HOLY
399
HOLY
spondence of the cabinets with one another. The
Holy AlHance was not an institution for the suppres-
sion of the rights of the nations, for the promotion of
absolutism, or for any kind of tyranny. It was solely
an emanation of the pietistic feelings of the Emperor
Alexander, and the application of the principles of
Christianity to polities". This quotation gives the
true statement in regard to the facts of the case, as well
as in regard to the personal factor in the founding of
the alliance, which was the transitory pietistic feeling
of the tsar at that time. The vigorous reawakening
of the religious sense had called forth, especially in
. connexion with the revival of Christian thinking,
many confused and obscure manifestations of a mysti-
cal and spiritualistic kind that were reactionary in
tendency. From June, 1815, the tsar had come under
the sway of one of these mystical and reactionary
tendencies, through the influence of the Baroness von
Kriidener, a lady of German-Russian descent who was
a religious visionary. Without striving to exert polit-
ical power, she seems, nevertheless, to have imbued
Alexander with the idea that princes must once more
rule according to the dictates of religion and under
religious form. While the lady was intent wholly on
arousing religious ideals, Alexander at once gave a
political cast to the suggestion when he endeavoured
to formulate it and, with this end in view, drew up the
treaty on which the Holy Alliance is based. His de-
mand was not welcome to statesmen of practical mind
like Metternich and the Prussians, but they did not
consider it necessary to decline the proposal. They
struck out merely what was most objectionable to
them, and by degrees Metternich quietly replaced the
entire alliance by the purely political alliance of 20
November, 1815, between Austria, Prussia, Russia
and England, by the Treaty of Aachen of 18 October,
1818, and the agreements made at the Congresses of
Troppau (1820), Laibach (1821), and Verona (1822).
Nevertheless the expression "Period of the Holy
Alliance" for European politics of the years 1815-23,
that is, for the era when Metternich's influence
was at its height, has some justification. A brief
general review of events will prove this. But the
term should not be taken too literally; moreover, it
must be admitted that history, in characterizing a
period, is more apt to adopt an easily-found and strik-
ing expression than an exact one. During the years
1814-15, a number of treaties were concluded between
the various countries of Europe. In this series of
compacts the Holy Alliance forms merely one link
and m a practical sense the most unimportant one; it
was also the only treaty which was religious in char-
acter. All these treaties have, however, one trait in
common. They revive the conception of a centralized
Europe, in which the rights of the individual states
seem to be limited by the duties which each state has
in regard to the whole body of states. The signatories
announced the end of the war that had been carried on
since the era of the Thirty Years War by those grasp-
ing powers and interests, which took only into consid-
eration the ratio status. They further asserted that
all just political demands were satisfied, that the great
Powers were " saturated ", and on the strength of this,
they introduced into international law the conception
of a common European responsibility, the application
of which was to be secured by agreement of the great
Powers as cases arose. This common responsibility
was to be used for the liberal promotion of all econo-
mic, intellectual, and social life, but political liberal-
ism was to be suppressed or held in check in order
to reserve the administration of public affairs to
the governments as specially ordained thereto. The
renewal of the common responsiliility of the European
states, and of the scheme of administration involved
therein, may be regarded as the most characteristic
work of Metternich.
The desire for this joint responsibility had grad-
ually developed from the ideas of the Austrian policy
of the eighteenth century, and had been already ex-
pressed in the instructive papers of Kaunitz written
in his old age. It was now formulated and made a
reality by Austria's greatest statesman. Between the
eras of Kaunitz and Metternich, however, had ap-
peared the revival of religious feeling in Europe.
The minds of men turned once more to Christianity
and the Church. Involuntarily the course of Euro-
pean thought, even that of the most cool-headed
statesmen, became again subordinate to the cate-
gories of Christian thinking. Little as Metternich
was personally inclined to base his political views on
religion, he did not fail to oljserve that his idea of a
common responsibility of the nations and liis inclina-
tion to peace bore a resemblance to the loftiest
medieval ideals of the Christian unity of nations and
of a common civilization. He had even an exag-
gerated itlea of this resemblance, as had many of his
contemporaries. In consequence of this over-esti-
mation, however (for in truth his ideas were rooted in
rationalism), he allowed these views to appear, if
only for a moment, in the words of the Holy .\lliance
as the proper "application of the principles of Chris-
tianity to politics". From his non-resistance to the
tsar, his contemporaries inferred that the alliance
proclaimed a return to the times in which the papacy
and the Church claimed and exercised the right of
guiding the respublica Christiana. It is in this way
that historical events are twisted and confused by the
imagination, both of the individual and of the mul-
titude. The Holy Alliance became a bugbear repre-
senting reaction, while in reality, like everything that
even distantly harmonized with Christianity, it was
of advantage to Europe, and assured to it peace for a
generation, and an extraordinary development of
civilization.
MuHLENBECK, Elude 8ur les origines de la Sainte-. Alliance; .ius Mettrrnichs nachgelassenen Papieren (Vienna, 1880-84), I; WoREL, VEuTope et la Revolution francai/ie, I; Goyau. L'Alle- magne religieuse: Le catholicisme, I: Lavisse and Rambaud, Histoire grn>'rale du IVsii'cle a nos jours, X, 63-64: Alison, History of Europe.
Martin Spahn.
Holy Childhood, Association of the, a children's association for the benefit of foreign missions. Twenty years after the foundation of the Society for the Prop- agation of the Faith (1843) Charles de Forbin-Janson, Bishop of Nancy, France, established the Society of the Holy Childhood (Association de la Sainte Enfance). Its end is twofold: first, to rally around the Infant Jesus our little Christian children from their tender years, so that with increasing age and strength, and in imitation of Jesus their Master, they may practise true Christian charity with a view to their own perfection; second, that by the practice of charity and enduring liberality those same little Christian children may co-operate in saving from death and sin the many thousands of children that in pagan countries like China are neglected by their parents and cast away to die unbaptized. The further object of the association is to procure baptism for those abandoned little ones, and, should they live, to make of them craftsmen, teachers, doctors, or priests, who in turn will spread the blessings of the Christian religion amongst their countrymen.
Children may become members of the association immediately after baptism, and may continue in mem- bership for the remainder of their lives, but at the age of twenty-one, in order to still share in the in- dulgences, it is necessary to become also a member of the Lyons Association for the Propagation of the Faith.
In order to be a member of the Association of the Holy Childhood, it is necessary to give a monthly contribution of one cent, or a yearly contribution of twelve cents, and to recite daily a " Hail Mary" with the addition, " Holy Virgin Mary, pray for us and for
