“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)

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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.]

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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)

Post Bellum

Pope “Saint” Pius X

The posts that are transcribed below (with a few corrections in spellings, etc.) were originally submitted on the Mail on Sunday's journalist Peter Hitchens's blog and formed a brief correspondence between myself and another contributor on that site.

The title of the Peter Hitchens's thread on which these post appeared under was 'Wednesday Night's Debate' (posted at 1:58 PM on [Thursday] 04 November 2010); the title was in reference to the 'Intelligence Squared' Debate that took place in London the previous evening at which Mr Hitchens (along with Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury) debated for the proposition that 'Britain is becoming an anti-Christian country'.

In the course of the speech which he gave (and later transcribed to his blog) Mr Hitchens remarks that the prime cause in the decline of the Christian faith in Western Europe, was in his opinion, mainly caused by all the horrors of 'the First World War, [which was] foolishly and wrongly supported by the churches of Europe.'

To which statement the poster below replied (by first quoting Mr Hitchens) with the following:

"This was caused mainly, in my view, by the First World War, foolishly and wrongly supported by the churches of Europe."

Mr Hitchens, I'm not sure which "churches of Europe" you have in mind, but I wonder if this remark is entirely fair.

Nobody did more to try to prevent the Great War from happening than Pope St. Pius X, who died in 1914 - many believe that the effort (combined with the sadness for what he saw unfolding, almost inevitably, before him) brought about his early death.

Pope Benedict XV tried twice to be the intermediary for peace and bring about a speedy end to the war, in 1916 and again in 1917.

The Catholic Church was told by all sides to be quiet and keep out of it, especially in 1917 by 'establishment' (Lloyd George, Clemenceau, Woodrow Wilson...) to mind its own business, stick to 'spiritual stuff', and not be concerned with politics - an idea that is particularly interesting when one considers the same type of people later complaining loudly and unreasonably that Pope Pius XII did not do enough in the Second World War to fight the Nazis...

Posted by: G. Sarto 04 November 2010 at 10:56 PM

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To which I began with the following reply:

G. Sarto 04 November 2010 at 10:56 PM, writes:

“Nobody did more to try to prevent the Great War from happening than Pope St. Pius X, who died in 1914 - many believe that the effort (combined with the sadness for what he saw unfolding, almost inevitably, before him) brought about his early death.”

Concerning the claim that Pius X died of 'a broken heart' soon after the outbreak of war:

That this is the official 'version' can be adduced from the following, which is written in the Concise Holy History used in parochial catechisms:

“Pius X did all he could to prevent the war of 1914 and died of grief when he foresaw the evils it was about to unleash.”

The Italian diplomat and anti-Fascist politician Count Carlo Sforza (1872-1952), the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Italy, in a chapter on “The Origins of the [First World] War”, in his Contemporary Italy: Its Intellectual and Moral Origins (published USA 1944/GB 1946) calls the rumour of Pius X succumbing to grief at his “impotence to advert the disaster” of the war, as: “A legend more tenacious than history”. And then to, “establish the truth as to that legend”, he quotes extensively from one of the many official letters deposited in the diplomatic correspondence of the Austro-Hungarian Embassy – correspondence that he himself had seen.

As he writes concerning these correspondences: “They reveal that the Vatican saw with satisfaction, at least at the outset, an undertaking in which the crushing of Serbia would entail a diminution of the influence of Russia. . . . In these conversations the Secretary of State [Cardinal Merry del Val] spoke expressly in the name of the Pope . . .”

The relevant portion of Count Sforza's chapter – which quotes at length from a dipatch of July 29 1914 from Count Palffy, the Austrian Chargé d' Affaires at the Vatican to Count Berchtold – can be found by clicking on my name below [which linked to my previous posting on the World War Armageddon blog entitled, 'Count Sforza, Pius X and 1914'].

The quote below is from another diplomatic dispatch – this one being that from Baron von Ritter, the Chargé d' Affaires of Bavaria at the Holy See – and was written to his Government on 26 July 1914:

“The Pope [Pius X] approves of Austria's harsh treatment of Serbia. He has no great opinion of the armies of Russia and France in the event of a war against Germany. The Cardinal Secretary of State does not see when Austria could make war if she does not decide to do so now.”

(Source: Bayerische Dokumente zum Kriegsausbruch [Bavarian Documents on the Outbreak of War] III, p. 206; as cited in The Vatican Against Europe, by Edmond Paris; The Wickliffe Press [Protestant Truth Society] edition, 1993; p. 47).

Posted by: B Hughes 06 November 2010 at 03:45 AM

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Mr Hughes,

You can quote "anti-fascist" authors all you wish. The fact remains that Pope St. Pius X did everything he could to avert war in the run-up to 1914.

Similarly the fact remains that Benedict XV twice offered to be an intermediary for peace, and was turned down by the allies.

That is a matter of historical record.

Nor was Pope St. Pius X partisan, and quoting a Bavarian Count, cited in a 'Protestant Truth Society' pamphlet, proves nothing.

The normal thing would have been for the Pope to give his blessing to the Austrian armies going off to war - they were,after all, the Holy Roman Empire, so to speak. The fact that the Pope refused to do so (and was very forceful in telling them why!) ought to speak for itself.

Posted by: G. Sarto 06 November 2010 at 05:20 PM

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From G. Sarto's post of 06 November 2010 at 05:20 PM:

'Mr Hughes, You can quote “anti-fascist” authors all you wish.'

The “anti-fascist” author in question was Count Carlo Sforza; to quote him further from the same work – he writes:

'While all diplomatic Europe kept on repeating, “This Lenin cannot last”, the Pope asked me through [Baron] Monti – but under the seal of secrecy – would I if necessary, be able to facilitate the trip of some Catholic priests to Russia. Seeing my surprise, Monti explained (and it was evident that he was repeating the very words of the Pope) : “His Holiness thinks that even these crimes and this blood will one day be of service if it is going to be possible, when the wave of irreligion has passed, to attempt a Catholic evangelization in Russia. Orthodoxy no longer has any deep-rooted life; its end as the official religion offers possibilities which would never have existed so long as a Tsar, 'Protector of the Church', continued to reign.” It was simple and it was true; but courage was required to express it at the Vatican in 1920. I promised my support in whatever form it might be able to take ...' (p. 169).

And Count Sforza writes that while he had been High Commissioner in Turkey (before his return to Rome – after accepting the post of Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs) that he had had:

'[C]onversations ... at Constantinople with Cardinal Bourne, Archbishop of Westminster, [on the “Roman question”, which] had prepared me to suppose that the problem was almost on the point of being considered. Having arrived at Constantinople on his way from Jerusalem, the Cardinal had been kind enough to visit me at the Italian Embassy and to thank me for the courtesy with which the Italian Government agents had facilitated his sojourn in the Holy Land. Speaking of his pleasure at observing the excellent relations existing everywhere between Italian agents and the Franciscan missions, he told me that he saw in them the proof that the time was ripe for a conciliation [between the Vatican and the Italian Government]. [And in this matter] I could not but agree with him ...' (pp. 276-277).

It is obvious from the above that though Count Sforza was an “anti-Fascist”; he was not necessarily “anti-Catholic”. By all means, if you wish, discount Baron von Ritter's dispatch from the Bayerische Dokumente zum Kriegsausbruch (as cited in the work later published by the Protestant Truth Society). But can you discount Count Sforza's testimony – in which he cites from official documents held within the diplomatic correspondence of the Austro-Hungarian Embassy – correspondence that he himself had seen?

If you have not already done so, I suggest that you read Count Sforza's testimony as to the true opinion of Pope “Saint” Pius X – by clicking on my name below. If you do not wish to reappraise what you've undoubtedly been taught – then that is up to you ...

Posted by: B Hughes 07 November 2010 at 06:10 PM

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Envoi

Pope Pius X was undoubtedly a 'pretended' friend of peace. . . But was he also a pretended friend of Christ . . . ? Or much more besides . . . ? In the words of the Rev. Alexander Robertson, D.D.; words he wrote five years before the outbreak of the War:

'[O]ne 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 [the Pope] is, on the contrary, the Vicar of Christ's Adversary [Satan], [who is] “The Prince of this World”; [John xii. 31, xiv. 30.] he [the Pope] is the “Beast” of the Revelation, to whom the “Dragon” [Satan] gave “his power, and his seat, and great authority . . . to make war with the saints.” [Rev. xiii. 2, 7.]'

The Papal Conquest (1909), p. 316.

Count Sforza, Pius X and 1914

(Above: cover of first British edition, translated from the French by Drake and Denise de kay and published by Frederick Muller Ltd., London, 1946)

THE ORIGINS OF THE WAR

'A legend more tenacious than history was formed in 1914 and afterward regarding Pope Pius X's attitude toward the Hapsburg aggression toward Serbia. This legend shows us Pius X praying and fighting against the outbreak of the war, horrified to see Christianity divided into two enemy camps, and dying of grief at the invasion of Belgium and all the horrors of war unchained. The truth is quite otherwise.

'During the war of 1914-18 the religious question had only a minor importance; both camps included Catholics, Protestants, Greek Orthodox members and Mohammedans. Catholic unity did not prevail any more than Mohammedan unity, which seemed so sure of its jihad (the Holy War proclaimed by the Sultan-Caliph, which neither Arab nor Hindu [Indian?] Moslem obeyed). The clergy of the different countries could all invoke Allah or the old God of Armies with opposite hopes.

'One fact, however, during the tragic weeks of July and August, 1914, scandalized European opinion: that the war should have been provoked in the name of God by a powerful and decrepit sovereign, Francis Joseph, Emperor of Austria and Apostolic King of Hungary, the most Catholic of all the sovereigns and the most important of all Catholic sovereigns. When this Prince declared that he made war to chastise Serbia, millions of timorous souls imagined that the Pope would intervene to prevent the catastrophe. This hope gave birth to the legend. It was said at the time that Pius X, the moment he knew of the ultimatum to Serbia, had enjoined his Nuncio at Vienna to admonish the old Emperor and King in the name of the Almighty. Then, since the war happened just the same, it was explained that the Ballplatz diplomats and military men of the imperial entourage had prevented Pius X's messenger from talking with the Emperor. And here is the last act of the legend: The Pope having died suddenly on August 20, 1914, it was affirmed that the good Pius had succumbed to grief, having realized his impotence to avert the disaster.

'It is time to establish the truth as to that legend, and here it is:

'As soon as the danger of war became evident, Count Palffy, Austrian Chargé d' Affaires at the Vatican, several times informed Pius X's Secretary of State, Cardinal Merry del Val, of the intentions and the “duties” of the Dual Monarchy. The Cardinal's replies were deposited in the diplomatic correspondence of the Austro-Hungarian Embassy, correspondence that I have seen. They reveal that the Vatican saw with satisfaction, at least at the outset, an undertaking in which the crushing of Serbia would entail a diminution of the influence of Russia. The latter's prestige was detested by the Roman Church, which viewed it as the principal obstacle to a reconciliation of the Oriental churches with the See of Rome. In these conversations the Secretary of State spoke expressly in the name of the Pope who, he declared to the Austrian representative, deplored that Austria had not earlier inflicted on the Serbs the chastisement they deserved. It is sufficient to quote the following passage from a dispatch of Count Palffy to Count Berchtold on July 29:

'“During the conversation I had two days ago with the Cardinal Secretary of State he spoke spontaneously of the great problems and questions now agitating Europe. It would be impossible to detect in His Eminence's words any spirit whatever of indulgence and conciliation. It is true he characterized the note to Serbia as very harsh, but he nevertheless approved it without any reservation and at the same time expressed, in an indirect way, the hope that the Monarchy would go to the limit. Certainly, added the Cardinal, it was too bad that Serbia had not been humiliated very much sooner, for then it might have been done without putting into play, as today, such immense possibilities. This declaration also corresponds to the Pope's way of thinking, for, in the course of recent years His Holiness has often expressed regret that Austro-Hungary has failed to 'chastise' her dangerous Danubian neighbour.

'“One might wonder for what motive the Catholic Church evinces herself so bellicose at an epoch when she is governed by a chief who is truly a saint, imbued with veritably apostolic ideas. The answer is very simple. The Pope and the Curia see in Serbia the ravaging malady that little by little penetrated the Monarchy to the marrow, and which, in time, would end by disintegrating it.

'“Despite all the other experiments attempted by the Curia in the course of the last decade, Austria-Hungary is and remains the Catholic State par excellence, the strongest rampart of the Faith which stands in our day for the Church of Christ. The fall of this rampart would signify for the Church the loss of its solidest prop; in the conflicts with the Orthodox Church she would see her most powerful champion struck down.

'“Hence, just as for Austria-Hungary there is an immediate necessity of self-preservation to expel from its organism, even by force if need be, the dissolving malady, there is also for the Catholic Church an indirect necessity of doing or approving everything that would serve to attain that end.

'“In this light, a harmony between the apostolic sentiment and the war spirit can easily be confirmed.”

'The widening of the conflict which from Austro-Serb became European changed probably the Pope's frame of mind. But at least in the very first days of the war he considered the march of the German army nach Paris as a punishment that God had inflicted on the “eldest daughter of the Church” who had given him the worst worries of his pontificate.' (pp. 153-155).

[The above paragraph in the American edition published by E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., New York, 1944 (by the same translators: Drake and Denise de Kay) reads slightly differently; as here follows:

'The widening of the conflict which from Austro-Serb became European did not do much to change the Pope's frame of mind. In his honest but narrow mind the march of the German army nach Paris assumed the form of a punishment that God had inflicted on the “eldest daughter of the Church” who had given him the worst worries of his pontificate.' (p. 189).]

'We have seen that the proceeding of the Nuncio at Vienna is a legend. That Pius X died of grief is still another. I have it from his doctor, my colleague in the Italian Senate, that the malady of which the Pope died had for long months wasted the old man by slow degrees, and that the overwork of the last few weeks could, at most, but have hastened the end that he, Marchiafava, had already declared inevitable and due to occur very shortly.' (p. 155)