CIACCHI, LUIGI. — Cardinal, born at Pesaro on 16 August 1788, died at Rome on 17 December 1865. Having arrived in Rome at a young age, he pursued a prelatical career. In 1828 he was pro-legate in the province of Bologna; in 1830 Pius VIII sent him as apostolic delegate to Macerata, where the events of 1831 took him by surprise. He based his conduct on principles of intelligent tolerance without weakness.
This line of conduct led C. to the governorship of the capital and to the general direction of the police (1834). On the occasion of Easter 1835, he took the initiative in an amnesty for political prisoners who had six months of their sentences remaining to be served, thereby winning popular sympathy and the vehement criticism of those who considered his indulgence excessive. Created a cardinal in 1838 by Pope Gregory XVI, he was legate at Ferrara, where he decisively supported the reforming work of Pius IX.
When, in August 1847, the Austrians entered the city, C. conducted himself with great dignity and succeeded, albeit with considerable effort, in avoiding worse consequences in view of the enormous agitation against the arbitrary occupiers. In recognition of his work as a peacemaker, the citizens of Ferrara had two gold medals struck, one of which was presented to him personally and the other sent to Cardinal Secretary of State Ferretti. During the months of 1848, he devoted himself to assisting the volunteers and the Papal troops marching toward the battlefields. In May of that year he assumed the presidency of the ministry with the portfolio of ecclesiastical foreign affairs, but immediately afterward resigned in order to return to Ferrara, where shortly thereafter he was replaced by a lay pro-legate. Upon returning to Rome, C. continued to follow and support the policy of Pius IX and spent his final years in the exercise of the priestly apostolate.