The Footprints of the Jesuits

by Richard W. Thompson

It would be hard, if not impossible, for a liberal mind to find fault with these propositions. They were so generally accepted as fair that any comment upon them is unnecessary. They encountered no objection—except from those who preferred that the pope should remain an absolute temporal monarch, with full power to make and unmake all the laws—to a constitutional government representing the people. They were made by a Roman Catholic king, representing and speaking for several millions of Roman Catholic people, and, besides being in a conciliatory and kindly spirit, bore upon their face conclusive evidence of sincerity. If they had been accepted by the pope, the true faith of the Church would have been untouched, and the pope in the full possession of all his rightful and necessary spiritual powers. The Church, in fact, would have been brought back to its primitive condition before the fall of the Roman Empire. But Pius IX, instead of reciprocating the generosity of the king, mourned over the "deep sorrow," which filled his "life with bitterness," and, at the same time, treated the propositions of the king with intense scorn. He was then the first pope, in all the long history of the Church, who had been allowed authoritatively to avow his own personal infallibility. He had convened the celebrated Council of the Vatican, in which, but a few weeks before, the Jesuits had succeeded in having him declared infallible by the passage of a decree dictated by himself, and secured by the suppression of debate, against the protest of a number of bishops, including several from the United States.[188] Having obtained this victory over the liberalism of the Church, and thus thrown himself completely into the arms of the Jesuits, and preferring an alliance with them to union with millions of Roman Catholics who favored a constitutional government, he made it impossible to take a single step towards conciliation, or to carry on even an amicable discussion with the king. He manifestly felt as if no human power had the right to demand or to expect conciliation or discussion from an infallible pope. The Council had affirmed his universal sovereignty, and had encouraged him in the belief that he possessed the power of omnipotence, so that those who refused obedience to him were under the curse of God. The time for debate, therefore, had passed with him, and no longer were thoughts of peace and conciliation to be entertained. Consequently, he is represented by a friendly pen as having, with an air of imperial majesty, broken off the official interview with the envoy of Victor Emmanuel, by expressing "the full measure of his scorn and indignation" in these expressive words: "In the name of Jesus Christ, I tell you that you are all whited sepulchers!"[189]

There was nothing then left for Victor Emmanuel but to advance his troops, and take possession of the city of Rome, in the name of the new kingdom of Italy. He delayed no longer. After crossing the frontier of the papal territory, his army engaged in several skirmishes with the Zouaves of the pope, but met with no serious resistance. On the 20th of September, 1870, orders were given to attack the city. Two breaches were soon opened in the walls, and as the victorious Italians entered, the papal troops retreated, and Pius IX took refuge in the castle of St. Angelo as a fugitive from the city where, but a short time before, a decree of his personal infallibility had been forced through a packed Council by such methods as no other body of men in the world would have submitted to, and to which it is not likely they would have submitted but for the influences of the Jesuits. The pope having fled and made himself a voluntary prisoner in the castle of St. Angelo, the remaining duties pertaining to the papal Government devolved upon Cardinal Antonelli, who still called himself Secretary of State. This consisted of a formal and puerile protest in the name of the fugitive pope, wherein he declared that nothing done by the kingdom of Italy had conveyed any rights whatsoever against the dominion and possession of the pope, and that the pope "both knows his rights, and intends to conserve them intact, and re-enter at the proper time into their actual possession." All that can be said of this is, that, whilst practically it was mere unmeaning bravado, it fully set forth the policy and purposes of Pius IX, by which he expected, with the aid of the two hundred millions of Roman Catholics in the world, to destroy the new Italian Government, and bring the people again under papal dominion. Strange fatuity, made the more strange by the fact that these announcements proceeded from the first pope whose personal infallibility had been approved by conciliar decree!

The possession of Rome and the flight of the pope made it necessary to put in operation the machinery of the new Government. Accordingly, a temporary Government was formed and provision made for taking the vote of the whole population to decide whether or no the people were for or against the "unification of Italy." At this vote an overwhelming majority decided in favor of the new Government—thus indicating that even if the people had hitherto been persuaded to believe that the kingship of the pope had been of Divine creation, they had become enlightened enough to understand that Providence had permitted it to continue long enough; and that as it had succeeded in separating the Western from the Eastern Christians, and splitting the whole into rival and warring factions, the time had been reached when, by a new dispensation, the spiritual department of the Church should be purified by stripping the pope of his imperial authority and enlarging the sphere of his spiritual functions and duties. Realizing that God governs the world in all things by his providences, and casting their eyes over the nations to see where the largest degree of prosperity and happiness prevailed, they were awakened to the conviction that, as these had been produced where Church and State were separated, the Divine wisdom had been displayed by pointing out to them a like measure of relief from their existing grievances. Taught by their own instincts to believe that the shifting dispensations of God's providences were only so many methods of exhibiting his sovereign power, and that as he had permitted their forefathers and themselves to bear the burden of the papal temporal power for centuries, it was natural for them to conclude that he had at least indicated to them the duty of exchanging it for that liberty and intellectual development which free constitutional governments had assured to other peoples as the means of making them happier and more prosperous—better able to appreciate and discharge the duties which pertain to citizenship as well as to Christian life. God had tolerated their misfortunes only in the sense in which he has permitted slavery to exist; but they could not be persuaded to believe that he intended longer to perpetuate them by his providences, any more than can the people of this country consent that the former existence of slavery here overthrew the fundamental truth set forth in our Declaration of Independence, that the inalienable right to freedom and civil equality is derived from the natural law.

A very large majority of the aggregate vote cast in the provinces having been in favor of the new Government—the negative vote having been less than two thousand—it became necessary to adjust the future relations between the Church and the State so that they could exist harmoniously together, each in full possession of its proper functions. Accordingly, the pope and all the papal authorities were notified that the utmost liberality would be displayed toward the Church, and that there would be no interference with it whatsoever except the abolition of the pope's temporal power, and such provisions in regard to temporal affairs as that rendered necessary. It is only necessary to observe the leading provisions made by the new Government to show their liberality and to demonstrate the folly of their rejection; and to realize how much the Church has lost by the unwise and infatuated policy of Pius IX, it is sufficient to observe that there is no Government existing in the world to-day from which the same conciliatory terms could be obtained. Not all of them could have been obtained, even then, from any other but a Roman Catholic population.

The policy of the new Government was set forth as follows: The pope was to be left entirely free to exercise all his spiritual rights as before; he was to continue to possess "the prerogatives of a sovereign prince," and his court was to be provided for with that view; he was to be secured "a territorial immunity," limited, of course, within bounds to be defined, wherein he should be free and independent of the State; all the prelates, cardinals, archbishops, bishops, and those in ecclesiastical orders, who should be summoned to Rome by the pope, were to enjoy immunity from civil interference; the pope was to be permitted to communicate with foreign powers and the Church throughout the world, and to have special postal and telegraphic service at his command; all the representatives of foreign powers at the court of the pope were to enjoy perfect liberty; freedom of publication and communication were assured; the pope was guaranteed "full liberty to travel at all times, and at all seasons, in and out of the country," and was to be treated and honored as "a foreign lay sovereign" throughout Italy; his "royal appanage" and the members of his court were to be furnished by the new Government, which should also pay the debts of the pontifical States; and the liberties of the Church and the spiritual independence of the pope were to be fully and amply guaranteed.[190]

These fair and liberal provisions had reference only to the changed relations produced by the abolition of the temporal power. They involved a purely political question, except as it had been made politico-religious by the doctrine of the Jesuits, which Pius IX had adopted, to the effect that it was a necessary part of the faith of the Church that the pope should be a temporal monarch. The Roman Catholic population of Italy having rejected this doctrine, and demanded the expulsion of the Jesuits because they taught it, these provisions were the result of their desire to leave Pius IX in the full possession and enjoyment of all his spiritual powers. It was intended by them to provide merely for the new condition of affairs, and to recognize the kingdom of Italy as an accomplished fact, neither to be controverted nor changed. Victor Emmanuel, as a firm and consistent Roman Catholic, was not disposed to do anything less, and his obligations to the Italian people would not allow him to do more. But Pius IX, still continuing to sorrow over the destruction of the "old régime," and clinging to the Jesuit idea that God was offended because he had lost his temporal crown, refused to be reconciled. Bemoaning the incompetency of the people to decide what was right and what was wrong in affairs of government, and the inevitable ruin which he imagined would follow their attempt to be governed without a pope-king, he again hurled his fiercest anathemas at the new Government, and at the heads of all who had aided in its creation. And having done this, the controversy was brought to an end, leaving it well understood that Church and State had been finally separated in Italy by a Roman Catholic population, and that Pius IX would not be reconciled to the loss of his temporal sovereignty which that separation occasioned, or to anything short of his restoration to absolute royal power. There were other acts necessary to complete the entire drama, but these would draw us off into fields crowded with a multitude of combatants. We are now concerned only with the conflict about the temporal power, and the bearing of that power upon the right of the Italian people to have a voice in the construction of the Government, and the passage of such laws as their own welfare required. That was the only issue between the Italians and the papacy—between Victor Emmanuel and Pius IX. If the latter had adhered to the convictions of his own mind when he first introduced measures of reform, and had followed the kindly dictates of his own heart, many heartburnings and bickerings might have been avoided, and the Church might have escaped a serious and staggering blow. The contestants upon both sides were attached to the Church, its history, its traditions, and its faith. A calm discussion between them as to what it had or had not taught with regard to the temporal power, would have made it clear that it did not involve any essential article of the Christian creed, and they might thus have been led to see that, as this power did not exist in the apostolic and primitive times, there could not rightfully exist in the changed condition of the world anything to render it absolutely necessary to the existence and growth of Christianity in the present age. But when Pius IX suffered his mind to be impressed by the teachings and doctrines of the Jesuits, and allowed them to mold his pontifical policy, passionate declamation took the place of calm discussion, and made reconciliation impossible.

And now, when those most devoted to the Church look back upon this conflict, and realize upon what a multitude of their Christian brethren the papal anathemas are still resting, because of their refusal to assent to a dogma of faith which strikes at the foundation of free constitutional government, they can not fail to observe that, whilst the blow has fallen heavily upon the Church, the Jesuits alone have achieved a triumph. They laid the foundation of this triumph by extorting from Pius IX—at a time when his unsuspicious nature was easily imposed upon—his celebrated Encyclical and Syllabus, whereby he declared that freedom of speech, of conscience, and of the press were errors which the Church could not tolerate; that the Church must be the sole judge of its own jurisdiction, and possess the power of coercing obedience within the circle it shall assign to itself; and that it never can become reconciled to, or agree with, the "progress, liberalism, and civilization" of the present age. By this he placed a barrier between the papacy and all the leading modern nations, which the Jesuits are striving hard to overleap, but can not; but which can only be broken down by that Christian charity which ennobles the nature of its possessor, and teaches that God has implanted in the hearts of mankind a spirit of brotherhood which no creeds or dogmas or ceremonies should be permitted to extinguish.

But Pius IX added to his sufferings by the pretense of hardships that were not real. He was allowed to return to Rome unmolested, and to take up his residence again in the Vatican. He called himself a prisoner, and induced others to do so, thereby setting an example his successor has imitated. But he was not a prisoner, except when he, of his own accord, shut himself up in the castle of St. Angelo. He was, up till the close of his life, free to go wheresoever and when he pleased. There was no restraint imposed upon his actions. No indignity to his spiritual office or to his person was allowed. He could open and close the doors of the Vatican at his own pleasure, and admit or exclude whomsoever he pleased. He enjoyed the utmost liberty of speech and of writing, and bestowed praise or censure at discretion. But instead of enjoying the real liberty guaranteed to him by the laws of the Government upon which his pontifical curse was resting, he wore his life away by useless complaining, and by sending forth additional anathemas, which indicated only that his vanity was ungratified and his ambition disappointed. He died at last, not broken-hearted—for he was always a spiritual sovereign—but with the melancholy consciousness that his pontifical arm had become too feeble to bear up the temporal scepter which many of his predecessors had grasped so tightly. It would be hard to write his life well and faithfully; it was so impulsive, varied, and feverish. His purposes were honest, his affections sincere, his generosity unbounded, his nature kindly and sympathetic; but he was as powerless to drive back the storm that beat upon the papacy, as a seaman is to check the speed of the winds when the storm is raging. And now that he has appeared before the final Judge, who is infallible, it might be appropriately engraved upon his tomb that he was a good priest but a poor and incompetent statesman.

FOOTNOTES:

[185] Appleton's Ann. Cyclo., 1866, p. 674. "The pope had lost all his bygone sympathy for the popular cause, and was only too willing to secure his restoration to the Vatican by the aid of an Austrian occupation of the Romagna, and of a French siege of Rome." (Life of Victor Emmanuel. By Dicey. Page 118.)