Unholy Smoke & Fire: Austria v Italy

SMOKE

BEGINNING WITH CARDINAL MANNING'S PRONOUNCEMENT ON THE 'ONE SOLUTION' TO THE 'DIFFICULTY' OF THE POPE'S LOSS OF HIS TEMPORAL POWER:

'There is only one solution of the difficulty, a solution, I fear impending, and that is, the terrible scourge of Continental war, a war which will exceed the horrors of any of the wars of the first Empire. And it is my firm conviction that, in spite of all obstacles, the Vicar of Jesus Christ will be put again in his own rightful place. But that day will not be until his adversaries will have crushed each other with mutual destruction.' (The Tablet, January 24, 1874).

Later the same year of Manning's pronouncement, W. E. Gladstone wrote the following in Appendix C to his Vatican Decrees:

'Compare the recent and ominous forecasting of the future European policy of the British Crown in an Article from a Romish Periodical for the current month, which has direct relation to these matters, and which has every appearance of proceeding from authority.

'“Surely in any European complication, such as may any day arise, nay, such as must ere long arise, from the natural gravitation of the forces, which are for the moment kept in check and truce by the necessity of preparation for their inevitable collision, it may very well be that the future prosperity of England may be staked in the struggle, and that the side which she may take may be determined, not either by justice or interest, but by a passionate resolve to keep up the Italian Kingdom at any hazard.” - The 'Month' for November, 1874: 'Mr. Gladstone's Durham Letter,' p. 265.'

(From: The Vatican Decrees In Their Bearing on Civil Allegiance: A Political Expostulation, by the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M.P.; published London: John Murray, Albemarle Street, 1874; p. 32).

Some years later, reflecting on Cardinal Manning's pronouncement, the Rev. Hugh Price Hughes, Editor of the Methodist Times, gave the following insight into his utterance - in the issue of August 6th, 1896, he wrote:

'I was simply horrified at the calmness with which he declared that he would be willing to deluge the whole of Europe with blood in order to destroy the unity of Italy and recover the temporal power of the Pope. He also expressed a conviction that the German Empire was very insecure, and would probably be shattered in the course of the great war which he prophesied would destroy both the unity of Germany and the unity of Italy, in order to restore the Pope to the throne of Rome.'

(As cited in the Protestant Truth Society publication: Is Rome behind the War? by J. A. Kensit, 1918; p. 13).

And in his The Papal Conquest (1909) the Rev. Alexander Robertson, D.D., recounted the following:

'Some few years ago, here in Venice, I had much pleasant intercourse with Dr. Andrew D. White of Cornell University, and late Ambassador at Berlin of the United States of America. Speaking together one day of the Hague Conference of 1899, at which he sat as President of the American Delegation, he told me the following incident. The Conference had finished its work, and he was bidding farewell to the “House in the Wood,” when he found at its door, in a towering passion, a leading Roman Catholic diplomat who represented one of the great Catholic Powers. Dr. White said to him : “Step into my carriage, and drive home with me to dinner and unburden your mind.” He did so. The cause of his wrath was as follows :–

'When the Conference was being arranged for, the Pope claimed, as the world knows, to be represented at it, not only as a temporal sovereign, but as the world's great peace-maker, the representative on earth of the Prince of Peace. He moved heaven and earth to enforce his claim; but of course it was rejected without discussion, as the very idea of such a thing was out of the question. Had it been entertained, Italy would have refused to enter the Conference, and England, and probably other powers, would have done the same; hence the Conference would necessarily have been given up. However, at the closing meeting of the Conference, as Dr. White said, “to the amazement of all, and almost to the stupefaction of many,” M. de Staal, the representative of the Netherlands, handed a paper to the Secretary to read. It turned out to be a letter from his Queen to the Pope, in which she indicated that it was not the fault of her Government that he was not represented at the Conference. The paper also contained the Pope's reply, in which he magnified his office as the world's peace-maker, and reiterated his incontestable right as such to be represented. It was the Pope's letter with its mendacious statements and preposterous claims that roused the anger of this Roman Catholic Delegate, who, once seated in the carriage, delivered himself as follows (and now I am quoting, not from memory, but from Dr. White's Autobiography which he has just sent me) :–

'“The Vatican has always been, and is to-day, a storm-centre. The Pope and his advisers have never hesitated to urge on war, no matter how bloody, when the slightest of their ordinary worldly purposes could be served by it. The great religious wars of Europe were entirely stirred up and egged on by them; and, as everybody knows, the Pope did everything to prevent the signing of the treaty of Münster, which put an end to the dreadful Thirty Years' War, even going so far as to declare the oaths taken by the plenipotentiaries at that Congress of no effect. All through the Middle Ages and at the Renaissance period the Popes kept Italy in turmoil and bloodshed for their own family and territorial advantages, and they kept all Europe in turmoil, for two centuries after the Reformation—in fact, just as long as they could—in the wars of religion. They did everything they could to stir up the war between Austria and Prussia in 1866, thinking that Austria, a Catholic power, was sure to win; and then everything possible to stir up the war of France against Prussia in 1870, in order to accomplish the same purpose of checking German Protestantism; and now they are doing all they can to arouse hatred, even to deluge Italy in blood, in the vain attempt to recover the Temporal Power, though they must know that they could not hold it for any length of time even if they should obtain it. . . . Their whole policy is based on stirring up hatred and promoting conflicts from which they hope to draw worldly advantage. In view of all this, one stands amazed at the cool statements of the Vatican letter.”' [Autobiography of Dr. D. White, vol. ii. pp. 349-351 (The Papal Conquest, pp. 313-316).]

FIRE

CONCLUDING WITH COUNT CARLO SFORZA'S TESTIMONY AS TO THE REALITY OF THE INTRIGUE:

'Leo XIII . . . dreamed of the destruction of Italian unity which, he thought, should be dissolved into a federation of little Italian republics under the presidency of the Pope. He dreamed of a departure from Rome [and establishing himself in his “cara Salisburgo” – his dear Salzburg – awaiting the crusade of the Catholic powers] followed by a triumphal return after a victorious war waged by Austria-Hungary against Italy – an idea that Francis Joseph had the good sense to reject. . . .

'Italy and the world remained long in ignorance of these intrigues; in fact, they became known only in 1919 when, through an initiative that I myself undertook [whilst Undersecretary of State for Foreign Affairs], republican Austria consented to open to us the archives of the Empire for all sorts of historical researches.'

(From: Contemporary Italy: Its Intellectual and Moral Origins; Count Carlo Sforza; Frederick Muller Ltd., London, 1946; p. 69).

* * * * * *

The following is from Chapter XV of the same work, where Count Sforza recounts the realities of Italy's 'FOREIGN POLICY':

'Italy being engaged in a war with Turkey in 1911, Conrad, the Austro-Hungarian Chief of Staff, put all his influence in Vienna to work in order to gain the old Emperor's consent for a “preventive war” against Italy. Aerenthal did not hesitate to define Conrad's projects “a policy of brigandage,” and Francis Joseph sided with his Minister of Foreign Affairs. Conrad resigned, but continued to preach his great plan among his close friends.

'In the course of his recriminations, Conrad added that Austria should have seized a former opportunity that chance had offered her against Italy, that is, the tragic days of the Messina earthquake. Conrad's intimates and his protector, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, have on several occasions admitted it.

'Conrad's ideas must have appeared to the initiated not far from realization, since the German Ambassador at Rome at that time dared send the Consulta this communication: that it was well understood that in the event of an Austro-Hungarian war with Italy, Germany would remain neutral, the treaty of the Triple Alliance being mute on that hypothesis!

'Proof of the hardiness of myths agreeable to a nation's vanity, these facts, historically certain, have not prevented and will not prevent sentimental German writers from continuing to cast doubts on Italy's loyalty during the period of the Triple Alliance. The truth is that the meticulous study of the diplomatic documents of the period will only demonstrate that if in that mariage de raison which was the Triple Alliance there were thoughts and acts of dubious fidelity, they were chiefly on the side of Germany and Austria-Hungary. The fact is explicable when one recalls that, as regards Italy, the treaty had no positive aims but was entered into for negative reasons. Italy understood that she could not live under the constant menace of a neighbour who detested her by tradition and necessity. (Did we not represent that principle of nationality so hated in Vienna?) Italy felt in her very flesh the spear point of the Trentino, the menace of that powerful and malevolent neighbour; she knew she could expect no protection of law in the anarchic Europe of the post-1878 period; she could only accept an alliance. At least she gained by it the neutralization of any eventual temporal plot of the Vatican which might become dangerous in case of a return to power of the French Right parties.' (ibid. p. 86).

* * * * * * *

ENVOI:

From The Papal Conquest (1909):

'Austria, like the Roman Catholic Church, is Italy's “Eternal Enemy.” ... Her whole policy, especially during recent years, has been one of provocation, and almost of unconcealed hostility. She has made military roads, built forts, and mined bridges, wherever her frontier is contiguous with that of Italy. When Italy was prostrated by the great earthquake disasters in Sicily and Calabria, and every civilized nation in the world was tendering sympathy and help, the Vienna papers said : “See how generous we are not to profit by this opportunity to make war”; and they boasted that the Emperor was with them in entertaining the idea. I have another cartoon, which represents the Pope and the Emperor Francis Joseph rubbing their hands over the catastrophe, the Pope saying : “Serves Italy right, she took from you Lombardy and Venetia,” and the Emperor replying : “Serves Italy right, she took from you the Temporal Power.” Pasolini never spake truer words than when he said that “Italy will always side with the enemies of Austria,” and that “the alliance of France, England, and Italy is the strongest guarantee for civilization, and the freedom of the world.” [Guiseppe Pasolini Memorie Racolte da suo Figlio, pp. 328, 332.] The Vatican looks to the Government of Austria, its bond-servant, to restore the Temporal Power; but, as we have already said, England blocks the way. Austria cannot move in the matter, either to regain Venetia and Lombardy, or to help the Pope to the Temporal Power, until England is humiliated. The Pope and the Church must first find a power to attempt this, find a power that will dare to make war upon England. And a serious war it will be. The Roman Catholic writer in The Month knew that when he said : “It may very well be that the future prosperity of England may be staked in the struggle.”

'Well the world knows – it has again and again been declared – that the Pope and the Church have found such a power in Germany, and that in the person of the Kaiser they have found the very man to inspire and lead the nation in this enterprise. Amongst his [the Kaiser's] great and varied talents, his boundless ambition and self-confidence which would lead him to undertake almost anything, he possesses, in quite a phenomenal degree, these two qualifications for the task – hatred of England and love of the Pope. I believe he stands unique amongst the rulers of the world in this respect; and it is the more strange it should be so, seeing he [the Kaiser] professes to be a Christian and a Protestant. Yet that he possesses, or rather, is possessed by, these two passions [hatred of England and love of the Pope], there can, I think, be no doubt.

'The Pope, as I have already had occasion to say, feels very much at home in the company of Venetians, and talks freely to them on most subjects. In this way the Kaiser and his strange doings form not infrequently a topic of conversation, or at least a subject of passing remark. Indeed, this can hardly be avoided, for his portrait is a prominent object in the Pope's rooms. Here it is on a table, there it hangs on a wall, yonder it is in an album; whilst on his breast, suspended on a massive gold chain, sparkles a magnificent cross, composed entirely of emeralds, a gift of the Kaiser to Leo XIII. When anyone noticing these things calls the Pope's attention to them, a smile of amusement lights up his face as he comes out with his favourite joke about the Kaiser, “Why, he is my best European friend!” The statement is a joke, and yet it is a literal truth. No Catholic fanatic in the world is more punctilious than he is in sending his homage and congratulations, and flattering speeches and presents to the Pope on his ever-recurring personal festivities, such as the anniversaries, the semi-jubilees and jubilees, actual or prospective, of the day on which he was born, or was christened, or became a priest, or began to climb the ecclesiastical ladder, or reached its summit and vaulted into the chair of St. Peter. . . . (pp. 322-324).

'The result of this unholy alliance, of this union in mutual love of each other and detestation of England, is that the Kaiser has become the willing instrument of the Pope and the Vatican for the humiliation of England, in order to [facilitate] the ultimate restoration of the Temporal Power. What Richard Bagot, the Roman Catholic novelist, wrote during the Boer War, in the number of the National Review for May 1900, holds equally true to-day, that “the whole campaign against England was due to the intrigues of the Vatican, which is working, as it has ever worked and ever will work, to promote and encompass the humiliation of England.” [The National Review, May, 1900.]

'Italy has long known that the Vatican has been egging on the German Emperor to invade England, and has for years warned us of our peril. She has done this with all the greater earnestness and persistency that she knows that her own turn will come next. She has told us that just as the naval and military preparations of Germany, carried on with such mad haste and to such an abnormal extent, are, in her opinion, directed against England : so the similar preparations carried on in the same spirit by Austria, are directed against herself ; and that, in the event of England's humiliation, Austria will at once, backed by Germany, attempt to recover Venetia and Lombardy; and then, as Dr. White's eminent Roman Catholic diplomat at the Hague said, Italy will be deluged in blood, in the attempt to restore the Temporal Power.

'I think that Great Britain is pretty well alive now to this peril against which Italy has warned us; and it would be an easy task for me to marshal facts in its support, to show, indeed, that the peril is very great and very near . . . Indeed, I have already written out these facts, but at the last moment I withhold them from a sense of the grave responsibility of publishing anything that might be construed as inciting to war. At the same time, there is less need that I should recount them, as many of them are now widely known, having been discussed in the British Parliament and in the public Press; and as Italy's interpretation of Germany's objective is very generally accepted by men of political complexions as the correct one.

'It has long been known in Italy, and Italy has warned England of the fact, that the original date fixed upon by the Pope and the Kaiser for the carrying out of their nefarious enterprise was 1911-1912. This date has been mentioned also several times in the British Parliament and in the Press. I am in possession of the reasons that led to the selection of this date. They are many and various, some touching Germany, others England, and Italy, and not a few having reference to the disaffected state of Ireland at our own doors, and of Ireland across the ocean. However, I do not intend here to enter further into them, all the more that the partial awakening of England to the danger of the situation has probably spoilt the project for so early a date as the one indicated.' (pp. 327-329).

* * * * * * *

A larger excerpt from The Papal Conquest can be found in the Archive for January 2010 on the World War Armageddon blog.

“Is Rome behind the War?” (1918)

(Above: cover of the booklet by J. A. Kensit, published by the Protestant Truth Society, 3 & 4 St. Paul's Churchyard, London, E.C.4)

'Lord Robert Montagu's statement [below] as to the political organisation of the Vatican should help Britons to realise the power arrayed against them. The following is the language of a statesman who had had long experience of Vatican diplomacy from within :–

“The Curia is a Cabinet of long standing and knowledge of affairs. It never 'goes out' by the action of an adverse majority in a representative Chamber. All have been carefully trained for their work; while from reports derived from priestly confessors all over the world, the best and most detailed knowledge of the characters and intentions of statesmen, and the passions of the people, are ready to their hand. The Vatican is the centre of all the information of the world; and every bishop has periodically to visit Rome in order that his inmost soul may be probed, and his continual reports may be tested. Such is the Cabinet with which Protestant statesmen hope on equal terms to cope.” – Recent Events, Section V.

'It was only when the noble Lord realised the tremendous anti-national plans of the Papacy that he severed his connection with the Roman Church, and he declared his conviction back in the year 1886 that there existed a well-laid plot whereby Britain should be “crushed under the Pope's feet.” Slowly and silently the Papal hopes have been maturing. Her tread has been cautious, for it has been well said –

“Rome is in adversity a lamb, on an equality a fox, and in supremacy a tiger.”

ROME'S ARMY IN BRITAIN.

'It is surely wise to guard ourselves against her claws. . . . As to the the purposes of Rome's religious army in England, the words of Cardinal Manning addressed to the Romish priesthood are explicit :–

“It is good to be here in England. It is yours, right reverend fathers, to subjugate and subdue, to bend and to break the will of an Imperial race. You have a good commission to fulfil and great is the prize for which you strive. England is the head of Protestantism, the centre of its movements, the stronghold of its powers. Weakened in England, it is paralysed everywhere; conquered in England, it is conquered throughout the world. Once overthrown here, it is but a war of detail. All the roads of the world meet in one point, and this point reached, the whole world is open to the Church's will.”–Sermons on Ecclesiæstical Subjects, Vol. I. pp.166-7.

'Such sentences force upon us the fact that we are faced not simply with the danger of “Deutschland über Alles,” but –“Rome over all.” In other words, the Papacy has not surrendered its mediæval claims.' (pp. 7-9)

* * * * * *

POPE HANKERING FOR A REBUILT THRONE.

'Manning in 1874 declared :–

“There is only one solution of the difficulty, a solution, I fear, impending, and that is the terrible scourge of Continental war, a war which will exceed the horrors of any of the wars of the First Empire. And it is my firm conviction that, in spite of all obstacles, the Vicar of Jesus Christ will be put again in his own rightful place. But that day will not be until his adversaries have crushed each other with mutual destruction.”–Thus spake Cardinal Manning in 1874 (vide Tablet, January 24th, 1874).

REMINISCENCES OF CARDINAL MANNING.

'So the Papacy would not wince even before the horrors of a Continent deluged in blood if thereby the Pope might regain his lost prestige and power. In confirmation of Manning's words, quoted above, we may set the following striking statement from the late Rev. Hugh Price Hughes, who as Editor of the Methodist Times, gave some [insight into them.]

'In the issue of August 6th, 1896, he says :–

“I was simply horrified at the calmness with which he declared that he would be willing to deluge the whole of Europe with blood in order to destroy the unity of Italy and recover the temporal power of the Pope. He also expressed a conviction that the German Empire was very insecure, and would probably be shattered in the course of the great war which he prophesied would destroy both the unity of Germany and the unity of Italy, in order to restore the Pope to the throne of Rome.”

'To realise the Papal workings on the continent a contrast as to the happenings in France and Germany should be of help. . . . [Whilst] France has receded from political Romanism . . . Germany has more and more come under its thumb.' (pp. 12-15)

THE LATE W. E. GLADSTONE AS WITNESS.

'Mr. Gladstone warned us that Rome would involve the Continent in terrible strife to accomplish her nefarious designs. In his Vatican Decrees – which all our statesmen should re-read and study–he says :–

“There is a fixed purpose among the secret inspires of Roman policy to pursue, by the road of force, upon the arrival of any favourable opportunity, the favourite project of re-erecting the terrestrial throne of the Popedom. . . . The existence at this day of the policy, even in bare idea, is itself a portentous evil. I do not hesitate to say that it is an incentive to general disturbance, a premium upon European wars.” –Vatican Decrees, p.50.

'Again he says :–

“I laid stress upon the charge of an intention on the part of Vaticanism to promote the restoration of the Temporal Sovereignty of the Pope on the first favourable opportunity by foreign arms.”–Rome: Newest Fashions in Religion, p. 118.

'In Vaticanism at p. 117 he adds :–

“I warn my countrymen against the velvet paw, and smooth and soft exterior of a system which is dangerous to the foundations of civil order.”

THE CONTINENT WATCHES THE PLOT MATURE.

'England, however, slumbered on whilst the Continent watched the plot being hatched. The Spanish journal, El Motin, published a cartoon on November 17th, 1910, depicting the triumph of the Pope's claim by a formidable procession of priests with swords bayonets – the armed force of which Mr. Gladstone had spoken.

'In keeping with this, Dr. Robertson wrote in his Papal Conquest – published in 1909 – five years before the war [see the post concerning this publication in the archive for January 12th 2010 on this blog] [that] :–

“Italy has long known that the Vatican has been egging on the German Emperor to invade England.”

'Dr. Robertson reproduced a cartoon from a newspaper published in Rome on February 7th, 1909, representing the Pope welcoming the Emperor of Austria and his army with the words, “Come on, come on, my sons, for thirty-nine years we have waited for you in Rome,” i.e., from 1870 to 1909, the date of the published cartoon.

'So Austria was to invade Italy, while Italy's oldest friend (and in 1849, when her first strivings for her present national unity began, her only friend) was to be beaten hip and thigh by Austria's partner, Germany. That was the campaign as seen in both Madrid and Rome five years before hostilities broke out !

[In light of the above, the following quote is taken from the historian Sidney Bradshaw Fay's work, Before Sarajevo: The Origins of the [First] World War , Vol 1, 1928:

'The most valuable to the historian of all the Austro-Hungarian memoirs is the voluminous work of the Austrian Chief of Staff, Baron Conrad von Hoetzendorf (entitled, Aus meiner Dienstzeit [My Years of Service], 5 vols.; published Vienna, 1921-25). It consists in large part of an undigested mass of important documents of all sorts, copies of which he evidently took from the official files and published in chronological order, with a commentary of his own. It also includes conversations in dialogue form which appear to be taken from a diary kept from day to day. With extraordinary frankness, he recounts the repeated efforts he made to have Austria make war on Italy [her supposed 'ally' in the Triple Alliance] or Serbia on what he regarded as numerous favourable occasions between 1906 and 1914.]

'But the warning fell on deaf ears ! John Bull would continue to sleep on – as L'Asino of 4th October, 1908, said –“in an illusion of strength.”

'Moreover, it is clear that Italy has been fighting in this war with one arm all but paralysed by Vatican influence. Mr. Bagot, himself a Roman Catholic, three years ago bore this witness as to the Curia :–

“There are but very few – I believe not half a dozen – of the Cardinals of the Curia who are not entirely pro-German and anti-British. The vast majority of the monsignori and the lay officials of the Papal Court are heart and soul with the cause of the Kaiser, and remarkable for their venom against both France and England.”–Fortnightly Review, May, 1915.' (pp. 15-17)

THE POPE'S LOST OPPORTUNITY

'But what concerns us most is the fact that [before the outbreak of the War] the Vatican never raised a little finger during those critical days [of the war crisis] in the interests of peace. At that moment the Papacy had its opportunity, for no one will dispute that the Emperor of Austria had always been the faithful ally of the Vatican. The Pope as a supposed apostle of peace had his opportunity and failed. The failure was doubtless intentional. At least here is the calm verdict of the Italian [publication] Secolo given in August, 1917 :–

“And if the Pope, who knew even before the world learnt it the horrible beginnings of this new history, had left the torpid cloisters of the Vatican and, trembling with indignation like Hildebrand, had gone to Vienna to stop or cut short the mad folly of Francis Joseph, to-day perhaps we should not be discussing the value of an uncertain proposal of peace. But the Vatican kept silent.”

'The days following the Sarajevo murders were occupied by all friends of peace in seeking to confine the discussion within the narrowest borders. No one can question that Sir Edward Grey did his part as the trusted representative of British policy. Prince Lichnowsky, German Ambassador in London, bears this testimony :–

“I hoped for salvation from an English mediation, because I knew that Sir Edward Grey's influence in Petrograd could be turned to use in favour of peace.”

'Our hands were clean. Britain never desired war. The Papal hands could not be raised, for they were not clean, and future historians will plainly see it.' (pp. 20-21)

[See the posting on this blog for November 6th 2010, 'Count Sforza, Pius X and 1914'; and also that for the 2nd of March 2010, entitled 'ARMAGEDDON: The Vatican Against Europe' for the - since revealed - true opinions of the Vatican in the events leading up to the outbreak of the First World War.]

* * * * * *

POPE versus BRITAIN.

'Rome's desire to crush Britain as a leading world Power has dominated her ambitions for many years. The Rt. Hon. Lord Robert Montagu, Privy Councillor and ex-Romanist, said :–

“It is the aim of the Papacy to weaken and to humble England; to dismember the Empire; to render her the prey to her enemies in a great Continental War.”–Recent Events. Published 1886.

'Cardinal Manning, as far back as 1859, made this utterance :–

“I shall not say too much if I say that we have to subjugate and subdue, to conquer and to rule an Imperial race, we have to do with a will which reigns throughout the world as the will of old Rome reigned once; we have to bend or break that will which Nations and Kingdoms have found invincible and inflexible.” –Tablet, August 6th, 1859.' (pp. 33-34)

“Daniel and The Revelation: The Chart of Prophecy and our Place in it” (1898)

'Our present position :– [is] near the close of the Sixth Vial period. (Revelation xvi. 15.)'

'When we read in Revelation xvi. 13, 14, of the Dragon, the Beast, and the False Prophet, as the prime agents in bringing about the final war of Armageddon, we cannot imagine three visible corporeal beings on earth, working to stir up the war by breathing frog-like spirits out of their mouths; but, consistently with the Historical method which we have followed, assigning a symbolical meaning to these strange symbolic figures which St. John saw again and again in his visions, we must understand that Satan, together with the Papal Power, and the body of the Romish Priesthood, the most complete organization in the world, will work by all the dark means which may then be at their disposal, in order to embroil the nations, as they have often done before, and as in our time they have endeavoured to stir up mischief in Ireland.' (ibid. p. 206-207).

'Some interesting information concerning the scheming ambition of the Papacy in the present [1898], and its power to embroil the nations in the future, is given in a remarkable article contributed to McClure's Magazine by M. de Blowitz, who from his experience and political insight is admitted to be an authority on such a matter. He Says : “To the Vatican flow innumerable missives from every corner of the world, and could I only tell some of them, it would seem how long still is the arm extending from the shadow of St. Peter's: how dreadful still are the lips that speak in the shade of the Vatican. I should show the Holy Father and his cardinals writing to the Emperor of Austria, directing him by counsel and advice, and sometimes almost by orders.”' (ibid. p. 215).

'[W]e read in Revelation xix. 19, where the coming of Christ to overthrow His enemies at this same crisis is described, “And I saw the beast, and the Kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat upon the horse and against his army,” we must not, of course, fall into the error of Futurist literalism, or imagine that this passage of Scripture means that one day Christ will be seen descending from the “heaven opened” sitting upon a white horse, with myriads of saints and angels also on white horses, and that two supernatural individuals, Antichrist or the Beast, and a False Prophet, are to lead an army with an array of modern artillery, and breech-loading rifles, and smokeless powder, in order to shoot down Christ and His heavenly followers. It must be obvious to a sober judgment that this passage is simply the record of a vision which St. John saw at Patmos; and a “mind that hath wisdom,” which is mentioned in the Revelation as a needful qualification for understanding these mysterious predictions, should seek to discern the prophetic meaning of the figures which St. John saw. We trust that the explanation which has been given is a consistent and reasonable interpretation. It shows us that this vision of Revelation xix. 19, etc., in which St. John beheld the symbolic figures of the Beast and the False Prophet leading kings and armies against Christ and His armies, was a symbolic prediction of the final crises of that GENERAL WAR OF NATIONS at the close of this dispensation. . . . It shows that the Powers symbolised by the Beast and the False Prophet, namely, the Papal Imperial Power and that body of the Romish Priesthood, will be chief agents in bringing about that war . . .' (ibid. p. 216-217; emphasis added).

'[T]he era of the sixth Vial, under which we are now living, does not simply include the judgment upon the Turkish Power, which is a lengthy preliminary, [from footnote: 'Mr. Gladstone, in a reply to an Armenian deputation, recently said : “I have lived to see the Empire of Turkey in Europe reduced to less than half of what it was when I was born, and why? Simply because of its misdeeds – a great record written against it by the hand of Almighty God.”] but it also includes that tremendous outpouring of judgment upon the world which will result from the disastrous agency of the “three unclean spirits” whose going forth under this Vial is next described.' (ibid. p. 365).

'We know that the Dragon means Satan; and we have shown . . . that the Beast, in accordance with the meaning of that symbol in Daniel signifies the Roman world-empire in its last form, the Papal form, as represented by the person of the Pope at the head of it; whilst the False Prophet, or second Beast of Revelation xiii., symbolises the corporate body of the Romish priesthood, the typical example of false and anti-Christian teaching, whose subserviency to the interests of the first Beast is mentioned as one of its chief characteristics.

'In accordance with the meaning of the sources from which the three unclean spirits or evil agencies go forth over the word, we cannot be far wrong in regarding the agencies themselves as – (1) the spirit of infidelity, that special weapon of Satan, with all that follows in its train, agnosticism, socialism, spiritualism, anarchy, etc.; (2) the spirit of Papal imperial and political ambition, which, in spite of the fall of the Temporal Power, will be active up to the very end, and allied, perhaps, with the revolutionary powers of socialism, will yet embroil the world; (3) the spirit of the superstitious teachings and influence of the Romish clergy – more especially of the Jesuit Order, “the power behind the Pope” – in support of priestcraft and Papal aims. These three agencies are quite sufficient to bring about that period of confusion, tribulation and judgment, that has yet to burst forth during the era of the sixth Vial, of which they are here said to be the chief instigators . . .

'Here let us ask whether the signs of the times in which we are now living do not corroborate this Historical interpretation, and whether they do not indicate to us just that point in the era of the sixth Vial which has already been reached at the present date. No one will deny that the pernicious spirit of infidelity has gone forth with alarming activity and subtlety in this latter half of the nineteenth century, and especially during the last ten years. Perverted intellectual power is Satan's strongest lever for overturning the foundations of faith, and for loosening the bonds of truth and morality by which society is held together. Attacks on the inspiration of the Bible, on the sanctity of the Sabbath, and on the most essential points of Christian belief, are openly made in the newspapers and magazines, in novels, and, more insidiously, even in the pages of professedly religious literature.

'Nor are the other two agencies less bold and active. Both on their political and ecclesiastical side, the schemes of the Papacy are being pushed forward with a marvellous degree of astuteness and audacity. The persistent aim of the Pope, fostered by the Jesuits, and backed up by his clergy all over the world, is the restoration of the Temporal Power, and of Papal supremacy. There is no saying how soon the prosecution of these schemes may bring about an embroilment of the nations. Thus all three of the evil agencies are abroad. The seed is being sown, and in due time the crop will appear.' (ibid. p. 368-369).

'Let us now review our position, and see how we stand with regard to the events which we have shown to be foretold as destined to take place during the era of the sixth Vial in which we are now living. The drying up of the Euphrates has long been going on: the power of Turkey has long been declining. Our statesmen tell us “The Sick Man is sicker than ever.” In our daily papers we read: “The Ottoman Empire exhibits all the signs of a state in dissolution.”. . . Those evil agencies symbolised by the three frog-like spirits, which are yet to embroil the world, have began to show signs of increased activity. No one can deny that there is in the minds of thinking men, whose eyes are open to see the signs of the times, a presentiment that a great crises is approaching in the history of our world. There ever lingers on the horizon the dark storm-cloud of the Eastern Question. Now and again it seems gathering to a head, and threatening to burst. But, as often happens in thundery weather, the storm is averted for a while. Yet there the cloud is still, waiting for the time fixed by God's eternal decree, and when that time comes the cloud of the Eastern Question will once more gather and come down, involving the nations in widespread calamity and destruction. There can be little doubt that in the crises of the end of this dispensation the Eastern Question will play its part.

'We have before given examples of the coincidence of political forecasts with the anticipations of prophetical students. It may be interesting here, in connection with the Historical interpretation of the events of the sixth Vial which we have placed before our readers, to give the following extract from a leading article in one of our chief daily papers. Which is only a sample of the political anticipations that are constantly appearing in the public prints. Referring to the question of active measures being taken by the Powers in order to check Turkey in her infamous course of exterminating Armenian Christians, this article says, in words that read like a commentary on this passage of the Revelation: “With the firing of the first shot the whole of the Eastern Question, the bugbear of the diplomatist, the terror of the politician, the insoluble problem of statesmanship, would be reopened with all its intricacy and its perils. Austria with her reversionary interests on the shores of the Black Sea and the Golden Horn; Greece with her perpetual hankering after Macedonia; Bulgaria, Servia [Serbia], and Roumania, with all the rash intolerance of young and treaty-made states; Russia with her naval ambitions at the Dardanelles; France with her desire to rival Great Britain as a Mediterranean Power; and England herself,with her one predominant aim of keeping the route open to her Indian possessions [a policy affecting the occupation of Egypt and Palestine] – such would be the elements of rivalry and animosity let loose over the prostrate body of 'the Sick Man of Europe.' It is terrible to contemplate such a turmoil even in imagination.”

'Here, therefore, we may recognise our present position in the sixth Vial. We see the storm-cloud on the Eastern horizon, and we know that it will one day gather overhead, and the drops will begin to fall. That day may be near at hand or it may be years hence, for diplomacy is doing its utmost to avert it. But diplomatists know full well that it must come sooner or later. No diplomacy can prevent that which is decreed in the counsels of Providence, and marked down in the chart of God's prophetic Word. We do not know what time will be occupied by the train of events that will then be set in motion. But the full consequences of this great storm that is brewing will not reach their climax till the final crisis of the seventh Vial . . .' (ibid. p. 370-371).

“The Papal Conquest” (1909)

THE

PAPAL CONQUEST

ITALY'S WARNING –

“WAKE UP, JOHN BULL!”

BY

REV. ALEXANDER ROBERTSON, D.D.

CAVALIERE OF THE ORDER OF ST. MAURICE

AND ST. LAZARUS, ITALY

Author of

“THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH IN ITALY”

“THE BIBLE OF ST. MARK” “VENETIAN SERMONS”

“FRA PAOLO SARPI” etc. etc.

“He that taketh warning shall deliver his soul.”–

Ezek. xxxiii. 5.

LONDON : MORGAN AND SCOTT LTD.

12, PATERNOSTER BUILDINGS, E.C.

MCMIX

[1909]

CHAPTER I

Conquest Determined Upon

'Mr. Gladstone did not think she [the Papacy] was an enemy to be despised when he wrote his first famous pamphlet, The Vatican Decrees : for he tells us in his second pamphlet, Vaticanism (called forth in its defence against his critics, Newman, Manning, and others), that his very object in writing it was to put England on her guard against the Roman Catholic Church. He says : “My object has been to produce, if possible, a temper of greater watchfulness; to promote the early and provident fear which, says Mr. Burke, is the mother of necessity; to distrust that lazy way of thought, which acknowledges no danger until it thunders at the doors; to warn my countrymen against the velvet paw, and smooth and soft exterior of a system which is dangerous to the foundations of civil order, and which any one of us may at any time encounter in his daily path.” [Vaticanism, by W.E. Gladstone, p. 117.]

'In his Introduction to this second pamphlet (Vaticanism), Mr. Gladstone says : “It is, in my opinion, an entire mistake to suppose that theories like those, of which Rome is the centre, are not operative on the thoughts and actions of men. An army of teachers, the largest and most compact in the world, is ever sedulously at work to bring them into practice. Within our own time they have most powerfully, as well as most injuriously, altered the spirit and feeling of the Roman Church at large; and it will be strange indeed if, having done so much in the last half century, they shall effect nothing in the next. I must avow, then, that I do not feel the same security for the future as for the present. . . . Nor can I overlook indications which lead to the belief that even in this country and at this time, the proceedings of Vaticanism threaten to be a source of some practical inconvenience. I am confident that if a system so radically bad is to be made or kept innocuous, the first condition for attaining such a result is that its movements should be carefully watched, and above all, that the bases on which they work should be faithfully and unflinchingly exposed.” [Vaticanism, by W.E. Gladstone, p. 16.]' (The Papal Conquest, pp. 5-6).

CHAPTER XVII

The Military Invasion

'Some few years ago, here in Venice, I had much pleasant intercourse with Dr. Andrew D. White of Cornell University, and late Ambassador at Berlin of the United States of America. Speaking together one day of the Hague Conference of 1899, at which he sat as President of the American Delegation, he told me the following incident. The Conference had finished its work, and he was bidding farewell to the “House in the Wood,” when he found at its door, in a towering passion, a leading Roman Catholic diplomat who represented one of the great Catholic Powers. Dr. White said to him : “Step into my carriage, and drive home with me to dinner and unburden your mind.” He did so. The cause of his wrath was as follows :–

'When the Conference was being arranged for, the Pope claimed, as the world knows, to be represented at it, not only as a temporal sovereign, but as the world's great peace-maker, the representative on earth of the Prince of Peace. He moved heaven and earth to enforce his claim; but of course it was rejected without discussion, as the very idea of such a thing was out of the question. Had it been entertained, Italy would have refused to enter the Conference, and England, and probably other powers, would have done the same; hence the Conference would necessarily have been given up. However, at the closing meeting of the Conference, as Dr. White said, “to the amazement of all, and almost to the stupefaction of many,” M. de Staal, the representative of the Netherlands, handed a paper to the Secretary to read. It turned out to be a letter from his Queen to the Pope, in which she indicated that it was not the fault of her Government that he was not represented at the Conference. The paper also contained the Pope's reply, in which he magnified his office as the world's peace-maker, and reiterated his incontestable right as such to be represented. It was the Pope's letter with its mendacious statements and preposterous claims that roused the anger of this Roman Catholic Delegate, who, once seated in the carriage, delivered himself as follows (and now I am quoting, not from memory, but from Dr. White's Autobiography which he has just sent me) :–

“The Vatican has always been, and is to-day, a storm-centre. The Pope and his advisers have never hesitated to urge on war, no matter how bloody, when the slightest of their ordinary worldly purposes could be served by it. The great religious wars of Europe were entirely stirred up and egged on by them; and, as everybody knows, the Pope did everything to prevent the signing of the treaty of Münster, which put an end to the dreadful Thirty Years' War, even going so far as to declare the oaths taken by the plenipotentiaries at that Congress of no effect. All through the Middle Ages and at the Renaissance period the Popes kept Italy in turmoil and bloodshed for their own family and territorial advantages, and they kept all Europe in turmoil, for two centuries after the Reformation—in fact, just as long as they could—in the wars of religion. They did everything they could to stir up the war between Austria and Prussia in 1866, thinking that Austria, a Catholic power, was sure to win; and then everything possible to stir up the war of France against Prussia in 1870, in order to accomplish the same purpose of checking German Protestantism; and now they are doing all they can to arouse hatred, even to deluge Italy in blood, in the vain attempt to recover the Temporal Power, though they must know that they could not hold it for any length of time even if they should obtain it. . . . Their whole policy is based on stirring up hatred and promoting conflicts from which they hope to draw worldly advantage. In view of all this, one stands amazed at the cool statements of the Vatican letter.” [Autobiography of Dr. D. White, vol. ii. pp. 349-351.]

'That is the indictment of one whom Dr. White calls “an eminent Roman Catholic representative of a Roman Catholic Power.” And what a sweeping condemnatory indictment it is! In face of it, coming from the burning heart and lips of such a man, one feels that it is impiety or culpable ignorance to talk, as so many do, of the Pope being the Vicar of the Prince of Peace, and of the Roman Catholic Church as having a mission of peace and of goodwill to mankind. He is, on the contrary, the Vicar of Christ's Adversary, “The Prince of this World”; [John xii. 31, xiv. 30.] he is the “Beast” of the Revelation, to whom the “Dragon” gave “his power, and his seat, and great authority . . . to make war with the saints.” [Rev. xiii. 2, 7.]

'It will be noticed that this “eminent Catholic representative of a Roman Catholic Power” in his sweeping indictment says : “And now they are doing all they can to arouse hatred, even to deluge Italy in blood, in the vain attempt to recover the Temporal Power.” That was the Godlike work in which the so-called “Vicar of the Prince of Peace” has been engaged during the ten years that have elapsed since then; and that is the Godlike work in which the so-called “Vicar of the Prince of Peace” is engaged at the present time! Italy knows this to her cost; and it has often been brought forward in Parliament and in the Press, both native and foreign, by Italian writers. Ruggiero Bonghi wrote, in 1894, in the Nuova Antologia – and his words are equally true to-day – “The war is conducted by the Papacy; and since its commencement twenty-three years ago (now [in 1909] thirty-nine) it does not seem to decrease in vigour, and in precision of aim. . . . The Pope continues to fight fiercely to recover the Temporal Power.” [ Nuova Antologia, January 1894.] The Honourable Francesco Crispi said, in 1892 : “To-day he (the Pope) conspires; to-morrow, as king, he would openly treat with our enemies to the detriment of our national unity.” [The New Review, May 1892.] Mr. Gladstone again and again refers to it; and I have already quoted him as saying : “She (Italy) is the country whose very heart it is the fixed desire and design of the Roman Curia to tear out of its bleeding body, for the purpose of erecting anew the fabric of the Temporal Power now crumbled in the dust”; [Gleanings of Past Years, by W.E. Gladstone, vol. vi. p. 202.] and again, as saying : “that there is a fixed purpose among the secret inspirers of Roman policy to pursue, by the road of force, upon the arrival of any favourable opportunity, the favourite project of re-erecting the terrestrial throne of the Popedom, even if it can only be re-erected on the ashes of the city, and amidst the whitening bones of the people.” [The Vatican Decrees, by W.E. Gladstone, p. 50.] Again Mr. Gladstone speaks of “the venomous ambition of Curialism, determined to try another fall before renouncing its dream of temporal dominion,” [Gleanings of Past Years, by W.E. Gladstone, vol. vi. p. 201.] and Cardinal Manning, who incarnated the policy of the Vatican, fully confirms Mr. Gladstone's statements, for he declared to the late Rev. Hugh Price Hughes that he (the Pope) was willing to deluge Europe in blood, if thereby he could destroy the kingdom of Italy, and restore the Temporal Power. [Methodist Times, August 6, 1896.]

'Mr. Gladstone's “favourable opportunity” is, in the estimation of the Pope and the Church, at last fast approaching. The great prize, which they have kept steadily before their eyes ever since 1870, and to which everything else has been subordinated, and made subservient, is almost, they think, within their grasp. The Italian cartoon on this subject, reproduced [in this work], represents the Pope welcoming the [Austrian] Emperor Francis Joseph and his invading army, with the words : “Come on ! come on, my sons ! For thirty-nine years we have waited for you in Rome.” Another cartoon which I possess represents Rome as a luscious pear, hanging high up in the air, and the Pope climbing a ladder, held by the Emperor Francis Joseph, in the hope of plucking it. It is still, however, beyond his reach. Yet in this fixed determination of reaching it, we come upon the crowning reason, the impelling cause, for the Conquest of England. It is not the only reason, the only impelling cause, for, as we have already seen (Chapter II.), there are others. They want John Bull's gold. They want to regain a measure of prestige in the world, and they want to put down what they call heresy.

'England, then, is recognized as the great obstacle to the recovery of the Temporal Power. So long as England holds its place of intellectual, moral, and material supremacy among the nations, the recovery of the Temporal Power is an impossibility. Therefore England must be humiliated, must be subdued. And to effect this the thousands and tens of thousands of myrmidons of the Church, now scattered throughout the land, are not enough. These are working, as we have seen, to weaken, and deteriorate, and degenerate John Bull; but that is only preparatory work. They are but the sappers and miners sent in advance of a great army of another kind, which the Pope and the Church hope soon to land on our shores. That army of another kind is an army of soldiers, by whom, in co-operation with the enemy already in the field, and profiting by its work, the war will be fought out to the finish. As Mr. Froude long ago said, “it ended in blood before, and it will end in blood again.” [Short Studies on Great Subjects, by J.A. Froude, vol. ii. p. 178.] The Pope and the Church are saying : “Come on ! come on, my sons !” for they hope to complete the Conquest of England by means of a great Military Invasion.

'The nation seems now pretty well alive to the fact that a Military Invasion is impending. It is a strange thing that it did not become aware of this before. I believe that the Pope and the Church formed the resolution to bring it about, soon after the fall of the Temporal Power, in 1870, when, as we have already seen, a league was founded of all Catholics throughout Christendom for the restoration of that Power. And the fact was fully and clearly announced by the Church four years later. Cardinal Manning then said : “There is only one solution of the difficulty, a solution, I fear impending, and that is, the terrible scourge of Continental war, a war which will exceed the horrors of any of the wars of the first Empire. And it is my firm conviction that, in spite of all obstacles, the Vicar of Jesus Christ will be put again in his own rightful place. But that day will not be until his adversaries will have crushed each other with mutual destruction.” [The Tablet, January 24, 1874.] In the last sentence of this quotation, the Cardinal clearly refers to Protestant England being at war with some other Protestant nation, as he hopes, to their “mutual destruction.” Cardinal Manning's article appeared in January 1874; then in November of the same year appeared another article by another writer in another Roman Catholic periodical, called The Month, exactly expressing the same thoughts, but without hesitation mentioning England. The article impressed Mr. Gladstone very much, and twice he drew public attention to it, once in a letter to Lord Durham, and again in an appendix to his pamphlet on The Vatican Decrees. I quote from the latter. After speaking of the determination of the Church to restore “the terrestrial throne of the Popedom,” even by the use of fire and sword, he says : “Compare the recent and ominous forecasting of the future European Policy of the British Crown in an article from a Romish periodical for the current month (The Month, November 1874), which has direct relation to these matters, and which has every appearance of proceeding from authority.

“'Surely in any European complication, such as may arise, nay, such as must ere long arise, from the natural gravitation of the forces, which are for the moment kept in check and truce by the necessity of preparation for their inevitable collision, it may very well be that the future prosperity of England may be staked in the struggle, and that the side which she may take may be determined, not either by justice or interest, but by a passionate resolve to keep up the Italian Kingdom at any hazard.'

“This is a remarkable disclosure. With whom could England be brought into conflict by any disposition she might feel to keep up the Italian Kingdom? Considered as States, both Austria and France are in complete harmony with Italy. But it is plain that Italy has some enemy; and the writers of The Month appear to know who it is.” [The Vatican Decrees, by W.E. Gladstone, Appendix C.]

'Whatever difficulty may have existed when Mr. Gladstone penned these words, in recognizing who Italy's enemy is, there is none to-day. Italy's enemy is Austria. Austria, like the Roman Catholic Church, is Italy's “Eternal Enemy.” The two cartoons of which I have just spoken bear this out. Her whole policy, especially during recent years, has been one of provocation, and almost of unconcealed hostility. She has made military roads, built forts, and mined bridges, wherever her frontier is contiguous with that of Italy. When Italy was prostrated by the great earthquake disasters in Sicily and Calabria, and every civilized nation in the world was tendering sympathy and help, the Vienna papers said : “See how generous we are not to profit by this opportunity to make war”; and they boasted that the Emperor was with them in entertaining the idea. I have another cartoon, which represents the Pope and the Emperor Francis Joseph rubbing their hands over the catastrophe, the Pope saying : “Serves Italy right, she took from you Lombardy and Venetia,” and the Emperor replying : “Serves Italy right, she took from you the Temporal Power.” Pasolini never spake truer words than when he said that “Italy will always side with the enemies of Austria,” and that “the alliance of France, England, and Italy is the strongest guarantee for civilization, and the freedom of the world.” [Guiseppe Pasolini Memorie Racolte da suo Figlio, pp. 328, 332.] The Vatican looks to the Government of Austria, its bond-servant, to restore the Temporal Power; but, as we have already said, England blocks the way. Austria cannot move in the matter, either to regain Venetia and Lombardy, or to help the Pope to the Temporal Power, until England is humiliated. The Pope and the Church must first find a power to attempt this, find a power that will dare to make war upon England. And a serious war it will be. The Roman Catholic writer in The Month knew that when he said : “It may very well be that the future prosperity of England may be staked in the struggle.”

'Well the world knows – it has again and again been declared – that the Pope and the Church have found such a power in Germany, and that in the person of the Kaiser they have found the very man to inspire and lead the nation in this enterprise. Amongst his [the Kaiser's] great and varied talents, his boundless ambition and self-confidence which would lead him to undertake almost anything, he possesses, in quite a phenomenal degree, these two qualifications for the task – hatred of England and love of the Pope. I believe he stands unique amongst the rulers of the world in this respect; and it is the more strange it should be so, seeing he [the Kaiser] professes to be a Christian and a Protestant. Yet that he possesses, or rather, is possessed by, these two passions [hatred of England and love of the Pope], there can, I think, be no doubt.

'The Pope, as I have already had occasion to say, feels very much at home in the company of Venetians, and talks freely to them on most subjects. In this way the Kaiser and his strange doings form not infrequently a topic of conversation, or at least a subject of passing remark. Indeed, this can hardly be avoided, for his portrait is a prominent object in the Pope's rooms. Here it is on a table, there it hangs on a wall, yonder it is in an album; whilst on his breast, suspended on a massive gold chain, sparkles a magnificent cross, composed entirely of emeralds, a gift of the Kaiser to Leo XIII. When anyone noticing these things calls the Pope's attention to them, a smile of amusement lights up his face as he comes out with his favourite joke about the Kaiser, “Why, he is my best European friend!” The statement is a joke, and yet it is a literal truth. No Catholic fanatic in the world is more punctilious than he is in sending his homage and congratulations, and flattering speeches and presents to the Pope on his ever-recurring personal festivities, such as the anniversaries, the semi-jubilees and jubilees, actual or prospective, of the day on which he was born, or was christened, or became a priest, or began to climb the ecclesiastical ladder, or reached its summit and vaulted into the chair of St. Peter.

'No greater proof of the Kaiser's sympathy with the wearer of the triple crown can be given than the speech he made at Aix-la-Chapelle in his praise on the occasion of the last jubilee of Leo XIII. Part of that speech was the following : “It was with pride and joy that he was able to tell them that the Pope had said to his special Ambassador, who went to Rome on the occasion of the Holy Father's jubilee, that he (the Pope) had always kept a high opinion of the piety of the Germans, and especially of the German army; and the Ambassador was to tell his Sovereign that the country in Europe where control, order, and discipline still prevailed, with respect for the authority, and regard for the Church, and where the latter could live, was the German Empire, and for that the Papal See was indebted to the German Emperor.” [Daily Telegraph, June 21, 1902.] (The Papal Conquest, pp. 313-325).

'. . . The result of this unholy alliance, of this union in mutual love of each other and detestation of England, is that the Kaiser has become the willing instrument of the Pope and the Vatican for the humiliation of England, in order to [facilitate] the ultimate restoration of the Temporal Power. What Richard Bagot, the Roman Catholic novelist, wrote during the Boer War, in the number of the National Review for May 1900, holds equally true to-day, that “the whole campaign against England was due to the intrigues of the Vatican, which is working, as it has ever worked and ever will work, to promote and encompass the humiliation of England.” [The National Review, May, 1900.]

'Italy has long known that the Vatican has been egging on the German Emperor to invade England, and has for years warned us of our peril. She has done this with all the greater earnestness and persistency that she knows that her own turn will come next. She has told us that just as the naval and military preparations of Germany, carried on with such mad haste and to such an abnormal extent, are, in her opinion, directed against England : so the similar preparations carried on in the same spirit by Austria, are directed against herself ; and that, in the event of England's humiliation, Austria will at once, backed by Germany, attempt to recover Venetia and Lombardy; and then, as Dr. White's eminent Roman Catholic diplomat at the Hague said, Italy will be deluged in blood, in the attempt to restore the Temporal Power.

'I think that Great Britain is pretty well alive now to this peril against which Italy has warned us; and it would be an easy task for me to marshal facts in its support, to show, indeed, that the peril is very great and very near, as great and near, as I said in my opening chapter, as it was in 1690. Indeed, I have already written out these facts, but at the last moment I withhold them from a sense of the grave responsibility of publishing anything that might be construed as inciting to war. At the same time, there is less need that I should recount them, as many of them are now widely known, having been discussed in the British Parliament and in the public Press; and as Italy's interpretation of Germany's objective is very generally accepted by men of political complexions as the correct one.

'It has long been known in Italy, and Italy has warned England of the fact, that the original date fixed upon by the Pope and the Kaiser for the carrying out of their nefarious enterprise was 1911-1912. This date has been mentioned also several times in the British Parliament and in the Press. I am in possession of the reasons that led to the selection of this date. They are many and various, some touching Germany, others England, and Italy, and not a few having reference to the disaffected state of Ireland at our own doors, and of Ireland across the ocean. However, I do not intend here to enter further into them, all the more that the partial awakening of England to the danger of the situation has probably spoilt the project for so early a date as the one indicated.

'Still it cannot be too vividly recognized that it will not be the fault of Britain's enemies – in this case the enemies of Italy's unity and liberty also – if the scheme be not carried out later. Its prevention lies in the hands of England. Not long ago Lord Roberts, writing to General Sir Henry Rawlinson, said : “I am persuaded that before very long Englishmen will be called upon to defend themselves. I fear lest the hour of trial may find them unprepared.”

'It is for England, then, to rouse herself, so as, in the first place, to realize, clearly and fully, her peril; and then, without a moment's delay, to set about putting in force measures to ensure her safety and well-being; determined that, cost what it may, “the hour of trial” shall not find her unprepared. It is for England to realize that it is not only her own welfare and her own life, with all that these stand for of human liberty and progress, and of the spreading of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ throughout the world, that are at stake in the threatened conflict; but also the welfare and the life, with all their promise of blessing to mankind, of Italy, her most faithful and warm friend. If England is humiliated, so also will Italy be humiliated. The welfare of Old England and of Young Italy are in jeopardy. WAKE UP, ENGLAND!' (The Papal Conquest, pp. 327-330).

[In light of the above, the following quote is taken from the historian Sidney Bradshaw Fay's work, Before Sarajevo: The Origins of the [First] World War , Vol 1, 1928:

'The most valuable to the historian of all the Austro-Hungarian memoirs is the voluminous work of the Austrian Chief of Staff, Baron Conrad von Hoetzendorf (entitled, Aus meiner Dienstzeit [My Years of Service], 5 vols.; published Vienna, 1921-25). It consists in large part of an undigested mass of important documents of all sorts, copies of which he evidently took from the official files and published in chronological order, with a commentary of his own. It also includes conversations in dialogue form which appear to be taken from a diary kept from day to day. With extraordinary frankness, he recounts the repeated efforts he made to have Austria make war on Italy or Serbia on what he regarded as numerous favourable occasions between 1906 and 1914. In July, 1914, it was probably he, more than anyone else, who galvanised the incompetent and hesitating Berchtold into an active advocate of war against Serbia.']