Vatican defended itself against this serious charge of favouring the Central Powers by pointing out that Benedict would not be capable of such an action, and that no agreement had been made with the Governments of the Central Powers. A letter containing these arguments was sent by Cardinal Gasparri to the Archbishop of Sens and published at Paris in La Croix on October 25th. The Vatican also availed itself of certain ecclesiastical dignitaries for the purpose of counteracting these suggestions. Thus, in England, it was Cardinal Bourne who was entrusted with this task.
To-day it is possible to state that the Vatican had exchanged views with Vienna and Berlin on the subject of its peace overture. Thus, it is an historical fact that at the beginning of August 1917 Mgr. Pacelli, the Papal Nuncio at Munich, transmitted to Dr. Michaelis, the Imperial Chancellor, a document containing almost word for word the concrete peace conditions as formulated in the note which was officially dispatched to the belligerent Governments two weeks later. It is likewise true that the German Government accepted Pacelli’s memorandum as a Papal peace overture, prepared an answer,and passed the whole matter on to Vienna, where, on August 6th, Czernin expressed his approval of the answer given by Michaelis. He urged Berlin, however, to be more explicit in its reply on the subject of Belgium, in order that the Allies might not be able to deduce from it that Germany was contemplating annexation in any form. I do not know when and how Berlin conveyed to Pacelli the answer which it had prepared by agreement with Vienna. It perhaps regarded this step merely as an attempt to test the atmosphere in Berlin. The German reply to the memorandum was, on the whole, favourable, as was also the later official reply to the Papal note of August 1st. It seems evident that the Vatican took this step only in order to be certain how the Pope’s official statement would be received in Berlin. It had no doubt that the note would be favourably received in Vienna, and it did not attach much importance to the opinion of Bulgaria or Turkey. But as far as I know, it did not show similar consideration for Allied opinion, which it sounded only indirectly through various unofficial sources of information.
The discussions between the Central Powers on the subject of the reply to the Papal note were difficult. Vienna had accepted the notewith great satisfaction, and desired to reply unreservedly
