Furthermore, German missions seemed to bring with them an additional threat—an attempt to discredit the French claim to an exclusive protectorate over Catholics in the Ottoman Empire. As early as 1875 the German Government declared that “it recognized no exclusive right of protection of any power in behalf of Catholic establishments in the East,” and that “it reserved its rights with regard to German subjects belonging to any of these establishments.”[26] This position appeared to be strengthened by Article 62 of the Treaty of Berlin (1878), which affirmed that “ecclesiastics, pilgrims, and monks of all nationalities traveling in Turkey shall enjoy the same rights, advantages, and privileges. The official right of protection of the diplomatic and consular agents of the Powers in Turkey is recognized, with regard both to the above-mentioned persons and to their religious, charitable, and other establishments in the Holy Places and elsewhere.”[27] In 1885 it was proposed that the Sultan should appoint his own emissary to the Vatican, thus rendering supererogatory the time-honored procedure of transacting all affairs of the Church through the French embassy at Constantinople. French Catholics immediately charged that this proposal emanated from Berlin and did everything possible to oppose its acceptance. Italian and German influences in Rome heartily supported the idea of direct communications between the Vatican and the Porte, but Pope Leo XIII and Cardinal Rampolla finally decided against maintaining diplomatic relations with the Infidel.[28] Largely as a result of Italian insistence that the rights of the diplomatic and consular agents of the Kingdom be given recognition, it was considered advisable for the Pope to state definitely his position on the French protectorate. This he did in an encyclical of May 22, 1888, _Aspera rerum conditio_, which informed all Catholic missionaries in the Levant that “the Protectorate of the French Nation in the countries of the East has been established for centuries and sanctioned even by treaties between the empires. Therefore there must be absolutely no innovation in this matter; this Protectorate, wherever it is in force, is to be religiously preserved, and the missionaries are warned that, if they have need of any help, they are to have recourse to the consuls and other ministers of France.”[29] In a letter dated August 1, 1898, addressed to Cardinal Langénieux, Archbishop of Rheims, Leo XIII again confirmed this opinion: “France has a special mission in the East confided to her by Providence—a noble mission consecrated not alone by ancient usage, but also by international treaties.... The Holy See does not wish to interfere with the glorious patrimony which France has received from its ancestors, and which beyond a doubt it means to deserve by always showing itself equal to its task.”[30] No more sweeping confirmation of French rights could have been desired.