A history of the Cairns/Cairnes family (McCairns, MacCairns, etc.), written in 1906 by Henry Cairnes Lawlor. The following is from the Author’s preface: It is now a good number of years ago since some of my relatives, both in Australia and at home, expressed a desire to know something of the history of our ancestors…. My original intention was only to write a short memoir of the Irish family of Cairnes, but so engrossing did the subject become to me, that, having pretty well exhausted the Irish family, I began inquiries as to its progenitors, the Scottish family. One discovery led to another, and my original intention to write a memoir of the Irish branch gradually developed into an effort to write a history of the whole family. I have spared no pains to make my work as complete as possible. Few will believe the amount of labour this has entailed. It has been, although always a pleasure to me, a vast undertaking. This is because almost the whole book has had to be compiled at first hand from original sources. True, the Ulster Office Pedigree to which I have referred formed a groundwork for a small section of the book, but on carefully examining old records, family papers, &amp;c., I found this to contain several errors, and therefore to be unreliable. With this exception the history of the family as chronicled in these pages is the result of original research. I have deemed it best in all cases to give my authorities in footnotes. These, it will be noted, are in the most cases from original records, or from verified sources. Hence I can place the volume in the hands of the subscribers with the belief that it will be found reliable as a work of reference…. It will probably be said by some critics, “Who are these Cairneses or what have they done to warrant their family history being written?” I admit they have no claim to be included among the greater noble families of these kingdoms; yet I think that anyone who reads these pages will acknowledge that they contain the history of a noble family. In the six hundred years covered by this work the family has supplied many prominent and useful members to the State, the Church, the Army and the Bar. It has produced none but good citizens, whether of high or low degree. In the many hundred books, public records and private documents I have perused in the preparation of my book, I have never found the name of Cairnes sullied by unworthy or dishonourable conduct.

A History of the Family of Cairnes or Cairns and Its Connections

Reference

Lawlor, H. C.

Genealogy

Cavalier Books

Orthodoxy (Cavalier Classics)

Religion & Spirituality

Chesterton

Christian Books & Bibles

One of the most artful narratives ever written concerning the life of The Maid. Hilaire Belloc wrote with a familiarity only possessed by those with an intimate knowledge of the facts. A Catholic, of both French and English descent, Belloc clearly had an emotional affinity for this episode in the long struggle between the two nations.

Joan of Arc

Biographies & Memoirs

BELLOC, HILAIRE

Historical

Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953)—one of the most prominent Catholic authors of his time—gives a common sense explanation of why the Crusades were necessary, and why they ultimately failed. He argues that the personal and strategic failings of the First Crusade’s leaders led to the establishment of a state that could not be sustained, and that the absence of such a state left Europe vulnerable to Islamic aggression for centuries afterward. Writing in 1937, following the demise of the Ottoman Empire, Belloc believed that the West had finally gained the advantage over its mortal foe. However, he also includes a prophetic warning to Western Civilization, about the eventual resurgence of Islam and its enduring desire to destroy Christendom.

The Crusades: The World's Debate

History

Europe

Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870), author of The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers, The Man in the Iron Mask, etc..., chronicles the events of Napoleon's Egyptian expedition, including his foray into Syria. Dumas' father, the famous French general Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, accompanied Napoleon on that ill-conceived campaign. Following the "Battle of the Pyramids," a dispute arose between the two concerning Napoleon's leadership on the long dry march to Cairo. This incident prompted General Dumas to withdraw from the expedition and return to France. Although the general died while Alexandre was still a child, Dumas learned the details of the campaign from his father's comrades-in-arms.

The Eighth Crusade

DUMAS, ALEXANDRE

Military

Hilaire Belloc examines the five most destructive heretical movements to have affected Christian Civilization: Arianism, Mohammedanism (Islam), Albigensianism (Cathar), The Reformation (Protestant), and “The Modern Phase.” Belloc describes how these movements began, how they spread, and how they continued to influence the world up until the time of his writing (1936). The Chapter on Islam is especially relevant in light of current events; in it Belloc accurately predicts the renewal of Jihadist aggression towards Western Civilization.

The Great Heresies

Harold Lamb gives a comprehensive account of the life and reign of the Roman Emperor Justinian I (482-565), from his origin as the peasant Petrus Sabbatius, to the purple clad Imperator. Upon Justinian’s ascension to the throne the western provinces had been occupied by hostile barbarians for over a generation. In the east, what remained of the Roman Empire faced invasion by the Huns from the north, and by an undiminished Persian Empire across the eastern border. Despite all of this Justinian managed to withstand the waves of invasion, embark on vast architectural projects across the empire, and restore Roman mastery over Mediterranean. Lamb also examines the colorful personalities surrounding Justinian. His wife Theodora, the actress turned empress, who was more spymaster than anything else; the ever victorious count Belisarius, who, despite his popularity with the military, the people, and the lost provinces he reclaimed for the empire, refused to take up arms and overthrow his emperor as so many other Roman generals had done before him. Constantinople: Birth of an Empire is a great resource for anyone interested in eastern Roman/Byzantine history during the age of Justinian.

Constantinople: Birth of an Empire

Lamb, Harold

Ancient Civilizations

In this collection of short biographies Hilaire Belloc, one of the great Catholic historians of the twentieth century, shares his views on the principal characters of the Protestant Reformation, focusing primarily on those figures concerned with the events in England. Through each account, Belloc demonstrates that the motives of the Protestant leaders were rarely religious in nature, but usually political or economic. He reminds the reader that European Christendom was once a single united entity, under the authority of the Catholic Church, each country viewing itself as a single “province” of the whole. However, many of Europe’s Princes resented the power that the Bishop of Rome held in their own lands. The Reformation, aided by the rise of Nationalism, was a means for the nobles of Europe to shake off Papal authority and rule their territory independently. It also gave European monarchs control over the Church and all of its property in their realm, including the taxes that would normally be sent to Rome. Therefore, the nobles grew rich by confiscating the wealth of the Church, and resisted any form of reconciliation if that meant returning the wealth to its rightful owner. In subsequent generations, the fear of this possibility gave the noble classes an incentive to remain in the Protestant camp. What’s more, the political leaders of the “Counter Reformation” were not as effective as they ought to have been, often allowing their own dynastic or nationalistic agendas to take precedence over the restoration of religious unity in Europe. As usual, Belloc’s historical perspective offers the sort of timeless wisdom rarely duplicated in modern times.

Characters of the Reformation

Murder at Cirey: A Victor Constant investigation (The Victor Constant Investigations)

Sawyer, Cheryl

Literature & Fiction

Europe and the Faith

“You have been told ‘Christianity (a word, by the way, quite un- historical) crept into Rome as she declined, and hastened that decline.’ That is bad history. Rather accept this phrase and retain it: ‘The Faith is that which Rome accepted in her maturity; nor was the Faith the cause of her decline, but rather the conservator of all that could be conserved.” “In the next period—the Dark Ages—the Catholic proceeds to see Europe saved against a universal attack of the Mohammedan, the Hun, the Scandinavian: he notes that the fierceness of the attack was such that anything save something divinely instituted would have broken down. The Mohammedan came within three days’ march of Tours, the Mongol was seen from the walls of Tournus on the Sâone: right in France. The Scandinavian savage poured into the mouths of all the rivers of Gaul, and almost overwhelmed the whole island of Britain. There was nothing left of Europe but a central core.” “Nevertheless Europe survived. In the refloresence which followed that dark time—in the Middle Ages—the Catholic notes not hypotheses but documents and facts; he sees the Parliaments arising not from some imaginary ‘Teutonic’ root—a figment of the academies—but from the very real and present great monastic orders, in Spain, in Britain, in Gaul—never outside the old limits of Christendom. He sees the Gothic architecture spring high, spontaneous and autochthonic, first in the territory of Paris and thence spread outwards in a ring to the Scotch Highlands and to the Rhine. He sees the new Universities, a product of the soul of Europe, re-awakened—he sees the marvelous new civilization of the Middle Ages rising as a transformation of the old Roman society, a transformation wholly from within, and motived by the Faith.” —Hilaire Belloc

Belloc

Literary

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