I respect G.K. Chesterton and a lot of his writings, essays, and the like. But I am not well learned on his arguments for why he rejected the Anglican church for the RCC, saying it was a 'pale imitation' of Rome. Do you think his arguments in favor of choosing RCC had any merit? Why exactly did he choose to join the Roman church?
It seems to me that in the 1920s the Roman Church was on the very cusp of being counter-cultural. The long exile from the Papal City States had hardened the resolve of the Pontiffs, bishops, and priests, to make a mighty impressive edifice that seemed to firmly stand up against Modernity. At just the same time the Anglican Provinces were in the after-wake of the genteel Victorian morality where a calm demeanor was valued above the cross and the faith. This was not yet the liberal moment we are suffering under now, but it was also a pale shadow of the militant Anglican Church as it had been previously, or is beginning again to be now. Chesterton, Belloc, and others who sought to rebuke Modernity saw in Rome of the time the ideal adoptive mother. They could not foresee that the pious legends around Rome's stability were just Victorian mythology, and in a few decades Rome would follow the Anglican path into decline and fall in her faithfulness. Today I believe that Chesterton would not choose Rome; he would be either a sedevacantist (a radical RC'er), or a traditionalist Anglican.