Pope Gregory XVI Defends Monarchy

Some monarchist wisdom from His Holiness Pope Gregory XVI from his encyclical "Mirari Vos" which dealt with the threats of liberalism and religious indifferentism. The wise and reactionary (I repeat myself) Pope said:

We have learned that certain teachings are being spread among the common people in writings which attack the trust and submission due to princes; the torches of treason are being lit everywhere. Care must be taken lest the people, being deceived, are led away from the straight path. May all recall, according to the admonition of the apostle that "there is no authority except from God; what
authority there is has been appointed by God. Therefore he who resists authority resists the ordinances of God; and those who resist bring on themselves condemnation." Therefore both divine and human laws cry out against those who strive by treason and sedition to drive the people from confidence in their princes and force them from their government.

And it is for this reason that the early Christians, lest they should be stained by such great infamy deserved well of the emperors and of the safety of the state even while persecution raged. This they proved splendidly by their fidelity in performing perfectly and promptly whatever they were commanded which was not opposed to their religion, and even more by their constancy and the shedding of their blood in battle. "Christian soldiers," says St. Augustine, "served an infidel emperor.
When the issue of Christ was raised, they acknowledged no one but the One who is in heaven. They distinguished the eternal Lord from the temporal lord, but were also subject to the temporal lord for the sake of the eternal Lord." St. Mauritius, the unconquered martyr and leader of the Theban legion had this in mind when, as St. Eucharius reports, he answered the emperor in these words: "We
are your soldiers, Emperor, but also servants of God, and this we confess freely . . . and now this final necessity of life has not driven us into rebellion: I see, we are armed and we do not resist, because we wish rather to die than to be killed." Indeed the faith of the early Christians shines more brightly, if with Tertullian we consider that since the Christians were not lacking in numbers and
in troops, they could have acted as foreign enemies. "We are but of yesterday," he says, "yet we have filled all your cities, islands, fortresses, municipalities, assembly places, the camps themselves, the tribes, the divisions, the palace, the senate, the forum....For what war should we not have
been fit and ready even if unequal in forces -- we who are so glad to be cut to pieces -- were it not, of course, that in our doctrine we would have been permitted more to be killed rather than to kill?...If so great a multitude of people should have deserted to some remote spot on earth, it would surely have
covered your domination with shame because of the loss of so many citizens, and it would even have punished you by this very desertion. Without a doubt you would have been terrified at your solitude.... You would have sought whom you might rule; more enemies than citizens would have remained for you. Now however you have fewer enemies because of the multitude of Christians."

These beautiful examples of the unchanging subjection to the princes necessarily proceeded from the most holy precepts of the Christian religion. They condemn the detestable insolence and improbity of those who, consumed with the unbridled lust for freedom, are entirely devoted to impairing and destroying all rights of dominion while bringing servitude to the people under the slogan of liberty.
Here surely belong the infamous and wild plans of the Waldensians, the Beghards, the Wycliffites, and other such sons of Belial, who were the sores and disgrace of the human race; they often received a richly deserved anathema from the Holy See. For no other reason do experienced deceivers devote their efforts, except so that they, along with Luther, might joyfully deem themselves "free of all."
To attain this end more easily and quickly, they undertake with audacity any infamous plan whatever.

This encyclical, though taking some shots at the non-Catholic, was, like most encyclicals, directed primarily at Catholics as during the time liberalism and revolutionary agitation was taking root in several Catholic countries which were under the rule of a foreign (and usually non-Catholic) monarch. Gregory XVI was having none of that!

Papal Profile: Pope Gregory XVI

Not surprisingly Pope Gregory XVI is one of my favorites, not surprising because he was one of the most notably reactionary pontiffs in Church history. He was born Bartolomeo Alberto Cappellari on September 18, 1765 at Belluno to a modest but noble family. He entered the monastery when he was very young and was known from his earliest writings to be a staunch defender of orthodoxy though in time he would become most known for his political conservatism. This is not surprising given the times he was born into; Europe post-French Revolution. He saw the devastation inflicted on Italy by the revolutionary armies and the kidnapping of Pope Pius VII.

Once the Pope was restored in Rome in 1814 Father Cappellari rose further up the Church hierarchy becoming a councilor of the Holy Office of the Inquisition, prefect for the Congregation of the Propagation of the Faith and examiner of bishops. In 1825 Pope Leo XII created him Cardinal-Priest of San Callisto and soon after was sent to arrange a concordat with the Kingdom of the United Netherlands on the Catholic population of what would later become Belgium. Coming out of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars he was a staunch enemy of revolutions of any sort, even when carried out by Catholics against non-Catholic rulers. Part of his diplomatic work included making peace between the Armenian Catholics and the Ottoman Sultan and to entreat the Catholics of Poland to remain loyal to the Orthodox Czar Nicholas I of Russia. It would do, after all, if the “Iron Czar” had to send troops to put down rebellions in Poland while he was supporting the cause of the Catholic royalists in France.

In 1830 Pope Pius VIII died and after 64 days of deliberations Cardinal Cappellari was chosen to succeed him, in 1831, taking the name Pope Gregory XVI. He was, incidentally, the last Pope to be elected without having been a bishop. He came to the Petrine Throne just after the Bourbons had again been driven from the throne of France and he was quick to assert his support for the “Old Order” as well as what would become known as ‘Ultramontanism’; the strengthening of the absolute authority of the Pontiff. As political upheaval grew in Italy, encouraged by events in France and looking forward to the Revolutions of 1848, Gregory XVI had to call on the Emperor of Austria to put down rebellions and restore order in the Papal States. Gregory XVI was effectively faced with his own “War on Terror”.

Pope Gregory opposed innovation of almost any kind and is probably most famous for his opposition to gas street lights and railways (something Czar Alexander III was also not wild about btw). All of which is obviously to his credit. He feared the rise of a liberal upper-middle class elite in the Papal States and opposed any sort of political concessions. Soon, Gregory XVI was perhaps the most hated man in Europe amongst leftist circles, not only in Italy but also in places abroad like Ireland where he urged Irish Catholics to be loyal to their Protestant British monarch. He sympathized with them naturally but his bottom line was absolute opposition to any revolution.

One of the telling statements of Pope Gregory XVI on liberalism was: “This shameful font of indifferentism gives rise to that absurd and erroneous proposition which claims that liberty of conscience must be maintained for everyone. It spreads ruin in sacred and civil affairs, though some repeat over and over again with the greatest impudence that some advantage accrues to religion from it. "But the death of the soul is worse than freedom of error," as Augustine was wont to say. When all restraints are removed by which men are kept on the narrow path of truth, their nature, which is already inclined to evil, propels them to ruin.” Obviously liberals within the Church and without regarded him as a horrible reactionary.

However, Gregory XVI does not often get credit for his other positions, for instance, his signing of the apostolic constitution condemning slavery in 1839. He was also a generous (some would say too generous) a patron of the arts, architecture and completed a number of defensive and engineering reforms for the city of Rome. He was also an extremely compassionate man who pardoned a great many criminals who had opposed him -and would continue to oppose the Papacy in the future- but he also had no qualms about putting those to death who crossed the line into violent rebellion. He was strict but fair and always made it clear where the line was that could not be crossed. Contrary to popular belief he did carry out a number of reforms in the Papal States but he would never allow for popular election or any laymen holding office on par with the Sacred College as some urged. His Holiness died on June 1, 1846 and was succeeded by Pius IX who would have to face the full force of the enemies Gregory had tried to fend off.