.

The Austrian Non Placet Comes in Time

(Recess at the papal conclave in Rome, August 1903.
One cardinal speaks to a small group of his allies)

Two ballots done already. I perceive
Things are not going our way. We will grieve
If this man wears the triple crown. Please listen—
Our obtuse opponents plan to christen
This copy of Pope Leo and confirm
The policies that make us sweat and squirm.
Do you want that? Will you be content?
Or is this sacred conclave heaven-sent
To turn the Church away from rotten France,
And cleanse the stench of liberalism’s dance?
I don’t want another prating Leo
Who talks of laicism with such brio.
That’s what we’ll suffer if Rampolla wins.
He and old Leo are a set of twins.

***

We have to stop Rampolla. He’s too strong.
A Pope with that much vigor would do wrong.
We need a Pope who’s pious, wise, and quiet,
And not inclined to rabble-rousing riot.
Leo the Thirteenth caused a lot of fuss,
And we don’t need his friend to trouble us.
Some of you want Sarto, some want Gotti.
Either one, as long as he’s not dotty
Or filled with strange ideas and stupid notions,
And sticks to protocol and his devotions.
Rampolla’s just a silky diplomat,
And frankly, we have had enough of that.
He served as Nuncio to Spain, and there
He gave himself a patronizing air
That ruffled feathers. Then he stuck his nose
In Austrian matters. Damn him! Heaven knows
Austrians hate it when Italians meddle.
Listen, my friends—we have to grasp the nettle
Even if it causes pain and bleeding.
Rampolla’s votes are solid, and he’s leading.
Should he win, the French Voltaires would smile
And think the Church subservient and vile.
If only some brave monarch would speak out
Rampolla’s minions would be sent in rout.
Today our kings and emperors have no stones
To dictate, or twist arms, or break some bones.
In the past, all trembled when they spoke
But now they’re gutless, gelded—liberals broke
The royal spell that made a king divine
With linkage to an old dynastic line.

***

We all feel hobbled with our helpless cares
But wait—I sense an answer to our prayers!
Cardinal Puzyna comes this way—
Fürsterzbistum Krakow in array
Resplendent with a kaiserlich slow stride.
That dispatch-box—I wonder what’s inside.
He comes straight from Vienna, and it’s clear
The House of Hapsburg has some cause for fear.
The Austrian Non Placet! Just in time!
Rampolla as the Pope would be a crime.
Franz Josef has stepped up to intervene
As many monarchs have done to keep clean
The Papacy, and spare us stupid Popes:
Liberal, naive, enslaved to dreamy hopes,
Or too attached to single governments,
Their vassalage to which outweighs good sense.
Rampolla will be furious, but who cares?
Let him squawk and grumble, if he dares.

.

Some Historical Notes

In the papal conclave of 1903, a majority of the cardinals wanted to elect Mariano Cardinal Rampolla, the Vatican Secretary of State, as the next Pope. Rampolla had been a favorite of the late Pope Leo XIII, and was expected to follow his predecessor’s policies, which included a bias towards French interests and overtures to social liberalism. Cardinals from other nations, particularly Germany and Austria-Hungary, did not support Rampolla, but he was clearly slated to win, and the early conclave ballots were trending in his favor.

In the middle of the conclave Cardinal Puzyna, the Prince-Archbishop of Krakow, brought a communication from Franz Josef, the Austro-Hungarian Emperor, that contained an imperial Non Placet vetoing the candidacy of Rampolla. Despite the anger of many cardinals over this intervention, the voting immediately moved in a new direction, and a different candidate (Giuseppe Sarto) was elected, who took the name of Pius X. He was a passionate, vigilant, and pro-active foe of modernism in the Church, and his efforts kept orthodox Catholicism free from it for over half a century. He was canonized in 1954 as Saint Pius X. The Catholic traditionalist movement SSPX (Society of Saint Pius X) holds him in great honor.

***

Non Placet: (“He does not please”) A veto that the Emperor of Austria-Hungary could exercise if he did not want a certain papal candidate to be elected. Other European Catholic monarchs had the same right. It is sometimes called the Jus Exclusivae.

triple crown: the special headgear of authority worn by Popes.

liberalism’s dance: Leo XIII had many liberal ideas, which were expressed in several encyclicals that dealt with “social questions.”

laicism: the French laïcité, a secularizing policy of the radical government that eventually disestablished the Church in France. Leo XIII had encouraged French Catholics to accommodate themselves to the official laicism of France.

French Voltaires: liberals, Freemasons, or anticlericals.

Sarto… Gotti: two contenders for the papal seat in 1903 conclave.

stones: testicles, or metaphorically courage.

Cardinal Puzyna: the cleric who delivered the Austrian Non Placet.

Fürsterzbistum Krakow: Prince-Archbishop of Krakow. This was Puzyna’s rank.

kaiserlich: imperially, like a monarch.

Hapsburg: the imperial family in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Franz Josef: the reigning Austro-Hungarian emperor at that time.

.

.

Joseph S. Salemi has published five books of poetry, and his poems, translations and scholarly articles have appeared in over one hundred publications world-wide.  He is the editor of the literary magazine TRINACRIA and writes for Expansive Poetry On-line. He teaches in the Department of Humanities at New York University and in the Department of Classical Languages at Hunter College.

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32 Responses

  1. C.B. Anderson

    And here I thought that the Triple Crown was when a baseball player won the batting-average title, the rbi title and the home run title in the same year. Could there be a connection? I loved this window into ecclesiastical politics. Too bad Bergoglio won’t play ball.

    Reply
    • Joseph S. Salemi

      Kip, remember that the Triple Crown can also refer to a horse that wins the three big races.

      Bergoglio couldn’t be stopped (the Non Placet is no longer operative), but in the good old days there was always a chance that someone in the Swiss Guard would skewer a rotten Pope with his halberd, and the creep’s corpse would splash into the Tiber late that night. Things were a lot easier back then.

      Reply
      • C.B. Anderson

        Yeah, things were easier but so much queasier. It’s a matter of getting things right the first time. We could all use an additional Holy Day.

  2. Roy Eugene Peterson

    This is a fascinating look into papal politics in 1903 that saved the church and relevancy of the pope. If only someone had delivered such a note in the most recent conclave! Your historical research and writing ability including rhymes, such as Leo-brio, provide poetry of great substance and worth.

    Reply
      • Richard Kuslan

        I was delighted to read this. I read the two most recent of your essays on your expansive poetry website and could not have agreed more. Finally, I thought to myself, here is a site where I can find like-minded writers who have the ability to manage form, rhythm and rhyme.

      • Joseph S. Salemi

        We do our best, Mr. Kuslan. I am glad you enjoyed the poem.

  3. Yael

    I find this poem amazing for the fact that the rhyme and meter flow so effortlessly that the narrative sounds perfectly natural and not contrived, as is often the case in poetry for the sake of achieving rhyme and meter. If I read this little tidbit of Catholic church history and focus on the narrative, I can almost not notice that it’s an expertly crafted poem because of how casual and natural it comes across. This is an outstanding example of superb writing craft, thank you.

    Reply
  4. Jeffrey Essmann

    This is a amazing in a million ways, Joseph, particularly on a day when I just said in Confession that merely seeing the name of the current pope in a headline is fingernails-on-a-chalkboard to me. The rhymes are glorious and the scheme, simple yet byzantine, is perfect for the process it describes. Thanks so much for this.

    Reply
    • Joseph S. Salemi

      Many thanks, Jeffrey. Sometimes a dramatic monologue will simply write itself once you get started. That’s what happened here.

      It’s no secret at the SCP that I can’t stand Bergoglio — just a glimpse of his evil clown-face sends me into a blood rage — but unfortunately I very much doubt that the next conclave will produce anyone better, since the current Antipope has now packed the college with his toadies and favorites.

      Reply
  5. Murray Alfredson

    Yes, for once I am moved to make an approving comment, not one made because I have deemed a piece poetically compromised through trying to fill the demands of the chosen form, by uncomfortable rhymes or padding out the metre. This poem has an easy diction, slightly elevated interesting and sometimes novel rhymes, and an easy economy with words and syllables, with an occasional startling figure for a celibate clergy, the reference to balls.

    A rollicking tale indeed, told in a straightforward manner..

    Reply
    • Joseph S. Salemi

      I’m very glad it has pleased you, Murray. When writing a monologue spoken by someone in 1903, one has to be very careful about tone and diction. The slightest hint of a contemporary voice would be disastrous. Example: there’s a new translation of the Odyssey by a female scholar that is a total embarrassment, because she makes the characters speak like they are on the set of “Sex and the City.” I suppose she imagines this to be very cutting-edge and up-to-date.

      Reply
  6. Brian A. Yapko

    This is a poem of many virtues, Joe, which I enjoyed tremendously. There is, of course, the high level craft in the poem itself – 62 lines of couplets (no easy task!) And striking rhyme after rhyme! Leo/brio, Gotti/dotty… and, for me, the particularly unexpected rhyme of governments/sense. I love a good dramatic monologue and yours is wonderful. Dramatic monologues have a potential to place the reader into the action in a way that third-person narratives cannot. That is one of the reasons I am so pleased this one. It sings and it makes us think.

    You present a history here which is probably unknown to a great many of us. Thank you for educating us regarding a consequential event which has had great implications on the survival of the church and the delayed rise in various social ills. The contrast between Pius X and the present occupant of the throne of St. Peter could not be starker. It is also intriguing to learn that certain European monarchs had a veto over papal candidates. This strikes me as extraordinary! It never occurred to me that individual states could have that level of influence and it is yet another striking indicator of what a mistake it was to force the abdication of monarchs in the wake of World War I. There was a liberalism behind this foolishness that had no conception of the long-term consequences.

    There is one other thing your poem does. As a dramatic monologue it not only puts the reader into the mindset of the speaker, facing the same actions and choices… It battles one of my personal peeves with modern cancel culture: chronocentrism. Modern people (mostly liberals and leftists) tend to see the present as the culmination of history, a sui generis time in which everyone now has access to enlightened viewpoints which allow them to look back on history with a smug condescension and the certainty that progress has marched forward for them. This narcissistic viewpoint is one of the things that gives leftists the confidence to decide that they are on the right side of history. Your poem shows that there is nothing new, that people over 100 years ago had similar challenges as concerns, that history can teach us something and, from my standpoint, the most important thing: that history repeats itself, the bad and the good, over and over and over. Chronocentrism is an undernoticed foolishness that fuels the woke.

    Thank you again, Joe, for a truly marvelous, compelling poem.

    Reply
    • Julian D. Woodruff

      Right you are on chronocentrism (or chronochauvinism?), Brian. Self-righteous self-benighting.

      Reply
    • Joseph S. Salemi

      Chronocentrism — what a great concept, Brian! It’s a word that zeros in on a major intellectual blight. Leftists and liberals unconsciously allow this idea to govern all of their thinking and actions, and it is a rooted in the Marxist notion that history is always on the move in a leftward direction. If you tell them that in 1936 fascism (in a welter of energetic forms, world-wide) was clearly in the forefront of historical movement, they get nervous and weak in the knees.

      Chronocentrism is what caused “Trump Derangement Syndrome” in 2016. I was right in the midst of it in the places where I taught. The lead-up to the election was nothing but swaggering arrogance and smug self-assurance that Trump was a loser who would quite naturally (and historically) be swept aside by a triumphant Hillary, a candidate who had been divinized as the inevitable charioteer of progress and enlightenment. When the bitch got her ass kicked by Trump, the reaction was one of stupefied disbelief and rage. I brought a bottle of champagne to the general faculty office, set it on my desk, uncorked it and drank it conspicuously, just to savor the blind fury of my colleagues.

      The royal Non Placet against a papal candidate was almost always used for political (and not doctrinal) reasons. No European monarch wanted a Pope who would be unfriendly to the monarch’s national interests or commitments. As an ironic side-note, in the early 19th century an Austrian emperor had sent a Non Placet to block the election of the man who was elected as Pius IX, because the candidate had a reputation as a political liberal. The emperor’s Non Placet did not arrive in time — but Pius IX turned out to be the very tough-minded Pope who gave us The Syllabus of Errors, a major weapon in breaking the back of Catholic liberalism.

      Brian, I’m very happy to have pleased you with this dramatic monologue.

      Reply
  7. Julian D. Woodruff

    Excellent, Joseph, both as poetry and summary analysis. This may be an older piece, i realize, but the topic and the sentiments suggest crossed fingers for the next conclave.

    Reply
    • Joseph S. Salemi

      Actually, Julian, I wrote the piece last month. I had been reading about papal conclaves, and I was surprised to find out that the royal Non Placet had been used as late as 1903. It had been employed many times in the past by French and Spanish kings, as well as the Holy Roman Emperor, but the 1903 incident had pretty much been hushed up, and any subsequent use of the Non Placet was definitely ruled out by the Vatican.

      Thank you for your kind comments.

      Reply
  8. Susan Jarvis Bryant

    Joe, this is a great poem for the craftmanship – excellent, as ever, for the reasons others have pointed out. I too am impressed by the conversational ease of flow within a piece comprised of rhyming couplets. The form serves the subject matter well – a subject that nags at me incessantly.

    For me, this poem further stokes my simmering suspicions that Western churches of all denominations are highly politicized – being paid by and working for their governments to stay in business. So why on earth do people go to corporate churches working to push transgenderism, Covid shots, the trafficking of children through foster care and adoption, etc. etc.

    The Bible doesn’t tell us that it is obligatory for those who believe in Jesus to attend church and recent history warns us against it. Familiarizing oneself with the conduct of the churches in Nazi Germany leading up to and during WWII is an excellent clue as to what is most certainly happening today. Your poem has opened my eyes even wider… and I will NEVER step into another corporate church for the purpose of worship. Poetry does indeed make a difference. Thank you!

    Reply
    • Joseph S. Salemi

      Susan I appreciate your deeply honest comments. The source of the problem is government money, which has now become absolutely necessary for the large mainstream denominations to survive and maintain their status. The most horrific example is the German Kirchensteuer or mandatory tithe, which is forcibly collected from every registered religionist in the country on his income tax form, and turned over to the denomination in which he is enrolled. This has made the Catholic Church in Germany filthy rich. There is no way for a German Catholic to avoid the Kichensteuer; if he tries to opt out from paying it he is excommunicated by his bishop.

      The consequence is that the Vatican now depends heavily on German money to keep afloat financially, and therefore the German hierarchy feel free to do whatever the bloody hell they want, in matters doctrinal and liturgical. Why shouldn’t they? They’ve got the purse strings.

      In the U.S.A. the Catholic hierarchy is in bed with the government agencies that are bringing millions of so-called “asylum seekers” into the country illegally. The Church gets huge subsidies for these invaders, for whom they have complex welcome committees and support systems. Ever wonder why the Catholic bishops hate Donald Trump? It has nothing to do with scriptural blather about “helping the poor stranger,” but a lot to do with cash flow.

      Since almost all the various Protestant denominations and the Jewish ones are also caught up in mindless left-liberal theologies from the 1960s, they are no different. They support and nurture all the stupid woke ideas that mainstream media pushes, and preach them insistently to their congregations. Even the evangelicals, who were once the bedrock of resistance to modern corruption, are starting to crack. Mainstream clergy, with some honorable exceptions, are paid-up whores on retainer for the Democrat Party and the Deep State.

      My only religious practice now is at home, with a beautiful Latin missal from 1642, another small Book of Offices from 1608, and my Dolor Beads. I don’t even want to speak to clergy.

      Reply
      • Susan Jarvis Bryant

        Joe, thank you for your informative and honest reply. It means a lot to me. I believe the German Kirchensteuer is indeed an horrific example of extortion in God’s name. I believe any money collected by shaming or duping a congregation into handing over money in the name of Christianity, while using that money for the purpose of evil is equally horrific. And the corporate churches are not working in God’s interest… this has been proven time and time again. Today, the government funds churches to assist with their godless push for dominance.

        This is why many people (me included) have NOT turned their back on the Jesus of the Bible but have instead rejected corporate Christianity pushed by churches that have skewed the Truth of the scriptures to pursue a journey of the government’s making, using their Marxist maps to Utopia to do so. The frequently outraged or horrified reactions to my thoughts reminds me of the congregations in Germany singing louder and louder to drown out the screams of the condemned on the passing trains.

        I believe practicing your faith at home, rather than at a bought and paid for institution, is an admirable act of wisdom. Many believers have been alone for great swathes of their lives and never been deterred from accomplishing God’s mission. Satan’s greatest fear is those born into the Spiritual inheritance of Abraham through Jesus Christ – those filled with the Holy Spirit residing within who are guided by the scripture, and act upon God’s word. The Bible doesn’t say you have to go to church to do so. God knows our hearts.

      • Joseph S. Salemi

        Thank you, Susan. I am reminded that Japanese Catholics, after the persecution of the 17th century, sustained themselves for two hundred years without churches, clergy, hierarchy, or even sacraments.

      • Mike Bryant

        Joe, I think that many are not aware of the human trafficking that is being done by many religious NGOs.
        These religions are being paid by the government to aid illegal immigration, sex trafficking and the Fentanyl kill-off of Americans,

        A follow-up CIS examination of the more than 30 faith-based nonprofits among those UN NGO partners – representing Jewish, Lutheran, Seventh Day Adventist, Catholic, and nondenominational evangelical organizations – shows that the US State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) and the US Agency for International Development have been mainlining taxpayer funds to these groups, which then distribute them to keep hundreds of thousands of migrants comfortably moving toward illegal US southern border crossings.
        That’s right. The United States government is funneling taxpayer money to groups tied to American religious denominations to help implement an internationalist plot to inundate this nation’s communities with waves of foreigners. And the dollar amounts are not insignificant.

        https://www.libertynation.com/religious-ngos-use-faith-to-justify-lucrative-illegal-immigration/

        No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

        Religionists can sing as loud as they like. God examines the heart. The heart of these groups is rotten to the core.
        Now that you know you must abandon these evildoers.

      • Joseph S. Salemi

        Mike, this is why I simply can’t stand talking to clergymen of any denomination, including Roman Catholic clergy. To me they are all traitors to our country, with their mealy-mouthed, oleaginous piety.

      • Joshua C. Frank

        Joe, I find myself agreeing with you more and more. I’m finding priests less and less helpful. These days, I see Catholic churches as Sacrament gas stations where I can meet others who may or may not believe. I absolutely believe all the Magisterium’s doctrines, but it’s no secret that I’ve lost faith in the hierarchy and pretty much live as if I didn’t know anything about any of them.

  9. Margaret Coats

    Joe, may your Lenten retreat with the old liturgical books and devotional beads do much good. What wealth they contain and can produce in accord with intelligent meditation! The poem and your history notes and comments show how God has worked with the “non placet” to give the indefectible Church two fine supreme pastors, despite this right of Catholic monarchs being used in a worldly political manner. You show members of the curia, in those old times, sensing its use in an even more mundane way, which must always be the response of those concerned with holy things, but not yet benefiting by them to become saints.

    In your offhand remarks about the Swiss Guards, I suddenly perceived the Austrian “non placet” being delivered too late in our own day, when Alexander Tschugguel removed the pagan pachamamas from a Roman church and threw them in the Tiber in 2019. That young man, descended from very minor Austrian nobility, and not brought up Catholic but converted, gave the Church and the world a desirable taste of noble resistance. May his efforts continue in the same vein, spread more broadly among others, and become more fruitful.

    Reply
  10. Daniel Kemper

    Yo… Joe!

    One thought I have often had about your work is that a book that combined your commentary in prose with your poetry would be a sure hit and an important work. Setting just the right distance between essay, poem, commentary would be key, of course. Please do let me know if one such book exists. I’m thinking of something maybe like “Things that Matter,” (but with verse as well as essay) or maybe like Boethius’ “Consolation of Philosophy.” I know that some of the poems that have stuck with me through the years had contexts (personal and social) elaborated on to a certain degree as well as why to keep ones eyes on key strophes. This poem, with its historical setting and commentaries in-thread is a reasonably good example of the information that would be contained. I’m not sure I’m making the degree of sense that I want to, but hopefully so. Take or toss: just an idea. I don’t really know if you (or anyone) has combined these things yet.

    I see poetry as something like a top-shelf spirit and prose that might be set around it like a mixed drink. It would be easy to err on the side of too much and too wrong prose, like some daiquiri mixes that are so bad the spirit is untastable — like burning Kool-aide. But there exists the potential for a quality Martini…

    Again, just a thought. Take/toss.

    Reply
    • Joseph S. Salemi

      Thank you, Daniel. Appended prose and notes to published poetry might be necessary in some cases (Eliot’s The Waste Land, perhaps), but they normally detract from the primary experience of reading a fine book of well-crafted verse. The late Leo Yankevich was opposed to all such additions, and discouraged them at his website.

      I only include them here at the SCP because we are a teaching site rather than just a site to showcase professional work. We have readers all over the Anglophone world, and many of them are young and unfamiliar with traditional verse practice, not to mention the arcane subjects that sometimes come up. This is also why I like to submit essays to Evan Mantyk on various issues in poetry — sometimes a straight prose essay, if concise and well-written, will explain something with much more clarity than just a series of poems.

      Reply
  11. Warren Bonham

    I thought I was fairly well educated but I knew none of this before reading through the commentary above. The poem (not surprising) was very well done but I particularly enjoyed the enlightenment on a very important topic that far too few people understand.

    Reply

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