THE PAPACY AND PROGRESS
The Power and Secret of the Papacy. By Rene FUlop-Miller. (Longmans. 7s. 6d.)
HERR FaiiP-MILLER and Mr. Ridley are both concerned in their new books with the impact on the modem world of Papal social policy, and the Thomist philosophy on which this policy is to a large extent based. Both authors are impressed with the adaptability and resilience of the Papacy, and both quote Macaulay's New Zealander. Apart from these points of similarity the tliit books have little in common. Herr Fiilop- Miller's book suggests the brilliant undergraduate essay ; it is generous, it is open-minded, it shows imagination and a genuine critical sense, even if a tendency to exaggeration of language and a love of broad generalisation sometimes lead the author to incautious conclusions. Mr. Ridley's book is rigid, narrow and dogmatic. Its publishers claim that it is the first book to deal with Roman Catholicism from a Marxist stand- point, and to a reader unfamiliar with the Marxist position it might have considerable interest. Mr. Ridley would doubtless claim that his treatment of the subject was scientific, but if it be scientific to assume that a given set of phenomena is capable of only one explanation, it is also rather dull. It is only fair to say that the dullness is relieved by a good deal of unconscious humour.
Herr Fiiliip-Miller does not explain his choice of title, but probably the reader will not find the reason hard to guess. The book opens with the Vatican Council of 1869-70, the contrast of which with the Anti-Council of Freethinkers at Naples Herr Fiilop-Miller uses very amusingly in order to compare the effectiveness of the Papacy with the ineffectiveness of its critics. He goes on to compare the work of Pius IX, to maintain and define the faith, with that of his successor, Leo XIII, to show its relevance to the scientific, industrialist and Imperialist civilisation of the late nineteenth century. He 'outlines the methods Leo employed in his policy of appeasement and the results which he achieved in France, Germany and elsewhere.
Most important of all, he shows in a clear analysis of the Encyclical Rerum Novarum how it recognised the urgency of the social problems created by the Industrial Revolution, and how it gave an impetus to Catholic social work, which Pius XI, in Quadragesimo Anno, endeavoured forty years later to renew. The account of Leo XIII's preparation for his supreme office forms, perhaps, the most fascinating part of Herr Fiihip- Miller's book. Joachim Pecci, an ambitious son of a somewhat decayed noble family, told his brother that he intended to join the priesthood for "sound reasons and the excellent prospects that offer themselves." His early progress was rapid; he became Nuncio to the Belgian Court and wrote home with naive delight that the sentries presented arms to him. He saw industrialism for himself and travelled on the new railways : "There is nothing grander," he wrote, "than these journeys, in which one covers more than twenty miles in the space of an hour." He saw much, but he was then too raw to be a successful diplomat ; after two years he was recalled, and was retired into obscurity as Bishop of Perugia. After at first groaning a little in spirit, he gradually trained himself to appreciate the spiritual opportunities which his place as the head of a rural diocese gave him. His early reverse enriched his character, and as the years passed the strength of his personality 'narked him out as a suitable successor to the Papal Throne.
Herr Ffilop-Miller tells the story of Leo XIII's personal development and of his policy when Pope vividly and dramatic- ally. What is more, he gives an account, slight but suggestive, of his choke of the teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas, with its reconciliation of faith and reason and definition of the spheres proper to each in the thirteenth century, as the basis for his own social teaching in the age of Darwin and Marx. Herr Fillip-Miller argues that terms such as " backward " and " advanced " have no meaning in philosophy because its fundamental problems have not changed since AristOtle and Democritus, and the conflict between the metaphysical and the rationalist views is eternal.
Mr. Ridley would have none of this. For him St. Thomas was a reactionary in the century of Frederic H and Roger Bacon, and his teachings are therefore clearly inapplicable to today, ' ",The Thomist Aristinle," (HO' hë kaeiLiiiily informs us, "was the philosopher of a stationary world in which time moved slowly." Progress means to Mr. Ridley progress towards a Socialist State in which there will be no room for a Church. Roman Catholics and Fascists are the enemies of progress, and while they will ultimately quarrel this will not be until after the joint victory over democracy and Socialism. The alignment of Pius XI with Hitler, Mussolini and Franco in Spain shows the way the wind blows.
In so far as it bears upon the immediate situation there is unfortunately some truth in this analysis, but it is too obvious to require a book to say it. The real tragedy appears to be that there is no necessary quarrel between the Papacy, which has re-affirmed under the present Pope the need of fundamental social reform, and the moderate Left, and yet the former consistently allies itself with political reaction. Mr. Ridley does not see the problem in these terms, and in his view it is only natural that the Papacy should fall into line with the murderers of Guernica. The inevitability of the argument robs it of interest, but its pedantic, cocksure manner is some- times amusing. Mr. Ridley refers to the Jesuits as " storm- troops " and "Dervishes," and to any Jesuit with a sense of humour his book can confidently be recommended. But the book will do Mr. Ridley no good with his fellow-Marxists ; he quotes with approval the " renegade " Kautsky and the " diversionist " Trotsky. He ought to know better than that.
W. T. WELLS.
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