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evola_as_he_is · EVOLA AS HE IS

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Evola on the Middle Ages   Topic List   < Prev Topic  |  Next Topic >
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In “Sintesi di dottrina della razza”, Evola listed three great Aryan civilisations:

 

(1) The Vedic civilisation

(2) The Roman civilisation

(3) The Nordic-Roman Middle Ages

 

The reasons for the inclusion of items (1) and (2) are obvious. (3) may or may not be obvious, depending on the nature of the relationship of Christianity, and in particular the Catholic Church, with the feudal society of the Middle Ages. Evola addresses this relationship in the 1934 issues of Vita Nova. The only on-line reference is a French translation at:

http://askesis.hautetfort.com/archive/2006/07/19/chevalerie.html

I will provide a brief summary of its main points:

The title in English is: "Phratry of the Sentinels of the Future".

Now many Catholics look back at the Middle Ages and see it as the high point in the history of the Church. However, Evola, in this article, claims that, on the contrary, the Middle Ages at its core were pagan.

First, he points to Feudalism as an hierarchical social arrangement which he opposes to Christian sociality or collectivity. Feudalism is based on two principles: (1) the free individual and (2) the loyalty of the warrior. He goes in to characterise this system as masculine, while Christianity is feminine.

Evola then claims that the system recalls the secret tradition of the Empire, where the spiritual and secular natures are united. The Church separated these domains, claiming spiritual authority to itself and the secular to the Empire. Evola points out that there cannot be two suns -- feudalism brings back the idea of divine-royalty of the pagan Nordic-Romans.

The next section deals with the meaning of Chivalry which has the same relation to the Empire and the priesthood to the Church. From a metaphysical point of view, Chivalry is an initiation into a type of ascesis -- of the warrior, the aristocrat, the hero. Evola then discusses the Templars and answers objections that the Knighthood was actually Christian.

The final section deals with the Graal, which Evola claims is merely the Christian adaptation of a pre-Christian, pagan theme. Evola has dealt with this legend more fully elsewhere.

Evola concludes again by denying the Middle Ages were the Golden Age of the Church but, quite to the contrary, they brought back the most radiant mark of ancient civilisations. He quotes the Ghibelline Dante with approval: "Christ himself was a Roman."

However, this is not the end of the story and a few more thoughts can be added to Evola’s telling.

We can start with Charles Maurras whose thesis is that the “classical edifice of Latin civilisation and Catholic hierarchical structure” is “attacked and upset by a new mentality”. (Molnar, “The Decline of the Intellectual”) So, although Evola ultimately rejects the Catholic Church because it is too Christian and Semitic, Maurras -- despite his status as an unbeliever – promotes the Catholic Church because of it opposition to Semitic influence and closeness to Roman values. This is not necessarily a contradiction, as Evola asserts:  “The thesis of Charles Maurras is also ours: pagan Rome had created [emphasis in original] Catholicism as a system of order in opposition to Christian anarchy (“Imperialismo Pagano”, Italian edition).

In other words, the Nordic-Roman leaders created Catholicism out of the raw materials of primitive Christianity. This, in effect, is identical to the Church’s claim to infallibility, which is no more and no less than the right to define Christianity. In the Sorelian sense, this is the power-idea that unifies a civilisation.

So the feudal system and values may be inconsistent with primitive Christianity, but it is not so clear that they are inconsistent with Catholicism. The Catholic Brazilian philosopher, Plinio Correa de Oliveira, is very sensitive to the masculine nature of the Church. For example, look at this essay in praise of “pagan manliness” to see that the medieval Church did not seek to eliminate pagan virtues but rather to perfect them and make them her own.

http://www.tfp.org/TFPForum/PCO/pagan_manliness.htm

This may be because de Oliveira is a layman, not a priest, but he decries the feminising element that came into the Church with the Renaissance. Also, chapter V of his “Revolution and Counter-Revolution” may be of interest to some on this topic:  http://www.tfp.org/what_we_think/rcr_book_online/rcr_intro.html

We must also keep in mind that, despite Evola’s emphasis on solar spirituality, there is also a legitimate place for a lunar spirituality. First of all, the priesthood is a valid caste in a Traditional society and will embody lunar characteristics.  Therefore, there is room both for the hero and for the saint, since – as Evola has consistently asserted – there is no one law valid for all castes. Furthermore, by the very nature of a hierarchy, the lower classes will necessarily be lunar – those who believe, rather than those who know. Evola himself asserts that if you want to know what pagan spirituality was like among the masses during the Roman civilisation, you need look no further than the Catholic Church, which is a close approximation (“Imperialismo Pagano”, German edition). It should not be surprising that the spiritual beliefs and practices vary among the castes.

So, the real issue is not whether the Middle Ages were pagan or Catholic, but rather what is the proper relationship between the spiritual authority and temporal power. It seems to me that Evola doesn’t take into account two assumptions; these are more a matter of definition than of substance, and do not affect his ultimate conclusions.

1)      The Church reserves right to define Christianity – recall that “pagan Rome had created Catholicism”. Therefore, there is no higher standpoint from which to judge the Church, either to call it too semitic or too pagan.

2)      The knightly class decides whether they are Catholic or not. Indeed, they regarded themselves as Christian and not pagan. If it appears otherwise from our vantage point today, that is because we are seeing them in the light of the Renaissance and Reformation, not as they saw themselves at the time.

In the contest for control of the power-idea, the priestly caste was ultimately victorious with the destruction of the Templars. The rest is history.

 

 

 



Tue Mar 13, 2007 4:25 am

hyperborean
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In "Sintesi di dottrina della razza", Evola listed three great Aryan civilisations: (1) The Vedic civilisation (2) The Roman civilisation (3) The Nordic-Roman...
Toni Ciopa
hyperborean Offline Send Email
Mar 13, 2007
9:44 am

This an accurate summary of "Phratry of the Sentinels of the Future". However, your views on the relationship between heathenism and Christianity are...
evola_as_he_is Offline Send Email Mar 13, 2007
5:41 pm

... On the same note, let us recall a footnote from the first part of Henry de Montherlant's 'Solstice de Juin': 'A true mockery, chivalry since the XIIIth...
larco_e_laclava Offline Send Email Mar 16, 2007
9:51 am

There is little to dispute in the realm of ideas, but some care must be taken in their interpretation. First of all, ideals can be compared to other ideals,...
Toni Ciopa
hyperborean Offline Send Email
Mar 17, 2007
8:48 pm

There is no such thing as a single 'code of chivalry', this code of conduct was clearly understood although it was never clearly formulated. In fact, there...
evola_as_he_is Offline Send Email Mar 19, 2007
8:51 pm

I agree with this views, crualty is not worthy of a real Tradition , this kind of cynical thinking seems more like ultra-modern libéralism selfish way of life...
stephane.leperchois
stephane.lep... Offline Send Email
Jul 5, 2007
4:54 pm

I don’t recall very much from Evola on the specific details of public policy. However, in general, in an organic society policies arise in a natural way...
Toni Ciopa
hyperborean Offline Send Email
Jul 10, 2007
12:23 pm

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