In a certain respect, I am a Legitimist; I have not accepted any of the principles that are used to mislead the people. I do not believe that public authority proceeds from the individual, i.e. not even from the collectivity which results when one adds up the individuals. Whoever wants to impose his authority on me, to him I say: You are not to rule over me, and if ten come, if a thousand or a million, then the principle has not changed, and I say: I will not obey you. I have, rather, a higher view of the source of public authority; I say: All authority comes from God. (Bravo)
But I am also a democrat, for I say: Everyone is equal to everyone else before God, and the authority delegated from a higher power lies in the calling of the people; authority therefore rests not on two or twenty or two hundred million votes added up. The legitimist therefore resides in the same house as the democrat.
I am also an aristocrat; the aristocracy of spirit and virtue is what I revere. I am therefore a legitimist, democrat, and aristocrat, yet from this union of three there arises no animosity, on the contrary, they complement each other. As Paul said to the Church: it is a mysterious body wherein different activities and spiritual gifts work together, and so is it, as well, with the Pius Associations. (Bravo) Among Catholics there is no compulsion, but only freedom of conviction and strength in fraternal union. We have fallen to ruin because of isolation, therefore we must flock together in order to fight the ingratitude and betrayal of the Fatherland. (Bravo)
In politics I am an allopath, and I try to cure all ills with contrary measures. Previously, Germany had the rule of the world; the chronicles from those times spoke a great deal about the coarseness of the Germans. Now this has been transformed into humility, and Germany has played a sad role, or rather no role at all, since the so-called reformation of the church and the Peace of Westphalia. There and then they threw the Church out of public life; but now the rancor of the people has majestically come to the fore, it has taken sword in hand in order to recapture, on behalf of the Church that represents the people, the helm that was iniquitously wriggled away from it. (Bravo)
After that era, the nation's energy was demolished, the people were weak and unprincipled, for there was an absence of rule according to principles; but now, finally, the people must be torn away from the sleep of false tolerance, pastoral cleverness, and emotional sputtering. In ordinary politics, there is only relative good; politics for Christians must, however, rest on principles and therefore be absolutely good, or else it will elicit absolute bad; the rule of principles is also one of life's necessities.
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