St. Robert Bellarmine was an Italian 16th and 17th century Jesuit (when they were orthodox and top dog). He was a strong defender of The Catholic Church and an elite scholar. He ended up being a cardinal and wrote a number of works in his lifetime, including his famous defence of the Papacy On the Roman Pontiff and Antichrist. He took it upon himself to examine different forms of government in the former work.
As laid out in this 1917 copy of The Catholic Historical Review, St. Robert Bellarmine was of the view that, in theory, monarchy is the most perfect form of government. This is because it is employed by God Himself. Monarchy, in the hands of the Creator, is a perfect system as He is the Ideal Ruler. In the hands of mankind, however, it is prone to abuse and misuse (are these not the same thing — Ed?).
Nevertheless, given the many defects of this fallen world, the saint admits that absolute pure monarchy cannot be trusted and so has to be cushioned with aristocracy and democracy (he would not have meant universal suffrage in this case).
At the other end of the scale, democracy cannot be trusted either. That’s because in its raw form, wrote the saint, democracy would lead to mob violence and the worst form of tyranny. Why does he say this? I suppose because a majority of people in a pure democracy could vote for one thing and the minority would have to go with it, no matter what, simply because more people wanted this thing than them. I know what you’re thinking — that happens all the time! (Yeah, it kinda does — Ed). And I agree, it does, but it is always tempered by other constitutional mechanisms, judicial systems, the ability to protest/strike, etc. AND, crucially, there is always the chance to reverse the decision at the next election. In a pure Lord of the Flies-esque democracy, if the majority vote that everyone should chop one of their legs off, then everyone has to chop one of their legs off, regardless of whether they voted for it or not. That majority group can also decide, that from now on, that only x, y, z, are actually allowed to vote. Or that only their vote matters.
OK this is extreme, but valid. Individual liberty, being able to control one’s future and “rights” and all the rest of it, are not protected in a pure democracy. Far from it. St. Robert Bellarmine expresses this when quoting Plato: “Who can be happy living under the arbitrary will of the crowd?”
Anyway, as I have argued elsewhere on this Substack (see Royally Ruined), various monarchies have taken an unfairly harsh hit to their reputations, whereas we flaunt democracy as some sort of utopian answer to all our woes, which it most definitely is not.
In The Fragment from The Shroud, my forthcoming novel, I may leave some hints/theories in the final edited version as to why the protagonist’s (Albert Poniatowski) ancestors lost their positions of power.
Personally speaking, I know a little about falling from a higher class of society. As my dear late mother used to always remind me and my brothers, we are fallen aristocrats (what? — Ed). She came to this conclusion after discovering that someone in the family — back in the day — had a coat of arms. I’m not sure if coats of arms were a dime a dozen in the 18th or 19th century in occupied Poland, but if you can’t trust your mother, then who can you trust? (Me — Ed).
In this spirit, there is no denying the reality of the situation. I should be my own patron. I should not have to be out on the streets begging for BITCOIN, LIRA, DINERO, STAR WARS MONEY (those are called credits — Ed). I should be writing myself blank cheques and taking the family to some tropical island to pen stories for months on end just like Ian Fleming did, while the servants and gardening staff busy themselves with maintaining the stately home on some piece of land that may or may not be in Lithuania or Latvia (I can never remember).
Due to my ancestral family’s fall from grace, I am forced to hold down a day job in order to pay the water bill and other sundries, leaving me with less time to concentrate on the important stuff — writing a load of Hogwash.
Never mind, we all have our crosses to bear.
Progress update:
The Anchorite (my next novella) is at 10,409 words.
I am proofreading/editing The Fragment from The Shroud (my next novel) for the third time.
Take it easy. And thanks for reading.
An interesting blog Marek. It certainly got me thinking about monarchy and democracy and our role within it.
By the way our grandparents started off in what is now Lithuania but then moved to the farm Samiszki which is now in Bielarus. Ciocia x