116 Section V
The Infernal Cycle Chapter I
The First World War To the fury aroused at the Vatican by the Franco-Russian alliance and shown so well in the Dreyfus Affair, to the anger which the Franco-Italian union incited, and to which the Loubet incident clearly testified, was added a bitter resentment caused by the Entente Cordiale with England. France had firmly decided not to stand alone opposite her 'formidable neighbour' and Austria-Hungary. Politics so "blind and ill-considered", according to Monseigneur Cristiani, were looked upon most unfavourably by the Catholic Holy of Holies. For, besides jeopardizing the "thorough bleeding" godless France needed, these politics were a priceless support for schismatic Russia, this lost sheep whose return to the Roman Catholic fold had never ceased to be hoped for, though its accomplishment might mean a war. But for the time being the Orthodox Church stayed firmly implanted in the Balkans, especially in Serbia, where the treaty of Bucarest, ending the conflict of the Balkans, had made it a centre of attraction for the Slavs of the South and in particular for those under the yoke of Austria. The ambitious plans of the Vatican and the apostolic imperialism of the Hapsburgs were then in perfect accord, as in the past. To Rome and Vienna, the growing power of Serbia marked her out as the enemy to overthrow. This is indeed established in a diplomatic document found in the AustrianHungarian archives; it reports, for the benefit of the Austrian minister Berchtold, on the talks Prince Schonburg had at the Vatican in OctoberNovember 1913: "Amongst the subjects discussed first of all with the cardinal secretary of State (Merry del Val) last week, the question of Serbia came up, as anticipated. First of all, the cardinal expressed his joy at our firm and opportune attitude of recent months. During the audience I had that day with His Holiness, the Holy-Father, who started the conversation by