PRUSSIA AND THE VATICAN.
THE letter which the German Emperor, in his character of King of Prussia, has addressed to the Pope is an indi- cation that the negotiations between the two Powers are near- ing their end. For the time, at all events, Prince Bismarck has fixed a minimum of concession below which he will not suffer the Pope to go. If the MayLaws are to be reconsidered, the Pope must take a particular step. He must accept in principle the obligation to notify all presentations to the State which one of these laws lays on the Ecclesiastical authorities. The Emperor's letter does not say that the law must be accepted precisely as it stands, but that it is in relation to this law that the advance demanded from the Vatican must be made. As to .the other side of the transaction, the letter is not equally precise. The immediate benefit to be derived from this concession on the part of the Vatican is the creation of a conviction in the Emperor's mind that the Pope is as anxious for a reconciliation as he is himself. When this has been impressed on him, he will be able to countenance the reconsideration by the Prussian Parliament not of the May Laws generally, but of such of them " as, in the course of the struggle for the protection of contested rights of the State, became requisite, without being permanently necessary to secure peaceful relations between Church and State." A pledge of this kind is obviously open to almost any interpreta- tion which the Emperor's advisers choose to put on it. It rests with them to determine which of the May Laws are permanently necessary, and which were only requi- site for a time. It is not to be supposed, however, that the Vatican will make any advance whatever, without some more precise understanding as to the consideration it is to receive for its concessions. The publication of the Letter is
probably meant to convey, not that the Emperor will commit himself to nothing, but simply that he will not be the first to commit himself to anything. By singling out one solitary provision of the May Laws which the Pope must declare him- self ready to accept in advance, he does, in effect, intimate that on every other point he is open to argument and persuasion.
To submit all Ecclesiastical appointments to the veto of the Civil authorities is a light or a serious matter, according to the conditions under which the right of veto is exercised. Under the May Laws, these conditions are of extraordinary severity. The Civil authorities may refuse to accept the appointment of any priest, either for want of qualification, or for having been convicted of any offence, or if there is reason to suppose that he intends to disobey the law. The qualifica- tions prescribed are, that the presentee must be of German birth ; that he must have been educated and have passed the final examination at a gymnasium ; and further, that he must have spent three years at a German University, or if there be no University in the Diocese, at an Ecclesiastical College approved by the Government. Among the offences conviction for which operates as a disqualification, is the illegal exercise of spiritual jurisdiction, a crime for which a large number of the Catholic Clergy of Prussia have from time to time been found guilty, while reason to suppose that a man intends to disobey the laws in future may easily be stretched so as to include all the rest. How a request to submit pre- sentations to benefices to a veto which at present is so all- embracing would have been met by the late Pope, it is easy to imagine. He would have replied by a simple "Non possumus." But Leo XIII. is of another temper from Pius IX. He is above all things a Whig, and from the Whig point of view it is of extreme importance that the Ecclesiastical and Civil authorities should work harmoni- ously together. Pius IX. was at bottom a Revolutionist ; constituted authorities were to be treated with deference when they did what he liked, and to be altogether ignored when they did what he disliked. By Leo XIII. they are regarded in a very different light. He interprets the Apostolic injunc- tion to live peaceably with all men as binding him in a special manner to live peaceably with Sovereigns, and nothing but the strongest conviction that the conditions demanded from him are such as he cannot conscientiously concede will prevent him from meeting the Prussian offer at least half-way. Probably, therefore, the acceptance or rejection of the Emperor's terms will be determined by the extent of the revision to which the May Laws are to be sub- mitted. If the provisions relating to the qualifications of the holders of benefices were repealed, the veto would become a mere right to reject a particular presentee, with no cause assigned. This would be a much less serious restriction on Ecclesiastical action than a right to reject all presentees who do not satisfy the very stringent conditions just enumerated. The one tends in practice to come down to the occasional rejection of some priest who has made himself specially obnoxious to the civil authorities ; the other keeps alive a complete system of clerical education which, rightly or wrongly, the Ecclesiastical authorities think actually mis- chievous. The former might be met by successive presenta- tions drawn from a virtually unlimited area ; the latter limits the supply to the small minority of the clergy who happen to have satisfied the conditions of the statute. .
It appears from the attitude of Herr Windthorst that the Centre party are disposed to see a more conciliatory temper in the Emperor's Letter than appears on the surface of it. Pro- bably, therefore, they assume that Prince Bismarck has in view some considerable modification of this part of the May Laws. Whether the Centre is really very anxious to bring about a reconciliation between the Prussian State and the Vatican may, perhaps, be doubted. The Clericals of Germany are in this respect not unlike the Clericals of France. They are politicians first, and Clericals afterwards. As regards the French Clericals, the whole history of their relations with the late and present Nuncios proves this. They are irri- tated almost beyond bearing at the determination of the Pope to avoid, if possible, an open quarrel between the Church and the Republic. Every courtesy which the Nuncio shows to the President of the Republic is a fresh annoyance to them. Their object is to destroy the Republic, and they think that if the Pope would but refuse to have any more dealings with the Republic, an important step would have been taken towards this consummation. The Prussian Clericals have not the same feelings towards the Prussian Monarchy that
the French Clericals entertain towards the Republic, because the Prussian Monarchy is not revolutionary in its origin. But they have political objects of their own, the accomplishment of which may be helped or hindered by the exercise of a judici- ous diplomacy in relation to Prince Bismarck. If they want. to attack the Government, it is always easy to find an occasion somewhere in the May Laws ; and they might not be altogether pleased at seeing these laws repealed, if their repeal constituted the whole concession made by the Govern meat. It is difficult to define with precision the extent 'to which the Pope is compelled to take this feeling into account. He is certainly not disposed to defer to it in all particulars, and yet it is impossible for him to ignore it entirely. The spiritual destitution to which Catholic Prussia has been re duced under the operation of the May Laws must be greatly in the Pope's thoughts, but even destitution cannot be re- lieved without some degree of co-operation on the part of those in want. The Prussian Clergy have by this time gained some of the immunities which belong to Con- fessors, and even a less religious Pope than Leo XIII. could not altogether disregard the sufferings they have undergone on behalf of Ecclesiastical independence. To give up everything that has been fought for during the last nine years would not encourage the Clergy in other countries to be equally resolute in the same cause. That a modus vivendi may be found, if the Prussian Government are in earnest in looking for one, cannot be questioned ; but whether it is contained in the generalities. of the Emperor's letter must depend on the private negotia- tions by which that letter has, no doubt, been accompanied.
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