Germany -- Foreign relations -- 1871-1918; William II, German Emperor, 1859-1941
The German Church in Palestine certainly never expected to see the
_summus episcopus_ adopting an attitude of extreme humility in that
country. If any simple-minded Lutheran were to address the Kaiser in
the streets of Jerusalem, after the manner of the Hungarian workman,
who saw the archbishop primate, all glittering with gold in his gala
coach, passing over the Buda bridge, William II would answer him in the
same style as did the archbishop: "That is just the sort of carriage in
which Jesus used to drive," exclaimed the workman. The archbishop
heard him, and leaning from the carriage door, replied: "Jesus, my good
fellow, was the son of a carpenter. I am the son of a magnate, and
Archbishop Primate of Hungary."
William II undoubtedly believes that he does Christ an honour in going
to visit Him. He goes in the full pride of a personality which sees in
itself all the great events of the past, gathered together as in an
historic procession. He goes, with all the pomp and circumstance of a
glorious omnipotence, he, whose diplomacy has made a protege of the
Khalif and a footstool of the Crescent--he goes, I say, to manifest
himself as the Emperor of Christianity.
Was all then to be lost to us at a stroke--the Crusades, all the moral
and economic interests of France in the East, that secular protectorate
of which we, the possessors, make so light whilst William II devotes to
its conquest all the resources of his skill and cunning? Not so! Our
Minister of Foreign Affairs was on the alert. William XI, who is an
artistic walking advertisement, designed, like a Mucha or a Cheret, for
the German market, has now had evidence of the fact that, if religion
is an article of export for him, anti-clericalism is nothing of the
kind for us. Our interests in the East have been protected and
preserved. The Pope of Lutheranism has not been able to silence the
Pope of Rome. The radical Republic which represents France remains the
grand-daughter of Saint Louis. On hearing the authoritative news of
William II's journey to Jerusalem, Cardinal Langenieux, Archbishop of
Rheims, begged Leo XIII for "a reassuring word." Up to the present,
the Holy See has recognised our Protectorate in the East as a simple
fact; to-day it is recognised as a right. Here is the "reassuring
word," the answer given by Leo XIII to Cardinal Langenieux:--
"We know that for centuries the French nation's protectorate has been
established in Eastern Countries and that it has been confirmed by
treaties between governments. Therefore no change whatsoever should be
made in this matter. This nation's protectorate, wherever it is
exercised, should be religiously maintained and missionaries must be
notified accordingly, so that, if they have need of help, they may have
recourse to the Consuls and other agents of the French nation."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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