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The quest for the Holy Grail is one of the most fascinating legends in the Arthurian Canon. May E. Southworth provides a masterful account of this tale, following the young Galahad, a newly made knight of the round table, as he sets out from king Arthur's court on his journey to find the holy vessel. "Merlin, the king's friend and counselor, had received tidings that Amfortas, the keeper of the Grail castle, and all his court, lay under an evil spell, and that the holy cup under this magic had mysteriously disappeared. He sent word to king Arthur of his news, advising him at the same time to select some of his worthy knights of the Round Table to undertake the recovery of this sacred relic." "Galahad mounts his white steed, armed with sanctified sword and shield, which seem to guide him from the start to the very goal of his quest . . . the abiding place of the Grail."

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.

"These thirty-one pieces have the grace and delicacy proper to miniatures, as Mr. Belloc aptly calls them. Each runs to no more than a dozen pages, yet the author contrives within these narrow limits to paint a set of memorable pictures of scenes taken from the whole range of French history, from the founding of Marseilles to the Battle of the Marne….Such imaginative reconstruction of history is of greater value than much laboured accuracy of detail and requires the gifts, which it is unnecessary to say Mr. Belloc has in ample measure, of the historian and the poet.""The greater number of Mr. Belloc's subjects are mediaeval and-need we say?-military. The miniature entitled "Roncesvalles" will perhaps be best remembered-for its restraint, its delicacy, its actuality. The scenes are cleanly drawn with the sure touch of one who knows equally the history, the legend and the ground.""These miniatures will long be read with delight, and we are grateful to Mr. Belloc for his delicate work."-The Spectator, November 21st, 1925.

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.

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.

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.

In his treatise on European economic history (The Servile State, 1912) Hilaire Belloc explores the many failings of the Capitalist system. He explains that Capitalism emerged from the English Reformation, reached its present form during England's Industrial Revolution, and from there was exported to the rest of the world."It was in England that the Industrial System arose. It was in England that all its traditions and habits were formed; and because the England in which it arose was already a Capitalist England, modern Industrialism, wherever you see it at work to-day, having spread from England, has proceeded upon the Capitalist model."Belloc also suggests that Capitalism has supplanted another, earlier system, one that had developed throughout Catholic Europe, a system he and his good friend G.K. Chesterton referred to as "Distributism.""Property was an institution native to the State and enjoyed by the great mass of its citizens. Co-operative institutions, voluntary regulations of labour, restricted the completely independent use of property by its owners only in order to keep that institution intact and to prevent the absorption of small property by great.""This excellent state of affairs which we had reached after many centuries of Christian development, and in which the old institution of slavery had been finally eliminated from Christendom, did not everywhere survive. In England in particular it was ruined."