‘I should feel embarrassed if your Majesty were to ask me to act
_against_ the Vatican,’ I ventured to say.
‘But suppose I were to ask you to undertake the office of mediator,
to promote a reconciliation between the Papacy and the Italian
nation?’
‘Then, sire, you would be offering me the task which I covet above
all others, and which I should feel to be the crown of my career.’
The young King made a gesture of delight.
‘That is fortunate indeed! Listen, monsieur! From a boy my heart has
bled at the thought of this miserable estrangement, so fraught with
danger to the cause of religion as well as to the national freedom.
In addition I must tell you that I feel very deeply my own position.
I have a conviction that our House cannot prosper while it remains
under the curse of the Church.
‘As far as I am concerned,’ Victor Emmanuel went on, ‘there is no
sacrifice I am not prepared to make, even to the laying down of
my crown, in order to win the forgiveness of the Holy See, and to
establish good relations between the Church and the nation. But I
need not say that I can do nothing by myself. Unless I can succeed in
carrying the Parliament and the people with me, I should simply make
things worse than they are at present.’
His Majesty paused for a minute, and then resumed, watching my face
anxiously.
‘I have been seeking for years for some means of appeasing the Holy
Father that would not be rejected by the secular politicians. And the
plan which has developed itself in my mind is this:--
‘In the Middle Ages, perhaps I need not remind you, the Popes enjoyed
but a scanty authority in the Roman States. Their authority was
defied by the usurping barons, and even in the City of Rome they
frequently saw authority exercised by the senate and people. Yet at
the very same epoch they were wielding tremendous powers over Europe;
they were able to dethrone emperors; a King of England laid down
his crown at the feet of a Papal Legate; and the Kings of Naples
acknowledged the suzerainty of the Popes by an annual tribute.’
I began to see what was coming, and testified my admiration by a
glance.
‘I propose,’ King Victor said impressively, ‘to acknowledge the Holy
Father as the suzerain of the Italian kingdom. I am prepared to lay
my crown at his feet, and to receive it again as his gift. I propose
to hold myself as the vassal of his Holiness, to pay a tribute,
instead of the pension which has been refused, and to exercise my
power of veto over legislation in obedience to the Pope’s directions.
In short, I am willing to efface myself, and to govern Italy as the
deputy of the Holy See.’
I listened with deep emotion to the noble young King as he unfolded
his scheme, a scheme in which it was evident that he intended himself
to be the sacrifice which would procure peace. At the same time I
perceived certain difficulties in the way. The successors of St.
Peter, in modern times at all events, had been accustomed to rule
over their limited dominions as absolute monarchs. Was it to be
hoped that they would consent to accept a constitutional authority
in exchange, even though that authority extended over the whole
peninsula?
Yet the See of Rome, as suzerain of Italy, would be able to re-enter
the field of international politics as a great Power. Alliances might
follow which would place the Pope in the position of president
over a great Catholic league embracing Austria, Spain, Portugal,
Belgium, and possibly France as well, to say nothing of the powerful
leverage which the Church was able to exercise over the policy of
semi-Catholic powers, such as Germany, Great Britain, and the United
States.