LAMBRUSCHINI, Luigi. – Cardinal. Born at Sestri Levante on 16 May 1776, died at Rome on 12 May 1854. He taught philosophy and theology in the Barnabite colleges at Macerata and Rome. Pius VII, whom he had assisted during his imprisonment at Savona, appointed him theological examiner of bishops, consultant to the Holy Office, and finally secretary of the Congregation for Extraordinary Affairs. He was also a valuable collaborator of Cardinal Consalvi in negotiations with the Neapolitan government. On 3 October 1819 he succeeded Cardinal G. Spina as Archbishop of Genoa. In 1821 he induced the insurgents to spare the governor Des Geneys, who had fallen into their hands, and later interceded on their behalf when the reaction set in.
In 1827 Leo XII sent him as nuncio to Charles X of France, where he was overtaken by the July Revolution. He was immediately opposed to this revolution, which also took on anticlerical and anti-Catholic aspects, not only because of his attachment to the old dynasty but above all because of his firmly held convictions against any idea of popular sovereignty and liberalism. The nuncio’s position was moreover very delicate owing to the numerous problems arising from the establishment of the new dynasty and regime; among these were the question of the Holy See’s recognition of the Orléans, the validity of the concordats concluded by Napoleon and the Bourbons, the oath of fidelity to the new regime, and finally the French attitude toward the Revolution in the legations and the Austrian intervention aimed at suppressing II. Although Lambruschini did nothing to make relations between France and the Holy See more difficult, although he had on his own initiative anticipated recognition of the new government, and although many of his actions were dictated by the prudence of the Curia rather than by ill will, his personal sentiments and the support he gave to the Archbishop of Paris, considered a legitimist, led the French government to request his recall, which indeed took place in July 1831.
On 30 September of the same year he was created cardinal by Gregory XVI and entrusted with the Sacred Congregation of Studies. As prefect of this congregation, concerned about the modern philosophical and political ideas spreading from the universities, he tightened the reins and kept a closer watch on professors and students. In 1836, upon the resignation of Bernetti, he was chosen Secretary of State. It was wrongly said that in this office he proved to be a mere instrument of Austrian policy and that his advent signified a return from Bernetti’s broad and comprehensive policy to the most genuine reactionary absolutism. In reality he knew how to defend the independence of the papacy even against Vienna (one need only recall his stance regarding the Austrian insurance societies in 1837), and without compromising on religious questions he was conciliatory toward France and Piedmont and even yielded on purely temporal matters, such as the issue of certain police measures against travelers disembarking at Civitavecchia. His greatest success in foreign policy came in 1838, when the Austrians and French respectively evacuated Ferrara and Ancona. In domestic policy too his attitude was not very different from Bernetti’s, intransigent in theory but tempered in practice. Many were, however, the restrictions he imposed; among other things, recognizing political aims in scientific congresses, he forbade participation in them.
In the conclave of 1846 he received 15 votes in the first ballot, but a strong group of cardinals led by Bernetti opposed his election. He was created prefect of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, bishop of Porto and Santa Rufina and of Civitavecchia, secretary of Briefs, and librarian.
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He felt the need to keep politics and religion separate and hence the necessity of distinguishing the temporal from the spiritual (in 1848 he opposed the declaration of Catholicism as the state religion in the new Tuscan constitution); he was opposed to temporal power (at times he was a decided advocate of the secularization of posts in the Papal States: “spiritual power,” he wrote in the newspaper *La Patria* on 16 February 1848, “will return to its ancient splendor, leaving a power that often soils the hands, or at least makes them appear so, to be handled by laymen”). The theory of the separation of Church and State is not, however, so decisive in Lambruschini as in a Vinet, because Lambruschini envisages a separation open to specific alliances between the two powers.
On a religious level, in his youth he had doubts about the necessity of the papacy, but later declared it “better than the full truth of God and His wise charity” (cf. correspondence, II, p. 246); he was not favorable to Protestantism as such, but affirmed that Protestantism contains a share of truth in upholding the principle of freedom, which Catholicism also recognizes: for Lambruschini, freedom alone is a fatal principle, because religious authority is also necessary, founded moreover on tradition and the clergy. Lambruschini has been rightly defined a neo-Enlightener, because for him Revelation must pass through the filter of reason. The laws of nature are immutable: God has only permitted phenomena that human ignorance deems contrary to the laws of nature (an assertion of Lambruschini’s that is, however, contradicted elsewhere); even the miracles of the Gospel are for him to be entrusted to “criticism” and “individual faith.” Lambruschini supported the theory of the negativity of dogmatic definitions: “definitions,” he wrote (op. cit., pp. 123–24), “are not explanations of the Mystery but negations of profane explanations”; for Catholic unity it is enough “to accept the dogmas in their indeterminate obscurity, as an exercise of faith, not as an object of knowledge, and to reject crises.” For Lambruschini there are only two dogmas properly speaking, the essence of God and the retribution of the future life; in other dogmas there may be no intrinsic truth (so he wrote in 1832, but in 1835 he affirmed instead that the essence is true). For him sacramental efficacy is not intrinsic to the rite. Lambruschini polemicized against those who are not content to adore and contemplate the mystery but wish to explain it (*Dell’autorità e della libertà. Pensieri d’un solitario*, ed. A. Gambaro, Florence 1932, p. 120), but his was probably not a mystical position but rather an extreme defense of “reason,” which on a discursive level cannot accept what repels II. In this sense Lambruschini was truly a precursor of Italian Modernism.
THE EDUCATIONALIST. – In the field of pedagogy he acquired notable importance for his rich educational experience, which led him to launch periodicals and to compose special works, in which, despite some serious shortcomings, one finds vigorous and effective maxims, advice, and ideas. To him is owed the first pedagogical periodical to appear in Italy: *Guida dell'educatore*, which he founded and edited from 1836 to 1845, supported by *Letture per i fanciulli* and *Lettere per la gioventù*. These were followed by *La famiglia e la scuola* (1859–61) and *La gioventù* (1862–69). Among his always useful works are: *Dell'educazione* (Florence 1849), *Della istruzione elementare e di secondo grado* (ibid. 1850), *Della istruzione* (ibid. 1881, new ed. edited by G. Calò, ibid. 1923), *Delle virtù e dei vizi* (Milan 1873), *Primi scritti religiosi* (edited by A. Gambaro, ibid. 1918).
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Lambruschini, Luigi – Portrait.