likes of Richard the Lionheart and Eugene of Savoy, brave warriors who had absolutely zero family life and had no intention to start one either. Their entire life was war, freedom from any sort of boring petty community life…
Yet when they had to fight for Christendom, they showed up! Meanwhile all these modern moralistic Catholics failed to show up for confrontation with their enemies, obsessing about sins of others and contributing to anti-male moralizing and domestication of men.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s great for society if most men have responsible lives and families, but a society of only such men gets conquered easily, because when a ferocious enemy shows up, who are you going to call? You call a wild man of unlimited courage like John of Austria!
John of Austria was the ultimate expression of aristocratic free and courageous warrior, on top of being the bravest in battles he was also a bullfighter and a great dancer, charismatic and popular young man, he inherited the noble lineage of his father and good looks of his mom.
The battle of Lepanto only happened because of John of Austria. He was only 24 years old and had no experience of naval battles prior to that, but despite this he called out the older commanders of the Christian alliance for being cowards for not wanting to confront the Turks!
The Christian alliance made to confront the Ottoman navy was falling apart and it was only saved by John of Austria’s uncontrollable and uninhibited charisma and innate leadership with which he established himself as the undisputed commander of the fleet, and encouraged others!
John’s idea to attack the invincible Ottoman fleet was seen as crazy and terrified the older commanders, he made that battle happened purely on his own WILL which he oozed through his confidence. He wanted to seek the imperishable glory such monumental battle would bring!
When he finally saw the large Turkish fleet on horizon, John of Austria started dancing out of happiness in front of his men to the music of the fifes! When they approached the enemy, he stood proud on the quarterdeck next to Christian banner, not caring about enemy fire at all!
The battle of Lepanto was very bloody and involved boarding other ships and fighting on decks. John of Austria was the first to jump on the enemy ship and fought with immense courage and ferociousness! He was also wounded during the battle. This victory made him eternal hero!
Men like John of Austria can’t be created in some community family environment raising children and staying at home. They’re forged through dangerous and adventurous lives in brotherhoods of warrior men far away from moralistic attitudes of multi-generational communities.
Christendom used to be strong because it had a lot of men like John of Austria in the ranks of warrior aristocracy but also among ordinary people who decided to become mercenaries and leave the community life. They were the ones who ensured the glory of Europe and its prosperity.
The Church understood the value of such men and society was organized on basis of social orders, where warriors and peasants had totally different value systems, both of them promoted separately. But modern Catholics (including trads) ignore this and only push peasant values.
The result of this is that modern Catholic societies from 19th century on turned into collectivist value system and were reduced to communities of petty moralizers and crypto-matriarchies. Thus they had no chance to resist the tyrannies of modern states and hostile forces.
This is why I really like @bronzeagemantis and his work because — even though not Catholic — he has done more to bring back the old medieval Catholic warrior value system than all the trads combined. He understands what motivates young European men and what always motivated them.
The only way Catholicism can be revived with vitality and become a meaningful force in European civilization again is by reviving the ancient chivalric aristocracy, free from community “longhouse” moralizing, to bring back the ideals of the likes of John of Austria!
This is why trying to force men to form families and moralizing to them for not doing so is harmful and contributes to forces and attitudes that are destroying European civilization. The worst thing is they pretend this is ‘traditional’ when it’s actually very modern.
When you read European history you realize real European tradition was not family values, moralizing and banning things but brave young men living dangerous lives of adventure, despising the boredom of community life. Europeans will either bring this back or perish into obscurity.
Young boys are getting gender neutered from the get go in school nowadays. Both in Europe and the USA. They are actively being punished for being boys, having interests of boys and behaving like boys. This is causing all kinds of conflicts and problems for the kids. It is actively fostering conformists following what their teachers are teaching them. Most teachers are female nowadays, even up to university level. This dominance never gets called out, despite being a huge problem. About 50% are male kids, and too many of them will fall prey to a system that literally hates boys, men and this will deprive society of leaders and, well, men.
Cervantes was another famous catholic who fought in Lepanto as a soldier, he even lost most of his left arm there.
Erasmus is also an interesting one. I live in Europe and here he is often associated with humanism and progressiveness (especially as our European exchange students program is named after him), but when you read his treaties, you realize that his humanism was limited to Christendom.
Here what Erasmus wrote in “Consultatio de Bello Turcis inferendo”:
“My purpose is to ensure that we make war against them [the Turkish] successfully and win truly splendid victories for Christ.”
“How many defeats have the Christian peoples suffered at the hands of this race of barbarians, whose very origin is obscure? What atrocities haven’t they committed against us? […] [There] can be no doubt that the Turks have won an immense empire less by their own merits than because of our sins.” etc. etc.
In his book about marriage, he is even more precise about the purpose of having christian babies:
“The same individuals who are so pleased with virginity aren’t displeased with warring against the Turks, who outnumber us by so many; if their judgment is correct, it will follow that it should be considered especially right and honorable to strive with all one’s might to produce children, and thus provide enough young men to serve in war.”