Fallen Order by Karen Liebreich

Fallen Order

by Karen Liebreich

'This scholarly yet brilliantly accessible book could not be more timely... Without bias or oversimplified polemic, Karen Liebreich's meticulous scholarship brings the whole sorry episode to light, step by step, in a piece of investigative writing that is relentless in its search for the truth.' -- KAREN ARMSTRONG

'A brilliant book. The religious order, although it still exists, has now largely disappeared from the historical record. In the seventeenth century it was a powerful intellectual force in a world in turmoil. It pioneered new methods of schooling but for all its outward piety, it was also wrenched by a series of scandals involving child sex abuse and heresy. For centuries the Church has covered up the dark side of the order's history. Until now. In Fallen Order Karen Liebreich has unearthed these events from the archives and she has told the story of the rise and fall of this group of priests with scholarly precision and enormous verve. Fallen Order is great history, as compelling as a detective story.'--ANTHONY PAGDEN, Professor of History, University of California.

Reviewed by wyvernfriend on

4 of 5 stars

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A fine example of there being nothing new under the sun.

Karen Liebreich is one of those people who finds something interesting and decides that it really needs further digging, rather like many historians I know. In this she doccuments her finding of a Renaisance Child-Abuse Scandal involving a teaching order. It shows how trying to keep appearances caused the information to be suppressed and the people who did evil to prosper due to connections and low cunning.

It's the last chapter that really strikes home the lesson, when she ennumerates some of the child-abuse scandals that have errupted, and where the response to these abuses have been to cover things up and move the priests out of "harms way" or to promote them in order to try to try to keep them away from temptation.

It's a sad indictement of the system and the problem, that it's been going on for years is a sad truth, that it hasn't been deal with is a sadder truth.

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  • Started reading
  • 29 July, 2009: Finished reading
  • 29 July, 2009: Reviewed