UC-NRLF
B 2 flDfl 15M
BISHOP!
1827.
iiiiiiiuifiurSt
ra^»
• •«
£[JLATE
CONCEPT
DEC. 8^^
1 8 54'.
ON THE IHRONE"
'Great IN EXILE"
"Great in Pri5-
^.^h
vMt-'t?i^mt
mm oia e.rft
.IBRARY
JHIVEa ITY OF
CAtlfORNIA
I
■ti-ST INSPIRES AND PROTECTS HIS VICAR.
"''^■' ICE WHICH CHASTISES Mi.N,
'OH RAVES THEIM.
LIFE OF PIUS IX.
DOWN TO
THE EPISCOPAL JUBILEE
OP
1877.
BY
Eet. BERNARD O'REILLY.
^Unurn gestit ne ignorata damnetur:''
[Tkbtullian.]
FIFTH EDITION,
ISTEW YORK:
P. F. COLLIEE, PUBLISHER,
38 Park Place.
1877.
iOAN STACK
Copyright,
1877,
By P. F. CoLUKB.
KewTork i jr. J. Uttto A Ca, Trtnten,
1« u> to Astor llM*.
To His Eminence John Cardinal McClosket,
Archbishop of New York.
Your Eminence :
No task is more difficult for tlie painter than to produce for
an enlightened and devoted family a portrait of an absent father so
natural and life-like that each one of his children, in gazing on the
dear, familiar features, forgets both the work and the workman in
the delightful illusion which seems to recall the sunny smile, the
living voice, the warm heart, the life-long tenderness, and all the
virtues of his worshiped parent.
If, in your judgment, the all-too-imperfect sketch attempted in
the following pages of One who has gloriously filled the Chair of
Peter even longer than Peter himself, and whose long-suffering and
greatness of soul have made him most dear and venerable to the
whole earth, can recall to you, whom he has raised nearest to his
own sublime dignity and bound to himself by the pledge of so close
a love, some one feature of the great Father of Christendom, then ia
the author not ill-satisfied with his work.
He can then hope that in every Catholic home in which these
chapters are read, the light of the heroic life of Pius IX. shall
warm all true hearts to a firmer faith and more generous deeds, and
remind all that by honoring in your person a long and spotless
career of priestly excellence and episcopal devotion, Pius IX. has
honored themselves, their country, and the Church of America.
Begging your Eminence to accept this humble tribute of filial
respect, and to bless the book and the author, he remains.
Your attached and faithful -servant,
B. O'Eeillt.
New Tobz, July 8, 1877.
629
APPEOBATION
OP HIS EMINENCE THE CARDINAL-AKCHBISHOP OF JS^EW YOEK.
From Bight Beo. Dr. Foley ^ Bishop-Administrator of Chicago.
1 return you my hearty thanks for the advance sheets of your
Life of our Holy Father, Pius IX. As far as I have read them,
they have given me entire satisfaction. It is- the Life which is
destined to live in English.
Very faithfully,
Thomas Foley,
BisJiop of Chicago.
AUTHOE'S PEEFAOE.
THIS book, whateyer its merits or demerits, is the partial result of
a design long cherished, the fruit of many years of conscien-
tious study and careful observation.
The author, while yet a school-boy — in 1831-32 — remembers being
startled and shocked by an angry discussion about the insurrection
just then occurring in the Papal States. One of the disputants con-
tended that the discontent of the insurgents was created by a secular
system of misgoyemment, "unprogressiveness," "blind repression,"
and ''ignorantism," so intolerable that human nature could not en-
dure it.
It became thenceforth a passion with the author to read every-
thing that could throAv light on the state of Italy, and enable him to
trace out the causes of the chronic discontent and unrest to which her
populations were a prey, breaking out, as they did, periodically, into
sanguinary violence and the fierce manifestations of a spirit so anti-
Catholic, so anti-Christian, so unholy, that it seemed unaccountable
to most people, while by others it was asserted to be the natural
growth of a soil cursed by priestly government.
He perfectly remembers reading in the newspapers, the period-
icals, and the books of travel of that day, of the rising in the
Eomagna, the Marches, and Umbria, of the appearance on the scene
of the two young Bonapartes, one of whom was said to have been
mortally wounded at Forli, while the survivor, in command of a
company of insurgent cavalry, was said to have been saved by the
generous interference of the patriotic and devoted Archbishop Mas-
tai of Spoleto, soon afterward Archbishop-bishop of Imola. Then,
also, Mazzini and his vast revolutionary league of "Young Italy"
began to loom up before our eyes on this side of the Atlantic, in-
vested by public opinion with the dread mysterious power of " The
Old Man of the Mountain " in the time of the early crusades.
Thus the personages who are most conspicuous in the following
pages became thenceforward familiar to the writer ; they seemed to
V
vi AiUhors Preface.
travel the same road with him, as he adyanced from boyhood to
manhood and old age.
He saw the Mazzinian conspiracy growing steadily in power and
influence, inoculating with the deadly virus of its anti-Christian
principles and its anti-Catholic passions the minds and hearts of the
young and ambitious throughout the Italian Peninsula, filling tlie
souls of the middle classes everywhere with an insatiable ambition of
climbing into place and power over the ruins of existing institu-
tions, and sedulously educating the needy, the idle, the vicious
population of the cities, in the notion that the Church, the papacy,
the government of priests, was the sole obstacle between them and
wealth and happiness and unlimited liberty.
The agitation fomented by Young Italy, and the vast network of
secret societies or " sects " connected with or dependent on it, was as
regular and as irresistible in its '* movements" as the tides in the
ocean. And soon after 1832 the subversive and demoralizing influ-
ence of these dark and dangerous associations began to receive in-
credible sympathy and a mighty accession of moral force from the
countenance and co-operation of the various Bible Societies and
Protestant alliances for the *' conversion" of Italy.
Into this movement against the ancient and sacred rights of the
Holy See we behold England dragged, reluctantly at first, but af-
terward unresistingly, by the evil counsels of Palmerston, Russell,
and Gladstone. While Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, become ruler of
Prance in 1848, never for one instant ceased, even when sending his
army to restore Pius IX., to conspire secretly or co-operate openly
with Piedmont in promoting the sacrilegious spoliations which have
left the Holy Father nothing but the uncertain freedom of his prison
in the Vatican.
Such is the succession of events in this book.
The lessons inculcated by them are eloquent enough of them-
solves.
Protestant writers, the avowed enemies of the Papacy, shall tell
the reader that the baneful change was anything but desired by the
overwhelming majority of the true " people," or anything but a
blessing to them and their beautiful country ; while these same
Protestants shall clearly show that the people of Italy under priestly
influence and Papal rule were most happy, most enlightened, most
monil, most manly and independent.
Ab to the invasion of the Roman territory in September, 1870, a
Author s Preface, vii
letter published by Georges Seigneur, on January tlie lOtli, 1873,
attempts to exonerate the Emperor Napoleon III. from all com-
plicity with his ally, Victor Emmanuel. The writer of the letter
affirms that the exiled emperor, in March of the preceding year,
expressed himself in the following manner :
**The situation forced upon the sovereign pontiff at the present
moment, by events which I could not control, is a sad, a cruel, but a
most convincing proof of the necessity of the temporal power for
the Head of the Church.
"The keenest sorrow I have experienced in my exile arises from
my present inability to free the Head of the Church, who is also my
son's godfather, as well as my being powerless to renew the crusade
of 1849 and that of Mentana."
This retraction, whatever may be its authenticity or its sincerity,
is here given, lest the severe judgment pronounced in this book on
the ex-emperor should be accepted by the reader without the atten-
uating circumstances which may plead before living judges in favor
of one who has undergone the judgment of God.
July the SOth, 1877.
TABLE OF CONTENTS,
CHAPTER I.
Birth, 7— Boyhood, 13— Early Education, 15.
1792-1809.
CHAPTER II.
Vocation to the Priesthood, 19 — Preparation for the Priesthood, 21 — Trials, 23
—Perseverance, 25 — Pius VII. and Giovanni Masta'i, 27.
1809-1814.
CHAPTER III.
Theological Studies, 29— First Labors for the Poor and the Ignorant, 30— The
Crown of a Noble Ambition, 31 — A True Mother's Reward, 33.
1814-1818.
CHAPTER IV.
Labors among the Orphan Boys, 35 — Sent to Chili with the Delegate Apostolic,
37 — Labors in the Industrial Schools of Rome, 41 — ^Appointed Archbishop
of Spoleto, 42.
1819-1827.
CHAPTER V.
Consecrated Archbishop of Spoleto, 43 — State of Umbria, 45 — ^What Religion
has done with the People, 47 — Causes of Disaffection and Disorder, 49 —
Administrative Career in Spoleto, 51 — Appointed to Imola, 55.
1827-1832.
CHAPTER VI.
Christian Glories of Imola, 57 — Characteristics of the People, 58 — Political
Passions, 59 — Orsini's Youthful Visions of Italian Liberty, 60 — Superior
Education given to the Clergy, 61 — Sisters of Charity in Imola ; and the
Jesuits called to Aid in Religious Instruction, 62 — The Sisterhood of the
Good Shepherd, 63 — ^Political Conspiracies, 64 — The Archbishop nearly
Carried off, 65 — ^Archbishop Mastai" elevated to the Cardinalate, 66 — Hia
Filial Devotion to his Mother, 67— Death of Gregory XVI., 67.
1832-1846.
ix
X Table of Contents,
CHAPTER VII.
From Imola to the Conclave, 69— Anticipations and Prognostics, 71— Conflicting
Interests and Pretensions of so-called Catholic Powers, 73— Division in the
College of Cardinals, 75— Political Excitement in Rome and throughout
Italy at the Opening of the Conclave, 77— Causes of Disaffection and Dis-
order, 79— The Cardinals hasten to Elect Mastaf, 80— His Hesitation, 80.
June, 1846.
CHAPTER VIII.
How the Announcement waa received, 81— Letter of Pius IX. to his Brothers
announcing his Elevation, and his Sense of its Dignity and Responsibilities,
82— Fears of his Sister, 83 — Wrath of the Austrian Ambassador, 84 — Hesi-
tancy about appointing an Administration, 85 — Plans laid by Mazzini to
Frustrate all the Intentions of Pius IX., 86— State of Umbria, 87— "The
Sects," 88— Leo XII. as a Reformer, 89— Noble Deeds of Pius IX., 91— The
Question of Amnesty, 94 — Amnesty Granted, 95 — Enthusiasm and Joy of
the Citizens, 96 — First Papal Allocution, 97.
June and July, 1846.
CHAPTER IX.
The Enthusiasm continues, 99— Intrigues and Plots, 100 — Galletti in the Pres-
ence Chamber at the Feet of the Pope, 101 — Oath of Allegiance made by
Galletti, 101— Sincere Desire of the Pope for Reform, 103— A Divided Pub-
lic Opinion, 105— Why Pope Pius IX. did not play Sixtus V., 105— Alms in
the Ghetto or Jews' Quarter, 106.
June-July, 1846.
CHAPTER X.
Fdse Notions about the Backward State of Italy, 107— To what Causes Decay
and Stagnation should be Traced, 108— Strategy of the Radicals, 109— Never
to be Satisfied with any Concession of Pius IX., 109, 110— Great Reform in
Ecclesiastical and other Institutions made by Pius IX. in Rome, 111— Sci-
entific Congress in Genoa converted into a Revolutionary Convention, 112
^Calamities that helped the Mazzinian Agitation, 113— Scarcity of Food
and Riots, 114— The Pope takes Possession of St. John Lateran ; Fifty Thou-
sand People present at the Ceremonial, 115— Pius IX. gives the Blessing
to the Crowd, followed by a mighty Qiorus of enthusiastic Joy, 116.
July-November, 1846.
CHAPTER XI.
EedeslasUcal Acta of Pius IX., 118— First Encyclical to the Hierarchy, fore-
^ladowlng the chief Teachings of his Pontificate, 119— Inundations at
122— Relief distributed personally by the Holy Father when he
Table of Contents, xi
visited the SufEerers, 123 — Great Liberality of tlie Pope towards tlie Jews,
124 — Celebration at Genoa, 135 — Growing Discontent of Austria, 136.
Noyember-December, 1846.
CHAPTER XII.
Grand New- Year's Demonstration by tbe Clubs in boner of the Pope, 139 — A
Consultative Body of influential Laymen, 138 — His Holiness resolved to
improve every Branch of the Administration requiring Reform, 139 — These
Measures only increase the Discontent of the Radicals, 131 — Reforms an-
nounced by the Pope, 133 — Encyclical on the Famine in Ireland, 134 —
National Festival ostensibly held to Celebrate the Founding of Rome, but
in reality to talk Politics and excite the People, 136 — Resentment of Austria
increasing, 137.
January-June, 1847.
CHAPTER XIIL
The Pope's Popularity Unsought, 139 — Pastoral Labors in behalf of the Roman
People, 141 — Pilgrimage of O'Connell to Rome undertaken in the month
of May ; he Sickens and Dies at Genoa ; his Heart taken to Rome, 143 —
Obsequies and Panegyric of O'Connell, 143— Efforts to restore Diplomatic
Relations between Rome and England marred by Palmerston's anti-Catholic
Policy, 144 — Plots and Counter-plots in Rome, 145 — Festivities of June 17th,
146 — Various Causes of Agitation and Discontent, 147 — Sanfedists, or Holy
Faith Men, 148 — Creation of Roman Civic Guard decreed by the Pope, 149
— The supposed Conservative Conspiracy, 159 — Rome ruled by Mob Law,
.153 — Position and Policy of the Papacy, 155 — Guizot's Efforts paralyzed by
Palmerston, 157 — Strategy of the Radicals ; Austria withdraws its Forces
from the Papal States, 159.
1847.
CHAPTER XIV.
Heroic Spirit of Pins IX., 160— He pursues steadily his Course of Reform, 161
— Opening of the Council of State, 163— Count Rossi urges Secularization
of Government, 163— Roman Clubs triumph over Defeat of the Sonderbund,
167—" Down with the Jesuits ! " 168— Congratulations from America to
Pius IX., 171.
1847.
CHAPTER XV.
New-Tear's Procession Forbidden, 173— Mazzini in Paris planning Revolutions,
175— The Tricolor Flag in Rome, 176— Petitions for a Regular Army, 177
—Pius IX. 's steady Patriotism ; Appeals to his People, 179— Increase of
Discontent, 183— The Mass of the Subjects Faithful, 184— Reforms an-
nounced by the Pope, 185.
January, 1848.
XIV Table of ConteJtts.
CHAPTER XXV.
Pius IX. once more in St. Peter's, 303— Hearty Welcome from the True Hearted,
804— Attempt to Plre the Quirinal, 307 — Mazzini proclaims a new Crusade ;
Cruflade succeeds in its Purpose, 309— Cardinal Antonelli and Pius IX., 311.
1850.
CHAPTER XXVI.
1850 a Tear of Jubilee ; Beatification of American Saints, 313— Piedmont pur-
sues her anti-Catholic Policy, 315 — Solemn Definition of the Immaculate
Conception, 317— Private Life of Pius IX.; his Official Duties, 323 — His
Love of Students and Children, 335— The Slave Girl from New Orleans,
827 — The Plague and the French Garrison, 328 — Followers of Garibaldi
taken Prisoners ; Pius IX. Consoles and Cares for them, though his Ene-
mies, 828.
1850-1855.
CHAPTER XXVII.
Working of the New Institutions, 329— Judged by Thiers, 330— By Palmerston,
880— Baron Sauzet on Roman Legislation, 831 — The Mazzinian Gallotti's
Opinion ; Administration of Roman Law, 332 — How the Rights of the Poor
are tenderly cared for, 333 — What prevented the Pope's Reforms from being
Effectual, 333— Duplicity and Sacrilegious Haste of Piedmont, 333 — The Ro-
man Question in the Congress of Paris, 334— Cavour's Calumnies refuted by
Count de Rayneval, 335— Second Encyclical on Italy, 886 — The Pope resolves
to Tisit his Dominions, 337.
1850-1857.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Modern Borne created amid Ruins, 830— Catholic Creations throughout the
Campagna, 840 — Piedmont undoing what the Popes had done, 341 — An In-
stance on the Pope's Route, 342- Monte Soratte and its Monasteries, 342—
A serious Tour of Inspection ; the Pope's Journey, 844 — Work done and
Improvements ordered, 844— Munificence of Pius IX., 345— Royal Visitors,
84((— The Pope in Modena and Tuscany, 846— His Return to Rome, 347—
The true Mortara Case, 847— The Mazzinians impatient, 347— Orsini's At-
tempt to Murder Napoleon III., 848— When and how the War of 1859 was
Planned, 849— Europe mystified by Napoleon and Cavour, 350— Garibaldi's
Ezecntiye Programme, 850.
1857-1859.
CHAPTER XXIX.
The War b^gim, 858— Solidarity between Garibaldi and Victor Emmanuel, 853
—Lord Derby as a Peacemaker laughed at by Cavour, 858— Prince Napo-
leon in Taseanj and the Romagna, 854— Piedmontism triumphant in the
Ptpol Territory, 855— The Church Despoiled firet and Degraded afterward,
Table of Contents, xv
855 — Tlie Bisliops of the Marches tell a Tale, 355 — The Jesuits Eobbed and
Outraged, 357 — Father Beckx Protests, 359 — The Pope hemmed in by Rev-
olutionary Forces, 360 — He Excommunicates the Invaders ; Denunciation by
French Publicists and Bishops ; Bishop Dupanloup's scathing Rebuke of
Napoleon, 360 — Louis Veuillot pre-eminent in the Defense of the Holy See,
364^His Journal suppressed, 366 — Crusade for the Pope, 367.
1859-1860.
CHAPTER XXX.
The Pontifical Army intended for Defense, 369 — The Pope Exhorted and En-
couraged to form an Army, 370 — The Right to employ Foreigners, 370 — Vol-
unteers of 1860, 370 — The Sons of the Crusaders, 371 — De Merode, De La Mo-
riciere, 372 — Concerted Action between Napoleon and Cavour, 372 — Plans
of the latter, 372 — He resolves to " do quickly," 372 — Brutal and insulting
Proclamations, 373 — Bad Faith of Cavour and his Generals, 373 — La Mori-
ciere unprepared for Piedmontese Aggression, 374 — ^Violation of all Right
and Law by the Piedmontese, 375 — ^Perilous March, 18th September, of La
Moriciere, 366 — Brave De Pimodan mortally Wounded, 376 — Fall of An-
cona, 377 — ^Protest of Russia and Prussia, 378 — Complicity 'of France and
England, 378— Retribution, 378 — ^Allocutions, 379 — A third Pamphlet from
Napoleon, 385 — Antonelli Replies, 385 — Death of Cavour, 388.
1860-1862.
CHAPTER XXXI.
Guizot's Views on the Social State of Europe in 1861, 389— Baron Ricasoli urges
the Holy Father to abdicate his Temporal Sovereignty, 390— The Hierarchy
invited to the Canonization of 1862, 392— The Pope's Address to the Bishops,
393— Solemn Condemnation of Modern Errors, 395-398 — The Encyclical
(Quanta Cura and the Sylldbus, 398-401.
1862-1865.
CHAPTER XXXn.
The September Convention, 402 — How Interpreted by the Parties themselves,
403 — French Army of Occupation withdrawn from Rome, 404 — The Centen-
ary of the Martyrdom of SS. Peter and Paul, 405 — Contrast betwen the Can-
onizations in Rome and the Industrial Exhibition in Paris, 409 — Artists in
Rome protest that the Temporal Power is necessary, 407 — Beatification
Decrees Signed, 409 — Vast Multitude of Pilgrims, Priests, and Bishops, 410
— The Allocution, 411 — Celebration, 411 — Magnificent Address of the
Bishops, 415 — Touching Presentation from the Hundred Cities of Italy, 416
— Crowning Glories of the Centenary, 419.
September, 1864-July, 1867.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
Qaribaldian Campaign against Rome, 421 — Defeat of Mentana, 421 — Pius IX.
urges the Preparations for the Council, 421 — His Motive not a Definition of
xvi Table of Contents.
Pontifical Infallibility, but the Intellectural and Moral Well-being of Chris-
tendom, 42a— The Citadel of truth to be Impregnable to Modern Assailants,
424— First Consultations about a General Council, 434— Commission of Direc-
tion, 425— Measures for ascertaining the Needs of all Countries, 425— Impu-
tation of Personal Pride, 425— Dawn of the " Old Catholic" Conspiracy pre-
ceded the Pope's design, 426— Dollinger's Career, Position, Influence, 427
—He becomes the deadly Foe of Ultramontanes ; resolves to use the Bava-
rian Govemment agidnst the Papacy, 427— Bull of Indiction or Convocation,
427 The Pope's purpose clearly Manifested, 429 — Invitation to the Orien-
tals, 429— To Protestants and non-Catholics, 429— The Pope's Golden Jubi-
lee of Priesthood, 430 — Dollinger begins his Crusade against the Council, 432
—The Pope made to appear the Tool of the Curia and the Jesuits, 432 — Jesuits
held up as the worst Enemies of the Church and State, 434 — All this in-
spired by a Calumny of *' Janus," 434— Peremptory Proofs, 435— The Dis-
cns^n on Pontifical Infallibility forced upon the Council, 439 — The final
UBiie«448.
Septembeb, 1867-Jult, 1870.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
The Fptnoo-Prussian War and the Invasion of Rome, 447— The Pope's Protest
before the Diplomatic Body, 448 — Encyclical on the Last Spoliation, 449 —
Nat>oth will not give up to Achab the Inheritance of his Fathers, 151— How
the Youth of Italy were perverted, 451 — Processes used by Jacobins, by
Mazzini and Garibaldi, 454 — The Irish Bishops and Pius IX., 457 — Reaction
among Catholic Youth of Italy, 459 — Noble Behavior of Roman Ladies, 460
Boman Patriciate head the Movement, 460— Fidelity in every Department
of the Pontifical Service, 461.
Septembeb, 1870— August, 1871.
CHAPTER XXXV.
"The Days of Peter" surpassed by Pius IX., 467— Celebration of August 28,
1871, 460— The Pope declines a Golden Throne and the Title of " Great,"
469-471- Further Suppressions and Confiscations by thePiedmontese, 471 —
The Pope nobly defends the Jesuits, 472— He denounces the '* Guarantees"
t8 a Fraud, 474— How the Persecution in Germany began, 475-478— Catholic
Congreeses in Germany, 479, 480— Catholic Congress for Italy, 480— Noble
Men, Noble Words, and Noble Deeds, 481-483— The First American Pilgrim-
•ge, 484— The Fruit of Catholic Unions, 485— The Pope praises and blesses
America, 480— The American Cardinalate, 487— The Laval University given
Rank among the great Catholic Universities, 487— Centenary of the See of
Quebec. 48^— Atrocious Persecution in Poland, 488— How the Orthodox
Greek Church makes '♦ Converrions," 489, 490.
1871-1876.
COKCLUBiow.— The Episcopal Jubilee of 1877, 491-504.
ArPBMDiz, 605, 606.
LIFE OF Pope Pius IX.
CHAPTER I.
BiETH— Boyhood— Early Educatiok.
1792-1809.
SINIGAGLIA, the first colony founded by the Romans in Cis-
padane Gaul (or Gaul "on this side of the Po"), was called by
them Sena Gallica, because it occupied the central seat of the tribe
of Senonian Gauls or Celts, who had conquered Rome in the year
396 before Christ, and were finally worsted in Umbria and the
neighboring provinces a century afterward. The ancient munici-
pium or town, like the modern city, was situated partly on a gentle
acclivity overhanging the Adriatic, and partly on the sloping shore
at its foot, where the land formed one of the small natural harbors
so unfrequent on that coast. This maritime position was used by
its Celtic masters as a centre for their predatory excursions along
both shores of the inland sea ; and its advantages were improved by
their Roman successors. From the beginning of the Christian era,
and all through the middle ages down to our own times, Sinigaglia
continued to be a chief resort for vessels trading on these waters.
And still, when the month of July comes round, an annual fair is
held there which attracts not only the rural populations of the
neighboring provinces, but a fleet of some two or three hundred
sail laden with the varied produce of the Adriatic and Mediterra-
nean seaboards. In truth, most of the coasting vessels are built
there, Sinigaglia containing the largest dock-yard on the Adriatic.
It is also a favorite bathing-place, thanks to its smooth and shel-
tered beach, its genial climate, and most interesting environs.
In this ancient and far-famed city was born, on May 13, 1792,
Giovanni-Maria Giovanni-Battista Pietro Isidoro Mastai-Ferretti,
destined to fill the papal chair many years longer than any one of
his two hundred and sixty-one predecessors.
8 Life of Pope Pius IX,
The Mastai originally were from Brescia, in Northern Lombardy,
a city in which Celtic blood had forgotten its love of wild, roving
adventure, without losing its martial fire or its fierce spirit of inde-
pendence amid the currents of Venetian activity and commercial
thrift. From Brescia Alberto Mastai had migrated toward the end
of the sixteenth century, impelled southward by the desolating wars
of that age. He married a wealthy heiress of Sinigaglia, and added
to his own his wife's name and title, taking thenceforth rank among
the Umbrian nobility as Count Mastai-Ferretti.
The head of his house, in 1792, was Count Girolamo (Jerome),
gonfalonier or mayor of Sinigaglia, who had married his towns-
woman Caterina, daughter of Count Solazzi, a lady of uncommon
beauty and virtue. Giovanni was the youngest of seven children.
He was born at a time when his father's fortune but ill corresponded
with his rank and official position. But Count Girolamo's life of
honorable frugality enabled him to provide for his large household,
while his retiring habits and proved public virtues helped him to
conceal the absence of wealth beneath a generous hospitality and
the substantial services rendered to his fellow citizens.
The Countess Caterina made it her chief joy and exclusive occu-
pation to form the minds and hearts of her children, never relaxing
her motherly care till the boys were of an age to enter college, and
the girls to be married. Thus the palace of the Mastai ceased not
to be the home the most universally respected in the city and
neighborhood of Sinigaglia, because it was the known abode of
every public and private virtue.
The country itself in which Giovanni first saw the light— the most
eastern portion of the classic Umbria — was highly favorable to the
deyelopment of robust health, intellectual culture, and eminent
personal sanctity.
From Rimini, where the great plain of Northern Italy terminates
at the angle formed by the mountains and the sea, to Ancona— the
summits of the mighty Apennine chain are distant only some thirty
or forty miles from the Adriatic ; and their spurs extend in nearly
parallel ridges down to the very shore, thus forming a series of val-
leys perpendicular to the main direction of the central chain. These
▼alleys are drained by rivers, or torrents, rather, for the most part,
all of which have an historical name, in spite of their diminutive
size.
This hilly and well-watered country is free from the malarial
Birih. 9
fevers that reign like a lasting blight along the western side of the
Peninsula ; it is also favored with a more temperate and bracing
climate, and rewards the farmer with a rich and varied harvest. To
the traveler passing in spring or early summer from the enchanting
region around Bologna to Ancona, Loreto, or Macerata, nothing can
seem more beautiful than this succession of fertile and picturesque
mountain slopes and uplands covered with vast plantations of the
mulberry, the olive, and the vine ; intersj^ersed with fields of maize,
corn, tobacco, flax, and hemp. The rarest flowers of north and
south, growing side by side in field and garden, charm the sense by
their mingled colors and delicious odors. Cities, whose origin some-
times antedates that of Rome herself, gem the coast line with their
stately and shining edifices ; hamlets cluster among the olive and
mulberry groves on the uplands ; and as one crosses some classical
stream, like the Rubicon or the Metaurus, the valley that opens in-
land discloses a monastery with its shining dome or tall tower nes-
tling on the brink of a precipice, high above the rapid torrent in the
vale beneath, and seeming the fit abode of souls raised by seclusion
and contemplation above the passions and pursuits of earth.
They are a thrifty race, the immemorial possessors of this land ;
their toil has made every foot of that land fruitful, from the snow
line along the Apennines to the sands of the Adriatic. There is not
a patch of meadow, nor a slope among the hills, nor a remnant of
the primeval forest that has not been intelligently turned to account
by men who know the value of what nature has given them, and
who know, as well, that a right use is not exhaustion or destruction.
The plains of Lombardy — the immense extent of fertile upland and
lowland watered by the Po and its aftiuents — have ever been and are
still the garden of Europe ; the intelligence that has preserved, im-
proved, and developed their immense resources, has also made of
the eastern and western slopes of the Apennines a marvel of hus-
bandry and productiveness.
Nor has the mineral wealth of this region remained a buried and
uncared-for treasure. In a later chapter full mention shall be made
of the way in which the industrial arts have been cherished by the
people and protected by the various governments.
They are no ignorant and uncultivated race of serfs or boors, this
people of Umbria and the Papal States. If the love of all that is
most beautiful in outward nature is among them an hereditary in-
stinct, long handed down by one generation to another in city, ham-
lO Life of Pope Pius IX.
let, and shepherd's cot, it is no less certain that a love of art in its
every pure and ennobling form, is an inborn passion among all
classes. Their churches and monasteries, from the time when
Christian bishops built up modern Italy from the ruins of the old
pagan civilization, have been schools where the True and the Beauti-
ful were embodied in generations of living saints, before their forms
were reproduced by painter and sculptor, or their principles were
expounded by moralist or theorist. Not a child was born during
centuries within the length and breadth of the land, whose eyes, as
they opened to the loveliness of its native earth and skies, did not
rest from infancy to the grave on a world no less lovely of the beau-
tiful creations of artistic genius.
There is not a city along these shores that has not given birth to
a galaxy of men illustrious in Cliurch or State, not a hamlet among
these teeming valleys and populous uplands that does not claim for
its sons and daughters men and women who have left a deathless
name on the lists of high art, science, statesmanship, or sanctity.
TJrbino, on its lofty eyrie within a few hours' travel from Sini-
gaglia, can still show amid its half-depopulated streets the home of
Raphael, and almost beside it the palace where Duke Federigo di
Montefeltro displayed the gentle virtues and exalted goodness that
we admire in St. Louis of France. Oesena, on the northern border
of Umbria — whose see was founded by a martyr-bishop in the year
92 — ^was also the birthplace of two martyr-popes, Pius VI. and Pius
VII.
Akin to them in generosity of spirit, in loftiness of soul, and
patient endurance of ill, is that child of Sinigaglia, that Ninth
Pius, whose extraordinary career is described in these pages.
The year in which he was bprn was a momentous one — filled with
prophetic warnings of deep change in religious and social institu-
tions, no less than in the tendency of men's thoughts and aspira-
tions. In France, the constitution adopted tliree years before was
set aside, the king and his family dethroned and cast into prison ;
the autumn was made terrible in Paris and other cities by the mas-
sacre of imprisoned bisliops and priests, while their fugitive bre-
thren found a hospitable welcome in England, or crossed the At-
lantic to offer the aid of their ministrations to the solitary bishop
just consecrated (August 15, 1790) for tlie church of the United
States.
Id the first month of 1793 the civilized world witnessed with min-
Birth, II
gled amazement and horror the trial, condemnation, and execution
of Louis XVI., and tlie awful tragedy culminated in the death of
his heroic queen in the following October.
The French National Convention, in assuming before the world
the responsibility of the September massacres, and in proclaiming a
republican form of government, had offered their brotherly sympa-
thy and help to all nations desirous of setting aside monarchical
institutions. The convulsion that had overthrown the ancient
order of things in France shook Italy to its center. The revolu-
tionary and irreligious frenzy that had taken possession of the
French people was contagious ; it crossed the Alps and spread from
one end of the Peninsula to the other. Besides, what rendered this
frenzy formidable to the neighboring nations, was the fact that the
Jacobin clubs, which had been the active promoters of bloodshed
and every extreme measure, had also covered the land with a net-
work of kindred clubs and secret organizations, whose professed
object was not only to secure the permanent reign of radicalism and
irreligion in their own country, but to labor persistently to revolu-
tionize the whole of Europe.
The overthrow of the Church, of the papacy in particular, became
the darling aim of the energetic and wide-spread proselytism which
they set on foot in Italy. They were abetted in their designs not
only by the political passions that had evermore divided the Italians
among themselves, but by the anti-Christian philosophy of Voltaire
that had taken possession of many minds, and still more by the
insidious spirit of Jansenism, or Old Catholicism, represented by
such men as Bishop Ricci, of Pistoja, iii Tuscany, favored as he was
by his sovereign tlie Grand Duke, afterward the Emperor Leopold
II. This prince, before he succeeded on the imperial throne his
brother Joseph 11. , had bestowed, like him, all his efforts on ruin-
ing the authority of the papal see both as a spiritual and a tem-
poral power. Hence bishops and priests were encouraged to set at
naught the jurisdiction of the Eoman pontiff, while in the Roman
States the imperial emissaries countenanced and fostered disaffec-
tion and revolt among all classes.
Pius VI., who had in vain gone in person to Vienna to conciliate
Joseph II., was insulted by a mock show of reverence, the very day
of his departure from that capital being marked by an imperial
ordinance more vexatious and oppressive than any of the preceding
measures hostile to the Church. And the pontiff only returned to
12 Life of Pope Pius IX.
Italy to find the Grand Duke of Tuscany and the Eiccian faction
more actively mischievous than ever.
Such were the -seeds sown among the Catholic populations of
Italy, waiting but the invasion of the French Eadical clubs of 1792
and 1793 to burst forth into full blossom— seeds which were to bear
such lamentable fruit when the country was subsequently overrun
by the revolutionary armies of France.
From the memorable 13th of May, 1792, when Caterina Mastai-
Ferretti was blessed with a seventh child, destined to bear, half a
century aftei-ward, the burden of the name of Pius, not a month
elapsed without the organization of some revolutionary club in the
Italian States, and some revolutionary movement, within the terri-
tory of the Holy See, calculated to poison the popular mind against
all religion much more even than to excite disaffection toward the
civil government. The rulers of France were firmly resolved to
abolish the papacy ; they created causes of quarrel with the reign-
ing Pope ; forced him, in February, 3 797, to cede three of his
provinces, to pay an indemnity of 31,000,000 francs, and to give up
to the despoiler the most precious art-treasures in Rome ; and on
February 20, 1798, the helpless and heavy-hearted pontiff was hur-
ried off to Florence, and thence to die in a French prison.
Such were the sad circumstances amid which Giovanni Mastai
passed from infancy to boyhood. One of the first acts of devotion
taught him in childhood by his mother was to pray for Pius VI.,
threatened, oppressed, and plundered in his capital ; and then to
join with the entire household in the prayers offered up in every
Italian home for the imprisoned pontiff. His earliest tears of genu-
ine grief were shed when the touching story of the venerable cap-
tive's sufferings and death in his eighty-second year was told to the
weeping Mastai family. How little could the fond mother imagine,
as she taught him to lift up his innocent hands to Heaven, and to
lisp his prayers for the Pope lying dead in the citadel of far-off
Valence, that her darling should live, a pope, and almost a prisoner
in the Vatican, even beyond that patriarchal age I
And so, in the Mastai palace, as throughout all Italy, pious and
pure hearts continued to plead with the divine mercy for the needs
of the Church, till, by a miracle of providential interposition, the
conclave was allowed to assemble in Venice, and to elect (March 14,
1800) a townsman of the martyred pontiff to bear the cross after
him.
Boyhood, 13
The meek and saintly Seventh Pius was, it is said, like his kins-
man and immediate predecessor, united by blood as well as by near
neighborhood to the Mastai and Solazzi. The new Pope found
himself, at his elevation, exiled from his see and people, with no
earthly aid on which to rely save Austria, whose rulers had almost
consummated a schism during the lifetime of Pius VI., and Rus-
sia, a schismatic power bitterly hostile to the Church of Rome from
a secular tradition and a settled national policy.
For the city of Cesena, then, which claimed as her own both the
new Pope and his martyred friend and protector, if there was little
cause for worldly joy in the distinction thus conferred on her chil-
dren, there was, on the other hand, deep motives for indulging in
true Christian pride : the Church had gone back to the period when
the temporal sceptre of the pontiffs was but a reed, and their triple
diadem a triple crown of thorns. If the tidings of the election of
their fellow-countryman to the perilous honors of the pontificate
excited perchance any thought of ambition in the breasts of noble
mothers along his bright native shore, this time the ambition would
have been like that of Christian mothers under Decius or Diocletian
— the sublime desire of seeing their sons lay down their lives for
Christ and his flock.
Such were the sentiments that animated the Countess Caterina
Mastai-Ferretti, and which were communicated to her youngest boy
as to his brothers and sisters. He was a singularly handsome child,
bright, affectionate, and taught from infancy to love the poor and
show them every mark of respect and helpful sympathy. True-
hearted ness has continued to be through life one of the most lova-
ble features of the man, the priest, and the pope.
Like all children born on that sunny shore, Giovanni Mastai was
passionately fond of rambling through the beautiful fields, the olive
groves, and reaches of forest that cover the uplands back of Sini-
gaglia. A favorite companion of his in these rambles was a farmer's
son named Guido, some years older than himself. One day, while
Guide was occupied in angling in a brook, Giovanni, whose little
hands were too weak to hold the fishing-rod, waded into the water,
attempting to catch the tiny fishes as they darted from pool to pool.
Guido, wholly intent on watching his line, did not perceive his
companion's danger till a cry from the latter, who had slipped and
fallen into deep water, aroused him. Darting instantly to the res-
cue, the courageous little fellow rushed into the stream at his owe
1 4 Life of Pope Pius IX.
great peril, and succeeded in bringing his friend safe to the shore.
There had been more danger than either boy then knew ; they soon
dried themselves in the warm sunlight, and forgot the accident in
fresh boyish sports and adventures. But when Giovanni Mastai
was raised to eminence, and had it in his power to bestow fortunes,
he remembered his playmate and savior Guido.
On this sweetness of temper and constancy in his affections was
grafted by his gentle mother a tender and enlightened piety ; while
his father's example, as well as her own, and the whole atmosphere
of their well-ordered home, inspired a love of labor lightened by
unfailing cheerfulness, and a dignity and self-respect that bespoke
nobility of soul much more than of birth.
The cruel exactions by which Bonaparte and his subordinates had
drained the treasury of Pius VI. and exhausted the resources of his
people fell heavily on Count Mastai, and reduced still more his very
slender income. Nevertheless his noble companion found in her
rich poverty not only the means of providing for her children and
dependants, but of helping the poor. Her husband, meanwhile,
devoted the time left him by his public duties to the education of
his boys. It was a blessed necessity which thus compelled them and
their sisters to receive their early education exclusively from their
parents — all the more so, that the mischief done during these mo-
mentous years to the youth of Italy by French irreligious and revo-
lutionary propagandism was more wide-spread and lasting than the
injuries inflicted by French occupation and oppression.
Thus grew up till his eleventh year (1803) Giovanni Mastai*, shel-
tered against the moral simoom that swept over Italian souls by the
walls of his father's palace ; while all his precious qualities of heart
and mind expanded freely amid the sunlight and genial warmth
diffused by his admirable mother's cheerful and unwearied good-
ness.
The boy was now of the age deemed in Italy the proper one for
beginning classical studies. Count Mastai was not dismayed by the
additional expense the sending of his youngest boy to college must
entail. He could bear any privation rather than see one who prom-
ised so much, left without the educational advantages enjoyed by his
elder brotliers. So to the college of Volterra Giovanni was sent.
No better choice could bo made at that troublous epoch, just
when Bonaparte was plotting to have his title of consul for life
changed into that of emperor, and when the position of things in
Early Education, 1 5
Italy partook of the uncertainty and dread that reign on board a
ship during the interval between the first assault of a cyclone and
its more furious return. Volterra, occupying the site of an ancient
Etrurian city (Velathri), crowns with its fortifications the summit
of a hill 1,602 feet above the sea level, some twenty miles from the
Mediterranean and forty south-west from Florence. The bleak and
hilly country around it, its remoteness from the common line of
travel in those days, and its isolation on a fortified crag, made the
college of Volterra a most desirable and secure retreat for a school.
The college itself was under the direction of the ** Fathers of the
Pious Schools," an order founded by St. Joseph Casalanz.
During six years (1803-9) Giovanni Mastai', in that mountain
solitude, stored his mind with the treasures of the Italian and Gre-
cian literatures, growing the while, as his contemporaries affirm, in
every outward grace and interior excellence. He does not appear
to have been conscious of that comeliness of person that, united to
his noble birth, must have made him everywhere an object of attrac-
tion. The charm that made him from the first a universal favorite
was his sunny disposition, the bright warm smile that bespeaks a
pure and loving nature, and which, even Protestant travelers say,
still plays over the wrinkled features of the octogenarian, like the
golden light of sunset on some snow-clad Alp. He was truly the
light of the college-hall, his face ever beaming with unalloyed hap-
piness, and his laugh the merriest, and his wit the readiest with
joke and pun.
Boy as he was, and anxious as he needs must have been about
every political change that might affect his worshipped parents and
their home, he carefully listened to the echoes that reached his old
eagle's nest at Volterra, from the busy and warring world below. He
heard of the passage of Pius VII. through Tuscany, in the autumn
of 1804, as he went perforce to crown Bonaparte emperor in Paris ;
of the Italian republic, transformed by the conjurer into the king-
dom of Italy, and of Napoleon's coming to Milan to be crowned
"King of Italy" (an ominous title ! ), May 6th, 1805. Then the
Tuscany in which the lad was pursuing his studies, after having
been created by the same imperious will the kingdom of Etruria
in 1801, was again obliterated as a kingdom, incorporated with
Napoleon's empire, and in 1808 given to his favorite sister Eliza,
with the title of grand duchess. She proved afterward a willing
and unscrupulous tool to the oppressor.
1 6 Life of Pope Pitts IX.
This same year brought about the most remarkable event m
Giovanni's college career, and a change in his health that had well-
nigh altered the whole course of his life. The grand duchess had
no sooner taken 'possession of her beautiful principality than she
was seized with a desire to visit the far-famed Etrurian fortress,
with its unique treasures of ancient art. The College Fathers were
fain to conciliate the good graces of their new sovereign, all the
more so that the bitter hostility of the emperor toward the Pope
was daily taking a more alarming shape. They set their house in
order and forced it to wear the face of welcome.
The students prepared a literary festival for their imperial guest,
and the young Count Mastai was selected to preside thereat, and to
deliver the most exquisite prose and verse composed for the occasion.
The royal lady was charmed with the youthful poet-orator's modest
grace and genuine eloquence, and recalled in after years the pleasure
derived from this entertainment and the name of him who presided.
He was now beginning his seventeenth year, a tall and graceful
lad, with a distinguished and serious air that inspired one with
respect as well as confidence. His masters and schoolmates alike
admired his solid accomplishments and praised his deep piety. The
whole bent of his inclination at this period disposed him to devote
himself to the Church — plundered, down-trodden, and persecuted as
she was, offering to such as served her no other lot than that of the
early apostles.
But just then appeared the first symptoms of the awful malady
that threatened for years to render all his gifts useless, and to make
his life a burden. To his doting mother's dismay, epilepsy shoAved
itself in its most distressing form, superinduced, most probably, by
an overtaxed brain and too rapid a growth, if not a little, also, by
the painful impressions made on an exquisitely sensitive organiza-
tion by the continual scenes of military violence witnessed in Sini-
gaglia.
Neither mother nor son, however, lost their firm hope of seeing
the distemper as mercifully removed by the Almighty Physician as
it had suddenly, and to them unaccountably, visited them. It is
mentioned by some biographer tliat young Mastai, some years after-
ward, was advised at Home by Pius VII. to make a pilgrimage to
Loreto, and to implore the special intercession of Our Lady with her
Son, in the shrine so dear to the Christian world. Mastai may have
performed a second pilgrimage to Loreto at the bidding of the aged
Early Education, ij
venerated pontiff ; but many reasons lead one to think that, on his
return to Sinigaglia with his mother, at the end of his college
course, they both hastened to beseech the goodness of the Incarnate
God in that holy house made famous by so many favors granted to
the heart-stricken at his Mother's prayer.
Certain it is that the health of the pious youth was so far restored,
and his parents' confidence so strengthened, that he soon returned
to Volterra, this time with the purpose of consecrating his whole life
to the divine service. "When and where was this purpose formed ?
We should not, in the absence of positive information on the subject,
we think, be far from the truth in surmising that the resolve to fol-
lowthe Crucified thenceforward, in poverty, suffering, and self-sacri-
fice, came to that generous young soul while worshipping within
the very walls in which a pious tradition will have it that the
Eternal Word assumed our humanity and bound himself to repair
all its ills.
At any rate, during t'iie Ember-days of September, 1809, all Vol-
terra was edified, Mastai's former fellow- students especially, at see-
ing him, like another Samuel, presented to the Lord by his great-
souled mother, and receiving at the hands of the bishop of the
diocese the first ecclesiastical tonsure, the badge of the soul's con-
secration to God alone.
A few days afterward, in the beginning of October, she accoin-
panied him to Rome, where her brother-in-law, Canon Mastai*, occu-
pied an honorable position in the Chapter of the Vatican Basilica.
To him she intrusted her boy, now unspeakably dear to her both be^
cause of the suffering that ever hung over him like a dark cloud,
and because of his own unworldly ambition and undaunted spirit.
2
CHAPTER 11.
Vocation to the Priesthood— Tkials—Perseveiia3s:ce— Pius
VII. AND Giovanni Mastai.
1809-1814.
TO appreciate to the full the generous abnegation of the Countess
Mastai-Ferretti, and her boy's spirit of self-sacrifice, we should
recall to mind in what circumstances they found Rome, for its pon-
tiff was even then a- prisoner at Savona, on the very shore where
Columbus was born.
On the Feast of the Purification (Feb. 2), 1808, the French troops,
in execution of a secret order of the Emperor Napoleon, had
entered Rome, and made Pius VII. a prisoner in his own capital,
surrounding his residence at the Quirinal Palace with a compact
body of cavalry and infantry, and planting a battery of artillery
beneath and against the windows of his apartments. On the 3d of
April following, an imperial decree "irrevocably" incorporated the
Papal States with the French empire ; the Cardinal Gabrielli, bishop
of Sinigaglia, and pro-secretary of state, was exiled to his episco-
pal city, all the other cardinals not natives of the Roman States
being forcibly expelled ; and Cardinal Pacca, who was appointed
secretary in Gabrielli's stead, found himself obliged to advise the
Popo to resist to the utmost the sacrilegious usurpations and vio-
lence of the French. They had organized a " Civic Guard," re-
cruited from the very dregs of the population, while the irreligious
press, which they established and supported in every city, used all
imaginable devices to revile the Pope and his counselors, and tc
bring into discredit not only "priestly rule" in general, but every-
thing pertaining to the Christian religion.
While Giovanni Mastai and his pious mother were performing
their pilgrimage to Loreto, in September, 1808, and parent and son
wore praying in the venerated sanctuary that "the shadow of the
cross" might pass away from his young life, a scene of unequalled
interest was taking place in the Quirinal Palace at Rome.
On August the 24th a proclamation under the pontifical seal, and
18
Vocation to the Priesthood. 19
conntersigiied by Cardinal Pacca, was posted on the public edifices
of Home, condemning the organization of the " Civic Guard." On
September 6th, Pacca was arrested in his apartments and com-
manded to leave Eome forthwith under military escort. Having
calmly informed the French officers that '^in Eome he received
orders of the Pope alone," and as they could not permit him to
communicate with his holiness, a note was sent to Pius informing
him of the dilemma in which his minister was placed.
The Pope, as the great secretary affirms elsewhere, ^^was the
meekest man on the face of the earth ; " but this last outrage on the
freedom of the sovereign and the pontiff transformed the lamb into
a lion. Pius, on receiving the written message of his devoted ser-
vant, rose instantly from his seat and made his way to the cardinal's
apartments. As the door opened, the Latter, as well as the French
officers present, were struck with awe and amazement. The feeble.
Buffering figure of the Pope seemed animated with preternatural
strength, his face shone with the light of unearthly anger, and his
hair stood literally on end, as he gazed round the room like one
bereft of his senses.
'* Who is it ? Who is it ?" were the only words he could utter.
"I am the cardinal," replied Pacca seizing and kissing his mas-
ter's hand. Presently the Pope recovered himself. *' Where is the
officer ? " he said ; and as the Frenchman advanced respectfully,
Pius addressed him in a voice of commanding majesty :
*' Go and tell your general that I am weary of all these insults
and outrages from one who has still the effrontery to call himself a
Catholic. I am quite conscious of the end toward which all your
measures are directed. They aim, by cutting me off gradually from
all my counselors, to render impossible the free exercise of my min-
istry and the defence of my temporal sovereignty."
The holy father's words having been translated to the French
officers, the Pope took the cardinal by the hand and led him to his
own apartments, where he resided till the 6th of July, 1809, when
both were violently borne away from Eome.
During the interval the Code-Napoleon was made the law of the
land ; the Pope was isolated more strictly from the Italian clergy
and from the Catholic world at large ; the Masonic clubs and secret
societies, which preceded and followed in every country the French
domination, covered the Peninsula like a network, establishing
their chief centres of activity in the Eoman States ; and every en-
20 Life of Pope Pius IX.
couragement was given by the usurping authorities to the spread of
revolutionary, obscene, and anti-Christian publications.
On June 10th, 1809, the military governor of Eome published by
sound of trumpet the imperial decree dethroning the Pope, whose
arms were replaced on the Castle of St. Angelo by the French tri-
colors. That very same night the celebrated bull of excommunica-
tion, Quum memoranda ilia die, was nailed to the usual places in
the Eternal City. Nine days later Napoleon wrote to Joachim
Murat, whom he had created King of Naples : *^ I have already told
you that my purpose is to push matters in Eome vigorously, and
that no kind of resistance is to be tolerated. If full submission is
not yielded to my decrees, no place must be respected, and under
no pretext whatever must opposition be permitted. If the Pope,
contrary to the spirit of his ministry and of the Gospel, preaches
revolt, and is willing to profit by the immunities of his position to
print circulars, let him be arrested. The season of similar scenes is
past and over." This new king of Italy understood perfectly what
was meant by " a free Church in a free State ! "
AVhile the carriage containing the captive Pius YII. and his noble
minister was driven by hurried stages toward Piedmont, a proclama-
tion from him was distributed by trusty hands throughout the
length and breadth of the land. The concluding paragraph is this :
"In our bitter grief we shed tears of joy, blessing God the eter-
nal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God of all consolation,
who gives us such sweet comfort. And this comes from seeing in
our person the fulfilment of what was foretold by his divine Son
to the prince of the apostles, Peter, whose unworthy successor we
are : ' Wien thou shall be old, thou shall stretch forth thy hands; and
another shall gird thee, and lead thee whither thou wouldst not.' "
If the far-seeing spirit, vouchsafed of old to those prophets who
kept, alive in Israel the sacred flame of divine faith and hope, had
visited for a moment the anguished soul of the pontiff, as his French
captors urged his flight through Poggibonzi, and within sight of the
towers of Volterra, he would have beheld, in the comely and modest
youth waiting for God's message there, one predestined to be his
own successor in office and in suffering, and in whom the Eedeemer's
prophetic utterance was to be most strikingly fulfilled.
At any rate, when the young levite Mastai arrived in Rome with
his mother on that sad day in October, 1809, there was little in the
otmosphere of tliat city to cheer a worldly-minded man entering on
Preparation for the Priesthood. 2 j
an ecclesiastical career ; but to tlie spiritual minded there was in
the universal desolation and suffering an incentive to the loftiest
heroism in Christ's cause.
The schools of Eome, like all its ecclesiastical institutions, were
disorganized. Napoleon, who had gained the momentous victory
of Wagram on the very day of the Pope's abduction from Rome,
made no scruple or secret of using his unlimited power in "regu-
lating " religious as well as political matters in his vast empire. He
had determined that the Pope should be his subject, his servant,
and his tool ; and he stopped at no half measures to reach his aim.
No pope, or bishop, or priest was to be tolerated in future who did
not bind himself by oath to maintain the principles formulated in
the famous *^Four Articles" of Gallicanism, adopted in 1682 (Ap-
pendix A) ; no person should ever be promoted to any dignity,
papal, episcopal, or priestly, who did not take the same oath.
The men who governed Italy under sucli a master were fain to
vie with each other in zeal in carrying out tlie imperial purpose.
Cardinals and bishops who remained faithful to their conscience
were removed from their sees, exiled, imprisoned, and refused all
but the bare necessaries of life. Priests who had charge of souls,
or were (■in})loyed as professors in tlie universities or diocesan schools,
underwent a like persecution, if they persisted in not acknowledg-
ing the riuhicousness of the great emperor's acts and pretensions.
Nineteen bishops in the Roman States alone had thus faced and
endured the worst ; while fifty of the noblest priests of the diocese
of Parma, and an equal number from that of Piacenza, were, by the
express orders of Napoleon, deported to Corsica, and others were con-
veyed to the slave-gangs of Toulon. And this was no exceptional
treatment.
The professors and priests of Rome were not, however, terrified
into submission. But the weak or wretched men whose evil merits
obtained for them preferments or professorships, were avoided by
people and pupils alike.
While it was possible to follow, without disturbance or molesta-
tion, the courses of philosophy and theology, the young Abbate
Mastai was most assiduous in his attendance at lectures, living,
meanwhile, beneath the roof of his uncle, and completing, under
his care, the instruction derived from his professors. At length
Canon Mastai was called upon to choose between his conscience and
the offers of a sacrilegious promotion. With him there could be no
22 Life of Pope Pius IX,
hesitation. So the year 1810 saw uncle and nephew once mora
at Sinigaglia, where the venerable Cardinal Antonelli, dean of the
Sacred College, was the fellow-prisoner and guest of Cardinal
Gabrielli till sudi time as the former was compelled to go to Paris.
The city was kept in awe by a French garrison. But the presence
of these men, and the unceasing exactions with which they harassed
the citizens and the populations of the surrounding country, did not
prevent Giovanni Mastai from pursuing, with unabated ardor, under
his learned uncle, the studies begun in Rome. The examples and
warm encouragement of the imprisoned cardinals added fresh zeal
to his efforts. His father's generous sympathy did not fail the
student, nor did the heart of the Countess Caterina stint her boy
in every needed demonstration of motherly tenderness.
Her love was a priceless treasure for him at that critical period in
his life. For the scenes he had been compelled to witness in Rome,
the emotions caused by the mighty events daily occurring ; all that
he had beheld on his homeward journey of impious change, and
what he daily witnessed in Sinigaglia, deeply impressed his imagin-
ation and brought on worse symptoms of the old distemper.
The gloom over every true Catholic home and heart in Sinigag-
lia, and, indeed, throughout Italy, deepened during these years, as
tidings of the inhumanity shown to the imprisoned pontiff and his
faithful cardinals were circulated everywhere in spite of the utmost
vigilance of the imperial police. Young Mastai had deemed it wise,
at the suggestion of those dearest to him, to lay aside his clerical
dress, without ceasing to cherish in his inmost soul the purpose of
becoming one day God's priest. Neither bodily infirmity nor the
calamity of the times could turn his will away from that goal of all
his hopes.
Indeed the young man deemed it a conscientious duty to employ
every means of increasing his bodily vigor, and thereby of attacking
by the root the distemper which was the only obstacle to these hopes.
He resumed his rambles over the neighboring hills, cultivated all
sorts of athletic exercises, and lived as much as possible in the open
air. 1'lh r, l.y lie developed a constitution naturally robust, became
a model of manly strength and grace, and thus laid the foundation
of a perfect and radical cure.
I ;i3 about this time that Napoleon conceived the design of
binding to his cause the 61ito of the Italian youth, and decreed the
formation of a ** Noble Guard," recruited from the ancient aristoc-
Trials : Pius VII. in Exile,
23
racy of the land. No previous consent was asked of the young men
themselves or of their families. An exact census of every noble
family in the Peninsula had been taken, and lo ! one fine day an
imperial decree was published, giving the names of the young Ital-
ians composing this Noble Guard.
The list comprised those of Giovanni Mastai and his brothers.
What followed is related in the future Pope's own words : ^'My
name, without my knowledge, was put among the rest. But as
soon as I was informed of it, I took care to have my name struck
out. Napoleon's plans were such as could not be executed." As
to the oft-repeated assertion that young Mastai had embraced the
military profession, or intended to do so, he calls it " an unfounded
notion," saying, **I never had any idea of the sort."
In the last days of January, 1811, Napoleon, who had firmly re-
solved to set aside forever the papal autliority in the government of
the Church, was completing at Paris, with an '^ ecclesiastical com-
mission," the preliminaries necessary to the holding of a National
Council. Among the churchmen who composed the commission
were many servile and fawning spirits who lived only on the breath
of their imperious master, and not a few good but weak men ever
ready to sacrifice the most vital principles and inviolable rights of
the Holy See, rather than draw on themselves and their order the
wrath of the despot. These, one and all, hung on Napoleon's lips
and watched every change of his countenance that they might shape
their answer to his wishes.
There was, however, in that deplorable assembly — the forerunner
of the infamous National Council — one true man, a simple priest,
the worthy head of the congregation of St. Sulpice, the venerable
Mr. Emery. He was near his eightieth year, with the light of
eternity already dawning on the evening of his long life of self-
sacrifice. The eagle eye of the great Emperor had, on a former
occasion, discovered beneath the bent form and the modest mien of
the aged priest a soul far superior to the craven crowd of dignitaries
around him. While he poured forth a flood of invective against the
captive of Savona, and his indomitable resistance to the imperial
will, and indulged in the most fearful threats against all who should
dare to offer further opposition, his eye, as if fascinated, rested again
and again on the saintly countenance of the Superior of St. Sulpice.
At last he broke forth :
'^Mr. Emery, what do you think of the authority of the Pope ?"
24 Life of Pope Pius IX.
" Sire," was the reply, after glancing respectfully at the hishopg
present, " I can entertain on his authority no other opinion than
that expressed in the Catechism taught, by your orders, in all our
churches. To the question put there. What is the Pope 9 the an-
swer is : Be is the head of the Church, the vicegerent of Christ, to
whom all Christians owe oiedience. Now, can a body do without
its head, without him whom the divine law ordains that it should
obey?"
After a further development of this doctrinal fact, the Emperor,
surprised, but not displeased, replied :
** Well, I do not question the spiritual authority of the Pope,
since he holds that from Christ. But Christ did not give him tem-
poral power. That he holds from Charlemagne ; and I, who am
Charlemagne's successor, am resolved to take it from him, because
he does not know how to make use of it, and because it prevents
him from exercising as he ought his spiritual functions. AVhat do
you say to that, Mr. Emery ? "
" Sire, your majesty reverences the great Bossuet and takes pleas-
ure in quoting him frequently. I cannot differ from Bossuet's re-
corded opinion in his Defence of the Declaration of the Clergy. He
expressly maintains that the independence and perfect freedom of
the head of the Church are necessary for the free exercise of his
spiritual sovereignty in its relations toward a multiplicity of king-
doms and empires." Then he quoted from memory the text of
Bossuet (Appendix B).
Napoleon listened patiently, and replied in a calm tone, as he
always did when he met with firm opposition :
**I do not controvert the authority of Bossuet," he said; ''all
that was quite true in his day when Europe owned the sway of many
masters. It was not then befitting that the Pope should be subject
to any one sovereign in particular. But what harm would you see
in the Pope's being subject to me, now that Europe acknowledges
no master but me ?"
** Sire," was the inspired answer, "you have read as well as my-
self the history of revolutions ; what exists to-day cannot last for-
ever ; and the dangers foreseen by Bossuet might again reappear in
Christendom. We must not change an order so wisely established."
llappy had it been for Napoleon if Providence had preserved for
a few years longer the life of Mr. Emery I The calamitous National
Council would have never been convened, and Pius YII., in his
Retur7t of Pius Vll.from Exile. 25
complete isolation, would not liaye fallen into the snare laid by
courtier churchmen for his gentle nature and unsuspecting, child-
like simplicity. Emery was laid to his rest on the 28th of the ensu-
ing month of April, and was thus mercifully spared the spectacle of
the captive pontiff's betrayal by the very men who should have died
to save him from dishonor ; he was spared also from the fearful
series of calamities that came, wave after wave, to beat down the
throne of "the sole master acknowledged by Europe."
But the storm, raised alike by the divine wrath and the passionate
vengeance of down-trodden peoples, also broke open the doors of
the Pope's prison.
Leaving, on January 23, 1814, France overrun by a tidal wave of
armed men, the Pope was conducted under an escort, commanded
by one Colonel Lagorse, toward the Italian frontier. The imperial
orders were to take the least frequented roads and to preserve a
strict incognito, avoiding everything that might lead to popular
demonstrations. But, somehow, even in France, the very earth
over which the pontiff was hurried through desert pathways seemed
to be in advance conscious of his approach, and poured forth crowds
upon crowds to acclaim him and crave his blessing. On passing
the Rhone at Tarascon, the adjoining cities went out before him as
one man — such a spectacle of love and veneration and tender sym-
pathy for undeserved and heroic suffering as had never been heard
of ! Colonel Lagorse, furious at seeing this genuine outpouring of
the national heart in behalf of an aged and feeble old priest, drove
back the worshiping crowd, exclaiming indignantly, "You rascals,
how, then, would you behave if the Emperor were passing the
Rhone ?" **We should make him drink !" was the reply. At this
the colonel's wrath vented itself in curses and threats. " Colonel,"
at length said one more determined than the rest, "would you, too,
like to have a drink ? " pointing ominously to the deep and rapid
river.
To the multitudes who lined the road, night and day, as this most
triumphal progress continued, the Holy Father, in his deep emotion
and unearthly prudence, could or would only say, as he blessed
them : " Courage, my children ! and pray ! "
And so they reached Italy, the mighty masses of the Alps proving
insufficient to arrest the electric current of filial joy and exultation
that thrilled the Peninsula to its center, as the tidings of the Pope's
liberation and speedy arrival flashed over the land. Prince Eugene
26 Life of Pope Pius IX.
Beauharnais, viceroy of Italy, was foremost to pay his homage to
the pontiff, whom he had formerly lent himself to annoy and oppress.
Miirat, king of Naples, now in arms against Napoleon, to whom he
owed everythingj met Pius on the frontier of Parma, and was as
profuse in his offers of assistance as he had once been unsparing in
insults and blasphemies. The high-souled Pope, disgusted, only
asked that he might be protected on his journey toward his native
city of Cesena — not from the violence of his Italian children, but
from the uncontrolled enthusiasm of their love.
With the first return of the lovely Italian spring, Pius VII. came
back to the beautiful city in which he was born, and where, in the
Benedictine Convent of Madonna del Monte, on its hill-top near
the city, he had spent many peaceful and happy years as the sim-
ple-hearted, learned, unworldly, and unambitious Padre Barnabe
Chiaramonte.
It was on the day of his entrance into this loved and ever-coveted
abode of his early life, that the Mastai family, with all the popula-
tion far and near, met Pius VII. and knelt at his feet to pay him
the homage of their heart-felt reverence. The meeting between the
pontiff, whom popular opinion in Italy and throughout the Catholic
world surrounded with the halo of the ancient martyrs and confes-
sors, and his young kinsman — whatever circumstances may have
attended it — served to knit these two souls together in a mysterious
and holy affection. The young man, as he knelt for the blessing
and looked up into that sweet and heaven-lit face, might well be-
lieve that he looked upon one to whom could be applied the pro-
phetic words of Isaias : ** I have trodden the wine-press alone, and
of the nations there is not a man with me. ... I looked about, and
there was none to help ; I sought, and there was none to give aid ;
and my own arm hath saved for me, and my indignation itself hath
helped mo" (Ixiii).
Giovanni believed then that a healing virtue went forth from him
who had suffered so much for Christ. He felt, by some divine in-
stinct, that tlie hand of Pius VII. would remove every obstacle from
the path on which he had set his heart. We shall see, further on,
how these anticipations were fulfilled.
In the first days of May, Pius learned that he could safely return
to Rome. He stopped at Sinigaglia on his way, and was greeted by
the noble Gonfalonier and his family. Giovanni's soul was now
exclusively filled with the hope of running, in God's cause, a race
Pius VII, and Giovanni Masta'i, 27
of abnegation and heroism that would liken him to his saintly
countryman. In his company he departed for Kome, arriving at
Ancona on May 12, amid demonstrations of unspeakable joy ; the
14th they left for Osimo, and thence they went to Loreto. How
often in his weary years of exile and prison-life had Pius VII. gone
back in imagination to that land of beauty and undying faith so
familiar to his boyhood, and to that loved sanctuary throning on its
hill-top above the Adriatic — the spot of all Italy where the Mother
of the Incarnate God most delights in winning souls to her Son !
On the memorable 24th of May, 1814, Rome threw wide open her
hearts and her gates to welcome Pius VII. Meanwhile, the begin-
ning of that same month of May, had seen another sovereign borne
toward the western coast of Italy, and landed on the island of Elba,
within sight of the towers of Volterra. Giovanni Masta'i, who had
often gazed from the ancient Etrurian walls at the distant island, as
it lay, at sunset, like a golden cloud on the Mediterranean, might
well reflect, among the tumultuous rejoicings of Eome, on the won-
derful ways of God.
We shall now see how his fatherly providence paved the way
toward the goal of his desires for our devoted youth.
CHAPTER III.
Theological Studies— First Labors for the Poor and the
Ignorant— The Crown of a Noble Ambition — A True
Mother's Reward.
1814-1818.
The momentary withdrawal of the Pope to Genoa, from March
22, 1815, to the end of July, was only a measure of prudence, as
both the Grand Duchess Eliza and Murat had resolved to seize and
hold Pius VII. as a hostage for the safety of Napoleon, should the
latter's return to France end in putting his life in peril. When the
Pope resumed the government of his States, he made the restora-
tion of studies one of the chief objects of his care. No words can
express the mischief done to the youth of Italy, and above all to the
youth of the Papal States, by the active irreligious propagandism
set on foot by the French Republicans, and afterward maintained
by the imperial authorities. During the Pope's exile he had learned
from the most eminent men, in Church and State, the irreparable
ruin caused to society in France, in Spain and Portugal, and their
colonial empire, as well as in Germany, by the suppression of the
Jesuit schools. The Pope, who was a Benedictine, and nowise pre-
judiced by education or the traditions of his own Order in favor of
the extinct Society, could not help seeing that priests who were so
highly prized in their misfortune by Frederick the Great, and by
Catherine II. of Russia, must be also deserving of the esteem of the
Roman pontiffs.
The Jesuits were restored on August 7, 1814. Men who had.
matured beneath the wintry skies and amid the bitter national pre-
judices of Russia tlie intellectual accomplishments and supernatural
yirtnes befitting the teachers and apostles of Christendom, now has-
tened to Rome to continue the work of their predecessors, as if it
had been interrupted only the day before. But a wide and deep
gnlf separated the new order of things from the old, and the Roman
youth of 1814 from that of 1773. The men whom Pius VII. thus
28
Theological Studies. 29-'
summoned to his aid, as from among tlie dead, were not the men to
be discouraged by difficulties. Of those who came up from the
depths of Eussia at his bidding, there were some who, when the
Society's ill fortune had reached its darkest hour, had walked joy-
ously on foot all the way from the furthest extremities of France
and Holland, to the heart of the Eussian empire, that they might
have the happiness of wearing the livery of the calumniated Order.
"When the bull of restoration was published, others were found
among their brethren, who walked exultantly on foot all the way
from Eussia to the city of the holy apostles.
If Giovanni Mastai did not learn under such masters the lessons
of theological science, he learned from them what was of still more
vital importance, the precious methods by which the souls of the
ignorant and the erring are reached, enlightened, and transformed,
and the homes of the poor made bright. And his was a soul apt to
prize such methods and to lay them well to heart.
There was in the atmosphere of Eome, when the great wave of
French domination had retired from Italy, not a little that resembled
its moral aspect when the Christian religion began to breathe freely
under Constantino. Scarcely a bishop, a priest, or a deacon could
be met with in the churches that had not suffered for the faith
torture, stripes, imprisonment, exile, or beggary. The aspirants to
the priestly order looked up to their elders as to divine men whom
suffering had stamped with a godlike character.
Young Mastai had begun to attend the schools of theology in his
lay dress, as well from a motive of prudence begotten by the uncer-
tainties of the time as from a fear of the invidious malady that still
lurked beneath the outward appearance of brilliant youth and un-
impaired vigor. With the final return of the Pope from Genoa all
apprehension of change was at an end ; and the young man resumed
his clerical costume.
Among his teachers there was one to whom he became much
attached, and who exercised great influence on his after-life : this
was Professor Graziosi. Among his fellow-students was also one
destined to a wider fame, and who, as it is believed, contributed not
a little both to Mastai's future elevation and to some of the most
momentous measures of his early pontificate ; this was Father Ven-
tura.
The restored Jesuits, on their arrival in Eome, devoted themselves
to the same labors which had endeared them so much to all classes
30 Life of Pope Pius IX,
of the Roman population under Paul III. : tliey made superhuman
exertions to collect wheresoever they might the neglected children
of Rome, and to teach them the elements of the Christian doctrine.
Sunday-schools' were organized on an extensive scale, and made
attractive by singing and all the arts that captivate the young fancy.
They enlisted as catechists the most zealous and distinguished among
the Roman students — the nobly-born especially — and among them
the Abbate Mastai' became conspicuous. The old brotherhoods and
guilds devoted to the works of beneficence and mercy were set on
foot and fired with a new zeal ; while other confraternities were
created for the purpose of meeting the necessities of the sad change
made among a believing population by the i^rotracted sway of
avowed skepticism and open unbelief.
In all these labors for the benefit of the poor and the laboring
classes Mastai was foremost among the most zealous, his handsome
person, pleasing address, and ready eloquence giving him great
power over old and young alike.
Indeed, his hearty devotion to his task could not but bring a
blessing on himself, while making him widely and most favorably
known to his ecclesiastical superiors ; so favorably, in truth, that
in 1818 Monsignor Carlo Odcscalchi (afterward cardinal-vicar of
Rome under Gregory XVI.) selected him as his companion and spe-
cial catechist, during a missionary tour which he and the venerable
Bishop Strambi, of Macerata, were about to make in Sinigaglia and
the neighboring country places.
The provinces along the northern coast of the Adriatic had been
longest under French rule, and had been made the favorite field of
revolutionary and anti-Christian zeal. In Italy, as in every country
where the French arms prevailed for any length of time, the very
worst elements of the population were enlisted in the cause of the
invaders. When a free license for the most odious vices was not a
sufficient inducement, the great words of liberty, humanity, and
fraternity served as a lure to the unwary and a mask to the evil-
minded. The very dregs of the population, as in France, rose into
power, were placed in office, became members of the clubs, helped to
oppress and to plunder the clergy, the churches, and the monas-
tic establishments ; and when their evil reign came to an end, they
remained behind, still conspiring in their clubs, spreading actively
through the laboring and agricultural classes their principles, their
passions, and subversive designs.
The Crown of a Noble Ambition 3 1
One can easily understand how heartily the Abbate Mastai gaye
himself to his share of this spiritual crusade. His family had always
been, and were still, most popular in Sinigaglia and the country
round about ; he had been himself a universal fayorite in childhood
and boyhood, and not a little sympathy had followed him to Rome,
when he gaye up every worldly prospect and faced seemingly insuper-
able obstacles to become a priest. On his reappearance among his
townsmen and neighbors, with two of the most gifted and saintly men
produced by the Italy of our age, he was allotted the task of giving
familiar doctrinal and moral instruction to the people, particularly
of preparing the children and first communicants for the sacrament.
He displayed uncommon talent ; his imposing presence, youthful
mien, and singularly sweet and powerful voice, lending efficacy to
great natural eloquence. But it was the Spirit of God that gave an
irresistible unction to the young preacher's exhortation. The good
effected by the missioners was extraordinary, and was most gratify-
ing to Pius VII., who felt a deep personal interest in the spiritual
welfare of his native province. But the praises bestowed by the two
prelates on their youthful associate, went to the heart of Pius, and
decided, once for all, the destiny of Giovanni Mastai.
His delighted mother witnessed, with unutterable gratitude, during
his labors around Sinigaglia, the great improvement that had taken
place in his health. This had been the constant subject of her
earnest pleadings at the throne of mercy for the last nine years ; and
now she besought the divine goodness with increased fervor. How
could such a mother's prayers remain unanswered.
Monsignor Odescalchi, in reporting to the Pope the success of his
mission, did not hesitate to recommend that young Mastai should be
forthwith admitted to holy orders. He was, in consequence, ordained
subdeacon, on December the 18th, 1818, and, at his own earnest
request to the holy father, admitted successively to deaconship and
priest's orders during the Lent of 1819.
While pleading for this supreme favor to his revered friend and
benefactor, he touched the heart of the kind old man. Is there not
a divine instinct in the impulses which incline the good and pure-
minded, particularly when they are in high office, to grant the
prayers of such as ask for what is intended primarily for the divine
honor ? Seizing affectionately the hand of the young suppliant, the
august sufferer bade him be of good cheer : "We grant you what you
ask, dear son," was the gentle response to his prayer, "because it is
3 2 Life of Pope Pius IX,
our conviction that this disease will never again afflict you." It is
said that the prediction has not yet been falsified, after a lapse of
sixty years !
Be that as it m^y, the Pope, to remove all cause for undue appre-
hension and nervousness during the first months after Giovanni's
ordination, advised him to have a priest by his side while celebrating
the holy sacrifice.
From the earliest Christian ages no event in a family of believers
was attended with such solemnity and pious exultation as the eleva-
tion of one of its members to the priesthood, and the first celebration
by him of the august mysteries commemorative of the oblation of
Calvary. We leave to the reader to fancy what must have been the
joy of the Countess Caterina on the day when her son received the
imposition of hands with the priestly unction. But we must de-
scribe the scene of the young priest's first mass.
To the west of the elevation crowned by the ancient Capitol, in
what was once a wooded valley sloping down to the Tiber, is a quarter
known as that of "The Carpenters," Dei Falegnami, Between the
wide street bearing that name, and the narrow lane of Santa Anna,
to the north of it, is a block containing an industrial school, well
known as the Ospizio (Asylum) Tata Giovanni, affording, in the
spring of 1819, refuge and education to a little more than a hundred
homeless boys. Adjoining this establishment, of which we shall say
more presently, is the obscure Church of Santa Anna, that serves as
a chapel to the institution.
The Abbate Mastai had become acquainted with the asylum and
church during his student-life in Eome, and while devoting his
leisure hours to obscure works of charity. He had asked, as a privi-
lege, to be allowed to instruct these little castaways in the Christian
doctrine, and the lowly church in that obscure corner of Rome was
the place where he had spent many an hour in bringing home to the
minds and hearts of his rapt hearers the loveliness of Christ and his
truth, and the liappiness of serving him faithfully. The boys had
become much attached to their youthful teacher and friend, whose
face, as he spoke of the Master and his life of love and labor for our
Bakes, was wont to sliino as that of an angel. And he, as is the law
of true goodness, loved the place and the boys the more he gave them
of bis time and devotion.
How often, wlien tlie lesson was ended and the orphaned ones had
gone back to their usual occupations, may not the depressed but ever-
A True Mothers Reward. 33
hopeful soul of the unselfish catechist have yented itself before the
altar of the little church in earnest supplication that the time of
waiting might be shortened to him !
It is that modest sanctuary which loving hands have been decking
all the previous Holy Saturday ; and on that altar, with the dawn
of the resurrection morn, 1819, Giovanni Mastai offers up the body
which reposed incorrupt in the sepulchre, as it does in our taber-
nacles. There are joys here below unlike anything in human expe-
rience on this side of Heaven — ^because they are themselves a fore-
taste of heaven — ^the brief but overwhelming presence in the Chris-
tian bosom of him we are to possess and hold eternally. There are
days and solemnities on which he, who even in this exile is ever so
near us, floods the heart that seeks him and his interests, above all
the treasures and pursuits of earth, with an ecstasy that overflows
every boundary of sense, transforming the countenance, winging
our words with heavenly fire, and thrilling others as with the shock
of a hidden power. Surely, when these pure priestly hands brought
''the Lamb of God" to the adoring mother kneeling at that altar,
and placed on her tongue the Giver in his divinest gift, she must
have felt more than rewarded for her sacrifice to God of her best-
loved, and for all the tender anxiety and weary watching and waiting
of these years. And the noble father too, — for his were the faith and
love of the true Christian — had he, like the patriarchs of old, been
favored then and there with a vision of his boy-priest's destinies,
he would have risen from that spot singing with Simeon in his
heart of hearts :
" Now thou dost dismiss thy servant, Lord,
According to thy word in peace.
Because my eyes liave seen thy salvation.
Which thou hast prepared.
Before the face of all peoples.'*
He might well, turning to the mother, have added : " Behold this
[child] is set for the fall and for the resurrection of many in Israel,
and for a sign which shall be contradicted."
There was sweet music, too, in that little sanctuary. Young hearts
singing praises to God, on that lovely Easter morning, as Italian
children can sing when moved by piety and gratitude. They were
to benefit still farther by the devoted care of that young priest;
most of them were to acclaim him with the enthusiastic crowd when
3
34 Lif^ of Pope Pius IX,
his very name could in after years thrill all Italy to its centre ; many
of them would live to see him a fugitive, and all but a prisoner
within the city that once idolized him, and not a few, perhaps, would
live to kneel for one more blessing from that dear hand on the
fiftieth anniversary of his episcopal consecration.
What viscissitudes and crosses mark the sixty years commencing
with that memorable Easter-tide ! Over that glorious pathway of
devotion, suffering, and triumph we have now to guide the reader.
CHAPTER lY.
Labors among the Orphan" Boys— Sent to Chili with the
Delegate Apostolic — Labors ik the Industrial Schools
OF Kome.
1819-1827.
PIUS VIL, himself a devoted lover of the obscurity, poverty, and
crucified life of the cloister, could not help divining in the
thirst of abnegation and zeal for the spiritual welfare of the poor,
so apparent in his protege, the earnest of a career fruitful in holy
deeds and eminent services to the Church. This precious disposi-
tion the saintly pontiff determined to encourage and foster to the
utmost.
He was made too happy by all that was told him of the good done
at ''Tata Giovanni," not to grant his friend the opportunity of
enlarging his sphere of action. He, therefore, placed Mastai", to the
latter's infinite delight, at the head of the asylum itself.
The reader will not regret to learn a few details about the origin
of this establishment, the creation of a poor uneducated journeyman
mason, all the more so that it is to be the loved theater of M^staf s
labors during the next four years.
Giovanni Borgi, then, lived toward the close of the last century,
toiling for a small pittance at his craft as a mason around the Church
of St. Peter's. He could neither read nor write, was unmarried, and
spent almost the entire time left him after his daily labor in the hos-
pitals tending the sick, or in some poor hovel where pined and
groaned some lonely sufferer. Indeed, he was endowed with a most
powerful scent in tracking the worst cases of this kind. And when
he had found some wretched being all helpless and forsaken in his
dire need, Giovanni was wont to spend the whole night watching,
consoling, tending him, content, when daylight brought the hours
of labor, to suffer the scoffs and bantering of his companions, as he
nodded over his bricks and mortar.
At length the good man was moved to compassion at seeing the
numbers of ragged, barefooted, and hungry boys lying asleep by night
35
36 * Life of Pope Pius IX,
on the steps of the great churches or huddled together in some shel-
tered comer. Some of these he took to his own lodging, rented for
their use the ground floor of the house, clad them, fed them, had
tliem prepared for confession and communion, and then apprenticed
to some honest mechanic. He was thoroughly in earnest ; the work
grew on his hands, friends came to his assistance, priests and laymen
became his helpers, found him money, organized a society, opened
an asylum, and effected so much good, that, in 1784, Pius VI. gave
the work his blessing, and thenceforth its success was assured.
The Palazzo Ruggia was purchased, and afforded a daily refuge to
about one hundred boys. As these little vagrants called their ben-
efactor by no other name than Tata Giovanni, equivalent to the
familiar English "Daddy John," the new institution became popu-
larly known by that name. By degrees the temporary asylum be-
came a home for these houseless wanderers, and the home soon
became a school. Priests, professors, prelates, and noblemen would
spend some hours every evening teaching the inmates reading, writ-
ing, arithmetic, and the elementary branches of knowledge necessary
to tradesmen. Then skilled mechanics volunteered to instruct them.
At first the boys were sent out to work by day, returning to the
asylum in the evening. Soon, however, Giovanni was enabled to
have them taught their trades and do all their work in the house,
and thus, from one improvement to another, the asylum became also
an industrial school and workshop. The sole aim of the illiterate
but enlightened founder, like that of all who perpetuated his charity,
was to make of every boy there a thorough Christian and a thorough
mechanic.
Such was the first little flock intrusted to him who, unconscious
of any ambition but that of doing the utmost for every child there,
labored with a singleness of purpose that never looked beyond the
walls of the institution, and never failed to make the best use of the
present opportunity. The asylum and its schools were to be in after
years the recipients of many lasting benefits from the young priest
who won golden opinions in it. But of this in its proper time.
The illustrious Cardinal Consalvi, the trusted minister of Pius
VII., at the beginning of 1823 was exceedingly desirous of providing
for the religious wants of the Spanish republics of South America.
During the last half of the eighteenth century the attitude of Spain
and Portugal toward the Holy See had been one of almost schismati-
cal hostility. The salutary interference of the supreme ecclesiastical
Sent to Chili with the Delegate Apostolic, 37
autliority had been either thwarted or set at naught by the home goY-
emments, even when its action was the most needed ; and the colo-
nial governments copied all too faithfully the conduct of their supe-
riors. The whole Christian world was scandalized by the cruel pres-
sure brought to bear upon Pope Clement XIV. in order to compel
him not only to suppress the Society of Jesus, but to subscribe to the
official calumnies against it drawn up by the joint representatiyes of
the houses of Bourbon and Braganza. And this unnatural treat-
ment of a heart-broken old man, was only exceeded by the uncalled
for and abominable cruelty displayed toward the members of the
obnoxious order in both kingdoms and their yast transatlantic
colonies.
What was most deplorable was that no successors were eyer giyen
to these 30,000 accomplished and devoted religious, the best edu-
cators of youth, and the most successful missionaries of modern
times. The Indian tribes whom they had civilized by miracles of a
self-sacrificing zeal, were permitted to relapse into a worse barbarism
than that of their ancestors, because one of its elements was a bitter
hatred of the Christian governments that robbed them of their bene-
factors. And in the schools of the Spanish Peninsula anti-Catholic
teachers were intruded, or most of these institutions were suppressed,
while beyond the seas, to this day, no teachers, or bad teachers, have
taken the place of these trusted guides in their once numerous and
most flourishing schools.
The Holy See, in canceling a papal act invested with none of the
wonted canonical solemnities, and unaccompanied by that liberty of
action without which even grave disciplinary measures are shorn of
their worth, plainly told Spaniards and Portuguese, in both hemi-
spheres, that the era of reparation and renovation had come.
Chili, favored above her sister republics in the fact that she had
been governed in succession by two noble men, the Marquises
O'Higgins, father and son, had been comparatively free from the
horrors of civil war, and had preserved more of the elements of
sound political and religious progress. She was the first to ask the
Holy See to send a special representative to concert with the gov-
ernment the needful measures for harmonious action.
Consalvi cast his eyes on Monsignor Muzi, afterward Bishop of
Citta di Castello, as the fittest person to deal with the difficulties
likely to occur in the new American republic, and gave him as audi-
tor or counselor the Abbate Mastai, whose courtly manners and
38 Life of Pope Pius IX,
winning address were likely to make a favorable impression on
Spanish gentlemen.
The great secretary and the holy father had, doubtless, ulterior
views on the yoying priest in making or approving this selection ;
but to the latter's mind no other prospect opened than that of a
glorious missionary field beyond the seas, immense good to be done
to souls, and great dangers and labors to be encountered in the ser-
vice of the Master. His joy was therefore great.
At these tiditigs the over-anxious mother at Sinigaglia was filled
with fear of the long and perilous voyage, of the vicissitudes of a
country still torn by civil strife and revolution ; and, above all she
dreaded the return of the fell distemper amid the excitements attend-
ant on such a journey and to such a land. She wrote to Pius YII. be-
seeching him to cancel the choice made of her son ; and the venera-
ble man, though extremely feeble and near his end, at once answered
in a strain that consoled and reassured her. When the Abbate Mas-
taK presented himself, in June, to take leave of his holiness and ask
his blessing on the journey he was undertaking with such alacrity,
the aged Pope received him with more than fatherly kindness.
**Your lady mother," he said, "has written to the secretary to
have him prevent you from undertaking this journey ; but we have
sent her a letter to say that you will surely return safe from this
mission."
And with loving words of encouragement the old man blessed the
kneeling priest, who felt as he gazed with fond veneration on the
meek and suffering features, that he should never more look on his
benefactor, nor hear the sound of that voice that had been to him
the voice of God's angel in his hours of doubt and deepest despond-
ency. Monsignor Muzi and his counselor were still in Italy, when,
on August the 20th, Pius VII. closed his long career of suffer-
ing amid the tears of his illustrious servants and fellow-sufferers,
bis lips faintly murmuring the last words, **Savona . . . Fon-
tainebleau." Was his gentle and forgiving spirit pleading for his
oppressor ? He had been so eager to send to St. Helena a true priest
to cheer and reconcile on his death-bed the once mighty conqueror,
whose headlong anger know not pity for the fallen or delay for those
he doomed to die I
We must not tarry to picture the enthusiasm with which Mastai
found himself, on landing at Montevideo, on the land rendered dear
to Christian hearts by the labors and peaceful conquests of the eai-ly
Labors in Chili and Peru. 39
Jesuit missionaries. The history written by the impartial Muzza-
relli had been familiar to Mastai while almost a child, and had
helped in no small degree to kindle the ardent desire conceived soon
afterward of treading in the footsteps of these glorious apostles of
civilization. During the brief stay which the Delegate Apostolic
made on the shore of the Eio de la Plata, he and his companion had
opportunities enough of witnessing the sad state of spiritual neglect
and ignorance of the Indian population. Nor did Mastai allow such
opportunities to pass by unheeded. Every hour that he could spare
was given to the extreme needs of these poor people.
This road from Montevideo to Chili and Peru, lay across the wide
pampas and the bleak and dangerous passes of the Andes. The
perils of their sea voyage, great as they had been, were trifling in
comparison with the dangers that lay before them, at that period
particularly. They had been imprisoned at Majorca by the jealous
Spanish authorities because they dared to go, even on an errand of
religious peace and mercy, to a country in rebellion against the crown
of Spain ; they were attacked by the Barbaresque corsairs on leaving
Majorca ; and were again and again assailed on the Atlantic by the
most violent storms. But on the pampas, beside the incessant appre-
hensions of being attacked by the hostile Indians, they had to endure
the extremes of hunger and cold amid the varied climates of the
inhospitable region, — having at one time, in the midst of a fearful
storm to spend the night in a hut constructed of bones and still
redolent of putrefaction.
The glimpses obtained of the Indian populations as the travelers
wound their way toward the eastern spurs of the Andes, or halted
among the sparse villages in the central valleys, filled them with pity
and regret ; pity for a race that had once tasted the sweet fruits of
apostolic zeal, and regret at the ruin caused by the infernal policy of
a Pombal and a Florida-Blanca.
Great was the joy shown at Santiago on the arrival of the messen-
gers sent by the common father of Christians ; deep and sincere
the respect so universally shown to men who had faced and under-
gone such dangers and privations to heal the religious wounds of the
South American republics. But divided councils, in a country still
bleeding from civil war and torn by internal dissensions, prevented
the Delegate Apostolic from accomplishing the purpose so dear to the
fatherly heart of the dying Pius. The mission of Monsignor Muzi
comprised the whole of Spanish America. He was, however, only
40 Life of Pope Pius IX.
permitted to yisit Chili and Peru, before returning witli hea^y heart
from countries he yearned to benefit to the utmost in his power.
During their stay, the counselor found leisure from the duties of his
office to make frequent excursions into the interior provinces of both
republics, tliereby possessing himself of accurate knowledge about the
religious wants of Spaniards and Indians alike. Indeed, it would have
been unspeakable happiness for him to spend his whole life, imitating
the glorious examples set on these shores by St. Turibio of Lima,
and St. Francis Solano, journeying on foot from city to city and
village to village, seeking amid the wilderness the tribes once con-
verted by the Jesuits, and now bereft of all missionary aid, and dis-
playing toward them in his own person all the supernatural self-
sacrifice of a Peter Claver.
It can be readily believed that the only vision of future greatness
that ever floated before the eyes of the devoted young priest, was
that of the great Apostle of Cartagena (whom he was afterward to
place among the Blessed), subscribing himself by solemn vow " the
Slave of the Negroes forever."
But few anecdotes have reached us about his doings in South
America. Two noteworthy incidents will suffice, however, to show
in what direction ran the current of that unselfish existence. In
one of the wild valleys between the interlocking spurs of the Andes
he stumbled on a hovel, in which a poor man lay at the point of
death, with his wife and children weeping, hopeless and helpless,
around him» It was an Indian family. They had received neither
instruction nor baptism ; had never been under priestly care, and
knew the Christian religion only by the traditions of their parents
and the godless lives of the Spanish mountaineers and traders. The
comely features of the young priest, who all of a sudden appeared
by the death-bed, lighted up as they were by unearthly charity,
seemed to the dying man and his family an angelic apparition. The
words and acts of the stranger proved to be those of an angel. He
spoke of heaven, and of him who died on the cross to open its gates
to all men, with such inspired eloquence and in the near presence of
death that the poor sufferer believed and was baptized. He was
doing, like the first apostles, Clirist's work among the heathen, and
Christ was with him giving efficacy to his every word.
When the regenerated soul had taken its flight, Mastai opened the
wallet containing his wardrobe, took out his best linen, clothed the
catechumen in it, and thus laid him to his rest, with Christ's cross
Labors in the hidustrial Schools of Rome, 4 1
aboye his grave on the hill-side. Then he instructed and baptized
the widow and her orphans, shared with them his little store of
money and clothing, and went on his way seeking other stray sheep
of his Master's fold.
While journeying with the Delegate Apostolic from the western
slope of the Andes to Santiago, they had to spend the' night in a
wretched inn or posada, the only refuge to be found far and near.
No sooner had the host ascertained the quality of his guests than he
informed them that an Englishman — *^a heretic," as he termed
it — was lying ill in the house of a dangerous fever. It was a young
officer of the name of Miller, who thus lay unconscious, far away
from home and dear friends, with not one kind hand to smooth his
pillow. There was a good Samaritan there, however, God-sent too,
in the poor Englishman's dire need.
Mastai, the generous Delegate Apostolic heartily approving the
step, remained in the house, while his companions went on their
way. He nursed the sick stranger — now his sick brother — with
the tenderness and constancy of a sister or a mother, never quitting
his side till he was in full convalescence. It was of no account to
him to share in the splendid public reception given by the city of San-
tiago and the Government to the representative of the Apostolic See.
That he left with heartfelt regret a country which offered him so
rich a harvest of souls, we may easily believe. On his return to Italy,
in 1825, he found Leo XII. in the chair of Pius VII. The new
Pope, long tried himself during the Napoleonic persecution, was a
man to appreciate the priestly spirit that animated Mastai. It is not
unlikely that he deemed him fitter to benefit the sadly demoralized
inhabitants of Italy by such apostolic virtues as those that shone forth
in him, than to run a diplomatic career affording iittle consolation to
one so spiritual-minded. So, until such time as age and further
labor on the home-mission had matured his qualities, he was — so
the Pope judged — to be given ample scope for his zeal and the ex-
ercise of his administrative abilities.
In pursuance of this plan the Pope made him one of his own
domestic prelates, and gave him the general direction of the vast
mixed establishement of San Michele. This was at first a refuge for
vagrant boys, opened in 1693 by Cardinal Odescalchi, nephew to
Innocent XI. ; it became in time an industrial school, and beside it
were successively erected a hospital for both sexes, an industrial
school for girls, and, latest of all, a reformatory for women.
42 Life of Pope Pius IX,
Monsignor MastaT, as he was thenceforth called, displayed such
extraordinary intelligence, administrative talent, and zeal for the
improvement of the industrial and art schools in particular, that he
contributed very materially to make San Michele the pride of Eome
and the real conservatory of Koman art. The reverence in which
his memory was held by the inmates of Tata Giovanni was not
diminished by the fresh luster acquired in his mission to America.
In his new charge he found subjects enough on which to exercise his
priestly qualities. Indeed they shone with a splendor that all Eome
admired, and that the very best of her ministers strove to emulate.
In May, 1827, Leo XII. thought the time had come for placing
the Director of San Michele at the head of one of the most important
dioceses in the Iloman States, with a population needing the care of
a chief pastor who was above all a man of God.
And so Monsignor Mastai was nominated Archbishop of Spoleto.
CHAPTER V.
CONSECEATED AeCHBISHOP OF SpOLETO — StATE OF UmBRIA AISTI)
Causes of Disaffection^ toward Pontifical Goveri^meistt
— ADMIlJflSTRATIVE CAREER IK SpOLETO — APPOINTED TO ImOLA.
1827-1832.
ON May 21, 1827, Monsignor Mastai was '^preconised" or offici-
ally announced by the Pope, in consistory, as Archbishop of
Spoleto, and on June 3d — the feast of '^St. Peter in Chains" — ^he
received episcopal consecration at the hands of Cardinal Castiglione,
afterward Pope Pius VIIL As Leo XII. was himself a native of
Spoleto (he had also been bishop of Sinigaglia), there was a special
Bignificance in his choosing so young a prelate to minister to the
wants of a diocese so very dear to him. There must be, at this dis-
tance of time, a something more striking in the coincidence between
the day chosen for the new archbishop's consecration and the condi-
tion in which the whole Christian world beholds him, as the fiftieth
anniversary of that memorable 3d of June returns to awaken such
universal sympathy and devotion toward "the prisoner of the Vati-
can."
But the great determining motive of the reigning Pope in nominat-
ing Monsignor Mastai to a position so elevated and responsible, was
based on the needs of the Umbrian population, and on the belief
entertained by his own counselors that the director of San Michele
was the man of all most fitted to restore confidence, peace, piety, and
prosperity where the French rule had destroyed them utterly.
A right understanding of the state in which Central Italy had
been left by imperial misrule, and of the efforts made by Pius VII.
and his successors to remedy disorders which they bitterly deplored,
may throw not a little light on the history we are sketching, and on
the causes of the manifold evils that ignorance and prejudice are
wont to attribute to priestly government, a prejudice which the very
authors of the mischief and the sworn enemies of the papacy are
careful to foster by systematic misrepresentation.
We shall ask the reader first to visit with us the beautiful and von-
43
44 Life of Pope Pius IX,
erable city of Spoleto, and while surveying from tlie surrounding
hill-tops the enchanting prospect of Umbria spread out beneath our
feet, it will be easy to appreciate the task appointed to the new arch-
bishop, and the heroic qualities that he brought to its fulfillment.
Spoleto is in the very heart of Central Italy, covering with its
quaint medieval edifices the side of a lofty hill, on the crest of which,
far above the city proper, frowns "La Kocca," a four-turreted for-
tress built by Theodoric the Great (455-526), again and again par-
tially destroyed by its temporary masters, thoroughly repaired by Pope
Nicholas V. (1398-1455), heroically defended against the Piedmontese
in September, 1860, by Major Myles O'Reilly and his Irish Brigade,
and now a prison for criminals. Behind this hill, with its amphi-
theater of churches, convents, and dwelling-houses, and connected
with it by an ancient and lofty aqueduct, rises far into the cloudless
sky Monte Luco, whose sides are "like a most luxuriant garden
covered with box, sage, arbutus, ilex, and juniper. Delightful paths
wind upward through the woods, and present new views, each more
beautiful than the last. Scattered among the odoriferous thickets
are a succession of chapels, and buildings which once were hermit-
ages ; for a perfect Thebaid was established here in 528 by St. Isaac
of Syria, and the Catholic church honors many saints who have
spent a portion of their lives there. At the top of the mountain, in
a wood of chestnuts, is the pilgrimage church of Madonna delle
Grazie ("Our Lady of Graces"). The principal convent is that of
St. Giuliano. No more beautiful or heaven-inspiring retreat could
be found than the cells in this flowery mountain-forest " (Hare).
Michael-Angelo, after visiting it in September, 1556, wrote that he
scarcely brought the half of himself back to Eome, "because one only
finds true liberty, peace, and happiness amid such scenes." Alas 1
of all these retreats that once constituted the paradise of the soul
and the nursery of holy and heroic men, there is not one but has
been desecrated by the present rulers of Italy, in the name of liberty,
peace, and progress ! But we must not anticipate.
It was precisely because the bishops of this ancient see (founded
in the year 50) had industriously rebuilt the city from its ruins after
each fresh destruction wrought by Goths, Huns, Lombards, and
Greeks ; because they had succeeded in making these mountain soli-
tudes the liomo of peace, security, and holiness, that such men as
Theodoric built the lofty citadel as a protection and a refuge, while,
later, Thcodelapius connected the city and its fortress with the saint-
State of Unibria, 45
peopled Monte Luco, by that magnificent aqueduct spanning the
intervening yalley.
There is not a church or chapel in the grand old city, nor a con-
vent or public edifice of any importance for miles around that had
not been decorated with loving hand by some of Italy's most famous
artists. Lo Spagka, Perugino's favorite pupil and Raphael's fellow-
student, could not tear himself away from Spoleto, working in every
sweet sanctuary where he was permitted to paint, on wall or canvass,
the visions of heavenly beauty and heroic virtue that filled his soul.
But convents and sanctuaries are now profaned or allowed to fall into
ruin ; and the day is not far distant when the painters of Italy may
seek in vain for inspiration and never find
" the gleam.
The light that never was on sea or land.
The consecration, and the poet's dream."
It would be impossible to describe in these pages, even did our
subject and space permit it, the varied beauties and untold wealth of
the magnificent country on which one may look down from the
towers of La Rocca or the now desolate and desecrated sanctuaries of
Monte Luco. Directly Avest of it, across the valley of the Tiber, lies
Orvieto, perched on a huge volcanic mass, its precipitous sides falling
sheer down to the plain, and presenting, amid the splendors of the
evening or the morning sun, its glorious cathedral shining afar like
an angelic watch-tower at the entrance of Paradise.
And surely one might well take the land for another Eden, over
whose bosom the industry and science of man had in more than one
way added charms to God's choicest handiwork. Let us listen to one
whose religion will not incline him to overpraise the results of Cath-
olic civilization, of pontifical rule especially.
*^0n turning the crest of the hills which shelter Bolsena, one
looks down into a wide valley filled with the richest vegetation —
peach-trees and almonds and figs, with vines leaping from tree to
tree and chaining them together, and beneath, an unequaled luxu-
riance of corn and peas and melons, every tiniest space occupied.
Mountains of the most graceful forms girdle in this paradise, and,
from the height whence we first gaze upon it, endless distances are
seen, blue and roseate and snowy, melting into infinity of space ;
while from the valley itself rises, island-like, a mass of orange-colored
rock, crowned with old walls and houses and churches, from the
46 Life of Pope Pius IX,
center of which is uplifted a vast cathedral, with delicate, spray-like
pinnacles, and a golden and jeweled front, and this is Oryieto"
(Hare).
It is the «ame, whether we look to the north or to the south ;
everywhere the creations of that civilizing power that formed Christ-
endom from out the chaos of ruin left by the barbaric invasions ; in
every comer of the land man encouraged to settle, protected and
blessed in his thrift, taught to be content with what the earth was
forced to yield to his husbandry, and to look beyond the bright skies
above him for a rest from his labors and a reward for his virtues.
What religion achieved in Spoleto, that, from the downfall of the
Roman power, and even while oppressed by the protectorate of Con-
stantinople, she strove to do in every corner of Italy : to build up
the cities as a sure refuge for the inhabitants spared by the sword, to
encourage the husbandman as he planted or garnered his crops, and
the shepherd as he led his flocks along the fevered plain or the
healthier hill-side ; and, above all, to teach man not to set his heart
upon this earth ; but to share its fruits with the needy and to make
its abode a picture of the eternal city of the skies, by brotherly love,
by patience of ill, and forbearing from strife and revenge and
malice.
In spite of the evil passions which, age after age and uninterrupt-
edly, marred all the purest intentions and noblest labors of the
Church, if, at this day, one should ask what she has done with the
Italian people, and wherein do they show her culture, we might
turn to a writer, who, being bitterly opposed to her teaching, but
bom on her soil and conversant with every class of her people, as no
other man of Anglo-Saxon blood can boast of being, may be accepted
as an unprejudiced witness.
They are, according to him, an honest and a tmthf ul people. * ' Do
not," ho says, **go forth in a spirit of antagonism to the inhabitants,
and with the impression that life in Italy is to be a prolonged strug-
gle against extortion and incivility. Except in the old kingdom
of Naples— there is no country where it is so little necessary to look
forward to such things as possible. A traveler will be cheated
oftener in a week's tour in England than in a year's residence in
Italy. During six whole winters spent at Rome, and years of travel
in all the other parts of Italy, the author (Mr. Hare) cannot recall a
Binglo act or word of an Italian— wo^ Neapolitan— of which he can
justly complain ; but, on the contrary, has an overflowing recollec-
What Religion has Done with the People, 47
tion of the disinterested courtesy, and the unselfish and often most
undeserved kindness with which he has uniyersally been treated."
— Cities of Central Italy, i. p. 14.
They are a most courteous people, as the same writer goes on to
prove. But they, one and all, demand to be treated with cour-
tesy.
"JSTothing can be obtained from an Italian by compulsion. A
friendly look and a cheery word will win almost anything, but Italians
will not be driven. . . . Travelers . . . . are beginning,
though only beginning, to learn that the difference of caste in
Italy does not give an opening for the discourtesies in which they are
wont to indulge to those they consider their inferiors in the north,
and they are beginning to see that Italian dukes and marquises are
quite as courteous and thoughtful for their vigneroli (vine-dressers)
or their pecorai (shepherds) as for their equals ; and that the Italian
character is so constituted that a certain amount of friendly famil-
iarity on the part of the superior never leads to disrespect in the in-
ferior. " — Ibidem,
They are true men, brave and moral, priests and people alike.
*^ With every year which an Englishman passes in Italy, a new vail of
the suspicion with which he entered it will be swept away, only it is a
pity that his enjoyment should be marred at the beginning. For-
eigners will find that .... Italian men are generally as cour-
teous, brave, and high-minded as they are almost universally hand-
some ; that the women are as kind and modest as they are utterly
without affectation ; and that, though the bugbears of Protestant
story-books have certainly existed, the parish priests, and even the
monks as a general rule, are most devoted single-minded Christians,
living amongst and for the people under their care. Cases of ec-
clesiastical immorality are exceedingly rare, quite as rare, if we may
judge by our newspapers, as in Protestant countries ; and, if inquired
into, it will be found that most of the sensational stories told are
taken out of — Boccaccio (1313-1375). Of course, much must natur-
ally remain which one of a different faith may deeply regret ; but
Englishmen are apt, and chiefly on religious subjects, to accept old
prejudices as facts, and to judge without knowledge." — Ibid.
Where the population of any country are honest, truthful, court-
eous, self-respecting, brave, modest, and moral (industrious they are
allowed to be, as well as ingenious and quick-witted), and where their
religious teachers and guides ^'are most devoted, single-minded
48 Life of Pope Pius IX,
Christians, living amongst and for the peoi^le," assuredly religion
has not to blush either for priests or for people !
How happened it, then, that in the year of grace 1827 there existed
in Umbria (let us say nothing of the other pontifical provinces) such
disaffection toward the papal rule and such serious moral disorder,
that the reigning Pope cast his eyes on a prelate of known self-sacri-
ficing disposition, large-minded and large-hearted, gifted with a per-
suasive eloquence, and tried by labors among the poor in both hemi-
spheres, as the man best fitted to turn back the rising tide of dis-
affection and rebellion ?
One principal cause of this intellectual and moral disorder has
already been assigned in speaking of the propagandism set on foot by
the French radicals and sedulously encouraged by the military rulers
of Italy under Napoleon. The cry of "Italian unity," left behind
as a watchword by the retreating French imperialists, and the well-
organized system of secret societies which inoculated the Italian
lourgeoisie or middle class with the idea this cry conveyed, is another
principal cause.
It is not true, even at this hour, that the Italian aristocracy or
peasantry (contadiyii) have ever been or are yet, as a class, in favor
of Italian unity ; most certainly they never have been hostile to the
fatherly government of the Popes.
We can, here at least, anticipate by half a century, and give from
the traveler already quoted one last impartial judgment on this all-
important matter :
** Those who have traveled in Italy many years ago will observe
how ,iri-(';ifly the character of the country has changed since its small
courts liuve been swept away. With the differences of costume and
of feeling, the old proverbs and stories and customs are gradually
dying out. Travelers will view these changes with different eyes.
That Venice and Milan should have thrown off the hated yoke of
Austria and united themselves to the country to which they always
wished to belong, no one can fail to rejoice, and the cursory observer
may be induced by the English press, or by the statements of the na-
tive mezzo ceto (middle class), who are almost entirely in its favor, to
believe that tlio wi^h for a united Italy was universal. Those who
stay longer, and who mako a real acquaintance with the people, will
find that in mt)st of the Central States the feeling of the aristocracy
and of the contadini is almost universally against the present state of
things." — Ibidem, 19.
Causes of Disaffectio7i and Disorder, 49
It was among this same miscliievous middle class {mezzo ceto) that
the Archbishop of Spoleto was called to put forth all his zeal ; for
among this class were fermenting all the political, socialistic, and
anti-Christian ideas which were to reyolutionize Italy by slow but
sure stages.
One of the successful artifices of the baffled French infidels, when
compelled to withdraw from Italy, was to represent the restored
papal government as a creature of Austria. In truth, Pius VII. was
much more indebted for the recovery of his States to England than
to Austria ; but in France it suited the national temper to represent
the overthrow of the empire and all its consequent humiliations as
the effect of Austrian revenge. In Italy, too, the secular hatred of
Austrian occupation would be sure to derive increased intensity from
the protectorate now kept up by Austria over the Eoman States, and
the right bestowed on that power by the Congress of Vienna to gar-
rison Ferrara and other cities of the papal territory at the first seri-
ous symptoms of revolt.
Leo XII., from the beginning of his pontificate, had been desig-
nated as ^^the Austrian patriarch," and rumors were most industri-
ously circulated affirming that he had been elected through Austrian
influence. The truth was that in the conclave one of his concur-
rents, Cardinal Severoli, had been '^ excluded" by the Austrian veto,
while Cardinal Castiglione (afterward Pius VIII.) was the candi-
date favored by Austria. It was partly in opposition to this odious
influence, and chiefly because Cardinal della Genga was a favorite
with all parties — perhaps also because being stricken with an incura-
ble disease the court of Vienna did not think it worth while to ex-
clude him — that he was elected, to the great joy of the people, who
venerated him as a saint.
But there was another and more influential source of the persist-
ent and systematic accusations of undue leaning toward Austria
which thwarted to so great an extent all the patriotic efforts of Leo
XII. and his two immediate successors. This was the little known
but powerful interest created in the Papal States principally in favor
of Prince Eugene Beauharnais by the Congress of Vienna.
The representatives of the great powers had bestowed on the for-
mer viceroy of Italy, beside immense landed estates in Lombardy,
still more considerable possessions in the States of the Church made
up of the confiscated property of the religious bodies, with a num-
ber of magnificent monastic edifices, the pride of former ages. It
4
5o Life of Pope Pitis IX.
was in reality like a permanent colony of Frencli officials, with a
powerful administration and a yast patronage, kept np in tlie heart
of the country they had once governed. "In every large town,"
says Artaud,' *'some spacious building contained the offices of the
appanagio (endowment) as it was called, with a staff of collectors,
clerks, overseers, land-surveyors, and higher officials ; and in almost
every village was a branch of this little empire. . . . Many of the
persons so employed were, moreover, foreigners, whose religion [or
rather hatred of all religion,*] was in avowed opposition to that of
the native population, and whose morals were neither edifying nor
improving."
Leo XII. had set his heart on redeeming this property, and econo-
mized most rigidly in order to effect this purpose. He knew that
this vast foreign administration in the midst of his States was a hot-
bed of conspiracy as well as a perpetual drain on the sources of his
people. And the more he economized and exerted himself to get
rid of the nuisance, the more he found that they conspired and agi-
tated, accusing "the Austrian patriarch" enthroned in the Quirinal
of sacrificing Italy and his people to the hated "foreigners."
Scarcely had Archbishop Masta'i taken possession of his see of Spo-
leto than ominous signs of a near revolutionary outbreak manifested
themselves ; odious assassinations occurred in several places, and
Bimultaneously with them there were noisy and violent demonstra-
tions gotten up by the clubs.
The Archbishop of Spoleto knew that one mighty weapon of paci-
fication was the confidence of all classes of his people ; and he set
about winning it by the open acts of unbounded devotion to their
every need.
The experience acquired in Eome enabled him to provide for the
poor and homeless of his flock, and to oreate institutions similar to
Tata Giovanni and others, with the working of which he was well
ac'iii.iintcd. It was not, however, from his own resources that he
drew the nooossary means. The income of his bishopric was, at best,
but inconsiderable, and when he came to Spoleto he was worse than
poor. So much so, indeed, that, when he was apprised of his pro-
motion, ho had noithor the money required to meet the outlay neces-
sary for the Bolcinnitics attendant on his consecration, nor what was
necessary to purchase the indispensable outfit of a bishop, nor even
the trifling sum usually given on such occasions for clerical services
♦ Author.
Administrative Career in Spoleto, 5i
in the Eoman chancery. He had absolutely left himself nothing
but his few books and scanty raiment.
It was this very poverty, noised abroad in Eome without his
knowledge, and of which the touching story had gone before him to
Spoleto, that moved the hearts of his flock, and impelled them to
assist him to the utmost of their means in every one of the schemes
set on foot for charity or education.
While thus laboring to benefit the poor, the sick, the homeless,
and the orphan, as well as to found industrial schools and colleges,
he found means of bringing in turn a rich blessing to the homes of
all who had so generously aided him in his manifold undertakings.
Spoleto and its neighborhood were sadly disturbed by factions and
partisan passions, partly inherited from former times, but chiefly the
offspring of the political and social changes of the last forty years.
As the archbishop was a welcome guest whithersoever he went, he
profited by the warm welcome extended invariably to him to heal
existing strifes. Almsgiving, when performed with that Christian
spirit that bespeaks a heart touched with the love of the Crucified,
has its reward, not unfrequently, in that interior grace which enables
the soul to forgive past injuries, to lay aside political and partisan
bitterness, and to love truly where one had long hated heartily. ]J^o
man can achieve such reconciliations amongst a warm-blooded race,
like a man whose whole life bears the stamp of self-sacrifice and
absolute devotion to the good of others.
And so, with the advent of Archbishop Mastai in Spoleto, all the
sweet and holy charities of neighborly intercourse began to flourish
anew, and bring forth a rich crop of peace and happiness and pros-
perity as well. For their chief pastor was not only the man of God
who sought in all things, and above all things, the interest of their
souls, but he was also the man of the world who was foremost and
earnest in seeking and promoting their temporal welfare. The cul-
ture of the silkworm, the establishment and improvement of the ex-
cellent woolen and felt factories, that he afterward loved to patronize
as Pope, he now stimulated as archbishop ; he also encouraged or
advised the development given to the very important iron-works, and
their attendant workshops, for agricultural and domestic utensils. In
a word, there was not a family throughout his flock with whose aims,
hopes, cares, and griefs the prelate did not identify himself, not an
industry nor an undertaking in which he did not show a sincere and
active interest. How could such a man not be beloved ?
52 Life of Pope Pius IX,
This love of the people for a man of God, and the supernatural vir-
tues which call it forth, were strikingly displayed on one memorable
occasion. Leo XIL, who, during his pontificate, had more than once
shown the court of Vienna that he was not one likely to be swayed by
mere worldly policy, had ended his life of intolerable suffering in Feb-
ruary, 1829, and then for a brief space Cardinal Castiglione occupied
the chair of Peter. He was one of the most accomplished men in
Europe, and one of the most lowly-minded. The efforts to elect him
by Austrian influence in the conclave of 1823 had, as we have seen,
been baffled. They were rencAved after the death of Leo XIL, and
were successful this time, if, indeed, that can be called success which
is the choice of the most saintly, the most learned, the most worthy,
by men who are unanimous in honoring shining merit.
But the cry of foreign influence, raised so often in the preceding
reign, was now renewed with a fiercer and more frequent vehemence.
Leo XIL had lived down the slanders with which he was assailed at
his coronation. The thorough and wide-spread reforms carried out
or inaugurated in Rome, the large and liberal laws enacted, the
burthens of taxation so considerably lightened, the princely gener-
osity displayed in succoring the populations distressed by the inun-
dations of the Anio, and in pushing forward the hydraulic w^orks
destined to prevent such ravages in the future, all inclined his grate-
ful subjects to bestow on Leo rather the appellation of * 'Father of
his Country," than the nickname of ''the Austrian Patriarch."
The providential influence which such men as the Archbishop of
Spoleto had acquired over the disturbed or disaffected provinces,
added to the deep veneration felt for the virtues of Pius VIII. , kept
the Carhonari (Appendix C) in check till the close of his pontificate
(Nov. 30, 1830). But then the conspiracy, long prepared in Northern
and Central Italy, burst forth in open insurrection at Modena, Bo-
logna (Feb. 4, 1831), in the Marches, and at the very gates of Eome.
Thus was created by the Italians themselves a necessity for that
"foreign inter\'ention " against which the Popes had never ceased to
battle for centuries. The detested Austrian flag crossed the frontier
of the Papal States and occupied Bologna, Ferrara, and the other
notorious centers of revolution ; and then the imperial forces, advanc-
ing southward along both sides of the Apennines, drove the armed
insurgents in confusion before them.
A body of the latter, headed by one Sercognari, and numbering
4,000 men, with five pieces of cannon, had been driven from before
Administrative Career in Spoleto, ^\
Civita Gastellana, and retreating soutliward through Umbria, threw
themselves into Spoleto, which they determined to hold. The cry
of "The Austrians," in every town and hamlet of Italy, produced, at
the time, the same sensation in Italian breasts that that of *^The
Sassenach " would at any time in the mountains of Kerry or Tip-
perary, the irresistible impulse to join in the fray against "the
foreigner." Many of the Spoletans openly joined the worsted in-
surgents, and a general rising in the neighborhood became imminent.
The calamity which this and a subsequent resistance to the autho-
rities must have entailed on his flock was foreseen by the archbishop,
and he resolved to risk his life or save his people from the horrors
of a siege.
While the magistrates were already preparing to leave the city, he
boldly presented himself to the insurgent chief, laid before him and
his officers the inevitable consequences of such a hopeless struggle as
theirs, with the victorious Austrians marching down on them from
the north, and the Neapolitan troops preparing to assail them from
the south. He had food brought to the weary and famished men,
caused the wounded and sick to be tenderly cared for in the ]3ublic
institutions, promised the deluded men to obtain money to defray
their homeward journey, with a free passport and pardon for their
treason, and induced them to lay down their arms at his feet.
Gregory XVI. was but too happy to grant the pardon promised by
the archbishop, as well as the money which these poor men needed
sadly. This, however, officers and men would only accept from the
prelate himself, not trusting to the honesty of their leader.
It was a day of sweet joy in Spoleto when these men disbanded
peacefully, after having thanked their kind benefactor and pledged
themselves to respect in future the peace of Italy and the happiness
of their own firesides.
Among the leaders in this "rising "were Louis Napoleon Bona-
parte, future emperor of the French, and his brother. The latter
fell, mortally wounded, at Forli ; the former advanced to Spoleto at
the head of some straggling cavalry, was bought off, at the arch-
bishop's suggestion, with a much needed sum of money, and left the
country. Let him pass out of this history for the present ; he shall
occupy a large space in it at a later date.
The disturbances in Spoleto and throughout Umbria did not cease
with the disbanding of these four thousand insurgents. Clubs had
been organized in every city in Italy, and in the first moment of
54 Life of Pope Pius IX.
alarm and discouragement, when the lawful magistrates forsook their
posts, either in treason or in terror, the clubs assumed the govern-
ment of the cities. It so happened at Spoleto. But as this city was
near Rome, with a strongly fortified castle, a central government
was established there, which took on itself to give law to the whole
province.
In this emergency Archbishop Mastai was requested to take on
himself the administration of that portion of the Papal States, which
he did with much reluctance, but to the great benefit of the popula-
tion, having soon succeeded, by the ascendency of his virtue and
goodness, in restoring order and tranquillity.
It was only for a brief space, however, as the disturbances broke
out with renewed fury in 1832, the revolutionists being this time en-
couraged by the open sympathy of the English journalists and states-
men, and aided still more eflBciently by French support. The gov-
ernment of France, in spite of the most energetic protestations of
the Holy See, did not hesitate to take possession of Ancona, and
that under pretext of maintaining the papal authority, but in reality
for the purpose of obtaining once more a foothold in Italy. Thus,
while an Austrian army occupied the Romagna, a French force held
the only papal seaport on the Adriatic, the presence of the former
inflaming the national hatred to frenzy, and that of the latter hold-
ing out to revolution secret hopes of aid and comfort.
The visitation of this double plague was preceded, in January, by
a terrible earthquake, which desolated Central Italy. As the cities
throughout TJmbria are, for the most part, built, like Spoleto, in
elevated positions susceptible of being fortified, the people fled in
terror to the plain. Much disorder and distress was the consequence
of this panic. But these accumulated miseries only served to call
forth the great and fatherly qualities of the archbishop. He organ-
ized relief committees, who sped from place to place with physicians,
nurses, food, and raiment for the sufferers, he, the while, seeming to
make himself ubiquitous, with helping hand and kind word for all
who needed comfort or assistance.
But worse than civil war and earthquake was the appearance of
the Oiovine Italia (*' Young Italy"), which issued, fully armed and
equipp 1, from the atheistical brain of Mazzini about this time. It
had it.s birth in Marseilles, the head-qii:irfcrs of the Italian conspira-
tors, and was a half-secret, half-open kauiio of all who hated the
church of God, with a journal published in that city bearing the
Appouited to Lnola, 55
name of the league, and an army of emissaries so active that the
sailors of the Italian military and mercantile navy were pledged to a
man to circulate Mazzini's publications and principles from one end
of the peninsula to the other !
With the entrance of such a formidable organization into political
life, abetted as it was by England, France, and Piedmont — though
for widely different motives — it was easy for any man gifted with
political sagacity to foresee and prophesy the inevitable and not far-
distant overthrow of the papal government, and the utter abolition
of all church establishments in the Peninsula.
We do not know if the Archbishop of Spoleto, destined to be the
life-long antagonist of this occult and terrible power, had any pre-
sentiment of this life-struggle and of its fateful issues, as he bent
him so lovingly and zealous, in the first months of 1832, to his task
of binding up the wounds of his bleeding country. Certain it is that
Gregory XVI. and his counselors were conscious that no man better
than he could withstand, in that part of the papal dominions most
threatened by the combined forces of irreligion and revolution, the
rising tide of evil.
In the following December he was transferred to the see of Imola,
and was fortunately permitted to delay his departure for some
months. He did not leave Spoleto, however, without a bitter pang,
and without great opposition on the part of his flock. It was all in
vain. Though deputation after deputation went to Rome appealing
to the Pope and his ministers, Gregory had made up his mind that
Imola imperatively needed the presence of such a man ; so to Imola
Archbishop Mastai' had to go.
Still his good deeds live in the memory of the Spoletans to this
day. Though no statue of the good archbishop graced any of the
ancient city's public squares, and though strange new names have
usurped the place of old and revered ones in street and thoroughfare
and public building, amid the rage for change and distinction that
animates the new rulers of Umbria, the image of Mastai's fearless
and boundless devotion is worshiped in every household in his for-
mer diocese.
To the pilgrim from Anglo-Saxon lands, when it is found that he
still reverences the name of the Pope, the guides and hotel-keepers
around Spoleto will tell (on the sly, and with bated voice) touching
stories of the devoted archbishop's goodness ; as, for instance, how
the police^ one fine morning, had persisted in carrying oif to prison
56 Life of Pope Pius IX.
a poor woman who was seeking to pawn a silver-gilt branch-candle-
Btick, which, she persisted in assuring them with genuine tears in
her eyes, had been given her by the archbishop. Her captors, of
course, would have it that she had stolen it, or that it had been
given her by the plundering insurgents. And so, a gendarme was
dispatched to the archiepiscopal residence with the identical can-
dlestick. Yes, the prelate shamefacedly confessed, he was the sole
cause of the poor woman's trouble. ^*I had no money, and thought
she might pawn the article for a handsome penny and bring me
the pawn-ticket, which I might redeem later. Here you have the
only guilty one."
Such anecdotes, and the amusing tales about the archbishop's
chief steward, who was wont to lament almost daily among the mar-
ket folk the reckless prodigality and improvidence of his master,
survive among the contadini at least, whose hearts have been proof
against the general change and ingratitude.
Pass we now to Imola.
CHAPTER VI.
Chkistian Glokies of Imola — Characteeistics of the People
— Political Passions : how counteracted by the New
Archbishop — Felice Orsini — Superior Education given
TO THE Clergy — Creation of Institutions of Benefi-
cence : THE Sisterhood of the Good Shepherd — Politi-
cal Conspiracies — The Archbishop nearly carried off
— Archbishop Mastai elevated to the Cardinalate —
His filial Devotion to his Mother — Death of Gregory
XVI. — Love of Poverty in the dying Pope.
1832—1846.
IMOLA has an ancient cathedral, called after an early martyr
St. Cassianus — the story is beautifully told by Prudentius —
whose relics, with those of the great St. Peter Chrysologus, a native
of the city, repose within the sacred place. A strange history is that
of this venerated martyr, and one which throws on the eventful life
recounted in these pages a strange prophetic light.
Cardinal Wiseman, in his charming " Eabiola," has still further
embellished the narrative of Prudentius. But we need only the sim-
ple historical facts for our purpose. Cassianus taught a school for
boys at Imola, then called Forum Cornelii. Having been denounced
to the local magistrates as a Christian and an enemy of their coun-
try's gods, he was condemned to be stabbed to death by his own
scholars. These, two hundred in number, surrounded their unre-
sisting victim, and hacked him to pieces with their sharp styles of
steel and their penknives. It was a long and fearful torture. The
holy poet-bishop Prudentius mentions that on his way to Eome
he stopped to pray at the martyr's shrine in the church erected as a
memorial to him. Over the altar, beneath which his body lay, was
a painting vividly representing the scene of his agony.
How far the heroic constancy of the sufferer may have contributed
to impress his young tormentors with the notion that the odious
Christian faith was divine and indestructible, we cannot now say.
57
5S Life of Pope Pirn IX.
The blood of martyrs, or, rather the invincible constancy and other
godlike virtues confirmed and made fruitful by such blood, has ever
been the seed of Christianity. The native country of St. Cassian did
not fail to become in good season a Christian land, made pleasant by
the sweet odor of the heavenly virtues practiced in town and coun-
try. Who can tell how many of these two hundred boys survived
their paganism and their ferocious hatred of the hunted Christians,
to kneel in sorrow and in reverence at the lowly shrine whither the
country far and near flocked annually to celebrate the anniversary of
that tragic but glorious death ?
St. Peter, archbishop of the neighboring Ravenna, and called
Chrysologus ("of the golden speech"), was one of those beautiful
souls that sprung up from that blessed soil in the next age. How
should we not hope that another generation, in our own days, who
have been taught by the godly life and golden deeds and words of
Giovanni Mastai, may not all die hostile to the sacred cause in
which he has suffered for well-nigh a century ? Have they not
turned against the good shepherd his very deeds of fatherly love,
and pierced, in presence of the whole Christian world, the heart
that loved them so well ? And shall his prayer, living and dying,
for them and for Italy, not avail to save both the one and the
other ?
In 1832 this portion of the Papal States went by the name of
Romagna ; at present it is called Emilia. " The people of Emilia,"
says a modem traveler, " are almost invariably kind, civil, and hos-
pitable to strangers. They are celebrated for their beauty, especially
the women of Pesaro and Eano, while the young men of Forli are
considered the noblest specimens of humanity in existence. The
men have no national costume ; Avomen of the upper classes generally
wear knitted vails, something like Spanish mantillas, especially in the
churches. The Emilia is very richly cultivated, the partition system
being adopted, by which the owner lets out the land to the conta-
dino, for the benefit of his labor and implements, receiving half the
produce in return."
It was to this beautiful country and richly-gifted people that
Archbishop Mastai came in February, 1833, heralded by the fame of
his priestly virtues, his popular eloquence, and his enlightened
patriotism. For there were those who industriously spread the re-
port that the counsels then prevailing at the Quirinal were not
friendly toward the Archbishop of Spoleto, and that he, in turn.
Political Passions. 59
was of too adyanced a liberalism to brook patiently the rigorous
measures in fayor with Gregory XYI. Of such dissentiment we
haye no proof. What is unquestionable is the absolute and unspar-
ing deyotion of Archbishop Mastai to the duties of his new office,
shown by word and act, from the day of his arriyal in Imola. This
is so well attested by friends and foes alike that we may well forget
the babble and gossip of political fanaticism, to study a new and
rich page in a life so full of lofty teachings.
Imola and its diocese offered a wider field than Spoleto to the zeal
of its new bishop. Its population was at least double ; and had the
purpose of Gregory XVI. been to afford the impoyerished archbishop
an opportunity for recruiting his finances, the change, in this respect,
had been a most fayorable one. The revenues of his second see,
without being anything like the salary of a first-class Protestant pas-
tor in New York, were comparatively handsome. But such motiyes
had not influenced the Pope in this appointment. It was a promo-
tion from a less to a more honorable position — although Imola was
not an archbishopric — from a difficult charge in one place, admir-
ably fulfilled, to a far more difficult one in another. Imola had been
the episcopal city of Cardinal Barnabe Chiaramonte, when he was
elected to be Pope Pius VII. When he left his flock in that memor-
able December, 1799, to meet his brother-cardinals in conclaye at
Venice, his charities had made him so poor that a friend had to pay
his Avay from stage to stage. We shall, at the end of this chapter,
haye to chronicle of his successor something very like that charity
and splendid poverty.
At the arriyal of Archbishop Mastai in Imola, the whole of
Northern Italy was in a fearful state of agitation. Whatever may
have been the archbishop's views of Italian or papal policy, his, cer-
tainly, was not the disposition to advocate repression when timely
concession might have been salutary, nor to counsel penal enact-
ments where a fatherly generosity and clemency, in a priestly gov-
ernment, would be most likely to win back the erring.
He began his administration by urging the execution of two par-
allel series of measures, the one aiming at raising as high as possible
the standard of education and morality among his clergy, the other
destined to meet every bodily and spiritual need of his flock.
A single instance of his enlightened and fatherly liberality, chosen
from among so many, will enable the reader to understand how such
a bishop should have been reverenced and loved alike by the bitterest
6o Life of Pope Pius IX.
political antagonists and the most submissiye of his flock. It is taken
from the autograph memoirs of a man entrapped during these very
years into the meshes of the "Young Italy League," and hurried by
the passions inspired by Mazzini's unhallowed spirit into one politi-
cal crime after another, till he deemed it his duty to sacrifice several
innocent lives in attempting that of a sovereign, and then perishing,
unblessed and unblessing, on the scaffold. We mean Felice Orsini,
the gifted, the wayward, and the supremely unfortunate.
In 1834, while yet in his fifteenth year, Orsini, who lived with an
uncle at Imola, had his imagination so filled with the visions of
Italian liberty, that his whole time was spent in martial exercises
calculated to prepare him for his intended share in the coming bat-
tles for freedom. The conservatives had gotten up a counter-organi-
zation among the peasantry and citizens. This was divided into
bands or companies of a hundred men, called centuries, the captains
being termed "centurions," a name which finally came to designate
every member of this ill-starred volunteer militia. Thus the whole
of that lovely and teeming land was covered with the meshes of a
double network of armed political societies, hating each other with a
hatred seen only in civil strife, and here incredibly intensified by the
avowed hostility to religion on the one side, and the professed pur-
pose, on the other, of defending it.
Orsini never went out unarmed. Indeed he continually practiced
in secret in shooting at a target with a pistol which was his insepar-
able companion. This was strictly forbidden by the police regula-
tions, and had all the more fascination for the wayward young hot-
head that it was forbidden. Again and again he quarreled with the
"centurions," and was only saved from imprisonment by the media-
tion of his uncle, who patched up a peace between Felice and his
detested enemies. His uncle had pledged himself to the magistrates
that the pistol practice should cease, and kept the obnoxious weapon
in his own room ; and so for some months there was quiet in his
household. But in June, 1835, the uncle having had to make a jour-
ney, Felice, relieved from his kinsman's vigilance, hurried to his
room, and began to load the pistol. At this moment a favorite ser-
vant of the family entered the room, and Felice, in his alarm, think-
ing it was his uncle, attempted to thrust the weapon into his pocket,
discharging it in the act, and mortally wounding the servant.
It so happened that the latter had two of his nearest relatives
among the " centurions," and Felice, knowing that the most serious
Superior Education of the Clergy. 6i
consequences would result to himself from this fatal accident, fled
instantly and concealed himself among other members of his family.
While the magistrates were making diligent search for the culprit,
the archbishop was informed of all the circumstances of the case,
and, totally indifferent to the wrath likely to be shown by the "cen-
turions," he wrote to the governor of Imola directing him to have the
lad, when arrested, conveyed under guard to the archiepiscopal resi-
dence. He shielded him from criminal prosecution, became security
for his good behavior, and, happily unconscious of what the future
reserved to his protege, lavished on him kind words and kinder acts.
Such acts soon find their way to the hearts and the lips of all men.
But there was no lack of others like them, though exercised for a far
different purpose, which bound the souls of his people to him. He
was accessible to all, no matter what their rank, or age, or calling, at
every hour of the night and day. He was ruled in this by the con-
viction that a bishop is common father to his entire flock, and that
a father's door never should be barred or bolted. There was not a
case of destitution or grievous sickness that he did not desire to be
acquainted with ; not a hovel so lowly or so loathsome that could
keep him out, if he knew there was a soul there in need of fatherly
aid or comfort.
If he exhorted his priests to abnegation and self-sacrifice, all the
more necessary in the social and political condition of their country,
or if he refused to tolerate pride, or prevarication, or neglect in the
duties of their sacred calling, he was ever the first to set the example
in heroic labor and endurance, of gentleness, toleration, and forbear-
ance toward the erring, and of a conscientious exactness in the per-
formance of his office that all were forced to admire.
His clergy, conscious of the purity of his life and his motives, zeal-
ously seconded his efforts for the improvement of their class ; hence
the admirable establishments that he was enabled to found for that
pui-pose. In the monastery of Piratello, situated in one of those
picturesque spots, such as St. Augustine chose in the autumn of 381,
on the foot-hills of the Apennines, to prepare himself for baptism.
Archbishop Mastai ordained that his clergy should meet every year
for spiritual renovation. He never failed to be the first there, and
the most edifying through all the exercises that refresh, restore, and
transform the soul wearied by life's journey and life's labors.
He was especially anxious to promote the study of theology and
the Scriptures. The old, richly endowed institutions for clerical
62 Life of Pope Pius IX.
studies had been swept away by the ruthless hand of Napoleon, and
the clergy were forced to receive what education they could in lay
establishments, to the great detriment of that special science with-
out which t priest is no priest. This great want the archbishop soon
remedied by founding a theological seminary, and providing it with
a staff of professors in every way fitted for their elevated calling.
This establishment he cherished like his own soul during the four-
teen years of his administration.
He had not forgotten the great good effected by the joint labors of
Monsignori Odescalchi and Strambi, in 1818, among the populations
around Sinigaglia. Well aware that his own diocesans, in city and
country alike, were even more in need of religious instruction and
spiritual aid, he began, from the very day of his arrival at Imola, to
cast about for the men who were best fitted to do this divinest of
works among Christ's people. The Jesuits were called to his aid ;
but, beside insufficiency of numbers for a labor of such magnitude,
it was apparent to themselves and to all, that the prejudices so care-
fully fostered in the popular mind against their Order, went far to
hinder the good which their unquestioned learning and virtue quali-
fied them to achieve. Alas ! it was not that they had changed ;
they were still the worthy successors of Ignatius and his eight com-
panions, when, exactly three hundred years before, they preached the
divine name so triumphantly all through that same region. They
were not unworthy of being called the brethren of the great orator
and missionary Paul Segneri ; but the Italy of that day was not the
Italy that was thrilled and converted by Paul Segneri. The zealous
archbishop had no choice but to form a select body of missionaries,
as St. Charles Borromco had done long before, from the most learned
and exemplary members of his own secular clergy. He shared their
labors himself, so far as his other duties permitted him, taking to
himself the most obscure and painful of the mission work.
That ho should endeavor to endow his diocese with beneficent insti-
tutions and industrial schools on the model of those he had directed in
Rome and founded at Spoleto, the reader is prepared to expect. " To
the care and management of the Sisters of Charity the good bishop
intnistcd a conservatory of female orphans, and in the same establish-
ment founded two female schools, one for girls of the poorer class,
and the other for those of tlie more wealthy. He also intrusted the
public hospital to the same Sisters ; and, adjoining it, he erected an
asylum for the insane." — RonxB and iU Ruler, p. 19.
The Good Shepherd. 63
There was one class of most needy souls that the charitable arch-
bishop yearned to succor adequately through all these well-filled years
of his stay in Imola. One cannot but remember with emotion the
scene that took place in Galilee, at the banquet giyen to the Master
by Simon the Pharisee. There is an exquisite delicacy and tender-
ness in the vail which both he and the inspired historian throw over
the nature of the guilt and the manner of conversion of " the wo-
man who was in the city, a sinner." The Good Shepherd, as we
know, again and again made the circuit of populous Galilee, with its
two hundred cities and towns, on foot, unwearied by ill success, and
seeking the while this lost one, and such as she. And when she steals
into the banquet-ball, in the city where she is so well known, and be-
neath the very gaze of the proud Pharisees, who had no saving grace
for such fallen ones, how he defends her against their sneers with
the arguments of an eloquence and a charity earth had not known till
then !
In that land of France, so fruitful in every species of heroism,
orders of men and women — some of them exclusively composed of the
most noble in the land — had, all through the middle ages, arisen
to take under their most tender care the most fearful forms of
bodily and spiritual leprosy. An establishment of Sisters of Charity
founded at Caen, in Normandy, in 1641, by the venerable Jean
Eudes, put forth, in 1835, at Angers, a blessed branch, now multi-
plied all over the Christian world, and devoted, like the Good Shep-
herd, whose name it bears, to the care of these most needy ones of
all his wide flock.
The fame of the Sisterhood of Angers reached the noble Arch-
bishop of Imola, despite the intervening Alps, and, although his
purse was empty, and no house had been prepared or purchased for
their reception, four of the heroic band set out, at his earnest
prayer, and reached Imola in the summer of 1845. The Master had
allowed the nameless one of the gospel to approach his feet and
pour her tears upon them, and wipe them with her hair, and kiss
them. Archbishop Masta'i, while stirring up his people to give
these devoted disciples of the incarnate mercy a home for themselves
and the stray ones they were expecting, lodged them in his own
palace, as he would have lodged the Good Shepherd had he knocked
at his gate, and would have no other than himself wait on them
at table so long as they abode there. Let the following touching
letter tell its own story. It is a more life-like portraiture of the
64 Life of Pope Pius IX.
writer than any statue ever erected to him at Imola, Kome, or
throughout the Catholic world that hails him father.
" Very* Eeverend Mother-General : — ^Your Reverence must
have already received from your dear daughters the details of their
safe arrival at Imola ; hut it is proper that I should inform you my-
self of this event, and that I should, at the same time, express to
you the great consolation I feel at seeing myself the possessor of
such a treasure as this little hand of consecrated virgins, who, a few
days hence, will begin their saving mission in behalf of so many
poor wanderers from the flock. I feel certain that, with the divine
assistance, they will bring them back to the fold of the Prince of
Shepherds, Christ Jesus. May this God of mercy be everlastingly
blessed I And I beg your Eeverence to accept the assurance of my
deepest gratitude. I have the consolation of having them with me
in my palace. I have much reason to thank the Lord, who holds in
his hands the hearts of men ; but it seems to me that he keeps the
hearts of your daughters not in his hands, but in his heart. I shall
not fail to render them every assistance in their need, and from that
thought I return to the pleasure of assuring you once more that I
am, with deep respect,
" Your Maternity's attached servant,
'' ifi Jean Marie, Cardinal Mastai, Archbishop-bishop.
" Imola, 14th September, 1845."
The date of this letter, and the title assumed by the writer, show
that we have been anticipating. It may not be uninteresting to
dwell a little longer on these years of incessant and fruitful labor
spent at Imola. If any churchman in Italy could have appeased the
fierce political passions that burned and seethed in Italian breasts,
more terrible in their prophetic mutterings of evil than the fires of
Etna or Vesuvius, that man was Archbishop Mastai. Just about
this time the "Christian League" was formed in New York for
the acknowledged purpose of *' evangelizing" Italy, and, in reality,
to give aid and comfort to the Mazzinists, Radicals, Jews, and revo-
lutionists of every color who were aiming at the overthrow of the
papacy, under the pretext of achieving the liberation and unification
of Italy.
We can only remark here, in advance, that with all these occult
forces spreading and gathering strength at home among the middle
classes of her population, and with these powerful auxiliaries lend-
The Archbishop nearly Carried off, 65
ing reYolution and radicalism the almost undivided support of pub-
lic opinion, it was impossible that Italy should not be convulsed
again and again, as with the throes of an earthquake. No human
prudence could devise a preventive, and no human power apply it.
These growing symptoms of a coming catastrophe. Archbishop
Mastai had noted at Imola year after year, while churchmen and
statesmen were alike perplexed as to the remedial measures to be
employed amid the growing unrest. He, for one, deemed the use
of the feeble and utterly inadequate repressive power in the hands of
the pontifical authority, to put down discontent in the provinces or
to punish the agitators, as utterly futile and insane as to attempt
to shake one's fist at the waves when they fret and rise against the
breakwater, or to lash them when they have demolished it.
He preached peace, submission, and all the holiest Christian vir-
tues to his flock ; he and his priests gave them the constant example
of abnegation, disinterestedness, and devotion to all their best inter-
ests. The neighboring bishops who honored him with their friend-
ship, or who consulted with him about the necessities of the times,
he counseled to do as he did himself. Indeed, he incurred the
enmity of more than one of the powerful officials in favor of ener-
getic repression, by being ever consistent with himself, and showing
himself unvaryingly the man of God and the man of peace.
In truth, the men who plotted, conspired, agitated, were not to be
conciliated by any show of goodness or generosity. It is now an in-
disputable historical fact that, among the liberals of Piedmont, the
idea of a constitutional Italy, under the sole sovereignty of the house
of Savoy, was at that time thoroughly shaped and adopted, and that
not overmuch pains was taken to conceal the sympathy of the leaders
with "Young Italy" and the other agitators. In the Eomagna, as
in Tuscany, the friends and advocates of national unity were in close
contact with the Piedmontese Mazzinists. These had their base of
operations on the Piedmontese frontier while agitating the Papal
territories, and when some imprudent or outrageous act compromised
them, they were speedily and safely conveyed into Piedmont by their
allies among the Romagnese.
So little were these men touched by the shining priestly virtues of
Archbishop Mastai, or by his well-known liberal principles and large
patriotism, that one of the most notorious Piedmontese conspirators,
Kibotti, had at one time resolved to carry him off with two cardinals
who were visiting him in the country.
66 Life of Pope Pius IX.
At the head of an armed hand Eibotti had actually penetrated intc
the house by night, and was only prevented from effecting his pur-
pose by 4-rchbishop Mastai's presence of mind and intrepidity.
The merits of the Archbishop of Imola were such, and the seryices
he had rendered to Church and State so eminent, that a still higher
promotion was inevitable in his case. It came at length. The Pope
announced his intention of elevating him to the cardinalate, in a
secret consistory held on December the 23d, 1839, but he was not
openly proclaimed cardinal till December the 14th, 1840. This
honor came to the archbishop unsought for and undesired. It
found him so poor that he had not wherewith to make the neces-
sary outlay attendant on his elevation ; and his poor clergy, with a
few friends, had to come to his assistance, thus enabling him to
perform the customary journey to Eome, and to bestow the usual
liberalities on the needy institutions connected with his dignity.
The rank thus conferred on him made no change whatever in his
household, and relations with his clergy and people, or in the simple
habits of his laborious life. If any feeling of satisfaction arose in
him on this occasion, it may have come from the joy manifested by
his venerable mother at beholding the child of her tears and prayers
raised to an eminence deserved, confessedly, by his many public and
private virtues. From time immemorial it v/as the cherished dream
of every Italian mother who gave a son of hers to the semce of the
altar, that she might see him a cardinal of holy Church.
No such ambition, though never so blameless in a mother, ani-
mated Caterina Mastai when she first offered her boy to the divine
service. She had her reward in his career of unblemished virtue and
self-sacrifice ; and all ambition in her motherly heart was more than
satisfied by hearing his praises sounded by all Italy. At any rate, it
was a moment of holy exultation when she was called to Rome to
preside over the festivities held in honor of Cardinal Mastai on his
receiving the ring and hat from the hands of the Sovereign Pontiff.
The unfeigned joy of the inmates of Tata Giovanni and San Michele,
and the unpurchased acclamations of the poorer classes who had
Buch good cause to love him, went to the mother's heart much more
than the felicitations of the Roman nobility and clergy.
It was her last and supreme triumph on earth. Her husband was
not by her side to share the homage paid her by her son and the
splendid assemblages met to congratulate her. Count Girolamo died
on December the 1st, 1833. Two years after her return from Rome
Death of Gi^egory XVL 6 J
to Sinigaglia, the venerable countess closed her useful and spotless
life, blessed and reyered by all Sinigaglia.
While living at Imola, Cardinal Mastai made it his duty and de-
light to visit his mother as often as his many labors permitted.
Devotion to his sacred calling, instead of chilling in him the cur-
rents of filial affection, only served to deepen and strengthen them.
He had to inculcate unceasingly on those under his care the abso-
lute necessity of cherishing all the home virtues, without which
there is no Christian life or true manhood or womanhood : how
could he fail to appreciate more fully, as his experience of life in-
creased, the treasure with which he had been blessed in the love of
such a mother and the ennobling example of his father ?
The interval between 1841 and June, 1846, soon flew by for the
cardinal-archbishop, full as his every day was of weighty cares and
toil that knew not cessation. He applied himself with renewed energy
to perfect the various establishments he had created, his schools
of theology and biblical literature especially. The formation of a
clergy superior in knowledge as in virtue to the world they had to
enlighten and sanctify, continued to absorb him above every other
care.
It was while with his priests in the holy solitude of Piratello, for-
getful of the outside world, and meditating on " the everlasting years,"
that he was startled by learning the death of Pope Gregory XYI., on
June 1, 1846, and by the summons calling him forthwith to Eome
to elect a successor to the deceased pontiff.
He learned at the same time the touching circumstances accom-
panying Gregory's latest hours. He had been, like Pius VII., a poor
monk before his elevation to any ecclesiastical dignity, and, like
Pius, devotedly attached to his lowly calling, he wished to die stripped
of all the pomp and show of earthly dignity, on the monk's lowly
pallet, in poverty of all things.
To die thus, ''like a monk," on sackcloth and ashes, was the wish
and injunction of Gregory to those around him. But as his was a
most robust constitution, no one believed his end was so near, and
so, placed in a poor cell, recalling the former abode of the humble
Camaldolese,* Mauro Cappellari, expired suddenly one of the most
learned and able men that ever filled the chair of Peter.
* The Camaldolese or Camaldules, were founded in 1012, in the valley of
Camaldoli, near Arezzo, by St. Romuald, a Banedictine monk. The Order is
68 Life of Pope Pius IX.
Cardinal Mastai related these edifying circumstances to his as-
Bembled priests, and, comforting himself with the thought that
'* blessed, are the poor in spirit," he set out for Eome, traveling like
Bamabe Chiaramonte, on a similar errand, at the expense of gener-
ous friends.
divided into moiiks and hermits — both, classes living occasionally in one mon-
astery. • All who have spent any time in Eome before 1870, must remember the
beautiful Camaldoli near Tusculum, looking, when seen from the neighboring
hilltop, "a very neat and regular village. A row of houses, equidistant and
symmetrical, united by a continuous dwarf wall, and a church with its towers
in the midst, all of a dazzling whiteness. . . . The sight would certainly
deceive one, but net so the ears. There is a bell that knows no sleeping. . . .
Such an unceasing call to prayer and praise can only be answered by ancho-
rites. And to such does this sweet abode belong. . . . It is truly a village
divided by streets, in each of which are rows of houses exactly symmetrical.
A small sitting-room, a sleeping-cell, a chapel completely fitted up, in case of
illness, and a wood and lumber room, compose the cottage. ... A garden,
which the occupant tills, but only for flowers — and a fountain."
CHAPTER YH.
Feom Imola to the Conclave — Anticipations and Pkognostics
— Conflicting Inteeests and Pretensions oe so-called
Catholic Powees — Divisions in the College of Oaedi-
NALS — Political Excitement in Rome and theoughout
Italy at the opening of the Conclave — The Caedinals
HASTEN TO ELECT MaSTAL
June, 1846.
SO far these pages have dealt with the personal character of
Giovanni-Maria Mastai-Ferretti as displayed in his boyhood,
youth, and the early years of his priesthood ; then, the reader was
made acquainted with his qualities as evidenced in the administra-
tion of two important dioceses. With the management of merely
secular or political matters Cardinal Mastai had nothing to do, if
we except his very brief experience in South America, and the dis-
charge, during a short space at Spoleto, of the functions of civil gov-
ernor of Perugia. Had he been allowed to follow up the diplomatic
career begun in Chili, and passed through all the degrees of the very
important service once filled by the representatives of the Holy See
in foreign courts, or at home in the administration of the States of
the Church, there is no question but his natural talent would have
enabled him to acquire that practical knowledge of statecraft, with-
out which a mere churchman, though never so honest and clever, is
exposed to blunder sadly in solving political problems.
Had such training been allowed to Cardinal Mastai, the story of
his life might have been quite different from what remains to be
told, and the history of the latter half of the nineteenth century
would have been considerably modified. But he was no professed
and experienced politician, no well-trained statesman, who, in the
early June of 1846, set his face toward Rome, where the most mo-
mentous election that ever took place among the successors of the
Fisherman awaited his coming.
He journeyed by rapid stages along the familiar Adriatic seaboard
as far as Fano, and thence he followed, across the Apennines, by Fos-
69
70 Life of Pope Pltcs IX,
sombrone, Cagli, Foligno, and Spoleto, the great highway that has
replaced the ancient '"' Flaminian Road." It led him, in midsummer,
when the teeming earth displayed all its riches, through territories
blessed with all that the hand of God could lavish of varied wealth ;
and the thrift of man had improved the Creator's bounty. On either
side of the mighty central range, in Urbino on the east, in Umbria on
the western slope, the rich valleys and no less rich mountain-sides
did seem like the paradise of G-od. At every stage of the journey
ancient cities arose to greet the travelers, crowning the hilltops amid
the harvest-laden plains, or creeping up their sides, row above row
of ancient, picturesque dwellings, with dome and tower here and
there, like ranks of a shining army helping each other heavenward.
That land, so fertile and smiling so peacefully on the passer-by
beneath the morning or evening sun of the lovely June weather, had
been for ages under the paternal rule of its pontiff kings, and seemed
to be then covered with the blessings of long peace and prosperity —
so calm, so fair, so fertile, so happy it lay in its mingled light and
fragrance ! And its people ? We have said a little, and but very
little, of that people so favored, so wrought upon by evil counselors,
so misled in the conflict of the fierce passions that swayed them.
They, too, in these memorable days of early June, 1846, were agi-
tated by contradictory hopes and fears. The death of Gregory XVI.
had raised to an intolerable degree of tension the impatience of
"Young Italy" to strike at once for the abolition of papal rule.
Seditious rumors and ardently expressed hopes of change loaded every
wind that blew along the Italian rivers as they went their way to join
the Adriatic or the Mediterranean. But along that land of beauty
there were others, and they were the greater number — the tillers of the
soil — whose only prayer was for peace, who besought heaven earnestly
to grant them a wise pontiff king, firm to repress disorder, gentle in
dealing with the erring, and bent on lightening the burden of the
children of toil.
It was amongst such a mixed crowd that the Archbishop of Imola
fell, as the carriage which bore him rolled into Fossombrone. This
was his own country, within a few miles of Sinigaglia ; they were all
proud of him, and being such as he was, he above all men was their
choice for the vacant pontifical chair. The popular tradition will
have it that as he tarried for a brief rest, to receive the homage of
the magistrates and a few friends, a white dove suddenly lighted on
the carriage, and there it persisted in perching till they were within
Anticipations a7id Prognostics, 71
sight of Rome. It is a graceful fancy added to the popular veneration
for the man. What is certain is, that their preference for the gentle
and large-hearted archbishop vented itself in loud cries of ** There
goes our next Pope ! " '^Long life to him ! " etc.
AVe who have witnessed the events which have filled up his after-
life may well question if, on the steep incline down which Italy was
impelled, much more even by external forces than by the un-
controllable passions of her dominant factions, any man could have
been chosen whose acts might have arrested this downward velocity,
or whose frustrated intentions could have made the righteous cause
more venerable, and the cause of revolution more odious in the eyes of
all future generations.
Whatever be the truth of the legend, it cannot be doubted by any
one acquainted with the unselfish soul of the prelate who was thus hur-
rying forward to the conclave, that two interests alone were upper-
most in his thoughts — the interests of the Church which had created
Christian Italy, and the pacification of his native land torn by
unceasing strife and divided by interests seemingly irreconcilable.
Cardinal Mastai was in his fifty-fifth year ; twenty-six years had
been spent in zealous labors directed toward the welfare of his
countrymen. He had been a keen observer of events, had been
frequently called to the field on which parties had been giving mortal
battle; he had bound up the wounds of both parties, had buried
their dead, and would willingly have laid down his life to bury in
the same grave the real or fancied ills of which Italians complained,
and about which they fought, brother against brother. He had,
with the authority of his place and personal merit, advised reform,
moderation, and conciliation, and had not unfrequently opposed
with unflinching firmness measures which he deemed unwise, inop-
portune, or unpatriotic.
He was one of the electors of the future pontiff of the Church he
loved as the spouse of Christ, of the future sovereign of a country he
loved as his mother, with that passionate love characteristic of his
race. Surely he also must have canvassed, with his own thoughts at
least, the respective merits of those among his colleagues who were
best able to bear the awful burden of reconciling Italy with the
Roman See and the Catholic Church. That his thoughts did not
deliberately dwell on the chances in his own favor — even were he
ambitious of the perilous honor — ^is exceedingly probable. They did
not choose, as a general rule, men so young as he for the papal
72 Life of Pope Pius IX.
office ; and besides, he was untrained in tlie science of statesman-
ship, more than ever indispensable amid the present political com-
plications.
Austria and France were persistently contending for ascendency
over the Roman councils and a quasi-protectorate over all Italy;
the Sardinian government at the north, and the Neapolitan at the
south, were equally opposed to foreign influence of any kind ; while
the former was slowly but surely maturing the schemes which the
genius of Cavour was one day to execute so successfully. Not one of
these so-called Catholic governments felt the slightest concern about
the great religious interests involved in *'the Roman question," or
sought in shaping the papacy to their own views any other purpose
but their own political importance. As to Spain, she had waged
open war with the three last Popes, and had again and again been on
the very verge of a formal schism, England during the reign of
Pius VII. had nobly upheld him and vindicated his temporal in-
dependence, because in the hour of her need that independence had
been sacrificed heroically in the interest of peace, rather than be
exercised as a war-power on the side of a mighty conqueror. But
the struggle with Bonaparte once ended, the whole current of Eng-
land's Protestant sympathies ran in the direction of the Carbonari
and Mazzinists. During the reign of Gregory XVI. the foreign pol-
icy of the English government was steadily and uniformly directed
by Palmerston in favor of Piedmont and the Italian conspirators,
and against the peace and independence of the Holy See. The
representatives of four Great Powers who met in Rome while Arch-
bishop Masta'i was displaying in Spoleto his great qualities of heart,
only did the will of Palmerston in presenting a joint note to Gregory
XVI., which was an outrage on his sovereignty as a prince, and
made him responsible as pontiff for the very agitations they were
themselves fostering, and the reforms which such agitations rendered
impossible or abortive.
Russia had sustained Pius VII. because he, being the common
father of Christendom, would not become the war ally of Napoleon.
r. 1 1 1 when Napoleon had been crushed and Pius had re-entered Rome,
^ Ut and his successors fell back on their traditional policy of
:i :sm to the Roman Church, profiting ever since by the embar-
ni -iiK nt^ ;ind helplessness of the Popes to stamp out in Poland, and
througliout their vast empire, the last sparks of Catholic faith and
religious liberty.
Co7tflicting Liter ests and Pretensions of Catholic Powers. 7 3
How could Prussia be expected to show more respect or deference
to the court of Eome than the powers styling themselves "Most
Christian," ''Most Catholic," or "Apostolic," while they were
worrying the Holy Father with demands of concession utterly im-
possible, and extinguishing within their own dominions every source
of distinctive Catholic life ?
And now that the little-understood and much-calumniated Gre-
gory was lying in state near his grave in the Vatican, these would-
be-Catholic powers were bending all the efforts of their diplomatic
skill toward the sole purpose of securing the election of a creature of
their own, and "excluding," by virtue of a privilege usurped but
never conferred on any of them, every candidate likely to combat
their own preponderating influence in Eome.
Of all this Cardinal Mastai was perfectly aware, as he traveled by
forced stages past Perugia and Spoleto, and down the valley of tho
Tiber till the dome of St. Peter's shone before him on the distant
horizon. To the mind of one who could read the signs of the times,
how little all future prognostics boded of peace for the Church or
for Italy ! To the heart of the true priest and man of God that he
was, how full of hopeless, helpless gloom were the prospects of the
next Pope, whoover that might be !
He reached Rome during the solemn devotions performed during
the nine days intervening between the death of a Pope and his burial.
In every church and chapel it was customary to offer up daily
prayers for the soul of him who is on earth the supreme judge in
all things spiritual, but who has to be judged, like the lowliest of
his flock, by him "who searcheth the hearts and the loins."
No sooner had Gregory been laid in his tomb than the cardinals
determined to proceed to the election of his successor. A number of
the most influential among them were, indeed, anxious to wait a
little longer, in order to allow the foreign cardinals to arrive in
Rome. This, however, was the very thing the majority were re-
solved to prevent.
Sixty-four days had been spent in conclave before the last Pope
was chosen, and this delay was solely due to the intrigues of the
rival French and Austrian cardinals, bent on carrying out the views
of their respective governments and electing only a candidate favor-
able to their policy. This usurped right the majority determined to
set aside once and for ever, and that all the more resolutely that
these powers cared little to advance Catholic interests on ordinary
74 Life of Pope Pius IX,
occasions, urging arrogantly their title and claim as Catholics only
when a Pqpe was to be elected.
France had been defeated in every attempt to coerce the Sacred
College, since the scandalous conclaye in which Clement XIV. was
chosen. Italians had never forgiven the pride and tyranny dis-
played by the all-powerful house of Bourbon on that lamentable
occasion. The atrocious oppression exercised by Napoleon were
not such as to make the true-hearted among the electors forget the
humiliations of the past century ; the very feeble Catholicism of the
government at the head of France, and its behavior toward Gregory
XVI. on many most important affairs, went far toward confirming
them in their determination not to be influenced by any of the
European courts.
But Austria held the keys of Italy and the Papal States, and she
was not a neighbor likely to brook any slight put on her power or
privileges. She had long behaved as if she had inherited all the
pretended rights of France, Spain, and Portugal, and had the exclu-
sive prerogative of deciding who should be Pope and who not.
This was precisely what the assembled cardinals had made up
their minds should never again be. It was in vain that the Austrian
resident minister protested against the opening of the conclave till
after the arrival of his countrymen with the special plenipotentiary
always sent by the court of Vienna to be present in such circum-
stances.
So on the evening of June the 14th fifty-four cardinals met in that
part of the Quirinal palace prepared for their reception, solemnly in-
voked the light of that Spirit whom Christ had promised to his
Church, and began the discussion of the personal merits of their col-
leagues.
They were divided into two great sections by their attitude toward
reform in the Papal States, or the expediency of making certain con-
cessions to modern society, so as to remove the existing grounds of
hostility between the spiritual and the temporal magistrate ; these
two sections might be designated respectively as the Conservatives
and the Liberals.
Among the former, the extreme wing were not only in favor of
upholding the absolute authority of the Pope in his quality of tem-
poral ruler, but they would have willingly repealed all the conces-
sions and reformatory measures of the four last reigns ; their policy
in spirituals would, of course, have gone to uphold to the utmost
Divisions among the Cardinals, j5
the prerogatives of the Holy See ; these were known as the Reaction-
ists, and common report gave Cardinal Lambruschini as a leader
to this extremely conservative section. The more moderate Con-
servatives were for letting things stand as they were for the time,
giving the reforms granted a fair trial before granting more, but
making no step backwards ; these were called the "stand-still" or
*' stationary" party.
A like division reigned among the Liberal or Progressist cardinals.
The most advanced, numbering but a very small knot of men, had
for their spokesman and representative Cardinal Micara, whose ex-
treme views went so far that progress in papal politics with him
meant the almost total obliteration of the Pope's temporal sovereignty
and the consequent imperiling of his spiritual independence ; while
the concessions he was willing to make, in order to conciliate modern
State pretensions and the claims of science, were full of danger and
involved the abandonment of the most cherished attributes of the
Church as the supreme judge of doctrine and m6rals. He was a
bold and brilliant man, and his exceeding popularity was shared
by Cardinal Gizzi, who without entertaining Micara's perilous opin-
ions, was in favor of radical changes in Church and State. He was
a man of great ability and experience in public business, and had
represented the Holy See in Switzerland during the difficult and
stormy times of the Sonderbund, winning golden opinions among
friends and foes alike.
The really moderate Liberal party comprised so large a number of
men of all the nations represented in the Sacred College, that if they
could be brought to act together they could carry everything before
them. To these moderate Liberals Cardinal Mastai belonged natur-
ally, both by conviction, temper, and by the whole tenor of his past
life.
This large and influential section did not dream of sacrificing in
politics a tittle of the rightful sovereignty of the Roman pontiff, or
of yielding, in the mutual relations between the universal Church
and civil society, one inch of the inalienable domain of revealed or
defined truth. They were, one and all, convinced that Italy, as a
political power, could be made to exist and to act as a unit without
weakening in aught the position or prerogatives of the ruler of the
Pontifical States ; they were no less convinced that Christendom or
Christian society could not exist, as such, without the supreme cen-
tral and doctrinal power to which alone it belonged on all social
'](^ Life of Pope Pius IX.
questions to lay down the law of life or to expound its true sense as
coming from the Divine Author of revelation.
Every man of these moderate Liberals, like Cardinal Mastai, believed
that the claims of Italian patriots, wishing to have one great common
political power representing them among the nations, were perfectly
reconcilable with their rights and duties as citizens of the Roman
States.- Every one of them also believed that no just claim or right of
modem society, if it still called itself Christian, could be in antago-
nism with the submission due to that Church which alone had the im-
perishable and imprescriptible right to '' teach all nations, ....
teaching them all things whatsoever " the Redeemer had " com-
manded."
In their mind the conciliation of Italy with the papacy involved
no abandonment of papal prerogative, and the conciliation of the
Catholic Church with the progress of modern society, with the just
rights of liberty, or the demands of science, could demand no sacri-
fice of Catholic principle.
As was natural and unavoidable, since the first tidings of the late
pontiff's death had gone abroad, every member of the Electoral Col-
lege had bethought him of the man who would be fittest to fill the
vacant chair and throne, and therein labor successfully to effect this
urgent twofold reconciliation. But there were two men at the time
in Rome, both of them Italians, of world-wide reputation, eminent
for their genius and for their patriotism : the one — Gioachimo Raulica
de Ventura — was Italy's greatest living orator and the head of a great
religious order ; the other — Count Pellegrino Rossi — was ambassador
of France, after having been long exiled on account of his political
opinions and acts.
From the moment of Pope Gregory's decease they had come
together to consult on the necessities and perils of the situation, and
both resolved on using their utmost influence with the electors to
choose the Cardinal-Archbishop of Imola as the next Pope, and to
choose him at once, and while the representatives of Austria were yet
far away from Rome.
The position held in the Church by the illustrious Theatine, as
well as his transcendent reputation for eloquence, gave him access to
every one of the electors, on whom he urged with a persuasiveness
inspired both by religion and by patriotism the necessity of choos-
ing a man like Cardinal MastaY. Where the Theatine might fail,
the ambassador of France was more likely to succeed. His was an
The Conclave. jj
elo(iuence more polished eyen than that of the renowned preacher,
^ uniting the terseness of the lawyer's diction with the exquisite sim-
plicity of diplomatic intercourse. That they were assisted in this
electoral canvass even by such of the most advanced Liberals as
would have under other circumstances opposed the Archbishop of
Imola, we can gather from the following anecdote :
On the 14th of June, and after the conclusion of the pontifical
obsequies, the excited people filled the streets, some of them flocking
to the residences of their favorite cardinals, the greater number re-
maining around the Quirinal palace to scan the features and discuss
the merits and chances of each of the electors as he passed into the
conclave. The great mass of the people hoped that either Micara or
Gizzi should be the choice of the college, and were loud in their ac-
clamations in their favor. They had resolved to give their favorites
an ovation as they rode through the streets, and were equally bent on
manifesting their hatred of Lambruschini and the extreme Conser-
vatives. Lambruschini, however, was not the man to quail before
a mob, and was preparing to leave his residence when Micara, in
disguise, and wishing to avoid any demonstration in his own favor,
asked his political opponent to give him a place in his carriage.
What follows is related on the authority of Legge.
"As they drove together to the Quirinal, he (Micara) is said thus
to have addressed his companion : * If the powers of darkness preside
over the election, you will be Pope ; if the people had a voice, Fm the
man ; but if Heaven have a finger in the business, it will be Ferretti.' "
It seems well ascertained that Micara combated strenuously the
motion of Lambruschini asking to postpone all action till the arrival
of the foreign cardinals. This led materially to the subsequent
choice. Another motive which helped to concentrate the votes of
the majority on the Archbishop of Imola, was the sudden resolve not
only to exclude all not Komans, but all who were members of a
religious order.
Both before the opening of the conclave, and during the first day,
the people outside do not appear to have thought of Cardinal Mastai
as a likely candidate. He had been but very little at Eome during
the last nineteen years, and it takes less time than that to put even
the most popular man out of people's minds in a large city. Within
the conclave the man who first openly declared in favor of the Arch-
bishop of Imola was Cardinal Altieri, one of the most influential
of the moderate Liberals. Mastai had been appointed one of the
yS Life of Pope Pius IX.
three tellers. There were altogether four different ballots. In the
first Lambruschini received fifteen votes, Delia Genga and Mattel
seventeen between them, Mastai thii-teen, Mai six, and Gizzi two.
This was early on the morning of the 15th of June ; in the evening
took place the second ballot, when Mastai obtained seventeen votes
and Lambruschini only thirteen. As a two-thirds vote was requisite
to a valid election, the third ballot was held after Mass on the 16th,
Lambruschini this time only polling eleven votes and his opponent
twenty-seven ! These figures were ominous.
Cardinal Mastai was greatly agitated by the result of the two
first ballots, and spent the night in prayer, conscious of his own weak-
ness, and fearful of the terrible burden he was threatened with. It
was with deep emotion, therefore, that on the morning of the 16 th
he resumed his task of teller, and that emotion almost overwhelmed
him when the votes were counted. It now appeared certain that he
would be the choice of the Electoral College.
If there was no little subdued excitement within the walls of the
conclave, there was uncontrollable agitation outside. News had
reached Eome of "risings" in several places in the pontifical terri-
tories, and of the advance of the Austrians to restore order. At the
very hour of the opening of the conclave, and while the cardinals
were kneeling before the altar of the Pauline chapel and chanting
together the sublime hymn to the Holy Ghost, Yeni, Creator Spiri-
tus ! the Austrian artillery and cavalry were pouring into Mastafs
native province, and an Austrian fleet was casting anchor in the
port of Ancona! The fierce wrath of the Koman multitude was
rising hourly to such a pitch that it would seem nothing could long
restrain it from overleaping all bounds and sweeping everything be-
fore it, conclave, electors, pontifical throne and papal sovereignty.
It was, in the moral world, not a little like the awful spectacle offered
by the inflow of the tide along the shores of the Bay of Fundy.
The tidal waves rush on with such a sudden and fearful velocity that
the very animals on the beach, as the earth and air give them notice
of the distant thunderous sound, fly terror-stricken to the shore,
their utmost speed often proving unavailing to save them from the
swift waters behind.
On tlie evening of June ICth that living tide of Eoman passion
roared and seethed around the walls of the Quirinal, while the pro-
cessional crosses and banners of the various deputations from the
parish churches were borne hither and thither on the surge.
Emotioji of the Pope- Elect, 79
At each unsuccessful ballot the papers were burned, and the blue
smoke escaped from a flue at a well-known spot ; it appeared at a
regular hour morning and eyening, each time informing the expect-
ant crowd that there was no election. On that never-to-be-forgotten
evening of June 16th every eye in the dense multitude watched for
the appearance of the bluish column of smoke as the critical hour
drew nigh. The hour passed, and the hateful sign appeared not.
People began to breath more freely, and waited in painful stillness
and with unaverted gaze. At length, becoming satisfied that some
decision had been arrived at, they sent up a mighty shout, half
of joy, half of impatience. They will wait now without further
violence. Let us see what had happened in the conclave.
The hour for the fourth ballot had arrived, the votes were depos-
ited with the usual formalities in a golden chalice on the altar, and
in presence of the scrutators. It was Cardinal Mastai's duty to read
each vote aloud after it had been examined and certified by his two
colleagues. As he read, and read on, his own name came up almost
continuously, reaching the former number of twenty-seven, and vote
after vote bearing his name till the number thirty-seven (some say
forty -^two) told the august assemblage that their work was done.
Then the whole college rose in a body and made the election unani-
mous.
It is no friendly hand that recorded Mastai's attitude at that try-
ing moment : ''His voice faltered," says Oastelar, ''and his strength
failed as he discovered the result of the final vote. Tears fell from
his eyes. Conscious of his constitutional weakness, he gave up the
examination to another cardinal, and retiring to a place apart,
covered his face with both hands."
Castelar goes on to say that when pressed to accept the election,
and while the multitude were waiting outside with such impatience.
Cardinal Mastai', recovering his self-possession and summoning all his
strength, turned toward the expectant electors and besought each of
them in succession, "begged, prayed, and insisted that they should
remove that cup from his lips." But they did not dare, amid the
exceptional circumstances of the times, to reverse their decision.
This renders intelligible what is stated about his final acceptation.
"There are others more worthy than I am for the high ofiice to
which your Sacred College has called me ; but as I have been long
accustomed in Christ's service to yield up my own will, so now I
accept that of God."
8o Life of Pope Pius IX.
He then knelt before the altar, pouring forth his soul in prayer
before the hidden God, who would not take away from him the bit-
ter cup and the heavy cross. Had he only had a most faint concep-
tion of all the accumulated and mingled bitterness of that cup, and
of the long, weary road over which he should have to bear his cross,
it may be doubted if ever he had risen a living man from that
presence.
Pius IX. ! CKUX DE CRUOE ! Whoever penned, ages before
thy birth, such prophetic title for thy length of years and suffering,
must have had more than mortal knowledge ! What was the agony
of Peter's brief martyrdom compared with thine ? So, when thou,
too, *'wast younger, thou didst gird thyself, and didst walk where
thou wouldst." How glorious is the" race of kingly beneficence and
fatherly love thou art planning for thy country and thy people
even now, even there at that altar, where the heart of the Crucified
speaks to thine I ^* But when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch
forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and lead thee whither
thou wouldst not."
If thou didst know all that ere thou saidst, ^^I accept the will
of God," then the world should proclaim thee the most heroic of
Peter's long line of successors.
CHAPTEE VIII.
How THE Announcement was beceived — Momentabt Disap-
pointment OF THE LiBEKALS — FeABS — WbATH OF THE AUS-
teian Ambassadob — Hesitancy about appointing an Ad-
MINISTBATION — PlANS LAID BY MazZINI TO FBUSTBATE ALL
THE Intentions of Pius IX.
June and July, 1846.
ROME knew not repose during the niglit that interyened between
the acceptance of the sovereign pontificate by the Cardinal-
Archbishop of Imola, and the morning of the 17th of June, when the
population from far and near streamed up toward Monte Oavallo and
surrounded the Quirinal. Exciting rumors, half-pacific and mostly
warlike, had been in this weary interval flying about the seven
hills of Rome, borne from the distant Adriatic, the Marches, the
Romagna and Umbria, and increasing to fever-heat the anxiety of
all classes to learn with certainty who was elected, and what charm
his name might have to lay the storm that hung dark and porten-
tous over the land, or to cause it to burst upon Italy with irresistible
fury.
Whiteside (** Italy in the Nineteenth Century"), who was present
in Rome, thus describes what ensued on that morning: *^The sky
was most beautiful, the piazza crowded with people, the troops
drawn up in array, and all with their faces turned toward the bal-
cony. At nine were heard the blows of hammers breaking down a
window that is ordinarily built up. Shortly after, the Cardinal
Camerlengo (high chamberlain) appeared, with the bearer of the
crucifix, and announced to the people the exaltation to the papacy
of the cardinal, who took the name of Pius IX. The populace
shouted with joy."
Nevertheless as the tidings flew all over Rome, and from Rome to
the extremities of Italy, we must not picture to ourselves the joy as
by any means universal at first, or the enthusiasm as very great.
The man thus raised to the papal throne was not the man whose
81
82 Life of Pope Pius IX,
name was on the lips and in the hearts of the Liberals ; that man
was Cardinal Gizzi — for they did not dare to hope for the election of
Cardinal Micara. Indeed, the popular hope at one time during the
conclave assumed the form of reality, the report having got abroad
that Gizzi had the largest number of votes, and the news was trans-
mitted by courier to Ceccano, his native place, creating unbounded
enthusiasm as it spread. The liberal party were congratulating
themselves on this great triumph when the official tidings came to
damp their joy. As the personal character of the new Pope and his
antecedents came to be canvassed, the hopes of the party revived.
Meanwhile Pius IX., ever faithful to his pure and exalted family
affections, had not retired to his brief rest on the night of the elec-
tion before writing with his own hand, and dispatching by special
messenger the following letter, which, he trusted, would restore con-
fidence not only in Sinigaglia, but in threatened Ancona and all
along the Marches.
Rome, June 16, at three-quarters past 11 p.m.
Deae Brothers Gabriel, Joseph, ai^d Gaietako : — The
blessed God, who lowers and lifts up according to his divine will
and pleasure, has been pleased to raise me, his humble creature, to
the most sublime dignity of this world. May his holy will be ever
done ! I am fully conscious of the high and weighty responsibility
attached to my charge, and I feel my great inability to fill it prop-
erly. Have prayers said for me, therefore, dear brothers, and pray
for me yourselves. The conclave lasted only forty-eight hours.
Should the municipality of Sinigaglia wish to celebrate this event, I
request you will take measures — indeed I desire it — to have the
whole expense made profitable to the people, the chief magistrate
and the council regulating everything. With regard to you, dear
brothers, I press you to my heart in Christ Jesus, and, far from
exulting at my elevation, take pity on your brother, who now gives
you all his apostolic benediction.
Pius PP. IX."
One whose name, learning, sweet suffering features, and angelic
virtues are not yet forgotten by his pupils at St. Joseph's Seminary,
Fordham— the Rev. Father Tomel— a townsman and schoolmate of
Giovanni Mastat, related to the author the impression made on one
of the Pope's sisters by the announcement of her brother's election.
She knew, with a woman's insight into character and its influence
Fears. 83
in shaping eyents, how generous, how layish of self, how trustful of
others, how diffident of his own light and strength, was the man
thus suddenly placed in a post of the most awful responsibility and
at a time when he alone before whom the storm quailed on the lake
of Galilee could bid the winds of Italian passion "be still ! " Fall-
ing on her knees, utterly overcome and terrified, she could only
repeat with streaming eyes and clasped hands : "Oh ! what a mis-
fortune ! what a misfortune ! "
Mixing with the world and thoroughly acquainted with the aspi-
rations of her countrymen, with the plans and designs of those
whom no concession short of a radical revolution in the State and
the annihilation of the Church could satisfy, the lady of the world
knew what her brother's great soul would lead him to promise and
undertake, and she knew, with the infallible prescience of a woman's
heart, that all would be vain !
We have read of savages amid the trackless wilderness putting
their ear to the ground and gathering, with a delicacy and sureness
of sense that would seem preternatural, sounds and warnings imper-
ceptible to the ear or eye of their civilized companions. They could
thus tell of enemies approaching, though the telescope in vain scan-
ned every point of the horizon in search of them, and they could
almost count their numbers. Is not woman endowed by nature with
some such prophetic sense as this ? We, men, have our eyes filled
with dazzling visions of ambition or gain, and our ears are ever
strained to catch only the loud tumult of political battle. But wo-
man, seated lowly in the quiet of her home, can gather with undi-
vided senses all the echoes borne on the air, and all the tremors of the
earth, before the volcano is awakened.
Over what is of a mere personal nature or of comparatively little
importance we must hasten henceforth, so mighty are the events
which fill up this pontificate, the most memorable in the history of
the papacy, and connect for ever the life of Pius IX. with the latter
half of the nineteenth century !
The Pope needed no friend or foe or counselor to warn him of the
imperative and instant exigencies of the political position ; what he
had seen in the Eomagna, before he quitted the sweet solitude of
Piratello, all that he had seen and heard along his route through
the Marches and Umbria, had no significance that he had not read.
The very stones in Eome would have cried out to him, as he received
with the first homage of his subjects and the first congratulations of
84 Life of Pope Pius IX.
the Catholic world, the tidings of Austrian invasion and Mazzinian
outrages, had he been deaf or blind or dumb in his new place of
power.
Ere he had been solemnly crowned at St. Peter's and taken posses-
sion of St. John Lateran — "the mother and head of all the churches
of Eome and the world " — the special Austrian envoy and his car-
dinals had arrived. The representative of the "apostolic" emperor
made no secret of his disgust nor of the probable consequences of his
master's just resentment, all the more so that he saw the French am-
bassador in high favor at the new papal court, and had more than
one evidence, both in the changes already made and in those which
were confidently announced, of French influence suddenly overtop-
ping his own.
The very things which the Pope had not done in beginning his
reign, as well as the acts already accomplished, boded, so thought
Count de Broglia, a revolution in the policy of the papacy, a total
subversion of its temporal power, and most certainly insurrection in
the Austrian provinces. There lacked not those in high dignity
and of long experience in the management of public affairs, whose
resentment at the threatened policy of the new government was
scarcely inferior to that of the Austrian, and whose evil forebodings
were uttered with a voice almost as bold.
We have said "government," for Pius had deviated at the very first
from the invariable custom of appointing a new Secretary of State
as the head of the pontifical administration. The Liberals through-
out Italy were unanimous in expressing the hope that Cardinal Gizzi
would be appointed by a liberal Pope to fill the all-important position
left vacant by the dreaded Lambruschini. This nomination would
have gone far toward removing the feeling of disappointment at not
seeing their favorite cardinal in the papal chair ; the delay which
ensued caused no little agitation and increased the painful uncer-
tainties that overhung the more distant parts of the Roman States.
There is no doubt that the Pope wished to appoint Cardinal Gizzi to
this high office, and that his hesitation to do so at once came from
the almost threatening attitude of the Austrian representative and
the outspoken disapproval of the Conservative cardinals.
It is said that Pius IX., with that frank and distrustful simplicity
which is a feature in his character, asked of the cardinals to select for
him, before they left Rome, a ministry in everyway fitted to the neces-
sities of tlio times. Whether or not the Sacred College was consulted
Hesitancy about Appointing an Administration, 85
to this effect, we have no present means of ascertaining. After a
few days of damaging suspense, it was announced that the Pope,
while maturing some great administrative reforms, had resolved to
carry on the government by a commission of six cardinals, three of
whom were most odious to all grades of Liberals. These were Car-
dinals Lambruschini, the most dreaded name of all, Bernetti, the
protector of the Jesuits, and Monsignor Marini, governor of Eome.
To be sure, the other three members of the commission were known
for their liberal sentiments and professed patriotism, and foremost
among them was Gizzi. Nothing could persuade what began to be
ominously called **the people," that this new administrative scheme
was not a first triumph of Austrian influence.
There is no evidence of his having consulted Count Eossi on this
first fatal step in his career. Besides Eossi's was not the temper to
desire a compromise or half-measure so full of hesitancy, so indica-
tive of an uncertain policy in the first stage of the Pope's reign,
and when Italy and Christendom were watching with bated breath
the first words or acts that should portend the pregnant future.
We shall see presently how the ambassador of France was very
soon afterward taken into the confidence Pius IX., and what was the
policy agreed upon between them. But while the telegraph wires
were flashing over the European continent the name of the new
Pope, and bearing back to him the congratulations of the various
governments, it is important that we should see how one man,
enjoying the hospitality both of England and France, and high in
the esteem of their statesmen, was preparing at Paris the detailed
plan of an agitation destined to thwart step by step every reform be-
gun by Pius IX., to frustrate his best intentions and most cherished
designs for the good of his subjects. This will enable us to under-
stand how, from the first days of his pontificate, a mysterious and
hidden power, forming the very soul of all popular movements in
Italy, was present in Eome itself, and on every point of Italian terri-
tory, so shaping, directing, and controlling the popular aspirations
and energies that the love of the Pope for his people and his coun-
try was condemned to a fruitless, fatal, and inevitable ending.
No sooner had Mazzini heard of the triumph of French influence
in the conclave and the election of a Pope who promised to inaugu-
rate a policy of reform and conciliation than he set to work through
his trusty and numerous agents among " Young Italy " and the Car-
bonari to carry out the system of agitation more clearly and boldly
86 Life of Pope Pius IX,
expressed in his '^ Address to the Friends of Italy," published in
Paris three months later, and when the first essays of his subordi-
nates had been crowned with complete success in Rome and else-
where.
''In great countries," says the arch-conspirator, ''it is by the peo-
ple that we must struggle for regeneration ; in yours (Italy), it is by
the sovereigns. We must absolutely put them on our side. It is
an easy matter. The Pope will proceed to reform on principle
and through sheer necessity; the King of Piedmont through the
vision of the crown of Italy ; the Grand Duke of Tuscany through
inclination and resentment ; and the King of Naples through com-
pulsion ; as to the petty princes, they shall have something else
beside reform to think of.
" The people, still held in bondage, can only express its wants in
song. Profit by the least concession to assemble the masses, were it
only to make a show of gratitude. Festivals, songs, meetings,
numerous relations established between men of all opinions, enable
ideas to find a vent, to give the people an idea of their might, and
to render it exacting. . . .
"A great lord may be held back by his material interests, but he
may be led by his vanity. Let him have the lead so long as he will
go with you. There are few who would go to the end.
"The one thing essential is that they be kept ignorant of the
goal to which the great revolution tends, let us prevent them from
ever seeing beyond the first stage.
"In Italy the clergy are rich both in the money and in the confi-
dence of the people. You must know how to make use of them in
both respects, and turn their influence to good account. If you
could create a Savonarola in every capital we should make giant
strides. . . .
" Do not attack the clergy neither in their fortunes nor in their
orthodoxy. Promise them liberty and they will march in your
ranks. ... In Italy the people is yet to be created, but it is
ready to tear asunder the envelope which holds it. Speak often,
everywhere and at length, of its misery and wants. . . .
" Accept all the help which is offered you. Whoever makes one
stop forward must bo yours till he quits you. A king grants a more
liberal law — applaud him, and ask for the law which must follow.
A minister shows a disposition toward progress — ^give him out as a
model. • . .
Mazztni 's Scheme of Agitation. 87
"Try to make equality penetrate tlie Church, and everything
fehall succeed with us. Clerical power is personified in the Jesuits.
The odium attached to that name is of itself a power in the hand
of the Socialists. Make use of it ! . . .
'^ Associate ! Associate ! eyerything is in that word. The secret
societies give irresistible strength to the party that call upon them.
Do not fear to see them split; the more there is of them the
better. . . .
" When a great number of associates, receiving the password with
the command to spread an idea and make it public opinion, shall be
able to concert a movement, they will find the old social edifice laid
open on every side, and tumbling down, as if by miracle, at the first
breath of Progress.
" They will be astonished themselves to see flying before the sin-
gle might of opinion, kings, lords, the rich, the priests, who formed
the shell of the old social structure. Courage, then, and persever-
ance ! ''
Whatever censure we may pronounce on this man's most detestable
principles, aims, and acts, there can be in the minds of all who have
read his writings and studied his influence on European opinion, but
one judgment as to his transcendent ability.
Mazzini has molded into its present shape whatever there is of
anti-Christian power in modem society, and that power now controls
what was once Christendom with an influence that goes on increas-
ing in the frightful ratio of accelerated motion in falling bodies. He
created not only ''Young Italy," but "Young Switzerland," ''Young
Germany," "Young Poland," and "Young Europe;" and in 1847
he founded "The International League of Peoples," all and each of
them not only leavened with the fell revolutionary maxims faintly
shadowed forth in the preceding extract, but animated as by a living
soul with the hatred of Christianity and the avowed purpose of de-
stroying the Catholic Church.
Whoever does not understand this elementary lesson in contempo-
rary history, cannot understand what has happened, and is still hap-
pening, in Italy, in Switzerland, in Germany, in Spain, in France,
and what is about to happen in England and Belgium as certainly as
the waters of Niagara shall not reascend to the height from which
they have fallen.
We pray the serious-minded reader, therefore, to peruse carefully
the instructions issued by Mazzini to his confederates about to begin
?^S Life of Pope Pius IX.
their countGi'-campaign of reyolution, while the unsuspecting Pope
is framing for Italy and the Church a plan of perfect reconciliation.
AVho shall succeed — the Pope or Mazzini ?
Of the innumerable acts of condescension, beneficence, and clem-
ency performed by Pius IX., at the beginning of his reign, very many
were in strict conformity with the examples set by his immediate
predecessors; only '*the sects," and their countless organs in the
European press, followed faithfully the injunction of the arch-con-
spirator, publishing, applauding, celebrating the virtues of the new
ruler of the Roman States, as if the pontiffs who had reigned before
him had been like the former Mikados, mysterious beings living in a
semi-religious, semi-royal state, far away from vulgar eyes, unap-
proachable to their subjects, and inaccessible to the feelings of ordi-
nary humanity.
Pius IX. had known personally the four last Popes, and could
not well lielp reverencing their many virtues, and admiring in every
one of them a superiority of learning that he was ever the first to say
he did not himself possess. Among those who have filled the chair
of Peter during the last three hundred and fifty years, Leo X. is,
perhaps, the only one who loved to surround himself in his private,
hours with the state and refined elegances of royalty. The other
pontiffs, so far as they are known to history, almost without excep-
tion, when their official day was ended, retired to apartments so
poorly furnished, and to a table so frugal, that a second-rate me-
chanic amongst us would be astonished thereat. The most minute
details about every hour of the daily life of Pius VII. are now familiar
to the general reader ; his simple tastes and ^* poverty of spirit" were
not a mask worn before courtiers and laid aside when they had with-
drawn. His was the conscientious adherence, so far as he might, to
the privation of all earthly riches and the rejection of all earthly
pleasures, which he had vowed as a Benedictine monk. Even
French infidels were touched by his austere and consistent self-de-
nial. No less edifying was the magnanimous poverty of Gregory
XVI., who never forgot his lowly Camaldolese cell in the monas-
tery of San Michele at Murano, and who would have given worlds
to lay aside the tiara and bury himself among his love(f Camaldoli,
near Frascati. Of his laborious life and utter contempt of ease and
bodily enjoyment of every kind, wo have abundant proof in the
writings of those wlio enjoyed his intimacy and could appreciate his
learning, his piety, his ardent wish to benefit his people, his fearless
Leo XIL as a Reformer. 89
discharge of duty, and his desire to die as his Master died, ''for-
saken" and bereft of all comfort. As to Pius VIII., there was but
one opinion about his talents and his worth. The court amid which
his brief public life passed like a flash of warm sunshine, held him
to be a saint, not much addicted, therefore, to costly living.
There was another one, whose pontificate was all too short, a man
of courtly grace, rare business capacity, and saintly life as well ; but
he was both reformer and saint, as earnest in the pursuit of sanctity
as he was in his determination to leave no abuse standing in Church
and State that his authority could suppress. This was Leo XII., who
selected the Abbate Mastai for the South American mission, and
recommended him to Cardinal Consalvi, and who took such an affec-
tionate pride in training him and advancing him step by step till he
placed him in the see of Spoleto.
The reader who has never read the life of Leo XII. may be sur-
prised to learn that he seemed the model chosen by Pius IX. when
he entered upon the perilous path of reform. But there was this
difference in the two men, that Pius was in the full vigor of his
mature manhood, in the enjoyment of robust health ; whereas Leo
had to be carried in a litter from his sick-bed to the conclave, and
was so wasted by disease when the electors honored his exalted vir-
tues by their choice, that he could not forbear from remonstrating :
"Why will you choose a skeleton ?" he broke forth. And so over-
whelmed was he by the dread of his responsibility that a miracle was
performed to rescue him from the jaws of death. It is a wonderful
story, but one attested by all Rome.
Leo it was who, while Bishop of Sinigaglia, in 1818, called Mon-
signori Odescalchi and Strambi to evangelize the poor of his diocese,
and would have young Mastai accompany them as catechist. During
their missionary tour he had watched and admired the supernatural
virtues of Strambi, whose acts recalled the memory of the early
apostles. When, soon after his elevation, his end was nigh, Leo be-
thought him of having his saintly friend near him during the death
agony. Strambi hastened to Rome, but only to offer up on bended
knees, by the side of the dying Pope, his own life as a substitute for
that of the common father, so needful to the Church in these critical
times. The next morning Strambi slept sweetly the death of the
saints, and Leo that same hour recovered strength enough to carry
out some of his most magnificent undertakings and to begin many
salutary reforms.
90 Life of Pope Pius IX.
Pius IX., young and zealous, had seen his benefactor at work ; and
now he deemed himself called by Providence to continue his reforms.
"On the day after his election, Pius IX. had walked to the Church
of St. John (Lateran) — his name being John he would thus honor his
patron saint. The sight of a Pope passing through the streets of
Rome on foot was novel to the Eomans, who pressed eagerly about
him for his benediction. On returning to the palace (Quirinal), a
beggar approached him with a petition, which the Holy Father
graciously received amid the plaudits of the people. He dispensed
alms in abundance, caused it to be known that on Thursdays of each
week he would receive audiences, and political inquisitions were
stopped. It was an act of wisdom on the part of the new pontiff thus
to render himself accessible to all classes of his subjects. In addition
to this, the odor of an unblemished reputation for piety, moderation,
and wisdom disarmed suspicion, and invited confidence and hope."
—Legge,
This last writer, like all his school, not only lauds as extraordinary
what was a virtue common to every Pope worthy of his office, but re-
peats the atrocious and unblushing slanders heaped upon the memory
of Gregory XVI. by "the sects" and their adherents outside of
Italy. To these gratuitous slanders on the noble dead no answer is
needed here. But if any apology were to be made for the compara-
tive seclusion in which Gregory lived during the last years of his life,
it should be found, not in any dread of his people, or in any disincli-
nation to receive visitors, or grant audiences to his subjects, but in
a growing cancerous disease, which the Pope's natural delicacy made
him fear would be offensive or distressing to others. He saw to it,
however, that every facility should be given by his ministers to all
persons who wished to apply to him in person.
In truth, just as at the beginning of the pontificate of Leo XII.,
the by-word "Austrian Patriarch" helped, in passing from mouth to
mouth, to destroy in the popular estimation the credit which that
sovereign deserved for his untiring charity, his fatherly care of the
helpless, the homeless, the ignorant, and the fallen — for the patriotic
generosity which made him sacrifice everything to the comfort and
relief of his people in great calamities — for his enlightened statesman-
ship in the religious and legislative reforms he completed, and hia
noblo independence in face of the great powers who attempted to
bully him— ^ven so, and still more so, was every generous act of
Pius IX. construed into " something unprecedented and worthy of
Noble Deeds of Pius IX, 91
all praise," by the word of command of the Mazzinian leaders. They
and their dupes, or willing tools among European journalists and
writers, only did what they were told. In the present year of grace
1877, how aptly might be applied to more than one distinguished
statesman, writer, and editor, these words of Junius, written a century
ago: ^'Is he only the Punch of the puppet-show, to speak as he is
prompted by the chief juggler behind the curtain ? "
There is enough of what is most praiseworthy in the deeds and
utterances of Pius IX. during these first days of his pontificate : — to
exalt and admire him we need not detract from what is due to some
of the most yenerable characters of this or any other age.
One act of his must be recorded here, as well because it is only one
among many like ones that helped to win the Pope the enthusiastic
love of the people, as because it affords an instance of that slow and
often cruel justice of the old Roman courts of law, which amounted
to downright injustice, and which so sadly needed reform.
In the year 1809 Giovanni Mastai", while living with his uncle
Canon Mastai at Rome, was wont to busy himself in visiting the
hospitals and prisons, bringing spiritual comfort and pecuniary aid to
the most suffering and desolate among the inmates. One prisoner
named Gaetano, accused of some capital offense, enlisted the young
visitor's sympathies. He had been convicted on insufficient or false
evidence and condemned to death. The courage with which he ac -
cepted his fate, and the magnanimity he displayed in preparing for
it, moved Mastai powerfully, and going forthwith to the proper
authorities he got the death sentence changed into imprisonment
for life, as the condemned man was setting out for the place of exe-
cution. He had learned afterward from the family of Gaetano that
he was still living in solitary confinement in the castle of Sant-
Angelo. No sooner was Pius made sovereign of Rome, than he be-
thought him of Gaetano, and could not rest till he had seen him and
set him at liberty. So dressing himself in a plain clerical suit, with-
out any mark of his dignity, he went quietly to the castle, obtained
admission, and demanded of the turnkey to be directed to Gaetano's
cell.
The poor prisoner, crazed and maddened by twenty-two years of
hopeless endurance of wrong, repelled the intruder at first and would
not listen to him. But the other pronounced the name of his
mother, and the word acted like a potent spell, opening every avenue
to that poor wounded heart. " Tell me of my mother ! " he gasped
92 Life of Pope Pius IX. -
out : '' Say that she is in heaven, and that I can go to meet her to-
morrow I " **!N"o, she is among the living," was the soothing reply,
*^and I am come to you with her blessing and with hopes of free-
dom." On inquiry, the visitor found that the captive had again
and again, during these twenty-two years, written to the Pope to lay
his case before him. His letters had been intercepted ; all knowl-
edge of the outer world had been kept from him ; nay, he had
heard nothing of the death of Gregory or of the election of his suc-
cessor. At his dictation his kind visitor drew up a petition to Pius
IX., which had scarcely been concluded when the turnkey brutally
interrupted them, abusing the priest and cursing the prisoner.
Going to the governor of the castle, the visitor requested him to
liberate forthwith the prisoner Gaetano, declaring that he came to
demand it in the name of the Pope. The governor, annoyed, be-
haved as rudely as the turnkey, and demanded a written order from
the Pope, and was much perplexed to see the other seat himself, and
draw up an order directing that Gaetano be discharged instantly,
that he be saluted with military honors on leaving the castle, and
that the turnkey be dismissed on the spot, placing at the bottom of
the document the signature Pius PP. IX.
The bewildered Gaetano flew to his home and his mother's arms,
and then sought an audience of the Pope, and after expressing his
heartfelt gratitude, begged to know the name of his generous visitor.
Pius, who delighted in bestowing such happiness, now asked him if
he had forgotten Giovanni MastaJi Ferretti, his friend of twenty- two
years ago. We pass over the remaining incidents of this touching
interview. All Rome, and indeed all Italy, soon heard this tale.
But thejr heard much more.
Every day during the first month of his reign was marked by many
such touching deeds, not new to the inhabitants of Spoleto, who had
been the first recipients of his episcopal liberality, or to his diocesans
at Imola, who refused to be comforted for his loss. In very truth
Pius IX. was only doing daily and hourly what had been his wont
to do while Archbishop and Cardinal Masta'i. Nor could he, in the
beginning, understand why so much noise was made about his com-
ings and goings. But there were in the prisons of Rome and the
provinces many more unfortunates like Gaetano, entrapped in youth
into wild schemes and illegal acts by their very love for Italy,
their hatred of Austrian rule, and the belief that the Popes were
only reigning by the will of Austria. There were thousands of exiles
The Question of Amnesty, 93
beyond the Eoman States, and beyond the limits of Italy, condemned
for crimes of rebellion, or treason, or blood. An amnesty was
always one of the first acts that graced the beginning of every reign,
even where the sovereign was only a temporal prince. Such an act
of mercy was still more necessary and more graceful where the
sovereign was a priest as well, the great visible High Priest of the
Christian Church.
The question of amnesty became uppermost in men's minds from
the morning of the 17th of June, when Pius IX. first showed him-
self to his subjects, to receive their warm greetings and to bless them
with tearful eyes and a heart overflowing with a love all fatherly.
It was a formidable question in the eyes of experienced statesmen,
if not in the eyes of the priest and pontiff, who believed that the
chief attribute and duty of his office was mercy. Gregory XVI. had
granted an amnesty in 1831, but the men thus forgiven and recalled
from exile had become afterward the most ardent instigators of sedi-
tion, the bitterest opponents of the power that had restored them to
liberty and home.
It is at this juncture that Count Eossi's influence was felt in the
consultations of the Quirinal. He had been induced to join Joachim
Murat in 1815, when that changeling, without military genius or
patriotic principle, raised the standard of revolt during *^the Hun-
dred Days," and marched against Eome to possess himself of the
person of Pius VII. He had raised the cry of *' Italian Nation-
ality," in order to attract the unwary, the young, the enthusiastic,
and Eossi, misled, had cast his lot with an unworthy and imbecile
leader, and had been exiled in consequence. Who better able to
plead the cause of the political prisoner and exile than one who had
expiated a misguided love of country by weary years of poverty, wan-
dering, and longing unfulfilled ? He counseled amnesty and for-
giveness, as well as large and liberal reforms, aiming at the gradual
establishment of constitutional government, and his counsels pre-
vailed. Of the reforms we shall speak a little later, of this memora-
ble amnesty we must now give the history.
The Commission of six cardinals holds its first formal session on the
first day of July. The Pope, after most serious and frequent consulta-
tions with prelates of every shade of opinion, had drawn up a schedule
of questions demanding the immediate attention of his government.
This was submitted to the Commission, and embraced the question
of amnesty and its limitations, the limitation of the public debt, the
94 Life of Pope Pius IX,
expediency of retaining or discliarging the Swiss troops in the ponti-
fical service, and that of appointing one or more secretaries of State.
Tlie Austrian ambassador had also been consulted on this im-
portant question, and suggested reserves which, in the Pope's judg-
ment, must have shorn the act of all its merciful and useful results ;
Buch was also the advice of the Conservative members in the Com-
mission of Six. An answer to the question of amnesty admitted of no
delay. There were few families who had not sons, connections, or
friends deeply interested in the decision. And besides, the clubs,
during the past two weeks, had received instructions from head-
quarters and were exerting most industriously the various arts
of agitating the public mind on a subject that came home to so
many.
As an act of grace and pardon is one exclusively personal to the
sovereign, Pius IX. made it the special subject of his meditations.
He had firmly resolved to grant an amnesty ; every instinct of his
generous nature impelled him to make it as wide as possible. There
was one category of offenders whom he did not intend that his clem-
ency should reach or could reform — men whose profession and posi-
tion made them the guides of others — clergymen and civil or military
officials. These belonged to the governing classes of society, which
should ever be the exemplary classes, and whose public crimes should
be visited with exemplary rigor. Some of the ecclesiastics thus ex-
cepted became afterward his deadliest foes — the most welcome aux-
iliaries of tlie secret societies abroad, and the petted spokesmen at
evangelical meetings on both sides of the Atlantic. But as Pius IX.
hoped but little from such clerical reprobates, so he feared them not.
The IGth of July, one month exactly after his election, was the
day chosen for the performance of this act, which the sovereign
pontiff deemed to be the discharge of a sacred duty. How the
appearance of this amnesty thrilled Rome and Italy shall be told
presently : let the heart of Pius IX. now speak for itself.
** Pius IX, to his faithful subjects, health and apostolic heuediction.
** During these days when the public rejoicing on our exaltation to
the pontificate touches us to the depth of our heart, we have not
been able to refrain from grieving at the thought of so many fami-
lies amotig our subjects debarred from sharing in the general joy
because in their saddened homes they are made to bear a portion of
the punishment incurred by some one member of their household
through offenses committed against social order or the rights of the
Amnesty Granted, 95
sovereign. The eye of our soul could not lielp looking with pity
upon a multitude of inexperienced young men lured by dazzling
prospects into political disturbances, and, to our mind, to be consid-
ered rather as the victims of seduction than its complices. Where-
fore, since that thought first took possession of us, we have been
considering whether we ought not to stretch forth a forgiving hand
to our erring children, and offer peace to all who are ready to give
proof of their sincere repentance. The love shown to us by our good
subjects, and the many evidences of veneration they have given to
the Holy See in our person, have convinced us that we can pardon
with safety."
The proclamation then enumerates the classes of persons to whom
the amnesty extends, the conditions on which they can avail them-
selves of it, and the limitations already mentioned, comprising cleri-
cal offenders and others. The pontiff concludes in these touching
words :
'*We cherish the hope that all who may avail themselves of our
clemency shall know on every occasion how to respect our rights and
our honor. "VVe trust, moreover, that their hearts, softened by our
forgiveness, shall lay aside their civil hatreds, which are ever wont
to be the cause or the effect of political passions ; and that thus
shall be drawn closer those bonds of peace by which God wills that
all the children of the common father should be held together. But
if our confidence should be deceived in this, we should be constrained,
with a bitter pang, to remember, that if clemency is the sweetest
attribute of sovereign power, justice is also its first duty."
Vague rumors had been agitating the public mind for some days
previous to the appearance of this document. But when people on
awaking on the morning of the 16th found the official proclamation
posted up in the usual public places, the whole city became of a sud-
den filled with a wild delirium of joy. Farini, so habitually temper-
ate in his language, scarcely finds expressions adequate to the occasion.
^^When," he says *'the tidings of this amnesty had flown all
over Eome, and its soothing language had been read, it seemed as
though a ray of divine love had unexpectedly come down on the
Eternal City. The hosannas were endless ; the ninth Pius was
hailed as a deliverer ; each citizen embraced his neighbor with
brotherly affection ; thousands of torches blazed forth at dark, and,
as if all that is godlike in the heart of man had, like a swollen river,
overleaped its banks, the multitude rushed with one mighty impulse
96 Life of Pope Pius IX,
toward the palace of the pontiff, called for him, knelt in their ren-
eration before him, and received his benediction in reverent silence.
No tongue is adequate to paint that feast of soul, nor do I seek de-
scriptive language lest I should do dishonor to the sanctity of the
occasion. Quick as thought the news and these solemnities of love
and gratitude flew to the farthest confines of the State ; the record
of them, which is ill retained by the forgetful heart of man, was in
many cases inscribed on marble.*
On the 27th the cardinals met in consistory. It was their first
solemn meeting since they had assembled in conclave.
The enthusiasm of the citizens had been, meanwhile, growing
hourly. From the hall in which the Sacred College awaited the
appearance of the sovereign pontiff, they could hear the shouts of
joy resounding on every side, and in the intervals between each out-
burst one might feel that the very air brought him the pulsations of
the heart of Rome, as it throbbed with the excitement of the hour.
The cardinals had never beheld anything similar, as their carriages
drove through the crowded streets and the half-frantic populace.
More than one man among them trembled as he saw what a mighty
force had been let loose around the unsteady throne of Pius IX., and
asked himself who could stay the waterfall in mid air, or arrest the
lightning bolt as it darts from the cloud earthward ? But Pius
himself was soon in their midst, with sweet smile and stately pres-
ence. All listened in respectful silence to the following allocution :
*' Ven"erable Brothees : As for the first time I cast my eyes from
this place on your illustrious body, and while I am preparing to ad-
dress you, I cannot help experiencing once more that painful agita-
tion of soul which yourselves witnessed on that day when your too
kind suffrages raised me to the place left vacant by Gregory XVI. of
glorious memory.
"The thought which beset me then comes back now, that many
members of this college, known at home and abroad by their supe-
rior genius and wisdom, by their knowledge of j)ublic affairs, and
their many virtues, were eminently fitted to appease the regret
caused by the death of the late pontiff, and to fill his place on the
throne.
** Notwithstanding, you have put aside all the calculations of
human prudence, and thinking only of putting an end to the widow-
♦" History of Rome/' 1815-1850, by Luigi Carlo Farini, i. 181, 183.
First Papal Allocution, 97
hood of the Church, you have united minds and wills, by a divine
inspiration, I doubt not, in the one purpose of consoling and assist-
ing the Church ; before the conclave had lasted two entire days, you
have raised me to this station, all unworthy as I am, and amid cir-
cumstances so pregnant with calamity to the civil and religious
world.
"To be sure, we know that God sometimes displays his might
through the weakest of all instruments, in order that the men he
makes use of take no credit for themselves, but attribute all the
honor and glory to him ; and I most certainly do adore his inscrut-
able will as manifested toward myself, and trust in his power for the
aid I need. But while I am most grateful to that almighty goodness
which has raised me, in spite of my utter unworthiness, to this great
dignity, I must also testify my gratitude to you, who have been the
ministers of that will in my regard, and who have judged so favor-
ably of one who is conscious only of his nothingness.
"It shall be my deepest pleasure ever to show you all my sincere
affection by my deeds, allowing no opportunity to pass unheeded of
maintaining and protecting the dignity and rights of your order, and
of proving to you how I desire to serve you. From you, I trust in
your attachment to aid me constantly with your advice, your sup-
port, your hearty zeal, in order that in this elevated rank my weak-
ness cause no detriment to the religious or worldly interests of the
commonwealth.
" We must remain closely united if we would labor effectually to
secure the welfare of the Church, our common mother, and main-
tain unflinchingly the dignity of the Apostolic See, and the peace
and harmony of the Christian fold ; thereby only, under God's bless-
ing, can they increase and prosper.
" Continue, then, as you have begun, to deserve well of us ; and
let us together beseech the divine goodness, that after having been
chosen by him, we may walk in his footsteps ; that through the
intercession of Mary his mother, and of his apostles Peter and
Paul, Jesus, the author of our faith and apostolate, may look down
favorably on us from holy Sion, and accept these joyous trans-
ports of a people devoted to his glory, thus giving a saving efficacy
to all our acts and labors in favor of the Church committed to us,
and of the people subject to our rule."
There is in this last allusion to "the joyous transports" of the
people, a something pathetic, when we look back through the tragic
98 Life of Pope Pius IX,
occurrences of thirty-one years to this venerable assemblage in the
Quirinal, and the delirious multitude outside, and compare the 17th
of July, 1846, with the 17th of July, 1877.
Were any one to doubt of the unanimity with which the College
of Cardinals, as well as the Pope, desired to find the means of "re-
conciling Italy with the papacy," it will be sufficient to read the
testimony of contemporary Italian Liberals, who bear witness to what
their own senses had seen and heard. During the two weeks which
had elapsed since the election of Pius IX., the most ultra-conserva-
tive of the cardinals either had always been in favor of moderate con-
cession and reform, or they had been made to see and acknowledge
its necessity. For Farini, then in Eome, and a close and interested
observer of events, thus speaks of that portion of the Sacred College
— Lambruschini, Bemetti, Marini, and others :
''I know for certain that the object of this section was to proceed
gradually and with caution."
They feared the effect of the large measure of mercy dealt out to
conspirators in the Act of Amnesty ; they wished to limit its exten-
sion at first to a small number, and when these had proved repentant,
to widen the circle of mercy still more, and so on by degrees, till
forgiveness secured good conduct, obedience to the laws, and cessation
of disturbance in the provinces. A similar caution should regulate,
they thought, every administrative and legislative reform.
Thus we may consider it as unquestionable that no member of the
order of cardinals stood out against concession. All agreed upon its
necessity. We shall see in the next chapter the causes which ren-
dered abortive every design of the most liberal as well as the most
conseryatiye among the papal counselors.
CHAPTER IX.
The Enthusiasm cois'tinues — Ii^^teigues and Plots — Sinceee
Desire of the Pope to eeform — A divided Public Opi-
nion — Why Pius IX. did not play Sixtus V. — Alms in
THE Ghetto.
June-July, 1846.
IT had ever been a custom of the Romans at the accession of a
Pope to wear his colors in compliment to himself and his family.
This was invariably done by officials and court followers, no matter
how obscure or unpopular the sovereign-elect may have been. The
mass of the people waited a little longer, till the first acts of their
new master gave them the measure of his ability and disposition ; if
unpopular, his colors were worn by no one, if popular, all hastened
to wear them.
On the evening of June 16th the Mastai colors, white and yellow,
were prominent in every one of the enthusiastic gatherings and illu-
minations that made Rome as brilliant as any fairy scene, and far
more joyous. On the 17th the mercers of the city could scarcely
supply the demands for silks and other stuffs of the pontifical white
and yellow. Men and women, young and old, vied with each other
in showing their attachment or their gratitude. Painters and jewelers
also plied a very lucrative trade for several weeks, so great a demand
was there for papal portraits of every size. These were soon to be seen
everywhere, hung on the outside of palaces, decorating the parlors
©f the wealthy and the room of the poorest laborer ; in the club-
houses and the theaters, and on the interior of the public coaches, as
if the likeness of Pius IX. was a talisman inviting good fortune and
protecting against evil. Indeed the " talisman," often set in precious
stones, was conspicuous on the neck of noble Roman ladies and on the
breast of their husbands and sons, no homage seeming a sufficien t
sign of their veneration, and no setting too worthy of the image of
him whom all seemed to bear enshrined in their hearts.
lOO Life of Pope Pius IX.
One who, like Pius IX., was a native of Sinigaglia, but who was
most unlike him in all else — Nicolini — relates that on his return
home from exile he learned from his parents, as well as from the
Count Masta'i, that the palace in which the Pope was born became a
place of patriotic pilgrimage, to which the restored exiles flocked
not only from the Marches, but from the whole of the Romagna. With
the warm demonstrativeness of Italian hearts, not satisfied with visit-
ing piously every spot connected with their benefactor's early history,
they bore away pieces of cement from the walls and fragments from
the stones of the house.
There is one man at this hour in high official station in Italy
whose story deserves to find place here, because it may stand for that
of many a man among those whom Pius IX. restored to home and
country, and who requited him not otherwise than Giuseppe Galletti.
This man was of good family, but had become, at an early age,
entangled in the meshes of the Carbonari and of ^' Young Italy."
As he was nearly connected by blood with one of the predecessors of
the reigning pontiff, especial pains were taken to mitigate his lot
and to soothe his spirit when permitted to come back to Rome. In
1845 he had been the soul of the insurrection in the Romagna, and of
the dreadful conspiracy which aimed at drowning the clerical govern-
ment in the blood of every priest in Italy. On the subsequent trial,
resulting in a sentence of death, commuted to imprisonment for life,
instructions to his subordinates were brought in evidence against
him, and acknowledged by himself as authentic, which would put
the more wary Mazzini to the blush. Let us hear :
"Our enemies are many: first of all, the clergy, the nobility,
many proprietors ; lastly, persons holding employment under gov-
ernment. At the cry of liberty shall be organized in every cjty
revolutionary committees, which shall seize on the most suspected
persons in these classes whose liberty or survival might bring great
detriment to the cause.
'* As a rule, for the sentences pronounced by the committees, two
sorts of persons are to be distinguished :
'* 1. Those who are indifferent to the cause, but have been guilty
of no extreme acts against its partisans, and are attached to govern-
ment through love of quiet. As to these, it must be your endeavor
to interest them.
" 2. Those who, employed under government or not, have openly
shown themselves our enemies, upsetting us in every way, and these,
Principles of the Men thus Pardoned, loi
chiefly, shall be deprived of life. The manner of arrest — without
violence and by night ; put in prison and slain.
^'You must use in this the greatest prudence and secrecy, giving
out immediately that they are concealed, or exiled, or imprisoned
for the time being. And all that not to excite tumults and awaken
horror, as happened in the Septemberings. * Their deaths to be
speedy and without torment."
One may well feel amazement that the clemency of Pius IX.
should have been extended to the man who deliberately planned and
commanded such wholesale assassinations as these. And the plan,
as was judicially proven, did not remain a dead letter. Let us now
see how this same Galletti behaved on being pardoned by his kind-
hearted sovereign. We take the narrative from Count Goddes de
Liancourt, as translated by Legge.
"V/hen Galletti entered the presence-chamber he threw himself
at the feet of the Pope, his voice was suffocated with emotion and
refused its office.
'^Pius IX. raised him up, and pressing him tenderly to his heart,
said, ' I am happier than you, my dear son, the shepherd has found
the lost sheep. You will not leave me again. You will love me as
I love you. . . . You will henceforth reject perfidious sugges-
tions, and recognize the danger of theories, no doubt generous, but
impossible of application. You promise me ? '
"'I swear it,' cried Galletti, 'by this sign of our redemption,'
embracing the pontifical cross. 'My mother,' he said, *was the
sister of a Pope ; I conspired against my uncle in the interest of my
country, as I conscientiously believed. . . . Now I love Pius
IX. more than I detested his predecessor. ' "
We have only to wait a little and we shall see how this oath was
kept, and what fruits this new-born love for Pius IX. bore before a
second autumn had passed away. Beneath the ardent expressions of
gratitude which flowed so readily from these pardoned conspirators
and assassins, still lived "the principles " laid down cautiously in
Mazzini's manifesto, stripped of all reticence in Galletti's instruc-
tions, and leveled directly against Christianity itself in the follow-
ing words of another restored exile, Kicciardi :
"To acquire independence needs revolution and war, to put aside
* The massacres of prisoners, bisliops, priests, and nobles, in Paris, in Sep.
tember, 1793.
I02 Life of Pope Pius IX.
all considerations originating in the progress of knowledge, civiliza-
tion, industry, increase of riches and public prosperity. . . .
The fatal plant bom in Judaea has only reached this high point of
growth and vigor because it was watered with waves of blood.
Would you have an error take root among men ? put fire and sword
to it. Would you have it fall ? make it the subject of your gibes.
, . . . The question is not of a popular assembly, fluctuating,
uncertain, slow to deliberate ; there is need of a hand of iron, which
alone can rule a people hitherto accustomed to differences of opin-
ion, and, what is still more, a people corrupted, enervated, made
vile by slavery. . . . Soon a new era will begin for mankind,
the glorious era of a redemption far different from that announced
by Christ."
What "the hand of iron" means every reader acquainted with
Italian contemporaneous history cannot but know. Such, then, were
a few of " the principles " or practical rules, as dear as their own
Bouls to every one of these men, let loose on the country from the
prisons or recalled to it by the Pope's gracious act of clemency. Such
were also the guiding principles of the clubs and "sects," which had
been numerous till then everywhere, in spite of the vigilance of the
magistrates, but which now became ubiquitous and all-powerful.
Into the deep furrows which Mazzini had made in Italian soil
Pius IX. had scattered broadcast, instead of the fabled dragon's teeth
Bown by Jason, gracious acts of clemency and promises of reform ;
and lo ! from out the laboring earth and ever-increasing din sprang
an armed multitude with their " eyes and lips in a set smile, turned
full " on the expectant pontiff. He vainly fancied that the words
"reform" and "reconciliation" cast among them would have the
effect of Jason's magic ball on the monstrous " earth-born ; " that it
would rid Italy for ever of the presence of secret societies, by taking
away all pretext for obscure conspiracies.
"So wild was the enthusiasm," says Legge, "that the Pope, by
special edict, counseled moderation, when it immediately abated.
The wish of the Holy Father was a command. Great preparations
had been made for continued illuminations and processions by the
people, who, proverbially lovers of pageantry, were now inspired
with the fervor of political excitement superadded to personal devo-
tion. But the whole were abandoned, and nothing seemed to afford
the Pope more gratification than this unanimous and cheerful mani-
festation of loyalty. He professed himself encouraged thereby to
Sincere Desire of the Pope to Reform, 103
perseyere in his great work of reform in Churcli and State. Prob-
ably be did not fully estimate the difficulties of his position."
Louis Philippe and his prime minister Guizot were so gratified
by the Pope's sincere wish to grant all needful reforms, that the
Prince de Joinville was sent to Eome to compliment his Holiness
and to bring him cordial assurance of sympathy and support from
the Prench gOYcrnment. At this very juncture the idea of a politi-
cal league, binding together all the Italian sovereigns, and enabling
Italy to act as a unit in her relations with other powers, though
originating with the Pope, was first openly advocated by Gioberti,
and widely and warmly discussed in the press and in the clubs. The
idea, just when the Pope was beginning in detail practical reforms in
all matters not needing special legislation, and while he was maturing
still more important changes in the administration and judiciary,
was most inopportune and calamitous. It tended to depreciate in
popular estimation what he was doing, and proposed further to do,
in order to point the hopes of the masses toward the fascinating
vision of a united country.
In the diplomatic correspondence published by the French govern-
ment, as well as in Guizot's own last works, we have authentic infor-
mation as to what Pius IX. really aimed at during these first months
of his reign. The visit of the Prince de Joinville, the warm sym-
pathy of Louis Philippe and his minister, and the Pope's personal
liking for Count Eossi, all inclined him to place unreserved confi-
dence in the latter. After indicating the abuses which must at once
be corrected, and the steps by which the people should be trained to
constitutional government, Pius, says Count Eossi, continued : "This
is what I can do, and must accomplish. A Pope has no business to
plunge into Utopian schemes. Would you believe it, there are peo-
ple who speak of an Italian league with the Pope at the head of it ?
As if such a thing were possible ! These are chimeras." "Indeed,"
I replied (continues Eossi), "your Holiness has other matters that
demand your attention at present. You have marked out the path
you intend to pursue, and better results will follow : the putting a
stop to abuses, which I fear are numerous, and the introduction of
regularity and order, such, I think, is the wish of your Holiness."
"You are right," said the Pope; "such is my full intention. I
must, in the first place, restore our finances ; but I want a little time
for that." "No one," replied Count Eossi, "expects from your
Holiness precipitate measures; the essential point is to let it be
104 ^{/^ of Pope Pms IX.
known that they are in active operation. The confidence of the pub-
lic has been gained ; they will wait with gratitude and respect." *
Meanwhile the King of Naples, with most of the inferior soyereigns
of Italy, had taken alarm at the commotion produced throughout the
Peninsula by the liberal measures and reforming tendencies of Pius
IX. Those who were connected by blood with the Lorraine-Haps-
burgs, looked naturally to Vienna for support and protection. Judg-
ing from the growing excitement of the Young Italy League, and
the feverish agitation which pervaded every city in their respective
dominions, they felt that a storm was rising which it would tax their
utmost to resist. In this conjuncture a joint note was sent to the
emperor, calling his serious attention to what was happening in the
Roman States. This was toward the end of July.
On the 30th of that month Cardinal Gizzi was appointed Secretary
of State, to the great joy of the Eomans and to the no small annoy-
ance of the representatives of Austrian power or feeling. Then were
invented the odious terms of "Gregorians" and "Pians," designat-
ing respectively the persons supposed or known to be opposed to the
new administration, and its avowed friends. These nicknames, orig-
inating in the clubs, only indicated the spirit which animated their
members, a spirit that brooked neither opposition to its own aims,
nor even moderation in such as promoted them. It drove, by its
diatribes, more than one generous-minded influential person into the
ranks of the ultra-Conservatives. We need not remind the reader
that such a spirit was the worst enemy of Pius IX. and of Italy.
No little exasperation was caused by the almost simultaneous
elevation to the cardinalate of Monsignor Marini, the unpopular
governor of Rome under Gregory, and who continued to hold the
same office under his successor.
Not far from the spot on which the glorious child-martyr St.
Agnes was protected from evil by the intolerable brightness of a
miraculous light, is the Piazza di Pasquino, so called because there
formerly lived a tailor of that name, renowned and dreaded all over
Rome for his bitter wit. Thither every morning the lovers of scan-
dal resorted to hear Pasquino lampoon every unpopular personage,
from the Pope to the muleteer. His little shop in course of time was
occupied by a palace, at one corner of which was placed on a pedestal
the mutilated trunk of an ancient statue, and to this every night the
♦ Demien Jours du r^gne de Louis Philippe. Guizot
Pius IX, not Sixtus V, io5
Roman wits were wont to pin their lampoons. So that the statue
became popularly known as Pasquino.
No sooner had the unpopular Marini been promoted to his high
dignity than Pasquino suggested on the morrow that the next best
candidate for the Roman purple was the hangman.
The pungency of the sarcasm might hayeleft no sting behind were
it not that the most experienced and sagacious politicians saw, in the
desire to conciliate the extremists of both parties, an evidence of
that weakness of purpose incapable of steadily pursuing the needful
course regardless of all contradiction.
Sixtus V. — to whom many were wont to compare Pius IX. — in
the beginning of his pontificate also set out as a reformer, and in the
most discouraging circumstances. But no fear or favor could turn
him from his way. He had forbidden carrying arms in Rome, and
four brothers having laughed at the prohibition, and carried their
arquebuses openly in the streets, were hanged within the twenty-four
hours in spite of all the remonstrance from citizens and cardinals.
They told him it was an evil omen to have a criminal executed be-
fore the coronation ceremony ; but he made the solemn processional
pageant pass almost beneath the scaffold from which the four bodies
were dangling.
Was it possible to Pius IX. to carry things with so high a hand as
Sixtus V. ? No, most assuredly. In the latter half of the sixteenth
century, though a great portion of Christendom had separated from
the Holy See, it could still count on the support of all the Catholic
powers in every case where its temporal independence was threat-
ened, or where intestine revolt rendered the administration of his
States impossible to the common father. Far different were the
circumstances in which Pius IX. began his pontificate. The age
had passed forever when a Pope could rely on the Christian sov-
ereigns for support or encouragement. Prance and Austria con-
tended for the protectorate of Italy ; and we know that to lean on
either was to lean on a broken reed.
Pius IX. did fearlessly proceed with the reforms and improve-
ments he had entered on so conscientiously, and which shall be enu-
merated in the next chapter. Before closing this, however, we
must offset the terrible justice of Sixtus V. with one act which
paints to the life the character of Pius, and speaks most eloquently
of that all-embracing charity of the Yicar of Christ, to which every
human being is an object of fatherly care.
io6 Life of Pope Pius IX.
As in Imola, so in Eome, Pius would go into the streets simply
dressed and with few or no attendants, seeking the most neglected
portions of the city for his walks or his visits, and wishing to see
with his own eyes where light and air were most needed, or souls
were most in want of spiritual aid. The Ghetto, the Jews' quarter,
had been the scene of many a charitable excursion in his younger
days ; he knew of its squalor and many pitiful discomforts, and was
planning a change. One day a wretched old creature stopped him
to lay before him his sore distress. Perhaps he was one of the many
who yearly spend their little all in making a pilgrimage to Palestine,
and after pouring out their tears, their prayers, their longings on the
ruins of their once glorious temple, find their way back to die among
their kind in some Christian land, where they experience but little of
Christian charity.
The Pope paused to listen to the story of his poor petitioner,
and placed a large alms in his hand, with loying words of comfort
that were ever ready. Thereupon an attendant reminded his Holi-
ness that the recipient of his kindness was a Jew. *^ What does that
matter?" was the quick reproof ; **it is a man." The act and the
words were not forgotten. They kindled hope and love in every
house and every heart of the Ghetto. It was only a beginning,
however. Ere a new year dawned that down-trodden race received
from their sovereign and father splendid proofs of a liberality and
kindness which should suffice to immortalize a prince even in the
absence of political genius and transcendent success.
CHAPTER X.
False Notioks about the backwaed State of Italy — To what
CAUSES Decay akd Stagkatiok should be Traced — Strat-
egy OF THE EaDICALS: KEVER to be satisfied with Al^Y
Co^-cession" of Pius IX. — Scientific Congress ik Gei^-oa
converted into a Revolutionary Convention — Calami-
ties THAT AID THE MaZZINIAN AgITATION : SCARCITY OF
Food, and Riots — The Pope takes Possession of St. John
Lateran.
JULY-NOVEMBEE, 1846.
AMERICANS visiting Italy before the year 1861, and passing
along the ordinary highways of travel, were but too apt to
draw unfair conclusions from what they saw. Though agriculture
was far from neglected, and, in most places — as along both slopes of
the Apennines — most admirable in the ingenuity displayed and in
the results obtained, still they were apt to disparage the old-fashioned
methods and implements in use. But what struck these superficial
observers most was the stagnation that pervaded the cities, and the
decay that seemed to have fallen like a pall on everything once mag-
nificent or beautiful. They were particularly shocked with the ap-
parent absence of manufacturing industry and commercial enterprise.
Their own new, peaceful, and prosperous country, inviting emi-
grants to its virgin soil, its thrifty manufactures, its vast and ever-
extending lines of canals and railways, with every invention that
could economize time and dispense with manual labor, was the stand-
ard by which civilization and prosperity in other lands were measured,
and Italy's backwardness condemned. Forgetful that nearly three-
quarters of a century of peace, with ample room for development
over an entire continent, had enabled the United States to grow, to
spread, and to advance in all the arts of peace, these hasty and ill-
informed critics forgot as well that during all that time Italy — the
Papal States especially — ^had been the battle-field of armies, which
again and again devastated the land and robbed its inhabitants of
107
io8 Life of Pope Pius IX,
the hoarded wealth of centuries, or had been upset by intestine
revolutions and systematic agitations scarcely less fatal to thrift,
industry, or enterprise.
It had been cruel injustice, in 1789, to hold Pius VI. responsible
for the absence of a large import trade in his States, when his people
in reality possessed in their home-industries and native resources a
superabundant supply for every need, while the American republic
was just beginning to recover from the terrible effects of her long
war of independence. It had been far more unjust and more cruel
to attribute to the selfishness or unprogressiveness of priestly rule the
heritage of disorder, ruin, poverty, and discontent which Pius YIL
received from his predecessor, and which was but the direct and
intended result of the atrocious French invasion and occupation.
Every one knows how this manifold misery was increased a hun-
dred-fold by the Napoleonic rule, and how heroically, after his re-
storation, Pius strove, and strove in vain, to remedy the irremediable
evil. Was not this hopeless disorder and bankruptcy bequeathed
successively as an heirloom to every one of his three successors ?
And were not the French the first to censure, to decry, to irritate,
where they should have taken all the blame to themselves, and for
very shame endeavored to encourage and stimulate the papal govern-
ment in its continued effort at solid improvement ?
Was the Ninth Pius to blame because the finances of the Roman
States were in a seemingly hopeless disorder ? or because the public
mind was so unsettled that it would not be contented with any one
plan of reform — so directed by the men who created and ruled public
opinion, that no possible concession could be accepted or acceptable
short of the utter demolition of the existing social fabric ?
All — no matter what their race or creed — ^who still cling to the
truths of Revelation, and believe in the saving virtue of Christian
morality, should open their eyes at length to the fact that the motive-
force of revolution in the Roman States, or, indeed, in all Italy, is
not so imicli legitimate discontent at existing political imperfections
or ac'knowK'dged misgovcrnment, as hostility to all supernatural
religion and a fierce determination to get rid of it, even by the
cxtormination of its ministers and professors.
lIciK (• we must bo prepared to find that while the Pope and his
ministers are straining every nerve to effect all needful and beneficial
changes, the clubs have been working on the mind of the masses in
such a way as to make them seek something beyond these very
Strategy of the Radicals — Reforms, 109
reforms tliey were clamoring for a day or two previously. The sin-
cere and devoted efforts of Pius and his associates, and the hidden
irresistible force that counteracted all their efforts, remind one of
what is said of the terrible and destructive industry of the white
ants. A man builds his home in some lovely tract of the primeval
forest, planning comfort and plenty for his dear ones, and a sure
shelter from heat and cold and storm. Every material in his house
is the choicest the forest affords, and it is wrought with a skillful
and loving hand, making everything within and without appear as
beautiful as it is substantial.
But lo ! while the master and his family are at their labor abroad,
and while they are enjoying in fancied security the sleep that re-
creates body and mind for the morrow, these invisible legions are
busy on every part of the framework of that building, on every por-
tion of its beautiful furniture, eating away its substance and leav-
ing nothing but a shell, till an accident — the first blast from the
approaching tempest — causes that home to crumble about the ears
of its inmates.
The Pope was not blind to the hidden and potent influence of the
Young Italy League and its affiliated "sects," through the clubs,
now become the usual resort of "the people," that is, of the dregs of
the city populations, and of the men of the middle classes who were
impatient to climb into place and power, no matter by what means.
Amid the splendid pageantry of his coronation he was heard to
say, while the multitude shouted with joyous acclaim, and friends
expressed their congratulations, " It is only the beginning of perse-
cution ! "
The prevision of what he deemed inevitable did not in anywise
damp his zeal in undertaking, or his ardor in carrying out, what he
deemed necessary to the security of the government and the welfare
of all classes.
The condition of the treasury and the burdens which pressed so
heavily on the laboring men were the first subjects of his attention.
The French, beside having drained the country again and again of
all its revenues, had left it burdened with a hopeless load of debt.
Not satisfied with collecting with a pitiless rigor the revenues and
taxes of the present year, they anticipated on the future, farming
out to greedy monopolists every branch of revenue, trade, and
industry.
Against this ruinous and oppressive system Pope after Pope had
1 10 Life of Pop d Pius IX,
struggled in Tain. The gigantic effort at financial reform inaugu-
rated by Leo XII. had only a very doubtful and partial success ;
the fierce enmity that his reforms created among the wealthy and
powerful monopolists gave rise to suspicions of poisoning, which
gained more or less credit with the public.
It is certain that the bitter hostility of these same monopolists, and
of the old officials, thwarted in their habitual prevarications or dis-
placed for misconduct, was one main cause of the calamities that
soon assailed the pontifical government. The Pope did not hesitate
a moment to do his duty for all that.
"The* import duties on cotton, woolen, and silk manufactured
goods were reduced, on an average, fifty per cent. But thus far all
such reductions and reforms had failed to check the annual deficit,
which had been constantly increasing for the past sixteen years, and
Pius was reasonably alarmed. . . . He now boldly broached the
subject of an income-tax, and announced the abolition of the tax
upon flour on the expiration of the existing monopoly, also a dimi-
nution of the duty on salt, the very last commodity upon which
duties should be levied." — Legge,
The author cannot do better, on this topic, than quote his own
words from another work : *' The Pope appointed commissions com-
posed of eminent Italian jurists to inquire into needed reforms ;
he reduced his own household expenses, abolished all pensions not
granted for great public services, imposed a three-years' tax on all
benefices and wealthy church corporations, reduced the taxes, char-
tered railroad and telegraph companies, declared Sinigaglia and
Ancona free ports of entry, stimulated home manufactures, and
encouraged the formation of agricultural societies. He commanded
that all the waste lands between Ostia and Porto d' Anzio should be
prepared to grow rice, and that the crop should be put in and
gathered at the expense of the treasury, one-half of the harvest being
destined for the poor ; and the waters of Lake Nemi were diverted
for the purpose of irrigating the rice fields." *
As we have seen in the first chapters of this book, the Pope was
bom in a province eminently distinguished from the earliest times
for its successful culture of all the useful and agreeable arts. The
Legations, the Marches, and Umbria have always been like a bee-
hive, swarming with an active and thrifty population, and intent on
♦ "American Cycloptpdia," vol. xili., p. 661.
Reforms — Noisy Demonstrations, iii
making the most of all tlie gifts of nature. "Wherever Pius had been
he had shown a keen interest in the local industries, making himself
thoroughly acquainted with all the resources of the country around,
and encouraging their development to the utmost. No sooner had
he been made sovereign than he exerted himself in furthering still
more manufactures and industries of every kind. For the railways
which he contemplated he wished to avail himself of the native ores
of Italy and its splendid water-power. Thus, for instance, he had
vast iron-works established at Tivoli, utilizing for his purpose the
falls of the Anio, and making frequent visits to the place to stimulate
both overseers and workmen.
*^He also authorized the opening of reading-rooms and mechanics'
clubs, founded a central normal school for the education of trades-
men, patronized scientific congresses, and provided free lodging-
houses for the homeless. He showed like zeal for the reform of ec-
clesiastical institutions, visited in disguise or at unexpected moments
the monasteries, schools, hospitals, and prisons of Eome, and went
about the streets on foot without the usual guards and attend-
ants. " *
In all this he did not conceal that he was copying the admirable
examples set him by Leo XII. His popularity, or the '^ commanded "
enthusiasm of the idle multitude went on increasing, and profited by
every religious celebration in the city to get up a demonstration in
his honor. At the head of all these noisy outpourings of sentiment
were invariably found the tools of the Young Italy clubs, and fore-
most among them was one Angelo Brunetti, nicknamed Oicerua-
chio, from his gift of ready and pompous speech, and whose daring,
boisterous good-nature and Eoman cunning had made him the idol
of the populace and a most useful agent of the clubs. It was in vain
that Pius strove to repress or moderate these noisy gatherings ; he
soon found that the wild beast whose cage he had broken could not
be restrained from roaring when it saw him and from licking his
hand in public. But any attempt to check its unwelcome affection
only made it show its teeth and claws.
While Eome was getting ready for the great ceremony of the
Pope's taking solemn possession of St. John Lateran, the cathedral
of Eome, and the first in dignity of all churches in the Catholic
world, Genoa was preparing to hold a ^^ scientific congress,'' com-
* lUdem.
1 1 2 Life of Pope Pius IX.
posed of the most distinguished men of Italy and other learned men
from foreign countries.
As the event proved, this assemblage was not intended for the ad-
vancement of any of the purposes of science ; the name was a blind,
under cover of which the revolutionists had resolved to meet and
discuss the necessity and the means of immediate ** action." All,
indeed, were not revolutionists. Farini, and men who, like liim,
wished to see Italy rise to a position that should for ever prevent her
from being overrun and despoiled by any one of her powerful neigh-
bors, did not look beyond an Italy forming under its own lawful
princes, and these only, a confederation, or, if that were impractica-
ble, one strong constitutional government, which should be carried
on for the people and through the people. Even the most moderate
of these were in favor of doing away, in the Eoman States, with an
administration carried on exclusively or principally by churchmen.
They did not want to dethrone the Pope ; but they would have him
govern by a constitution administered by laymen. It is not to be
denied that this strong and numerous wing of the congress of Genoa
was influenced by Piedmontese statesmen and publicists, whose
avowed or secret purpose was the formation of an Italian kingdom
under the Carignan-Savoy dynasty. In their opinion the reforms
inaugurated by the Pope, the liberal measures which his example
forced upon the other sovereigns of Italy, and the plots and agita-
tion of Mazzini and his associates, must in the end forward the supre-
macy of Piedmont.
But the man who really though invisibly presided over this con-
gress of Genoa was Mazzini. It was his followers who dared to
utter the living words of national independence and a united Italy,
which thrilled every soul there, and sent all these men to their homes
with the firm determination so to shape and direct events and move-
ments in the Peninsula that Italian liberty and unity should be the
inevitable result.
It was remarkable that in this congress the ominous name of
Bonaparte became unblushingly conspicuous in the person of the
Prince of Canino, the son and heir of Lucien Bonaparte, who had
been created a prince by Pius VII. At the same time a cousin of this
same Canino, Louis Napoleon, was the favored guest of Lord Pal-
merston and the English nobility, while the foreign secretary was
secretly preparing the revolution which soon afterward hurled Louis
Philippe from his throne, in revenge of the contemplated Spanish
Calamities that helped the Mazzinian Agitation, 113
marriages, and to preyent, in future, a French protectorate over
Switzerland and Italy. Both the Prince of Canino and his cousin
were members of the Young Italy and Young Europe leagues,
pledged solemnly to further the objects of the conspirators if ever
they should be placed in power.
Of Canino's action in the Congress of Genoa, Legge speaks as fol-
lows : '^ Courageously ignoring his not irreproachable antecedents,
which had isolated him in turn from every section of his compatriots,
the prince caught the prevailing ferment, insulted the memory of
Gregory, sneered at the Jesuits, and ran wild in praise of the new
Pontiff, in whose dethronement he was destined to become conspicu-
ously instrumental."
Thus the ** Scientific Congress" of Genoa was in reality a revolu-
tionary convention, from which men went back to their homes bent
on regenerating Italy politically ; the Eadicals pledged to make
of her a republic after their own heart, without king, or pope, or
church, and with one single chamber combining the functions of
legislature. Judiciary, and executive.
And so the coming events cast their portentous shadows over the
land.
It was a most fitting opportunity for Mazzini to publish boldly
the manifesto partly reproduced in a preceding chapter. Its direc-
tions had been acted upon most faithfully up to that hour, the suc-
cess which attended them, and the impunity now enjoyed by the
conspirators, encouraged their chief to give them publicity, and
thereby to recommend their adoption wherever revolution was to
prepare the downfall of Christianity.
Unforeseen calamities came to assist the agitation thus devised, and
to precipitate the movement. The scarce harvest of the year 1845,
was followed in 1846 by another not much more abundant ; there
was dearth in consequence and fears of a famine. These apprehen-
sions were artfully exaggerated by the liberal press. The papal gov-
ernment had just destroyed the monopoly in grain and flour, but it
served the purpose of the agitators to make the evil-minded among
the people believe that the scarcity was caused by the government.
In reality there had been a good average crop in Umbria and the
Marches, though it fell below the average elsewhere. The govern-
ment, moreover, had thrown open its ports to the free importation of
foreign bread-stuffs, and had established deposits of cheap provisions
in the districts where the dearth prevailed. But the fancy of the
1 1 4 Life of Pope Pius IX.
populace in the cities was inflamed by the events of the past months,
and their passionate nature exploded in rioting, violence, and blood-
shed. The bitter denunciations of the clubs and the invectives of
the demagogic press held up the government to unqualified hatred,
while sparing or praising the person and intentions of the sovereign.
The Piedmontese liberal party now began to show their hand,
and to discover their ultimate purpose. Massimo d'Azeglio, whoso
works of fiction, all inculcating the lessons of Young Italy, had
made him very popular, hastened to publish, after the first risings
in Bologna and the Campagna, a work * in which he attributed these
calamities of scarcity of food, and all the ills under which the
Eoman States were suffering, to clerical rule, contrasting the impro-
vident and despotic government of priests with the security and
plenty with which Piedmont was blessed under a lay government.
This publication was circulated widely, and served, wherever it was
read, as a text for passionate declamation against the Holy See, the
speakers or writers affecting to distinguish between the person of
the pontiff and the system of which he was the head.
Meanwhile Gizzi was displaying untiring energy in his endeavors
to carry out the Holy Father's measures of reform ; nor was his labor
pursued without serious and violent opposition. It became appar-
ent, as the autumn advanced, as the doings of the Congress of Genoa
became known, and Mazzini's manifesto, with the pamplilet of
d'Azeglio, found their way to the reading public, that much as the
Pope had done to satisfy the Liberals, still more and more must be
conceded if he would have peace. Those among the Conservatives
who had reasoned themselves into believing concession timely or
necessary, now began to review their own reasoning. But the Pope
doubted not, or acted as if he doubted not. At any rate, he resolved
to put a stop to the frequent and noisy gatherings held under one
pretext or another in Eome and the provinces. Mazzini's strategy
was revealed to the public ; the Pope, however, disdained to notice
the cowardly assassin or his plans, and found a far better reason in
the very scarcity of money and dearth of provisions which had been
made the pretext of sedition and bloodshed.
Cardinal Gizzi, according to Mr. Petre, the English charge ^af.
fairea in Rome, issued an instruction to the governors of provinces
recommending them "to represent, as occasion may offer, to the
* OH UUimi Can di Romagna.
The Pope takes Possession of St. John Lateran. 1 1 5
populations under their charge, how seriously these frequent assem-
blages must interfere with the good order and economy of families,
and how much more agreeable it would be to the feelings of his
Holiness if the moneys collected for future rejoicings were to be
reserved for the relief of distress during the coming winter."
This was in October; on the 8th of November the Pope took
possession of St. John Lateran. The solemnities usual on this
occasion had ever been the most splendid known to Christian Rome.
The first church, built on the site of the present grand basilica, by
Constantino, was dedicated by Pope St. Sylvester, on November the
9th, 324. The emperor himself — so the tradition runs — worked
among the masons. It was dedicated to St. John the Baptist, and
was thus the first cathedral church of Eome, becoming thereby
the first in dignity in the Christian world; and the adjoining
palace was for a thousand years the ordinary residence of the Popes,
as the school attached to it was the most renowned in Italy for
sacred learning.
That November morning on which Pius IX. went to be enthroned
in his cathedral shone gloriously on the gorgeous pageant. For
all Rome was there, and Rome seemed not to know how she
could sufficiently testify to her sovereign her grateful attachment.
"When the state chariot appeared," writes Whitefield, "the ac-
clamations rang loud and universal. His Holiness seemed deeply
affected by sounds rarely (?) heard by his predecessors. He is a
man of fifty-four years of age, healthy in appearance, somewhat
flushed in countenance, of an amiable aspect, with intelligence
expressed on his brow. . . .
"We are now before the celebrated Basilica of St. John Lateran.
In this place were assembled 50,000 people at least, countless car-
riages, the whole garrison of Rome, and all the persons who were
engaged in the ceremonial. . . .
"I passed to the piazza in front of the Basilica to witness the
giving of the blessing. . . . The Pope is carried in his por-
tative throne to the front window above the great portal of the
church, the huge windows are removed, an awning raised, and
decorations of arras and gold-wrought draperies spread around.
The pontiff can plainly be seen by the multitude in the piazza as he
is borne forward. ... At a signal the cannons fire, the music
breaks forth, the Pope raises his hand, the troops kneel, and some of
the people, in profound silence. The spectacle is most imposing ;
1 1 6 Life of Pope Pius IX.
but on this occasion the shouts of thousands of grateful people gave
a life to the ceremony without which it had been cold, and of the
vast multitude assembled every individual exhibited the joy of his
heart. The Pope raised himself and stood upright for some min-
utes before the people, the triple crown on his head ; this was the
signal for fresh acclamations. He gave the blessing, waving his
hand in the form of a cross. A burst of enthusiasm followed, the
cannons thundered, the music sounded, drums, trumpets, and peal-
ing of bells joined with the people in one mighty chorus, and the
pageant was over/'
CHAPTER XL
Ecclesiastical Acts of Pius IX. : Fiest Ekctclical to the
Hierarchy foeeshadowikg the chief TEACHiifrGS of his
Pontificate — In^ukdatioks in Kome — Fatherly Charity
OF THE Pope — His Generosity toward the Jewish Suf-
ferers — The Inundations, like the Corn Eiots, made a
Grievance against the Pontifical Government — Cele-
bration AT Genoa — Growing Discontent of Austria.
November-December, 1846.
THE close of the year 1846 was marked by two events deserving
of special notice — the publication on November 9th of the Pope's
first encyclical to the hierarchy of the Church, and the calamitous
inundation of the Tiber, which called forth the fatherly generosity
of the pontiff.
Pius had very properly deferred his expected address to the mem-
bers of the hierarchy till he had taken official possession of his
cathedral church. The document itself was assailed with the most
bitter and unjust criticism in a portion of the European press, while
Catholics everjrw^here received it with veneration.
To the serious student of history, to the theologian, and to the
statesman this encyclical must offer, when read attentively and
compared with the doctrinal acts of the long reign of Pius IX., a
most striking instance of uninterrupted unity of thought and teach-
ing. There is not an error condemned in the "Syllabus" that is
not proscribed here ; not a truth taught by implication in this great
doctrinal judgment, or affirmed explicitly in the two dogmatic con-
stitutions published up to July 18, 1870, in the Council of the
Vatican, that is not found in this prophetic address to the teach-
ing body in the Church. Persons who may have felt, in measuring
the length of his pontificate and recalling the many doctrinal ques-
tions forced upon him for decision, disposed to think that Pius IX.
had not been consistent with himself as the supreme teacher in
117
1 1 8 Life of Pope Pius IX.
the Church, or in accord with his predecessors, will be convinced,
after a comparison of his utterances one with another, and with
those of other Popes, that one and the same voice ever speaks from
the chair of Peter.
There is something very touching in the manner in which he who
now holds on earth the place of the Good Shepherd recalls to his
fellow-bishops the occupations and duties of the charge so well filled
at Imola and Spoleto.
"During many years, venerable brothers, we endeavored after
your example to fulfill as best we might the laborious and anxious
duties of the episcopal office, feeding the flock intrusted to us on the
hill-sides of Israel in the richest pasture grounds and near the liv-
ing waters, when lo ! the death of our illustrious predecessor, Greg-
ory XVL, . . . called us to the sovereign pontificate, very
unexpectedly to ourselves, and by some hidden design of Provi-
dence. ... If the burden of the apostolic ministry must at all
times be looked upon with awe and apprehension, the difficulties
and perils of the present should make it still more formidable.
. . . Wherefore, the consciousness of our own weakness and
of the awful weight of this supreme responsibility amid all these
dangers, should have moved us to tears and discouragement, had we
not placed our hope in that Saviour-God who never forsakes such
as trust in him, and who displays his might by making use of the
most unfit instruments in governing his Church, in order that
all men may know thereby that it is he who rules and protects
her. . . .
'* Hence, from the first hour in which we were placed in this
exalted seat of the prince of the apostles, and received the charge
delivered to him by the eternal Prince of Pastors, of feeding and
governing not only the "lambs" of the flock, that is, the whole
Christian people, but also the "sheep," namely, the bishops, we
yearned to address you in the fullness of our charity and affec-
tion."
The twofold idea of his pressing duty toward "the Christian
people," and toward their "pastors," comprises the whole of this
beautiful letter. In the first part are pointed out the dangers which
threaten the fold of Christ from the various errors of the day and
the associations formed to combat revelation, the Church, and
civil society ; in the second ho urges on the bishops zeal, the ex-
ample of a holy life, the formation of a truly pious, learned, and
^ First Encyclical, 119
exemplary priesthood, and reminds sovereigns tliat it is their duty
and interest to support and defend religion if they would have sub-
jects enlightened and obedient from conscientious conviction.
*'In this our age a fierce and terrible war is waged against every
portion of the Catholic fold by men linked in guilty fellowship,
. . . who disentomb from the darkness all the most mon-
strous shapes of error and industriously disseminate them. . . .
These haters of truth and light, these skillful artificers of fraud, labor
to extinguish in men's minds every tendency toward piety, justice,
and honor, to corrupt morals, to confound all notions of divine and
human right, ... to overturn from their bases the Catholic
religion and civil society. . . . "
** These deadly enemies of the Christian name . . . pub-
licly teach that the mysteries of our religion are fables invented by
man ; that tlie doctrine of the Catholic Church is opposed to the
welfare of society ; . . . they deny Christ himself, and the very
existence of God ; . . . they claim exclusively to know the way
to true prosperity, and to be called philosophers. . . .
"They cease not to appeal to reason, and to set it above the faith
inculcated by Christ, pronouncing the one to be contrary to the
other. . . . Whereas both are streams from the one eternal
fountain of truth.
" They would have the progress and development which obtained
in human things prevail also in the Catholic religion, the work of
God, not to be perfected by human genius. . . . It is a religion
revealed by God to man, deriving all its force from the authority of
the revealer, . . . allowing human reason to inquire into the
fact of revelation, and claiming the assent and obedience of reason
once that fact has been ascertained. . . ."
Then follow the arguments by which reason can convince itself
that the Christian religion has God for its author. But this reve-
lation is guarded and expounded by a living authority, indefectibly
present in the Church built by Christ on Peter, and speaking "in-
fallibly " through him in his successors, seated on his chair.
The doctrine propounded here is almost identical in substance and
expression with the chapter in the Constitution, Pastor uEternus,
prefacing the decree on the "teaching office of the Eoman pontiff,"
and defining his infallibility. It was received without a murmur of
dissent by every bishop in the Catholic world.
The "secret societies" which conspire against "the Roman chair
1 20 Life of Pope Phcs IX,
of the blessed Peter " are next pointed out ; ^* societies emerging from
their native darkness for the ruin and desolation of the community,
and again and again condemned by the Roman pontiffs. . . ."
"This also is the tendency and design of the insidious Bible so-
cieties, which, borrowing the arts of the heretics of old, cease not to
obtrude upon all kinds of people . . . copies in vast number
of. the sacred Scriptures, translated, in violation of the most religious
rules of the Church, into living languages, and accompanied fre-
quently with perverse and erroneous interpretations, ... to the
end that, . . . the authority of the Church being set aside,
every man may interpret the revealed word of the Almighty in con-
formity with his own private judgment, . . . which societies,
emulous of his predecessor, Gregory XVI reproveth,
. . . and we desire equally to condemn."
This censure of the Bible societies in connection with the '^secret
societies " caused a great outcry among Protestants in Europe and
America. "We have already mentioned the condemnation pronounced
by Gregory. The '* Christian League's" connection with the Italian
conspirators cannot now be denied. In August, 1846, the *' Evan-
gelical Alliance " was inaugurated in England ; its avowed object was
to combat and uproot Catholicism. Its members were very wary at
first about admitting that they were in sympathy or in co-operation
with the Italian Liberals, still less with Young Italy. But the
reports published by their successive international conferences no
longer permits any one to doubt that fact. They have been every-
where in communion with secret societies, and have co-operated
with them at home and abroad. They boasted in after years of the
harm they had done to the cause of the Papacy in Italy, and of the
conquests they had made among its populations.
Was not Pius IX. well inspired when he involved them in the same
condemnation?
The pestilential indifference or skepticism about all religious faith
and practice; the ''conspiracy against the celibacy of the clergy,"
set on foot in Germany, encouraged by shameless priests in Italy,
and promoted by the civil power ; and then the spreading plague of
** communism " are denounced to the vigilance of the bishops.
The manifold evil done by the deluge of bad books that were made
everywhere the vehicle of error and immorality, and the efficient
auxiliaries of the conspirators; the unbridled license of uttering
through the press the most monstrous errors and of sapping the
Teachings of the Encyclical, 121
foundations of domestic, civil, and religious order, are proscribed in
advance of the '^ Syllabus."
The bishops — in the second part — are exhorted to renewed zeal in
defending every holy interest threatened by all these enemies. They
are to instruct their respective flocks with untiring care, enlighten-
ing and confirming them in the faith, laying bare to them the snares
and artifices of the adversaries of religion, giving their hearers the
example of meekness and humility of heart. ^' Do not fail in the
spirit of gentleness and meekness, with fatherly warning and advice,
to correct, reprove, entreat, or rebuke, in all kindness, teaching
patiently those whom you find straying from the path, ... as
loving words are more efficacious in correcting than authority, en-
treaty more than threatening, and charity than force."
This had ever been his own rule ; these were the exhortations often
addressed to his priests, at Imola, and they fell from his heart on that
of every bishop in the Church.
The sweet virtues to be inculcated on the laity are '^ charity and
peace," the avoidance of *^all dissensions, enmities, strife, and jeal-
ousy;" the enforcement of "all due obedience toward sovereigns
and persons in power," and all this, because it is God's will, and that
its observance insures every temporal blessing.
"You will, in that wisdom which distinguishes you, perceive that
it will behoove you to use great zeal and care that in the clergy
shine forth gravity of manners, integrity of life, holiness, and learn-
ing ; that ecclesiastical discipline, where it has fallen off, may
be restored to its former splendor, and where it exists, it may be
strictly preserved." "Admit to the administration of holy things
those only who, after strict examination and careful trial, show that
they possess all virtues, and that . . . they may become to your
dioceses both of use and ornament. . . ."
Science, as well as spotless purity of life, is an indispensable re^
quisite in God's minister. Those who are to preach his word must
be deeply penetrated with its meaning and spirit ; no effort must be
spared by the bishops to have the truths of the Gospel announced
"in clear and intelligible language, yet in a style full of dignity,"
"so that by full explanations of each one's duties all may be turned
away from crime and won to piety, . . . may abstain from all
vices and practice all virtues."
Xoble words conclude this exhortation to the bishops: "In the
midst of so many pei-plexities, difficulties, and dangers inseparable
12 2 Life of Pope Puts IX.
from your charge in these times, let no fear cast you down ; but
seeking strength in the Lord, and trusting to the power of his grace,
bethink you how from heaven his eyes ever follow those who con-
tend for the glory of his name, applauding nobly those who nobly
Tcnture, aiding those who fight, and crowning those who conquer."
To Catholic sovereigns and governments there is a brief and preg-
nant reminder '' that power was given them not only for the govern-
ment of their subjects, but especially for the defense of the Church,
and that we maintain in the cause of the Church that of their king-
doms and of their salvation. . . ."
Then presenting himself with his fellow-bishops before the
throne of grace, he beseeches the Father of Mercies, by the merits
of his only Son, *'to cast over our weakness the fullness of his gifts,
to make the faith flourish everywhere with truth and
piety, self-denial and peace, . . . that the Church may enjoy
her longed-for liberty, and that there may be but one flock and one
Shepherd."
In that presence he invokes as intercessors with the divine ma-
jesty "the most holy Mother of God, the Immaculate Virgin Mary,
our most sweet mother," "and all the saints of heaven, who are
already crowned and bear the palm of victory, that they may obtain
for all Christian people the treasures of the divine mercy."
Such was the first solemn appeal of the chief pastor to the entire
flock of Christ, bespeaking the great qualities of mind and heart
which were to shine forth in his government of the Church for so
many memorable years. AVe have now to see these same qualities of
prince, father, and good shepherd in active operation amid the sud-
den distress of liis Roman subjects.
The summer of 184G had been remarkable for its excessive and
protracted heat, and had melted the snow-fields of the Apennines,
and caused no little damage and dismay along all the water-courses.
With the autumn came heavy and continuous rains, swelling the
Anio and the Tiber, and making them everywhere overflow their
banks. In Rome the damage caused by the sudden inundation was
frightful. It fell most heavily on the Jewish population shut up in
a low, dark, and damp quarter near the river, and called the Ghetto.
Thoy had been first penned up there by the austere Paul IV.
(Caraflfa), whose nephews ground the despised race pitilessly, and for
that and other acts of tyranny and greed were beheaded under Pius IV.
Sixtus v., with whom Pius IX. was often compared during the first
Inundations at Rome, 123
years of tlie latter's pontificate, did away with many of the odious
restrictions placed upon the Jews. That great-souled Pope was
ahove the miserable prejudices that tended to keep the Hebrew race in
abject and perpetual bondage. ^^ They were," he was wont to say,
"the family from whom Christ sprung;" and should be held in
reyerence by all Christ's followers. It mattered not that the nation
or its magistrates in an evil hour had decreed the Saviour's death.
They had terribly suffered for the deed ; and their descendants
should not, generation after generation, be made to pay the penalty
over again.
Sixtus abrogated many of the laws which weighed so heavily on
them ; permitted them to practice the trades and industries with
which they were most familiar, to hold free intercourse with their
Christian fellow-citizens, to build houses, and have all the refining
and elevating sources of instruction and entertainment that could
raise them to an equality with any other class. This legislation was,
unfortunately, repealed or deeply modified afterward, leaving the
Jews downtrodden, disaffected, and ready (who could blame them?)
to join every scheme of revolution that promised to be successful.
Pius IX. inherited the large and liberal spirit of the terrible Six-
tus, with the gentle and winning virtues which would have availed
Sixtus but little in the "age of iron" in which he lived.
No sooner had the first tidings of the disaster caused by the in-
undation reached the ears of Pius IX., than he gave orders to see to
it at once that all needful measures of relief should be taken by the
government and the municipality. Hastening himself to the scene
of danger and distress, he distributed money with unsparing hand to
the poor people forced to fly from their homes by the rising waters.
Committees were soon organized under his supervision which pro-
vided the houseless with temporary shelter, with clothing, food, and
everything else that was most needed. The Pope commanded, more-
over, that an exact list of the sufferers should be made out, and
that full compensation from the treasury should at once be made to
them for their losses.
That his conduct on this occasion should win him the admiration
and love of his people was inevitable. But the gratitude of the dis-
tressed Jews was unbounded ; for he had shown especial sympathy
to them in their need.
His fatherly care of this portion of his subjects went further than
this ; he had the walls of the Ghetto razed, repealed the laws re-
124 Life of Pope Pius IX,
straining the liberty of the Jews and limiting them to their former
narrow and squalid quarter, and made them hope that a new era
had begun for them in Kome. Their affection for their benefactor
was manifested on every occasion, and was evidently sincere ; they,
too, were afterward carried away in the revolutionary current set
loose by Christian hands.
The ravages of the inundation were by no means confined to the
Jewish quarter and its immediate neighborhood. The flood covered
all but the more elevated portions of the city, creating general dis-
tress, and leaving behind it, when it subsided, not only the seeds of
disease, but those of a discontent as unjust as it was bitter against
the papal government. This discontent was carefully nursed by
'' the sects " and clubs. The calamity had befallen the city at tho
time when d'Azeglio's insidious pamphlet on the insurrections in
the Eomagna was read with avidity in Rome, and served as a ready
and fertile text for invectives against '^the priests." Just as
d'Azeglio had labored to trace to clerical rule the late scarcity and
the consequent disturbances, so now the orators of the clubs in-
veighed against the Roman government for not having foreseen the
unprecedented downfall of rain, and taken precautions against the
sudden and fearful inundations that followed.
All the splendid munificence and fatherly devotion to his people
displayed by Pius IX., and most generously emulated by the cardi-
nals, the ministers, the religious communities, and the entire body
of the Roman clergy, were studiously overlooked or disparaged, for
the purpose of holding up to hatred the imbecility and improvi-
dence of priestly government in general.
To be sure, tlie conspirators and their mouth-pieces affected to
draw a marked distinction between Pius IX. and his predecessors,
even between him and his ministers. But this odious distinction,-
while it seemed to relieve him of all responsibility for past abuses
and shortcomings, only tended to isolate him, to separate from him
his best counselors and most devoted servants, leaving him the sole
idol of *' the people's praise, till he became the helpless object of
their hatred."
And so, undismayed by the difficulties before him, and unde-
terred by these too-evident alternations of popular enthusiasm and
popular coldness, tho Pope continued his work of reform and im-
provement to the end of the year.
In the ovorll owing goodness and guileless simplicity of his heart
Efforts to Lnp7'ove Spiritual Condition of Romans. I25
he had imagined that he could make practical Christians of all the
^ men of Eome, as well of those who with Ciceruacchio shouted
themselves hoarse in his praise beneath the windows of the Quirinal
or around his carriage in the streets, as those who had just been
restored to freedom and the endearment of home by the amnesty, or
who conspired at the head-quarters of ^' the sects."
In mid-November a plenary indulgence was proclaimed in their
favor especially, and a stirring address from the Holy Father called
on them to reconcile themselves with God, and renew their souls by
the reception of the sacraments whose efficacy they had experienced
in youth. The pulpits of the city were occupied by the most famous
preachers of Italy, and the holiest and most popular priests were
called to labor in the work of spiritual renovation.
But Young Italy was not a leopard that could change its spots ;
and the very men whom the Pope wanted to reach and benefit
belonged, one and all, body and soul, to Young Italy and the Car-
bonari.
Another event occurring at this time in the north of Italy helped
to complicate still more the formidable difficulties which beset the
pontiff.
When the Scientific Congress at Genoa adjourned, it was agreed
that all who favored the scheme of national independence should
meet there in December to celebrate the centenary of Genoa's libera-
tion from Austrian rule. The Piedmontese government had too great
a stake in the movement about to be inaugurated to think for a mo-
ment of forbidding the celebration, though it looked with well-
grounded suspicion on the principal leaders. But Austria was the
common foe, and anything which contributed to deepen and spread
that feeling was sure of favor in the court of Turin. So Genoa, the
Magnificent, put forth all her wealth and splendor and patriotism
on the glorious occasion. Every Italian heart was stirred to its
depths by the echoes of the orations delivered, and the songs sung
in Genoa, even though some hearts dared not or cared not to join
in the cry raised there of "Italy for the Italians."
Kome was much excited ; one might have fancied that the same
impulse moved both cities, so much did what was said at Eome, in
the clubs, in the streets, and in the press — now become freer and
bolder — resemble the utterances of the enthusiastic multitude at
Genoa. Of course Austria was deeply offended, and remonstrated
through its ambassador in no measured terms. The Pope was not
126 Life of Pope Pius IX,
to be moved, however, and replied in a tone of firm though respect-
ful independence. Some unseemly acts had been committed by the
numerous and sympathetic meetings held in the Roman States, and
some imprudent language had been uttered by the liberal press. A
few of the most violent actors in these gatherings were arrested, and
legal proceedings were begun against the offending journals ; but
nothing came of it, and Austrian animosity deepened and threat-
ened. It was resolved at Vienna that the slightest pretext afforded
for the occupation of the pontifical fortresses in the Romagna and
the Marches should be the signal for an Austrian army to cross the
frontier.
Meanwhile this avowed resentment of "the foreigners" only gave
the clubs an opportunity of causing the "Hymn of Pius IX." to be
sung with increased enthusiasm.
CHAPTER XII.
Gkaj^d New- Year's Demojs^steatiok by the Clubs in Honor op
THE Pope — Irritation at the Delays of the Keform Com-
missions — Improvements in Legislation, the Liberty of
THE Press, the Post-office — Only Increase the Discon-
tent OF THE Radicals — Protestations of the Pope — En-
cyclical ON THE Famine in Ireland — Honors to O'Con-
nell's Memory.
Januaby-June, 1847.
A MOST rational and most Christian custom prevailed in Rome
from the last quarter of the sixteenth century, that on the
evening of December 31st, at sunset, the beautiful 50th Psalm,
Miserere, should be chanted as a public petition for mercy on the
transgressions of the year about to close, and should be followed by a
solemn Te Beum, in acknowledgment of all the blessings received
from the divine goodness. This was inaugurated by St. Ignatius
Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus; and when the beautiful
church of the Gesii was terminated in 1575, all that was most dis-
tinguished in Rome flocked thither on the last evening of the year to
join in the pious solemnity. The Popes had sanctioned the custom,
and further confirmed it by going in state to the Gesii to join in the
common thanksgiving.
Pius IX. was too sincere in his piety not to keep up the laudable
custom, and the persecutions to which the Jesuits were at that
moment subjected in Switzerland made him all the more anxious to
be present with his people on this occasion. He was perfectly aware
that the storm raised against the Society in the Catholic cantons of
the European republic was created by Young Europe and Mazzini,
as had been in France the short-lived tempest excited against them
in 1845 by the " Thiers interpellations." To show the Jesuits friend-
ship, sympathy, countenance, or even toleration, was gall and vine-
gar to the Roman Liberals of almost every color. At the end of their
127
128 Life of Pope Pius IX,
scholar year in the preceding August, Pius had gone to the Eoman
College directed by them, to distribute diplomas and premiums, and
had been hissed by persons in the crowd.
On the 31st of December, the clubs, being apprised of his determi-
nation, resolved to get up a magnificent demonstration, both on the
evening of December the 31st, and especially on New- Year's Day.
We say demonstration — for the formidable display of popular pas-
sion and numbers was simply calculated to impress the Pope with
tlie conviction that the people who raised triumphal arches along the
streets, and sang around the Quirinal the "Hymn of Pius IX.," and
shouted Viva Pio Nono solo (Long live Pius IX. alone !) were deter-
mined he should know how little they loved the Jesuits or the priests
in general, though it pleased them now to sing to him and shout for
him alone.
Eight days afterward the French ambassador, Count Rossi, who
watched with the deepest interest the progress of events and the
course of public feeling in Rome, wrote to Prime Minister Guizot :
''The Pope has lost none of his popularity. My only fear is that he
may not use it to good purpose, thinking that he may slumber on it
as on a bed of roses. . . . The country waits, but with mani-
fest impatience."
The circular addressed by Cardinal Gizzi to the governors of prov-
inces instructing them to call together in every locality the most in-
fluential laymen and consult them on the reforms and improvements
most needed there, had only served to stir up or to strengthen the
general desire of a lay administration, or at least of the admission of
a largo number of laymen into every department of government.
The delays occasioned by the framing of these reports and their ex-
amination by the ministers, the still greater delays that occurred in
the labor of the commissions on legislation and government, had
an irritating effect on the public, especially when the leaders of
public opinion had determined beforehand that nothing short of a
constitutional and parliamentary government, administered by lay-
men, should satisfy them, or be accepted by the people of the Roman
States.
. Nevertheless the Pope persisted in his purpose of granting not
only all the municipal liberties which ho deemed compatible with
the peace of his States and the gradual constitutional reforms that
should initiate his people into the practice of self-government, with-
out touching on his own indefeasible rights as sovereign, or endan-
Improvements in Legislation. 129
gering the perfect independence of his spiritual office so intimately
connected with his sovereignty.
This was affirmed continually not only to the representatives of
France, England, and Belgium, who sympathized with the Holy
Father's purpose, but to the ambassadors of the conservative pov/ers,
such as Austria, Kussia, and even Prussia (at that period at least).
The most distinguished members of the liberal party in Italy were
also made acquainted with the Pope's schemes, and were almost
unanimous in praising his courageous determination in presence of
such formidable hostility.
Toward the end of June, when the complications with Austria
were becoming daily more threatening, and the Eadicals were
clamoring loudly for concessions amounting to an abdication of
the Pope's sovereignty, the government was compelled to issue a
proclamation stating, in substance, the reasons for the cautious
course they had to pursue in granting reforms.
"His Holiness," says the Cardinal Secretary of State, "is firmly
resolved to pursue his course of improving every branch of the
administration requiring reform ; but he is no less resolved to
proceed in this by a prudent and well-calculated gradation, and
within the limits which belong essentially to the sovereignty and
the temporal government of the head of the Catholic Church — a
government which cannot adopt certain forms incompatible with
the very existence of that sovereignty, or, at least, detrimental to
the free outward and independent exercise of the supreme primacy
in spirituals for which God willed that the Holy See should have a
temporal principality. The Holy Father cannot forget the sacred
duties which compel him to preserve intact the trust that has been
confided to him."
By his coronation oath he had bound himself to preserve the
patrimony of the Holy See in its integrity, and to transmit his
temporal sovereignty intact and inviolate to his successor; this
explains the word "trust" in the last sentence quoted. The
secretary then proceeds to enumerate the principal reforms contem-
plated, and reproves in the following terms the impatience of the
Radicals :
"The Holy Father has not been able to see without deep regret
i hat certain restless minds are desirous of profiting by the present
state of things to promulgate and endeavor to establish doctrines
and ideas totally opposed to his maxims, or to impose upon him
9
130 Life of Pope Pius IX.
others quite irreconcilable with the gentle and pacific nature and
the sublime character of the person who is the vicar of Christ, the
minister of a God of peace, and the father of all Catholics in every
part of the world; or, finally, to excite in the minds of the people
by speeches and writings, desires and hopes of reforms beyond the
limits which his Holiness has indicated."
One may form some conception of the activity with which the
Pope urged forward the ameliorations deemed most urgent, by
recalling the principal among them in the order of time. On
February the 9th, 1847, he issued a pardon to all persons imprisoned
or undergoing criminal prosecution for the acts of violence com-
mitted in the corn-riots of the preceding autumn. This new act of
clemency caused unbounded joy. Almost simultaneously appeared
edicts reforming in many important points the criminal and civil
codes, and winning the applause of the most learned and the most
liberal. In March (12th), a still more important law was published
regulating the censorship of the press and the circulation of printed
matter through the post-office. Though this law did not grant the
almost unlimited freedom demanded by the *^ advanced Liberals" or
Radicals, it *'was gratefully accepted by the large and influential
section of the community who were content to move slowly, so that
they did advance in the path of reform. They recognized that the
censorship was useful and even necessary to a government and an
excitable people newly called to liberty, and entertained no fear of
its restrictions being interpreted in a narrow sense. By this law the
censorship, instead of being left to the discretion of the censors of
the several cities or provinces, was conducted by fixed rules. So
much freedom, indeed, was allowed that the Moderates were con-
vinced that the edict did not, as had been asserted, vail the design
of extinguishing the liberty of the press."* So this v-ery measure
of liberty, so gratefully received by the moderate Liberals, and so well
Buitcd to a people and a government advancing toward constitu-
tional liberty, had been denounced as a fraud aiming in reality at
destroying the freedom of the press !
There was another portion of the law equally wise, that, namely,
which regulated the introduction of reading matter through the post-
office. When one remembers that the secret societies had for years
done in Italy what was done in Spain, not only used the post-office,
♦ Legge, i. 103.
Only Increase the Discontent of the Radicals, 131
but the custom-house to introduce the most obscene or blasphemous
writings among the laboring classes, the restrictions enacted by the
pontifical law must be deemed not only praiseworthy but impera-
tively necessary. The works of Voltaire, of Balzac, and Paul de
Kock were sent to Spain, in cheap editions, bearing on the title-
page Imitation de Jesus- Christ, or Introduction a la Vie Devote,
passed the custom-house by the guilty connivance of the officers,
and were scattered broadcast at a nominal price among the people.
Similar nefarious practices had been for a quarter of a century em-
ployed in Italy, and by the men who were hand and glove with the
apostles of the *' Christian League" and "Evangelical Alliance."
From the first days of his reign Pius had shown himself friendly
toward an enlightened journalism aiming at educating the popular
mind on all matters that could promote their true welfare without
encouraging any of the pet humanitarian notions of Eadicalism.
The Contemporaneo, destined to wield so decisive an influence in
upsetting the throne, as well as in thwarting the reforms of the
pontiff, had been established long before the 12th of March, in the
moderate liberal interest, and was generously supported by the Pope.
The greater degree of freedom granted to journalists did not prompt
the editors of that paper to any imprudent utterance or to propose
any of the visionary schemes advocated by the "advanced." But
the law on the press encouraged the latter to found in Eome and in
the provinces a number of radical papers which were evidently in-
spired by the same fanaticism, and which with one accord ceased
not to persuade the Italian people that they could expect from
their present rulers nothing but delusive promises. They echoei
and re-echoed on every side the inflammatory words of Mazzini :
"Nothing is left but the endeavor to agree in secret, to wrench
the bars from the doors and windows of our prison, to knock down
gates and gaolers, that we may breathe the fresh, life-giving air of
liberty, the air of God."
Not a few of our most influential journa"'s here in America, even
among those devoted to religion, were carried away by the apparent
patriotic and religious warmth of such words as these, believing that
in abetting the cause of Mazzini and holding up to the admiration
of their countrymen the cherished objects of Young Italy, they were
advocating the best interests of humanity and the cause of him who
made men free and brothers.
There is in the American heart a generous and disinterested love
132 Life of Pope Pius IX,
of liberty that ever prompts to bestow its benefits on every portion
of the human race, and is ever ready to prove its sympathy for the
liberty-loving by more than mere words. The American freeman,
moreover, inherits with this noble instinct a reverence for religion,
which he considers the very corner-stone of the social edifice, be-
cause it is the very basis on which all authority resides.
Far different was the freedom for which Mazzini was striving, and
far beneath the pure and exalted conception of the sanction which
Christianity, in the American theory, bestows on free institutions,
was "the life-giving air, . . . the air of God," which Young
Italy would allow none but its adepts to breathe.
Fortunately for the truth of history we can complete Mazzini's
vague generalities by the more definite writings of such of his sub-
ordinates as Galletti and Eicciardi, while Cantalupo, a Neapolitan,
enables us to see at a glance how Young Italy was to "knock down
its gaolers."
"1. The society (the League of Young Italy) is formed for the
indispensable destruction of the governments of the Peninsula, and
to shape all Italy into a single State, republican in form. . . .
30. Members who will not obey the orders of the secret society, and
those who reveal its mysteries, shall be stabbed to death without re-
mission. 31. The secret tribunal shall pronounce the sentence, ap-
pointing one or two associates for its immediate execution. 32. The
associate who refuses to execute the sentence shall be held as one
perjured, and as such put to death on the spot. 33. If the victim
should escape, he shall be pursued into every place he goes ; the guilty
one shall be struck by an invisible hand, were he sheltered on the
bosom of his mother or in the tabernacle of Christ. ... 54. Each
tribunal shall be competent not only to judge guilty members, but
to put to death all persons on whom it may pass a capital sentence."
There was not a line in these diabolical documents, drawn up,
one might think, in hell, under the inspiration of the arch-
enemy of mankind, and of all that is gentle and beautiful in the
moral world, that was not known to the sovereign pontiff and his
ministers, not a murderous injunction that they had not seen carried
out, year after year, in Rome and the disturbed provinces, though,
as we shall see, the atrocities committed wholesale under the Roman
republic of 1849 were to outstrip all preceding excesses.
"Such tactics," remarks Legge, "brought their proper reward in
the alienation of many whoso reputation was thus endangered, and
Reforms Announced by the Pope, 133
who, earnestly aspiring after liberty, scouted more than Austrian
bayonets or clerical despotism that prostitution of all honor, moral-
ity, and truth which was involved in their fellowship with plotters
of this cast."
While the newly-created radical press was denouncing the very
law which gave it birth, and the "sects" of which it was the mouth-
piece were perfecting their dark plots in conformity with the spirit
and letter of the above documents, Pius and his Secretary of State
were giving form to their design of initiating their people into the
practice of parliamentary government.
On the loth of April Gizzi issued a circular to the governors of
the Roman provinces announcing the creation of a High Council
{Consulta), composed of delegates from all the provinces, chosen by
the people, and who were to assemble in Rome at the beginning of
November. This body was, in the Pope's thought, but a temporary
consultative assembly, who could advise the Holy Father and the
cardinals forming his natural council on all essential matters, not
only of the needs of their respective localities, and the municipal,
industrial, and commercial ameliorations that were most necessary
and urgent, but of the legislative and constitutional changes that
could be introduced without danger of revolution or disorder.
Between mid- April and the iQrst days of November the popula-
tions in every province would, the Pope thought, be prepared to
make the most of this step in advance, and discuss in a temperate
and orderly spirit the means of co-operating with the sovereign in
effecting the most beneficial reforms.
Meanwhile the heart of the chief pastor was as busy with the
cares of every portion of his wide flock as that of the prince was with
the manifold wants of his people.
At the western extremity of Europe an ancient people, ever faith-
ful to the See of Peter, as it had been to the creed given it by St,
Patrick thirteen centuries before, was enduring the awful visita-
tion of famine, with such an accompaniment of horrors as to thrill
with mingled pity and indignation the whole civilized world ; with
indignation at the secular misrule that left a whole people de-
pendent for food on a single vegetable, and with pity for the brave
old race whose inborn virtues shone with so bright a luster amid the
accumulation of unremedied ills.
Pius, touched to the very depths of his soul by the first sad tidings
from Ireland, lost not a moment in discharging his duty toward her.
1 34 Life of Pope Plus IX,
On the 25tli of March, the anniversary of the Annunciation, recall-
ing the day when the Infinite Mercy became incarnate for our com-
mon need ; the Pope addressed himself to the uniyersal Church, pre-
scribing a solemn triduum, or public prayers during three successive
days, to call down the divine protection on the sufferers, and urging
every Catholic throughout the world to aid by prompt generosity in
ministering relief.
*' When first we learned," are the words of the Encyclical, *' that
the kingdom of Ireland was afflicted by a great dearth of corn and a
scarcity of other sorts of food, and that the nation was suffering from
a most dreadful complication of diseases brought on by famine, we
instantly applied, by every means in our power, to relieve the suf-
ferers. Therefore we had prayers offered up in this city, and en-
couraged the clergy and people of Rome, as well as the stranger so-
journing with us, to send assistance to Ireland."
Already (as the Encyclical asserts in the next paragraph) in the
first days of February the Pope had a collection made in Rome,
heading it himself with a large sum (a thousand scudi), and sent the
amount at once to the bishops of Ireland for immediate distribution.
On the 8th of February he was waited upon by a committee of gen-
tlemen — ^Irish, English, and Scotch — with an address of thanks.
'*Were the means at my command more ample," the Holy Father
said to them in reply, '^I should not limit myself to the little I have
done in a cause which has my warmest sympathy."
But we return to the Encyclical : " What effort ought we not to
make to raise up a nation crushed by such a disaster, when we know
how great the fidelity of the Irish people and clergy is and has al-
ways been, . . . how, in the most perilous times they have distin-
guished themselves by their constancy in professing the faith ; how
zealously the Irish priesthood has labored to spread that faith to the
ends of the earth ; and, in fine, how piously and earnestly the blessed
Peter, whoso dignity (to use the words of Leo the Great) is not
lessened in an unworthy heir, is honored by the Irish nation and
reverenced in our humble person."
He concludes by urging on the hierarchy that while the entire
Church is thus prostrate in prayer for Ireland before the Divine
Mercy they should remember the need of the common father,
liis " daily instance, the solicitude for all the churches." '* It is still
before our eyes what a furious and fearful storm has arisen against
the Church ; it pains the mind to recall what things the enemy hath
Formation of a Council of Ministers. 135
done wickedly in the sanctuary (Psalm Ixxiii. 3), and how fraught
with danger are the present designs against the Lord (Psalm ii. 2),
and Ms Christ, ^^
Already Ireland's most illustrious living son, O'Connell, stricken
himself to death by the utter wretchedness of his beloved country
and by the failure of all his own fondly cherished dreams of national
independence and prosperity, was on his way to Rome. We shall
soon have to chronicle his last moments, and the splendid testimony
paid to his worth by Pius IX. Let us not interrupt the natural
course of events in the Eternal City.
Simultaneously with the announcement of the creation of the High
Council, or Consul ta, the official gazette informed the public of the
formation of a council of ministers — the Secretary of State, Cardinal
Gizzi, being president; Cardinal Eiario-Sforza, minister of com-
merce and industry ; Cardinal Massimo, minister of public works ;
Monsignor Lavinio Spada, minister of war ; Monsignor Antonelli,
treasurer, and Monsignor Grassellini, governor of Rome.
It was a coalition cabinet, not a promising one even in an old
constitutional government where things have to right themselves
without disturbance to public affairs or revolution to the State ; ifc
was the very worst kind of cabinet to begin with among a people so
excitable as the Romans, so inexperienced in constitutional govern-
ment, and so unreasonably impatient of all delays and tentatives
under the chronic excitement and distrust so scientifically nursed by
the Radicals.
Gizzi and Antonelli were the only ministers who bore the reputa-
tion of liberality in politics ; the others were undisguised partisans
of the conservative policy of the preceding reign. The list of names
was read with a fierce burst of anger and disappointment by the
Radicals, who now began to be designated as the Exalted, a term
which they resented. Even the most moderate men could not con-
ceal their dissatisfaction, nor help the forebodings of ill which all
they heard and saw and felt tended to strengthen day by day.
Gizzi was quite conscious of the weakness of this ministry, and of
the loss of popularity to himself which must result from his accept-
ing the presidency of a body, in which the majority were in open hos-
tility to the principles he advocated and the measures of reform so
anxiously expected by the public.
Antonelli had already been minister of finance under Gregory
XVI., and his business capacity was known to all ; nor was his sym-
1 36 Life of Pope Phcs IX.
pathy for the wise and gradual reforms inaugurated by Pius IX. a
secret to any. He came, however, of a comparatively obscure family,
being a native of Sonnino, an ill-famed town at the southern extrem-
ity of the papal territory, about five miles from Fossanuova, where
St. Thomas Aquinas died. The village, perched on an almost inac-
cessible crag, surrounded by precipices and deeply wooded ravines,
was formerly a nest of freebooters, and had to be demolished to root
out the pernicious brood. They returned to their rocks, however,
and covered with olive trees and other fruitful culture every avail-
able crevasse along the dizzy slopes. Of that bold and hardy race,
and from that eagle's nest among the southern hills, came Giacomo
Antonelli, destined to be the most conspicuous figure beside the
long-lived pontiff in this stormy pontificate.
Being of such a stock and from such a place, Antonelli had no
following among the proud old Eoman nobility. He was to make
his way to eminence through their crowded ranks by the sheer force
of his own ability, as many a man of still more obscure parentage
had done before him, in a city where the highest honors belong to
the highest merit.
The formation of the ministry and the creation of the Consulta
had come upon the Roman public Just when the clubs had com-
pleted their preparations for a grand national festival, to be held on
April the IGth, in memory of the founding of Rome. This celebra-
tion offered Young Italy an excellent pretext for assembling in
Rome not only the Italians most renowcd in the world of science and
letters, but their own most skillful and unscrupulous agents. They
were carrying out with consummate ability the scheme formed at
Genoa in the early autumn, perfected there in December, and now
to be proclaimed with a more telling emphasis in Rome, once the
capital of Italy and of the world.
The idea was the independence and unity of their country. The
festival "was held on the site of the baths of Titus. . . . The
real purpose was to talk politics ; and the cautious d'Azeglio, the
opponent of popular gatherings, so far forgot his reserve as to address
the crowd — some 20,000 in number — and to refer to the idea up-
permost in every mind : the expulsion of the Austrians— or, as he
adroitly expressed it, ' the Goths, Huns, and other Vandals '—from
Italy. His remarks elicited thunders of applause, but the newspapers
which published them were suppressed. For four hours they were
greedily deyoured in every coffee-house and club in Rome ; then the
Resentment of Aust^'ia Increasing, 137
agenfcs of the police presented themselyes at every house where the
Contemporanco was supposed to be taken in, and demanded *the
supplement of speeches ; ' at the post-office, every copy was stopped.
This was regarded as a concession to the Austrian minister, and
inflamed the popular suspicion of Gizzi, which had been already
aroused by a futile attempt to restrain the expression of public
opinion in the journals of Rome, at the instigation of the Count de
Lutzow, who threatened to demand his passport. *
Only a few days before this significant event some papers were
seized by the police on a pretended political refugee, who was in
reality an Austrian spy, which contained lists of influential persons
in Rome and about the papal court secretly pledged to support
Austria and to oppose to the utmost the liberal reforms of the Pope.
They revealed also the intrigues set on foot or encouraged by the
Austrian ambassador to thwart the pontifical policy. When Count
de Lutzow was spoken to on the matter he refused every explanation,
and to Cardinal Gizzi's notes of inquiry or expostulation no reply
whatever was given. The affair was noised abroad in Rome, and
caused intense and universal excitement.
The Pope thereupon sent for the Austrian ambassador, and spoke
to him in dignified but firm language of his right to seek the welfare
of his subjects by whatever means his judgment approved after hav-
ing been advised by his own counselors ; and concluded by saying,
as the ambassador knelt for the papal benediction, "I give you my
blessing ; but you may write to your sovereign that if he expects to
intimidate me he is greatly mistaken."
The resentment of Austria, and her just alarm at the ill-concealed
designs of Piedmont and the open threats of Young Italy, continued
thenceforward to grow and spread like a thunder-cloud, till it burst
in June over the Papal States by the invasion of the Legations and
the Marches. More even than the intrigues of Young Italy this
fatal step marred all the designs of Pius IX., and led to the triumph
of Mazzini first, and of Piedmont afterward.
The Roman correspondent of the London Times wrote on March
the 27th : '* There is not the least doubt that the cabinet of Vienna
is eager to grasp at the slightest pretext for an armed interven-
tion. ... If such a pretext do not occur, it is but too probable
that it may be created ; and any disturbances calculated to lead to
* Legge, i. 115, 116.
J 38 Life nf Pope Pius IX.
such a result would at once betray their insidious origin. Meanwhile
the Pope is menaced in Austrian notes, which haye sometimes trans-
gressed the limits of policy and decorum, and the minor princes of
Italy are terrified by extravagant intimations of hostile designs en-
tertained against them by the national party, headed by the Pope
and the house of Savoy, in order to persuade them that the only safe-
guard is in the Austrian army."
Amid the gathering of the storm which threatened so darkly from
the Quadrilateral in the Lombardo- Venetian kingdom, the popu-
larity of Cardinal Oizzi was fast dying out, in spite of the courageous
and energetic support given him by the Pope, while Pius himself
seemed to grow more popular than ever. One symptom, however, in
these feverish fits of Eoman enthusiasm, as April faded into May, was
the ominous cry, now repeated with greater frequency. Viva Pio Nono
solo ! And as the Jesuits were accused, without a shadow of proof,
of favoring all the Austrian intrigues, with this cry, so offensive
to the Pope, was continually joined that other, "Down with the
Jesuits ! "
On May the 5th falls, in the Roman calendar, the feast of the Holy
Pope Pius v., whose fleet, aided by those of Spain and Venice, over-
threw forever the Mohammedan supremacy at Lepanto. It was the
patronal festival of the reigning Pope, and the clubs, for several
weeks in advance of the day itself, had set Ciceruacchio and his bat-
talions of agitators to work up the Roman enthusiasm to the highest
point — collecting money and making all needful dispositions for the
most brilliant display yet witnessed in honor of their sovereign.
The sovereign had been informed in time of these preparations,
and issued a note to the citizens calling on them to show their love
for his person by abstaining from the proposed festivities, and by be-
stowing the moneys collected, and those they intended to devote to
the celebration, in a gemeral distribution of bread and other pro-
visions among the suffering poor. " Sixty gentlemen organized a
combined effort among the affluent citizens, and in a few hours sixty
thousand bread-tickets were distributed to the people. The funds
raised not being then exhausted, the remainder was applied to the
establishment of an mf ant-school for the children of the lower class."
What could not such a sovereign have effected with the hearty co-
operation of such a people ! What a glorious work of regeneration
this people might have accomplished — peacefully, unbloodily- —under
the leadership of this great fatherly soul I
CHAPTER Xm.
The Pope's Populaeity unsought — Pastoral Laboes ik be-
half OF THE EOMAK PEOPLE — OBSEQUIES AND PaNEGYEIC OP
O'COKNELL — EfFOETS TO EESTOEE DIPLOMATIC EeLATIONS
BETWEEN Rome and England maeeed by Palmeeston's
anti-Catholic Policy — Plots and Countee-plots in Rome
DUEING THE SUMMEE — FESTIVITIES ON JUNE 16TH AND 17tH —
Vaeious Causes of Agitation and Discontent — Sanfe-
DiSTS, OE " Holy Faith Men " — Ceeation of Civic Guaed
PEOPOSED : deceeed foe Rome by the Pope — Caedinal
Gizzi Resigns : succeeded by Caedinal Feeeetti — In-
ceeasing Tuebulence in Rome — The supposed Conseeva-
tive Conspieacy — Rome euled by Mob Law — Invasion of
the Papal States by Austeia — Exceptional Position and
Policy of the Papacy — TJndeestood and supported by
GUIZOT ALONE : HIS EFFORTS PARALYZED BY PaLMERSTON.
Januaby-Jult, 1847.
AN impression has long prevailed that Pius IX. studiously sought
popularity among the masses by laying aside the reserve and
stately etiquette which had regulated before his time the manners of
the court of Rome and its pontiffs. It were utterly to misapprehend
both the man's nature, his antecedents, and his most laudable inten-
tions, to conceive of him as one going down into the street to court
the good-will or the applause of the crowd.
He continued, from the first day of his taking possession of the
Quirinal, the priestly habits which had distinguished him in his re-
lations toward his flock at San Michele, Spoleto, and Imola. It was
not to win the sympathy and support of the laboring and middle
classes that he went about among his people, visiting schools, hos-
pitals, workshops, convents, loneliest and most squalid streets, ex-
amining everything with a scrutinizing eye, not for purposes of
mere curiosity, but to encourage, to console, to improve and reform.
139
I40 Life of Pope Pius IX,
The applause of the multitude came to him as he went, like the
Good Shepherd, unweariedly about his errand of mercy ; it was, at
first, grateful to him, because it made him hope that his people
understood him and would work with him, like one man, in remedy-
ing the many ills which the entire community, sovereign and sub-
jects, had inherited from the fatal calamities and wrongs of the past.
If, in the first months of his pontificate, his heart did feel a thrill of
delight at hearing himself acclaimed as the savior of his country, it
was an unselfish delight, a joy rising in the heart of the patriot,
priest, and pontiff at the prospect of reconciling his beloved Italy
with the Church of Christ, the aspirations of the purest, loftiest
patriotism with the deepest devotion of the Christian priest to the
most sacred interests of Christ's immortal reliarion.
When it became but too apparent that the hopes and sentiments
of the people were turned by the common enemy in a wrong direc-
tion, and that wicked men would use his generosity and influence to
obtain their own ends, he resolved to address himself directly to the
misguided crowd and to appeal to their better nature.
The eloquent Father Ventura de Raulica had been called to Rome
to second, with all the influence wielded by his own great talents,
and by the entire Order of which he was head, the cause of rational
liberty and gradual reform. The Pope desired that the preachers
most renowned for their saintly life as well as their oratorical power
should everywhere, on every available occasion, instruct the people
in the fundamental duties and virtues of their condition, inculcat-
ing on all the necessity of refraining from all that could excite politi-
cal passions, from the violation of the neighborly charities of life, and
the infraction of the public peace. He never ceased to repeat that
with peace and order and the union of all hearts and minds, the
wrongs of Italy should soon be righted.
One day in January the select and crowded audience which was
wont to come from every part of Rome to listen to the learned and
patriotic Ventura, was filled with astonishment to see the Pope him-
self suddenly ascending the pulpit steps. Had the days of Leo the
Great and the still greater Gregoiy returned, when Christ's vicar
found time to instruct, himself in person, the impoverished and op-
pressed Romans on the Gospel truths and virtues and promises ? In
very deed the times on which the Ninth Pius had fallen were, in
more than one respect, more calamitous than the age when the elo-
quent first Leo went forth from Rome to the banks of the Ticino to
Pastoral Labors in Behalf of the Roman People, 141
stop Attila and his Huns in tlieir unresisted course of victory ; Pius
had to remedy ills within the Italian Peninsula more terrible than
the repeated famine that called forth Gregory's unbounded liberality,
and to meet foes more powerful and less God-fearing than the rival
armies of Greeks from Constantinople, or barbarians from the Khine
or the Vistula.
As the crowded church listened, spell-bound, to the sweet and
sympathetic tones of the august preacher, every word fell deep into
mind and heart. He thanked them for their repeated manifestations
of loyalty and affection toward himself, for the revived reverence of
Kome for the chair of Peter, which made her the head and center of
the moral world, and of which he was the most unworthy occupant.
They might trust him in his unbounded solicitude for their every
interest, temporal and spiritual ; his deeds should be the best evi-
dence of his fatherly love of them and theirs. But it was before
and above all else the eternal welfare of their souls for which he was
bound to care. Souls at peace with God brought peace with them
to their homes, and kept peace inviolate with their neighbor. Hoav
was it with their souls ? In vain would he endeavor to reform the
State, or correct its abuses, if its citizens continued to cherish in
their hearts the vices which, in begetting private immorality and
domestic disorder, tended continually to increase the mass of public
corruption and civil decay and strife.
It was, in truth, Leo and Gregory once more laying down the law
of heavenly love and supernatural life for these turbulent Eomans,
whose very nearness to the person of the supreme pastor has always
seemed to render them heedless of his teaching. On this occasion,
at least, the audience assembled at S. Andrea della Valle was deeply
moved, and bore away to their homes generous resolutions of self-
sacrifice and self-improvement. But they were not the people whom
the Pope would have liked to reach. These, too, on hearing of
what was happening in the neighboring church, flocked thither to
catch the words of the preacher, and as the commotion spread
rapidly with the strange news, there was a great multitude outside
when the Pope was leaving the sacred edifice. There was shouting,
and kneeling for the papal blessing, and people rushing in a mighty
stream after the carriage w^hich bore away to the Quirinal the sover-
eign who yearned to waste his life in the endeavor to elevate them,
the good shepherd who would give a thousand lives to save them
from the approach of revolution.
142 Life of Pope Pius IX.
And so Pius labored, hoped, waited, through these first months of
1847.
At the end of May another and a more excited audience filled
that same church of S. Andrea.
O'Connell, to distract his mind from the thought of Ireland, pros-
trate beneath the grip of hunger and typhus fever, as well as to
express in person his gratitude to Pius IX., had undertaken a pil-
grimage to Rome. On his way through France he received the
affectionate homage of all that was most illustrious in Church and
State ; he represented the enlightened union of religion and liberty.
He had rendered his country and the Catholics of Great Britain
services which many did not then appreciate, but which have been
since then fully and generously acknowledged. His were not the
principles that guided the aspirations, the writings, and conduct of
the patriotic laymen of Italy. Nevertheless it is impossible to say
what effect O'Connell's presence might have had on the liberal
leaders in Eome, liad providence permitted him to reach that city
alive and in the enjoyment of intellectual vigor.
He sickened on touching Italian soil, and after lingering for some
days at Genoa, breathed his last there on the 15th of May, not,
however, before he had directed that his heart should be borne to
the goal of his pilgrimage, and repose near the shrines of the holy
apostles.
It was a touching close to a noble career, purified and elevated by
faith. He had practiced it all his life with the simple piety of a
child ; it shed a hallowed luster on his last hours, and edified the beau-
tiful city, once so Catholic and so heroic, and now a hot-bed of anti-
Catholic conspiracies and cowardly plots of wholesale assassination.
The Pope had resolved to honor the great Catholic and Liberal
in the most public manner, and was anxiously looking out for his ar-
rival, when the news of his alarming illness, first, and then of
his death, filled him with sincere grief. The message bearing the
dying request of *'The Liberator" moved Pius to tears; and he
gave, forthwith, directions that on the arrival of the precious relic in
Rome, solemn obsequies should be celebrated in tlie Church of S.
Andrea dclla Valle. It was there that the solemn three days' devo-
tions were offered up in February for suffering Ireland, the Pope
himself going there to pray for his afflicted children far away, and
the eloquent Ventura finding for their heroism thrilling words of
sympathy and praise.
Obsequies and Panegyric of O" ComielL 143
It was here tliat the Holy Father would haye a requiem sung for
the Irish patriot such as is celebrated for royal personages, sending
the choicest vestments from his own chapel and appointing Father
Ventura to deliver the funeral oration.
All that was most distinguished in Eome was present, and many
of the most illustrious and moderate of Italian patriots came from
afar to show their reverence for the dead, and to honor the cause of
liberty in one of her most blameless champions. The preacher be-
longed to that classs of patriot churchmen which at that time
counted Gioberti — as yet a believer in the Papacy — and Eosmini, the
founder of the Order of Charity, and Gioberti's rival in philosophi-
cal science. Their cherished idea was an Italy freed, in her length
and breadth, from foreign domination, and confederated under her
own native princes, with the Pope as her presiding and animating
power, and all her peoples enjoying the fullness of political rights
with the fullness of religious liberty.
It was a fascinating ideal, leading captive noble intellects and
generous hearts ; and to them, as to all the lovers of this union of
freedom with religion, Ventura addressed the splendid panegyric
which moved all Italy, and found a response in every civilized
country.
The liberator of the Irish Catholics, he said, had come, at the end
of a life devoted to the advocacy of fredom, and the emancipation of
the peoples by peaceful and unbloody means, to do homage to Pius
IX., who would be the liberator of Italy. Italians should aid the
Pope and co-operate with him unitedly and fearlessly in carrying out
his designs for the increase of freedom, while imitating faithfully
the Christian virtues of O'Connell.
Co-operation with Pius IX. the Italians interpreted in their own
sense ; the preacher's magnificent eulogy only fired their souls with
the resolve to have a free Italy. As to O'Connell's virtues and his
deep Christian spirit, few Italian patriots were there who cared to
imitate them.
Conservative public opinion looked upon this funeral pageant and
the thrilling utterances of the great Theatine as a political demon-
stration more significant and far-reaching than the festivities in the
J^aths of Titus. It was another challenge to Austria, sounding in
trumpet-tones from the Capitoline Hill to the Alps.
The anniversary of the Pope's election was now approaching, and
a month later fell the anniversary of the Act of Amnesty. Young
144 L{f^ of Pope Pius IX,
Italy determined that both should be commemorated in such a
manner, as to make their associates throughout Italy and Europe
understand that "the party of action" ruled Kome and the Pope.
In England as well as in America the public press was loud and
unanimous in praise of Pius IX. His eulogy was pronounced in
the House of Commons, and the project w^as seriously entertained of
having an English ambassador at the court of Eome, and a repre-
sentative of the Holy See at the court of St. James. Points of eti-
quette, apparently, prevented both governments from arriving at a
satisfactory basis of settlement. But there were other and deeper
reasons.
"Whatever doubt may have existed at that time of the criminal
action of Lord Palmerston in fomenting a civil and religious war in
Switzerland, the fact of his having been the instigator of this cause-
less feud is now questioned by none. The Catholic cantons had
placed their colleges under the care of the Jesuits, believing these
priests to be the safest and most enlighted guides they could select
for their sons. Lord Palmerston, who had seen from his boyhood
the English Jesuits of Stoneyhurst and the Irish Jesuits of Clon-
gowes Wood intrusted with the education of the very flower of the
Catholic youth of both islands, needed no one to tell him that the
Jesuits were safe guides, enlightened teachers, honorable gentlemen,
and loyal citizens. Of this he never hinted a doubt.
But on the European continent the hati*ed of the secret societies
had made of the name of Jesuit a watchword of religious strife and
political exclusion. It was Palmerston's interest to foment political
as well as religious animosities. France, Austria, and Protestant
Prussia supported the Catholic cantons, or at least approved of
their conduct. But Palmerston was determined that English Prot-
estant influence should be supreme in Switzerland. He got up
the war, directed it, and ended it, to suit his own purpose, to thwart
the designs of the continental powers, and to expel from Switzerland
the men whom he dared not to asperse or to molest in England or
Ireland.
He thereby kept in his own hand the control of the secret societies
and of their ally the Protestant Propaganda. In 1847 he profited
by the first informal overtures about restoring diplomatic relations
with the Holy See, to send Lord Minto to Italy on a semi-official
mission to the Italian States. Ostensibly the envoy was to go to
Bomo and offer the Pope the support and advice of the British gov-
Plots and Counter- Plots in Rome, 14S
ernment in carrying out his intended reforms, which would be only
a compliance with the recommendations made to Gregory XVI. in
1831-32 by the five great powers.
To Home Lord Minto went as late as possible ; but he tarried in
Piedmont and Tuscany, while the Kadicals in Kome were maturing
their plans for compelling the Holy Father to declare war against
Austria, and wresting from his grasp the control of his own govern-
ment. At Turin, Genoa, and Florence Lord Minto was, on his ar-
rival, beset with the leaders of the "party of action." He remained
in their hands during the entire period of his stay in Italy, without
even taking pains to conceal his sympathies, feted in Kome by the
clubs, and lionized by Ciceruacchio, for whose little boy he composed
some pretty patriotic verses.
Such was the man sent, in a half-official, half-mysterious character,
to advise Pius IX. how he was to carry out the impertinent recom-
mendations made to him in 1832 by five powers, two of which were
Protestant, one Orthodox Greek, one just created in France by an
anti-Catholic revolution, and one (Austria), nominally Catholic,
but wholly impregnated with the schismatic and domineering spirit
of Joseph II.
These were the "friends" of the pontifical government, when
the midsummer of 1847 brought round the much-feared anniver-
saries. Such the men from whom alone Cardinal Gizzi and his
master could expect countenance, sympathy, and support in their
gigantic task of reform.
During May and June the most exciting rumors crossed each
other in Eome, and flew from hilltop to hilltop throughout Italy.
It was said, and published by the liberal press of every shade of
opinion, that the "Gregorians" and the Jesuits were busily con-
spiring against Pius IX. ; that he had narrowly escaped assassination
at the hands of a Capuchin monk, the fanatical tool of a desperate
faction ; and that the French ambassador, Rossi, had barely saved
the Pope's life. That Rossi was at that time weak enough to bo
imposed upon by some unscrupulous intriguers, and to have given
by his conduct some color to this absurd report, there is good
ground to believe. He lived long enough, however, to find out that
the assassins most to be feared were not monks or priests, though
never so fanatical.
On June the 17th upward of 20,000 men flocked to Rome from
every part of the Papal States, without counting the multitudes who
146 Life of Pope Pius IX,
came from the immediate neighborhood of the capital. During
three nights and two days the festivities were kept up, the Jewish
population, more sincere in their gratitude than the Christians,
sparing no labor or expense to decorate or illuminate their dwellings.
The songs composed for the occasion were from the pen of Sterbini,
now the acknowledged leader of the Young Italian party in Eome.
They appealed to the patriotic passions of the multitude ; but this
time there was not one stanza sung in praise of Pius IX.
'* Farini relates," says Legge, "that a person much conversant with
affairs, who witnessed the festivities, told him that the sight of that
got-up emotion — of those leaders and flags, of that multitude — im-
pressed him profoundly, and made him doubtful of the upshot.
He called that demonstration a revolution in jest, and prognosticated
that matters would not end with jesting."
The multitude participating in the processions were marshaled
according to the fourteen districts into which Eome was divided,
each district having its own officers and banners. "Revolution"
was as plainly written, or could by the clear-sighted be as plainly
read, on these banners, as it appeared on those borne by the " Sec-
tions " of Paris during the Reign of Terror.
The resident foreign ministers were unanimous in counseling the
suppression of all such gatherings in the future ; and on June the
23d a proclamation, signed by the Secretary of State, was issued to
that effect.
This crowned the unpopularity of Cardinal Gizzi. Some people
whispered abroad that he had been bought over by the Austrians,
while others, with much more reason, said openly that the Pope no
longer agreed with his prime minister.
The High Council had been created in the middle of April, it was
to meet in the beginning of November. This delay was fatal to the
very purpose for which it had been called into existence. The
members were not elected by the free votes of the citizens in their
respective localities, but were chosen by the Pope from lists sub-
mitted to him by the governors of the Roman provinces. This cir-
cumstance in itself was calculated to excite the derision of the Radi-
cals and the dissatisfaction of the moderate Liberals. They had no
faith in the governors, and saw in the mode of selection no guarantee
that the popular will would in aught bo consulted. A few weeks at
most should have sufficed for the framing of the lists, the completing
of the Pope's choice, and the convening of the High Council.
Various Causes of Agitation a7id Discontent, 147
This might have appeased the public impatience, and held out the
near prospect of a constitutional chamber elected by popular suf-
frage. As it was, events were occurring which would render the
meeting of the High Council a calamity, and all the reforms based
upon its action nugatory.
We are in July. Piedmont is strangely agitated. The Pope is
more than ever embarrassed by the dissensions existing in his Cabi-
net. The conservative members are decidedly opposed to any fur-
ther concessions to the moral pressure exercised by a fanatical public
opinion. And the liberal minority hesitate. The Pope alone falters
not in his purpose.
"If," says Guizot, "he had only had to busy himself with Eoman
affairs, and with questions temporal and spiritual, these difficulties,
despite their magnitude, would have not been beyond his grasp. It
soon appeared, however — and the Pope confessed it — that he found
])efore him far mightier interests, and problems much deeper, and
entirely beyond his ken. The evidence forced itself on him that
he had to deal not only with the internal system of the Eoman
States, but with the territorial and political fate of Italy.
"The Austrian rule weighed still on all the Italian States, being
everywhere the mainstay of the stationary party, and becoming
daily more hateful to the public sentiment. The idea of national
unity, monarchical or republican, arose and ascended above the
horizon. Scarcely entered on the career of Roman reforms, Pius
IX. saw opening before him the perspective of Italian wars and revo-
lutions."
The very resistance opposed to the movement only served to in-
crease the velocity it had already acquired.
There existed in the States of the Church an ancient volunteer
organization, dating from the fifteenth century, and set on foot dur-
ing the troublous period when freebooters in the pay of the petty
Italian potentates were the scourge of the country. These volun-
teer corps originally consisted of middle-class citizens and agricul-
tural laborers, officered by nobles, all interested in defending their
own homes and industry. The officers were called Centurioni, or
captains of a hundred men, a denomination, as has been remarked in
an early chapter, which extended to the entire militia. When the
necessity which created them ceased, the officers still found it their
interest to keep the men together ; they became as great a scourge as
the freebooters, were proscriDed by the authorities, degenerated into
1 4 8 Life of Pope Pins IX,
a secret society, and were suppressed by Sixtus V. Indeed, it toot
the iron hand of that pontiff to crash them.
In an evil hour Cardinal Bernetti, Secretary of State to Leo XII.,
reviyed them for the purpose of suppressing the Carbonari ; and, as
it ever happens in such emergencies, the remedy proved as great a
curse as the evil. They retaliated — it was affirmed — on their treacher
ous opponents with a treachery as black, and far more odious, because
committed under the pretext of vindicating order and defending re-
ligion. Their deeds of violence — real or imaginary — were grossly
exaggerated, and became a favorite theme for radical journalists and
liberal writers of fiction.
This force assumed great importance during the troubles of
1831-32, counting from 30,000 to 50,000 men, — and were nicknamed
Sanfedists, or "Holy Faith Men," by their enemies. They formed,
in 1846 and 1847, a dangerous element of discontent, looking with
disfavor on the reforms of Pius IX., ready (their opponents affirmed)
at any moment to welcome the Austrians, most cordially detested by
Young Italy and " the sects," and subsequently, when the latter had
their triumph, relentlessly hunted down and assassinated.
It was a sad state of affairs ; and what was the Pope to do ? The
cry had been raised for a national militia, a "civic guard," to be re-
cruited from the middle class of the city population ; and this cry be-
came louder and more persistent every day. It was argued — with a
show of reason that seemed most convincing to one not thoroughly con-
versant with the condition of Italy — that the formation of an armed
citizen militia, recruited of men of all shades of opinion, and bound
to maintain order at home, while ready to repel violence from abroad,
would at once paralyze all the dangerous elements among Sanfedists
and Carbonari. Petitions came pouring in from the cities of the
Romagna, and were urged on the acceptance of the pontiff by Count
Rossi and other moderate Liberals.
The council of ministers voted against the measure, as one which
was only a transparent pretext for putting the arms of the State in
the hand of the revolutionists, while leaving those who had been the
defenders of order to tlie mercy of their undisguised foes. Cardinal
Gizzi did not conceal his opposition to a step which he qualified as
an act of weakness. The Pope resolved there should be a civic guard
in Rome, at least, where ho could himself superintend its organiza-
tion and repress every tendency toward military excess ; later, he said,
there should be a civic guard in the provinces.
Creation of Civic Guard decreed by the Pope, 149
On the 5th of July appeared the decree creating it in Rome. It
was a great victory for the Radicals, the greatest by far they had yet
achieved. The "Sections" of the city, under the generalship of
Ciceruacchio, managed to get up a half-demonstration, and many
houses were illuminated. But in the clubs the members grasped
each other's hand in silence or in subdued tones that bespoke intense
satisfaction.
One would have thought, on seeing the enthusiasm with which the
Roman youth hastened to be enrolled and to devote themselves to mil-
itary exercises, that some formidable invader — Brennus, or Hannibal,
or Napoleon — was again crossing the Alps to crush out forever all
that was left of life and greatness in Rome.
Beyond the Roman States the effect of this decree was tremendous.
This one act of Pius IX. was hailed everywhere as the first sure
augury of national independence and unity. Nothing could repress
the joy of the people in all the cities. The Grand Duke of Tuscany
yielded to the wishes of his subjects, authorized the formation of a
civic guard on the model of that in Rome, and beheld what he
thought the entire city of Florence come forth in solemn procession
to thank him and sing his praises.
Thus, with a steadiness that no obstacle could discourage, and
with an intelligence which turned to account every calculated result
or chance occurrence, Mazzini pursued his course, calling forth in
the Italian soul every latent energy, every spark of patriotic passion,
banding men together in great multitudes that they might count
their numbers and feel their strength, and investing the mighty force
thus created with one maddening purpose : that of ridding their
country from foreign domination — of being free and united !
Gizzi's last official act was to sign the decree authorizing the for-
mation of the Roman civic guard. He withdrew forthwith, and was
succeeded on July the 10th by Cardinal Gabriello Ferretti, a relative
of the sovereign.
It was an unfortunate choice — if, indeed, any choice could have
proved fortunate when the word implied the power of staving off the
inevitable. Cardinal Ferretti was in hearty sympathy with the Pope,
as were all the members of the family, well known throughout the
Marches and Romagna for their enlightened liberalism. In every
position hitherto filled by the new Secretary of State, he had taken
his illustrious kinsman for his model, practicing the virtues that dis-
tinguished him, and, like him, endearing himself everjnvhere to the
1 5o Life of Pope Pius IX.
people. When, at the beginning of the present pontificate, he was
appointed governor of Pesaro, there arose at first a cry of nepotism.
He was, notoriously, the only member of the Pope's family in any
way advanced to a higher office. Those who had raised the cry,
however, soon repented of it, when they perceived that the Pope's
sole object in this appointment, was to give his native province of
Pesaro and Urbino a ruler known for his conciliatory and generous
disposition, and sorely needed in a country cursed with civil discord
and irreligious propagandism.
But with all these amiable qualities and popular antecedents, Car-
dinal Ferretti was no statesman ; and if ever circumstances required
preternatural forethought and energy to save the State and the sov-
ereign, such were those of the Roman government on July the 10th,
1847. Cardinal Ferretti had neither.
We remember, some forty years ago, of a band of armed men on
Lake Erie seizing by night a suspected steamer, taking her out into
Niagara River, lashing her helm, setting her on fire, putting on a
full head of steam, and, after betaking themselves to their boats, set-
ting her head down stream toward the Falls. The people on both
sides beheld amid the darkness the awful spectacle of the burning
vessel impelled toward the roaring gulf with such prodigious velocity,
many asking themselves fearfully if there were no persons on the
doomed craft ? Who could help, if there had chanced to be ?
Was it not a like terrible spectacle that the whole civilized world
— from America, from far-distant Australia, as well as from every
part of Europe — beheld in Rome, when that government, created so
providentially more than a thousand years before, was allowed by
Christendom to be seized by guilty conspirators, and sent a helpless,
blazing wreck headlong doAvn the current of Radical revolution ?
The 16th of July was the anniversary of the amnesty. The Ro-
mans were making active preparations for a celebration that should
compensate for the forced silence of the last four weeks, and a like
activity was displayed in all the other cities of the Papal States.
Suddenly, on the 14th, all Rome was convulsed, as by the shock of
an earthquake, with the tidings that there was a conspiracy on foot
to seize the Pope and his reforming minister, and carry them off to
the Austrian head-quarters. Numbers of disguised Sanfedists, it was
said, had been coming into Rome for some days ; the governor of
Rome, Monsignor Grassellini, was the local head of the conspirators,
haying for his cliief instruments Nardoni, Freddi, and Allai, who
The Supposed Consei^vative Co7tspiracy, i5l
had held military command under Gregory XVI., and had been
distinguished for their zeal in combating the Carbonari and the
"sects." They had been also extremely active in suppressing the
insurrection which had occurred in Faenza and Cesena in June ; and
connected with them was one Minardi, who had the reputation of
being a police spy.
Whatever may have been the truth about this conspiracy, so many
circumstances gave it such a color of probability in the eyes of the
excited populace, that the clubs resolved to make the most of it.
During the night of June 13, Ciceruacchio with a band of his trusty
followers went to the Theatine monastery, called for Father Ventura,
confided to him the fact of the conspiracy and the names of the per-
sons mentioned above, together with the sentence of death passed
against them in the clubs, and which should be unfailingly executed
on the morrow.
Ventura affected to disbelieve the report, or to consider as not
serious their deadly menaces ; but when his informants had retired
he lost not a moment in going to the Quirinal and acquainting the
Holy Father and his Secretary of State with what he had heard.
The threatened officials were forthwith warned of their danger, as
well as Cardinal Lambruschini, who was always supposed to be the
soul of the reactionary party.
Grassellini was too high-minded to cower before the utmost vio-
lence of a mob ; Lambruschini was forced by the Pope to get beyond
the reach of danger ; Freddi, Nardoni, and Allai disappeared from
Rome before daylight — Minardi alone remaining. Every detail of
these proceedings were perfectly known to Ciceruacchio and his em-
ployers. They had made up their minds to take the government of
Rome into their own hands, and to make an example of Grassellini,
if they could lay hands on him, if not, of the spy Minardi, whose
hiding-place they were acquainted with.
On the morning of the 14th appeared an official proclamation from
the Secretary of State forbidding the intended celebration on the
17th, and this order was communicated by telegraph to the pro-
vinces. This confirmed the populace in the belief that a dreadful
conspiracy indeed existed, and the public indignation and alarm
reached the highest pitch when the clubs caused printed lists of the
accomplices to be posted up all over Rome. Before noon the city
was filled with an armed multitude before whom the public fled in
terror, the cardinals and principal citizens shutting themselves up
1 52 Life of Pope Pius IX.
till the storm had blown over. Cardinal Ferretti made no serious
attempt to quell the violence of the mob, which took upon itself to
arrest all persons suspected of opposition to Pius IX. or of partiality
to the Austrians. Many private residences were broken into and
searched, while no magistrate appeared to check these lawless pro-
ceedings. The pontifical government seemed to have abdicated in
favor of Ciceruacchio.
Count Kossi in a letter to his chief, M. Guizot, relates some of the
riotous occurrences of these days of mob rule in Eome. On the
evening of the 14th, about 6 o'clock, a crowd filled the street near
S. Andrea delle Fratte, at the end of the Corso and behind the Pro-
paganda. It was said that the hated Minardi was concealed in a
neighboring house, and *'the people" meant to have him. Men
were seen running along the roofs of the houses, as it was reported
that he had escaped by the roof of that in which he lay. Then it
was said that he had fled to a little chapel near at hand ; but his
pursuers dared not violate the sanctuary in quest of him.
**I was on foot," says Rossi ; *^ mixed up with the crowd ; it was
quite a farce. There were a few hundred persons, quiet passengers,
priests, and curiosity-hunters like myself. If the government had
merely sent a hundred civic guards, with arms, and without much
noise, and with a magistrate at their head, simply saying, * Gentle-
men, retire ! ' in ten minutes the square would have been evacuated.
Instead of that they allowed the cries to continue for hours, and at
last endeavored to persuade the shouters that the man was not there.
. . . Authority having failed, they hit upon the expedient of
sending Father Ventura to preach to the people. I was present. It
was a comedy to be seen nowhere but in Eome. First, a sermon in
the church of S. Andrea. They ran, they listened, they applauded.
'Jesus Christ for ever ! The Pope for ever I The people of Rome
for ever I Father Ventura for ever ! But we must have the man.^"
At length permission was obtained to search the oratory. The
prisoner was to be brought forth by Father Ventura, taken home
in his carriage, and guarded by him till the Pope had decided his
fate. At 11 o'clock at night a detachment of troops arrived with
the Father's carriage : he went into the chapel, found no Minardi
there. This announcement found the crowd incredulous at first,
but they soon yielded to his solemn assurances. "Well, my chil-
dren," said the good Theatine, **it is time to go home; so pray
come with me ; " and away they went.
Ro7ne Ruled by Mob Law, i53
^' And these," continues Eossi, ''are the people before whom the
government has given way." *
The proclamation forbidding festivities in the provinces on the
16th of July was productive of more serious consequences, if, indeed,
anything can be more serious than executive weakness before a mob.
There were ominous movements on foot in the Austrian strongholds,
and the prohibition of all public rejoicing on so great an anniversary
was considered to be both an evidence of a Sanfedist conspiracy and
a step backward on the part of the papal government. There were
tumultuous assemblages of armed men, and blood was shed in more
than one place.
On the 16th July an Austrian force crossed the papal frontier, and
on the morning of July the 17th, cavalry, infantry, and artillery were
before Ferrara, with their cannons in position before the walls, and
their gunners with lighted matches, waiting to see the gates peace-
fully opened by the authorities or prepared to batter them down.
Kesistance being useless, and the protestations of the governor, Car-
dinal Ciacchi, proving unavailing, the Austrian general took posses-
sion of the gates, and of such posts within as enabled him to quell any
hostile attempt on the part of the citizens ; the citadel remaining in
the possession of the pontifical troops.
This event was big with the fate of the Papacy. Amid the tem-
pest of anger which swept the pontifical states like a whirlwind, few
men were found, even among the most decided Conservatives, who
were bold enough to express other sentiments than those of indigna-
tion at this uncalled for invasion.
At Eome, agitated and utterly demoralized as were the lower and
middle classes by the riotous proceedings of the 14th and 15th July,
the news of " this outrage," as it was qualified even by the moderate,
threw the entire city into a stupor, which was succeeded by a frenzy
of patriotic wrath. Grassellini had given way to Monsignor Morandi,
as governor of Rome. The entire body of citizens offered their ser-
vices to the Pope ; petitions came pouring in from the provinces ask-
ing for the organization of a civic guard in every locality, a demand
which the government could not now consistently withstand ; and
at the request of Rossi the French government hastened to send
seven thousand stand of arms for the papal militia.
It took some time, however, to convince the Holy Father that
* Guizot's " Last Days of the Reign of Louis Philippe," as quoted by Legge.
1 54 Life of Pope Pius IX.
France was acting in perfect good faitli. There were many reasons
at the time which afforded men of calm judgment a solid motive for
believing with the Pope that France and Austria had joined hands
to coerce his government into a line of policy less revolutionary in its
tendencies. The tone of the extract just given from Eossi's private
coiTcspondence with the French premier, reigns throughout all Eossi's
letters written at this period, and pervaded, there is reason to believe,
his conversation with his colleagues in Eome, and with his friends
in the Liberal party.
He, like very many of the best minds, could not understand that
the policy of a Pope, and his attitude toward foreign powers, were
exceptional, and could resemble those of no other pontentate. His
military forces could only be used for defensive purposes, not for ag-
gressive warfare. When, therefore, there was question of an Italian
armed league banded together to drive the Austrians from Italian
soil, it was hard to make Italian patriots understand that the pontiff
could not become one of its active members.
To be sure, old Pope Julius II. would have judged and acted
otherwise. But how much obloquy has not the bellicose humor of
old Julius drawn down on the papacy, though his acts have been
justified even by Protestant historians and statesmen? Pius IX.,
thank God, was no Julius ; and had he imitated such warlike pre-
cedents, we know what blame he must have incurred from non-
Catholics and Catholics alike. He consented to have his subjects
organized as a national militia, that was his right, and, it may be,
his duty in presence of unprovoked invasion ; he accepted the offer
of arms from a friendly power, that was equally his right in defense
of his own sovereignty and for the maintenance of law and order
within his States.
Beyond these and other such defensive measures the Pope never
could be made to move.
And here occurs, quite naturally to our purpose, the opportunity
of stating what the great powers of Christendom should have done
for the Pope in his extreme need, and what they did not do. This
alone will explain logically the misfortunes which followed, and
which, to the minds of most readers of history, form a tangle that
no hand can unravel.
The Church in lier relation to Christendom — ^when it was an as-
semblage of sovereign States — ^as well as in her relation to each State
in which she existed, was that of a parent, a mother, ruling
Position and Policy of the Papacy, i55
** by the right divine
Of helplessness."
Her liberty, her honor, her sacred and inviolable rights, were under
the protection of every member of the community, each individual
considering that his own dearest interest, his duty, his honor, were
bound up in the independence and dignity of the mother of all.
The Pope was but the representative of the Church, her chief pastor,
the custodian of the independence and absolute liberty needful to
the discharge of his own office, and of the subordinate churches in
every land.
His helplessness always coexisted with the temporal sovereignty
which was the condition of his spiritual and official independence.
This was what Christian Europe understood, while the popes en-
joyed the greatest plenitude of power and influence ; this was what
they themselves ever understood.
They were by divine right shepherds over the entire fold of
Christ, they were by force of fact bishops of Eome ; none other but
the supreme head of the hierarchy could be bishops there, without
schism, sacrilege, flagrant violation of the divine ordinance and im-
prescriptible right. In Eome, therefore, they must have their home,
they must be free, and to be free they must be sovereigns, indepen-
dent in temporals as in spirituals of every earthly power.
Such is the constitution of the Christian Church, as Catholics at
all times and throughout the world have believed in it. On this
belief all Christendom had acted ; even after the Reformation Pro-
testant powers in their diplomatic intercourse with Rome had so
acted, and such is the only statesmanlike view which should have
been held and acted upon in the year of grace 1847.
Every State which still retained the name of Catholic, even those
not in religious communion with Rome but having Catholic subjects
with recognized rights, all, without exception, should have come to
the assistance of the sovereign of Rome, because Rome was the center
of Catholic unity and government, and her pontifl should be pre-
served by all Christian States, absolutely free and independent, not
onl jr against the tyranny of any one foreign power, but even against
tlie domination of his own people.
There was at the time one statesman who felt this, and but one,
and he was a Protestant, the great and large-minded Guizot. On
learning the critical position in which the Pope was placed, between
Austrian interference on the one hand, and the many-headed Cer-
1 56 Life of Pope Pius IX.
berus of Italian passion on the other, Guizot instructed Count Rossi
to offer the Holy Father the protection of France. Prince Metter-
nich, who ruled at that time the policy of the Austrian government,
vainly tried, through his agents at Paris, every argument to win
over Louis Philippe to his views of Eoman affairs. The Pope, he
thought, was yielding up himself and his government to the revolu-
tionary ideas of such men as Gioberti and Lamennais, and was going
to embroil all Europe in civil and religious strife.
Guizot saw that a period was dawning in the social world like
those mighty upheavals of which geology preserves the record, when
continents are rent asunder and sink beneath the waves, leaving only
a few dominant summits visible above the conquering waters, while
other islands and continents are lifted up from the deep, and are
soon covered with beauty, life, and order — the theater of a new dis-
play of the Creator's exhaustless power and wisdom. The far-see-
ing French statesman, warned by the spreading changes in men's
minds, attachments, and institutions, wished to preserve against all
possibility of future disaster that great central authority, the papacy,
which he proclaims as " the greatest school of reverence '^ for all
that is truly divine and humanizing, that ever existed here below.
He was sincerely anxious to conciliate for the papacy the respect
and affection of the democratic generations growing up in Italy,
and in whose hands its future must lie for many a coming age.
"What does the Pope desire ?" he writes, on September 17, 1847.
" It is to be on good terms with his subjects ; to stop, by legitimate
satisfactions, the fermentation which is eating up their strength ;
and to win back for the Church and religion, in modern society, the
place which belongs to them.
""We entirely approve these designs; we believe them to be ad-
yantagcous alike to Italy and to France, to the king in Paris as to the
Pope in Rome. We are desirous to second the Pope in his designs.
"What are the dangers which threaten him ? The danger of re-
maining stationary, and the danger of plunging into revolution.
There are men around him who would do nothing but leave matters
exactly as they are. There are others around him, as elsewhere
in Europe, who would overturn everything, who want him to alter
everything, at the risk of being overthrown himself, as those who
urge him to such a course secretly desire.
" We wish to assist the Pope in defending himself against this
twofold danger, and if necessary wo shall give him eflBcient aid. We
Guizot's Efforts Paralyzed by Palmer ston, i57
are neither entirely stationary nor entirely revolutionary, either at
Eome or in France. AVe know by our own experience that there are
social wants which must be satisfied, progress which must be admit-
ted, and that the greatest interest of a goyernment is to be on good
terms with its people and the times. "
But France was not allowed to bestow on the Pope, at the moment
he needed it most, that ^' efficient aid " or effective moral support,
which, if approved and seconded by other governments, would have
enabled him to reform his own States and to baffle effectually the
intrigues of Piedmont, the machinations of Young Italy, and the
coercive designs of Austria. Shall we say how Guizot's sympathy
was rendered unavailable, as well as Louis Philippe's firm resolve
to aid the Pope in his distress ?
We find a clue to it in the memoirs recently published of a man
who was during his lifetime the trusted friend and counselor of
more than one sovereign, and whose influence seated more than one
prince on a European throne, Baron Christian Frederick Stockmar.*
He reveals the fact that in August, 1846, the English government
were so anxious to give as a husband to the young Queen of Spain
Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, that they were ready, in order to
secure it, to risk a rupture and a war with France. Guizot and his
master, Louis Philippe, had successfully baffled all the schemes of
England, and Lord Palmerston, who was then in the British Foreign
Office, was offering to the Spanish Progessists, the party of revolution,
the sympathy and aid of his government in order to defeat the alli-
ance favored by France. These abominable intrigues were not even
disguised from the French and Spanish courts, the threat of revolu-
tion being held out by Palmerston in order to terrify the Queen-
mother, Maria-Cristina, into accepting a Coburg for her daughter.
The menace had the contrary effect, however. ''The English and
the revolution are threatening us," said the spirited woman to her
minister, Sen or Mon. And without a moment's delay the young
sovereign was made to accept her cousin for husband, and to give
her sister to the Duke of Montpensier.
Palmerston held in his hand the winds of revolution, and at his bid-
ding they swept over every country of continental Europe in which
he wished his policy to prevail. The ruin of the Orleans dynasty was
* See Denkwurdigkeiten aus den Papieren des Freiherrn Christian Friedrich
von Stockmar ; English translation, "Notabilia from the Papers of Stockmar,"
1872.
1 58 Life of Pope Pius IX,
then resolved upon by this uEolus of the political world. The Prince
of Joinville, in command of the French fleet in the Mediterranean,
and who was instructed to aid the Pope in every way in his power,
wrote from Spezzia on November the 7th, 1847 : *' These unfortu-
nate Spanish marriages ! we have not yet drunk to the dregs the
bitterness they have stored up for us. . . . These marriages
haunt me like a nightmare." Three months later, in February,
1848, Louis Philippe and his family were driven from France by the
revolution, to the intense satisfaction of Lord Palmerston.
So, in the autumn of 1847, at the very time when Lord Minto
was surrounded at Eome and Florence by the Italian revolutionists
with all the homage due to one who represented the great controller
of the winds and storms, Palmerston, — the latter had well settled in
his own mind that Guizot should not give "efficient aid" to the
Pope in his dread dilemma.
Let us now see what truth there is in the saying of Count Goddes
de Liancourt : "To the glory of the British cabinet history must
attest how promptly England came forward to the succor of the
threatened liberties of Eome. It was her powerful protection which
saved Italy in 1847."*
Were any one to hesitate as to Lord Palmerston's complicity in all
the plots set on foot against the temporal sovereignty of the Holy See,
it were only needful that he should read carefully the speeches on
Italian affairs made by that statesman and Mr. Gladstone in the
parliamentary session of 1863. The sentiments there expressed and
manifested more openly afterward, afford a key to the instructions
given to Lord Minto in 1847, and the other dispatches bearing on
the Roman question. The fair diplomatic language of these official
documents are to be read interlined with the subsequent and more
frank utterances of the great European agitator.
Gretton quotes with approbation the following words of the
Italian patriot lianalli as exactly characterizing the conduct of the
English foreign minister in the Minto intrigue and during the dark
and tortuous negotiations which led to the foundation of the Roman
republic.
** Those were tlie days of happy hallucination, amongst which I
know not whether to class as the greatest hope to liberty from a
Pope, or the belief that Great Britain was really desirous of seeing
• " Pius IX, " by Count Qoddos de Liancourt.
Strategy of the Radicals— Reforms, 1 59
us raised to the rank of one of the great powers of Europe. Bitterly
indeed have we expiated our blind trust in England. . . .
Solely did the goyernment profess to favor the Italian moyement,
because to do so won popularity with the masses." *
Great Britain, that is, Lord Palmerston, did then pretend all
through this troublous epoch, and while the Pope was casting about
for help and support, to be *' desirous of seeing us (Italy) raised to
the rank of one of the great powers of Europe." And it was notori-
ous, it was the burden of all Lord Minto's speeches, that the English
government ^^ professed to favor the Italian movement, because to
do so won popularity with the masses."
It was no secret that such men as the British Foreign Secretary
and his friend Mr. Gladstone favored Mazzini and Young Italy be-
cause "the movement " which they originated and controlled tended
to a united Italy, in which the temporal power of the papacy, like
the hated kingdom of Naples, should be absorbed. It was not
merely to "win popularity with the masses "that they fraternized
with Mazzini in England and encouraged his associates abroad, it
was to work the destruction of the Holy See.
In September Guizot made a step further in aid of the Pope. Ho
addressed a circular to the French ambassadors at the European
courts urging on all the necessity of a united manifestation of
reverence and support in favor of the sovereign pontiff. He pointed
out the dangerous fermentation which was spreading daily through-
out Italy, and expressed the desire of the French government that
the reforming governments and their peoples should be encouraged
and aided in effecting the necessary changes without convulsion or
interruption.
It was the only earnest effort made by any one government to
recall Christendom to a sense of its duty, but found no sympathetic
response at the moment.
In good time the Austrian government was induced to withdraw
its forces from the papal territory. But the armed passions this
aggression had called forth remained, ready to the hand that could
wield them to its own purpose.
Amid all these uncertainties, plots, and counterplots the Pope
pursued his course, perfecting all the measures needful for the
meeting of the Consulta or High Council in November, and urging
on equally important reforms in the interior of the Church.
* " The Vicissitudes of Italy," by A. L. Gretton.
CHAPTEE XIV.
Heeoio Spieit of Pius IX. — Puksues his Eeforms— Opeis^in^q
OF Council of State — Eossi urges Secularization^ of Gov-
EENMEN^T — EOMAN" ClUBS TRIUMPH OVER DEFEAT OF THE
SONDERBUND — CrY "DoWK WITH THE JeSUITS!" — SYMPA-
THY OF America.
WHAT American reader does not recall with pride tlie conduct
of one of our naval oflScers during the terrible earthquake in
Peru in March, 1859 ? When the first convulsions were over, and
all was ruin where a city had been a moment before, the commander
of the American frigate in the harbor knew that a tidal wave was at
hand, and that the real danger for himself and his crew was to come.
A first great wave swept landward without doing them much harm ;
but the experienced commander felt that it was only the forerunner
of one far more formidable. He had everything on his vessel made
secure, with every man at his post of duty, silent, resolute, and watch-
ful, ready to perish with their noble ship, if the worst should come,
but determined to stand by her to the last.
It was a sublime picture of heroism. And it is a like heroic spirit
that kept Pius IX. steadfast to his purpose amid the successive agi-
tations and disappointments that passed over his soul like so many
waves of bitterness in the summer and autumn of 1847.
We say nothing here of the reforms inaugurated by him in the pre-
ceding month of April among the great monastic orders, and which
were pushed forward so calmly and resolutely in spite of the political
agitation. These demand a separate chapter. But while the Aus-
trian occupation in the provinces assumed daily a more aggravating
form, and the popular feeling surged around him with ever-increas-
ing fury, he continued to make one important improvement after
another in the institutions of his States. In his twofold quality
of a sovereign prince and a sovereign pontiff he had undertaken
measures of reform in Church and State as a conscientious duty,
fcrusting to an overruling Providence to aid him, and to the hearty
160
He Pursues Steadily his Course of Reform, i6i
good-will of his subjects to co-operate with him toward the accom-
plishment of his double task.
On the 2d of October he published a decree establishmg in the
city of Eome a municipal government framed on the best models,
and admirably adapted to the genius of the people, to their habits,
and to the peculiar nature of the pontifical government. From time
immemorial all the cities of the Papal States had possessed a munici-
pal organization suited to their wants, and totally opposed to the
modern notions of centralization but too often in favor even in dem-
ocratic countries. But Rome had always been governed by magis-
trates immediately dependent on the sovereign, and unassisted by
anything like our aldermanic bodies or town-councils.
The decree created a deliberative council of one hundred members,
chosen from among the citizens of Rome and its immediate territory
{Agro Romano) ; sixty-four of these councilors to be proprietors,
thirty-four to be chosen from among the public functionaries, the
liberal professions, the mercantile class, the manufacturers, and
heads of trades ; and four members to represent the religious cor-
porations and establishments of beneficence.
Above this council was the Roman senate, or body of magistrates,
composed of a "senator" and eight "conservators," all of them
chosen by the council from among its own members.
Their powers in Rome were to be precisely what those of existing
municipal bodies were in the other cities of the Papal States. The
senate had the administration of all the property and domains of the
city, as well as the care of the walls, gates, aqueducts, fountains,
gardens, cemeteries, slaughter-houses, etc. To it belonged the duty
of providing for health, fires, inundations, the elementary schools,
the support of orphans and homeless children, the promoting of
trade and industry, the registration of all civil deeds, and the police
of the city and suburbs.
TliQ tax hitherto imposed on the Jewish population was abolished.
It was a great step in advance, and the Pope did not conceal his
purpose of improving this organization after he had seen it working.
There was more than this : on the very next day, October the 3d,
the Secretary of State issued a declaration in which in the Pope's
name he laid the basis of a commercial or customs union destined to
embraoe the entire Peninsula. The union then comprised the king-
dom of Sardinia, Tuscany, and the grand duchy of Lucca. The
hope was expressed that the King of Naples and the Duke of Modena
1 62 Life of Pope Pius IX.
would soon give in their adhesion, and thus enable the sovereigns to
complete and improve the scheme.
This, in the Pope's mind, was to be but the preliminary to a polit-
ical union embracing all the best features of Grioberti's ideal plan of
a federal Italy, and conciliating the just rights of the sovereigns with
those of their people, and the need of united political action and
progress in all modern material improvements.
These measures filled the Moderate Liberals with intense satisfac-
tion ; they could not help believing in the absolute sincerity of the
Pope and his unalterable determination not to stop till he had
achieved all one man could do for his people and country. Need we
say that the Radicals and the ultra-Liberals were not, or pretended
not to be, satisfied ? It is sufficient to look over the files of the
Roman journals or the Piedmontese press of October and November,
1847, to be convinced of their set purpose to misrepresent every act
and intention of Pius IX.
In mid-October was published the decree constituting the Consulta
or High Council of State, promised in April. **Our object was,"
the Pope declares in the preamble, "to form a Council of State,
and thus endow the pontifical government with an institution justly
appreciated by the other European governments, and which in former
times constituted the glory of the States of the Holy See. . . . Wo
are persuaded that, when assisted by the talent and experience of
persons honored with the suffrages of entire provinces, it will be
easier for us to take in hand the administration of the country, and
impart to it a character of utility which is the object of our solici-
tude. This result we are certain to attain. . . .
" We shall thus show the world through the medium of our voices
and the press, as well as by our attitude, that a population inspired
by religion, devoted to its prince, and gifted with good sense, knows
how to appreciate a political blessing, and to express its gratitude
with order and moderation. This is the only reward we ask in re-
turn for our constant care of the public welfare."
One paragraph is of essential importance, as indicating the various
objects for whicli the council was created. "It is," the decree goes
on to say, "instituted to assist the Pope in the administration ; to
give its opinion on matters of government connected with the gene-
ral interests of the State and those of the provinces ; on the prepara-
tion of laws, their modification and all administrative regulations ;
on the creation and redemption of public debts ; the imposition or
opening of the Council of State, 163
reduction of taxes ; ... on the customs' tariff ; ... on
the revision and reform of the present organization of district and
provincial councils," etc.
The 15th of November was fixed for the meeting of this body,
which was only the pledge and preparation of an assembly more
in conformity with modern representative assemblies. Should the
members do their duty conscientiously in this their first session, there
is scarcely a doubt but the Pope would create that other deliberative
and elective body which he contemplated.
The Pope stood pledged to the gradual introduction of constitu-
tional principles and practice. These '**had the support not only of
a majority of the Sacred College, but of all the most enlightened
and respectable citizens of Eome and the other large towns ; whilst
they were fairly in advance of the political aspirations of the whole
body of the provincial population." *
How happens it then, according to this most bitter opponent of
tlie papacy, that measures "fairly in advance of the political aspira-
tions of the whole body of the provincial population," and supported
by the cardinals and all that was most respectable among the citizens
of Rome, should have been rendered barren of all useful result ?
"The Pope himself," continues Legge, "was . . . an object
of distrust with the ultra-Liberal and Mazzinian party in Rome,
who represented him as unwilling to confer that fuller liberty which
they designed to employ in subverting his government. ... In
their arrangements for celebrating the installation of the ConsuUa,
they designed to give it the importance and external features of a
sovereign body. The Roman princes had agreed to place at the dis-
posal of each of the deputies one of the State carriages in which they
were to repair to the Quirinal, attended by servants in full livery."
Cardinal Antonelli was appointed president, and Monsignor Amici
vice-president of this council. It was the first time that the great
cardinal had been called upon to preside over a body charged with
anything like legislative functions, for a legislative body it soon at-
tempted to become. Hitherto he had been employed in financial ad-
ministration : now he had to begin the apprenticeship to that stormy
political career covering thirty years of incessant struggle.
It was a splendid pageant, such as the Rome of the Popes alone
could produce ; and it never beheld one more fascinating to the eye,
* Legge, i. 186.
1 04 Life of Pope Puis IX.
and got up with a more hearty purpose to impress the reigning Pope
that his Rome should be thenceforth only the Rome of the people.
The government had made the occasion an official fete, the notifi-
cation of all the proceedings being made by the senate of Rome.
The members were to go in state to the Quirinal to present their
homage to the sovereign, and thence to St. Peter's Church to assist
at a solemn Te Deum, The clubs and Ciceruacchio had it all their
own way in preparing the decorations and the illumination for the
evening. The *' Sixteen Sections " of Rome were there in more than
full force, their ranks being swollen by strangers from the provinces,
all of them members of the Young Italy League. The civic guard
was out with its banners, and the pontifical cavalry and infantry,
all forming an escort to the twenty-four deputies with their presi-
dent and vice-president. It was magnificent ; but it was far more
than that. It was full of prophetic foreboding, and excited irresist-
ibly the imagination and the passions — the ardent hopes and the
dark fears — of the multitude that swept along in the splendid show,
and of the multitudes who gazed from street and window and bal-
cony as the procession went and came.
*' The members of the council," says Farini, "appeared before
the Pope, both with manifestations of reverence and trustful in their
hearts ; while with them were mingled some meddling agitators,
persons that made use of public displays for displaying themselves,
and that bedizened themselves in the palace with the tribunitian
authority which they usurped in the streets. A cloud of displeasure
darkened the serene countenance of the pontiff, who told those before
him how he was gratified to see them in his presence, how he trusted
in them, how he hoped favorable results from the institution of the
body, and that God would not smite Italy with the tempest that was
then gathering. He then touched, with serious words and mien
upon the immoderate desires and the insane hopes which inflamed
Bome inconsiderate minds ; after which he took leave of them cour-
teously, and gave his blessing. . . ." *
To the address of the Holy Father, the council, on taking posses-
sion of its hall in the Vatican, hastened to reply in becoming terms.
*'Your work, Holy Father," they said, "has not been undertaken
to favor exclusively one order of citizens ; it embraces all your sub-
• jects in a common bond of love, and that love is such that your ex-
• Farini, i. 812, 818.
" The Funeral of the Political Power'' i65
fample is followed by the other sovereigns of Italy, united with their
subjects in the alliance of principles, passions, and interests. . . .
Amongst us, the first and most venerable of all authorities takes on
itself to initiate us in the progress of civilization. That authority
itself directs the minds of men in a peaceable and temperate move-
ment, and guides us toward the supreme end, which is the reign of
truth and justice on earth."
Ay, assuredly, he was in earnest for the reign of justice and truth
on earth, this priest, this bishop, this Pope, into whose life a single
selfish thought had never entered. Not more earnestly and more
lovingly did the holy Pope Innocent I. in the fifth century labor to
collect together the wretched population of Rome after its six days'
pillage by Alaric, and to help them build up their homes, and restore
their churches, and resume the practice of all earthly thrift and
Christian virtue, than did this good shepherd in the nineteenth apply
himself to create a new and happy Rome out of all the elements of
the past, and a great and glorious Italy from out the chaos of
discordant passions and interests.
One who was, a twelvemonth thereafter, day for day, to seal with
his blood his fidelity to Pius IX. and the truth of his filial devotion
to Italy, wrote to his chief in Paris, after beholding the gorgeous
procession and the triumphant festivities of that 15th day of Novem-
ber : '*This, in my opinion, was the funeral of the political power
of the clergy at Rome. Etiquette will remain more or less, but the
contents of the vase will be different ; there will be still cardinals
and prelates employed in the Roman government, but power will
be elsewhere. The essential point for us is, that there may be no
revolution — properly so called — revolution in the public squares. I
persist in the hope that none will take place." *
One would be loath to cast the slightest shadow of doubt on the
good faith of one who knew how to brave the daggers of a crowd of
assassins ; but it is impossible not to feel, on reading these words,
and connecting them with Rossi's official acts and utterances at this
period, that the wish was here father to the thought.
These words, nevertheless, were but too true a prophecy. The
Council of State had not been in session twenty-four hours, when
some of its members began to show that they were under the influ-
ence of the ultra-Liberals and the Mazzinians. The Moderate
♦ Guizot, "Last Days of the Reign of Louis Philippe."
1 66 Life of Pope Plus IX,
Liberal party in Rome, with Rossi, d'Azeglio, and Farini as its
guides and spokesmen, were still, ostensibly, the controlling power
among the enlightened reformers whom the Pope and his secretary
trusted and consulted Of these Farini was perhaps the only one
who sincerely desired to see the Pope's temporal sovereignty strength-
ened by the coming changes, because he deemed an independent,
popular, and spiritual sovereignty indispensable in the Italian politi-
cal system which was his ideal. Rossi wished to destroy what he
called " the influence of the Jesuits " over the papal councils, for the
word "clericalism" had not yet been invented; he was laboring to
reduce the clerical element in the administration to the single office
of Secretary of State, thereby placing the government almost ex-
clusively in the hands of laymen. D'Azeglio, reserved and taci-
turn, was working for Piedmont, sincerely believing that every
change which gave additional power to the laity — that is, either to
Liberals or to Radicals — ^was a step toward the supremacy of Pied-
mont. Neither Liberals nor Radicals, he judged rightly, could long
hold the government of the Roman States. Italy must have one
constitutional king, and he should be the head of the house of Savoy.
A few days after the loth of November, Rossi called on the Secre-
tary of State, and plied the weak and irresolute minister with the
arguments he had been employing to such good purpose with the
Pope and Cardinal Gizzi for the last eighteen months. Speaking of
the Pope's address to the deputies : '*The speech," he says, "seems
to imply the idea of absolute temporal government in the hands of
the clergy, leaving to the lay element no other share of influence
than that of giving advice. This is too little. It might have suf-
ficed a year ago : heads were not then excited ; hopes were moderate ;
the rest of Italy had not been waked up. Now matters are differ-
ent. Elusion is no longer possible. The Radicals are knocking
at your door. You must put them down. You, the clergy, cannot
do it single-handed. You need the co-operation of the laity, of all
among them who are possessed of intelligence, power, and moder-
ation. . . . You must satisfy them. The civic guard and the
Council of State are the means, but not the end. ... If you do
not strengthen your rulers by calling in laymen to fulfill the duties
which have nothing to do with religious affairs and the Church, all
will become impossible for you, and possible for the Radicals." ♦
♦ "Liwt Days of the Reign of Louis Philippe," p. 866.
Secularization of the Government Urged. 167
A decree soon appeared appointing a council of ministers, but on
the list there was no layman, and its publication only exasperated
the party who insisted on a lay government. But the more moderate
saw in it a hope of better things, and were pleased with the power
granted to the new ministers, who might now consider themselves
ministers indeed.
Rossi, however, gave the Pope and his secretary no rest till they had
yielded to his representations. In an interview with the former, he
pressed the urgency of a new and more liberal decree upon his atten-
tion. "'^For matters purely temporal you can no longer make two
castes of the clergy and laity ; you must henceforward mingle and
associate them," was Rossi's remark. " The first decree {motu pro-
prio) on the council of ministers was sent to me while I was ill. . . .
It is not good. I recalled it for supervision. The new one will soon
appear. ... I shall say that the war department may be held
either by a layman or an ecclesiastic." ''That will be something,
but, if your Holiness permits me to make the remark, not enough.
There should be at least two other portfolios open to the laity, the
interior, the finance, the police, the public works, or whatever your
Holiness may please to select." ''I understand; I shall see, and
do my best. I am myself quite a novice, and little skilled in these
matters." *
This dialogue throws a light on the Pope's situation and character,
which explains subsequent events. He was so anxious to play the
part of a true sovereign ! But he was, moreover, the shepherd
placed over the whole flock of Christ ; and what was happening daily
in Rome does not account sufficiently for the exhaustion and ill-
ness mentioned here. Events were just then transpiring among the
Catholic cantons of Switzerland which filled the soul of the pontiff
with bitterness.
The real though concealed intervention of Lord Palmerston in the
internal affairs of the ancient republic has already been mentioned.
Sir Robert Peel had been sent thither to encourage the Protestant
cantons in their warfare on the Sonderbund, just as Lord Minto
was sent to Rome to see to it that not one vestige of clerical power
should remain in the reformed administration of the Papal States.
Rossi, while residing in Switzerland in 1832, had been one of a com-
mission employed to revise the constitution. On his report, princi-
* Ibidem.
1 68 Life of Pope Pius IX.
pally, were based the radical changes then made, changes which were
hostile to Catholic interests, centralizing in their nature, destruc-
tive of religious liberty, and rejected by the Catholic cantons. The
others, however, adopted them ; and the constitution, as it stands to
this day, with all the pernicious consequences it has never ceased to
produce for religion and for liberty, is mainly the wdrk of that Rossi,
who, in November and December, 1847, was the most influential
counselor of the hapless Pope and his chief minister. There was
another Italian whose influence was no less powerful for evil in that
hour when the dearest interests of the Church of Switzerland were
oppressed by the Radicals, and the Church in Italy was threatened by
so fateful a storm : this was Vicenzo Gioberti. His work on " The
Moral and Civil Supremacy of the Italians," had been severely and
justly criticised by some Jesuit theologians ; and the author, a priest
himself, replied in two successive works, his Prolegomeni (1845), and
II Gesuita Moderno (1846), both replete with the quintessence of all
the slanders ever heaped upon the Society of Jesus and its members.
Such books were a godsend to the Radicals and revolutionists of
every country and degree. They were translated into all the Eu-
ropean languages, and cheap editions were circulated everywhere
among the Catholic populations of Europe, through the vast agency
of the secret societies. They were scattered broadcast over Switzer-
land especially, which was the chief refuge on the continent of all
political exiles and plotters. They were far more powerful auxili-
aries to the Protestant Diet in its war on the Catholic cantons than
the cohorts of General Dufour.
Gioberti was hailed throughout Switzerland and Italy as the man
who had expelled the Jesuits from Lucerne and Fribourg. In Rome,
this victory of rank religious intolerance was hailed with indescrib-
able enthusiasm, and Gioberti was invited by the clubs to hasten to
the Eternal City and receive an ovation beneath the eyes of the
Superior-General of the Jesuits, whom they were wont to designate
as ''the Black Pope."
On his arrival the city went wild with enthusiasm. A guard of
honor was stationed before his door, and in public he was paid the
homage and reverence due to sovereigns. The press, the clubs, the
gatherings in the street, echoed only one sentiment — immortal honor
to Gioberti, death to the Jesuits. A procession was organized with
banners, music, and torchlights ; the leaders had the audacity to
The Clubs — The Sonderhinid — The Jesuits, 169
pass around tlie Quirinal and to shout their cries beneath the win-
dows of Pius IX.
He felt outraged in his dignity as head of the Church and the
natural protector of all the great religious bodies which constitute
the most efficient and devoted aids of the common father in all the
varied duties of the Christian ministry. No one better than he
knew how utterly baseless were the slanders uttered against the
Jesuits from the days of Pascal to those of Gioberti. He took occa-
sion of the next meeting of the Consistory, on December the 17th,
to enter his solemn protest, if not against the triumphant recep-
tion given to Gioberti, at least against the indignities hurled at the
Society of Jesus.
'^We are unable," the allocution says, "to refrain from making
mention of the bitter grief which has overwhelmed us in consequence
of what happened here a few days ago. In this our city, the strong-
hold and center of the Catholic religion, some half-crazy persons were
found . . . who, casting aside the common sentiments of hu-
manity, did not shrink — amid the loudly expressed indignation of their
fellow-citizens — from rejoicing and openly triumphing over the issue
of the sad intestine war that has lately broken out in Switzerland."
Perhaps if left to his own true impulses the generous pontiff
would have done, then and there, what Clement XIII. did when all
the sovereigns of the house of Bourbon pressed him to sacrifice and
defame the Jesuits — defend and praise them, covering their institute,
their teaching, their labors, and their persons with the shield of his
supreme spiritual authority.
Timid and time-serving bishops had written to the lion-hearted
old Pope, urging him to listen to the remonstrances of the Bourbon
courts, in order to avoid a schism.
" So long as God will be our helper," was the heroic answer, " we
shall never be induced by any solicitation, private or public, to fail
in our duty when the distress of the Church moves our soul, or the
afflictions that have fallen on our beloved sons of the Society of
Jesus appeal to us. We place our trust in him who rules the ocean
and its storms." And he issued the magnificent bull ApostoUcum,
clearing the Society from every stain, and proving and confirming
anew its constitutions and rules.
But Cardinal Ferretti was not the man to advise such a measure,
and then again, it was better that Pius IX. should not have given to
the Italian agitators a new pretext for violence and insurrection.
1 70 Life of Pope Pius IX.
Of course, the Jesuits had no more to do with causing civil war
in Switzerland, than their presence in Louisiana, Kentucky, and
Missouri had with the existence of our late civil war. They were
called to teach hy the Catholic cantons, acting in their sovereign ca-
pacity. Their teaching was what that of their brethren is this day
in New York and Washington and San Francisco, and their conduct
equally loyal, peaceful, edifying, and useful.
The Pope had vainly interposed to protect them. France and
Austria, as has already been said, supported the right of the Catholic
cantons to maintain their schools. How happened it that France
and Austria and Prussia — not to speak of the Pope — were beaten and
outgeneraled ? Let Mr. Legge inform us.
" The General Diet declared the Sonderbund (or separate league of
the Catholic cantons) illegal, decreed its dissolution and the expul-
sion of the Jesuits. The Sonderbund refused. ... A congress
of the five powers was proposed to mediate between the Diet and the
refractory Sonderbund. England was indisposed to meddle in this
quarrel, where she could not reckon on an ally in opposing the pre-
tensions (!) of the Jesuits. Projects and counter-projects were pro-
posed, and whilst Lord Palmerston . . . deferred the congress,
and kept it waiting for the English envoy, Switzerland acted, over-
powered the Catholic cantons . . . and cast out the Jesuits. . .
" The policy of Lord Palmerston has at least the merit of success.
• . . To him Switzerland was indebted for the preservation of
her independence, when threatened by Austrian and French troops,
under the pretext of protecting religion." *
Meanwhile, in free America, the noble efforts made by Pius IX.
to place religion and true liberty side by side at the head of progress
and Italian nationality, continued to excite the warmest admiration
and sympathy. A meeting was held in November, at New York, ^
which the most prominent public men took a part ; eloquent speeches
were made commending the enlightened and courageous initiative
of the pontiff, and expressing a deep interest in the success of his re-
forms. The Catholic citizens were content to allow persons of pure
American and Protestant descent to preside, and to move and second
the very flattering resolutions adopted by the enthusiastic assemblage.
The sentiment of the fourth resolution conveys the spirit of the
meeting.
♦ Legge, i. 190, 191.
CoJtgratulations from America to Pius IX, 171
" TVe present our most hearty and respectful salutations to the
BOYereign pontiff for the noble part he has taken in behalf of his
people; . . . knowing the difficulties with which he is sur-
rounded at home, and the attacks with which he is menaced from
abroad, we honor him the more for the mild firmness with which he
has overcome the one, and the true spirit with which he has repelled
the other."
On December the 30th, just as the year was drawing to its close,
Pius IX. issued a second decree on the organization of the council
of ministers. The only post reserved to a cardinal was that of
Secretary of State, who was to be also Minister of Foreign Affairs,
and to have a prelate for Under Secretary. The other ministries
were left open to laymen. It so happened that none of them were
filled with laymen at the time, and this circumstance deprived
the concession, so persistently urged by Eossi, of all its conciliatory
grace. The Eadicals were furious. On December the 31st was
issued a circular interpreting the law of censorship of the preceding
March the 15th. The discussion of political subjects which might
thwart the best interests of the State or interfere with pending
negotiations was forbidden. This restriction, thought to be neces-
sary while so many delicate questions were discussed with Austria
and the governments of the Peninsula, would not have appeared un-
reasonable in a country so easily excited and governed by a sound
public opinion. But Eome had, just then, to think exactly in con-
formity to the opinion of the clubs and of the radical press. This
last "step backward," as they termed it, instead of being a preven-
tive, proved to be an incentive to disorder.
Eumors of insurrectionary movements in the north and south of
Italy were whispered about in the neighborhood of the clubs. They
wore the first mutterings of the earthquake on a volcanic soil. They
had reached the ears of Pius ; did they make him more anxious as
he went on the evening of the 31st to pray in the church of the
Gesu for mercy on the transgressions of that year of bitter trial, and
to thank the God in whose hand he was for the mingled sweets
and bitterness of his own deep cup ? The Pope it was who intoned
the Miserere as well as the Te Dewn,
Ah ! if the true Christians, who knelt there with their high-
priest before the mercy-seat, could have foreseen what the coming
year held in store for them ? . . . But it was the hand of that
Bame Mercy that wove the vail which hides the future from us.
CHAPTER XV.
New-Yeak's Peocession" Foebidden — Mazziis"! IN" Paeis plan-
ning Revolutions— The Teicoloe Flag in Rome — Peti-
tions FOE A Regulae Aemy— Pius IX/s Steady Pateiotism
— Appeals to his People — The Mass of his Subjects
Faithful.
Januaey, 1848.
*' ~T~\EMONSTRATIO]SrS"had become in the hands of the party
JL^ of action a force as regular and as irresistible as the flow
and ebb of the tide, though far more noisy and hurtful in their
effects. The chief reason why the Holy Father wished to restrain
or repress these continual gatherings of the people in Rome and else-
where in his dominions, was, that the laboring and agricultural
classes were forced by moral compulsion to leave their ordinary avo-
cations in order to assemble at the bidding of the clubs. This evil
had been pointed out in the preceding June by Cardinal Gizzi, at tlie
special request of his sovereign. Field labor was neglected ; a small
crop was put in the ground in spring, and, as the provident pontiff
feared, there was a scanty harvest. There was unusual distress in
the cities, and for the very same reason ; artisans and laborers of
every description were frequently called away from their toil ; trade
and commerce languished, for capitalists and moneyed business men
were unwilling to make any venture while the present was so full
of agitation and the future darkened with so many uncertainties.
Hence the autumn and winter of 1847 were attended with far more
distress and suffering throughout the Pontifical States than the cor-
responding seasons of 1846. All this, though the clearly foreseen
and inevitable result of the Mazzinian agitation, was once more used
as a weapon against the government, and helped to swell the increas-
ing impatience of priestly rule.
Pius IX. ardently desired to see this baneful agitation cease, and
ho had resolved to check it by affectionate remonstrance as well as
172
New-Years Procession Forbidden. 173
by the firm ase of his authority. Cardinal Ferretti had not dared
^ to enforce rigorously, on becoming Secretary of ^tate, the police
ordinances against frequent assemblages and noisy celebrations, pub-
lished by his predecessor, and which had been so distasteful to the
clubs.
The Pope insisted that, in view of the scarcity both of food and
labor, no unusual expenses should be incurred by his people for the
celebration of New- Year's Day. This, nominally, was a mark of
respect to the sovereign : it was now the sovereign's wish that all
expenses should be curtailed, in order to relieve the manifold needs
of the poor.
Unfortunately the Secretary of State and the Minister of Police
allowed the preparations for New- Year's Day to go on without taking
any preventive measure either of expostulation or prohibition. Night
• had come, the " Sections of Kome " were in the streets with banners
and blazing torches, and the Piazza del Popolo was filled with the
multitude, the leaders marshaling their ranks ere they set out for
the Quirinal.
Excited to an unusual pitch as they were by the secret intelligence
of the contemplated insurrections, they could not now be repressed in
what was to all appearance a customary tribute of reverence and
affection to him who was at once pontiff and sovereign, without
the risk of serious disorder. This very moment, however, was that
chosen by the authorities for ordering out the military, with a strict
injunction to permit no part of the procession to approach the
Quirinal.
A scene of indescribable uproar ensued. No word of disrespect or
even of blame was uttered against the sovereign ; but Ferretti, so
popular before, was now denounced with fearful imprecations, as
well as Monsignor Savelli, the Minister of Police. This had not
been the latter's first capital blunder ; a worse had been committed
some time before in throwing disfavor on the Conservative Liberal
club called Circolo Romano^ and in countenancing the formation of
a rival club, the Circolo Popolare, which became in time a focus of
radicalism and sedition.
The chief objects of the popular aversion, however, were evidently
the Jesuits : it was good strategy in the leaders to hold these poor
priests up to the eye of popular prejudice, as the mysterious power
behind the pontifical throne, behind the College of Cardinals and the
ministers, from which proceeded every inspiration hostile to liberty.
1 74 Life of Pope Pius IX,
progress, science, the popular weal, and the national prosperity. It
was a notorious fact, however — one familiar to every school-boy in
Eome — that of all the religious orders the Jesuits were by far the
least influential in the Roman court with the cardinals, and espe-
cially with the ministers then in power.
As it was, nevertheless, the storm of indignation vented itself on
the Jesuits during that night of January the 1st, 1848, with a vio-
lence that plainly told of worse deeds to come. To such a height
did the anger of the multitude rise, that Prince Oorsini, the presi-
dent of the senate, and the chief of the municipal magistrates, was
impelled to hasten to the Pope and obtain an instant withdrawal
of the troops, with the promise that the sovereign would on the
morrow pass through the principal streets of the city to show his
confidence in the people.
A single document taken from the French State papers and quoted
by Farini * will enable the reader to see what hand let loose the
whirlwind of revolution over Italy, France, and Germany in the be-
ginning of that same year. It is a secret letter from Delepert, the
French Prefect of Police, to the Minister of the Interior, and written
in January.
*' I am told that Mazzini is come to Paris, in order to take coun-
sel with such of his friends as are here about the means of raising
money to dispatch emissaries into Tuscany, Piedmont, and to Rome
and Naples, who will have instructions to second the existing move-
ment and to ingratiate themselves with the patriots. They have
been recommended to study the character of Ciceruacchio, the popu-
lar leader in Rome, and to exert themselves to draw him into their
faction, by inducing him to believe that everything will be done with
a view to the greater glory of Pius IX.
'*In a word, the plan of Mazzini is as follows,: To avail himself
of the present excitement, turning it to account on behalf of Young
Italy, which repudiates monarchy under whatsoever form ; and to
effect this by raising the cry of viva for the Duke of Tuscany, for
Charles Albert, and Pius IX.
'* As a preliminary to his return to London from Paris, Mazzini
has traversed the departments to give this matter in charge to such
of his fellow-countrymen as have been represented to him as to be
best adapted for it."
♦ " History of the Roman State/* i. 383.
Mazzini in Paris Planning Revolutions, 175
The plans of Mazzini had been laid in Noyember and December ;
his faithful emissaries were on their way long before the new year
had dawned ; and Cicernacchio, till then attached to the Moderate
Liberal party, was soon drawn to the party of action. The French
Prefect of Police must have been very blind and deaf, and yery ill
served by his subordinates, if he did not learn that the arch-conspi-
rator had another purpose in Paris beside obtaining money toward
fomenting revolutions in Italy. In Paris, and all through the depart-
ments of France, Mazzini had been carefully laying the train for the
coming explosion in February, which was to overturn the throne of
Louis Philippe and neutralize Rossi's action in Eome, and that of
the whole Moderate Liberal or Constitutional party.
Mazzini had also been at Geneva during the war of the Sonder-
bund, and had arranged with Young Switzerland, as well as Young
Europe, to give before long the Prussian and Austrian governments
such occupation at home as would effectually prevent them from in-
terfering with the progress of radicalism in the Swiss cantons and
in Italy. And so the winds were sown. See we now how Mazzini's
enemies reaped the whirlwind.
On the second day of January, as announced, the Pope drove
through all the great thoroughfares of Rome. If his counselors
had been ill-inspired in marring the celebration on New-Year's Day,
it were hard to say that the concession made to the mob, and the
condescension of the sovereign on the next day, were anything else
than an ill-advised compromise. But there is always this to say,
where a priest is sovereign, that a gracious act of condescension is
ever pardonable, save where it is a positive encouragement to sedition
and mob rule.
The streets were filled with half -joyous, half -sullen crowds,
through which the pontifical carriage and escort proceeded slowly.
At one point there was a formidable array of banners and men mar-
shaled in serried ranks. As the Pope advanced Ciceruacchio sud-
denly approached his carriage, mounted the steps with a tricolor in
his right hand, bearing the inscription "Holy Father, trust to your
people." He waved the flag above the Pope's head, amid the deaf-
ening shouts of the crowd. The action was so unexpected that Pius
IX. did not understand what had passed. But the cries which met
him, as he drove on, "Long live Pius IX. !" and "Down with the
Jesuits ! " soon revealed the purpose of this new demonstration.
The spectators had taken Ciceruacchio's action as the response of
176 Life of Pope Pius IX.
the pontiff to tlieir offer of support and sympathy, and, at his re-
quest, they dispersed quietly. The tricolor had been unfurled al-
most in the face of the Roman pontiff, and had been waved in
triumph above his head. It was now borne back to the clubs as the
symbol of the people's power, and the pledge of their final triumph
at no distant day.
On January the 3d Monsignor Savelli was dismissed and Francesco
Perfetti, one of the popular idols, was given the ministry of police.
A still more significant appointment was that of Prince Gabrielli
to the ministry of war. The joy of the Romans was unbounded.
Gabrielli was a soldier by profession, and his entry into the cabinet
was hailed with the greater enthusiasm that he was a layman, and
that the department of war was now of all others the most important
in the threatening aspect of Italian affairs.
There was more than joy, however, in the feeling which lit up
Roman countenances in these first days of the year of revolutions.
Gioberti had returned to Turin feted like a conqueror at every stage
of his homeward journey, and was heard to say in Turin that Pius
IX. was ready to crown Charles Albert as "King of Northern
Italy," if he should succeed in wresting Lombardy and Venice from
the Austrians. There is no proof that anything which had been
uttered by the Pope during the philosopher's stay in Rome could
have authorized such an assertion.
Be that as it may, Northern Italy was in a ferment. Not only
was the Grand Duke of Tuscany arming the entire male population
of his dominions, but Piedmont was bristling with bayonets. It
was evident that serious military events were at hand.
In Rome, the Council of State, on the 10th of January, received
a memorandum signed by some of the most influential citizens,
setting forth these military preparations in Northern Italy, and call-
ing the serious attention of the council and the government to the
fact that the Pontifical States were without an army worthy of the
name. This document ended with the significant assertion, " that
the nation is determined to avail itself of the right that calls in aid
every kind of instrument when the question is the defense of our
sovereign, our laws, our property, our liberties — of everything, in
fine, that makes up the idea of country. But if amidst the efforts
necessary for arming the masses, . . . prudence should be un-
equal to fixing the bounds of enthusiasm, and the voice of the
moderate party should become inaudible, let the fault and the
Petitions for a Regidar Army, 177
punisliment lie with those who deceive goYemments and betray
nations. ..."
The council adopted this memorandum and urged on the govern-
ment the necessity of acting on its suggestions. The upshot was
that the pontifical government requested Charles Albert to send to
Rome a military man of distinguished ability and experience, upon
whom should devolve the task of creating an army in the Papal
States. The choice of the king fell on Giovanni Durando, a Pied-
montese, trained in the Spanish wars, and, like General Pepe in
Naples, the ready and willing instrument of Young Italy in further-
ing every revolutionary design.
On the 14th of January came the tidings of the insurrection in
Palermo, and two weeks afterward the news of the successful insur-
rection in Naples. The Romans illuminated their houses, and the
clubs and sections organized processions in which the tricolor was
borne openly as the flag of that Italy which was now on every man's
lips and in many good men's hearts.
Cardinal Ferretti felt that his unsteady hand could no longer
hold the helm, and he exchanged places with Cardinal Bofondi,
governor of Ravenna. Rossi, who little imagined that the commo-
tion which had shaken to its center the kingdom of Naples, and
whose oscillations were felt so violently in Rome, would extend to
Paris and upset the dynasty whom he served, urged Pius IX. to
grant new concessions. The agitators, the French ambassador urged,
should be isolated, and put down by the lay element in authority,
not by ecclesiastics in office. "You are right, the. Pope said to
me," thus he writes to Guizot, "this course of severity no longer
suits ecclesiastics, it would appear hateful." Rossi further insisted
upon prompt and decisive measures, to prevent disorder and insur-
rection in Central Italy.
The active measures inaugurated by the Pontiff, and urged on by
him "with restless activity," as he expressed it himself, shall be
presently mentioned in detail. It is to his undying honor that
while the very men he had placed in authority among the magis-
trates of Rome were openly leagued with the Radicals in defeating
every one of his most cherished and liberal purposes, he could have
obtained, by a single word, the assistance of a French army and navy
to support him in carrying out his reforms against the machinations
of the Mazzinians. The world has never known how magnani-
mous, all through these evil days, was the patriotism of Pius IX.,
178 Life of Pope Plus IX,
how his confidence in the practical sense and gratitude of his people
was only surpassed by his trust in divine providence.
It is Guizot who reveals the resolution of the French government
not to allow the Pope to be overawed by the Italian revolutionists.
"On my proposition," he writes, "the king and his council re-
solved that if the Pope, threatened either from within or without,
asked for our support, we should give it effectually. Eegiments
were designated and a commander chosen for this eventful expe-
dition. Two thousand five hundred men were held disposable at
Toulon, and two thousand five hundred at Port Vendres, ready to
embark at the first signal for Civita Vecchia. I had with General
Aupich, an officer as intelligent as he was brave, two long consulta-
tions, which made me feel sure that he perfectly understood what
we meant, and would regulate his conduct accordingly. On the
27th of January, 1848, all these measures were taken and announced
to M. Kossi, who was authorized, if he judged it useful and proper,
to announce them to the Roman government." *
Cardinal Bofondi arrived in Eome on the 7th of February ; on
the 10th a remarkable proclamation from the Pope appeared, bear-
ing in every line and sentiment the stamp of his firm and fatherly
hand.
"Romans ! The pontiff, who has received from you, during the
past two years, so many proofs of love and fidelity, is not insensible
either to your wishes or to your apprehensions. We have not for a
single hour ceased to consider how, without infringing on the rights
of the Church, we may best develop and complete these civil institu-
tions which we have created of our own free will, and impelled by
our yearning for the happiness of our people and our sense of their
noble qualities.
"Even before the public voice had uttered a word on the subject,
we had bestowed our attention on the reorganization of the mili-
tia. . . . We have also increased the number of laymen in our
council. As on the mutual friendliness toward each other of the
Italian sovereigns depends the preservation of the reforms they have
granted, we have cultivated friendly relations with them all.
"Nothing that may contribute to the peace and dignity of our
States shall be neglected by him who is your father and sovereign,
. . . who has given you such unmistakable proofs of his care of
* Let Demiers Jourt du lii^gne de Louis Philippe.
Appeals to his People, lyc)
yon, and who is ready to give you many more, if God Youchsafes to
hear his prayers so far as to enable him to see your hearts, and those
of all Italians, animated by the peaceful spirit of his wisdom.
" Listen, then, to the fatherly voice which seeks to inspire you
with confidence. Be not disturbed by the rumors spread all over
the land by hidden agencies seeking to agitate the peoples of Italy,
by holding up to them the bugbear of a foreign war, which they
would have you trace to domestic conspiracies originating with
ourselves, or to the sluggishness or unpatriotic ill-will of those in
power.
"What danger, after all, can threaten Italy, so long as a close
bond of confidence and gratitude, unweakened by any violence, shall
unite the power of nations with the wisdom of sovereigns and the
sanctity of right ? But we especially, we the head and supreme
pontiff of the Catholic religion, should we not have for our defense,
if unjustly attacked, numerous children, who would protect their
father's house in this center of Catholic unity ? Is it not a great
gift of Heaven, amongst all the favors lavished on Italy, that our
three millions of subjects have two hundred millions of brethren of
every language and nationality ?
" This is what in other times and amid the breaking up of the
Roman empire saved Rome, and prevented the utter ruin of Italy.
This must always be its safeguard so long as the Apostolic See
stands in the heart of the Peninsula."
On the same day Pius IX. issued a special proclamation to his
army. "Circumstances are so very serious," it began, "and the
condition of public affairs so critical, that I must appeal to the civic
guard. To this body I intrust my own person and my property, the
Sacred College, the life and property of all good citizens, the preser-
vation of the public order and tranquillity. Thereby I give this
body the strongest proof of my confidence, in return for the many
instances of affectionate attachment received from it in so brief a
space.
"I have ordered a special commission to consider the various
measures of reform undertaken or contemplated by me, and to ex-
amine how far these reforms can be extended so as to make them
correspond with the needs and aspirations of the present time.
"It is also my intention to increase the number of members in the
Council of State, and to amplify their powers. I have promised to
secularize the other ministerial offices, and to make this change
i8o Life of Pope Pius IX,
permanent. It should have been made ere this, if the persons to
whom the offices were o£Fered had not proposed conditions that were
inadmissible. Nor can I ever admit them. For I will never con-
sent to anything contrary to the interests of the Church or the prin-
ciples of religion.
"Were such conditions to be imposed on me by force, and were I
to be left unsupported, yield I would not, but should place my entire
trust in Providence.
** Let our citizens beware of evil-minded persons, who make a pre-
tense of seeking the public good, only to overthrow established order,
and to possess themselves of the wealth of others.
** A constitutional government is not a new name or a new thing
in the Pontifical States. Countries that now possess it have copied
it from us. We had a real House of Representatives in the college
of Consistorial Advocates, and a House of Peers in the Sacred Col-
lege, until the reign of Sixtus V."
The substance of this proclamation was communicated first to
the commanders of the civic guard by the Pope himself. '^Centle-
men," said the Holy Father, "I have called you hither to ask you
whether I can rely on your fidelity and co-operation ? " " Yes ; rely
on us. Holy Father." *' Can I also rely on the fidelity and support
of the civic guard ? " There was a deep and painful silence ; the
officers hung their heads in shame. But the Pope, who 'half ex-
pected this, was not shaken in his purpose. He then read them the
proclamation, blessed them, and with affectionate words dismissed
them.
The effect of these proclamations was at first excellent : people
read the words of the sovereign with respect and emotion. They
knew they were the unfeigned expression of a deep fatherly love.
But it was resolved to go in procession to the Quirinal to thank the
Bovereign for what he had accomplished and for the further promises
held out to his subjects. This was the usual way in which the Ead-
icals turned every burst of genuine popular affection to their own
purpose.
So there was a torchlight procession in the evening. " Conspic-
uous among the crowd," says Legge, " were four bodies of ecclesi-
astics, ' flanked by two tricolor flags, and having the Pope's colors
between them, while they all wore tricolor tassels.' The pontiff
showed himself at the balcony, and intimated his wish to address
the crowd. The silence was profound, and he spoke as follows :
Protests Against Seditious Cries, i8i
*' ^ Before the benediction of God descends upon you, on the rest
of my people, and — I say it again — on all Italy, I pray you to be of
one mind, and to keep the faith you have sworn to me the Pontiff.'
**At these words the silence of deep feeling was broken by a
sudden thunder of acclamation, ^ Yes, I swear ! ' and Pius IX. pro-
ceeded :
"'I warn you, however, against the raising of certain cries that
are not of the people but of a few individuals, and against making
any such requests to me as are incompatible with the sanctity of the
Church ; for these I cannot, I may not, and I will not grant. This
being understood, with my whole soul I bless you.'" *
The "cries" here alluded to, as Legge remarks, "were the threats
against the Jesuits, to which the streets of Rome had so often re-
sounded of late, and which had deeply wounded him (the Pope)."
The "requests" were the urgent demands of aggressive measures
toward Austria which would directly lead to war, the utter seculari-
zation of all the government ministries, leaving none but laymen
even to manage ecclesiastical matters with foreign powers, and the
abdication of so much of his own prerogatives as would deprive him
of all real independence and freedom in the discharge of his spiritual
sovereignty. To these may be added the demands made unceasingly
for the suppression and expulsion of the Jesuits, as if he believed
them guilty of the intrigues, ambition, and enormities imputed to
them by the enemies of religion ! These were manifestly at variance
with the justice and sanctity of the Church, and the purity of his
own office as the supreme judge and common parent of Christians.
One object of the conspirators in Rome, and throughout all the
cities of the Pontifical States, was to render these "cries" and
"requests" so frequent and so violent, and to make them the occa-
sion of such tumult and disorder, that foreigners residing in Italy
might easily conclude that these utterances represented the true sen-
timent of the entire mass of the population.
It is against this conclusion so industriously spread through Italy
by the radical press, and so unhesitatingly adopted by the liberal and ,
Protestant journals on both sides of the Atlantic, that Pius IX.
caused the cardinal Secretary of State to protest in a circular ad-
dressed to the governors of the pontifical provinces, and dated on
February the 28th :
***PiusIX.,"i. 218,219.
1 82 Life of Pope Pius IX.
"The majority of the Holy Father's subjects," the circular
affirmed, "have shown themselves most grateful for these benefi-
cent changes, as well as worthy of enjoying them. But it is — and
we deeply deplore it — but too true that some sowers of discord and
disorder have stained the national honor, and have made foreign
nations believe that the crimes of a few were the acts of the major-
ity, whereas the latter were absolutely guiltless of them.
" The heart of the Holy Father has been deeply wounded by the
ingratitude of these lawless agitators, who are the enemies of all order
and morality. But what fills his soul with bitterness is to learn
that in some parts of the pontifical territory riotous assemblages
have dared to expel certain religious communities, by threatening
them with the worst violence and ordering them to quit the country.
"In our age, when people praise so highly and claim as a common
blessing legality, moderation, and humanity, one might expect far
other deeds from the professed lovers of freedom. In his quality of
sovereign and of head of the Catholic religion, his Holiness must
condemn publicly outrages that disgrace our civilization, and are in
such manifest opposition with that liberty in whose cause they are
perpetrated."
We must pause before concluding this chapter, and give some an-
swer to a difficulty which must be in the minds of many readers.
How could the Mazzinian conspirators have rendered abortive all
the attempts at reformation made by the Pope, if the majority in
Rome and throughout its dependent teritories were not bitterly
hostile to a priestly government ?
"With Americans it is well-nigh a foregone conclusion that the al-
most totality of the Pope's subjects bore his yoke because its intoler-
able weight was riveted round their necks by the hand of inexora-
ble fate, and that now that it has been removed, they rejoice with
unanimous delight at the recovery of unhoped-for freedom. Amer-
ican writers and travelers cite in proof of this position the almost
unanimity with which the people have accepted the change of rulers
and voted for the king of Italy instead of the Pope.
Assuredly the political experiences of the last presidential election
ought to render us, well accustomed as we are to the working of
free institutions and the use of the ballot-box, slow to pronounce
about electoral majorities or "unanimity of suffrages." But we
should show ourselves to be the slaves of blind religious and politi-
cal passion in prejudging the Roman question, if we did not recall
The Majority of the People not Revolutionists, 183
Low at the beginning of our late civil war a determined minority in
the Free States could neutralize the opposition of the majority, and
"^ excite men to an anti-slavery crusade, while an equally determined
minority in the South could carry away the vast majority into war.
In the beginning, with its calamities, that war is acknoAvledged' to
have been the work of a knot of professed politicians on both sides,
who knew exactly what they purposed, and forced the bulk of the
nation, step by step, to become the instruments of their own designs.
And on both sides the overwhelming majority confessed, that the
government and constitution sought to be set aside were the best
that ever blessed a country and a people !
There was not a city in the South, ere yet a gun had been fired in
rebellion, in which all who were most enlightened and wealthy and
patriotic, did not deplore the headlong passion which hurried State
after State into the first fatal steps that led to separation and to
bloodshed.
There was not a county outside the cities, in which the immense
majority of the farmers — the independent, honest, and true lovers of
their country — were not devotedly attached to the Union. It is no
secret, at this day, by what artifices and manoeuvres they were
carried away into the general movement. Nor have the Free States
forgotten, that by a like strategy was brought about the moral com-
pulsion wliich arrayed their sons in defense of the national life.
We have all learned by bitter experience to count our gains and our
losses ; may we learn daily more and more how to cherish the spirit
of true freedom, never found where there is not true charity, and
the patient toleration of imperfection in all human laws, and of the
manifold defects inseparable from human nature ! The ideal '^ best"
in human institutions is the "practical best."
It is not to be imagined for a moment that the wishes or the wants,
or even the freedom, of the majority were respected or consulted in
the Pontifical States by the men whose interest or whose aim it
was to overturn both Church and State. Revolutions, in modern
times at least, are the work of the great cities, especially when the
revolutionary purpose is to destroy, not to preserve. The American
revolution, like that in England, was essentially conservative ; so
was our late civil war conservative on both sides in the main pur-
pose. The revolution at present set in throughout Great Britain,
and inaugurated by Palmerston and Gladstone's evil genius, is essen-
tially subversive. It is the radical, anti-Christian, godless spirit of
184 Life of Pope Pius IX,
Mazzini and Garibaldi that Gladstone has enthroned in the reforms
made by him. Is this Dagon introduced into the old Catholic sanc-
tuary of the British constitution to be upset and dashed to pieces by
the living spirit of the place ? or is that spirit of Christian wisdom,
liberty, and humanity to be driven by the usurping fiend from its
hallowed dwelling-place ? We shall see ere long.
It was the endeavor of Pius IX, to reform, to improve, to enlarge,
and to consolidate. Such was not the purpose of Mazzini. Let it
not be supposed that the independent, wealthy, enlightened, and
truly Christian populations of the cities were in favor of the Kadi-
cals. We know, from the extracts quoted in the earlier chapters of
this work, that the rural populations were not. Are they so still, in
town and country ?
There are writers who affirm it unhesitatingly. But where do
they obtain their information ? From every source that is hostile
to the Holy See, or even to religion itself. Naturalists tell us how
the delicious and wholesome flesh of the bonito becomes rank poison
near some of the coral reefs of South America, where the fish feeds
on certain substances. How can Protestant writers and travelers
obtain any but the most unwholesome information, seeing that they
seek it only at every poisoned source ?
Men who will leave the beaten paths of travel, eschew the inter-
ested and lying gossip of hotels and innkeepers, and seek the Italian
farmer in his home, will soon find out that he and his fellows have
not fought to oust the Pope ; that they would rather fight to restore
his fatherly reign. And they will find the same to hold true of the
city population who have not been lifted into wealth and position by
the wave of radical revolution.
CHAPTEE XYL
Eadical Hatked of the Modekate Libeeals — Rossi Rebukes
THE War Paety — Difficulty ik Feamixg a Co]S"stitu-
Tioif — Its Featuees — Fiest Coi^tstitutiokal Mikistey —
Wae ik Lombard y — The Pope acts oif the Defensive —
His Gekeeal Peoclaims a Ceusade — The Pope peotests
SOLEMNLY — Rage of Youkg Italy.
Februaby-Apbil, 1848.
THE insurrection in tlie kingdom of Naples had forced the king
to grant his subjects a new constitution, with guarantees that
it should not remain a dead letter. The commotion produced in
Rome by this intelligence had not subsided when the city was elec-
trified by the tidings of the catastrophe in France, which had driven
into exile Louis Phili ppe and his family. Then came news of the
grant of a liberal constitution by the king of Sardinia to his subjects.
The Mazzinians took no further pains to conceal their triumph or to
boast of the mighty forces at their disposal. They were the rulers of
Rome ; they knew it, and all were soon made to feel it.
The Moderate Liberal party were thrust aside, and looked upon by
the triumphant Radicals with a distrust and a hatred which success
only intensified instead of softening. Thenceforward Young Italy
pursued the friends and advocates of constitutional liberty with a
ferocity scarcely excelled by that displayed toward priestly govern-
ment and its supporters.
Rossi, on whom they always looked with aversion, and whose plana
for defeating their ultimate purpose they knew but too well, had
fallen from his position as ambassador, and could no longer prop up
by his own dignity the fallen fortunes of the Moderates. He went
for a time to Carrara, his native place, and then returned to Rome,
loath to quit Italy, partly through love for his native land, but
chiefly, it is thought, because he was made to believe his counsels
might help the Pope in the crisis of Roman affairs. His stay, and
185
1 86 Life of Pope Pius IX.
the confidence reposed in him by the court and by all who were not
extreme Radicals or extreme Conservatives, was resented by the clubs
as an insult to what they considered to be Italian ** patriotism."
One can with difficulty conceive of the deadly hate vowed against
Rossi from that moment, without recalling to mind that statesman's
courageous rebuke to the agitators during the ferment caused in
Rome by the occupation of Ferrara by the Austrians.
''What do you propose to 3^ourselves," he hesitated not to say, " by
your incessant provocations against Austria ? It is not threatening
you ; it confines itself to the limits which the treaties have assigned.
It is a war of independence which you would invoke. Be it so. Let
us calculate your forces : you have 60,000 regular troops in Pied-
mont, and not a man more.
" You speak of the enthusiasm of the Italian populations. I know
them. Pass among them from one end of the country to the other ;
see if a heart beats, if a man moves, if an arm is ready to begin the
fight.
'^ The Piedmontese once beaten, the Austrians may go from Reg-
gie to Calabria without meeting a single Italian. I understand you ;
you will apply to France. A fine result, truly, of the war of inde-
pendence, to bring foreign armies again upon your soil ! The Aus-
trians and the French fighting on the soil of Italy ! Is not that your
sad, your eternal story ?
" You would be independent ; we are so already. France is not a
corporal in the service of Italy. She makes war when she pleases,
and for whom she pleases. She does not place her standards or her
battalions under the command of a stranger."
These words were to be Rossi's death sentence. But events were
hastening forward with such velocity that he forgot self amid the
more anxious cares for the public welfare. The demand for a parlia-
mentary government was now loudly made by the Roman press.
Even the most serious-minded among the upper classes were moved
by the evident necessity of further and instant concession.
The commission named by the supreme pontiff had been for some
time elaborating a plan suitable to the mixed nature of a government,
charged on the one hand not only with the civil, but with the relig-
ious administration of the Papal States, and on the other with the
supreme control of the Catholic religion in every country under the
Bun. Sucli a government should never have been allowed by all
Christian peoples to become the plaything of revolution, or to be
Difficulty in Framing a Constitution, 187
exposed in its weakness to the volcanic passions that were about to
overturn everything.
This was the real difficulty with the Pope — so to balance the
attributions of the various bodies he was about to call into existence,
that the forces utilized to promote the temporal welfare of the papal
subjects should not interfere with the authority that watched over
their religious interests ; and that the measure of constitutional
authority vested in a lay ministry should not absorb the right,
divinely given and inalienable, of feeding the universal flock of
Christ. It was no small honor, a source of no trifling increase of
temporal wealth and influence to the Eoman State, that it had as
brethren and spiritual subjects two hundred millions of Christians
spread all over the earth.
Men who have never taken the time, or who will not take the
pains to consider these most important and venerable relations of
the Eoman State with the entire human family, inveigh blindly
and passionately against Pius IX. for not abdicating his temporal
sovereignty into the hands of the Radicals, or blame with equal
ignorance and arrogance the Church for retaining a secular power
incompatible (as they think) with the free discharge of her apostle-
ship.
When Prince Corsini, president of the senate, with his brother
magistrates, waited on the Pope to urge the necessity of granting a
constitution, the Holy Father received them with his usual gentle
courtesy. He was not unprepared for the visit or the request.
" Everybody knows," he said in reply, "that I have been incessantly
occupied with the labor of giving the government the form claimed
. . . What can be effected in one night in a secular State can-
not be accomplished without mature examination in Rome. . . .
I hope that in a few days the Constitution will be ready, . . •
calculated to satisfy the people, and more particulary the Senate and
council. . . . May the Almighty bless my desires and labors !
If religion derives any advantage therefrom, I shall cast myself at
the feet of the Crucified to thank him, . . . and I shall feel
deeper satisfaction as the supreme pastor than as the temporal
sovereign, if these changes only help to promote the divine glory."
We now hasten to recount what followed. " The promise scarcely
allayed the excitement of the masses led by Sterbini and Galletti, for
it was known that the commission appointed to draw up the con-
stitution contained not one lay member. When it was promulgated,
1 88 Life of Pope Pius IX.
March 14, this charter, or 'fundamental statute,' was seen by all
acquainted with parliamentary institutions to contain irreconcilable
elements.
"First in order of dignity was the college of cardinals, which
was irresponsible and deliberated in secret consistory ; next was a
council of State, appointed by the Pope, whose province it was to
frame laws and advise the sovereign on all weighty political questions.
Then came the parliament proper, formed of two chambers ; the
upper chamber composed of members nominated for life by the
sovereign, and the chamber of deputies, composed of members
elected on the basis of one deputy for every constituency of 30,000
souls.
" In legislation the initiative belonged to the ministers, but a bill
might be introduced by any deputy on the demand of ten of his
colleagues. The legislative powers of the lower chamber were
restricted to purely secular affairs. Ecclesiastical or mixed matters
were reserved to the consistory."*
A new ministry was announced on March the 10th, composed of
Cardinal Antonelli, president of the council, and minister of foreign
affairs ; Kecchi, minister of the interior ; Minghetti, minister of
public works ; Pasolini, minister of commerce, and Farini, pro-
minister of the interior. These were leaders in the Moderate party.
Cardinal Mezzofanti was minister of public instruction ; Prince
Aldobrandini was minister of war, and the notorious Galletti, minis-
ter of police.
The strong debt of gratitude which this man owed to Pius IX.
would, it was hoped, keep him to his oath of fidelity ; his nomina-
tion was also a concession to the Eadicals. It was a sad blunder.
The ministry lost not a moment in announcing that their sole desire
was to execute and perfect the new charter of constitutional freedom ;
to call the best men to office ; to place the country in a state of
defense ; to replenish the treasury through the contributions of the
municipalities and religious congregations ; and to establish a firm
accord with the other constitutional governments of Italy.
"Although the times grew violent," says Farini, " the ministry,
from the first days of its existence, discharged the political duties of
government with forethought." Meanwhile there was an insurrec-
tion in Berlin, the king of Prussia being forced, after three days'
• The author, " American Cycloptedia," vol. xiU., p. 668.
First CoiistitMtional Ministry, 189
fighting, to kiss the tricolor flag, the proscribed emblem of German
unity ; the Emperor Ferdinand of Austria was forced to resign
after granting his States a constitution ; the Milanese had risen
against their Austrian garrison ; and Piedmont, it was asserted, was
arming to drive the last foreigner beyond the Alps. It were as easy,
under the increasing emotion of these events, to arrest the down-
ward flow of lava from Vesuvius or Etna, as to moderate the feelings
of the Roman populace.
" The republic was proclaimed in Venice, and Lombardy was in
full insurrection. Piedmont had declared against the Austrians,
and the Pope was urged by his ministers to espouse the cause of his
country and declare war. It is impossible, from the contradictory
statements of the conduct of Pius IX. at this juncture, to determine
exactly how far his conduct is blameworthy, if at all. Among his
ministers were laymen imposed upon him by necessity, but whose
counsels especially in what concerned his relations with foreign
powers, or in the management of ecclesiastical affairs, he either
openly rejected or secretly thwarted. He refused to declare war
against Austria, but blessed his troops ere they departed for the
frontier, and gave the most explicit instructions to their commander.
General Durando, that his action was to be purely defensive. In spite
of this, the Eoman minister of war, Aldobrandini, wrote to Durando,
March 28, to act in concert with Charles Albert. At the same time
the Pope urged Monsignor Corboli-Bussi to obtain from the Pied-
montese government a speedy assent to the meeting in Eome of an
Italian Diet for the establishment of a customs union and a national
confederation. Thereby the Pope hoped to be able to act as media-
tor toward Austria, and to offer peace on the part of an united Italy,
on condition that Italy should be left free to govern herself.
*' But while the Piedmontese cabinet were procrastinating, Aldo-
brandini instructed Oorboli-Bussi to follow the head-quarters of
Charles Albert, and negotiate a loan for defraying the expenses of
the Eoman contingent as a condition toward their joining his forces.
At the same time permission was given to the king of Naples to
march an army through the Papal States on their way to join the
Lombards and Piedmontese.
At this juncture Count Rossi, residing ' in Eome in a private
capacity, wrote : '* The national sentiment and its ardor for war are
a sword, a weapon, a mighty force ; either Pius IX. must take it
resolutely in hand, or the factions hostile to him will sieze it, and
I go Life of Pope Pius IX.
turn it against him and against the papacy." "Just then, too, the
Moderate editors of the Contemporaneo joined General Durando's
camp, and this journal fell into the hands of Sterbini, and became
thenceforward a potent engine of the revolution. Volunteers had
increased the number of the papal troops to 25,000 before the end of
March. On April 25 the ministers united in beseeching the Pope
to speak his will about the war, affirming that to declare against it
* would most seriously compromise the temporal dominion of the
Holy See.' On April 29 the declaration was made in consistory, and
was decidedly opposed to war with Austria. The ministry resigned,
and the city was once more filled with arms and tumult, the civic
guard siding with the mob. It was suggested to the Pope, whom
no threat could terrify into yielding to the popular clamor, that he
should himself go to Milan and mediate a peace founded on the lib-
eration of Italy. He consented, but the Austrian envoy scouted the
idea, and it was abandoned. Pius was now virtually a prisoner in
the Quirinal, while the dwellings of the cardinals were guarded by
sentries. The press and the clubs began to discuss the necessity of
an immediate alliance with the Piedmontese, and the urgency of
abolishing the papal rule." *
Two documents merit especial mention here : the proclamation of
General Durando to his troops on April the 5th, and the consistorial
allocution of April the 29th. We have already seen that Durando
was a Piedmontese, wholly devoted to the cause of Italian independ-
ence, in so far as it tended to promote the supremacy of the house
of Savoy. He had chosen for aid-de-camp Massimo d'Azeglio, who
thus gave up his direction of the Contemporaneo to wield the sword
for Italy.
It was everpvhere understood among the masses in Central and
Northern Italy that Pius IX. sanctioned the war against Austria.
His general and his ministers knew better; but they were deter-
mined to confirm, so far as they might, the popular belief that tho
Popo had authorized a kind of crusade against the foreigners, and
they acted accordingly. Tho Pope had given the clearest and most
positive orders to Durando that he shonld content himself with de-
fending tho frontier of the Papal States ; but Aldobrandini, minister
of war, commanded him to cross the Po, which was an act of bel-
ligerency. D'Azeglio thereupon drew up the following order of the
* "American CyclopaBdia," vol. xiil, p. 668.
A Crusade Proclaimed in the Popes Name, 191
day, and Durando published it, believing, both of them perhaps,
that they would thus force the Pope into open and formal hos-
tility :
*' Soldiers ! the noble land of Lombardy, in times past the glorious
theater of a war of independence, when Alexander III. gave his
blessing to the oath of Pontida,* is now trodden anew by heroes,
whose perils and triumphs we are about to share. They, as well as
we, have been blessed by the right hand of the pontiff, just as were
our forefathers in that remote age.
"He — holy, just, and gentle above all men as he is — has neverthe-
less acknowledged the last recourse to arms to be the only one just
and possible weapon against an enemy who tramples on every right
and law, both divine and human. That heavenly heart of his could
not but be saddened at the thought of the evils accompanying war ;
could not forget that all those who are now entering into the battle-
field, whatever be their fl^g, are his children.
*^He sought to give time for repentance ; and the word which was
to become the instrument of divine vengeance, lingered on his august
lip. But the time came when gentleness must have degenerated
into a guilty connivance at iniquity. That man of God, who had
wept over the massacres of the 3d of January, while hoping that
they were only the results of the brutal but passing excesses of a
licentious soldiery, has now found reason to own that Italy, unless
she can protect herself, is doomed by the Austrian government to
pillage, rape, and the ferocity of a savage soldiery — to fire, to mas-
sacre, to total destruction.
"He has seen Radetzky make war against the cross of Christ, beat
down the gates of the sanctuary, dash into it with his horse, profane
the altar, and violate the ashes of our fathers with his foul band of
Croats.
"The holy pontiff has blessed your swords, which, when united
to those under Charles Albert, are to work concurrently for the ex-
termination of the enemies of God and of Italy, of the men who
have outraged Piux IX. and the Church of Mantua, who have assas-
* Called also the " Lombard League," fonned under the presidency of Pope
Alexander III., in 1167, by Venice, Verona, Milan, Vicenza, Padua, and all the
cities of Northern Italy against the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. He had
destroyed Milan and dispersed her inhabitants. The indomitable energy of
Alexander sustained his allies till they defeated the emperor at Legnano, May
29, 1176, and in 1183 compelled him to sign the peace of Constance.
192 Life of Pope Piics IX.
sinated our Lombard brothers, and by their enormities have placed
themselves beyond every law.
''Such a war of civilization against barbarism is not only national
but eminently Christian. It is fitting, then, soldiers, and I have
determined that we shall all, as we are marching in its behalf, be
decorated with the cross of Christ. All who belong to this corps
of operation will carry that symbol over the heart, of the pattern
which they shall see on mine.
*' With this and by this we shall conquer, as our fathers did. Be
this our battle-cry, ' God wills it ! ' "
The wearing of the cross, like the crusaders of old, was a device
that originated in the fertile brain of the notorious Barnabite monk
Gavazzi, who, after having played chaplain to the ''sects" in Rome,
and distinguished himself in street riots and half-sacrilegious pro-
cessions, had followed the army of Durando in the quality of self-
appointed chaplain-in-chief. He became, during this disastrous cam-
paign, a potent instrument of disorder and sedition, the advocate
and promoter of the violence and foul immorality which stained
Bologna, and not the least powerful agent of the frenzied radicalism
that made Rome hideous with bloodshed and anarchy.
They had thus fired the national soul with the belief that Pius IX.
had authorized a crusade against Austria ! The Pope's lay ministers
were most desirous that this impression should be confirmed by
subsequent acts of the sovereign pontiif. It was in vain that he
protested on April the 10th by a brief note inserted in the official
gazette. The tidings were stirring the hearts of all Italian men and
women alike, and sending thousands to the field in the cause of God
and Italy.
No doubt Pius IX. fervently wished for the independence and
greatness of his native land. The efforts he was then making to
create a confederated Italy had the sanction of the best minds and
noblest souls in the Peninsula. But he was the common father, and
no amount of pressure could induce him to violate his conscience
and his duty as such, by lending himself to an aggressive war against
a Christian power. On the 25th of April the lay members of the
papal cabinet presented a most urgent petition to the Holy Father
urging upon his attention the fact, that it was impossible to make
the Italian people believe any longer that the Roman troops had
only been sent to the frontier to guard it, while their brothers were
fighting beyond it to defend the common cause. "Your Holiness,"
The Pope Solemnly Protests. 193
they submitted, "will either allow your subjects to make war; or
declare your will absolutely against making war ; or, finally, that,
though desirous of peace, you cannot prevent making war." They
then declared in conclusion that war was " the sole means of be-
stowing on Italy, disorganized as she was, such a national and
durable peace as could only proceed from the righteous recovery of
our national existence."
On the 29th of April the Sacred College met, and the Pope ad-
dressed to them an allocution which was decisive of his fate for the
present.
''Venerable Brothers," it says, *'we have more than once pro-
tested in your presence against the audacity of certain persons who
blush not to affirm to the injury of this Apostolic See and of our
own authority, that not in one point alone we have departed from
the teaching of our predecessors, nay, from the very doctrine of the
Church. More than that, there are men who at this moment speak
of us as if we were the chief author of the recent social commotions.
. . . We have even learned that in Austria and Germany the
people are taught to look upon us as one who had excited the peoples
of Italy, through emissaries and by other means, to upset the estab-
lished order of things. Hence, as we are informed, the popular mind
in Germany is industriously embittered against the Holy See, and
that, in order to weaken the attachment of the faithful to this cen-
ter of unity. . . .
" Inasmuch as these slanderers are unable to allege any substan-
tial proof of their assertions, they asperse and pervert the acts of our
early administration of this government ; and these acts it is that we
wish to explain at present, hoping thereby to take away all pretext
for such accusations.
''It is to your knowledge, Venerable Brothers, that toward the
end of the pontificate of Pius VII. several of the European sovereigns
advised him to introduce into his civil administration changes cal-
culated to make it more efficient and more pleasing to the laity.
Later in 1831 this advice and the desires of the sovereigns were more
solemnly uttered in the " memorandum " jointly presented by the
ambassadors of the powers. In this document, among other recom-
mendations, was one to the effect, that there should be created
a Council of State, representing the whole pontifical territory, as
well as .provincial councils, broader municipal organizations, and
other improvements of a progressive nature. It was also recom-
194 Life of Pope Pius IX,
mended that laymen should be employed in all the functions of
the civil administration and in the judiciary. These two last
changes were insisted on as vitally important. Other papers pre-
sented at the same same time by the ambassadors urged a wider am-
nesty in favor of persons who had violated their fealty toward the
sovereign."
The reforms accomplished by Gregory XVI. in furtherance of
these wishes, and the improvements by him promised, did not satisfy
the great powers, nor produce satisfaction and tranquillity in the
Papal States.
"Hence," the allocution continues, "from the first day of our
elevation to this place, unimpelled by any other cause than our own
deep love for our subjects, we granted a large measure of amnesty to
those who had rebelled against the pontifical authority, and has-
tened to bestow on our people institutions deemed most favorable to
their welfare. These acts were in perfect conformity with the
reforms counseled by the great powers.
"The execution of our designs excited so much rejoicing and
brought us from our subjects and the neighboring peoples so many
testimonies of gratitude and respect, that we were fain to repress
their manifestations. We have done all we could by our admoni-
tions and exhortations to induce all to become more firmly attached '
to Catholic truth, more faithful observers of the laws of God and of
his Church, and more zealous to promote mutual concord, peace,
and charity.
" Would to God that our fatherly words had produced the desired
effect ! But all are now familiar with the commotions that have
disturbed the peoples of Italy, as well as with the troubles that have
occurred elsewhere. . . . Assuredly he who would throw on us
the blame of these events, as if they were the legitimate consequences
of our early reforms, ought to remember that in these we did but
carry out the measures repeatedly pressed on the attention of the
Holy See by the European courts. . . .
" The German population should not impute it to us as a crime, if
wo have not been always able to restrain the joy of our subjects over
the successes obtained in Northern Italy by men of Italian blood, or
if some of these have gone to help their brethren in defending
a cause dear to all. There is more than one European sovereign
who, with military forces incomparably superior to ours, has not
been able to repress revolution. . . . And yet, amid all the
• He cannot Declare War against Austria, ipS
passionate excitement of tlie time, our only orders to the troops sent
by us to the frontier were to limit themselves to defend the integrity
and inviolability of the pontifical territory.
"Nevertheless, inasmuch as many urge us to declare war against
Austria in union with the other Italian sovereigns, we have deemed it
imperative on us to protest solemnly in your presence against a
course of action so far from our purpose, since, all unworthy though
we be, we hold on earth the place of him who is the author of peace
and the lover of charity, embracing as we do, in fulfillment of our
apostolic charge, all countries and peoples and nationalities in one
undivided sentiment of fatherly love.
"If there be those among our subjects who are carried away by
their sympathy for the cause of their common country, how are we
to chain down their patriotism ? "
After protesting energetically against the notion, now spread
abroad by some Mazzinian leaders, of one Italian republic, absorb-
ing all existing nationalities and presided over by the Pope, the
Holy Father warns all Italians against the perfidious designs and
counsels of men who would detach them from the obedience due to
their respective sovereigns, and thereby divide and weaken Italy in
presence of the common foe.
"As to ourselves," the Pope continues, "we declare in the most
solemn manner that all our thoughts, our cares, our endeavors, as
Koman pontiff, aim at enlarging continually the kingdom of Christ,
and not at extending the boundaries of the temporal principality
which Providence has bestowed on the Holy See for the sole dig-
nity and free exercise of its supreme apostleship.
"They are sadly mistaken who imagine that any prospect of a
wider power can carry our soul away and hurry us into the tumult
of arms. Assuredly it would be a supreme joy for our fatherly
heart to be able by our intervention and our good offices to quench
the fire of discord, to bring nearer to each other those whom war
divides, and to restore peace between the belligerents."
Such are the acts and utterances by which alone Pius IX. has to
be judged by posterity. One can discover in this allocution the
hand of Cardinal Antonelli, who, during the following twenty-nine
years, maintained amid usurpations, treachery, desertions, and the
calumnies of the European and American press, this same one
simple thesis, that the Holy See is the center of Catholic unity, that
its temporalities were the patrimony secured by Christendom to the
1 96 Life of Pope Pius IX,
common parent of all Christians, and that all Christian powers and
peoples had a joint interest in preserving the integrity and inviola-
bility of that patrimony.
Of course this act of courage, due by the Pope to his office and
to Christendom, did not satisfy the clubs. In every event, they
wanted to use him as a weapon to beat the Austrians with, and to
be cast aside or broken, the moment the victory was achieved. No
man in his senses but knows this at the present day. How much
more glorious, then, is the conduct of Pius IX., under the pressure
of the terrible circumstances around him, and with the clear pre-
vision of the dangers to which the allocution must expose both
himself and the Sacred College ?
"Every face in Rome wore a scowl that night (29th of April),"
says Legge. '^The city presented everywhere indications of a lurid
sulphury feeling — that indefinable sort of agitation that seems
always to herald an outbreak of popular violence. It was a terrible
night, universally recognized as the eve of a more terrible popular
crisis. Few had read, and fewer still had a correct knowledge of
the contents of that fatal allocution. Yet it would be incorrect to
say there was suspense ; rather ten thousand citizens retired to their
homes to take what rest they might, with the dull certainty upon
each heart that, whatever the phrases used, that document — which
when they awoke each man might read in his own tongue — severed
for ever their faith in the ruler, whom, for two years of jubilee, they
had regarded as a heaven-sent pontiff "
Even the passion-colored narrative of this author all through his
first volume cannot so disguise the facts of history as to conceal the
dark and desperate conspiracy which filled these "two years of
jubilee." No reader who has followed us patiently so far but is pre-
pared for the explosion of impious rage and cowardly violence that
followed on the morrow, and continued to grow in loudness and
undisguised ruffianism, like a chorus of famished wolves on a prairie
around a fallen buffalo, fresh accessions of ravenous beasts from every
wind in the heayens adding to the hideousness and ferocity of the
scene*
CHAPTEE XVII.
The Pope as a Mediatoe— lisrsuKKECTiON" ii^ Naples — ^Neapoli-
tans WITHDRAW FROM LOMBARDT — EePUBLICAIT AgITATION*
IN" Rome — The Pope's Mediatioj^- defeated by Palmerstok
— Mazzij^i conspiring against Charles Albert — Gayazzi
preaching Sedition to the Troops — ^^ War of the King ''
AND " War of the People " — Pressure on the Pope — The
AUSTRIANS AT FeRRARA — HiS REFORM OF PENITENTIARIES
— His Plan of a Federated Italy^Defended by Rossi.
May-September, 1848.
ONE other document from the pen of the Holy Father must find
place here before we follow the rapid course of eyents. The
efforts made by him to obtain the assent of Charles Albert to the
assembling of an Italian Diet in Rome, though successful with the
other sovereigns of Italy, met only with calculated delays and a final
refusal from the Piedmontese king. He wished to force the Pope,
whose troops were now under his command, into the alternative of
declaring war against Austria, or of losing his influence in Italy, and
thus pave the way to the ascendency of Piedmont.
But Pius IX. was not to be balked in the path of duty either by
the Machiavellian policy of Piedmont or the outrages and menaces
of a Roman rabble, or by the outcries and calumnies of the European
press. He was the common father ; and as such no interest or fear
could induce him to declare war. But as such his office was also
one of mediation, and nothing that was told him of the disfavor in
which he was held by the Austrian court could make him hesitate to
discharge his fatherly duty as mediator.
On the 3d of May the following letter, mentioned in the last
chapter, was written to the Emperor Ferdinand :
"Your Majesty : — Whenever war stained with blood the soil of
Christendom, it has been the wont of this Holy See to utter words of
peace. Hence in the allocution of the 29th of April, while we said
197
198 Life of Pope Pius IX,
that our fatherly heart shrinks from declaring war, we also mani-
fested in a special manner our desire to contribute toward a peace.
" Let your Majesty, then, be not oifended if we now appeal to
your filial affection and your religious sentiments, and beseech you
with paternal earnestness to withdraw your arms from a struggle,
which cannot subdue to your empire the hearts of the Lombards and
Venetians, and must bring on, as its consequence, the fatal train of
calamities which attend on war, and which must be abhorrent to the
soul of your Majesty.
" Nor must the generous German nation take it in ill part, if we
exhort them to lay resentment aside, and to change into useful rela-
tions of neighborly intercourse a domination without glory or benefit,
because it must be maintained exclusively by the sword.
"We trust, therefore, that your people, who take an honorable
pride in their own nationality, will not deem it a part of their honor
to keep up a bloody contest with the Italian nation, but will honor
themselves by acknowledging Italy as a sister nation. Both are
daughters to us, and most dear to our heart, and each should con-
fine herself to reside within her own natural boundaries, upon
honorable terms, and under the divine blessing.
" In the meantime we entreat the Giver of all light and the Author
of every good gift to inspire your Majesty with holy counsels ; while
from the inmost of our hearts we impart to you, to her Majesty the
Empress, and to the whole imperial family apostolic benediction."
What though the court of Vienna, blind not only to its own
sacred duty as a Christian power, but to the revolution which threat-
ened its existence as an empire, should treat the prayer of the
vicar of Christ with contempt and derision ? We, at this distance
from the events of 1848, must see in the noble attitude of Pius IX.
that which alone became his office and position. Had he departed
from the only policy befitting the vicegerent of the Prince of Peace,
we should have condemned him as time-serving and worldly. But
he sought the unity, the liberation, the peace of Italy, as became
one who was both an ardent Italian patriot and the representative
on earth of the Mediator.
We now return to Rome. '* The allocution of April 29 had a pow-
erful effect both in demoralizing the Pope's troops and in stirring up
against him the worst passions. ... In Austria the allocution
was derided as a now act of weakness, and the (above) letter was left
unheeded. . . . The Pope was forced, to accept a ministry in
InsiLrredions in Naples, 199
which Mamiani was premier and secretary of state for secular
foreign affairs, Galletti being minister of police. Earini, who re-
placed Corboli-Bussi at the Piedmontese head-quarters, completed the
treaty conferring on the king the command of the papal troops be-
yond the Po. The dissension which existed between the Pope and
the Mamiani ministry broke out on June 4, on the opening of the
new parliament." *
An event, attributed by some writers to the influence of the allo-
cution of April the 29th — the withdrawal of the Neapolitan navy from
the Adriatic, and of the Neapolitan army from the sapport of Charles
Albert and Durando — rendered the struggle for independence hope-
less, and the position of the papal troops extremely critical. It
tended to increase, as well, and beyond all conception, the difficulties
inherent to the Pope's position in Eome. But who was to blame for
this withdrawal ?
Here, again, we discover the incomprehensible wickedness and
folly of the Mazzinian conspirators. On May the 14th, the day be-
fore the opening of the Neapolitan parliament, an insurrection broke
out in Naples, and barricades were erected in the streets. Step by
step the disorder increased, till, on the 15th, the city became a scene
of slaughter, bombarded by the forts and deluged by the successive
massacres committed by the insurgents (Liberals and civic guard),
the soldiers, and the lazzaroni. The insurrection, nevertheless,
spread in Calabria ; and Sicily, which had been in rebellion for some
time, sent an armed legion to the assistance of the Calabrians.
Thereupon the king issued peremptory orders for the immediate
withdrawal of his forces from the north of Italy. There, too, in the
meantime, the Austrians had come into collision with the Italian
confederates, and worsted them. "In this state of things," says
Legge, "it was inevitable that the sects, 'which always prosper in the
same proportion as the cause of Italy declines,' should spring into
new activity. The Giovine Italia (Young Italy) began to raise its
head and to utter contemptuous phrases about 'the king's war,'
with criminating reflections upon Charles Albert and his generals,
as well as the gallant leaders of the volunteer papal corps, thus sow-
ing, where it had not already taken root, the baneful seed of distrust,
willing that the sentiment of nationality should languish rather
than flourish in association with royalty." f
* ** American CyclopEedia." f I., p. 319.
200 Life of Pope Pius IX,
In Rome the electoral colleges were summoned for the 18th of
May for the choice of deputies. The tidings from ]N"aples, on the one
side, and from Lombardy, on the other, intensified the great excite-
ment already existing. The Mazzinians were busy procuring the
election of citizens hostile to every form of kingly government. But,
fortunately, the law restricted the suffrage to the intelligent and re-
sident classes who held property and paid a certain amount of taxes ;
and the Moderate Liberals were active in making the best of this
their last opportunity for returning order-loving deputies.
Parliament met on the 5th of June. The question suggests itself :
"Will *' the party of action " allow the experiment to be made in Rome
more peacefully than at Naples ? Farini shall enlighten us on the
causes of the ill success of this constitutional experiment in Rome.
"The word republic," he says, "which rouses the heart by the
recollections it evokes, was no longer pronounced in a whisper, but
passed from mouth to mouth among our practiced agitators ; and
this democratic method of governing, which adapts itself to the na-
ture of man, ever envious of the good fortune of others — this word
republic, which, among our commonalties, accustomed to live with-
out rule, signifies the supremacy of disorder — ^became the very sweet-
heart not only of high-minded youth, but of the greedy, of the vul-
garly ambitious, and of the turbulent, to whom convulsion promises
occupation, distinction, and reward ; and it came about that already
much was heard in common conversation of the termination of mon-
archy, and especially of the papal monarchy, without any regard to
plighted faith or to prudence. . . . It is the fact that, at the
end of May, it was easily perceivable that the revolution was ad-
vancing by stealth, and that the minds of men were fashioning them-
selves, some to accomplish it, others to let it be accomplished. . .
The sectarians (secret society men) rose in spirits in the same pro-
portion as sober-minded citizens flagged ; the orators of the clubs
continually inflated their lungs to abuse the sovereigns, to abuse the
magistrates, and to abuse moderate men ; but the people, the popu-
lar virtues and strength they extolled to the skies.*
In spite of much dissentiment between the Pope and his ministers,
Farini, who had the confidence of the former, had the speech pre-
pared by the premier, Mamiani — a large programme of the pontifical
policy — adopted ; and it was delivered to the new parliament by Car-
• Vol. ii. 183.
The Popes Mediation Thwarted, 201
dinal Altieri. Its carefully- worded declarations allowed tne moder-
ate Italians to believe that the Pope sanctioned the war for Italian
independence, and produced abroad the impression that he dared not
openly resist the will of the majority and act in conformity with the
allocution of April the 29th. An opportunity of dispelling this
error was afforded him by an address of the chambers presented on
July the 10th. This address was only an echo of the Mamiani pro-
gramme. The Pope in his answer declared that he could agree to
its utterances only in so far as they did not yary from the funda-
mental statute (creating the civil constitution then in force), and
added :
"If strong desires be multiplied for the greatness of the Italian
nation, it is needful that the whole world should be apprised anew
that war cannot be on our part the means of achieving it. Our name
was blessed throughout the earth for the first accents of peace that
fell from our lips ; it assuredly could not be so were those of war to
proceed from us. It was to us a great surprise when we learned that
the council had been invited to discuss the subject, in opposition to
our public declarations, and at the moment when we had taken in
hand negotiations for peace."
Pius IX. had not been satisfied with the statements made in the
allocution, or with the letter of mediation to the Emperor of Austria,
he had also sent a special delegate, Monsignor Morichini, to Vienna,
for the purpose of convincing the imperial mind of the necessity of
coming to terms with the Italians. And ''the mission of Monsignor
Morichini . . . had been so far successful, that the British gov-
ernment had been requested by Austria to mediate between her-
self and Italy on the basis of the independence of Lombardy and the
Duchies, . . . and the concession to Venetia of a separate ad-
ministration, with an army of her own, under the sway of an Austrian
archduke. Lord Palmerston declined to accept the commission on
any other condition than the absolute independence of certain Vene-
tian provinces." *
This was early in June. How came it to pass that the successful
mediation of the Holy Father was not sufficient to arrest the pro-
gress of the war, and to secure for Northern Italy so precious an
installment of the long-coveted independence ? Lord Palmerston
would have " the absolute independence of certain Venetian prov-
^ Legge, i. 350.
202 Life of Pope Pius IX.
inces." As to Charles Albert, "the proposals of Austria were con-
cealed from him until they had been rejected (by Palmerston),
whilst the ferment of anger, and the unreasoning thirst for yen-
gaance which agitated the whole Peninsula, would have rendered
it impossible for him to consider any terms short of the complete
evacuation of Italy." Thus speaks Legge.
But on the very same page we are told in a note that "as late as
May, Lombardy would have been willing to purchase her independ-
ence by taking twenty millions sterling of the national debt of
Austria, a sum smaller than she must spend in vain attempts at re-
conquest."
It is an unworthy artifice to palliate the dark and tortuous policy
of Palmerston, in his concealing from one of the principals in the
deadly feud the fair terms of compromise, by saying that " he declined
to accept," and that Charles Albert could not have considered "any
terms short of the complete evacuation of Italy." It is evident that
the Lombards, whose independence was at stake, would have been
but too glad to consider and to accept the terms of Austria. By
what right did Lord Palmerston conceal the Austrian offer, or reject
it, without so much as consulting the Italian belligerents ?
Thus, on the very day when the papal troops under Durando had
been compelled to surrender at Vicenza, the court of Vienna had
sent full powers to Marshal Eadetzky to conclude an armistic with
the Lombards till the English government had fulfilled its mission
of peace-making.
Why was the good work so nobly undertaken by the pontiff, and so
happily brought to an issue, defeated by the British statesman's arbi-
trary conduct ? Had the independence of Lombardy, at least, been
announced in Rome as the price of the Roman blood shed and the
heroic valor displayed at Vicenza, and had Venetia been given the
proffered autonomy as a pledge of future freedom, how different
might it have been for the Pope !
We have seen how Palmerston outgeneraled France, Austria, and
Prussia in Switzerland, and, directing by his agent. Sir Robert Peel,
and the very chaplain of the English embassy, the movements of tlie
Radical forces under Dufour, had ended the war and rendered the
proposed mediation impossible. There Palmerston was only the ex-
ecutive of the Mazzinian power.
In Lombardy wo find both Palmerston and Mazzini behind the
scenes— the hidden power which paralyzes the soldier before battle.
Mazzini Conspiring against Charles Albert 203
and after battle tears from the bravest men the fruits both of yictory
and defeat.
*^The Mazzinians regarded the federal conception of an ^ Italy of
the North ' as fatal to the war, because too ambitious to be accepted
by the majority of Italian princes and by European diplomacy, and at
the same time insufficient to satisfy the demands of the populations
of Italy. MoreoYcr, the Giovine Italia was opposed to the monar-
chical form of government. . . . The incorporation of Lombardy
into the monarchy of Piedmont afforded a pretext for hurling anathe-
mas at the head of the sub- Alpine king, and fanning the flame of
discontent. . . . The true reason of so much scandal, Farini
observes, then as now, was this : * That Giuseppe Mazzini held his
own self to be the man predestined to deliver Italy, and could not
endure that any Italian compact should be concluded if he did not
put to it his seal, and if the countries, armies, sovereigns, pontiffs
did not bow down before the new Ids Majesty and Ms Holiness,
... He had no funds, and, except a few companies of adventurers,
he had no force in the field; but he managed his own people in
arms by the tricks of a sect and by his mystical idea ; no slight force
this amidst the indolence of a city, as being one that dissociates the
minds which ought to be striving in common toward the same point.
To be powerful in obstructing the good that flows from the union
of spirits means to be powerful for effecting evil ; this power Maz-
zini possessed, and this abuse he made of it." *
The arch-conspirator had established his head-quarters in Milan
during the war, and thence governed by his agents public opinion in
the Piedmontese army as well as among the papal troops. It was
these agents of disorder and defeat who had accused the papal gen-
eral, Ferrari, of treachery in the battle of Cornuda, on May the 8th,
and who during the retreat seized three obnoxious individuals, car-
ried them to Treviso, and there '* tore them to pieces, giving," says
Legge, '^such license to their passions as the heart sickens to narrate ;
some of these demons being insatiable until they had tasted their
victims' blood." It was these men — the shame of their name and
country — who, on May the 12th, instead of following their general
to the attack, shouted the word 'traitor," cast away their arms, and
fled ! We shall find some of them in Eome on November the loth.
It was the blind fanaticism of these same men which accused the
* Farini, vol. ii., pp. 304, 205, as quoted by Legge.
204 Life of Pope Pius IX,
brave Durando and his heroic troops of treachery, after the capitu-
lation of Vicenza, and bestowed the epithet of traitor not only on
Charles Albert but on Pius IX. The former was forced by the fren-
zied public opinion thus created to engage the victorious Austrians
at Custozza, and to endure (July 14) the defeat he had clearly fore-
seen.
Europe has not forgotten how that brave kiug with his army of
raw recruits was received, after Novara, as after Custozza, by the
Mazzinians in Milan; how the word "traitor" was shouted all day
and night by the mob around the palace in which the weary
king could find no rest, and how his magnanimity withheld his
soldiers from slaughtering that rabble. No rest would he take till
he had gone far away from Italy, to the extremity of Europe, to die
broken-hearted. We are anticipating, however. He had loved Italy
"not wisely, but too well." There was another sovereign who had
risked even more than Charles Albert in the cause of Italy, and who
was destined to a longer and far more cruel agony, to be endured at
the hands of the same impious and unreasoning wickedness.
The termination of this calamitous war brought to " the sects "
who controlled Eome and the pontifical government a new element
of licentiousness and ferocity in the persons of the disbanded volun-
teers.
One cannot be surprised at the evil eminence to which the Maz-
zinian principles and training had raised all such adepts, when it is
recollected who were the men who consented to be the educators of
these soldiers of Italian liberty. One reminiscence or two from non-
Catholic authors will enable the reader to go back from effects to
causes, and thus to see who are to be held responsible for the shock-
ing events that remain to be mentioned.
The English-speaking world has seen and heard the ex-monk
Gavazzi, who has left a track of blood even on the tolerant soil of
our own free America. New Yorkers, moreover, will recall to mind
hoTT Archbishop Bedini was hunted from cover to cover by the con-
federates of Ugo Bassi, another ex-monk, associated with Gavazzi in
his missionary (!) labors in the papal army and among the citizens of
Bologna and Rome. Of poor Bassi, who died most repentant, we do
not wish to utter one word of censure ; we merely chronicle here
what is attested by unimpeachable witnesses.
While the troops under Ferrari and Durando were occupying im-
portant positions in front of the Austrian lines, Farini was sent, as
** War of the King'' and *' War of the People!' 2o5
related above, to negotiate with the king of Piedmont. The papal
troops were in daily conflict with the outposts, and Farini yisited the
camp, as well to see how discipline was maintained as to express his
sympathy with the wounded. On the evening of the 6th of May,
when he and other civilians visited the camp, . . . the emissa-
ries of the Milanese circoli ("circles" of Mazzinians) were there for
a different purpose, and were busily exerting themselves to under-
mine the confidence of the soldiers in their commanders, and shake
their loyalty to their sovereign. . . . Two days later we find
that the very existence of Durando's army was endangered by agents
of a similar description, amongst whom were Fathers Gavazzi and
Bassi, zealous preachers of sedition and active subverters of disci-
pline and subordination.*
*'That talk about ^the king's war,' which we have seen marring
the harmony, and eventually demoralizing and working disruption
in the ranks of the Roman volunteers, was not confined to the camp.
In Rome, already, the man whose honor and military reputation
were unimpeachable, who had received the command of a disorgan-
ized body of volunteers, had been outraged and calumniated because,
forsooth, he had failed with such material to accomplish prodigies
impossible to an army of veterans ! This man was dragged to judg-
ment before the clubs, which raised their voices, but never a finger,
in that sacred cause of liberty for which he had shed his blood.
The intelligence, therefore, of the surrender of Vicenza, whilst it
plunged the city into the profoundest grief, furnished also an occa-
sion for the exhibition of the rage and malevolence of these prating
idiots, those real traitors to the cause of Italy, who confounded
patriotism with self-love, and their own miserable Utopias with the
freedom and greatness of their country. No stigma was too odious
with these visionaries wherewith to brand the man who presumed to
think of constituting Italy upon any other principle than that which
they approved, and in which they or their leaders, whom, in spite
of their vaunted independence, they followed with abject servility,
should play a conspicuous part. The cry of ' traitor ' was perpetual-
ly upon their lips. . . . ' The war of kings has terminated,' cried
these visionaries, 'that of the people is about to commence ! ' They
talked loudly of repudiating the terms of the capitulation, and their
representatives in parliament, of whom Sterbini and Oanino were
* Wrightson, " History of Modern Italy."
2o6 Life of Pope Pius IX.
chief, abused the freedom of debate in coarse innuendoes against
the Pope, who had styled their enterprise * an unjust and hurtful
war,' in violent complaints of Durando, and in stimulating the
deputies to vote larger supplies for the continuance of the war which
the Pope had censured." *
Mamiani's sole purpose during his tenure of office was to deprive
churchmen of every external function which did not strictly belong
to their spiritual ministry ; even the Pope, according to him, should
give up to his lay ministers and to the constituted bodies every part
of his sovereign power not essentially connected with the govern-
ment of the Church. It was difficult to see how he could be really a
sovereign and be thus stripped of all the prerogatives and functions of
sovereignty. But Pius IX. , how much soever he could conceive that in
a lay government a king might so administer through others, deemed
such a state of things absolutely incompatible with the essentially
dual nature of his sovereignty as ruler of the Koman States.
Mamiani in his famous *' programme" had said of the Pope, "he
dispenses to the world the word of God, prays, blesses, and pardons."
While discussing this proposition with a minister forced upon him by
mob violence, he reminded Mamiani that the new constitution was
the spontaneous creation of his own sovereign will. **It is likewise
tlie duty of the Pope," he declared, " to bind and to loose. If, so
far as he is a sovereign, he calls into existence the two councils to
co-operate with him for the purpose of protecting and promoting the
public welfare or his States, yet, inasmuch as he is priest as well as
prince, he needs that fullness of liberty, which may permit his priestly
action to be effective. This fullness of liberty shall be his while the
constitution and the law on the council of ministers, granted freely
by me, remain inviolate."
This fundamental statute reserved exclusively to the Pope the
power of making war and peace ; and if to the functions enumerated
by Mamiani the Pope had consented to add, *'and he cannot make
war or peace," he would have been satisfied. But the clubs would not.
On July the 17th a messenger arrived from the Legations an-
nouncing til at General Prince Lichtenstein had entered Ferrara on
the 14th. The Austrians, assuredly, were not to be too severely cen-
sured for this invasion of the Roman territory, seeing that in spito
of the soyereign pontiff's protestations, his generals and army had
• Legge, li. 8, 4.
Plus IX. wishes to Reform Penitentiaries, 207
been real belligerents, and could be so considered still, as peace had
not been concluded. The Pope remonstrated, but in vain ; and the
note sent to the European courts by his Secretary of State, Cardinal
Soglia, produced no effect.
On July the 19th a petition was presented to both chambers de-
manding the instant arming of the people ; and, without waiting for
an answer, the multitude, joined by the civic guard, rushed for arms
to the Castle of Sant' Angelo. The chamber of deputies waited upon
the Pope on August the 1st, with an address containing all the de-
mands of the mob. On the 3d, the Austrians after having van-
quished Charles Albert at Custozza, re-entered the Legations, but
were driven out of Bologna by the armed citizens. The Pope sent
the authorities the order to *'do all that is requisite to save the
country and keep inviolate its sacred borders." Every effort of the
pontiff to form a regular government failed till September the 16th,
when a new ministry was announced under the leadership of Eossi.
At Bologna and in the provinces the name of the new premier was
hailed with favor ; but in Rome nothing could reconcile the clubs to
a representative of constitutional monarchy and the advocate of a
confederated Italy.
It was about this time, that the fatherly heart of the pontiff, un-
chilled by the ingratitude of his own subjects, unwearied by the many
labors of love undertaken all in vain for his people and their common
country, unfaltering in its purpose in spite of the isolation in which
he was left by European governments, and undismayed by the men-
acing attitude of Young Italy, conceived some of his most magnifi-
cent schemes of benevolence and patriotism.
Among these was the reform of the penitentiaries. The troubles
of the last two years had increased enormously the proportion
of crime and the number of criminals condemned to forced labor
and imprisonment. He wished to lighten their penalty and bene-
fit them morally by introducing the most perfect reforms adopted
elsewhere. A special commission was sent for that purpose into
foreign countries. And though frustrated in his design by the
catastrophe that was so near at hand, he resumed his merciful task
after his return from exile.
The words '^ confederated Italy" have just been mentioned, and
these should ever bring back to the student of history the name of
Pius IX. in connection with one of the noblest undertakings ever
conceived by patriot or statesman.
2o8 Life of Pope Pius IX.
Gioberti had now a seat in the Piedmontese cabinet, and Rossi
deemed, as well as his sovereign, that the time was favorable for
pressing on the Italian courts the necessity of a federal national
league. Antonio Rosmini was sent to Rome from Turin ; but sud-
denly, there was a change of ministry in the latter city, and Rosmini
was instructed to submit a project of a simple league for offensive and
defensive purposes, without any organic federal bond. This Rosmini
would not advocate, nor would the Pope entertain the proposition.
He desired that Italy should form a nation bound together by or-
ganic ties. It was the second time that the king of Piedmont had
sacrificed this admirable project to the selfish policy of his own family.
The report was industriously circulated, nevertheless, that Pius
IX. had caused the scheme to fall through ; it was equally the in-
terest of the Piedmontese to shift the responsibility from themselves,
and that of the Roman agitators to fix it on the Pope.
Rossi manfully defended the latter in the Roman Gazette of the
4th November. "In our number of September 18, we stated to our
readers that the formation of the political league among the consti-
tutional monarchies of Italy was ever the anxious desire of the papal
government, and that we had a lively hope of seeing this great idea,
of which Pius IX. had been the spontaneous author and was the con-
stant promoter, soon brought into action. Still we concluded with
the wish (and it was too plain that the wish was not unmixed with
fear) that we might not here, too, find human passions and private
interests thwarting a sacred work, and rendering the pure patriotism
which inspired it of none effect. . . . Obstacles are encountered
in the very quarter where, according to all reason, ready consent
and earnest co-operation ought to have been found. It is there too —
so unhappy are our times — that sharp words of accusation are heard
against the pontiff, as if he no longer wished for the league which
he was the first to imagine and to broach. And why these changes ?
The answer is simple, and it is this : that the pontiff who initiated
the league has not blindly followed the Piedmontese project."
And elsewhere: "If we be really consulting for Italy more than
anything else, it would be a more sound, sincere, and patriotic de-
sign first to knit firmly the league, and meantime to leave to the
contracting States leisure solidly to reconstitute their armies.
"The papal project is most simple in plan ; it may be summed up
in a few words. * There is a political league among the constitu-
tional and independent monarchies of Italy adhering to the conven-
Defended by Rossi, 209
tion. Plenipotentiaries of each independent State shall assemble at
Rome without delay, in a preliminary congress, to deliberate upon
the common interests, and to lay down the organic covenants of the
league.'
"A thing done cannot be undone.
'* By this direct and plain course the goal may be reached. By
any other, our distance from it must go on increasing. Italy, al-
ready the victim of so many errors, would have to lament one more.
"In fine, Pius IX. does not swerve from his lofty idea, anxious
now as heretofore to make effectual provision, by the Italian political
league, for the security, dignity, and prosperity of Italy and of its
constitutional monarchies."*
It must not be imagined for a moment that Pius IX., while thus
bestowing his care on what he conceived to be the surest and speedi-
est means of benefiting Italy, was unaware of the treacherous designs
of the Piedmontese politicians, or blind, in any sense, to the extreme
revolutionary measures which the Mazzinians were ripening in Rome
against his government and his person.
He was perfectly aware that the conspirators had undermined the
very ground beneath him and that their train was carefully laid, and
the moment of explosion determined in their own councils. Yet he
trod the earth with as firm a step and serene a mind as if he were con-
scious of no danger. It was this sublime courage that won him the
admiration of his lay ministers as well as of the Sacred College.
''We, amid all these calamities," he would say to a deputation from
the Council of State, ''pray more fervently to the divine majesty,
beseeching him to preserve Italy from every misfortune, to enlighten
her sons as to their true interests, and to cause to spring forth on
her favored soil religion and peace, the only sources of real felicity."
To another deputation asking him to invoke French intervention :
"You speak of calling in foreign armies ; but such a measure, were
it desirable or politic, requires consideration and time. And then
again you say that the perils which threaten us are such as to admit
of no delay. I trust to that providence which overrules all human
designs, not to leave the State and all Italy without sufficient re-
sou.rces in this extremity. For God disposes of means unknown to
us, and which we must expect with confidence and accept with wor-
shipful gratitude."
* Farini, vol. ii., p. 384.
2IO Life of Pope Pius IX,
To those who were not ashamed to reproach him with his child-
like trust in the efficacy of his first reform measures, and his un-
reasoning confidence in *'the people's" gratitude, he would reply
good-naturedly that he was like unwise and doting parents, who
make over their goods to their children before death, and are turned
out of house and home in their old age.
But there was a more apt illustration which he used to explain
the difficulties of his position with respect to the clubs and Eadicals,
to whom the Amnesty and the Fundamental Statute had given such
unlimited power for evil. *^I am like the little shepherd-boy of the
Abruzzi, who had for companion a great necromancer. The boy
had seen him again and again call up the devil amid the solitude
and silence of the night, and had learned the formula of incanta-
tion. So he too one night tried the power of the spell. The evil
one arose at his call, and the frightened child would fain have got
rid of him. He had not, however, learned the spell that could lay
the fiend, who thenceforward haunted and tormented him."
CHAPTER XVIII.
Rossi Prime Mii^^ister — He Bridles Akarchy — Devotes him-
self WITH THE Pope to Reform — Fikais^ces, Telegraphs,
Railways — Meeting of Cojs^spirators at Turiit — Rossi
AYari^ed — Traikii^g of the Assassins — Rossi's Heroic
Fortitude — The Assassination.
September-November, 1848.
WHEN" it was announced in Bologna that Count Rossi had
undertaken to administer the government, there was great
rejoicing among all the citizens, the rabble of refugees and vaga-
bonds together with the clubs alone manifesting a sullen disappoint-
ment. There was good reason both for the joy of one class and the
wrath of the other.
After the expulsion of the Austrians on August the 8th, "the re-
spectable citizens had laid aside their arms and resumed their ac-
customed avocations. But Bologna had become a sink into which
all the rascality of Italy was confluent." " Those were the days,"
says Earini, ''in which mad discord brandished her torch over
wretched Italy, in which Mazzini's republicans heaped vituperation
on the head of the worsted Charles Albert, and paraded everywhere
tlie phantom of treachery with such glee and wantonness. . . .
They tried to induce Genoa to rise, and also Leghorn ; they in-
flamed the public mind against all things and all governments,
shouting. The People I the People ! Oover7iment ly the People !
War ly the People I They intoxicated the young, deluded the sim-
ple, took the discontented into their ranks, and the desperadoes into
their pay. . . . The condition of Bologna furnished matter to
experiment upon. Leaders, speakers, soldiers of fortune, rushed
thither and inflamed the blood, the bile, the lust, the vengeance of
the armed multitudes ; they fomented all the noise, all the disorder,
and all the anarchy."
-The city all through the month of August was in the hands of
211
212 Life of Pope Pius IX,
this sangninar}^ crowd, who pillaged and murdered indiscriminately
till the govemment sent thither Cardinal Amat as commissioner of
the four legations, and Signor Farini, the minister of the interior,
for the purpose of quelling this awful anarchy. Farini arrived
secretly on September the 2d. "The bad had increased and were
still increasing," he wrote, "in the streets and open places of the
city ; for two days the brigands had been slaughtering every man
his enemy among the government officers. ... If the fallen
gave signs of life, they reloaded their arms in the sight of the people
and the soldiers, ... or else put an end to their victims with
their knives. They hunted men down like wild beasts. . . . The
corpses — a frightful spectacle — remained in the public streets. I
saw it — saw death dealt about, and the abominable chase. . . .
The citizens skulked ; the few soldiers of the line either mixed with
the insurgents or were wholly without spirit, . . . the volun-
teer legions and free corps a support to the rioters and not to the
govemment."
It was remembered by the oppressed citizens that the restoration
of order was due to the energy of the Moderate Liberals, whose
leaders were Farini and Kossi ; but the clubs, the volunteer and
free corps did not forget, and were biding their opportunity for re-
venge.
No sooner had Rossi accepted a position in the ministry than he
was unanimously elected deputy of the city of Bologna. General
Zucchi, then minister of war, was sent a little later to repress a new
outbreak of disorder threatened by the appearance of Garibaldi,
the intrigues of Young Italy, and the inflammatory harangues of
Gavazzi, who was exciting the masses to rise for the "people's war."
This firebrand, who had been the main instrument of the agitators
in Leghorn and all through Tuscany, was arrested by Zucchi and
sent to Rome, where he became the idol of the rabble and shared
with Ciceruacchio the leadership of the mob in all the scenes of
blood and sacrilege that disgraced the Eternal City.
"The 'war of the people' proclaimed by Mazzini had com-
menced. With the instinct of the statesman Rossi perceived its
tendencies, and determined, in Rome at least, to bridle those anar-
chical proclivities which threatened to subvert the government, to
perpetuate discord, and to rivet more effectually the chains by
which Austria held Italy in bondage. The task was fraught wilh
peril, but ho resolved with energy and firmness to assert the cause of
Rossi Devotes himself to the Popes Reforms, 213
constitutional freedom against the dictation of the clubs ; whilst he
proclaimed the necessity for a pacific and temporizing policy for the
advancement of the cause of national unity and independence,
which the much-vaunted 'war of the people' threatened to im-
pede."*
In the cabinet of which he was the chief, Rossi had for associates
Cardinal Soglia, as secretary of foreign affairs ; Cardinal Vizzardelli,
minister of public instruction; Signer Cicognani, minister of jus-
tice ; Signor Eignano, minister of public works ; Signor Montanari,
minister of commerce, Eossi himself being minister of the interior
and of finance. Cardinal Antonelli was made governor of the pon-
tifical palaces, with apartments in the Quirinal.
The new ministry was looked upon with detestation by the Eadi-
cals, if for no other reason, because the ministry of police had been
abolished and incorporated with that of the interior, thus depriving
that double-died traitor, Galletti, of a position and authority he had
held so long and perverted to the very worst purposes. It was not
looked upon with favor by the extreme Conservatives, who con-
sidered Eossi to be a more dangerous man than an avowed Eadical.
But Pius IX. had, by long intercourse, discovered in Eossi quali-
ties of head and heart which compensated and corrected the aberra-
tions derived from early education and the constant contact with
the skepticism of Geneva and Paris. The prime minister, on his
side, had a deep and sincere admiration for Pius IX., whose genius,
patriotism, and heroic self-denial he thoroughly appreciated. He
could only blame him for his unwillingness to declare war against
Austria, and to lead in person the crusade in favor of Italian in-
dependence. But he lived long enough to understand that the
supreme pontiff could not do what other sovereigns had a right to
do, that his principality was a peaceful one, in war against none and
under the protection of all. Of weakness, of inconsistency, Eossi
never accused him, for he knew him to be utterly unselfish, and
guided in all things by conscience and highest principle.
"With his whole heart and soul Eossi threw himself into the labor
of making constitutional government a success in the Papal States,
where success was rendered most difficult by the mixed nature of
the government. He set about retrieving the finances, disordered,
as we have seen, by the invasions of the French, and the troubles
* Legge, ii. 52, 53.
■214 Life of Pope Pius IX.
that ensued, and still more disordered by the expenses of the late
war. The Pope gave him cordial aid ; and no less hearty was the
co-operation of the Sacred College, the religions orders, and the
beneficed clergy. The spontaneous offers of the latter were so
generous that a single year of peaceful administration, together
with the development of industry and commerce, must have restored
the credit of the pontifical treasury. But Rossi's was an enlight-
ened economy. He knew that the telegraph and the railway were
among the most powerful instruments of trade, as well as the most
needful means of civil and military administration. Telegraphic
lines were immediately established, and two main lines of railway —
one from Rome to Ancona, Bologna, and Ferrara, the other from
Rome to Civita Vecchia — were at once placed in the hands of com-
petent corporations, aided by all the means the government could
command.
All these and other projected improvements the indefatigable min-
ister explained in the Roman Gazette of October the 2d. "May it
please God," the minister said in concluding, "that our hopes be
not baffled by criminal passions, wild impulses, and the unpardonable
blunders which have too often baffled other reasonable and splendid
hopes !"
Gioberti had summoned a national conference to meet in Turin, to
consider the questions relating to the national independence and
unity. Prince Can in o and Sterbini, the leaders and the disgrace of the
Roman democracy, had gone thither, apparently to meet the represen-
tative men of Italy, in reality to further their own selfish and nefari-
ous designs, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, Canine's cousin and for-
mer co-rebel, had just been elected to the French national assembly
through the influence of the French Radicals, and Canino, who only
used his ultra-Radicalism in the Roman chambers as a cloak to cover
more ambitious purposes, had met in Turin special messengers from
the man soon to be president of the French republic.
The one point on which the Radical leaders who had gone to
Turin agreed was, that Italy should have but one constituent assem-
bly, and that to effect its immediate convocation all opponents and
obstacles should at once be swept away by "the people." Sterbini
and Canino returned by the way of Genoa, Leghorn, and Florence,
concerting with "the party of action" in these cities the steps by
which the Roman government should be forthwith taken out of the
hands of the monarchists. From Leghorn information was sent to
Rossi Warned, 2i5
Rossi that a sedition would surely break out in Rome on Noyember the
15tli, the day appointed for the meeting of the chambers. This intel-
ligence was confirmed by what occurred after • the arrival of the two
demagogues in the capital. They painted in the most glowing colors
the glories of the democratic goyernment established m Tuscany by
Guerazzi and Montanelli, exalted the genius of the latter, who had
been the first to propose a single constituent assembly for all Italy,
denounced the project of a confederated Italy as the dream of the
Pope's absolutist brain, sought to be realized by Rossi, the tool of
Louis Philippe and Guizot and the apostle of monarchism and the
right diyine of priestly goyernment.
The yery soil of Rome during these memorable days shook like
the ground in the yicinity of the huge geysers of the Yellowstone
Valley when the seething waters beneath are about to rush into mid-
air : the atmosphere itself was pregnant with the intolerable mystery
of coming eyil.
Much more than Bologna, in early August the capital "had be-
come a sink into which all the rascality of Italy was confluent."
There were 20,000 armed men — soldiers of the line or carabineers,
ciyic guards, and returned yolunteers — eyery one of whom, officers
and men, had been tampered with and brought oyer to the designs
and passions of the reyolutionists. Had the Pope gone about the
streets of Rome on foot, and obseryant of the sights and sounds
around him by day or by night, he must haye heard the hoarse
mutterings of this seething mass of eyil passion and breathed in the
yery air the odor that foreboded blood and reyolution.
The true-hearted Castellani, the Venetian enyoy in Rome, had
written to his goyernment as early as September : "Eyery one talks
of the republican plot, its heads are pointed out, and just so much
is known about it as suffices to magnify both fear and hope." Just
as the 15th of Noyember was drawing nigh, a rumor was most in-
dustriously circulated in the streets and public-houses, to the effect
that Rossi had bound the goyernment by treaty to deliyer up to the
king of Naples all the Neapolitan refugees in Rome ; it was said
that the courier bearing the treaty had been intercepted, and that
already some of the persons implicated had been arrested.
Rossi, who yv^as abundantly warned of all these seditious rumors
and plots, was not disturbed by them. He had resolyed that parlia-
ment should meet on the day appointed, and that he should open it
in the name of the soyereign. Determined as he was to quell eyery
2 1 6 Life of Pope Pius IX,
attempt at disturbance, he held a review of the carabineers on the
14th, on the piazza in front of St. Peter's, and made the troops
march through the principal streets of Rome. He little suspected
that not one man of them all could be trusted. On the same day he
published an admirable article in the Gazette, setting forth the
policy of the administration and deprecating the fanaticism which
would seek to return to the impossible past, as well as that which
would destroy all existing institutions to realize an equally im-
possible future.
The Contemporaneo of that same day, howeyer, contained from
Sterbini's murderous pen articles which were singularly clear-spoken
about what was to happen on the morrow. " Rossi is commissioned,"
he wrote, "to make the experiment in Rome of the Metternichs and
the Guizots. . . . Amidst the laughter and the contempt of the
people he will fall ; but this does not absolve us, after having called
him the betrayer of the cause of Italy, from calling him also the
betrayer of the sovereign who has raised him to his place."
What remains to be told is so horrible, such a commentary on the
results of civilization in a city once the capital of the civilized world,
and for eighteen centuries the residence of the chief bishop of the
Christian Church, that a Catholic pen would refuse to chronicle it,
or a Catholic historian would expose himself to the suspicion of
enormous exaggeration, were it not that every detail here offered to
the reader is carefully gleaned from Protestant authors.
There was a conspiracy, then, to murder a man whose only guilt
was an intense devotion to Italy, the life-long endeavor to serve her
as his conscience led him, the firm purpose to overcome by sheer
zeal and intelligent effort every obstacle toward her peace and gi'cat-
ness, and a sincere loyalty toward the pontiff-king. The conspira-
tors had resolved to slay that man not in the darkness of night, but
at noon-day, beneath the gaze of the soldiers of the nation and the
chosen representatives of the nation, and at the very moment when
he was fulfilling one of the most solemn public duties as prime min-
ister of the constitutional government he had himself labored so lov-
ingly to create.
They had chosen by lot three of their number to be the executors
of the murderous deed, and lest one chance of life should remain to
their victim, these three were to be aided or abetted by a select host
of volunteers and practiced cutthroats, who should hem the victim
in and close up every avenue to escape or assistance. But 'Hhe
The Assassination, 217
three" were to be schooled to make sure and short work of it. One
especially, Sante Constantadini, honored as the man best fitted by
supremacy in crime, and skill in the practice of assassination, to
strike the fatal blow, '^had been instructed by a surgeon where to
strike so as to diyide the great artery of the neck. To make sure of
his victim the assassin had carefully practiced on a model ; hideous
to relate that model Avas a fellow-countryman, who had perished at
the hand of a frenzied political assassin." *
"Do not go to the council hall; death waits you there!" was
the message sent to Eossi that very night by a French lady, the
Countess de Menon. '^ Do not leave your own house or you shall
be murdered ! " wrote the Duchess di Eignano. But Eossi busied
himself during the spare leisure moments of the night in preparing
his address to the chambers — a masterpiece of political wisdom, the
promise and pledge of the great things which Pius IX. and himself
meditated for Italian freedom and greatness.
Other warnings came to him in the morning ; but the high-souled
minister heeded them not, and, as noon drew near, he .drove to the
Quirinal to take the commands of his sovereign. The Pope had
also been warned and threatened ; and his gentle soul recoiled with
horror from the thought of exposing a life so precious as that of his
faithful servant. "At least," the Holy Pather said, "do not be rash
or expose yourself needlessly ; you must spare our enemies a great
crime, and me a sorrow that nothing could remedy." "I have no
fear," was the answer, "these men are cowards and will not dare to
execute their threats. Only bless me, most Holy Father, and all
shall be well." And kneeling with deep emotion he received the
pontifical blessing, kissed the fatherly hand, bowed himself out, and
went on his way. As he was about to leave the palace Monsignor
Morini gave him a last warning. " I defend the cause of the Pope,"
was the calm and firm reply; "and the cause of the Pope is the
cause of Grod. I must and will go."
The vast palace of the Cancelleria, on one side of the Campo di^
More, the great market-place of Eome, had been assigned for the
meetings of the Eoman parliament. "A battalion of the civic guard
was drawn up in the square. The government thought it needful to
take no other precaution. ... In the court-yard crowds, com-
*Legge, vol. ii., p. 67, where lie abridges from Alison and Cochrane. Wo
follow him principally in this narrative of Rossi's death.
2 1 8 Life of Pope Pius IX.
posed of all classes of tlie people, were assembled, eager, anxious, and
impatient. FeAV amongst the thousands who there jostled one ano-
ther could give an intelligent reason wherefore they had assem-
bled. . . . True, the agitators of the clubs had exhorted them
to assemble ; but wherefore ? . . . Conspicuous among the
crowd were men with savage countenances armed with daggers, who,
by their dress and the medals with which Kossi had decorated them,
were recognized as volunteers who had returned from Vicenza.
They stood well together, forming a line from the gate of the palace
to the staircase. . . . The ferocious but suppressed impreca-
tions which ever and anon they were heard to utter, quickened the
already fevered excitement of the spectators. . . .
"At a quarter-past twelve Rossi's carriage entered the court-yard.
The minister was greeted with a volley of hisses, and the excitement
was intensified by a cry for help emanating from the gallery. The at-
tention of the guard was thus arrested at the moment when Eossi and
Righetti, the deputy minister of finance, alighted from the carriage
which they jointly occupied. With a quick and steady step, and an
impassive countenance, Rossi advanced, disregarding a terrific howl
raised by the volunteers, and echoed by a thousand voices. . . .
"Before Righetti had descended from the carriage, Rossi was sur-
rounded by the foul-mouthed wretches who had thus greeted him.
. . . The ruse of the feigned cry for help from the gallery was
perceived, and at the same instant was seen the flash of a poniard.
Rossi staggered and fell ; Righetti rushed forward to the support of
his chief, raised him in his arms, and exposed to view a gaping
wound in the neck, from which the blood spirted copiously. The
djring man looked around him, but was unable to articulate a word ;
and the sight upon which his eyes closed was a savage look of triumph
upon the faces of those fiends in the uniform of the volunteers, who
pressed around him, enabling the assassin to walk off unmolested.
The dying minister was carried to the apartments of Cardinal Guz-
zoli, where, after a few minutes, he breathed his last." *
That heroic soul did not pass to the judgment-seat before a priest
from the neighboring church of San Lorenzo e Damaso had ministered
to it the last sacraments of the dying. The courageous Righetti then
drove through the demon crowd in the court-yard and the Piazza
straight to the Quirinal to inform the sovereign pontiff, and to adopt
♦ Legge.
Fiendish Triumph of the Assassins, 2 1 9
sucli immediate measures of precaution as the terrible emergency de-
manded.
He was covered with the blood of his friend when he arriyed in
the presence. Pius IX. was speechless with grief and horror. It
was some time before he could master his emotion, and all his at-
tendants were equally horror-struck. **It is the death of a martyr !"
he at length said, struggling with his grief. "May God receive his
soul to rest ! " His next thought was to send a message of fatherly
sympathy to the Countess Kossi, who had spent the morning in
agony ; for she, too, with a woman's keen sense of danger to her loved
ones, had forebodings of the tragedy, but was too worthy of her hus-
band to prevent him from doing his duty.
The shouts from the street had reached her before the arrival of
the pontifical messenger. Hastening to the Cancelleria she found
him a corpse to whose varying fortunes she had long ago wedded her
young life. The officers and prelates who beheld the bereaved widow
prostrate beside the man she idolized, were melted into tears. But
even then there was just apprehension lost the murderous crowd
should profane the remains of the dead and outrage the sacred feel-
ings of the living.
The Franciscan Father Vaures, who was much attached to Eossi,
conveyed the body secretly and speedily to the neighboring church
of San Lorenzo. It was embalmed without a moment's delay
and buried that very night, while all Eome, or what was still
pure and manly in Eome, was compelled to assist at the "devils'
dance " held by the successors of the men who fought under Cincin-
natus. The grave so hurriedly opened had not closed over the illus-
trious dead, when the fiends who had shed his blood passed in tri-
umph before her door bearing aloft the blood-stained assassin with
his knife, shouting blessings on the hand that did the deed, and
curses on the victim, and compelling his family to illuminate their
house in honor of the event.
When it was granted the pontiff to enjoy a few years of troubled
repose between the reign of blood thus ushered in and the final tri-
umph of Piedmontism, he compelled Eome to witness what repara-
tion he could make to justice, innocence, and patriotism, immolated
in Pellegrino Eossi. Solemn obsequies were performed, and a suita-
ble but modest monument erected over his grave. The brief but
pregnant inscription preserves his last words, with the mention of the
hellish conspiracy that cut short his life.
220 Life of Pope Pius IX,
Optimam miJii causam tuendam assumpsi, 3Iiserehitur Deus,
CI have undertaken to defend the best of causes ; God will look with
mercy on me.") And, Impiorum consilio meditata eoide occuluit,
("He fell by a conspiracy of the wicked, the yictim of a premedi-
tated assassination.")
For six years, until May, 1854, the murderer was at large. The
republic of Garibaldi and Mazzini never attempted to bring him to
justice. They knew him well, and would have rewarded him, had
they dared to be consistent with themselves. In the published works
of Mazzini there occur but these words in connection with this foul
deed : "Pass by the assassination of Rossi."
Posterity is not likely to pass it by without holding, some day, a
solemn judicial inquiry on the prime movers in this dark conspiracy ;
it shall then be made known why Mazzini bade "his posterity" pass
by that grave and that victim.
CHAPTER XIX.
Eclipse of Romah Manhood — Soldieks Fkateenizing with As-
sassins — Evil Eminence of Steebini and Oanino — Pius
IX. KEORGANIZING THE GOVERNMENT — ThE INSURRECTION
beforehand with him — istoble conduct of diplomatic
Body — Courage of Antonelli and the Swiss Guard —
The Quirinal Attacked — The Pope yields under Pro-
test — Action of the Roman Chambers— The Swiss Guard
Disarmed — The Pope resolves to leave Rome — Noble
Letter of the Venetian Castellani.
ROME had been dishonored by a deed as cowardly as any of those
for which manhood ever blushed. How fared it with the con-
stitutional bodies assembled within her walls, and with the ancient
nobility, created and protected and enriched by her long line of pon-
tiffs ? What mark of devotion did they show, in his dire extremity,
to their living representative, the generous, the liberal, the large-
minded, the advocate and promoter of Italy's aggrandisement and
of his people's progress ?
The Chamber of Deputies was in full attendance at the very mo-
ment the crime was consummated ; it were idle now to deny that
many if not most of its members were apprised beforehand of the pur-
pose of the assassins. There was much confusion at the first shouts
from the court-yard ; there was horror depicted on the faces of not a
few when the death of the prime minister was whispered about. But
the president, Sterbinetti, while the fiendish howls of triumph were
still echoing in his ears, called the chamber to order, and bade the
clerk call the roll. Not one deputy arose to question or to protest.
"While the clerk was reading the members quitted the hall, some, it
may be, through personal fear, others through curiosity. But not a
single voice was raised to protest against the infamy of their chair-
man, or the assassins who still thronged the door-steps. Not one
man among these, the elect of the nation, rushed to the assistance of
that illustrious man stricken down almost beneath their eyes. " It
221
2 2 2 Life of Pope Pius IX,
was with diflBculty," says Legge, "that the servant of the murdered
minister prevailed on any one among the crowd ... to assist
him in removing the hody of his master."
Sterbini, from his seat in the chamber, as he saw his colleagues
leaving it, asked the worthy Sterbinetti : ''What is all this fuss
about, Mr. President ? Continue the sitting. One would think that
man was king of Eome ! "
The members who did not belong to the Young Italy League
heard, as they passed through the crowds in court-yard and street,
muttered threats against themselves.
Farini, who was a known friend of Eossi's, and an open advocate
of his views of constitutional government, was particularly odious to
the sanguinary multitude. ''In leaving the palace of the Cancelle-
ria," he says, "one met some faces stark with an hellish joy, others
pallid with alarm, many townspeople standing as if petrified, agita-
tors running this way and that, carabineers the same ; one kind of
men might be heard muttering imprecations on the assassin, but the
generality faltered in doubtful and broken accents ; some, horrible to
relate, cursed the murdered man. Yes, I have still before my eyes
the livid countenance of one who, as he saw me, shouted, ' So fare
the betrayers of the people ! ' " *
The carabineers, incited by the example of their colonel, Calderari,
fraternized with the volunteers and the murderers, mingling with
the mob in the hideous procession after dark, "each soldier leaning
on the arms of two of the townspeople, and helping to break open
the prisons and let loose all their criminal inmates upon the commu-
nity." Not one officer of those in command but lent himself to these
orgies ; there is no instance on record of a single remonstrance even
against this open repudiation of all military discipline and manly
shame. General Zucchi, formerly minister of war, happened to be
absent in Bologna, and there were no railways by which he could
hasten to Rome. It was an irreparable misfortune : he was not the
man to hold parley with sedition, or to hesitate in presence of danger.
An officer of unshaken fidelity and unflinching courage in the
place of the infamous Calderari would have rallied the carabineers
to their duty, and swept that Roman rabble, that compound of mud
and blood, from the city. Where were Prince Aldobrandini and
General Durando ?
* Quoted by Legge, ii. 69.
Evil Eminence of Sterbhii and Cajiino, 223
But did not the senators, the magistrates, the nobles, who owed
everything they were and everything they had to the Popes, did they
not come to his aid during that dreadful day and night, and the
more dreadful morrow ? No ! not one !
^^All the great nobles," says Lsgge, '^ whether from cowardice or
from the consciousness of their inability to stem the current, had
retired to their estates." A noble Pole who was then in Eome stig-
matized this open dereliction of duty and absence of all moral eleva-
tion. "A princess," he wrote, "who has, habitually, much influ-
ence over her sons, besought them on her knees, and besought them
in vain, to pay the Holy Father a visit of condolence and sympa-
thy. . . . All the ranks of society . . . showed them-
selves on that day unworthy to possess in their midst the vicar of
Christ. . . ."*
Mamiani, who was certainly well aware of the existence of the
conspiracy, if not thoroughly acquainted with its details, found it
convenient to be absent on the 15th ; and it is no less singular than
significant that, while the foreign ambassadors so nobly came to
the assistance of the Holy Father and stood by him during these
days of terror — the representatives of Piedmont and Great Britain
were conspicuously absent. For, if Lord Minto sometimes found
it convenient to put forward his confidential mission to Kome, he
found it quite politic on the 15th of November and the two succeed-
ing days to avoid the Quirinal and to court the Eoman mob and it
leaders.
Sterbini and the Prince of Oanino were foremost in the streets, the
clubs, and the council chamber during these three days, inflaming
the popular passion, praising the "majesty and might" of the peo-
ple, and concentrating all minds and wills on one thought and one
purpose — "one constituent assembly for all Italy" — which should
meet immediately and proclaim the Italian republic. A speech de-
livered on the 18th, resumes the unceasing declamations of that un-
principled man. "I vindicate the rights of the Italian people, the
true and legitimate sovereigns of this country. The constituent
assembly of Italy will have to decide many questions which, in its
wisdom, the people, the victorious people of Eome, has not thought
fit to solve. . . . It is needless for me to address myself to de-
veloping an idea — now, thank God, become that of all Italy — ^which
* Rohrbaclier, Histoire de I'Eglise,
2 24 Life of Pope Pius IX,
will know how to shiver both chambers and thrones, should they
seek to fetter the generous and energetic impetus of this the first
country in the world."
^^ Victorious people of Rome," indeed I and '^this the first coun-
try in the world I "
But let us see what that '^ victory " was, and how it was won. If
the murder of an unarmed man at the very door of the halls of legis-
lation be any part of that victory, the claim to it shall not be dis-
puted. The sequel was not unworthy of such brave beginnings.
When the first stupor caused by Rossi's death was over, Pius IX.
did not lose a moment in reorganizing the government so as to face
the crisis which stared them all in the face. Montanari, minister of
commerce, was intrusted with the duty of forming a new administra-
tion. Had Zucchi been in Rome he would have been the govern-
ment. But Leutulus or Lenzuolo, Duke di Rignano, the head of the
war department, was too deeply imbued with the policy of Mamiani,
and too deep in the confidence of the plotters, to stand by his sover-
eign to the death, or to risk all in braving the mob.
Pius IX. had created the constituted bodies of Rome ; he resolved
to behave like a constitutional sovereign and like a Pope in this ex-
tremity. Come what might, he would trust himself and the peace
of the city to the legally established authorities. The presidents of
the upper and lower houses, together with Prince Corsini, president
of the senate, were summoned to meet the Pope in council during
the early morning. But morning was too late. Action should have
been taken during the night, if they purposed being beforehand with
insurrection.
As it was, insurrection was beforehand with the sovereign and his
counselors. The leaders had not slept when the rioters went home
after their "devils' dance" and their pasans in honor of assassination
and the dagger. They had made sure of the military and of every
depot of arms and ammunition in Rome. With the dawn they were
to be on foot, led by Sterbini and Oanino, demanding, in a voice that
must be heard, a radical ministry and a constituent assembly for all
Italy. The Pope should be compelled to sign his name to the call
for a united republican Italy,
With the dawn, therefore, and before the officials summoned to
council could arrive, Lenzuolo di Rignano brought the information
that " the people " were going to call on his Holiness with a pro-
gramme of their own, and wished that the military authorities
Noble Attitude of the Diplomatic Body, 22 5
sliould be allowed to join in the pacific demonstration. "VYhile tlie
Pope was discussing his chances of successful resistance with a war
minister in league with the mob, Prince Corsini and the presidents
of both houses arrived in the Quirinal, and with them came, unbid-
den, Sterbini.
But a few moments before their entering the Quirinal the Pope
had rejected a first ministry proposed to him under the leadership of
Mamiani, and, having inquired of Eignano if the troops could be re-
lied upon, was told that they only could in so far as they ^*were not
ordered to act against the people."
"The people" now faced him in the odious person of their most
determined and brutal leader, Sterbini. Pius gave immediate orders
to send out of Eome such of the aged cardinals and prelates as were
most unpopular, and bethought him only of protecting from outrage
and death his immediate servants and dependants.
He felt instinctively that nothing would satisfy such men as Ster-
bini and Canino, but the total abdication of his own sovereignty and
the lending to their revolutionary projects the sanction of his su-
preme religious authority. The latter nothing should compel him
to do ; to any further political concessions he was determined to
yield only by force and to save the lives of those around him. It
soon came to that extremity.
The most advanced Liberals, like Minghetti and Pasolini, were
now as hateful to the Radicals as Rossi himself. They declined form-
ing a ministry ; and no name seemed acceptable to the representa-
tives of the clubs but that of Galletti. The very mention of the
man filled Pius IX. with irrepressible repugnance. He was pre-
vailed upon, however, to decline giving a decided answer till even-
ing.
Meanwhile the diplomatic corps, seeing the assemblage in the streets
and the suspicious movements among the military, hastened by one
common impulse of generosity to the Quirinal to protect the Holy
Father, at the cost of their lives, if need were, against the sacrilegious
violence but too plainly contemplated. It was none too soon when
the representatives of France, Spain, Bavaria, Portugal, Brazil, Hol-
land, and Russia reached the Quirinal.*
* The names of this noble band of diplomats deserve to be mentioned here :
The Duke d'Harcourt, representing France ; Count Spaur, Bavaria ; Martinez della
Kosa, Spain, with his noble Secretary Gonzalez de Arnao ; Baron Venda-Cruz,
with Commander Huston, Portugal; Figueiredo, Brazil ; Count Boutenieff, Rus
2 26 Life of Pope Pius IX,
The insurgents had marched in serried ranks to the Cancelleria,
where they were joined by all the republican deputies, and with
these in their midst, as if the lawful representatives of the Eomaii
people, they set out for the Quirinal. A select body of men marched
in front of the deputies, serving as a guard of honor and bearing a
large flag on which were inscribed the names of Galletti and Sterbini
and the other members of the revolutionary ministry to be forced
upon the Pope, and an inscription telling all who could read that
the deputies there present were "the constituent assembly for
Italy."
*^ Arrived at the Quirinal," says Legge, "Galletti was the spokes-
man of the mob, with whom were mingled the national guards in
full uniform, but unarmed, the carabineers and the regular troops,
amounting in all to some 20,000. Pius indignantly refused to treat
with them. . . . Galletti in vain besought him to yield to tho
popular wishes." Among the demands urged upon him by the lead-
ers was an immediate declaration of war against Austria and the
other oppressors of Italy. Mamiani was now present,* and this de-
mand, pressed as it was upon the sovereign under every circumstance
of threatened violence, could not but seem to him the culmination
of Mamiani's former policy. He replied that what they asked of
him was simply to abdicate ; but that he had no power to do so.
The military commanders now added their entreaties to those of
Galletti.
Martinez della Kosa, the Spanish ambassador, unable to restrain
his indignation, addressed himself to the spokesman of the insur-
gents as they were about to withdraw. " Gentlemen," he said, "tell
the leaders of this revolt, that if they persist in this odious pro-
ject, they shall have to march over my dead body to reach the sacred
person of the sovereign pontiff." . . . The Duke d'Harcourt,
the French ambassador, indignant at the treachery of the military
officers around Galletti, told them that their duty did not consist
in being there to intimidate their sovereign, but in defending him
against mob violence.
The abashed but furious spokesmen went out to report their ill-
success. "At these tidings," says Farini, " the tumultuous throng
was maddened, and cried * to arms ! ' and in a moment the common-
Bia ; Lledokerke, Holland. Panto, minister of Sardinia, was not there 1 Neither
was the American minister.
♦Artaud.
Courage of Antoiielli and the Swiss Guard. 227
alty, those who had come back from Yicenza, the ciyic guardsmen,
the carabineers, the foot soldiers, run for arms and return to the Qui-
rinah They surround it, press forward, try to get in, and, on re-
sistance by the Swiss sentinels become more enraged, put fire to one
of the gates, mount upon the roofs and bell-towers in the vicinity,
begin to fire their pieces at the walls, gates, and windows ; when the
Swiss fire in return."
Of the Swiss troops in the pontifical service at the accession of
Pius IX., only a single company remained at Eome as the Pope's
special body-guard. They numbered a hundred men, under the com-
mand of a colonel, and were part of a corps which had been admired
by the Eoman troops themselves for the heroic bravery they displayed
above all others in the defense of Vicenza against the Austrians.
This little band, with a few soldiers of the I^oble Guards were the only
defenders of the Quirinal and the sovereign pontiff, against 20,000
armed soldiers, aided by the entire populace.
It was at this desperate juncture that Cardinal Antonelli displayed
the indomitable courage in the defense of his sovereign and the lib-
erty of the Holy See, which was to shine forth so brightly through the
long dark years they had both to pass through together inseparably.
He had every approach to the Quirinal barricaded in haste, the gates
and doors secured, and posted his handful of Swiss to the best advan-
tage. He expected from the mob led by Sterbini, Galletti, and Ca-
nine only such scant mercy as had been shown to the prime minis-
ter whose blood was still fresh on the streets of Eome.
What gave most pain to Antonelli and his brother prelates present
in the palace was, to see among the armed battalions which marched
up to the Quirinal "with music and drums "the students of the
university of the Sapienza, armed and led by the Prince of Canine.
By some stratagem Leopold Meyer von Schauensee, the captain of
the Swiss guard, was lured into a parley with the insurgents, seized
and dragged to the cannon's mouth, for the purpose of blowing him
to pieces and thereby of frightening his companions into surrender.
As his captors were binding him to the cannon, " I know that piece,"
said the undaunted soldier, "it is the San Pietro. If you fire it, his-
tory will record that on the 16th of November, 1848, you thereby
l)ut to death an officer, who, with twenty-five grenadiers of his com-
pany, retook that piece from the Austrians at Vicenza." *
* Artaud, ** Lives of the Popes."
228 Life of Pope Pius IX.
The cov7ards did not dare to carry out their purpose ; bu*: they re-
tained the brave man prisoner, and his worthy companions were only
steeled by their ignorance of his fate in their determination never
to yield their sacred trust.
Pius IX., while thus besieged by 20,000 men of his own troops,
and all the cut-throats collected in Eome for that special occasion
by the industry of Young Italy, was surrounded by the diplomatic
body — who refused to quit him one instant — Cardinals Soglia and
Antonelli, the secret chamberlains and officers of the palace. Father
Vaures, and the Count de Malherbes.
*' At this stage of the proceedings it was evident that the die was
cast. From the back streets men emerged bearing aloft long lad-
ders wherewith to scale the pontifical abode ; carts and wagons were
dragged up and ranged within musket-shot of the windows to pro-
tect the assailants ; . . . the cry was * to arms ! to arms ! ' and
musketry began to bristle in the approaches from every direction ;
fagots were produced and piled up against one of the condemned
gates of the building, to which the mob was in the act of setting
fire, when a brisk discharge of firelocks scattered the besiegers in that
quarter. . . .
''The drums were now beating throughout the city, the disbanded
groups of regular troops and carabineers reinforcing the hostile dis-
play of assailants, and rendering it truly formidable. Random shots
were aimed at the windows and duly responded to ; the outposts,
one after another, taken by the people, the garrison within being too
scanty to man the outworks. The belfry of San Carlino, which
commands the structure, was occupied. From behind the equestrian
statues of Castor and Pollux a group of sharpshooters plied their
rifles, and about four o'clock Monsignor Palma (while standing at
the window of his own apartment) was killed by a bullet penetrat-
ing his forehead.
"As if upwards of G,000 troops of all ranks were not considered
enough to reduce the little garrison of a couple of dozen Swiss, two six-
pounders now appeared on the scene, and were duly pointed against
the main gate, and, a truce having been proclaimed, another depu-
tation claimed entrance. . . . The deputation were bearers of
the people's uUimatum, which was a reproduction of the five points
before stated, and they now declared that they would allow liis Holi-
ness one hour to consider; after which, if not adopted, they an-
nounced their firm purpose to break into the Quirinal, and put to
The Pope forced to grant a Radical Ministry, 229
death every inmate thereof, with the sole and single exception of his
Holiness himself " *
**The Poi)e, all this time/' writes the Duke d'Harcourt to his
government, "showed much coolness and firmness; but as it was
impossible to oppose resistance, and, besides, as he was less able and
disposed than anybody to shed blood, it was necessary to do what-
ever was demanded by his own troops, who besieged him in his
palace."
Of course, with the threat of massacring every man among his
faithful defenders and servants hanging over his head — and it was
no idle threat — the Pope had to yield. But, in presence of the
diplomatic corps, he made his solemn protest : " Look where we
stand : there is no hope in resistance ; already a prelate is slain in
my very palace ; shots are aimed at it, artillery leveled. We are
pressed and besieged by the insurgents. To avoid fruitless blood-
shed and more heinous enormities, we give way, but, as you see,
gentlemen, it is only to force ; so we protest. Let the courts, let
the governments know it ; we give way to violence alone ; all we
concede is invalid, is null, is void."
A list of ministers was now proposed by the insurgents, but the
Pope desired Cardinal Soglia to take charge of all further negotia-
tions. Mamiani was named minister of foreign affairs; Galletti,
minister of the interior ; Sterbini, minister of commerce ; Lunati, of
finance ; Campello, of war, and Sereni, of justice. Pather Eosmini,
then in Eome, was placed on the list as minister of public instruc-
tion ; but, when informed of his nomination, he indignantly refused
to have anything to do with the blood-stained Kadicals.
The list was handed to the Pope for his signature. He per-
emptorily refused, and the agitation began anew. Cries of "Sign !
sign ! " arose from the motley crowd who had now found their way
into the audience-chamber, and a formidable clamor was heard out-
side. Yielding to the suggestion of the statesmen near him, he
signed the list, protesting once more that he did so under violence.
Thereupon Galletti, with the list in his hand, proceeded to the
balcony, and announced the Pope's submission to the insurgents.
"The sovereign has given us a republic!" spread from rank to
rank ; the armed men fired their muskets in the air and dispersed.
Such was the "victory" proclaimed so boastingly by Prince
• Correspondence of London Daily News, by Rev. Francis Mahony.
230 Life of Pope Pius IX.
Canino. His name was not proposed as one of tlie democratic
ministers, and tlie omission was long remembered against Mamiani
as an unpardonable act of weakness.
^' On this Yery day," says Legge, " Cavour published an article m
the^Bisorgiinento (Resurrection) of Turin, entitled * Eevolutionary
Measures,' which, after dwelling on the dangers to which the spirit
of revolution exposed Italy and Europe, he concluded with these
prophetic words : ' One moment longer and we shall see, as a last
result of these revolutionary proceedings, Louis Napoleon on the
throne of France.' "
The chambers met on the 18th : in the upper house, among all
the princes and prelates nominated by Pius IX., not one had the
manhood to raise his voice in condemnation of the crimes com-
mitted during the last three days ; nay, they were not even alluded
to in the proceedings ! In the Chamber of Deputies, however, to
their undying honor be it said, "all the deputies from Bologna, and
many others, declared that they would not sit in parliament, unless
the brutal and cowardly murder was solemnly denounced, and the
government petitioned to make an instant and thorough inquiry.
Galletti assented, and was forward to declare that the government
would testify to the council its indignation, and its determination to
investigate and punish, but when, on the 20th, the council met, the
ministers were mute. . . ." *
Surely this silence could not surprise one so well acquainted with
Italian men and affairs as the author who wrote the above sentences.
None better than he knew, that in the council of ministers sat the
men who had abetted the murder of Eossi, if they had not aided
zealously in its consummation.
On the 18th the club called the Circolo Popolare, founded and
directed by Sterbini, and now the real governing power in Rome,
demanded that the Swiss Guard "should be dismissed without their
arms from the Quirinal." Galletti brought the proposition to the
Pope, and he submitted. He was thenceforward guarded night
and day by men who had sung hymns to Rossi's murderer, and
had intended to murder every inmate of the Pope's own palace.
"Again," says Farini, "the club desired that Galletti should be
general of carabineers, and general he was. How could it be
helped ? Where was authority ? Where the force that backs it ?
* Legge, U. 80.
The Pope Resolves to leave Rome, 231
The troops of all arms had either abetted or kept gala for the revolt.
Kome was topsy-turvy ; assassination and rebellion were celebrated
with triumph." The Duke d'Harcourt had concluded his account
of the storming of the Quirinal on the 16th by the words : "The
authority of the Pope is now absolutely null. It exists only in
name, and none of his acts will be free and voluntary."
The government of the universal church had, from the beginning
of 1848, become exceedingly difficult ; it now became practically im-
possible. Every department of government was in the hands of the
revolutionists, the declared enemies not only of the Catholic Church
but of Christianity itself. And, to any sagacious mind, it was quite
evident that the Eadicals would not be long satisfied with the very
faint shade of conservatism that tinged Mamiani's political profes-
sion of faith. They wanted and would have a Eadical Italian re-
public, without king or Pope, or any form of ecclesiasticism what-
ever.
Under these circumstances the Holy Father, who had thrown
aside every illusion, and believed he could no longer benefit the So-
man people by his stay, or could not seem to lend the sanction of his
name to acts and usurpations for which he Avould be held responsible,
acquiesced in the unanimous decision of the ambassadors of the
Catholic powers that he should accept an asylum elsewhere.
This determination he had already made known during the vio-
lence done him in May and June. The revolutionists had not for-
gotten it ; and they now watched his every word and movement
with redoubled jealousy. It is certain that, on the very first sign
of his intention to leave Rome, they would have murdered every one
of his counselors. As it was, the ambassadors prepared everything
warily for the execution of their purpose. It was the Pope's decision
to go to Spain ; and a Spanish frigate was ordered to Civita Vecchia.
But delays occurred, and it was found that numerous spies watched
all the approaches to the Roman coast, and besides, suspicion began
to be alive in Rome itself. The Duke d'Harcourt and Count Spaur,
the Bavarian ambassador, took upon themselves to conduct with all
possible secrecy and expedition the flight of the Holy Father to
Gaeta, just beyond the Neapolitan frontier.
Before entering on the detailed narrative of this event, it may re-
pose the mind of the reader to contrast with the too-general pusilla-
nimity of illustrious contemporary Italians in their conduct toward
the Holy Father in his need, the beautiful letter of the Venetian,
232 Life of Pope Pius IX,
CajBtellaiii. When Venice rose against Anstrian domination in the
preceding March, her noble defender, Manin, hastened to invoke
the Pope's blessing on the nnequal struggle he and his fellow-
countrymen were beginning. Castellani was sent to Rome as the re-
presentative of the ancient republic near the Holy See, and on the
27th of June, Pius IX., at his request, addre^ed with his own hand
the following words to the Venetian government :
*' May God give his blessing to Venice, and deliver her from the
evils she fears, in such way as, in the infinite resources of his provi-
dence, it shall to him seem good ! "
With his whole heart and soul Pius IX. continued to sympathize
with Manin and his heroic countrymen ; and his sending Monsignor
Morichini to Vienna at the beginning of the war, was inspired by
the hope of liberating Venice, or of securing her such autonomy as
might lead to better things in the near future. Castellani had seen
Pius too often, during his stay in Rome, and had learned to appreci-
ate too well that heart so devoted to Italy not to look with horror on
such men as Sterbini and GaUetti, and not to raise his voice as a sol-
emn protest against the unnatural ingratitude of the Romans. This
letter was written immediately after the enormities of November 16.
" Most Holt Fatheb : — Amid the august sorrows with which
the sacred i)erson of your Holiness is surrounded, I approach you,
a sharer in all their bitterness, to place at your disposal my whole
strength, whether for counsel or for action. As the representative
of a people which has ever ble^ed your name, and of a government,
which amidst the confusion of these times, has been mindful to
combine the development of ecclesiastical rights with that of civil
liberty, I am sure I hereby fulfill one of my most exalted duties.
As an individual, I cherish in the depths of my soul the remembrance
of the honorable reception vouchsafed me ; and I make bold to kneel
at your feet, as a son who seeks to soothe the aflfliction of his father
by showing the depth of his affection.
" The Almighty, Most Holy Father, watches over his Vicar, and
wills moreover the deliverance of Italy. His rigors, in your calam-
ities and the misfortunes of our country, perhaps may cover mys-
teries of profound mercy. Until these shall be accomplished may
your pure spirit never desist, on account of present sufferings, from
imitating him who spoke pardon from the very cross.
" Afterward he rose again, and with him the world. We, too.
Noble Letter of the Venetian ^ Castellani, 233
Most Holy Father, had a life of tears. Our city is become a spec-
tacle both of glory and of desolation. Your affection spends itself
in vain upon the brothers whose name and hopes we are defending ;
and we are forgotten by those very Christians of whose faith in bar-
barous ages we were the saviors. And Venice, despite all this, con-
tinues to pray, to pardon, and to hope. . . .
" Give us, Father of the faithful, your benediction, and may God
accept my petition for the well-being of your person and the glory
of your pontificate.
'' G. B. Castellaih."
It is the pure and touching glory which surrounds such names as
those of Daniel Manin and Castellani that makes the cause of Italy
so inexpressibly dear to Catholic hearts, in spite of the loathing in-
spired by the mention of a Mazzini, a Sterbini, and a Oanino.
I
CHAPTER XX.
How THE Flight was Plan^ned — Delays : Agoity of Couin:ESS
Spaue — Ok THE Road to Gaeta — Reception of the Un-
KKOWK at Gaeta — Coukt Spaur at Naples — King Fekdi-
KAKD HASTENS TO GaETA.
November 24r-26, 1848.
THE negotiation of a marriage between the Prince Royal, Erancis,
of Naples, with the Bavarian Princess Maria, daughter of Duke
Maximilian Joseph, afforded Count Spaur and his wife a pretext for
making a hurried journey to Naples, and it was determined that
the Pope in disguise should accompany them. The suggestion of
this means of escape appears to have come from the countess her-
self, and was agreed to by the ambassadors, who lent their aid to-
ward its speedy execution. The French steamer Tenare was ordered
to be in readiness at Civita Vecchia to take on board the Duke
d'Harcourt.
D'Harcourt was to take upon himself the perilous task of getting
the Pope away from the Quirinal ; Count Spaur was to wait with his
private carriage for the fugitive at a certain spot, in the deserted
quarter beyond the Coliseum, beside the church of SS. Pietro e Mar-
cellino ; and beyond Rome, near La Riccia, on the road to Albano,
the countess, with her son and chaplain, was to have a coach and
six swift horses in readiness.
At dark on the evening of the 24th, the Duke d'Harcourt went in
state to the Quirinal with outriders and torch-bearers, demanding an
immediate audience of his Holiness, as if on most urgent business.
Leaving his carriage and attendants at the foot of the staircase, he
was ushered into the Pope's apartment, made himself sure that they
should not bo overheard or interrupted, and seated himself at the
Pope's table, perusing various papers as if deeply engaged in State
business, the Pope meanwhile changing his dress in a neighboring
room. The Cavalier Filippani, his old and faithful valet, who had
234
How the Flight was Planned, 235
followed him from Imola, aided in changing his apparel. The pon-
tifical white cassock was laid aside, and the short cassock or capoche
of a simple priest was put on ; and the blessed sacrament was taken
from the private oratory in the little pyx, or silver-gilt box, used
by Pius VI. during the whole period of his forced flight from Kome
and his captivity. It had been restored to the Ninth Pius by
the bishop of Valence but two days before, and now with its pre-
cious contents was placed near the heart of this other fugitive, as
a pledge of His present protection who Avatches over the Church
and her pontiff. Over the cassock Filippani made his master put on
a dark great-coat, and a broad woolen neckcloth outside his Roman
collar ; a low-crowned hat completed this disguise.
It was rapidly done. The Pope then returned to D'Harcourt, who
threw himself on his knees with unfeigned emotion, and kissing
again and again the hand extended in blessing and farewell, the
true-hearted Frenchman said, "Go, Holy Father; God in his wis-
dom inspires this step, and in his power he will bring it to a happy
issue."
Filippani wore his usual loose cloak, beneath which he concealed
in a bundle the Pope's three-cornered hat and embroidered slippers,
some secret and most valuable papers, the papal seals and breviary.
He led the fugitive by a private passage terminating at a little door
in a very obscure corner of the court-yard, before which a hack was
stationed. On reaching this door, seldom or never opened, they found
the key had been forgotten, and Filippani hastened back to the Pope's
apartments to get it. D'Harcourt was startled and almost frightened
by his apparition. But the key was soon found, and Filippani flew
with it to the end of the little corridor, where the Pope was on his
knees wrapt in adoration of the treasure which he bore with him.
There was no little difficulty in opening the door : " the wards of the
lock were rusty, and the key turned with difficulty." As they were
about entering the coach the other trusty servant, who stood by the
door, knelt according to custom, but rose to his feet at Filippani's
sharp and whispered reprimand. Fortunately the place and the
whole group were shrouded in darkness, and the numerous spies and
sentries posted around had not observed the incident. Filippani from
the interior of the coach directed the driver by out-of-the-way and
unfrequented streets, till they had passed the lofty ruins of the Coli-
seum, and near St. John Lateran, in the shadow of the strange-look-
ing little church of SS. Pietro e Marcellino, found Count Spaur with
236 Life of Pope Pius IX,
his chasseur, hoth armed to the teeth, and waiting impatiently for the
appearance of the august pilgrim. Many delays had occurred ; and
they had found it prudent to leave the hack behind at the entrance
to the Via Lahicana, and to hasten on foot to the place of meeting.
The Pope after a few words of greeting entered the carriage and
bade farewell to Filippani, now overcome by the parting ; and away
they drove, Count Spaur exhibiting at the neighboring gate of San
Giovanni, the passport of the Bavarian minister going to Naples.
There had been some miscalculation about time, or, rather, it was
found impossible to act according to predetermined arrangements.
Countess Spaur was to be at Albano from early morning on the 24th
and to have a post-chaise in readiness there, the count promising to
meet her punctually at three o'clock of the afternoon. We have
seen that circumstances upset this arrangement. The Quirinal was
so strictly guarded that they could not think of attempting to have
the Pope leave by daylight.
The poor lady meanwhile suffered unutterable agony.
**We, who had been at Albano since morning," she says in her
relation, '^passed our time in torture. I say *we,' because I was
with my son and his tutor. Father Liebel. My soul had never been
haunted by such frightful fancies. My poor boy, seeing me in a state
that must have moved even strangers to pity, would come every now
and then to ask me what was the cause of my affliction, urging me
to tell him what it was that troubled me so deeply. Of course I
could not allow a single word to fall from my lips that could betray
the secret I had pledged myself to keep ; thus I had to dissemble
with my son as I had with my dear father (in Eome). At length
Max, who had gone into the church of Madonna della Stella to pray
for his father and me, came back to me, beseeching me with tears in
his eyes, to tell him what danger threatened his father and caused
me sucli intolerable agony. I told him that the count had consented
to take with him out of Rome a great personage, and that if he
should fail in his purpose he would be very seriously compromised.
I added, that I had known no rest, and could enjoy none, till I saw
them both safe arkl sound. I concluded by exhorting him as well as
his tutor — who, from my expressions, had concluded that I meant the
Cardinal Secretary of State — to manifest no surprise when they recog-
nized the fugitive, and to be careful to show no curiosity before him.*
• Countess de Spaur, HClation du voyage de Pie IX. d Gaete, Paris, 1852.
The Popes Escape : U Har court' s Agony, 237
At nine o'clock at nigiit, in the beautiful avenue of Ilexes, called
^ Galleria di Sotto (Lower Ayenue), leading from Albano to Castel
Gandolfo, and where the lady had been waiting since morning, some
one came to inform her that the count was expecting her at Lariccia,
about a mile beyond Albano. It was very dark, and there were no
lights in the carriage, in order to prevent the fugitive from being
recognized. At Lariccia, the countess was startled to see her hus-
band surrounded by military guards {gendarmes), and behind him
a man in black leaning against the palisade by the roadside. She
immediately addressed to the latter the words agreed upon : "Doc-
tor, come into my carriage, come quickly 1 You have kept me wait-
ing too long in the night air." One of the guards then opened the
carriage door, let down the steps, and helped the doctor in, closing
the door after him, bidding all a pleasant journey, and assuring them
that the road was perfectly safe.
The Pope sat beside the countess. Max and his tutor occupying
the front seat ; the count and his chasseur jumped into the box be-
hind, and the chamber-maid sat with the driver. Off the horses
dashed at full speed, making the most of the precious hours of dark-
ness.
For two mortal hours the Duke d'Harcourt remained alone in the
Pope's apartment at the Quirinal, using every device to Idll time,
and allow the fugitives to get beyond danger. As he rose to leave, a
prelate entered with a large mail and important papers to submit
to his Holiness, then the private chaplain came to read the Breviary
office with his master, and, finally, the Pope's simple supper was
brought in. It was announced to the officer of the guard of honor
that his Holiness had retired for the night, the guard thereupon was
withdrawn, and all should have been ended without mishap, when
some one of the domestic prelates not finding the Pope in his apart-
ments, came rushing in exclaiming, " The Pope has gone ! the Pope
has gone ! " Prince Gabrielli, who was in the secret, and was pre-
sent to give countenance to the other actors in the plot, clapped his
hand on the fool's mouth, saying in a whisper, "Not a word, mon-
signor, or we shall all be murdered ! "
D'Harcourt, on leaving the palace, took the road to Civita Vec-
chia.
As the post-chaise containing the Pope and his companions sped
along the line of the old Appian Way, and across the Pontine
Marshes over the admirable road constructed by Pius VI. before the
238 Life of Pope Pius IX,
Trench republicans with Bonaparte came to arrest the improve-
ments planned by pontifical generosity, how many sad thoughts
must have come up unbidden in the soul of this other Pius, who had
also formed so many magnificent plans for the material and social
welfare of his people and of all Italy ? These same marshes, which
all the patriotic genius of the ancient republic had in vain tried to
drain, which had baffled the efforts of the mightiest and most en-
lightened emperors, and defied the labors of the Gothic kings of
Italy, as well as those of many a Pope, are still held up by ignorant
or malevolent writers as one of the results of priestly rule in Eome !
Just as if the Mauvaises Terres of Nebraska, the soda plains along
the Central Pacific Eailway, or the arid Colorado desert, were to be
imputed to the Federal administration as one of the fruits of re-
publican misrule ! But Pius IX., a fugitive across these pestilential
plains, did, nevertheless, think how best he might continue the work
of improvement, should Providence ever restore him to Eome.
What he attempted and executed in pursuance of this resolve shall
be told in its place.
The generous fugitive had but little thought of personal comfort
during that long night. The countess, whose nerves and courage
had been sorely tried by the terrible events of the preceding week,
and especially by those of the last twenty-four hours, was no sooner
at a safe distance from the guards than she gave way to an uncon-
trollable fit of weeping. Her veneration for the august head of the
Church, whose many noble qualities she had nearly observed, led her
to contrast his present helpless plight with what Catholic hearts
would make him, and she burst forth into expressions of bitter grief.
The good Pope consoled her with kind words and reflections, inspired
by his trust in God's all-wise providence, and by the expression of
his grateful appreciation of all she had done for his safety. Then
they all recited together the rosary — sweet prayers to him who is
father over all the children of men, and to whom Christ's vicar on
earth lifts his voice in dependence and supplication like the lowliest
in his wide flock, heart-cries to that loving mother who begat us all
at the foot of the cross, and is never wearied beseeching for our
need the tender mercy of her crucified love — and then there were
psalms, breathing David's trust in him who is our rock and refuge,
and prayers to the angelic spirits ever present to watch over the trav-
eler, the fugitive, tlie exile, and the persecuted. And thus the night
waned, and amid the darkness and the solitude a deep peace settled
Reception of the Unknown at Gaeta, 239
on tlie wayfarers, and sleep came uninyited, but most welcome, to
refresh the weary spirit of the pontiff.
By ten o'clock on the morning of the 25th they reached the fron-
tiers of Naples at Fondi ; and before noon they were at the Mola di
Gaeta (now called Formia), six miles from Gaeta itself.
At about a mile from the Mola the carriage was suddenly stopped
and the door opened, when two gentlemen, bareheaded and deeply
moved, seized each a hand of the Holy Father, kissing it again and
again, and bedewing it with tears. They were the Cavalier Arnao,
secretary of the Spanish legation, and Cardinal Antonelli. On see-
ing the latter the Pope was also deeply moved. "I thank thee, my
God! "he exclaimed, "for having preserved me my dear Cardinal
Antonelli ! " It was a reunion between these two which death alone
was to terminate !
On their arrival at the Mola Count Spaur started for Naples in the
carriage of Senor Arnao, bearing to the king an autograph letter
from his Holiness, and the latter proceeded without a moment's delay
to Gaeta. The bishop, Monsignor Parisio, had been called that very
morning to the death-bed of his brother, and Danielo, his very un-
amiable major-duomo or steward, could not be persuaded to give hos-
pitality to the travelers. Cardinal Antonelli vainly insisted, saying
that the bishop would not be pleased to have "his friends" treated
so inhospitably. The other replied that the bishop had left him no
order about "his friends." "If you knew who we are," said the
Pope, "you would be glad to give us welcome." "It is precisely
because I do not know you," said the trusty Danielo, "that I cannot
welcome you. Besides, a bishop's house is not a public inn," looking
at the numerous retinue. " Bishop Parisio knows me perfectly," con-
tinued his Holiness. " That may be," replied the testy steward, "but
I do not." And thereupon he shut the door in the pontiff's face.
They were forced to go to the nearest inn, a shabby little place,
called the Giardinetto (Little Garden) from a flower-plot before the
entrance. But their mishaps were not yet ended. While the Pope
was dictating a letter to Father Liebel, Cardinal Antonelli and Arnao
called on the governor of Gaeta, an old Swiss general named Grosse.
In taking Seiior Arnao's carriage. Count Spaur had also taken the
latter's passport, leaving him his own. Arnao presented the passport
he held to the governor, who, delighted to find a gentleman able to
speak his native German, began to compliment both his visitors in
that language. Their excuses, however, did not satisfy the old sol-
240 Life of Pope Pius IX,
dier. So General Grosse, taking them for Eoman spies, dismissed
them courteously, but gave orders to the inferior magistrates to look
closely after the new-comers.
Scarcely had they returned to the Giardinetto, and finished their
dinner, when an officer of the garrison, with a justice of the peace,
demanded to see the travelers. Father Liebel thereupon locked the
door of the Pope's room and put the key in his pocket, while the
countess and the gentlemen present surrounded the two visitors.
''All of us," the lady relates, *'did our best to throw them off the
scent, . . . The justice was about to withdraw, when the officer,
who had remained silent and motionless with his hands on the back
of my chair, asked my permission to say that there was a rumor
about the country of our having with us two cardinals in disguise.
I replied that surely he must have discovered in me one of these two
cardinals, and that he must now try to find out the other among my
traveling companions. . . . This made everybody laugh, and
put an end to the interview."
The 26th November, being Sunday, all the travelers, the Pope ex-
cepted, went to hear early mass, and while in the church the officer
who had visited them the day before came to tell Seiior Arnao that a
French frigate had just arrived with the Duke d'Harcourt, who was
very anxious to see the Bavarian ambassador. The misapprehensions
of the day before were soon explained, and the governor insisted
that the countess and her suite should breakfast with him. Before
the repast was ready a Neapolitan fleet was signaled in the offing,
and soon a frigate was in sight with the royal standard at the mast-
head.
This arrival was the result of Count Spaur's rapid journey to
Naples. He reached that city about eleven o'clock at night, went
directly to the residence of the papal nuncio, showed him the sealed
letter of which ho was the bearer, and which must be forthwith pre-
sented to the king. It was near midnight when they drove up to
the royal palace ; and the nuncio demanded immediate admission
for the Bavarian ambassador with extraordinary dispatches for his
majesty. Leaving the nuncio waiting below in his carriage, Count
Spaur was introduced to the king. "Sire," said the ambassador,
''pardon me for coming at such an hour; I am the bearer of very
serious tidings ; your majesty will learn them from this letter of his
Holiness."
The king opened the letter and read :
King Ferdinand hastens to Gaeta. 241
cs
Sire : — The Eoman pontiff, the vicar of Christ, the soyereign of
the States of the Church, has been compelled by circumstances to
leave his capital, that he might not lower his own dignity and avoid
sanctioning by his silence the excesses perpetrated in Eome. He is
at Gaeta, but only for a short time, as he is unwilling to compro-
mise in any way either your majesty or the peace of your peoples.
''Count Spaur will have the honor of presenting this letter to
your majesty, and will tell you, w^hat time will not permit me to say,
concerning the place to w^hich the Pope has resolved to go without
delay.
*' In peace of mind, and with the deepest resignation to the divine
decrees, he sends to your majesty, to your royal spouse and whole
family, the apostolic benediction."
As the king read this letter his countenance betrayed deep feeling
and his eyes filled with tears. Count Spaur, who watched him
closely, shared his emotion. "Count," said the king at length,
''come back six hours hence, and you shall have my answer."
Immediate orders were issued to have two frigates ready at dawn,
with a regiment of the royal guards and a battalion of line infantry ;
and at day-break the king and queen, with the entire royal family,
the nuncio, the Bavarian minister, and a numerous retinue, em-
barked for Gaeta.
It was one o'clock afternoon when the king landed there. General
Grosse, who had left his breakfast untasted advanced to meet the
sovereign. "General," said his majesty, "where is the Pope?"
" The Pope, sire ? Why, I presume he is in Eome, although we
may expect him before long. " ' ' Why, " said the king, "the Pope has
been in Gaeta these last twenty-four hours, and you know nothing
about it ! " Amao, who was close by, thereupon advanced and ex-
plained to his majesty why they had preserved so strict an incognito,
telling him also where the Pope was. Unwilling to attract too
much attention to his august guest, the king bade Seiior Arnao
conduct his Holiness quietly and through by-lanes to the royal pavil-
ion, where he and the queen would prepare for his reception.
The curiosity of the crowd was thus baffled, the Pope reached the
pavilion in his simple traveling garb unnoticed by the passers-by ;
but at the foot of the staircase he found the king and queen waiting
for him on bended knees, with the entire royal family, weeping,
every one of them, to see one so great and so beloved but a short
time before driven forth an exile from among his own.
242 Life of Pope Pius IX.
''Here it is," concludes the Countess Spaur, "that begins the
recital of tlie numberless acts of true filial piety by which King
Ferdinand of Naples endeavored to honor the sovereign pontiff
during the seventeen months of his voluntary exile. One knows
not which to admire and to praise most, of the pious industry of one
man striving to console another and to show him heartfelt sympathy,
or the magnificent hospitality of one sovereign sparing no expense
to make another sovereign forget that he is not at home among his
own people, or the reverence of the sincere Christian, who sees in
the afflictions of the pontiff the outrage done to Christ's vicar.*
* Relation du wyage de Pie IX. d Gaete, Paris, 1853.
CHAPTER XXL
The Baij ker of Lepaxto iif Gaeta— St. Pius V. and Pius IX.
— Frakce to the Eescue — Napoleon III.'s Italian Pol-
icy Foreshadowed — Napoleon III. abets Piedmontism —
'* Honor thy Father and thy Mother" — Spain's Initiative
— Sardinia stands Aloof — Contradictions of Gioberti —
Spain repudiates Piedmontism — England for the Tem-
poral Power — Pius IX. appoints a Commission of Govern-
ment — Constitutionalist Hypocrisy in Kome — Radicalism
STILL Triumphant — Deputation to Gaeta not received —
The Gathering of the Evil Powers.
November-December, 1848.
IN the cathedral church of Gaeta, behind the high altar, still
hangs the banner blessed by Pope Saint Pius V., and presented
by him to Don John of Austria, who was about to sail to Lepanto at
the head of the combined forces of Rome, Spain, Venice, Genoa, and
Malta. This was the last crusade ever organized by papal Rome
against the Turk, the common enemy of Christendom — all-powerful
then on sea and land — ^but whose might was forever broken (October
7, 1571) near that same shore where the battle of Actium had de-
cided the fortunes of the world (September 2, 31 b. c).
Europe has well-nigh forgotten the glorious service rendered to
herself and to civilization by the united fleets and armies of Spain
and Italy in that memorable year. It was a Dominican monk seated
in the chair of Peter — a saint-worthy son of that Dominick who
counts canonized saints by the hundred around his throne in heaven
— and a Spanish Jesuit, Saint Francis Borgia, who stirred by their
eloquence both Peninsulas to join hands in driving the Moslem from
the seas. The other powers looked on, withheld by their miserable
political and religious dissensions from taking any share in the glo-
rious strife, while the Pope, and the two great Italian republics, the
illustrious military order that had made the name of Malta immor-
243
2 44 Lif^ of Pope Pius IX,
tal, and the great Catholic monarchy of Spain fought together the
battle of the Cross against the Crescent. It was to her who is
mother of our Divine Head and mother of the whole body, that the
Fifth Pius looked for victory. While John of Austria was marshal-
ing his forces at Messina, the holy Pope was unceasing in his own
prayers and private austerities, fasting by day, spending the whole
night in pleading with the Crucified and in beseeching his immacu-
late mother to be the advocate of the Christian people in their diro
extremity. Every church in Eome was filled with suppliants while
the issue was still doubtful, and processions filled the streets morn-
ing and evening singing the litanies.
Pius V. had blessed the banner, bearing the image of the Saviour
between Saint Peter and Saint Paul, and given it to the commander-
in-chief, with the prediction that the Queen and Help of all Chris-
tians would make his host victorious. All Eome, on the very day
and hour when the Turkish fleet was destroyed, heard with equal
amazement and rapture, from the lips of the Pope, that Christ had
triumphed over Mahomet, and that Italy and Europe were saved.
When, nearly three centuries later, the Ninth Pius knelt before
the altar, above which, at Gaeta, John of Austria hung up his tri-
umphant banner, he bethought him that a worse foe than Islam
threatened Italy and Spain and all Christian nations — the anti-Chris-
tian spirit of European Eadicalism, whose army was Young Italy
and the secret societies enrolled beneath the banner of Mazzini — and
he formed then and there the project of combating that new foe by
the spiritual arms he could wield as pontiff. From that day forth
there was uninterrupted warfare between Pius I^. and every form of
social error.
No one attending solely or principally to the long struggle which
he maintained against the diiemies leagued to overthrow the tempo-
ral sovereignty, which was the guaranty of the absolute independence
of the Holy See, could seize the most glorious characteristics of his
pontificate. Most important as was the question of these temporali-
ties, it was only secondary in the mind of the pontiff and in the esti-
mation of the Church, as compared with the dangers to the whole
stmcture of modern society, which he courageously set himself to
denounce and ward off.
In this warfare against the formidable teachings of modern social-
ism and materialism, he wished, first of all, to kindle the personal
friendship of every one of the faithful toward our divine Lord by
1848-1849 ^^^(i ^^77' 245
reviving the beautiful devotion of the Sacred Heart, and to increase
our reverence toward his Blessed Mother, by defining solemnly the
received doctrine of her preservation from original sin. By thus
drawing every Christian heart closer to the Second Adam and the
Second Eve, the parents of the true life, he knew he would in a
manner compel them to manifest their protection over the human
family, while filling the Christian soul with increased fervor for the
study of revealed truth and increased knowledge and love of the
Eevcaler.
The flight of Pius IX. to Gaeta, no matter how the historian may
consider the circumstances which led to it, or appreciate the deter-
mination of the pontiff himself or the motives of those who coun-
seled this step, served to make the exile an object of sympathy to the
entire civilized world, and an object of tenfold veneration to the two
hundred millions who owned him to be Christ's vicar on earth.
Two magnificent quarto volumes were printed at Naples before
that exile was ended, containing a portion of the letters and ad-
dresses sent from every land to the Holy Father ; they bore the
title : The Catholic Woeld to Pius IX., Sovereign Poi^tiff, 12^
Exile at Gaeta.
Twenty-nine years later, the same pontiff, stripped of every ves-
tige of his temporal sovereignty, and barely allowed the freedom of
his own residence in the Vatican, will see the elite of that same
Catholic world streaming to his feet from every shore, as if jealous of
showing that no political usurpation, no revolution or change, could
do aught but increase in the hearts of the millions who call him
father the faith in his God-given authority and the love due to his
heroic fortitude.
These two facts in the history of the papacy, by a singular per-
mission of providence, occur in the reign of the same Pope : surely,
happening as they do, at the beginning of what is manifestly a new
social era, they must throw a blaze of light on the road traveled
over so far by the successors of St. Peter, as well as on that future
which is evermore the child of the past.
No sooner were the tidings borne to France of the outrages com-
mitted in Rome against the person and authority of the Holy
Father, his flight to Gaeta, and his anxiety to find for the moment a
secure asylum in a Catholic country, than General Cavaignac, the
president of the republic, wrote to his Holiness by an aid-de-camp,
expressing the deep sympathy of the French nation, assuring him
246 Life of Pope Pius IX,
that France "will be happy and proud" to give him hospitality
*' which it will render worthy of itself and of your Holiness," affirms
the brave soldier.
This was written on December 3d ; on the 10th there were to be
general elections for the choice of a new president. There was a
memorable debate in the French National Assembly on the urgency
of sending an expedition to Italy to restore the Holy Father and
protect his authority. Montalembert's eloquence, glowing with the
inspiration of a Catholic heart, stirred the representatives of the
nation to do a deed of filial piety to the common father. Louis
Napoleon Bonaparte, at that moment a member of the Assembly
and a candidate for the presidency, wishing to pander to the anti-
Christian passions of the French Voltairians and Radicals, abstained
from voting for the expedition, and published, on December the 2d,
a letter in which he styled it "a dangerous military demonstration."
On the 9th, however, he found it politic to change his views, or, at
least, to persuade the Catholic electors of France that he had done
BO. He wrote in the following strain to the papal nuncio at Paris :
" My Lord : — I am unwilling that you should give credence to the
rumors which aim at making me the abettor of the course of con-
duct pursued at Eome by the Prince of Canino. For quite a long
time I had no relations whatever with the eldest son of Lucien
Bonaparte, and I am heartily sorry that he cannot see how the
maintenance of the temporal sovereignty of the venerable head of the
Church is so intimately connected with the splendor of the Catholic
religion as well as with the freedom and independence of Italy."
This sphinx-like utterance contributed, chiefly, as some think,
but certainly in no slight measure, to the success of the writer's can-
vass. It was given to the public on the eve of the election, when
the Radicals and Imperialists had made up their minds to vote for
Louis Napoleon. It may have lost him some of their votes, but the
loss was compensated by the accession of Catholic voters obtained by
this specious recantation. There are those, however, who are con-
vinced that Louis Napoleon Bonaparte was elected to the National
Assembly and to the presidency by the powerful influence of Pal-
merston and Mazzini, and that Young Europe and Young Italy
were satisfied to help him to his great uncle's place on the throne of
France, on the express condition that he should forward the viewa
of Mazzini about a united Italy and the total suppression of the
papal sovereignty.
Louis Napoleons Italian Policy Foreshadoived, 247
It is to be remarked that in repudiating Canino the writer of the
letter Just quoted says not one word of the "intimate connection"
of the Pope's temporal power with the exercise of his spiritual
supremacy; he says it is '* intimately connected with the splendor
{eclat) of the Catholic religion." It contributes to its worldly and
external splendor, where kings and emperors rule the destinies of
nations ; but, under the coming reign of the democracy to be cre-
ated by the Mazzinian cohorts, there can, in his mind, be no room
for a Pope-king. However, the restoration of the Pope to his place
and sovereignty in Rome may be, in the war against Austria already
determined on by Piedmont and Tuscany, " intimately connected
with the freedom and independence of Italy," just as his name and
influence were powerful at the beginning of the crusade set on foot
by Durando and Gavazzi, to inflame the national enthusiasm.
There shall be superabundant proof given ere the end of these
chapters, that Louis Napoleon was always pledged to Mamiani's
policy of a total separation of the political and the spiritual in the
Pope's authority and government.
The French intervention was thus resolved upon by General Cavai-
gnac's government against the expressed wish and opinion of Louis
Napoleon. The expedition of 3,500 French troops, with M. de
Corcelles as ambassador extraordinary, was only a preliminary to a
more imposing demonstration of force. The result of the presiden-
tial election prevented any effective aid from being sent to the Pope
till late in the following April, when Louis Napoleon anticipated the
Catholic powers by occupying Oivita Vecchia and marching a corps
d'armee to Rome. This was a deep scheme, intended to secure in
good time the creation of a united Italy and the complete annihila-
tion of the temporal power of the Holy See.
The Pope was made to feel it while still at Gaeta, when, after the
surrender of Rome to the French, Louis Napoleon wrote, August
18th, 1849, his famous letter to Colonel Edouard Ney, dispatched
to Rome on special business: "My dear Edouard" — the 'nephew
of his uncle,' said most insolently — "the republic of France did
not send an army to Rome to trample on Italian liberty ; but, on
the contrary, to regulate it, to preserve it from its own excesses, and
to give it a solid basis, by restoring to his throne the sovereign who
had put himself so boldly at the head of all useful reforms. . . .
It is evidently desired to base the return of the Pope on proscription
and tyranny. . . ,
248 Life of Pope Pius IX,
" It is thus I epitomize the temporal government of the Pope :
General amnesty; the secularization of the administration ; the
* Code Napoleon,^ and a Liberal government,''^
This simply meant — and all Europe understood it in that sense —
that French bayonets would replace Pius IX. in a more helpless
and odious condition than he was at the time of the murder of
Rossi. He should only return to his people, on the shoulders of
foreign soldiers, to grant them the concessions which his own con-
science repelled while he was in their midst, the constitutional
head of a government of progress organized by himself. It was an
absurdity !
General Rostolan, to whom Ney brought the letter, with the private
instructions of the writer, refused to carry out such odious orders,
and sent in his resignation. He was no devout Catholic, but a brave,
honest, sensible soldier. Louis Napoleon's prime minister, Odilon-
Barrot, at one time repudiated the letter, at another, seemed to sub-
scribe to its policy. The two French envoys, De Rayneval and De
Corcelles, declared that the official publication of such a letter would
cause a general war — the Catholic powers seeing in the policy it ad-
vocated a spoliation of the Holy Father and the annihilation of his
temporal authority, which they were determined to uphold by force
of arms.
Not one word of Louis Napoleon's ever retracted or explained
away this obvious meaning of his letter, till the appearance of the
semi-official pamphlet "Napoleon III. and Italy" sounded like the
first trumpet-call to war in favor of a united Italy and the obliter-
ation of the papal sovereignty in temporal matters. The complete
interpretation of the imperial Carbonaro's purpose was fully given
by the atrocious betrayal of General Lamoriciere and the papal army
to the Sardinians, the "September convention" which culminated
in handing over the defenseless pontiff to Victor Emmanuel, Sep-
tember 20th, 1870, the whole consistent course of double-dealing and
perfidy being crowned by a letter to Victor Emmanuel compliment-
ing him on his being in possession of Rome I
The Fii-st Napoleon had sacrilegiously laid hands on Pius VII.,
and made his own son king of Rome, when at the very height of his
power and pride. Ho did not, he said, want to have the ministers
of religion occupied in secular administration ; and he laughed to
scorn the notion that the Pope's excommunication could make the
muskets drop from the hands of his invincible legions. They did
''Honor thy Father and thy Mother T 249
drop, nevertheless, as all the world knows ; and misfortune after
misfortune befell the conqueror, till, from his death-bed, at Saint
Helena, he was fain to sue for pardon and comfort from the father
he had not known how to protect and to honor.
Louis Napoleon abetted and aided by his dark policy every measure
by which Oavour wrested piecemeal from the Holy .Father every shred
of the patrimony of the Church. There was not one person in the
court of the Tuileries or the court of the Quirinal who did not
believe, that Louis Napoleon had incurred the excommunication
pronounced by Pius IX. against his spoliators. Nor did success
attend a single one of the military enterprises planned by the
French emperor, from the day he sent his cousin to incite the
Eomagnese to revolt, till that other *' September convention" at
Sedan, when 100,000 French soldiers, with their emperor, laid down
their arms, and were driven into exile before the victorious and de-
spised Prussian.
All this is said here in advance, to enable the reader to grasp the
meaning of Louis Napoleon's policy toward the Holy Father. Nor
is this a new philosophy of history. It is as old as the world ;
certainly as old as the Church. She occupies, as has already been
stated, the position of a mother in what was once, and what ought
ever to be, the Christian family of nations, just as the Pope, her
head, holds toward all Christian princes and peoples the place of
father. The precept, ** Honor thy father and thy mother, that thou
mayest live long in the land," is as binding on peoples and their
rulers in their relation to the Pope and the Church as in the family
it is binding on children, and on the whole mass of civil society with
respect to the lawful magistrate. The family where there is neither
obedience nor reverence, is the house half undermined by the moun-
tain torrent ; the community or the nation where honor and respect
are not shown to legitimate authority, is the ship with a drunken
and insubordinate crew driving fast before the gale on a lee shore ;
and that Christendom, that family of nations begotten and reared by
Eome — what shall we say of it here ?
Kemember the Bourbons, just one century ago : how they reigned
in France, in Spain, at Naples, and controlled by their influence
Portugal and Austria : they conspired to oppress Pope after Pope,
Clement XIII., Clement XIV., Pius VI. ; it was a glorious royal
tree that House of Bourbon, overshadowing the civilized world — and
where are they now ? They dishonored their father, they oppressed
25o Life of Pope Pius IX,
their mother ; and the long life divinely promised has been diyinely
and most suddenly withdrawn.
At the beginning of this same month of December, which beheld
the Pope a yoluntary exile at Gaeta, and Louis Napoleon Bonaparte
seated in the presidential chair of the French republic, there was
also a sudden change at Vienna. Ferdinand and his counselor, Met-
ternich, had ever been guided by the uncatholic policy of Joseph II.
They had treated Gregory XVI. and Pius IX. with anything but
filial reverence and honor. The earthquake, slight as it was, which
shook the throne of Ferdinand and drove Metternich from power,
was a warning. It was so understood by the young Emperor Francis
Joseph, and by his enlightened mother. And they hastened to do
for the exile of Gaeta what Austrian statesmen had not done for
him during his necessary efforts toward internal reform ; they took
counsel with the other Catholic powers, as to how they should re-
store him to his capital and secure his authority there against in-
ternal sedition and foreign intrigues.
The initiative in this matter was taken by Spain : in a note ad-
dressed on December the 21st, to France, Austria, Bavaria, Sardinia,
Tuscany, and Naples, she declared that she had resolved to do all
in her power "to restore the Holy Father to such a position of
authority and independence as was necessary toward the discharge of
his sacred oJ0&ce."
The courts of Berlin and St. Petersburg were alike in favor of
the restoration of the Holy Father and of securing his government
against the accidents of future revolution, by placing it under the
protection of all the great powers. They felt — ^with a conservative
instinct which was not shared by more than one Catholic cabinet
— that the Mazzinian democracy were making a crucial experiment
in Rome, and that if their influence was not effectually checked
there, all Italy must soon be in flames, while the revolutionary move-
ment would surely propagate itself among their own peoples.
** The affairs of Rome," are the words of the Russian chancellor
in a circular, "cause the government of his Majesty the Emperor
great concern ; and it were a serious error to think that we take a
less lively interest than the other Catholic governments in the situ-
ation in which his Holiness Pope Pius IX. is at present placed.
There can be no room for doubting but that the Holy Father shall
receive from his Majesty the Emperor a loyal support toward the
restoration of his temporal and spiritual power, and that the Russian
Giobertis Contradictory Policy, 25 1
government sliall co-operate cheerfully in all tlie measures necessary
to this result ; for it cherishes against the court of Eome no senti-
ment of religious animosity or riyality." *
Sardinia, which had held aloof during the Pope's bitter struggle
with the revolutionists in Eome and throughout Central Italy, was
now most anxious to prevent every government not Italian from in-
terfering in the Pope's affairs. The Sardinian minister in Eome
did not come forward, as we have seen, with the rest of the diplo-
matic body, to protect the Pope when besieged and threatened with
the last violence in his own palace. When the diplomatic body fol-
lowed, soon afterward, the Holy Pather to Gaeta, Signer Panto
remained in Eome. Indeed, all through the interval of the Pope's
absence from his capital, the Sardinian representative continued to
reside there, and to transact business with the governments which
prevailed there, to the surprise and scandal of the European courts.
When the Gioberti cabinet succeeded, in December, 1848, to the
Eevel ministry, at Turin, the author of the Gesuita Moderno wished
to employ the influence and the arms of Piedmont for the sole pur-
pose of restoring the Pope, as the first necessary step toward binding
together in one solid league all the constitutional thrones of Italy,
and sent to Gaeta first, the Marquis of Montezemolo, and Eicardi
bishop of Savona, and then, successively, Signers Berghini and Mar-
tini. Just then, however, the purpose of making war on Austria in
Upper Italy was uppermost in the Piedmontese mind, and the de-
sign of dwarfing the power of Naples was equally the avowed policy
of the Sardinian government. Besides, Gioberti's scheme, so far as it
advocated forbearance from hostility with Austria, in order to secure
the pontifical and the Tuscan governments, was bitterly opposed by
the majority of his associates in the ministry and by the king him-
self — a dissentiment which forced Gioberti to resign on the 21st of
February following.
It was not surprising, therefore, that, in spite of the semi-con-
servative and patriotic sentiments expressed by the Piedmontese
minister in his instructions to these envoys, they were either re-
pulsed at Gaeta or very coldly received by the new Secretary of State,
Cardinal Antonelli, and by his master. It is no longer a secret that
the idea expressed in his first glowing theories about a federated
Italy under the leadership of the Holy See, that he concealed — as he
* Farini, vol. iii., p. 189— quoted in Rolirbacher's ''History of the Cliurcli *'
252 Life of Pope Pius IX,
himself declared in his latest works — the design "to establish in
Italy a Piedmontese hegemony (or leadership), and in Europe the
moral supremacy of Italy." In his Rinnovamento Civile d^ Italia
(Civil Eenovation of Italy), published in 1851, a year before his
death, Gioberti no longer affirms that the papacy is the natural stay
of Italian regeneration, but, on the contrary, declares that it is
Italy's greatest obstacle.
Against such a man, his political professions, and his envoys,
Pius IX. was, by instinct and enlightened conviction, on his guard.
He was the parent of " Piedmontism," and this, in active league
with Mazzinian Eadicalism, had determined on the absorption of
the Pope's temporal power.
Against this Piedmontism also, involving as it did the absorption
by the house of Savoy of all the existing Italian sovereignties, and
the total annihilation — as we see it since 1870 — of the Pope's civil
principality, Donoso-Oortez protested in the Spanish chambers, con-
tributing powerfully to the sending to Italy of a Spanish force in
aid of the Holy Father.
" Civilized Europe cannot, will not, consent to see enthroned, in
that mad city of Kome, a new and strange dynasty, begotten of
crime. And let no one here say that in this matter there are two
separate questions : one a temporal question, the other entirely
spiritual ; that the difficulty lies between the temporal sovereign
and his subjects, that the pontiif has been respected and still sub-
sists. Tavo words on this point — just two words shall suffice to make
us understand the whole thing.
" It is perfectly true that the spiritual power of the papacy is its
principal power ; the temporal is but an accessory, but that acces-
sory is one that is indispensable. The Catholic world has a right to
insist upon it, that the infallible organ of its belief shall be free and
independent. The Catholic world cannot know with certainty, as
it needs must know, if that organ is really free and independent,
unless it be sovereign. Por he alone who is sovereign depends on no
other power. Hence it is that the question of sovereignty, which every-
"where else is a political question, is in Eome a religious question.
" Constituent assemblies may exist righfully elsewhere ; at Eome
they cannot ; at Eome there can bo no constituent power outside of
and apart from the constituted power. Neither Eome herself nor
the Pontifical States belong to Eome, or belong to the Pope ; they
belong to the Catholic world. The Catholic world has recognized in
The Popey to be Free^ must he Sovereign, 253
the Pope the lawful possessor thereof, in order to his heing free and
independent ; and the Pope may not strip himself of this soyereignty,
this independence." *
The liberal or reform ministry then in power in England did not
differ substantially in opinion from Donoso-Cortez. On July 21,
1849, during the discussion in the House of Lords about the French
expedition to Rome, Lord Lansdowne thus expressed himself :
** The condition of the Pope's sovereignty is especially remarkable
in this, that, so far as his temporal power is concerned, he is only a
sovereign of the fourth or fifth order. In his spiritual power he
enjoys a sovereignty without its equal on earth. Every country
which has Roman Catholic subjects has an interest in the condition
of the Roman States, and should see to it, that the Pope be able to
exercise his authority independently of any temporal influence that
could affect his spiritual power."
From Russia, from Great Britain, as well as from Spain and
France, came the free and frank expression of the traditional belief
of that Christendom created by the Popes, and bound to watch with
a jealous and loving care over the freedom and independence of that
great central civilizing authority.
This is what Piedmontese statesmen either would not acknowledge
or could not understand, in their unchristian ambition to override
every most ancient and sacred right, that stood between them and the
realization of a single Italian kingdom under their native princes.
It was because while "his spiritual sovereignty was without its
equal upon earth," and his temporal monarchy only "of the fourth
or fifth order," that the Pope deemed himself bound in conscience
to leave Rome when his own experience and the voice of the states-
men around him concurred in the conviction, that his freedom and
independence were at an end. The exercise of his spiritual authority
could not be held subject to the sway of a sanguinary and anti-Chris-
tian mob, and he fled to a spot where he could be free in governing
the Church, till such time as Christendom should restore him to his
necessary independence.
Consistently with these principles — and the whole of Pius IX. 's
public conduct is based on principle and conscience — the Pope had no
sooner received a hospitable shelter from the king of Naples, than he
bethought him of providing for the lawful government of his States.
* Kohrbacher, book xcii., year 1848.
2 54 ^if^ of Pope Pius IX,
On November the 27th he published the following protestation,
which he had dictated, in his little room at the Giardinetto, to good
Father Liebel on the very day of his arrival at Gaeta.
**The acts of violence accomplished against us during these last
days, and the manifest intention of perpetrating further excesses,
. . . have compelled us to separate ourselves for a time from
cur subjects and children, whom we have always loved and do still
love.
*' Among the motives that have forced us to this separation (and
God knows painful it is to our heart !) the most important is, that we
might enjoy full liberty in the exercise of the power of the Holy See,
which exercise the Catholic world might reasonably presume to be
no longer free, under the circumstances in which we were placed.
" Bitter as the pain must be which this violence has caused us, its
bitterness is immeasurably increased by the ingratitude which a class
of wicked men has incurred in the eyes of Europe and the world,
and still more by the guilt incurred by them before God, whose
wrath, sooner or later, cannot fail to execute the penalties pro-
nounced by his Church.
*^In this ingratitude of our own children we confess the hand of
God, who smites us and wills that we should thereby expiate our own
Bins and those of our people. But, nevertheless, we cannot, without a
violation of duty, refrain from protesting solemnly before the whole
world . . . that we have endured unheard-of and most sacrile-
gious violence. . . . We therefore declare that all acts done in
consequence thereof are null and of none legal force or validity.
"These truthful utterances and these protestations have been
wrung from us by the wickedness of men as well as by our con-
science, which has compelled us, in such circumstances, to the ful-
fillment of a duty. Still, beneath the eye of God, and while we are
beseeching him to turn away his wrath, we trust we may confidently
begin our supplication by these words of the prophet-king : Lordy
retnemher David, and all Ms meekiiess I
'* In the meantime we do not wish to leave the administration of
our States without a head in Rome, and do, therefore, appoint a
* Commission of Government' composed of the following persons :
<* Cardinal Castracane, Monsignor Roberto Roberti, the Prince of
Roviano, the Prince Barberini, the Marquis Bevilacqua of Bologna,
the Marquis Ricci of Macerata, Lieu tenant-General Zucchi.
**In confiding to this commission the temporary direction of
Rome a7id the ''Italian Constituent !* 2 55
affairs, we recommend all our subjects and children to be calm and
to preserve public order.
*'In fine, we will and ordain that fervent prayers be daily offered
up for our poor person, for the return of peace to the world, and in
particular to our States and to Eome, where our heart must always
be, no matter in what part of Christ's fold we may find a shelter."
On the 7th of December he issued a decree proroguing both of the
Roman chambers. However, the decree of November the 27th did
not reach Eome till December the 3d. What was, meanwhile, the
attitude of the ministry forced upon the Pope before his flight, as
well as the attitude of the chambers and the leading politicians
among Constitutionalists and Eepublicans ?
Mamiani, who up to this moment had not formally accepted
office, took upon himself, on the 25th, the duties of minister of
foreign affairs, and issued a proclamation to the city and provinces
declaring that the Pope had fled from Eome, "carried away by per-
nicious counsels," and exhorting all classes to maintain order.
The Chamber of Deputies met at noon, and Prince Canino, in a
violent speech, denounced Mamiani's plan for an Italian federation,
calling upon the ministry to proclaim forthwith the "sacrosanct
(most holy) constituent for Italy." The deputies, however — not one
of whom, on the day of Eossi's assassination, had the courage to de-
nounce the murderers, or, during the riotous proceedings of the 16th
and 17th, dared to rally round the Holy Father — now approved an
address to the people, declaring their "cordial agreement with the
ministry which the Holy Father has placed in power," and exhorting
the people " now more than ever to give signal proof of their civil
courage and wisdom." On the 26th, the upper chamber met and
issued a similar address.
But the flag borne to the Quirinal by the insurgents of the 16th,
by the side of the ministry to be imposed on the sovereign at the
cannon's mouth, contained "the one thing" which ministry and
chambers and people should and must thenceforth insist upon, " a
single constituent assembly for Italy," Constituente Italiana, On
the 26th the upper house adopted by "a very large majority," a
proposition for such a constituent, stripped, in appearance, of some
of its most odious features, but which was " to direct its labors to
the promotion of national union and prosperity, and, above all, to
decide upon the means of liberating Italy from the Austrian yoke."
Such were, previous to the 3d of December, the acts of the "con-
2 56 Life of Pope Pius IX.
Btituted authorities," nominally so at least, which the Holy Father
had left behind him. It is clear that in their sober, second sense,
and when not unmindful of what the governments of Europe and the
Catholic world at large would think of their attitude toward the
absent sovereign, they, carrying out the will of the clubs, did not
swerve from the direction given to the public passion by the in-
surrection of the 16th of November. Not a word of censure was
uttered in either chamber against the murderous violence done to
Pius IX., in his own residence, both as prince and as pontiff.
What was the governing, or rather the ruling power in Eome
behind ministry and chambers ? " The clubs," says Legge, "became
the true centers of power ;" and elsewhere, "In Rome there resided
a body called the Committee of all the Clubs of Italy, having rami-
fications throughout the Peninsula. Now that the Absolutist party
were disbanded and intimidated, and the Constitutionalists aban-
doned by the Pope and hated by the Republicans — not even Mamiami
himself, who had formerly been the idol of their obstreperous adu-
lation, having a place in their confidence — the committee of the
clubs had no obstacles to encounter."
When the Constitutionalists — ^that is, the professed advocates of
constitutional government — could only find such men as Mamiani
to represent their opinions and to become acceptable to the clubs,
both during the Pope's presence in Rome and during his absence,
can it be a matter of surprise if Pius IX. at Gaeta should refuse to
trust to a government, in which they could be only a helpless mi-
nority, the administration of his States or the defense of his own
prerogatives and the rights of the Church ?
In the face of the facts above set forth — and they are only a very
incomplete account of the real state of things — it is not a little
startling to hear the Pope blamed for not committing his whole
authority to the Mamiani-Galletti-Sterbini ministry, and to the
courageous chambers which had met on November the 16th. Legge
quotes in support of his fanatical denunciation of the Holy Father's
''treachery," as he terms it, the following unblushing statement of
Ranalli : " Never were a ministry, a parliament, a municipality, so
united in their efforts to maintain order and save the constitution of
the State, each body continuing to act in the name of the Pontiff,
as if he was still amongst them." *
Legge, ii. 115.
Deputation to Gaeta not Received, 25/
The very first act performed by the Chamber of Deputies on Sun-
day eyening, December the 3d, after the receipt of the Pope's pro-
clamation annulling the appointment of the Mamiani-Galletti min-
istry, and appointing a " Commission of Government," was to set
the proclamation aside, as being an illegal act. The next was to ap-
point a deputation to wait upon the Pope ; to this the upper house
added two members, and the Eoman municipality sent with them
the senator Prince Corsini.
At the frontier the deputation was refused permission to proceed
to Gaeta, and an appeal to Cardinal Antonelli only obtained an ex-
pression of regret that his Holiness was unable to receive the gen-
tlemen sent to him.
Even according to the bitterly anti- Catholic author who has been
so frequently quoted in these pages, " already passions were excited
which, had the language and proceedings of the court of Gaeta been
of a conciliatory nature, it would be hard to reconcile to a toleration
of the government, which was justly regarded as the greatest obsta-
cle to the realization of the nation's hope."
Had the Pope, therefore, accepted the invitation and stultified
himself by returning forthwith to Eome, it is evident, from the con-
fession of the men who censure him, that they did not conceive
there was the slightest prospect of his carrying on the farce of
a constitutional government, "which was justly regarded as the
greatest obstacle to the nation's hope " of a united Radical Italy.
Let the enemies of the papacy prophecy to us, albeit unwittingly,
what would have infallibly been the condition of Rome had the
fatherly heart of the pontiff yielded to this perfidious invitation,
unaccompanied as it was by any allusion to the late insurrection, by
one word of regret for the crimes committed or of condemnation of
the men who had been their instigators and abettors.
"Meanwhile, in Rome, the leaders of the insurgent party were
taking measures to secure the direction of the revolution which was
felt to be imminent, . . .
" I have already referred to the number of boisterous demagogues —
men who had nothing to lose and everything to gain — who for the last
two years had been flocking to Rome from all parts of the Peninsula,
from Poland, and from France ; men such as they who had already
blurred the fair fame of the brave city of Bologna ; men whose
lives are a mystery, and whom the large cities of Europe always dis-
gorge m tens of thousands in times of civil commotion. Under the
258 Life of Pope Pius IX.
pretext of finding employment for the people, the agitators of the
clubs had constrained the government to maintain this scum of the
populace on the wages of the State. These men, armed with hoes,
might be seen each morning prowling in numbers through the streets
toward the Sor di Quinto, where they had employment in road-
making. Sterbini, who, as minister of public works, was responsible
for this scandalous tax upon the impoverished resources of the State,
held them in safe subjection to himself.
"* These crowds,' says Farini, 'he distributed under chiefs whom
he could trust, so that by his agency and that of Oiceruacchio, the
school of revolt was brought under discipline and thorough command.'
"The State derived small benefit from the labor of these vaga-
bonds, who, after a pretense of work, spent the evening in disgrace-
ful orgies, and, inflamed with wine, amused the dregs of the popu-
lace. ... A favorite pastime was that of going round at night
in cardinals' hats, and one of the kind which the Pope uses, and
with much contumely and ribaldry chucking them into the Tiber."
"Calderari retained his command of the carabineers. Acursi
. . . was at the head of the police, and was in league with the
clubs. The civic guard . . . sympathized with the sects and
was unreliable for the preservation of order ; . . . every day wit-
nessed an augmentation of the number of the provincial population,
who were ready to support the convulsions through which their flat-
terers persuaded them they would march to freedom and glory. . . .
" At this juncture Garibaldi arrived in Rome, where his reputa-
tion for bravery and inveterate hatred of ecclesiastical rule insured
him a hearty reception." Under this man were enrolled the very
61ite in rascality of the vagabonds and cut-throats described above,
and called "Garibaldi's Invincibles, a disreputable lot; . . .
many of them were idlers, men of vicious habits, and of more than
questionable antecedents."
"To Rome Mazzini now betook himself, attracted by affinities
which he did not find at Florence. . . . There he witnessed the
development of his own revolutionary mysticism ; there he saw in
operation those principles to the advocacy of which his life had been
devoted ; the enthusiasm of a people, promoted mainly through em-
issaries of his own, now ripe for deeds of daring, and wanting only a
leader possessing their confidence." *
♦Legge,ii. 115,116, 177,181.
Rome becomes a Pandemonium. 259
"WTiat a pandemonium Rome is doomed soon to be under the united
influence of such leaders, acting upon masses of evil men thus brought
together from far and near, and prepared with such infernal skill
for the one well-defined purpose of the arch-conspirator, we could
easily fancy, had history not put the sequel on record.
From that vision of preternatural wickedness and horror we may
turn to that fair Campanian shore, where the exiled pontiff bewails
the anarchy which he cannot control, stirs up the governments of
Christendom to save Christian Rome from the impious rule of Gari-
baldi and Mazzini, and displays such marvelous zeal and intelligence
in promoting the welfare of the universal Church.
CHAPTER XXII.
L0VELIN"ESS AND CLASSIC MEMORIES OF GaETA — "WhY PiUS IX,
WISHED TO GO TO SpAIK — PASTORAL CaRES — ElEVATIOK OF
Secular an^d Regular Clergy — Ekcyclical oi^ Monastic
Orders — Constitutions of St. Ignatius — What a Jesuit
is and is not — Encyclical to the Italian Bishops —
Admirable Teachings — Socialism and Communism De-
nounced — Education of the Young Clergy — The far-
reaching Voice of the Pontiff — The Immaculate Con-
ception — Misunderstood by Protestants — Immaculate-
NESS NO Divine Attribute — The Discussion of the Doc-
trine Timely.
TTTE must allow the Roman revolution to run its headlong
VV course, and European diplomacy to make and unmake
plans for the restoration of the Holy Father to his States : after
having had to witness such exhibitions of human wickedness it will
be most refreshing to see how the supreme pastor of Christ's flock
applied his whole heart and soul to promote the best interests of
Christian truth and human morality.
"When, on the morning of November the 25th, Pius IX. de-
scended from the mountain village of Itri, along the terraced road
leading to the bay of Gaeta, he must have been charmed with the
magnificence of the prospect before him. The province itself bears
the significant name of Terra di Lavoro ("Land of Labor"), as if
its agricultural wealth and picturesque beauties were all the crea-
tion of man's industry. In truth every inch of the arable soil, on
the plains and high up on the mountain slopes, has been made to
yield its utmost to the thrift of the husbandman. Even where in-
accessible crag and summit defy man's approach, the teeming vege-
tation of the South clothes the rock with life and color. Though
bom on the fertile shore of the Adriatic, and nursed amid the varied
riches of nature's bounty and the added wealth of man's unceasing
and intelligent toil, though well accustomed in later years to the
260
Loveliness and Classic Memories of Gaeta, 261
lovely Umbrian districts, and the exhaustless fertility of the Lom-
bard plain and the Eomagna, Pius was unprepared for the splendid
vision of a new earth and a new heaven that opened out before him,
as he turned from the sea-coast near Terracina into the elevated
tracts around Fondi, and threaded his way from the passes of the
Monte Sant Andrea, down to Itri, and thence to the enchanted
shore between Gaeta and Naples. Just where the road descends
through a wilderness of vineyards, olive and orange groves, and
reaches of forest stretching far up the steep acclivities, to the foot-
hills near the sea, halfway between Formia (Mola di Gaeta) and
Gaeta itself, they pointed out to the admiring traveler, amid a
beautiful vieneyard, the spot where the greatest of Eoman orators
was ruthlessly slain forty-three years before the birth of Christ.
The lovely bay of Gaeta was to Cicero, as to a host of Roman nobles,
a center of irresistible attraction, where they had their summer homes
dotting the hilltops and slopes for many a mile above and along the
shining beach, and the blue sea spreading far away to the South,
with its clusters of islands inclosing in a semicircle the vast ex-
panse.
Nineteen hundred years had passed since, near that roadside along
which journeyed the fugitive pontiff, the murderous hands of the
tribunes Herennius and Popilius Laenas shed the blood of the last
defender of Roman liberty. Were those who sought to bestow on
Italy the true freedom which is based on respect for authority, a
conscientious love of law and order, and the self-sacrificing virtues
begotten of religion, were they to be forever hunted down like wild
beasts or denounced as criminals on that classic soil ? As Pius at
noon-day rested for a moment at Formia, he could see, high up on
the ridge rising abruptly to the north from the water's edge, the
royal residence of Villa Caposele, the favorite abode, it was said, of
the great orator ; the spot where came to him, amid the elevating
influences of earth and sea and sky, many of his immortal philoso-
phical and oratorical inspirations. Even the air of late November
had scarcely stripped of all their glory these sunny slopes, where, in
a few weeks more, lemon and orange and pomegranate, the vine and
the olive, and all the profusion of southern fruit-trees and flower-
ing shrubs would be bursting into bloom. For seventeen months
Pius IX. was to rule the Christian world from that shore. For as
he turned again toward the lofty promontory of Gaeta, six miles away
to the west, and looked down from the height beyond Formia on the
262 Life of Pope Pius IX.
shining towers that crested the summits above the city, and ad-
mired, beneath the bright afternoon sun, the beautiful Gaeta, he
little dreamed that his pilgrimage should end there.
It had been his resolve to seek a refuge in Spain, both because
he deemed the mass of her people more sincerely attached to the
Church and devoted to the Holy See than any other in Europe, and
because he hoped, during his abode among them, to bring about a
perfect reconciliation between the mother-country and the Spanish
republics of America. His soul yearned to kindle in Spain the
bright, pure blaze of that Catholic spirit that shone forth in the
days of Columbus and the great and good Isabella. He had hoped,
when yet in the first fervor of his priestly zeal, to give his entire
existence to the Church of Spanish America. With how little
thought of any ecclesiastical preferment or temporal honor did the
youthful priest leave Eome for the missions of Chili and Peru !
He had seen with his own eyes that field of heroic apostolic labor
where a Turibio, a Solano, a Claver had been the models of all the
apostles in the future : from the northernmost limits of Mexico to
the Straits of Magellan, the ancient missions were like a harvest
field into which a foreign enemy had rushed while the laborers were
bent over their task. These had been ruthlessly carried away, never
more to return, and there was the sickle still lying near the uncut
corn, and the harvest perishing because no man was there to gar-
ner it.
The Church in the cities and once populous districts was like a
dismantled fortress, with no watchman on her ruinous towers, and
only a few defenseless wretches sheltered in some corner here and
there. All her strength, her beauty, the pomp of worship, and the
pride and glory of saintly deeds, had vanished like dreams of the
past.
Could he not stir up by his stay in Spain, and his own fervid ap-
peals to the national heart, the faith that drove back the Moor for
eight centuries, and the heroic piety that made the down-trodden
races of Mexico and Peru forget that their apostles were of the blood
of Cortez and Pizarro ? In Spain, too, he would be near France,
and near Portugal. Oh I the rapture of making these countries,
once " the Most Christian " and "the Most Faithful," true to tho
titles bestowed on them by his predecessors — blooming afresh with
faith's plenteous fruits, like the garden of God in the world's prime !
Such hopes and aspirations filled the soul of Pius IX., as he trav-
Pastoral Cares, 263
eled along beneath the fortifications of Gaeta, on that November af-
ternoon, and looked among the shipping in the harbor for the flag
of Spain, on the frigate promised to him and so ardently wished for.
Some things especially forced themselves on the mind of the su-
preme pastor, as he meditated on how he could best build up what
had fallen down in the house of God, and restore the strength and
beauty and splendor of olden times : — the reformation of the great
religious orders and the education of a superior clergy, and the
renovation of piety toward the Incarnate God and his Immaculate
Mother. The regular and secular clergy were the visible armies of
the Lord, destined to uphold his cause, and bear his name to the
ends of the earth ; they were, in the estimation of the Christian
people, the twin-springs from which the world was to drink the
waters of life : what if these springs were, like Jacob's well near
Sichcm, choked up with the ruins of the once overhanging sanctu-
ary ? or, like a fountain near a road long untraveled, all overgrown
with noxious weeds or impenetrable brambles, and filled with loath-
some and poisonous reptiles ? He, who was the shepherd of the
whole flock, and answerable for every soul given to his care with the
salvation of his own soul, would set about cleaning out the spring
and deepening it, and building fair and pure receptacles for its
waters, and digging channels on every side, that the healthful streams
might flow forth and irrigate the whole earth.
Even amid the wearying scenes and sore trials that had come upon
his heart since his elevation to the pontificate, like mighty billows
rolling ceaselessly on a stranded ship among the breakers, the thought
of elevating the clergy to the full height of their divine mission was
earliest and uppermost in his mind. We say nothing here of his
frequent and unannounced visits to religious houses and institutions
at hours when no visitor was expected, and in half-disguise, to as-
certain if religious discipline were sacredly maintained. All Eome
heard of these warnings to the careless and the indolent. Then
came, in his first encyclical, as we have seen, the solemn adjuration
to the bishops to choose carefully all candidates for the priesthood,
to educate them thoroughly, and to keep them up to the level of
their profession and duties. But the task of thoroughly renovating
and perfecting that select body called the regular clergy, demanded
special labor from the great high-priest.
On June the 7th, 1847, he issued a circular letter to all the heads
of religious bodies, exhorting them to use every effort toward a thor-
264 Life of Pope Pius IX,
ougli renovation of tlieir subjects. At the same time lie instituted a
congregation or committee of cardinals, with assessors and council-
ors, "on the condition of the regular clergy." This committee set
to work without a moment's delay, and published, with the sanction
of his Holiness, an ordinance regulating the selection of novices,
their training in the novitiate, and the manner of admitting them
to their religious profession. It is a most admirable document, re-
plete with that spiritual wisdom which never fails the Church and her
chief ministers in all the measures pertaining to the general welfare.
The Pope in his own letter speaks of the religious orders as these
''pious families . . . originated through an inspiration of the
Divine Spirit, by men eminent in holiness and for the purpose of
procuring the glory of God and the salvation of souls ; confirmed by
the Apostolic See, and composing, in their manifold array, a mag-
nificent society which reflects such splendor on the Church ; select
bodies of auxiliary troops in the service of Christ, an ornament and
a stay both to religion and the civil community.
"Their calling, due to a singular grace of God, is to aim at prac-
ticing the counsels of evangelical wisdom, ' counting all things to be
but loss, for the excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ,' looking down
from their divine station and with an unmoved heart on all earthly
things. . . .
"From tlieir first establishment they became illustrious by pro-
ducing many men eminent as well from the universality of their ser-
vice as from their extensive learning, their shining virtues, their
splendid sanctity, and the dignity conferred by them on the highest
offices in Church and State ; men inflamed with love for God and
the neighbor, made a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men ;
who made their sole delight to consist in spending their days and
nights in tlie meditation and deep study of divine things, in bearing
about in their l)odies the mortification of Christ, in spreading from
the rising to the setting sun the Catholic faith and doctrine ; in
joyously enduring for that faith every form of suffering, torture,
and death ; in bringing back uncivilized and savage peoples from
darkness to the Gospel light ; ... in cultivating, protecting,
and saving from decadence literature, science, and art ; in forming
from childhood upwards tlie mind and heart of the young to piety
and godly living, and feeding them with sound doctrine ; in fine, in
bringing into tlic paths of salvation all who had strayed away."
And in tliis magnificent strain the pontiff pursues the good works
Encyclical on Monastic Orders. 265
accomplislied by the religious orders, recites the praises bestowed on
them by the ancient fathers of the Church, and the sovereign pon-
tiffs in every age, as well as the extreme watchfulness exercised to
prevent disorder or decay from creeping into these institutions.
He is much consoled to see such a multitude of men and women
belonging to these great religious families faithful to their calling
and equal to the work of edification set before them. But he is also
saddened by the knowledge that there are many ''who retain no-
thing but the outward show of piety."
He appeals to all superiors to aid him "in carrying to a happy
issue the labor necessary toward restoring to their respective societies
a robust and flourishing health ; " in order ''to be able to draw from
them skillful and experienced laborers in the good cause, as eminent
for their piety as for their prudence, accomplished men of God
trained to all manner of good works. . . . "
" See to it," he says to those in office, "with a vigilance that never
pauses nor slumbers, that your inferiors walk in the footsteps of their
glorious ancestry, careful to observe religious discipline, avoiding all
worldly pleasures, spectacles, and pursuits, all of which they have
forsworn, and that they do apply themselves unceasingly to prayer,
to the meditation of heavenly things, to acquiring knowledge use-
ful to their own souls and helpful to those of others, according
to your respective rules ; . . . that they may appear to God's
people as men modest, humble, gentle, patient, upright, blameless
in their lives, endowed with a burning charity and a wisdom which
may win general esteem, giving no subject of offense to any man,
but to all the example of a holy life, compelling their very enemies
to esteem them, and to feel surprised that they can find in them
nothing blameworthy."
Then follow the various purposes for which the Congregation on
Religious Orders has been just established and is at work. The Holy
Father concludes by reminding all that his admonitions and endeavors
are alike inspired by the tender affection which he bears them ;
wishing in all that he says and does "to secure their existence, their
usefulness, their dignity, and honor."
The ordinance, published in February, 1848, applies nominally to
the religious orders " in Italy and the adjacent isles ; " but it was
extended to the whole of Christendom, and was meant to modify
very profoundly the rules of all the existing great orders, with the
exception of the Society of Jesus. Indeed, it is a phenomenon re-
266 Life of Pope Pitts IX.
dounding not a little to the glory of the constitutions of St. Ignatius
Loyola, and to the fidelity of his well-tried sons, that they were not
considered to have degenerated from the spirit of their founder, and
that his constitutions were found so efficacious to maintain in their
pristine vigor hoth discipline and fervor in the pursuit of religious
perfection, that on them were modeled the changes made in the other
orders.
From Spain and Portugal, and several of their former colonies be-
yond the seas, every one of the ancient monastic establishments had
been swept away. They could never live again in these countries,
save as purified and renovated by suffering. The sovereign pontiff
and the congregation created to assist him in this delicate labor,
aimed at making the remnants of the suppressed orders so vigorous
and so well adapted to the necessities of modern society, that they
should withstand the corruptions of peace and prosperity, as well as
the keenest trials of persecution. It was also plain to the foreseeing
eye of the Holy Father, that the revolution about to sweep over Italy
would carry away the monastic houses, throw — as in Spain and
Portugal — their inmates helpless on a world without pity, and leave
none of the religious orders in request but such as were devoted to
education and charity.
The constitutions of St. Ignatius seemed to have been framed with
a sagacity so preternatural, that their provisions and the rules subse-
quently added to complete them, were as much fitted for the needs
of modern life as for the society of the sixteenth century : they train
and mold and preserve the apostolic laborer amid the ancient civil-
izations of Japan and China and India, as among the Guaranis of
Paraguay, the Hurons and Iroquois of North America, the savages
of Central Africa, the Arab tribes of Syria, or the mountaineers of
Kabylia. They complete a man for the missionary work of Paris or
Berlin, of London or New York ; and the more they are studied
by the moralist, the statesman, the historian, or the canonist, the
more it becomes evident that they were framed for all time, and for
all phases of Christian civilization and civil polity. They are the
masterpiece of human wisdom, if, indeed, it be not well proven that
their author drew his light from a superhuman source.
So long as the Jesuit is true to his training, true to the unearthly
lieroism which is the aim of every rule and maxim in the divine
code of his Institute, he must be St. Francis Xavier over again — in
all things seeking only " to know clearly the divine will and pleasure,
Constitutions of St. Ignatius. 267
and asking for strengtli to accomplish it perfectly." That such men,
wherever they are, shall be supremely odious to the modern natural-
ist, revolutionist, and Mazzinian, is inevitable ; it is their lot, their
glory. That, wherever they are known to the Catholic heart, to the
unprejudiced Christian mind, they should be loved instinctively and
followed as safe guides in the road of Christian perfection, is equally
inevitable.
St. Ignatius chose, among the constitutions given by monastic
founders to the religious families gathered around them, all the
features that he deemed most admirable and most suitable to his
own purpose, and incorporated them with those which he was com-
manded by the Pope to draw up. There is not a line or an expres-
sion in them, from first to last, that did not cost him hours of
humble and tearful prayer, and protracted supplication for light
from on high. Why wonder, then, if the true member of the Soci-
ety of Jesus reproduces in his life the virtues and qualities which
adorn the religious orders preceding St. Ignatius ?
The outcry raised against the Society of Jesus, as against the dis-
turbers of States, is wholly unfounded, and, therefore, most iniquit-
ous. The Jesuit is not only forbidden, under the severest penalties
known to the canon law, to take any part, directly or indirectly, in
the management of State affairs, but the spirit of his Institute is
so adverse to political and ecclesiastical ambition of every sort, so
opposed to every tendency to meddle in politics or in church govern-
ment, that a special vow binds every one of its professed members to
prevent such meddling by every means in his power. This vow —
the form being written out in duplicate and subscribed by the pro-
fessed himself — obliges him never to aspire, in any manner what-
ever, to any dignity in Church or State or within his own society,
and to denounce to the superiors thereof any one of his brethren
whom he may know to be so aspiring or intriguing.
Thereby every door is closed to ambition or to fondness for med-
dling in politics or in Church matters beyond the sphere of the
individual's appointed duties. If there be found among Jesuits men
who resemble in aught the dark plotters or ambitious controllers
of statesmen and churchmen, painted as "Jesuits" by novelists,
Protestants, and revolutionists, such men are as much in opposition
to the spirit, the scope, the constitutions and by-laws of their society,
as Judas and his lust for gain were in opposition to the spirit and
aims of his Master, Christ.
268 Life of Pope Pius IX.
Devoted to the Church, to the purity of her doctrine, to extend-
ing her reign over the souls of all peoples, civilized and uncivilized ;
devoted in a special manner to the defense of the Holy See and its
prerogatives, the Jesuits are thus foremost objects of antipathy and
attack to all who hate and assail the Catholic Church and her
pontiffs. They came into being just when Luther was arraying
one-half of Europe against the papacy ; they have, in the esteem of
all not Catholics, been from their birth the most zealous and un-
compromising champions of a losing cause ; in their own inmost
convictions, they are but the sworn servants of Christ and his vicar
on earth. It was but natural, perhaps — certainly it was inevitable
— that they should be decried by their adversaries, that their mo-
tives, their principles, teaching, and acts should be misconceived
and misrepresented. The word "Jesuit" has been made hateful to
honest and fair-minded Protestants as well by the traditional odium
attaching to old but unforgotten controversies and bitter religious
struggles, as by the systematic and unblushing slanders of radicals
and revolutionists.
But it is most natural, on the other hand, that all true Catho-
lics should love and revere them. For they have ever known them
— wherever they have been the genuine offspring of Loyola and
Xavier — to be "men crucified to the world, and to whom the world
itself is crucified,* even as their mode of life demands it ; new men,
who have put off all carnal and worldly affections, and put on Christ
himself, being dead to themselves that they might live to Christian
holiness ; men who (in the words of Paul) * in labors, in watchings,
in fastings, in chastity, in knowledge, in long-suffering, in sweet-
ness, in the Holy Ghost, in charity unfeigned, in the word of truth,'
show themselves to be God's ministers ; and * by the armor of justice
on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil
report and good report,' by good and ill fortune — in fine, strive
themselves to attain the heavenly country through great journey-
ings, meanwhile helping others in what way soever they may to
reach the same goal, never losing sight in all things of God's great-
est glory."
♦ The cross, in the old Roman world, was an object of incomprehensible
loathing and horror, being reserved as an instrument of capital punishment to
the worst and vilest criminals ; hence, " one crucified " was one held accursed
by all, an object of universal abomination. The world is thus an abomination
to the Christian ; and the Christian to the anti-Christian world.
Encyclical to the Italian Bishops. 269
The term '^Jesuit," as a by-word of reproacli and a synonym of
duplicity, was affixed by Pascal and the Port-Eoyal Jansenists to all
true and uncompromising Catholics in the Netherlands, Germany,
and France ; the Jansenists, or " Old Catholics," as they styled them-
selves, kept up the term as a nickname for all who were obedient to
the Holy See. It became a " party cry " for the French Voltairians,
skeptics, and rev^olutionists in their successiye campaigns against
Catholicism, up to 1848 ; the word '^Jesuit" meaning every Catholic
faithful to his Church and whose life was consistent with his belief.
We know what a fearful use was made of the nickname in Switzer-
land, in Italy, in Germany, till, with the progress of the leveling
anti-Christian spirit, the word ^^ clerical" has superseded it, and
come, in France, to mean every man who believes in God and the
immortality of the soul, be he Protestant, Jew, or Mohammedan.
As the months of 1849 passed bitterly by for the pontiff in his
court at Gaeta, the religious orders, the secular clergy, and church
establishments of every kind had to suffer from the triumphant re-
volution in Central Italy. It was evident to the mind of Pius IX.,
even when this forerunner of a fiercer and wider storm had blown
over, that the Church throughout Italy must prepare for the return
of the social whirlwind.
Hence, not content with the private admonitions given during the
year to prelates and superiors who needed either consolation, encour-
agement, or reproof, he matured carefully an encyclical or circular
letter to all the bishops of Italy, pointing out the secret sources of
the manifold evils from which the land was suffering, and renewing
with greater emphasis and solemnity the instructions relative to the
reforms and improvements he deemed urgent among all ranks of the
clergy.
Italy was most dear to him, as being the land of his birth ; and
the Church of Italy, privileged as it was in possessing the Central
See of the Christian world, should, he thought, be a model, and
shine with a surpassing splendor in learning, holiness, and the
beauty of external discipline. At the distance of thirty years from
the events which the Pope deplores in his eloquent letter, and from
the still deeper changes which he seems to foresee, one cannot help
being moved by the authoritative and almost prophetic tone in which
the supreme pastor lays bare the sources of all modern social error,
by his admirable refutation, in a few words, of the fallacies of so-
cialism and communism, and the fervent appeal to the clergy of all
270 Life of Pope Pius IX,
ranks to prepare their flocks against the coming dangers, and to gird
on their own armor of proof for the inevitable combat.
"Men lost to the faith/' he writes from Portici, near Naples, "the
enemies of tmth, justice, and honor, . . . have conspired to
ruin the believing populations of Italy by spreading among them
the unrestrained liberty of thought and speech and impious deed.
. . . Their satanic plan has been particularly unfolded in our
dear city, the seat of our sovereign pontificate, whence they began
by compelling us to flee, and then gave full rein to all their mad-
ness. . , .
"Although Eome and her dependent provinces have been restored
to us by the arms of the Catholic powers, . . . these same ene-
mies of God and man have not ceased their destroying labors. . . .
The grievous circumstances of the present time urges us to exhort
you more fervently than ever ... to fight the good fight with
us, . . . to take with one common accord, the steps necessary
toward repairing the evil already done in Italy, to forestall and ward
off the dangers threatened in the near future.
"Among the perfidious means employed by the enemies of the
Church to render the Catholic religion hateful to Italians, one of the
most odious, is . . .to spread abroad the opinion that Catholi-
cism is an obstacle to the glory, the greatness, and the prosperity of
the Italian nation ; and that to restore to Italy its ancient splendor,
its glory in pagan times, they must silently insinuate, propagate, and
establish Protestant doctrines and assemblies. . . .
"But the Catholic religion, far from causing the Italic races the
temporal detriment so loudly asserted, prevented them, at the down-
fall of the Roman empire, from sharing in the ruin that befell
Assyria, Chaldaea, Media, Persia, and Macedonia. ... On the
contrary, it delivered Italy from the dark cloud of error which
covered it, and amid the prevailing ruin and barbarian desolation,
. . . it raised the nation to a surpassing height of glory and great-
ness, . . . and placed in its midst the See of Peter, the seat of an
empire wider and more solid than the old worldly Roman domination.
"The Catholic faith thereby cast deeper roots in Italian soil, and
became the source of numberless and most precious blessings. . . .
It saved the Italians from the ancestral lust of domination, . . .
leading to unceasing warfare, . . . and the enslavement of mil-
lions of their fellow-men ; . . . impelled them mightily toward
the practice of justice, mercy, piety to God, and beneficence to their
Admirable Teachings, 271
brethren. Hence the magnificent basilicas and other monuments
of the Christian ages which cover the land, the free creation of a
charity oyerflowing with life, not the laborious work of enslayed
multitudes. . . .
"The leaders in this crusade of evil, . . . aim at upsettmg
all human society, and giving it up to the criminal conceptions of
socialism and communism. Despairing to make the Church their
accomplice, . . . they have formed the design of inducing the
Italians to embrace Protestant opinions and frequent Protestant as-
semblies. . . . They know well that nothing can be more favor-
able to their designs than the cardinal Protestant principle of private
judgment. . . .
*^ We must prevent Italy," the Holy Father continues, "the home
of the central authority of Christendom, from becoming a stumbling-
block to the nations. . . . Nor must you or we fear — fallen
though we be on such evil times — the wiles and violence of those
who conspire against the faith of Italy. . . , Christ is our
counselor and our stay, without him we can do nothing, with him,
everything is possible.
" We must endeavor by main and might so to instruct our people
in the teaching and law of the Gospel, . . . that the habit of
long vicious indulgence may not prevent them from discerning the
snares laid for them. . . . Let them be made to live up to the
light of the Gospel truth. . . . All who have charge of souls
should be filled with new zeal for this purpose, and, following the
prescriptions of the Council of Trent, imprint on the minds and
hearts of their hearers, by short and simple instructions, a knowl-
edge of the vices that lead to eternal perdition, as well as of the
virtues that conduce to salvation.
"More than ever is it needful to impress them with the distinc-
tive necessity of the Catholic faith. . . . Prepare them with an
increase of care for the reception of the sacrament of confirmation,
which bestows the grace of strength and constancy in the faith,
. . . and makes the soul yearn for penance and the eucharistic
bread. Call in to aid you in stirring up the people to a sense of their
duties to God, the services of men skilled in giving the spiritual exer-
cises of missions. . . . Suppress these public crimes which draw
down the divine anger : blasphemy, . . . concubinage, . . .
the violation of the repose of the Lord's day, . . . the contempt
of the law of abstinence. ...
272 Life of Pope Pius IX,
'* Among the snares laid by the eyil-minded for our people, are
the abuses of a licentious press, scattering among them defamatory
pamphlets, impious books, and daily sheets filled with falsehood,
calumnies, and seductive tales. To these may be added the circu-
lation of translations of the Scripture, made without authority or
proper control, aiming at bringing into contempt both the word of
God and the sole authority established for its guardianship.
''Counteract these by the publication of approyed translations,
and a literature that can foster sound doctrine and pure moral-
ity. . . .
"Inculcate filial love and reverence toward the See of Peter,
whose dignity is never annihilated by the unworthiness of his suc-
cessors. . . . !N^o one can rebel against the Catholic faith
without rejecting the authority of the Roman Church, in which
resides the irreformable authority of the faith founded by the
Redeemer. . . . The present enemies of God and human society
employ every artifice to withdraw the people of Italy from their
duty to us and obedience to this Holy See. . . .
''The perverse doctrine sought to be inculcated cloaks its purpose
under the specious ideas of liberty and equality, the dangerous pass-
words of socialism and communism. Their system of action is to
agitate unceasingly the popular mind, to accustom the laboring
and poor classes to criminal words and deeds, . . . seducing
them by the vision of a condition of life far above their present state.
They lead them, step by step, to possess themselves of the property
of the Church, then of that belonging to the State, then of the pro-
perty of private persons, thereby weakening and blotting out in
men's minds the simplest notions of right and wrong, and all that
lies at the foundation of civil society itself.
" Let the faithful under your care be reminded that it is essential
to the existence of every civil community that all its members should
obey the authorities lawfully established therein ; and that no change
can be made in the divine precepts left us on that subject in holy
writ
" Let them not forget that even among all classes of men nature
has established an inequality of gifts, bodily and mental, . . .
and that it never can be lawful, under any pretext of liberty and
equality to invade the rights or usurp the possessions of others. . . .
"The poor and the unfortunate should remember how much they
owe to the Catholic religion. She preserves living and inviolate
Education of the Young Clergy. 273
tlie teactiing of Christ, that what one does to the lowliest and most
needy he shall hold to be done to himself. The fulfillment of the
obligation of mercy is to be made, in the final judgment, the condi-
tion of eternal reward or punishment. . . . Hence the acknow-
ledged tenderness with which the poor are treated in Catholic coun-
tries.
"True and perfect liberty, as well as equality among men, has
always been placed under the guardianship of the Christian law ;
for he who created both the great and the lowly, and who hath an
equal care of both, will judge both alike.
"The present anti-Christian conspiracy, instead of benefiting the
popular classes, can only make them reap a fruitful crop of unhap-
piness and calamity. It is not within the scope of human genius to
create new societies or communities in opposition to the essential
nature of things. Their extension throughout Italy could only
result in utterly destroying what now exists, in arming citizen
against citizen, in multiplying usurpations and homicides, and in
enriching a few men who would rise to power amid the general ruin.
"To ward off from our people such evils and the machinations
which produce them, we must, under God, depend on the moral
worth and exemplary lives of his ministers. ... In Italy, it is
sad to say, clergymen have been found, albeit, in small number, to
pass over to the enemy and help to seduce our people. "We wish to
take preservative measures against future ills, and repeat the warn-
ing given in our first encyclical (page 118) ; bestow your utmost care
in selecting candidates for the holy ministry. . . .
" The Church of God derives from healthy monastic establish-
ments immense benefits and great glory ; the regular clergy are your
own efficient auxiliaries in your holy labors. Assure those of your
respective dioceses that, amid our own sufferings, we have sympa-
thized with them in their recent affliction, and that we have ex-
perienced no little consolation in learning their patient courage, and
constant attachment to their profession. . . . But there were
others who caused us bitter grief. . . . Warn the superiors of
religious houses to omit no effort in enforcing discipline, . . . in
making their subordinates preserve inviolate every one of their rules,
to show that they are the followers of the Crucified. . . . Let
them see to it that the door of admission to their respective orders be
opened to none save the most w^orthy ... in accordance with
our ordinance of January the 25th of last year.
2 74 ^i/"^ of Pope Pius IX,
'* We come back, once more, to the secular clergy. We recom-
mend to you aboYC all things the instruction and training of the
young clergy. . . . Let them have schools of their own near
the sanctuary of the living God, where they may grow up in inno-
cence, modesty, and priestly fervor, under well-chosen masters, who
can teach them irreproachably literature, the elementary and ad-
vanced sciences, but especially the knowledge of sacred literature
and science.
"So with the schools in which young laymen are taught — ^let
everything there be in conformity with the rule of Catholic doctrine
and life. ... Your wisdom must tell you that in an age so
full of spiritual peril, we all need to make united and continual
efforts to watch over the education of the youth of both sexes.
. . . The diabolical ingenuity of God's enemies seeks evermore
and by all imaginable means to pervert the minds and hearts of the
young.
*^We hope that . . . the sovereigns of Italy may see that the
primary cause of all the evils that have befallen the country is none
other than the ancient injury done to religion and the Church in
the sixteenth century. . . . Hence the increasing contempt of
episcopal authority, the continual and unpunished violation of the
divine law, the disobedience to God and the Church leading to re-
bellion against the civil power ; the spectacle of Church property
seized, sequestrated and sold at public auction, followed by the
teaching of socialism and communism inculcating the doctrine that
all property is a usurpation and a wrong. Hence, all the restraints
formerly imposed by sovereigns on the teaching and ministrations of
the Church are now placed by the people on the prerogatives and
power of the sovereigns themselves."
Such was the fatherly voice that went forth from the pontiff's
place of exile to the hierarchy of Italy, and which was soon re-
echoed all over both continents. Had the temporal sovereignty of
modern Rome been like any other on the face of the globe, the ques-
tion of its restoration would have been one of very inferior impor-
tance as compared with the mighty interests involved in the free
exercise of a ministry so far-reaching as that of the Roman bishop.
It is only when one takes up and reads seriously such utterances as
this encyclical to the Italian bishops, or that other which Pius IX.
addressed to the universal Church in November, 184G, that one
grasps the significance of the charge given to Peter and his sue-
The Far-reaching Voice of the Pontiff, 275
cessors, "Confirm thy brethren!" "Feed my lambs! Feed my
sheep ! " There never has been an authority like this on earth ;
there never has been a voice listened to with such deep reverence
by Christians of every clime under the sun. The voice of the ortho-
dox Greek patriarch at Constantinople is seldom raised to teach, to
reprove, to warn, and when it is, its echoes die away within a little
corner of the Turkish Empire, unheard by Christendom and the
civilized world. That other archbishop, who sits first in the Holy
Synod of the Eussian Empire, is but a paid official of the Tsar, who
has no more doctrinal authority than the imperial will chooses to
impart to his words and his acts. Eussian orthodoxy resembles
those corpses used of old in necromancy : the voice that proceeds
from the inanimate lips is not the living voice of the soul which
once quickened these bloodless limbs, it is the voice of a dread spirit
using the inanimate organs for its own purposes.
Not so he who, wheresoever he happens to be, speaks as the suc-
cessor of Peter, the shepherd of the whole flock, whom 'Hhe sheep
follow because they know his voice." It is of exceeding importance
to the whole Christian family, to every human being, that an
authority divinely instituted to exist for all time, and to have for its
subjects all living souls, should not be, like the schismatic patriarch
of Constantinople, the slave of a power most hostile to the Christian
faith, or, like him of St. Petersburg, or Mohilew, or Moscow, the
mere passive organ of an autocrat all the more tyrannical that he is
one in belief with his docile servant.
The question of the restoration of Pius IX. to his principality is
one of all-absorbing importance to the diplomats assembled at Gaeta ;
but the great functions of the sovereign pontiff are performed mean-
while as if Pius IX. were still in the Quirinal as firmly seated on his
throne and as peacefully governing his people as was St. Pius V.
Leave we, then, the diplomats to their cross purposes yet a while ;
the Holy Father has another great duty to perform, not in favor
of one portion only of the Christian world, but toward the whole
Church. It has ever been the belief of Catholics that, just as the
mother of the Eedeemer, while he was near her on earth, had no in-
terest at heart but his — the souls whom he had come to redeem, and
the Church which he was to create through his teaching and blood —
even so now, that she is by his side in heaven, she seeks only his in-
terests — the freedom, the extension, the glory of that same Church,
and, through her ministrations, the salvation of all the redeemed.
2 76 Life of Pope Pius IX.
Hence tlie conviction that she who is the second Eve, the mother
of the true life, is evermore at enmity with the evil one and all who
are leagued with him against her Son and the Church, his spouse.
She wards off heresies and schisms ; it is hy her — such is the most
ancient belief — that God crushes the serpentine head of every pesti-
lential error.
Placed as supreme shepherd and father over Christ's family, what
more natural for Pius IX., in the very midst of the warfare that
assailed himself and the Church, than to betake himself to her who
is the Mother-ever-blessed of him who is head over all the children
of God ? Never, since the Church left the catacombs to enjoy the
peace of Constantine, did the powers of evil beset her and all human
society with such a formidable array of heresies and hateful designs.
The woman foretold to Eve in paradise as predestined to crush the
serpent's head, she who stood by the tree on Calvary, must prove her
power and her love for humanity. Now is the time to show herself
to be our mother.
Hence the resolution of the exiled and anxious pontiff to define
the bearing of that first of all prophecies, the privilege of the mother
of the Eedeemer to be like her son in his humanity, exempt from
original sin, and to share his undying enmity to error and evil.
The honor of the son being inseparably identified with that of his
mother, such unanimous effort of Christ's family to proclaim her
singular exemption from every stain of sin could not be otherwise
than pleasing to him, and must draw down a special blessing on the
exiled shepherd and his whole flock.
The subject was uppermost in the mind of Pius IX. since his ar-
rival in Gaeta, and on February 2d, 1849, he published an encyclical to
the universal hierarchy declaring his purpose of defining the doctrine
of the immaculate conception. He established a commission of car-
dinals and eminent theologians, whose duty it was *'to examine the
subject in its every aspect, and with the most extreme care, and to
report their matured judgment thereon." He calls upon all arch-
bishops and bishops to have public prayers offered up by their people
in order to obtain abundant light from above on so weighty a discus-
sion ; desires them to let him know as soon as possible what are the
feelings of devotion of themselves and their people toward the im-
maculatencss of their blessed mother, and how far they wish to have
a decree published thereon by the Holy See. He mentions the gen-
eral wish manifested throughout the Catholic world under Gregory
Misunderstood by Protestants, 277
XVI., to have a definitiye judgment on tliis question. This wish
was ''attested by the unceasing petitions sent to our predecessor and
to ourselves, by the most illustrious prelates, distinguished metro-
politan chapters, influential religious orders, particularly the glori-
ous Order of Friars Preachers. . . . Moreover, men of eminent
genius, piety, and learning . . . have expressed their surprise
that the Church and the Apostolic See had not decreed to the blessed
Virgin Mary an honor so fervently petitioned for by the faithful."
A Protestant historian often mentioned in this book, betrays on
this matter the same incomprehensible ignorance which distinguishes
his every attempt at dealing with Catholic dogma. He speaks of the
prospective definition as ''the affirmation of the divinity of the
Virgin Mary," . . . "the assertion of the divinity of the Virgin,
the latest and most astounding development of the doctrine of the
immaculate conception, though not yet stated boldly, bids fair to
reach this last stage before the system of which it is a part shall be
swept away, prior to the consecration and renovation of the world,
upon which it has proved so mysterious a blot. And who shall say
that its promulgation — the exaltation of a creature to the heights
where alone divinity can shine — shall not constitute the filling up of
the measure of iniquity ? "
When this earth of ours was first prepared by its beneficent Creator
to be the abode of our first parents, not content with decking it out
as became the dwelling-place of creatures exalted to the rank of his
adopted children, he pronounced it excellent, and blessed the inno-
cent pair to whom he made over its dominion. Even Protestants
acknowledge that Adam and Eve might have preserved the inno-
cence and holiness of their first condition, and that their posterity
might have lived with them and after them, generation succeeding
generation, without sin, and without forfeiting in aught the favor of
their Maker or any one of the priceless gifts lavished on them.
Certainly — most certainly, rather — it was the Creator's intention,
that both our progenitors and their posterity should so live during
the entire cycle allotted in the divine counsels to their existence ;
there was thus, in the primordial plan of providence, to be on earth
neither sin nor stain in the beginnings of human life, or in its
earthly termination. The commission of sin was an accident, dis-
turbing the divine economy, causing man to fall from his innocence ;
but it was not a necessary accident.
Whatever theological opinion one may entertain with regard to
2/8 Life of Pope Pius IX,
the nature of the innocence and holiness in which sin found our first
parents, this much is beyond controversy, that the natural perfec-
tion in which they were created, or the superadded gifts of holiness
and justice, involved absolutely nothing equal to " the exaltation of
a creature to the heights where alone divinity can shine." Adam
was not God before he fell, nor Eve a ^'divinity" in any sense in
which the Christian mind understands what is proper to the divine
nature. The children destined to be bom innocent of Eve innocent,
were not ''exalted" or transformed into the deity by their sinless
conception or their equally sinless birth. To be conceived without
sin, to be bom without sin, to live without sin, was, to God's mind,
to be for them the ordinary condition and law of human existence.
Every child sprung from Adam was destined to be so conceived and
so born. Where is there, in this primordial view of human nature
and human existence, any logical connection between a stainless, sin-
less conception and birth, and the possession of the attributes which
constitute a being God ?
There is a further step in this most rational argument. If — as
it was the Creator's design — man, aided by divine grace, had thus
filled the entire cycle of his earthly and probationary existence,
without forfeiting the innocence and integrity of the primeval state,
could not the Eternal "Word and Son, in whom and through whom
man was made, not become united to our nature innocent, as all
know he did to our nature fallen and stained ? The thing — it must
be admitted — was possible. For if it be most worthy of the Infinite
Mercy to stoop to our lost nature and take it to himself, to redeem,
repair it, and raise it up, it will not seem unworthy of the Infinite
Holiness to unite itself to that same nature unstained and sinless,
nor less beseeming that goodness which yeameth to give itself, to
honor human nature in its moral integrity by so unspeakable a
union.
But, had God become incarnate among a sinless race, his mother,
like every daughter of the race, would have been bom without original
sin (for, in the supposition, no such sin existed), she would have been
immaculate, free from all stain of sin in her conception and her birth,
and that by virtue of the common law regulating all human life and
existence. Her immaculateness involved, could involve no exalta-
tion to the rank exclusively due to the deity. Kow, in the present
fallen state of man, Mary, the mother of the incarnate Son, is by
grace what the other would have been by nature, by privilege and
Timely Discussion of the Doctrine, 279
exception due to tlie anticipated application of the merits and power
of her Son, what that other parent would have been by the common
law.
The common law in the one case would not have made the mother
a divine being, the singular exception and privilege under the law
of original sin cannot possibly involve anything approaching to a
divine attribution. The Son owed to himself, to his honor and that
of his mother, to preserve her from stain, and he did so, leaving her
the w^hile, as he needs must leave her, a human being, neither more
nor less, pure, sinless, most blessed and most exalted in being des-
tined to be his mother, but only a human being nevertheless.
Such was the question which occupied the mind and heart of Pius
IX. not only at Graeta, amid the novel circumstances of his exile
and the anxiety caused by the state of affairs in Eome, but during
the two first years of his pontificate. It was, in a humanitarian age,
one that lay at the very foundation of all that is most glorious in the
origin and destinies of the race ; it compelled the serious- minded,
the theologian, the philosopher, the statesman, to contemplate in
their magnificent connection these great doctrinal facts which show
man issuing from the hands of his maker crowned with glory and
honor, raised to a supernatural dignity by the pure goodness of his
benefactor, falling into sin through the abuse of his own native
freedom, mercifully spared by the offended deity, and in the very
sentence which banishes him from the earthly paradise, promised
and foreshown the future restoration in which the Second Adam and
the Second Eve are associated as the parents of a new life, the
progenitors of a new people, and the repairers of the primordial
ruin.
Surely, in an age in which natural science, absorbing in its
pretentiousness the theologies and philosophies of the past, aims
openly at banishing the living God of our fathers from all minds and
hearts, and replacing him by the blind, unintelligent, impersonal
force of mere matter, it was opportune and providential that all
who believe in Christ and in the preceding revelation, should be
recalled to the study of the first origin of humanity and its godlike
destinies throughout all time. To make the peoples of Christendom,
distracted and demoralized by revolutions and the fears or hopes of
coming social change, or half materialized by the doctrines and
pursuits of a commercial and industrial age, lift their souls to Christ
the father of the life to come, and to elevate and warm their hearts
2 So Life of Pope Pius IX,
with the renewed love of him, who is bone of our bone and flesh of
our flesh, as well as most blessed God, was worthy of the chief pas-
tor of the Church.
He did not propose a new doctrine, or dream of adding to the de-
posit of revealed truth a single tittle that it did not already contain.
He purposed in the light of the traditional belief of all Christian
ages to define and decide the fact as to whether the doctrine of the
immaculate conception were or not a part of revealed truth.
One is amazed to read in a grave historical work on the early pon-
tificate of Pius IX., not only the monstrous assertion which called
forth the foregoing explanation, but such an assertion as this : "It
was at Gaeta, as I have said, that the solution of the controversy
which had been so long discussed by Church doctors was ' revealed '
to Pius IX." No one more than Pius himself would have been
shocked by the possibility of such a 'revelation.' But to Catholics
who live in Protestant lands it ought to be — ^unfortunately it is not
— a 'revelation' to meet with such ignorance, real or affected, of
their most cherished beliefs and most accessible doctrines, and that,
too, in men who think they know our teaching far better than we
do ourselves.
While the Catholic world is listening with a rapt respect to the
eloquent lessons of their supreme teacher, and hastening to comply
with his wishes, it may be well to see what the revolutionists are
doing with Rome and the States of the Church, and what the Chris-
tian powers are intent on doing toward his restoration.
CHAPTEE XXIII.
Revolutiokart Chan"ges IK EoME — Convocation of the Romak
Constituent — The Elections, how Carried — The Reign
OE Wholesale Confiscation — The Reign of Wholesale
Murder — Appeal for Intervention — Why the Interven-
tion WAS NOT Bloodless — Louis Napoleon will be the
Pope's Master.
Januaky-July, 1849.
"VyO one who has kept in mind the sequence of events which led
-i-N to the flight of the Holy Father to Gaeta, and the condition
of things in Rome at the beginning of December, but must expect to
see the revolutionists precipitating the changes which they had been
so long prepared for.
Both chambers had been prorogued by the Pope on December the
7th, but on the 11th both met and set aside the " Commission of
Government " appointed by the Pope, and by joint resolution de-
creed the establishment of a supreme gmnta, or committee, to *^ dis-
charge all the functions pertaining to the head of the executive
power in the name of the sovereign." This executive committee was
composed of the senators of Rome and Bologna, and the mayor of
Ancona. General Zucchi, who was senator of Bologna, refused to
serve on it, and Galletti was put in his place. The clubs openly
refused to acknowledge its authority, and the Pope by a solemn pro-
testation denounced it on December the 17th as a '^ sacrilegious usur-
pation " of his sovereign rights, reiterating the declaration made on
November the 27th, that to the " Commission of Government" ap-
pointed by him alone belonged the right of governing in his absence.
Mamiani still clung to the long-cherished fancy, that, while taking
entirely away from the Pope the executive civil functions, he should
be allowed to retain his nominal sovereignty, together with his unfet-
tered spiritual supremacy. He made, at the sacrifice of the last ves-
tige' of his popularity, persistent efforts to maintain this ghost of a
sovereignty in favor of the absent Pope. But he was laughed to
281
282 Life of Pope Pius IX,
scorn, and was deposed from his place of power by his worshipers of
the preceding week.
The supreme giunta, as every one anticipated, did not long uphold
the pretense for which it was created, *'to discharge the executive
functions in the name of the sovereign." On December the 20th
they issued a proclamation pledging themselves to convoke as soon as
possible a constituent assembly of the Eoman States, which should
give definite and permanent form to the political institutions called
for by the people.
Of the '^ Commission of Government" instituted by the Pope, a
quorum could not be assembled with safety, or would not be allowed
to act in Eome or elsewhere within the States of the Church. Four
of its members, however, Zucchi, Bevilacqua, Eicci, and Barberini,
resolved to go to Gaeta for the purpose of submitting to his Holiness
a plan of compromise or conciliation. They were courteously re-
ceived and referred to Cardinal Antonelli. They urged **the return
of the Pope to his dominions ; the handle which his absence afforded
to the Eadicals for accusing him of being a reactionist ; the necessity
of affirming at once that he did not wish to take back the liberties he
had established by statute ; the extreme importance of having, wi th-
out a moment's delay, a government conducted by persons of un-
questioned authority, enjoying both the confidence of the sovereign
and that of the people; and that this government should enter
at once upon its duties, lest the governors of provinces and the
municipal authorities should lose heart, and a general disorganiza-
tion ensue. ^
Zucchi, who was the prime mover in this matter, pressed the
cardinal secretary to lose no time in hastening the return of the
Pope to Eome. It would be fatal to the Pope's ascendency as well
as authority, he thought, if the project of getting foreign govern-
ments to inteiwene between himself and his subjects was carried oat.
lie was now invited by his own people to return, and could do so
without any loss of dignity. Then a series of measures was sug-
gested calculated to benefit the country while gratifying the national
pride. Cardinal Castracane and Monsignor Eoberti, the other mem-
bers of the commission, were in Eome, and great anxiety was felt by
them, as well as by the few sincere lovers of constitutional freedom
in the capital, as to the result of this negotiation.
While it was pending, however, a new ministry was formed at
Rome, in which figured Sterbini, Armellini— an old lawyer seventy
Convocation of the Roman Constituent, 283
years of age, a bitter opponent of Pope and priests — and Galletti.
One after the other the Council of State and the two chambers had
collapsed and gone out of existence. Sterbini's administration was
nothing more or less than Sterbini himself, as the organ of the clubs,
and he with Galletti and the members of the giunta declared them-
selves a ** provisional goyernment," published a decree on December
the 29th calling a national convention, the deputies to which were
to be elected by universal suffrage on January the 21st, and to meet
in Eome on the 5th of February. In the provinces, meanwhile, the
governors threw up their offices, and the real government was left to
the ^^ Committee of Clubs" already mentioned. They hastened to
fill up with their own trusty instruments every office, high and low,
throughout the pontifical territory.
To the proclamation convening the Eoman Constituent Assembly
Pius IX. replied on January the 1st, 1849, by another solemn pro-
testation, in which he reminded his subjects that all persons guilty
of any acts of usurpation against the temporalities of the Holy See
incur thereby, without further warning, the major or greater ex-
communication. This proclamation was torn down by the popu-
lace, and, a solemn procession having been formed, it was buried
with every circumstance of ignominy, Ciceruacchio reciting a mock
funeral oration. Then a public meeting was called, and the same
Ciceruacchio * moved a resolution to the effect that the Pope be
then and there excommunicated, the sentence to be sent to him
with an address concluding thus: ^^When you, sir Pope, left the
city by the one gate, the bible entered into it by the opposite gate,
and now there is no room for you." — Legge, ii. 139.
Of course this must have been the bible clandestinely introduced
by the '^ colporteurs" in league with Mazzini and the sects. One
ehould be sorry to think that the true bible, the record of God's
word, so reverently treasured and guarded by his Church, should
enter into any city borne in triumph by a foul-mouthed, blood-
stained rout of assassins and lewd women, while generosity and
self-sacrifice and every virtue that adorns and ennobles manhood is
compelled to fly such a hell upon earth.
On the 13th of January a decree was published by the Sterbini
government to the following effect :
* A friend suggests tliat this scamp with the unpronounceable name should
be remembered as ** Kickem-Whackem."
284 Life of Pope Pius IX,
'* Whereas the meetin<? in Eome of a national assembly has been
demanded by the votes of the whole people, . . .
" Whereas all efforts made to prevent in any manner whatever the
meeting of this assembly, . . .
"Whereas the meeting of the Eoman National Assembly is an
indispensable preliminary to the meeting of the Constituent Assembly
for all Italy, ...
"And inasmuch as at present a reactionary faction is laboring by
the most odious means to excite the people to civil war, and to upset
the admirable order and tranquillity for which our people has been
so distinguished, and which have secured the lives and properties of
our citizens ;
"Therefore by the Provisory Commission of Government it is
hereby decreed :
"That any private individual or public functionary who seeks to
oppose the meeting of the electoral colleges, etc., ... is here-
by declared . . . an enemy of the country, and as such is sub-
jected to the extreme rigor of the laws.
"For this purpose a Committee of Public Safety is created in
Eome, presided over by the prefect of police, and destined to give
to the laws a rapid and rigorous execution.
"Each of the presidents of provinces shall establish in his respec-
tive government a similar committee and for the same purpose."
On the 19th a military commission was established to give effect
to the orders of this Committee of Public Safety, with unlimited
powers of judging without appeal, and of having their sentences
executed within the twenty-four hours. These bodies thenceforth
constituted the reign of terror in the Papal States.
Nothing now stood in the way of the perfect discipline which
Young Italy had established among its sworn legions ; their strategy
of public demonstrations and processions was carried to a high
degree of perfection, and the greatest success rewarded their perse-
vering efforts in Eome and its immediate neighborhood. The list
of deputies had been well prepared by the Committee of Clubs, the
lists of voters had been made out with equal care, the electors were
bidden to be in attendance at the polls — and they knew the penalty
of disobedience ; at the close of the first day's polling in Eome, the
vast crowd that had assembled there from every direction formed
processions bearing in triumph the ballot-boxes from the different
centers to a given rendezvous, and there, amid the blaze of torches
Wholesale Confiscation, 285
•md the inspiriting strains of military music, they celebrated the
birth of popular liberty and the first exercise of the soyereignty of
the people in the free (?) exercise of the suffrage. This spectacle
was renewed every night with increasing enthusiasm.
At length the 6th of February, the day fixed for the meeting of
the Eoman Constituent, came. There were one hundred and forty-
four members present. The first day's session was so violent that
Sterbini had to use extraordinary efforts to make the members pre-
serve the appearance of moderation and parliamentary order ; but in
vain. Canino and Garibaldi wanted neither order nor moderation.
In the second day's session Galletti was chosen president, and Ma-
miani displayed no little ability and eloquence in opposing the will
of the overwhelming majority, who were clamorous for the imme-
diate deposition of the Pope and the proclamation of a republic.
He besought them to pause in their haste and heat, and to refer the
final decision to the Italian Constituent when assembled.
*^ Passion was too strong for the exercise of prudence, . . .
with this worst of oligarchies — not the people, but the clubs, com-
posed largely of the most uncivilized and barbarous of the Arabs of
the streets, who set themselves up to rule in the name of the people."
At two o'clock in the morning of the 9th a motion was carried,
against a minority of eleven, decreeing the deposition of the Pope.
In the articles immediately voted, one declares that '^The Eoman
pontiff shall enjoy all the guarantees necessary for his independence
in the exercise of his spiritual power." This reads as if the republic
of February, 1849, were the parent of the Italian kingdom of 1871.
The secularization — the confiscation, rather — of all ecclesiastical
property was, of course, one of the very first acts of tlie Eoman
republic (February 21) ; all the deposits of money made by religious
corporations, or establishments presumed to be such, were swept into
the republican treasury (February 22) ; it was decreed that all the
church bells not necessary or not considered as works of art should
be cast for canon (February 24) ; the jurisdiction of bishops over all
universities and all schools, except diocesan seminaries, was abolished
(February 25) ; bishops and clergymen were deprived of the right" of
administering or superintending the property of all sorts of benefi-
cent institutions (March 12) ; religious corporations were declared
incapable of acquiring or alienating property in any way whatever
(March 16); and every one of these decrees was headed '*In the
name of God and the People."
2 86 Life of Pope Pius IX.
Under the triumvirate of Armellini, Mazzini, and Saffi religions
vows of every kind were declared irreconcilable with civil duties
(April 27); religious communities of both sexes were "invited"
(April 28) to contribute their spare clothing and linen toward the
defense of the city, and to pray for victory on the Roman arms, only
there was the injunction "let your prayers be public;" the most
spacious monasteries were seized upon for penitentiaries, and their
inmates driven out perforce (April 30) ; the monastery of St. Syl-
vester, a central establishment, was let out as a tenement-house
(May 8) ; the confessionals in all the churches were carried away to
construct barricades with (May 20). But these measures were com-
paratively innocuous. There w^as a forced loan (February 25) to
be paid in three installments, levied on the income of all deemed
wealthy, odious committees with arbitrary powers having charge of
the income list, and gratifying at the same time their own private
revenge and their rapacity ; the amount demanded being twenty-five
per cent., thirty-three and one-third, sixty-six and two- thirds, ac-
cording to the estimated wealth of the persons. The loan was to
receive interest at five per cent., and was guaranteed on the national
jiroperty. It was virtual confiscation.
With the increasing greed or necessity of the triumvirate these
measures of exaction increased in unblushing rigor. On April the
19th, the governors of provinces and the committees of assessors
were directed to collect all the gold and silver currency within the
Roman States, gis^ing government paper in its stead ; and on April
the 2Gth, "a patriotic invitation" was addressed to all citizens to
send forthwith their gold and silver plate to the mint ; and on May
2d, a committee of search was appointed to see whether this "invita-
tion " had or had not been complied with. Church plate, it may
be well believed, fared ill in these evil days. But there was worse
than all this wholesale plunder and confiscation ; there was wholesale
murder.
"In some of the towns gangs of political assassins defied the
police, and tlie republic dawned in a baptism of blood. In their
zeal to eradicate every vestige of the papal centurioni, societies of
young men daily threw many families into mourning — a secret
and self-constituted tribunal, which assumed the sobriquet of the
Infernal Association, decreeing each day the victims for the ensuing
mg\iV—Legge, i. 233.
The triumvirate, or rather, the dictatorship of Mazzini, began
The Reign of Wholesale Murder. 287
its rule on Marcli 30tli. '^ The legislative assembly existed," says
Farini, "but he goyerned assembly as well as people by flattery, by
the sectarian cliques, by his imperturbable fanaticism, which looked
like courage and confidence, and thus reassured the simple and the
weak ; by the aid of his confidants, by the hope of universal revolu-
tion, by predictions, by mystical philanthropy, seasoned with the
terror that the sectaries knew how to propagate. The revolution of
Eome now passes to a new form, or takes its proper, its precon-
ceived, its essential one ; it is incarnate in Mazzini."
One of the secretaries of the Constituent Assembly was Antonio
Zambianchi, a man already infamous for more than one crime, but
destined to a supremacy in blood which makes him with Mazzini
pre-eminent in the Eoman pandemonium. He signed the decree of
the constituent declaring the forfeiture of the papal sovereignty.
As the weeks passed by, this man became, like Garibaldi, wearied of
the slowness with which the new republic went about its work of
demolition. He believed himself commissioned to wreak on the
priests especially the wrongs of the past, and swore, an oath which
he made known to his friends and associates, that he would be both
judge and executioner himself. He had been stationed near Fondi,
and had been most zealous in apprehending and sending back to
Eome all the fugitives from the Papal States on their way to Gaeta.
His principle was that every such person should have been shot
down like a wolf, without other form or judicial process. So,
betaking himself to Eome, he resolved to exterminate, so far as
in him lay, every clergyman he met with, as being the professed
enemy of the republic. Meeting, as he was entering Eome, Father
Sghirla, a Dominican, a most exemplary parish priest, and at that
very moment on his way to minister to a dying person, Zambi-
anchi stabbed him to the heart in open day and in the sight of the
passers-by !
"Zambianchi," says Legge, "was at the head of a body of
men taken from the frontiers, and who were by profession bravos,
revenue officers termed the finanzieri, numbering about 300, who
were organized into a regiment. Under their brutal demagogue
leader they distinguished themselves by the number and savageness
of their secret assassinations ; no less than fourteen bodies of priests,
some only half buried, are said to have been found by the French at
the convent of San Callisto in Trastavere, at which Zambianchi waa
for a long time quartered. It is impossible to estimate the number
288 Life of Pope Pius IX.
of ecclesiastics wlio fell before the stiletto of the finanzieri, but it
has been computed that at the time of the occupation of Eome by
the French no less than 250 priests were missing." — ii. 285, 286.
The reader may fancy that a man of Mazzini's eminence, enjoying
both before and after the short-lived Eoman republic, the intimacy
of Palmerston, Gladstone, and English dukes and earls, could not
abet, though he might be forced to tolerate, such atrocious yillains
as these. It is far otherwise, however. Zambianchi was on a foot-
ing of intimacy with Mazzini, and there is extant a letter in which
the dictator asks his "dear" friend to send him, in addition to the
murderers already at hand to do his bidding, "twenty o^h.QX finan-
zieri to complete important operations," signing the precious mis-
sive, "Thine, Giuseppe Mazzini." We have already heard of the
"committees of public safety," organized on the model of the French
terrorist committees of the same name, and, like them, clothed with
absolute power. Capanno, a notorious assassin, had been placed at
the head of these, and styled himself, "the captain commanding the
public safety," He was Mazzini's right arm, and, as Maguire in-
forms us, had recourse to Zambianchi for "some good Jina7izieri"
" to perform the customary operation upon five old wretches."
A "League of Blood" was formed in the provinces, having its
center at Ancona, and whose sole purpose was wholesale murder.
They killed an old Carmelite, Father O'Keller, and carried his body
to the anatomical chamber amid the jeers of the mob. This com-
pelled the English commander at the station to interfere, and de-
mand of Mazzini the instant suppression of this league.
Of the means taken to poison, pollute, and kill the souls of men
from the moment that Mazzini's rule began, we must say nothing
here. Young people will read these pages, and God forbid they
should find therein even the mention of the sources whence infor-
mation on such a subject could be drawn. The whole aim of the
Christian religion is to purify and elevate the soul ; the aim and
labor of the enemies of the soul and the soul's creator consist in de-
basing and in soiling. The double work of destroying the life of
the body and the nobility of the soul was carried on with equal zeal
by the fiends who ruled in Rome in 1848-49.
We turn away from the hideous thouglit of all that Rome and the
Roman States were condemned to endure and to witness during that
brief but fearful period. The revolutionary and anti-Christian
Bpirit that degraded France in 1793 seemed to live again in Rome,
Appeal for Tnte^'vention, , 289
and was only expelled thence to reappear in Paris under tlie com-
mune in the spring of 1871. It was the spirit of Mazzini and
Young Italy which animated the wide-spread Internationale, and
still lives and threatens in the French and Belgian democracies of
1877.*
When the Holy Father saw that the republic had been pro-
claimed in Kome, and that it was rapidly taking measures to destroy
in the States of the Church not only the institutions created by the
piety of preceding ages, together with the faith which had begotten
that piety, but also the friends of all religion, law, and order, he hes-
itated no longer to appeal to the Catholic poAvers. On February the
18th a note of Cardinal Antonelli formally solicited their interven-
tion, after exposing briefly the events which had marked the deal-
ings of the Pope with his subjects, and the return which he had re-
ceived for his sincere efforts to inaugurate a liberal system of reform
and progress.
''He has confidence," the note says, "that they [the Catholic
powers] will act together with a serious zeal, in order that their
intervention may bring about his restoration to his See, to the
capital of these States which have been set apart for the purpose of
securing his full liberty and independence, and which repose on the
guarantees and treaties that constitute the basis of European public
law.
"Austria, France, Spain, and the Two Sicilies are, by their geo-
graphical position, enabled to concur by their arms in re-establish-
ing throughout the dominions of the Holy See the order disturbed
by a horde of sectaries ; the Holy Father does not therefore hesitate
to invoke with a firm confidence the armed intervention of these
powers. . . .
"It is the only way to restore peace and order in the States of the
Church, to replace the Holy Father in the full liberty required for
the exercise of his supreme authority, in accordance with the sacred
character of his office, the interests of the universal Church, and the
peace of Christendom. Thereby only can he preserve the patrimony
which he received at his accession, and which he is bound to trans-
mit in its integrity to, his successors.
"His cause is that of order and Catholicity. He therefore trusts
* See Maxime Du Camp, Les Prisons de Paris sous la Commune {Pevue des
Deux Mondes, 1«»* Mai et l«r Juin, 1877).
290 Life of Pope Pius IX.
that all tlie poAvers with whom he is on friendly relations, and who
have shown him so lively an interest during the various phases of
the present situation, will give their moral support to the armed
intervention which he has been compelled to invoke."
The Pope hoped that if the Catholic powers were unanimous and
had the moral support of the non-Catholic governments, the question
w^ould soon be decided without the necessity of making war on the
Roman republic. This unquestionably would have been the result,
had there existed such unanimity, or anything like a perfect under-
standing between France, Austria, and Spain. As it was, two causes
contributed to thwart the hopes of the Holy Father, and to prevent
the bloodless issue to which he looked forward.
These were the tortuous policy of the President of the French re-
public on the one hand, and on the other the war between Piedmont
and Austria.
Louis Napoleon Bonaparte was anxious to win the good opinion of
all French Catholics by seeming to be zealous for the restoration of
the sovereign pontiff ; hence the contradictory instnictions given to
the French ambassadors at Rome and Gaeta. The President was
opposed to the Pope's having anything to do with the management
of temporal affairs, and was, at bottom, willing to aid in restoring
him only on the condition that he should thoroughly secularize his
government. This was the English as well as the Piedmontesc pro-
gramme ; and it was also in conformity with the instructions given
to Ferdinand de Lesseps when sent as envoy extraordinary to Rome
in April, 1849. But such was not the policy which the Duke d'Har-
court was instructed or allowed to pursue at Gaeta while the con-
ference of the Catholic powers lasted. He advocated the restora-
tion of the Pope, with the condition that the fundamental statute
by which the Holy Father had granted constitutional government
should be maintained in its full vigor. De Lesseps in reality sided
with the republicans in Rome, and while endeavoring to conciliate
and procrastinate, brought on active belligerent proceedings between
General Oudinot, the commander of the French expeditionary corps,
and the Romans under Avezzana and Garibaldi.
This result was also precipitated by the victory of the Austrians at
Novara. King Charles Albert had been forced into war with Aus-
tria by the Mazzinians, who had obtained control of the Piedmontese
chambers and ministry : it was, in every way, what happened to
Napoleon IIL in 1870. Both sovereigns had to fight or forfeit their
Loins Napoleon will be the Popes Master, 291
tlirones. The Eoman contingent hastened to the assistance of the
Piedmontese, and thus gave the Austrians a fair pretext for invading
the Roman territory. It had, however, been already agreed on that
the four Catholic powers should simultaneously make an armed
demonstration against the republic. While, therefore, Spain and
France sent their fleets and armies to Oivita Vecchia, and a Neapoli-
tan army Avas preparing to advance from the south, the Austrians
at the north laid siege to Bologna and threatened Ancona.
Naples and Austria were united, as Italian powers, not only in their
bitter hatred of Piedmont, their common foe, but in their anxiety to
render, by their joint action, the interference of France as unneces-
sary as it was to them distasteful.
France, on her side (that is the French president), was determined
that she alone should be the supreme arbiter of Eoman affairs.
The sovereign pontiff was helpless amid these selfish and distracted
counsels of the very powers whose aid he had invoked. Cardinal
Antonelli, as well as the Pope, perfectly understood that in accept-
ing French intervention they were giving themselves imperious mas-
ters. They had labored to obtain from the four powers a common
note to the triumvirate so peremptory and energetic that its pre-
sentation, accompanied by a powerful and united display of force,
should compel Mazzini to surrender without shedding blood.
Blood, however, and French blood, had been shed in an imprudent
advance of the French toward Rome on April the 30th, an advance
due to the contradictory sense in which General Oudinot and De
Lesseps understood their respective instructions. The defeat of the
French excited among all classes in France a desire to see the national
honor avenged, and in the army before Rome an uncontrollable im-
patience of delay.
The Austrian general was peremptorily warned by the French com-
mander-in-chief that he must not advance one step farther south-
ward, and that Rome must soon fall beneath the assault of French
valor.
It did fall on June the 30th. But the Holy Father, too well in-
formed of the real sentiments of Louis Napoleon, and of the perfect
unity of views which existed between him and Lord Palmerston and
the court of Turin respecting the temporal power of the Holy See,
refused to return to Rome.
Thus the diplomatic notes and professions of sympathy published by
the Catholic powers from December, 1848, to May, 1849, though con-
292 Life of Pope Pius IX,
curring m a severe condemnation of the excesses of tlie revolution and
the republic, and expressing a resolve to restore the sovereign pontiff,
had no more effect in staying the onward march of terrorism, sacri-
lege, assassination, and oppression than the posting of a proclamation
against incendiarism on the walls of a burning city would, in staying
the progress of the flames or the hand of the robber.
CHAPTER XXIV.
The Exiled Po:N"TiFr's Loye for his Subjects — Why he did kot
EeTUEN" immediately — Coiq-FLICTIKG AlMS OF THE CATHOLIC
Powers — Pius resei^ts Louis Napoleon's impertinen^t Dic-
TATiOK — What he purposes doing for his People — His
Zeal for the Revival of Faith throughout Italy — De-
signs OF Conciliation suggested by Nature around Por-
Tici — The People's Waywardness and Passionateness.
September, 1849- April, 1850.
"/^ ROME ! Rome ! God is my witness that I daily lift up my
V^ voice to him, and prostrate in supplication before him be-
seech the divine majesty to stay the scourge which desolates thee,
and becomes hourly more intolerable ! I implore him to stop the
spread of pestilential teaching and to banish from thy walls and
from the entire State these politicians who make so ill an use of the
name of the people."
This was said on February the 2d, 1849, and before the institution
of the Committee of Public Safety and the Military Tribunals, or
the assembling of the Roman Constituent. What was the agony of
the fatherly heart which gave utterance to these words, as the Ro-
man republic ran its mad career subsequently, can only be told by
those who were the daily and hourly witnesses of the Holy Father's
conduct. Why should his biographer dwell on the details of the
fearful struggle which preceded the final triumph of the French
arms ? There were acts and scenes of courage, daring, and heroism
which Livy himself might have recorded with a true Roman pride.
But there were committed together with these noble deeds, day after
day, acts so dastardly, so savage, so wantonly sacrilegious, that to
chronicle both is repugnant to Christian feeling ; and to dwell on
the former without mentioning the latter would be to falsify history,
and to describe the latter in their true colors would make the reader
believe that Italian depravity infinitely outweighed Italian virtue ;
293
294 -^{/^ of Pope Pius IX,
that the Christianity of modem Rome is as fruitful of cowardly,
ferocity as the old Eoman paganism was fruitful in bravery and
magnanimity.
On the 3d day of July the French army had taken possession of
Rome, and the French tricolor was hoisted over Castle St. Angelo.
Colonel Kiel, a man of Irish extraction, but whose ancestors had been
for generations resident in France, was commissioned to bear to the
Pope the tidings of the surrender, with the keys of one of the gates.
"Accept, General," writes the Pope to General Oudinot, ''my con-
gratulations for the leading part you have had in this event ; con-
gratulations, not for the blood shed, from which my heart recoils,
but for the triumph of order over anarchy, for the liberty restored
to respectable and Christian people, to whom it shall no more be
made a crime to enjoy the wealth bestowed by Providence, and to
worship God in public without fear of incurring thereby the loss of
life or liberty.
*' As to the serious difficulties that lie before me, I must trust in
the divine goodness to enable me to meet them."
The Pope hastened to console his subjects by a proclamation, iu
which he allowed his heart to speak : ''God has stretched forth his
arm," he says, "and has forced the tide of anarchy and impiety to
stop in its course. . . . All praise to the Lord, who even in his
just indignation is ever mindful of his mercy !
" Beloved subjects, if amid the whirl of the late horrible changes
our heart has been filled to overflowing Avith bitterness when we be-
thought us of the many evils endured by the Church, by religion,
and by you, that heart did not cease to entertain towai'd you the old
affection. We yearn to be with you once more ; and whenever we
shall be free to return, we shall go back to you with the ardent de-
sire of comforting you, and the sincere will to devote ourselyes to
your true happiness, by applying to serious evils difficult remedies,
and by comforting loyal subjects, who wishing as we ourselves do
for institutions in harmony with their needs, are also anxious to se-
cure the liberty and independence of the sovereign pontiff so neces-
sary to the peace of the Catholic world."
On the 17th of July the Pope nominated a commission of three
cardinals to govern in his name till his return; these were Car-
dinals Delia Genga-Sermattei, Vannicelli-Casoni, and Altieri. The
name of Cardinal Altieri was in itself a pledge of large-hearted lib-
erality ; his life, like his heroic death, during the cholera of 1867,
Why PiiLS IX. Delayed his Return, 295
was one of absolute and unremitting devotion to his priestly duties.
A prince by birth, and of princely heart and spirit as well, it was to
such noble-souled Romans as he — not to the Mazzinis and Gallettis
— that Rome should have trusted the framing and working of her
liberal institutions.
This commission began its labors on the 1st of August, announcing
by a proclamation of that date how they purposed fulfilling their
delicate and difficult task. They are sent "to repair as speedily
as possible the serious damage done by anarchy and the despotism of
a few.
" Our first care shall be that religion and morality be respected as
the basis of all social order ; that justice be allowed to extend its
reign to all without distinction, and that the public administration
be brought back to the steady and progressive methods pursued be-
fore it had been usurped by nameless and senseless demagogues.
'^For that purpose we shall call to our aid men known for their
wisdom and zeal, as well as for the general confidence reposed in
them. ... At the head of the different ministerial departments
shall be placed persons of integrity and experience. . . .
*^ Thus confidence will revive among all classes and conditions,
w^hile the Holy Father is laboring with his whole heart and soul to
prepare such improvements and institutions as are compatible with
his dignity, his sovereignty as pontiff, the peculiar nature of this
State, . . . and the w^ants of his subjects."
But why did not Pius IX. return to Rome forthwith ? Why leave
to a commission — and a commission of churchmen — the difficult
task of governing a city which had just endured the horrors of a
siege, and in which foreign bayonets alone maintained order ?
It is a serious and embarrassing question. Yet must it be fairly
and frankly answered.
France had taken on herself alone the task of reducing Rome to
obedience, the share taken by the other Catholic powers having been
comparatively inconsiderable. As already stated, Louis Napoleon
had, in France, to please the republican majority of the French As-
sembly, which required that the Pope should maintain the liberal
institutions already granted to his subjects, complete them, and se-
cure their working successfully under the protection of the French
flag. The Assembly had no wish to weaken the sovereignty of the
Holy Father ; it only Avished it to be reconciled with the desire of
his subjects for representative institutions, and with the orenei'al
296 Life of Pope Pius IX,
spiiit of the age. The president in this agreed with the Assembly ;
but in his secret convictions and fixed purpose he was entirely op-
posed to the temporal sovereignty of the Holy See. On the other
hand, he had to spare the sentiments of the French clergy, whose
favor he was then anxious to secure for the furtherance of his own
imperial ambition.
He pursued, after the fall of Rome, the same tortuous policy
which had marked his course before that event ; in public he pro-
fessed to be sincerely in favor of the independence of the Holy
Father ; in secret, he designed to strip him of the last remnant of
political power and influence. Thus General Oudinot and M. de
Corcelles, the French ambassador, received from the French minister
of foreign affairs, one set of instructions, while the prince-president
gave quite another set to his own private representative. Colonel
Edouard Ney.
Unfortunately the letter addressed to the latter, and already quoted
(page 247), was made public. The conditions it imposed upon the
Holy Father were such as must be sovereignly offensive to him, while
pleasing the Radical wing of the French Assembly, the more moder-
ate Mazzinians, the Piedmontese government, and Lord Palmerston.
Pius IX. had been disappointed by the result of his appeal to the
Catholic powers. As his sovereignty and the existence of the eccle-
siastical State were based on the same public law of Christendom
which lay at the bottom of the whole system of European polity, he
had expected that all the powers, non-Catholic as well as Catholic,
would answer his appeal by letting the Italian revolutionists know,
once for all, that, if certain reforms were granted in accordance with
the advice of the powers, they would tolerate no attempt on the part
of the seditious to disturb the pontifical government in its pacific
course of improvement.
Instead of this, one man, notoriously in league with the Mazzi
nians, and raised to the first office in France, had taken the whole
Roman question into his own hands, and was solving it for the bene-
fit of the revolutionists, not for that of the Holy See.
Austria, Spain, and Naples saw this, and, apart from their natural
jealousy of France, they resented it as an insult to the Holy Father,
and an impertinent dictation to him, when liis own heart and judg-
ment inclined him to grant, in its fullest measure, the liberty
needed by liis people and really beneficial to their interests.
The famous letter to Colonel Ney was thrown before the excited
He Resents Louis Napoleon s Arrogant Counsels, 297
public opinion of Europe at the yery moment the Pope was prepar-
ing and maturing at Gaeta a new proclamation of amnesty, and such
a plan of representative government as might help him to remedy
the financial ruin and moral disorder consequent upon the reign of
Mazzini and the whole series of usurpations that had followed on the
granting of the Fundamental Statute.
*' The policy of the English government," says Legge, " as we have
seen it revealed in the dispatches of Lord Palmerston, was nearly
identical with that of France, namely, the restoration of the Pope
under the guarantee of a constitution substantially identical with
that of 1848."
The Pope's admirable good sense enabled him to see from the first
the purpose of Louis Napoleon. He was pressed by the court of
Naples as well as by Count Spaur to seek the protection of Aus-
tria. But that was not to be thought of. He had many measures of
church administration to complete ; and for that the freedom he en-
joyed in the kingdom of Naples was more favorable than the troubled
atmosphere of Rome. To Naples he was persuaded to go in Sep-
tember, as well in deference to the solicitations of the king and
queen, as with the hope that his presence in the capital might be
productive of great good in allaying political animosities. The
king, who throughout the Holy Father's stay in his dominions really
demeaned himself as if he were truly — what he called himself — "the
lieutenant in command of the sovereign pontiff's body-guard," accom-
panied his Holiness with every demonstration of a reverence that was
sincerely felt, and bestowed on him his magnificent palace at Portici.
From that most lovely spot Cardinal Antonelli, at his master's
command, issued the following letter to the governors of the pontifical
provinces :
"Most Illusteious akd Reyeeejtd Sir : — A letter which as-
sumes to be written by the President of the French Eepublic to
Lieutenant- Colonel Ney in Rome has given increased audacity to the
band of libertines, the sworn enemies of the pontifical government,
and rumors are everywhere spread about that it is intended to impose
burdensome conditions on the Holy See. The party of anarchy, in
consequence of these expectations, displays an insulting attitude, as
it believes and hopes to recover itself from the discomfiture it has un-
dergone. But this letter has not any official character, being merely
the product of a private correspondence. I will add, also, that even
by the French authorities in Rome it is viewed with displeasure.
298 Life of Pope Pius IX,
"The Holy Eather is seriously occupying himself about giving to
his subjects such reforms as he believes useful to their true and solid
good ; nor has any power imposed laws upon him in reference to
this, he aiming to attain so important an end without betraying the
duties of his own conscience. Profit by this intimation to contradict
the falsehood propagated to the prejudice of public order, and satisfy
every one that it is to the interest of all the powers to sustain the
liberty and independence of the supreme pontiff for the peace of
Europe. . . .
" PoRTici, September 8, 1849."
It was from that same enchanting but treacherous shore of Portici,
built on the lava and cinders which buried Herculaneum and Pom-
peii, that Pius dated the new temporary constitution for the Eoman
States, the act of amnesty for the crimes committed under the re-
public, and the encyclical to the bishops of Italy, quoted in part in
the preceding chapter. The perusal of these documents shows how
the mind of the Holy Father ran continually in the direction of for-
giveness, peace, progress, and every improvement which could in any
way benefit his unhappy people.
In concluding the motu propria, or voluntary grant of a constitu-
tion, he uses this significant language: "We have decreed these
measures for your good, and beneath the eye of God. They are such
as to be compatible with our dignity, and, if faithfully carried out,
we are convinced that they can produce results which must approve
themselves to all wise minds. The good sense of all among you who
aspire toward what is best with a fervor proportionate to the ills they
have endured, shall be our judge in this. Above all, let us place
our trust in God, who even in fulfilling the decrees of his justice, is
never unmindful of his mercy."
The same thoughtful and fatherly tenderness, tempered with the
heartfelt piety of the man, breathes in the act of amnestj^ " Disposed
as we are to clemency by the natural bent of our heart," he says,
" we extend our forgiveness once more to the erring men, who were
borne away into treason and rebellion by the seduction, hesitation,
and, it may be, the very weakness of others. On the other hand,
bearing in mind what is due to justice, the foundation of all States,
to the rights of others overlooked or violated, to the duty incumbent
on us of protecting you from a recurrence of such evils as you have
endured, and to the obligation of saving you from the pernicious in-
The Catholic Religion s Civilizing Power, 299
flaence of the corrupters of all morality, the enemies of that Catholic
religion, . . . which was your glory and marked you out as
God's chosen and favored people — we have issued this act of am-
nesty. . . ."
But it is at the conclusion of the letter to the bishops of Italy
that the soul of the pontiff and the Christian shines in all its beauty.
"It is impossible" — the Holy Father affirms — "to find a speedier
or more efficacious remedy for social evils than to make the Catholic
faith flourish once more, and to restore the Church to her splendor
throughout Italy ; for she most certainly possesses the means of
succoring human infirmity in all its various needs and in every social
condition.
" To be convinced of this it may suffice to recall the words of St.
Augustine : * ' With great reason, Catholic Church, thou true
mother of Christians, dost thou preach to us that we should worship
with a pure and chaste spirit that God whose possession constitutes
the most blissful life ; . . . but, moreover, though dost so com-
bine the love and charity we should show to the neighbor, that in
thy hands are the powerful remedies for every ill brought on men's
souls by sin. Thou teachest and trainest human nature according
to the maturity of the soul as well as that of the body, becoming a
little child with the children, growing strong vv^ith robust youth, and
calm with those of advanced age. Thou dost cause the wife to pay
her husband faithful and chaste obedience, . . . placing the
husband at the head of the family, not to enable him to make a
plaything of his companion's weakness, but that he may be guided
by the law of true love. Thou makest children subject to their
parents in the free service they pay them, and placest the parents
above them in a loving and tender superiority. Thou bindest brother
to brother by the ties of a religious affection far more powerful than
the ties of blood. Thou drawest closer the bonds of kinship and affin-
ity among men, by hallowing the claims of nature through supernatu-
ral charity. Thou subjectest servants to their masters not so much
from the necessity of their condition, as from a pleasing sense of
duty ; and thou biddest masters be kind to their servants, for the sake
of the common master, the God who is over all ; and inducest them
to employ persuasion rather than force. Thou unitest citizen with
citizen, nation with nation, and man to man all over the earth, not
* Be Moribus GatIioUc(B Ecdesice, 1. i., c. 30.
300 Life of Pope Pius IX,
«o mucli by the power of natural sociability, as by the belief in that
brotherhood which is derived from a common parentage. Thou
teachest kings to aim in all things at the good of their people ; and
admonishest peoples to obey their princes ; . . . clearly show-
ing that all things are not due to all persons, but that to all should
be shoAvn charity and to no one should be done wrong.'
*^It is thus our duty as well as yours, yenerable brethren, to
face every fatigue, to brave every difficulty, to lavish our strength
and pastoral zeal, in order to protect against every danger the Cath-
olic faith of the people of Italy, not only by resisting with energy
every effort made by impious men to separate our country from the
Church, but by laboring faithfully to bring back to the right road
those who have already been led astray.
*' But as ' every best gift, and every perfect gift, is from above,' let
us go with confidence to the throne of grace, and there unceasingly
supplicate, implore, and conjure by public and private prayers the
father of light and mercy ; in order that, through the merits of his
only Son our Lord Jesus Christ, he may forget our sins, and merci-
fully enlighten all minds and hearts ; that, compelling to obedience
all rebellious wills, he may glorify his Church by new victories, and
that throughout Italy and the whole world the peoples who serve him
many increase in number and in merit.'
"From Naples, in the suburb of Portici, December 8, 1849."
The very spot on which he writes this most beautiful address,
seemed to inspire him with that spirit of far-seeing wisdom, and
all-embracing, all-healing charity so much needed by Italy after
the recent eruption of anti-social and an ti- Christian passions. The
palace itself in which he received a more than royal hospitality, the
beautiful palace of Charles III. (1707-13), was built on the very bed
of a lava stream from overhanging Vesuvius, and lava blocks formed
a portion of the materials employed for its constmction. It seemed
to have been erected on that ever bright and smiling shore, above
the accumulated ruins of past disasters, to challenge the fury of the
terrible fires that slumbered so uneasily beneath the soil.
Pius IX. had passed, on his way from Naples to this splendid
abode, a monument erected near the road-side, warning inhabit-
ants and strangers alike that there the dreadful eruption of 1G31
had exercised its ravages. Who that has visited Naples and ap-
proached these awful mountain slopes, has not stopped to read the
Nature around Vesuvius Suggests Conciliation, 301
inscription, Posteriy posteriy vestra res agitur? "You who are to
come after us, it is your interest that we plead here ! " This is the
first line of the earnest and pathetic warning ; and then it proceeds,
*^ To-day evermore holds out a light to guide the steps of to-mor-
row. Turn and look upon what is behind you. Twenty times,
since the sun first shone in the heavens, . . . has Vesuvius
burst forth in flames ! . . ."
And so, Antonio Snares Messia, governor of Naples at the time
of the dread calamity which caused widespread destruction and the
death of many imprudent persons, warns from this monumental
stone princes, nobles, and peasants who persist in building their
homes within the sweep of the devastating fires, and in cultivating the
oft- wasted fields, that they must fly for their lives at the first motion
of the earthquake and the first muttering of the volcanic thunders.
There was another monument near at hand which had also its
timely lesson for Pius, preparing as he was to return to his own
after the so recent convulsion. There is in a little wayside oratory
a statue of St. Januarius, of which popular tradition relates, that
amid the terrors of one of the most frightful eruptions on record
the population of city and country-side crowded in dismay and sup-
plication around the image of him who, in life, had been their
bishop and loving pastor. The lava in one mighty stream was even
then pouring down toward them. But, at their cries for mercy, the
statue, it is said, turned its head toward the mountain, and lifted
its arm in sign of command. The lava stood still in its course, and
the volcano became hushed and quiet.
Such is the legend. For the exiled pontiff the land and its mon-
uments had a lesson he was not slow in laying to heart. He could
study and admire on the earth torn again and again by the throes of
the mighty volcanic forces, and seared, age after age, by streams of
liquid fire, how the silent but no less mighty influence of nature
filled up the rents where they were widest and deepest, and hastened
to cover their jagged sides with verdure, with the living beauty of
vine and shrub and flower. Not that alone ; but where the lava
stream had poured resistless downward, consuming vineyards, olive
groves, harvests, the lordly forests of oak and chestnut, blotting out
the green pasture and the corn-fields, the shepherd's cot, the smiling
and populous village, and the splendid abodes of wealth and royalty,
there, when the brief period permitted by the Creator to the reign
of all that is violent and destructive had come to an end, on that
302 Life of Pope Pius IX,
same blackened lava and blighted earth nature once mure would
hasten to weave her vesture of life and beauty, covering up beneath
its green folds, as beneath the sweet mantle of love and mercy, the
wrath, the ruin, the desolation of the past.
And are not there in the moral world, where men's passions devas-
tate as blindly and wantonly as the earthquake and the volcano, are
there not sweet and silent and resistlessly healing agencies and
forces, which are potent to fill up the rents made by the mad up-
heavals of political rage, and to obliterate the deepest wounds left on
our earth, beneath the silent growth of all the social charities ? So
Pius resolved that his love and fatherly tenderness, with the aid of
his all-powerful grace whose work he had to do, should make the
earth forget her late travail and agony. Yes, it was God's work ;
and he would do it. He would not withhold his hand from bind-
ing up and soothing and healing.
The Neapolitans, these terrible and perpetual children of a vol-
canic clime, blessed St. Januarius for the protection afforded in their
need, and devoutly kissed the hand that had been miraculously
raised to arrest the elemental wrath ; but that unruly child-people
would break off that same arm to-morrow, and shatter the statue to
pieces, and curse the very name of their benefactor, if Januarius
should fail to rescue them miraculously from another peril.
Must God, who made the land, and who still cares for the way-
ward, passionate race that tills it, must ho too grow weary of them
and give them up as victims to the fury of flame and wind and wave,
because they make an ill use of their own faculties and of all the
gifts so lavishly bestowed on them ? Nor will the loving heart of
him, who, under God, is shepherd and father over all the family of
Adam, be weary in beginning anew his labor of love, of patient reno-
vation, and merciful forbearance on that land of Italy, that land of
Rome so privileged and so guilty.
So all through the autumn and the sunny winter months Pius
IX. yearns to be back again among his people, and his mind, despite
the unceasing solicitude demanded by the Churches of both hemi-
spheres, ever contemplates how he can best repair and restore the
social and religious ruin left behind by the revolution.
And as the early spring poured forth all its wealth of beauty, its
peace, its soothing music and loveliness over the Campanian shores
and the Pontine Marshes, and the now blooming Campagna, Piua
IX. was on his way to the Eternal City.
CHAPTER XXy.
Pius IX. okce more i^ St. Peter's — The Te Deum and the
Prejs^ch Army — The Pope takes up his Kesidej^tce ik the
Vaticak — MAzziiTi IK Switzerland, still Cokspiring —
Attempt to Burn the Quirinal — Hopeless Task of Pius
IX. — The Pope Censured for not granting a Univer-
sal Amnesty — Mazzini's Crusade against the Catholic
Powers — Its Success — Cardinal Antonelli's IJNiTr of
Purpose with Pius IX.
1850.
A LITTLE after four o'clock on the afternoon of April the 12th,
1850, Pius IX. entered the city of Rome. The reader ac-
quainted with the Holy Father's personal character, with the mag-
netic attraction his goodness of heart exercised on the real people, as
well as upon the persons who approached him habitually, will not be
surprised to learn that great and sincere as was the enthusiasm
which greeted him on his way from Naples to his own frontier, it
was far greater and deeper among his own people.
The revolution had been recruited from among the middle class in
the cities, the scum of the laboring populations, the idlers, and all
the vagabonds, adventurers, cut-throats, and needy politicians from
all parts of Italy; the country people, the agriculturists, and the
upper classes everywhere had been oppressed by the demagogues,
and welcomed the Pope's return as the beginning of a new era of
peace, prosperity, and restoration.
Englishmen and Americans, Protestant generally, whether resi-
dent or traveling in Italy, chose the society of the advanced Liberals,
the members of the defeated party, heard only what these said, saw
what those made them see, and consigned to their memory or to
paper this very partial view of things. It was unavoidable that men
like Mr. Cass, Mr. Freeborn, Mr. Cochrane, and so many others like
them, who sympathized with the lost cause, should not feel or notice
the pulsations of the Roman popular heart as it throbbed among the
rural populations at Velleti, or in the Campagna, and who fairly
303
304 Life of Pope Pius IX.
were beyond themselves with, delight when they beheld in their
midst the pontiff and prince, the very excess of whose goodness had
driven him a fugitive from Eome. That in Rome itself, on the day
of the Pope's return, the middle class who had formed the civic
guard, and the carabineers, and the volunteers under Durando, and
that motley crowd who had formed the folloAving of Ciceruacchio
and the public of the clubs, that they should have held aloof, or put
on a scowl, or muttered curses, or threatened retaliation when they
beheld the pontifical cortege enter Eome and pass on to St. Peter's
amid the ranks of French soldiers, was to be expected. These were
the men with whom the American minister and the English consul
had always associated, before the flight of the Pope and since. And
it is their views, and sentiments, and hopes, and prophecies, that we
read in the dispatches and private documents emanating from all
Anglo-Saxon sources not Catholic.
Pius IX. was too clear-sighted and high-minded not to know that
his welcome to his capital, escorted by foreign troops, and in the
midst of a population so deeply compromised by their active share
in the violence, the plunder, and bloodshed of the revolution, could
be neither enthusiastic nor unanimous. The true Romans, the well-
born, the religious, those loyal to the Church and her pontiff, those
who had suffered from Sterbini, and Ciceruacchio, and Zambianchi ;
all who had lost by the triumph of Mazzini, and had nothing to gain
by change, all these awaited the coming of the Holy Father in St.
Peter's, the presence of the chief shepherd in the place appointed for
the meeting of his flock. "What a sight was there !
Persons most eminent in social position, persons of every nation-
ality, Protestants as well as Catholic, agree that in the dense multi-
tude which filled the vast Basilica to its utmost capacity and covered
the great square outside, there was scarcely an eye that was not
moistened when the august exile appeared, his kindly face lit up
with more than the old sunny smile, betraying an emotion which all
shared with him.
He came to the altar of St. Peter to offer up a solemn Te Deum.
As he passed along amid the kneeling multitude, and blessed them
all as he passed, looking to tlie right and to the left, as if his
whole heart went out to each one there with that fatherly blessing,
what a shout of welcome would have gone up, had it not been for
that dread and loved Presence before which even the pontiff's soul
was all awe and adoration 1
The Thanksgiving and the French Soldiers, 3o5
The Sacred College was there in attendance on its revered chief,
with all the clergy of Rome, the magistracy, and the French general,
Baraguay d'Hilliers, and his staff, the elite of the French troops as
well, men taught from infancy to reyerence the person of the su-
preme pastor of their Church, and to whom the perils just incurred
in his cause made him doubly dear. Pope, cardinals, prelates,
priests, and people — that army and its officers — all looked only to the
triumph of the present hour, and thought not of future possibilities.
Beneath that glorious dome, before that altar on which throned, be-
hind the sacramental yail, the King of kings, all knelt with the pon-
tiff and the venerable circle of cardinals and bishops, to adore him
who casteth down and lifteth up, and then rang out in the clear full
tones of Pius IX. the first verse of the Te Deum : "Thee, God, we
praise ; thee. Lord, we all proclaim ! " It was taken up by the mul-
titude inside and outside, with a unity, an enthusiasm that lifted up
the soul and bore it heavenward on a sea of triumphant song.
At the verse Te ergo qucesumus, "Thee, then, we beseech, succor
thine own servants, whom thou hast redeemed with thy blood," it is
prescribed that all should kneel. Pope, prelates, and people. The
general's word of command rang forth, the clash of arms sounded as
the troops grounded their arms, and bent one knee, adoring and
praying with the prostrate thousands. There were many there who
besought for France, far away, and her forty millions of brave
hearts so prone to every heroic impulse, and her chivalrous soldiery,
the unselfish defenders of every great cause, God's best blessing and
ever-present aid. And there are those, too, who persist in believing
that the blessing thus besought came on France in the hour of her
need, when it most behooves a great nation to be greatest, in defeat
and disaster. , . . May it be continued and increased ! Chris-
tendom, which owes so much to France, in spite of the blundering
ambition of Bourbons and Bonapartes, and the moral blight of Vol-
tairianism, cannot afford to see her de230sed forever from her glo-
rious leadership among the nations.
That such was the blessing fervently invoked by Pius IX., when,
at the end of the sublime hymn of thanksgiving, he pronounced on
the prostrate multitude the solemn benediction in the name of the
Triune God, we firmly believe. For twenty years more the French
flag was to wave in Eome, the symbol of the faith and love of the
nation for the common father of Christians ; brave, true-hearted
officers, and honest soldiers were to surround the throne of Pius IX.
20
3o6 Life of Pope Phis IX,
with a loyal and devout homage, while the dark man who had
usurped the control of France's destinies, was vainly struggling to
reconcile the faith he had SAvorn to Young Italy with the will of
the Catholic world. A French force, during this long interval, was
to oppress the Holy See with the imperial protection, compelling
Pius IX. to passive resistance and vain protestations while Piedmont
and the revolution were wresting province after province from the
patrimony of the Church ; and when the treason and sacrilege were
consummated, the chief culprit in this long course of spoliation was
himself to he stricken down, the arms falling involuntarily from the
paralyzed hands of his proud armies, and he, like his uncle, driven
from his throne to die in exile.
To the Quirinal palace, from which within half a century three
popes hearing the name of Pius had been hurried into exile, after
Buffering there the most sacrilegous violence, Pius IX. never re-
turned. It was connected in his mind with the murder of Rossi,
and stained with the blood of his noble and learned young secre-
tary ; the very sight of it would recall the unnatural ingratitude of
his own subjects. The Holy Father and his Secretary of State took
up their residence in the Vatican palace, near the tombs of the holy
Apostles Peter and Paul. There were in the evening congratula-
tions from the diplomatic body, from the Sacred College, the muni-
cipal authorities, the Roman nobility, and the Catholic foreigners
who had flocked to Rome for the occasion. There were illuminations
too. Christian Rome rejoiced over the 'restoration of Christ's vicar
to his see and his flock ; anti-Christian Rome was still conspiring.
" Mazzini had gone to Switzerland, and here, secure from danger,
he contrived to associate with himself many fellow-fugitives. These,
with the consent of such of the deputies as had accompanied him
into exile, he formed into the spectre of a government, himself re-
suming the rank and power which he had voluntarily resigned in
the hour of danger. Ho now preached a crusade — a Holy Alliance
as it was termed — in which refugees of other nations were invited to
unite against the Pope, the French, the Austrians, even tlie consti-
tutional Liberals, against all, in fact, who did not accept the pro-
gramme of 'Young Italy.' Thus the follies of Mazzini, and the
unconciliatory policy pursued by the military rulers of Italy, com-
bined to prepare the way for new troubles for that much-enduring,
much-afflicted country." ♦
* Legge, ii. 858.
Powerless to Conciliate, 307
On the yery day of the Pope's entry, an attempt was made to fire
the Quirinal. This was only one indication of the spirit which the
revohition had bequeathed to Eome and its ruler. It was a proof
also "of the lawless fanaticism of those political jugglers, the
lepers of all parties — * yeritable harpies/ as Mazzini himself desig-
nated them — ^who sully all they touch, and who still swarmed in
Rome/'*
The new act of amnesty had been already promulgated, and the
Holy Father had been only waiting for his return to the capital to
supplement it by a fuller measure of clemency. But such acts as
this fiendish attempt at incendiarism, and others aimed at the liyes
of the opponents of reyolution, could haye no other effect than to
make the soyereign pause and reflect. Any one who will remember
how generously he had pardoned Galletti (see pages 100, 101), and
how the latter repaid his benefactor, will not be disposed to condemn
Pius IX. for not enlarging too suddenly the circle of offenses em-
braced in this second amnesty.
In truth, no mercy, no kindness, no possible measure of liberality
or progress could soften or conciliate not alone the ** harpies" and
and the "lepers" of the Mazzinian following, but the leaders them-
selyes, the men who now more than eyer had resolyed to pursue
darkly, silently, but unrelentingly the atrocious plans of Mazzini,
Galletti, and Ricciardi.
It is here that the task of Pius IX. became hopeless and dispirit-
ing. The laya torrent which, but a few weeks ago, carried fire,
death and desolation into tracts that bloomed like a paradise, will
cool down by degrees, and the neighboring yerdure will slowly creep
oyer the horrid mass, and make the beholder forget how it once
boiled and burned, moying oyer the fair earth like a liying curse
from hell. The fierce fire of anti-Christian hate neyer cools or stops
in the bosoms of men who haye been baptized in Christ's name, and
tasted all his diyinest gifts, but who haye surrendered their spirits
to the good pleasure of the Eyil One. We see the skillful gardener
eyery day in our great city parks coyering masses of naked, hideous
rock with creeping and flowering plants so beautiful, that one knows
not which to admire most of the art of man or the infinite resources
of nature. The lifeless rock resists not the efforts of the husband-
man, but rather takes kindly to the sheltering and beautifying em-'
brace of yine and shrub. AVhat power can oyercome the stubborn,
* Legge, ii. 365.
3o8 Life of Pope Pius IX,
repellant will of hard-hearted man ? The yery name of the Sayiour,
tlie very sight of his cross, has only the magic to move Young Italy
to blasphemy and rage.
Speaking of the middle classes, the most conservative of the revo-
lutionists, Mr. Freeborn, the English consul in Rome, says of them at
this very time : " R. . . . does not knoAV the feelings of the
middle classes here, for he does not mix with them. I do, and I can
assure you that in three hours after the French left us there would
be a sanguinary revolution. Money, arms, organization, everything
is provided. The people of Rome are determined not to endure ec-
clesiastical government, and to set an example which will effectually
deter any priest from exercising lay functions."
Thus it was not the lava far away from its source, the lava cooled
and asking of the green earth around to be taken into communion
with it, that Pius IX. and his government were working upon : he
was trying — an impossible task — to make the plant take root and the
sweet flowers of brotherly love and peace to bloom amid the very
crater of Vesuvius !
By degrees Pius IX. extended the benefit of the amnesty to one
class after another. In France, in England, and the United States
the public press was but too ready to condemu the Holy Father for
not granting an unconditional pardon to all who had been concerned
in the late revolution, thereby recalling all of them to Rome and the
Papal States. On reflection, this must have even then appeared to
the writers themselves an extravagant demand. At the distance of
nearly thirty years, and with the lessons of domestic rebellion fresh
in the minds of Frenchmen, Englishmen, and Americans alike, they
must acknowledge, that the blame then cast on the pontiff and his
administration of the States lately under a revolutionary government
was a flagrant injustice, and the unlimited clemency advocated, an
unlimited absurdity.
How did republican France deal with the leaders of the Com-
mune? What clemency did England extend to so many deluded
young Irishmen, impelled into the ranks of Fenianism by the memory
of centuries of political wrong, and the ardent desire of restoring their
country's independence ? Had the Sepoys of India been more blood-
thirsty, treaclierous, or savage than the twenty thousand men who
surrounded tlie Quirinal on the IGtli and 17th of November, and set fire
to the residence of tlieir sovereign and benefactor ? or the mob that
murdered and pillaged and oppressed the innocent, and sullied every-
Clemency of the Holy Father. 309
thing liol J in Eome for months ? or the handed and half-authorized
assassins Avho filled the entire Eoman territory with hlood and terror ?
We, Americans, boast — and rightfully — that once our gigantic
civil war ended, not a life was sacrificed for a merely political offense.
Most true. But the disabilities incurred for these same offenses have
not yet been removed from thousands upon thousands, nor are they
likely to be for some time yet. Nor, in the States which seceded,
have the deep, fearful and ruinous effects of "carpet-bag" misrule
and domination come to an end after twelve years of misery and suf-
fering to millions of freemen and fellow-citizens.
Surely much more could be said on this subject, and to the point,
too, in explanation (of justification there is no need) of the conduct
of the Holy Father and his government during the period imme-
diately following his restoration.
It is not, perhaps, generally known that not one drop of blood was
shed for purely political offenses, and that the exceptions to the act
of amnesty were much less odious than many of the exceptions to
the unparalleled clemency of our own government. Englishmen and
Americans (and a fortiori French Liberals), blinded by their anti-
Oatholic prejudices, forgot the beam in their own eye, and labored
by persistent outcries to excite the horror of the civilized world at
the mote in the Pope's eye. Even at this hour they find it politic or
convenient to forget the horrors of Bismark's religious persecutions
and the rigor of his prisons, the frightful oppression of Catholic
Poland, and the untold sufferings and life-long agony of the multi-
tudes of heroic men and women — guilty only of being true to their
conscience, their God, and their country — who people the frozen
wilds of Siberia, to read us lectures, in season and out of season, on
the intolerance of clericalism.
Had the Pope been left free to follow the promptings of his own
fatherly heart, he would have performed miracles of devotion and
generosity to heal up every wound, and repair the financial ruin, the
disasters brought upon every interest and industry. He should have
been protected in his noble endeavor to make his people forget the
disappointments and heartburnings of the past in the united effort
at making the best use of present opportunities. But how was it in
reality ?
We have just seen that Mazzini had profited by the hospitality of
Switzerland, to reorganize there a "Eoman Eepublican Govern-
ment," and to begin "a crusade — a holy alliance — in which refugees
3IO Life of Pope Pius IX,
of otlier nations were inyited to unite against the Pope, the French^
and the Austrians."
One might be disposed to think that this shadowy government
proclaimed by Mazzini at Lausanne, was as harmless as the spectral
appearances above the Brocken. So, perchance, it was ; but not so
the crusade "against the Pope, the French, and the Austrians."
Mazzini had at his back the boldest and most unscrupulous spirits of
Young Germany and Young Europe. The history of the downfall
of Austria in 1866, and of the conspiracy which led to her losing
Lombardy in 1859, has only been partially written : its true " inte-
riorness " still remains to be disclosed. So with the fall of France
in 1870, and with the rise of Piedmont and Prussia, which led to the
fall of the Pope. The next decade will see Turkey blotted out from
Europe, and Austria reduced to the kingdom of Hungary, and
France and England further crippled in their influence and power
and territory. They said of Voltaire, during the reign of the God-
dess Keason : "He has not lived to see what we haVe done, but ho
has done all that we see." Mazzini did live to see France crushed,
Austria crippled and threatened, the kingdom of Naples blotted from
the political map of Europe, as well as the temporal sovereignty of
the Holy See. He was not condemned to live and behold the moral
triumph of Pius IX. in May and June, 1877.
This new crusade against the Catholic powers we shall watch to
the end of this book, with the steady progress of Piedmontism.
There is another personage who is to be henceforward almost as con-
spicuous as Pius IX. himself ; their two figures become inseparable
to the eye of the historian ; that personage is Cardinal Antonelli.
He is identified with all the public acts and all the remarkable utter-
ances of the remainder of this pontificate down to November, 1876.
It is not that the great minister absorbed in his own superior genius
or transcendent ability the Pope whom he served and loved. Pius
IX. is not a man to yield to any minister, no matter how surpass-
ing his talents, the control of the great administrative measures in
Church or State, or his own principal share in every act or docu-
ment for wliich he is responsible to posterity. It is true that his is
not the little-mindcdncss of some persons in authority, who can
never allow their inferiors to have any will or free action of their
own. Pius IX, has too much sense to pretend to do everything him-
self ; and no one more generously leaves to liis inferiors both a per-
fect freedom in their own department, and the fullest credit for sue-
Cardinal Antonelli and Pius IX, 3 1 1
cess achieved. But lie is too conscientious to allow any one to usurp
any part of the authority belonging to himself as a temporal ruler,
or, still more, as the head of the Church.
If one examines the series of public acts or remarkable public doc-
uments signed or countersigned by the great Secretary of State, it
will be seen that his policy in temporal matters consisted in vindicat-
ing with extraordinary clearness and ability the right of the Holy
Father to the continual support of all Christendom, and in com-
bating the errors which assail the necessity of his temporal power,
and the fullness of his spiritual authority, as well as the doctrines
subversive of the supernatural and the social orders.
Cardinal Antonelli saw with the clearness of intuition the com-
bination and conspiracy formed against Catholicity and the Holy
See ; he never for a moment hesitated about the personal character,
the loose principles, and the ultimate purpose of Louis Napoleon
Bonaparte ; about the perfect understanding which existed between
him and Count Cavour and Lord Palmerston, concerning the aboli-
tion of the pontifical sovereignty. He was also fully alive to the
anti-Catholic hostility which impelled all three to encourage every
movement tending to weaken Austria, and to leave Spain more and
more the prey of her own Progressists and Kadicals.
With these principles, tendencies, and policy. Cardinal Antonelli
was at war before he left Gaeta and Portici ; and his remaining life
at the Vatican was one long uncompromising struggle with them.
Keeping this fact in view, one will be enabled to see the diplomatic
career of the great statesman in its unity and consistency, and will
find singular pleasure and instruction from the study of the many
weighty documents emanating jointly from the Holy Father and
himself.
We must now hasten over the remaining years of this memorable
pontificate, dwelling only on the great acts and events that form an
epoch in it, and grouping rapidly around these the contemporary
political and ecclesiastical occurrences.
CHAPTER XXVI.
1850 A Year of Jubilee — Beatification of Ameeicait Saiists
— RESTORATIOiq- of THE E2>rGLISH HIERARCHY — LEGISLATIVE
Reforms of the Catholic Powers — Piedmoj^t Iitaugurates
AK Era of Persecution — Preparatory Labors on the Im-
maculate Conception — Proclamation of the Dogma —
Splendid Hospitality of the Pope — Gratitude of the
Bishops — Private Life of Pius IX. — His Poverty — His
Love of Prayer — His Devotion to Business — His Affa-
bility — His Heroic and Unbounded Charity.
1850-1855.
THE year 1850 was a year of jubilee for the whole Catholic
world, and the tidings of the Pope's return to the Eternal
City, the sense of security arising from the presence of a French
army, and, above all, the desire of showing reverence and sympathy
to the Holy Father, attracted such crowds of pilgrims to Rome as
had not been seen there in the memory of man. Every preparation
was made by the papal government for the reception of these multi-
tudes of strangers — cardinals, prelates, nobles of every degree, vieing
with each other in lavishing on their brethren from every land
the unwearied attentions and care which genuine charity alone in-
spires. Nor did the Holy Father's presence ever fail to grace
these assemblages when all were made to feel that Rome is not a
foreign city in a strange land, but the dwelling of the common
parent. The veneration, the generosity testified to him after his
recent trials, were most sweet to that loving nature, after all the
bitter experiences of the past four years.
The summer and autumn furnished him with timely opportunities
for manifesting anew his old love for the Church of America, in the
beatification of the venerable Peter Claver, the apostle of New
Grenada, and venerable Mariana de Paredes y Flores, "the Lily of
Quito," and the first cousin and contemporaiy of St. Rose of Lima.
The beatification of Peter Claver took place on July the 16th.
312
Beatification of American Saints. 313
Beside the exquisite pleasure it gave the Holy Father to snow there-
by his deep and affectionate interest in the spiritual welfare of a land
where he had once hoped to spend his whole life in continuing the
heroic labors of Claver and his brethren, this splendid festivity, in
which all Kome, and the pilgrims of all nations assembled in Eome,
took an active part, was also a public mark of the sovereign pon-
tiff's increased regard for the Society of Jesus. During the troublous
spring and summer of 1848 he had been forced to advise the Jesuits
in Eome and elsewhere in the Pontifical States to close their houses
and disappear from public notice. Once at Gaeta, Pius IX. sum-
moned to him Father Eoothaan, the General of the Society, and be-
stowed on him and his every testimony of affection and confidence.
The Pope had nominated several Jesuits to episcopal sees in both
hemispheres, deeming them the fittest by their learning and virtue
for the episcopal office. But Father Eoothaan pleaded so earnestly
that such a door should not be opened to ambition in the great relig-
ious family over which he presided, that the Holy Father revoked the
nomination, and promised that in future, except in the Jesuit mis-
sions among the heathen, no member of the society should be pro-
moted to the episcopal office.
In October Mariana de Paredes was beatified; and during this
same year four metropolitan sees were erected in the United States,
those, namely, of New York, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and New Orleans.
Another pontifical act, of September 29th, which produced very
serious complications, was the re-establishment of a regular hier-
archy in England. There had been on the subject a previous under-
standing between Bishop Wiseman and the Eussell-Palmerston cabi-
net. It had been agreed that the assent of the ministry should re-
main a profound secret, and this secret Dr. Wiseman kept till his
dying day, in spite of the shocking breach of good faith committed
afterward by Lord Eussell. The creation of new sees with local
titles had never been considered in the United States as a matter in
which the Federal or State governments were called on to interfere.
And this absolute freedom was one argument urged for the erection
of new sees in England not interfering with the old episcopal titles
preserved by the Eeformation.
The commotion produced in England by what was termed 'Hhe
papal aggression," was extraordinary, and threatened great danger
to the Catholics. But the admirable discretion of their leaders
warded off every chance of collision, and paralyzed by patience
314 Lije of Pope Pius IX.
and dignified silence the fanaticism of the mob and its utmost vio-
lence.
One evil effect remained, hoT^eyer, after the popular passion had
cooled down, and that was the more open countenance given to Pied-
mont in its aggressive policy toward the Holy See, the advocacy of
the cause of Young Italy by the English press, and the triumphant
reception accorded to Garibaldi in 1864. We say ''more open"
countenance ; for, the refusal of the Pope to acknowledge himself
bound by the Fundamental Statute, and to carry on constitutional
government in accordance with it, after the downfall of the republic,
served as a safe pretext to Lord Palmerston for encouraging, secretly
at least, not to say openly, all the schemes of Oavour and Napo-
leon III.
All through the next four years active preparations were made for
the assembly of bishops at Eome, in which it was proposed to pro-
mulgate the definition of the Immaculate Conception. Meanwhile,
the Catholic sovereigns, against whom the efforts of the late revolu-
tion had been especially directed, were preparing to repeal the op-
pressive laws against the Church, which had been one of the Galilean
legacies of the eighteenth century. In Tuscany, the grand duke —
one of the best princes of the house of Lorraine-Hapsburg, who had
shared the liberal ideas and the vicissitudes of Pius IX., had been
exiled like him, and restored about the same time — now set aside the
Leopoldine laws, which kept the Church in his dominions bound
hand and foot to the State. This was the first fruit of the beautiful
letter to the bishops of Italy, and the appeal it contained to the
experience of Italian sovereigns. They began to perceive that there
can be but little respect for the temporal authority of the prince or
the magistrate, in any community in which the people are taught to
hold in contempt the authority in spirituals of the religion professed
by themselves.
The young emperor of Austria, warned by the revolution which
hastened his own accession to the throne, also repealed the most
odious enactments of Joseph II., and negotiated a new concordat
with the Holy See, which was formally concluded in 1855. The king
of Naples, too, who had till then maintained the tyrannical laws
imposed on the Church by Marquis Tanucci during the Bourbonian
crusade against the Jesuits, had been inspired by the virtues and
counsel of Pius IX. in his exile at Gaeta, to give religion its full
authority and the sovereign pontiff untrammeled liberty in dealing
Piedmont Pursues a7i Anti- Catholic Policy, 3i5
with all orders of the clergy. On June the 9th, 1855, Ferdinand
II. began a series of legislative reforms contemplating the perfect
enfranchisement of the Church, and a parallel reform of lay legisla-
tion. Wurtemberg, in 1857, adopted many of the wisest measures
of the Austrian concordat ; and Portugal, in 1859, concluded one of
her own, which annulled most of the schismatical and anti-Christian
laws of Pombal.
The stay of the Pope in the kingdon of Naples, his known liberal
disposition, and the ill fortune that he had met with, seemed to haye
stirred up Catholic faith and piety everywhere. The South Ameri-
can States had been most unanimous in forwarding to the Holy
Father expressions of reverence and sympathy and substantial aid in
his need. In Central America Guatemala had gone further; ef-
fective measures were agreed upon between the papal government
and President Carrera for the settlement of all religious matters. A
concordat was concluded on October the 7th, 1852, which gave that
beautiful, but sadly neglected country, the well-founded hope of see-
ing the Holy See exercising its full reforming authority among the
clergy, restoring education, discipline, and piety, all totally uncared
for during several generations.
And so the heart of the good shepherd overflowed with joy at the
brightening prospects of religion, much as he felt that his own
political future was seriously threatened. There is no room to
doubt it — had Piedmont been willing to forego the criminal ambi-
tion which made her abjure every law of conscience and moral
rectitude — in carrying out her designs, Italy, within the lifetime of
Pius IX., would have seen every one of her native States blessed with
peace, freedom, prosperity, and the revival of religion and national
greatness. As it is, she is great only by the permission of Germany.
Step by step, without the slightest regard to the conventions between
the sovereigns of Piedmont and the Holy See, and in open and pro-
fessed violence of its supreme authority in all matters of Church dis-
cipline, Count Cavour and the democratic ministries which succeeded
each other in Turin, set aside all acknowledged ecclesiastical law,
secularized Church property, suppressed the religious orders, abol-
ished the immunities of the clergy ; took upon themselves to legis-
late in matters which strictly belonged to Church authority alone,
rendered the exercise of the pontifical authority all but impossible,
and the free ministrations of the clergy a matter of exceeding diffi-
culty. It was in vain that the sovereign pontiff protested : the king,
3i6 Life of Pope Pius IX.
now a constitutional monarch, left the government in the hands of
his ministers, and gave himself entirely up to his unholy pleasures ;
and his ministers, when they were not avowedly members of the
Young Italy democracy, and sworn to promote its objects, were con-
tent to allow them to use the terrible power of the public press in
misrepresenting the public acts of the Holy Father and in blackening
his private character and the persons of his ministers.
Thus the plans, the principles, the influence of Piedmont from the
north were extending daily, and rendering the task of governing his
States and completing his reforms more and more difficult to Pius IX.
The year 1854 was drawing to Its close, and the entire Catholic
family spread over both hemispheres felt the most intense interest
in the approaching solemnities in Eome. Every man, woman, and
child within its pale had in the doctrinal judgment about to be pro-
nounced the same personal interest, as if the mother who bore them
were to be declared free from all stain of guilt by the united voice of
Christian ages. In every household it was felt that the honor of
God's incarnate Son was to be supremely vindicated in the stainless
honor of his mother.
The aim and hope of the chief pastor of Christ's wide flock were
clearly and touch ingly expressed in the dogmatic bull itself : " We
hope from the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, that the
Church, our holy mother, being delivered from all dangers and made
victorious over all errors, shall flourish throughout the whole earth,
shall bring back to the road of truth all souls that are- straying from
it, so that there shall be but one fold and one shepherd."
The war between Eussia, on the one side, and Turkey, England,
and France, on the other, was about to break out, threatening to
enkindle a general conflagration in Europe ; and many States were
sorely troubled by intestine dissensions. The father of Christendom,
to whose soul the supernatural and invisible world was more of an
over-present reality than the world of sense, was fain to unite all his
children in solemn supplication and penance, in order to draw down
on Christ's family the special assistance of the new Adam and the
new Eve, and to obtain special light from on high as the bishops of
every land were about to proceed to Eome. On the 1st of August the
encyclical Apostolicm nostrm caritatis proclaimed a universal jubilee
of prayers, good works, and penitential satisfaction in furtherance of
these puq^oses. Pius IX. wished to have pure hearts and pure hands
raised on high in prayer, in order to propitiate the divine mercy.
Solemnity of the Immaculate Conceptioft, 317
From the 20tli to the 24tli November all the bishops assembled in
Rome met daily to discuss, paragraph by paragraph, the solemn
dogmatic bull defining the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception,
the cardinals holding their own private sessions, in which the acts of
the bishops were discussed and revised, under the presidence of the
Pope himself.
This preliminary discussion being ended, the Pope assembled the
Sacred College on December the 1st, delivered a short allocution,
and then took the votes of all the cardinals present on the subject
before them. There was perfect unanimity, and on December the
8th, the Basilica of St. Peter's was decorated with a splendor it had
never known till now, and for such a ceremony as had never been
witnessed beneath its lofty dome. Upwards of two hundred bishops
of every land were in attendance. There were Catholics and Protes-
tants from both hemispheres, the former drawn to Rome by the piety
imbibed from childhood toward the Mother of the Redeemer, the
others attracted by the mere desire to witness a magnificent func-
tion. Rome was crowded.
The procession started from the Sixtine Chapel, and proceeded
through the vast aisles of St. Peter's to the apse behind the high
altar, the pontifical throne having been prepared in the centre of
the apse, and the seats for the Sacred College and the archbishops
and bishops on both sides. Afer the chanting of the gospel. Cardi-
nal Macchi, dean of the Sacred College, made the formal petition
demanding the definition or final judgment of the Holy See on the
exemption of the ever- Blessed Mary, Mother of God, from the guilt
and stain of original sin.
The sovereign pontiff returned a favorable answer, and bade all
present invoke anew the light of the Holy Spirit. The hymn Ve7ii
Creator, ^'Come, Creator Spirit," was intoned, Pope, cardinals,
bishops, and the immense audience throughout the basilica, kneel-
ing all together and joining in the majestic chant. The hymn over,
the Pope sang the versicle and prayer, and standing on his throne
amid a stillness so deep that not a breath was heard, he uttered in
tones clear, full, and impressive these words of the decree :
"After having offered up unceasingly our humble prayers to God
the Father, through his Son, together Avith fasts and solemn suppli-
cations throughout the Church, in order that he should vouchsafe
to guide and strengthen our thoughts by the virtue of his Holy
Spirit ; having implored the aid of the entire court of heaven, and
^ 1 8 Life of Pope Pitis IX.
o
having especially invoked by our sighs and prayers that Spirit Com-
forter whose breath has come upon us ; to the honor of the holy and
undivided Trinity, to the honor and glory of the Virgin Mother of
God, for the exaltation of the Catholic faith, and the spread of the
Christian religion, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the
apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own . . ."
Here the speaker's voice seemed to fail him, his eyes filled with
tears. But recovering himself, he proceeded in a louder and firmer
tone :
*' We declare, affirm, and define that the doctrine which says that
the Blessed Virgin Mary was preserved and exempted from all stain
of original sin from the first instant of her conception, in view of
the merits of Jesus Christ the Saviour of all mankind, is a doctrine
revealed of God, and which, for this reason, all Christians are bound
to believe firmly and with confidence. . . ."
The last words of the decree had scarcely fallen on the ears of the
rapt audience when the cannon of Castle St. Angelo thundered
forth the tidings to the Eternal City, and all the church bells of
Eome rang forth a joyous peal. It was a moment never to be for-
gotten even by those who shared not in the belief of the multitude
there, whose grateful feelings vented themselves in subdued but
heartfelt thanksgiving.
How the entire Catholic world celebrated this event cannot be de-
scribed here. On December the 10th, the splendid Basilica of St.
Paul, " outside the walls," burned July 15th, 1823, and restored under
Gregory XVI. and Pius IX., was dedicated anew in presence of the
assembled bishops. The Pope took a singular pleasure, while pre-
lates and missionaries from the remotest and most barbarous coun-
tries were present, in preaching himself on this unique occasion, and
in holding up to the admiration and imitation of all the great
''apostle of the nations;" ''this chosen vessel, the brightest light
of the Christian law, the most illustrious herald of the gospel, who,
while still in the flesh, was lifted up in spirit to Paradise. The
deep searcher of the divine counsels, the wise teacher of nations,
bearing and contemning for Christ's dear love, on sea and land, so
many labors, dangers, difficulties, and sufferings ; who preached the
Holy Xame to kings and peoples, confuting the synagogue, con-
founding pagan philosophy, striking down idolatry from its seat of
power, becoming all things to all men, by his admirable actions, and
his admirable writings, shed splendor on the Church while extend-
The Pope Stcpremely Happy, 319
mg her reign, and consummated all by the fruitful witness of his
own blood."
Pius IX. had deemed himself supremely happy had the Master
called him to his rest and reward after such glorious celebrations as
these. It was so clear to the eye of his soul, that the bitter persecu-
tions through which the Church was passing, only helped to mani-
fest her divinity and vitality !
"During a long period of time," said Bishop Dupanloup, *'the
powers of earth had reserved for themselves the triumph of public
pageants. . . . Keligion has now had hers, and the nineteenth
century has beheld a renewal of the popular festivities of the ages of
faith.
"The celebration of December the 8th thus crowns the expecta-
tion of past centuries, sheds a blessing on the present one, claims
the gratitude of generations unborn, and shall leave behind an im-
perishable remembrance. It satisfies all and wounds no one ; it is
the first doctrinal definition undisturbed by any opposition at the
moment it was pronounced ; it is the first which leaves no heresy
behind. It will leave the Catholic world unanimous, just as it
found it. It confirms everything and overthrows nothing ; it draws
closer than ever the ties which bind the Church of France to Eome,
which unite the East to the West, the successor of Peter with the
bishops of the whole world ; it sets forth power and unity, energy
and faith, expansion and charity. It is for the present hour an
irresistible evidence of vitality, coming after so many ruthless
storms. That Church which people believed to be prostrated by
fifty years of persecution and outrage, stands forth mightier and
freer than ever ; and this undying spouse of the living God, whom
many affirmed to be exhausted by that half-century of indifference
and neglect, shows herself to be as powerful as in the days of old,
by performing without apparent effort and with the simple majesty
natural to her, a new and solemn act of highest sovereignty." *
The two hundred bishops present were the guests of his Holiness
during Jheir stay in Eome, and no man ever better understood the
duties of hospitality than Pius IX. Excessively sparing as he is m
all that pertains to his own immediate sustenance, he is more than
munificent in entertaining those who come to him from afar, the
faithful laborers in the divine Master's vineyard, the persecuted
* Dupanloup, (Euvres clioisies, vol. ii,, p. 123.
320 Life of Pope Pius IX,
shepherds of a worried flock, the anointed of the Lord often bear-
ing the scars of the battles of faith. His whole heart goes out to
them. They are to him the very person of Christ, to be received
with all reverence, charity, and tenderness, and to be cared for as
would be the Good Shepherd himself, did he stand and knock at the
gates of the pontifical palace.
As the august assemblage was about to break up at the conclusion
of the solemnities, the senior bishop present, the venerable Cardinal
De Bonald, Archbishop of Lyons, rose to thank his Holiness in the
name of his brethren. "Let your Holiuess permit me," he said,
"to return thanks for the honorable and magnificent hospitality
granted to the bishops who have come hither to pay the homage of
their respect and devotion. I make free to say that they were not
undeserving of all this kindness ; for they have accepted your de-
cisions with unreserved submission. Yes, Holy Father, in your
authority we reverence that of Christ himself, and in your words we
hear the words of the life eternal. Before the decrees pronounced
by you for the entire Catholic world, we bow our heads, as before
the oracle of him who promised to abide evermore with his Church.
Our gratitude shall be proved by the prayers which we shall not
cease to offer up for your happiness, the success of your apostolic
labors, and the tranquillity of your States."
While these venerable pilgrims are returning to their respective
flocks on every land beneath the heavens, it may not be inappropri-
ate to pause and retire with Pius IX. from the noise and pomp and
fatigue of these grand religious pageants, to repose with him in the
subdued light of his privacy, and see how the habits of the priest
and the man correspond with the public acts and utterances of the
pontiff and the sovereign. AVe have been, like the early emigrants
over our western plains, long toiling through savage and desolate
tracts, where the worst perils do not come from the wild beast, but
from the ferocity and treachery of wilder man. We have been
camping, for the brief space of one night and morning, beneath the
shelter of kindly trees, on the border of a lovely lake amid the hills,
whose unruffled bosom reflected, undimmed, the bright stars of the
night and all the magnificence of heaven when lit up by the dawn.
There is still a long and exciting road before us ; pause we then,
while the sun is high in the firmament, and let us explore the secret
charms of our resting-place.
"The small portion of the Vatican," says Hare, "which is inhab-
Private Life of Pius IX. 321
ited by the Pope is never seen except by tliose who are admitted to a
special audience. The rooms of the aged pontiff are furnished with
a simplicity which would be inconceivable in the abode of any other
sovereign prince."
"Pius IX., " says another writer, "sleeps in one of the smallest
of the eleven thousand rooms at his command. A narrow, humble
bed, without curtains or drapery — something similar to those used
in seminaries for school-boys — a sofa, two or three common chairs,
and a writing-table, are all the articles of furniture — few and simple
enough for a Capuchin. There is not even a rug by the bedside to
cover the floor of red tile, not in the best repair. ^ Take care how
you step, there is a brick loose,' said the Pope to a Turinese eccle-
siastic who was admitted to his presence the other day, when he was
confined to bed, and whose eyesight he knew was not as good as his
own. Winter and summer alike the Pope gets up soon after five
o'clock, seldom or never later than half-past, and after he has
finished dressing remains about an hour and a half alone, passing
his time in prayer and meditation."
Giovanni Mastai, while as yet a student in theology, had learned
the golden spiritual rule of St. Ignatius Loyola, to devote a full hour
every morning, after dressing, to meditation on some of the mys-
teries of Christ's life, passion, and death, or on some of the divine
truths pertaining to the soul's account in eternity. This practice of
meditation, so necessary to every person ambitious of rising to any
degree of spiritual perfection or of achieving anything remarkable
for the divine honor, was never omitted by the Pope from these first
years of his beautiful priestly springtide. It formed his soul to
heroic enterprise while on his way to South America, and amid the
privations and perils of his journeyings there. It was the secret
spring which fed his superhuman charity and devotion at Spoleto as
well as at Imola. He had also most admirable examples in the two
saintly men with whom he preluded in 1818, at Sinigaglia, the apos-
tolic labors of his future career.
When Cardinal Odescalchi laid aside his dignity and all prospects
of worldly honor to become a poor Jesuit, his former protege, now
archbishop of Imola, would have the lowly religious come to him,
and teach his priests and himself in their sweet retreat at Piratello
how to pray and meditate like Christ, and how to suffer with Christ,
and he would have the once cardinal, but now humble priest, preach
to the people of Imola — for Father Odescalchi 's very appearance was
32 2 Life of Pope Pius IX.
a living lesson from the '^ Imitation of Christ." But it was for his
own soul's advancement in self-denial and all the industries of inte-
rior life that the archbishop was anxious to learn from so admirable
a practitioner.
Even to this day Pius IX. never omits, no matter what may have
been the labors of the past twenty-four hours, to prepare most care-
fully, before retiring for the night, the subject of the next morning's
meditation. And when morning comes, he will brook no breaking in
on that sacred hour given wholly to sweet communion with the
divine majesty and the invisible court of heaven. When, at the
end of the full hour, he withdraws from that dear presence, he sits
down to call himself to a severe account for the manner in which he
has demeaned himself while conversing face to face with the King of
kings, and the practical resolutions he has formed for his own ad-
vancement during the coming day.
Thence — thus refreshed and purified and strengthened — he goes to
the altar to offer up the mystic sacrifice and his own life in union
with the Divine Victim sacramentally present there. This is habitu-
ally in a little chapel near his private apartments. One of his chap-
lains celebrates mass after him, the Pope remaining meanwhile in
devout thanksgiving before the altar.
Another pious habit, akin to that of daily mental prayer or medi-
tation, and learned from the same source, is that of withdrawing
after his noon-day meal for one half-hour to the same little chapel,
there to examine his soul in presence of the Great Judge on the way
he has discharged during the day the weighty duties of his high
office, and on the most pressing needs of every portion of his im-
mense flock.
Let the biblical scholar remember the patriarch's wrestling the
live-long night with one whom he thought an angel, and from whom,
when revealed to him with the early dawn, he obtained the blessing
which saved him from his brother's wrath and sworn revenge. No
one better than Pius IX. knows, that in prayer the soul must wrestle
with him who will have us importune him in our need. Christ's
vicar is skilled in this spiritual exercise, which obtains so many
graces for the dear souls of his wide family.
What wonder then, tliat, being such as he is, and coming daily
forth from the divine presence filled with the thought of God, and
inflamed with zeal for the interests dearest to him — the interests of
truth and immortal souls, and the welfare of his church — that he
His Official Duties, 323
should be so fearless in denouncing error and iniquity, in reproving
evil-doers, whether they be emperors, kings, presidents, or prime
ministers, or the dark conspirators who are ever plotting the destruc-
tion of order and morality ?
At half-past eight o'clock Pius IX. breakfasts on a cup of black
coffee and a piece of dry bread. Immediately afterward he enters
his study and begins the laborious duties of his official life. The
study is a " small one-windowed room," overlooking the square in
front of St. Peter's. The room has for all furniture a very common
carpet, some chairs covered with crimson cloth, a large writing-table,
on which are bundles of papers, a crucifix, a statuette of the Immac-
ulate Mother, a time-piece, and an ink-stand. The Pope sits in a
straight-backed chair, while the Cardinal Secretary of State, Mon-
signor Mercurelli, charged with the correspondence with royal per-
sonages, and Monsignor Nocella, his latin secretary, come in succes-
sion to fulfill their respective functions. Every document received
or sent is read in presence of his Holiness, who sits with his good
goose-quill in hand, marking on every letter or petition in a few dis-
tinctly written words, what is his pleasure.
It is a long and wearisome task — ^but only the beginning. When
his early mail has been disposed of, the hour has arrived for official
audiences. Then come the semi-public audiences to visitors, pil-
grims, etc. With this daily duty, so interesting to the crowds who
come from afar to have his blessing and a few kind words to each,
terminates the morning round of occupations.
What is known as the Pope's cercoU, '^ circles," are next held in a
small room adjoining the large library. The cardinals, bishops, and
specially invited clergymen and laymen- all come at the appointed
hour and form a semicircle round the Pope, all being seated. If
his Holiness has anything very interesting to communicate, he does
so briefly and pleasantly. There is a kind word for every one present
— a question to each foreigner about his own country — every word
enlivened by the Pope's pleasant humor and ready wit; and his
questions and remarks betraying a most retentive memory concerning
persons and places the most widely asunder.
This ends at two o'clock, when the Pope is served his frugal and
solitary dinner in a small room adjoining the bedroom and study, and
furnished with a like simplicity. There is soup, with three dishes,
of which he never tastes more than two ; of fried meats or spiced
dishes he never partakes ; drinks — ^lately, and by command of his
324 Lif<^ of Pope Pius IX.
physician — a very little foreign wine. One of the private chaplaina
in attendance reads a passage from Scripture, a portion of some
pious book ; and then if his private secretaries have anything of
special interest, they are admitted. When the cloth is removed
the Pope remains alone for ten or fifteen minutes, dozing with his
elbows on the table and his head between both hands. He then re-
tires for a half-hour's meditation to the private chapel.
The remainder of the afternoon is devoted to appointed audiences
of the various pontifical ministers and officials, each of whom has a
fixed hour for the transaction of business. There is not a minute in
his day that has not its allotted purpose. The " divine office," or
breviary, is punctually recited with one of his domestic chaplains.
At half-past eight there is what scarcely can be called a supper —
a slight refection consisting of one dish and a little wine and water.
The Pope then retires to his study, and the remaining hour till ten
o'clock is spent in strict seclusion, examination of conscience, and
preparation of the subject of meditation for the next morning.
Before the occupation of Eome by the Piedmontese, the Holy
Father had an hour for visiting the hospitals or the poorest quarters
of Rome, or for a good healthy walk in the least frequented roads.
** To students he is as affable and familiar as he was in his bishop-
ric of Imola, or while yet a simple priest. In the early part of the
autumn of 1856 he had a number of the students of every ecclesias-
tical college in Rome to dine with him. . . . Such is the special
kindness which he feels toward the students of the Irish college,
more of their body enjoyed that distinction than of any other.
'* One afternoon I was returning from a ramble over the charming
Pincian Hill, . . . when I saw a figure clad in a white cloth
soutane, with a cap and belt of the same color, and wearing a wide-
brimmed crimson hat adorned with a gold cord. . . . At each
Bide walked two persons dressed as the students of the Apollinari
college. ... I did not hesitate about forming part of the cor-
tege ... for nearly two miles along the Plaminian Way, which
the prevalence of a strong wind had rendered more than usually
dusty. Clad in the simple dress ... his figure appeared stout
and robust, but by no means unduly full for a man of his age
(then sixty-seven). He walked vigorously and well, freely using his
arms. . . . As ho was descending the hill he met a group of
students of the Propaganda, amongst whom I instantly recognized
one of the dark faces which I had previously seen in the Pauline
His Love of Shcderds and Children, 325
chapel. The Pope at once stopped and conyersed with them for a
few moments. In the same way he spoke to children who had been
enjoying themselves in innocent sport, but who, on being addressed
by the Holy Father, evinced toward him respect, not bashfulness.
. . . Every human being whom he met on his way knelt to
receive his blessing. There was no exception whatever — old as well
as young, rich as well as poor, the rude driver of the quaint-looking
market-cart as well as the noble equestrian — all knelt as he ap-
proached, and with an utter disregard of the place in which they
knelt.
" There was nothing in that face to awe or to repel, but every-
thing to attract. . . . There is in the face of Pius IX. much that
would recall to the memory the sweet countenance of another most
benevolent priest, the illustrious and lamented Father Matthew.
Nor is the resemblance merely external ; for in considerateness and
kindness of manner to all persons, without distinction of rank ; in
compassion and tenderness for the poor and the suffering, and in un-
failing gentleness to youth, there is much similarity of character and
disposition between these two great and good men. In their bound-
less charity — the desire to convert their every earthly possession into
the means of relieving others — I can see a still stranger and more
touching resemblance." *
It must not be imagined that the divine instinct which prompted
the heroic acts of devotion and charity mentioned in the early chap-
ters of this work found the soul of Pius IX. less obedient to its im-
pulses, than when he was a missionary amid the Andes, or a zealous
bishop at Spoleto and Imola. Where the love of prayer constantly
feeds in the soul the heavenly springs of charity, they fail not,
diminish not with age, but rather overflow more abundantly. There
are privileged souls, which never lose, during the longest life, that
freshness and trustfulness which incline them ever toward seeing
the good side of human nature, or which, when they see the wretched
side, impel them irresistibly to pity and to relieve.
When he was ruler of Rome and its territory, he never moved abroad
without having one or two of his almoners by his side with well-
filled bags, which were sure to be emptied ere his return. Since Oc-
tober, 1870, he stirs no more abroad ; the Ghetto and the poor of the
Trastavere watch no longer for the white-robed figure, and the radi"
* "Eome and its Ruler," 2d ed., London, 1859, pp. 125, 126, 127.
326 Life of Pope Pius IX.
ant countenance of their father and benefactor ; they watch no mora
for the hand that was never lifted but to bless, and which was eyer
open, like the broad bosom of a glorious river, to give plenty and joy
as it went on its way. There were, too, in the good old times, some
of the Noble Guard with their sovereign as he went on his frequent
walks or his errands of purest beneficence, and they were with him
not to protect him from dangers that had no existence, but solely for
the purpose of collecting every letter, every petition for aid, for
justice, or for mercy, presented to him by his children. And not
one ever failed to receive his prompt attention ; no case of injustice
ever came to his notice without being promptly redressed, no dis-
tressed creature ever appealed in vain to him, who was, if in naught
else, at least in mercy and goodness, Christ's representative on earth !
Still, even now the post-office brings him many a petition from far
and near, and the doors of the Vatican, as of old, are never closed,
by night or by day, to any human being who needs the bounty
or the care, the soothing voice, or the healing, merciful hand of
Pius IX. !
The personal income of the Pope, in his palmiest days, never ex-
ceeded five thousand dollars a year ; yet, from 1846 to 1850, he spent
in works of charity and beneficence upwards of one million and a
half of dollars — this enormous sum having been supplied by the vol-
untary donations of Catholics from every land, Since he has been
deprived of his temporal sovereignty he has steadily and consistently
refused the revenue granted or promised by the Italian parliament,
and has relied exclusively on the alms sent him by his children
throughout the world. With these he provides for the immense ad-
ministration required by the affairs of the universal Church, and
dispenses with an unstinted generosity aid to every suffering church
and institution throughout Italy, support to the thousands of help-
less nuns and priests driven from their homes and cast homeless and
penniless on the world, while his almsgiving to the obscure poor and
needy is far more abundant than in 1846 or 1849. The money
poured in on him by the loving piety of the faithful of both worlds
is poured back on others unceasingly.
Thus wo see the earth, from the glaciers of its great mountain-
chains and its lakes in the uplands, pouring down its streams without
ceasing into the ocean. And, all the while, all over the ocean's vast
expanse God's winds with their invisible hands are collecting the
vapors from the deep and freighting with them the clouds — the
The Slave- Girl from New Orleans. 327
ships of the air — impelling these toward the east and the west, where
the precious waters are discharged anew on mountain-chain, upland
and lowland, forest and plowed field. So is it with the charity of
Christ's faithful, and the exhaustless generosity of him who is Christ's
vicar.
Needing little or nothing for himself, and never bestowing on his
family either undeserved honor or gratuitous emoluments, Pius IX.
found means to perfect all the struggling institutions of his States,
whether these were devoted to religious or to secular purposes, and
to create others on every side with princely munificence. There is
not an object of real necessity or acknowledged utility to his people
that he did not encourage with the same impartial and intelligent
zeal.
In the work of a contemporary writer, taken all too early from his
country's need and confidence, from literature and journalism which
he had honored by his success and his virtues, from the British Par-
liament where all respected talents which party could neither sway
nor purchase, we have the touching and well-known story of the
American slave-girl brought to Rome by her Catholic masters.
Though the contact of Roman soil enfranchised all who touched it,
this poor African wished to remain a slave ; and besides, there was
the color of her race, which even in liberty-loving lands excludes
freedman and freedwoman from the dearest courtesies and charities
of social intercourse. Yet in Rome, the home of the common
father of all humanity, color never yet has been aught else but a
special claim on the affection, the respect, and the courtesy of all.
It was in 1856, and the family to which she belonged were re-
turning to New Orleans. Marguerite had been confirmed while in
Rome, and had only one wish ere she departed, that she might be
placed somewhere on the Pope's passage, where one fatherly look
might be given her, with a blessing pronounced especially on herself.
And the wish was made known to the Pope.
"Next day a papal dragoon was seen riding up and down the Via
Condotti, making inquiries at various places for Mademoiselle Mar-
guerite, for whom he had a letter of audience with the first sovereign
in the world." After an infinity of trouble the letter safely reached
its destination, and at the appointed hour Marguerite found herself
VR the reception hall of the Vatican, amid the crowd of the well-born
who were about to leave Rome after the Easter festivals. The poor
shrinking African girl naturally fancied that she must wait till all
3 2 8 Life of Pope Pius IX.
the great folk present had been presented to the Holy Father. But
lo ! the first name called out by the chamberlain in waiting is
** Mademoiselle Marguerite ! " And she is ushered, trembling and
amazed, into the presence of Pius IX. '^ A voice of touching sweet-
ness and gentleness soon inspired her with confidence. My child,
there are many great people waiting, but I wish to speak to you
the first. Though you are the least upon earth, you may he the
greatest in the sight of God, He then conversed with her for
twenty minutes. He asked her about her condition, her fellow-
slaves, her hardships. / have many hardships, she replied ; hut
since I tvas confi,rmed I have learned to accept them as the will of
God, He exhorted her to persevere, and to do good in the condition
in which she was placed ; and he then gave her his blessing. He
blessed her, and blessed 'all those about her ; ' so that this poor slave
carried with her from that memorable interview greater courage
. . . to bear up against her yoke of suffering and humiliation." *
We shall not be surprised to hear of the Pope's doing in his old
age what he had done as a priest in his early youth — seek out in the
cholera hospitals the worst cases of infection, and attend to them
with his characteristic tenderness. He had read of his favorite,
Peter Claver, finding a poor negro slave stricken with a most hideous
leprosy and left to die uncared for in a lonely out-house. The holy
missionary wrapped his cloak around him, lifted him tenderly in hia
arms, and carried him, with loving words of comfort, to the Leprosy
Hospital, wherejie forgot everything else in the world till he had
prepared that precious soul for heaven. So is it related of Pius
IX. that he found a poor plague-stricken Jewess one day, and never
quitted her, lavishing on her every care his charity could suggest,
till she expired, while he was lifting up her head to ease it in its
agony.
When the plague attacked the soldiers of the French garrison, he
could find no rest till he was in their midst ; and how they blessed
him ! When later the poor deluded followers of Garibaldi had been
wounded and taken prisoners in an attempt on Rome, he went
among them to console and care for them, leaving this merciful
labor to no other hands than his own. Did he win their hearts ?
Let us not ask, but pass on.
• John Francis Magnlie, ** Rome and its Ruler."
CHAPTER XXVII.
Working of the New Institutions — Judged by Thiers — By
Palmeeston — Baeon Sauzet on Eoman Legislation — The
Mazzinian Galeotti's Opinion — Administeation of Eo-
MAN Law — How the Rights of the Pooe aee tenderly
CAEED FOE — WhAT PeEVENTED THE PoPE'S ReFOEMS FEOH
BEING Effectual — Inceedible Duplicity and Saceile-
Gious Haste of Piedmont — The Roman Question in the
CONGEESS OF PaEIS — CaVOUE'S CALUMNIES REFUTED BY
Count de Rayneval — Second Encyclical on Italy — The
Pope eesolves to Visit his Dominions.
1850-1857.
IN September, 1849, as we have seen, the Holy Father had pub-
lished a decree {motu proprio) reorganizing the goyernment of
the Pontifical States in such a way as to make the institutions there-
by established most efficient in remedying the disorders consequent
on the late revolution, and admirably suited to the needs of the
country and the character of the people, as a preparation toward real
constitutional government. The two chief political bodies thus cre-
ated were the Council of State and the Council of Finance.
The latter managed so admirably the successive yearly budgets,
that in presenting the project for that of 1857, the expenses only ex-
ceeded the receipts by half a million dollars. The French official
Moniteur remarked thereon, December 2, 1856: ''If one only re-
members that the pontifical government has had to take up and cash
forty millions of worthless paper currency bequeathed by the repub-
lic, one cannot help feeling astonished that at the end of seven years
of financial management there only remains a deficit of half a million
of dollars. By persevering in this path the government and the
council must within a very short period arrive at a perfect financial
equilibrium."
Meanwhile the French republican government had named a com-
329
330 Life of Pope Pitts IX,
mission of fifteen eminent statesmen to examine and report on the
political wisdom and practical value of the institutions granted to
his States hy Pius IX. The report was drawn up, signed, and pre-
sented hy the inveterate foe of the Holy See, M. Thiers, on Octoher
the 13th, 1849. "Your commission," it is said in the report, "has
maturely examined this act (the motu proprio), ... in order
to see if the counsels which France believed herself authorized to
offer, had borne such fruits as to prevent her regretting having inter-
vened in Eoman affairs. "Well, by a large majority (of twelve in fif-
teen) your commission declares that it sees in the motu proprio a
first boon of such real value, that nothing but unjust pretensions
could overlook its importance. We shall discuss this act in its every
detail. But limiting ourselves at present to consider the principle
on which is based the pontifical concession, we say that it grants all
desirable provincial and municipal liberties. As to political liber-
ties, consisting in the power of deciding on the public business of a
country in one of the two assemblies and in union with the executive
— as in England, for instance — it is very true that the motit proprio
does not grant this sort of political liberty, or only grants it in the
rudimentary form of a council without deliberative voice.
" This is a question of immense gravity, which the Holy Father
alone can solve, and which he and the Christian world are interested
in not leaving to chance. That on this point he should have
chosen to be prudent, that after his recent experience he should
have preferred not to reopen a career of agitation among a people
who have shown themselves so unprepared for parliamentary liberty,
is what we do not know that we have either the right or the cause to
deem blameworthy."
In 1856 Lord Palmerston said of this same act : " We all know
that, on his restoration to his States, in 1849, the Pope published an
ordinance called motu proprio, by which he declared his intention
to bestow institutions, not indeed on the large proportions of a con-
stitutional government, but based nevertheless on popular election,
and which, if they had only been carried out, must have given his
subjects such satisfaction as to render unnecessary the intervention
of a foreign army."
But they had been carried out, as we have seen by the financial
results just stated, and by others to be explained presently ; and
these results would have been even much more satisfactory had Lord
Palmerston and Louis Napoleon and Count Cavour given the Holy
opinions of Baron SauzeL 331
Father the honest and open support of their respective governments^
instead of thwarting his best efforts by dishonest intrigue, dark con-
spiracy, and open misrepresentation.
Certain it is that the communal, municipal, and provincial liber-
ties of the Roman States were founded on a legislation acknowledged
to be the most admirable in existence, and on a practice and customs
going back to the remotest period of Italian civilization.
Baron Sauzet, who was president of the Chamber of Deputies in
the reign of Louis Philippe, and who is not suspected of being too
favorable to the papacy, thus wrote, in 1860, of the system of legis-
lation which prevailed in the States of the Church, and on which, as
on a basis as solid as the Apennines, Pius IX. was endeavoring to
build the improvements demanded by modern society :
" Criminal procedure and penal legislation have been regulated by
the codes of Gregory XVI., which are a true progress, and in which
delays and not severity have been censured.
'* The old Roman law has remained as the basis of the civil legis-
lation of Rome. Certain dispositions thereof have been adapted by
the Popes to the needs of various ages and peoples.
''Except these special points of great delicacy, on which every
Christian society must allow religious authority alone to legislate, the
Roman legislation of to-day is the old Roman law of Justinian, mod-
ified in some points by the ordinance of 1834.
''The changes made since that year are few, and pains have been
taken to codify them, so as to impart to them a perfect, scientific
lucidity, and to render them available to practitioners. This labor,
carefully prepared by the Council of State, is at present in the hands
of a commission composed of the most eminent and learned jurists
in Rome. . . .
" In Rome they are very far from the legislative confusion which
obtains in England, and which heaps up over each other the statutes
of preceding epochs, continually making new laws and never ab-
rogating the old, maintaining together the charters of the Planta-
genets, the edicts of Elizabeth, and the ordinances of Queen Vic-
toria. The Romans have not made of legal knowledge a problema-
tic science, whose secrets are held and sold by a few privileged sooth-
sayers, whose dark depths it would exhaust the largest fortune to
explore, and to the possession of which the longest lives do not suf-
fice.
*' Rome, then> possesses a regular legislation, performing its func-
332 Life of Pope Pius IX,
tions with regularity, based on foundations laid by equity itself, and
surrounded by the reverence of ages." *
This eminent man scouts the idea of imposing on the Romans, as
Louis Napoleon intended, the Code Napoleon. Galeotti, who had
been minister of justice under Mazzini, says of the institutions of
the Papal States : " In the pontifical government there are many
parts deserving of praise ; it contains many ancient institutions
which are of unquestioned excellence, and there are others of more
modem date which the other provinces of Italy might well envy.
. . . One may say confidently that there is no other government
in Italy in which the abstract principle of discussion and delibera-
tion has been so long established and so generally practiced."
Elsewhere, speaking of the judicature, the same author says :
"The tribunal of the Rota is the best and the most respected
of the ancient institutions in Rome ; some slight changes would
make it the best in all Europe. . . . The mode of procedure
followed in it is excellent, and might serve as a model in every
country where people would not have the administration of justice
reduced to the art of simply terminating lawsuits."
"Law expenses," says Monsignor Eevre, "are very moderate, the
proceedings are very rapid, and the rules of the judiciary are among
the very best of the kind. Besides the poor are never taxed by the
courts, while they are always supplied with counsel. In Rome itself,
the pious confraternity of St. Yvo (the patron saint of lawyers)
takes on itself gratuitously the cases of all poor people, when they
appear to have right on their side." The arch-confraternity of San
Girolamo della Carita also undertakes the defense of prisoners and
poor persons, especially widows. "It has the administration of a
legacy left by Felice Amadori, a noble Florentine, wlio died in the
year 1639. . . . The principal objects of their solicitude are
persons confined in prison; these they visit, comfort, clothe, and
frequently liberate, either by paying the fine imposed on them as a
penalty of their offense, or by arranging matters with their credi-
tors. . . . With a wise charity, they endeavor to simplify and
shorten causes ; and they employ a solicitor, who assists in arranging
disputes, and thus putting an end to litigation. . • . This con-
traternity embraces the flower of the Roman prelacy, the patrician
order, and the priesthood." f
* Rome dtfoant V Europe, p. 178. f "Rome and its Rulers.**
Piedmont Neutralizes Papal Reforms, 333
We shall presently see tlie Holy Father foregoing, seemingly, every
other care, even those of his vast spiritual administration, to examine,
himself in person, the material and social condition of every part of
his States. In the meantime, one cannot help asking, why did not
the institutions granted in Gaeta, and enlarged since the Pope's
return, satisfy his people ? Why did not the wise improvements
made in the admirahle system of legislation praised by Italians and
foreigners alike, convince the Eomans or the most influential among
them, that they had but little, if anything, to envy in the institu-
tions of other lands, while in their own they had a sovereign most
desirous of . bestowing, in addition to all their priceless inherited
blessings, whatever was beneficial in modern industry, and commer-
cial freedom ?
The answer is a plain one : Mazzinism and Piedmontism never
ceased inculcating on the Koman mind that the whole system of law
and government was worthless, vicious, antiquated and illiberal,
because it was a ''clerical system;" while Piedmont, by sweeping
away whatever past ages had given itself of priestly privilege, pre-
rogative, power, or influence, was ever challenging the praises of
Europe, the admiration of Young, Italy, and the imitation of the
other States of the Peninsula.
It is not easy to convey to the reader any adequate conception of
the radical change effected by such men as Cavour in the ancient
Catholic constitution of Savoy and Piedmont, and that without any-
thing like preparation or transition.
A memorandum sent by the court of Eome to all the European
governments in 1856, and accompanied with a long array of over-
whelming documentary evidence, sets forth with a masterly ability
the persecutions which the Church had to endure in the kingdom of
Sardinia during the eight preceding years ; the incredible duplicity
with which the Sardinian government persisted in sending plenipo-
tentiary after plenipotentiary to the Holy See, to negotiate new con-
cordats, while it refused in the most solemn manner to hold itself
bound by any concordat whatever; profiting by the pretense of
negotiating to keep up in Eome, with the conspirators and the dis-
affected subjects of the Holy Eather, the most criminal and odious
intrigues against his authority, while in Piedmont and the island of
Sardinia every remnant of ecclesiastical liberty, every distinctive
Catholic institution, was swept away in spite of all the forms of jus-
334 Life of Pope Pius IX.
tice and in violation of the most sacred principles of international
law.*
It was a clever stroke of policy which induced Piedmont to join
England and France during the Crimean war. It obtained for her
a place in the conference of Paris, which met in March, 1856. It
was the first time that Turkey or Piedmont had been admitted to
a seat in a European Congress. And Cavour, who since Novem-
ber, 1852, controlled the Turinese parliament and ministry, had
achieved a great political triumph in securing the open counte-
nance of the two great western powers for the prosecution of all his
designs in favor of Italian unity and Piedmontese supremacy.
Peace was concluded with Russia on March the 28th, and the
legitimate labor of the conference seemed to be ended. But on
April the 8th a special session was held, at which Count Cavour
presented a note on the condition of the Roman States, which was a
solemn arraignment of the pontifical government. This was sup-
ported by Count Walewski, the French plenipotentiary, and by Lord
Clarendon, the British minister. The Russian and Austrian repre-
sentatives declined discussing the matter, as not within the scope of
their instructions, and Baron Manteuffel gave a very guarded answer.
On April the 16th a supplementary note was addressed to the French
and British plenipotentiaries by Count Cavour. It regrets the re-
fusal of the other powers to discuss Italian affairs, reiterates the
former accusations against the Roman and Neapolitan governments,
and declares that the popular irritation, which had been somewhat
calmed by the hope of redress from the powers, " must now burst
forth more violently than ever ; . . . that the Italians will surely
enlist with a southern ardor in the ranks of the revolutionary and
subversive party, and that Italy will become once more a focus of
conspiracy and disorder. . . . This awakening of revolution-
ary passions in the countries bordering on Piedmont . . . must
expose it to dangers of exceeding gravity. . . . But this is not
the only danger with which Sardinia is threatened ; a worse peril
comes from the means employed by Austria to repress revolutionary
fervor in Italy."
It was a threat held out against Austria in the face of Europe, and
♦ See Exposfi eorroibori d« doeuments sur les soins incessant par lesqueU 8a
Saintete ffest efforeee de porter remade aux maux que soujfre VEglise Catholiqus
dans le Roj^aume de Sardaigne,
Cavour Refuted by De RaynevaL 335
with the seeming acquiescence of England and France. It is not to
be forgotten, however, that the question was introduced by Count
Walewski, the president of the conference. Lord Clarendon's propo-
sition, more clearly eyen than Count Cavour's, proposed 'Hhe com-
plete secularization of the pontifical government and the organization
of an administrative system in harmony with the spirit of the age,
and aiming at the happiness of the people." In conformity with
Cavour's plan, the Legations were first to be organized under a lay
government with a national army.
This dismemberment of the papal territory was not put forward in
vain. It was an idea cast into the Italian mind to fructify there.
Unfortunately for Cavour and his calumnies, the French govern-
ment had instructed its ambassador in Rome, the Count de Eayneval,
to make the most searching inquiry into the whole framework of
the pontifical government, the reforms made by Pius IX., the neces-
sity of a further secularization of the administration, the condition
of the papal finances, the state of agriculture, commerce, and in-
dustry ; the causes of dissatisfaction existing among the people of
Rome and the provinces, and their real wishes in regard to a change
of rulers, etc.
The inquiry was made with a thoroughness, an intelligence, and a
fair-mindedness beyond all praise ; and on May the 14th, eight days
after the last philippic of Count Cavour against the Holy See, M.
De Rayneval sent his report to Count Walewski. Nothing was heard
of it till March, 1857, when the London Daily News published an
English translation. It next appeared, translated from the English,
in the Independance Beige of Brussels, and was thence borrowed by
the French press. It was impossible to give a more direct and tri-
umphant refutation of the unblushing assertions of Cavour and the
hackneyed accusations of the entire Liberal press of Europe. '(See
''Rome and its Ruler.")
The imperial government of France had its own reasons for with-
holding this remarkable State paper from the public. A copy, how-
ever, had been sent to Lord Clarendon, and thus found its way to
the English public, and back again to the continental press. Lord
Clarendon lost no time in reproving Count Cavour for the bad faith
displayed in his proceedings at the conference, and the sanction
which the British plenipotentiary had thereby been induced to givo
to what was simply a tissue of misrepresentations.
To these — and that before Count de Rayneval's dispatch had been
33^ Life of Pope Pius IX.
made public — the Holy Father replied by a second encyclical to the
bishops of Italy on August the 10th, 1856. It is in such authentic
documents that posterity will study and admire the great soul of
Pius IX., and that lofty spirit of faith and courage which enabled
him to see providence permitting for a while the triumph of the
wicked, in order to purify and exalt the good, and moving the earth,
in his appointed time, to free his Church from the domination of
the oppressor.
While praising the heroic constancy of the archbishops, bishops,
and priests, so violently persecuted in Piedmont and Sardinia for
conscience' sake, the sovereign pontiff repeats his condemnation of
the various laws enacted by the Turinese legislature against the
Church and her imprescriptible rights, and his censure of various
errors denounced and proscribed in preceding allocutions. One error
in particular meets the Holy Father's reprobation, while, on the other
hand, he gives an admirable and authoritative explanation of the
saying, " Out of the Church there is no salvation."
"On this occasion," the encyclical says, "we must once more
recall and stigmatize the serious error into which certain Catholics
have fallen.
" They believe that one can attain eternal life by living (volunta-
rily) in error, far away from the true faith and Catholic unity. This
is formally in opposition to Catholic teaching. We know — and you
know — that persons who are in invincible ignorance of our holy
faith, who are careful to follow the natural law and its dictates,
graven as they are by God in the hearts of all, and who lead an hon-
orable and righteous life, can, with the aid of the divine light and
grace, acquire eternal life. For God perfectly sees, searches, knows
the spirits of men, their souls, thoughts, and habits ; and in his
supreme goodness and boundless mercy he permits no one to suffer
eternal chastisement who has not been guilty of voluntary transgres-
sion.
" But we are also acquainted with the Catholic axiom, that out of
the Church there is no salvation ; that is, that no one can obtain
eternal salvation while remaining rebellious to the authority and de-
cisions of the Church, while persisting obstinately in remaining
separated from her unity and from the communion of the Roman
pontiff, the successor of that Peter to whom our Lord intrusted the
keeping of liis vineyard. . . ,
" Far be it, however, from the children of the Church to become
True Charity and True Patriotism, 337
the enemies of such as are not united to us by the ties of religious
faith and charity. On the contrary, they are bound to render such
persons all the services prompted by Christian charity, wheneyet
they find them in poverty, in sickness, and in distress of any kind ;
they should assist them in every way, laboring chiefly to dispel
the darkness in which they live, to bring them to the Church,
their loving mother, whose arms are ever opened wide to embrace
them. . . ."
The exhortations given in the letter from Gaeta are here briefly
and earnestly repeated. So many persons of all orders, and of both
sexes, have suffered for the faith during these sad years ! There is a
heartfelt tribute of praise for all who have been true to God and
their conscience. And then, "In the midst of our accumulated
bitterness, and of the storm raised against us, we must not be cast
down. ... Is not Christ our light and our strength ? . . .
Know we not that the gates of hell shall never prevail against his
Church ? She has ever been and shall ever continue to be preserved
without stain beneath the sheltering arms of Christ, who is her
builder, and who was yesterday, and to-day, and the same for-
ever, "
But the Pope had resolved to leave nothing undone that he could
do, in order to know to the fullest extent, and in every detail, what
was the condition of every part of his dominions, what the griev-
ances, real or imaginary, of every class of his subjects therein, what the
resources developed and undeveloped, and the needs and aspirations
of every one of his children, so far as his own personal observation
could ascertain, and his utmost devotion could supply a remedy to
every ill, and aid in perfecting what was good. He was nearly a
septuagenarian, and expected to be soon called to his dread account ;
his every minute and energy thenceforward should be given more
than ever to the one supreme purpose of saving by sheer generosity,
in the discharge of his double office of pontiff and prince, every soul
confided to him.
So, in the beginning of May, 1857, just when, unexpectedly to
him, all Europe was thrown into a ferment by the publication of
Count de Raynevars dispatch, the heroic old man set out from
Rome, resolved not to return thither till he had, so far as one in his
position could, seen and heard every one of his subjects. He had
made a public vow some time previously to visit the sanctuary of
Loreto, in order there to recommend the perils of his people and the
22
338 Life of Pope Pius IX.
dearest interests of religion to the Immaculate Mother of Christ, and
to beseech her visible protection amid the growing tempest.
On the 4th of May the Holy Father set out from Rome, having
with him, beside the ministers whose presence was not indispensable
in Rome, a select body of prelates and lay officers whose duty should
be, during the journey, to collect the most accurate information
about the wants of the people and the improvements of every kind
needed in each locality. Among the prelates were Monsignori De
Merode, Talbot, Prince Hohenlohe, Borromeo, and Berardi, every
one of them distinguished alike for high birth and great ability, and
representing the great European nationalities.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Modern?- Rome Created amid Ruins — Catholic Creations
THROUGHOUT THE CaMPAGNA — PlEDMOKT UNDOING WHAT
THE Popes had done — An Instance on the Pope's Route —
Monte Soratte and its Monasteries — The Pope's Journey
A Serious Tour of Inspection — Work done and Improve-
ments ORDERED— Munificence of Pius IX. — Royal Visi-
tors — The Pope in Modena and Tuscany — His Return
TO Rome — The true Mortara Case — The Mazzinians Im-
patient — Orsini's Attempt to Murder Napoleon III. —
When and How the War of 1859 was Planned — Europe
Mystified by Napoleon and Cayour — Garibaldi's Execu-
tive Programme.
1857-1859.
THE Rome of our days, as is well known, was built up at first by
the Popes amid the ruins left behind by time and the barba-
rians. The region around the city, the Agro Romano y or the Cam-
pagna in its narrowest sense, was necessarily allowed to remain what
the destroyers had left it, a wilderness of ruin ; which gradually be-
came an uncultivated, uninhabited waste, scarred by the long lines
of the ancient paved roads or crumbling aqueducts, dotted by frag-
ments of pagan temples, patrician villas and tombs, and the conical
huts of the modern shepherds. In the time of St. Augustine and
St. Jerome this abandoned and untenanted tract had become a hot-
bed of malarial diseases. During the next three or four centuries,
while Greek and Goth and Hun and Frank and Saracen swept
over it together or successively, no farmer would have dared to cul-
tivate its most lovely portions, even had they been free from the
scourge of fever, for the worse scourge of human rapacity always
hung over it. And so it went on increasing in desolation and sick- "
liness, till it became as hopelessly a desert as the plain of Egyptian
Thebes or the sandy expanse of the Sahara.
The half -educated traveler who crosses it from Civita Vecchia fco
339
340 Life of Pope Pius IX.
Rome, or who looks down upon it from some of the hills near the
city, will find in its silence and desolafceness a ready argument
against the priestly rule of the Popes, and the unthriftiness of Catho-
lic populations in general. Not so the man, be his religion what it
may, who has well read the story of the past.
Many a Pope before Pius IX. had tried, and tried in vain, to re-
claim the Campagna, as well as to drain the Pontine Marshes. And
Pius IX. was too earnest in seeking to repair and to improve, not to
have endeavored to reclaim this wilderness from fever and unpro-
ductiveness.
As he and his cortege sped, on that lovely 4th of May, northward
along the valley of the Tiber toward the distant Sabine mountains,
the malarial season had already set in, though the Campagna was
still most beautiful to look upon, with its rank vegetation, and its
profusion of wild flowers, every mound they met on their way cover-
ing some city more ancient than Rome itself, and the hillsides
covered with flowering arbusts and vines, ancient tombs rifled of
their dead and their treasures long ago peeping out amid the red
tufa, the hilltops crested with the remains of Sabine or Pelasgian
structure? — ^the silent witnesses of mighty races and civilizations long
passed away.
Whatever there is of life and thrift and beauty and happiness in
the towns and cities that rise up before the pilgrims, from Farfa and
Casamari to the distant Loreto on the populous Adriatic shore, is
chiefly due, under God's bounty, to the fostering care of the Roman
pontiffs.
It was the first time since that memorable mid-June of 1846 that
the present sovereign of the Roman States had been able to retrace
his steps along that well-known road. How little had the arch-
bishop-bishop of Imola imagined, as he then hastened to the obse-
quies of Gregory XVI., that on himself should soon devolve the
responsibility of continuing the fatherly rule of this long line of
peaceful sovereigns, and the terrible sorrow of seeing his beneficent
authority usurped by a power as anti-Catholic in its aims as the
fiercest Arian emperors of old, as anti-Christian as Hun or Moham-
medan, as untruthful and unprincipled as the worst Greek who ever
disgraced the throne of Constantino.
But Pius IX., as beautiful city after beautiful city arose before
him on his way, and sent forth to greet him clergy and people in
their best holiday attire and with words of reverential and loving
The Creations of Catholic Genius, 341
welcome, only thought how lie could repair in his own day all the
omissions of the past, and satisfy, in accomplishing his own cher-
ished designs, the lawful yearnings of every soul among these mul-
titudes.
There were, among the deep valleys of the Sabine mountains, as
among the savage solitudes of the more distant Apennines, monastic
establishments, first planted there long ages ago by St. Benedict or
his disciples, or some religious exile, like Athanasius, forced to fly
from the fell fury of Arianism. These pioneers of Christian civiliza-
tion and supernatural sanctity, in an age when might was the only
law, and violence ruled Europe as well as Asia, had gone away into
the most inaccessible wilds, and sought a peaceful refuge where
human habitation had never been, and where human cupidity had
no motive to venture. Thus grew up Subiaco and Farfar and Casa-
mari and Monte Cassino and Grotta Ferrata and Trisulti and Fos-
sanuova, like Monte Luco near Spoleto. Monastic industry trans-
formed the very rock into forms of lasting beauty ; monastic holiness
covered with every flower of heaven the crags and precipices which
repelled not only the robber, but even the wild beast. And soon
around the monastery farmers fleeing from the ravaged lowlands, or
goatherds tempted thither with their flocks, sought a refuge beneath
the sheltering arms of piety, and built themselves there a home.
Thus the hermit's cell among the most frightful crags became a
centre for a new civilization.
Little dreamed Pius IX., as he sought to revive in these far-famed
abodes of ancient learning and world-renowned holiness the pristine
spirit of fervor, the equal thirst for the culture of science and of
sanctity, that within his own lifetime an Italian sovereign and
Italian statesmen would glory in driving forth the peaceful inmates
of these monasteries — homeless, penniless, helpless — into the world
from which they had withdrawn forever.
Near Civita Castellana, the Falerium Vetus of the Eomans, occu-
pying the site of a Pelasgian stronghold, is Monte Soratte (the
Soracte of the Latins), 2,270 feet above the lower Campagna. It
forms, in its isolation, the most conspicuous object between Eome
and the mountains, its very summit being crowned with the monas-
tery of St. Sylvester, Pope — the friend of Constantino the Great.
There it stands, "perched on the highest points of the perpendicu-
lar crags, its walls one with their precipices. . . . It is a sub-
lime position, removed from and above everythins: else. Hawks
342 Life of Pope Pius IX,
circle around its huge cliffs, and are the only sign of life. . . ,
To these solitudes came Constantine to seek for Sylvester the hermit,
whom he found here in a cave, and led away to raise to the papal
throne, walking before him as he rode upon his mule, as is repre-
sented in the ancient frescoes of the Quattro Incoronati. The ora-
tory of St. Sylvester was inclosed in a monastery founded in 746 by
Carloman, son of Charles Martel, and uncle of Charlemagne, and
though later buildings have succeeded upon the same spot, and the
existing edifice is externally of 1500, it incloses much of the church
of Carloman and the more ancient hermitage of St. Sylvester.
"The walls of the church are covered with medieval frescoes,
fading, but still very beautiful. On the right of the entrance is S.
Buenaventura ; then come S. Anne, the Virgin, S, Eoch, and S. Se-
bastian, but all have been much injured by the goatherds, who used
to shelter their flocks here when the church was utterly deserted.
The beautiful old high altar is richly carved in stone taken from the
mountain itself. Beneath the lofty tribune is the cell of Sylvester,
half cut in the mountain. It incloses the sloping mass of rock
which formed the bed of his hermitage, and his stone seat. Here is
also the altar on which, first Sylvester himself, and afterward Greg-
ory the Great, said mass. Behind the convent is its little garden,
where legend tells that S. Sylvester would sow one day his turnips
for the meal of the morrow, and that they were miraculously brought
to perfection during the night. There is a grand view from this
over all the wide-spreading country, but especially into the gorges of
the Sabina, and the monks described the beautiful effect when each
of the countless villages, which can be seen from hence, lights its
bonfire on the eve of the Ascension.
** A carriage can ascend the mountain as far as S. Oreste, and here
we left it and followed a footpath. It is about two miles to the top.
Most of the convents are in ruins. By the pilgrim's road, which
winds through an avenue of ancient ilexes and elms, we reached the
gates of Santa Maria delle Grazie. The long drive, and the steep
walk in the great heat, had made us faint with hunger and thirst.
The monks came out with wine, and slices of Bologna sausage, and
delicious coarse bread, to a room at the gate — ^for ladies are not
allowed to enter the walls — and never was refreshment more accept-
able. There are only thirteen monks now, who live an active life of
charity, and whoso advice and instruction are widely sought by the
country people around. There is little fear of their suppression, as
Mo7iastic Poverty arid Charity, 343
they have scarcely any finances, and tlieir Inimble dwellings on the
bare crag could not be sold for anything, and would be useless to
the present government.
*^ Those we saw were a grand group ; one, a tall and commanding
figure, with handsome face and flashing eyes, told us of the peace
and blessing he received from his solitary life here, and of the ever-
growing interest of the place and all its associations ; another, of a
coarse common expression, spoke in murmuring tones, and was skep-
tical about all histories, which he wound up always by E tradizione,
* such is the tradition ; ' a third was an old venerable man of eighty-
six, who had passed his life in these solitudes, a life so evidently
given up to prayer that his spirit seemed only half to belong to
earth.
" We spoke to him of the change which was coming over the
monastic life, but he did not murmur. Only when we talked of the
great poverty of the people from the present taxation, and of their
reduced means of helping them, he lamented a little. He said the
people came to him every day, and they asked why they had such
sufferings to bear ; that they had been quite happy before, and had
never wished or sought for any change ; and that he urged them to
patience and prayer, and to the faith that though outward events
might change, and earthly comforts be swept away, God, who led
his children by mysterious teaching which we could not fathom, was
himself always the same.
" The three monks went with us to the top, accompanied us on
our return as far as Santa Maria delle Grazie, and as we turned to
descend the mountain-path, the old monk of eighty-six, standing at
the head of the steps, stretched out his hands and most solemnly
blessed us : ' May the blessed Saviour keep and guide you, and may
his holy angels walk with you in all your ways ! ' "
Such is the testimony of Hare, and his account of these mountain-
sanctuaries which he visited in 1874. The reader may thus anti-
cipate the baneful changes that mark the reign of Victor Emmanuel
and Garibaldi.
A railroad, one of the fulfilled dreams of Pius IX. 's princely
solicitude, now connects Eome with the scenes here described. It
throws out a branch at Orte, the main trunk skirting the southern
border of Umbria to Orvieto, and thence to Florence, the branch
turning away from the Tiber, and climbing by rapid gradients to
Narni and Spoleto and Foligno, where it again divides, sending one
344 L^f^ of Pope Pius IX.
arm across the Apennines to Ancona and the other by Perugia and
Arezzo to Florence.
It is no exaggeration to say that the journey from first to last was
one continuous oyation. There was no need of official artifices to
call the people from their homes to greet their sovereign. All the
calumnies uttered by the press of the reyolution, all the blood shed
and the wrongs inflicted by its leaders, had only made Pius IX. the
more dear to the hearts of his people. But as he approached his
former diocese of Spoleto the reception assumed a most touching
character. The evidences of a love and veneration which time and
distance had not weakened were multiplied at every step. The rules
of State etiquette had to be laid aside ; for all, young and old, wished
to see their former good shepherd, and he would see them and con-
verse with them. He seemed never to forget a face once familiar or
a name known in former years. The members of the clergy whom
he had ordained, or who had begun their training under him, were
special objects of his regard.
And thus the pilgrimage continued to Loreto. But we are not to
suppose that the Pope allowed his time in each locality to be spent
in idle pageantry, or in official receptions and speech-making. Every-
where the authorities were encouraged or commanded to make known
to the sovereign in person what most needed reform and improve-
ment. Xo person, high or low, who had a complaint to make or a
petition to offer, was rebuked or sent away on pretext of stress of oc-
cupation or want of time. The Holy Father would persist in stay-
ing in every place till all had an opportunity of addressing him, and
till his officers had inspected and seen everything within the scope
of their instructions.
"Up to the month of June," says Maguire, "no less than 30,000
petitions had been received by the Pope in the course of his tour,
and many thousands in addition were presented to him before he
returned to Rome. Certainly there has been nothing hidden by the
people from the eyes of their sovereign.
"To those in prison the Pope has exhibited his characteristic
clemency, by granting six months* * grace ' to all save the worst
characters, whose liberation would have been a great evil to the com-
munity. To political prisoners he has been equally compassionate.
To the middle of June, he had liberated or ' graced ' twenty-four of
this class of offenders. To four, who were exiles, he granted per-
mission to return to Rome ; to throe he has remitted part of their
His Cle7nency and Practical Wisdom, 345
pnnislinient ; and seventeen lie has entirely liberated. Preyious to
his leaving Eome, the Holy Father had given freedom to two men,
who were, to say the least, among the most prominent of the Re-
publican party, namely, Sterbinetti (the infamous president of the
Council of Deputies at the time of Rossi's murder) and Galeotti
(one of Mazzini's ministers)." *
So anxious was the Holy Father to make this personal inspection
of his States one of the utmost practical utility, that in 1855 he sent
one of his most enlightened young prelates, Monsignor (now cardi-
nal) Berardi, to England for the purpose of making a thorough
study of all that concerns the civil administration of that coun-
try. '^Prisons, hospitals, docks, revenue, finance, police, and even
the condition of the lowest criminal classes — everything (says Sir
George Bowyer) engaged his acute and active mind." With such
persons by his side, Pius IX. tried to hear everything and to see
everything, so that no evil should be left unremedied, and nothing
faulty unreformed.
From the lamented author of ''Rome and its Ruler," who was on
the spot and obtained his information from official sources, we can
gather some of the most prominent results of this tour of inspec-
tion, which many of Pius IX. 's detractors took pains to represent as
a journey undertaken for mere personal ostentation.
The port of Pesaro was to be almost entirely reconstructed, the
Holy Father contributing $80,000 from his own resources ; the port
of Sinigaglia was also materially improved and a new sanitary office
built ; the cities of Ancona and Oivita Vecchia were to be enlarged ;
at Bologna the high street was enlarged and beautified, and the
beautiful fagade of the cathedral was to be completed, the Pope con-
tributing for his share $5,000 for fifteen years. At Perugia new
prisons were to be constructed, the condition of the prisoners to be
improved in every way ; and a generous yearly contribution was given
toward preserving the splendid native collections of art. Ravenna,
in all her long neglect and decay, was not forgotten; Pjus IX.
wished to revive something of the ancient commercial prosperity of
the place, and promised $4,000 annually for ten years toward im-
proving the port. At Ferrara many improvements were ordered,
and $9,000 were contributed toward the completion of the Pamfilic
Canal ; he also established a commission of engineers for the purpose
* " Rome and its Ruler," c. xli.
34^ Life of Pope Pius IX.
of devising a plan for turning the river Keno into the Po, and thus
saving a large tract of fertile country from periodical inundation.
At Eecanati a relief fund for poor sailors was established ; at Com-
macchio a grant was given for an artesian well ; at Ascoli, for a •
bridge ; at Pesaro, Macerata, Imola, Camerino, and other places
generous sums were given for the improvement of the public roads ;
telegraphic stations were ordered in every place of importance.
"There is not," says Maguire, "a prison, an hospital, or a school
which has not been inspected, either by himself personally or by his
orders ; and it was the first duty of Monsignor de Merode, on his
arrival in every city or town, to visit its prison, thoroughly examine
into all its details, and specially report upon it. Monsignor Talbot
aided in effecting many valuable reforms in the charitable, educa-
tional, and industrial institutions of the Papal States."
At Perugia the Holy Father received the visit of the Archduke
Charles of Tuscany, sent by his father, Leopold, to compliment the
vicar of Christ; at Pesaro he received the Archduke Maximilian
of Austria, who did not then dream of a Mexican empire and its
tragic downfall, forsaken and betrayed by Napoleon III. ; at Bologna,
the Grand Duke of Tuscany and his entire family, and the Dukes of
Parma and Modena came to offer their homage. He could not refuse
the pressing invitation to visit Tuscany and Modena, the sovereigns
honoring themselves in presence of their subjects by showing the
Holy Father in public the reverence which recalled the legends of
the middle ages. "He introduced us himself into Florence," says
Pius IX., speaking of the Grand Duke Leopold, "walking by our
side, and accompanied us to every Tuscan city which we visited. . .
All the archbishops and bishops of his States, all the clergy, the cor-
porate bodies, the magistrates, the nobles, showed tlieir delight by
testifying their devotion to us in a thousand ways. Not only in
Florence, but wherever we went in Tuscany, the people from town
and country, far and near, came forth to greet us, acclaiming the
chief pontiff of the Church with such ardent affection, showing
such an intense desire of seeing him, doing him reverence, receiv-
ing his benediction, that our fatherly heart was moved to its very
depth."
He returned to Rome on September the 5th, and marked his
return by a princely distribution of alms and food to the poor,
ransomed a number of debtors, and performed several graceful acta
of clemency.
The Truth in the Mortara Case. 347
The Romans, on their side, were anxious to give their sovereign
a family feast. On the 8th was uncovered and blessed by the
sovereign pontiff the splendid monument erected on the Piazza di
Spagna, in commemoration of the definition of December the 8th,
1854. There was a brilliant illumination in the evening, and Pius
IX. felt grateful, amid all the signs of coming trouble, that his
Immaculate Mother's birth-day had been thus celebrated in his
honor.
In ^N'ovember, 1857, happened the affair of the boy Edgar Mor-
tara, which furnished a rich theme to the anti-Catholic press of Pied-
mont and France, as well as to the Protestant press and pulpit of the
entire English-speaking world. It was a very simple question when
examined calmly and equitably by reasonable and impartial men.
An ancient law of the Eoman States, enacted in reality for the
protection of Israelites in their home worship and the religious free-
dom of their families, forbade every Jewish family from having
Christian servants. The reason was this. Christian servants, be-
side the danger to their own faith from the influence exercised by
wealthy masters, were continually tempted to bestow baptism on
the children of the latter when in imminent danger of death. The
penalty was, when such baptism had been administered by a Chris-
tian servant, that the child thus baptized should, in case of re-
covery, be taken away from the parents and reared in the Christian
faith.
This was the penalty, well known to the Jews, and imposed for the
infraction of a law intended to protect themselves from intrusion
into their own family circle. Edgar Mortara, living with his Jewish
parents in Bologna, had, several years before, been baptized, while
at the point of death, by a Christian servant-girl named Anna
Morisi, kept by his parents in open violation of the law. The
boy had recovered, and in November, 1857, was in his seventh year.
Another child of the Mortaras about this time was also at death's
door, and Anna Morisi was urged by a female friend to baptize it,
but she refused, giving as a reason that she had baptized the boy
Edgar under like circumstances, and that he was now brought up a
Jew.
The fact having been reported to the magistrates, the boy was
taken away from his father's house and placed in the House of Cat-
echumens in Rome, where he was to be educated as a Cliristian.
This act, performed in fulfillment of what the pontifical authoritiea
34^ Life of Pope Pius IX,
deemed a just law, set the whole religious world ablaze. The parents
meanwhile were allowed every access to the boy ; he was educated
thoroughly in accordance with his station and prospects : manifested
as he grew up no disposition to return to the Jewish faith, but
would be free to do so at his majority.
We are not to suppose that Mazzini, or ISTapoleon IIL, or Cayour,
had forgotten to conspire while Pius IX. was visiting his States and
planning new schemes for their happiness.
In 1857 the Piedmontese ambassador in Paris, De Villamarina,
wrote to Count Cavour : " ]N"apoleon needs time to bring to a favor-
able issue his projects in favor of Italy. Allow me, therefore, to
express my most earnest hope that Italians will not compromise by
untimely movements the future which Sardinia has been able to
prepare for them on the battle-field as well as by her success in the
Congress of Paris. At the present moment we must be prudent,
patient, and wait for events. We must show the emperor that we
have much confidence in his personal policy, and that we will not
create any embarrassment for him. . . . Napoleon and time are
for us and for Italy." *
The attempt on the life of the emperor by Felice Orsini, on Jan-
uary the 14th, 1858, was only part of a vast plan of assassination in
which Victor Emmanuel was also to be cut off. Count Walewski,
the French minister of foreign affairs, who, as well as his associates,
was entirely ignorant of the emperor's designs, wrote to the Euro-
pean courts to demand the inauguration of a system of repression.
But French courtiers, who shared the emperor's secret sympathies,
were heard to say, '^ So long as there are Austrians in Italy, there will
be assassination plots in Paris. We must help Cavour." Then was
published — with a manifest intention of preparing the public mind
— ^the letter addressed to the emperor by Felice Orsini, just before
his execution, and in which Napoleon was urged to deliver Italy.
This letter, with a sort of political testament of the wretched cul-
prit, was sent by the emperor to the court of Turin, and published
officially there on April the 1st. In May Napoleon proposed a plan
of alliance with Piedmont, together with a project of marriage be-
tween Prince Napoleon Jerome Bonaparte, and a daughter of Victor
Emmanuel. In June Dr. Conneau, the emperor's confidant, went
to Turin and agreed with Cavour that he should secretly meet
* Bex)m de» Deux Monde s, June 1, 1876, p. 649.
Napoleon III. Conspires with Cavour, 349
Napoleon III. afc Plombieres during the bathing season. On July
^ tlie 20th an officer of the imperial household received at the Plom-
bieres station the mysterious traveler, whose identity no one guessed
at first. The visit was a brief one ; but the conditions of an alliance
were at once settled : "War with Austria, the establishment of a king-
dom of Italy, and the cession to France of lN"ice and Savoy.
At the same time the March ese Pepoli was sent to Berlin to flatter
the Crown Prince (the present Emperor of Germany), to rekindle
the ambition of Prussia to overshadow Austria, to separate her from
that power, and to draw her into a close alliance with Prance and
Piedmont. The Prussian prime minister at that time was the
Prince of Hohenzollern, a blood relation of Pepoli as well as of
Napoleon III. To the overtures made to him by the French and
Piedmontese ambassadors he replied cautiously, giving them no
positive assurance of good- will in their schemes.
But with the beginning of 1859 came a startling series of occur-
rences which filled all Europe with alarm. On New- Year's Day
Napoleon III., on receiving the diplomatic body, expressed to the
Austrian ambassador 'Miis regret that his relations with the Aus-
trian government were not so friendly as in the past." And on the
very same day, and almost at the same hour, Pius IX., perfectly aware
of the double game played at Paris and Turin, replied to the felici-
tations of General De Goyon, then in command of the French troops,
that he ^^ was praying for the preservation of peace, and beseeching
the almighty disposer of events to establish here below one universal
empire, that of justice and truth."
Napoleon III. had, however, the tact of making his allies say what
he could not or would not himself ; and on January the 10th, Vic-
tor Emmanuel, in opening the Piedmontese chambers, startled his
audience by these words, put in his mouth by Cavour : " The hori-
zon amid which this new year is dawning is not perfectly cloudl^s.
. . . Fortified by our experience of the past, let us meet boldly
the eventualities of the future. That future shall be prosperous,
because our policy reposes on justice and on our love for liberty and
country. That country, though circumscribed by narrow limits,
has increased in worth in the councils of Europe, because it is great
by the ideas it represents and the sympathies which it inspires. Our
situation has indeed its own dangers ; for, while we may respect ex-
isting treaties, we cannot be insensible to the cry of agony which is
sent up to us from every part of Italy."
2,So Life of Pope Pius IX.
On the 3d of February Lord Derby, then prime minister, gave, in
the House of Lords, the true interpretation of this speech and a key
to the whole situation. "Northern Italy is a volcano that slum-
bers. . . . The words pronounced by the king of Sardinia,
have, naturally, a great significance. I still hope that Sardinia will
listen to wiser counsels. . . . It is impossible to suppose that
Sardinia, comparatively feeble in presence of Austria, should be dis-
posed to begin a struggle with any prospect of success, or for any
cause whatever, were it not that she relied on foreign assistance, and
the only country from which that can come, is France."
Napoleon III. opened the French chambers four days afterward
(February 7), and by specious circumlocutions seemed to deny all dan-
ger of hostilities. But on February the 4th a semi-official pamphlet,
entitled Napoleon IIL et Vltalie, had thrown public opinion in
France and throughout the civilized world into great perturbation.
This pamphlet reiterated the position taken by the writer of the
famous letter to Colonel Ney. It was an act of accusation drawn up
against the government of the Popes with such skill, that every intel-
ligent person who read it could only see in it, under the fair ideal of
a confederated Italy with the national capital at Eome, the kingdom
of Italy which has since become a reality.
*^ While receiving this accession of moral influence," the imperial
pamphleteer affirmed, "while finding himself invested with a kind of
moral protectorship over all Italy, bestowed on him by the reverence
of all its people, the Pope can, without abasement, lessen his tempo-
ral power and lighten his political responsibility. He can, without
risk to himself, organize under himself a serious control, a secular
administration, a civil legislation, a regular and independent magis-^
tracy. All that he loses in prerogatives he gains in importance."
The Pope, with whom, as we have seen, originated the true idea
of a national Italian league, was not evSn consulted about this new
dignity and accession of importance to be conferred upon him "by
the reverence of all the peoples of Italy." But Providence permitted
that the men who were to be the not very reverential agents of this
political and moral renovation of the papacy, should speak out in
spite of Napoleon, or Victor Emmanuel, or of Victor Emmanuel's
master, Cavour.
On Marcli the 7th Garibaldi addressed to all the provinces of
Italy the following secret instructions, intended, of course, for the
local circles and clubs :
Garibaldi s Programme, 35 1
'* The Presidency deems it its duty, under the present aspect of
affairs in Italy, to communicate the following secret instructions :
" 1. As soon as hostilities have begun between Piedmont and Aus-
tria, you shall rise in insurrection at the cry of Long live Italy and
Victor Emmanuel I Out with the Austrians !
'^ 2. If, in your city, an insurrection be impossible, then all young
men able to bear arms shall leave the city, and shall go to the
nearest city in which the insurrection has been successful. . . .
Among these neighboring cities you shall choose the nearest to Pied-
mont, at which all the Italian forces are to concentrate.
'^ 6. Wherever the insurrection is successful, the man who is highest
in public confidence shall assume the supreme civil and military
authority in the name of Victor Emmanuel, with the title of provi-
sional commissary.
'^ 9. He shall appoint a council of war, to judge and punish within
the twenty-four hours all attempts against the national cause, or
against the life and property of peaceful citizens. He shall have no
regard to class or rank.
" 12. He shall maintain the severest and most inexorable discipline,
applying to every person, no matter who he may be, the dispositions
of military law in time of war.
" 13. He shall send to King Victor Emmanuel a correct statement
of the arms, ammunition, and moneys found in each province, and
shall await the king's orders thereon.
" Turin, March tlie 7th, 1859."
Assuredly there is no need of a prophetic insight into men's secret
souls or into the contingencies of the future depending on men's free
agency, to foresee and predict with certainty, what must be, in the
near future, the fate of the Pope's temporal sovereignty, when France
and Piedmont join hands to eifect Italian unity, and employ to
aid them in their purpose the armies of " sectarians " organized in
every Italian territory, garrisoning, in a manner, for Garibaldi, every
Italian city.
CHAPTEK XXIX.
The Wae Beguk — Solidaeity between Gabibaldi and Victor
Emmanuel — Lord Derby as a Peacemaker laughed at by
Cavour — Prince Napoleon in Tuscany and the Eomagna
— PlEDMONTISM TRIUMPHANT IN THE PaPAL TERRITORY —
The Church Despoiled first, and Degraded afterward
— The Bishops of the Marches Protest — The Jesuits
Stripped and Outraged in the Name of Piedmont — Fa-
ther Beckx Protests — The Pope hemmed in by the Eev-
olutionary Eorces — He Excommunicates the Invaders —
Denunciation by French Publicists and Bishops — Bishop
Dupanloup's scathing Rebuke of Napoleon — Louis Veuil-
LOT PRE-EMINENT IN THE DEFENSE OF THE HOLY SeE — HiS
Journal Suppressed — The Spirit of the old Crusaders
ABROAD.
1859-1860.
ON the 27tli of April the Austrian general, yielding unwisely to
a series of well-calculated provocations, invaded the Piedmon-
tese territory. This act was far worse for Austria than a crushing
defeat on the battle-field. On May the 3d Napoleon declared war
against Austria ; on the 12th he arrived at Genoa, commanded at the
battle of Magenta on June the 4th, and at that of Solferino on the
24th of the same month.
Perhaps the reader, before following further the course of events,
would like to feel an absolute certainty concerning the bond uniting
Cavour and his king with Garibaldi, and the agencies controlled by
the latter. Let us dispose at once of every doubt on this head. The
memoirs of Cavour have now been published, as well as a life written
by an intimate friend and relative of the statesman. One who re-
sumes all the information contained in these and in other sources
on the causes which led to the Italian war of 1859 thus writes :
"If the skillful and provident patriot had succeeded in effecting a
great alliance without which nothing was possible, he was also un-
352
Solidarity between Garibaldi and Cavour, 353
willing to be indebted to bis allies for everything. 'Woe to ns/ he
wrote to La Marmora, * if our triumph should be won by the French
alone ! ' . . . By the side of the Piedmontese army, in spite
of the anger of diplomats, he busied himself in creating, under the
name of ' Hunters of the Alps,' several battalions to serve as a nucleus
for all the Lombard and Tuscan youths who were pouring into
Turin, and, being a bold man, he did not hesitate to give the com-
mand of these battalions to Garibaldi. One morning during that
winter of 1858-59, and before dawn, a strange visitor asked for ad-
mission at the door of the prime minister. The servant, a little
frightened, brought in the message to his master. 'Who is this
stranger ? ' asked Cavour. ' It is a man with a broad-brimmed hat,
with a stout stick in his hand, and refuses to give his name ; he pre-
tends that you are expecting him.' It was Garibaldi, who had come
to have an understanding with Cavour, by putting himself under
the command of Victor Emmanuel. . . . Evidently Cavour alone
could make use of all these elements and risk the result ; he saw in
this plan a way to bind together all the national forces, to rally to
himself or to neutralize the republicans, by only casting aside the
untrac table partisans of Mazzini. ... He was thus disposing
of Piedmont and Italy." *
The Conservative English ministry, over which presided Lords
Derby and Malmesbury, was sincere in its efforts at conciliating
Austria and Piedmont before the war had as yet broken out, and
even before Napoleon HI. had openly shown his hand. '* The
English cabinet saw in him, what he really was, the great agitator,
the unceasing provoker of Austria, the most dangerous enemy of
peace. Cavour, on his side, would listen patiently, sometimes un-
easily, but with his mind made up neither to yield to England nor
to estrange her. When he deemed it needful, and if pressed too
hard, he rebelled against this schooling. To an English diplomat,
who told him that public opinion in London accused him of dis-
turbing the peace of Europe, he replied with spirit : ' Very well !
But I think that England is above all others responsible for the
troubled condition of Italy. It is English statesmen, English par-
liamentary orators, English diplomats and writers who have been
at work for years stirring up the political passions in our Peninsula.
* Charles de Mazade in La Mevue dea Deux Mondes, July loth, 1876, pp. 368,
869.
23
354 Life of Pope Pius IX,
Is it not England that encouraged Sardinia to oppose to the unlawful
preponderance of Austria the propagandism of moral influences ? ' " *
We have been anxious to give a key to the complication of events
filling the last twenty years of Italian history, rather than to detail
occurrences themselves. The command of the troops destined to
attack the Austrian army by a flank movement from the south-east,
was intrusted to Prince Napoleon Jerome, now married to the Prin-
cess Clotilde of Savoy. No permission was asked by this man — who,
to vices from which Garibaldi was free, united all Garibaldi's jacobin-
ism, without a particle of his bravery or his military talent — of the
sovereigns of the neutral territories to march his army through them.
"With such a man to give Garibaldi's subordinates countenance
and aid, the programme prepared at Turin in February, and com-
municated to the clubs of conspirators from one end of Italy to tha
other, was, of course, carried out to the letter. On the very day
that Marshal Kadetzky crossed the Mincio, April the 27th, Tuscany
*^ arose," and a provisional government was established in the name
of Victor Emmanuel. On May the 1st Parma followed the example,
Bologna and Eerrara had to wait till the Austrian garrisons had
retired, when they too arose against the pontifical government,
Bologna on June the 12th, and Ferrara two days later. The whole
of the Romagna thus fell into the hands of Piedmont, and from that
moment became in reality an integral part of it.
The terrible impression made on the unwarlike Napoleon III. by
the great battle of Solferino, and the fear, real or pretended, of an
invasion of the Rhenish provinces by Prussia, brought the war to a
sudden close, and saved for the moment the other pontifical provinces
from the horrors of insurrection, and the sacrileges which followed
close in the train of Garibaldi or of Piedmontese occupation.
In Lombardy, Tuscany, Parma, Modena, and the Romagna, now
become the possession of Victor Emmanuel, or rather of the "sects"
which governed them for him, the usurpers made haste to abolish
every law and institution considered till then exclusively Catholic,
and held sacred by the reverence of so many ages.
It cannot be disguised — much as the avowal must pain every
Catholic heart that loves not only the honor of the Church, but the
good name of all who have ever received her baptism, and sat at her
table and partaken of her bread — the sole purpose of the men who
* iWd«m, p. 869.
Liberalizing Processes used by Piedmont 355
everywliere accepted or sought the government of the annexed pro-
vinces seemed to be to dishonor and vilify that Church in the esti-
mation of the Italian people. We have sometimes heard of the
perversity of sons, who, coveting a widowed mother's property, and
impatient of her longevity still more than of her rule, misrepresented
and calumniated her, denounced her to the tribunals as insane, or
criminal, or incapable of managing her own estate. This is a mon-
strosity in the moral world; but it will go further. It is when
an iniquitous sentence has deprived that mother of her most sacred
rights, of her possessions and her liberty, that her unnatural chil-
dren will employ all their industry to blacken and defame the parent
whom they have sacrificed to their unholy passions.
In Piedmont, during the ten years elapsed between 1849 and 1859,
the Church had been gradually stripped of every vestige of inde-
pendence and legitimate authority. The legislation inaugurated by
Cavour, and often carried by his associate ministers to a pitch of
tyranny highly censured by their more politic and far-seeing chief,
aimed at binding the Church hand and foot, and leaving her in the
education of her priesthood, her function of teaching, and the very
administration of the sacraments, the powerless slave of the civil
magistrate. Bismark, in Germany, had not even the merit of
originality in the Falk laws or in the persecuting measures enforced
against bishops and priests who dared to have a conscience of their
own. The code of liberal Piedmont, the code actually in force in
the '' kingdom of Italy," served as a tempting model to "the man
of blood and iron."
Church property became the property of the State ; the bishop
and the priest were declared to be, in effect. State officials, and, as
such, were to be trained as the State directed, in such schools and
universities as the State approved, under such professors as it chose,
learning what these were instructed to teach, neither more nor less,
and bound under the severest penalties to fulfill their appointed
duties in the church or the parish designated by the sole authority
of the State, just as the soldier had to go through his drill and
mount guard, or incur the rigors of military law !
Every privilege and immunity, even in the Papal States, attached
from the origin of Christianity to the priestly character, and deemed
by Pagan as well as by Jewish legislation due to the sacredness of
the priestly office, was swept away. The priest could be taken from
the altar and compelled by the new law to put off his clerical dress
o
56 Life of Pope Pius IX.
and put on tlie military uniform, and march in the ranks to slaugh-
ter his fellow-men, or shoot down, during a riot, the members of his
own congregation.
This is literally true. But it is not the worst. The priest, that is
the Church, was forbidden to hold property, to alienate or dispose
of such as it possessed. It was proposed even to forbid almsgiving,
lest the poor should continue to love and to bless the giver. Nay,
the Church had bound the mass of the people to herself by creating
institutions of beneficence and charity, as well as schools and uni-
versities. Just as all superintendence and control of education was
taken from her by the new laws introduced into the Romagna by our
old acquaintance Massimo d' Azeglio, the Piedmontese Commissary
General, even so the control and superintendence of charities or
beneficent establishments of all kinds was forbidden the clergy.
The bishops who remonstrated or resisted were either fined or im-
prisoned, or banished the country. There were many who fared
even worse. The religious orders, the communities of men and
women, were, it may be anticipated, suppressed, and their members
turned adrift into a society in which all the evil passions of humanity
seemed to be holding perpetual carnival.
Nor was this the worst of all. In the magnificent remonstrance
sent on November the 21st, 1860, to the Piedmontese governor by the
archbishops and bishops of the Marches, there are details which his-
tory must record. '^ Our souls, cruelly wounded and torn, are filled
with grief and desolation by the thought of the spiritual ruin which
threatens our children, our fiocks, purchased by the blood of the
Lamb without spot. Nevertheless, after all the contradictions, the
trials, the obstacles we have had to encounter — not one spark of
charity, of zeal, of pastoral and fatherly solicitude has been quenched
in our souls — we solemnly affirm it, with our anointed hands on our
hearts, and, with the help of God's grace, these sentiments shall never
depart from us through fault of ours.
"We scarcely believe our own eyes, or the testimony of our own
ears, when we see and hear the excesses, the abominations, the dis-
orders, witnessed in the chief cities of our respective dioceses, to the
shame and horror of the beholders, to the great detriment of religion,
of decency, and public morality, since the ordinances against which
we protest deprive us of all power to protect religion and morality,
or to repress the prevailing crimes and licentiousness.
" The public sale, at nominal pnces, of mutilated translations of
The Bishops of the Romagna tell a Tale, 357
the Bible, of pamphlets of every description saturated with poisonous
errors or infamous obscenities, is permitted in the cities which a few
months ago had never heard the names of these scandalous produc-
tions ; . . . the impunity with which the most horrible blasphe-
mies are uttered in public, and the worse utterance of expressions and
sentiments that breathe a hellish wickedness ; the exposition, the
public sale, and the diffusion of statuettes, pictures, and engravings
which brutally outrage piety, purity, the commonest decency ; the
representation on our theaters, of pieces and scenes in which are
turned into ridicule the Church — Christ's immaculate spouse — the
vicar of Christ, the ministers of religion, and everything held dear
to piety and faith ; in fine, the fearful licentiousness of public man-
ners, the odious devices resorted to for perverting the innocent and
the young, the evident wish and aim to make immorality, obscenity,
uncleanness triumph among all classes ; such are, your Excellency,
the rapid and faint outlines of the scandalous state of things created
in the Marches by the legislation and discipline so precipitately in-
troduced by the Piedmontese government. . . . We appeal to your
Excellency, . . . could we remain silent and indifferent specta-
tors of this immense calamity without violating our most sacred duty ? '
It is deplorable that so many Protestants, sincerely devoted to what
they believe to be the best interests of revealed religion, and so
careful in their homes and their lives of true purity and modesty,
should encourage and pay out of their pockets these unscrupulous
agents of the Bible Societies, who care not by what unholy means or
in what foul company they get themselves and their books into
Catholic lands. Your Garibaldis and Gavazzis and Achillis are but
sorry patrons and auxiliaries for the spread of what you think true
religion !
"VYe can anticipate by a few months, and quote, along with the
noble words of these bishops, another document from a man no less
eminent or venerable, though not enjoying the episcopal dignity.
Cavour had been sorely disappointed by the sudden termination of
the war, and Garibaldi had been taken away from the newly ob-
tained territories, where he literary rioted in sacrilege and profana-
tion of all that was most holy. But he was encouraged by Cavour
to embark (May the 6th) on his expedition to Sicily. We know how,
protected by the flags of Sardinia, France, and England, he ran hia
race of easy victory, aided by the admirably organized treason of the
clubs and sects.
358 Life of Pope Pius IX.
One of his first acts, on taking possession of Palermo, and assum-
ing the title and powers of Dictator, was to suppress the Jesuits and
Eedemptorists, to confiscate their property and proscribe their per-
sons. What was done in Sicily was also done at Naples, when it fell
into the power of the Garibaldians, and became the rule wherever
the revolution prevailed. But let the venerable Father Beckx, the
general of the Society of Jesus, tell the story of his wrongs in his
solemn protestation of October the 24th, 1860.
'^ The society," says the general to the King of Sardinia, "has lost
in Lombardy three residences and colleges ; in the duchy of Modena,
six ; in the Pontifical States, eleven ; in the kingdom of Naples, nine-
teen ; and in Sicily, fifteen. Everywhere the society has been liter-
ally stripped of all its property, movable and immovable. Its mem-
bers, to the number of 1,500, were driven forth from their houses
and from the cities ; they were led by an armed force, like so many
malefactors, from province to province, cast into the public prisons,
ill-treated and outraged in the most horrible manner ; they were even
prevented from finding a refuge in pious families, while in several
places no consideration was had to the extreme old age of many
among them, nor to the infirmity and weakness of others.
"All these acts were perpetrated against men who were accused of
not one illegal or criminal act, without any judicial process, without
allowing any justification to be recorded ; in one word, all this was
consummated in the most despotic and savage manner.
"If such acts had been accomplished in a popular riot, by men
blinded by passion, we might perhaps bear them in silence ; but as
all such acts have been done in the name of the Sardinian laws ;
as the provisional governments established in Modena and in the
Pontifical States, as well as the Dictator of Sicily himself, have
claimed to be supported by the Sardinian government ; and as your
majesty's name is still invoked to sanction these iniquitous measures,
. . . I can no longer remain a silent spectator of such enormous
injustice, but, in my quality of supreme head of the Order, I feel
myself strictly bound to ask for justice and satisfaction, and to pro-
test before God and man, lest the resignation inspired by religious
meekness and forbearance should appear to be a weakness which
might be construed either into an acknowledgment of guilt or a re-
linquishment of our rights.
" I protest solemnly, and in the best form I can think of, against the
su2)pression of our houses and colleges, against these proscriptions,
Courageous Protest of Father Beckx. 359
banishments, and imprisonments, against tlie acts of violence and
outrage committed against the brethren bound to me by religious
ties.
"I protest before all Catholics, in the name of the rights of the
Church sacrilegiously violated.
"I protest in the name of the benefactors and founders of our
houses and colleges, whose will and expressed intentions in founding
these good works for the interest alike of the living and the dead,
are thus nullified.
" I protest in the name of the sacred rights of property, contemned
and trampled under foot by brutal force,
"I protest in the name of citizenship and inviolability of indi-
vidual persons, of whose rights no one may be deprived without
being accused in form, and arraigned and judged.
^'I protest in the name of humanity, whose rights have been so
shamefully outraged in the persons of so many aged men, sick, infirm,
and helpless, driven from their peaceful seclusion, left without any
assistance, cast on the highways without any means of subsistence."
This noble and indignant protest is inserted here because the
monstrous iniquity which it denounces is to be presently consum-
mated in Rome itself by the Italian Parliament, and will be but too
faithfully imitated in other lands ; and because the rights to which
it appeals are the sacred and immovable basis of every Christian,
every well-ordered society.
What was the attitude of the sovereign pontiff while the social
order, confirmed and consecrated by so many centuries of Christian
civilization, Avas thus swept away before his eyes, the circle of de-
struction narrowing continually around Rome and its immediate ter-
ritory ? He and his counselors and immediate subjects could not
but feel like emigrants encamped for a night on our vast western
prairies, when a July sun has parched every living thing and shriv-
eled up the earth itsell The wild western Indian had attacked them
in vain during the day, and has now in the darkness fired the prairie,
with the hope of making them flee, half-armed and divided, to the
nearest hills, where he is lying in ambush for them.
They have but one resource ; they have mowed down the long
grass on every side, to leave the approaching flames no food around
their camp, and patient, brave-hearted, trustful in God, they lie
down behind their circle of wagons, to watch the waves of fire as
they come roaring toward them from the four w'nds of heaven.
o
60 Life of Pope Pius IX,
Shall yonder narrow circle of bare ground stop the advance of that
fearful tempest of flame ? Or is it to give the weary watchers only
the respite of a moment from inevitable fate ?
Pius IX. knew that he alone who created these terrible elementary
forces, could arrest the fell progress of revolution. The men in
whom he trusted, under God, were either helpless themselves, or
already enveloped in the wide destruction, or in league with the evil
he fain would conjure. The French flag remained still in Lombardy,
to prevent Austria from interfering, and to allow Piedmont to secure
her possession of the usurped provinces. The French fleet was in
the Neapolitan waters only to encourage Garibaldi, and the tramp of
the French soldier was still heard on the walls of Rome, to tell the
revolution that it must not be too rapid in its work. The French
army in Rome was but a Piedmontese garrison in disguise.
In June and September, 1859, the voice of the supreme pastor was
heard denouncing the usurpers, and proclaiming them and their
abettors excommunicated. And from France, whose soldiers were
compelled to sustain the evil cause in Italy, came noble words of de-
nunciation re-echoing the Holy Father's protest ; Montalembert and
Veuillot branding with the stigma of indelible infamy the hypocrisy
of Napoleon III., and drawing on themselves the wrath of his gov-
ernment ; and French bishops, the worthy brethren of those of the
Marches, warning the Catholic Avorld that, in the violated sovereignty
and threatened independence of the Roman pontiff, it was the most
sacred liberties of Christendom which were threatened, the dearest
and most venerable rights on earth which were trampled upon.
From every part of Europe and America the episcopal body united
in this solemn protestation, and the voice of the pastors was but that
of their flocks.
But, be it said to his deathless honor, in that magnificent concert
of episcopal voices no one equaled in eloquence and energy that of
the illustrious Dupanloup, bishop of Orleans. On the 30th of Sep-
tember, 1859, he wrote :
" People say that to touch the sovereign is not to touch the pon-
tiff. Certainly, his temporal power is not a divine institution ; who
does not know this ? But it is a providential institution ; and who
is ignorant of the fact ? Doubtless during three centuries the
Popes only possessed independence enough to die martyrs ; but they
assuredly had a right to another sort of independence, and Provi-
dence, which does not always use miracles for its purpose, ended by
Dupa7tloup Rebukes Napoleon, 361
founding on the most lawful soyereignty in Europe the freedom,
the independence necessary to the Church.
"History proves it beyond the possibility of denial ; all eminent
intellects have confessed it, all true statesmen know it. . . .
Yes ; that the Church may be free, that we may be free, the Pope
must hefree and independent.
" That independence must be sovereign,
*^ The Pope must be free, and he must he evidently so,
" The Pope must be free in Ms own interior as well as in Ms
exterior government.
" This must be so for the sake of his own dignity in the govern-
ment of the Church, as well as for the security of our own consciences.
" This must be so in order to secure the common parent of all
the faithful that neutrality which is indispensable to him amid the
frequent wars between Christian powers.
" The Pope must not only be free in his own conscience, in his
own interior, but it must be evident to all that he is so ; he must
show himself to be so, in order that all may know and believe it,
and that no doubt or suspicion be possible on this subject. . . .
"But, say the Italian revolutionists, we do not propose to do
away with the papal sovereignty ; we merely wish to limit and re-
strain it.
"And why so, I ask you, in my turn, if thereby you also dimin-
ish and debase the honor of the Catholic religion, its dignity and
independence ?
" Why do so, if thereby you lower and degrade the most Italian
sovereignty of the whole Peninsula ?
"Why, more especially, do so now, in presence of all these un-
chained evil passions, and thereby give against the Holy See a
sentence of incapacity, and thus, in the eyes of Christendom, insult
that unarmed and oppressed majesty ?
"You say, he will only lose the Eomagna and the Legations.
But allow me to ask you by what right you take them ? And
why not take all the rest, if you please ? Why in your dreams of
Italian unity, should other Italian cities fare otherwise than Bologna
and Ferrara ?
"Why have you not made up your minds to take everything out-
side Eome with the garden of the Vatican ? You have said this,
you know.
"But why leave him even Eome? . . . Why should not
362 Life of Pope Pius IX.
Diocletian and the Catacombs be the best of all governments for
the Church ?
"Where are you going ? How far will your detestable principles
lead you ? At least tell us clearly. . . .
**Is this a cleyer calculation of yours? And, not daring to do
more at present, or unable to do more, are you waiting for time and
the yiolence of events to accomplish the rest ? But who, think you,
is to be deceived by you ?
'^Must we say, with the highest organ of the English press, that
in the present lusiness France is aggressive and insidious 9 No !
no ! I do not admit that our country is willing to play the part
designed for her. Such calculations are not suited to French gen-
erosity. For my part, I protest with my whole soul against the
perfidious intentions that we are supposed to entertain.
"But in concluding I must protest still more solemnly. As a de-
voted son of the Holy Roman Church, the mother and teacher of
all others, I protest against the revolutionary impiety which ignores
her rights and would fain steal her patrimony.
"I protest in the name of good sense and honor, indignant at
beholding an Italian sovereign power become the accomplice of in-
surrection and revolt, and at the conjuration of all these blind un-
reasoning passions against the principles proclaimed and professed
throughout the world by all great statesmen and politicians.
"I protest in the name of common decency and European law
against this profanation of all that is most august, against the brutal
passions which have inspired acts of inconceivable cowardice.
"And, if I must speak out, I protest in the name of good faith
against this restless and ill-disguised ambition, these evasive answers,
that disloyal policy, of which we have the saddening spectacle be-
neath our eyes."
Napoleon III. had a stormy time of it, and must have felt keenly
the lash of such eloquence as Dupanloup's or Montalembei*t's. He
had put forward the idea of a European Congress, which would meet
at Paris early in 1860 to settle the Italian, or rather, the Roman
question. On the 22d of December the London Times began to pub-
lish a pamphlet entitled, "The Pope and the Congress," evidently
inspired by the French emperor, if not written by him (as every-
body believed). It sustained a double thesis : first, that the Pope
must be independent, and to be so, he must be an independent sov-
ereign ; in this the author might seem to sustain or favor Catholic
Encyclical on Napoleons Policy, 363
principles ; but, secondly, lie maintained that this question of sov-
ereignty could only be decided in the coming congress, and that the
congress could not possibly do otherwise than sanction the facts ac-
complished in Italy. The only sovereignty which can be guaranteed
to the Pope is one which must be as limited as possible both in ter-
ritory and in the administration of its civil functions. This simply
meant that the congress should guarantee the Pope the possession of
the Vatican and the freedom of its garden.
On January the 1st, Pius IX., who knew perfectly who had written
the pamphlet and who had inspired the writer, said to the French
commander in Rome, General de Goyon : "We pray God to enlight-
en the chief of your army and your nation, that he may walk safely
in the slippery path, and acknowledge also the falsity of certain
principles expressed in a lately published pamphlet, which may be
qualified as a remarkalle monument of hypocrisy , and a vile tissue
of contradictions."
The blow was a hard one. But, on the very day before, the man
for whom it was intended, and who felt it, Justified the pontiff's se-
vere judgment by writing him a letter, which affirmed every one
of the odious conclusions of the hypocritical pamphlet, urging the
Holy Father to give up the occupied provinces, as it seemed certain
the congress would not or could not restore them. The letter, how-
ever, though addressed to the Pope, was published in the official
Moniteur, and drew from his Holiness the encyclical NuUis certis
verbis of January the 19th.
It is a comparatively short document, intended to give the whole
Catholic world an account of the Pope's personal efforts made to
urge Napoleon III. to plead in the coming congress the cause of the
Holy See, and of the emperor's tergiversations. The Holy Father,
in his letter to the emperor of December the 2d, 1859, recalled the
fact that the Roman pontiffs were not a dynasty, who received their
possessions as an heir-loom, and could feel at liberty to dispose of
them or abdicate their sovereign right over them. Each Pope re-
ceives the Pontifical States, the patrimony of the Church, as a sacred
trust, which his coronation oath binds him to keep and to transmit
in its integrity. Besides, any cession of territory made after rebellion
would be a stimulant toward insurrection in the remaining provinces.
Then, again, any cession or abdication would be a betrayal of the
rights of the other dispossessed sovereigns of Italy ; it would be a
violation of principle. He had also, he said, reminded his majesty
364 Life of Pope Pius IX,
of tlie perfect knowledge which he (Napoleon) must have had of
the men who organized rebellion in Bologna, Eavenna, and other
cities, and of the source from which they drew money and men ; and
of the small minority of papal subjects who were in favor of seces-
sion. As the emperor had reminded the Pope of the frequent out-
breaks which had taken place in the pontifical territories, *^ I recalled
his attention to the fact that to give up my soyereignty for that rea-
son, would be rather yielding to an argument which proyed too
much, because in many parts of Europe, and elsewhere, there occur
insurrections, and no one dreams of finding in their occurrence a
lawful argument against the sovereign rights of the powers. I also
reminded him that he had addressed to me, before the Italian war,
a letter differing very materially from his last, and which gave as
much comfort as the other had caused pain. . . . Finally, in
that spirit of fatherly charity which compels me to watch over the
spiritual welfare of all, I bade him remember that we must all be
judged one day at the same tribunal, and that each one of us should
strenuously endeavor to deserve mercy rather than justice."
Meanwhile Louis Veuillot, who daily felt more and more that a
crisis was fast approaching in the affairs of the Holy See, resolved
that nothing which his journal and powerful pen could effect toward
warning the government and rousing Catholic public opinion, should
be omitted by his associates or himself.
About New- Year's time, as an answer to " The Pope and the Con-
gress," and the anti-Catholic commentaries of the entire Voltairian
and imperialist press, Veuillot drew up an address to the Holy Fa-
ther, which he invited all good Catholics to sign. This was pub-
lished in the Univers,
'*Most Holy Father," it said, ''though entirely convinced that
the sentiment and genius of France shall triumph over the spirit of
error which is now threatening your temporal sovereignty, we wish
nevertheless to comfort your heart by the expression of our devotion.
"All that is said against your rights and your government has in
nowise shaken either our respect for your rights or our confidence in
the love and wisdom which guide your autliority. Your rights are
not derived from men, you have not acquired them by violence or in-
justice, you do not maintain them through motives of ambition, you
do not exercise them with liarshness. You are of all earthly sover-
eigns the most lawful and the most meek. Ingratitude and rebellion
can create no titles for dispossessing you and hating you.
VeuilMs Beautiful Address, 365
"What your people has to endure cannot be traced to you as its
author, but to the people themselves and to their seducers, to these
madmen become peryerts, to these rebels become traitors, who con-
spire against you after having been pardoned, and who use as a
weapon against you, all the evil done by themselves after you had re-
paired it.
** As to us, your children of France, we believe that your author-
ity can only be defined by yourself, and we claim for you all the
rights which you claim for yourself. We believe that the reforms to
be made can only be good, effective, and lawful, in so far as they
shall have been made freely by you. Who, after all, will love justice
more ardently than you, will respect more deeply than you the right
of all peoples, will more tenderly cherish the poor than yourself, and
will bear more constantly in mind the account which all sovereigns
shall render to God ?
'*In defending the cause of your independence, it is our own and
that of the entire Christian people that we defend. You are the
light and the bulwark of souls. Your independence saves human
freedom. If the Pope were no longer king, the cross would be soon
torn from every kingly crown, and nothing would be left to save the
world from being brought back again to the worship of idols. Hu-
manity would adore idols of mud, and would be crushed beneath
idols of flesh.
'*0 Father, King, spotless and immortal Victim, let youi
anguish-burdened thought rest on us for one moment ! On ouj
knees, full of faith — full of love — we ask you to bestow the blessing
which strengthens men's souls. Let it forever remove far from us
the incomparable shame of betraying you ! "
This noble address, coming after the pastoral letters of the arch-
bishops and bishops, stirred to its inmost depths the Catholic heart
of France. The imperial government felt instinctively that a moral
force was gathering strength throughout the country every day,
which had for its elements not the violent passions of the skeptical
middle classes of the nation, but the deepest and holiest convictions
of all that was noblest and best in the land.
Veuillot received an official warning from the minister of the in-
terior, Billault ; another had been given some time previously ; a
third official warning entailed the suppression of the paper. The
high-souled chief editor, as well as the members of his staff, had but
one care and one thought, and that was to do their duty toward
366 Life of Pope Pius IX,
the Holy Father and the Church, fearless of every personal conse-
quence.
On the 28th of January, late in the evening, and after the country
edition of the paper had already been mailed, a special messenger
brought to the office a copy of the last encyclical. To publish it
without the previous permission of the government, would constitute
a flagrant violation of one of the worst Napoleonic laws. Louis
Veuillot had no sooner received the papal letter than he said to his
associates, " This is our death-warrant ; our paper will not be living
to-morrow night." "We felt," continued the chivalrous journalist,
"rather a sentiment of deep joy to have found so glorious an op-
portunity of perishing, and we set about translating the encyclical,
in order to have it inserted in the morning edition, before any pro-
hibition could be sent to us, and to prevent the paper from being
seized in the printing room."
The decree of suppression did not fail to appear in the Moniteur
on the 29th, but not till the plain story told in the encyclical had
found its way into every Catholic home in Paris, and far beyond the
limits of the great city. The great journalist and the paper which
his genius had raised so high, had had many warm opponents among
Catholics ; but this suppression made friends of former foes. While
steps were taken to fill the place left empty by the Univers, Veuillot
and his associates wrote and published, on February the 2d, a letter
to the Holy Father, which deserves, as well as the names of its
signers, to find a conspicuous place in the records of this glorious
pontificate.
" Most Holy Fathee : — After the blow which has fallen on them,
the first need and the greatest consolation experienced by the editors
of the Univers, is to kneel at your feet. Our journal exists no long-
er, but our hearts shall continue to be more than ever animated by
the zeal, which, thank God, never ceased to inspire our labors. Sons
of the holy Roman Church, we are happy to be stricken down for
having given publicity to the words of your Holiness. An encycli-
cal of Pius IX. had called the Univers into life ; it is for an ency-
clical of Pius IX. that it is now deprived of life. God and Pius IX.
be thanked for both of these I Our work belonged indeed to you.
Most Holy Father ; now our hearts, our labors, our persons, are for-
ever yours.
"Most Holy Father, we crave your indulgence for our past errors
Suppression of the Univers — Crusade. 367
tLey were committed in no wickedness of heart and with no evil in-
tention. AYe beseech you to add to this a blessing for the future, in
order that, should we be ever able to rise to life again, we may with
the same lofty purpose accomplish more praiseworthy deeds. We
are resolved to remain united, so far as that is possible. Should we
be compelled to separate, each one shall labor apart in the spirit
which guides our common efforts. If your Holiness should call any
one of us to a special field of labor, he would forthwith obey as to
the voice of God.
''At the feet of your Holiness, your most humble,
most grateful, and ever-faithful sons,
*' Louis Veuillot ; Du Lac ; Eugei^e Veuillot ;
Coquille; Aubin"eau; Eupert; J. Chan-
TREL ; De la Eoche-Heron ; The Coukt db
LA Tour, member of the Legislative Body;
The Coukt de Maumigij^^y ; Abbe Corket ;
Barrier; Tacoket."
The affectionate and fatherly answer came before the end of the
month, not in the cold courtly phrase of princely correspondence,
but uttered with the generous effusion that yearned to assure every
man of that noble band, that he was most specially dear to the heart
of the pontiff. As Veuillot had asked, the blessing sent so promptly
and so warmly did recall to life the Univers, and it remained a
power for good after Napoleon had passed away, and the empire he
had created had vanished, at Sedan, like a dissolving view.
Catholic Christendom, so powerfully moved by the sacrilegious
course of the Italian revolutionists, by the treachery of imperial
France and liberal England, and still more by the words of the
Holy Father, the eloquent denunciations of the whole body of the
episcopacy, and such thrilling words and acts as those just recorded
of Louis Veuillot, resolved not to forsake the cause of the Church.
Modern Eome was the creation of the western nations ; it was the
home built up for the common parent, to secure his independence
and his freedom ; and threatened as that home now was by an anti-
Christian crusade, a counter-crusade occurred spontaneously to every
Catholic mind.
Not only in France and Belgium, where the Univers had ever
been a power, and where the self-sacrificing devotion of its editors
had created a real enthusiasm, but in Canada, France's old colony.
368 Life of Pope Pius IX.
and now fast growing into a nation, the best families nrged their
sons to fly to the defense of the Holy Sea. Ireland, too, ever devoted
to the chair of Peter, ever prompt to emulate the generous examples
of other peoples, would not be behind France or Belgium in pro-
tecting one so especially dear to her as Pius IX.
So the spirit which awoke in Western Europe at the voice of
Peter the Hermit and the call of Urban IL was now abroad again.
CHAPTER XXX.
The Pontifical Aemy intended for Defense — The Pope ex-
horted AND ENCOURAGED TO FORM AN ArMT — RiGHT TO
EMPLOY Foreigners — The Volunteers of 1860 — "The
Sons of the Crusaders" — De Merode, De La Moricierb
— Concerted Action between Napoleon and Cavour —
Plans of the Latter — He resolyes to "Do Quickly" —
Brutal and Insulting Proclamations — Bad Faith of
Cayour and his Generals — La Moriciere unprepared
FOR PiEDMONTESE AGGRESSION — He MARCHES TO THE ADRIA-
TIC — Battle of Castel-Fidardo — Bombardment and Fall
OF Ancona — Protest of Prussia and Russia — Complicity
of France and England — Retribution — ^Allocutions — A
Third Pamphlet from Napoleon — ^Antonelli Replies —
Death of Cayour.
1860-1863.
WHEN it is said that the spirit which fired the Christians of
western Europe in the days of St. Bernard and Peter the Her-
mit, was abroad in the beginning of 1860, we must not imagine that
it entered the mind of those who encouraged this moyement of Catho-
lic generosity, or of those who took an active part in it, to make an
aggressive war on the Piedmontese government. The sole purpose
which animated the chivalrous youth of all Catholic countries in
urging them to enter the pontifical service, was to help in providing
the Holy Father with an army sufficient to maintain the tranquillity
of his States, and to defend them against the piratical attacks of
such men as Garibaldi.
It is extremely important to give a clear statement of the ac-
knowledged right in virtue of which the pontifical government
accepted these volunteer services, and of that which the youth of
Christendom exercised in offering them. This will enable the
reader to appreciate the tragic but glorious events related in this
chapter.
One of the points settled in the congress of the Catholic powers,
369
370 Life of Pope Piits IX,
held at Gaeta, was, that on the Holy Father's heing restored to his
capital, he should be encouraged and aided in every way, in the for-
mation of an army, which should in future dispense him from calling
in the assistance of any foreign power. This was to be a common
object of solicitude for all the Catholic governments, and, while it
aimed at securing the States of the Church from internal disturbance
and protecting them against the raids of the outside "sects" and
agitators, it would also put an end to the jealousy created by a pro-
tectorate exercised by any one power.
Up to that moment (1849) it had been considered the unquestion-
able right of every sovereign power in Europe, to enlist in its armies
all who chose to take service therein. And the right had been exer-
cised by every country in Christendom. Nay, even in that same
year, France had her foreign legion in Africa, while in the very army
with which Garibaldi invaded Sicily, and which was still (in 1860)
busy at its work of rapine and sacrilege in Naples and its vicinity,
there was not only a "Hungarian legion," but Frenchmen and ban-
ditti of almost every European nationality.
Conscription, or forced enlistment, had never been admitted by
the Popes as a means of raising or recruiting an army ; and the
Romans had till then manifested but little disposition toward form-
ing a native standing army. Besides, the right claimed by every
nation in the world to employ the services of foreign troops, seemed
far less open to objection in the case of the sovereign pontiff, who
was the common parent, and whose States were the patrimony of the
entire Christian society, and who had, therefore, a claim on the ser-
vices of all nations to defend his independence.
This was as much an unquestioned fact in the jurisprudence of
Christendom, as the legality of Magna Charta or the laws of Alfred
the Great was undisputed in England.
Ever since 1850, England had unceasingly complained of the pres-
ence of the French troops in Rome, and of the Austrian troops in
the Legations ; and both France and Austria had urged the Holy
Father to hasten the completion of a sufficient and effective military
force, encouraging even their own best officers to aid in forwarding
this purpose. Before the war of 1859 had broken out, there existed
a large body of pontifical troops composed in great part of foreigners.
The appeal made in the beginning of 18G0, to the youth of all
Catholic countries, was stimulated by the threat of withdrawing the
French army of occupation.
No Catholics Foreigners in Rome, 371
They did not consider themselves foreigners, therefore, these braye
men who in the spring and summer of 1860 hastened to Eome from
every part of the Christian world ; and surely they were no merce-
naries. Every country gave its very best. One has only to read the
long lists of French, Belgian, Austrian, German, and Irish names,
which fill up the roll of those who fought under La Moriciere and
Pimodan and O'Eeilly, to feel that the best blood of the old Catholic
races pulsated in these brave hearts.
The pontifical minister of war, De Merode, was worthy to be
looked up to by all these men. A lineal descendant of St. Elizabeth
of Hungary, his family was allied with nearly every royal house in
Europe, his cousin being at that moment the wife of a prince of
Victor Emmanuel's family. He had served as a volunteer in Africa,
under De La Moriciere, whose heroic qualities, lofty principles, and
unstained honor, he, as well as the entire French army and nation,
had learned to admire. The conqueror of Abd-el-Kader, the paci-
fier of Africa, had been exiled by Louis Napoleon ; for his was not
the spirit to bend to such tortuous policy as was in favor with the
new ruler of France. But He Merode sought his old commander, and
drew him from his retirement to serve the vicar of Christ, and help
protect his temporal sovereignty from imminent peril.
And to Eome He La Moriciere went, with the best wishes and
prayers of French marshals and generals, his former pupils in the
art of war, his associates in many a campaign, and his steadfast
friends and admirers. For they were all proud of him. And not
even St. Louis, when he sailed for Palestine, could look with greater
pride on the roll of honor formed by his followers. They too — these
generous young men, some of them still in their teens, were nearly
every one of them sons of the old crusaders — the proud sons of noble
mothers who sent them forth joyously to guard the home and the
person of the Pope.
This book does not aim at relating military evolutions. There
exists in the report of the heroic commander-in-chief a complete and
thrilling story of the little army and its brief career. No one has
ever dared to question a single assertion in that simple and straight-
forward tale of one who was the soul of honor and truth.
There was surely need of brave men and true to defend from worse
than military invasion, and the desolation which it usually brings
with it, the possessions of the Holy See. Without speaking of Gari-
baldi and the murderous bands which followed his standard, there
372 Life of Pope Pius IX,
were all around the frontiers of Umbria clouds of robbers and assas-
sins whose sole business it was to keep the pontifical provinces in a
state of perpetual alarm and disorder, by their incursions and deeds
of blood and violence. We need only say that at the head of these
bands were such commanders as our old acquaintance Zambianchi,*
Masi, and Nicotera, doing their devil's work under the protection of
the white cross of Savo}^
On the 9th of August iN'apoleon III., now sovereign of Savoy,
visited that province, and had an interview at Chambery with Gen-
erals Fanti, the Piedmontese minister of war, and Cialdini. It is said
that Napoleon combined with them the destruction of the papal
army under La Moriciere, and sent them away with the words. Fate
presto! ''Do quickly." There is no authentic proof of this. But
after his interview with the generals he was more than once heard to
say to those around him :
" If Piedmont believes this to be necessary in order to save her-
self and to save Italy from great danger, be it so ; but she must act
on her own responsibility ; let her remember that if she be attacked
by Austria, France cannot defend her." But Cavour cared little
about what Napoleon had said ; he knew his man well, and was per-
fectly aware that the pamphlet, "The Pope and the Congress,"
meant as surely "the Romagna and the Marches are yours," as the
pamphlet "Napoleon III. and Italy" meant "prepare for war with
Austria, and occupy the Romagna and the Marches. "
So far as Cavour and Piedmont were concerned in the drama
about to be enacted, this was the part assumed by the prime minis-
ter : He was resolved, in order to save appearances in presence of
Europe, to prevent Garibaldi from marching on Rome from Naples,
and thus bringing on a collision with the imperial troops garrison-
ing Rome. He therefore resolved to march the Piedmontese army
under Fanti and Cialdini through Umbria and the Commarca to the
frontier of Naples, and thus take the leadership of the revolutionary
movement out of the hands of Garibaldi. At the same time he would
crush the pontifical army just in a state of formation ; and he knew
that for this he would have the thanks of Napoleon, whose ambassa-
dor, the Duke de Gramont, had been taking pains to represent the
little army as a nursery of "legitimism," and the pilgrimages made
to Rome since January, as so many legitimist demonstrations.
■ — — — »
See page 287.
King Victor EmmaiiueVs Conscience, 373
He did not greatly apprehend an attack from Austria : but he
nevertheless wrote to General La Marmora to do all he could to keep
the attention of the Austrian generals fixed on the Piedmonteso
forces in Lombardy, relieved Fanti of the ministry of war, and
Persano of that of marine, taking both of them on himself in addi-
tion to that of the interior, gave them directions to be ready to act
at a moment's notice by sea and land in order to strike La Moriciere,
who was to be driven into Ancona, while he was himself to bully
Antonelli and deceive him with diplomatic feints.
He wrote to Persano : " Cialdini is about to enter the Marches
and to proceed rapidly toward Ancona ; but he does not think he
can take that place without energetic assistance from our fleet.
Tell me what you think is necessary to assure success, and how you
intend to secure it."
There is a brutal ultimatum from Cavour to Cardinal Antonelli.
The King of Sardinia cannot see without deep concern ^Hhe forma-
tion of bodies of foreign mercenary troops for the service of the
pontifical government. These organizations, formed in opposition
to the customs of civilized government, of men of every language
and nationality and religion, deeply wounds the public conscience
in Italy and throughout Europe. . . . The conscience of King
Victor Emmanuel cannot allow him to remain the passive spectator
of the sanguinary repression by which the arms of mercenary stran-
gers might drown in Italian blood all manifestation of national feel-
ing. ... I have therefore the honor to invite your Eminence
to order forthwith the disarming of these bodies. . . ."
Just the day before, the Duke de Gramont assured the pontifical
government that they had no one to fear but Garibaldi. And,
without waiting for an answer from Cardinal Antonelli, Cavour
published in the next edition of the oflBcial Gazette of Turin, a pro-
clamation of the king to his army telling them that they were going
to invade ''the Marches and Umbria, to restore public order in
desolated cities, and to enable the population to express their wishes,
, . . to teach by their example the forgiveness of injuries and
Christian tolerance," etc.
Cialdini had not waited for the royal proclamation to cross the
frontier and to put forth his manifesto: "Soldiers! I am leading
you against a horde of foreign drunkards, whom the lust of gold and
the hope of plunder has brought to our country. Eight, disperse
inexorably these miserable cut-throats \ let them feel in your blows
374 Lif^ of Pope Pius IX,
the wrath of a people who will have their nationality and indepen
dence I "
This was on the 10th and 11th of September. On the 16th the
Duke de Gramont telegraphed to the French consul at Ancona :
'* The emperor has written to the King of Sardinia, that if the Pied-
montese troops set foot on the pontifical territory, he shall be forced
to oppose it. Orders have already been given to embark troops at
Toulon, and these re-enforcements are to come here without delay.
The imperial government will not tolerate the criminal aggression of
the Piedmontese government." In transmitting the dispatch the
operator had said that the emperor would ''oppose it by force," in-
stead of '' be forced to oppose it." The sense, taken with the context,
was manifestly the same, and there was a little diplomatic squabble
about it gotten up by the Duke de Gramont. Meanwhile the Pied-
montese forces were moving on swiftly and relentlessly toward the
unsuspecting papal army. The "bands" led by Zambianchi, Masi,
Nicotera, and their peers, had passed the papal frontier simulta-
neously, in advance of the royal troops. General de La Moriciere
telegraphed for information on these movements, and was informed
(about the 8th September) that Piedmont would not allow these
bands to create disturbance, and that the Piedmontese troops which
would follow them, would not attack the papal soldiers.
"I was contending with these uncertainties," says de La Moriciere
in his report, "when, during the afternoon of the 10th, the arrival
of Captain Farini, aid-de-camp to General Fanti, relieved me from
all doubt. . . . The general, by order of the King of Piedmont,
informed me that his troops should take possession of the Marches
and Umbria in the following cases :
"1. If troops under my command in any city of these provinces
should have to use force to repress any manifestation in the national
sense;
" 2. If I gave order to my troops to march on a city in which such
a manifestation occurred ;
"3. If such a manifestation having occurred, and having been
repressed by my orders, I did not forthwith withdraw my troops
from the city. . . .
"Captain Farini having told me that he was acquainted with
the contents of this dispatch, I observed to him that the proposition
made to me simply demanded that I should evacuate without a
struggle the provinces I had been sent to defend ; that this simply
La Mor icier e Starts for Aitcona, 3^5
meant shame and disgrace for me ; and the King of Piedmont might
have spared himself the trouble of sending such a missive. . . ,"
General Fanti telegraphed almost immediately to his aid-de-camp
to return without waiting for an answer from the pontifical govern-
ment !
The rest is soon told. The reader is prepared for the catastrophe
which followed so speedily on this atrocious violation of all right and
law, and even international courtesy. The pontifical army not only
was not on a war footing, but was only very partially organized,
armed, and equipped. The Irish brigade, among others, had not
even havresacks or cartouche-boxes. Three hundred men of this
brigade were thrown into the Eocca of Spoleto, the artillery of the
place being in charge of a French officer. Captain de Baye, Major
O'Eeilly having the chief command ; and with a warm farewell to
him and his brave boys, La Moriciere left them at dawn on the 12th,
and with about three battalions and one company of the Irish bri-
gade, he set out for Macerata by the shortest road through Foligno,
Camerino, and Tolentino. His purpose was to arrive at Ancona
before the Piedmontese ; and it was precisely into Ancona that the
Piedmontese wished to decoy him and his unprepared little army, in
order to crush them at one blow.
At Foligno La Moriciere was joined by his lieutenant. Marquis de
Pimodan, and both fully aware that there was treachery abroad, has-
tened to do what brave soldiers always do, to face overwhelming odds
in the discharge of duty. On arriving at Macerata, the general-
in-chief received from Cardinal Antonelli a copy of De Gramont's
dispatch to the French consul at Ancona, and from Ancona itself he
received a communication, written by a person in authority at Trieste,
assuring him that *Hhe Austrian fleet would cruise to the south of
Ancona to prevent its being blockaded ; and that the squadron was
a considerable one and well commanded." All these informations
were communicated to the pontifical troops, who received them with
evident satisfaction.
Nevertheless the Piedmontese army was pushing forward with
irresistible numbers and energy, carrying before them every strong-
hold in Umbria and the Marches. On the 17th O'Keilly was beset
in Spoleto by General Brignone with a powerful force and a numer-
ous artillery, while the Eocca of Spoleto had to defend it two old
iron cannon mounted on half -rotten carriages. For twelve entire
hours the little band of Irishmen, half -armed as they were, kept at
376 Life of Pope Pius IX,
bay a whole corps of the regular Piedmontese army, and only capitu-
lated when resistance was hopeless and honor had been amply yin-
dicated.
On the very same day General de La Moriciere was at Loreto with
2,000 infantry, and De Pimodan, with 2,600 : they found themselves
almost entirely hemmed in by the Piedmontese ; they were without
provisions and without money to buy them, the army treasure-chest
having been earned off by mistake to Ancona. From Castel-Pidardo,
occupying the crest of a group of lofty hills to the left of the road to
Ancona, to Loreto the way was, purposely, left open by the Pied-
montese. They wanted to press the pontifical troops northward
toward the great fortress, like hunters in the African wilds driv-
ing their game toward the apex of a long double line of inclosure,
where escape must be impossible. From Sinigaglia, on the other side
of Ancona, the Piedmontese had already swept everything before
them.
On the 18th of September La Moriciere began his perilous march,
the enemy pressing on his rear and threatening his line of march
from the high hills above. De Pimodan's corps was in advance, and
with him the hundred men of the brigade of St. Patrick, who did
good service in getting the artillery across the ford at the confluence
of the rivers Musone and Aspio, in hauling the pieces up the steep
acclivities beyond, and in protecting them throughout that disastrous
day.
The raw recruits had never been under fire before, and, hemmed
in as they found themselves by the sea on their right and the
enemy's overwhelming numbers and rifled artillery on the heights
above their left, they were ready for a panic. The oldest and
bravest troops could have had but few chances in their favor under
such circumstances. As it was, the heroic commander-in-chief and
his principal officers only thought of saving their honor and sparing
the lives of the men they commanded.
The brave De Pimodan, who had to dislodge the left wing of the
Piedmontese from two strong positions, had infused his own spirit
into his men. He was wounded early in the day, but continued to
give his orders and lead his men. But in the very crisis of the bat-
tle he fell mortally wounded, and as they bore him dying down
toward the river, his commander-in-chief could only press his hand
and say a few loving farewell words. This was the greatest misfor-
tune of all. For the wooded hills and the farm-houses were now
Fall of Ancona — Recrim inations — Rctributio7i, 377
swarming with the victorious Piedmontese, and the disordered bat-
talions had to thread their way through what seemed a labyrinth of
flame.
The bulk of the pontifical army was separated from the comman-
der-in-chief and retreated to Loreto, while he with a little more than
400 men endeavored to cut his way through to Ancona. Three-
fourths of these were, however, shot down or taken prisoners, and La
Moriciere had only eighty men around his flag, with Captain Delpech,
when, at half-past five o'clock in the afternoon, he entered Ancona,
bombarded at that moment by the Piedmontese fleet.
It was a horrible outrage ; for no time had been given to non-bel-
ligerents to withdraw, and these suffered more in the beginning than
the feeble garrison itself. The revolutionary committee had been
careful to send out of the city all the provisions available for the
troops. The forces shut up in Lore to capitulated on the 27 th of
September, and on the 28th, after ten days of fierce bombardment,
being completely surrounded by the enemy, and the defensive works
being breached on every side. La Moriciere demanded to capitulate.
History has recorded, that the behavior of the Piedmontese toward
the illustrious soldier and his brave men, was just as dastardly as
could be expected from the spirit displayed by their proclamations
and acts at the beginning of this inglorious campaign.
European public opinion did not fail to utter some unpalatable
truths on Cavour and his king, and their generals. The London
Times reproached the Piedmontese premier with not being able to
"understand that a frank and honorable line of action is not incom-
patible with patriotism." Manin, from his exile in Paris, said bit-
terly that " no victory deserves to be weighed in the balance against
the contempt of self."
The Revue des Deux Mondes could not withhold the expression of
its anger caused by such unprecedented baseness and bad faith. "It
is not Garibaldi and his volunteers," it said, "that General de La
Moriciere had to fight ; the odds would in that case not have been
so unequal ; but it is the regular army of Piedmont he had before
him, an army six times more numerous than his own. Nor is it the
mere attack of a revolutionary party which is now directed against
the temporal power of the papacy ; it is a government incomparably
more powerful than the Pope's, which decrees arbitrarily, itself
alone, and in the face of the other nations of the world, the suppres-
sion of this power, and which accomplishes that suppression by the
378 Life of Pope Pins IX.
resistless force of its arms, and under the eyes of our garrison in
Rome!"
The two great western powers — France and England — were the
ahettors of this spoliation, of this unprovoked and iniquitous war,
made on that venerable sovereignty which had been the central force
in the creation of western Christendom. Even before the fall of
Ancona became known, Russia and Prussia both withdrew their am-
bassadors from Turin ; France did so a little later ; but England still
maintained Sir John Hudson at Turin, as Cavour's confidant and
chief counselor, while Sir Henry Elliot continued to reside at Naples
at Garibaldi's head-quarters.
To the energetic protestations of the Prussian prime minister, Yon
Schleinitz, Cavour made answer in words that were prophetic : "I
regret that the court of Berlin should judge so severely the conduct
of the king and his government. I am conscious of acting in con-
formity with the interests of my sovereign and my country. I might
reply successfully to what M. Von Schleinitz says ; but, be that as it
may, / console myself with the thought that on the present occasion I
am setting an example which Prussia, within a short time, prolahly,
will he happy to follow" *
Yes, Prussia, now that solemn treaties are only made to be broken,
and international law only binds the weak, will grow at the expense
of her weaker neighbors. A decade — ^just a decade — from that mem-
orable 28th of September, 1860, when the Pope's temporal sovereignty
disappeared with the flag that was lowered on the cmmbling walls of
Ancona, the imperial power of France will be as sorely bestead in
Sedan. With the supremacy of France fell that of England. To-
day, within the second decade, after this shameful betrayai of all
right, what weight have England and France in the councils of con-
tinental Europe ? Russia and Prussia alone decide on peace and war,
and Austria, who looked calmly from her splendid fortresses of the
Quadrilateral on the triumphant march of the crowned brigand,
Victor Emmanuel, and kept her fleet idle in the waters of Trieste,
within sound of the cannon of Ancona, shall see her flag disappear
from every inch of Italian soil, her German territory crippled, and
her shadowy imperial existence tolerated by Prussia and Russia, till
the Turkish question is settled on the basis of the new European law
inaugurated by Cavour.
Two solemn acts of Pius IX. in connection with this "new depar-
* Charles de Mazade, La Revue des Deux Mondes, November 15, 1876, p. 421.
Allocution of Pius IX, 379
ture " in international jurisprudence and public morality must be
mentioned here.
While his soldiers were dying in defense of his independence at
Ancona, he was preparing one of those consistorial allocutions, which,
although addressed to the College of Cardinals, are especially des-
tined for the governments of Christendom in their relations with
the Holy See. This was delivered on the 28th of September, the
very day when Ancona surrendered to the Piedmontese army and
fleet. The allocution briefly but eloquently enumerates the succes-
sive acts of aggression committed by the Piedmontese government :
*'the impudent letter" of Oavour, sent as a preface justifying the
subsequent violation of territory and all its accompanying blood-
shed ; '^Hhe lying accusations, the multiplied calumnies and insults"
put forward as a pretext for the invasion ; ^^the singular malignity
with which the Piedmontese government dared to call the pontifi-
cal soldiers mercenaries, when so many of them, both Italians and
foreigners, were of noble lineage, bearing illustrious names, and had
resolved to serve in our troops without pay, and for the sole love of
our holy religion."
*'Our government could have had no intimation of the enemy's
purpose. . . . The general and chief commanding our forces
could not have entertained the thought of having to contend with
the soldiers of Piedmont. . . . AYhile we must bestow merited
praise on that general, on his ofiicers, and on his men, ... we
can scarcely restrain our tears as we remember all those brave soldiers,
these noble young men especially, who had been impelled by faith
and their own generous hearts to fly to the defense of the temporal
power of the Roman Church, and who have met with their death in
this cruel and unjust invasion. We are deeply moved by the grief
of their families ; and would to God it were in our power by any
word of ours to dry up the source of their tears ! "
Then follows a withering rebuke of the impudence and the
hypocrisy of the invaders, who pretended to come "as the restorers
of moral order," and the preachers of tolerance and charity; an
energetic denunciation of the principle of "non-intervention," which
is of such recent origin, and on the practical meaning of which the
conduct of Piedmont is so strange a commentary.
Cavour next went through the farce of an election in the annexed
provinces, and in October dictated to his king a proclamation in
answer to the papal allocution, as well as to the unfavorable judg-
38o Life of Pope Pius IX.
ments pronounced on liis acts by tlie European press. The fall of
Gaeta, the annexation of the kingdom of Naples to Piedmont, and
the last official acts of the government of Victor Emmanuel declar-
ing the conquered pontifical provinces a part of his kingdom, to-
gether with the atrocious outrages everywhere committed on all
persons who dared to remain loyal to the Holy See, or faithful to
the sacred laws of the Church — all that drew from the Holy Father
the famous allocution of March 18th, 1861, which is, perhaps, the
most splendid, and, taken in connection with the Syllabus, the most
far-reaching doctrinal act of his pontificate.
In Italy, in England, in France, in some parts of Germany, and
even in our impulsive and unreflecting America, though the manner
in which Piedmont had done its work of "unification" was mildly
censured, the infidel, the anti-Christian, and the Protestant press ap-
plauded the consummation. The utter ruin of the papacy had been
effected, they thought, by the hands of its own children ; the whole
framework of the politico-ecclesiastical society of Italy was swept
away ; the old canon law was a thing of the past ; the union of
Church and State a system as dead as the theocracy of the ancient
Egyptians, and the complete supremacy of the civil power in educa-
tion, law, public morality, and external discipline, something like a
century plant, growing slowly and maturing age after age through
a long cycle of change and social experience, till the flower all at
once bursts its sheath, and reveals its unsuspected glories to the eyes
of a wondering earth, filling all lands with its perfume and its fame.
This, they said, was progress, this was modern civilization. The
upsetting, not of time-honored institutions only, but of all the prin-
ciples hitherto considered fundamental and unchangeable in legis-
lation, in public and private morality, in philosophy, in natural
religion even, in the essential notions of right and justice regu-
lating the transactions of man with man and of nation with nation,
the sacredness of treaties, the binding solemnities of an oath, the
reverence for the awful name of the Godhead, all that, and much
more than that, was set aside by the "regenerators" of Italy,
as belonging only to the past, as not binding either on the pres-
ent or on the future. No wonder that the Roman pontiff, the
supreme arbiter for so many ages in all questions of public and
private right, the official guardian of morality, the custodian and
interpreter of the revealed law of God, the teacher of churches and
of nations, should have recoiled with horror from the thought of
^^ Modern Progress and Civilization^ 381
anything like conciliation or compromise with the men who, after
having robbed him and desolated the flock committed to his care,
challenged him to accept their ruthless changes and pitiless destruc-
tion as true progress, and their principles, or rather their utter con-
tempt of principle, as civilization. But let us meditate the words
themselves of this memorable allocution, Jamdudum cernimus :
'' Venerable Beothers : — For a long space of time we are made
the beholders of a lamentable struggle, begotten of the incompati-
bility of antagonistic principles, between truth and error, between
virtue and vice, between light and darkness, which, especially in
our age, agitates and convulses society. Some there are who main-
tain what they call the notions of modern civilization ; while others
defend the rights of justice and of our holy religion. The former
call upon the Eoman pontiff to effect a reconciliation and an alli-
ance between himself and progress, liberalism — the new civilization.
The latter are laudably anxious that the unchangeable and unfail-
ing principles of eternal justice shall be preserved in their inviolable
integrity. They desire that the saving power of our divine religion
be upheld in its fullness, for it is that religion alone which mani-
fests the glory of the Godhead, and affords efficacious remedies for all
the ills under which humanity is suffering. It is the only rule which
forms man to all virtues here below, and leads him to eternal felicity.
"But this opposition is denied by the advocates of modem civil-
ization, who proclaim themselves to be the true and sincere friends
of religion. We would fain believe them ; but the sad events which
occur daily under the eyes of all bear witness to the contrary. Thero
is on earth but one true and holy religion, founded and established
by Christ himself ; the fruitful parent and nurse of all virtue, the
enemy of every vice, the liberator of souls, the source of all true
happiness, and that religion is called Catholic, Apostolic, and
Roman. . . .
'^With respect to such as invite us, for the good of religion, to
join hands with modern civilization, we ask them, whether it be pos-
sible for him whom Christ has instituted his vicar on earth, for the
purpose of maintaining his heavenly doctrine in its purity, of feeding
and fortifying therewith Christ's lambs and sheep, to ally himself
conscientiously and without scandal to all men, with that modem
civilization which begets such deplorable evils, such detestable opin-
ions, so many errors and principles opposed to the Catholic religion
and its teaching ?
382 Life of Pope Pius IX.
" "Without recalling other facts, is it not, for instance, notorious
that the most solemn concordats validly concluded between the
Apostolic See and soyereigns are completely set aside, as has been re-
cently done at Naples ? "We here complain, and reclaim, and pro-
test with all our might against this last act, as we haye already pro-
tested against so m.any other yiolations and outrages of the same
nature [committed by the Piedmontese goyernment. — Author,']
'* This modern ciyilization professes on the one hand to fay or
eyery form of worship not Catholic, . . . and, on the other, it
denounces religious communities, the congregations founded to di-
rect Catholic schools, ecclesiastics of every rank, even those who are
invested with the highest dignities, many of whom are at this mo-
ment in exile or in prison, and distinguished laymen, who, in their
devotion to our person and the Holy See, dare to defend the cause of
religion and justice.
"This civilization lavishes its assistance on non-Catholic institu-
tions and persons, while it strips the Catholic Church of her lawful
possessions, and uses all industry and zeal to undermine her salutary
influence. It allows full scope to the men who by their word and
their pen assail the Church and her defenders ; it inspires, feeds, and
foments licentiousness, while using an excessive reserve in repressing
the violent and odious attacks made on all who publish good books,
and displays toward these the utmost rigor whenever they chance to
transgress in the slightest degree the limits of moderation.
"Is it to such a civilization as this that the Eoman pontiff could
ever extend the right hand of fellowship ? Is it with such a civil-
ization that he could contract any league of alliance or amity ? Let
us only call things by their proper names, and it must appear evident
that the Holy See is always consistent with itself. It has ever been
the protector and support of true civilization. History can show in
the most convincing manner that at every epoch the Holy See has
been the bearer of the true principles of humanity, order, and wisdom
to the most distant and barbarous countries.
" But inasmuch as people will have us understand by civilization
a system organized for the express purpose of weakening and eventu-
ally destroying the Cliurch of Christ, it is certain that neither the
Holy See nor the Roman pontiff can ever bo reconciled to such a
civilization. . . .
"With what degree of good faith can the disturbers of the public
peace and the abettors of revolution lift up their voices to proclaim
Persecution of the Church, 383
that they have in yain endeavored to be reconciled with the Roman
pontiff ? He derives all his power from the principles of everlasting
righteousness ; how could he ever forsake them to weaken the cause
of our holy faith, and to expose Italy thereby to lose, together with
her peculiar glory of nineteen centuries, the privilege of being the
center and seat of Catholic truth ?
** Nor can it be said truthfully that, so far as the temporal power
IS concerned, the Holy See has been deaf to those who asked for a
more liberal administration. . . .
'*In more recent times, as you are aware, when we were tendered
advice about our temporal government, we were not slow to profit
by it ; rejecting, however, what had no regard to the civil adminis-
tration, and what tended to obtain our assent to the spoliations
already accomplished. But it is idle to speak of advice accepted
favorably and of promises sincerely given by us to execute them,
when it is notorious, that those who direct these usurpations openly
say, that what they want is not reform but revolution, and a com-
plete separation from the lawful sovereign. Those who filled the
world with their outcries were not our own people, but the very
authors and counselors of these criminal assaults. ...
" The war made on the Eoman pontiff aims not only at depriving
him and the Holy See of their civil power, but at lowering, weaken-
ing, and, if possible, destroying utterly the salutary energy of the
Catholic religion. . . .
" How many dioceses in Italy are left without bishops, because these
are not permitted to govern lawfully, while these advocates of modern
civilization rejoice that Christian populations are deprived of their
guides, usurp their possessions and employ them to the very worst
purposes ! How many bishops are at this moment in exile ? How
many — we say it in the bitterness of our soul — how many apostates,
are now preaching not in the name of God, but in that of Satan,
trusting to the impunity allowed them by a fatal policy to disturb con-
sciences, to urge the weak to prevaricate and confirm the fallen in their
unblushing profession of error, endeavoring to rend asunder the seam-
less robe of Christ, and proposing to establish a national church. . .
"Now, after having thus outraged the religion they invite hypo-
critically to become reconciled with the civilization in vogue, they
presume to ask us with a like hypocrisy to become reconciled with
Italy. That is to say, at the very time when almost totally stripped
of our temporalities, we have to meet the heavy charges incumbent
384 Life of Pope Pius IX.
on the prince and the pontiff through the alms sent us by the chil-
dren of the Catholic Church ; at the vxry moment when we are
made, without motive, a target for envy and hatred, by the very men
who counsel this kind of reconciliation, they would have us also de-
clare openly that we give up to the usurpers, as their freehold pro-
perty, the provinces wrested from the Pontifical States !
'*This daring and unheard-of proposition simply means that the
Apostolic See, which has always been, and shall ever continue to be,
the bulwark of truth and justice, ought to sanction this principle,
that a thing taken perforce from its owner may be peacefully retained
by the unjust aggressor ; it means also a sanction of this erroneous
maxim that a triumphant wrong is not an infraction of the sacred-
ness of right. But this proposition is repugnant to the words so
solemnly uttered of late in an illustrious senate chamber : ' The
Roman pontiff is the representative of the highest moral power in
human society.' Hence it follows that the pontiff can in nowise
consent to the spoliation wrought by these Vandals, without shaking
to its foundations the moral law of which he is acknowledged to be
the form and the image.
" Whoever, led by fear or by error, would be disposed to counsel
the disturbers of civil society in conformity with their desires, ought
to be firmly convinced — especially in our day — that nothing short of
the total destruction of the principle of authority, of all religious
restraint, of all rule of right and justice, can satisfy these men.
And — ^unfortunately for civil society — these disturbers have suc-
ceeded by their speeches and writings in perverting the conscience of
mankind, in blunting men's moral sense, and diminishing their in-
born horror of iniquity. They do their utmost to persuade the world
that the rights claimed by honest folk are but an unrighteous pre-
tension which must be set aside.
" In the midst of this growing darkness ... we place our
trust in the most clement Father of mercies. . . . He it is
who sheds on Catholic nations the spirit of prayer, and who in-
spires non-Catholic peoples with that righteous sense which enables
them to pronounce an equitable judgment on these events. This
wonderful union of prayers throughout the Catholic world, these
unanimous manifestations of love toward us, expressed in so many
different ways, are such as to have no parallel in the past, and are
an evidence for the right-minded of the necessity of being in union
with this chair of the blessed Peter. . , .
A New Diplomatic Campaign, 385
" Wherefore, while our soul is oppressed with grief, and we lift
our hands in supplication to God on high, we are only fullSlling the
duty of our supreme apostleship by speaking out, by teaching, and
by combating whatsoever God and his Church teach and combat,
in order that * we may consummate our course and the ministry of
the word which we received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the
gospel of the grace of God.' "
Napoleon, who had hypocritically suspended open diplomatic inter-
course with the court of Turin, continued to negotiate secretly with
Cavour, through Prince Napoleon Jerome, the question of Rome and
what remained of the temporal power. He was prepared to withdraw
his troops from that city and what remained of the papal territory,
binding Piedmont to respect the sovereignty and the independence of
the Holy See, allowing the Pope to recruit an army which should only
serve for defensive purposes. On these conditions the emperor was
ready to acknowledge the new kingdom of Italy. Of course Cavour
and Prince Napoleon and the emperor himself all perfectly under-
stood that this meant giving up the Holy Father to the will of his
enemies.
To prepare public opinion in France and Europe for this culmina-
tion in the Cavour-Bonaparte policy, a new pamphlet, entitled La
France, Rome, et Vltalie, signed this time by Arthur de la Gueron-
niere, appeared on the 7th day of March. Its real authorship was
a secret to no one. The Pope's magnificent allocution was an indi-
rect reply to this new declaration of war, this plan of a final intel-
lectual campaign in which the temporal sovereignty was to win or
lose forever in the public opinion of Christendom.
This drew from Cardinal Antonelli a letter to the papal minister
in Paris, which is perhaps the most admirable document ever signed
by the great secretary. " The chief purpose of this production (the
pamphlet) is to throw on the Holy Father and on his government
the responsibility of the condition to which Italy, and the Pontifical
States in particular, have been reduced." With a lucidity, a logic, a
subdued eloquence beyond all praise, the writer attacks, one after the
other, every position assumed by the pamphleteer, and exposes tri-
umphantly the treachery, the baseness, the duplicity of the chief
adversaries of the Holy See in this long battle with Piedmontism
abetted by Louis Napoleon.
One point made by the writer must not be omitted here, as it
serves to throw further light on the bad faith which marked through-
386 Life of Pope Pius IX,
out the proceedings of Cavour and his imperial ally. The author
of the pamphlet accused the Pope bitterly of having rejected the
plan of an Italian confederacy in 1859, when proposed by the Em-
peror Napoleon.
"The official proposition of such a confederacy," writes the car-
dinal, ''and of its presidency, came only after the preliminaries of
Villafranca and of the treaty of Zurich, and the Holy Father showed
himself disposed to accept it, as soon as its basis had been defined.
The author, nevertheless, says that it was then too late ; he does not,
in saying so, seem to perceive that he seriously insults his own sov-
ereign, as if he and the other powers had proposed, as the basis of a
solemn treaty and the great means of conciliation, a thing which
was at that moment neither possible nor opportune. Be that as it
may, it was only then that the proposition was made by the person
authorized to do so ; and it is unjust to pretend that his Holiness had
taken any action thereon before it was laid before him. Since, there-
fore, the thing fell through independently of his refusal, how can he,
without a positive act of calumny, be accused of obstinacy on this
point ? "
''Let us," the cardinal says elsewhere, " reduce to their simplest
terms all these heads of accusation. Putting aside the unfounded
assertions, the manifest cal^imnies, the matters foreign to the case,
which helped to fill up the pamphlet, the obstinacy which it imputes
to the Holy Father amounts to his having declined an abdication
which his conscience condemned, to his having deferred some reforms
promised till the revolted provinces had returned to their allegiance ;
to his having proposed to recruit an army for himself, instead of ac-
cepting the troops offered to him ; to his having preferred the volun-
tary offerings of the faithful to subsidies furnished by governments
who are not all nor always equally disposed to be friendly. And
these acts of firmness, of noble disinterestedness, which must appear
most praiseworthy to the unprejudiced mind, which have appeared
and do still appear worthy of the admiration of Protestants, seem on
the other hand to the Catholic author of the pamphlet to be so
blameworthy, that he could not find more bitter words of censure
were he to write against those who are alone responsible for the sad
disorders of the present time.
" But this is precisely what is of a nature to surprise us. The im-
perial government of France had given advice to his Holiness ; it had
also given advice to the Piedmontese government. Now if the Holy
Did Napoleon make a Friend of Italy? 387
Father must be accused of not having followed such advice, the
Piedmontese government does not appear to have been more docile.
. , . His Holiness did not deem it expedient to do some things
desired by the French government ; but Piedmont did a great many
things which the French government had publicly declared it was
opposed to. The imperial government forbade the violation of the
neutrality of the Pontifical States ; and to this the Piedmontese gov-
ernment responded by occupying the Eomagna. The imperial gov-
ernment disapproved annexation ; and the Piedmontese government
only answered by accomplishing annexation. The imperial govern-
ment forbade, in threatening language, the invasion of the Marches
and Umbria ; and the Piedmontese government responded by pour-
ing grapeshot into the little pontifical army, by bombarding Ancona
from sea and land, and by refusing to observe any of the laws of war
acknowledged by all civilized nations. . . .
'^The author of the pamphlet allows his pen the crudest license
against the Holy See, but has not one single word of blame for the
Piedmontese government ! . . . Who can explain such an attitude ?
'^ The explanation is a very natural one, and is given on the last
page, where the author tells us that the emporor of the French can-
not sacrifice Italy to iJie court of Rome nor give up tlie papacy to the
revolution ; which means that the court of Rome must be sacrificed
to the exigencies of the Peninsula, that the temporal dominion of
the Holy See must be done away with, because it is in the way of the
unification of Italy, and that this suppression is to prevent the
papacy or the spiritual power from falling beneath the blows of the
revolution."
Eventually the court of Rome was sacrificed to Italian unity, and
the papacy, or so much of it as can be subject to the despotism of
human masters, was given up to the revolution impersonated by
Piedmont.
The emperor who thus sacrificed conscience, right, justice, the
most venerable institutions the world had ever seen, to Italy, thought
that he was creating for France a powerful friend at her very
gates, and for himself and his dynasty a grateful and steadfast
friend in the day of need. The day of need came sooner than either
Napoleon or Victor Emmanuel fancied, but the emperor found nei-
ther ally nor friendship nor gratitude ; while France knows, to her
bitter cost, that to heap benefits on ignoble natures is to make for
one's self the worst of enemies.
388 Life of Pope Phcs IX.
"We have not the heart to pursue further the revolutionary career
of Piedmont. We shall see the iniquity consummated in its time.
The first " Italian " parliament met in Turin in February ; Victor
Emmanuel was proclaimed king of Italy on March the 14th. The
"kingdom of Italy" was recognized by Great Britain on the 31st
day of that month, and by France on the 2'4th of June. But Cavour
did not live to have that satisfaction ; he died on the 6th of June.
" To the end he remained what he was, what he had wished to
be. He had given instructions that at the proper time they should
call in the rector of the Madonna degli Angeli (^Our Lady of
Angels '), Friar Giacomo, with whom he had made a compact some
seven years before about such an eventuality, and, faithful to his
agreement, the friar came. . . . Cavour remained alone with the
priest for half an hour, and when the latter was gone he called Fa-
rini and said : ' My niece has had Fra Giacomo to come to me ; I
must prepare myself for the dread passage to eternity ; I have made
my confession and have received absolution. I wish all to know,
I want the good people of Turin to know that I die like a good
Christian. I am at peace with myself. I have never wronged any
one. . . .' One of the last words of Cavour was addressed to Fra
Giacomo, who was reciting by the bedside the prayers for the de-
parting soul : ' Frate, Frate,^ said he in pressing the other's hand,
* liber chiesa in liber o stato.^^^ *
On that death-bed repentance, the peace of that soul with itself,
when the tremendous judgment was so nigh, and the boast of the
dying persecutor of God's Church and her pontiif that he had
** never wronged any one," — on that statesman's career of rapine,
duplicity, blood, and sacrilege, which ended early on that moraing in
June, with the triumphant boast that he had left *' a free church in
a free State," — the All-Knowing and All-Righteous has pronounced
his adorable sentence.
Let him disappear from these pages. To the august parent who
would have been so happy to send to that chamber of death sweet
words of love and forgiveness, Cavour did not send one single word
of regret. Pius IX. was destined to look down on the death of many
more of the leaders in wrong-doing before his aged eyes might close
to a world so full for him of the bitter agony of the cross, not un-
mixed, however, with its blissful consciousness of triumph.
• Reme des Deux Sondes, l^ Janvier, 1877, p. 203.
CHAPTER XXXI.
GuizoT oiq- THE Social State of Eukope akd the Italian Policy
— The Pope is in^vited to Abdicate his Temporal Soyer-
eigkty — Persecutio^ts 11^ the Kikgdom of Italy — Ik New
Greitada and Mexico — The Great Canonization of June,
1862 — The Pope's Address to the Bishops — Solemn Con-
demnation OF Modern Errors — The Italian Parliament
considers the Assemblage a Political One — The *' Sylla-
bus OF Errors " — What it Means — Misapprehensions and
Misrepresentations.
1862-1865.
IN this same year, 1861, a man who had gained by the superiority
of his genius and the elevation of his character the very first rank
among European publicists, the illustrious Guizot, published a book
entitled '^The Church and Christian Society in 1861. '* Placed at
the head of the Protestant Church in France, his opinions on the
papacy, and the war then waged so furiously against it, had great
weight with persons of his own communion. We have already seen
how sincerely he wished, while prime minister under Louis Philippe,
to give the most efficient aid to the Holy Father in his work of ad-
ministrative reform. It is most interesting to hear his judgment on
the results of the policy followed by France, England, and Pied-
mont in forwarding the work of revolutionism.
"European societies," he says, "are deeply troubled; institutions
and beliefs, laws and influences, the State and the relations of all its
members, all things are now called in question ; almost everywhere
the ancient social structure is falling to pieces or shaken, and no one
can see on what solid foundation is to be built the new edifice ; every-
where confusion, incoherence, and hesitancy pervade men's minds,
and pass thence or threaten to pass into events ; governments and
peoples are equally weary and restless ; the present affords no secu-
rity, the future holds forth no light ; despite the indisputable ad-
vance in enlightment and social knowledge, we are living in darkness
389
390 Life of Pope Pitts IX.
and amid ruins." * In another passage the venerable author pro-
tests against men in power who look with '* a complacent adhesion or
a blind indifference on a course of policy alternately hrutal and hypo-
critical, which compromises instead of promoting the good cause in
Italy, and throws Christian society into grief and perturbation, the
certain prelude of an anarchy which would at one time rule supreme
and at another be chained down by some unforeseen power." f
No sooner had the new kingdom of Italy been recognized by
France than Baron Eicasoli, who had become prime minister, wrote
in the king's name both to Cardinal Antonelli and the Pope, urging
them to give up the sovereignty of Eome and thereby enable him to
perfect the ideal design of his predecessor, by allowing the Church
to be free in the new Italian free State. The letter to the Holy
Father ended with the following appeal :
"It is in your power. Holy Father, to renew once more the face of
the earth ; you can raise the Apostolic See to a height unknown for
ages.
*' If you wish to be greater than earthly sovereigns, cast away from
you this wretched kingship which brings you down to their level.
Italy shall bestow upon you a firm seat, an entire liberty, a new
greatness. She reveres in you the pontiff, but she will not stop in
her progress for the prince ; she intends to remain Catholic, but she
purposes to be a free and independent nation. If you but hearken
to the prayers of that daughter so singularly loved of you, you
shall gain over souls more power than you can lose as a prince, and
from the Vatican, as you lift your hand to bless Rome and the world,
you shall behold the nations restored to their rights bow down be-
fore you, their defender and protector."
Unfortunately for Eicasoli and his promises, the persecution
against bishops and priests, and the atrocious policy of assassination
organized against loyal and faithful laymen, continued to rage with
greater fierceness, not only in Naples and Sicily, but wherever the
cross of Savoy floated. Garibaldi only consented to suspend his
intention of beginning an armed crusade against Eome by the
promises and prospects held out to him by the Piedmontese ministry
in the name of Napoleon III., as well as Victor Emmanuel, that Eome
should become the capital of Italy with the briefest possible delay.
• Guizot, ViCglUe et la Societe CTiretienne en 1801, p. 266.
f im., p. 108.
Persecution in Mexico a7id New Grenada* 391
But the impatient chief could not brook these delays. Even then
his letters and discourses were full of one sentiment, which he meant
to transform soon into a fact : " Rome or Death ! " " Do not be
deceived by those whose interest is to deceive you. Among these are
the priests, and especially the high-priest of Rome and his cardi-
nals, these fabricators and venders of superstition, these panders to
tyrannical governments."
The proclamations and the acts of Garibaldi were the inevitable
accompaniment to which the Piedmontese ministers and Napoleon
IIL's secretaries and ambassadors always sang their persuasive strains
in the pontifical ear.
In the republics of the western world, during this time, lived
statesmen trained in the school of Mazzini and Garibaldi, and who
show^ed themselves apt scholars in the art of setting up " a free Church
in a free State." General Mosquera in New Grenada, and Benito
Juarez in Mexico, stopped at no halfway measures in their methods
of reconciling civil and religious liberty. In Mexico the entire
property of the Church, spared till then by the violence of successive
revolutions and the greed of political parties, was swept away into
the State treasury, and every bishop who dared to resist or protest was
banished from the country or imprisoned. In New Grenada, the bnital
Dictator, unmindful of the death in exile of his own saintly brother,
the Archbishop of Bogota, pursued a course of relentless persecution
toward the Church, and both the regular and secular clergy. To these
manifold causes of grief and anxiety for the Holy Father, was added,
in the spring of 1861, the breaking out of the civil war in the United
States, For to no portion of his wide flock did Pius IX. ever look
with a deeper and more fatherly interest than to the young churches
of the great western republic. They were like trees of his own plant-
ing, he had seen grow and put forth the fairest blossoms, and, as he
rejoiced in the near prospective of a fruitful harvest, lo ! the whirl-
wind had come ! How he prayed for peace during these dark and
stormy years, and with what a tender sympathy he looked forward
to a cessation of hostilities and to a renewal of the brotherly relations
between North and South, which political passion had so deeply dis-
turbed !
The last great solemnities of beatification in 1850, had been espe-
cially interesting for the American Church, since the holy personages
who were the subject of them — Peter Claverand Mariana de Paredes
— were American saints, A similar celebration had been proposed
392 Life of Pope Pius IX,
for 18G2, and the great feast of Pentecost, June the 8th, was chosen
as the day most favorable for the purpose.
On the 18th of January, Cardinal Caterini addressed, in the name
of the Holy Father, an invitation to the entire episcopal body.
"His Holiness," the circular said, "in conformity with the exam-
ples set by his predecessors, would fain have called together in Eome
the bishops of Italy, to obtain their deliberate judgment in a matter
of such great importance, as well as to add to the solemnity of
the occasion. But considering the calamities which weigh on the
larger portion of Italy, and which do not permit the shepherds to
leave their flocks, he has for once departed from the received
custom.
*' Wherefore the Holy Father has honored me with his commands
to invite to this celebration not only the bishops of Italy, but those
of the whole world, with the assurance that it would afford him a
very great satisfaction to see all who can come at the consistory (in
the month of May) as well as at the canonization."
As a preliminary step a secret consistory was held, in which his
Holiness expressed the wish to add to the catalogue of canonized
saints the names of three members of the Society of Jesus, and
twenty-three members of the Order of St. Francis who had been
cruelly crucified in Japan in 1622.
The heroic sufferings of the sovereign pontiff, the spoliations of
which he had been the victim, the open threats of Garibaldi and
Young Italy to have Eome before another year had passed, and the
treacherous policy, more than ever openly avowed in the senate
chamber by the French ministers and Prince Napoleon, made Rome
the goal of Catholic hearts, and the Holy Father an object of per-
sonal devotion to every son and daughter of the Church in every
land.
Magnificent as had been the spectacle presented by the capital of
the Christian world in December, 1854, it was far surpassed by the
Bolemnitics of June, 1862. The official annoyances, the jeers and
insults to which bishops, priests, and laymen were subjected at the
frontiers of the now kingdom of Italy, and on their way to Rome,
were a not very pleasant foretaste of the higher and larger freedom
promised to the sovereign pontiff and the Church when Rome should
belong to free Italy.
On May the 22d was held a semi-public consistory at which twen-.
ty-three cardinals and one hundred and twenty-five bishops voted
Ca7ionization of yune the 8th, 1862. 393
for the canonization. Three days afterward came a touching ad-
dress of the Umhrian bishops to the Pope, in which they declared
their adhesion to every act performed by their brethren and their
chief. There was a multitude of priests in Kome come to testify
their veneration to the persecuted Pope, much more than to gratify
their pious curiosity. The Holy Father called them all together in
the Sixtine chapel on June the 6th, and made to them one of those
simple and heartfelt discourses, every word of which goes straight to
the soul of each hearer like the well-sped arrow to its mark.
"On seeing you here we not only feel the burden of our grief
lightened, but we almost forget it. This is due to him who is the
sole author of peace and concord, who makes his Church ^care-
ful to keep the unity of spirit in the bond of peace,' in order that all
the faithful may form but ' one body and one spirit.' This unity con-"
stitutes the honor of the Church, the glory of her members, and an
object of fear for their enemies ; for in this unity she appears to them
like an army in battle array. . . . Eemain bound to this Aposto-
lic See, the center of unity, by the threefold tie of prayer and charity
and doctrine. Prayer pierces the heavens and obtains the possession
of all good and the deliverance from all evil ; charity makes us grow
in all things in him who is our head, Christ Jesus ; and doctrine
enables us to keep entire the deposit of faith. . . . We are in
stormy times, and the chair of Peter is bitterly assailed. But it is
80 firmly seated that heretical wickedness can never taint it, nor hea-
thenish misbelief undermine it. All the daring assaults of incredu-
lity and impiety shall be dashed to spray upon this rock and vanish
like dreams of the past.
" When you go back to your homes teach this truth to your flocks.
You have drunk here at the well-spring of unity ; tell them that the
stream cut off from its source must fail and run dry ; that all who
fight the good fight shall be crowned ; and that in our day all must
hold fast to the unity of the Church and uphold it."
On the 8th came the splendid ceremonial of the canonization. It
was no idle or empty pomp, this supreme honor rendered to twenty-
six noble confessors of Christ, who, at Nagasaki, upwards of two cen-
turies before, had sealed their witness with their blood, the heroic
children in the faith of that divine man, Francis Xavier, who first
brought the name of Christ to a land where torrents of blood and
ages of persecution have not been able to extinguish the flame kin-
dled by its apostle. It was, also, the anniversary of the day when
394 ^^f^ ^f P^P^ /^/^^ IX.
the divine Spirit came down on the apostles and disciples in the up-
per chamber at Jerusalem, and the little band went forth to conquer
a world to Christ. He who presided over the august assemblage
hoped, and not in vain, that the hearts and tongues of all who were
there would be touched with the heavenly fire.
On the next day, the 9th, there was a public consistory, at which
an address signed by two hundred and sixty-five bishops was read to
the Holy Father by Cardinal Mattel, the dean of the sacred college.
Among these were fifty-five French bishops, whose presence there
was a mute protest against the policy of their government and the
impious teachings of the Voltairian press.
The Holy Father had signified his wish that, in the present cir-
cumstances of the Holy See, the assembled prelates should give him
their opinion as to the necessity of the temporal sovereignty for the
perfect independence of the head of the universal Church. The an-
swer was most unanimous and explicit, greatly comforting the pontiff,
beset as he was by the importunities of France and alarmed by the
undisguised resolution of the Piedmontese. The words of the ad-
dress were not less cheering when the bishops spoke of his supreme
doctrinal authority. " Long may you live. Holy Father," they said,
**to rule the Catholic Church ! Proceed, as you do now, to defend
it with your power, to guide it with your pnidence, to adorn it with
your virtues. Go before us, as the good shepherd, by your example ;
feed the sheep and the lambs with food from heaven ; refresh them
with the waters of supernal wisdom. You are the teacher of sound
doctrine, the center of unity, the unfailing light kindled for all
peoples by the divine wisdom. You are the Eock, the foundation
of the Church against which the gates of hell shall not prevail.
When you speak, we hear Peter's voice ; when you decide, we obey
the authority of Christ."
The answer of the sovereign pontiff is contained in the allocution
Maxima quidem IcBtitia, the first half of which resumes all the doc-
trinal decisions and dogmatic teaching of his pontificate up to that
date. It is of special interest and importance, because it is a solemn
authoritative condemnation of the socialism, rationalism, and mate-
rialism of the nineteenth century, the syllabus or catalogue of errone-
ous propositions afterward sent by the Cardinal Secretary of State to
the archbishops and bishops of the entire Church being chiefly taken
from this great public utterance of the chief pastor in presence of
nearly three hundred bishops.
Condemnation of Modern Errors, 395
This memorable discourse or allocution is thus a sort of prepara-
tion for the complete body of doctrine which it was the purpose of
the council of the Vatican to draw up and promulgate once for all.
It may be as well, therefore, to give the reader a satisfactory idea
of what that famous Syllabus is, since its scope and the doctrines
which it proscribes, as well as those which it teaches by implication,
have been so sadly misunderstood and so shamefully misrepresented
by men as eminent as Gladstone.
We have seen, in the account given in the preceding chapter of
the allocution Jamdudum cernimus, what conception the revolu-
tionists of Italy and all who share their naturalism have of '^prog-
ress" and "modern civilization," how indignantly the supreme
pastor rejects the hideous shams these men would have him accept
for true progress and the true civilization so glorified by the Church.
We shall find presently these monstrous misconceptions again pil-
loried in the Syllalus, Let us now glance at the noble and preg-
nant lesson given by Pius IX. in that great assemblage of bishops.
" We felt our soul penetrated with a deep joy, when, yesterday, it
was given us to bestow the honors due to saints on twenty-seven
heroes of our holy faith, and to behold you all by our side, you who,
eminent for your piety and many other virtues, and associated with
our solicitude in these calamitous times, fight so bravely for the
house of Israel, and are for us a supreme joy and stay. Would to
God that no cause of sadness and grief from the outside world might
come to temper this overflowing joy ! But how is it possible not
to feel overburdened with sorrow and anxiety when one sees both
the Church and civil society given over as a prey to every species of
evil, to the immense detriment of men's souls !
"You are not ignorant of the implacable war declared against
everything Catholic by men who conspire together to misrepresent
what they do not know, to undermine the foundations of our holy
religion and of all civil society, ... to pervert minds and
hearts by filling them with pernicious errors and thereby choking up
in them all the seeds of Catholic doctrine. They never tire in bring-
ing to light the most monstrous aberrations of past ages, again and
again exposed and refuted by the most judicious ecclesiastical writ-
ers, and condemned by the solemn judgment of the Church. To
make them more attractive to the popular eye they clothe them with
a new form, deck them with fresh graces of expression, and then
spread them everywhere with untiring industry.
39^ Life of Pope Plus IX,
'' Thereby all the sciences are tainted and perverted, and made the
vehicles of a deadly intellectual poison, and stimulants to unrestrain-
ed licentiousness and the most criminal passions. Thus the entire
social and religious orders are upset, the notions of justice, trutli,
right, honor, and religion are weakened and obliterated, and the
teachings and commandments of Christ are derided and scoffed at.
*' You cannot but be aware of the fact that these men perempto-
rily deny the union which God has been pleased to establish between
the natural and supernatural orders ; that they alter, corrupt, and
destroy the proper, true, and lawful character of divine revelation, as
well as the authority, constitution, and power of the Church.
'^ Their intellectual temerity impels them to deny boldly every
truth and law and power and right which derives from God ; they
blush not even to affirm that the scientific knowledge of philosophy
and morals, as well as the laws of civil society, should be entirely
withdrawn from any connection with divine revelation and from the
control of Church authority. They maintain that the Church is not
a society truly so-called and. perfect, or gifted with full freedom ;
that she cannot claim to rest on the peculiar and permanent rights
with which she was invested by her divine founder ; but that it be-
longs to the civil power to define and declare what are the rights of
the Church and within what limits she can exercise them.
"Hence they wrongly conclude that the civil power may take cog-
nizance of what purely concerns religion, morality, and the spiritual
government of souls, and even prevent bishops and their faithful
people from holding a free intercourse with the Eoman pontiff, who
has been divinely established as the supreme pastor of the whole
Church. . . , They even presume to proclaim openly before the
masses that the Eoman pontiff and the ministers of the Church
should be excluded from all temporal rights and power."
Then follows an enumeration of various errors directly opposed to
the necessity of revelation, to the divine origin and veracity of the
books of the Bible, to the very existence of Christ himself, or of the
divine law ; and to the providential government of God. Human
reason is supreme and all sufficient ; and man has a primordial right
to dispose freely of his faculties and himself. Thus by degrees
rationalism and naturalism come to the negation of God himself,
and to the affirmation of a gross pantheism and materialism.
The second part treats of the specific assaults committed ''on the
Church and civil society." The Holy Father points with expressions
The Italian Parliament Protests. 397
of deep sorrow to the absence of the bishops of Italy who were forbid-
den to appear at the solemnities, as well as of the Portuguese bish-
ops. Then there is a grateful acknowledgment of the unanimity
with which the entire Catholic hierarchy has sustained the pontiff in
his troubles, of their admirable zeal in unvailing the perfidious de-
signs of the enemies of the Holy See.
"The sad subjects we have just exposed to you," the Holy Father
continues, '^ afford a grievous spectacle. We cannot but be daily
impressed with the conviction that all these impious doctrines, all
these perverse and insane machinations, corrupt and debauch hourly
more and more the Christian people, lead them farther on the road
to ruin, assail and weaken the Catholic Church, her venerable rights
and laws, as well as her ministers ; they propagate vice and crime,
and disturb profoundly civil society itself.
''"Wherefore, attending solely to the discharge of our apostolic
office, ... we raise our voice in this august assemblage, we re-
probate, proscribe, and condemn the errors above enumerated as con-
trary and absolutely opposed not only to Catholic faith and doctrine,
to divine and ecclesiastical law, but moreover to the natural and
eternal law and justice, and to right reason.
*'As to you, venerable brothers, who are the salt of the earth,
the guardians and shepherds of Christ's flock, we exhort you, we
conjure you with increased earnestness, ... to keep away those
in your charge from this poisonous intellectual food ; to refute and
combat by word and pen these monstrous perversities. You know
how incomparably dear are the interests here involved, those of our
holy faith, of the Catholic Church and her doctrine, of the salvation
of all peoples, of the peace and tranquillity of human society. Where-
fore, in so far as you can, never cease to warn your people against
this dreadful contagion ; let them keep their eyes and their hands
from bad books and bad newspapers. Instruct them unceasingly in
the precepts of our holy religion ; and bid them avoid these teachers
of iniquity, as they would fly from the bite of a serpent.
" Courage, venerable brothers ; amid all these revolutions and
consummated wrongs let nothing shake your constancy. . . .
We cannot help assuring you once more how sweet is the consola-
tion we feel as we look upon you all, you bound to us and to this
chair of Peter by the strong ties of faith and reverence and filial
piety, never cease, in union with your brother bishops and your faith-
ful peoples, to minister to us, in our agony and bitterness of soul.
39^ Life of Pope Pius IX,
all manner of relief and comfort. On this solemn occasion we de«
clare with our whole heart and strength how ardent are our grati-
tude and our love toward yourselves and your people. We beseech
you once more, when you are restored to your respective dioceses, re-
peat in our name to your flocks these sentiments of our heart, and
give them, with the assurance of our fatherly tenderness, the apostolic
benediction."
Beset and threatened as Pius IX. then was, and having passed
his seventieth year, who among these bishops and priests and pil-
grims, come to him from the ends of the earth, could, in all human
probability, ever hope to look upon him again amid the splendors of
such a solemnity ? And yet Pius IX. was reserved to many more
years of arduous struggles and still more splendid triumphs !
Italy and the Christian world were so moved, so deeply impressed
by this display of faith, of increased reverence and love for the
despoiled pontiff, that the Italian parliament felt itself called upon
to go in a body to King Victor Emmanuel and protest solemnly in
the face of all Europe against this multitude of '^bishops, nearly all
strangers to Italy, who, assembled in Eome for a religious solemnity,
have uttered against our country outrageous insults, still further
aggravated by their denial of our national riglits and by the intro-
duction among us of foreign violence." The remainder of this phi-
lippic was distinguished by an equal truthfulness and like amenities.
"We return to the Syllabus,
On the 8th of December, 1864 — a memorable anniversary for Pius
IX. — was issued the encyclical Quanta cur a, in which he renewed
the condemnation pronounced on the errors proscribed so solemnly
in the public consistory of June 9, 18G2, adding to them such new
and monstrous assertions as had most startled Christendom in the
interval, as well as other opinions condemned by preceding pontiffs.
This encyclical also announced a jubilee for the ensuing year 1865.
But together with this apostolic letter was sent a catalogue (or, in
Greek, syllalus) of erroneous propositions condemned on various
occasions by Pius IX. In this catalogue, or list, the various errors
were classed systematically by the Roman theologians under the
heads of "Pantheism, Naturalism, Rationalism, Socialism, Com-
munism," etc.
This " Syllabus of Errors " was communicated to the hierarchy
in a brief note of Cardinal Antonelli. At first this condemnation
produced no sensation or excitement save in Paris and Turin, where
Misrepresentations of the Syllabus, 399
many of the most remarkable propositions censured in the encycli-
cal, or more conspicuously held up to animadyersion in the SyUabus
itself, were extracted textually from official documents, semi-official
organs in the public press, or the most popular and anti-Catholic
journals. Of course, there was a great outcry in both cities, and
this was re-echoed by the provincial press of both countries. As
usual, there was a misapprehension both of the meaning of the pro-
positions in the Latin text and of the scope of the censure pro-
nounced. To every proposition was appended a reference indicating
the encyclical or the allocution in which the specific error was con-
demned, together with the year and the day of the month, so that
the bishops for whose guidance this catalogue was drawn up, and
the theologians who were to use it in their lectures, might go back
to the original text of the Holy Father — as to the minutes of a sol-
emn judgment — and find out the true sense and scope of that judg-
ment from the circumstances and the context.
It was the interest of the Italian and French infidel press to repre-
sent the Holy Father as condemning modern ideas in particular,
modern progress, modern science, modern social institutions, liberty
and liberalism, enlightenment and civilization.
This, however, could only be done by ignoring the context and the
circumstances under which the doctrine condemned was put forth
by its author and condemned by the Holy See. We have seen above
what kind of progress, civilization, liberty, and liberalism it was
which Pius IX. denounced and stigmatized, when propounded for
his approval and acceptance by the men who had despoiled himself,
plundered the Church, and usurped even the right to dictate to the
priest to whom he should or should not give absolution.
The same discernments should have been made in the propositions
bearing on education, on religious toleration, on the distinction be-
tween the natural and supernatural orders, on the dependence of
reason on faith, on the limits within which science, like reason her-
self, was supreme.
There is not in the entire eighty propositions contained in this list
one, which, apart from mere sectarian prejudice, every enlightened
and fair-minded man would hesitate to condemn in the sense under-
stood by its author and in that meant by the sovereign pontiff, the
supreme judge of doctrine in the Church.
As it was, however, these documents, coming as they did after a
long and ineffectual diplomatic campaign, ending by the convention
400 Life of Pope Phis IX.
of September the loth, 1864, found the French goTemment much
irritated against the Holy Father and Cardinal Antonelli. The con-
vention of September between the French and Italian governments
had fixed a day for the withdrawal of the imperial troops from
Kome. Napoleon and his ministers felt toward the Holy See the
animosity and the disposition to misjudge and misrepresent that a
lawyer feels toward a client w^hose cause he has agreed to betray ;
while the Italian government entertained the same dispositions, but
intensified by the consciousness of the wrongs already committed,
and still more so by the further wrongs it contemplated.
So it was, humanly speaking, impossible that either government
or its abettors on the continent of Europe, in Great Britain, or in
the United States, could be expected to feel otherwise than very sore
at solemn doctrinal condemnations which stigmatized their own cher-
ished principles and recent acts.
There was an attempt toward getting up in France a systematic
persecution against every member of the clergy who dared to pub-
lish either the encyclical or the Syllahus ; but the attempt was but a
halting one, and turned to the discredit of a government already
bankrupt in public opinion. In the Kingdom of Italy there was
no liberty for bishop or priest, save to do the will of the revolu-
tion.
Bishop Dupanloup undertook to show up the egregious ignorance
of the journalists and others who had been translating and com-
menting on the inculpated documents. He pointed out no less than
seventy mistranslations and misconceptions ; for Mr. Gladstone had
not yet taken it on himself to disgrace his scholarship and his
statesmanship by following in the wake of the Siecle, the Journal
des DcbatSy and the Bavarian Jansenists.
Statesmen who have anmviolable respect for the great principles
which underlie social order, authority, liberty, and security ; Chris-
tian parents who love the purity and peace and felicity of their
homes ; men of science and true progress who know that the truths
of the moral world are as immutable and well defined in their
nature as the colors of the spectrum, and who see and say that this
intellectual light — though never so simple in its nature — makes
a spiritual world as marvelous, beautiful, and diversified as that
created and embellished by the light of the sun ; all these can take
up paragraph after paragraph, proposition after proposition in the
Syllabus, and find that the truth which lies at the opposite pole
Its Real Significance and Worth, 401
of each error proscribed, is one as necessary to this same modern
society of ours as the sun is to vegetable and animal life.
Before long, when the world has grown wiser by the bitter expe-
rience arising from the failure of certain theories now in vogue, the
next generation will bless the man who dared to hold on high the
banner of God's truth, as a rallying-point for all who still clung to
revelation. They will then remember the words of St. Augustine :
" Truth may be obscured for a time, but it cannot be put down.
Iniquity may flourish for a time ; but last long it cannot." Ocmiltari
potest ad tempus Veritas j vinci non potest, Florere potest ad tempus
iniquitasj permanere non potest, — Enar ratio in Psalmum Ixi,
CHAPTER XXXII.
The " September Convention" — How Interpreted by the
Parties themselves, and by the Revolution — The Cen-
tenary OF THE Martyrdom of SS. Peter and Paul — Con-
trast between the Canonizations in Rome and the
Industrial Exhibition in Paris — The Artists in Rome
protest that the temporal power is necessary — prep-
ARATIONS FOR THE Centenary — Vast Multitude of Pil-
grims — Concourse of Priests and Bishops — The Allocu-
tions—The Celebration — The magnificent Address of
the Bishops — Touching Presentation from the "Hun-
dred Cities of Italy" — The Crowning Glories of the
Centenary.
September, 1864-Jxjly, 1867.
BEFORE we have done with the year 1864, it may be well to
mention the famous " September Convention," so called be-
cause concluded at Paris on the 15th of September between the im-
perial and Piedmontese governments. It was, at first, kept very
secret ; but the stipulations leaked out one after the other, according
as either government found it necessary to satisfy public opinion.
By the first article *' Italy binds herself not to attack the present
territory of the Holy Father, and to prevent by force, if need be, all
attacks on it from without." By the second, France binds herself
'* to withdraw her troops gradually, and according as the army of
the Holy Father will be organized. The evacuation must be com-
pleted within the space of two years." By the third "the Italian
government renounces all right of protesting against the formation
of a papal army, even though composed of foreign Catholic volun-
teers, and sufficient for the maintenance of the authority of the Holy
Father, for the tranquillity of the interior and the frontier line of his
States."
Specious as were the dispositions of this agreement, no one be-
lieyed that Italy would fulfill her part of it, although France should
403
The '' Moral Forces'' Reserved by Piedmont. 403
withdraw her troops. The French foreign minister, Drouyn de
Lhuys, in communicating the tidings of its ratification to the court
of Turin, claimed to have thereby rendered a service to Italy ; while
Kigra, the Italian plenipotentiary, wrote to his government that this
convention * was not intended to mar the national aspirations ; ' more
than that, his associate, Marchese Pepoli, said openly, at a public
banquet in Milan : *' The treaty of September the 15th is in nowise
opposed to any part of the national programme ; it breaks the last
link of the chain which bound France to our enemies." The capital
of the new kingdom of Italy was transferred from Turin to Florence.
There was a little diplomatic duel about the meaning of certain expres-
sions in the dispatches of the plenipotentiaries. Cavaliere Nigra had
declared "that Italy reserved to herself, in carrying out the national
aspirations, to employ the moral forces of civilization and progress."
Garibaldi, who reserved to himself to interpret in his own way all
such agreements, wrote immediately : " With Bonaparte the only
convention we can make, is to rid our country of his loathsome
presence, not in two years, but in two hours."
Cardinal Antonelli, in a circular of November the 19th to the rep-
resentatives of the Holy See at foreign courts, exposed in his masterly
way the vain artifice of such a convention. There is no need of
many words, according to him, to explain what is meant by the
" moral means " relied on by the Piedmontese government.
All through 1865 and 1866 the Holy Father omitted no effort or
sacrifice to do his part in organizing an army, and carrying out every
imaginable improvement within the little territory left him by the
revolution. Attempts were made by him to remedy some portion of
the evils from which the dioceses of the kingdom of Italy were suf-
fering. In more than one-half of them the bishops were either dead,
or exiled, or imprisoned, or so hampered in the exercise of their
sacred office that they could not, without the most serious risks,
fulfill its duties. The Holy Father, in his earnest desire to provide
for the needs of so many souls long deprived of the sacraments,
wrote to King Victor Emmanuel, begging him to waive all political
questions for the moment, and to aid the Holy See in remedying this
inveterate and ever-increasing evil. Signer Xaverio Vegezzi was
thereupon sent to Kome, and a satisfactory plan was agreed upon for
the nomination of bishops to the vacant sees and the return of those
in exile ; but the counselors of Victor Emmanuel refused to ratify
the plan, and the result was an increase of severity and cruelty to-
404 Life of Pope Pius IX.
ward the clergy, and the enactment of new ecclesiastical laws by the
Italian parliament worthy of the days of Edward IV. or Queen Eliza-
beth, but far more anti-Christian.
The war of 18G6 between Prussia and Austria resulted, in Italy,
in giving Venetia to Victor Emmanuel, although the forces of the
latter had suffered defeat on sea and land. This success induced the
Italian government to allow the exiled bishops to return to their sees,
while expressing in a note to the Italian ministers abroad that "the
Eoman question" must soon solve itself. **The sovereignty of the
Eoman pontiff is ... in the condition of all other sovereign-
ties ; it must ask from itself and find in itself the reasons of its ex-
istence and duration. Italy has promised to France and Europe not
to interfere between the Pope and the Romans. . . . Italy must
keep her promise, and await from the efficiency of the national
principle which she represents the inevitable triumph of her right."
The French "army of occupation" was withdrawn from Rome on
December the 6th, 1866, a little army of some 12,000 men having
been organized under French protection, of which a select body of
1,200 men, called "the Antibes Legion," was exclusively composed
of Frenchmen, and officered by men who were allowed to retain their
rank in the French army.
When the general, Count de Montebello, came with his staff to
take leave of the Holy Father, the latter could not refrain from say-
ing : " We must not deceive ourselves ; the revolution will certainly
come to Rome ; this has been openly announced again and again.
An Italian official of high rank has declared that Italy was now cre-
ated, but not completed. Italy would feel herself defeated if there
could remain here a little comer of earth governed by order, justice,
and tranquillity ! "
On his side Garibaldi had made his proclamation. "Friends,"
he said, "so long as the priests' cassocks have not been put down
our country cannot be free. Do not go to mass, for if you do you
will place yourselves within reach of pernicious priestly influence.
, . . This year shall not pass, I trust, till Rome shall have been
freed from their odious yoke."
The " National Roman Committee " scarcely allowed the French
flag to disappear in the Campagna when they issued their own proc-
lamation as a signal to the government of Florence that it had an
ally within the walls of Rome steadily preparing to surrender it to
Victor Emmanuel. " The triumph is certain," were the concluding
The Silver Limng to the Storm- Cloud, 4o5
words; '^the days of clerical despotism are fatally numbered; your
committee shall not leave you without occasions for acting, or with-
out direction."
Mazzini, finally, who was in downright opposition to Italian mon-
archy of any kind, put forth one of his most stirring utterances.
**Rome must not give herself up like a second-class and discrowned
city to a monarchy already condemned, to a monarchy incapable of
any great action, which condescended to accept Venice as an alms
from the foreigner. Eome cannot be a dependency of Florence.
She must arise from her sepulchre, not in the name of her past, but
in that of her future existence."
At Christmas-tide the Holy Father, while receiving the felicitations
of the pontifical army, warned the officers and men that there was
danger ahead ; that a Colonel Montanucci, belonging to Garibaldi's
volunteers, and an old Roman conspirator, had been arrested while
plotting treason in Eome, and that papers had been found on him
fixing a near date for a revolution within the city.
To the Sacred College, who came to offer their New-Year's homage,
the Holy Father said that the divine bread which he and they daily
received must strengthen them for the approaching trial. "It was
only a few days ago that we learned the martyrdom endured for the
faith by several priests in Corea. Let this recent example of a glori-
ous witness to Christ animate us to be ready at any moment to give
our lives in defense of right and justice."
But the year then dawning was to be for the Holy Father, the
Sacred College, for Rome, and the entire Christian world, by far the
most memorable that Pius IX. had yet beheld. In June came
round the eighteenth centenary of the death of St. Peter and St. Paul.
According to St. Jerome * St. Peter suffered two years after the
death of the great Roman philosopher Seneca, who was executed by
order of Nero in the sixty-fifth year of the Christian era ; elsewhere
in the same workf Jerome affirms that both SS. Peter and Paul
were put to death in the fourteenth year of Nero's reign, which
would correspond with the year 68, if the years were reckoned from
the 13 th day of October, the date of Nero's accession, but coincides
with the year 67 Avhen reckoned from the beginning of January. In
the same work Jerome affirms that " Peter went to Rome in the sec-
* S. Hieron., Be Viris lllustribus, vol. ii., Ed. Vallarsii, pp. 835-837.
f Ibidem, p. 813.
4o6 Life of Pope Pins IX.
ond year of the Emperor Claudius, . . . and occupied there the
priestly chair for twenty-five years." The year of his arrival was the
forty-second of our era.
On the 8th of December, 1866, just after the departure of the
French troops, the Holy Father invited by circular all the bishops
of the Catholic world to visit Rome for the celebration of the cen-
tenary and the canonization of several saintly personages. These
were the martyr Joshaph at, archbishop of Polotsk ; Pedro de Arbues,
an Augustinian friar ; the martjrrs of Gorcum, Paul of the Cross,
founder of the Passionists, Lionardo di Porto Maurizio, Maria Fran-
cesca, a Neapolitan of the third Order of St. Peter of Alcantara, and
Germaine Cousin, of the diocese of Toulouse.
On the 10th of the preceding December the Holy Father had the
inexpressible happiness of celebrating with extraordinary solemnity
the beatification of the Franciscan monk Benedict of Urbino, who
had died (1625) in odor of sanctity at Fossombrone, within a few
miles of Sinigaglia, leaving the whole of the Adriatic seaboard and
Umbria embalmed by the fragrance of his life of supernatural abne-
gation.
Pius IX., while yet a child, had heard and read of this man of
noble birth and splendid talents, before whom opened out every ave-
nue to worldly fame and happiness, becoming an humble Capuchin,
hiding himself away in the obscurity of the cloister, and setting all
his ambition on becoming the crucified disciple of a crucified Master.
It was no idle pageantry to which the successor of St. Peter thus in-
vited the bishops and populations of Italy and the Christian world.
The revolution aimed at killing all that was spiritual and supernatu-
ral in the souls and lives of men ; he would profit by every opportu-
nity to call together the children of God and to hold up to their ad-
miration these heavenly men and women who are the brightest and
purest glory of the race.
Napoleon III. had convened the Old World and the New to the
industrial exhibition of Paris, in the spring of that same year ; sov-
ereigns, emperors, and kings, warriors, statesmen, and scientists, all
that was foremost in position and fame and influence was invited
to admire in the beautiful capital of France the marvelous products
of those arts and industries which had been fostered by the genius of
Christian civilization. It was to be Napoleon's last triumph.
Pius IX., on the contrary, had to lay before men's minds, in the
city of the holy apostles, triumphs and glories of a far higher and
Address of the Artists Resident in Rome. 407
moi:e lasting nature. It was holiness that had created art in Italy
and covered the land with forms of exquisite beauty ; it was the men
and women who had shone all oyer Italy like apparitions of heavenly
goodness and purity who had inspired the pen of poet, the brush of
painter, and the sculptor's chisel. It was in these great celebrations
of spiritual heroism, amid the Christian splendors of Eome, that
artists had ever caught both their ideal conceptions and the very
colors with which they embellished their canvas. Wherever the re-
volution had passed, they had seen it profane and soil and destroy
all that Christian art had created. Between their joy at the ap-
proaching centenary and the fears begotten by the threats of Garibaldi
and the prophecies of Mazzini, the body of artists in Rome resolved
that, if the city in which the Popes had nursed Art so tenderly and
rewarded her labors with more than royal munificence, should pass
into the hands of the revolution, they should leave a testimony be-
hind them of their gratitude to the fatherly sovereignty about to
expire.
'^Most Holy Father," they said in their address, ^^ religion, policy,
and mere human wisdom have protested in favor of the temporal
power of the papacy.
'^ The Arts come, in their turn, to lay their homage at the feet of
your Holiness, and to proclaim to the world that this power is to
them indispensable. Their voice must be heard and listened to.
For, when the tide of generations recedes, the Arts remain as the
irrefutable witnesses of the power and splendor of the civilization
amid which these generations have lived. The sovereigns who
encourage and develop them acquire immortal renown ; those who
neglect or oppress them meet only with the contempt of pos-
terity.
''What royal dynasty has, in this respect, deserved so well of civ-
ilization and humanity as that of the sovereign pontiffs ? They
have been the watchful guardians of the masterpieces bequeathed to
us by antiquity. They have given these a home in their own pal-
aces, to show that religion adopts and ennobles all that is truly beau-
tiful. It is the sovereign pontiffs who, by opening new avenues for
modern art, have brought it to the point of perfection embodied in
the masterpieces of Raphael and Michael Angelo. They alone sup-
port in Rome that unique assemblage of all that is beautiful in every
order, that splendid intellectual galaxy in whose light the artists of
every land are formed.
4o8 Life of Pope Plus IX,
" Holy Father, the little spot of earth which the revolution hag
not yet taken from, you, is the only place in which the Arts find tho
inspiration that is for them the breath of life, and the quiet without
which that life cannot expand.
" The soul of the true artist is filled with unspeakable apprehen-
sion by the possibility of seeing these masterpieces destroyed or scat-
tered abroad, these treasures plundered, all that wealth annihilated ;
and especially by that of seeing the ungraceful and meager forms of
modern utilitarianism usurp the place held by the manners, the
habits, the face of all things in this privileged land of beauty, all
consecrated by the admiration of ages.
*' Alas, Holy Father, what is happening in the rest of Italy affords
but too firm a ground for such apprehensions. The genius of de-
struction is abroad there, and proceeds to sweep away pitilessly what
was the glory of ancient Italy. The spoliation and suppression of
the religious orders are one of the most deadly blows ever aimed at
the existence of the fine arts. Saddened by these forebodings, fear-
ful of what the future may bring forth, the artists resident in Kome
come to the feet of your Holiness to give utterance to their deep con-
viction that the splendor, the greatness, the very existence of the
fine arts in Europe, are inseparably connected with the maintenance
of the beneficent power of the sovereign pontiffs.
"Were it not that the rival passions which divide Europe are of
themselves fatally blind to consequences, the reign of your Holiness
would suffice to render this truth evident to all. For, while else-
where national wealth is wasted in frivolous undertakings or in pre-
paring instruments of destruction, the modest revenues inherited by
your Holiness are ever employed in continuing gloriously the noble
labor of your predecessors.
'* On the one hand, you have drawn from obscurity the beginnings
of Christian art, tliereby affording it new and precious data ; on tho
other, you have adorned Rome and the Vatican with works which
furnish a new and brilliant page to the grand history of art embodied
in the Vatican itself. While elsewhere reigned trouble and agita-
tion, here artists were able, beneath the blessed sway of your Holi-
ness, to enjoy a kindly welcome, an unrestrained liberty, and the
peaceful contemplation of these venerable structures and sites, pre-
eer\'ed so happily by the pontifical government from the sad altera-
tions blindly wrought in other cities by the troublous life of modem
communities.
The Paris Exposition and the Roman Centenary. 409
^' May the Almighty One hear our prayer, and persuade both sov-
ereigns and nations that their honor and glory shall be measured in
coming ages on the degree of protection they will accord to the tem-
poral power of the papacy, which has ever been the unwearied pro-
moter of the development of all the noblest faculties in man, and
which alone can continue to be the custodian of the works of art
originated by itself, and by it so faithfully treasured for the benefit
of all peoples ! "
Yes, Eome was and is for all peoples ''the city of soul." To him
who happened to reign there till then, no native of other lands was
a foreigner. No suffering, no glory of the remotest tribe of earth,
failed to find sympathy and a record there.
On the 22d of February the Holy Father signed decrees relating
to the beatification of several holy persons, among whom was the
venerable Clement-Maria Hofbauer, a Redemptorist.
On the 26th he went in state to the Roman College, and had a de-
cree of the Congregation of Rites read before him, bearing on the
canonization of two hundred and five Japanese Christians — priests,
catechists, laymen, women, and children — put to death in hatred of
the faith from 1617 to 1632.
June came at length — such a June as Rome had never witnessed.
In Paris, too, during the first weeks of that month the king of Prus-
sia, with Count Bismark, and the emperor of Russia, with his chan-
cellor, graced the imperial court and the exhibition by their pres-
ence. And on the 25th of that same month a large portion of
Cochin China was annexed to the French empire. Amid all these
triumphs of industry and the military successes abroad, with the
mightiest monarchs of Europe coming to contemplate his greatness,
how could Napoleon III. dream that even then, while decking out
Versailles for his royal guests, there were those who could read the
handwriting on the wall of the banqueting-room ?
On the 11th and 12th there were consistories held at Rome, in
presence of the bishops, for the preparation of the acts of canoniza-
tion. The 16th was the anniversary of the Pope's election, and all
assembled to congratulate the Holy Father. In his answer to the
address read by Cardinal Patrizi, the Pope, among other memorable
things, said : " Modern society is ardent in the pursuit of two things,
progress and unity. It fails to reach either, because its motive prin-
ciples are selfishness and pride. Pride is the worst enemy of prog-
ress, and selfishness, by destroying charity, the bond of souls, there-
4IO Life of Pope Pms IX.
bj renders union impossible. Now it is the sovereign pontiff whom
God has established to direct and to enlighten society, to point out
evil and to indicate the proper remedy. This induced me some years
ago to publish the Syllabus. I now confirm that solemn act in your
presence. It is to be henceforth the rule of your teaching. We
have to contend unceasingly with the enemies who beset us. Placed
on the mountain-top, like Moses, I lift up my hands to God in
prayer for the triumph of his Church. ... I ask of you, my
brother-bishops, to support my arms, for they grow weary. Take
courage ! The Church must triumph ; I leave this hope in your
hearts ; not as a hope merely, but as a prophecy."
Never had Eome held such a multitude, not only of bishops, but of
priests. To the latter, the Pope resolved to deliver a solemn allocu-
tion. But their numbers were so great that they filled the immense
consistorial hall, the passages, the noble staircase, and the outside
court. He came to the hall in unusual state, to testify his affection
for this faithful and fervent concourse of clerical pilgrims. The
throne was raised higher than usual, to give this novel audience a
better opportunity of seeing and hearing the supreme pastor. As he
entered, preceded by the Noble Guard and his household prelates,
a shout of joyous acclamation burst forth simultaneously from these
thousands of priests, who could not restrain the expression of their love
and veneration. The Holy Father was visibly moved, and, gathering
enthusiasm from the atmosphere of love which surrounded him, his
voice seemed to reach every corner of the hall and passages, and to
thrill with its tones even those who could not distinguish the words.
Ho thanked them for the deep consolation afforded by such a mag-
nificent assemblage. They were the tribe in Israel whose special in-
heritance was the Lord; they stood between him and his people
evermore, offering with prayer and supplication the spotless victim
of the new law. Let them look well to the ministry intrusted to
them, shining in presence of all men by the dignity of their bear-
ing, the innocence of their life, by integrity and charity, and the
golden ornaments of every virtue.
** You, who are the interpreters of the word of God, you must
preach it unweariedly to the wise and the unwise ; preach to them
Christ and him crucified, not in the loftiness of speech but in the
knowledge of the spirit ; never ceasing to recall into the right road
all who stray and to confirm them in sound doctrine.
"Dispensers of the divine mysteries and of the manifold grace of
Public Allocution to the Bishops. 411
God, deal it ont to the faithful people, to the sick especially, in
order that no help may fail them in their last struggle with the Evil
One.
''Do not refuse to the little ones of the flock the milk which they
need ; be it your dearest care to teach them, to train them, to form
them.
" Be the faithful and devoted helpmates of your respective bishops ;
obeying them in all things, zealous to heal in your parishes whatever
is ailing, to bind up what is broken, to raise up what is fallen, to
seek what is lost, in order that in all things God may be honored
through our Lord Jesus Christ. Lift up your souls and bethink you
of the immeasurable height of glory prepared by him for all true and
faithful laborers. . . ."
A public consistory was held on the 26th. There were then five
hundred bishops in Eome. No such number had ever met in one
place in Italy or in any place in the West. But this was the Cen-
tennial Feast of Catholicity, and from the remotest regions of the
known world priests and bishops had flocked to Rome, to kneel at
the tomb of its first great bishop, the eighteen-hundredth anniver-
sary of whose martyrdom they were going to celebrate on the very
spot three days afterward ; they had come, also, to venerate Peter in
the person of his venerable and glorious successor, whose protracted
witnessing to Christ's truth had now lasted so long. And though
no N'ero ruled in Rome, as in the days of Peter and Paul, there was
a spirit abroad, and thundering at the very gates of Rome, as fell as
the fury of the old Pagan world which the Apostles had defied.
The population of Rome had more than doubled within the last
ten days. Surely this mighty inflow of the learned, the pious, the
high-placed in the Church, and the high-born in every Christian
land, was a proof that the Church founded by Peter was not failing
after eighteen centuries, that the Mighty Mother was not soon to ful-
fill the prayers or the prophecies of her enemies, and to die widowed,
childless, forsaken, and unwept.
The usual consistorial hall was utterly inadequate to hold the
crowd of dignified and devout listeners. The meeting was held in
the vast room above the vestibule of St. Peter's. The first ceremony
was the bestowing of the cardinal's hat on the Archbishop of Seville,
Luis de la Lastra y Cuesta. Then, there was a formal petition for
the beatification of Marie Rivier, the foundress of the French Presen-
tation Nuns, after which the Pope delivered the expected allocution.
4 1 2 Life of Pope Phis IX.
After expressing his heartfelt sentiments of gratitude and admira-
tion for the readiness with which the members of the episcopate had
responded to his invitation, the Pope proceeded :
** Nothing ever has so fulfilled my desires, nothing has afforded
such deep satisfaction, as to find myself in your midst on this occa-
sion. Everything on which the eye rests in these solemnities is elo-
quent of the unity of the Catholic Church, of the immovable foun-
dation of that unity, of the carefulness and pride we should employ
in guarding it. Yes, all here proclaims that admirable unity, by
which, as tlirough a mysterious channel, all the gifts and graces of
the Holy Spirit flow into the mystic body of Christ, calling forth in
every one of its members these acts of faith and charity which excite
the wonder of all mankind.
** What has brought you here ? To decree the honors of sanctity
to these heroes of the Church, the greater number of whom bore away
the palm of victory in their glorious witness for Christ. Of these
some died in defending the primacy of this Apostolic See, which is
the center of truth and unity ; others gave their lives in defense of
the integrity and unity of the faith ; others again shed their blood in
the endeavor to bring back schismatics to the one fold. Is it not
providential that such heroism should be commemorated and hon-
ored at the very moment when the Catholic faith and the authority
of this Holy See are the object of such furious and implacable con-
spiracies ?
"We are also here to celebrate with solemn rites the memory of
that auspicious day, eighteen hundred years ago, when Peter and
Paul consecrated by their glorious witnessing and their precious
blood this impregnable stronghold of Catholic unity. . . .
** What can be more reasonable than that our joyous commemora-
tion of this triumphant death of the Prince of the Apostles should
be graced by your presence ? For he belongs to the entire Catholic
world. . . . It is also most important that the enemies of relig-
ion should conclude from what they witness here, how mighty is the
energy, how unfailing the life of that Catholic Church so bitterly
hated by them ; how little wisdom they display in matching their
power and their little temporary triumphs over her against that in-
comparable union of living forces which Christ's creative power has
bound around this central rock.
**More than ever is it needful in our age that all men should see
and understand that the only strong and lasting tie between men's
llie Virtue which issues from Peter s Tofub. 413
Bouls is in the reign over all of the same Spirit of God. Besides what
can make a more abiding impression on Catholic nations, what can
draw them more powerfully and bind them more closely in obedi-
ence to this apostolic chair, and to us, than to see how much their
pastors cherish the rights and duties of Catholic unity, to see them
journeying from the farthest lands, despite every inconvenience and
obstacle, and hastening toward Eome and the apostolic chair in order
to revere in our humble person the successor of Peter and the vicar
of Christ? . . .
'^ We have been always convinced, whenever we beheld you ap-
proaching Peter in the person of his successor, or even entering this
city impregnated with his blood, that a special virtue should go forth
thence to each one of you. Yes, from this tomb where Peter's ashes
repose, amid the veneration of +he Christian world, a hidden power,
a salutary energy emanates, which instills into the souls of the chief
pastors the desire of great undertakings and of vast designs, inspiring
that fearlessness and magnanimity which enables them to put down
the impudent boldness of their assailants. . . .
'' No, there cannot be offered to the eyes of men and angels a more
magnificent spectacle than what one beholds in such a concourse of
pilgrims as this. You, who come from the ends of the earth to this
the home of your father, you remind us not only of that pilgrimage
which leads us all to the eternal home, but you recall the journey of
the chosen people from Egypt to the promised land; the twelve
tribes marching together, each under its chief, bearing its own name,
having its own appropriate place in the camp ; every family there
was obedient to its parents, every company of warriors hearkened to
the voice of its captain, and the entire multitude to the divinely ap-
pointed leader. And yet all these tribes were but one people, ador-
ing the same God, worshiping at the same altar, ruled by the same
laws, having one pontiff, Aaron, and one leader, Moses ; one people
enjoying common rights in the perils and labors of warfare, as well
as in the results of victory, dwelling beneath the same tents, and fed
by the same miraculous bread, and yearning all for the same end of
their pilgrimage. . . .
" Nothing is to us the subject of such ardent longing as to see
both ourselves and the universal Church deriving from this precious
union the most salutary advantage. It has long been a serious mat-
ter of thought for us, one, indeed, communicated to several of the
episcopal body, ... to hold an oecumenical council, . . .
4 1 4 Life of Pope Pius IX.
in which, with the divine assistance, our united counsels and solici-
tude should devise the needful and efficent remedies for the evils
that afflict the Church."
This was, to the immense majority, the first intimation of the de-
sign long entertained by the Holy Father, and which, two years
afterward, was realized in the general council of the Vatican. The
announcement, coming at the conclusion of the papal address, in-
creased to an extraordinary degree the emotion and enthusiasm of
bishops, priests, and laymen. So that, ere the 29th of June had
dawned on the Eternal City, the pious fervor of the vast multitude
of pilgrims seemed to have reached a height beyond which it could
not go. There was a first illumination on the eve — the 28th.
And yet these were only the preparations for the grand solemnity
itself. Every scrap of territory still left to the Holy Father poured
its population into Kome with the first streak of dawn. This time
the Roman people felt no jealousy of the concourse of strangers ;
their faith and their experience taught them that they were bro-
thers, the children of the same great mother, and their presence,
they knew, brought wealth to Rome as well as honor.
Before the solemn pontifical mass the ceremony of canonization
took place ; the Holy Father himself celebrated the Holy Sacrifice
and preached the homily at the gospel — a model in its way for
preachers at High Mass on solemn occasions — short, solid, and soul-
stirring. There were three choirs, numbering four hundred voices,
filling the vast basilica with music, such as is not often heard on this
side of heaven. Tlie solemn afternoon service was scarcely less im-
pressive or interesting than that of the forenoon, and at night, St.
Peter's and all Rome was a blaze of light.
The next day, the 30th, being the proper feast of St. Paul, there
was held in his most beautiful basilica ** beyond the walls," a cele-
bration almost as magnificent as that in St. Peter's ; and on the 1st
of July the bishops, before leaving Rome, presented an address to the
Iloly Father, in answer to the allocution of the 2Gth of June, as
well as to express their gratitude for his many kindnesses to themselves.
No extract can give even a faint conception of this most eloquent
and pregnant piece of ecclesiastical doctrine and piety, the incompar-
ablv bciuififiil oxpression of the faith and veneration of the united
<l' <\\vA\ no li-;msl:i(i()n can convey anything of the
fxquisiir Miiiiiiv uf tills composition, drawn up by the elite of the
august body and polished by the ripest scholars of modem Rome.
Address of the Bishops, 41 5
"Under yon as our leader we shall go forward with one mind in
the ways of the Lord, we shall follow you, labor by your side, and
share every danger, every good or evil fortune with you in the di-
vine service. All these sentiments which we expressed to you (five
years ago) we now renew with our whole heart, and affirm in the
hearing of all men, that we remember with gratitude and praise with
united earnestness all that you have accomplished since then for the
salvation of our people and the glory of the Church.
"What Peter said long ago, 'We cannot but speak the things
which we have seen and heard,' has also been the rule with you, as
your every word and act attests. You have never been silent. In
the discharge of your supreme office you have ever proclaimed the
eternal truths ; you denounced these errors which aim at overturning
the foundations of both the natural and supernatural orders, and the
basis of ecclesiastical and civil society ; you dispelled the darkness
with which the pernicious novelties of the age attempted to cloud
men's minds ; you boldly declared and insisted on the truths indis-
pensably necessary to every individual man, as well as to the Chris-
tian family and the civil community ; in one word, you so taught
that all might understand what it behooves every true Catholic to be-
lieve, to practice, and to profess.
"For this extraordinary solicitude we are, and ever shall be, most
grateful to your Holiness. Believing that Peter has spoken by the
mouth of Pius, what things soever have been spoken, confirmed, and
pronounced by you for the safe keeping of the deposit of faith, these
we also say, confirm, proclaim ; and with one voice and one mind we
reject everything which, as being opposed to divine faith, the salva-
tion of souls, and the welfare of human society, you have judged fit
to condemn and reject. For this is our firm conviction, in con-
formity with what the fathers of the Council of Florence defined in
the 'decree on Union,' that the Eoman pontiff is the vicar of Christ,
the head of the whole Church, the father and teacher of all Chris-
tians, and to him in the Blessed Peter hath been given by the Lord
Jesus Christ full power to feed, to rule, and to govern the universal
Church. . . .
"We who are so deeply moved by the filial love displayed toward
you by all the faithful, Blessed Father, are still more affected b^
the love and obedience shown you by the worthy inhabitants of the
Eternal City, who behold in you a most kind parent and sovereign.
Happy people, and capable of appreciating true felicity, who know
41 6 Life of Pope Pius IX,
what greatness and glory redound to them from having in their
midst the See of Peter, who feel that the measure of the diyine
goodness toward themselves is limited only by their reverence for the
vicar of Christ and their love for so holy a sovereign ! This is what
you should covet, what you should study, city of Eome, you that
every Christian man sets before any other in the world, and cherishes
as his own, while he prays that you be a shining example to all,
adorned with every heavenly grace and gift, and blessed with the
wealth of all desirable virtues and treasures."
And thus the heart of the entire fold of Christ, from the East and
the "West and the North and the South, continued to pour the streams
of its joy and worship around that tomb of Peter and the throne of
his successor, day after day, like the gathered waters of the four
great rivers of Eden as they ran exulting around the hillside on
which Noe and his sons offered their holocaust of praise and thanks-
giving, before they spread themselves abroad on the unpeopled
earth.
Another great joy was yet in store for Pius IX., and on that same
day. The cities of Italy, though oppressed and desolate under the
reign of terror, maintained in the name of freedom, had not been
unmindful of the customs honored in former centennial celebra-
tions. In all past Christian ages they made it their delight to send
an offering on this day to the successor of Peter. And now fifteen
hundred of Italy's noblest and best were in Eome to lay at the feet
of Pius IX. the homage and offerings of Italy.
The ceremony took place in the great hall, in which the allocution
was delivered on the 26th, above the vestibule of St. Peter's. The
entrance of the Holy Father moved the assemblage to an indescriba-
ble tumult of enthusiasm ; the acclamations, the shouts of joy, of
love, of veneration, were mixed with sobs and tears and inarticulate
cries of grief and blessing, over which by degrees a silence came,
caused by the contagious tears which even the strongest man could
not restrain. The soul of true, of Catholic Italy was there. . . .
But let us hearken to its accents.
When the general emotion had sufficiently subsided to allow the
presentation and the address to be made, two members of the depu-
tation ascended the steps of the throne, bearing a magnificent album,
in which were inscribed the names of the hundred Italian cities and
the names of their faithful children. The young Count Clodio Bos-
ohetti, of Modena, road the following address, almost every sentence
Italy for the Pope still, 4 1 7
of whicli was interrupted, or ratlier interpreted by the unanimous
cries of '^ Yes ! yes ! ^Tis true, 'tis true !"
"Holy Fathee : — Some persons have been found to say that the
people of Italy are opposed to you, that they ask of you a reconcilia-
tion, which these men deem necessary. "We say it openly, these men
LIE ! and they slander our country. The Italian people are filled
with veneration and affection for your sacred person. They have
admired, and do still admire, in your magnificent resistance, the
strength of Christ's vicar on earth.
"In order to stifle in their hearts such sentiments of devotion,
vexations, imprisonment, forced seclusion in one's own abode, have
been tried, and tried in vain. Whenever an opportunity was of-
fered to the people of displaying these sentiments in the face of all
men, they have seized it with avidity and spoken out as solemnly as
the heavy yoke they bear would allow them. Could they permit
this centennial anniversary of the martyrdom of the great apos-
tles to pass by without giving these sentiments a renewed expres-
sion ?
" It was only needful to simply propose the thing to the hundred
cities of Italy, to enkindle among all classes an ardent desire of
sharing in this manifestation. The extraordinary number of sub-
scribers, the fervent expression of their attachment, the prayers
which accompany each donation, are recorded in the album which
we have the honor of laying at your feet : it will tell the world once
more what warm devotion the people of Itlay's hundred cities enter-
tain toward you.
"Holy Father, we who meet here around your throne to offer you
in their name this new testimony and feeble pledge of their devotion,
have also to present the mites collected to enable you to tide over
difficulties created by your own degenerate children. But a few
days ago, one who hates in you the divine Redeemer whom you repre-
sent, said in public that the masses of the Italian population are for
you and your authority,
"We are happy to offer you the expression of this people's true
sentiments, as attested by such an avowal. We are conscious that
the papacy is now, and has ever been, the prop and bulwark of all
justice, just as we know that it has always been and is still the most
shining glory of our native land. This it is which makes us stand
close round you, and offer up such prayers for your triumph.
"And should that triumph be delayed by providence, we shall
4 1 8 Life of Pope Pius IX,
remain constant in our resolution of assisting you to our utmost, of
fighting with you and for you at the cost of our liyes.
"Holy Father, accept this humble expression of our sentiments,
which are those of the Italian people. Bless all who are here present.
Fortified by that benediction they shall remain ever stainless for the
glory and welfare of our afflicted country, for the shame and defeat
of the enemies of God and of his Church."
The answer was the unstudied response of the pontiff's heart to
words and acts which stirred its every pulse. " They have said that I
hate Italy ! No ! I could never be the enemy of Italy. I have ever
loved her, ever blessed her, ever sought her welfare. God knows
what tears I have shed, what prayers I have poured forth, what un-
ceasing supplication I still make for our Italy.
''Let us even noAV, all together, beseech the divine goodness for
her. Let us pray that her leaders may receive light from on high.
They have labored to found her unity ; but how can unity spring
from selfish pride ? There can be no blessing on a unity which
immolates charity and justice, which tramples on the rights of all,
on those of God's ministers as well as on those of his faithful people.
'* They create enemies for themselves on every side ; they set the
whole world against them. But what is most terrible is that they
make an enemy of God.
*' How can I help being moved by your demonstrations of love,
by these sentiments of devotion which you bear to me from the hun-
dred cities of Italy ? Yes, I know that the majority are with you ;
and that knowledge makes my soul overflow with consolation and
love and gratitude.
**I bless the subscribers to this offering, as well as their families.
I bestow on yourselves and your families a special blessing. If
among your dear ones any should ever be found — father, son, or
brother — who may be led away by the seduction of the current fal-
lacies, may this blessing bring him back to the right path ! Let it
accompany you in all your ways ; on your journey homeward, and
all through life to your dying day. Should it so befall that in your
latest hour all should forsake you, may this blessing be with you and
comfort you I Yes, yes ; I know it, the memory of this day shall
ever bring you strength and serenity and peace !
"I bless tliis our native land, the fruitful mother of saints, which
has given to the Church and to heaven so many spiritual heroes. I
beseech the God of our fathers, that the ancient faith, which was her
Charity Crowning the Centenary, 419
cliief glory, may never depart from her. Once more let my bless-
ing be on you all and your dear ones, as the earnest of all earthly
prosperity ; and may the sweet joys of our meeting be only a fore-
taste of the eternal delights ! "
And so that great fatherly soul, all through these long weeks, and,
seemingly, weary days of unceasing toil, continued to glow, to burn,
to shed around light and warmth and untold blissful influences,
like a great lamp in the house of God, which an invisible angelic
hand fed from, some hidden store. The enraptured Eomans, al-
though so well accustomed to all that is most beautiful in art and
most magnificent in celebrations, could not tear themselves away
from the interior of St. Peter's on the evening of the 28th of June,
and all through the following day, and the succeeding night, whose
artificial splendors shamed the most brilliant sky of Italy. E un
'paradiso I '' It is a paradise ! " would burst continually from the
lips of the crowd of worshipers. But even when the last light went
out on the dome of St. Peter's, and nothing shone in the interior
gloom but the perpetual glimmer of the lamp before the Mystic
Presence, when that centennial week in Eome was only a memory,
the face, the smile, the glowing words, the inspired person of Pius
IX. remained an ever-present and living reality to the souls of
all who had hung on his lips during these days.
On the 7th of July the solemnities, civil and religious, were
brought to a close by a touching ceremony. One hundred dower
portions were to be drawn by lot among the fortuneless maidens of
Eome. One hundred young girls of blameless life, who might else
have been thrown in the way of worse than poverty, were made rich
and happy. They were only a few among the thousands to whom
Pius IX. was the lively image of God's helpful providence.
Three chapters more must crown what may be yet said of the
living, embracing the whole of the next decade.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
GaBIBALDIAN CaMPAIGIT AGAIis^ST ROME — ^DeFEAT AT MeNTAIS'A
— Pius IX. urges the Prepaeatiok's foe the Council — His
Motive not a Definition of Pontifical Infallibility,
but the Intellectual and Moeal Well-being of Cheis-
TEND03I — The Citadel of Truth to be Impregnable to
Modern Assailants — First Consultations about a Gen-
eral Council — Commission of Direction — Measures for
Ascertaining the Needs of all Countries — Imputation
of Personal Pride, how unjust to Pius IX. — Dawn of
the "Old Catholic" Conspiracy preceded the Pope's
Design — Dollinger's Career, Position, Influence — He
becomes the deadly Poe of the Ulteamontanes — He ee-
SOLVES TO USE THE BaYAEIAN GoYEENMENT AGAINST THE
Papacy — Bull of Indiction oe Conyocation — The Pope's
PUEPOSE CLEAELY MANIFESTED — InYITATION TO THE OeI-
entals — To Peotestants and Non-Catholics — The Pope's
Golden Jubilee of Peiesthood — Dollingee begins his
Ceusade in the Peess against the Council — The Pope
made to appeae the tool of the cueia and the jesuits
— The Jesuits held up as the woest Enemies of Chuech
AND State — All this Hostility inspieed by a Calumny op
"Janus" — Peeemptoey Peoofs — The Discussion of Pon-
tifical Infallibility foeced upon the Council — The
Final Issue.
Septembeb, 1867-July, 1870
'"VT'O sooner had the multitude of pilgrims disappeared from
-L 1 Rome than the revolutionists began to plan the means of
getting possession of the city without delay. Garibaldi was, indeed,
living on his little island of Caprera, and was so far an object of sus-
picion to the Florentine authorities that they took care he should
excite no trouble within the provinces annexed to the kingdom of
Italy. It was otherwise with Rome and the very limited territory
420
Why the CEcume7iical Council was Convoked. 42 1
now left to the Pope. It was the. interest, and therefore the wish,
of the Piedmontese rulers now governing Italy from Florence, that
Garibaldi should give them as soon as possible a pretext for sending
their troops to the very gates of Kome.
In the last days of September Garibaldi's two sons appeared sud-
denly near Rome with numerous and well-appointed bodies of their
volunteers. They disarmed the little garrison of Viterbo, and be-
gan *'to live on the people," pillaging and desecrating the churches,
expelling from convents and monasteries their inmates, and appro-
priating to themselves every object of any value found therein.
In October Garibaldi himself landed at Leghorn, and was soon in
the Sabine Mountains at the head of the principal body of invaders,
the Piedmontese or Italian army everywhere crossing the frontier a
little behind the Garibaldians, in order to take possession of every
foot of ground gained by the latter. At the same time several bold
attempts were made by these to get into Rome by small squads, and
considerable quantities of revolvers and explosives were thus clan-
destinely introduced. Garibaldi obtained possession of Monte Ro-
tondo on the 26th of October, and on the 30th advanced at the head
of about 5,000 men to within a mile of Rome. A body of French
troops having arrived in Rome to protect it, the Pontifical Zouaves,
led by Baron de Oharette, attacked the invaders at Mentana on No-
vember the 3d, defeated them, and compelled them to withdraw.
Napoleon III. did not dare to outrage public opinion so far as to
permit the Piedmontese and their allies to set at naught the stipula-
tions of the convention of September, and the Italian troops re-
treated beyond the frontier to bide their time.
Meanwhile the sovereign pontiff was most intent on pushing for-
ward the preparations for the (Ecumenical Council. In a simple
biography it would be impossible to find room for a satisfactory ac-
count of an event of such extraordinary magnitude as this. Never-
theless, the whole design of the council of the Vatican — the first
thought of convening it, the choice of subjects to be submitted to it
for discussion and final decision, the benefits to be derived from its
labors by religion and civil society — are all so thoroughly the con-
ception and the work of the pontiff himself, that a brief and preg-
nant narrative of the whole must be given here.
One impression must be removed at the outset from the reader's
mind. It has been said — and the assertion has been most indus-
triously repeated on both sides of the Atlantic — that the sole or
422 Life of Pope Pius IX.
chief purpose of Pius IX. in convening a general council, was to
have the doctrine of pontifical infallibility solemnly defined therein.
This injurious notion was first set afloat by the Munich school of
theologians, at the head of which was Dr. Dollinger, and thence
propagated all over the world by the anti-Catholic press. i
To no one more than Pius IX. himself was it evident, that the '
supreme and final judgments of the Holy See in matters of doctrine
and morals were regarded and accepted as infallible by the whole
body of the episcopate, by the entire fold of Christ. !N"o one among
the successors of the fisherman had ever seen so many bishops as-
sembled together in one place, as Pius had seen in Rome in June,
1867, and they had, without a single exception, yielded the most
complete assent to his doctrinal decisions. He had defined the doc-
trine of the immaculate conception in December, 1854, and all had
joyously subscribed to it, even Bishop Dupanloup, the most illus-
trious and to the end the most conscientious upholder of modern
Gallicanism. In 1867 he had promulgated anew in Eome to the as-
sembled bishops the doctrinal judgments summarized and classified
in the "Syllabus," giving this collective judgment as "the rule of
their teaching in future ; " and all had acquiesced most unani-
mously. In the beautiful address presented to him by the five hun-
dred bishops on July the 1st, prepared and worded as it was with
extreme care, and discussed with such extraordinary diligence by the
committee appointed to draw it up, as well as by the general body
these represented, there is one passage, among others (page 415),
which would seem to any lawyer not a theologian a formal and ex-
plicit profession of faith in the Pope's official infallibility. The
word "infallible" was not, indeed, to be found anywhere in the ad-
dress; but it had been employed again and again in the original
draught, and was only rejected in the revision because the bishops
had not been convened in council at all, and now that a general
council was announced and was soon to assemble, they deemed it
improper to anticipate any action which might therein be taken on
the divine prerogatives of the pontifical office, as on all that pertains
to the doctrine on the Church of Christ.
No Pope had ever so many practical proofs of the general belief
among his brother-bishops in the infallibility attached to his teaching
office. And most certainly it was with no thought of having that
belief discussed and defined that Pius was solicitous to assemble a
general council.
Reform and Moral Progress alone aimed at, 423
We have seen, in perusing the yarious acts of his pontificate, how
thoroughly his mind was engrossed from the beginning with the de-
sire of having pastors and people throughout the Catholic world well
grounded in the knowledge of divine truth, and so Avell acquainted
with the forms and fallacies of the philosophy and science of the age,
as to be able to discern clearly and to refute victoriously error under
its every shape and disguise.
The attentive reader of his first encyclical, published in November,
1846, will be agreeably surprised to find that the one object aimed
at in that most priestly and most Christian utterance, is to make of
every minister of religion a "true man of God," so highly educated
that the world around may get from his lips a perfect knowledge of
all truth, and so well trained to virtue that his life shall be truth in
action; to make of every Christian a "true child of God," able to
render an account of the faith that is in him and to defend it, and
demonstrating the living efficacy of that faith by the light of saintly
deeds. This is the burden of every solemn teaching addressed by
Pius IX. to the bishops or the entire Church all through his pontifi-
cate. As age accumulates the lessons and warnings of experience,
as political revolution and religious and social error, increase the
dangers which threaten Christendom and the darkness which hangs
over Rome, this twofold purpose assumes an all-absorbing import-
ance in his mind.
The nineteenth century was a new era. Old political forms were
passing away ; the laws and institutions which had been, from the
remotest historical time, regarded as the foundations of the social
and moral world, were so shaken and imperiled by the intellectual
upheaval, that the ancient landmarks of truth and error were being
daily obliterated more and more.
The Church of Christ, to which had been made the divine promise
that she could never cease to be, and never be otherwise than unerr-
ing in her teaching, must remain unmoved amid the general wreck
and change ; and her supreme pastor, amid this new confusion of
tongues, must raise his voice above the din and the storm, and pro-
claim anew "the words of eternal life."
It was time, when a false materialism, usurping impudently the
name of Science, renewed all the ancient errora of the Grecian and
the Persian philosophies, that the Church of Christ should proclaim
in a new and complete and more scientific form the whole body of
revealed doctrine on God, man, and the world, visible and invisible.
424 Life of Pope Pius IX,
clearly pointing out the relations between the natural and super-
natural orders, between faith and reason, between the Church and
civil society, between the temporal and the eternal.
Natural science and mental philosophy were changing their meth-
ods ; locomotion on sea and land was in course of transformation ; the
very art of war was in a kind of second infancy, where everything
was tentative, novel, uncertain, and ever changing.
The Church was the citadel of truth here below, ever subject to
attack, assailed by old errors with new shapes, and armed with novel
weapons of attack and defense. It behooved every child of the
Church living in the midst of this unceasing conflict, to be well
acquainted with the foes he had to meet, and to be able to contend
with them on their own ground and with their own weapons.
This conception of modern life and modern society was ever before
the mind of Pius IX. He knew, how in the beginning of a new
historical era, the human race being commanded to spread them-
selves over the untilled earth, had wished to build a tower which was
to be a monument of pride and a witness of their resistance to the
divine command.
But he — the vicar of Christ, the father of regenerated humanity —
in the midst of the rising deluge of pride, disorder, anarchy, and
licentiousness, resolved to build up in the eyes of the whole race the
edifice of Catholic dogma, in a form so complete, so beautiful, that
the whole earth must admire it and exclaim that the hand of God is
there !
True, at his advanced age he could scarcely hope for more than
the consolation of opening the general council, and laying the first
stones of the grand doctrinal structure he contemplated. But the
work would go on after him. Pius dies ; but Peter is ever living and
teaching.
Already, in March, 1865, the Pope held a consultatipn with the
cardinals about the necessity or expediency of convening such a
council. Thirteen of the number were in favor of so doing, and one
only against it. This, however, was not the first step in that direc-
tion, as the entire question had been, before this, submitted to the
men judged most eminent for learning and wisdom, each of whom
sent his answer, with its motives, to the Holy Father. This first
prelipiinary was only to ascertain whether the sovereign pontiff
should or not make the matter one of serious deliberation with the
Sacred College. After the tneeting of March the 2d, 1865, a com-
Thorough Work of Preparation f 425
mission of five cardinals was formed, who were to consider whether
the assembling of the council were necessary or opportune, whether
the Catholic sovereigns should be consulted, and certain bishops of
various nations communicated with for the purpose of ascertaining
what matters relating to the Church in general, and to certain coun-
tries in particular, should be submitted to the council.
When they had given in their answer as to the expediency of con-
voking a general council, the Pope formally instituted a " Commis-
sion of Direction," composed of cardinals, assisted by a number of the
ablest theologians and canonists in the Church ; and they formed
into four sub-committees or sections, to which was allotted the dis-
cussion of all questions pertaining to doctrine, politico-ecclesiastical
or mixed questions, missions and the Oriental churches, and disci-
pline. These sections assembled in the special offices in Eome
devoted to the matters which had the closest affinity with the sub-
jects intrusted to themselves, the section on doctrine in the Holy
Office, that on missions in the Propaganda, that on mixed questions
in the office of the Congregation of Ecclesiastical Affairs, and that on
discipline had its center in the Congregation of Bishops and Eegulars.
On April the 10th a circular letter, by order of the Holy Father, was
sent to thirty-six bishops, esteemed the most learned and the most
experienced in government, enjoining them to send a list of the
subjects which, in their judgment, ought to be discussed in the
council. Similar letters were also sent to the prelates of the Ori-
ental churches.
One must see how little this mode of proceeding argued in the
Holy Father anything like personal vanity, or arrogance, or that
arbitrary way of doing things which might be natural to persons who
are not bound to consult others. This conscientious and careful
investigation of the real needs of the Church in every land and in a
given epoch, had its result and reward in bringing speedily to Rome
answers which thoroughly enlightened the Pope and his fellow-
laborers on every topic that was most important.
One passage, quoted by Cardinal Manning,* throws light on the
source of opposition in Germany. ^^ There are very few," the writer
of the letter says, "who at this day impugn the prerogative of the
Roman pontiff ; and this they do, not in virtue of theological rea-
sons, but with the intention of affirming the liberty of science with
* •* The True Story of the Vatican Council," iii.
426 Life of Pope Pius IX»
greater safety. It seems that with this yiew a school of theologians
has sprung up in Bavaria, at Munich, who in all their writings have
principally before them, by the help of dissertations, to lower the
Apostolic See, its authority, its mode of government, by throwing
contempt upon it, and by attacking, above all, the infallibility of
Peter teaching ex cathedra,''^
The controlling intellect in this Munich "school of theologians,"
was Dr. John Joseph Ignatius von Dollinger, who counted as his
pupils many of the most distinguished churchmen and statesmen in
Germany, and whose influence and authority as a Catholic writer
extended far beyond the very wide circle of his own pupils. He had
made himself dear to Catholics by his early works on history and
theology, and had represented Catholic interests in the parliament at
Erankfort in 1848. But there seems to have ended his career as
an orthodox member of the Church. His ambition and his self-love
were wounded by the opposition he met with from the foremost
members of the hierarchy. His anxiety to reconcile what he thought
the claims of science with the authoritative teaching of the Church,
his wish to stand well with the Liberals of Germany, brought him
into collision with that conservative Catholic opinion which justly
held, that this false Liberalism meant indifference as to all religious
doctrines, and the enslavement of the Church by the State.
With the first announcement of the Pope's intention to convoke a
general council, began a systematic opposition on the part of Dol-
linger and his school. He had been appointed in 1868, by the King
of Bavaria, Councilor of State for life, retaining his position in the
University of Munich, as well as that of Superior Court Chaplain.
Of the Catholic statesmen who surrounded the King of Bavaria, the
most influential, like Prince Chlodwig Hohenlohe, were deeply im-
bued with that form of Gallicanism which aimed at limiting to the
utmost the authority of the Holy See over national churches, and of
increasing in proportion the authority of the State over all ecclesias-
tical establishments. From this enlargement of the prerogatives of
the secular power with respect to the ecclesiastical, there was only a
narrow step to Csesarism, or the complete subjection of the Church
to the temporal ruler.
Since 1860 it was painfully evident that Dr. Dollinger aimed at
lowering, decrying, and destroying the papal power.* The idea that
♦ See his Kirche und Kirehen, Papsthum und Kirchenstaat, Munich, 1861.
The Bull of Convocation, 427
the Jesuits were ruining tlie Church, and placing her in opposition
to all true science and true progress, became a monomania with the
great professor, and he found among his supporters but too many
who fed his morbid fancies and industriously fostered his prejudices.
This man was so circumstanced, at the moment Pius IX. was
zealously preparing everything which might promote the unity of
all Christian minds and hearts through a harmonious general coun-
cil, that he could use the whole power and influence of the Bayarian
government, either as a means of preventing the meeting of the
council, or, at least, of so dividing the bishops among themselves
as to destroy the moral effect of any great doctrinal decision or
disciplinary reform arrived at ; with what success we shall see pre-
sently.
All through 1867 and 1868, in spite of the pressure of business
caused by the centenary and of the intense anxiety arising from the
Garibaldian invasion, and the annoyances and dangers of the near
proximity of Piedmontese rule, the Holy Father did not relax his
labor of preparation for the council. The state of religion in the
old European countries, in North and South America, the avenues
opening to missionary enterprise in Australia, Japan, China, and
India, and the desire of providing efficient and abundant workmen
for the great harvest of souls, absorbed him whom God had placed
over this vast field of labor.
The bull of indiction or convocation of the council was issued on
June the 29th, 1868, appointing the council to open in the Vatican
Basilica of St. Peter on December 8th, 1869.
The immediate purpose of the supreme pontiff in assembling the
council is clearly indicated after a few preliminary paragraphs.
" The Eoman pontiffs, in the discharge of the office divinely con-
fided to them in the person of Peter, of feeding the entire flock of
Christ, have unweariedly taken on themselves the most arduous
labors, and used every possible means in order to have the various
nafons and races all over the earth brought to the light of the Gos-
pel, and, by truth and holiness, to eternal life. All men know the
zeal and unceasing vigilance with which these same Eoman pontiffs
have kept inviolate the deposit of faith, discipline among the clergy,
purity and science in the education given to its members, the holi-
ness and dignity of Christian marriage ; how they studied day by
day to promote the Christian education of the youth of both sexes,
'jo foster among all classes the love of religion, the practice of piety.
428 Life of Pope Pius IX.
and purity of manners, as well as everything that might conduce to
the tranquillity, the good order, and the prosperity of ciyil society.
"Whenever great troubles arose, or serious calamities threatened
either the Church or the social order, the Roman pontiffs Judged it
opportune to convoke general councils, in order that with the ad-
vice and assistance of the bishops of the Catholic world, whom
the Holy Ghost hath established to rule the Church of God, they
might, in their united wisdom and forethought, so dispose everything
as to define the doctrines of faith, to secure the destruction of
the most prevalent errors, defend, illustrate, and develop . Catholic
teaching, restore and promote ecclesiastical discipline and the refor-
mation of morals."
" No one, at the present time, can ignore how horrible is the storm
by which the Church is assailed, and what an accumulation of evils
afflict civil society. The Catholic Church, her most salutary doc-
trines, her most revered power, the supreme authority of this Holy
See, are all assailed and trampled upon by the bitter enemies of God
and man. All that Is most sacred is held up to contempt ; ecclesiasti-
cal property is made the prey of the spoiler; the most venerable minis-
ters of the sacraments, men most eminent for their Catholic char-
acter, are harassed by untold-of annoyances. The Religious orders
are suppressed, impious books of every kind and pestilential publica-
tions are disseminated, wicked and pernicious societies are every-
where and under every form multiplied. The education of youth
is in almost all countries withdrawn from the clergy, and, what is
far worse, intrusted in many places to teachers of error and evil.
" In consequence of all these facts, to our great grief and that of
all good men, and to the irreparable ruin of souls, impiety, corrup-
tion of morals, unbridled licentiousness, the contagion of depraved
opinions and of every species of pestilential vice and crime, the vio-
lation of all laws, human and divine, prevail everywhere to such
an extent that not only religion but human society itself is thrown
into the most deplorable disorder and confusion. . . .
" Wherefore, following in the footsteps of our illustrious prede-
cessors, wo have deemed it opportune ... to call together a
general council, as we had long desired to do. . . .
" This oecumenical council will have to examine most diligently,
and to determine what it is most seasonable to do, in these calami-
tous times, for the greatest glory of God, the integrity of faith, the
splendor of divine worship, the eternal salvation of men, the dis-
False Motives Lnputed to the Pope, 429
cipline of the regular and secular clergy, and their sound and solid
education, the observance of ecclesiastical laws, the reformation of
morals, the Christian education of youth, the common peace and
universal concord. With the divine assistance our labors must also
be directed toward remedying the peculiar evils which afflict Church
and State ; toward bringing back into the right road those who have
strayed away from truth and Justice ; toward repressing vice and
error, in order that our holy religion and her saving doctrines may
acquire renewed vigor all over the earth, that its empire may be re-
stored and increased, and that, thereby, piety, modesty, honor, jus-
tice, charity, and all Christian virtues may wax strong and flour-
ish for the glory and happiness of our common humanity. "
Surely, when the motives for convening the council, and the na-
ture of the work it should have to do, were declared so explicitly and
so minutely detailed, when, especially, this crowning labor of Pius
IX. 's pontificate was so evidently the continuation of all his past
labors, one might think that to seek dark motives and to assign other
labors must appear preposterous. And yet this council, planned
and prepared in the full light of publicity for a purpose self-evident
to all who were not willfully blind, was called "a conspiracy" by the
Munich theologians, and that precisely because they were themselves
conspiring against the council, the Church, and the Pope !
On September the 8th the Holy Father addressed a letter of invi-
tation to the bishops of all the Oriental churches not in communion
with Rome. It was a graceful act from one whose whole soul was
one continuous act of charity, and who desired nothing so much in
this life as to see all who believe in Christ united in the profession
of the full and perfect truth, and seated together on earth in the
same house of God, at the same table, and partaking of the same
divine bread. This same charity impelled Pius IX. to issue, on the
13th of September, letters of invitation to all Protestants and non-
Catholics. But the inveterate prejudices existing among these sec-
tarians prevented them from understanding the charity which had
impelled the Holy Father to invite them to reconsider well the
grounds of separation from the Roman Church.
In Germany, Counselor Reinold Baumgarten, of Constance, and
Wolfgang Menzel, of Stuttgart, both Protestants, strongly urged all
their co-religionists to accept the pontifical invitation. But their
voices were drowned amid the chorus of denunciations which arose
in Germany at a signal from Munich,
430 Life of Pope Pius IX.
In the midst of these active preparations and noisy discussions
dawned the memorable year 18G9 ; on the 11th of April fell the fif-
tieth anniversary of Giovanni Masta'i's elevation to the priesthood —
his first *' golden jubilee." But very few among his predecessors had
the happiness of celebrating that anniversary while seated on the
chair of Peter. It is a touching anniversary for the lowliest priest
among the many thousands who minister at our altars. We know,
in Christian families (for the celebration is inspired by Christian
ideas and affections), how joyously the fiftieth anniversary of the
parents' union is hailed, and how kinsfolk and friends vie with each
other in offering to the venerable pair the homage of their affection
or their respect.
The priest's ordination is his union with Christ's Church forever.
He gives his heart to her iiTcvocably. And the joys of the " golden
jubilee of priesthood " are a something extremely touching in Catho-
lic lands.
Pius IX., we need not say it, was loved by all who approached him;
and what Pope had ever been approached by so many persons —
bishops, priests, sovereigns, princes, laymen of every class and coun-
try and religion ?
Strange to say — yet, why strange ? — it was in Bavaria that the en-
thusiastic movement originated, and which soon communicated itself
to the furthest extremities of every quarter of the globe, liaving for
its object a demonstration of love toward Pius IX. on the approach-
ing anniversary of his ordination. It began in Bamberg, in Septem-
ber, 18C8, and was taken up by all the Catholic societies throughout
Germany. The offering of Peter's pence, or alms of some kind, to-
ward the Holy Father's support, had begun during his exile in Gaeta,
and was revived with increased zeal since 1859. But the offerings of
his first jubilee year were dictated by a special sentiment of filial
love and generosity It was an old man of seventy-seven whom all
should unite in honoring, forgetful for the moment of political pas-
sions, national antipathies, or religious animosity.
Sovereigns and private persons, corporate bodies and religious
communities — the high and the lowly, the rich and the poor — all
took a delight in laying some special mark of reverence and love at
the feet of the common parent. The King of Prussia — the present
Emjieror — sent a vase of precious material and rarest workmanship ;
for King William at that time reverenced in Pius IX. the guardian
of all great and sound principles. The French Empress sent a right
Crusade of ^^y antes'' against the Council, 431
royal gift of money, with a purse made by her own daughterly hands ;
but more daughterly still was the exquisite donation sent by Madame
Hardey, the Lady-Superior of the Sacred Heart, at Manhattanville,
New York — a golden fish filled with American gold, the contribution
of her pupils, and a graceful address of felicitation.
The three Catholic emperors of France and Austria and Brazil
were not behindhand ; nor, indeed, were the non-Catholic. Han-
over, England, Russia, and Turkey had words of kindly courtesy for
the most yenerable of existing sovereigns.
There were, besides, numerous deputations from every country,
with bounteous offerings and words of love which moved the Holy
Father to tears ; but most welcome, and naturally, were the repre-
sentatives of the country nearest and dearest to him, his own Italy.
All this reminded him of the centenary, but it was only the bright
forerunner of the jubilee of 1877.
But this first jubilee did not pass away without making many
others happy in Rome and the small pontifical territory. There was
a general amnesty, and the completion of a much needed aqueduct,
giving Rome an additional supply of wholesome water ; and the mil-
lion of Roman crowns which the pious generosity of his children
poured into his treasury enabled him to found an agricultural col-
lege.
He needed these feasts of the heart, these testimonies of reverence
and affection ; for with the dawn of 1869 began in Germany, France,
and the Low Countries a most violent campaign against the council
in the press, in the universities, and in diplomatic circles. Dol-
linger had begun the war in 1868 by calling to his aid the most
practiced writers of his party, and dividing the work to be done
among them. The result of this joint labor appeared as a series of
articles in the Augsburg Gazette, all tending to prove from eccle-
siastical history that no such thing as an infallible Pope ever existed,
and to prejudice public opinion in Germany against the approach-
ing council, its plenary authority, and its presumed labors. These
articles were then printed in book-form under the title of Der Papst
und das Concil, by '^ Janus." The book was simultaneously trans-
lated into English, French, and Italian, receiving numerous editions,
and doing irreparable mischief.
The pseudonym thus chosen was an apt one, though there were
but few in Germany for whom the '^ double-faced " mask was a
mask at all ; for if the far greater portion of Dr. Dollinger's career
432 Life of Pope Pius IX.
pointed toward Rome and was brightened by the glories of Catholic
truth, his road, during the remaining portion, faced in the opposite
direction, toward that unblessed and desolate region where privileged
apostates are condemned to wander amid the sepulchers of their own
hopes, haunted by the ghosts of former convictions.
After *' The Pope and the Council " soon appeared another work,
'* On the Eeform of the Eoman Church in her Head and Members,"
which only found favor with men who sadly needed to reform their
own consciences. Were your Dollingers, and Eeinkens, and Pere
Hyacinthes, and Von Schultes to be as careful as the lowly-minded
head of the Church in calling themselves to account daily, in his
presence who will judge all, for their own aims and aspirations, for
the obligations left unfulfilled, and the talents misapplied or buried
away, we should hear but little of these hypocritical cries of reform.
It was in very truth at reform of the deepest and most searching kind
that Pius IX. aimed ; it was the hope of effecting it in every class
within the Church that gave him such untiring energy in the gigan-
tic work of preparation. And no one who reads the story of the
Council of the Vatican in the original documents, the voluminous
and authentic records of the congregations and commissions created
by the sovereign pontiff to discuss and prepare all the matters to be
submitted to the council, but must deplore the heartless hypocrisy
and the perverse obstinacy which inspired such works as those just
named, as well as the political events which arrested the great work
of the council in its very first stage, and compelled Pius IX. to leave
his glorious dream unfulfilled. What would he not have accom-
plished, if the council he had assembled had been permitted to pur-
sue the course so carefully marked by the pontiff, the Sacred College,
and the united wisdom and learning of the elite of the Church, labor-
ing witli one accord in the various congregations on dogma, disci-
pline, education, etc. ?
The storm raised against him personally, against the Roman curia
(a shadowy and undefined assemblage of court officials supposed
to use him as a tool), against the Jesuits, who were supposed to
govern both Pope and curia, had for its pretext and sole motive
power the fear of "infallibility," for the defining of which it has all
along been said, and even now believed, that the (Ecumenical Coun-
cil was assembled. Let us, before we advance one step further in
the brief history of this council, settle this question at once and for-
ever.
Infallibility thereby Forced on CoimciL 433
In tlie autumn of 1875 tlie author had to prepare for the sixteenth
volume of the "American Cyclopaedia" an article on this same sub-
ject. After months of careful research, and repeated consultation
with persons who had been present in the council and shared in its
labors, he wrote as follows: "On December the 2d a prosynodal or
preparatory assembly of all the prelates in Kome was held, the Pope
presiding. On the evening of the 7th Pius IX. with a numerous
cortege went to the Church of the Apostles to inaugurate nine days
of public prayer for the divine light on the approaching delibera-
tions.
"With the first break of dawn on the 8th, the artillery of the
Castle of St. Angelo, and the bells of all the churches in Eome,
pealed forth. By 6 o'clock the naves of St. Peter's were filled, as
well as the piazza and the streets leading to it. At 9 the head of the
procession began to appear on the square, and more than an hour
elapsed before it could reach the left arm of the transept, which had
been partitioned off and furnished as the council hall. Mass was
celebrated by Cardinal Patrizi, vice-dean of the Sacred College, and
Bishop Fessler, of St. Polten, in Austria, secretary of the council,
then placed the book of the Gospels on a throne prepared for it on the
altar. . . . After appropriate devotional services, all who had
not a right to be present at the proceedings of the session left the
council hall. Two decrees only were promulgated, the one declar-
ing the (Ecumenical Council of the Vatican duly opened, and the
other appointing the next public session to be held on January the
6th, 1870. There were present 49 cardinals, 9 patriarchs, 4 pri-
mates, 123 archbishops, 481 bishops, 6 privileged abbots, 22 abbots-
general, and 29 superiors-general of religious orders ; in all, 723 mem-
bers of the council by right or by invitation. Seven general con-
gregations (equivalent to '^ committees of the whole " in parliamen-
tary bodies) were held between December the 8th and January the
6th, and were employed in discussing the prepared Schemata (draft
decrees) and in electing the members of the five deputations on
Faith, Discipline, Missions, Mixed Questions, and Eites, called for
by the Pope in his letters apostolic of November the 27th.
" The deliberations on Schemata began on December the 30th,
and were confined to questions of discipline. It became clear in the
first days of January, that among the persons connected with the
various deputations and commissions, there were a few who did not
scruple to violate the oath of secrecy ; and in spite of the admo-
434 Life of Pope Pius IX.
nition to the members of the council, the Augslurg Gazette con-
tinued to publish letters from its Roman correspondent professing
to describe the most secret transactions of the committees. Still no
place was given in the Schemata to the question of infallihility at the
beginning of March,"
Why is this question of fact and date insisted on here ? Because
^' Janus," in his famous pamphlet published early in 1868, made all
his laborious calumnies culminate in the assertion that in the pro-
posed council '* papal infallibility would be decreed by acclama-
tion." It was the express object of Dollinger and his school, and
of the whole army of writers and journalists who forthwith repeated
his assertion, and supported every one of his positions, that with
the Pope it was a matter of personal passion to have this question
defined ; that all the others were merely of secondary importance,
and must be postponed till this was decided ; that every imaginable
species of moral pressure was brought to bear by the Roman offi-
cials and the curia on the members of the hierarchy to induce them
to yield in this to the will of the Holy Father ; in one word, the
Council of the Vatican was to be convened for no other earthly pur-
pose but to declare and define the doctrine of the official infallibility
of the successors of St. Peter.
In a diplomatic note signed by Prince Hohenlohe, prime minister
of Bavaria, and addressed to the Bavarian representatives in the
European courts, it is affirmed : " The only dogmatic thesis which
Rome desires to have decided by the council, and which the Jesuits
in Italy and Germany are now agitating, is the question of the Infal-
libility of the Pope." It is now known that this letter was written
by Councilor of State Dollinger, and the motive of the odious pre-
judice sought, but too successfully, to be created against the Holy
Father, the council, and the Jesuits, is to be found in the very next
sentence : '* This pretension, once become a dogma, will evidently
have a wider scope than the purely spiritual sphere, and will become
eyidently a political question ; for it will raise the power of the sov-
ereign pontiff, even in temporal matters, above all the princes and
peoples of Christendom."
Prince Hohenlohe, before two years more have elapsed, will be-
come vice-president of the Imperial German Parliament, and will
influence Prince Bismark and the German government and legis-
lature so far as to make this question of infallibility, conceived in
accordanco with the Dollinger theology, a cause of rupture with the
Peremptory Proofs, 435
Holy See, a reason for expelling the Jesuits from the German em-
pire, and a motive for going even beyond Cayoiir in enslaving and
persecuting the Catholic Church.
Now, it is imperative that it should be made certain beyond the
possibility of denial, whether or not the assertion made in the article
on the Vatican Council be true, namely, that up to March, 1870,
no place had been given on the schemata, or draft-decrees, to the
question of infallibility. These drafts had been most carefully elab-
orated, under the supervision of the Commission of Direction, by
one hundred and two prelates (cardinals, archbishops, and bishops),
theologians, and canonists, selected from among those eminent for
learning in every land. Most of them are still living, and many
of them are known to be inopportunists, or persons who thought
that the discussion by the council of this doctrine of infallibility,
was, at that time and under the circumstances, not wise or desirable.
Since 1875 one man, the most eminent among the bishops of the
English-speaking world for his learning and his eloquence — Cardinal
Manning — has given to the world *^The True Story of the Vatican
Council ; " his testimony on the point of fact under consideration
must be conclusive.
*^ We now come," he says, "to the last part of our narrative of
the events before the assembling of the council, namely, the mat-,
ters to be discussed, of which it will be enough to give a list. They
were six in number :
"(1.) Schema on Catholic doctrine against the manifold errors
flowing from Eationalism.
'"(2.) Schema on the Church of Christ.
"(3.) Schema on the Office of Bishops.
*^(4.) Schema on the Vacancy of Sees.
*' (5.) Schema on the Life and Manners of the Clergy.
" (6.) Schema on the Little Catechism.
**In preparing the schema on the Church of Christ, which con-
sisted of fifteen chapters, after a full treatment of the body of the
Church the commission inevitably came to treat of its head. Two
chapters were prepared : the one on the primacy of the Roman pon-
tiff, the other on his temporal power. In treating of the primacy it
was likewise inevitable that the commission should come to treat of
the endowments of the primacy, and, among these endowments,
first of the divine assistance promised to Peter and in Peter to his
successors in matters of faith, or, in other words, of the infallibility.
43 6 Life of Pope Pius IX.
On the 14tli and 21st of January, 1869, the commission treated of
tlie nature of the primacy ; on the 11th of February it reached the
doctrine of infallibility. Two questions were then discussed : the
one, 1. ' Whether the infallibility of the Roman Pontiff can be de-
fined as an article of faith ; ' the other, 2. ' Whether it oug%t to be
defined as an article of faith.' To the first question the whole com-
mission unanimously answered in the affirmative ; to the second all,
but one only, concurred in the judgment that the subject ought not
to be proposed to the Council unless it were demanded by the bish-
ops. The words of this judgment run as follows : Sententia com-
missionis est, nonnisi ad postulationem episcoporum ret hujus pro-
positionem ah Apostolica Sede faciendam esse ('The judgment of
the commission is, that this subject ought not to be proposed by the
Apostolic See except at the petition of the bishops '). The one dis*
sentient consultor was an inopportunist. The commission, there-
fore, never completed the chapter relating to the infallibility.
*'The Commission on Doctrine sat for twenty-seven months, and
held fifty-six sessions, in which time it completed three, and only
three, schemata. After the opening of the Council it met once only ;
and so its labors ended.
*' Two observations may be made on these facts. The first is that
now, for a second time, when the subject of infallibility would,
according to the adversaries of the council, be expected to take the
first place, it was deliberately set aside. The second observation is
that Pius IX. had neither desire nor need to propose the defining of
his infallibility. Like all his predecessors, he was conscious of the
plenitude of his primacy. He had exercised it in the full assurance
that the faith of Christendom responded to his unerring authority ;
he felt no need of any definition. It was not the head of the Church
nor the Church at large that needed this definition. The bishops
in 1854, 1802, 18G7 had amply declared it. It was the small num-
ber of disputants who doubted, and the still smaller number who
denied, that the head of the Church can neither err in faith and
morals, nor lead into error the Church of which he is the supreme
teacher, that needed an authoritative declaration of the truth.
"As to the labors of the other sections, on Discipline, on Eeli-
gious Orders, on Missions and the Oriental Churches, and on Eites,
no comment need be made. The world has little interest in them,
and takes no notice of them. The one object of its hostility is the
definition which has affirmed the divine authority of the Church."
Europemi and American Press Deceived by ''Janusy 437
It is thus certain, beyond tlie possibility of doubt, that it was only
on February the 11th, 1869, that the committee of one hundred and
two theologians, to whom was intrusted the duty of drawing up the
schemata, had come in due course to treat of the question of papal
infallibility, and it was then decided by them, almost unanimous-
ly, that the Holy Father alone, "at the demand of the bishops,"
should introduce this subject into the deliberations of the council.
Now, it would be a most instructive lesson to take up the files of
any one of our great daily papers for 1868, 1869, and 1870, and to see,
in the telegraphic news items transmitted from Europe, the letters
of **our own correspondent," the extracts quoted from the leading
journals of Great Britain and the continent, and the editorial col-
umns themselves, how one idea stands out in overshadowing promi-
nence, the infallibility about to be defined by the approaching coun-
cil, and the challenge thereby held out by the Pope and the Catholic
Church to the governments of every country which owned Catholic
subjects. All through 1868 Germany rings with the trumpet tones
of warning sounded by "Janus ;" France, through all the voices of
the skeptic press, re-echoes the cry of alarm in the ears of govern-
ment and people ; the masonic journals of Belgium, the Jansenistic
or " Old Catholic " journals of Holland, denounce these new papal
pretensions as the climax of Eoman arrogance and apostasy from
the truth. The London Times throughout these years was the faith-
ful echo of the Allgemeine Zeitung of Augsburg, and our free and
independent American press was, in all this, but the reflex of the
European.
There is such a thing as "the persecution of public opinion."
Opinion is a mighty power, and at its bidding in our day more than
one unjust and calamitous war has been made. But even when pub-
lic opinion does not load cannon with grapeshot, or send men to the
torture or the scaffold, it can put souls on the rack, it can destroy
the purest reputation, mar the noblest undertakings, misrepresent
the purest intentions, break down beneath obloquy the strongest
hearts, and darken hopelessly the best cause to which man could de-
vote his life and death.
Was not the Council of the Vatican held up to us daily, week after
week, month after month in 1869, and during those stormy months
of 1870, as an assemblage gotten together through moral compulsion
for the one insane purpose of decreeing, in the teeth of the humili-
ated majority of Catholics, a doctrine of very questionable scriptural
438 Life of Pope Pius IX,
authority, and solely destined to glorify the spiritual arrogance of an
old man, about to be stripped of every vestige of temporal power ?
What indignation was lavished upon the folly of the court of Eome,
which thus made enemies of all the courts in Christendom, at the
moment when friends were most needed, and all that to gratify the
Jesuits, the fanatical Ultramontane faction !
And now, putting dates and facts together, when events and per-
sons have passed into the jurisdiction of history, we must conclude
that in all this the court of Rome, the Jesuits, the Catholic hier-
archy were belied most atrociously and systematically.
These seven hundred and twenty-three prelates of all ranks who
were present at the opening of the Council of the Vatican, came
there for the same holy purpose which animated the chief pastor in
summoning them — to promote the highest interests of religion and
society, to make the cause of truth itself, infinitely sacred as it was
in their eyes, only a means toward promoting holiness of life, the
reign of all the social charities, and the solid peace of Christendom.
This is not the place to recount or even recall the manner in which
the adverse public opinion created in Germany, and propagated by
Bavaria and Italy, succeeded in arraying against the Holy Father and
the Church, as a religious system, all the governments of conti-
nental Europe. It was a clever strategy to rouse the susceptibilities
of the old Galilean magistracy of France. For France, under Na-
poleon, was governed by lawyers, and in France every lawyer, even
though he believe not in Christ, is by the traditions of his profes-
sion a Galilean, one bound to resist to the utmost the encroachments
of the papal power. It was a stroke of genius to enlist in the '* Old
Catholic '■ or Jansenistic crusade, not only the infidels and revolu-
tionists and liberals, but the governments, and with these all who
still believed in the mitigated forms of clerical Gallicanism that sur-
vived the great revolution and the first Napoleonic empire.
It was a masterpiece of skill in Dollinger to get such a man as
Bishop Maret to write a work as heretical as those of Qiiesnel or
Antoino Arnauld, Bishop Dupanloup to break a lance in honor of
bad history against Manning's impenetrable shield, and such an im-
pulsive and liberty-loving soul as Montalembert to write, almost from
his death-bed, an indorsement of the detestable ** Lay Address" of
Coblentz. Theirs were only passing aberrations in minds made to
see danger for the Church in designs which only existed in the brain
of her detractors. Montalembert protested with his latest breath that
The Admirable Labors of the CounciL 439
he was the child of the Church, and would accept with the docility
of a bahe her eyery decision ; that he was the son of the Holy Father,
and would never gainsay a solemn utterance of his. As to Maret, let
him pass, like a coin of dubious quality, between two gold pieces of
undoubted purity and worth.
It has been sedulously represented that men like Dupanloup and
the martyi'ed Archbishop Darboy, of Paris, and so many others, who
judged the agitation of this question to be inopportune and fraught
with possible calamity to the Church, were not disposed to admit
that the doctrine of infallibility, as it was ultimately defined, was
founded in Scripture. But Archbishop Darboy had taught in the
schools of theology this very doctrine as Catholic and divine, though
he feared a persecution as the consequence of defining it under exist-
ing circumstances ; and both he and Bishop Dupanloup had with
mind and heart joined in the magnificent address of the Episcopate
at the centenary, in which all professed to believe that "Peter spoke
by the mouth of Pius."
It is then most certain that the question of infallibility was forced
upon the council by the concerted attacks of the anti-Catholic press
of Europe, and the threatening attitude assumed by the governments
most interested in protecting the council from every influence ad-
verse to the perfect freedom of its members. Had the governments
thus guarded from outside moral violence the deliberations of the
most august assemblage ever beheld in Christendom, there could
have been no discussion whatever of this peculiar doctrine before the
month of July came to suspend the sessions of the council, and to
this day there would have been no conciliary definition given on it.
As it was, providence permitted that the very efforts made by the
enemies of the papacy and the Church should issue in effecting the
very thing they aimed at preventing.
But it must not be imagined for a moment that the noise made
outside the council hall by the vehement controversies about infalli-
bility did or could interfere with the orderly and legitimate work of
the assembled fathers. The first schema *'on Catholic faith and the
errors springing from rationalism," was taken up on the 18th of De-
cember. In its original form, as drawn up by the committee of one
hundred and two theologians, it contained eighteen decrees. These
having been thoroughly discussed, were found not to answer the
scientific purposes of modern theology, and were referred back to the
Commission on Faith.
440 Life of Pope Pius IX,
On Marcli the 14tli it was distributed in its new form, consisting
of an introduction and four chapters.* This labor of recasting the
schema occupied the commission till the end of February. It em-
braced the fundamental truths of natural and revealed religion, de-
fining against Pantheism the existence, personality, and perfections
of the Godhead, the creation of the world in time, the distinction of
the Creator from his work, the powers and functions of human
reason, the necessity of revelation based on man's supernatural des-
tiny, faith and its nature and necessity, the relation of reason to
faith, and of faith to science.
These were the foundation-stones of the divine doctrinal structure
which Pius IX. had set his heart upon rearing to its completion, if
he might, if not, of beginning. He followed with the keenest inter-
est every stage in the proceedings, as if he were unmindful of the
tempest of obloquy which assailed him, and which grew continually
in violence through each successive month of 1870. Beside the in-
conceivable labor entailed on him by the near presence of so many
prelates and the dispatch of special business connected with their
churches, he would have a minute account given him daily of what
was done in the various committees. But — and this is the testimony
of all who were privileged to approach him in his privacy during
these months of incessant activity — ^no amount of labor or excess of
fatigue ever made him deviate from the faithful aud punctual dis-
charge of those sweet devotional offices toward the divine majesty,
which reposed and refreshed and reinvigorated his soul.
He would not allow the discussions on this first schema on faith
to be hurried forward under any pretext whatever, praising gener-
ously the pains taken and the labor bestowed by every one of the
fathers in giving to every chapter and sentence and expression the
pregnancy and tlie perfection which might insure the highest util-
ity to all future times.
And these labors and this painstaking were in truth a something
incredible. In the second discussion, which began on March the
18th, there were in all nine sessions ; seventy-nine elaborate dis-
courses were made on the various chapters ; forty-seven amendments
were made to the first chapter, sixty-two to the second, one hundred
and twenty-two to the third, and fifty to the fourth — all of which
* See ** The Vatican Decrees/' by Cardinal Manning. Catholic Publication
Society, New York, 1875.
The First Constitution Promulgated, 441
had to be printed — and the schema^ with these amendments, was
again sent back to the commission, the fathers meanwhile discussing
in private the entire matter, with the proposed amendments. When
the commission had weighed maturely the text and the proposed cor-
rections, they reported fully on the whole matter ; the introduction,
the four chapters, with their respective amendments, were put to the
vote and adopted in general congregation. When any of the amend-
ments were adopted, the chapter to which they applied was referred
back for final correction. Not before the 12th of April were the
third and fourth chapters, as thus amended, adopted by the fathers.
On that day the whole schema was put to the vote, eighty-four mem-
bers voting placet juxta modum, which meant that they would each
have further amendments made. These final amendments were sent
in and printed ; and on April the 19th the amended text was re-
ported back, put to the vote, and adopted unanimously. Thus
nearly six weeks were consumed in passing one schema, seventy-nine
discourses being made in the interval, three hundred and sixty-four
amendments proposed, examined, and voted upon, and six reports
were made upon a text which had been six times amended.*
The third public session of the council was held on April the 24th,
the first Sunday after Easter. The preamble or introduction, with
the four chapters and eighteen canons, were approved by the Holy
Father, adopted and promulgated by him as a papal constitution,
designated, from the two Latin words with which it begins, as the
Constitution Dei Films.
It would be out of place here to comment at length on this most
admirable constitution, this masterpiece of Catholic science, every
paragraph and sentence of which is like a gem of the purest water,
polished, fashioned, and set in its place by the most skillful hands.
The miner from our Western States, who has spent a lifetime in
seeking for gold amid the hardships of the wilderness, and in extract-
ing it from the sands of the river bed or the face of the granite rock,
has a quick eye to discern the luster of the true metal from its coun-
terfeit ; and the man whose existence has been a continual warfare
with savage foes can appreciate the weapons which can best serve
for offensive or defensive purposes. There is not one of these
chapters that does not contain a mine of intellectual wealth — not one
of these eighteen canons which is not like the lance of Ithuriel, the
* Abridged from Cardinal Manning's ** True Story."
442 Life of Pcpe Pitts IX,
simple touch of wliich will compel falsehood, in disguise, to return
''of force to its own likeness." Have we not heard of certain scien-
tists abjuring the Catholic faith because the Council of the Vatican
placed an impassable gulf between religion and science, faith and
reason ? And 3'et here is one little passage on the subject which re-
futes the assertion, whether made in ignorance or given as a pretext
to cover other and more unworthy motives.
''Although faith is above reason, there can never be any real dis-
crepancy between faith and reason, since the same God who reveals
mysteries and infuses faith has bestowed the light of reason on the
human mind, and cannot deny himself, nor can truth ever contradict
truth. The false appearance of such a contradiction is mainly due,
either to the dogmas of faith not having been understood and ex-
pounded according to the mind of the Church, or to the inventions
of opinion having been taken for the verdicts of reason. . . .
"And not only can faith and reason never be opposed to one
another, but they are of mutual aid one to the other ; for right rea-
son demonstrates the foundations of faith, and, enlightened by its
light, cultivates the science of things divine ; while faith frees and
guards reason from errors, and furnishes it with manifold knowledge.
" So far, therefore, is the Church from opposing the cultivation of
human arts and sciences, that it in many ways helps and promotes it.
For the Church neither ignores nor despises the benefits to human
life which result from the arts and sciences, but confesses that, as
they came from God, the Lord of all science, so, if they be rightly
used, they lead to God by the help of his grace. Nor does the
Church forbid that each of these sciences in its sphere should make
use of its own principles and its own method ; but while recognizing
this just liberty, it stands watchfully on guard, lest the sciences, set-
ting themselves against the divine teaching, or transgressing their
own limits, should invade and disturb the domain of faitli."
It was in order, when this preliminary constitution had been pro-
mulgated, that the fathers should take up the schema^ or draft-
decree "on the Church of Christ." "It contained fifteen chapters
and twenty-one canons. The first ten chapters related to the body
of the Church ; the eleventh and twelfth related to the primacy of the
head of the Church ; the last three treated of the relations of the
Church to the civil powers."
When it had been made known, at an early date after the opening
of the council, that there was no place given on the schema for the
*' opportuneness j' not ''Divinity,'' Discussed. 443
doctrine of pontifical infallibility, the majority in the council began
to discuss seriously whether they could, in yiew of the outcry raised
on this point, allow the present opportunity to pass without defining
the belief on this point once and forever.
It is a thing not generally known, that, when the question was
regularly introduced, not a single discussion ever occurred in the
council with regard to the divinity of this doctrine, or the fact of
its having been revealed, not one bishop or prelate of the seven hun-
dred present ever raised his voice to cast any doubt on this. The
whole discussion, as explained above, turned on the question of the
opportuneness of defining as of faith what all there present believed
to be so, when the political world was ready to quarrel with the
Church about a definition which it could not or would not under-
stand.
This is another point on which the desperate and unscrupulous
Bavarian faction persisted in misleading the opinion of the civilized
world.
Before the majority of the bishops had petitioned to have this
subject introduced in its proper place in the eleventh chapter of the
schema on the Church, indeed, before the council had assembled at
all, the committee of theologians had drawn up a most elaborate list
of reasons for and against the opportuneness of a definition. These
lists were on record, were printed and handed about among the
fathers, and were one evidence among many of the freedom and the
thoroughness with which everything was considered, weighed, and
discussed in this great council. There was not a single point con-
nected with dogma, moral discipline, or any other of the questions
selected for deliberation, which had not been prepared with the same
large-mindedness, the same exhaustive fullness of learning.
Surely this is not the story told to the world by Professor Johann
Triedrich, who came to the council as a Catholic theologian only
to violate, like the aged Augustin Theiner, the oath of secrecy taken
by all connected with the committees, by communicating to his
friend and master, Dollinger, the most secret proceedings, and by
misrepresenting every act and intention of the majority. To be
sure, Friedrich was soon found out and most ignominiously ex-
pelled, while Theiner, the archivist of the Vatican, with his apart-
ments in the palace, and near the sacred treasures of which he was
the guardian, was allowed by the kind-hearted pontiff to retain his
rooms and his salary ; but all access to the library was forbidden
444 L^f^ of Pope Pitts IX.
him, and the very door of communication between his room and
the archives was walled up. Yet did he seize every occasion to
pursue his course of betrayal !
The discussion of the general schema of the primacy began on
May the 14th, and was concluded on June the 3d. It occupied
fifteen private sessions, lasting each four hours, and was followed by
the private discussion on each chapter, thus affording the opposi-
tion an opportunity of renewing their objections. In the general
discussion sixty-five members were heard, nearly all their discourses
touching on the fourth chapter, that on infallibility ; in the special
discussion, closed on July the 4th, fifty-six members spoke on the
same subject, and sixty whose names were inscribed renounced their
right to speak. More than half the speakers advocated the inoppor-
tuneness and danger of a definition.
'' The introduction and the first two chapters were then reported
and accepted almost unanimously. On the third chapter the amend-
ments were seventy-two, which were reported on the 5th of July.
Many were accepted, but many were further amended twice or three
times, and the whole chapter was sent back once more to the com-
mission for further revision. Then on the 11th of July the report
was made on the fourth chapter, relating to infallibility, on which
ninety-six amendments had been proposed."
When the final vote was taken on July the 13th, there were pres-
ent 601 fathers. Of these 451 voted *^aye," 88 voted ^* no," and
62 " aye conditionally," placet jitxta modum. ^' This involved the con-
sideration of new amendments, to the number of 1G3, which Avere
sent as usual to the commission. They were examined and reported
on the 16th of July. Many were adopted together with the two
amendments proposed by the commission. The whole was then
printed and distributed, put once more to the vote and passed."
The schema had now assumed the form of the Dogmatic Consti-
tution Pastor j^tcrnus, by which it must remain known to history.
War between France and Prussia was imminent ; many prelates, in
consequence, had been allowed to leave for their homes, and others
were anxious to follow them ; the summer heat had prostrated
many of the bishops, some had even died ; and there was a well-
founded rumor that Napoleon was going to withdraw his troops and
give way to Victor Emmanuel. There was not a moment to be lost.
On July the 18th the fourth solemn session was held, all being
admitted to witness the proceedings. The Pope presided, as on April
The Definition Accepted by every Catholic Bishop, 445
the 24tli. There were five hundred and thirty-five fathers present,
y each, when his name was called, rising from his seat, taking off his
miter, and answering placet ; two only answered non placet. The
pontiff then confirmed the decree, and addressed the council in the
following words :
''Great is the authority residing in the supreme pontiff, but his
authority does not destroy, but builds up ; it does not oppress but
sustain, and very often it has to defend the rights of our brethren
the bishops. If some have not been of this mind with us, let them
know that they have judged in agitation. But let them bear in
mind that the Lord is not in the storm (2 Kings xix. 11). Let
them remember that a few years ago they held the opposite opinion,
and abounded in the same belief with us, and in that of this most
august assembly, for then they judged in 'the gentle air.' Can
two opposite consciences stand together in the same judgment ? Far
from it. Therefore we pray God that he who alone can work great
things may himself illuminate their minds and hearts, that all may
come to the bosom of their father, the unworthy vicar of Jesus
Christ on earth, who loves them and desires to be one with them, and
united in the bond of charity to fight with them the battle of the
Lord ; so that not only our enemies may not deride us but rather be
afraid, and at length lay down the arms of their warfare in the pres-
ence of truth, and that all may say with St. Augustine, ' Thou hast
called me into thy wonderful light, and behold I see.'"
The fatherly wish here expressed was soon gratified to the utmost.
The two bishops who had voted " no " in the solemn session hastened,
after the confirmation of the decrees by the Pope, to the foot of the
papal throne to give in their solemn adhesion. The four dissenting
cardinals — Eauscher, Schwarzenberg, Mathieu, and Hohenlohe —
who had absented themselves from the session, immediately professed
their assent. Of all the bishops in the Catholic world there was not
one who did not accept this solemn judgment of the Church with
his whole heart and mind, confessing that what he had thought in-
opportune the Holy Spirit, who evermore assists the Church in her
deliberations, had decided to be most timely, most wise, and salu-
tary.
During the solemn ceremonies of that memorable morning of July
the 18th, 1870, a storm which had been gathering burst over Kome
with appalling violence. It reached its greatest fury just when the
Bishop of Fabriano, after reading the constitution and the decrees
44^ Life of Pope Pius IX.
from the ambon or pulpit, called on each of the fathers by name to
rise and vote in his place. During nearly one hour and a half that
the voting lasted, the thunder pealed above St. Peter's, reverberating
beneath the lofty dome and through the vast aisles, and stilling intc
profound awe the assembled thousands. The lightning flashed in-
cessantly, lighting up the gloom Avhich filled the glorious basilica,
revealing each venerable figure which rose in succession to pronounce
placet, and revealing the grand monuments of painting and sculp-
ture along the walls, and bringing fitfully out into preternatural dis-
tinctness the gigantic letters of the inscription round the base of the
dome, Tu es Petrus et super lianc petram cedificaho ecclesiam meam,
*'Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church"
(Matt. xvi. 18). To many there present this proclamation of the
dogma which asserted the presence and permanence on earth of one
living authority privileged to lay down infallibly the law of life to
the nations, recalled the thunders which rolled and the lightnings
which flashed round Sinai, while Moses within the storm-cloud on
the mountain-top received the law from the Eternal God.
"While the Te Deum was being sung with an emotion that even St.
Peter's had never witnessed, the storm passed away, and the sun came
forth, and all was again serenity, sunlight, and peace. This inci-
dent gave appositeness to the Holy Father's allusion in his address
to the bishops to '^the storm" and *^the gentle air." But there
was another tempest of more dire import soon to burst over the
doomed city.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
The Feanco-Peussiak Wae akd the In^yasiok of Rome — The
Pope's Peotest beeoee the Diplomatic Body — En-cyclical
OK this last Spoliation — jSTaboth will not give up to
ACHAB THE IkHEEITANCE OF HIS EaTHEES — HOW THE YOUTH
OF Italy weee Peeveeted — Peocesses used by Jacobiks,
Mazziki, and Gaeibaldi — The Ieish Bishops and Pius IX.
— Reaction among Catholic Youth of Italy — The Romak
Pateiciate head the Movement — Noble Behavioe of Ro-
man Ladies — Fidelity in eveey Depaetment of the Pon-
tifical Seevice — Diabolical Ingenuity of Piedmontism —
"Pontifical Jubilee" of 1871 — Bologna and Rome fob
Pius IX. — The Pope and the Pooe Women of Rome — Iee-
LAND Conspicuous — Pius IX. Saves "Tata Giovanni."
September, 1870-August, 1871.
IN August, 1866, the French emperor, who had been compelled to
withdraw his army from Mexico, leaving to its fate the Latin
empire which he purposed creating there, wished to give some sat-
isfaction to French national feelings wounded by this ignominious
retreat and the tragic death of chivalrous Maximilian. He revived
the cherished idea of a war with Prussia, and the rectification of
the Rhine frontier of France by the restoration of Luxembourg and
other adjacent provinces. A note was in consequence addressed to
the government of Prussia ; but the latter, not unconscious of her
own rights and the military inferiority of France, declared all nego-
tiations on the subjects mentioned to be inadmissible. Prussia from
that hour resolved to hold herself in readiness to repress the inso-
lence of the man whose only chance of maintaining his throne, lay
in fomenting trouble among his neighbors, and in feeding the vanity
of a people of soldiers by promoting aggressive wars.
Then came the Industrial Exhibition of 1867, the visit of the
King of Prussia and Count Bismark to Paris, the presence in that
capital of the most distinguished military men of Germany, and the
447 "
448 Life of Pope Pius IX,
flooding of the north-eastern proyinces with Prussian officers, who
had come to make a thorough study of the topography of the coun-
try and of its resources. All know how the candidature of Prince
Leopold of Hohenzollern to the Spanish crown created complica-
tions between the French and Prussian Governments ending in war,
the invasion of France, the downfall of Napoleon III., the with-
drawal of the French troops from the Eoman territory on August the
21st, and the forcible occupation of Eome by an Italian army on the
20th of September. On the 18th and 19th the Holy Father, knowing
that the end was nigh, and that the defense made by his handful of
troops against overwhelming odds could only serve to save the honor
of his flag, and to protest before all Christendom against an invasion
unprovoked, wanton, and sacrilegious, carried on in violation of all
the rights that are held most sacred, visited for the last time the
places which were most dear to him in Eome, among them his
cathedral, the Lateran Basilica, and the "Sacred Stairs " taken from
the house of Pilate in Jerusalem, and made holy by the contact of
our suifering Saviour's feet. Pius IX. ascended them on his knees
with a devotion that touched all who witnessed the scene, bearing
in mind his divine protot}^e, and praying fervently for his Eoman
people, around whom the waves of evil were rising with resistless
fury.
While the last struggle was going on the diplomatic body sur-
rounded the Holy Father, powerless to avert the doom of Eome and
the triumph of the revolution. He recalled to the ambassadors that
Bad 17th of November, 1848, when their predecessors formed a body-
guard to save him from the violence of his own subjects. *' Yester-
day," he said, "I received a letter from the students of the American
College, almost asking as a right to become my body-guard. I know
how safe I should be in the hands of these intrepid young Ameri-
cans ; but I begged them, instead of defending me, to care for my
wounded soldiers. . . . How happy you would be to tell me
that I might now rely for protection on your government, is not a
secret to me. But times are changed since 1848. The poor old
Pope is now bereft of all earthly aid. Eelief can only come from
above. Still must we not forget that the Church can never die."
When furtlier resistance had become— not impossible — but un-
availing, ho stopped the effusion of blood, and sent orders to General
Kanzlcr to capitulate. "You are witnesses, gentlemen," he said
to the ambassadors, "that our enemies are entering by violence.
Encyclical on the Invasion of Roine, 449
They break into our homes by sheer force of arms, and our efforts
at resistance are to save these homes from pillage and profanation.
. . . My chief concern now is for the devoted Catholic soldiers
who have come from afar to defend in this city the center of
Catholic unity. To you I commit their safety ; I know you will
protect them from their lawless enemies, and see to it that they shall
be protected on their way homeward. My own soldiers I now ab-
solve from their allegiance. As to myself, God will not refuse me
the fortitude I need."
Let us draw a vail over the atrocities and profanations which fol-
lowed the entrance of the Piedmontese, led by General Cadorna, an
apostate monk, chosen by Victor Emmanuel as the fittest instru-
ment for the consummation of his designs against the sovereignty of
the Holy See.
On the 1st of November the Holy Father issued an encyclical
to the hierarchy on this crowning guilt of the house of Savoy.
''When we look back," it says, ''at the measures employed without
intermission by the Piedmontese government for many years to sub-
vert the temporal sovereignty created by Providence to enable the
successors of the Apostle Peter to enjoy a perfect liberty in the exer-
cise of their spiritual jurisdiction, we cannot help being filled with
heartfelt grief at the result of this vast conspiracy against the
Church of God and his Apostolic See. Por, at this very moment
this same government, carrying out the designs of the wicked secret
societies, has succeeded in sacrilegiously wresting from us with this
city the last remnant of territory spared by former invasions, against
all law and right and justice. So that, prostrate before the divine
majesty, we can only adore the hidden counsels of Heaven, and
repeat the words of the prophet, 'Therefore do I weep, and my
eyes run down with water ; because the comforter, the relief of my
soul, is far from me ; my children are desolate, because the enemy
hath prevailed.' "
The encyclical then enumerates the various pontifical documents
giving the detailed history of the Piedmontese usurpations, reciting,
year after year, the progress of the robber and anti-Christian spirit
in wresting province after province, and violating all divine and
human law in its spoliation and oppression of the Church as it ad-
vanced toward Rome itself.
"In the midst of these protracted struggles, these perils, cares,
* Lamentations of Jeremias, i. 16.
45o Life of Pope Pius IX,
and sorrows of eyery kind, Providence allowed us to enjoy one great
comfort in the devotion and boundless charity displayed by your
people and yourselves toward this Apostolic See and our own person.
This encouraged us, in spite of the perpetual alarms caused by the
enemy's plots and threats, to spare no labor in order to defend and
increase the temporal welfare of our subjects. You and others who
have again and again come hither to partake in several great solem-
nities, can attest how great was our care to maintain the public peace
and security, to cultivate all the arts and industries, and how deep
was the fidelity of our people toward us.
"Nevertheless, while such was the prosperity and such the tran-
quillity of our States, the King of Piedmont and his government pro-
fited by the war which had begun between two most powerful Euro-
pean nations — with one of which the same king and government had
bound themselves by solemn treaty to preserve inviolate the existing
condition of the States of the Church, and to defend it from the
aggression of any faction — to possess themselves without delay of our
remaining territory and of this our capital.
" Whence came this resolve and what were the motives of this in-
vasion ? The contents of the royal letter of September the 8th,
brought to us by a special envoy, are now well known to all ; beneath
the specious and ambiguous phraseology, the professions of filial
reverence and Catholic devotion, the interests of public peace, and
the desire to protect both the pontifical dignity and our person, he
would have us not to consider it a crime, if he possessed himself of
our temporal sovereignty, begging us to give up voluntarily our
power over the same, and to trust to the promises which he held
out, which, he affirmed, would effect a reconciliation between the
rights and liberties of the Italian people and the supreme spiritual
authority of the Holy See. We could not help being amazed at the
transparent artifice by which it was sought to vail the violence about
to be perpetrated, nor being saddened by the spectacle of a king
urged on by evil counsels to inflict daily new wounds on the Church,
and to forget the fear of God in his deference to men, unmindful
that there is in heaven a King of kings and Lord of lords, ' who will
not accept any man's person, neither will he stand in awe of any
man's greatness ; for ho made the little and the great, and he hath
equally care of all. But a greater punishment is ready for the more
mighty.'"*
* Wisdom vi. 8, 9.
Victor Euttnanuers Consistent Hypocrisy* 45 1
^'We could not hesitate to reject these propositions, as our duty
and conscience required. We also recalled to him. the examples of
our predecessors, of Pius VII. especially, whose invincible fortitude,
expressed under circumstances precisely similar, we wished to make
our own. 'We had remembered (the Pontiff says) with St. Am-
brose liow holy Nahoth, being required hy a Icing to give up a vine-
yard wTiicli he owned, that the Tcing might uproot the vines and plant
vile herbs instead, made answer, The Lord be merciful to me, and
not let me give thee the inheritance of my fathers P * . . .
''With these same sentiments repeatedly expressed in our allocu-
tions, we answered the king, rejecting and reproving his proposi-
tions, but so tempering our bitter grief with affection that he
might see that our fatherly charity could not help having a care
even of the sons who imitated Absalom in their unnatural rebellion.
"Without even affording time for an answer to reach him, he
sent his armies to take possession of our cities, driving out our fee-
ble garrisons ; and then soon followed that ill- starred day of Sep-
tember the 20th, when we beheld this city, the See of the Prince of
the Apostles, the center of the Catholic religion, the asylum of all
nations, besieged by a numerous army, her inhabitants terrified by a
bombardment, and her walls breached, by that sovereign's arms who
had just been making to us so solemn a profession of love and fidel-
ity and reverence !
"What could have befallen us more calamitous than that day ?
We saw with our own eyes that army marching into the city, together
with the numerous ' factions,' upsetting all law and order. We
had to endure to have the pontifical dignity outraged in our person
by the most abominable cries, to see our faithful troops treated with
every species of contumely, our people subjected to the most unbri-
dled licentiousness and violence, and all this in a city where but a few
hours before everybody sought with filial tenderness to lighten the
grief of the common father.
"From that day forth we were compelled to witness what all good
men must brand with merited reprobation. Books inspired by a
fiendish purpose, filled with falsehoods, obscenity, and impiety were
printed and circulated in the cheapest forms ; a number of daily
papers were published, aiming at corrupting the minds and manners
of the readers, holding up to contempt our holy religion, inflaming
* Pius VII., Litt Apost., 10 Jun. 1809.
452 Life of Pope Pitts IX,
by all manner of calumnies the public mind against us and tlie Apos-
tolic See ; vile and indecent pictures were exposed to sale, and other
like means were sedulously employed to bring all persons consecrated
to God into ridicule and contempt ; public honors and monuments
were decreed to malefactors who had been condemned for the most
odious crimes ; the ministers of the Catholic Church, whom it is
their chief purpose to persecute, were subjected to the most cruel in-
sults, and some of them were wounded in the most treacherous man-
ner ; religious houses were ransacked, our own palace of the Qui-
rinal violated, and a cardinal who had his residence in a part of it
forced to fly in haste, while others of our household were in a like
manner expelled and ill-treated. They passed laws and ordinances
violating the freedom, immunity, and rights of property enjoyed by
the Church ; and these evils it is manifestly the intention of their
authors to multiply and aggravate, unless God in his mercy prevent
it. Meanwhile we are utterly powerless to apply the slightest rem-
edy, and are admonished daily more and more of our bondage and of
the entire absence of that perfect liberty, which our enemies endeavor
to persuade the world by untruthful statements that we are still pos-
sessed of, and that they have guaranteed to us in all that pertains to
our ministry."
He then protests against the farce of an election gone through by
the usurping government, as if this ''universal suffrage," exercised
only by a wretched minority, could sanction the wrongs and out-
rages of rebellion and unjust invasion, or save the wrongdoers from
the well-known penalties incurred by their acts.
There is a magnificent passage in which the sovereign pontiff, con-
sidered till then the supreme arbiter and avenger of public and pri-
vate wrong, protests against the spoliation of which he is the victim.
" We, to whom God hath intrusted the government of the entire
house of Israel, whom he hath established the supreme defender of
religion and justice, the protector of the Church and her rights, do
not wish to seem, by our silence, to yield any kind of assent to this
revolution ; we, on the contrary, renew and confirm the declaration
made by our order and in our name, through our Cardinal Secretary
of State, on that same 20th day of September, and communicated by
him to the ambassadors of foreign powers resident near us and this
Holy See ; this we now reiterate in the most solemn form we can in
your presence, Venerable Brothers, and hereby declare, that it is our
intention, purpose, and will to preserve inviolate and intact and to
Process of Intellect it al Deb a ticker y. 453
transmit in tlieir integrity to our successors all tlie dominions of
this Holy See as well as its every right. We declare that the usur-
pation of the same, whether just now accomplished or perpetrated
anteriorly, is unjust, yiolent, null, and of none effect, and that all
the acts of our rebel subjects and of the invaders, whether done
so far, or which may be done hereafter, shall now be held as con-
demned, rescinded, annulled, and abrogated.
^' We moreover declare and protest before God, and in presence of
the entire Catholic world, that such is the bondage in which we are
held that we can in nowise discharge our supreme pastoral office
with the needful safety, expedition, and freedom. In fine, . . .
mmdful of our duty and of the solemn oath by which we are bound,
we openly and publicly proclaim and declare that we will never con-
sent to any kind of compromise which may destroy or lessen our own
rights, which are also those of God and the Holy See. We profess
in like manner that, with the aid of the divine grace, we are ready,
despite our advanced age, to drink to the lees, for the love of Christ's
Church, the cup which he drained before us for that same Church,
never permitting ourselves to accept or to assent to the iniquitous
demands made upon us.
" We can only repeat the words of our predecessor Pius YII. 'To
do violence to the sovereignty of the Holy See, to separate its tem-
poral from its spiritual power, to disjoin and dissociate the office of
pastor from that of prince, is simply to impair and ruin the work of
God ; it is to expose religion to the most serious danger, to deprive
her of that sovereign means which enables her chief ruler and Christ's
vicar to extend to Catholics spread all over the world the spiritual
aid which they need and ask, and which can only be ministered by
one who is subject to none other.' " *
While we are yet in presence of this "consummation" of Pied-
montism, with the cross of Savoy and the Italian tricolor floating
triumphant and supreme from the venerable walls of Castle St.
Angelo, it may be well to pause and ask ourselves how it has come to
pass that so large a number of the influential classes in Italy have
been brought to look upon the faith of their fathers not only with
aversion — that is too mild a term — but with a savage and intolerant
hatred ; and, next, by what calculation in the revolutionary leaders
the diffusion of obscene and immoral literature was invariably made
« Pius VII., Allocution of March the 16th, 1808.
454 Life of Pope Pius IX
an agency for weaning tlie popular heart from the Church, the Pope,
and all clerical influence ?
History — modern, almost contemporaneous history — has plainly
told how Voltairianism succeeded, by combined, systematic, wide-
spread, and persistent efforts among the educated and leading classes
in France, in leavening the minds of men of letters and the aristoc-
racy first, and then of the bourgeoisie or middle-class population,
with the fashionable poison of skepticism ; how, almost simultane-
ously, Illuminism, or Jacobinism, its energetic offspring, took hold of
the popular and laboring classes, and made them radicals, atheists,
revolutionists. In both cases the intellect of the nation was first de-
bauched and poisoned, corrupted by setting a certain class of ideas
afloat, which by degrees supplanted the traditional notions in belief,
in social relations, and politics. Then with these new notions came
a new language.
The current thought and language of revolutionary France in the
year of grace 1800 no more resembled that of the France of Louis
XIV., in 1700, than those of Eome in 1877 resembled the popular
beliefs, aspirations, conceptions of things, or the sights seen and the
language heard in drawing-room, cafe, or street, when the first sans-
culotte soldiers under Duphot amused the Romans by their repub-
lican jargon in 1796.
As we have seen in the early chapters of this book, the first fruit
of the French republican invasion of Italy at that period, was a
most intelligent, extensive, and persevering propagandism, by which
the skeptical, unbelieving, and radical virus in the French mind was
widely and successfully communicated to the Italian. The change
wrought in language was parallel with the intellectual revolution.
Mazzini found the ground well prepared for him in 1830. His
'* Young Italy League" and the Carbonari had a creed of their own
to preach and propagate ; the political fanaticism with which they
possessed themselves of the masses of the Italians, in the cities princi-
pally, enabled them to make their "creed" supplant all other belief,
and their own morality to supersede every other code of laws, human
or divine.
These '^ sects," no matter what differences separated them in or-
ganization or means of action, had a well-defined purpose toward
which they struggled unfalteringly, and a language which all the
initiated understood well. The Italian youth of 1830-32 were men
of mature years in 1848; and in 1877 the few who survive see
Power of Garibaldi over Italian Youth, 455
around them tlie intervening generations indoctrinated most care-
fully in the Mazzinian and Carbonari profession of faith in Italy and
humanity, and their hearts inoculated with the pestilential materi-
alism or sensualism which has served as a vehicle for the intellectual
poison.
This Italy of to-day — the governing Italy — is made up of a large
and powerful minority, the bone and sinew of which are the middle
and laboring classes in the cities, the brains of which consist of law-
yers, physicians, and other professional men. Their antagonist is the
Church, and with the Church they have made only a temporary com-
promise ; they mean, and they are bound, to extirpate her root and
branch.
But how have they debauched the youth of Italy ? Eemember
how the youth of France was intellectually debauched after the sup-
pression of the Jesuits (and what is said of France can be applied to
contemporary Spain and Portugal and their transatlantic colonies) ;
how the French University was created, and became one vast vehicle
of skeptical and anti-Christian teaching.
Turn now to Italy, and recall with what extraordinary industry
and ability Mazzini taught, through " Young Italy " and the '^ sects,"
the masses of ardent young men, who were made to see in the liber-
ation and political unity of their native land the sole mission for
which every Italian was bound to live and labor, and in the Pope, and
the whole ecclesiastical system of which he was the head, the curse
that all were bound to remove from free Italy.
Mazzini was an eloquent, a fanatical, a fascinating preacher, and
he had a more intelligent, cultivated, active, and unscrupulous army
of apostles at his beck than was ever commanded by Mohammed
or Abu-Bekr. But one who was, perhaps, more efficient in infus-
ing a fierce hatred of everything Christian, Catholic, priestly, into
the souls of the most chivalrous youths of Italy, was Garibaldi. The
man was a soldier, a freebooter rather, with the disinterestedness, the
dash, the recklessness, and the success which make soldiers of for-
tune heroes, and elevate patriot soldiers into ideals and idols. Such
he was and is to the Italian youth, educated for several generations
in the hatred of priestly influence, in a fanatical aversion to every-
thing clerical.
In the first days of January, 1860, this incarnation of anti-Chris-
tian hate received an address from the students of the University of
Pavia. A few sentences from his answer will enable the reader to
456 Life of Pope Pius IX.
account for many things in 1870 which else might have remained
inexplicable. " Young students ! " he begins, " if in all my life one
word has made a more pleasing and a deeper impression than any
other, it is that which I have heard from you. You, chosen
youth, the pure and virgin hope of Italy ! . . . I answer you
overcome with emotion, . . . you cannot but see it ! moved by
gratitude and respect, . . . as if I were in presence of an ideal
Areopagus of men . . . who are to be the future glory of my
country ! . . . But there are some wicked men who want to re-
plunge it in the mire. In spite of them it must go forward to its
great providential destiny ! . . . Yes, a few wicked men ! . .
They form an obstacle to its resurrection ! . . . Their institu-
tions date from the humiliation and the unspeakable misfortunes
of our country ! . . . They gave to the world the spectacle of
burning people at the stake, and would do it to-day if they could I
They are the inventors of torture, and would, if they dared, subject
free men to it still ! ... In remembering all this, every man
born on this soil should take up the stones from the street, . . .
and avenge on these miserable black-gowned hypocrites the misfor-
tunes, the wrongs, the sufferings of twenty past generations ! " The
punctuation and style of this extraordinary production have been
carefully preserved in this extract.
Can one be astonished, on reading this — and remembering that all
the influence of Victor Emmanuel's government was at that very time
employed in aiding such education as this, and by such men — at what
is related of the horrors and abominations which filled Rome on the
entrance of the Piedmontese army, and its large auxiliary force of
*' sectarians," Mazzinians, and Garibaldians ?
But why employ obscenity, licentiousness, immorality in its most
shameless forms, to promote the freedom of Italy ? Because licen-
tiousness, or, at least, pleasure, as all history attests, has ever been
the means used by tyranny of every description in subjecting the vul-
gar crowd to its will.
There is another reason, however ; because with the cup of pleasure
presented to the thirsting lips was joined a pledge to hate the very
name of Catholicity and Christianity.
But wo must abstain tlirough reverence for the eyes which are to
dwell on these pages, and tenderness for the young souls who may
learn wholesome truths and derive noble sentiments from the life we
have undertaken to sketch.
Sympathy of the Irish Bishops, 457
The sacrilegious violence used toward the Holy Father, and the
wholesale measures of confiscation and spoliation which marked the
very first days of Piedmontese rule, drew forth a cry of grief and in-
dignation from the whole Catholic world. But no nation distin-
guished itself more than the Irish in this generous outburst of right-
eous anger at what all resented as a personal wrong.
The archbishops and bishops immediately assembled and drew up a
joint letter of sympathy to the Holy Father, published eloquent pas-
torals, in which they recited to their flocks the nature and magni-
tude of this last outrage on the common parent of Christians, and
enjoined perpetual prayers to be offered up in public for the august
captive. In very truth, the heart of the Irish people spoke in every
line and word. It is dated the 19th of October, one month after the
long captivity of Pius IX. began.
" Most Holy Father : — The tidings of the crimes perpetrated
lately in Rome against your Holiness have filled with the deepest
grief and indignation all of us, the bishops of Ireland, our entire
clergy, and the faithful people intrusted to our care. You are for
us the venerated successor of St. Peter, the infallible vicar of Christ,
and as such singularly loved by us ; how could we not feel most bit-
terly the outrages inflicted on you, and hold as worthy of the most
utter reprobation the men who dared to rise against the Lord and
his anointed, to attack and besiege the very city of Rome, conse-
crated by the blood of the two chief apostles, the see and residence
of the sovereign pontiffs since the days of Peter, and the common
country of the whole Christian people, beside making a prisoner of
you, the father and teacher of all Catholics, and attempting to
abolish, in violation of all right, human and divine, that sacred
principality of yours, secured to you by the possession of ages and
indispensable for the preservation of the liberty of the Church.
" These crimes and sacrileges appear to us so enormous, and fill
us with such grief, that we can scarcely find words to express our
sentiments of sorrow and indignation. Lest, however, we should
fail in our duty to our dearest father, we have hastened to send
this short letter, in order that your Holiness may know how your
sons from the ends of the earth sympathize with you in your sor-
row. . . .
"We ardently pray that the time may soon come when God,
awakened by the supplications of bis people, shall arise to judge
his own cause, and shall put an end to these blind agitations, these
458 Life of Pope Pius IX.
wars, these conspiracies of secret societies, and annihilate the guilty
enemies of religion and the Holy See ! Most blessed will be the day
when, the powers of hell being put to flight, the Catholic nations
will restore you to liberty, replace you once more at the head of the
temporal dominions of the Holy See, thereby enabling you to govern
the Church in perfect freedom, and to bring to a happy termination
the Council of the Vatican, assembled and conducted with a wisdom
admired by all Catholics."
Not before the 18th of November could the Holy Father reply to
these words of true sympathy. *' Just as religion," he says, '^flour-
ishes ever more vigorously amid trials in that island of yours, and as
you, your clergy, and your people ever study the more to show your
constant devotion and obedience toward us and this Holy See, even so
must your grief have been more bitter at beholding the consummation
of that sacrilegious guilt which stripped us of the last remnant of our
principality, of the possession of our capital city, left us completely
in the power of the enemy, and bereft of that outward liberty in the
discharge of our office which the entire Church has declared to be
absolutely necessary.
" You surely cannot but have heard with indignation and horror
of the violation of the law of nations, the trampling on the most
solemn treaties, brutal violence calling to its aid the most odious
hyprocrisy in order to deceive public opinion, the fearful wound in-
flicted on Christ's Church in her head, the cruel wrong done to the
entire Catholic world, and religion, morality, the public and private
tranquillity exposed to the most imminent danger.
"Your true love shows itself by your deeds; not satisfied with
expressing your indignation, you have enlightened your people on
the magnitude of this impious usurpation, thereby preventing their
being deceived by the fraud and artifice of its guilty authors ; you
have, moreover, urged your flocks to assist the oppressed Church in
her need by protestations, petitions, and every legal means within
their reach."
But while the Catholic populations of both continents were send-
ing in unanimous and energetic addresses of sympathy from every
diocese, the Catholics of Italy were displaying a courage, a resolu-
tion, and zeal deserving of all praise. Ever since the annexations
of 1859-GO, the cities of the Romagna, the Marches, and Umbria, as
well as of the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, had organized associa-
tions of young people whose sole purpose was to profess openly their
Catholic Reaction among Italians, 459
adherence to the religion of their fathers, their faithful practice of
all its prescriptions, and a special devotion to the Holy See. These
in time spread to every part of Italy.
It was undertaking to undo the work of the revolution by the
same process and the same methods used by the "sects," only that
everything in this powerful reaction was carried on in daylight, pub-
licity becoming the mighty means in the hand of piety, charity,
and loyalty to overthrow the tyranny of human respect.
No one who has not bestowed a careful study on this great move-
ment among the Catholic youth of Italy, especially during the last
ten years, can appreciate how powerful, how irresistible is the tide of
generous and enlightened piety which has been gathering strength,
rising and spreading all over the land, the cheering and blessed
promise of an era not far distant, when such laws as *Uhe Clerical
Abuses Bill of 1877 " will seem an evil dream of the feverish past.
An address of the "Roman Patriciate," or body of Roman nobil-
ity, to the Catholic associations throughout the world, was published
while the Piedmontese usurpation was terrorizing over Rome, confis-
cating, plundering, and desecrating. Here it is, like the rainbow
spanning the valley through which the inundation is sweeping tri-
umphant and resistless.
" The strong proofs given by you of devotion to the sacred per-
son of the Holy Father, and the imprescriptible rights of the Holy
See, have deeply moved the hearts of the Catholics of Rome, who
feel that their own duties are even more binding than yours. The
immense majority of them have never ceased to be faithful, and,
with the help of God, are firmly resolved never to depart from the
path of duty. As a witness to this, they invoke the history of the
past, and the occurrences of the present time unaltered by passion
and calumny.
" The clergy as well as the laity, the nobles as well as the simple
citizens, the man of science and the artist, are alike moved by the
voice of conscience, of gratitude, and honest patriotism.
" Wherefore, as under existing circumstances no other means are
allowed them than protestations and daily acts of loyal devotion,
undeterred by insults and sacrifices, they unite themselves in heart
with you, and like one soul lift their voices in supplication to God,
beseeching him to put an end to the cruel trial to which he has
subjected the Church and the city of Rome, by him chosen to be
the seat of his vicar on earth.
460 Life of Pope Pitts IX,
" Perseverance in prayer, faith inviolate, and firm hope, will has-
ten the hour of his mercy." *
To be sure, there were among the Eoman patricians some six who
turned their faces toward the cross of Savoy, and worshiped it as
the harbinger of prosperity and new honors to their families. It is
sad to read among these few names that of Doria, especially dear to
Catholic hearts as it has been made by one of the loveliest and latest
flowers of holiness blooming on the ancient stem of Shrewsbury.
In the first days of November, two hundred and forty of the patri-
cian ladies of Rome, ever foremost in good works and in devotion to
the Holy Father, gathered around him to present him an address of
their own, and a suitable offering in money. They represented one
hundred and fifty noble families ; and 5,000 names of the middle class
were also signed to this address. Thenceforward during many a
month these noble matrons would not open their palaces to the usual
crowds of friends and visitors ; they, too, would mourn while their
parent and sovereign was in grief and captivity.
There had, then, been wrought a blessed change in the souls of
the Roman nobility since November, 1848, when the murder of
Rossi, the glorification of the murderer, and the savage assault on
the Quirinal produced a sort of stupor and paralysis among men high-
bom and naturally high-principled. They had learned, in the inter-
val, to brave the fury of the mob, and the pelting of the incessant
storm of derision and ribaldry let loose against everything Catholic.
* The names appended to this address, should be given to the reader : Sigis-
mond Prince Chigi, Orinete Marchese Cavalletti, Matteo Matthieu Antici Mat-
tel, Tomaso Prince Antici Mattei, Don Filippo of the Dukes of Scotti, Prince
Campagnano, Marchese Patrizi, Prince Aldobrandini, Prince Rospigliosi, Pietro
Aldobrandino Prince Sarsini, Commendatore Di Eossi, Prince Clemente Allieri,
Prince Lancellotti, Duke Pio Grazioli, Camillo Prince Massimo, Prince of Ar-
Boli, Prince of Orsini, Marchese Fillipo Mattei Antici, Prince Enrico Barberini,
Maurizio Cavaletti, Prince Eugenio Ruspoli, K. M. ; Annibale Count Moroni,
Prince Giovanni Ruspoli, Livio Prince Odescalchi, Carlo Count Cardelli, Prince
Giovanni Chigi, Marchese Lavaggi, Commendatore Datti, Duke Giuseppe Caf-
farelli, Count Francesco Sermi, Professore Gugliardi, Professore Jacometti,
Barone Visconti, Padre Angelo Secclii, S. J. ; Marchese Luigi Serlupi-Crescenzi,
Marchese Angelo Vittolleschi, Professore Benzoni, Marchese Lepri, Don Alfonso
Theodoli, Prince Borghese, Prince Viano, Francesco Marchese Serlupi, Prince
Qiustiniani-Bandini, Giuseppe Macchi Count Cellere, Prince Baldassare Bon-
compagni (Piombino), Duke Salviati, Fillipo Count Cini, Pio Marchese Ca
pranica, Alessandro Capranica, Marchese Sacchetti, Marchese Camillo Sacchetti
Vlrginio Count Vespignani.
General Fidelity to the Holy Father, 461
N'or was the change for the better less remarkable in the officers
of the pontifical army, the magistracy and officials connected with
every branch of the former administration. Of 586 officers, only
58 accepted service under Victor Emmanuel, though all were offered
the same rank in the Italian army. Of 46 magistrates, 5 consented
to retain their office, and of the 1,439 persons employed under the
treasury, 1,135 preferred absolute destitution to the dishonor of serv-
ing the new masters of Eome. And so in proportion with the other
branches.
The students in the ecclesiastical schools manifested a spirit no
less praiseworthy. The Koman College, which counted 985 students,
was taken from the Jesuits, and a government lyceum, with a technical
or commercial school attached, replaced the grandest Catholic school
of modern times. The technical school was principally patronized
by the Jews ; and, as the purpose of the government was evidently
to discountenance, and eventually to destroy, classical studies, only
126 pupils remained in the higher department, as against the former
number of 985. The falling off in the two other great Roman
establishments of the "Apollinare" and *'La Pace," was no less
remarkable.
But the new government was resolved to set matters right in its
own sense, and to punish the ecclesiastical students in a way they
little dreamed of : a law was soon passed, and enforced with inflexi-
ble and undiscriminating rigor, compelling all ecclesiastical students
to serve for a term of years in the regular army, thereby destroying
in almost all cases every hope of pursuing their vocation.
The same diabolical hostility not only to the vital interests of the
Church in Rome and in Italy, but to the existence and increase of
the Catholic Church throughout the world, induced the Italian Par-
liament to hasten to suppress the great parent-establishments of the
Religious Orders in Rome, from which the Holy See drew men
skilled in all sacred science and the knowledge of government to
compose the various congregations and boards which made up the
vast machinery of administration for the universal Church. These,
as well as the great missionary colleges, were in very truth like the
fruitful and cherished nurseries of the priesthood and the Catholic
apostleship. To strike at them was, in the estimation of the Pied-
montese rulers, to strike at the very heart of the Church. Of the
agony of soul endured by Pius IX., while all these splendid crea-
tions of Catholic faith, generosity, and genius, built up by the love
462 Life of Pope Pius IX.
and gratitude of all the nations of Christendom in a long course of
ages, were ruthlessly swept away by the modem Vandals, we need
say nothing. The year 1871 had dawned on his misery and helpless-
ness, that year which was to be the twenty-fifth of his pontificate,
his "Pontifical Jubilee," and could he only survive till the 23d day of
August, he alone, among the long line of bishops of Rome would
" see the days of Peter."
As the Lent of 1871 was approaching, the Holy Father, according
to custom, called around him on February the 16th the parish
priests of Rome and the preachers for the Lenten season, and deliv-
ered to them a short exhortation. "During the reign of Pagan
Rome," he began, "a current saying was. Facer e et pati fortia, Ro-
manum est (To do and to suffer heroically is characteristic of the Ro-
mans). One of the early apologists of the Christian religion, address-
ing himself to persecutors like those who prevail at this moment, ap-
plied the saying to the professors of that religion, and wrote it. Fa-
cere et pati, Cliristianorum est I
"With the present conduct of the Roman people before my eyes,
I can justly apply these words to them. ... Do we not daily
witness the great things done in opposition to evil ? Noble associa-.
tions have sprung up for the purpose of expounding and defending
the truth, and for succoring the needy. The churches are crowded,
people seek the word of God with avidity, and show an equal thirst
for the grace of the sacraments.
"7 Jo not go abroad; but you all know how much the Romans
are doing at this moment to counteract by good works the efforts of
falsehood and immorality. Well, then, precisely because I cannot go
abroad, let the parish priests and preachers say that the Pope cannot
but bless this people, and approve and encourage them.
"Say, moreover, that heads of families should not venture to
bring their children to the theaters, where the performances outrage
religion and morality, and where licentiousness and blasphemy stalk
triumphant over the scene. Such places are forbidden to Christian
families, whore they should behold spectacles insulting to God, to
their faith, to the Church, and to every most sacred law.
" Say also that I am proud of the Romans, and thank them for
their patient endurance of present trials. Especially do I thank the
largo number of officials who have set their honor, loyalty, con-
science, and the most cruel privations, above a preferment which
they regarded as a felonious betrayal of my trust in them. Tell them
Pontifical Jubilee of i8ji, 463
thai I know it all, and that I mean to bless them as men who do
and suffer like true Komans ! "
During the carniyal, as well as before it, the only families who
opened their saloons were those of Prince Doria, Duke of Teano,
and Prince Pallavicini. Not one of the remaining nobility had
opened their houses since September the 20th, and all who could,
conveniently, absented themselves from Eome during the carnival.
To the entire Catholic world, to Rome and Italy in particular,
this year of the ** Pontifical Jubilee" was one of unprecedented in-
terest and filial enthusiasm. There were but few who hoped that
Pius IX. would live to see his "Episcopal Jubilee," the fiftieth
anniversary of his consecration in 1827 as Archbishop of Spoleto.
And so, the Catholic heart in its sympathy for the sufferer, its de-
votion to the parent, its veneration for the virtues which adorned
the pontiff and the man, resolved to pour itself out at the feet of the
captive in homage such as Pope had never received since Christian-
ity first dawned on the world.
The movement for the annexation of the Romagna had begun in
Bologna, much against the will of all that Bologna contained of
what was most ancient and noble and venerable. Bologna deter-
mined in this Jubilee year to be the first at the Holy Father's feet.
On February the 23d the deputation was presented at the Vati-
can. All Rome was astir; every antechamber in the palace was
filled with anxious throngs. Alfonso Rubbiani headed the deputa-
tion, the other members being the Marquis Annibale Maroigii, Prince
Alfonso Ercolani, Marquis Alessandro Guidotti, Count Vicenzo Ra-
nuzzi. Marquis Alfonso Malvezzi, Marquis Francesco Malvezzi, Dr.
Pietro Gardini, Count Marco Bentivoglio, and Dr. Guido Bagni.
The Holy Father derived peculiar happiness from the presence of
these gentlemen, who were all personally known to him ; and his
countenance, as he entered the presence-chamber, was radiant with
joy. Signer Rubbiani read the address, replete with noble senti-
ments and assurances of grateful and undying devotion ; and then he
presented three volumes, magnificently bound in red morocco, bear-
ing the arms of the Pope and those of the city, with the inscription,
Pio IX, BononiafideUs, and containing 31,854 signatures from the
city and suburbs of Bologna ; the treasurer of the deputation, Mar-
quis Francesco Malvezzi laid at the feet of the Holy Father a beauti-
ful purse embroidered by a noble lady, and filled with 13,173 francs.
The Pope, in his answer, expressed the exquisite delight it gave
464 Lif^ of Pope Pius IX.
him to receive such noble representatives of the Catholic youth of
the Romagna, praised them for their open and maniy devotion to
Holy Church, and encouraged all to cherish this spirit which alone
could withstand the progress of revolutionary principles. Followed
by the Bolognese gentlemen and his court, the Holy Father next
visited the crowded antechambers, where a large number of English
and Americans, Protestants for the most part, were addressed by him
in French, all kneeling to receive his blessing, and several, even
among the Protestants, offering large sums as "Peter's pence "to
the dethroned pontiff. On the 5th of March the Austrian deputa-
tion, numbering forty-three members, were received at the Vatican,
with a like address and a large offering.
As spring advanced and was succeeded by summer these deputa-
tions came in successively, cheering the Holy Father in his deepen-
ing affliction. For not a week passed without adding some mon-
strous act of rapine and sacrilege to those already committed by the
Piedmontese. Not content with the suppression of the religious
orders and the sequestration of all their property and revenues, the
agents of Victor Emmanuel took under their exclusive control the
management of all the charitable institutions of Rome known as
Opere Pie, It was in vain that Cardinal Patrizi protested in the
Pope's name, and that all the bishops of the surrounding territory
joined him in a still more solemn protestation. They received an im-
pudent answer, in which they were lectured about "being unchari-
table while pleading for charity," and the orphans, the infirm, the
aged, and houseless of Rome passed under the tender care of Victor
Emmanuel's conscience, and were despoiled and disinherited forever !
On the 22d of April the French ambassador, the Count d'Har-
court, arrived ih Rome. He had been purposely selected by M.
Thiers, President of the French Republic, because of his known de-
votion to the Holy See, and the true Roman people were not slow
m showing their appreciation of the compliment and their respect
for the name bonie by the ambassador.
Over 60,000 cards within the space of a few days were left at his
residence, some visitors being charged with several hundred, so anx-
ious were the Romans to prove that the change of government was
not of their making.
While the deputations from Germany and England and America
were succeeding each other, one, above all others, moved the soul of
Pius IX. It was a deputation from the poor women in Rome ; and
The Women of Ireland Foremost, 465
he gave tliem precedence of all others. Thirteen hundred of them
were admitted by his order into the privileged Hall of the Consistory,
and there they read an address "To the Father of the Poor," and
laid at his feet a sum of money made up of the centesimi, "cents,"
lovingly given to the heap by hands and hearts which Pius IX. had
often bounteously filled. We cannot dwell on the touching scene,
and the Holy Father's most beautiful answer to these, the dearest
ones in all his wide flock.
It so happened that the twenty-fifth anniversary of his election,
Friday, the 16th of June, coincided with the Feast of the Sacred
Heart. No one had done so much as Pius IX. to foster and propa-
gate the personal gratitude and devotion of every man, woman, and
child in the Catholic world toward the heart of the Divine Sufferer
of Calvary ; and lo ! this twenty-fifth pontifical anniversary which
Pope had never beheld since Peter, fell on the day specially set apart
for commemorating Christ's unutterable love for our souls ! We can-
not but remember how ardent, how unanimous, how universal were
the prayers poured out that day to him who is the Crucified Head
of the Church in favor of the venerable man who filled his place on
earth, and who bore so visibly in the glorious impress of suffering
the likeness to the Divine Model.
All over Ireland and England, and wherever their languages were
spoken in the worship of -the heart, all over the earth, on that 16th
of June, there went up to heaven prayers for Pius IX. The address
of the women of Ireland bore 200,000 signatures, and was accom-
panied by £3,000, while the former Pontifical Zouaves sent by tele-
gram a stanza to be sung in honor of the day by their old compan-
ions in arms resident in Eome.
The deputations with their addresses and offerings continued to
pour 'in after the 16th, for it was only on the 23d of August that the
pontificate of Pius IX. was to equal in duration "the days of Peter."
Victor Emmanuel made his solemn entry into Rome on July the
2d. The true-hearted Romans knew that from that day they were
bound to show the Holy Father greater reverence than ever. On
the 24tli of July the central committee of the " Roman Society for
Catholic Interests," with the heads of the chief sub-committees in
Rome, waited on the Pope, and presented him with volumes con-
taining 27,161 signatures of men Roman born, and of twenty-one
years of age and upwards. To every signature was appended the
number of the signer's residence in Rome. The Holy Father, in
466 Life of Pope Pius IX.
replying to the brief and manly address of Prince Campagnano, and
after praising the society, its noble aims and equally noble labors,
concluded thus :
*' They say that I am weary. Yes, I am weary of seeing so much
wrong, so much injustice, so much disorder. I weary of seeing
religion daily outraged in a city which was to the world a model of
practical faith and morality. I weary of the oppression practiced on
the innocent, of the outrages heaped on God's ministers, of the
profanation of all that I most love and venerate. Yes, I am weary ;
but I am not disposed to let my arms fall. ... I am not dis-
posed to treat with injustice, or to desist from the fulfillment of my
duty. Thanks to God, in this sense and for this work I do not
weary, and I hope I never shall."
These signatures ought to make our sympathizers with Piedmont-
ism reflect a little on the very easy credence given by them to the
alleged " almost unanimity " of Eomans in voting at the preceding
October elections for Victor Emmanuel.
One little incident must be told here which will throw light on
many obscure parts of the Roman history of that year, and show as
well that Pius IX. was still true to those he loved as the Abbate
Mastai. Under his government about $300 a month was allowed
from the treasury to the Asylum of Tata Giovanni. In the month
of August, 1871, this grant was suppressed by the humanitarian
government of Victor Emmanuel. No sooner had the Holy Father
heard of this than he sent the needed sum out of his own purse,
bidding the superiors look to him in future for support.
CHAPTER XXXV.
Celebkatiok of August the 23d, 1871 — Enthusiasm of the Ital-
ian Deputations — The Pope Declines a Golden Theone
AND THE Title of Great — Suppressions and Confiscations
BY THE PiEDMONTESE — ThE PoPE NOBLY DEFENDS THE JeSUITS
— He Denounces the "Law of Guarantees" as a Fraud —
Origin and Authors of the Persecution in Germany —
German Catholic Congresses — Catholic Congress in
Venice — The first American Pilgrims — The Layal Uni-
versity AND THE Centenary of the Church of Quebec —
Atrocious Persecution in Poland.
1871-1876.
WE should find it hard to turn away so soon from the many
events which consoled the Holy Father during this year of his
Pontifical Juhilee, were it not that so much that is no less important
and no less interesting yet remains to be told.
The 23d of August came, completing the exact number of "the
days of Peter," twenty-five years, two months, and seven days. In
future ages the immortal line of pontiffs will have to look back
to "the days of Pius." He offered up the holy sacrifice in the Six-
tine Chapel, wishing to be as long as possible alone with the divine
majesty on that auspicious morning. There was no change in the
order of the day. At half -past ten he proceeded as usual to the
throne-room, where all the prelates and officers of his household were
assembled to pay their homage. There was an affectionate address
by the senior prelate, a presentation of a most beautiful ciborium in
memory of the day ; there was an address from the Catholic Univer-
sity of Dublin, and another from Right Eeverend Dr. Horan, bishop
of Kingston, Canada, with a large offering in money. And then
came the turn of Catholic Italy to testify anew its love and fidelity.
The seminary of Montefiascone, near Florence, the Noble Guard,
the superior officers of the papal army, the Roman nobility, the
learned professions, the merchants, had one and all words of filial venv
467
468 Life of Pope Pius IX.
eration to utter, and rich offerings they deemed too poor for Christ's
vicar and his immense family of the needy. But every room was
filled with a reverent and expectant crowd, and through all Pius IX.
passed, with all the signs of robust health about his person, his step
still elastic, his eyes lit up with the glow of evident satisfaction, and
his words bestowed lovingly on each as he passed.
But in the great consistorial hall a surprise awaited him. Bologna
had sent her noble son, Dr. Acquademi, with a numerous band of
young men, and there was the Duke della Kegina, with his staff of
Neapolitan youths and noblemen, surrounded with the sons of Ireland,
England, France, and America ; the foreigners, however, evidently
come more to enjoy this family-feast of Italians, than to manifest
their own sentiments, sincere and deep though they were.
The pontifical mass that morning in the Sixtine Chapel had been
said for Italy, for them principally ; and they brought an offering,
an alms of 150,000 francs, in return for the fatherly love and the
divine oblation. The Neapolitans had brought a portable throne, of
rich material and exquisite workmanship, to be used by the Holy
Father on the great festivals of the Church. He was much affected
by the addresses read to him from the three Italian deputations, and
replied briefly and with great happiness. He was like the traveler in
the Gospel who had fallen among robbers ; they had despoiled him,
and wounded him, and left him in a desperate plight. But Catholic
Young Italy had been to him the good Samaritan, caring for him,
pouring oil and wine into his wounds, and contributing so gener-
ously, 80 lovingly to his needs, and that of the many who now looked
up to him alone. But more precious far, and far more grateful to
God and to himself, was the zeal which now fired our Catholic youth
for the interests of the Church and the spiritual welfare of souls.
It was an enthusiastic crowd, and many of them, in leaving the
Vatican, had to face the jeers and insults of the vile crew who had
survived 1848, and were now exultant over the helplessness and bond-
age of their once sovereign and benefactor. Despite the presence of
royalty, and of all manner of counter-demonstrations, the Romans
and their Italian guests had resolved to crown that day among days
by a grand Te Deum in St. John Lateran, the seat of the Roman
Patriarchate. The immense church was unable to contain tho
thousands who wished to make a solemn act of faith in the immor-
tality of Peter's See, and to render public homage to the sole lawful
sovereignty which Rome could ever acknowledge. The vast porticoes
The Golden Throne and Title of ''Great.'* 469
and the piazza were filled mth. the numbers who^ could find no place
inside, and they joined with them in the alternate yerses of the
Ambrosian Hymn, sung with a power and a heartfelt enthusiasm
which stilled into something like awe the ribald crowd posted at
every corner and waiting in the neighboring streets to renew the im-
precations and yile insults heard that morning near the Vatican.
It was well, it was an exceedingly great blessing, that the living
faith which the young generation of Italy needed, should be thus
nursed amid the storm, like the pine of the Apennines, symbolical of
Italy itself. Its roots would have a deeper and a wider hold of the
parent earth, and no wind that might blow should destroy or impair
its strength.
But there is one fact which occurred early in that same month of
August, and which deserves to be treasured up in the memory of all
who love Pius IX.
Chief among the members of the Eoman nobility distinguished
for their heroic zeal in "promoting Catholic interests" was the
Marchese Cavaletti, ex-Senator of Eome. He conceived the idea —
surely a natural one in that year of the Pontifical Jubilee — of pre-
senting the Holy Father with a throne of pure gold, and the title of
Pius the Gkeat, the throne to be a common offering from all na-
tions. A beautiful address was drawn up, translated into the prin-
cipal European languages, and addressed to the Catholic associations
throughout the world. The Catholic press adopted the idea at once
and advocated it most eloquently. But the Holy Father, coming
to hear of it, wrote the following letter to the Marquis : —
" My Dear Marquis, Sen"ator, aitd Soif ik Christ : — I am
deeply moved by the innumerable proofs of filial affection which are
given me from every corner of the Catholic world. They place me
under obligations of sincere gratitude, which I endeavor to discharge
by praying for all these children of the Church, and by offering for
them every week, at the holy mass, the sacrifice of infinite value.
This same, please God, I shall apply on the 23d instant for a gen-
eral purpose, asking God to liberate Italy from the manifold evils
which daily oppress her more and more.
"I was surprised quite latel}^ most beloved son — for you have
ever been most devoted to this Holy See — I was, I say, surprised to
near of two novel and unexpected instances of filial love which good
Catholics were preparing to manifest toward me, by presenting me
470 Life of Pope Pius IX,
with a pontifical throne of gold, and by adding the title of Great to
that of Pius IX.
" With my heart on my lips, and with all the simplicity of a father
who tenderly cherishes his children in Christ Jesus, I shall here an-
swer this twofold proposal.
''With regard to the valued gift of a golden throne, it imme-
diately occurred to me that the purchase money contributed by the
faithful, should be employed in buying the freedom of young eccle-
siastical students from military service, which a wicked law, hitherto
unheard of, forces them to undergo. The clergy are the golden
throne which supports the Church; hence it is that the present
rulers direct their efforts principally against the clergy, despoiling
them, persecuting them, and rendering vocations to the priesthood
exceedingly difficult. Thus they cut off the requisite number of sub-
stitutes in the hierarchy, decimated as it is daily by death and perse-
cution, and leave vacancies which it is impossible to fill, to the great
detriment of the Church.
''It would appear that the persons at present governing have made
it their duty to destroy everything, especially whatever is connected
with religion and the Church. While they cannot sufficiently laud
and enrich churchmen who are in rebellion against their superiors,
or who have openly apostatized from the faith, they systematically
keep up their ungodly policy of excluding from the country numbers
of good men, for no other reason than because the latter are opposed
to their doctrines and anti-Christian measures. . . .
" As to the proposal to add the term ' Great ' to my name, it recalls
to my mind a sentence of the Divine Master. As he was traveling
through the towns of Judaea, some one of his admirers cried out,
'.Good Master ; ' but Jesus at once asked : * Why callest thou me
good ? None is good but one, God' (St. Mark x. 18). If therefore
Christ, while still among us, declared that God alone is good, why
should not his unworthy vicar say that God alone is great ? — ^great,
because of the favors he bestows on that same vicar ; great, because
of the support which he gives his Church ; great, in the infinite
patience shown toward his enemies. . . .
" This being so, I feel impelled to repeat what I said above — I
desire that the money collected be spent, not in purchasing a throne
of gold, but in ransoming these young clerical candidates ; and,
secondly, I wish to hear my name pronounced as it has always
been, anxious only that all should repeat it to the praise of the
Further Suppressions and Confiscations, 471
divine majesty — ' Great is the Lord, and exceedingly to be praised ! '
(Psalm xlvii.)
'* This is the wish of a father to his dearly beloved children, and
^ with this wish he renews the assurances of his love and gratitude
toward them. . . .
" The Vatican, August the 8th, 1871."
Before the end of this book the reader will be able to see how
truly one pronounced both good and great by the voice of two hun-
dred millions of Christians, though he might refuse the golden
throne thus proffered to him, could not help being enthroned, as
man never had been before, in the hearts of his immense family.
To the enthusiastic demonstration of August the 23d, the Pied-
montese government replied by decreeing the immediate suppression
of six monasteries, and warning thirty-four others that the adminis-
tration would soon need them. There was, too, a piece of cowardly
ingratitude committed toward France, still struggliiig through the
enormous difficulties of her freedom from foreign invasion and fierce
civil war. Just as the 23d of August was approaching, the Lady
Superior of the Convent of the Sacred Heart at Trinita de' Monti re-
ceived (on the 19th) a note from the municipality of Rome, saying
that a government architect was to visit the convent on the morrow
to take a plan of the premises in order to their being taken posses-
sion of for civil purposes.
In i-eply the Superior, Madame de Bonchaud, informed the muni-
cipality that she could admit no one into the convent '^without a
writt/cn order from the French ambassador." The Count d'Har-
court was not the man to allow any one claiming his protection to
be insulted with impunity. The Convent of Trinita de' Monti was
the personal property of King Louis XVIIL, who had made it over
to the noble ladies who first opened in Rome a house of their order.
D'Harcourt had never presented himself to Victor Emmanuel since
the latter's arrival in Rome : there was in this act of the government
an attempt at intimidating the ambassador into obsequiousness, and
at bullying the French nation in its hour of weakness. But D'Har-
court acted with such promptness and spirit that the result of the
affair was a humble apology from the rulers of Rome.
They had their revenge on the Jesuits. Their novitiate and beau-
tiful church of S. Andrea were seized and '^ appropriated to civil
472 Life of Pope Pius IX.
purposes," while the revolutionary press assailed the defenseless
Order with a fresh volley of outrage and insults.
The present confiscation, however, was only one step more in the
atrocious course of persecution begun against the Jesuits from the
first entrance of the Piedmontese into Rome. All the pretended ills
which the radical papers laid at the door of the pontifical govern-
ment were attributed to the influence of the Jesuits. The Holy
Father, it was said, was entirely in the hands of the Order ; his acts
and words were dictated by them ; and to them alone it was due
that his Holiness refused all compromise with the kingdom of Italy,
all effort toward a reconciliation with the new order of things. It
required no little energy in the friends of the Jesuits during the
autumn and winter of 1870 to protect the lives of the fathers from
such skilled adepts at assassination as Zambianchi and his veteran
finanzieri, who now thought they were going to have things their
own way once more.
Though the law known as the "Bill of Guarantees," regulating
the position of the papacy in the new kingdom of Italy, as well as
the relations of tlie Church and the State, was not passed before May
13th, 1871, still, while it was under discussion in the Florentine par-
liament and in the public journals, the Givilta Cattolica had been
foremost in denouncing it for what it was and proved to be — a fraud.
As this periodical was edited by the Jesuits, and officially patronized
by the Holy Father, its denunciations afforded a pretext for the
fierce and continual attacks on the Order by the Piedmontese press.
As no amount of outrage and suffering inflicted on the Jesuits
throughout the kingdom of Italy, outside or inside of Rome, was ef-
fectual in quelling the indomitable spirit with which they upheld
the rights of the Holy See, and stigmatized the acts of its spoliators,
80 did Pius IX., when the darkest hour had come for the Order,
stand by them with invincible firmness, and vindicate their honor
with a warmth and an eloquence he scarcely ever equaled in repel-
ling the slanders of the enemies of the Church.
In a brief directed to Cardinal Patrizi, his vicar-general in Rome,
and dated March 2d, 1871, Pius IX. replies to the impudent slanders
against the Jesuits, and at the same time denounces the proposed
**Bill of Guarantees" in terms which, to us, in 1877, read like a
prophecy, and show, at least, a thorough insight into the intentions
of the hypocritical and unscrupulous faction which swayed the
Italian parliament and managed its unwieldy puppet-king.
Pius IX. Defends the JesMits. 473
''The enemies of the Church have at all times directed their
attacks against the Regular Orders, and among these the Society of
Jesus has been ever the first to receive their blows ; for that body
being more distinguished for its activity was rightly considered
as more hostile to their designs. This has been once more made
manifest in the conduct of the late invaders of our civil domain.
Not satisfied with the sacrilegious spoliations which have always
proved the bane of the spoiler, their greed extended to the posses-
sions of the great religious families, and they now appear to make
a beginning with the fathers of the Society of Jesus.
"To create a pretext for this new crime, they have set to work to
make the Jesuits hateful to the people ; they accuse them of enmity
toward the present government, they exaggerate the influence which
the fathers wield over us, and the favor with which we regard them,
giving all to understand that they it is who inspire us with hostility
toward the rulers of Eome, and who so govern us that all our resolu-
tions and acts are controlled by these religious."
'' This stupid slander, beside representing us as so imbecile and
incapable as to have no will of our own, carries with it its own
absurdity ; for all know that the Roman pontiff, after imploring the
divine light and aid, acts and commands as it seems right and useful
to the Church, while in matters of very great importance it is his wont
to ask the advice of persons, no matter to what degree, or condition,
or Regular Order they may belong, who are most skilled in the
matter before him, and can give upon it the wisest and most
prudent counsel.
" Not unfrequently do we also call upon the fathers of the Society
of Jesus, committing to them various offices, especially those per-
taining to the holy ministry, and in these they have never fiailed to
display that carefulness and zeal so often praised by our predecessors.
'•' But this most just love and esteem of ours for the Society of
Jesus, which has rendered such illustrious services to the Church, the
Holy See, and the Christian people, is a far different thing from
that servile obsequiousness imagined by our slanderers. We repel
that calumny with indignation, both in our own name and in that of
the humble and devoted fathers.
" This we resolved to say to you. Venerable Brother, in order to
expose the intrigue now got up against the Society, and to put in
their true light our sentiments, so misrepresented and perverted, as
well as to proclaim anew our most affectionate regard.
474 Life of Pope Pius IX.
'* We should like, since the opportunity presents itself, to dwell on
other causes of the affliction whose weight becomes daily more intol-
erable. They are so numerous, however, that the brief space of a
letter could not contain them. But there is one upon which we
must now animadvert, the system of concessions proposed to us, and
the 'Law of Guarantees,' as they call it. One knows not what
most predominates in this device, absurdity or cunning or mock-
ery, or why it is that the persons who control the Piedmontese gov-
ernment bestow on the scheme so much labor and useless appli-
cation.
" Compelled as they have been, by the remonstrances of the Cath-
olic world, and by a political necessity, to keep up for us a show
of sovereignty, lest we might appear to be subject to any person in
the supreme government of the Church, they have held this up to
public opinion as 'a concession.' Now a concession argues, by its
very nature, in the person who grants it, power over the person to
whom it is granted, and subjects the latter, in so far as the subject-
matter of the concession is concerned, to the jurisdiction and will of
the former. Hence it is that the framers of this system of guarantees
and concessions waste their labor in devising props for our sovereign-
ty, since the very means they employ to prop it up undermine it in
its essentials. Besides, it is characteristic of this sort of concessions
that each of them involves a peculiar servitude, and this servitude,
again, is aggravated by subsequent amendments.
" Moreover, in spite of the careful manner in which the authors
cover their purpose, the hostile and fraudulent spirit which animates
them reveals itself in a long series of acts, forcing every man of com-
mon sense to see that their object is to deceive.
** But if the Church is ever to bear the image of him who is her
founder, must we, who are Christ's vicar on earth, not be grateful
that he permits men to surround us with the mock-pomp of royalty ?
It was, in truth, thereby that he overcame the world ; and thus
will he again triumph over it through the Church, his spouse."
"Wo shall see presently in the terrible arraignment of the Piedmon-
tese government, made in the Allocution of March the 12th, 1877,
how the above judgment on the " Law of Guarantees," and on the
purpose of its authors, was verified to the letter. So leave we the
august vicar of Christ surrounded in the Vatican by the worshipful
reverence of the Catholic world, while his captors mock him with a
Bhow of sovereignty : we must glance rapidly at the chief trials en-
Hidden Causes of the German Persecution, 476
dured by Pius IX. during these years, before we refresh our souls with
the spectacle of his glorious Episcopal Jubilee.
The Dollinger-Hohenlohe conspiracy in 1869-70 soon produced
its results. The unexpected issue of the great war between France
and Prussia raised Bismark to the foremost rank of fame, influ-
ence, and power. His unscrupulous but unquestionable genius had
made the long dream of German unity an accomplished fact. A
German empire, with the Protestant house of HohenzoUern as the
reigning dynasty, supplanted in the European system the ancient
empire of the Hapsburgs, now reduced to narrow limits and obliged
to depend for its very existence on the support of the Magyars of Hun-
gary. Of the new German empire, Bavaria, the first to offer the
imperial crown to the victorious HohenzoUern, became a satellite —
the first indeed in magnitude which revolved round Prussia, but
only a satellite, with no independent motion of her own. And to
this result Prince Chlodwig Hohenlohe contributed, aided and abet-
ted by Dr. Dollinger and his following.
Prince Hohenlohe was elected, on March 23, 1871, vice-presi-
dent of the first parliament of the German empire ; and from that
hour his influence, and that of his trusted adviser Dollinger, is to be
traced in the suspicion cast on the Jesuits, the Ultramontanes (a
term now introduced into modern politics as synonymous with Cath-
olics),' the court of Eome, and every one who avowed his belief in
pontifical infallibility. We are, as yet, too near these events to be
able to disclose with prudence or with certainty the real connection
between great events and their causes. But it is not a secret that
the Dollinger faction, which hastened to show its hostility to the
Church, impelled both Prince Hohenlohe and Prince Bismark into
the persecuting measures which were but a too faithful imitation of
Piedmontism.
By what artifice the good faith of the Emperor William was im-
posed upon by his chancellor, and his conservative principles laid
aside for a policy most revolutionary in its aim and tendencies, it
were bootless to inquire. He was made to believe, the rationalistic
public and a part of the Protestant public of Germany were made
to believe, that the Jesuits, the Pope, and the Catholic Church gen-
erally, were not only adverse to the establishment of the new German
empire, but in permanent conspiracy against it. The same press
which so industriously and so skillfully propagated and kept up the
falsehood about the Pope's ambitious purpose in convening the
476 Life of Pope Pius IX.
Council of the Vatican, now manifested equal industry and per-
sistency in affirming that the new dogma and the power with which
it invested the Pope were not only irreconcilable with German
autonomy and supremacy, but fatal to the progress and independence
of German science.
This was to array against the XJltramontanes or the Catholics the
most energetic, influential, and powerful elements in confederated,
or, rather, consolidated Germany, and in the imperial parliament.
The whole Protestant world outside of Germany had already gone
mad with joy at seeing the crown of Charlemagne on the head of a
Protestant ; the captivity of the Pope, the annihilation of his sov-
ereignty, and the well-known anti-Catholic aims of the Italian parlia-
ment, all seemed to point toward the rapid decline and near destruc-
tion of the Catholic Church as a polity and a power. There were
''General Conventions" held by the ''Old Catholic" faction in
Germany, to which the Eastern and Western churches not in com-
munion with Eome were invited, in order to draw up a basis of
agreement. But they, like many such before them, could only
agree in denouncing the Pope and the Koman Catholic Church. One
result of these meetings, and all this anti-Catholic sympathy for the
new empire, was to confirm Bismark in his belief that all Protest-
antism would uphold and applaud him in his determination to
destroy the Catholic Church in Germany, root and branch.
Such, in fact, was the aim of the scheme of legislation, complete
and effective in every detail, introduced into parliament in the begin-
ning of 1873 by Dr. Falck, minister of instruction and public wor-
ship. But the destruction had already begun, and was, in so far as
the German authorities could make it, well advanced before the close
of 1872. In June of that year the Jesuits "and other affiliated
orders " were suppressed by law ; and the law was executed with
nearly as much mercilessness as the most savage Italian could desire.
Which were these "affiliated" orders, who could determine? For
it is notorious that no such affiliation exists between the Society of
Jesus and any aggregation in the Church. But the " Old Catholic "
high councilors were always at hand to tell Dr. Falck on whom his
blows should fall ; and so the Eedemptorists, the Laaarists, the
Ladies of the Sacred Heart, and other most edifying and efficient
laborers in God's vineyard, were driven forth. It was in vain that
the archbishops and bishops of Germany met in Fulda during the
month of November to draw up an expostulation. Admirable and
The Falck Laws, 477
temperate as that document is, it was predestined to have no effect
on Bismark, or Dr. Falck, or the parliament ; Bismark and Hohen-
lohe had made up their minds to accept no compromise or conces-
sion short of the absolute and unconditional subjection of the
Catholic Church within Germany to German law and authority, and
to none other.
Those who know anything of contemporary politics and history
are aware that the Prince Chancellor, from the beginning of 1871,
had as clearly determined in his own mind every single measure by
which the perfect enslavement of the Catholic Church should be
effected, by which every institution and feature peculiarly Catholic
should be blotted out, and every source of Catholic education and
Catholic life utterly extinguished, as the Piedmontese ministry
and parliament had determined, in 1850, measures which gradu-
ally but surely swept away from Italy Catholic legislation and insti-
tutions.
This was made no secret of in what was known as " the Reptile
Press " of Germany — and the inspiration of the great chancellor was
to that press the breath of life. Nor was there much dissimilarity
in other respects between Bismark and his prototype Cavour. It
was always sought to make it appear to European public opinion
that Germany was forced into these aggressive measures by the hos-
tile or unyielding spirit of the Vatican. As if the venerable pon-
tiff, shorn of every remnant of political power, unsupported by any
save hapless France, and most interested in making friends and con-
ciliating enemies, had ever been disposed to be aggressive, or inso-
lent, or overbearing toward Germany !
At any rate, it served the present purpose to have it generally
believed that he was ; and it was clever diplomacy to put him,
apparently at least, in the wrong. So Cardinal Gustav Adolf de
Hohenlohe, brother to the vice-president of the Reichstag, was
chosen to represent the German empire and the new ecclesiastical
policy near the Holy See. He never should have accepted such a
mission ; and the brave old Pope was not the man to be deceived
by such a mana3uvre. The cardinal was not received by the Holy
Father. And in the consistory of December, 1872, the suppression
of the religious orders in Germany, the harshness and downright
cruelty to which their members had been subjected, and the viola-
tion of laws enacted in Prussia and elsewhere with the concurrence
of the Holy See, could not but call forth animadversion from the
47 S Life of Pope Phis IX.
chief pastor. All diplomatic intercourse with Germany was imme-
diately broken off ; the desired effect had been produced — Europe, all
non-Catholic Christendom, would believe that the Holy Father was
entirely in the wrong, and would thenceforth justify the most ex-
treme legislative measures, and the most rigorous administration of
the laws passed against the refractory TJltramontanes. The "Old
Catholics " at once demanded to be recognized as the legal Catholic
body, while the bishops who had adhered to the Vatican Council
and their flocks should, they said, be considered as apostates from
the Church. In October, 1873, Prussia recognized the legal title of
Dr. Reinkens, consecrated as bishop by the Jansenists of Holland,
and authorized him to receive a state salary.
The rest is known. Every Catholic bishop and priest who refused
to submit to the new schismatical laws — formally and avowedly schis-
matical — was deposed from office, fined, imprisoned, or banished.
More than that, a close alliance was effected between the kingdom of
Italy and tlie German empire, one of the unavowed purposes of
which was a common policy of repression toward the Catholic
Church, and future unity of action in preventing the restoration of
the temporal sovereignty and in controlling the papal elections. The
visit of the king of Italy to Berlin, and the return visit of the Emperor
William to Milan, were hailed by the anti-Cathclic press of both
countries as indicative of a purpose hostile to the common enemy.
Of the iniquity of all the measures of spoliation, so successfully
carried out in Prussia and other parts of Germany, there is no need
of speaking ; of the final success of this attempt at creating a schis-
matical national Church, let us hear what Protestants think.
" The coercion by force of a clergy conscientiously and irrevocably
pledged to resistance is not justifiable, and is still less likely to prove
possible. It may be necessary for the Prussian government to make
the experiment of reforming the Roman Catholic Church within
their country ; and if they could succeed, it would be an admirable
achievement. But, for our part, we think it more likely that they
will fail."*
Such, then, is one of the most bitter trials of Pius IX., a whole-
sale and lengthened persecution of sixteen millions of Catholics, the
motives for which were hypocritically drawn from his own personal
character and official acts. In that trial, however, all was not un-
• The London TimeB, Wednesday, December the lltli, 1873.
Catholic Congresses in Germany, 479
mixed bitterness. Unfortunately for the persecutors, but most for-
tunately for religion, the Church of Germany was in that vigorous
condition of enlightened faith, and active, intelligent piety, which
admitted no hope of the sort of *' reform" that might please Exeter
Hall or the "Evangelical Alliance."
Since 1848 the Catholics of Germany had deemed it their interest,
and later thought it their duty, to assemble yearly in congress in
order to communicate to each other accurate statistics about the
needs, the resources, and the progress of their respective countries,
and to concert with each other measures for developing education,
intelligence, and a robust, manly faith among all classes of Catholics.
Just as the first warning blast of the terrible storm had passed over
Germany, the twenty-first Catholic Congress met in Mayence, in the
Becond week in September, and if ever a secular assembly could con-
sole and reassure the Holy Father as to the certain triumph of the
Church in Germany, it must have been the enthusiastic, enlightened,
and practical multitude whose presence in the city of Gutenberg
and their firm and outspoken profession of faith thrilled every Cath-
olic heart in the Rhineland.
It was not merely that in their resolutions they adhered unreserv-
edly to the Vatican Council and its decrees, or that they stigmatized
the occupation of Kome as a robbery, which no law can validate and
no length of time legitimate ; they protested against the acts of every
temporal government which pretends to dictate to the Church what
doctrine she must teach, which opposes obstacles to the teaching of
the Church, or encourages rebellion against her doctrine or her dis-
cipline ; they protested also against the recent encroachments on their
liberties and their rights. Switzerland was fearfully agitated by the
storm which threatened Germany ; indeed, it might appear that it
originated among the deep Alpine valleys, and, after devastating
them, swept down along the Rhine, threatening the Church in Ger-
many with the same violent changes effected in Switzerland by the
Protestant and rationalistic majority. The congress drew up a noble
address to their suffering Swiss brethren.
Most admirable were their resolutions on education. They ap-
proved of the plan of Ludwig Aner, uniting in one grand association
school-teachers, clergy, and parents. Then there was a no less admir-
able effort made toward uniting in a general crusade all connected
with the press — publishers, editors, and writers — so as to enable jour-
nals, sadly needed but insufficiently supported, to be independent.
480 Life of Pope Pius IX.
and to encourage all to assume a tone and an elevation worthy of the
sacred cause of truth.
Against the blighting influence of so-called ^'German science"
they ask that all shall combine to promote the cultivation of a true
Catholic science, and that without a moment's delay. With regard
to the Holy Father in particular, not satisfied with their energetic
expression of opinion about the occupation of Eome, they denounce
the ** Guarantees" as inadmissible by Catholics, because behind these
guarantees lies the assumption that to the State belongs the right to
say under what conditions the Church and her ministers may exer-
cise their office of teachers, priests, and shepherds of the flock. This
law of the Italian parliament in nowise guarantees to the Pope per-
fect freedom in his supreme office, and then who is to say that these
guarantees shall be respected ? Catholics have no choice but to de-
nounce the occupation of Rome as a wrong, a violation of interna-
tional law ; they are bound to oppose it by all legitimate means,
nor can this unceasing opposition be looked upon as insubordination.
Thus spoke Catholic Germany in 1871. Every year till 1874 the
same clear, manly. Catholic voice sent its tones through Christen-
dom. At length Prince Bismark gave the most peremptory orders
for its suppression. The pretext for this act of tyranny was that
such associations were political and interfered in public affairs. As
the school association mentioned above embraced the local organiza-
tions existing all over the country, a most active spy system was set
on foot by the government to watch every movement made and to
report every word uttered by them to the authorities. But, though
the civil power could obstruct their open proceedings, they went
silently forward to their purpose, giving their advice, distributing
the funds at their disposal, cheering the afflicted Catholic popula-
tions with the most timely words of sympathy, and sending, in spite
of all prohibitions, their powerful accents of encouragement to simi-
lar associations on the continent ; like those sunken rivers of Dalma-
tia, which disappear of a sudden from the sunlight, and continue
beneath the ground their course, unrestrained, toward the Adriatic.
In Italy the events of 1870 aroused the Catholic spirit among all
that was best in the nation. The Venetians celebrated the third
centenary of the victory of Lcpanto on October the 7th, 1870 ; and
the noble representatives of Bologna present at the celebration sug-
gested the idea of a Catholic Congress for all Italy to be held as soon
as possible. The Bologneso sought and obtained for their design the
Italian Catholic Congress i7i Vetiice, 481
blessing of the Holy Father, organized a committee with Cardinal
Trevisanato, patriarch of Venice, as its president, and put itself in
communication with the Catholic societies of the entire Peninsula.
Much prudence was needful ; for there were formidable obstacles
in the way. Everything, however, was matured with the intelli-
gence, the caution, and the resolution characteristic of Italians, and
on June the 13th, 1874, the first Catholic Congress of Italy assembled
at Venice, in the beautiful church of Santa Maria del Orto.
The Cardinal Patriarch presided and opened the first session with
the solemn and simple words Laudetur Jesus Christus! ('* Praised
be Christ Jesus ! "), to which the five hundred gentlemen deputies
replied reverently, but with a voice that sounded over the neighbor-
hood, Laudetur in ceternum ! (" Be he praised for evermore ! ") The
beautiful church is on the border of the wide lagoon looking toward
Burano, the cradle of Venice itself, and it contains, beside the tomb
of Tintoretto, his magnificent Last Judgment. There was not an
inch of ground nor a spot on the broad expanse of sea, nor one beau-
tiful work of man in the wilderness of beautiful things all around,
that was not eloquent of the creations of Catholic genius. And the
generous sons of Italy, who met there on that day, had come with
the purpose, blessed of heaven, of not allowing their loved Italy to
fall back into paganism and barbarism.
" We have the modest intention of doing a little good," said the
Cardinal President, in the course of his inaugural address; "the
conspirators who rule the world in our day control the press and
the schools, in order to corrupt and to ruin society, after having
shaken it to its foundations. It must be our labor to make every
provision we may for the diffusion of good books, and for the sup-
pression of such as are bad ; it must be our duty to strain every
nerve in order to rear Catholic schools, so as to erect an impassable
barrier against the slimy inundation of moral filth and impiety
which threatens to submerge the world."
As the speaker pointed to the neighboring waves, how could not
they all recall to mind the band of fugitives who, thirteen hun-
dred years before that, had built patiently amid the slimy reaches of
these same lagoons — then frequented only by the water-fowl — a few
precarious structures, which grew up, under God's blessing, to be
the fairest and proudest city that ever the sun shone upon ?
*^ They proclaim everywhere," the cardinal continued, "that the
Catholic religion is dead, is but a corpse. But this congress, by its
31
482 Life of Pope Pius IX.
living deeds, shall make all who come in contact with it confess that
Catholicism still possesses the vigor of youth, and is still clothed
with the power of God. The world around cries out untiringly that
men of progress have repudiated religion. But we, in this congress,
shall make it manifest to all that we are men of progress, who prize
above all that men hold to be dearest and best that most holy re-
ligion in which we had the inestimable privilege to be born, and in
which we purpose to die, no matter what fortune may befall us."
The congress was then organized, the Koman Duke Salviati, of
the Borghese family, being chosen president. Then was read the
papal brief approving the establishment of the congress, and the fol-
lowing telegram was sent to the Holy Father : '* Tlie Catholics of
Italy, for the first time assembled in congress, begin their work by
humbly kneeling at the feet of your Holiness, by renewing their full
and heartfelt adhesion to all the truths proclaimed in your infallible
teaching, and by begging you to encourage and strengthen them
with your apostolic benediction,"
Baron D'Ondes-Reggio, one of the vice-presidents, distinguished
for his indomitable energy in maintaining Catholic interests in the
Italian parliament, electrified the assemblage by the following brief
address :
**It seems most befitting that this Catholic Congress, the first ever
convened in Italy, should begin by setting forth this declaration :
" The congress is Catholic and nothing but Catholic ; for Catho-
licism is a complete doctrine, the great doctrine of humanity. Catho-
licism, therefore, is not liberal, is not tyrannical — it has no quali-
fication ; whatever qualification may be added to it is of itself a grave
error. To suppose that Catholicism is deficient in anything which
should be added to it, or that it possesses anything which should be
eliminated, is a most serious mistake, leading to schism and heresy.
"Catholicism is the doctrine which the sovereign pontiff, succes-
sor of St. Peter, bishop of Rome, vicar of Christ, infallible doctor of
faith and morals, teaches us either ex cathedra or conjointly with the
bishops, the successors of the apostles. Every doctrine differing from
this is schism or heresy. To the supreme authority of the sovereign
pontiff the congress submits is deliberations. Long live Pius IX. ! "
The sections of the congress were on Catholic associations, works
of charity, education, the press, and the fine arts. Every session
made more and more evident the thorough earnestness of those noble
men. "Italians," said Dr. Sacchetti, "let us pray that the revolu-
Noble Words and Noble Deeds, 483
tion may die to-morrow ; but let us work as though it were to live
forever ! "
The two illustrious vice-presidents, D'Ondes-Eeggio and Alberi,
were especially eloquent on the necessity of securing freedom of
education and of resisting compulsory State education, which they
denounced as contrary to the rights and duties of the parent.
The congress concluded its labors on June the 17th, after having
resolved that the next congress should meet at Florence in 1875.
*'I hope," were the last words of the Cardinal Patriarch to this
memorable meeting, "that j^ou will bring with you to your homes
the firm conviction, founded on the eloquence of facts, that Venice
is still animated with a spirit of active loyalty to the Church. And
here I cannot better conclude our labors than by asking you to
signify your enthusiastic approval of him whom we all love with
such deep affection — the great, the immortal, the infallible Pius IX."
And then the Te Deum pealed forth over the blue waters of the
lagoon, sung in grateful acknowledgment of the divine goodness by
all these manly voices. And so, from the shore whence Venice's
proud fleet went forth for the last time against the Moslem in the
autumn of 1570, now began in good earnest the crusade against error
and evil, which Pius IX. meditated at Gaeta, before the victorious
banner which led to battle the united hosts of Italy and Spain ! The
bitterness of exile, the successive trials of the twenty following years,
the spoliations just consummated, and all the humiliations and suf-
ferings of the present bondage, should not be endured in vain, if
this blessed spirit, gone forth from Venice, should enkindle in all true
Italian hearts the determination to keep their country true to God
and worthy of her golden age of Catholicity.
For, these associations, these congresses, this banding together
everywhere of the elite of the Catholic world in opposition to modern
error and for the spread of Catholic truth, and liberty and law — all
that was the life-long dream of Pius IX., the burden of all his sol-
emn utterances to the universal Church.
When Duke Salviati at the head of a deputation from the congress
presented themselves at the Vatican with a transcript of the pro-
ceedings, the Holy Father could not contain his joy. " I feel con-
soled," he said, ''by what has been done under the protection of the
evangelist (St. Mark) in the city of Venice. I pray God to bless
your efforts, and at the same time thank all of you who have come
here not merely to give an account of your proceedings, but to com-
484 Life of Pope Pius IX.
fort the afflicted heart of yonr father by your presence, your words,
your sympathy.
"It is most true that the cause of my suffering is not so much
the painful position which men have created for me, as the manifold
evils with which the Church is afflicted. . . . The children of
the faith cannot wonder at what is happening in our days. It has
been foretold. * The world shall rejoice, and you shall be made
sorrowful ; but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.' . . .
** When, on June the 17th, 1846, the Conclave was thrown open to
admit those who came to see the new Pope, all was joy and gladness.
Some members of the diplomatic body had eagerly penetrated into
the chapel of the Quirinal, and the most eager among them was the
minister of the king of Sardinia. The Pope stood near the altar in
his pontifical robes before presenting himself to the people at the
grand balcony. The Sardinian minister approached, and with rever-
ent care seized the train of the pontifical robe, wishing thereby to
be the first to pay this mark of homage to the new Pope.
" To this act of cordial sympathy between the Holy See and Pied-
mont soon succeeded a kindly interchange of letters, which confirmed
officially this friendly feeling.
" So far, joy and friendship ; later on all was changed into bitter-
ness. The same Piedmont stripped me almost entirely of the robe
of my temporal dominions, and on September the 20th, 1870, went
further, entering Rome itself, not to bear, but to tear in pieces the
train which alone remained of the vesture which once covered me.
And so you see how joy was changed into sorrow.''
That same month of June, 1874, afforded the Pope one other great
consolation in the arrival of a large number of American pilgrims from
the United States and Canada. This demonstration was the first of
the kind originating in the great Western republic, and it was all the
more grateful to the Holy Father that the first thought of it came
from one of these associations of Catholic young men, for which Pius
IX., from his early youth, showed so warm an affection and such
abiding interest. Those created in Rome in the sixteenth century by
the joint influence of St. Ignatius Loyola and St. Philip Neri were
fostered by the great religious families these two devoted friends had
left behind them. The Oratorians established sodalities of young
men in every city of Italy where they abode. And attached to every
Jesuit college in both hemispheres was a sodality of young men pro-
fessing a special devotion to our Lady, and endeavoring by purity of
Catholic Unions i and their Fruit. 485
life and active charity toward the poor to be the true disciples of her
son. These societies were one of the most powerful means of moral
reformation among the higher classes of society ever wielded by any
portion of the clergy. The young Abbate Mastai, during his theo-
logical studies in Rome, had belonged to the sodality of the Roman
College, and had practiced with its members the first heroic acts of
devotion to the poor and ignorant among the population.
When the Syllabus had been adopted throughout the Church as
the rule both of teaching and of practice, Pius IX. stimulated by
word and by deed the formation of unions embracing not only young
men but the most distinguished men for learning, piety, and position
as well, in order that the older members might serve as a model, a
support, and a check to the younger. These sodalities and unions
were both in Italy and in Germany — to say nothing of France and
Belgium — the very soul of the national congresses. So, hating
everything which could promote Catholic interests, Bismark had in
the immense good done by the Jesuits, the Redemptorists, and the
Lazarists through the elite of German manhood, a more than suf-
ficient motive for his unsparing hostility.
In the free air of the English-speaking world these unions flour-
ished and multiplied. There, too, it was needful to protect Catholic
interests, and above all to promote the great cause of Catholic edu-
cation, and to support a press worthy of the Church it had to repre-
sent and defend.
The city of New York had its Catholic union, and closely allied
to this, though more limited in its objects, was the Xavier union, de-
pendent on the college and church of St. Francis Xavier. It was
with the members of both of these associations that the idea of
a public pilgrimage to Rome, as a solemn testimony of reverence
and fidelity to the father of Christendom, originated. Persons from
other States, and from Canada, asked for a place on the list of pil-
grims ; but the New York members formed the nucleus.
They sailed from that city in May, after having been solemnly
blessed by the archbishop, visited Lourdes on their way through
France, all bearing on their breast the emblem of the Sacred Heart,
and were presented to the Holy Father on the 8th of June. Judge
Theard, a native of New Orleans, read, in French, an address in the
name of the entire company. " Most Holy Father," he said, " we
come from a free country, where liberty is well understood ; for we
are not persecuted, but, on the contrary, enjoy the fullest liberty of
486 Life of Pope Phis IX.
conscience. We have left our country, our homes, and our avoca-
tions, to lay at your feet our hearts, our possessions, and our lives, if
you should need them. Our words can but poorly express all the
submission, the respect, and the love which make our hearts pulsate
with one emotion. The greater is your affliction the more pow-
erfully are we moved to love you. This special affection for you of
your American children camiot surprise you. You are the first and
only Pope whose feet have trodden American soil. We have come
hither to offer you, not rich presents, but our sentiments of love and
obedience. For you and our faith we are ready to undergo any sac-
rifice. May God preserve you still longer over his Church. You
have seen the days of Peter. God grant you to behold the triumph
of the Church."
In his reply, the Pope said that in an epoch when darkness and danger
gathered over the Church the Almighty could with his breath dis-
pel the clouds, and cause a light to shine forth from out the dark-
ness to guide the pilgrims journeying from afar, by different routes, to
the true and safe haven. " The Church is persecuted everywhere in
her clergy and in her people, but their firmness compels even the
persecutors to say that they did not expect to find such great faith
in Israel.
'^ Are you not a splendid proof of this ? May I not say with the
prophet Isaias : ' Lift up thy eyes round about, and see all these are
gathered together, they are come to thee.' May God be gracious
to you and to your country, so young and so vigorous, where the
fruits of nature and the products of industry flourish so wonder-
fully side by side, and where the Catholic religion enjoys such per-
fect liberty ! . . . Pray with me that there also workmen may
be multiplied for the great harvest of souls.
" May God be your guide homeward, and fill you with that over-
flowing spirit of love which may gladden your families and move to
all goodness your relatives, friends, and fellow- citizens ! . Let my
blessing attend you on your road, and abide with you throughout
the jouniey of life, and be with you in your latest hour ! . . ."
The admirable modesty and unobtrusive piety of these American
pilgrims won the praises even of the Italian press, and moved the
London Times to pay them a compliment.
Early in the following year the Holy Father made another great
step toward raising the Church in the United States from the mis-
eionary condition in which it had been from the beginning, and of
The American Cardinalate. 487
bestowing on the relations of each diocese with the Holy See, and
of the various ranks of the clergy toward each other that definite
and canonical regularity enjoyed by the oldest churches of Europe.
In the solemn consistory held on March the 15th, the Most Eever-
end John McCloskey, Archbishop of New York, was raised to the
cardinalate, being the only American prelate till then graced with
the Eoman purple.
It was a happy innovation, worthy of the mind and heart of the
pontiff, and accepted by the entire American Church and people
both as a testimony of regard for the United States and a mark of
high esteem for the modest and retiring virtue, and the long life of
untiring but unobtrusive devotion to duty, of the revered prelate
to whom the honor came so unexpectedly. At the very beginning of
President Lincoln's first administration this dignity had been re-
peatedly solicited for Archbishop Hughes, both by Mr. Lincoln him-
self and by Secretary Seward, who entertained a high admiration
and a warm friendship for that illustrious prelate. But it had been
hoped that circumstances would permit the Holy See to place the
hierarchy of the Church in the United States precisely on the same
footing on which that of England was i3laced when the new episco-
pal sees were created, and Cardinal Wiseman was placed at the head
of the restored episcopal body as Archbishop of Westminster.
The long civil war interfered with the accomplishment of the
Holy Father's purpose, and the wishes of the administration at
Washington. The elevation of Archbishop Hughes's successor to
the proposed dignity was a well-timed compliment to the memory
of the dead, the merits of the living, and the greatness of the coun-
try; it was an earnest, as well, of the coming boon of a perfect
reconstruction of our ecclesiastical system, and, just as this chapter
is written, tlie tidings come over the electric wires that Pio Nono is
about to fulfill his cherished design.
The year 1876 was chiefly remarkable in the Catholic world by the
unanimity and enthusiasm with which the faithful children of the
Church prepared to celebrate in the following year the Pope's Epis-
copal Jubilee, or the fiftieth anniversary of his elevation and conse-
cration to the episcopal office. One act of his, however, is of spe-
cial importance to the Church of North America, the bull Inter
varias soUcitudines, by which he gave solemn canonical institution
to the Laval University of Quebec, giving it rank among the great
Catholic universities of the past, and thereby stimulating the Cath-
488 Life of Pope Phis IX.
olic body throughout North America to spare no sacrifice or labor
in order to raise higher education to a level with the best aspirations
of the present and the glories of the past. A succursal to the Laval
University had previously been decreed for the city of Montreal,
and in 1877 the Holy See sent the Right Reverend George Conroy,
Bishop of Ardagh, as Delegate Apostolic to Canada, to see to it that
these dispositions should be carried out, and to regulate all other
ecclesiastical matters in the churches of that prosperous and pro-
gressive country.
But a very special mark of regard and affection was bestowed on
the church of Quebec in June, 1874, and before the American pil-
grims had left the Eternal City. The see of Quebec was created by
the Holy See on October the 1st, 1674 ; as the second centenary of
this event was to be celebrated with great solemnity in the following
October, the sovereign pontiff elevated the Cathedral of Notre Dame
to the dignity of a Basilica, sent a suit of pontifical vestments from
his own chapel to be used on the occasion, as well as a magnificent
reliquary which the American pilgrims were allowed to examine and
admire during their stay.
Upwards of sixty dioceses had sprung up over the vast extent
once subject to the spiritual jurisdiction of Quebec : when the Pope
was yet a boy, British America had but that one episcopal see, and
one bishop governed the whole territory now possessed by the Union.
During his pontificate both countries became covered with flourish-
ing churches, divided into numerous ecclesiastical provinces, gov-
erned by a host of archbishops and bishops, this growth resembling
the rapid spread of the faith in Gaul, Italy, and Northern Africa
during the first half of the fourth century. And Australia pre-
sented a scarcely less consoling spectacle.
Elsewhere, however, as in the Russian empire, there was every-
thing to fill the fatherly soul of the pontiff Avith the keenest anguish.
We have purposly abstained till now from drawing the reader's at-
tention to the incredible atrocities exercised against the Uniatcs, or
united Greek Churches in Lithuania by the government of the Tsar.
The enfranchisement of the serfs by the present emperor in the first
years of liis reign, and the war which he is now waging against Tur-
key for the ostensible purpose of avenging the cruelties committed
by this power against her Christian subjects, have given to Alexander
IL such popularity both in England and America that the public is
very loath to credit him with anything like a persecuting spirit.
Atrocious Persecutions in Russian Poland. 489
Fortunately for the cause of truth and humanity there now exists
Buch oyerwhelming evidence on this matter that doubt can be no
longer permitted. And men who again and again blamed Pius IX.,
destitute as he long has been of all effectual support from the
Catholic powers, for his repeated and bitter denunciation of the
heartless, systematic, and ever-increasing rigors practiced against
Polish Catholics by the Eussian government, must henceforth be
just, and praise him for the courage which dared to arraign before
Christendom the blackest deeds of persecution mentioned in all
history.
In April of this year Mr. Owen Lewis moved, in the British House
of Commons, that the State papers pertaining to the treatment of
the Polish Catholics by Kussia should be made public. The princi-
pal evidence is derived from the dispatches of the English Consul-
General in Poland, Lieutenant-Colonel Mansfield, and of Lord Au-
gustus Loftus, ambassador at St. Petersburg.
Colonel Mansfield relates to Lord Granville the efforts made in
1871 by the Russian government to frighten the Uniate priests of the
diocese of Chelm into compliance with the imperial will by using
their influence to drive their flocks into the Russian communion.
During the ensuing years the result of these coercive measures, under
the guise of ^^ moral suasion," was to fill the country with strife, dis-
order, and violence.
On January the 29th, 1874, Colonel Mansfield reports that fresh
attempts are being made by the authorities to compass their purpose,
accompanied by '^a renewal of disturbances in the districts inhab-
ited by the United Greeks in the government of Siedlce and Lublin,
resulting in bloodshed, loss of life, and the most barbarous treatment
inflicted on the peasants." At one place in the district of Mincie-
wicz, the peasants had guarded their church against a schismatical
priest forced upon them. They were surrounded by the military,
and were given the choice ^^ of signing a declaration accepting the
priest ; and on their refusal fifty blows with the nagaiha (Cossack
whip) were given to every adult man, twenty-five to every woman,
and ten to every child irrespective of age or sex — one woman who
was more vehement than the rest receiving as much as a hundred."
A system of fines was next tried, but without any better effect. In
the summer the emperor visited Warsaw in person, and the aggrieved
Uniats attempted to approach him Avith a petition, but were repelled,
and thenceforward, as Colonel Mansfield relates, ^^the massacres"
49 o Life of Pope Pitts IX,
increased in ferocity, and tlie Cossacks received orders to f'hunt
down" the Uniats and to destroy their crops, all of which were
mthlessly carried out.
In the beginning of 1875 it was announced by the official journals
of St. Petersburg that forty-five parishes, containing fifty thousand
persons and twenty-six priests, had renounced communion with Rome
and joined the Russian Church. This announcement made a great
noise in England and in the United States, and was triumphantly
quoted as one proof more of the results of '^Vaticanism."
Lord Augustus Loftus, however, bravely tore the mask from the
face of the orthodox persecutor, in his dispatch of January the 29th,
1875. " The passing over," he says, " of these fifty thousand United
Greeks has been effected by various means, in which physical mal-
treatment has formed a not inconsiderable element. . . . The
details of the different degrees of compulsion in the various villages
would take too much space to relate ; but I cite, as a specimen, what
I heard from a gentleman, of whose veracity I have no reason to
doubt, of what took place on a village on his property. The
peasants were assembled and beaten by the Cossacks until the
military surgeon stated that more would endanger life ; they were
then driven through a half -frozen river up to their waists into the
parish church, through files of soldiers, where their names were
entered in the petition as above, and passed out at an opposite door,
the peasants all the time crying out. You may call us Orthodoxy hut
we remain in the faith of our father s.^^
Two hundred and fifty thousand were, according to the same au-
thority, '' converted" by similar methods in the government of Lu-
blin. But in January, 1876, Colonel Mansfield affirmed that the con-
verts did not even then admit of their change of faith, sturdily re-
fusing the services of any but their own priests, baptizing their own
babes, and burying their dead, and declining to enter the Russian
churches.
So Alexander II. faithfully copied the examples set him by his
uncle, the emperor of Germany.
THE '^ EPISCOPAL JUBILEE" OF 1877.
DAEKEK than any one of the thirty preceding years of his
pontificate dawned for Pius IX. the year 1877. The Italian
government, then administered by the yery faction of extremists,
whom Cavour had considered the worst enemies of the " reconcilia-
tion " which he wished to effect between the rights of the Church
and the rights of Italy, was enacting the most tyrannical laws against
ecclesiastical freedom. "The Clerical Abuses Bill," as this latest
fruit of anti- Catholic intolerance was called, enacts the severest pen-
alties against all persons — clergymen especially — of whatever grade,
who- under any circumstances, in public or in private, give utterance
to censure of the acts of the government. Thereby a priest in the
confessional, or administering the sacraments to the dying, by the
mere refusal of absolution to the worst criminals, the plunderers
of the Church, or the authors of the greatest evils under which she
is suffering, would, on the complaint of the penitent, be liable to
fine, imprisonment, or exile. It was one of the avowed objects of
this abominable law, as openly declared in parliament by its authors,
that although they could not punish the Pope himself without vio-
lating the Law of Guarantees, yet they could punish any inferior
ecclesiastic who should dare to obey the Pope's orders, or who
even printed or published the Pope's utterances or censures.
This was taking away from the sovereign pontiff the very last
shadow of moral freedom, and confirming the judgment pronounced
by him from the beginning on the Law of Guarantees, that it was
but a sham and a fraud.
On March the 12th the Holy Father held a solemn consistory, and
delivered to the cardinals an allocution ; he recited the wrongs of
the Piedmontese government since the invasion of September, 1870,
ending by this law, which aims at taking away from the clergy all
liberty in the exercise of their spiritual functions.
" By this law," the Holy Father says, " the words and writings
of every description uttered by the ministers of the altar in the dis-
charge of their sacred office, and disapproving or censuring any act
491
492 Life of Pope Pins IX,
or decree of the public authority, though never so opposed to the
laws of God or of the Church, are equally liable to punishment."
A lay tribunal will pronounce on the specific nature of the acts
denounced to it as infractions of this law, and decide whether a priest
had a right to refuse absolution to persons under sentence of excom-
munication, or to censure in the pulpit or in private conversation
this same law and its tendencies.
*^ How is it possible for us to govern the Church," the Pope con-
tinues, " under the domination of a power which contiiiually takes
away from us every means and protection needed for the exercise
of our apostleship ? ... We cannot sufficiently wonder that
men should be found who . . . endeavor to make it believed,
and persuade the people, that the present position of the sovereign
pontiif in Rome is such that, even placed as he is under the domina-
tion of another power, he enjoys full liberty, and is able peacefully
and fully to discharge the duties of his spiritual primacy. . . ."
"Now assuredly is displayed in a clear light, and in every point of
view to the whole world, the value, the validity, and the trustworthi-
ness of these concessions with which, as in mockery of the faithful,
our enemies ostentatiously proclaimed themselves in favor of the
liberty and dignity of the Roman pontiff, which liberty and dignity
should repose on the arbitrary caprice and hostile will of a govern-
ment possessing the power to adopt, maintain, interpret, and give
effect to them according to its own designs and principles, and at its
own pleasure.
" No, no ; certain it is that the Roman pontiff is not, and will
not be in possession of full liberty or full freedom of action so long
as he is the subject of others who rule in his own city. Never can
his position in Rome be other than that of a sovereign prince or of a
captive ; nor can the peace, security, and tranquillity of the Catholic
Church ever exist so long as the exercise of the Supreme Apostolic
Ministry is subjected to conflicts of parties, the caprice of those in
power, to the uncertainties of political elections, or to the schemes
and proceedings of crafty men, who place expediency before justice.
** It is our earnest wish and desire that all pastors of churches
spread far and wide throughout the whole world may be incited by
our words to make known to their flocks the dangers, attacks, and
troubles growing daily more grievous, with which we are distressed,
and to assure them, that, let the issue of affairs be what it may, we
shall never desist from denouncing the iniquities perpetrated before
The "'Episcopal Jubilee'' of iSjy, 493
our eyes ; but tliat it may possibly come to pass by reason of the
laws lately proposed, and of others still more stringent, wbicb are
threatened, that our voice may only be able to reach them more
seldom, and with great difficulty. . . ."
He then warns the faithful not to be misled by the falsehoods
circulated by the government and press of Italy, summing up the
situation in these words : " The Church of God in Italy suffers
yiolence and persecution ; the vicar of Christ enjoys neither liberty
nor the unfettered and Complete use of his own power."
He therefore recommends earnestly that bishops *^ would stir up
the faithful over whom they preside to press upon the attention
of their rulers, by every legal means, a more careful consideration
of the serious position in which the Head of the Catholic Church
is placed, and of the adoption of effectual plans for the removal
of the obstacles to his real and perfect independence."
This situation was already present to the minds of all enlightened
Catholics — to the minds of all, indeed, who were not blinded by
mere political passion or religious prejudices. These words were an
appeal to international law, and to the conscientious and most sacred
right of all Catholics throughout the world to have the vicar of
Christ free to govern the Church, and their own communications
with him unembarrassed by any earthly power.
The solution of this new Eoman difficulty was then intrusted to the
hands of the entire Catholic body, and of the governments interested
in having their religious rights respected. It was really an appeal
to the justice of Christendom.
Coming, as the allocution did, in the early spring, and at the mo-
ment when from every point of the Catholic world pilgrims were
about to set out for Rome, it had the effect of quickening the exist-
ing enthusiasm, while it stirred up many prelates and distinguished
laymen to appeal to public opinion in their own country, or to reach
the Italian government by crying shame on it within its own ter-
ritory.
The magnificent movement of the Catholic populations toward
Rome, what they were forced to see and hear there in spite of the
restraints placed on the anti-Catholic press and populace, convinced
them that the Holy Father had spoken the truth, and not the whole
tnith, about his own captivity. In spite of present political obstacles
the moral force of a sound public opinion favorable to interference
in his behalf, is daily gaining strength. There is no thought of a
494 L'^f^ ^f P'^P^ /^//^^y IX.
recourse to arms ; but the day is not far distant when England and
France and Spain and Portugal will find it impossible not to raise
their voice in favor of the liberty of the common father. And it is
not less certain that the United States and Canada, with Brazil and
the whole of Spanish America, will be made to join in these reclama-
tions. It is only necessary to make the non-Catholic mind see clearly
how the Italian government is violating the dearest principles of
civil and religious freedom, for which we have been contending all
our lives, and to show up the utter hypocrisy of this Depretis govern-
ment, to obtain all that we desire.
Unless it so happen that Germany and Russia will prevail over the
rest of Europe, and allow their ally, Italy, to have it all her own
way in Eome, as in the Peninsula.
It was a revelation to the whole civilized world this flocking to
Rome in May and June of the representatives of every diocese in
communion with the See of Peter. No letters of invitation had
called the prelates of the Church to meet in Rome, as in 1854 and
1867 ; no authoritative summons from the Supreme Ruler of Christ's
flock convened them in general council, as in 1869. This was a
spontaneous movement of the Catholic heart, as in 1871. But in
1871 the occasion was unique ; it was to celebrate an event which
opened up a new era in the pontifical traditions, by substituting
'* The days of Pius " for " The days of Peter." But the Episcopal
Jubilee of 1877 had not that historical importance which attaches
to the celebration of June the 16th and August the 23d, 1871.
"Whence, then, this increase of personal interest and cordial enthu-
siasm, this surpassing display of love, of veneration, of fidelity ?
From the fact that the venerable mail — to whom all hearts in the
wide Catholic world turned as spontaneously and as lovingly as the
flowers at dawn seek the eye of the sun — was the father of all, sub-
jected, in spite of a liberality of spirit never before exceeded, to most
undeserved misfortunes, to contumely and menace in the home
which was that of all Christians, and that he was to celebrate the
fiftieth anniversary of the day when tlie episcopal cross was placed
on his breast as a pledge of uninterrupted suffering in return for
undying love.
Even apart from the cruel fate which political treachery had inflict-
ed on him, there was the true, heartfelt love of two hundred millions
of human beings, nine- tenths of whom had been born under his pon-
tificate. The young men, the men of mature age, the old men even.
The "■ Episcopal yiibilee " of i8yy. 495
had been trained in his religious teaching. They were of his own
rearing. Members of Catholic unions, associates iu the manifold
forms under which piety is practiced in common and charity ex-
ercised toward the needy in body or in spirit, men who had been the
soul of Catholic congresses, or had shone in the senate, on the judi-
cial bench or at the bar, writers of world-wide fame, and journalists
who had made their profession a world-wide power and apostleship —
these were the sons who thronged from afar to the Vatican, to glad-
den the eyes of the Patriarch among Popes — the new Israel, whom
God had made strong in a thousand battles with error and iniquity.
We shall hear the words of this gr^at parent of many tribes, as his
aged eyes rest on them and lovingly survey their manifold glory ; he
will have a special blessing and utter a special prophecy for each.
"What would a golden throne be for Pius IX., throning as he does
on the devoted hearts of these millions ? or who would not put aside
the title of great for that of beloved, if, indeed, any title were want-
ing to the dear and glorious name of Pio Nono ?
Savoy — happily saved by annexation to France from the tender
mercies of Italian radicalism — sent her four hundred deputies on
the morning of April the 30th, with the bishops of Tarentaise and
S. Jean de Maurienne ; and very grateful to the Holy Father was the
warm and unchangeable piety of these good Savoyards, seeing what
he had to endure from the recreant king who had given them up for
a bed of thorns in the Quirinal. On May the 2d the Breton pil-
grims, not a little like the Savoyards in their fidelity, offered their
separate homage ; and on May the 5th came the great French depu-
tation, fifteen hundred persons, headed by Count de Damas, who
read the address. The Holy Father replied in French with admira-
ble appropriateness and eloquence.
England had her turn at noon on the 10th of May. There was an
address signed by 500,000 English Catholics, with £15,000, with-
out counting many precious personal jubilee gifts and offerings.
There was also a most beautiful address in Latin fron the Catholic
Union of England. The Duke of Norfolk with his youthful sisters
was there, proud of the noble men and women who stood around
him to represent the Catholic England of the past, the present, and
the hopeful future, but as humble as any simple-hearted child in
presence of his august parent. Pius IX. was much moved. He
spoke of the great progress of the faith in their island. ^' Nor could
it well be otherwise, for you possess in heaven many, many saints.
496 Life of Pope Pius IX,
, . . After the grace of God, the intercession of saints, and the
zeal of the Catholic priesthood, we owe the wonderful progress of the
faith to the tolerance of the English government.
" God then be ever thanked for these mercies ! I with all my
heart bless you on this day, so especially proper for blessing. It is
the feast of the Ascension. And he, before leaving the earth, ' lift-
ing up Ills hands, . . . blessed them.^
''1 pray God to sustain in this instant the arm of his aged and un-
worthy vicar, in imparting a benediction which may produce copious
fruits in the amendment of lives, which may bring peace into fami-
lies. . . . May God bless you now while time is with you, to the
end that you may be rendered worthy of praising him in the eternal
ages of Paradise ! "
Two venerable ladies, the soul of every good work in London, the
Marchionesses of Lothian and Londonderry, were not able to be in the
audience-room. The former was on her death-bed, and her friend
was by her side : two of the noblest women who have graced England
and Ireland in our day.
On the 12th the Scottish deputation, headed by Bishop Strain,
was presented. "Distant Scotland," the bishop said, "the Ultima
Thule, comes forward with the other nations of the world to offer her
homage on this occasion. She was once a most faithful handmaid
of the Holy See : " and the good bishop expressed a desire for the res-
toration of the Scottish hierarchy. "Yes," the Pope said, "I do
wish to restore it ; but hitherto the times have not been favorable.
But let us pray to St. Margaret — as I often do — and let us hope I "
The French-Canadian pilgrims had their turn on May the 11th.
The Bishop of Sherbrooke, after an eloquent address, presented as a
jubilee offering from the seven dioceses of the ecclesiastical province
of Quebec, some 86,000 francs. On the same day there were French
deputations from Rodez, and on the 13th from Lyons. It was the
Pope's birthday, and the French pilgrims had chosen this for their
presentation. On the 15th came the pilgrims from Holland, men
of the true old Catholic stock, whose fathers had remained firm in
Bpite of the general apostasy. They were only the forerunners of one
thousand pilgrims from Germany.
They were presented on the 17th. Twenty cardinals and the
Duke and Duchess of Parma were near the Holy Father, who was
greeted on his appearance with the hymn to Pius IX., sung by ihQ
students of the German College in Rome. It was a splendid assem-
The *' Episcopal Jubilee " of iSy^. 497
blage ; and any one who looked upon the array of titled nobles, the
men of letters and journalists who composed that earnest throng,
must have felt that the sword of Bismark must needs blunt itself
against such metal of proof as they were made of.
"In our times," the Pope said, in answer to their address, " I have
heard honest and good Prussian Catholics say, that there was need of
some one to arouse the people, who had become somewhat slugglish.
God has indeed raised his arm, and has used a scourge, as he did
many centuries ago. Then it was Attila that he employed to awaken
the nations from their torpor. To-day a new Attila has broken the
slumber of noble Germany.
" This modern Attila purposed to destroy ; and lo ! he has built
up ! He has given your faith renewed vigor. Your bishops have
fearlessly repeated the saying of St. Boniface to bishops assembled in
convention long ago : We are not dumb dogs : let us lift our voices
for the Lord. We are in troubled times : let us die, if need be, for
the holy laws of our fathers !
"May God bless you and grant you that grace which is the crown
of all others — final perseverance ! . . . May he bless you in your
souls, in your families, in your labors, that whatever you do be done
to his glory, your own gQod, and the edification of your neighbors ! "
On Thursday, the 2-ith of May, the pilgrims from the United
States — eleven bishops, about forty priests, and a hundred laymen —
were received in the Oonsistorial Hall. The Archbishop of Philadel-
phia read the address in the name of all. " All of us here present,"
the prelate said, "whatever be our ecclesiastical or civil station, de-
sire to-day to have no other title than that which to us is the sweet-
est and noblest, the title of most loving children of your Holiness,
and the most faithful disciples of the Holy See of Peter." There
were special addresses from the clergy and laity of New York and
from the Xavier Union. The jubilee offerings were worthy of the
country and the people.
The affectionate answer, that of a father proud of children, over-
flowing with youth and life and energy, warned his hearers against
the too-absorbing pursuit of material advantages, to the neglect of
spiritual ends ; and against the danger of pride begotten of worldly
abundance and greatness. They should cultivate humility and self-
abasement. He would pray in a special manner that faith should
flourish and endure in America, and that heaven's best gifts should
ever be hers.
49S Life of Pope Pitis IX,
On the same day the Irish members of parliament presented an ad-
dress by special deputation.
On the 21st the committees of Roman nobles and Catholic young
men offered the Holy Father a large alms with a beautiful volume
containing the names of the subscribers. The next day Herr Aner,
proprietor of the leading Catholic journals in Germany, laid at the Holy
Father's feet four immense volumes, containing 200,000 signatures
of devoted children of the Holy See, all German youths ! From Mar-
seilles and Limoges deputations brought a magnificent throne and
two splendid porcelain vases. And on the 23d Catholic Belgmm
had her turn.
And so day after day, without cessation, this grand, this incom-
parable procession of noble pilgrims of every race and country, con-
tinued to pass through the streets of astonished Eome, beneath the
shadow of the desecrated Quirinal, toward ^* Christ's mighty shrine
above his martyr's tomb," and to the feet of that father of the nations
in the Vatican ! Why did not Hippolyte Flandriu live to see these
days, and to chronicle their memory in groups more sublime than ho
has left on the walls of St. Germain-des-Pres ?
Persecuted Switzerland — the Catholic, the heroic, the faithful —
came on May the 26th. Bishop Mermillod was there, a rapt listener
to all he heard, he so eloquent and ever so well inspired ! The Holy
Father had touching memories to recall of his faithful Swiss soldiers,
and the brave deeds of so many generations of liberty-loving men.
To these succeeded the Austrian pilgrims on the 27th ; on the 28th
Monsignor Kirby, with an address and offering from the diocese of
Raphoe ; and on the 29th the Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon, with
about two hundred Portuguese pilgrims, among them many a proud
historic name. How could the Holy Father help being moved by
the presence of these representatives of a nation once the glory of
Christendom and foremost in civilization and living faith ? He de-
plored the incalculable mischief Freemasonry had done in that beau-
tiful country, spoke kindly of the royal family, and invoked a fervent
benediction on the present and the absent.
May the 30th was marked by the arrival of the Croatians, headed
by Archbishop Mihalovits and Bishop Strossmayer, and after them
came the Archbishop of Spoleto, with a numerous deputation of his
diocesans. The good Pope had an hour of intense enjoyment with
men who loved him in so especial a manner, and whom he seemed
to regard as his own dearest children.
The ''Episcopal Jubilee " of iSyy. 499
The 31st brought more pilgrims from Bourges, in France, from
Calcutta, and from the two opposite extremities of Italy, Como and
Calabria.
June the 2d was the eve of the anniversary. It was the privilege
of the Sacred College to present congratulations, with a beautiful
medal struck by them for the occasion. In his answer the Holy
Father alluded to the deputations sent by St. John the Baptist to
Christ, to inquire whether he were truly the expected Messiah. To
those who doubted as to which was the true religion, he, the Pope,
would point out the present ardent and spontaneous movement of
souls toward the Church.
On leaving the throne-room he met three deputations from
Naples. Sunday, the 3d, was the great anniversary; and the re-
publicans had got up a meeting in the Apollo theatre to protest
against this universal reaction in favor of the Pope. Their eloquence
and efforts were as effectual in this instance, as the labor of a certain
classic dame was in mopping out the rising tide.
The religious celebration was held in the Church of St. Peter in
Chains, where Giovanni Mastai had been consecrated Archbishop of
Spoleto, fifty years before. We omit further mention of it. At the
Vatican the day was set apart for the reception of Italian pilgrims.
At noon three thousand Italians headed by Commendatore Acqua-
derni surrounded the Holy Father. It is no exaggeration to say
that Italy never beheld a nobler band assembled in one spot. The
address was presented but not read ; the weather was oppressive, and
the Holy Father had been forbidden making a discourse. But per-
sons who were present describe the emotion, all subdued though it
was, as resembling the silent heaving of a mighty sea. On Monday
there was a still greater inflow of Italians. In one hall priests, in
another were the nobles of Milan, and in a third the nobles of
Bologna. And so it continued the next day — deputations from
Corfu, Dante, and Cephalonia pressing on the heels of the Italians ;
and on the 6th the Pope was electrified by the arrival of several hun-
dreds of Poles, headed by Cardinal Ledochowski, and bearing the
image of our Lady of Czestochowa, the most venerated of Polish
sanctuaries.
The next day Ireland's sons streamed through Rome up to the
Vatican and filled the Consistorial Hall. Cardinal Cullen and four
other bishops were with their brethren.
After the reading of several most beautiful addresses the Holy
5oo Life of Pope Pius IX.
Father replied, praising the earnest faith of those before him. Aa
he stood up to give the apostolic benediction he said that he wished
to give them a blessing such as dying Jacob gave to his sons. The
holy patriarch prayed that his descendants might be multiplied, and
he would pray, that the phalanxes of brave soldiers of the faith he
saw before him should be increased and multiplied into a conquering
army against the enemies of Christ.
From Calcutta Mr. Walter Bourke, a scion of the same brave old
race, presented an address from the Catholic citizens, and most
valuable gifts. The Irish pilgrims from Montreal, Canada, were
still on the road, after having been detained for several weeks on
their voyage. But the reception given them was all the more
hearty for the dangers encountered and the tediousness of their
journey.
On Sunday, the 10th of May, the Catholic press of both hemi-
spheres had a special reception. Five hundred Catholic journals
were represented. The Archbishop of Bologna, who had been the
founder of such journals, and who still loved to contribute to them,
read the address.
Ilis Holiness observed that when he was in Gaeta, twenty-nine
years ago, it occurred to him to endeavor to remedy the evils pro-
duced so largely by impious and libertine journals by opposing their
venomous corruption by the antidote of sound and instructive jour-
nalism. He then made an appeal to good and illustrious men, who
gave a full and earnest response to his entreaties. Other Catholics in
Italy and elsewhere, with a noble zeal worthy of all praise, dedicated
themselves to the defense of the injured rights of the Church, and
to uphold the eternal principles of truth and justice. But, as is
usually the case with all things human, of which even the best de
mundano pulvere sordescunt, it was to be deplored that even Catholic
journalism contained something defective of which he should ever
complain until it was eliminated and removed. This defect was the
want of concord and charity. He would remind them that from
union sprang strength, and that the soldier who neglected discipline
in the face of the enemy was often the cause of defeat. He there-
fore advised them first of all to have union, and next to have charity.
Their duty was to attack error and vice, and to smite wickedness
even at the peril of their lives. But Christian charity obliged them
to respect and spare individuals. The serpent when too bitterly
Bmitten is apt to turn with still fiercer venom upon assailants.
The " Episcopal Jubilee " of rSyy. 5oi
Last year when addressing tlie Spanish pilgrims lie took occasion
to speak to them about their bull fights. He thought he might
draw an illustration from the same source when recommending
union to the Catholic press. The bull, when assailed by one man
only, could very well defend himself, and often got the yictory over a
single foe. But he seemed struck with terror and took to flight
when he saw before him a compact and united band of toreadores.
The same tactics should ba employed by Catholic journalists against
the revolution. His Holiness then prayed that this spirit of union
might descend from heaven into the minds of Catholic writers. He
would give his hearers his special benediction, and invoke -for
them a portion of the strength of God the Father, a portion of
the wisdom of the Son, and a portion of the love of the Holy
Ghost.
The press audience on the 10th inst. was attended by representa-
tives from all parts of the world, who brought numerous offerings.
The Archbishop of Bologna is the proprietor of the Scuola Cattolica,
of Milan, a most excellent periodical.
Spain — the Catholic Spain — came late, but none the less welcome
to the Holy Father. There were a thousand pilgrims, led by the
Cardinals Benavides and Paya y Rico, and seven bishops. Address
and offerings were like worthy of the great nation from whose heart
they came.
The Holy Father, in replying to the Spanish address, said he was
somewhat in the position of the Capuchin lay brother, who found the
basket in which he collected his quest too heavy, and to lighten the
burden threw away a piece of gold. He was surrounded by gifts
and offerings, and had received so much gold from the Spanish pil-
grims, that he feared his shoulders were not strong enough to carry
it. Their charity was industrious in giving, and his charity must
be industrious in distributing. This was the second pilgrimage
from Spain, and that of last year had inspired Spaniards with a
desire to visit him again. He was glad also that their pilgrimage
was headed by such a large number of their bishops. The revolu-
tion might perceive by their zeal that persecutions and imprison-
ment would not diminish the grandeur of Catholicism. The Pope
then referred to the meeting of Jacob with Esau, and to the fervent
and sublime prayer offered to God by Jacob, who, nevertheless, did
not neglect the means in his own power to propitiate his brother, but
gent on beforehand his servants, his family, and his presents, and
5o2 Life of Pope Puis IX.
who made also opportune dispositions for defense. Do we, asked
his Holiness, wish to vanquish the Esau of the modern reyolufcion ?
Let us, then, offer our prayers to God, and organize our camps in
Spain, France, Germany, and everywhere. Let us offer prayers and
arrange our cohorts, united and concordant in religion and for re-
ligion. He thanked God, who had preserved among the Spaniards
the holy traditions of their forefathers. To preserve them in vigor
continually, there was need of courage and perseverance ; and they
should avoid jealousies, and those impediments to progress which
jealousy produced. He prayed God to bless them, and keep them
vigorous soldiers fighting under the same banner and the same cap-
tain, inasmuch as they were under God himself. The benediction
was then given.
For days and weeks other deputations came dropping in. But on
June the 22d, the sovereign pontiff deemed it proper to pour out
his soul in full thanksgiving in presence of the assembled cardinals,
in order that his answer might go forth to the Catholic world in
return for this unheard-of manifestation of piety and reverence to-
ward the Holy See. After describing to the venerable audience the
extraordinary spectacle which had ravished themselves with joy and
admiration, the Holy Father continues :
" But who is it. Venerable Brethren, that hath turned the days of
our tribulation into the practice and the shining out of great virtues
like these, who is it that hath nurtured and brought to maturity
great faith and piety like these, who is it that hath vouchsafed to
our weakness to be spectators and witnesses of such illustrious ex-
amples given by the Christian people ? It is the Father of mercies
and the God of all consolation — who is wont to manifest his glory all
the more wherever the poverty and weakness of his servants is great-
est — in whose hands are the hearts of men, and in whose power are
all things. He hath done according to his mercy, he hath with the
temptation made issue, that we might be able to bear it ; he unvailed
his glory to his Church, and hath shown to the world, that the more
she is assailed the more powerfully does she exert her forces, and the
more she is depressed, the higher she is exalted. Therefore we can-
not refrain from rendering unto God most merciful, both in your
sight and before the whole world, thanks and glory ; blessing him,
and confessing that ' ho is bountiful, and comforteth in the day of
tribulation, and knoweth them that hope in him,' and we pray him
that in the abundance of condescension he would graciously and
The ''Episcopal Jubilee " of iSyy, 603
propitiously accept the sacrifice of onr prayer and benediction, al-
though it fall short of the operations of his mercy."
Thus was happily brought to a close one of the most extraordinary
events recorded in the history of the Church — indeed, of the history
of the world. Surely the Italian government, even though it does
not believe in Catholicism, must be convined by this time that it is
a living force, as mighty in the moral world as that of universal
gravitation, and which it must take into account in calculating the
results of its present unjustifiable aggression on the rights of all
Italian Catholics, indeed, of the two hundred millions of Catholics
which acknowledge the Pope as supreme spiritual teacher and guide.
Were it not good policy in the Italian parliament to pause in its
process of suppression and odious "inquisitiveness," and show a
little reverence toward the prisoner of the Vatican, and some decent
regard for the good opinion of mankind in general, and of Catholic
humanity in particular ?
AVould it not be showing something of that love of high principle
and of all that is truly and healthfully conservative in the social life
and moral character of the Anglo-Saxon race, if the two great gov-
ernments which, on both sides of the Atlantic, are still the lovers of
the old Catholic freedom, should have something to say in favor of
the most venerable and august of all authorities, uselessly, brutally,
unjustifiably oppressed in the Vatican ?
If there were no other reason for uniting, just at present, than
that of making friendly but firm remonstrance in favor of the rights
of so many millions of their Catholic citizens, it would be a blessed
combination.
England has been humiliated in her natural ally, France. God for-
bid that the war now raging should bring on further humiliation and
abasement ! And God also forbid that England or America should
adopt as theirs the godless, hypocritical, revolutionary principles of
international policy introduced by Palmerston and Napoleon III.,
put in practice by Cavour and Bismark and Gortchakoff !
The Christian world, the moral world, cannot afford to see France
or England or the United States, or all three together, overshadowed
or oppressed by the triple and unholy alliance of Prussia, Russia,
and Piedmont.
Be that as it may, and should the lifo we have been sketching in
these pages come to a close to-morrow, the spectacle which Rome
has offered since last April will teach ourselves at least a lesson
5o4 Life of Pope Pius IX.
which we are resolyed to lay to heart. The Catholic manhood of
to-day is not, in non-Catholic lands, the timid, crouching, lisping
thing it was fifty years ago. We have learned to come together, and
to count our numbers ; we have learned to know what to aim at,
and how to reach our aim. And we are not likely to forget our les-
son, or to become inexpert by want of steady practice.
"We shall pursue the sovereign independence of the Holy See,
without violence, or bluster, or blunder of any kind, till it come of
itself, as surely as the ripe fruit in autumn drops from the tree, by
its own weight, into the hand of the husbandman.
This husbandry, with much other precious knowledge, the Cath-
olic world has learned during the long trials of Pius IX.
APPEll^DIX.
A.
Gallic AK"iSM originated in a system of what was called tlie rights
or liberties of the Gallican or French Church, as embodied in the
pragmatic sanction of 1438, aiming at restricting as much as possi-
ble the jurisdiction claimed by the Pope over all national churches,
and the disposal of ecclesiastical properties and revenues, and the
appointment and removal of all churchmen and beneficiaries. The
pretensions of the kings who wanted to have the control of all these
matters was in direct opposition to the powers inherent in the papal
supremacy. It was the interest of the kings of France to appoint
and remove at pleasure, and to have the disposal of benefices and
revenues : these rights, and others like them, which were misnamed
Liberies Oallicanes, were upheld by the king and the French par-
liaments ; and their supporters were called Galileans, while all
who maintained the legitimate rights of the Holy See were called
UUramo7itains, a name by which French and even Germans desig-
nated all Italians, and especially Italian and Eoman theologians,
who were living ^' beyond the mountains (the Alps) which separate
France and Germany from Italy."
The quintessence of Gallicanism was embodied in 1682, in four
propositions, promulgated by Louis XIV., and which the law of the
land obliged all professors to teach, and all beneficiaries to hold
B.
Bossuet's opinion on the temporalities of the Holy See :
" We know that the Eoman pontiffs and the priestly order have
received by concession from sovereigns, and hold in lawful possession,
property, rights, and principalities, which they retain as other men
do, most rightfully. We know that these possessions, inasmuch as
they are consecrated to God, are to be held sacred, and that no one
605
5o6 Appendix,
may without sacrilege invade or wrest them away or bestow them on
secular persons. To the Holy See hath been conceded the sover-
eignty of the city of Eome and other possessions, in order that the
Holy See being thereby made both freer and more secure, might
exercise its power throughout the whole world. This is a thing for
which the Holy See has to be congratulated as well as the univer-
sal Church, and we pray God with all our heart, that to all intents
and purposes this sacred principality remain intact and secure." —
Defensio Cleri Gallicani, 1. i., sect, x., c. 16.
C.
Carbonaro is a word derived from the Italian carlonajo, ''a char-
coal burner," and became in Italy about 1810 a designation for every
member of a secret political association organized to get rid both of
the rule of the French, who were then masters of the kingdom of
Naples, and of the expelled Bourbons, who were half-Spanish, half-
French. These men wanted Italy for the Italians, and wanted to
'* purify" or rid the country of foreigners and foreign rule. Hence
they adopted " carbon " or charcoal as the symbol of purification or
the extermination of their foreign masters.
They had their resorts in the mountains of the Abruzzi during
the French occupation, and spread gradually over all Italy, aiming
at the extirpation of the Bourbons from Naples and Sicily, of the
Austrians from Lombardy and Venice, as well as of the Grand Dukes
from Modena and Florence.
The Italian carbonari were, however, derived from a secret society
of the same nature which arose in France during the eighteenth cen-
tury, and was called Charlonnerie. Both of these societies acquired
great extension and extraordinary power from 1810 to 1830.
They covered both countries with a network of societies, which be-
came both anti-monarchical and anti-Christian. Their lodges or
places of meeting were called, in the language of the craft, '* huts,"
Italian, baracche; the provincial huts were called ''sales," vendite,
and the national huts or lodges, "high sales," alte vendite,
I In 1820 Italy had 700,000 carbonari.
RETURN TO the circulation desk of any
University of California Library
or to the
NORTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY
BIdg. 400, Richmond Field Station
University of California
Richmond, CA 94804-4698
ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS
• 2-month loans may be renewed by calling
(510)642-6753
• 1-year loans may be recharged by bringing
books to NRLF
• Renewals and recharges may be made
4 days prior to due date
DUE AS STAMPED BELOW
JUL 6 2005
DD20 12M 1-05
U.C. BERKELEY LIBRARIES
CD3afim7D7
lauijaMiunfr
u
\m