CIACCHI, LUIGI. - Cardinal, b. at Pesaro on 16 Aug. 1788, d. at Rome on 17 Dec. 1865. Having come to Rome at a young age, he pursued the prelatial career. In 1828 he was prolegate in the province of Bologna; in 1830 he was sent by Pius VIII as apostolic delegate to Macerata, where the events of 1831 took him by surprise. He inspired his conduct with notions of intelligent tolerance without weakness.
This line of conduct led C. to the governorship of the capital and to the general directorate of police (1834). On the occasion of Easter 1835 he promoted an amnesty for those political convicts who had 6 months of their sentence left to serve, winning popular sympathy and the most lively criticism of those who did not much approve of his leniency. Created cardinal in 1838 by Pope Gregory XVI, he was legate at Ferrara, where he decisively supported the reforming work of Pius IX.
When, in Aug. 1847, the Austrians entered the city, C. conducted himself with great dignity and managed, albeit with great efforts, to avoid worse troubles given the enormous ferment against the arbitrary occupiers. In recognition of his pacifying work, the citizenry of Ferrara had two gold medals struck, one of which was delivered to him personally and the other sent to the cardinal secretary of state Ferretti. During the months of 1848, he exerted himself in assisting the volunteers and the pontifical troops marching toward the fields of battle. In May of the same year he assumed the presidency of the ministry with the portfolio of ecclesiastical foreign affairs, but immediately afterward he resigned in order to return to Ferrara, where shortly thereafter he was replaced by a lay prolegate. Having returned to Rome, C. continued to follow and support the policy of Pius IX and spent his last years in the exercise of the priestly apostolate.
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Mario Zazzetta