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at any rate, the old dream of the Christian community was ever coming

back: one-third of the wealth accumulated for the purposes of worship,

the adornment and glorification of the shrine, one-third for the priests,

and one-third for the poor. Was not this a simplification of life, a

means of rendering existence possible to the faithful who had no earthly

desires, pending the marvellous contentment of heavenly life? Give us,

then, the whole earth, and we will divide terrestrial wealth into three

such parts, and you shall see what a golden age will reign amidst the

resignation and the obedience of all!

However, Pierre went on to show how the papacy was assailed by the

greatest dangers on emerging from its all-powerfulness of the middle

ages. It was almost swept away amidst the luxury and excesses of the

Renascence, the bubbling of living sap which then gushed from eternal

nature, downtrodden and regarded as dead for ages past. More threatening

still were the stealthy awakenings of the people, of the great silent

multitude whose tongue seemed to be loosening. The Reformation burst

forth like the protest of reason and justice, like a recall to the

disregarded truths of the Gospel; and to escape total annihilation Rome

needed the stern defence of the Inquisition, the slow stubborn labour of

the Council of Trent, which strengthened the dogmas and ensured the

temporal power. And then the papacy entered into two centuries of peace

and effacement, for the strong absolute monarchies which had divided

Europe among themselves could do without it, and had ceased to tremble at

the harmless thunderbolts of excommunication or to look on the pope as

aught but a master of ceremonies, controlling certain rites. The

possession of the people was no longer subject to the same rules.

Allowing that the kings still held the people from God, it was the pope's

duty to register the donation once for all, without ever intervening,

whatever the circumstances, in the government of states. Never was Rome

farther away from the realisation of its ancient dream of universal

dominion. And when the French Revolution burst forth, it may well have

been imagined that the proclamation of the rights of man would kill that

papacy to which the exercise of divine right over the nations had been

committed. And so how great at first was the anxiety, the anger, the

desperate resistance with which the Vatican opposed the idea of freedom,

the new _credo_ of liberated reason, of humanity regaining

self-possession and control. It was the apparent _denouement_ of the long

struggle between the pope and the emperor for possession of the people:

the emperor vanished, and the people, henceforward free to dispose of

itself, claimed to escape from the pope--an unforeseen solution, in which

it seemed as though all the ancient scaffolding of the Catholic world

must fall to the very ground.

At this point Pierre concluded the first part of his book by contrasting

primitive Christianity with present-day Catholicism, which is the triumph

of the rich and the powerful. That Roman society which Jesus had come to

destroy in the name of the poor and humble, had not Catholic Rome

steadily continued rebuilding it through all the centuries, by its policy

of cupidity and pride? And what bitter irony it was to find, after

eighteen hundred years of the Gospel, that the world was again collapsing

through frantic speculation, rotten banks, financial disasters, and the

frightful injustice of a few men gorged with wealth whilst thousands of

their brothers were dying of hunger! The whole redemption of the wretched

had to be worked afresh. However, Pierre gave expression to all these

terrible things in words so softened by charity, so steeped in hope, that

they lost their revolutionary danger. Moreover, he nowhere attacked the

dogmas. His book, in its sentimental, somewhat poetic form, was but the

cry of an apostle glowing with love for his fellow-men.

Then came the second part of the work, the PRESENT, a study of Catholic

society as it now exists. Here Pierre had painted a frightful picture of

the misery of the poor, the misery of a great city, which he knew so well

and bled for, through having laid his hands upon its poisonous wounds.

The present-day injustice could no longer be tolerated, charity was

becoming powerless, and so frightful was the suffering that all hope was

dying away from the hearts of the people. And was it not the monstrous

spectacle presented by Christendom, whose abominations corrupted the

people, and maddened it with hatred and vengeance, that had largely

destroyed its faith? However, after this picture of rotting and crumbling

society, Pierre returned to history, to the period of the French

Revolution, to the mighty hope with which the idea of freedom had filled

the world. The middle classes, the great Liberal party, on attaining

power had undertaken to bring happiness to one and all. But after a

century's experience it really seemed that liberty had failed to bring

any happiness whatever to the outcasts. In the political sphere illusions

were departing. At all events, if the reigning third estate declares

itself satisfied, the fourth estate, that of the toilers,* still suffers

and continues to demand its share of fortune. The working classes have

been proclaimed free; political equality has been granted them, but the

gift has been valueless, for economically they are still bound to

servitude, and only enjoy, as they did formerly, the liberty of dying of

hunger. All the socialist revendications have come from that; between

labour and capital rests the terrifying problem, the solution of which

threatens to sweep away society. When slavery disappeared from the olden

world to be succeeded by salaried employment the revolution was immense,

and certainly the Christian principle was one of the great factors in the

destruction of slavery. Nowadays, therefore, when the question is to

replace salaried employment by something else, possibly by the

participation of the workman in the profits of his work, why should not

Christianity again seek a new principle of action? The fatal and

proximate accession of the democracy means the beginning of another phase

in human history, the creation of the society of to-morrow. And Rome

cannot keep away from the arena; the papacy must take part in the quarrel

if it does not desire to disappear from the world like a piece of

mechanism that has become altogether useless.

* In England we call the press the fourth estate, but in France

and elsewhere the term is applied to the working classes, and

in that sense must be taken here.--Trans.

Hence it followed that Catholic socialism was legitimate. On every side

the socialist sects were battling with their various solutions for the

privilege of ensuring the happiness of the people, and the Church also

must offer her solution of the problem. Here it was that New Rome

appeared, that the evolution spread into a renewal of boundless hope.

Most certainly there was nothing contrary to democracy in the principles

of the Roman Catholic Church. Indeed she had only to return to the

evangelical traditions, to become once more the Church of the humble and

the poor, to re-establish the universal Christian community. She is

undoubtedly of democratic essence, and if she sided with the rich and

the powerful when Christianity became Catholicism, she only did so

perforce, that she might live by sacrificing some portion of her

original purity; so that if to-day she should abandon the condemned

governing classes in order to make common cause with the multitude of

the wretched, she would simply be drawing nearer to Christ, thereby

securing a new lease of youth and purifying herself of all the political

compromises which she formerly was compelled to accept. Without

renouncing aught of her absolutism the Church has at all times known how

to bow to circumstances; but she reserves her perfect sovereignty,

simply tolerating that which she cannot prevent, and patiently waiting,

even through long centuries, for the time when she shall again become

the mistress of the world.

Might not that time come in the crisis which was now at hand? Once more,

all the powers are battling for possession of the people. Since the

people, thanks to liberty and education, has become strong, since it has

developed consciousness and will, and claimed its share of fortune, all

rulers have been seeking to attach it to themselves, to reign by it, and

even with it, should that be necessary. Socialism, therein lies the

future, the new instrument of government; and the kings tottering on

their thrones, the middle-class presidents of anxious republics, the

ambitious plotters who dream of power, all dabble in socialism! They all

agree that the capitalist organisation of the State is a return to pagan

times, to the olden slave-market; and they all talk of breaking for ever

the iron law by which the labour of human beings has become so much

merchandise, subject to supply and demand, with wages calculated on an

estimate of what is strictly necessary to keep a workman from dying of

hunger. And, down in the sphere below, the evil increases, the workmen

agonise with hunger and exasperation, while above them discussion still

goes on, systems are bandied about, and well-meaning persons exhaust

themselves in attempting to apply ridiculously inadequate remedies.

There is much stir without any progress, all the wild bewilderment which

precedes great catastrophes. And among the many, Catholic socialism,

quite as ardent as Revolutionary socialism, enters the lists and strives

to conquer.

After these explanations Pierre gave an account of the long efforts made

by Catholic socialism throughout the Christian world. That which

particularly struck one in this connection was that the warfare became

keener and more victorious whenever it was waged in some land of

propaganda, as yet not completely conquered by Roman Catholicism. For

instance, in the countries where Protestantism confronted the latter, the

priests fought with wondrous passion, as for dear life itself, contending

with the schismatical clergy for possession of the people by dint of

daring, by unfolding the most audacious democratic theories. In Germany,

the classic land of socialism, Mgr. Ketteler was one of the first to

speak of adequately taxing the rich; and later he fomented a wide-spread

agitation which the clergy now directs by means of numerous associations

and newspapers. In Switzerland Mgr. Mermillod pleaded the cause of the

poor so loudly that the bishops there now almost make common cause with

the democratic socialists, whom they doubtless hope to convert when the

day for sharing arrives. In England, where socialism penetrates so very

slowly, Cardinal Manning achieved considerable success, stood by the

working classes on the occasion of a famous strike, and helped on a

popular movement, which was signalised by numerous conversions. But it

was particularly in the United States of America that Catholic socialism

proved triumphant, in a sphere of democracy where the bishops, like Mgr.

Ireland, were forced to set themselves at the head of the working-class

agitation. And there across the Atlantic a new Church seems to be

germinating, still in confusion but overflowing with sap, and upheld by

intense hope, as at the aurora of the rejuvenated Christianity of

to-morrow.

Passing thence to Austria and Belgium, both Catholic countries, one found

Catholic socialism mingling in the first instance with anti-semitism,

while in the second it had no precise sense. And all movement ceased and

disappeared when one came to Spain and Italy, those old lands of faith.

The former with its intractable bishops who contented themselves with

hurling excommunication at unbelievers as in the days of the Inquisition,

seemed to be abandoned to the violent theories of revolutionaries, whilst

Italy, immobilised in the traditional courses, remained without

possibility of initiative, reduced to silence and respect by the presence

of the Holy See. In France, however, the struggle remained keen, but it

was more particularly a struggle of ideas. On the whole, the war was

there being waged against the revolution, and to some it seemed as though

it would suffice to re-establish the old organisation of monarchical

times in order to revert to the golden age. It was thus that the question

of working-class corporations had become the one problem, the panacea for

all the ills of the toilers. But people were far from agreeing; some,

those Catholics who rejected State interference and favoured purely moral

action, desired that the corporations should be free; whilst others, the

young and impatient ones, bent on action, demanded that they should be

obligatory, each with capital of its own, and recognised and protected by

the State.

Viscount Philibert de la Choue had by pen and speech carried on a

vigorous campaign in favour of the obligatory corporations; and his great

grief was that he had so far failed to prevail on the Pope to say whether

in his opinion these corporations should be closed or open. According to

the Viscount, herein lay the fate of society, a peaceful solution of the

social question or the frightful catastrophe which must sweep everything

away. In reality, though he refused to own it, the Viscount had ended by

adopting State socialism. And, despite the lack of agreement, the

agitation remained very great; attempts, scarcely happy in their results,

were made; co-operative associations, companies for erecting workmen's

dwellings, popular savings' banks were started; many more or less

disguised efforts to revert to the old Christian community organisation

were tried; while day by day, amidst the prevailing confusion, in the

mental perturbation and political difficulties through which the country

passed, the militant Catholic party felt its hopes increasing, even to

the blind conviction of soon resuming sway over the whole world.

The second part of Pierre's book concluded by a picture of the moral and

intellectual uneasiness amidst which the end of the century is