For a day last week Rafael Merry del Val stepped reluctantly out of the
shadow of the retirement in which he has lived since the death of Pope
Pius X, his beloved friend. He celebrated the silver jubilee of his
elevation, at the hands of Pius X, to the cardinalate. He celebrated a
high mass. He attended a banquet in his honor. Then once again he
withdrew into the cloister of his memories.It was a political tangle which precipitated Merry del Val on his
so-glittering early career. Cardinal Rampolla was expected to succeed
to the papacy when Leo XIII died in 1903. But objections were raised
and the election finally went to Giuseppe Sarto, a simple priest,
peasant by birth, peasant-hearted to the end of his days.With infinite trepidation the new, tenth Pius looked about for some more
worldly figure on whom to lean in the grave duty of administering
affairs of state. At that time young Merry del Val, only 38, had acted
as secretary of the Conclave of Cardinals and was director of the
Academy of Noble Ecclesiastics at Rome, where he had studied for the
priesthood.No peasant was Merry del Val, but scion of an ancient Spanish family,
grandee by birth and inclination, rich, sophisticated. He was the son
of Don Rafael Marquis Merry del Val, secretary to the Spanish
ambassador at London. His mother, the granddaughter of Brodie McGee
Willcocks, onetime M. P., had mingled a strain of English blood with
Merry del Val's paternal Spanish. Born in London, Merry del Val had
been educated at Baylis House. He completed his theological studies in
Rome and was ordained priest at 23.Under Pope Leo XIII Merry del Val was Master of the Robes and Privy
Chamberlain, and one of the youngest members of the papal household. He
had ample exercise for his patrician tastes. He liked horses, liked
dancing; he was an excellent shot. In ecclesiastical matters however he
was not widely known. And when the new pope, Pius X, in his emergency,
selected Merry del Val as ProSecretary of State the decision came as a
distinct shock.It was expected, of course, that the appointment would be only
temporary. On the contrary, three months later the Pope made Merry del
Val a Cardinal and gave him the full secretary title. Thereafter for
eleven years Merry del Val at the Vatican counselled, conferred,
carried out the policies of the peasant Pius. He enunciated his Pope's
vigorous disapproval of all modernistic tendencies, in religion and in
society. He became a world figure.Strangely ill-mated as the two seemed—the simple, ascetic Pope and the
flashing knightly young Cardinal—they soon became united by the
strongest bonds: dependence and admiration on the part of Pius,
affection on the part of Merry del Val.In 1914, when Pius died, Merry del Val seemed by all odds the likeliest
candidate for St. Peter's throne. But a new force had arisen in the
Catholic hierarchy, Giacomo della Chiesa, Archbishop of Bologna.
Cardinal della Chiesa had delivered a striking address on the outbreak
of the War, in which he insisted that the Holy See observe the
strictest neutrality, yet make every effort to restore peace and
mitigate suffering. The fine periods of that address were still echoing
when the Cardinals met to elect a new Pope. Ten ballots were cast and
as the smoke of their burning ascended from the Vatican, it was della
Chiesa, not del Val, who experienced the emotion of becoming God's
spokesman on earth.
