p. 438 | Gone to Canossa by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 22, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 28.

Gone to Canossa.

By Editor

LAST winter, under the heading of "Going to Canossa," we inserted the following:—

"In 1075, A. D., Pope Gregory VII. took it upon himself to interfere in the affairs of State of Germany. It was determined that any ecclesiastic who should accept office from the hands of a layman should be deposed, while the secular lord who should presume to bestow investiture, should be excommunicated. Henry IV. resisted the pope's pretensions, and so was brought on the war of investitures, and the memorable contest between Hildebrand and Henry. Henry first deposed the pope, and then was in turn deposed by the pope; then he went to Canossa, and, in the garb of a supplicant, stood three days and nights in the wintry blast, awaiting the pleasure of Hildebrand to receive his submission.

"In 1872, a similar contest arose between the German Chancellor Bismarck and Pope Pius IX. The contention went on quite bitterly; but in 1873, Prince Bismarck declared, 'We will not go to Canossa.'

"In 1885, a dispute sprang up, which, for a while, threatened war between Germany and Spain. To get out of the difficulty, Bismarck sought the mediation of the pope, and selected him as arbiter in the controversy. This so tickled the pope that he conferred upon the Chancellor the 'Decoration of the Order of Christ.' And that so pleased Prince Bismarck that his gratitude found vent in a remarkable letter to the pope."

And we then expressed the opinion that Bismarck was going to Canossa, but we had no idea then that we should so soon be called upon to report that he has actually gone on that historical journey. At that time we had not a copy of this notable letter, but only a press dispatch report of it. Now, however, by the Catholic papers, which by the way are exulting loudly over it, we have the letter in full. We here insert the most striking paragraphs of it:—

"BERLIN, Jan. 13. "SIRE: The gracious letter which your Holiness did me the honor to write to me, as well as the high decoration with which it was accompanied, has been to me the cause of great joy, and I beg your Holiness to accept the expressions of my deep gratitude. Any mark of approval connected with a labor undertaken for the sake of peace, and toward which I had been privileged to co-operate, is all the more precious to me that it gives deep satisfaction to His Majesty, my august master.

"Your Holiness says in your letter that nothing is more in conformity with the spirit and the nature of the Roman Pontificate than the work of peace-making. This same thought it was that guided me when I besought your Holiness to accept the noble trust of mediation in the dispute existing between Spain and Germany, and in proposing to the Spanish Government that we should, on both sides, agree to the decision given by your Holiness. . . . There is, therefore, every reason to hope that the peace-making action of your Holiness will have lasting effects, and among these I reckon, before all, the grateful memory which both parties must cherish of their august mediator.

"In so far as I am concerned, I shall always seize—and with the greatest eagerness—every occasion offered me in the fulfillment of my duty toward my master and my country to manifest toward your Holiness my deep gratitude and my most humble devotion.

"I am, with the feeling of the deepest respect, Sire, your Holiness's most humble servant, "V. BISMARCK."

This is the translation of the letter which Father O'Reilly sent from Rome to the New York Sun. With it he also sent quite a long letter of his own, giving the view in which the transaction is held by

what he calls "the most thoughtful journalists" of Europe, and especially by the Papacy itself. From Father O'Reilly's letter we select the following significant paragraphs:—

"The truth is that the most thoughtful journalists in Great Britain and on the continent have agreed to consider the act of Spain and Germany as a direct recognition of the pope's sovereignty, while the extraordinary promptness with which Leo solved the difficulty and cut off all chance of war between the two countries, as well as the uncommon tact displayed in finding a basis of agreement acceptable to both, has revived a public opinion favorable to the restoration of the old-time mediatorship of the Holy See."

"Bismarck, in his answer to the pope's letter, has deviated from all previous customs, and instead of beginning his letter with 'Most Holy Father,' he says 'Sire,' thus designedly and of set purpose addressing him as king, as he would his own sovereign, the Emperor of Germany. Of course this will be another bitter pill for the Piedmontese rulers of Rome to swallow; in the Italian press it will be like a bomb falling into a powder magazine. It was confidently affirmed here that the insignia of the Order of Christ sent by Leo XIII. to the German Chancellor would be returned, as the Emperor would not grant the latter permission to wear them, and as the pope, not being a temporal sovereign, had no acknowledged right either to found such an order or to confer its honors. But the decrees of the Emperor William granting the desired permission and granting it in the most honorary manner, soon set these doubts at rest. The German Empire recognizes Leo XIII. both as pope and king, and therefore as sovereign.

"All this is very important in international law; for the time must come, and is coming, when the Papacy will be formally acknowledged as the international institution par excellence, and when both its sovereignty (temporal and spiritual), and the means necessary to secure its exercise, will be once more placed solemnly under the safeguard of all nations.

"Leo XIII., like Pius IX., may die restricted in his physical liberty to the Vatican and its garden; but the Papacy does not die. . . . The Papacy has buried many empires, kingdoms, and republics; it will outlive those now in existence."

But this acknowledgment of the sovereignty of the pope is not all of the story. The principal act of Germany in the contest of 1872 was, under the guidance of Bismarck, to pass what are known as the May Laws. "By these laws it was required that candidates for the clerical office should undergo a certain amount of secular training at the universities, and that every ecclesiastical appointment should receive the sanction of the secular authorities." This legislation was denounced, and pronounced invalid, by the pope, and was disregarded by the Catholic bishops. Bismarck "imposed penalty after penalty in order to establish the supremacy of the State. Refractory bishops were imprisoned, deposed, and banished." It was in the midst of these heroic measures that Bismarck exclaimed, "We will not go to Canossa."

But lo! following hard upon the lead struck in his letter to the pope, the doughty Bismarck introduced into the German Parliament the "Prussian Ecclesiastical Laws Amendment Bill," which provides for the revision of the May Laws in such a way as in fact to amount to nothing less than their actual repeal. Nor was the Chancellor content with the mere introduction of the bill; but he never rested, nor gave the Parliament any rest, till he had pushed it to a successful issue, even carrying his energy to the extent of leading the Chamber to depart from the usage generally followed in dealing with important bills, and rushed it through the three readings without ever referring it to a committee.

In the debate on the bill, Bismarck "avowed that in his opinion, the whole system involved in the May Laws was useless, and, in many ways, mischievous." He assured the Chamber that the pope is "a venerable, wise, and good man, very friendly to Germany, much better disposed to forward the true interests of Germany than some of the politicians in the Prussian Diet and the Reichstag." He declared that he did "not see any use in maintaining the May Laws." He said he "sincerely wished for a reconciliation; so did the king, his master; so did all sensible people;" and that he had "unbounded confidence in the honor of the pope" that he would faithfully fulfill all his part of the conditions. He said that under the provisions of this bill the Prussian Government would go on with the work which they had commenced, and set about "a thorough revision of the May legislation." And to make the thing perfectly satisfactory to the pope, he actually proposed to submit the matter to him beforehand, and then work according to his orders. He said they would "submit their views to the pope," because "his final approval would be indispensable for success;" and so they had "better have his approval at the outset, and save time and discussion."

And this is the "Iron Chancellor"! This is the man who would not go to Canossa! It seems to us that the "iron" part of the Chancellor has become very malleable, and it is certain that V. Bismarck has gone to Canossa. If Henry IV. cut any more humiliating figure in the eleventh century than has Bismarck in the nineteenth, we should like for some one to show it, for as for ourselves, we fail to see it.