IV
A white figure sat in the green gloom, beside a great writing-table,three or four yards away, but with the chair wheeled round to face thedoor by which the two entered. So much Percy saw as he performed thefirst genuflection. Then he dropped his eyes, advanced, genuflectedagain with the other, advanced once more, and for the third timegenuflected, lifting the thin white hand, stretched out, to his lips. Heheard the door close as he stood up.
"Father Franklin, Holiness," said the Cardinal's voice at his ear.
A white-sleeved arm waved to a couple of chairs set a yard away, and thetwo sat down.
* * * * *
While the Cardinal, talking in slow Latin, said a few sentences,explaining that this was the English priest whose correspondence hadbeen found so useful, Percy began to look with all his eyes.
He knew the Pope's face well, from a hundred photographs and movingpictures; even his gestures were familiar to him, the slight bowing ofthe head in assent, the tiny eloquent movement of the hands; but Percy,with a sense of being platitudinal, told himself that the livingpresence was very different.
It was a very upright old man that he saw in the chair before him, ofmedium height and girth, with hands clasping the bosses of hischair-arms, and an appearance of great and deliberate dignity. But itwas at the face chiefly that he looked, dropping his gaze three or fourtimes, as the Pope's blue eyes turned on him. They were extraordinaryeyes, reminding him of what historians said of Pius X.; the lids drewstraight lines across them, giving him the look of a hawk, but the restof the face contradicted them. There was no sharpness in that. It wasneither thin nor fat, but beautifully modelled in an oval outline: thelips were clean-cut, with a look of passion in their curves; the nosecame down in an aquiline sweep, ending in chiselled nostrils; the chinwas firm and cloven, and the poise of the whole head was strangelyyouthful. It was a face of great generosity and sweetness, set at anangle between defiance and humility, but ecclesiastical from ear to earand brow to chin; the forehead was slightly compressed at the temples,and beneath the white cap lay white hair. It had been the subject oflaughter at the music-halls nine years before, when the composite faceof well-known priests had been thrown on a screen, side by side with thenew Pope's, for the two were almost indistinguishable.
Percy found himself trying to sum it up, but nothing came to him exceptthe word "priest." It was that, and that was all. _Ecce sacerdosmagnus!_ He was astonished at the look of youth, for the Pope waseighty-eight this year; yet his figure was as upright as that of a manof fifty, his shoulders unbowed, his head set on them like an athlete's,and his wrinkles scarcely perceptible in the half light. _PapaAngelicus!_ reflected Percy.
The Cardinal ceased his explanations, and made a little gesture. Percydrew up all his faculties tense and tight to answer the questions thathe knew were coming.
"I welcome you, my son," said a very soft, resonant voice.
Percy bowed, desperately, from the waist.
The Pope dropped his eyes again, lifted a paper-weight with his lefthand, and began to play with it gently as he talked.
"Now, my son, deliver a little discourse. I suggest to you threeheads--what has happened, what is happening, what will happen, with aperoration as to what should happen."
Percy drew a long breath, settled himself back, clasped the fingers ofhis left hand in the fingers of his right, fixed his eyes firmly uponthe cross-embroidered red shoe opposite, and began. (Had he notrehearsed this a hundred times!)
* * * * *
He first stated his theme; to the effect that all the forces of thecivilised world were concentrating into two camps--the world and God. Upto the present time the forces of the world had been incoherent andspasmodic, breaking out in various ways--revolutions and wars had beenlike the movements of a mob, undisciplined, unskilled, and unrestrained.To meet this, the Church, too, had acted through her Catholicity--dispersion rather than concentration: _franc-tireurs_ had been opposedto _franc-tireurs_. But during the last hundred years there had beenindications that the method of warfare was to change. Europe, at anyrate, had grown weary of internal strife; the unions first of Labour,then of Capital, then of Labour and Capital combined, illustrated thisin the economic sphere; the peaceful partition of Africa in thepolitical sphere; the spread of Humanitarian religion in the spiritualsphere. Over against this must be placed the increased centralisation ofthe Church. By the wisdom of her pontiffs, over-ruled by God Almighty,the lines had been drawing tighter every year. He instanced theabolition of all local usages, including those so long cherished by theEast, the establishment of the Cardinal-Protectorates in Rome, theenforced merging of all friars into one Order, though retaining theirfamiliar names, under the authority of the supreme General; all monks,with the exception of the Carthusians, the Carmelites and the Trappists,into another; of the three excepted into a third; and the classificationof nuns after the same plan. Further, he remarked on the more recentdecrees, establishing the sense of the Vatican decision oninfallibility, the new version of Canon Law, the immense simplificationthat had taken place in ecclesiastical government, the hierarchy,rubrics and the affairs of missionary countries, with the new andextraordinary privileges granted to mission priests. At this point hebecame aware that his self-consciousness had left him, and he began,even with little gestures, and a slightly raised voice, to enlarge onthe significance of the last month's events.
All that had gone before, he said, pointed to what had now actuallytaken place--namely, the reconciliation of the world on a basis otherthan that of Divine Truth. It was the intention of God and of His Vicarsto reconcile all men in Christ Jesus; but the corner-stone had once morebeen rejected, and instead of the chaos that the pious had prophesied,there was coming into existence a unity unlike anything known inhistory. This was the more deadly from the fact that it contained somany elements of indubitable good. War, apparently, was now extinct, andit was not Christianity that had done it; union was now seen to bebetter than disunion, and the lesson had been learned apart from theChurch. In fact, natural virtues had suddenly waxed luxuriant, andsupernatural virtues were despised. Friendliness took the place ofcharity, contentment the place of hope, and knowledge the place offaith.
Percy stopped, he had become conscious that he was preaching a kind ofsermon.
"Yes, my son," said the kind voice. "What else?"
What else?... Very well, continued Percy, movements such as thesebrought forth men, and the Man of this movement was Julian Felsenburgh.He had accomplished a work that--apart from God--seemed miraculous. Hehad broken down the eternal division between East and West, cominghimself from the continent that alone could produce such powers; he hadprevailed by sheer force of personality over the two supreme tyrants oflife religious fanaticism and party government. His influence over theimpassive English was another miracle, yet he had also set on fireFrance, Germany, and Spain. Percy here described one or two of hislittle scenes, saying that it was like the vision of a god: and hequoted freely some of the titles given to the Man by sober, unhystericalnewspapers. Felsenburgh was called the Son of Man, because he was sopure-bred a cosmopolitan; the Saviour of the World, because he had slainwar and himself survived--even--even--here Percy's voice faltered--evenIncarnate God, because he was the perfect representative of divine man.
The quiet, priestly face watching opposite never winced or moved; and hewent on.
Persecution, he said, was coming. There had been a riot or two already.But persecution was not to be feared. It would no doubt causeapostasies, as it had always done, but these were deplorable only onaccount of the individual apostates. On the other hand, it wouldreassure the faithful; and purge out the half-hearted. Once, in theearly ages, Satan's attack had been made on the bodily side, with whipsand fire and beasts; in the sixteenth century it had been on theintellectual side; in the twentieth century on the springs of moral andspiritual life. Now it seemed as if the assault was on all three planesat once. But what was chiefly to be feared was the positive influence ofHumanitariani
sm: it was coming, like the kingdom of God, with power; itwas crushing the imaginative and the romantic, it was assuming ratherthan asserting its own truth; it was smothering with bolsters instead ofwounding and stimulating with steel or controversy. It seemed to beforcing its way, almost objectively, into the inner world. Persons whohad scarcely heard its name were professing its tenets; priests absorbedit, as they absorbed God in Communion--he mentioned the names of therecent apostates--children drank it in like Christianity itself. Thesoul "naturally Christian" seemed to be becoming "the soul naturallyinfidel." Persecution, cried the priest, was to be welcomed likesalvation, prayed for, and grasped; but he feared that the authoritieswere too shrewd, and knew the antidote and the poison apart. There mightbe individual martyrdoms--in fact there would be, and very many--butthey would be in spite of secular government, not because of it.Finally, he expected, Humanitarianism would presently put on the dressof liturgy and sacrifice, and when that was done, the Church's cause,unless God intervened, would be over.
Percy sat back, trembling.
"Yes, my son. And what do you think should be done?"
Percy flung out his hands.
"Holy Father--the mass, prayer, the rosary. These first and last. Theworld denies their power: it is on their power that Christians mustthrow all their weight. All things in Jesus Christ--in Jesus Christ,first and last. Nothing else can avail. He must do all, for we can donothing."
The white head bowed. Then it rose erect.
"Yes, my son.... But so long as Jesus Christ deigns to use us, we mustbe used. He is Prophet and King as well as Priest. We then, too, must beprophet and king as well as priest. What of Prophecy and Royalty?"
The voice thrilled Percy like a trumpet.
"Yes, Holiness.... For prophecy, then, let us preach charity; forRoyalty, let us reign on crosses. We must love and suffer...." (He drewone sobbing breath.) "Your Holiness has preached charity always. Letcharity then issue in good deeds. Let us be foremost in them; let usengage in trade honestly, in family life chastely, in governmentuprightly. And as for suffering--ah! Holiness!"
His old scheme leaped back to his mind, and stood poised thereconvincing and imperious.
"Yes, my son, speak plainly."
"Your Holiness--it is old--old as Rome--every fool has desired it: a newOrder, Holiness--a new Order," he stammered.
The white hand dropped the paper-weight; the Pope leaned forward,looking intently at the priest.
"Yes, my son?"
Percy threw himself on his knees.
"A new Order, Holiness--no habit or badge--subject to your Holinessonly--freer than Jesuits, poorer than Franciscans, more mortified thanCarthusians: men and women alike--the three vows with the intention ofmartyrdom; the Pantheon for their Church; each bishop responsible fortheir sustenance; a lieutenant in each country.... (Holiness, it is thethought of a fool.) ... And Christ Crucified for their patron."
The Pope stood up abruptly--so abruptly that Cardinal Martin sprang uptoo, apprehensive and terrified. It seemed that this young man had gonetoo far.
Then the Pope sat down again, extending his hand.
"God bless you, my son. You have leave to go.... Will your Eminence stayfor a few minutes?"
Lord of the World Page 23
