The Pope as a Subject

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 3, 1871

The Pope as a Subject.

For several weeks, the city of Rome and the remainder of the papal territory have been a part of the kingdom of Italy; and the pope, for more than a thousand years one of the sovereigns of Europe, has become the subject of a secular prince. One must have read the history of the proud and overbearing pontiffs of the middle ages, who not only claimed to be vicars of Christ upon earth, but to have full power over all emperors and kings of the world, in order to fully perceive the immense difference between the position which Gregory VII. and Innocent III. occupied, and the one in which Pius IX. finds himself.

Nothing connected with the end of the temporal powers impresses the attentive observer so much as the apparently-total absence of a papal party in the annexed States. Poland has been subjected to Russia for about one hundred years; and even to this day, the Poles, almost to a man, demand their sovereignty, and are only waiting for a favorable opportunity to rise again for their independence. Northern Schleswig persists in sending Danish representatives to the German Parliament, and their ballots defy the power the bullets of which have just proved so formidable to one of the greatest nations of Europe. Don Carlos and Isabella of Spain, and even the ex-King of Naples, have their parties, which are willing to remain loyal to them, and risk, for their cause, property, and even life. But where is now the pope's party in the late papal States? When the Italian army marched upon Rome, the entire population of the invaded territory remained passive and indifferent spectators; and when, after the occupation, an opportunity was offered to the annexed people, for the first time, to express their own wishes, they cast an almost unanimous vote for the ratification of their union with Italy.

Even the pope's adherents cannot deny that there is a total absence of all signs from which the existence of a strong party still devoted to the interests of the pope could be inferred. This remarkable fact admits of only a twofold explanation—either the immense majority of the people were, as it appears, really opposed to the pope's temporal rule, and hailed the annexation to Italy as a deliverance from a hated yoke, or they were totally indifferent, and did not deem the pope's cause worth making the least sacrifice for. In either case, the pope's hold on his former subjects will be noted in history for its unparalleled weakness.

In view of this readiness of the Romans to abandon the cause of their former ruler, it may appear strange that the Italian government appears as anxious to reconcile the pope to his fate, and that it is so far ahead of the majority of the Italian Parliament, and, as it seems, of the Italian people, in its readiness to make far-reaching concessions. All the official declarations of the Italian government since the annexation breathe this spirit; and the recent speech from the throne speaks out this sentiment, even more strongly than any other public document. A semi-sovereignty is to be found for the pope, which will secure to him an entire independence as head of the Roman Catholic Church, and make him and the world, if possible, forget that he has become a citizen of Italy.

This strange conduct is very commonly ascribed to the personal feelings of the present king, who is believed, if not in his morality, at least in his fears of future punishment, to be a professor of the doctrines of his church, and therefore to be anxious to get rid of the ex-communication which he has incurred by dispossessing the pope of the patrimony of St. Peter. The supposition is by no means improbable, though we think there are other reasons determining the conduct of both the king and the Italian statesmen in this cause. One of these reasons we believe to be the doubt of the Italian statesmen as to the present strength of the Catholic religion in the hearts of the Italian people. The temporal rule of the pope and the priests is hated, and one might suppose that, as even the Œcumenical Councils declare that no good Catholic dare, in any way, aid in the overthrow of the temporal power, the Catholic church would be now as weak in Rome as the cause of the pope. Such, however, is not the case. Inconsistent as it may be, there are millions of Catholics who form an entirely different conception of their church from that of the popes and the Council, and who are willing to honor, as the head of the church, him whom they are glad to see dethroned as a secular prince. This feeling prevails to a large extent throughout the Catholic countries, and it is not the statesmen of Italy alone who regard it as necessary to make concessions to it.

Another reason for the conduct of the Italian Government may be found in the natural demand of all governments of large countries which have a Catholic population, for guarantees that the head of a church to which millions of their subjects belong, be not influenced in his decisions by the Italian Government. Then this demand might lead to serious complications, which the Italian Government, especially for the present, wishes to avoid.

For a considerable portion of the Italian people, the conciliatory spirit of the Italian Government will do much to accustom them to the new state of things. When the new relation of the papacy to the modern state shall once have become a fixed and unalterable principle of society, its full significance must become apparent, even to the dullest eye; for however smooth the transition may be made, the condition of the pope as a subject is in itself the radical reverse of the form of society which in the middle ages was declared by all the popes to be the true one, and according to which all powers of the earth, civil no less than ecclesiastical, were to be subjects of the pope.—Methodist.