Note 64 — III The ‘Clerks’—The Great Betrayal

Here is a specimen of the acrobatics which these teachers are compelled to perform in order to conciliate Christian doctrine with the preaching of national particularisms: ‘We wish to set the ideal of universalism in positive relation to the contemporary reality of the national form, which is that of all life, even the Christian life.’ (Pastor Witte, quoted by A. Loisy, Guerre et Religion, p. 18.) Here are minds for whom the squaring of the circle is obviously mere child’s play.