El Amo del Mundo, una novela profética
Lord of the World
Lord of the World is a 1907[1] novel byMonsignor Robert Hugh Benson that centers upon the reign of the Anti-Christ and the End of the World. It has been called prophetic by Dale Ahlquist, Joseph Pearce, Pope Benedict XVIand Pope Francis.
Influences
According to his biographer, Fr. Cyril Martindale, Mgr. Benson's depiction of the future was in many ways an inversion of the science fiction novels of H.G. Wells. In particular, Benson was sickened by Wells' belief thatAtheism, Marxism, World Government, and Eugenicswould lead to an earthly utopia. Due to his depiction of a Wellsian future as a global police state, Benson's novel has been called one of the first modern works ofdystopian fiction.
The "guiding hand", however, in Benson's writing was that of his friend and literary mentor Frederick Rolfe. Rolfe's anti-Modernist satirical novel Hadrian VII influenced numerous aspects of Lord of the World, including the introductory first chapter.[2]
Monsignor Benson was also influenced by his reading of history—specifically the anti-Catholic persecutions that followed the English Reformation and the French Revolution. A scene in which the Antichrist leads an enormous congregation in the worship of a nude female statue in St. Paul's Cathedral is a less lascivious version of the worship of theGoddess of Reason inside Notre Dame Cathedral in 1793. The number of former priests and bishops who willingly collaborate with this cult are inspired by the French clergymen who rejected Papal authority and became State employees following the Civil Constitution of the Clergy.
The abortive conspiracy to blow up the Anti-Christ and the grisly aftermath are inspired by the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, in which a small group of English Catholics laymen led byRobert Catesby planned to blow up King James I of England during a session of Parliament. Like its fictional counterpart, the Gunpowder Plot touched off a campaign to completely and permanently destroy Roman Catholicism.
Further inspiration was gleaned from Benson's following of current events—the Russian Revolution of 1905, the revival tent meetings in Wales, and the socialist Labour Party's success during the 1906 general election.
Setting
In the early 21st century, Marxism and Humanism, which are described as the instruments of Freemasonry,[3] have come to dominate both culture and government.
People have no history or hope so they often turn toeuthanasia, which is mandatory for the ill, disabled, and dying. Further there is a single global government that uses Esperanto for a common language. Westminster Cathedral is the only church in London that is still used for religious purposes, with the others having become Masonic lodges. Protestantism is virtually dead, Oxford University has been abolished, and the Royal Houses of Europe have been deposed and replaced with Marxist-Masonic one party states.
Meanwhile, Pope John XXIV has signed an agreement with the Italian government: the Catholic Church can have all of Rome, while all other churches in Italy are surrendered to the government. The deposed royal houses of the world, including the now-Catholic House of Romanov and Manchu Dynasty, are now resident in Rome. Outside Rome, only Ireland still remains staunchly Catholic.
Writing during the pontificate of Pope Pius X and prior to the First World War, Monsignor Benson accurately predicted interstate highways and passenger air travel using an advanced form of Zeppelin called the "volor". However, he also presumed the survival of theBritish Empire and predominant travel by rail. Like many other Catholics of the era in which he wrote, Monsignor Benson shares the political and economic views of G. K. Chestertonand Hilaire Belloc.
Synopsis
The novel's protagonist is a British Roman Catholic priest, Father Percy Franklin, who looks identical to the mysterious U.S. Senator Julian Felsenburgh of Vermont. The senator appears as a lone and dramatic figure promising world peace in return for blind obedience. No one quite knows who he is or where he comes from, but his voice mesmerizes. Under his leadership, war is abolished. Felsenburgh becomes the President of Europe, then of the world, by popular acclaim. Everyone is fascinated with him, yet still no one knows much about him. People are both riveted and frightened by the way he demands attention. Most follow without question.
Having been a close observer of President Felsenburgh's rise, Father Franklin is called to Rome, a Hong Kong-style enclave ruled by Pope John XXVI and raised to the College of Cardinals. Meanwhile, defections among bishops and priests increase. At Cardinal Franklin's instigation, the pope abolishes the Eastern Catholic Churches and forms a new religious order, the Order of Christ Crucified. All its members, including the Pope, vow to die in the name of the faith.
Belief in God is replaced by the religion of Humanity modeled on that of Auguste Comte. All those who oppose this doctrine are subjected to torture and summary execution.
The British Prime Minister and his wife form a sub-plot: The wife desperately wants to believe in this new world movement, but she is horrified when she sees the killings that are justified in the name of world peace. Meanwhile, the prime minister's mother is brought back to the faith by Father Franklin, much to the horror of her son and daughter in law. When the Prime Minister is away meeting Felsenburgh, his wife ignores her terminally ill mother in law's pleas for a priest and has her euthanised.
With the apocalypse clearly at hand, the pope summons all the cardinals to Rome. Meantime, some English Catholics, against orders, plot to blow up the Abbey where the politicians meet. Percy Franklin, now a cardinal, along with another German cardinal, are sent to England to try to prevent this plot, which they are warned about. But word gets out. In retaliation, President Felsenburgh orders the destruction of Rome, which is carried out, killing Pope John and all the cardinals but the three who are elsewhere. These three quickly elect the Cardinal Franklin as Pope Sylvester III. Soon after, the old cardinal in Jerusalem dies and the German cardinal is hanged.
The last pope goes to the Holy Land to the location of the apocalyptic final battle foretold by the New Testament. In a final act, Felsenburgh and all the world leaders fly in formation to destroy the remaining signs of faith on earth. In response, Pope Sylvester and the remaining Catholics are attending Mass followed by Eucharistic Adoration. As they sing the Tantum Ergo, the attack strikes.
The last words of the novel are: "Then this world passed, and the glory of it."
Composition
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According to his biographer Fr. Cyril Martindale, Monsignor Benson conceived Lord of the World while assigned as a Catholic Chaplain at Cambridge University.
Benson first mentioned his ideas in a letter to his mother on 16 December 1905, "Yes, Russia is ghastly. Which reminds me that I have an idea for a book so vast and tremendous that I daren't think about it. Have you ever heard of Saint-Simon? Well, mix up Saint-Simon, Russia breaking loose, Napoleon, Evan Roberts, the Pope and Antichrist; and see if any idea suggests itself. But I'm afraid it is too big. I should like to form a syndicate on it, but that is an idea, I have no doubt at all."[4]
In a letter to his close friend and literary mentor Frederick Rolfe on 19 January 1906, Benson wrote, "Anti-Christ is beginning to obsess me. If it is ever written, it will be a BOOK. How much do you know about the Freemasons? Socialism? I am going to avoid scientific developments, and confine myself to social. This election seems to hold vast possibilities in the direction of Anti-Christ's Incarnation -- I think he will be born of a virgin. Oh! If I dare to write all that I think! In any case, it will take years."[5]
According to Father Martindale, the gradual evolution of Lord of the World can be charted through three of Monsignor Benson's notebooks. The first two reveal that Benson based President Felsenburgh on "a rather prominent socialist politician" whose name Father Martindale does not disclose. Felsenburgh's leadership style, however, was modeled on that of Napoleon Bonaparte. In his second notebook, Benson wrote of Felsenburgh, "He never forgives: for political crime he strips of position, making the man incapable of holding office; for treachery to himself he drops them out of his councils." He further described the Anti-Christ as, "complete hardness, and kindness".[6]
On 16 May 1906, Benson wrote in his diary, "Anti-Christ is going forward; and Rome is about to be destroyed. Oh, it is hard to keep it up! It seems to me that I am getting terser and terser until finally the entire story will end in a gap, like a stream disappearing in sand. It is such a fearful lot that one might say, that every word seems irrelevant."[7]
On 28 June 1906, Benson again wrote in his diary, "I HAVE FINISHED ANTI-CHRIST. And really there is no more to be said. Of course I am nervous about the last chapter -- it is what one may call just a trifle ambitious to describe the End of the World. (No!) But it has been done."[8]
In a 28 January 1907 letter, Lord of the World was praised by Frederick Rolfe. Commenting on Benson's decision to satirize him as "Chris Dell" in The Sentimentalists, Rolfe wrote, "You are worrying yourself most unnecessarily about me, I assure you... I am laughing at the absurdity of the whole thing though I must confess that I was rather amazed when I heard that everybody recognized me in Chris. It was rather a blow to my amour propre... You will, I hope, reap a rich harvest of shekels from the transaction, and the world will forget The Sentimentalists when it stands wondering before The Lord of the World."[9]
Miscellaneous
- When Lord of the World was published in 1907, the Antipopes Alexander V and John XXIIIwere seen as validly elected Roman Pontiffs. Therefore, Monsignor Benson's Pope John is "XXIV" rather than "XXIII". As Pope Silvester III was then seen as an Antipope, Monsignor Benson's Pope Silvester is "III" rather than "IV".
- Lord of the World bears many similarities to "A Short Tale of the Anti-Christ" by Vladimir Solovyov, although it is unknown to what degree Monsignor Benson was influenced by Solovyov.
Legacy
Catholic intellectuals
Although it is not as well known as the dystopian writings of Evgeny Zamyatin, George Orwell, and Aldous Huxley,Lord of the World continues to have many admirers—especially among Conservative and Traditionalist Catholics. Despite Mgr. Benson's criticism of the Eastern Catholic Churches, Mother Catherine Abrikosova, aByzantine Catholic Dominican nun, translated Lord of the World into the Russian language shortly before theOctober Revolution of 1917.[10]
In a 2005 essay, Joseph Pearce wrote that, while Orwell and Huxley's novels are "great literature", they "are clearly inferior works of prophecy." Pearce explains that while "the political dictatorships" that inspired Huxley and Orwell "have had their day", "Benson's novel-nightmare ...is coming true before our very eyes."[11]
Pearce elaborates,
EWTN talk show host and American Chesterton Society President Dale Ahlquist has also praised Monsignor Benson's novel and said that it deserves a wider audience.[13]
Michael D. O'Brien's has cited it as an influence on his Apocalyptic series Children of the Last Days.
Papal Statements
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On February 8, 1992, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger criticized U. S. President George H. W. Bush's recent speech calling for "a New World Order" in a speech of his own at theUniversità Cattolica del Sacro Cuore. In his discourse, the future Pope explained that Monsignor Benson's novel described "a similar unified civilization and its power to destroy the spirit. The anti-Christ is represented as the great carrier of peace in a similar new world order."[14]Cardinal Ratzinger proceeded to quote from PopeBenedict XV's 1920 encyclical Bonum sane: "The coming of a world state is longed for, by all the worst and most distorted elements. This state, based on the principles of absolute equality of men and a community of possessions, would banish all national loyalties. In it no acknowledgement would be made of the authority of a father over his children, or of God over human society. If these ideas are put into practice, there will inevitably follow a reign of unheard-of terror."[14]
In a sermon in November, 2013, Pope Francis praised Lord of the World as depicting, "the spirit of the world which leads to apostasy almost as if it were a prophecy."[15]
In early 2015, Pope Francis further revealed Benson's influence upon his thinking by telling a plane load of reporters. At first apologizing for making "a commercial", Pope Francis further praised Lord of the World, despite its being "a bit heavy at the beginning". Pope Francis elaborated, "It is a book that, at that time, the writer had seen this drama of ideological colonization and wrote that book... I advise you to read it. Reading it, you'll understand well what I mean by ideological colonization."[16]
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