GREY EMINENCE A Study in Religion and Politics by Aldous Huxley Harper & Brothers Publishers NEW YORK AND LONDON I 94 I PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED On the Road to Rome THE friar had kilted up his habit, and his bare legs were muddy to the knees. After the spring rains, the road was like a swamp. It had been like a lime kiln, he reflected, last time he walked this way. He recalled the poem he had written on another of his journeys. Quand au plus chaud du jour I'ardente canicule Fait de I'air un journeau, Des climats basanes mon pied franc ne recule, Quoy que je coule en eau.^ That summer of 1618, when the three of them had taken the road for Spain! Poor Brother Zeno of Guingamp had died of sunstroke at Toulouse. And a week later, near Burgos, Father Romanus had fallen sick with dysentery. In three days it was all over. He had limped into Madrid alone. And alone he was now to limp into Rome. For Father Angelus had had to be left behind with the Capu chins of Viterbo, too sick of the ague to walk another step. God bring him soon to health again! Ni des Alpes neigeux, ni des hauts Pirenees Le front audacieux N'a pu borner le cours de mes grandes journees. Qui tendent jusqu'aux cieux.^ 1 When, at day's hottest hour, the burning Dog Star makes a furnace of the air, my roving feet affront the swarthy regions of the earth, though I be streaming with sweat. 2 The aspiring crests of the snowy Alps and Pyrenees have not sufficed to limit my long marches that aim at the very heavens. [1] PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED GREY EMINENCE Cher Seigneur, si ta main m'enfonga la blessure De ce pergant dessein, J'ay droit de te montrer ma tendre meurtrissure Et descouvrir mon sein.^ "La blessure de ce pergant dessein," he repeated to himself. The phrase was particularly felicitous. Almost Latin in its pregnancy—like one of those phrases of Prudentius. . . . The Capuchin sighed profoundly. That wound, he re flected, was still open, and, goaded by the barb of God's piercing design, he was still hurrying, at the rate of fifteen leagues a day, across the face of Europe. When would that design be carried into execution? When would it be granted to another Godefroy of Bouillon to storm Jeru salem? Not yet awhile, to all appearances—not till the wars were over, not till the House of Austria should be humbled and France grow strong enough to lead the nations on the new Crusade. How long, Oh Lord, how long? .He sighed again, and the sadness of his thoughts was Reflected upon his face. It was the face of a man in middle Flife, weathered, gaunt with self-inflicted hardship, lined and worn with the incessant labour of the rnind. Beneath thebrbad, intellectual forehead, the prominent blue eyes were widely opened, almost staring. The nose was power- i fully aquiline. Long and unkempt, a reddish beard al ready grizzled, covered his cheeks and chin; but the full- Irpped, resolute mouth suggested a corresponding firm- ne^of the jaw beneath. Itwasjhe face_olj,^tiflng^man.,. 3 Dear Lord, if it is Thy hand which has penetrated me with the wound o£ this piercing design, I have the right to show Thee my tender hurt and to unveil my breast. [2] PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED ON THE ROAD TO ROME a man of firm will andjgowerful jntelH^nge; a man also, \ —tincleir t£e second nature imposed by a qjiar,tjer^^t^y;^£ \ the religious life, of powerful passions and a fierce in- j tensity of feeling, g Barefooted—for he had taken off his sandals and was / carrying them in his hand—he walked on through the mud, engrossed in his melancholy thoughts. Then, recol lecting himself, he suddenly realized what he was doing. Who was he to criticize God's^ ways? His sadness was a Trecrimination against Providence, a flying in the face of that divine will, to obey which was the only purpose of his life. And it must be obeyed without reluctance, whole heartedly, joyfully. To be sad was a sin, arid>..jas,JUch, a^ obstacle between his soul and God. He halted and for more than a minute stood there in the road, covering his face with his hands. His lips moved; he was praying to be forgiven. When he walked on, it was in a contrite mood. The natural man, he was thinking, the old Adam—^what a sleepless hostility to God one carried about in the depths /Of one's own mind and body! What a fixed resolve to sin! / And what resourcefulness in the art of sinning, what skill, when one temptation had been overcome,"m discovering / another and more subtle evil to surrender to! There was no remedy but in perpetual vigilance. Sentinels for ever on guard against the stratagems of the enemy. Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes. But there was also the great I ally—the Divine friend, without whose aid the garrison \ must infallibly be destroyed. Oh, ask him in! Open the \ gates! Sweep clean the streets and garnish the town with \ flowers! [3] PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED GREY EMINENCE The sun came out from behind the clouds. The Capu chin looked up and, from its position in the sky, calculated that the time must be a little after two o'clock. Rome was still three leagues away. There was no time to stop. He would have to practise his annihilation in the Essen tial Will as he walked. Well, it would hot be the first time. He repeated the Lord's Prayer slowly and aloud; then addressed himself to the opening phase of his exercise, the act of pure intention. To do the will of God, the exterior wirrrnieinterior will, the essential will. To do it for the sake of God alone, and without reference to what he him self desired, or hoped, or might gain in this world or the next. . . . To annihilate himself in all he thought and felt and did, so that there should be nothing left but the in strument of God's will and a soul united by God's grace with that divine substance, which was identical with the divine, essential will. He held his mind unwaveringly upon that resolution, while he walked a furlong or more. Then words came once again. "To expose myself to God, to prepare my soul for his coming, watchfully and with reverence. To turn myself, naked of every other design, every other feeIing°'an31TiougK'raii3 memory, towards such radiance of divine love and knowledge as God may vouch safe to give. And even if he should vouchsafe to give me nothing, even if it should be his will to leave me without light or consolation, to turn towards him none the less with thankfulness and in perfect faith. jQui adhaeret Deo, junus spiritus est."* —».._»—— To aHEere, TieTepeated, to adhere. . . . *He who cleaves to God, is one spirit with God. [4] PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED ON THE ROAD TO ROME From the act of pure intention he passed to that of adoration and humility. "God for his own sake and not with any thought of myself." For what was this self of his? A^jtiothing;—but^j^^active nothing, enable of sin and therefore capable of cutting itselF^bff from the ^^[iJi~y|j- active nothing that had to be annihilated into passive" nomingn,ess, if God's will was to be done.'*****"•'-'''**"•«-•«. He had worked hard to annihilate that active nothing, and God in his great mercy had granted him many favours —strength to control at least the grosser impulses of nature, sensible consolations, visions and revelations, access at moments to the outskirts of the divine presence. But for all that his active nothingness still persi^sted; he was still '' capable of negligence and imperfection, even of such down right wickedness as complacency in the recollection of his own work and God's past favours. The Old Adam knew how to make use even of the soul's efforts to annihilate , the Old Adam and, by taking pride in those efforts, was able to undo their results and strengthen his own resistance to God. Nay, the very graces of God could be turned, un less the soul was unremittingly on guard, into a stumbling block and a source of grievous sins and imperfection. The Son of God, the incarnate source of all grace—how had he proclaimed his divinity? By humility, by adoration and love of God. "Love, love, love," the Capuchin repeated, "humility and love, humility of the nothing before the all, love and adoration of the all by the nothing, love . . ." Horny like a savage's from their incessant marching and counter-marching across the face of Europe, his bare feet splashed through the puddles, stepped unflinching on the [5] PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED GREY EMINENCE Stones, treading the beat of the reiterated words. "Love, Christ's love, love ..." It was said that the Cardinal Nephew had been offended by the behavior of His Catholic Majesty's ambassador. "Christ's love, Christ's love . . ." These Spaniards were forever undoing themselves by their stupid arrogance. "Love, love, love . . ." Well, so much the better for France. All at once he perceived that the words he was still repeating to himself had become sepa rated from his thoughts, that the flame he had been cherish ing was extinguished. "Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things; but one thing is needful." He excluded the Cardinal Nephew and the Spanish ambassador, and re established the connection between his thoughts and his words. "Love, love, love, Christ's love . . ." The little flame was alight again. He kept it burning unwaveringly while he walked a quarter of a mile. Then it was time to pass on to operation—the repudiation of distracting thoughts and the resolve to banish them from the mind. The Cardinal Nephew and the Spanish ambassador . . . More than five and twenty years had passed since Father Benet of Canfield had taught him how to pray. More than five and twenty years—and his mind was not yet completely under control, the devils of distraction still had power, sometimes, to intrude even into the sanc tuary of orison. There was no final remedy but the grace of God. Meanwhile, one could only resolve to banish the distracting thoughts each time they found their way past the defences. If one persisted in the struggle, if one worked hard and patiently, it would be counted, no doubt, as a merit. God knew one's weaknesses and the efforts one made to overcome them. [6] PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED ON THE ROAD TO ROME Headed in the opposite direction, a train of pack ani mals from the City jingled slowly past him. The muleteers interrupted their talk for a moment and respectfully doffed their hats. Half blind, as he was, with too much straining over books and documents, the friar saw their gesture as a blur of movement against the sky. Recog nizing its intention, he raised a hand in blessing; then went back once again to his orison. In the form of prayer he was accustomed to use, an act of discursive meditation succeeded the preparatory ex ercises. Today the perfection he had chosen as his theme was love. Following the established order of his discourse, he addressed himself first of all to the consideration of God as the source of love. Pater noster, qui es in coelo. Qui ES in coelo. God, the eternal and Infinite Being. But when a finite being abandoned itself to the Infinite Being, Infinite Being was apprehended as Love. Thus, Infinite Being was at the same time a loving Father—but of chil dren so rebellious and ungrateful that they were for ever doing all in their power to shut themselves out from his love. They shut themselves out from his love and, by that act, cut themselves off from their own happiness and salvation. "All manner of virtue and goodness," the Capuchin repeated in a whisper, "and even that Eternal Good which is God Himself, can never make a man virtuous, good, or happy, so long as it is outside the soul." He raised his head for a moment. In the blue gap of rain-washed sky between the clouds, the sun was gloriously bright. But if one chose to drop one's eyelids against the light, so—^why, then one was blind, one walked in dark- [7] PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED GREY EMINENCE ness. God was love; but the fact could be fully known only to one who himself loved God. # This thought served as a bridge between the first stage of his meditation and the second, between God as the source of love and his own shortcomings as a lover of God. He loved God insufficiently because he was insuffi ciently detached from the world of creatures in which he had to do his work. Factus est in pace locus ejus.^ God can be perfectly loved only by a heart that has been sanc tified by the divine presence; and God is present only in a heart at peace. He is excluded by anxiety, even when that anxiety is a concern about the works of God. God's work must be done; but if it is not done in the peace of "'^ perfect detachment, it will take the soul away from God. '^ He himself had come nearest to that perfect detachment in the days when he had worked at preaching and spirit ual instruction. But now God had called him to these more difficult tasks in the world of great events, and the peace of detachment had become increasingly difficult of achievement. To dwell in the essential will of God while one was negotiating Avith the Duke of Lerma, say, or the Prince of Conde—that was hard indeed. And yet those negotiations had to be undertaken; they were a duty, and to do them was God's exterior will. There could be no shrinking from such tasks. If peace eluded him while he undertook them, it was because of his own weakness and imperfection. That highest degree of orison —the active annihilation of self and all creatures in the essential will of God—^was still beyond him. There was no remedy but God's grace, and no way to earn God's grace but through constant prayer, constant humility, con- ^In peace is his place established. [8] PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED