“I have had the curiosity,” Cæsar wrote to his friend Alzugaray, “to
inform myself about the life of the Borgias, and going on from one to
another, I reached Saint Francis Borgia; and from Saint Francis I have
gone backwards to Saint Ignatius Loyola.
“The parallelism between the doings of Cæsar Borgia and of Iñigo de
Loyola surprised me; what one tried to do in the sphere of action, the
other did in the sphere of thought. These twin Spanish figures, both
odious to the masses, have given its direction to the Church; one,
Loyola, through the impulse to spiritual power; the other, Cæsar
Borgia, through the impulse to temporal power.
“One may say that Spain gave Papal Rome its thought and activity, as
it gave the Rome of the Cæsars also its thought and activity, through
Seneca and Trajan.
“Really it is curious to see the traces that remain in Rome of
that Basque, Iñigo. That half farceur, half ruffian, who had the
characteristics of a modern anarchist, was a genius for organization.
Bakunin and Mazzini are poor devils beside him. The Church still lives
through Loyola. He was her last reformer.
“The Society of Jesus is the knot of the whole Catholic scaffolding; the
Jesuits know that on the day when this knot, which their Society forms,
is cut or pulled open, the whole frame-work of out-of-date ideas and
lies, which defends the Vatican, will come down with a terrible noise.
“Rome lives on Jesuitism. Indubitably, without Loyola, Catholicism would
have rotted away much sooner. It is obvious that this would have been
better, but we are not talking about that. A good general is not one who
defends just causes, but one who wins battles.
“The Borgias, Luther, and Saint Ignatius, between them, killed the
predominance of the Latin race.
“The Borgias threw discredit on the free Renaissance life, before the
face of all nations; Luther removed the centre of spiritual life and
philosophy to Germany and England; Saint Ignatius prevented Roman
Catholicism from rotting away; he put iron braces on the body that was
doubling over with weakness, and inside his braces the body has gone on
decomposing and has poisoned the Latin countries.
“On hearing this opinion here, they asked me:
“‘Then you think Catholicism is dead?’
“‘No, no; as to having any civilizing effect, it is dead; but as to
having a sentimental effect, it is very much alive... and it will still
unfortunately keep on being alive. All this business of the Virgin
del Pilar and the Virgin del Carmen, and saints, and processions, and
magnificent churches, is a terrible strength.... If there were an
emancipated bourgeoisie and a sensible working class, Catholicism would
not be a peril; but there are not, and Catholicism will have, not
perhaps an overpowering expansion, but at least moments of new growth.
While we have a lazy rich class and a brutalized poor class, Catholicism
will be strong.’
“Leaving the utilitarian and moral questions aside, and considering
merely the amount of influence and the traces left by this influence,
one can see that Rome is living on Loyola’s work and still dreaming
of Borgia’s. Those pilgrims in the Piazza di San Pietro who
enthusiastically yell, _Viva il Papa-re!_ are acclaiming the memory of
Cæsar Borgia. Thus you have the absurd result, people who speak with
horror of an historic figure and still hold his work in admiration.
“This Spanish influence that our country gave to the Church in two ways,
spiritual and material,--to the Church which now is an institution not
merely foreign but contrary to our nature,--Spain ought today to try
to use in her own behalf. Spain’s work ought to be to organize
extra-religious individualism.
“We are individualists; therefore what we need is an iron discipline,
like soldiers.
“This discipline established, we ought to spread it through the
contiguous countries, especially through Africa. Democracy, the
Republic, Socialism, have not, essentially, any root in our land.
Families, cities, classes, can be united in a pact; isolated men, like
us, can be united only by discipline.
“Moreover, as for us, we do not recognize prestige, nor do we cheerfully
accept either kings or presidents or high priests or grand magi.
“The only thing that would suit us would be to have a chief... for the
pleasure of eating him alive.
“A Loyola of the extra-religious individualism is what Spain needs.
Deeds, always deeds, and a cold philosophy, realistic, based on deeds,
and a morality based on action. Don’t you agree?
“I think, and I am becoming more confirmed in my opinion, that the only
people who can give a direction, found a new civilization with its own
proper characteristics, for that old Iberian race, which probably sprang
from the shores of the Mediterranean... is we Spaniards.
“‘Why only you Spaniards?’ my friend Kennedy asked me; and I told him:
“‘To me it seems indubitable. France is leaning constantly more towards
the North. In Italy the same is true; Milan and Turin, where the Saxon
and the Gaul predominate, are the real capitals of Italy. In Spain,
however, this does not happen. We are separated from the rest of Europe
by the Pyrenees, and joined to Africa by the sea and climate. Our plan
ought to be to construct a great European Empire, to impose our ideas on
the peninsula, and then to spread them everywhere.’”