LAND & WATER 
January ji, iyit> 
The New State in Europe III 
By Hilaire Belloc 
The Xcu: Central Stale in Europe, under Prussian domi- 
nation, lias been defined geographically and elhnologically 
bv Mr. Belloc in his previous articles. 'J he question oj 
lanonage mas discussed last week, and tins week M-r..Bclloc 
deals with the religious diversity of the' peoples inhabiting 
this important area. 
■W""W" Te have seen tluit one great lactor in llic German 
mm/ scheme for a New Central State in Iturope was 
WW the extraordinaiA' diversit\- of language cast ol 
T T the solid German block. It is not only diversity. 
it is also complexitN- which marks the language map o the 
whole belt between the Baltic and the Balkans, and the 
(iermanic influence acting eastward acts upon somctlung 
divided and therefore open to its mttuencc. ^ , ^, , 
But this complex diversity of language, important thougli 
it be. is less important than the diversity of religion. t is 
the map of the religions lying to the east of the Gernian block 
to which I would draw attention this week. \\ e shall hnd 
tliere tliat same complexitv and confusion we discovered on 
the side of language, and we shaU understand how sucli a 
state of affairs strengthens the chances of foreign domination. 
At the outset there are two points to be made, inrst. we 
note that the German block is itself rather sharply divided 
. into Protestant and Catholic (very nearly half and halt). 
" Next we emphasise the peculiar local importance of religious 
differences and its reaction on politics in eastern Europe. 
The first of these points might seem to a superhcial observer 
to work against the formation of that new great State in 
Central Europe which, if we leave it standing, will be the 
consecration of Prussian Power. Since this religious cleavage 
exists among the great German-speaking mass, which is also 
proud of" its Germanic attachment and nationality, it must, 
it would seem, divide that mass, dissipate its effort, make the 
( atholic members of it sympathetic with co-religionists in the 
Slav countries rather than with lehgious opponents. of then: 
own blood , • i 4- 
Thcre was a time, not so long past, when such a judgment 
would lia\'e been sound. To-day it no longer applies. On the 
contrary, the verv presence of a Catholic half in the mass of 
the German block is to-day a strong instrument of, foreign 
expansion, and the fact that the remaining half is- Protestant 
(by tradition if not -in practice) gives it a sort of neutral 
balancing position between Catholic and Orthodox which 
(though it is of indirect and often distant value) is not to be 
neglected. Further, the traditional Protestantism of North 
Germany and particularly of Prussia, has an expansionist effect 
all up the Baltic coast. -It helps the burghers of Riga and of 
Re\-al— or, at any rate, many of them, and those the most active 
commercially — to a complete sympathy with their kinsmen 
right away "along to Hamburg. That the division between 
Catholic and Protestant in the modern Cierman block should be 
thus transfonned from a weakness to a strength almost within 
a lifetime is due, of course, ultimately to the Prussian ^•ictories 
of fifty years ago. It is a sweeping but fairly trustworthy 
historical axiom that constitutions arising out of victory 
succeed,' and those arising out of defeat fail. The brand new 
Germanic Empire \ritli its liereditary Prussian Head, its simple 
general franchise, its diverse local franchises, the traditions 
of local patriotism which it had to meet, etc., etc., seemed at 
first a most artificial thing, mechanical and brittle. On the 
contrary, it soon proved to be an organic thing, strongh" 
bound together by living forces, and it drew its hfe from the 
national pride in the military successes which culminated in 
1871. The Catholic Ciermans, as a whole, felt intimately 
but concurrently their religion — which is strong with them — 
and their new patriotism There was a critical moment of 
religious conflict : it was passed : the Catholics could claim a 
measure of success, and the union was more solid than 
ever, 'the present war has, of course, enormously strength- 
ened this feeling. Nowhere do you see the (ierman claims 
put forward more \'iolently than in the genuinely popular and 
thoroughly Catholic Press of the Rhine Valley. It is rather 
the Jewish organs like the Frankfurt Gazette or those belonging 
to the great Protestant Capitalists which strike the moderate 
note. But here it will be said, " All this may well apply to 
the Catholic minority within the modern (ierman Empire : 
how, can it affect the German-speaking fringe of Bohemia, 
the TjTol and the Austrian-fiermans upon the Danube .•' 
Austria was a power defeated in thp Prussian victories ; her 
Catholicism was not that of a minority or in conflict ; it was 
I universal State religion and the. Austrian house should 
apparently lia\e had no sympathy \vith a Power such as 
Prusiia, which is not only Protestant, but which has uctualh' 
defeated it in the fields " 
Here again there was a long period during which this 
criticism held true. It does not hold true to-day. It will 
be less true than ever after this war. It is the group of 
German peoples as a whole which has come to count. It is 
this group which feels that it has been fighting a desperate 
and latterly a successful war ; its common national or racial 
interests arc less and less in conflict with religious differences, 
and— if only we would face the dangerous truth — less and less 
dynastic. 
Unity through Religions 
The division then, of the German block into tiadiliuiially 
Protestant (I say " traditionally," because while especially 
in the great towns many of them to-day would deny any creed 
and gi-eat masses of "them lia\-e abandoned an\- practice, 
yet all the traditions of their culture are Lutheran) and 
"Catholic doas not internally divide, but rather unites tluit 
block. It also gives it a curiously strong diplomatic position. 
The religious sympathies of the north affect Scandinavia 
strongly ; those' of the south, particularly as represented by 
the House of Hapsburg-Lorraine, stand to "the authorities of the 
Catholic Church as a sort of rival against the Orthodo.-c pres- 
sure on the east. This was perhaps more the case when a 
strong and persecuting Russian State existed. 
The second point, the importance of religious differences 
in Eastern Europe, is one that must be very specially 
emphasised for Western readers. 
The Englishman, the Frenchman, the Spaniard, the Italian 
— anyone of the West (including the Western German) is 
always puzzled when he is brought up against the religious 
complexity of Eastern Europe, and with difficulty under- 
stands how successful a disruptive force religious difference 
there can be. We do not. save hi exceptional cases, such as 
that of Ireland, associate in our common thought diftereiices 
of religion with differences of national aim or tradition. \\ e 
have been accustomed— at any rate, until quite recent times — 
to treat religion as an individual matter and differences of 
creed as tilings that cannot or should not disturb the State. 
This attitude has, it is true, grown a little old-fashioned. The 
internal quarrel of clerical and anti-clerical, for instance, is 
now clearly a political thing and is felt to be of great moment 
upon the Western Continent. But you could not make a map 
of clerical and anti-clerical districts in France or Italy. It 
is a conflict of ideas, not of localities. In the East of Europe 
differences of religion have a high and permanent local 
significance of their own. They are like flags or badges. 
One of the most striking thifigs, for instance, in the earlier 
part of the war was the yiolent conflict between the Orthodo.w 
of the invading Russians and the I'niate Church in Galicia. 
It was a struggle of which we heard little at the time. It was 
one of which history will make a great deal when the story of 
the war is written. There was a prodigious struggle with all 
the elements of persecution, forced conversion, the imprison- 
ment and exile of native clergy ; the restoration of the original 
church conditions when the Austrian armies returned — all 
the features of a religious \\ar. It was a great loss to the 
education of Western opinion in the true state of Eastern 
Europe that the alliance, as it then existed, made the discus- 
sion of this crucial matter impossible. 
All along the border between the Polish and the German 
races religion is, again, a sort of hall-mark distinguishing one 
national tradition from the other. It is a sure guide for 
instance — a much surer guide than language— in all the 
eastern basin of the River Oder. 
To give an example : If you were to mark how far the 
Polish influence extends towards Berlin and were to go by 
language alone, you would find the nearest point at, say, 
Birnbaum, about 50 miles from Posen. But if you go by the 
test of religions, which is here more accurate than the test 
of language, you will find it corresponding, as is natural, to 
the old boundaries of Poland, that is, of the province of Posen. 
The Polish religion and tradition go much further west than, 
the language boundary. They stretch to a point south of 
Lansberg, only a long day's walk — a trifle over 20 miles — 
from Frankfurt, and not more than 75 miles from Berlin 
itself. The German language has spread somewhat, "but it 
. has not overlain the national feeling opposed to German\-. 
You have the same experience in the debated land between 
Prussia and Poland to the north of Lansberg as you approach 
the Baltic'. Here there is a good forty miles W'here Creniian 
is understood and largeh- sjjoken within the old Polish 
provinces insolently called "" West Prussia." but the Polish 
