P OLITICIANS, and, indeed, thinking men generally, all over the world
are watching the new Pope with unusually keen interest. They see that be is a thoroughly good man, devoted to his work, and with an intolerance for vice and corruption which strikes dismay into those who; profit by abuses, always a numerous class in very ancient and widespread organisations. They see that he is' quite fearless, that he habitually speaks out, and that he does not hesitate, as Austria saw in the remarkable case of the Archbishop of Olmiitz; to use his supreme power in the Church when necessary against the,very highest in the ecclesiastical hierarchy. They expect him, therefore, to be popular, the world -estimating Popes very much as it estimates Judges,—that is, by character for uprightness and goodness rather than by knowledge of Jaw. But they see also elements of danger to his Church, considered as a powerful institution, which arise from the very virtues of the present occupant of the Papal throne. His. course through his complex world may prove too straight to be altogether safe. Pius X. is clearly no diplomatist. He Considers, for example, that the French Government in prohibiting the Congregations from teaching or keeping schools is acting oppressively and in an unrighteous manner, and he says so in a voice which is audible in every house in France, and which has immensely increased the bitterness of the conflict between the French Govern- inent and the Church. Thousands of influential men in France who would. have 'gladly welcomed any reasonable cornprothise now declare that compromise is impossible, that the fight must go, on to a finish, that diplomatiC communication-with the Vatican must be broken off, and that the Concordat; which for nearly a hundred years has been the basis of Ultramontane authority in France, must be denounced, and the Church, 'without any State revenue; be left at the mercy of a Legislature more or less agnostic: Leo XT1T., though not perhaps so' candid as Pius X.; was a great diplomatist, and would almost certainly haie evaded this great and dangerous conflict. He had the power, for it is clear from successive votes in the Chamber that, French politicians cannot reconcile themselves to the idea. of France ceasing to be the protector of Roman Catholic fissions throughout the transmarine world. Leo XIII. would have threatened to transfer that position, with its control over an agency that covers the world, into other hands; and so' have compelled M. Combes to pantie, if not to retreat. So envenomed has the dispute become that it is believed that M. Loubet, while paying a visit of Ceremony to the Xing of Italy, will pay no visit to the Pope, an Omission which, as we see from a recent scene in the Chamber, will be regarded by fervent Roman Catholics as a deliberate affront to their Church, and by men of all religious Opinions as a proclamation' that between that Ohnicli and the French GOvernnient 'there Open war. If, indeed, the Pope by his impetuous 'denunciation had alarmed the 'Chamber, and so altered votes, the Vatican Might have claimed' a victory, hoWever temporary; but, on. The contrary, the Bill has been rushed through the Chamber in a truncated 'form which, according to many lawyers, increases it's severity. As in the present condition of affairs half the Governments of the world have frequently difficult " questions'.' to" Settle with Rome-- Lueitions of education in particular—which "keenly interest iberal majorities, thiis apparent absence of diploniatie capacity Or diplomatic reserve may at any moment produce; as it were by accident, most serious consequeices. All history shows that 'the jealousy of Rome felt by the lay Niters of the world is ineurable; and extends even to Princes and statesmen who • on another side of their minds are honestly devoted to the Roman Church. They do not like, all the same, to be held up to those they rule as impious persons, as Pius X:, if 'that were his Contiction, wolild hold them up without much thoUght of consequences. ' Cardinal Ratnpolla as he' reads of any blunder' or the kind 'must feel " inclined to say, as Fertlinalid,Lthe:superseded Eiriperor of Austria, did when he heard of the cession of Lombardy : " Well, I could. have. done that I " An equally dangerous symptom is the. apparent pro- clivity of the Pope towards what may be best described as the " old orthodox " schools of thought. 'The whole record of his Holiness proves him to be an able man, but the evidence of • his ability has been principally success in administration ; and the history of our own Episcopate. shows us how often great ability in administration has been conjoined with total incapacity to accept new ideas. Now the Roman Church is feeling, in a limited -degree no doubt, but still feeling, like the Protestant Churches, the pressure of the new atmosphere produced by the discoveries of science and the investigations .of Oriental antiquarians; and to see those discoveries ignored, and those investiga-1 tions set aside, by the authority which on • the religious aspect of those questions -is -considered an infallible guide must to the brightest intelligences • in -the Church be exquisitely painful. . The proceedings _taken, for instance, against the.Abbe Lois), amount, in the judgment of such minds, to an attempt to silence inquiry and suppress thought as violent as any adopted in the Middle Agee.- The bodies of inquirers, no doubt, are safe to-day, but their minds are subjected to torture, arising from the conflict between their enlightened perceptions and their old convictions. The compression is not one whit more endurable because it is sanctioned by a Pope whom everybody believes to be both able and conscientious; who is, in fact, only doing what he conceives to be his duty in preventing the diffusion of opinions which, if diffused, will, he. believes, weaken the faith of the flocks entrusted to his charge. The result of such a course of action, if -this is what the Pope really. intends—and he is obviously a determined man, resolute to obey his own best lights—cannot fail to be disastrous. Such decrees as that against the Abbe Loisy will deepen the cleavage .already existing, between the intelligent and the ignorant; will drive out .of the Church its ablest thinkers, who if let alone mould be its best defence against the rising tide of materialism ; and will intensify the most visible danger of the. Roman Catholic faith, its tendency to .become . the creed of the Latin races only. Narrowness .in a Pope may excite derision in France, but those who believe will go on believing. It will affect, perhaps frighten, only a limited class in.; Italy and Spain, and in Spanish America it will probably pass, almost unnoticed. But in Germany, America, and England it „ will weaken the Church materially, will spread doubts as to the divine claim of the central authority, and, in the end will foster disbelief in the dogmas which the ,Pope himself fears to subject to reasonable criticism. The case is the • worse because the intellectual world of our day is not seeking, as it was in the eighteenth century, for arguments against Christianity, but is trying, honestly and zealously trying, especially in Germany, to find arguments that may finally harmonise reason and Revelation. That search, is. going on ceaselessly in the Roman Catholic as in. the Protestant Churches, and to be brought sharply up by an impasse in the shape of a charge of heresy is to investigating minds intent on that great, task of reconciliation almost un. endurable, In Germany, America, and England such obscurantism will not be borne, but will be evaded by the silent secession of the intelligent, who in the end, if not at first, will carry away with them large sections of the general mass. This is just, the time when an obscurantist Pope who. is also a virtuous and .upright man may do incredible injury to his Church, and it is such a Pope that many farseeing Roman Catholics fear they,will find in the admirable Pontiff Pius X.
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