Giacomo ANTONELLI. — Cardinal, born 12 April 1806 at Sonnino into a modest family enriched through government contracts and land reclamation works in the Pontine marshes and steadfast in its loyalty to the Pope during the French domination, died in the Vatican on 6 November 1876. He studied at the Roman Seminary and then at the Sapienza, and upon graduating he received from his father Domenico the necessary funds to establish a family prelatial household. He immediately turned to public affairs, displaying keen intelligence, administrative skill, and rare administrative talents. Gentle, unflappable, refined and obliging in manner, yet quick to discern the right course of action in the most intricate and controversial matters, he soon gained strong support, particularly from Cardinals Zurla and Lambruschini, who opened the way to a brilliant career.
In 1841 he became Referendary of the Segnatura, assessor at the criminal tribunal of Rome, and apostolic delegate in Orvieto, Viterbo, and Macerata. The critical state of the treasury and the discontent spreading in some provinces following the cholera epidemic of 1837 gave him the opportunity to demonstrate his administrative insight and political sensitivity. He soon became substitute to Cardinal Mattei at the Interior Ministry (1841), and shortly afterward Gregory XVI appointed him canon of St Peter’s, apostolic protonotary, and on 5 January 1845 called him to succeed Cardinal Antonio Tosti as pro-treasurer of the Apostolic Chamber, sending him the appointment as general treasurer in March. Barely a month later, he successfully resolved the difficult problem of Eugenio Beauharnais’s estates by arranging a loan and dividing the land into small plots to be ceded to poor peasant subjects of the Pope.
Antonelli, Giacomo — Portrait — Rome, Museo del Risorgimento.
Close to Pius IX since his election, he was the Pope’s sole intimate and devoted advisor on temporal matters, overcoming the extraordinary domestic and foreign political difficulties through tenacity in action, calculated reserve, and unyielding firmness. Created cardinal deacon first of the title of Sant’Agata dei Goti and then of Santa Maria in Via Lata on 11 June 1847, he wholeheartedly collaborated in the broad reform program that Pius IX intended to implement in order to render the Papal States capable of sustaining themselves in the modern age. As president of the Council of State, he supported the plan for a defensive league among Italian states; contributed to the drafting and promulgation of the Statute; strongly backed Pellegrino Rossi’s program and work; but with clear-sighted foresight opposed anything that, through a declaration of war on Austria, might in any way impair the full sovereignty of the Papacy and the Church. Between 10 March and the famous 29 April 1848, he became convinced that a critical moment was approaching when it would be necessary to break with the innovators who saw the Pope merely as an Italian prince or sought to undermine definitively his authority in the eyes of his subjects and the world in order to displace him. Thus, after the assassination of Rossi and the assault on the Quirinal (15–16 November), Antonelli very skillfully exploited the efforts of the representatives of the major powers, who were united in wishing to remove Pius IX from Rome but divided over where he should be exiled—each power wanting it to be on its own territory so as to use it either in a liberal or reactionary sense—and succeeded in having the Pope conveyed to Gaeta, from where, with the help of France and others, he was able to return to Rome after the fall of the Republic.
Pius IX rewarded him by appointing him Secretary of State, a position he held until his death, striving internally, not without success, to improve the governmental structure through enlightened and well-conceived reforms, to maintain public order, and to build up a solid nucleus of military forces; and externally, to press governments in favor of the Pope through the increasingly influential Catholic public opinion. Like Consalvi and Bernetti before him, he sensed that sooner or later the great liberal movement would prevail, sweeping away the temporal principality of the Church; but precisely for this reason he knew that the Pope could neither negotiate nor compromise. These were twenty-one years of unyielding resistance conducted with rare skill through increasingly intransigent notes and protests aimed at exposing the violence of his adversaries and preserving the honor of the millennial institution without compromising the future or impairing the right, so that the principle of effective and visible sovereignty might triumph, upon which our own day has been able to achieve the Conciliation. Even after 1870 he continued to fight, refusing to accept the unilateral solution represented by the Law of Guarantees and placing ever greater reliance on the forces of the great Catholic world, especially in exposing the dangerous absurdity of the treatment accorded to the Pope.
Antonelli’s complex political personality has been and still is the object of much criticism and controversy. From many points of view he recalls certain great ecclesiastical statesmen of earlier centuries, perhaps also because of the charm and agreeable presence that went with his slender figure, bright penetrating eyes, love of conversation and society, and taste for the fine arts and his collection of precious stones and marbles. He was not without heart, as was seen, among other things, in the generous aid he extended to the destitute family of the chaplain Antonio De Felici, who in 1855 attempted to kill him in the Vatican. He was a devoted friend of St John Bosco and a benefactor of the Salesian works. He generously favored brothers and relatives. The series of misunderstandings with De Merode can be explained by the opposite temperaments of the two contenders—one so generous, impulsive, and open, the other so secretive, cold, and calculating. Moreover, all the criticisms leveled against him, being polemical and undocumented, are gradually fading away, as is the intrigue woven around the Fausti-Venanzì case, which only served to strengthen Antonelli’s influence with Pius IX, who, more than favoring him, clearly perceived the importance of his work.
BIBL.:
G. Biagini, *Biografici*, Palermo 1911;
J. Schmidlin, *Papstgeschichte der neuen Zeit*, II, Munich 1934, passim;
G. De Chambrun, *Un projet de séjour en France du Pape Pie IX*, in *Revue d'histoire diplomatique*, Oct.-Dec. 1936;
P. Dalla Torre, *L'opera riformatrice ed amministrativa di Pio IX dal 1850 al 1870*, Rome 1945.
— On A.’s love for the fine arts cf. P. Dalla Torre, *Le plastiche a soggetto indigeno nordamericano del Petrich nel Pont. Museo Miss. Em. Vicende e significato d'una raccolta romana dell'Ottocento* (With unpublished documents), in *Annali Lateranensi*, 4 (1940).
And in general, moreover, the excellent entries by A. De Waal, in *Kirchenlexikon*, I, cols. 978-89;
by P. Richard, in *DHG*, III, cols. 832-837;
by M. Rosi, in *Dizionario del Risorgimento Nazionale*, II, pp. 85-87;
by E. Soderini, in *Enciclopedia Italiana*, III, pp. 547-48.