ABSTRACT

Father Joseph's involvement in mysticism on one side and in high politics on the other represents a paradox that Huxley tried to explain from a religious and political standpoint. This chapter briefly sketches out the most important biographical facts of Father Joseph's life. Father Joseph became ordained and set off on a lifelong involvement in performing religious duties. The chapter focuses on the development and consequences of Father Joseph's psychological and spiritual maturity. A priest who was asked to preach the funeral sermon for Father Joseph responded "that he could not, with a good conscience, praise a man who had been the instrument of the Cardinal's passions, and who was hated by the whole of France". Several days after Father Joseph's death, a desecrating note by "an anonymous practical joker" appeared on his grave, saying: "Passer-by, is it not a strange thing that a demon should be next to an angel?