ABSTRACT
De Maistre was too bold a thinker not to admit the logical deduction from his premises and he was unsparing in his criticisms of Protestantism. Where De Maistre speaks of the Church, Bismarck speaks of the State; where De Maistre discusses the Papacy, Bismarck is discussing the German empire. Otherwise, at bottom, the thought is essentially the same. Nor was their problem different. Bismarck was, with Cavour, the most national of nineteenth century statesmen, and it was of nationalism that the Ultramontane theory has been the uncompromising antagonist. Struggle between empire and papacy became again essential since the absolutism of Bismarck's sovereignty would not admit the existence of spheres of separate influence. If the Roman Catholic Church differentiated between things which were of Caesar, and those which were of God, Bismarck denied the distinction. The National liberals had been enthusiastic for unification; and they were the theoretical antagonists of clericalism.
