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Cardinal Alberoni: An Italian Precursor of Pacifism and International Arbitration*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 May 2017
Extract
In a previous study I had occasion to state that the pacifist idea, as well as that of the juridical settlement of international conflicts, dates much farther back than is generally believed, and that it has had sincere advocates in all nations. And what is of even greater importance, international arbitration was practiced to a large extent, both in the Middle Ages and at the time of the Renaissance. I would now present to the enlightened readers of this Journal an Italian personage as one of these advocates, by stating however at the outset, that he lyas not the first among his compatriots, since four centuries before his time, the Venetian Marin Sanudo had consecrated his life to that idea, while the adherents of pacifism can even claim a Dante Alighieri among their number! For many reasons, however, which will be convincingly set forth in the course of these pages, Cardinal Alberoni is deserving of especial attention. The German Gerhoch, the Frenchmen Pierre Dubois and Eméric Crucé, the Czech king George Podiebrad, the Englishman W. Penn, the Portuguese Suarez, the Spaniard Vittoria, the Hollander H. Grotius, and many others, have in him a worthy associate, a fact which I hope will be made clear by the publication of his scheme, as an appendix hereof.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © American Society of International Law 1913
Footnotes
*
Translated from the French by Dr. Henckels Theodore, of Washington, D. C.
References
1 VEBNITCH, Deux Precurseurs franais du Pacifism et de l’Arbitrage International, in Revue d’Histoire Diplomatique, 1911.
2 See: A. MAGNOCAVALLO, Marin Sanuclo it Vecchio ed it suo Progetto di Crociata, Bergamo, 1901.
#x07D9; Printed in this JOURNAL, P. 83.
3 See: S., BERSANI, Stories del cardinale Giulio Alberoni , Piacenza, 1861 Google Scholar; (in reference to this, see an extended study by AG., SAGEEDO, in the Archivio storico Italian , vol. XVII, 1863, 2nd part, pp. 90–416)Google Scholar; J., RoussET, Histoire du Cardinal Alberoni, etc. , The Hague, 1719; MALDONADO-MACAÑEZ, El Cardinal Alberoni, in the Revista de España, 1884 Google Scholar; LAVISSE and RAMBAUD, Histoire générale, etc., vol. VII, 1896; E., BOURGEOIS, Letters intimes de J.-M. Alberoni , Paris, 1892 Google Scholar (in reference: G., VALBERT, Alberoni, etc., in the Revue des Deux Mondes, vol. CXV, 1893, pp. 662–673)Google Scholar; ditto, le Secret des Farnèse, Philippe V et la politique d’Alberoni, 1911; G., HAbiarAux, Recueil des Instructions aux Ambassadeurs de France, vol. XVII (Rome, vol. II) Paris, 1911 Google Scholar; C., CANTU, Histoire universelle , vol. XVI and XVII; Paris, 1868 Google Scholar; A., PROFESSIGNE, Il Ministero in Spagna e it processo del card . Alberoni, Turin, 1897 Google Scholar; Comte DE
BARRAL, Etudes sur l’histoire diplomatique de l’Europe de 1648 à 1791, Paris, 1880; A., BADDRILLART, Philippe V et la COW’ de France , Paris, 1890 Google Scholar, five vols; E., DE HECKEREN, Correspondance de Benoît XIV, two vols., Paris, 1912 Google Scholar; D’HAussoisrvnLE, La Duchesse de Bourgogne, etc., 4 vols., 1898–1908, vol. III; Gentleman’s Magazine, 1736; L., WIESENER, Commencement d’ Alberoni , etc., Angers, 1892 Google Scholar; C., MALAGOLA, Il Card. Alberoni e la republica di San Marino, Bologna , 1886 Google Scholar; J., BUTLER, Duke of Ormonde, the Jacobite attempt of 1717 , etc., Edinburgh, 1895 Google Scholar; the Archives du Ministère des Affaires &èirangères; Fonds Rome and Espagne.
4 One of his contemporaries, L. FERRARI, Delle Notizie storiche della lega fra ’Imperatore Carlo VI e /a Republica di Venezia, etc., Venice, 1723 (pp. 259–260), characterizes him as follows: “A keen man, quick in his work, fertile in resources and one to whom nothing seems difficult: a man who when silent, yet speaks, and speaking he enchants, and so wonderfully. * * * “ A German, Universal-Lexicon, Suppl. I, p. 903, speaks of him in 1751 as a “perfect politician and great statesman.”
5 One of his first biographers belittles him in the following terms: “The cardinal is of small stature; rather too corpulent than too thin; his face is not at all attractive; it is too broad, because his head is too large.” Of his eyes alone he speaks well.
6 “Those who are acquainted with my career,” he writes about the year 1735, “are honest enough to certify that I never made wealth my idol; and on this point I appeal to my own conscience. If I were a man who delights in the love of lucre, there are few who have had greater opportunity to acquire riches. I might say that I had become his treasurer when the Duke de Vendome honored me with his confidence. Frequently he teased me because of my contempt for money, stating that he believed I would never take great pains to discover the philosopher’s stone. My station in Spain offered me opportunities to acquire immense wealth. Yet I never spent more than was necessary to keep up my position as minister. I did not allow a single one of my relatives to come near me.” And still later, in 1742, he adds that he will be “in history, an example of strange calumnies and persecutions.”
7 Writers of that time did not question the authenticity of this TESTAMENT Poungum The Gottingische Anzeigen von Gelehrten Sachen of June 2, 1753 (pp. 610–613) calls attention to the book and discusses it earnestly. In the DIZIONABIO DI OPERE. ANONIME E PSEDDONIME DI SCRITTORI ITALIANI (Milan, 1$59, vol. III, p. 141) we read that the manuscript was bought in Madrid and thence brought to Lausanne! It is also referred to in the DICTIONNAIRE DES MIRAGES ANONYMES ET PSEIJDONYMES, (Paris, vol. III, p. 312). And yet it is the work of two French publicists, Duray de Morsant (1717–1795) and Maubert de Gouveste (1721–1767), two of the many intellectual adventurers who thrived at that time. Maubert de Gouveste also wrote HISTOIRE POLITIQUE DU SIÈCLE during his sojourn in England, and in turn became chief editor of the Journal Officiel in Brussels (1759) and director of an itinerant. French theatrical troop on its passage through Wurtemberg. He left a large number of works. Writing about this Testament Politigue, Sabatier says: “It is impossible to read it, and not be impressed by the depth of thought, the elegance of reflection and the precision of reasoning!”
8 My friend, professor G. Dalla Santa, Assistant Director of the Archives of Venice, informed me that the manuscript came from a collection brought together by the Venetian senator Theodor Carrer, born at Venice, December 12, 1750 and dying there in 1830, whose mother, Marie-Anne Pettagno, of the princely family di Trebisaccia, had been a Neapolitan, a fact which, to a certain extent, associates the manuscript with the princely de Torella family. The Venice manuscript is doubtless a copy. I have taken great pains to find the original (supposing that it was still in existence); but so far these efforts have not been rewarded. The distinguished director of the State Archives of Naples, Professor Casanova, has upon my request, devoted himself actively to this task, and we have not given up hope of finding some day the final clue to this point.
The larger portion of this manuscript was published in Venice (Stabil. typ., di P. Naratovich, 1806, 8°–32), by a Mr. Tipaldo Foresti, on the occasion of the marriage of a friend, and entitled: PER LE AUSPICANTISSIME NOZZE DEL SIGNOR GIULIO SQUETAROLI COLLA SIGNa GIUSEPPINA SARTORI. This accounts for the fact that public libraries, even in Italy, are uninformed concerning this publication. Still, in his day Casati called attention to it in the Revue des Questions Historiques (1869, vol. VI, p. 582).
9 Cantu and, after him, Bersani (pp. 385–386) believe that these projects were written about 1724. The latter adds: “An alliance between all the princes and the Italian republics was subsequently proposed for the purpose of driving all foreigners from Italy. But I know nothing as to that, except that some writer may by way of diversion have sought to hold up to ridicule these ideas of Alberoni as vaporings and chimeras of a demented and unhealthy mind.” These two authors are mistaken: the reader will readily judge for himself in the course of this study that the main project at least could not have been written before 1730.
10 Among modern historians, Mr. E. Bourgeois is undoubtedly the one who has penetrated deepest into the soul of Cardinal Alberoni; for he has, as we know, successfully studied him for many years. Recently, while engaged in the preparation of this study, I asked him some questions in answer to which he said among other things: “I quite agree with you that Alberoni, who has been represented as a mischief-maker, was rather a pacifist, or at least a peaceful man, in the sense that, as a son of that Italy which in the eighteenth century was the appointed arena for the wars of Germany and France, of the Habsburg and Bourbon houses, he deplored the ravaged fields, the crops which were destroyed, and the ruined peasantti.”
11 We have thus, for instance: INTÈRÊTS ET MAXIMES DES PRINCES ET DES ÈTATS SOUVERAINS, printed at Cologne by Jean du Pats, 1666 (16°,248) whose authorship is erroneously attributed to the Duke de Rohan. This is made clear through the publication, in the same year and by the same anonymous author, of MAXIMES DES PRINCES ET ÈTATS SOUVERAINS (Cologne, 1666, 16°, 245). “M. de Rohan,” we read in the preface to this volume, “who was an excellent captain and one of the great politicians of his time * * * has written on this subject and has succeeded very well, but he is very concise and writes of only a few Christian Princes, whilst the author of this book writes of all the important Sovereigns of Christianity and of all Infidel Potentates whose interests are the same, or because of their situation and their proximity or for some other consideration. It is true that he has followed in the traces of M. de Rohan, followed his plan and his thoughts, and availed himself of his divisions and expressions in most of the matters of which both have treated * * * Christians are divided into three different parties (p. 207), Catholics, Greeks and Protestants. These three do not love each other. * * * So many divisions, maintaining incessant war in Christianity, give confidence to the Turk that he will not be pushed from that quarter. * * * Those Christian Princes who are at war must conclude peace and combine their forces against that common enemy,” the Turk.—See also, Aug. Langel, HENRY DE ROHAN, SON RÔLE POLITIQUE ET MILITAIRE SOUS LOUIS XIII, Paris, 1889. To be added NOUVEAUX INTÈRÊTS DES PRINCES DE L’ÉUROPE où l’on traite des maximes qu’ils doivent observer pour se maintenir dans leurs Mats États et pour empOcher qu’il ne se forme une monarchie universelle. Cologne, 1685, 12°, 420. This work was reprinted in 1688, in 1600 and in 1712, showing the great interest people took in these questions.
12 The first Mémoire pour rendre la paix perpetuelie en Europe was published in Cologne (by J. le Pacifique), 1712. The following year there was published in Utrecht (by A. Shorden) the Projet pour rendre la Paix perpétuelle en Europe, in two volumes. The edition of 1729, Rotterdam (D. Bemann), bears this pompous title: Summary of the Project of Perpetual Peace, invented by King Henry the Great, approved by Queen Elizabeth, by King James her successor, by the republics and by diverse other potentates. Adapted to the present general state of European affairs, demonstrated as in general infinitely advantageous to all men born and to be born, and in particular to all sovereigns and sovereign houses.
13 See, L., VINES, DE EUROPAE OMINOUS, ET BELLO TUROICO, Basilen, 1526 Google Scholar.
14 This “exhortation” was published in various languages. The French translation is in the Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, fonds Rome, 1733–1736, supplement 17. Its conclusions (p. 9) deserve to be quoted. They are:
“I. It is known * * * that the Rhine separates the Gauls from Germany, and they were formerly separated until the Franks had crossed the Rhine and changed and even subjected the Gauls to their domination; this gave rise to those divisions which brought on discord upon discord, pretensions upon pretensions, one war after another, and it would be well, if for the purpose of reestablishing permanent friendship, each kingdom should be confined to its ancient boundaries and kept within them.
“II. The owners of these kingdoms must renounce, by solemn oath, in their own behalf and in behalf of their successors and heirs without exception, to all future pretension to this or that country, province or localities, to every other pretension and to any misunderstanding that might exist among them.
“III. * * * for the great advantages which the courts of France and Spain derive from the division, they shall, with all their forces, assist the Ducal House of Austria both against the sworn enemy of the Christian name and against the adversaries of the church and the renegades who have caused it such great harm in the wars of Italy (p. 13).”
The various countries of Europe are distributed among the different princely families. The Archducal House of Austria, aided by Russia and the other countries, must drive the Turks out of Europe, “recover the holy land, retake all the holy places and there enthrone the House of Lorraine” * * * (p. 15). Any manner of ruses are permitted against the Protestants. The German Empire by right of succession must revert to the Archduke of Austria and his successors. It is necessary “above all to abolish the Diet of Ratisbon, which for the past century has governed jointly with the Emperor and which now dares to oppose him and to impose its laws upon him” etc.
As is seen, Droysen [H/STORISCHER BEITRAG VC DER LEHRE VON DEN CoNonnssEN in the Monatsberichte der Kgl. preus. Akademie der Wissenschaften zu. Berlin of the year 1869, pp. 651–6751 is mistaken when he declares that this manuscript has not been published. We are not at all surprised to find that this treaty has been qualified as a “rather foolish piece of work,” and its authors as “idle, rebellious and personal enemies of the court of Rome” (I) by King William I of Prussia and by his ministers, since it was directed against the Protestants. Manteufel is also mistaken in believing that it was inspired by the writings of the Abbé de Saint-Pierre.
15 In regard to this movement, see my work Deux Précurseurs français du Pacifism et de l’ Arbitrage International, in Revue d’Histoire Diplomatigue, vol. XXV, 1911, pp. 23–78; the various studies of E. NYE, as well as W., SCHÜKING, Die Organisation der Welt, Leipzig, 1909 Google Scholar; F., LAGOROEVrE, le &Ile de la Guerre, etc., Paris, 1906 Google Scholar; S. M., MELAMED, Théorie, Ursprung and Geschichte der Friedensidée, Stuttgart, 1909 Google Scholar. In regard to the Abbê de Saint-Pierre, see: E., GOIIMY, Étude sur la vie et les écrits de l’abbé de Saint-Pierre, 1858 Google Scholar; S., SIÉGLER-PASCAL, les Projets de l’ Abbé de Saint-Pierre, 1900 Google Scholar; and especially: F., DROITET, l’ Abbé de Saint-Pierre, l’homme et Fccutrre, 1912 Google Scholar; W., PENN, an Essay towards the present and future Peace of Europe, Washington (The American Peace Society), 1912 Google Scholar; F. P., Corrruzzi, La question d’Oriente dinanzi al Diritto Internazionale ed alla Diplomazia europea, Macerata, 1882 Google Scholar. In addition: E., DE RUAGIERO, l’Arbitrato Publico in relazione col Privato presso i Romani, Rome, 1893 Google Scholar; G., VELIO BALLERINI, Il Problema della Pace Perpetua, etc., Turin, 1885 Google Scholar; C., PHILLIPSON, The International Law and Custom of ancient Greece and Rome, two vols., London, 1911.Google Scholar
16 See: A., FILLET, La Cause de la Paix et les deux Conferences de la Hays, Paris, 1908 Google Scholar; M., TAIIBE, Principi Mira i Prava v mezdunarodnih stolknoveniah szeclnjih vjekov (vol. II of his Histoire des origins du Droit International modern, in Russian), Harkov, 1899 Google Scholar; M., NOVACOVITCH, Les Compromis et les Arbitrages Internationaux du XIIe au XVe sieele (thesis) Paris, 1905 Google Scholar; VESNITCH, Le Droit International dans les rapports des Slaves Meridionaux au Moyen-Age, in Revue de Droit International et de Législ. Comparée, 1896; and also the well known works of KOMAROVSKY, MÉRIGNRAC, etc.
17 One century before Cardinal Alberoni wrote his Project, a French consul who was passing through Belgrade wrote in a letter, dated January 25, 1624: “Since I came to Belgrade, I have of a sudden discovered that a League has been organized in Christianity to march against the Turkish State this coming Spring; I found letters written in symbols on the table of my host Ragnosky who plots the affair here * * * from which I learn that the Pope, the Emperor, the King of Spain, the Grand-Duke and Mr.de Nevers are in the enterprise * * * and that all Servia and Bosnia are to rise as soon as the League appears.” See, A. BOPPE, Journal et Correspondance de Gedoyen “Le Turc” Consul de France à Alep, Paris, 1909, p. 47.
18 Some of these Observations we meet in the writings of our contemporaries. Read for instance the following passages taken from the proclamation of General Camerana of June 16, 1912, to the Arabs: “The Italian victories follow one another. This is a proof that God is forsaking the Turks. * * * Nothing on earth happens but according to the will of God. Would the Italians be victorious, if it were not by the will of God?”
19 The Diet of Ratisbon was divided into three Colleges: the College of the Electors, consisting of the nine sovereigns, to whom belonged the right to fill the vacancy on the Imperial throne; the College of the Princes, of a membership not less than one hundred; and the College of the Free Cities, composed of fifty-one deputies. The voting took place in the order in which the three Colleges are here given, so that the two princely Colleges decided all resolutions by themselves. Duc DE BROGLIE, Frédéric II et Marie Thérèse, Paris, 1883, I, p. 254. — The place of the first session of Penn’s Parliament (Imperial Dyet or State of Europe) should be central, as much as is possible, afterwards as they agree. Penn finds the model for this institution in the States-General of the Netherlands.
20 While this article is going to press, the partition of Turkey is being effected, at least in regard to her European and African provinces. It is not the Western Powers which are realizing this idea of Alberoni; rather, it is the vital forces of the Balkan peoples, subjugated five centuries ago by the Asiatic invasion, which are achieving this superb work, by taking up again, as it were, the thread of their development at the very place where it was severed at the end of the 14th century, after the memorable battle of Cossova. We shall not, however, blame our author because he did not foresee that in future the peoples and their aspirations would replace the intrigues of the Cabinets. This mistake in judgment was not at all personal to himself; it was general and was relegated to the historical archives only by the declaration of independence of the United States of America and by the consequences of the great French Revolution.