On Regicide
I just finished watching L’ Anglaise et le duc (The Lady & the Duke) by Eric Rohmer (a Frenchman, by law at least—with a name like that he’s no Gaul), a film about an Englishwoman in revolutionary France. It occurred to me whilst watching it that among the greatest of sins must be regicide: it is simultaneously an offence against a man (the king whom who has slain); against the State (for without a king there can be no State) and against God (who has, as St. Paul writes, placed over us our rulers). I do not think that any punishment is sufficient for those who commit the sin of regicide.
Interesting, too, how those who would strive against the Divine Order always seem to sink into worse. The revolutionary French ended up with the Reign of Terror, with the deaths of women and children; the revolutionary Russians slew women, children, priests & monks indiscriminately; the revolutionary Germans ended up with the Nazi reign of terror and genocide and the aforementioned atrocities; the revolutionary Chinese ended up with cannibalism and all the rest. Is it any wonder that revolutionaries are revolting?
