Edmund, well done! Are you familiar with Henry Edward Cardinal Manning and his essays on Caesarism and Ultramontanism circa 1870? His arguments are just the ticket you need; they are masterfully done.
In sum, "Divus Caesar, Imperator et Summus Pontifex."
Kind regards,
Frank
Nisi Dominus Frustra!
I know who Cardinal Manning was, and some of his positions, but I have not read his writings.
Divus Caesar, Imperator et Summus Pontifex.
"Divine Caesar, Emperor and Supreme Pontiff", hmm.:-)
Have you ever read a rather remarkable American science fiction novel from the 1950's (of all things) entitled "A Canticle for Leibowitz"? It's a really rather profound meditation on these themes, against the backdrop of a post-Christian society drifting toward nuclear war.
Here's an excerpt:
He fingered the mound of faggots where the wooden martyr stood. That's where all of us are standing now, he thought. On the fat kindling of past sins. Mine, Adam's, Herod's, Judas's, Hannegan's, mine. Everybody's. Always culminates in the colossus of the State, somehow, drawing about itself the mantle of godhood, being struck down by wrath of Heaven. Why? We shouted it loudly enough -- God's to be obeyed by nations as by men. Caesar's to be God's policeman, not His plenipotentiary successor, nor His heir. To all ages, all peoples -- "Whoever exalts a race or a State or a particular form of State orthe depositories of power ... whoever raises these notions above their standard value and divinizes them to an idolatrous level, distorts and perverts an order of the world planned and created by God ..." Where had that come from? Eleventh Pius, he thought, without certainty -- eighteen centuries ago. But when Caesar got the means to destroy the world, wasn't he already divinized? Only by the consent of the people -- same rabble that shouted: "Nil habemus regem nisi Caesarem," when confronted by Him -- God incarnate, mocked and spat upon.Sadly, the author of that beautiful Catholic book later left the Faith and took his own life.