There is this young German king running around investing bishops and committing simony. Clearly, I am the only one with authority to invest bishops with their office. How do I make him and others see that lay figures investing bishops is simony?
The papal lackeys have always tried to undermine rightful state power in Germany. The international church and her parliamentary arm in the Reich, Zentrum, are just the latest iteration of this old story as His Holiness Gregory VII shows us here. But this time the German state will prevail! Just as I said in 1872: "To Canossa we will not walk, neither in flesh nor in spirit."^1
I can assure His Holiness that I hold nothing against Catholics per se. Some of my best friends are Catholics!^2 My allies in this fight, this Kulturkampf, the Liberals, they sure do, but they are just my partners by convenience. You see, your church encroaches on the authority of the Prussian and the German state and it is particularly partial to our troublesome Polish minority in the eastern territories. This is the core issue.
I'll see to it that your primary agents, those sneaky Jesuits, will be expelled from our country^3, that the pulpit isn't abused for political purpose again^4, and that all of Germans are required to get a civil marriage as well.^5 Plus, I will come down hard on the confessional schools! State superintendence over all schools!^6 -- This is how you handle papists right. No Canossa, your most holy successor Pius IX will walk to Berlin and I look forward to that.
With regards,
v. Bismarck
^1 From a speech given by me on May 14, 1872, in the German Reichstag, cited in Eberhard Kolb, Otto von Bismarck. Eine Biographie. (Munich: C.H.Beck 2014), p. 138.
^2 Citation needed.
^3 Jesuit Law, June 1872.
^4 Pulpit Law, 1871.
^5 Civil Marriage Law, February 1875.
^6 Prussian School Supervision Law, March 1872.