“THE capital event, the critical moment, in the great struggle of the Faith against the Reformation, was the defection of Britain.
“It is a point which the modern historian, who is still normally anti-Catholic, does not and cannot make. Yet the defection of Britain from the Faith of Europe three hundred years ago is certainly the most important historical event in the last thousand years: between the saving of Europe from the barbarians and these our own times. It is perhaps the most important historical event since the triumph of the Catholic Church under Constantine.”
~Hilaire Belloc: Europe and the Faith, Chap. IX. The Defection of Britain.
