“God is with us!”
Religious support for the national cause varied. The announcement of victories were accompanied by the ringing of bells. In Germany the Church authorities, in particular via the ad hoc committee of the Protestant Union of Parish Associations, organised a collection of gold for the war effort which yielded a billion marks. In Russia, to make up for governmental incompetence, aid committees were set up with the support of industrial and commercial organisations and the Orthodox Church. Everywhere bishop's palaces were transformed into hospitals. The priest, the pastor, the rabbi, the imam, as soldier or medic, entered into the struggle to serve both as 'father' and 'brother' to the men sent to the front, sharing the danger, suffering, hopes and fears involved in a ‘blood feud'. In the case of the Catholic priest, an indult[1] had been granted in the previous century to suspend the proscription on killing under canon law[2] . The military chaplain, sent or, in the case of Portugal, reintroduced, was given a moral authority which authorised him to read communiqués and to comment on the action. In spite of the differing situations and occasional anticlerical sentiments, he was generally welcomed by both troops and officers.
The Home Front assisted with mobilisation and, here too, religious motifs were blended with the nationalist cause. Hermann Cohen[3] made his contribution in arguing for a German-Jewish symbiosis (Germanness and Jewishness, 1915) and the Zentrum Catholic[4] party participated in the 'Burgenfrieden', the German equivalent of the French 'Sacred Union'. To refute the arguments given by the Germans about neutrals, in particular Spain and Italy, Alfred Baudrillart[5] , rector of the Catholic Institute, founded and organised The Catholic Committee for French Propaganda Abroad (CCPFE). He recruited Paul Claudel[6] , who dreamed of destroying the “sons of Luther, all the hordes of the dark Hun”. The publication of The German War and Catholicism (1915), which linked barbarism, German culture, Lutheranism and Kantian relativism, produced a response from the German Catholics, German culture, Catholicism and the war (1916), a multi-authored work with an essay by the Rhenish romanist Hermann Platz[7] which denounced the revival of the old alliance between France and the Church which lay at its root. In fact, panegyrics that made reference to the figurehead of Joan of Arc[8] , daughter of the People and of the Church, demonstrated an attempt to bring together two previously opposing camps. 'Eternal France', 'Eldest daughter of France', - or of Clovis[9] or Louis IX[10] – and France 'universal' – of Voltaire[11] , of Robespierre – were brought together in the name of right and the defence of French soil, the love of 'God' and 'civilisation' were linked with that of 'fatherland' and 'freedom'. The church leaders in Britain and Russia joined in with the same enthusiasm against the 'diabolical war' conducted by Germany. The Archbishop of London, who defended the idea of 'holy war', presented himself in public in the khaki officer's uniform he wore as honorary chaplain to one of the capital's British regiments.
The preponderant unity on both sides should be weighed against religious divisions. The 'infamous rumour' which saw the French clergy accused, in 1915, of being both responsible for the war and hoping for defeat, was some indication of the continuing struggle between 'the two Frances'. British different went deeper. 200 000 Irish volunteered to go to the front, but the Irish republican Brotherhood (future IRA) once again established contact with Germany and planned the Easter Rising (April 1916 which was bloodily suppressed. Moreover, the recruitment of Jews, including those not naturalised from August 1917, was affected by uneasiness in the community because of the UK's alliance with Russia, the arch enemy. Russia herself was gripped by a politico-religious crisis at the head of the state. Nicholas II[12] had allowed himself to come under the influence of the monk Rasputin[13] , who was accused – without proof – of being a German agent. An illiterate monk, Rasputin had a reputation as a miracle worker, and had been welcomed into the imperial family in 1905 because he was able to mitigate the sufferings of the Tsarevich[14] , who was a haemophiliac. This success and the influence he exerted on the Tsarina, enabled him to install his supporters in the highest positions in the Church. His life of debauchery and the enemies he made served to discredit the monarchy and the Church, while there was little military success to compensate for the sacrifices at the front and at home. After the revolution of February 1917, the Provisional Government passed important measures, including freedom of conscience and allowing criticism of religion. Catholics and Jews were overlooked when the German nationalism was given a boost by the four hundredth anniversary of the Reformation; that Luther[15] was German was presented as proof that God had chosen the German people.
Protestants and Catholics, who had been facing a decline in public participation, nourished the hope that early signs of a 'return to God' would lead to a 'return to the Church'. The fervour of the first months of the war was marked by a change in attitude of soldiers both while they were fighting at the front and when they were billeted at home. In France, as in Germany, churches filled up, there were daily prayers and pilgrimages accompanied by holy images and objects, including medals that had been blessed. In Great Britain, after the excitement of the initial fervour, Anglican church attendance fell back to the pre-war level, to the despair of the clergy, aware of the contrast between the situation in France and theirs. The National Mission, launched in 1915, was a failure which exposed the internal divisions in the institution, especially in relation to High Church borrowings from Catholicism. In daily life, chaplains sought to make room for 'time for God' in the lives of their men, using the liturgical calendar, treating religious festivals with particular solemnity, and preaching in a sober and practical style, encouraging regular discipline (excluding blasphemy, observing insignia). Evangelicals worked with the chaplains. They got together with an enthusiasm which attracted their comrades to prayer, to religious practice, and to services. No denomination achieved mass conversion, but there were instances of a return to the practice of religion, brief or enduring, which diminished as the war went on. The arrangements for religious duties in time of war were laid out by the three monotheisms, notably in relation to fasting. These were put into practice to an unprecedented extent. In the case of Catholicism, laymen took charge of baptisms, and priests sometimes dispensed collective absolution and the presence of the 'excommunicated' and 'heretics', could be authorised at mass. Generally speaking, this intermixing gave rise to questions about the real meaning of personal faith and the discovery of other ways of expressing faith. It also gave rise to rejection of faith, sometimes explained by the attraction of other forms of commitment or engagement, especially that of Marxism.
The religious authorities fell back on arguments of punishment and atonement: for others in the case of victory, for oneself, with recourse to divine mercy, in difficult times. Explanations navigated between calls for repentance and for hope, making war a blessing in the sense of a purification, the opportunity for heroism on earth and sanctification. In both cases, preaching took aim at the evils of 'the modern world'. Alcohol became an obsession to the point that the British Prime Minister persuaded King George V[16] to declare that he had renounced it until the end of the war, a decision which did not greatly effect his subjects. There were efforts as well to persuade people not to follow the example of those whose behaviour led to pride, violence, greed and stupefaction. The war continued, no one knew the outcome, and it was presented as the result of collective error and therefore a source of atonement for the men who, in sacrificing their lives, were called to rediscover their sense of vocation beyond the 'apostasy' of those the leaders of the country. On the home front, women were told not to expose their children to the temptations of selfishness and debauchery. In schools as in religious activity, the young were mobilised for the national cause.
