The baptism of Clovis in Reims in 496. Painting by François-Louis Dejuinne .
When these dedicated sectors flourished, the spirit of their constant personal self-sacrifice and restraint permeated and set the tone for all society and helped all to control and counter their disordered passions. It was by this spirit that the barbarians were gradually both restrained by force of arms and tamed by prayer and penance under the loving gaze of the Church.
Hence, Summerfield Ballwin succinctly writes that “it was the Way of the Cross . . . which preoccupied the minds and hearts of Christendom.”* The sublime perfume of this spirit of abnegation permeated economy, art, and thought, and gave value, meaning, and beauty to all things human.
* Summerfield Ballwin, Business in the Middle Ages (New York: Cooper Square Publishers, 1968), 5.
John Horvat II, Return to Order: From a Frenzied Economy to an Organic Christian Society—Where We’ve Been, How We Got Here, and Where We Need To Go (York, Penn.: York Press, 2013), 331-2.
