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No. 27. Vienna, 8 July 1898. 2nd Year.

The Holy Places.

By Dr. Friedemann.

Among the most difficult questions whose solution remains reserved for Zionism is this also: whether it will prove possible to arrive at an understanding with the Christian churches and protecting Powers that have interests in Palestine.

The right of protection over the Christians of the East — recognised by Turkey, indeed directly conferred upon particular Powers — which accords so little with the modern principle of territoriality in European public law, is rooted, in the first place, in the circumstance that in earlier centuries Christian Europeans never became Turkish subjects, while no adequate consular protection on the part of all the Powers existed; but it takes its origin, further, in the immense religious interests which Christendom pursues in Palestine.

For the Christian pilgrims the possibility of pilgrimage had to be preserved; the glory of making safe the roads to the Holy Sepulchre and to the birthplace of Christ seemed to the world-Powers no less worth striving for than the influence naturally bound up with it, which made possible continual interference in the internal affairs of Turkey.

Down into the present century the French right of protection over the Christians of Palestine was undisputed; it was of course asserted chiefly in favour of the Catholics, and it continued to subsist under Napoleon I. as well, in spite of the Franco-Turkish war. Later Russia laid claim to the protection of the Greek-Catholic Orientals, and the friction which arose thereupon contributed in no small measure to bringing about the Crimean War. But the Protestant Powers, too, have not remained idle spectators.

England and Prussia together founded the bishopric of Jerusalem, which is filled by the two parties in turn, and each vied with the other, by the establishment of peasant colonies, of churches, schools, hospitals, and charitable institutions of every kind, to cast the other into the shade.

The Imperial journey appointed for October shows anew with what iron consistency William II. knows how to pursue his aims in this matter, as he does in all others. It proves what great value is set upon the strengthening of Protestant influence in Palestine, for the most conspicuous moment will in any case be the consecration of the new Protestant church in Jerusalem. And not without reason do Frenchmen and Englishmen regard the journey to Palestine with jealous eyes, since its success will mean a weakening of their influence and a strengthening of the German.

The question now is: will the Christian Powers, which have acquired such considerable interests in the Holy Land, quietly suffer Jews to take possession of it, even were it under the suzerainty of the Porte? Will they not oppose this on purely religious grounds alone?

The question can as little be disposed of by the assertion that it will be a matter of complete indifference to the Powers whether Turkish or Jewish soldiers keep watch at the Holy Sepulchre, as by the comforting thought that the holy places might be made extra-territorial. The Turks are to-day the beati possidentes; to drive them out would be to set the whole Eastern question in motion. But if the Turk must one day quit the land, will it then be allowed to pass again into the hands of non-Christians? Or will not Christian religious zeal imperiously demand that the dominion be transferred to a Christian Power? These religious difficulties should be capable of removal. The Catholic Church would be disavowing its whole attitude of centuries, the steps taken on religious grounds in favour of the Jews by Clement VI., Martin V., and Pius IV., were it to set itself against a Jewish colonisation. For the hopes and prophecies of the coming of the thousand-year kingdom, which are found in numbers in the New Testament, are always made dependent upon the preservation of the Jews, and probably also — although the meaning of the passages is obscure — upon their prior return to Zion. Moreover, the Catholic Church has hitherto come to terms with every political constellation that promised any advantages in the long run. For this there is the formula of the "tolerari potest." To-day it accommodates itself to the Republic in France as once to the Empire — and yet it had at first condemned both forms of government as sacrilegious! If Catholicism in Palestine has the complete freedom of its action guaran-