Pope and Emperor | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 20, 1872

Pope and Emperor.

The conflict which, in consequence of the proclamation of Papal Infallibility, has arisen between the Pope of Rome and the Imperial Government of Germany, now threatens to assume dimensions which may make it ere long one of the great events of the nineteenth century. Until the convocation of the Vatican Council, the Catholic Church had been on so good terms with the Prussian Government that the bishops themselves, in their reports to the Pope, and in their official publications, did not hesitate to recognize the friendly sentiments of their Government. These relations could not be expected to continue when the Vatican Council declared the Pope to be infallible, and thus reasserted the claims of the mediæval popes to an absolute superiority over all the secular governments of the world. Although even now it proceeded with great caution and moderation, the government deemed it a duty to resist all efforts of the hierarchy to carry out its schemes.

The protection of Old Catholic priests and professors against the bishops, the introduction of liberal school laws, and expulsion of the Jesuits, were among the first measures adopted to this end. They filled the ultramontane party in and out of Germany with rage. The papers of the party threatened a defection of the whole Catholic population in the case of another foreign war; the bishops, in collective addresses to the Emperor, complained of the new persecution of the Church. But all this was only a prelude. Now the Pope himself has spoken. In a speech made to the deputies of a German reading society, which had an audience with him, he expressed his sorrow that the first minister of a powerful government, after victorious successes in the field, had placed himself at the head of the persecution; but he (the Pope) had notified him that a triumph without moderation is of no duration, and that a triumph which engages in a war against truth and the Church is the greatest delusion. Soon, however, His Holiness predicted that a little stone would be let loose from on high, which would shatter the feet of the colossus bent upon persecuting the Church. It was these last words which produced a sensation throughout Europe. They were generally understood as an open declaration of war against Prince Bismarck or the German Empire, and as a call upon all Catholics in the world to co-operate for their destruction. When the advisers of the Pope perceived the fatal impression which the Papal speech had produced, they hastened to put upon it, as they have done so often on other occasions, a milder construction, declaring that by the colossus to be destroyed the Pope understood the system of modern liberalism. This construction is too tortured to meet with ready acceptance; and it is remarkable that even the organs of several German bishops do not withhold their disapproval of the overbearing imprudence of the Papal language.

In Berlin, the Imperial Government is fully satisfied as to the hostile intentions of the Pope and his intimate counsellors, and the official and semi-official papers declare that the gauntlet so defiantly thrown down will be taken up. What the plan of campaign will be is not yet fully disclosed; but already have diplomatic relations with the Papal Court been interrupted, and the Government shows itself fully determined to check the unfounded claims of the Pope and the bishops over the State and society. In this war, Bismarck has the unanimous support of all the parties in Germany, except the ultramontane. It is felt on all sides that the conflict is assuming a character which makes the conclusion of a definitive peace utterly impossible, and which can only end by the complete destruction of the one or the other of the two belligerents. Rome has again, and now more explicitly than ever before, shown that she never will cease her endeavors to crush out every non-Catholic form of religion; and the German Government and the German people appear to have now at last become fully aware that patronage and support given to Rome furnish to the Church of Rome new weapons. All in Germany, except the ultramontanes, view the coming conflict as a continuation of the great struggle of the Middle Ages between Pope and Emperor. Then Gregory VII. and his followers made the first great attack to destroy the independence of every form of secular government; and the brunt of the battles was for many centuries borne by the emperors of Germany, then the most powerful rulers of the Christian world. Though Germany no longer enjoys the same prominence among the civilized nations, it is the first Power to take up the war which Rome intends sooner or later to carry on against every nation of the globe. We need not point to the interest which every Christian country must feel in the issue of the contest. If, contrary to the general expectation, Rome should be able to coerce the German Government into a humiliating truce, she will more than ever be regarded as a dangerous foe, and we may expect on her part, in every country, a bolder aggressive policy against modern civilization. If, on the other hand, the German Government succeeds in annihilating the strength of the ultramontane party, it will undoubtedly be the severest blow to the Roman pretensions since the days of Luther.

Bismarck has the reputation that when he prepares in earnest for war, he examines more the efficiency than the morality of his plans. So it may be that he will have recourse to some measures that will not meet the approval of all those who cordially wish him complete success. Thus, if Prussia, as is reported, is busily at work to secure, in the case of the death of Pius IX., the election of a liberal successor, she will probably find it necessary to adopt measures of more than doubtful morality, and may forfeit the sympathy of many who now look upon her as the banner-bearer in one of the most important conflicts of the world's history. At all events, every new phase of this war will be watched all over the world with intense interest.—The Methodist.