THE POPE IN VIENNA.
A report, almost incredible, was obtaining currency in Vienna. It was
said that the pope was about to visit the emperor. Many a German
emperor, in centuries gone by, had made his pilgrimage to Rome; but
never before had the vicar of Christ honored the sovereign of Austria by
coming to him.
Pius VI., confounded by the headlong innovations of Joseph, and
trembling lest his reforms should end in a total subversion of religion,
had resolved, in the extremity of his distress, to become a pilgrim
himself, and to visit the enemy in his own stronghold.
To this intent he had dispatched an autographic letter announcing his
intention, to which the emperor had replied by another, expressive of
his extreme anxiety to become personally acquainted with his holiness,
and to do him all filial reverence. Furthermore, he begged that the pope
would relinquish his intention of taking up his abode at the nuncio, and
would consent to be the guest of the imperial family.
The pope having graciously acceded to this wish, the apartments of the
late empress were prepared for his occupation. Now Joseph was quite
aware that these apartments abounded in secret doors and private
stairways, by which Maria Theresa's many petitioners had been accustomed
to find their way to the privy purse of the munificent empress, and so
had diminished the imperial treasury of several millions.
The emperor, dreading lest these secret avenues should be used by the
friends of the church to visit the pope in private, caused the stairways
to be demolished, and all the doors to be walled up. He allowed but one
issue from the apartments of his holiness. This one led into the grand
corridor, and was guarded by two sentries, who had orders to allow
nobody to enter who was unprovided with a pass signed by Joseph himself.
He was quite willing to receive the pope as a guest; but he was resolved
that he should hold no communication with his bishops, while on Austrian
soil. [Footnote: It was to Joseph's manifest advantage that the pope
should not reside outside of the palace; and the emperor showed his
ingenuity in the various strategic movements by which he defeated the
purpose of his visit. One of the pope's most zealous adherents was the
Bishop of Gortz. When the pope left Rome for Vienna, he would pass
through Gortz. Joseph summoned the bishop to Vienna, and so prevented a
meeting between them at Gortz; and on the day of the pope's arrival in
Vienna, the bishop received peremptory orders to return to his diocese.
He was not allowed to communicate with the pope, not even to see him as
he passed,--Friedel's "Letters from Vienna," vol. i., p. 223.]
Meanwhile, every outward honor was to be paid to the head of the church.
Not only had his rooms been superbly decorated, but the churches, also,
were in all their splendor. The vestments of the clergy had been
renewed, new altar-cloths woven, and magnificent hangings ordered for
the papal throne erected for the occasion.
Finally, the momentous day dawned, and Vienna put on its holiday attire.
The houses were wreathed with garlands, the streets were hung with
arches of evergreen. A hundred thousand Viennese pressed toward the
cathedral, where the pope was to repair for prayer, and another throng
was hastening toward the palace, where the pope and the emperor were to
alight together. In their impatient curiosity the people had forsaken
their work. No one was content to remain within doors. Everybody said to
everybody, "The pope has come to Vienna;" and then followed the
question:
"Why has his holiness come to Vienna?"
"To bless the emperor, and approve his great deeds," said the friends of
Joseph.
"To bring him, if possible, to a sense of his sacrilegious persecution
of the church." said his enemies.
This question was not only verbally agitated, but it formed the subject
of thousands of pamphlets, which fluttered from many a window toward the
crowds who, in breathless anxiety, were awaiting the advent of Pius VI.
"The Arrival of the Pope."
"Why has the Pope come to Vienna?"
"What is the Pope?"
These were the titles of the brochures which were converting the streets
into a vast reading-room, and preparing the minds of the readers for the
impressions it was desirable to create on the subject.
At last the deep bells of St. Stephen's opened their brazen throats.
This signified that the pope and the emperor were at the gates of the
city. The consent of the latter having been asked in the matter of the
bell-ringing, he had replied to Cardinal Megazzi: "By all means. I
wonder you should ask me the question, when bells are the artillery of
the church." [Footnote: Friedel's Letters, vol. i., p. 213.]
The people received the tidings with such wild joy that, in their
eagerness, several persons were trampled to death. But on they rushed,
seeing and hearing nothing until eight lives were sacrificed to the
fierce curiosity of the mob.
And now the iron tongues of every bell in Vienna proclaimed that the
pope had entered the city. The crowd, who, up to this moment, had
laughed, sung, and shouted, suddenly ceased their clamor. Nothing was
heard save the musical chime of the bells, while every eye was fixed
upon a small white spot which was just becoming visible. The point grew
larger, and took form. First came the outriders, then the imperial
equipage drawn by eight milk-white horses caparisoned with crimson and
gold. Nearer and nearer came the cortege, until the people recognized
the noble old man, whose white locks flowed from under his velvet cap,
the supreme pontiff, Antonio Braschi, Pope Pius VI.
Never, throughout his pontifical career, had the pope beheld such a
crowd before. And these hundreds of thousands had assembled to bid him
welcome. A smile of gratification flitted over his handsome features,
and he raised his eyes to the face of his companion.
The countenance of the emperor wore a satisfied expression; by some it
might have been regarded as derisive.
He had seen what the pope, in the simple joy of his heart, had not
observed. The people who, in the presence of the high dignitaries of the
church, had been accustomed to kneel and ask a blessing, were standing,
although the prelate who stood in their midst was the sovereign pontiff
himself; and Joseph, as he contemplated his subjects, exulted in secret.
The cortege, impeded by the throng, moved slowly toward the imperial
palace. When it drew up before the gates, Joseph, springing from the
carriage, assisted the pope to alight, and accompanied him to his
apartments. Occasionally Pius raised his mild eyes to the emperor's face
and smiled, while Joseph, in nowise discomposed by the honor of
receiving the chief pastor of Christendom, walked proudly by his side.
They passed through the magnificent state apartments designed for the
occultation of the pope; but not until they had reached his private
sitting-room, did the emperor invite him to rest after his fatiguing
walk.
"It has not fatigued me," replied Pius. "It has interested me, on the
contrary, to traverse a palace which has been the residence of so many
pious princes. I esteem it a great privilege to inhabit these rooms
whose deceased occupants have each in his turn received the benediction
of my honored predecessors--"
"But who never were blessed by the love of their subjects," replied
Joseph, interrupting him. "To my mind, this is a blessing better worth
striving for than a papal benediction; and it is the aim of my life to
deserve it."
"Doubtless your majesty will reach your aim," replied the pope, with
courtesy. "I have confidence in the rectitude of your majesty's
intentions, and if I have made this pilgrimage to Vienna, it is because,
relying upon your honesty of purpose, I hope to convince you that it has
been misapplied. The visit of the pope to the Austrian emperor is a
concession which I cheerfully make, if by that concession I can induce
him to pause in a career which has sorely wounded my heart, and has been
the occasion of so much scandal to our holy mother the church."
"I fear that your holiness has been mistaken in your estimate of me,"
replied Joseph, turning his flashing eyes upon the imploring face of the
pope. "However I might be moved by the pathos of your words, a sovereign
has no right to listen to the pleadings of his heart. 'Tis the head that
must guide and influence his conduct. I fear, therefore, that your
holiness will be disappointed in the result of your visit here. I accept
your journey to Vienna as a distinguished mark of your papal good-will,
and am rejoiced to have it in my power to show all possible filial
reverence to your holiness. Neither I nor my subjects will deny the
consideration which is due to the SPIRITUAL head of the church; but he
on his part must refrain from touching with his consecrated hand the
things of this world which concern him not."
"It is my duty to attend to all the affairs of holy church, whether
spiritual or temporal," replied the pope, gently.
"The temporal affairs of the church concern your nuncio and my
minister," said Joseph, with impatience. "And as your holiness has
entered at once upon a controversy with me respecting my acts toward the
church, I declare distinctly to you that I shall not recede from the
least of them; and that your journey to Vienna, if its object is to
influence my policy as sovereign of these realms, is already a failure.
The reasons for my conduct are satisfactory to me, and no power on earth
shall move me from the position I have taken." [The emperor's words.
-Hubner. i. p. 119.]
"I will not altogether give up the hope I have cherished of moving your
majesty's heart," replied the pope, earnestly. "I shall continue to pray
that it may be my privilege to convince you of your errors and lead you
back to the path of justice and of religion."
"Which means that you expect me to retract!" cried Joseph, impetuously.
"Never will I retract what I have said or done, for I act from
conviction, and conviction does not slip off and on like a glove! But
let us speak no more on this subject. If your holiness will write down
your canonical objections to my proceedings against the church, I will
lay them before my theologians for examination. My chancellor shall
reply to them ministerially, and the correspondence can be published for
the edification of my subjects. Meanwhile, I shall endeavor to deserve
the good-will of your holiness by acting toward my honored guest the
part of an obliging and hospitable host. This reminds me that I have
already trespassed upon your time, and have deprived you of the repose
which a traveller always craves after a long journey. I hope that your
holiness will overlook this intrusion, and pardon me if my great anxiety
to enjoy your society has caused me to forget the consideration due to
my tired guest."
With these words the emperor retired. The pope followed his retreating
figure with a glance of profound sadness.
"I fear," thought he, "that Joseph is indeed irreclaimable." Here he
raised his soft dark eyes to heaven, and continued in a low murmur, "For
a time the Lord endureth with mildness, but His mighty overcometh the
blasphemer, and he vanisheth: while holy church remaineth unchangeable
forever!"