A Pilgrimage to Eternity

by Timothy Egan

  Châlons-en-Champagne observations, including information on the Via Agrippa, from author visit.

  Roman roads quote, from Manchester, A World Lit Only by Fire.

  Napoleon’s life at the military school of Brienne-le-Château, from a brochure at the Museum of Napoleon in Brienne, author visit.

  Napoleon early years, family, from Napoleon: A Life, by Andrew Roberts, Penguin, 2014.

  Napoleon resistance to teachers, from In the Footsteps of Napoleon, by James Morgan, Macmillan, 1915.

  Napoleon’s mother, from Shannon Salin, author and historian of Napoleon’s family, from her website, https://shannonselin.com/2014/03/napoleons-mother-letizia-bonaparte.

  Joan Egan’s story of miscarriage, bishop, and hysterectomy, from recorded interviews with her in 2014.

  Napoleon’s term for Holy Roman Empire, from Roberts, Napoleon.

  Napoleon quote on how Brienne shaped him, and the million francs left to the town in his will, from Museum of Napoleon.

  13. Wars of Religion

  Scenes in Wassy, from author visit.

  Descriptions of the massacre, from an account posted outside the Musée Protestant de la Grange de Wassy.

  Crusades, Pope Urban, and Saint Bernard, from Sumption, The Age of the Pilgrimage.

  Number killed in Crusades, including massacres of Jews, from Washington Post fact-check, February 16, 2015.

  Bernard’s apology, from “Apologia for the Second Crusade,” courtesy Fordham University, Medieval Sourcebook, https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/bernard-apol.asp.

  Erasmus, from Johnson, A History of Christianity.

  More on Erasmus’s philosophy and Martin Luther, from Fatal Discord: Erasmus, Luther, and the Fight for the Western Mind, by Michael Massing, HarperCollins, 2018.

  Killing of first Protestant heretic, from Heresy and Orthodoxy in Sixteenth-Century Paris: François Le Picart and the Beginnings of the Catholic Reformation, by Larissa Juliet Taylor, Brill, 1999.

  Huguenots’ suffering, from The Huguenots: A Biography of a Minority, by George A. Rothrock, Rowman and Littlefield, 1979.

  Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, and details of other Wars of Religion, from the Virtual Museum of Protestantism, https://www.museeprotestant.org/en.

  “Kill them all,” from Horne, La Belle France.

  Wars of Religion details, from The French Religion Wars—1562–98, by Robert J. Knecht, Osprey Publishing, 2002.

  Total number killed, 15 percent of France, from Knecht, The French Religion Wars.

  Casualties compared with American Civil War, https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/civil-war-facts.

  Casualties during the Thirty Years War, from “What Happened in the Thirty Years War?,” by P.C., The Economist, January 17, 2016.

  Casualties compared with Napoleonic Wars, from The Napoleonic Wars, 1803–1815, by David Gates, Pimlico, 2003.

  Casualties compared with World War I, from Massing, Fatal Discord.

  Church issues apology, from “Pope Says Sorry for Sins of Church,” by Rory Carroll, The Guardian, March 13, 2000.

  14. Wanderings

  Where to stay, from tourist office in Brienne-le-Château, and mairie of Châteauvillain.

  Clairvaux Abbey, from fact sheet given by tour guide. Additional information from “Clairvaux Abbey, France: Tales of the Unexpected,” by Kathy Arnold, The Telegraph, March 8, 2014.

  Dovecotes, from “Pigeon Towers: The Rise and Fall of a 17th-Century Status Symbol,” Atlas Obscura, April 17, 2015, https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/dovecotes.

  15. The Hollowed House of Light

  Diderot’s life, from Diderot: A Critical Biography, by P. N. Furbank, Knopf, 1992.

  Additional Diderot bio, from The Embattled Philosopher, by Lester G. Crocker, Michigan State College Press, 1954.

  Diderot details in Langres, from author visit.

  Diderot quote on banishing God, from his book Philosophical Thoughts, first published in 1746. I relied on a Kindle edition, translated by Kirk Watson.

  Diderot inventions, books, the Encyclopédie, from author visit to the Maison des Lumières in Langres.

  American founding fathers as deists, http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/eighteen/ekeyinfo/deism.htm.

  Jefferson on clerics and witches, from The God Delusion, by Richard Dawkins, Mariner Books, 2008.

  Other authors on Index of Prohibited Books, http://www.uscatholic.org/church/2010/08/does-church-still-ban-books.

  Rights of Man, from The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.

  French Revolution, Cult of Reason details, from The Oxford History of the French Revolution, by William Doyle, Clarendon Press, 1999.

  French literacy rates higher than in modern United States, Schama, Citizens. And from http://www.nobility.org/2011/08/22/astonishing-adult-literacy-rates.

  Pope Francis on science and truth, from USA Today, May 12, 2017.

  Rousseau’s falling-out with Diderot, change of heart on secularism, from The New Yorker, August 2, 2016.

  Ayn Rand, as quoted in New York Times, July 14, 2017.

  Diderot letter to his lover, as quoted in The New Yorker, March 4, 2019.

  Religion of Humanity, from New York Times Magazine, January 1, 2017.

  16. United Europe’s Ticking Clock

  Besançon, town details, from author visit and interview at tourism office.

  Watches and time, influence on other watchmakers, from New York Times, January 15, 2018.

  Details on Besançon’s relationship to time, from author visit to Musée du Temps, Besançon.

  Hugo biographical details, from Victor Hugo: A Biography, by Graham Robb, Norton, 1998.

  Hugo speech on future of Europe, https://www.ellopos.net/politics/hugo-addresses-europe.asp.

  European Union teetering, in part from New York Times, March 25, 2017.

  Richard Dawkins comment, from The Independent, July 18, 2018.

  Pope quote “vacuum of values,” from The Independent, March 24, 2017.

  Franciscans, from author interview by email with Brother Alexis Mensah.

  “Who of you by worrying . . . ,” from Luke 12:25.

  17. The Betrayal

  Personal recollections of the parish and Father Patrick G. O’Donnell, from interviews with my brother, mother, and other family members.

  Suicide story of brother’s best friend, from “Sins of the Father,” Inlander, January 22, 2004. More details of suicide and aftermath, from National Catholic Register, November 10, 2006.

  Rita Flynn details, from her obituary, Spokesman Review, September 17, 2011, http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/spokesman/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=153661024.

  O’Donnell apologizes, admits number of victims, from Spokesman Review, November 13, 2008, http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2008/nov/13/former-priest-settles-lawsuit.

  YouTube video of O’Donnell admitting to past abuse, and apologizing, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1l4IjLWHo4.

  Story of Spokane archdiocese, http://www.natcath.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2006d/111006/111006a.php.

  Papal apology, from New York Times, June 10, 2015, https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/11/world/europe/papal-responses-to-sexual-abuse-in-the-church.html.

  18. Refuge and Reform

  Certificate of an indulgence on display at the International Museum of the Reformation, Geneva, Switzerland, author visit.

  Metal lockbox with slogan, from NPR, October 20, 2016.

  Details on types of indulgences, birth of the Reformation, from author interview with Gabriel de Montmollin, director of the International Museum of the Reformation.

  Luther and church response to his 95 theses, from Martin Luther: The Man Who Rediscovered God and Changed the World, by Eric Metaxas, Viking, 2018.

  Additional Luther, from Mar
tin Luther: A Life, by Martin E. Marty, Penguin, 2004.

  Settlers through the years at Lausanne, from Gallard, LightFoot Companion to the Via Francigena.

  Hidden Bibles, Bible print run, from the International Museum of the Reformation.

  Gutenberg got his start selling mirrors, https://www.themorgan.org/collections/works/gutenberg/who-was-gutenberg.

  Luther wrote a third of all books in German, from The New Yorker, October 30, 2017.

  Attacking the pope, from Metaxas, Martin Luther.

  Luther’s marriage, kids, home, ibid.

  Number of Lutherans worldwide, from global Lutheran headquarters, https://www.lutheranworld.org/sites/default/files/LWI-Statistics-2013-EN.pdf.

  Luther quote on peasants, from his pamphlet “Against the Murdering and Thieving Hordes of Peasants,” as quoted in Metaxas, Martin Luther.

  Anti-Semitic remarks, from Luther’s pamphlet “On the Jews and Their Lies,” Liberty Bell Publications, 2004.

  More anti-Semitic words, summarized here, https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/martin-luther-quot-the-jews-and-their-lies-quot.

  Nazis blame Luther, a reference to testimony of Julius Streicher at Nuremberg trials, from The New Yorker, October 30, 2017.

  Pope praises Reformation, from The Economist, November 2, 2016.

  Pope quote on good of Reformation, New York Times, October 31, 2016.

  19. A Theocracy on the Lake

  City of Refuge, a bas-relief sculpture in the city.

  Servetus, from Hunted Heretic: The Life and Death of Michael Servetus, by Roland H. Bainton, Blackstone Editions, 2003.

  Four of the most expensive cities in the world in Switzerland, https://www.eca-international.com/news/june-2015/hong-kong-now-more-expensive-than-tokyo-for-expatr.

  Jeremy England’s theory of origin of life, https://www.salon.com/2015/01/03/god_is_on_the_ropes_the_brilliant_new_science_that_has_creationists_and_the_christian_right_terrified.

  Religious police in Geneva, and torture of dissidents, from Manchester, A World Lit Only by Fire.

  Calvin quote, “sure truth,” ibid.

  Number of executions in Calvin’s Geneva, from Reformations: The Early Modern World, 1450–1650, by Carlos M. N. Eire, Yale University Press, 2018.

  Calvin and suicidal man, from a sworn statement by Calvin, dated January 23, 1545, in the archives at the International Museum of the Reformation.

  Servetus’s heretical theology while on the run, from On the Errors of the Trinity, by Michael Servetus, Harvard University Press, 1932.

  Calvin early life, from Calvin, by Bruce Gordon, Yale University Press, 2009.

  Calvin in Geneva, from Calvin’s Geneva, by E. William Monter, John Wiley & Sons, 1967.

  Calvin on threat to Servetus, from Bainton, Hunted Heretic.

  Calvin quote on Servetus, from Letters of John Calvin, edited by Jules Bonnet, 2009, first published in 1923.

  Description of the burning at the stake, from Out of the Flames, by Lawrence Goldstone and Nancy Goldstone, Crown, 2008.

  Bainton quote on “singular distinction,” from Bainton, Hunted Heretic.

  Religious affiliation in modern Switzerland, from Swiss Federal Statistical Office, https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/en/home/search.html#religious%20affiliation.

  20. The Permanent Prayer of Saint-Maurice

  Size and peculiarities of the Lausanne Cathedral, from author interview with Anna Decoro, church docent, and from https://www.lausanne-tourisme.ch/en/Z5081.

  Cathedral largest in Switzerland, https://www.myswitzerland.com/en-us/cathedrale-de-notre-dame-cathedral-of-our-lady-lausanne.html.

  Napoleon logistics, from Roberts, Napoleon.

  Napoleon’s two tons of cheese, from Gallard, LightFoot Companion to the Via Francigena.

  Abbey of Saint-Maurice details, from a guide at the site, a brochure on the history, and its website, http://www.abbaye-stmaurice.ch/page.php?label=home-en#content.

  Sigismund, from author interview with guide at Saint-Maurice.

  Sigismund as a saint, from https://saintsandblesseds.wordpress.com/2009/05/06/st-sigismund-of-burgundy.

  Biography of Saint Maurice, in part, from National Catholic Reporter, https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/black-saints-maurice.

  More on Maurice, from “Who Was the First Black Saint?,” by Henry Louis Gates Jr., from The Root, https://www.theroot.com/who-was-the-first-black-saint-1790893913.

  More Catholics in Africa than Europe within twenty years, from The New Republic, February 13, 2013.

  Town, churches named for Maurice, and his lasting influence, from The Continuing Witness of St. Maurice, by William B. Sweetser Jr., from research done for a dissertation and reprinted here: http://fatherdavidbirdosb.blogspot.com/2015/09/father-nicolas-buttet-catholic-founder.html.

  Nicolas Buttet, from http://fatherdavidbirdosb.blogspot.com/2015/09/father-nicolas-buttet-catholic-founder.html.

  Guidebook quote on “the worst section,” from Raju, Via Francigena.

  21. A Pilgrim over the Alps

  Heat wave, in part from New York Times, August 6, 2017.

  Napoleon on a mule, from https://www.napoleon.org, history website of the Fondation Napoléon.

  Napoleon on avalanches, as quoted in Roberts, Napoleon.

  Napoleon’s bill at Bourg-Saint-Pierre, from Gallard, LightFoot Companion to the Via Francigena.

  Story of Gonzaga, https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-aloysius-gonzaga.

  22. Monastery in the Sky

  Napoleon greeted at Saint Bernard, from Fondation Napoléon, https://www.napoleon.org.

  Background on Saint Bernard dogs, from the museum at Great Saint Bernard Pass.

  Saint Bernard’s story, from “St. Bernard of Menthon,” The Catholic Encyclopedia, first published 1907, and also from the museum.

  Pope Francis sees a shrink, from Associated Press, “Pope Saw Female, Jewish Psychoanalyst Weekly at 42 to ‘Clarify Some Things,’” September 1, 2017, https://talkingpointsmemo.com/world-news/pope-francis-psychoanalyst-weekly-sessions.

  Father John of Flavigny, from author interview with him at Great Saint Bernard Hospice.

  The Ignatian Method, further explained in The Jesuit Ratio Studiorum: 400th Anniversary Perspectives, edited by Vincent J. Duminuco, Fordham University Press, 2000.

  23. Mountain Myths

  Oscar Wilde poem, “Sonnet on Approaching Italy,” 1881, from Bartleby.com, and thanks to Gallard, LightFoot Companion to the Via Francigena, for flagging this.

  Wilde in Rome, from Frankel, Oscar Wilde.

  Quotes from Wilde in Rome from “Purple Hours: Oscar Wilde in Rome,” from www.padraigrooney.com.

  Vatican embraces Wilde, from The Independent, July 16, 2009.

  Church position on gays, from Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2357–2359.

  Letter on gays, from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, October 1, 1986.

  Pope tells gay man God loves you, from New York Times, May 21, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/21/world/europe/pope-francis-gays-god-made-you-this-way-.html.

  Alps and sanatoriums and playgrounds, Mont Blanc first scaled, from The Economist, January 27, 2018.

  Brief history of the House of Savoy, from Encyclopædia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/House-of-Savoy.

  Saint Grat’s story, as told in several church depictions in Val d’Aosta.

  Myth and the Cognitive Revolution, from Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, by Yuval Noah Harari, Harper Perennial, 2015.

  Joseph Campbell on myth, from Bill Moyers on Faith and Reason, PBS series, http://www.pbs.org/moyers/faithandreason/perspectives1.html.

  Aosta arch, and details of the town, from author visit, and information from Aosta tourist information office.

  Story of Augustus, from The First Emperor: Caes
ar Augustus and the Triumph of Rome, by Anthony Everitt, Random House, 2006.

  Pantheon transition, from http://romeonsegway.com/10-facts-about-the-pantheon.

  24. Proving the Existence of God

  Anselmo’s biography, from Encyclopædia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Anselm-of-Canterbury.

  Anselmo’s argument, from Fordham University, “Anselm on God’s Existence,” https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/anselm.asp.

  Anselmo quote on existence of God, from Proslogion, as presented ibid.

  Thomas Aquinas, proof, from his Summa Theologica, written 1265–1274, as summarized by Fordham University, https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/aquinas3.asp.

  Stephen Hawking quotes, from his Brief Answers to the Big Questions, Bantam, 2018.

  Napoleon in Italy, theological debate, from Roberts, Napoleon.

  “Pascal’s Wager,” from Pascal’s Pensées, E. P. Dutton, 1958; the Pensées were first published in 1620.

  Essence of Anselmo’s argument, more bio, from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/anselm.

  Pope and “powerful magic wand,” from NPR, September 22, 2015.

  25. A Farewell to Augustine

  Roman legionnaires, twenty-two miles a day, from The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians, by Peter Heather, Oxford University Press, 2007.

  Battle of the Oranges, brochure from tourist information office in Ivrea, and https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/battle-of-the-oranges.

  Augustine early life, from his Confessions.

  Augustine on choice and origin of evil, from “On Free Will,” Cambridge Texts on the History of Philosophy, 2010.

  Comparative discussion on free will and predestination, thanks to the paper “Augustine: Advocate of Free Will, Defender of Predestination,” by Brandon Peterson, http://sites.nd.edu/ujournal/files/2014/07/Peterson_05-06.pdf.

  Augustine on God’s test, from Confessions.

  Italy’s record low birthrate, from Reuters, March 6, 2017, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-birthrate/births-in-italy-hit-record-low-in-2016-population-ages-idUSKBN16D28U.