--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: I could not understand why these…" description: "\"“I could not understand why these romancers never took the trouble to find out a few elementary facts about the thing they denounced. The facts might e..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2de/g-k-chesterton-224_anti-catholicism_i-could-not-understand-why-these-romance_251020.jpg" --- # I could not understand why these romancers never took the… ![“I could not understand why these romancers never took the trouble to find out a few elementary facts about the thing they denounced. The facts might easily have helped the denunciation, where the fictions discredited it. There were any number of real Catholic doctrines I should then have thought…” quote by G.K. Chesterton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2de/g-k-chesterton-224_anti-catholicism_i-could-not-understand-why-these-romance_251020.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2de/g-k-chesterton-224_anti-catholicism_i-could-not-understand-why-these-romance_251020.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2de/g-k-chesterton-224_anti-catholicism_i-could-not-understand-why-these-romance_251020.jpg) > ““I could not understand why these romancers never took the trouble to find out a few elementary facts about the thing they denounced. The facts might easily have helped the denunciation, where the fictions discredited it. There were any number of real Catholic doctrines I should then have thought disgraceful to the Church. There are any number which I can still easily imagine being made to look disgraceful to the Church. But the enemies of the Church never found these real rocks of offence. They never looked for them. They never looked for anything. They seemed to have simply made up out of their own heads a number of phrases, such as a Scarlet Woman of deficient intellect might be supposed to launch on the world; and left it at that. Boundless freedom reigned; it was not treated as if it were a question of fact at all. A priest might say anything about the Faith; because a Protestant might say anything about the priest. These novels were padded with pronouncements like this one, for instance, which I happen to remember: "Disobeying a priest is the one sin for which there is no absolution. We term it a reserved case." Now obviously a man writing like that is simply imagining what might exist; it has never occurred to him to go and ask if it does exist. He has heard the phrase "a reserved case" and considers, in a poetic reverie, what he shall make it mean. He does not go and ask the nearest priest what it does mean. He does not look it up in an encyclopedia or any ordinary work of reference. There is no doubt about the fact that it simply means a case reserved for ecclesiastical superiors and not to be settled finally by the priest. That may be a fact to be denounced; but anyhow it is a fact. But the man much prefers to denounce his own fancy. Any manual would tell him that there is no sin "for which there is no absolution"; not disobeying the priest; not assassinating the Pope. It would be easy to find out these facts and quite easy to base a Protestant invective upon them. It puzzled me very much, even at that early stage, to imagine why people bringing controversial charges against a powerful and prominent institution should thus neglect to test their own case, and should draw in this random way on their own imagination. It did not make me any more inclined to be a Catholic; in those days the very idea of such a thing would have seemed crazy. But it did save me from swallowing all the solid and solemn assertion about what Jesuits said and did. I did not accept quite so completely as others the well-ascertained and widely accepted fact that "Roman Catholics may do anything for the good of the Church"; because I had already learned to smile at equally accepted truths like "Disobeying a priest is the one sin for which there is no absolution." I never dreamed that the Roman religion was true; but I knew that its accusers, for some reason or other, were curiously inaccurate.”” [G.K. Chesterton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/g-k-chesterton/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Criticizes religious critics for attacking without understanding facts, emphasizing the need for informed critique. **In simple terms:** Critics often attack without knowing the truth. Key Takeaway Research before condemning. Themes religion critique knowledge truth argumentation Mood thoughtful serious Type philosophical analytical When to use this quote - Religious debate - academic writing - public discourse Key Concepts Epistemology theology critical thinking Questions to Reflect On - What facts are often ignored in debates? - How can we ensure critiques are well‑founded? A Different Perspective Overemphasis on doctrine can blind critics to nuance. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Anti-catholicism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/anti-catholicism-9330/) [Catholicism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/catholicism/) [Denunciation Fictions](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/denunciation-fictions-2497479/) [Disobeying Priest](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/disobeying-priest-2497478/) [Fact Denounced](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/fact-denounced-2497481/) [Inclined Catholic](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/inclined-catholic-2497480/) [Priest Say](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/priest-say-2290535/) [Propaganda](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/propaganda/) ## Related quotes > [“Does the reader realise the despair that falls upon the hapless Catholic journalist at such moments; or how wild a prayer he may well…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/g-k-chesterton/does-the-reader-realise-the-despair-that-falls-upon-the-hapless/) [G.K. 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They seemed to have simply made up out of their own heads a number of phrases, such as a Scarlet Woman of deficient intellect might be supposed to launch on the world; and left it at that. Boundless freedom reigned; it was not treated as if it were a question of fact at all. A priest might say anything about the Faith; because a Protestant might say anything about the priest. These novels were padded with pronouncements like this one, for instance, which I happen to remember: \"Disobeying a priest is the one sin for which there is no absolution. We term it a reserved case.\" Now obviously a man writing like that is simply imagining what might exist; it has never occurred to him to go and ask if it does exist. He has heard the phrase \"a reserved case\" and considers, in a poetic reverie, what he shall make it mean. He does not go and ask the nearest priest what it does mean. He does not look it up in an encyclopedia or any ordinary work of reference. There is no doubt about the fact that it simply means a case reserved for ecclesiastical superiors and not to be settled finally by the priest. That may be a fact to be denounced; but anyhow it is a fact. But the man much prefers to denounce his own fancy. Any manual would tell him that there is no sin \"for which there is no absolution\"; not disobeying the priest; not assassinating the Pope. It would be easy to find out these facts and quite easy to base a Protestant invective upon them. It puzzled me very much, even at that early stage, to imagine why people bringing controversial charges against a powerful and prominent institution should thus neglect to test their own case, and should draw in this random way on their own imagination. It did not make me any more inclined to be a Catholic; in those days the very idea of such a thing would have seemed crazy. But it did save me from swallowing all the solid and solemn assertion about what Jesuits said and did. 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