BALAN, PIETRO. — Priest, controversialist, and historian, b. at Este on 3 September 1840, d. at Pragatto (Bologna) on 17 February 1893. Of indomitable spirit, acute intelligence, and broad and well-nourished historical culture, he took an active part in the heated political-ecclesiastical controversies of the time and in the most combative journalism, defending the rights of the Church and vindicating the glories of the past, above all in relation to the most genuine Italian traditions. Thus, from his youth, entering the current of Neo-Guelphism, he set out to fight against those who wished to banish the Pontiff from national life, and against those “transigent” Catholics ready to assert that the Pope “ought” to change course by simply accepting the “accomplished facts.”
Ordained a priest in 1863, when he had already been teaching history at the seminary of Padua for a year and had published the first Studies on the Papacy two years earlier, he began the Catholic Readings with Alessio De Besi and Giuseppe Sacchetti and then, in 1865 at Venice, also as director, the Catholic Liberty, moving the following year to Florence to Catholic Unity, and founding in 1867 at Modena the Catholic Right.
The following works, among others, belong chronologically to the first period of B.’s activity: The Precursors of Liberalism up to Luther (Modena 1867); The Funeral Oration for Monsignor Gianalberto Arnoldi, Archbishop of Spoleto (Spoleto 1876); The Economy, the Church, and the Humanitarians (Modena 1868); Pius IX, the Church, and the Revolution (ibid. 1869); Dante and the Popes (ibid. 1870); On Germanic Preponderance over the Rest of Europe (ibid. 1871); The Church and the State, Especially in Relation to the German Empire (ibid. 1871); The First Struggle of Gregory IX with Frederick II (ibid. 1871); The History of Gregory IX and His Times (ibid. 1872–73); The Assubi of Mirandola of Julius II and Julius III according to the Most Recent Documents (ibid. 1876); The Historical Memoirs of Tencarola in the Paduan Territory (ibid. 1876); The History of the Lombard League (ibid. 1876); Memoirs of Blessed Beatrice d’Este (ibid. 1878); The Tombs of the Popes Profaned by Gregorovino (ibid. 1879); and finally The Papacy and Italy (ibid. 1879).
The thought informing these writings soon issued in two works of bold conception and broad, open scope, unfortunately neglected, although it is still quite recent and highly appropriate to observe that the three volumes of History of the Church in Continuation of That of Rohrbacher (3 vols., Modena 1879–86) constitute a passionate defense of the dramatic life of Pius IX. The other work composed in the same spirit is History of Italy (7 vols., ibid. 1875–90; 2nd ed. in 11 vols., 1894–99), with notes by R. Maiocchi, who made use of B.’s own corrections and additions.
Placed by Leo XIII in the Vatican Archives in 1879, he was also entrusted with delicate political assignments and received well-deserved honors (beneficed cleric of St. Peter’s, secret chamberlain, domestic prelate, referendary of the Segnatura, and Roman count). Yet this did not prevent him from becoming the object of bitter polemics and the victim of malicious insinuations intended to strike at his priestly honor by attributing to him the authorship of anonymous writings opposed to important papal directives. These calumnies did not lose their hold even when B., wounded to the heart, withdrew in 1883 into the solitude of Pragatto.
The following works date from this second period of B.’s activity: The Rebellion of Perugia in 1368 and Its Submission in 1370, Recounted According to Documents from the Vatican Archives (Rome 1880); The Archives of the Holy See in Relation to the History of Italy (ibid. 1881); I Monumento saeculi XVI historiam illustrantia (Innsbruck 1885); On the History of Bassano by Ottone Brentari: Critical Letters by P. B. and A. Besi with Appendices (Padua 1885); The Greatness of Gregory VII, a Discourse (Milan 1885); Clement VII and the Italy of His Times (ibid. 1887); Fra Paolo Sarpi, Notes (Venice 1887); The Sanctuary of Santa Maria della Guardia near Bologna (Milan 1890); Thomas Becket (Rome 1891); The True Reality of Things and of the Facts of the Present Struggle in Rome and Italy (Modena 1891). Nor, in any list of his works, may the following be omitted: On Giordano Bruno and His Merits in Relation to a Monument; Monumenta reformationis lutheranae ex tabularis S. Sedis secretis; Roberto Boschetti and the Italian Events of His Times (1494–1529); Pius IX and the Judgment of History; The Papacy of John VIII from 872 to 882 and the Trial of Boniface VIII in 1304; The Precursors of Modern Socialism; Clementis VII epistolae per Sadoletum scriptae.