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enough for them. "It is not surprising then to see pontifical diplomacy busy from the start at hindering our food supply; dissuading the neutrals from joining our side, in order to break the bond holding the 'Entente' together... Nothing was considered too insignificant if it could help this great task, and bring about peace by provoking some weakness amongst the Allies. "There was worse: Solicitations for a separate peace. Between the 2nd and the 10th of January 1916, some German Catholics went to Belgium to preach, in the name of the pope they said, a separate peace. The Belgian bishops accused them of lying, but the nuncio and the pope remained silent... "Then, the Holy See thought of bringing together France and Austria, so hoping to make France sign a separate peace or demand that, with her allies, they should negotiate a general peace... A few weeks later, on the 31st of March 1917, Prince Sixte of Bourbon gave the famous letter of the emperor Charlesto the president of the Republic. "As the manoeuvre had failed on this side of the Alps, it was bound to be tried again elsewhere, in England, in America, and especially in Italy... "Break up the temporal forces of the 'Entente' in order to stop its offensive attacks, ruin its moral prestige with the view to weaken its courage and bring it to terms... these two things make up the politics of Benedict XV and all the efforts of his impartiality always have been and are still aimed at hamstringing us".(15) This was written by a notorious Catholic, M. Louis Canet; and this is what the Abbe Brugerette wrote: "We only learned four years later, through the declarations of M. Erzberger published in the "Germania" of the 22nd of April 1921, that the proposal of peace proclaimed by the Pope in August 1917 had been preceded by a secret accord between the Holy See and Germany".(16) Another interesting point is that the ecclesiastical diplomat who negotiated this "secret accord" was the nuncio in Munich, Monseigneur Pacelli, future Pius XII. One of his apologists, the R.P. Jesuit Fernesolle, wrote: "On the 28th of May (1917), Monseigneur Pacelli presented his letters of appointment to the king of Bavaria... He tried hard to enlist the co-operation of William II and the chancellor Bethmann-Holveg. On the 29th of June, Monseigneur Pacelli was solemnly received by the emperor William II at the headquarters of Kreuznach".(17) (15) Louis Canet: "Le Politique de Benoit XV", (Revue de Paris, 15th of October and 1st of November 1918). (16) Abbe Brugerette, op.cit., III, p.543. (17 ) R.P. Fernesolle, S.J. "Pro pontifice". Imprimatur 26th of June 1947,(Beauchesne, Paris 1947, p. 15.)