nghold of Socialism, where its purposes and policy
are entrenched. Yet when one alludes to its policy, the term is rather
too definite. If it had a settled and well-formulated policy on which
all its adherents were in absolute accord they would carry all before
them. But Socialism is still a very elastic term and covers, if not a
multitude of sins, at least a multitude of ideas and ideals. There is
now a rumor that the situation is forcing the absolutely inconceivable
union of church and state--of the Vatican and the Quirinale--that they
may thus withstand their common foe. A more amazing and extraordinary
turn of affairs could not be imagined; and if the rumor (which is now
becoming more coherent in Rome) should prove to be the forerunner of
any truth, the situation will be one of the most amazing in all history.

[Illustration: PONTE VECCHIO, FLORENCE
_Page 430_]

Epoch-making events in the course of progress are always preceded by
circumstances that form to them a natural approach and chain of
causation. They are the results of which the causes stretch backward in
the past. One of the things that has an incalculably determining
influence on the present situation is that of the character of the
present Pope. His Holiness, Pius X, brings to the Papacy an entirely new
element. He is no ascetic or exclusive ecclesiastic; he is no diplomat
or intriguant, but rather a simple, kindly man, of a simplicity totally
unprecedented in the annals of the Palazzo Vaticano. Instead of clinging
with unswerving intensity of devotion to the idea of the restoration of
the temporal power of the church, Pope Pius X would not be disinclined
to the uniting of church and state as in England; the Vatican to remain,
like the See of Canterbury, the acknowledged head of the spiritual
power, while the Quirinale remained the head of the government to which
the church should give its political adherence, the Quirinale in return
giving to the Vatican its religious adherence. Perhaps it is not too
much to say that something not unlike this might easily become--if it is
not already--the dream of Pius X. But in the mean time there is another
factor with which to reckon, and that is the present Papal Secretary of
State, Cardinal Merry del Val. He it is who really holds the mystic key
of St. Peter's. He is a diplomatist, an ecclesiastic, an embodiment of
all that is severe and archaic in authority. The Pope is by no means
able to set h