Bismarck and the Pope

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 10, 1874

Bismarck and the Pope.

In an article on this subject, The Methodist, of Feb. 14, 1874, thus speaks:—

The German contest with the Roman Catholic ecclesiastics has been falsely colored to the public mind by the papers and speakers treating it as a conflict of opinion, as a contest of the civil power with a religious body, as a war upon the rights of conscience. It is nothing of the kind. If in one sense the Roman Catholic church is a religious body, it is most distinctly and in a more important sense a political organization, of unlimited ambition, and totally unscrupulous as to its means. It is, in fact, a ring, aiming at universal control. It does not undervalue its spiritual authority, but makes it a means to an end—the support and extension of its temporal influence.

The pope has been in his day the supreme temporal sovereign of the world. He has dictated who should be first in Europe. He has claimed and received the homage of the rulers of nearly every State on the continent. He has set up kings and put them down. He has made an emperor of Germany undergo penance and do him personal service. Bismarck remembers this, and is determined that it shall not happen again. He believes, no doubt, that the pope looks regretfully back to the old times when he exercised these autocratic prerogatives, and would be glad to have them restored if he could. The promulgation of the dogma of infallibility, and the acts done in pursuance of it, are of a character to strengthen such an opinion. *

The Roman Catholic church has proved an element of political mischief and a stirrer up of disloyalty in every country in which it has obtained a foothold. From the earliest times, it has been its custom to release from their allegiance the subjects of those kings who would not obey its behests; and it would enforce such releases by excommunication and interdict. To-day, it sets up the Carlists against order and liberty in Spain, and intrigues to destroy the French Republic. Bismarck’s measures are mild and constitutional acts to those which have been inflicted by contemporary Roman Catholic governments. Italy has taken from the church millions of property. Mexico has confiscated the religious orders. Brazil is enforcing measures of personal prosecution and arrest of offending bishops precisely similar to those which Germany has hesitatingly adopted against Archbishop Ledochowsky.

It is frequently said that our country is free from the danger of such difficulties as afflict others, because church and State are separate here. The remark is as fallacious as were the boasts of the old Fourth of July orations. The Roman Catholics accept the disseverance of church and State because it is a temporary advantage to them, and they will use it; when they think it is time, they will call for something else. Already politicians consult their wishes and pay deference to them, while they habitually disregard Protestant sentiment. They have for years intrigued against our common schools. They had, only three years ago, advanced so far toward being supported by the public in this city that they were commonly referred to as “our established church.” Their priests grow bolder in uttering their claims, their press becomes every day more insolent. If they ever feel that they have strength enough, they will attempt to deal with us as they have dealt with others, and our politicians may be weak enough to permit them. Happy will we be if we always escape such conflicts as vex Germany and Italy and Brazil.