VOL. III.Q
338THE FALLIBILITY
The monstrous credit of Russia at Rome is one of the effects of the influence against which I would have us prepared.* Rome and. Catholicism have no greater, no more dangerous enemy than the Emperor of Russia. Sooner or later, under the auspices of the Greek autocracy, schism will reign alone at Constantinople ; and then the Christian world, divided into two camps, will recognise the wrong done to the Roman church by the political blindness of its head.
That prince, alarmed by the disorder into which the nations were falling on his elevation to the pontifical throne, terrified by the moral evils inflicted upon Europe by our revolutions, without support, alone in the midst of an indifferent or scoffing world, feared nothing so much as the popular commotions from which he had suffered, and seen his contemporaries suffer: ceding, therefore, to the fatal influence of certain narrow minds, he took human prudence for his guide; he became wise according to the fashion of the world, skilful after the manner of men; that is to say, blind and weak in the sight of God: and thus was the cause of Catholicism in Poland deserted by its natural advocate, the visible head of the orthodox church. Are there полу many nations who would sacrifice their soldiers for Rome ? And yet, when, in his nakedness and poverty, the pope still found a people ready to die for him — he excommunicated them ! — he, the only prince on earth who was bound to assist them at the risk of his own life, excommunicated them to please the sovereign of a schismatic nation! The faithful asked each other in dismay, what had become of the indefatigable
* Written in 1839.
OF THE POPE.
339
foresight of the Holy See: the martyrs, smitten with interdiction, saw the Catholic faith sacrificed by Rome to the Greek policy; and Poland, discouraged in her godlike resistance, submitted to her fate without understanding it.*
How is it that the representative of God upon earth has not discovered that, since the treaty of Westphalia, all the Avars of Europe are religious wars ? What carnal prudence is it that can have so disturbed his vision as to have led him to apply to the direction of heavenly things, means proper enough for earthly monarchs, but unworthy of the king of kings ? Their throne has only a transient duration ; his shall endure fur ever — yes, for ever: for the priest who is seated upon that throne would be more great, more clearsighted in the catacombs than he is in the Vatican. Cheated by the subtilty of the sons of the age, he has not penetrated below the surface of things; and, in the aberrations into which his fear-policy has led him, he has forgotten to draw his strength from its only real source — the politics of faith.†
* These remonstrances, which, it is believed, do not overstep the bounds of respect, have been justified by the later edicts of the court of Rome.
† Ignorance on religious points is so 'great in the present day, that a Catholic, a man of talent, to whom I read this passage, interrupted me, saying, " You are no longer a Catholic, you blame the pope!" As if the pope was impeccable, as well as infallible, in matters of faith. Even this infallibility itself is submitted to certain restrictions by the Gallicans, who yet consider themselves Catholic. Has Dante ever been accused of heresy ? Yet what is the language that he addresses to such of the popes as he places in his hell ? The ablest minds of our times fall into a confusion of id¿as that would have excited the Q 2
340A GLAXCE AT
But patience ! the times are ripening ; soon every question will be clearly defined, and truth, defended by its legitimate champions, will regain its empire over the minds of nations. Perhaps the struggle which is preparing will serve to convince Protestants of an essential truth, which I have already more than once dwelt upon, but on which I insist, because it appears ío me the only truth necessary to expedite the reunion of all Christian communities: it is that the only really free priest that exists is the Catholic priest. Everywhere else, except in the Catholic church, the priest is subjected to other laws and other lights than those of his conscience and his doctrine. One trembles on seeing the inconsistencies of the Church of England, as well as the abjectness of the Greek church at Petersburg: when hypocrisy ceases to triumph in England the greater part of the kingdom will again become Catholic. The church of Pome has alone saved the purity of faith by defending throughout the earth, with sublime generosity, with heroic patience, with inflexible conviction, the independence of sacerdotal power against the usurpations of temporal sovereignties. Where is the church which has not allowed itself to be lowered by the different governments of the earth to the rank of a pious police ? There is but one, one only — the Catholic church; and that liberty which she has preserved at the cost of the blood of her martyrs, is an
laughter of the schoolboys of past ages. I answered my critic by referring him to Bossuet. His exposition of Catholic doctrine, confirmed, approved, always praised and adopted by the court of Rome, sufficiently justifies my principles.
THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES.341
eternal principle of life and power. The future is her own, because she has kept herself pure from alloy. Let Protestantism agitate and divide, — to do so is the very principle of its nature; let sects quarrel and dispute, — this is their vocation: the Catholic church waits ! . . . .
The Greco-Russian clergy have never been, and never will be, any thing more than a militia dressed in a uniform rather different from that of the secular troops of the empire.
The distance which separates Russia from the West has wonderfully aided hitherto in veiling all these tilings from us. If the astute Greek policy so much fears the truth, it is because it so well knows how to profit by falsehood; but what surprises me is that it should succeed in perpetuating the reign of that influence.
Can the reader now understand the importance of an opinion, of a sarcastic word, a letter, a jest, a smile, or, with still greater reason, of a book in the eyes of a government thus favoured by the credulity of its people, and by the complaisance of all foreigners ? A word of truth dropped in Russia is a spark that may fall on a barrel of gunpowder.
What do the men who govern the empire care for the want, the pallid visages of the soldiers of the emperor ? Those living spectres have the most beautiful uniforms in Europe; what matters, then, the filthy smocks in which the gilded phantoms are concealed in the interior of their barracks ? Provided they are only shabby and dirty in secret, and that they shine when they show themselves, nothing is asked from them, nothing is given them. With the Q 3
342RUSSIAN ASPIEATIOXS
Russians, appearance is everything, and among them appearance deceives more than it does among others. It follows, that whoever lifts a corner of the curtain loses his reputation in Petersburg beyond the chance of retrieving it.
Social life in that country is a permanent conspiracy against the truth.
There, whoever is not a dupe, is viewed as a traitor, — there, to laugh at a gasconnade, to refute a falsehood, to contradict a political boast, to find a reason for obedience, is to be guilty of an attempt against the safety of the state and the prince; it is to incur the fate of a revolutionist, a conspirator, an enemy of order, a Pole ; and we all know whether this fate is a merciful one. It must be owned the susceptibility which thus manifests itself is more formidable than laughable; the minute surveillance of such a government, in accord with the enlightened vanity of such a people, becomes fearful; it is no longer ludicrous.
People must and ought to employ all manner of precautions under a master who shows mercy to no enemy, who despises no resistance, and who considers vengeance as a duty. This man, or rather this government personified, would view pardon as apostacy, clemency as self-forgetfulness, humanity as a want of respect towards its own majesty, or, I should rather say, its divinity !
Russian civilisation is still so near its source that it resembles barbarism. The Russians are nothing more than a conquering community; their strength does not lie in mind, but in war, that is, in stratagem and ferocity.
OF COXQUEST.343
Poland, by its la
st insurrection, has retarded the explosion of the mine ; it has forced the batteries to remain masked: Poland will never be pardoned for the dissimulation that she has rendered necessary, not towards herself, for she is immolated with impunity, but towards friends whom it is needful to continue making dupes, while managing their stormy philanthropy. The advance-guard of the new Roman Empire, which will be called the Greek Empire, and the most circumspect at the same time that he is the most blind of the kings of Europe*, to please his neighbour, who is also his master, is commencing a religious war. If he can be thus led astray, it will be easy to seduce others.
If ever'the Russians succeed in conquering theAYest, they will not govern it from their own country, after the manner of the old Mongols; on the contrary, there will be nothing in which they will show such eager haste as to issue from their icy plains : unlike theù· ancient masters, the Tartars, who tyrannised over the Slavonians from a distance — for the climate of Muscovy frightened even the Mongols — the Muscovites will leave their country the moment the roads of other countries are open to them.
At this moment they talk moderation ; they protest against the conquest of Constantinople ; they say that they fear every thing that would increase an empire where the distances are already a calamity; they dread — yes! even thus far extends their prudence ! — they dread hot climates ! . . . . Let us wait a little, and we shall see what will become of all these fears.
* Written of the late King of Prussia, in 1839. Q 4
344
THE PROSPECTS OF
And am I not to speak of so much falsehood, so many perils, so great an evil ? . . . . No, no; I would rather have been deceived and speak, than have rightly discerned and remain silent. If there is temerity in recounting my observations there would be criminality in concealing them.
The Russians will not answer me; they will say, " A journey of four months ! — he cannot have fully seen things."
It is true I have not fully seen, but I have fully devined.
Or, if they do me the honour of refuting me, they will deny facts,— facts which they are accustomed to reckon as nothing in Petersburg, where the past, like the present and the future, is at the mercy of the monarch : for, once again, the Russians have nothing of their own but obedience and imitation; the direction of their mind, their judgment, and their free-will belongs to their master. In Russia, history forms a part of the crown domain : it is the moral estate of the prince, as men and lands are the material ; it is placed in cabinets with the other imperial treasures, and only such of it is shown as it is wished should be seen. The emperor modifies at his pleasure the annals of the country, and daily dispenses to his people the historic truths that accord with the fiction of the moment. Thus it was that Minine and Pojarski — heroes forgotten for two centuries — were suddenly exhumed, and became the fashion, during the invasion of Napoleon. At that moment, the government permitted patriotio enthu` siasrn.
Nevertheless, this exorbitant power injures itself; Russia will not submit to it eternally. A spirit of
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revolt broods in the army. I say, with the emperor, the Russians have travelled too much; the nation has become greedy of information: the custom-house cannot confiscate ideas, armies cannot exterminate them, ramparts cannot arrest their progress; ideas are in the air, they pervade every region, and they arc сЬашшш the world.*
From all that has gone before, it»follows that the"fu-. ture— that brilliant future dreamt of by the Russians — does not depend upon them; they have,no ideas of their own ; and the fate of this nation of imitators will be decided by people whose ideas are their own. If passions calm in the West, if union be established between the governments and their subjects, the greedy hope of the conquering Slavonians will become a chimera.
Is it proper to repeat, that I write without animosity, that I have described things without traducing persons, and that, in expatiating upon certain facts which have shocked me, I have generally accused less than I have recounted ?
I left Paris with the opinion, that the intimate alliance of France and Russia could alone set to rights the affairs of Europe: but since I have seen the Russian nation, and have recognised the true spirit of its government, I have felt that it is isolated from the rest of the civilised world by a powerful
* Since this has been written, the emperor has permitted a crowd of Russians to make a stay in Paris. He, perhaps, thinks he may cure the innovators of their dreams, by showing them France, which is represented to him as a volcano of revolutions, as a country, the residence in which must for ever disgust them with political reforms: he deceives himself, Q 5
346 ALLIANCE OF FRANCE AND GERMANY.
political interest, supported by religious fanaticism; and I am of opinion, that France should seek for allies among nations whose interests accord with her own. Alliances are not to be formed on opinions in opposition to wants. "Where, in Europe, are wants which accord ? I answer, among the French and the Germans, and the people naturally destined to serve as satellites to those two great nations. The destinies of a progressive civilisation, a civilisation sincere and national, will be decided in the heart of Europe : every thing which tends to hasten the perfect agreement of French and German policy is beneficent ; every thing which retards that union, however specious be the motive for delay, is pernicious.
War is going to break out between philosophy and faith, between politics and religion, between Protestantism and Catholicism; and the banner raised by France in this gigantic struggle will decide the fate of the world, of the Church, and above all, of France herself.
The proof that the kind of alliance to which I aspire is good, is that a time will come when we shall not have it in our power to choose any other.
As a foreigner, especially as a foreigner who writes, I was overwhelmed with protestations of politeness by the Russians: but their obliging civilities were limited to promises; no one gave me facilities for seeing into the depths of things. A crowd of mysteries have remained impenetrable to my intellect. A year spent in the journey would have but little aided me; the inconveniences of winter seemed to me the more formidable, because the inhabitants assured me that they were of little consequence. They think nothing of paralysed limbs and frozen faces;
THE GREEK RELIGION IN RUSSIA.347
though I could cite more than one instance of accidents of this kind happening even to ladies in the highest circles of society, both foreign and Russian ; and once attaeked, the individual feels the effects all his life. I had no wish uselessly to brave together these evils, with the tedious precautions that would be necessary to avoid them. Besides, in this empire of profound silence, of vast empty spaces, of naked country, of solitary towns, of prudent physiognomies, whose expression, by no-means sincere, made society itself appear empty, melancholy was gaining hold upon me ; I fled before the spleen as much as the cold. Whoever would pass a winter at Petersburg must resign himself for six months to forget nature, in order to live imprisoned among men who have nothing in their characters that is natural.* I admit, ingenuously, I have passed a wretched summer in Russia, because I have not been able well to understand beyond a small portion of what I have seen. I hoped to arrive at solutions; I bring back only problems.
There is one mystery which I more especially regret my inability to penetrate : I allude to the little influence of religion. Notwithstanding the political servitude of the Greek Church, might it not at least preserve some moral authority over the people ? It does not possess any. What is the cause of the nothingness of a church whose labours every thing seems to
* I have found, in the newly-published Letters of Lady Montague, a maxim of the Turkish courtiers, applicable to all courtiers, but more especially to the Russian ; it will serve to mark the relations, of which more than one sort exist, between Turkey and Muscovy : — " Caress the favoured, shun the unfortunate, and trust nobody."
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348
INTOLERANCE OF
favour ? This is the problem. Is it the property of the Greek religion to remain thus stationary, contenting itself with external marks of respect ? Is such a result inevitable whenever the spiritual power falls into absolute dependence upon the temporal? I believe so: but this is what I could have wished to be able to prove by means of facts and documents. However I will, in a few words, give the resiút of my observations on the relations between the Russian clergy and people.
I have seen in Russia a Christian church, which no one attacks, which every one, in appearance at least, respects — a church which every thing favours in the exercise of its moral authority; and yet this church has no influence over the heart; it makes no other than hypocritical or superstitious votaries.
In a land where religion is not respected, it is not responsible: but here, where all the influence of absolute power aids the priest in the accomplishment of 'his work, where doctrine is not attacked either in print or in discourse, where religious practices have, so to speak, become a law of the state, where the customs of the people, which among us oppose faith, serve its cause, the church may be reasonably reproached for its sterility. That church is lifeless; and yet, to judge by what passes in Poland, it can persecute, though it has not the high virtues and talents that might enable it to proselyte : in short, the Russian church, like every thing else in the country, wants that spirit of liberty without which the light of life goes out.
Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia Page 92