With the facts of the past, and the principles of the present which are to be the plastic forces of the future, before him, a calm and wide-minded observer, taking long stretches of time and great varieties of circumstance to illustrate any hypothesis and to test any conclusion, might form an estimate whichwould not be without a properly scientific value. We are often told by one class of writers that Roman Catholics are as good subjects as Protestants, and by another that in proportion to their numbers they yield a much greater amount of illiteracy, of turbulence, of pauperism, and of offences against the law. These are points which statesmen have no right to leave to theologians, and on which they have no right to remain themselves in doubt. Above all, they have no right if not in doubt about them, but if they have on sufficient grounds a clear opinion, to keep that opinion back, or to cloud it by ambiguities. Both in England and in America there are intelligent and loyal men who believe that they are more burdened and that public law and order are less well observed in proportion as priests have power over any section of the population. These are questions of fact capable of a scientific solution, and it is the duty of statesmen scientifically to solve them. If the authorities, which are clearly natural and Christian, clearly both divine and human, are undermined where priests do not rule and are built up where they do, let statesmen tell mankind that it is so. If the unnatural, the merely artificial authority of the priest is proved, on a test of ages, of various races, and of various polities, to be unfriendly rather than helpful to the stability and vigour of lawful authority, then let all incumbents of that authority—kings, presidents, nobles, lawgivers, magistrates, parents, and husbands—lift up a clear voice, the voice of intelligent conviction, and tell all men how the matter stands. "The sword of the mouth" is the only sword which ought to be drawn in this war; and if they to whom God has given real authority draw that sword against the spurious authority of the priest, it will prevent the call which otherwise will surely come to draw a feebler sword but a bloody one. Priestcraft, mighty against artifice, subtle against force, invincible against compromise and subterfuge, is strangely weak against a calm and Christian denial of its authority.
Long since this chapter was written, we find that the Italian journals while noting the base immorality which week by week is brought to light among the priests, and pointing totheir multitude and the low repute of many of them as a moral plague, now (1877) fasten upon them even more than of wont charges of exciting anarchical conspiracies. TheEmancipatore Cattolico, the organ of what is called the Italian National Catholic Church, formed by the priests who belonged to the Society for the Emancipation and Mutual Aid of the Clergy, writes as follows—
TheredInternational, in appearance with a different end and program, but in reality in full accord with itsblacksister, after the stimulus from the Vatican sets itself in motion, and lifts up its head.... We ask, Has the alliance of this double International a probability of success in a future nearer or more remote? We do not hesitate to reply affirmatively if the powers and States in the two hemispheres do not agree rather to overthrow theblackinternational which is the true and efficient cause of the other, than theredwhich is the effect.... Christian governments of Europe, open your eyes! the international that truly menaces you, and that will undo you if you are not wise, is that of the Vatican. You accept it and smile upon it because you suppose it to be the conservator and champion of order and authority; but the order and the authority which it represents and champions are those of the absorption of all the social powers into the despotic and arbitrary will of a miserable mortal who believes himself to be God, and who as such imposes himself upon the entire universe.[493]
TheredInternational, in appearance with a different end and program, but in reality in full accord with itsblacksister, after the stimulus from the Vatican sets itself in motion, and lifts up its head.... We ask, Has the alliance of this double International a probability of success in a future nearer or more remote? We do not hesitate to reply affirmatively if the powers and States in the two hemispheres do not agree rather to overthrow theblackinternational which is the true and efficient cause of the other, than theredwhich is the effect.... Christian governments of Europe, open your eyes! the international that truly menaces you, and that will undo you if you are not wise, is that of the Vatican. You accept it and smile upon it because you suppose it to be the conservator and champion of order and authority; but the order and the authority which it represents and champions are those of the absorption of all the social powers into the despotic and arbitrary will of a miserable mortal who believes himself to be God, and who as such imposes himself upon the entire universe.[493]
While these last sheets have been passing through the press, events have occurred which illustrate many of the hints contained in this chapter. Many who, when we first began to write this work, would have seen nothing "practical" in that solemn hint of Vitelleschi when, speaking of the frequent occurrence of disturbances at the same time when the Church is pressing some point upon a government, he says that the circumstance is an organic phenomenon deserving of the most serious attention, now begin to feel that it is scarcely rational any longer to be insensible to facts which day after day rise into the view of Europe.
In March 1877, Pius IX delivered a carefully-prepared Allocution, full of bitter attacks on Italy, and manifestly intended to raise once more the Roman Question. A feverish agitation becoming speedily discernible in different countries, none could help noting the coincidence of the two events. In Italy broke out an attempt at insurrection in Benevento, professedly by socialists, but as the Italian papers believed fomented and directed by priests. This was speedily followed by a vote of the Italian Senate, by which that body threw out a Bill, that had been passed by the Lower House, for restraining ministers of religion, of all denominations, from certain abuses of their office. Italian journals of different shades intimated their impression that this event was solely due to the direct action of the Pope upon the king, and of the king upon a number of courtier senators.
Shortly afterwards the Prime Minister of France, M. Jules Simon, explained in debate, with all propriety of language, that the popular idea about the Pope being a prisoner was unfounded. The Pope, in that characteristic style which has never risen to the level even of municipal, much less of national public life, stated that a certain government had said that the Pope was a liar; and as if to rehabilitate any one who might have been so impertinent, he added that he did not know what government it was! Soon afterwards, on May 16, 1877, M. Simon was abruptly dismissed by Marshal MacMahon, and the Assembly, of which a majority supported M. Simon, was silenced by an enforced adjournment. This pale edition of acoup d'étatwas hailed and claimed by the clerical papers as a direct result of the interference of the Pope. Its ill effects in France forced upon many the reflection, how enviable is the lot of nations in which the influence of the Pontiff is feeble, and how well would it be with any nation in which that influence should benil!
Strange does it seem that the prophets of reconstruction should for encouragement point more frequently to France and England than to any other countries. To France they look for military service, to England for religious converts. The one is to glorify the Church by a sacred war, the other by an edifying submission. In France they count upon the schoolmasters, the army, the ancient aristocracy, and many of the politicians. In England they count upon that portion of the clergy which they call the Puseyite party, upon a portion of the aristocracy, upon the ceremonies in the churches, and the teaching in the denominational schools. Grossly exaggerating, as they do, the position and the influence of Cardinal Manning, and speaking at times as if the whole English hierarchy, unable to face him, were trembling and falling down before him, they also exaggerate the strides actually made by the Ritualistic party in carrying the whole nation towards submission to Rome. They boast, in the language of Dr. Newman, that the English Church is, through that party, "doing our work;"[494]and they always seem to have taken to heart the principle which he taught them as long ago as 1841: "Only through the English Church can you act upon the English nation."[495]They are not much read in our political literature, and when they meddle with it, often make strange blunders. But some of them are shrewdly aware of the services done to their cause by writers who treat Ritualism as a matter of aesthetics, and treat each particular ceremony as a trifle.
Looking back on the turns and windings of the movement for reconstruction, and remembering how little human foresight would have availed to predict either their successive phases or the results up to the present hour, it is natural to feel that as to those further turns and windings which as yet lie out of ken, hidden behind the veil of an inscrutable Providence, it is not for us presumptuously to divine. Rather would we, in humble hope, await the future, so far as to us it may be permitted to witness its unfolding. In the sixty years since the peace of Vienna the Papacy has passed through two distinct stages, of thirty years each; the one up to the beginning of the present pontificate, the other during the course of it. In the first thirty years the flag displayed was that of Liberal Catholicism. During that time the Papacy gained emancipation in England and Ireland, a footing in the schools of Franceand Belgium, a repute of liberality and other great advantages; while on the whole it held its ground in Italy, Spain, Austria, and the minor States. But a true instinct taught the Curia that temporary gain was preparing final ruin. Since 1849 the policy has been reversed, and the external results to the Papacy so far have been disadvantageous. "Catholic unity" has been lost in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Mexico, Brazil, and elsewhere. In Poland the losses to the Church have been immense, whether they may be due to the persecuting policy of Russia, as the Catholic party alleges, or to the rebellious excitements of the Pope and the priests, as others allege, or to both these causes united, as seems most probable. In Switzerland and Germany the Papacy has had heavy loss, and its future is gloomy. In France it has made immense gains; in Ireland heavy loss; in England gain, and that of the kind it values most—gain by the help of the clergy, of the aristocracy, and of a great university. But still, while the population of the United Kingdom has much increased, Pius IX cannot count among the thirty millions now inhabiting it so many Roman Catholics as he found among, say, five millions less. He has to note a decrease in Poland concurrently with persecution, and one in the British Isles concurrently with extended political privileges. The Curia, if not unconscious of these losses, never confesses to them, and avers that the increased compactness gained by recent changes far more than compensates for any increased opposition, and in fact insures the overthrow of all resisting forces; while the submission of England—Queen, bishops, lords, and people—is spoken of as a thing nigh at hand to the eye of faith. Firmly, however, do we believe that in mercy to this great empire, within which dwells in peace and with ample privileges a portion of mankind larger than ever before under one sceptre enjoyed the blessings of free government, and in mercy also to the whole redeemed race in the midst of which this empire holds a place so influential and on the whole so beneficent, never will England justify the promises of submission to the Pope wherewith continental priests are wont to cheer the courage of their partisans, albeit they proudlypoint to men in important places, and boast how the triumph of the Vatican is being prepared under the patronage of both Church and State.
All this notwithstanding, we do not believe that the English commons are to be reduced into a populace without constitutional representation; or that the English aristocracy is to be reduced into an order of nobles without constitutional powers; or that our magistracy, from squire up to chancellor, is to be put under the bishops' courts; or that our chairs of philosophy, science, and literature are to be placed under the tutelage of chairs of theology filled by Jesuits, or by men of whom Jesuits approve; or that our universities are to be placed under Romish canon law; or that the priest, to the exclusion of the State and of the laity, is to be made as completely moral lord of all the schools in England as he is now of his denominational schools; or that the works of our authors are to wait till a Dominican has cut out what he deems amiss, and has written on the remainderImprimatur; or that our printers are to wait for a licence from the friars; or that our journals and periodicals are to be cut down to the proportions which were allowed to the Press in the Model State; or that our armies are to be composed of men so schooled that to them the word of the priest shall take the lawful command out of the lips of the king. No more do we believe that from these English shores the dear old English Bible is to be driven away as a forbidden book. Neither do we believe that for these fair fields of Britain that dark Saturday night is to come after which will no more dawn the English Sunday morning—a morning when streets thronged and country lanes enlivened with families wending their way to worship God, each as led by the voice of conscience, and each jealous for the religious liberty of its neighbours as well as for its own, present a more Christian-like and more solid display of unity in variety, and of catholicity in charity, than ever can be gained by any preciseness of constrained uniformity. Never will our own happy Sunday morning cease to shine; never instead of it will a dismal day come when the sound of the church-going bell shall be the signal of physical force, andwhen every one whose conscience will not let him obey the official call shall be spied out by the familiars of the Inquisition.
When priests tell Englishmen that such things as are here indicated are not really embraced within the ultimate objects of their movement, they well know that they can deceive only those who have not sought out their principles at the fountain. And under all their illusions, they must surely have some consciousness that such as have done so can feel but shame and pity when they see any man, born to the blessings of English citizenship, sinking to a moral level at which he becomes capable of attempting to move the noble power of Britain to abet the crime of once more imposing by fire and sword upon Italy the domination of the Pontiff; and who, indeed, even to that can add the second crime of endeavouring to throw back the families of this goodly realm to the same condition as that in which the people of the Papal States lay before their yoke was broken. These things would be mournful, but no more than mournful, did the guilt of them rest only upon one English soul in which still survived a clear consciousness of how repugnant they were to religion and to morals, how offensive to humanity, how subversive of good order; for when conscience still spoke, repentance might be at hand. But such things become more than sad, they become really formidable, when conscience itself is so warped that it learns to acquit them of all guilt—learns even to regard them as actions in which the violence and bloodshed proposed are sanctioned by religion, and become works of Christian merit; and in which the changes contemplated would, if indeed hurtful to nations in things temporal, be for their eternal weal.
In this land of manifold privilege hereafter, as in the time gone by, yea, more than in the time gone by, will the people fear God, honour the king, and prize the family Bible. They will hereafter, more than heretofore, send forth into every region under heaven their happy sons, bearing the glorious gospel of the blessed God, and with swift feet running to tell to all men the way of salvation. In England, in Ireland, and in Scotland; in every place where our own blood flows in theveins of kinsmen; in every broad State of the Transatlantic Union; in every thriving colony that boasts the British name—may the Churches dwell together in unity—may the people grow in wisdom, in virtue, and in faith! May this realm hereafter afford an example of laws being evermore ameliorated under the leavening influence of the kingdom which cannot be moved, of manners ever becoming purer, and of blest contentment growing, year after year, in households over every one of which shall hover the more than earthly charm of domestic bliss, hallowed at the family altar! And may the remote descendants of Victoria and Albert reign, in the love of God and in the love of man, as Christian princes over a happy Christian people, and age after age may the throne be established in righteousness!
God Save the Queen!
FOOTNOTES:[485]SeeCiviltáVIII. i. 46.[486]Quoted inLe Concile du Vat. et le Mouvement Infaillibiliste, p. 62.[487]Civiltá Cattolica, passim, especially the number of December 16, 1876.[488]VIII. i. 421.[489]Italian papers sometimes give the total number of journals on the Continent pledged to the Pope as 580, and of these 258 as published in Germany alone.[490]Revolution und Kirche, p. 5.[491]At the last moment of reviewing this chapter, before sending it to press, months after it was written, we find Italian and French journals ringing with language ascribed to a Bishop in a pastoral, which may pass as an example of the work which the officials styled bishops are preparing for Europe. He describes his entrance into the Vatican, his finding the Swiss guards and the manners of another age, and proceeds: "Pius IX is still a king, even in the eyes of his enemies and of his spoilers. They are obliged to admit that the unity of Italy is not effected, that the temporal power is to be re-established, and that after someprofound commotions which, it may be, will entomb many an army and many a crown, there will be heard among the nations, from one end of Europe to the other, a single cry, Restore Rome to its ancient lords; Rome belongs to the Pope, Rome belongs to God."[492]Discorsi, ii. p. 70. The capitals to the "divine pronouns" are not ours.[493]L'Emancipatore Cattolico: Napoli, Anno XVI, No. 14.[494]Apologia, Appendix, p. 27.[495]Ibid., p. 313.
FOOTNOTES:
[485]SeeCiviltáVIII. i. 46.
[485]SeeCiviltáVIII. i. 46.
[486]Quoted inLe Concile du Vat. et le Mouvement Infaillibiliste, p. 62.
[486]Quoted inLe Concile du Vat. et le Mouvement Infaillibiliste, p. 62.
[487]Civiltá Cattolica, passim, especially the number of December 16, 1876.
[487]Civiltá Cattolica, passim, especially the number of December 16, 1876.
[488]VIII. i. 421.
[488]VIII. i. 421.
[489]Italian papers sometimes give the total number of journals on the Continent pledged to the Pope as 580, and of these 258 as published in Germany alone.
[489]Italian papers sometimes give the total number of journals on the Continent pledged to the Pope as 580, and of these 258 as published in Germany alone.
[490]Revolution und Kirche, p. 5.
[490]Revolution und Kirche, p. 5.
[491]At the last moment of reviewing this chapter, before sending it to press, months after it was written, we find Italian and French journals ringing with language ascribed to a Bishop in a pastoral, which may pass as an example of the work which the officials styled bishops are preparing for Europe. He describes his entrance into the Vatican, his finding the Swiss guards and the manners of another age, and proceeds: "Pius IX is still a king, even in the eyes of his enemies and of his spoilers. They are obliged to admit that the unity of Italy is not effected, that the temporal power is to be re-established, and that after someprofound commotions which, it may be, will entomb many an army and many a crown, there will be heard among the nations, from one end of Europe to the other, a single cry, Restore Rome to its ancient lords; Rome belongs to the Pope, Rome belongs to God."
[491]At the last moment of reviewing this chapter, before sending it to press, months after it was written, we find Italian and French journals ringing with language ascribed to a Bishop in a pastoral, which may pass as an example of the work which the officials styled bishops are preparing for Europe. He describes his entrance into the Vatican, his finding the Swiss guards and the manners of another age, and proceeds: "Pius IX is still a king, even in the eyes of his enemies and of his spoilers. They are obliged to admit that the unity of Italy is not effected, that the temporal power is to be re-established, and that after someprofound commotions which, it may be, will entomb many an army and many a crown, there will be heard among the nations, from one end of Europe to the other, a single cry, Restore Rome to its ancient lords; Rome belongs to the Pope, Rome belongs to God."
[492]Discorsi, ii. p. 70. The capitals to the "divine pronouns" are not ours.
[492]Discorsi, ii. p. 70. The capitals to the "divine pronouns" are not ours.
[493]L'Emancipatore Cattolico: Napoli, Anno XVI, No. 14.
[493]L'Emancipatore Cattolico: Napoli, Anno XVI, No. 14.
[494]Apologia, Appendix, p. 27.
[494]Apologia, Appendix, p. 27.
[495]Ibid., p. 313.
[495]Ibid., p. 313.
APPENDIX A
THE SYLLABUS WITH THE COUNTER PROPOSITIONS OF SCHRADER
By reading the latter in the right-hand column the view which the Church asserts is at once obtained