IN these days of weak-kneed charity and Laodicean indifference, it is encouraging to find that the proposed visit of the King and Queen to the Pope is arousing Protestant opinion in different parts of the country in a way that has not been done for some time. The King’s advisers seem bent on setting up permanent diplomatic relations with the Vatican, and unless we are greatly mistaken, this proposed visit is a deep-laid scheme on the part of some one to have this end an accomplished fact. It has long been known that some of the permanent officials responsible for diplomatic arrangements are faithful servants of the Pope, and it is evident they are working hard to bring Britain into line with Roman Catholic nations in their acknowledgment of the Vatican. It is humiliating that a Protestant country with such a history as ours should be linked to the Pope’s chariot, notwithstanding the solemn obligations under which our Sovereign has come, and the grief which it is giving to some of his best and most loyal subjects. The policy of the British Foreign Office has long awakened suspicion in the minds of true Protestants by its want of straightforwardness in dealing with the question of the Envoy to the Vatican. Indeed, so lacking is it in straightforwardness in this matter that one has no difficulty in believing that its policy is more the work of a Jesuit than that of a Protestant. Notwithstanding the promise made that the appointment was only for a time, and that it was to keep the See of Rome informed of certain matters of interest to Britain during the War, the Envoy is still at the Vatican. Time and again requests have been made for his withdrawal, but up to the present no response has been given to these, and now, emboldened by the success of their policy, the Romish wire-pullers have gone a step further, and planned this visit to the Pope.
We have no desire to be alarmists, but these are days in which Kings, if ever they required the support of loyal subjects, require them now. The red fires of revolution have not burned out in this country, though they have, for the time, been checked, and it is a mad policy on the part of the King’s advisers to weaken the loyalty of the truest of his Majesty’s subjects by allowing this public recognition on the part of a Protestant Sovereign of the Head of the Roman Church. This is not a matter of international politics with them, but a matter in which the claims of conscience assert themselves. The policy against which we protest is in line with that which has long been recognised by the King’s responsible Ministers. One point after another of our Protestant safeguards has been yielded in the interests of toleration to a Church which, while claiming it in Protestant countries, will not allow it where it is supreme itself. Should the above be an astute move on the part of the Pope’s servants to establish permanent diplomatic relations with Rome, the question of the provisions of the Bill of Rights must arise, and necessitate new legislation. The following is the clause in the Bill of Rights:—”Every person and persons, that is, are, or shall be reconciled to, or shall hold communion with the See or Church of Rome, or shall profess the Popish religion, or shall marry a Papist, shall be excluded and be for ever incapable to inherit, possess, or enjoy the Crown and Government of this Realm.” These words are plain enough, and indicate what must happen if diplomatic relations are established with Rome. But apart altogether from the infringement or prospective infringement of legal enactments, the whole question deeply affects us as faithful Christians. The acknowledgment in a complimentary or honorific way of the Head of that Church whose general teaching is so antagonistic to the gospel of Jesus Christ is a matter to us not of indifference, but of grief. We cannot forget the claims made by the Sovereign Pontiff himself, to say nothing of the false teaching of Rome in regard to the way of salvation, to feel that we, as citizens of a Protestant kingdom, are seriously compromised when our Sovereign thus publicly makes his obeisance to the Pope. The King of the greatest power that has ever existed in this world, and a Protestant power at that, is not at liberty to do as he pleases, but must follow the Vatican etiquette, however much it may inconvenience him. He is not permitted, as will be seen from the following paragraph, quoted from the “Evening Standard,” to visit the Pope from the palace of the King of Italy, whose guest he is:—
“When the King and Queen visit Rome they will find that, despite the excellent relations between the Quirinal and the Vatican, the regulations of the Holy See remain uncomfortably strict. They will have to drive to the Vatican for their audience with the Pope from the British Legation to the Holy See, and not from the British Embassy to the Quirinal or from the Quirinal Palace itself. As the Pope still does not recognise Victor Emmanuel as King of Italy, King George comes, as it were, direct from British territory when he leaves the Legation, and to the Legation he must return after the audience to await the visit of Cardinal Gasparri, the Secretary of State. After that, he is free to do as he pleases, and will proceed to the apartment in the Quirinal Palace, as the guest of the King of Italy.”