Chapter IV
Nobility in a Christian Society The
Perennial Character of Its Mission and Its Prestige in the
Contemporary World
The Teaching of Pius XII
1. Clergy, Nobility,
and People
In the Middle Ages, society consisted of
three classes, the clergy, the nobility, and the people,
each of which had special duties, privileges, and honors.
Besides this tripartite division, a clear
distinction existed between rulers and those ruled, a distinction
inherent to every social group and principally to a country.
Not only the king, however, but also the clergy, the nobility,
and the people participated in the country's government,
each one in its own way and measure.
As is well known, both Church and State
constitute perfect societies, each distinct from the other
and sovereign in its respective field, that is, the Church
in the spiritual realm and the State in the temporal. Nonetheless,
this distinction does not prevent the clergy from participating
in the government of the State. In order to clarify this
point, it is fitting to recall in a few words the specifically
spiritual and religious mission of the clergy.
From the spiritual point of view, the
clergy is the ensemble of people in the Church who have
the mission to teach, govern, and sanctify, while it is
for the faithful to be taught, governed, and sanctified.
Such is the hierarchical order of the Church. The documents
of the Magisterium establishing this distinction between
the teaching Church and the learning Church are numerous.
For example, Saint Pius X affirms in his encyclical Vehementer
nos:
Scripture teaches us, and the tradition
of the Fathers confirms the teaching, that the Church
is the Mystical Body of Christ, ruled by the Pastors
and Doctors—a society of men containing
within its own fold chiefs who have full and perfect powers
for ruling, teaching and judging. It follows that the
Church is essentially an unequal society, that
is, a society comprising two categories of persons, the
pastors and the flock, those who occupy a rank in the
different degrees of the hierarchy and the multitude of
the faithful. So distinct are these categories
that with the pastoral body only rests the right and authority
for promoting the end of the society and directing all
its members toward that end; the one duty of the multitude
is to allow themselves to be led, and, like a docile flock,
to follow the pastors.1
This distinction between hierarchy and
faithful in the Church, between rulers and those ruled,
is also affirmed in more than one document of the Second
Vatican Council.
Therefore, by
divine condescension the laity have Christ for their brother....
They also have for their brothers those in the sacred
ministry who, by teaching, by sanctifying, and by ruling
with the authority of Christ so feed the family of God
(Lumen Gentium, 32).
With ready Christian obedience, laymen
as well as all disciples of Christ should accept whatever
their sacred pastors, as representatives of Christ, decree
in their role as teachers and rulers in the Church (Lumen
Gentium, 37).
The individual bishops, to each of whom
the care of a particular church has been entrusted, are,
under the authority of the Supreme Pontiff, the proper,
ordinary and immediate pastors of these churches. They
feed their sheep in the name of the Lord, and exercise
in their regard the office of teaching, sanctifying, and
governing (Christus Dominus, 11).2
Through the exercise of the sacred ministry,
the clergy bears the lofty and specifically religious mission
of providing for the salvation and sanctification of souls.
This mission produces a supremely beneficial effect on temporal
society, as it always has and always will until the end
of time, since sanctifying souls amounts to imbuing them
with the principles of Christian morals and guiding them
in the observance of the Law of God. Peoples receptive to
this influence of the Church are ipso facto ideally disposed
to direct all their temporal activities to the attainment
of a high degree of competence, efficacy, and prosperity.
Saint Augustine's famous image of a society
whose members are all good Catholics speaks for itself.
Therefore, let those who
say that the teaching of Christ is contrary to the State
provide such an army as the teaching of Christ orders
soldiers to be; let them provide such governors, such
husbands, such wives, such parents, such children, such
masters, such servants, such kings, such judges, and lastly
such taxpayers and tax collectors as Christian teaching
admonishes them to be; and then let them dare to say that
this teaching is opposed to the welfare of the State,
or, rather, let them even hesitate to admit that it is
the greatest safeguard of the State when faithfully observed3
Under this perspective, it is proper for
the clergy to firmly establish and maintain the moral foundations
of the perfect civilization, the Christian one. By a natural
connection, in the Middle Ages, education and works of public
assistance and charity were entrusted to the Church. The
Church performed these services, normally the purview of
the departments of education and public health in contemporary
secular states, without burden to the public coffers.
It is understandable then that the clergy
was recognized as the first class in the Middle Ages, due
to the supernatural and sacred character of its spiritual
mission, and also to the beneficial effects its proper exercise
produced in temporal society.
On the other hand, the clergy, in the exercise
of its sublime mission, apart from any temporal or terrestrial
power, is an active factor in the formation of the nation's
spirit and mentality. Between clergy and nation, there normally
exists an exchange of understanding, trust, and affection
that apportions to the former unmatched possibilities to
know and orient the aspirations, concerns, sufferings, in
short, the spiritual life of the population, as well as
the temporal affairs that are inseparable from it. To accord
the clergy a voice and a vote in the great and decisive
national assemblies is, therefore, an invaluable way for
the State to ascertain the yearnings of its people.
Hence it is understandable that throughout
history clerics, although maintaining their alterity in
relation to the political life of the country, have frequently
been heeded and respected counselors of the public power
and valuable participants in the development of certain
legislative matters and governmental policies.
But the picture of relations between the
clergy and the public power is not limited to this.
The clergy is not a group of angels living
in Heaven, but of men who exist and act concretely on this
earth as God's ministers. The clergy comprises part of the
country's population, before which its members have specific
rights and duties. The protection of these rights and the
proper fulfillment of these duties are of utmost importance
for both Church and State, as Leo XIII eloquently stated
in the encyclical Immortale Dei.4
All this indicates that the clergy is
distinct from the other elements of the nation. It is a
perfectly defined social class that is a living part of
the national body and, as such, has the right to a voice
and a vote in its public life.5
After the clergy, the second class was
the nobility. Essentially it had a military and warrior
character. The nobility was responsible for defending the
country against external aggression and for keeping the
political and social order. Besides that, in their respective
domains, the feudal lords cumulatively exercised, without
cost to the Crown, functions somewhat analogous to those
of our judges, police chiefs, and city council presidents.
Thus, these two classes were essentially
ordained toward the common good and, in compensation for
their weighty and important charges, they were entitled
to corresponding honors and privileges, among which was
exemption from taxes.
Lastly, there was the people, a class devoted
specifically to productive work. It had, by right, a much
lesser participation in war than the nobility and, in most
cases, exclusive right to the exercise of the most profitable
occupations, such as commerce and industry. Normally its
members had no special obligation toward the State. They
worked for the common good only in so far as it favored
their own personal and familial interests. Thus, this class
was not favored with special honors and had to carry the
burden of taxes.
Clergy, nobility, and people.
This trilogy naturally brings to mind the representative
assemblies that characterized many monarchies of the Middle
Ages and the Ancien Régime: the Cortes of Portugal
and Spain, the Estates General of France, the Parliament
of England, and so forth. In these assemblies, there was
an authentic national representation that faithfully mirrored
social organicity.
During the Enlightenment, other doctrines
of political and social philosophy began to conquer several
leading sectors of Europe. Under the effects of a mistaken
notion of liberty, the Old Continent began to destroy the
intermediary bodies and to completely secularize the State
and nation. In this way inorganic societies arose, based
on a purely quantitative criterion: the number of votes.
This transformation, extending from the
last decades of the eighteenth century until our days, perilously
facilitated the degeneration of peoples into masses, as
Pius XII so wisely pointed out.
2. The Deterioration
of the Medieval Order in Modern Times
As explained in Chapter
II, the feudal organization of society—at once
political, social, and economic—deteriorated in modern
times (from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries).
From then on, the successive political and socioeconomic
transformations have tended to meld all the classes and
entirely, or almost entirely, deny a special juridical status
to the clergy and nobility. This is a difficult contingency
to which these classes should not pusillanimously close
their eyes, since this would be unworthy of true clerics,
as of true nobles.
Pius XII, in one of his masterful allocutions
to the Roman Patriciate and Nobility, describes this state
of things with noteworthy precision.
First of all, you must look fearlessly,
courageously, at the present reality. It seems superfluous
to insist on recalling to your mind what, three years
ago, was the object of Our considerations; it would seem
vain and unworthy of you to veil it in prudent euphemisms,
especially after the words of your eloquent representative
have given Us so clear a testimonial of your adhesion
to the social doctrine of the Church and to the duties
stemming therefrom. The new Italian Constitution
no longer recognizes you as possessing, as a social class,
in the State and among the people, any particular mission,
quality, or privilege.6
This situation, the Pontiff
observes, is the outcome of a chain of events that creates
the impression of following an "irresistible course."7
In view of the "very different lifestyles"8
now emerging in modern society, members of the nobility
and traditional elites should not engage in futile lamentation,
nor should they ignore reality. Rather, they should take
a strong attitude toward it. This is the conduct proper
to courageous people: "While the mediocre can only
wear a frown in the face of ill fortune, superior spirits
are able, according to the classic expression, to prove
themselves 'beaux joueurs,' imperturbably maintaining
their noble and untroubled bearing."9
3. The Nobility
Should Remain a Leading Class in Today's Greatly Changed
Social Context
According to Pius XII, "one may think
as one wishes"10 about
the new lifestyles. One is not at all obliged to applaud
them, but one must accept that they constitute the palpable
reality in which we are obliged to live. Just what, then,
is the objective and manly acknowledgment of these lifestyles?
Have the nobility and the traditional
elites lost their reason for being? Should they break with
their traditions and their past? In a word, should they
dissolve among the common people, mixing with them, extinguishing
everything the noble families preserved in the way of lofty
values of virtue, culture, style, and education?
A hasty reading of the allocution to the
Roman Patriciate and Nobility of 1952 would seem to lead
to an affirmative answer. This answer, however, would be
in patent disagreement with the teachings of analogous allocutions
in previous years, as well as with passages from more than
one allocution of later pontiffs. This apparent
disagreement results especially from the passages quoted
above, as well as from others that follow.11
Yet this is not the teaching expressed by the Pontiff in
his 1952 allocution. In his view, the traditional elites
should continue to exist and have a lofty mission.
It may well be that one
thing or another about the present conditions displeases
you. Yet for the sake and for the love of the common good,
for the salvation of Christian civilization, during this
crisis which, far from abating, seems instead to be growing,
stand firm in the breach, on the front line of defense.
There your special qualities can be put to good use even
today. Your names, which resonate deeply
in the memories even of the distant past, in the history
of the Church and of civil society, recall to mind figures
of great men and fill your souls with echoes of the dutiful
call to prove yourselves worthy.12
This teaching is made still
clearer in the allocution to the Roman Patriciate and Nobility
of 1958, a passage of which was already cited.13
You, who at the start of each new year
have never failed to come visit Us, must surely remember
the careful solicitude with which We endeavored to smooth
your way toward the future, which at that time promised
to be harsh because of the profound upheavals and transformations
in store for the world. We are certain, however, that
when your brows too are framed with white and silver,
you will yet be witnesses not only to Our esteem and affection,
but also to the truth, the validity, and the timeliness
of Our recommendations, which We hope are like fruits
that have come to you and to society in general.
You will recall to your
children and grandchildren how the Pope of your childhood
and adolescence did not neglect to point you toward the
new responsibilities that the new circumstances of the
age imposed on the nobility; that, indeed, he explained
many times how industriousness would be the surest and
most worthy way of ensuring yourselves a permanent place
among society's leaders; that social inequalities, while
they make you stand out, also assign you certain duties
toward the common good; that from the highest classes
great boons or great harm could come to the people; that
transformations of ways of life can, if one so wishes,
be harmoniously reconciled with the traditions of which
patrician families are the repositories.14
The Pontiff does not desire, then, the
disappearance of the nobility from the profoundly transformed
social context of our day. On the contrary, he invites its
members to exert the necessary effort to maintain their
position as the leading class among the groups that direct
the present world. In expressing this wish, the Pontiff
includes a singular nuance: The persistence of the nobility
among these groups should have a traditional meaning, that
is, a sense of continuity, of permanence.
In other words, the Pontiff desires fidelity
to one of the founding principles of the nobility of former
times: the correlation between the "social inequalities"
that made them "stand out" and their "duties
toward the common good."
Thus, "transformations of ways of
life can, if one so wishes, be harmoniously reconciled with
the traditions of which patrician families are the repositories."15
Pius XII insists on the nobility's permanence
in the post-war world, so long as it truly distinguishes
itself in the moral qualities it should manifest.
Sometimes, in alluding to the contingency
of time and events, We exhorted you to take an active
part in the healing of the wounds caused by the war, in
the rebuilding of peace, in the rebirth of the life of
the nation, and to refuse all "emigration" or
abstention. For in our society there still remained an
ample place for you if you showed yourselves to be truly
elites and optimates [aristocrats],
that is, exceptional for serenity of mind, readiness to
act, and generous adhesion.16
4. Through a Judicious
Adaptation to the Modern World, the Nobility Does Not Disappear
in the General Leveling
In accordance with these observations,
an adaptation to the modern world—so much more egalitarian
than pre-World War II Europe—does not mean that the
nobility should renounce its traditions and disappear in
the general leveling. Rather, it means that it should courageously
continue a past inspired by perennial principles. The Pontiff
emphasizes the highest among these, namely, fidelity to
the Christian ideal.
Also do not forget Our
appeals to banish from your hearts all despondency and
cowardice in face of the evolution of the times, and Our
exhortations to adapt yourselves courageously to the new
circumstances by keeping your gaze fixed on the Christian
ideal, the true and indelible entitlement to genuine nobility.17
Such is the courageous adaptation that
befits the nobility in face of the evolution of the times.
In consequence, the nobles should not renounce
their ancestral glory. Instead, they ought to preserve it
for their respective lineages and, even more, for the benefit
of the common good as the worthwhile contribution they are
still capable of making.
Yet why, beloved Sons and
Daughters, did we express then and do we now repeat these
admonitions and recommendations if not to fortify you
against bitter disillusionments, to preserve for your
houses the heritage of your ancestral glories, and to
guarantee for the society to which you belong the valid
contribution that you are still capable of making to it?18
5. To Fulfill the
Hopes Placed in It, the Nobility Should Shine in the Gifts
Specific to It
After emphasizing once again the importance
of the nobility's fidelity to Catholic morals, Pius XII
outlines a fascinating picture of the qualities that the
nobility should manifest in order to correspond to the hopes
he places in it. It especially interests the present study
to note that these qualities should shine in the nobility
as a fruit of long family traditions. These traditions are
clearly hereditary and comprise something unique to the
noble class.
And yet—you may ask Us—what
exactly must we do to achieve so lofty a goal?
First of all, you must maintain an irreproachable
religious and moral conduct, especially within the family,
and practice a healthy austerity in life. Let the other
classes be aware of the patrimony of virtues and gifts
that are your own, the fruit of long family traditions:
an imperturbable strength of soul, loyalty and devotion
to the worthiest causes, tender and generous compassion
toward the weak and the poor, a prudent and delicate manner
in difficult and grave matters, and that personal prestige,
almost hereditary in noble families, whereby one manages
to persuade without oppressing, to sway without forcing,
to conquer the minds of others, even adversaries and rivals,
without humiliating them. The use of these
gifts and the exercise of religious and civic virtues
are the most convincing way to respond to prejudices and
suspicion, since they manifest the spirit's inner vitality,
from which spring all outward vigor and fruitful works.19
Here the Pontiff shows his illustrious
listeners an adequate way of responding to the invectives
of today's vulgar egalitarian, who is opposed to the survival
of the noble class.
6. Even Those Who
Show Disdain for the Old Ways of Life Are Not Totally Immune
to the Splendor of the Nobility
Pius XII emphasizes vigor and fertility
of works as characteristic of genuine nobility and encourages
the nobles to contribute such qualities to the common good.
Vigor and fruitful works! Behold two
characteristics of true nobility, to which heraldic symbols,
stamped in bronze or carved in marble, are a perennial
testimony, for they represent as it were the visible thread
of the political and cultural history of more than a few
glorious cities of Europe. It is true that modern society
is not accustomed by preference to wait for your class
to "set the tone" before starting works and
confronting events; nevertheless, it does not refuse the
cooperation of the brilliant minds among you, since a
wise portion thereof retains an appropriate respect for
tradition and prizes high decorum, whatever its origins.
And the other part of society, which displays
indifference and perhaps disdain for ancient ways of life,
is not entirely immune to the seduction of glory; so much
so, that it tries very hard to create new forms of aristocracy,
some worthy of respect, others based on vanity and frivolity,
satisfied with merely appropriating the inferior elements
of the ancient institutions.20
In this paragraph, Pius XII seems to be
refuting an objection possibly raised by discouraged aristocrats
appalled by the egalitarian wave already spread throughout
the modern world. According to these aristocrats, the world
scorns the nobility and refuses to collaborate with it.
Regarding this objection, the Pontiff reasons
that one can distinguish two tendencies in modern society
in face of the nobility. One "retains an appropriate
respect for tradition and prizes high decorum, whatever
its origins," by which "it does not refuse the
cooperation of the brilliant minds among you." The
other tendency, which consists in exhibiting "indifference
and perhaps disdain for ancient ways of life, is not entirely
immune to the seduction of glory." Pius XII notes expressive
evidence of this disposition of spirit.
7. The Specific
Virtues and Qualities of the Nobility Imbue Its Work
The Pontiff continues:
It is clear, however, that vigor and
fruitful works cannot still manifest themselves today
in forms that have been eclipsed. This does not mean that
the field of your activities has been reduced; on the
contrary, it has been broadened in the total number of
professions and functions. The entire range
of professions is open to you; you can be useful and excel
in any sector: in areas of public administration and government,
or in scientific, cultural, artistic, industrial, or commercial
activities.21
The Pontiff alludes here to the fact that
in the political and socioeconomic regime prevalent before
the French Revolution certain professions generally were
not exercised by nobles, since these were deemed beneath
nobility. Their exercise implied, at times, the loss of
noble status. One example was the exercise of commerce,
reserved in many places to the bourgeoisie and the common
people. These restrictions gradually diminished during the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries and have entirely disappeared
today.
In this passage, Pius XII seems to have
in mind that the disturbances resulting from the two world
wars had economically ruined a significant number of noble
families. Their members were thereby reduced to exercising
secondary activities, inappropriate not only for the nobility
but for the high and middle bourgeoisie as well. One could
even speak of the proletarianization of certain nobles.
In view of such harsh realities, Pius XII
encourages these families not to dissolve in a prosaic anonymity,
but rather to practice their traditional virtues and act
with vigor and fruitfulness, thus communicating a specifically
noble note to any work they exercise either by choice or
under the harsh sway of circumstances. In this way they
will make the nobility understood and respected, even in
the most painful situations.
8. A Sublime Example:
The Couple of Royal Lineage in Whose House the God-Man Was
Born and Dwelt
This elevated teaching takes examples
from the public administration of government and from other
offices usually held by the bourgeoisie. But
it also brings to mind the couple of the royal line of David
in whose house, at once princely and working-class, the
God-Man was born and lived for thirty years.22
Such a reflection is found in the allocution
of Pius XII to the Noble Guard in 1939:
You were already noble, even before serving
God and His Vicar under the gold and white standard. The
Church, in whose eyes the human social order rests fundamentally
on the family, however humble it may be, does not disdain
that family treasure that is hereditary nobility. Indeed,
one may even say that Jesus Christ Himself did not scorn
it: The man to whom He entrusted the task of protecting
His adorable Humanity and His Virgin Mother, was of royal
stock: "Joseph, of the house of David" (Luke
1:27). And this is why Our Predecessor Leo
XII, in his brief on reform of the Corps of February 17,
1824, attested that the Noble Guard is "consecrated
to render the most proximate and immediate service to
Our very Person and constitutes a Corps, which, as much
for the end for which it was instituted as for the quality
of the individuals composing it, is the first and most
respectable of the arms of Our Princedom."23
9. The Highest Social
Function of the Nobility: To Preserve, Defend, and Spread
the Christian Teachings Contained in Its Distinctive Noble
Traditions
In his 1958 allocution, the Pontiff mentions
the moral duty to resist modern corruption as a general
charge to the upper classes, which include the Roman Patriciate
and Nobility:
We would like, finally, for your influence
on society to save it from a grave danger inherent in
modern times. It is well known that society progresses
and raises itself up when the virtues of one class are
spread to the others; it declines, on the other hand,
if the vices and abuses of one are carried over to the
others. Because of the weakness of human nature, more
often it is the latter that are spread, with all the more
rapidity nowadays, given the greater facility of means
of communication, information, and personal contacts,
not only among nations, but from one continent to the
next. What happens in the realm of physical health is
now happening in the realm of morals as well: neither
distances nor boundaries can any longer prevent an epidemic
germ from quickly reaching faraway regions. The
upper classes, of which yours is one, could, because of
their multiple relations and frequent sojourns in countries
with different and sometimes inferior moral conditions,
become easy conveyers of aberrations in customs.24
The Holy Father defines this duty of the
nobility more specifically: It is a duty to resist, above
all in the field of doctrine but also in that of morals.
"As for your own task, you must be vigilant and do
your utmost to prevent pernicious theories and perverse
examples from ever meeting with your approval and sympathy,
let alone using you as favorable carriers and hotbeds of
infection." This duty is an integral element of "that
profound respect for tradition that you cultivate and hope
to use to distinguish yourselves in society." These
traditions are "precious treasures" that it is
important for the noble to "preserve...among the people.
This itself may be the highest social function
of today's nobility; certainly it is the greatest service
that you can render to the Church and to your country."25
To conserve, defend, and spread the Christian
teachings contained in its distinctive noble traditions:
What loftier use can the nobility make of
the splendor of past centuries that still illuminates and
distinguishes it today?26
10. The Nobility's
Duty: To Avoid Sinking into Anonymity; To Resist the Influence
of Modern Egalitarianism
Pius XII paternally insists that the nobility
not let itself be diluted in the anonymity into which the
indifference and hostility of many, spurred on by crude
modern egalitarianism, seek to drag it. He likewise points
out another relevant mission: By cultivating and disseminating
its living traditions, the nobility should help preserve
the values of each people from a cosmopolitanism that erodes
their distinctiveness. "To practice virtue and use
the gifts proper to your class for the common good, to excel
in professions and activities promptly embraced, to protect
the nation from external contaminations: These
are the recommendations We feel We must make to you at the
start of this New Year."27
As he closes this expressive allocution
with paternal blessings, the Pontiff makes special mention
of the continuity of the nobility. He reminds the noble
families present that the grave and honorable duty of continuing
the most worthy traditions of the nobility lies with their
children: "That the Almighty may strengthen
your resolve and fulfill Our desires, answering the prayers
We have thus made to Him, We impart to all of you, to your
families, and especially to your children, future successors
to your worthiest traditions, Our Apostolic blessing."28
11. The Nobility:
A Particularly Distinguished Order in Human Society—It
Will Have Special Accounts to Render to God
An application of these rich and solid
teachings to the contemporary condition of the nobility
may be found in the allocution of John XXIII to the Roman
Patriciate and Nobility on January 9, 1960.
The Holy Father is pleased to note that
the distinguished audience is a reminder of what human
society is as a whole: a multiple variety of elements,
each with its own personality and efficiency like flowers
in the sunlight, and each worthy of respect and honor,
regardless of its importance and size.
The fact of belonging to a particularly
distinguished order of society, however, while requiring
due consideration, is a call to its members to give more,
as befits those who have received more, and who will one
day have to render accounts to God for everything.
By acting in this manner, you cooperate
in the wondrous harmony of the kingdom of Our Lord, with
the profound conviction that the things that made the
fame of each family in the past must now strengthen its
commitment—precisely as dictated by its particular
social condition—to the sublime concept of Christian
brotherhood and to the exercise of special virtues: sweet
and gentle patience, purity of customs, humility, and
above all, charity. Only thus will great and undying honor
be conferred on individuals!
And from this it follows that, tomorrow,
the young scions of today will bless their fathers and
demonstrate that Christian thought has been an ideal inspiration
and rule of conduct, generosity, and spiritual beauty.
These same dispositions will serve as
comfort even in the face of inevitable misfortunes that
are never wanting, since the cross resides in every dwelling,
from the humblest country house to the most majestic palace.
It is nevertheless quite clear and natural that one must
pass through this school of pain, of which Our Lord Jesus
Christ is the unequaled Teacher.
To fortify the most excellent dispositions
of those present the Supreme Pontiff imparts his blessing
to each and every family, invoking divine assistance especially
where there is suffering and greater need. He adds the
paternal wish that you should act in such a manner as
not to live alla giornata [from day to day] as
they say, but should feel and express, in everyday life,
thoughts and works in accordance with the Gospel, which
has pointed the way along the luminous roads of Christian
civilization. He who acts in this way now knows that in
the future his name too shall be repeated with respect
and admiration.29
The specific role of the contemporary
nobility is remembered by John XXIII in the allocution to
the Roman Patriciate and Nobility of January 10, 1963:
The resolution, expressed on behalf of
those present by their authoritative representative, is
very reassuring, and its enactment will bring peace, happiness,
and blessings.
He who has received most, he who has
risen highest, finds himself in the most propitious conditions
for setting good example; each must make his contribution:
the poor, the humble, the suffering, as well as those
who have received numerous gifts from the Lord and enjoy
a situation that brings with it particular and serious
responsibilities.30
_________________
1 American
Catholic Quarterly Review, Vol. 31, no. 122 (April
1906), pp. 213-214.
2
The Documents of Vatican II (New York: America Press,
1966), pp. 59, 64, 403. Reprinted with permission of America
Press, Inc., 105 West 56th St., New York, N.Y. 10019, copyright
© 1966 All Rights Reserved.
3 Epist.
138 ad Marcellinum, Chap. 2, no. 15, Opera Omnia,
Vol. 2, in J.P. Migne, Patrologia Latina, col.
532.
4 "There
was once a time when states were governed by the principles
of Gospel teaching. Then it was that the power and divine
virtue of Christian wisdom had diffused itself throughout
the laws, institutions, and morals of the people; permeating
all ranks and relations of civil society. Then, too, the
religion instituted by Jesus Christ, established firmly
in befitting dignity, flourished everywhere, by the favor
of princes and the legitimate protection of magistrates;
and Church and State were happily united in concord and
friendly interchange of good offices. The State, constituted
in this wise, bore fruits important beyond all expectation,
whose remembrance is still, and always will be, in renown,
witnessed to as they are by countless proofs which can never
be blotted out or even obscured by any craft of any enemies"
(Rev. John J. Wynne, S.J., ed., The Great Encyclical
Letters of Pope Leo XIII [New York: Benziger Brothers,
1903], pp. 118-119).
5 Another
aspect of the clergy's legitimate participation in public
life in feudal times was the existence of dioceses and abbeys
whose titulars were, at the same time and by the very fact,
lords of the respective feudal domains. For example, by
virtue of being bishops and regardless of their social origin,
the Bishop-Princes of Cologne and of Geneva were princes
of their respective cities. Among the latter was Saint Francis
de Sales, an eminent Doctor of the Church. Along with the
Bishop-Princes there were other ecclesiastical dignitaries
on whom titles of lesser rank were conferred. Two examples
in Portugal were the Archbishops of Braga, who were also
lords of that city, and the Bishops of Coimbra, who were
ipso facto Counts of Arganil (ever since Dom Afonso V graced
the 36th Bishop of Coimbra, Dom João Galvão,
with this title in 1472), whence the title Bishop-Count
of Coimbra.
6 RPN
1952, p. 457; see Chapter
II, 1.
7 Ibid.
8 Ibid.
9 Ibid.,
pp. 457-458. The Pontiff's French expression may be rendered
as "good sports."
10 Ibid.
11 See
Chapter VI, 2
a.
12 RPN
1952, p. 459.
13 See
Chapter I, 6.
14 RPN
1958, p. 708.
16 Ibid.
17 Ibid.
19 Ibid.
20 Ibid.
21 RPN
1958, pp. 709-710.
22 See
Chapter V, 6.
23 PNG
1939, p. 450.
24 RPN
1958, p. 710.
25
Ibid.
26 Concerning
nobility as a factor that facilitates and encourages the
practice of Christian virtues, see especially the admirable
sermon of Saint Charles Borromeo transcribed in Nobility
and Analogous Traditional Elites, Documents IV, 8.
27 RPN
1958, pp. 710-711.
28 Ibid.
29 RPN
1960, pp. 565-566. The Poliglotta Vaticana edition contains
only a summary of the allocution.
30 RPN
1963, p. 348. |
