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The Papacy and the Modern State

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

Alfred Fawkes
Affiliation:
Ashby St. Ledgers, Rugby, England

Extract

More than a year ago, in a letter to the present writer, an eminent French savant, M. Alfred Loisy, contrasted the parts played by the Pope and the President of the United States respectively in the war. “Maintenant c'est Wilson qui devient pape, et qui fait la morale aux belligérants, en nous appuyant de son crédit politique, financier, militaire. Vive le pape Wilson!” The contrast was just. “Faire la morale aux belligérants” — this is what we expect a Pope to do. We have been disappointed; it is exactly what he has not done. On the other hand, the President is the one politician on either side who has risen to the level of a statesman, and has gained, not lost, in reputation during the last four years. It must be remembered that he came late into the firing line, and has therefore been less exposed than his European colleagues to the test of time under which so many of them have broken down. But more than any one man now in public life, he stands for the combination of Reason and Energy.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1918

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References

1 Horace. Odes iii, 4.

2 Nation. March 2, 1918.

3 Daily News, April 8, 1918.

4 Stanley. Christian Institutions, p. 220.

5 Rudolf Sohm. Outline of Church History, p. 35.

6 The late M. Nisard.

7 Emile Faguet. Politiques et moralistes du XIXme Siècle. Vol. II, p. 123.

8 M. Alfred Loisy, Professeur au Collège de France.

9 Pope. Essay on Man. Epistle iii.

10 “Sicut licet resistere latronibus, ita licet resistere malis principibus.” (Summa Theologiae, 2.2. q. 69 & 4.)

“Si non fuerit excessus tyrannidis, utilius est remissam tyrannidem tolerari ad tempus, quam contra tyrannum agendo multis implicari periculis quae sunt graviora ipso tyrannide.” (De Regimine Princ: VI, 1.)

11 XVIIme Lettre Provinciate.

12 Communes opiniones nascuntur, et moriuntur.

13 Michel de Dormans, 1383.

14 Table-Talk LXX, LXXI.

14 “Nulla per se reprehenditur ex variis rei publicæ formis … immo neque illud per se reprehenditur participem plus minusve esse populum rei publicæ certis: quod ipsum certis in temporibus certisque legibus potest non solum ad utilitatem, sed etiam ad officium pertinere civium.” (Encyclical Immortale Dei. 1885.)

16 These documents will be found in Denzinger's Enchiridion, Edition XI. Herder, 1911.

17 1 Samuel 12 12.

18 “Uterque est in potestate Ecclesiæ, spiritualis scilicet gladius et materialis; sed is quidem pro Ecclesia, ille vero ab Eeclesia, exercendus: ille sacerdotis, is manu regum et militum, sed ad nutum et patientiam sacerdotis. Oportet autem gladium esse sub gladio, et temporialem auctoritatem spirituali subjici potestati.” (Bull Unam Sanctam, 1302.)

19 Purgatorio XX, 89.

20 A. Loisy. Quelques Lettres, p. 73.

21 M. Roger Martin Du Gard. Paris, 1913.

22 Browning. Bishop Blougram's Apology.

23 Punch. March 27, 1918.

24 Proverbs 24, 17, 18.

25 Horace. Odes iii, vi.

26 The quotation is made, by the author's kind permission, from a forthcoming work, The Romance of the Battle Line in France, by Mr. J. E. C. Bodley, Corresponding Member of the Institute of France.