Note 40 — III The ‘Clerks’—The Great Betrayal

Here are the reasons given by a German Catholic for this attitude among those of his religion: ‘(a) Their incomplete knowledge of the facts and opinions in the belligerent and neutral countries; (b) Their patriotism, which could not be allowed to separate itself from the union binding together the German people; (c) The fear of a second Kulturkampf, which would be doubly dangerous if the German Catholics had even appeared to agree with the campaign carried on in France against German methods of waging war.’ The second reason will be noted, i.e. the desire to be at unity with the nation, whatever the moral aspect of its cause. Here, at least, is one reason which Bossuet did not allege when he screened the violences of Louis XIV.

Let me recall that when, in 1914, the Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg in the Reichstag hinted at a sort of apology for the violation of Belgian neutrality, he was sharply reproved by the Christian minister von Harnack ‘for having tried to excuse what did not need excusing’. (See A. Loisy, Guerre et Religion, p. 14.)