Juan Donoso Cortes Quotes
True progress consists in submitting the human element which corrupts liberty, to the divine element which purifies it. Society has followed a different path in looking upon the empire of faith as dead; and in proclaiming the empire of reason and the will of man.
Marquis de Valdegamas. He was a descendant of the conquistador, Hernando Cortez.
Juan Donoso Cortes, 1809–1853, Spanish Political Writer, Ambassador to France, Letter to Montalenbert
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
He was persecuted by the Roman Catholic Church for figuring out that the earth revolved around the sun which was contrary to church teaching at the time.
One of the reasons that this quotation is so significant is that the Roman Catholic Church had been historically antithetical to science and scientists. It took hundreds of years before the church would admit that Galileo was right and the church wrong about the earth revolving around the sun. But Pope John Paul II, along with his other major accomplishments removed the traditional Catholic hostility in theology and tradition. He even acknowledged the validity of the Theory of Evolution and taught that there was nothing inherent in evolution that denied God or scripture.
This is a very Jeffersonian type statement.
Spinoza was one of the most feared intellectuals in human history—feared that is by the established power structures. He is the only known person who was excommunicated by the Catholics, the Jews and the Muslims. He was the enemy of authority and advocated personal reason as the guide for men.
Juan Donoso Cortés, marqués de Valdegamas was a Spanish author, conservative, Catholic political theorist and diplomat.
