Bernetti, Tommaso

BERNETTI, TOMMASO. - Cardinal, b. at Fermo on 29 Dec. 1779, d. there on 21 March 1852. He studied law in his native city and went to Rome to serve his apprenticeship under Bartolucci. Intelligent and active, he soon made himself noticed and was appointed secretary of the Rota. As nephew of Cardinal Brancadoro, archbishop of Fermo, when his uncle was confined to Reims by Napoleon, he followed him, remaining with him for five years. In 1813 Pius VII sent him to Maestricht with the task of delivering secret letters to the emperor of Austria. This and other missions of trust, well carried out, brought him into prominence in the restored Roman court. After the defeat of Murat, during whose ephemeral government he had had to leave Rome, he was sent to negotiate the evacuation of the Legations by the Austrians (1815). Held in high esteem by Consalvi, he was appointed delegate to Ferrara, where he gave proof of promptness and energy, not unaccompanied by tact, and subsequently assessor of Arms and, after the flight of Msgr. Pacca, director general of police and governor of Rome (1820-26). In this twofold delicate office he won appreciation for maturity of mind and sureness of judgment, especially on the occasion of the tormented biennium 1820-1821 and of the Conclave of 1823. Leo XII sent him to Moscow for the coronation of Tsar Nicholas I (1826) and entrusted him with important negotiations in Vienna and Paris. As a sign of gratitude and esteem came his creation as cardinal of the order of deacons, with the title of S. Cesareo in Palatio, on 25 June 1827, which he held until 22 Jan. 1844, when he passed to that of S. Lorenzo in Damaso. Subsequently appointed legate to Ravenna, he never reached his see, partly because of poor health (he suffered acutely from gout), partly because of his own unwillingness to go to a place still under the sway of extraordinary commissions. A connoisseur of the ills that afflicted the pontifical administration, he wished their causes to be radically removed, rather than remedied sporadically and ineffectively. In the summer of 1828 he was called to succeed Della Somaglia in the Secretariat of State, an office from which he was removed at the accession of Pius VIII, who replaced him with Albani (March 1829). « My not having been recalled to the post I occupied two months ago - he wrote with serene objectivity to his dearest friend Msgr. Amat, on 8 Apr. - has not caused me the most passing bitterness... If I were to start over, who knows whether I would have the same good fortune? I fear rather that the opposite would have happened, owing, if nothing else, to the accumulation of circumstances ». On the death of Pius VIII, he led in conclave, together with Falzacappa, the faction opposed to Albani. By the new pontiff, Gregory XVI, he was recalled to the Secretariat of State (Febr. 1831). His gifts of intelligence and ability were immediately put to a hard test by the revolution that shook the State and by the discordant and intrusive policy of the great powers. Distrustful of the France of Louis Philippe, he had to lean on Austria, while trying, as soon as possible, to escape that power's tutelage. The « new era » he had promised did not come about, but a serious attempt at administrative reforms was to his credit. A convinced supporter of of centralization and of unity of government, in contrast also with the ideas of Cardinal Oppizzoni, legate a latere for the four Legations, he sought to practically annul the results of the Conference and of the Memorandum of the four powers (21 May 1831), reasserting the priority of pontifical initiative, and aiming to mark out independent lines of future action. From the Austro-French dispute, which culminated in the occupation of Ancona (1832), he knew how to profit in order to obtain a modus vivendi and a definite term for evacuation. At the same time, alongside notable reforms of the army and of the public force, he created those centurions, a local volunteer militia, which, in his conception, was to help free the State from foreign tutelage. And, at least for the moment, he succeeded in saving the State and safeguarding its dignity. « I well know - he confided to Amat on 19 March 1831 - that there is now a wish to propose conciliations, to give advice, to settle things with moral intervention, etc., and all that will be fine; but first let the bones be set back in their place ». Relieved of the burden of internal affairs by the appointment of Gamberini in 1833, in 1836, under the pretext of illness, but in reality at the insistence of Austria, which did not love his desire for independence, and because of the recriminations of many against his policy of lavish spending, he was replaced by Lambruschini. For many years in the background, he followed events with intelligence (of the manifesto of the rebels of Savigno, he wrote that « it is a certain thing that cannot fail to leave an impression because it contains truths that make one's blood run cold », 28 Sept. 1843). In the Consistory of 22 Jan. 1844 he was elevated to the dignity of vice-chancellor of Holy Church and at the same time was called to be part of a commission for the further strengthening of the papal army. Pius IX too, in his first acts, had occasion to make use of his ability, assigning him, together with Gizzi, Lambruschini and Amat, to the provisional consultative commission of government. But his poor health tormented him. In the agitated events of 1848 he experienced the bitterness of a temporary arrest (1 May) after the allocation of 29 Apr. After Rossi was killed, he withdrew to S. Elpidio, whence he then went to Naples, to join Pius IX at Gaeta. Once the temporal power was restored, he returned to Fermo in very poor health and there passed away serenely. Good, cultured, witty and active, he is one of the most interesting figures among the cardinals of the 19th century. His unpublished letters to Amat are preserved in the central museum of the Risorgimento in Rome.

Alberto Maria Ghisalberri