Three Ideals. 89 



externally recognised God-given power like that of the 

 thrice-crowned kaisers of mediaeval times. 



It is true that the emperor in his not very wise and 

 not very truthful * letter to the pope, talks about his 

 " responsibility to God " for his sovereign acts, and it is 

 generally supposed he asserts for himself a divine right. 

 But for this assertion he has nothing to show, no external 

 witness, as before said, or objective testimony. If Kaiser 

 Wilhelm can raise the dead, he may resuscitate in his 

 Berlin subjects a belief in his own supernatural authority. 

 But the acts of his Government lead more and more in 

 the anti-theocratic direction, and its true basis will thus 

 be more and more plainly avowed to be the will and 

 consent of the majority of his subjects. It comes then 



* " Not very wise/' because his reply as to what Protestants be- 

 lieve concerning " One Mediator," has nothing whatever to do with 

 the pope's remark respecting the necessary consequences of baptism. 

 " Not very truthful," for two reasons : first, because he therein implies 

 an accusation of treason against citizens who in vain ask for an oppor- 

 tunity of showing their innocence by a public trial, the laws of Prussia 

 not enabling the bishops to BRING AN ACTION FOR LIBEL AGAINST 

 THE MINISTER by whom the letter is countersigned ; secondly, be- 

 cause he replies to what every one knows was not the pope's meaning. 

 The pope, of course, knew well enough that according to constitu- 

 tional fictions, the emperor must officially approve of all his minister's 

 acts, but La Marmora's book has shown us how in the past he was led 

 by his minister in opposition to his real private wishes. The pope, of 

 course, hoped and thought that in the recent Church laws he was also 

 being led in opposition to his private wishes, and some who know the 

 Berlin court well still believe that in so thinking the pope was right. 



