Noyes Annoyed

The Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office is the awesome tribunal of the Roman Catholic Church which guards the integrity of Catholic faith & morals, deals with heresies (it once had charge of the Inquisition), handles mixed marriage cases, maintains the dread Index of Prohibited Books. So potent is the Holy Office that it is nominally headed, not by a Cardinal, like other congregations, but by the Pope himself. Last week the Holy Office--with or without the knowledge of Pope Pius XI--was in the centre of a holy row, kicked up by a devoted but backboned British convert to Catholicism, Poet Alfred Noyes.

Two years ago Alfred Noyes, a Catholic of eleven years' standing, wrote an able biography, Voltaire, published in the U. S. and England by Sheed & Ward, a distinguished Catholic firm. Author Noyes made no attempt to whitewash the corruptions, ecclesiastical and otherwise, of Voltaire's time; he agreed with Voltaire's observation that "to receive the Host from certain hands would be like swallowing a spider." Author Noyes did aim, however, to prove by Voltaire's own statements that he was by no means the cynical atheist he is commonly considered; that he was, in fact, a Deist without quite enough insight to become a full Christian. Voltaire, thought its author, presented an "overwhelming" case for Christianity. The Holy Office, when it read the book last spring, thought otherwise. Its secretary, Donatus Cardinal Sbarretti, wrote Arthur Cardinal Kinsley, Archbishop of Westminster, that the Holy Office decreed:

"That the author be informed that the book be found worthy of condemnation by the Holy Office, but that such could be avoided if he removes, as far as he is able, all copies from circulation, and at the same time writes something that will be equivalent to a reparation. That the publishers be severely warned for having published the book, and that they withdraw it from sale."

Sheed & Ward, mindful of their Catholic public, withdrew Voltaire from British and U. S. circulation. A French Catholic firm, which had ready a translation of the book, held up publication. Meanwhile, Author Noyes sought to learn why the Holy Office thought Voltaire worthy of condemnation. He was informed that he would be told only if he would write the Holy Office a letter which, by implication, would acknowledge his errors. Unwilling to make any such blind recantation, Author Noyes did what Englishmen often do when highly irritated. He appealed to the London Times, which last fortnight printed the documents of the case, including the Holy Office letter. Others:

Letter from Mr. Noyes to Cardinal Hinsley: "So far as I know, it is the first time in history that any English writer of any standing, or indeed any English writer who in his work--whatever his personal failures may be--has reverenced 'conscience as his king.' has had such an order addressed to him in such terms."

Letter from Cardinal Hinsley to the Times: "I have carefully read Mr. Noyes's book, Voltaire, and admire it . . . . I am in a position to say that there has been no condemnation, and certainly not from the Pope. There is question only of some emendments, the nature of which will be discussed later with the author and myself."

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