PIUS IX, Pope. - Descendant of the Mastai family of Cesena, which received the comital title for its merits from the Duke of Parma and added to its own surname that of the Ferretti, a noble family of Ancona related to it through marriages. Giovanni Maria Mastai Ferretti, born at Senigallia on 13 May 1792 to Count Girolamo and Caterina Solazzi.
He studied with the Piarists of Volterra, continued at the Collegio Romano the studies that he had to interrupt because of the Napoleonic events and that he resumed, once matters had been set right, in Rome. Being afflicted with epilepsy, he feared that he would not be able to accede to the sacred Orders: but once this difficulty was overcome he was ordained a priest on 19 Apr. 1819. From his youth he concerned himself with the Ospizio di Tata Giovanni, to which he always remained very attached.
He followed as auditor Msgr. Giovanni Muzi, apostolic delegate to the Republics of Chile and Peru (1823-25), and on his return from that mission he received the canonry of S. M. in Via Lata, the direction of the Ospizio di S. Michele and, on 3 June 1827, consecration as bishop of Spoleto. During the insurrectionary disturbances of '31 he took the government of the city into his hands, earning the gratitude of the Holy See and of the entire citizenry. Gregory XVI transferred him on 17 Dec. 1832 to the see of Imola, creating him at the same time cardinal of the title of Sts. Peter and Marcellinus. He ran the risk, in the disturbances of Sept. 1843, of falling into the hands of the insurgents; and he rendered himself greatly deserving of the preservation of public order. He had much to suffer because of the political factions that were tearing apart the populations of Romagna and because of the outbreaks of vengeance and bloodshed of which he had to be a spectator. He omitted no means of soothing the ardors of partisan passions, even by intervening with the Holy See so that a curb might be placed on the provocative conduct of the so-called "papaloni."
I. ELECTION AS PONTIFF. FIRST ACTS. REFORMS
In the Conclave that followed the death of Gregory XVI, from 15 to 16 June 1846, one of the shortest that history remembers, Cardinal Mastai was elected pope and took the name Pius. The eminent pastoral qualities he had demonstrated and his knowledge of the needs of the State were the qualities that drew upon him the attention of the electors. Contrary to a very widespread opinion, no nation raised a veto against Mastai. Cardinal Gaysruck, archbishop of Milan, who it was said carried the veto of Austria, did not reach Rome until after the election had taken place. The coronation of the Pope, on 21 June, unfolded amid demonstrations of vibrant enthusiasm.
As his principal collaborator Pius immediately chose the young prelate Giovanni Corboli-Bussi (v.) of Urbino, secretary of the Conclave. He, together with Cardinal Pasquale Gizzi, appointed secretary of State on 8 August, became his right-hand man. By a decree dated 17 July, Pius granted a broad amnesty to political convicts and the repatriation of exiles upon a simple declaration of faithful submission to the public authorities. He took care to soften the condition of the Jews in Rome, where moreover they enjoyed a treatment far more humane than in other countries, by ordering the abolition of the closure of the ghetto. The experience of pastoral life had put him in a position to acquire a direct knowledge of the true needs and aspirations of the people. He had formed a friendship with Count Giuseppe Pasolini of Ravenna, a passionate cultivator of political and social sciences, a moderate liberal, and from him he was kept informed of the various currents of ideas that were emerging in the educated class and of the recent writings of Balbo, Gioberti and others, on which a new national consciousness, both federalist and unitary, was beginning to orient itself. He had read the Manifesto of Rimini of 24 September 1845 and the Casi di Romagna of Massimo d'Azeglio. He recognized that D'Azeglio, with whom he had had contacts since 1845, in his pamphlet stated several truths, albeit mingled with exaggerations and falsehoods.
He immediately set about remedying the ills of the Ecclesiastical State, and began by instituting a special Congregation of State for the study of some of the most urgent affairs, namely the amnesty, the railways, the ordering of the finances, the tribunals and the militia; he called to be part of it Cardinals Macchi, Lambruschini, Mattei, Amat, Gizzi and Bernetti and appointed Corboli-Bussi as its secretary. The meetings were held in the presence of the Pope and in five important sessions, in which Monsignor Morichini, pro-treasurer, also took part, all the aforementioned subjects were treated. Provision was made so that the amnesty, granted with the repatriation or release of so many persons compromised on political grounds, should not disturb the normal functions of the State. The amnesty, published with the historic Proclamation dictated by Corboli-Bussi, on 17 July 1846, gave rise to frenzied demonstrations that seemed as though they would never end; so that Cardinal Gizzi had to intervene with circulars and ordinances, calling the authorities and citizens back to a greater austerity, in order to arrive at the normal implementation of the reconstructive and reformist program that the Pope had set for himself. It was immediately seen that those repeated demonstrations were nothing but an artifice of hidden agitators, to accustom the people to playing the sovereign. With the Edict of 15 March 1847 the censorship of the press was mitigated, leaving the liberals, who would have wished every restriction abolished, not a little disappointed. By motu-proprio of 18 June a Council of ministers was instituted. An edict of 5 July instituted the civic guard in Rome and gave normative provisions for the other cities of the State. On 14 October the Consulta of State was instituted, presided over by a cardinal and formed of 24 consultors elected by the Pope on the designation of the provincial and municipal councils. Several moderate liberals took part in it, such as Pasolini, Minghetti, Silvani, Gualterio.
II. THE ITALIAN QUESTION
On Aug. 24, 1847, Corboli-Bussi left Rome with secret instructions to propose a customs league, on the model of the German Zollverein, to the courts of Florence, Turin and Modena. The aim toward which the initiative was directed was to stir the patriotic feeling still dormant in many and to give it a national federal direction. For this reason the instructions to the papal envoy did not mention Austria. The league was to open the way to a closer union among the Italian courts in the civil, military and political order. The initiative met with a ready and unconditional welcome in Florence. In Turin, on the other hand, it was subjected to such and so many cautions, examinations and restrictions as to show that it arrived far from welcome. It took more than two months to reach the conclusion of certain preliminaries, which were signed on Nov. 3, and this gave Austria every opportunity to undermine the ground of the pontifical initiative, in Modena and in the duchies, and to arrange with these secret commercial and military treaties, on very advantageous conditions, which were concluded on Dec. 24. When Corboli-Bussi, together with Ricci and Martini, respectively deputies from Turin and from Florence, presented themselves to offer the league to Duke Francis V, the latter feigned good dispositions and took advantage of the work of the three envoys to smooth over the frictions existing between himself and Florence, which was striving to postpone the cession of Fivizzano. Having obtained his aim, he dismissed them in an ill manner, bringing affront, besides to the three envoys, also to the Holy See, which had offered itself as mediator.
Despite the failure of the league, the name of P., acclaimed by now throughout Italy as the avenger of nationality, continued to give the driving impulse to the demonstrations that were multiplying in order to push toward national war. And this above all from the moment when, in Aug. of that year, with a supremely impolitic gesture, Austria had the garrison of Ferrara reinforced and the militarily important points of the city occupied. The incident was soon resolved by the parties through diplomatic channels; nevertheless the demonstrations multiplied endlessly, and to the name of P. was joined that of Charles Albert, who, in a letter that was deliberately circulated, declared himself ready, «pour la cause guelphe», to play the part of a second Shamil.
The episode of Ferrara would have lent itself very well to the designs cherished by Piedmont of attacking Austria, on the pretext of protecting the rights and independence of the Pontiff, posing as the avenger of Italian nationality. Strong pressures were brought to bear on P. to make him abandon neutrality. But he, having examined the problem from every angle, deemed it his duty, given also the conditions in which the State found itself, to use his authority to ensure that national unity should have not a warlike but a peaceful solution. From the beginning of his government until Nov. 1848, that is, until the flight to Gaeta, he never lost sight of the idea of an Italian confederation, and he seconded the projects elaborated for this purpose by Corboli, by Abbot Rosmini, and by Pellegrino Rossi.
III. 1848. CRISIS OF THE ITALIAN POLICY OF PIUS IX. GAETA. — Following the example of the other Italian princes, on March 14, 1848, P. granted a Statute. Its drafting was entrusted to a special commission, made up of Cardinals Ostini, Orioli, Altieri, Vizzardelli, Antonelli, Bofondi and of the prelates Corboli, Bernabò and Mertet, adapting it to the conditions that derived for the Roman State from the prince's being head of the Church. It delimited the competence of the public powers within the purely civil sphere; the college of cardinals constituted the Senate of the new regime; two elective legislative bodies were instituted, the high council and the council of deputies; laws, in order to become effective, had to have the sanction of the Pope, after hearing the opinion of the cardinals. A civil list of 600,000 scudi a year was established for the Pope, including therein the appanage for the cardinals and the expenses of the ecclesiastical departments and of the court.
After the disturbances of the Five Days in Milan and Piedmont's intervention in Lombardy, the pressures on P. to take part in the war for the expulsion of Austria became even stronger and more insistent. The lay members of the Ministry, Minghetti and Pasolini, were for war. Already in the edict of June 22, 1847, with which the event of a war that would set in conflict populations devoted to the common father was deprecated, it was made quite clear that in such an event the Pope would not enter the field against Austria. The same hesitations still persisted, and to the causes of a moral and religious order (in Austria and in Germany there were rumors of schism) were added others of a military and financial order. P., while agreeing to the request of the Sardinian government to send a body of troops to the Lombard-Venetian border, in order to lighten the weight of the Austrian army, could never bring himself to assume the responsibilities of a declaration of war.
Nevertheless, on Apr. 9, 1848, he sent Corboli-Bussi to Charles Albert's headquarters with the mission of urging the conclusion of the national league, which had become in his view all the more urgent in that it would have freed him from those responsibilities he so greatly dreaded; and at the same time to ask for a loan. The Pope's requests went unheeded: Piedmont, trusting too much in its own forces and in its first successes, was unwilling to assume commitments; and P. IX on Apr. 29 pronounced the famous allocution with which he solemnly declared that he did not wish to declare war. The repercussion of the Pope's words was enormous, nor did people fail to distort its meaning in the most odious ways. He made a public declaration of his true sentiments and on May 3 wrote an autograph letter to the Emperor of Austria, imploring him to grant Italy a peace founded on the recognition of nationality. To the same end he sent Msgr. Morichini to Vienna on a special mission. But nothing availed to erase from him the undeserved stigma of enemy of the fatherland. The ministerial crisis that followed the allocution of Apr. 29 forced P., owing to the influence of turbulent elements that dominated in the circles and in the streets, to hand over power to Mamiani, whose advanced ideas he did not ignore and with whom he found himself in constant dissension throughout the duration of his ministry (May-Aug.). Finally, on Sept. 16 he entrusted the government to Pellegrino Rossi, with the intention of establishing a strong regime, restoring the by now decayed authority of the State. His program was progress in order and the federal unity of the nation. The distinguished statesman, who enjoyed the full confidence of the Pope and was firm in his resolve to put a curb on anarchy, was barbarously murdered at the foot of the staircase of the Cancelleria on Nov. 15 while he was on his way to inaugurate the Chamber and deliver his program speech. The material perpetrator of the crime was held to be one of the sons of the popular leader Angelo Brunetti (Ciceruacchio), but the conspiracy that had plotted it must have been very extensive. With Rossi there disappeared the most effective bulwark of legality, which the elabs and the rabble abhorred, and Rome fell prey to anarchy; the Quirinal was assailed by the mob, which tumultuously demanded a demagogic government. The Pope's secretary, Msgr. Palma, fell struck by the bullets that rained from nearby houses into the courtyards and halls of the Palace, at whose door the Prince of Canino had a cannon trained. P., in one of the critical situations, gave an example of admirable self-command.
No longer feeling safe in Rome, on Nov. 24, thus advised by various ambassadors and by Cardinal Antonelli, he secretly departed and took refuge in Gaeta, where he was received with filial devotion by King Ferdinand II, who placed the royal palace at his disposal and supplied him with everything he needed. From Gaeta P. wrote to the sovereigns who had relations with the Vatican, informing them of what had happened and asking for their help. He declared the acts issued by the government of Rome void and of no effect. He rejected the invitations sent to him by the government he had disavowed to return to his seat, as well as the offer advanced by Gioberti, in the name of the Sardinian government, to restore the temporal power on his own and to reconcile the Pope with his subjects.
IV. THE ROMAN REPUBLIC
In Rome, meanwhile, a supreme junta of state was being installed, which on 20 Dec. called for the Constituent Assembly, and the new chamber that emerged from the elections of 5 Feb. 1849 declared the Pope's government to have fallen and proclaimed the Republic (8-9 Feb.). Executive power was entrusted to a triumvirate, which was at first composed of Armellini, Montecchi and Saliceti, and shortly afterwards of Mazzini, Saffi and Armellini. With this, the bridges between Rome and Gaeta were broken. There the representatives of the courts that had responded to P.'s appeal — Austria, France, Spain and Naples — gathered in conference under the presidency of Cardinal Antonelli, discussed the ways of recovering the throne for the Pontiff and, against the wishes and pressures of France, decided on the abolition of the Statute. An Austrian army corps, having crossed the Po on 16 May, occupied Bologna and on 10 June Ancona. The French, having landed at Civitavecchia on 15 Apr., after some military operations that did not have a happy outcome, charged Lesseps with negotiating with Mazzini, but without any result; finally they attacked Rome with adequate forces and on 3 July, overcoming a stubborn resistance, forced it to surrender.
From Gaeta the Pope had moved on 4 Sept. to Portici. For various reasons, partly political and partly financial, P., being obliged to delay his return to Rome, assigned there a regency commission, formed of three cardinals, Della Genga, Vannicelli and Altieri, and only on 12 Apr. 1850 did he re-enter the City, where grandiose and jubilant welcomes awaited him. From Portici on 12 Sept. 1849 he had issued a motu-proprio with which he granted a broad amnesty and certain reforms, among them the institution of the Council of State with consultative functions, a Consulta for finances, norms for the election of municipal and provincial councils, and he announced further concessions.
V. RESTORATION. INTERNAL POLICY
The conditions in which the Pope took the government of the State back into his hands were very serious: all the more arduous, therefore, was the work of restoration that fell to him. The public administration was divided into four departments: 1) Interior, Grace and Justice; 2) Finances; 3) Agriculture, Industry and Commerce, Fine Arts and Public Works; 4) Arms. The ministers held their meetings under the presidency of the Cardinal Secretary of State, Antonelli, who, first as Pro-Secretary, then from 1852 as Secretary, held this office for many years until his death (v. ANTONELLI). The first and most arduous undertaking was the restoration of the finances, left in a state of bankruptcy by the republican government. The coffers were empty, the scanty fiscal sources dried up, the state flooded with no fewer than eight million in paper money guaranteed by no gold reserve. Nevertheless, without resorting to tax increases, the budget, which in 1850 recorded a deficit of more than two million, was brought back to balance in less than a decade, thanks to the prudence of the ministers and to the generosity and extreme thrift of the Pope. Many grandiose public works were carried out in those years: reclamation of the Pontine and Ostian countryside, regulation of river courses, harbor works in almost all the maritime cities, railways (in addition to the Frascati, Montalto and Ceprano lines, the Rome-Ancona-Bologna line was undertaken and brought to a good stage). It may be said that there was no city of the Papal State that did not benefit from the munificence of the Pope: he also promoted trade, the sciences, the arts and works of public charity; on the very eve of the breach of Porta Pia the Acqua Pia (the ancient Marcia) was inaugurated, conveyed from Arsoli to Rome. Mention must not be omitted of the important progress made, under his pontificate, by the historical and archaeological sciences, through the protection and assistance granted to Pietro Ercole Visconti and to Giovanni Battista de Rossi (v.), the former placed in charge of the excavations of classical antiquities and the latter of Christian antiquities. Such was the urban development of the city under P.'s government as to give it the true character of a modern capital.
To dispel the rumors that he was universally detested by his subjects, in 1857 the Pope made a tour of all the cities of the State, stayed in Bologna for a couple of months, listened to anyone who wished to speak to him, extended the journey as far as Modena and Florence, welcomed everywhere with cordial and enthusiastic demonstrations. He returned to Rome on Sept. 5, as in triumph.
After the unhappy outcome of the constitutional experiment of '48, P. was always reluctant to make democratic concessions. He was not, however, an enemy of reforms. In addition to the program published with the motu-proprio of Sept. 12, 1849, further concessions were agreed upon with France in Nov. 1859, which were not made known only because on the part of France there was a failure to honor what it had led him to hope for in return, namely the restitution of the Legations. In 1863, under the Drouyn de Lhuys ministry, with relations with Paris improved, P. spontaneously put forward and carried out an important program of improvements and reforms extending to almost all branches of the administration, such as posts, customs, justice (the special tribunals of the S. C. Lauretana, of the Fabbrica di S. Pietro, of the S. Visita del Vicariato, etc., were abolished), civil and commercial legislation, etc. And although he rejected the proposal for the total exclusion of the clergy from civil offices, urged by liberal governments, in fact ecclesiastical officials were reduced to the proportion of two percent.
VI. THE ROMAN QUESTION
With Piedmont there persisted the old jurisdictional rivalries, which the anticlerical spirit dominant in government circles kept making ever more bitter. Following the so-called Siccardi laws, which abolished the ecclesiastical forum, the nuncio Antonucci left Turin on 8 April 1850, and the Pope protested in a consistorial allocution. New deplorable events further complicated the situation, with the abolition of the congrue for curates and the suppression of collegiate churches, simple benefices and religious congregations, provoking the reaction of the episcopate and the clergy and vigorous protests on the part of P.
On the occasion of the Congress of Paris in 1856, Cavour seized the opportunity to raise the Italian question before the governments assembled there, making the origin of the ills afflicting the nation fall principally upon papal misgovernment. In July 1858, at Plombières, secret agreements were reached between Napoleon III and Cavour on how to exclude Austria from the Peninsula and give it a new order.
On the eve of attacking Austria, Napoleon III, through verbal assurances and an autograph letter, assured the Pope that, however the fortunes of war might turn, he had nothing to fear for his principality. As a further guarantee of this, the declaration of neutrality of the Holy See was accepted by the belligerents, with both France and Austria undertaking to consider their respective troops still stationed in the territories of the Church as exempt from the operations of war. In fact, however, the observance of neutrality gave rise to so many and such disputes that Austria, after Magenta, determined to withdraw its garrisons, at the same time causing the insurrection of the Duchies, the Legations and Perugia, where provisional governments were installed in agreement with Piedmont. The Legations were lost forever; Perugia was able to be recovered thanks to the prompt intervention of the papal government. The armistice of Villafranca, which put an end to the war in Lombardy, left the program concerted at Plombières half-finished: the two emperors, of France and of Austria, remained in agreement on the restoration of the princes deposed by the revolution.
VII. FALL OF THE TEMPORAL POWER
In the peace treaty signed at Zurich on Nov. 10, 1859, it was agreed that a European congress to be held in Paris would provide for the definitive settlement of affairs in Italy. P. delegated Cardinal Antonelli as his representative to the congress, but once the famous pamphlet inspired by Napoleon, Le Pape et le Congrès, came to light, in which grave mutilations of the Pope's State were demanded, the latter withdrew his adherence to the congress, which thus came to nothing.
When Cavour returned to power on Jan. 24, 1860, he secured the acquiescence of Napoleon III to the annexations of Tuscany, the Duchies and the Legations, by means of the plebiscites of March 11 and 12, but on March 26 from Rome the major excommunication was launched against all those who, in any manner whatsoever, had cooperated in the usurpation. To P.'s refusal of the proposal to renounce the Romagna, the Marches and Umbria, the response was the violent occupation by the regular forces, on the pretext of preventing Garibaldi's occupation. The small pontifical army was overwhelmed on Sept. 18 at Castelfidardo (v.), and all that remained to the Pope was Rome with the surrounding Patrimony of St. Peter. Various projects were then devised by the interested powers, and principally by France and Piedmont, to give some settlement to the situation of the Head of the Church and to resolve the famous Roman Question (v.), but without success. A modus vivendi that precluded the September Convention (v.) was on the point of being concluded between Paris and Turin, when the death of Cavour occurred, with which the negotiations remained suspended.
With Cavour gone, Napoleon notified his recognition of the Kingdom of Italy, but at the same time began a more considerate policy toward the Holy See. In 1864, with Minghetti as minister, the September Convention was concluded between Paris and Turin, by which the Italian government undertook not to attack nor to cause to be attacked the residual papal territory, to take upon itself the proportionate share of the public debt burdening the pontifical budget, and to transfer the capital from Turin to Florence. Gen. Kanzler attended to the reorganization of a suitable body of troops, reinforced by the so-called legion of Antibes, formed of volunteers, under the unofficial protection of France. The French garrison on Dec. 12, 1866, definitively left Rome.
Two missions sent to Rome to provide for the 106 vacant dioceses of Italy (in the person of Vegezzi in 1865 and of Tonello in 1868), did not suffice to improve relations between the two powers. The reborn Freemasonry and anticlericalism in an ever more intolerant form obstructed any attempt at conciliation. When the King fell gravely ill at San Rossore, in Nov. 1869, through Cardinal Corsi, archbishop of Pisa, he again obtained from P. absolution from the censures.
In the autumn of 1867, against the extreme elements that looked to Garibaldi and afflicted Rome with the painful episodes of Villa Glori, of the Ajani house and of the Serratori Barracks, France intervened in favor of the Pope, and Garibaldi with the bulk of the expedition, halted at Monterotondo, suffered a complete rout at Mentana (v.). In the following November, Napoleon invited the governments to a congress on the Roman Question (v.), to which the Holy See also adhered: but the initiative failed, through the opposition of England and Russia. Nevertheless the French Parliament resolved to restore the garrison at Civitavecchia, which remained there until 1870.
The Franco-Prussian war, which broke out in July 1870, marked the final epilogue of the temporal power. P. wrote to the two sovereigns offering himself as mediator of peace, but without result. At the first reverses of the imperial arms, there came the recall of the French garrison, which P. sought in vain to avert, and on July 20 Napoleon had it made known to the Pope that the custody of the Ecclesiastical State remained entrusted to the Italian arms.
At the beginning of the conflict the Italian government through the minister Lanza assured that it would observe the September Convention, but as soon as Napoleon's fortunes began to waver, the pontifical territory was encircled with troops; after Sedan the ring tightened and on Sept. 20, through the breach of Porta Pia, the royal arms entered Rome. On Sept. 10 the King sent a letter to the Pope through Count Gustavo Ponza di San Martino offering to guarantee order and to ensure the inviolability of the Pontiff. P. declined the offer, but gave orders to Gen. Kanzler, commander in chief of his troops, to limit the defense to what was indispensable to demonstrate that force was being yielded to. At first the Vatican with the Leonine City remained exempt from the occupation; but through the impudence of the mob, which even threatened to force the bronze door, Cardinal Antonelli had to ask Cadorna to provide for the maintenance of order, and the occupation extended to the threshold of the Vatican.
On May 13, 1871, the Law of Guarantees (v.) appeared in the Gazzetta ufficiale del Regno. P. condemned with the encyclical Ubi nos of May 15, 1871 the law, rejected the annual endowment assigned to him and shut himself up in the Vatican in sign of protest, as he declared in a letter to Cardinal Antonelli on June 8, 1872.
VIII. CATHOLIC ACTION AND POLITICAL DIRECTIVES
The sectarian and even openly irreligious manner in which Italian unity was brought about opened an irreparable rift between the Pope and official Italy and brought division even among Catholics themselves.
In all the countries where religion found itself struggling against the invasion of sectarian laicism — in France, in Germany, in Switzerland and elsewhere — associations were formed for the defense of Catholic interests, inspired by the directives of Rome, often with aims of social renewal. Even the Sardinian episcopate in 1849 provided for the institution of an Italian Catholic association in defense of the Church, modeled on the Katholischer Verein of Germany, blessed and encouraged by Pius IX, which, however, as far as is known, did not achieve great results.
Casoni gave life in Bologna to a Catholic Association for the freedom of the Church, blessed by Pius IX, which in 1871 became the Opera dei congressi cattolici with a frankly religious and national program, apart from any political precondition. Alongside it, no small action was carried out by the Società della Gioventù Cattolica Italiana, the Florentine promoting society, the Roman Primaria, the Union of Catholic Women and others, which a Federation Piana with its seat in Rome proposed to bind into a bundle with unity of aims and action.
In the political field the formula "neither elected nor electors," championed by the Turin publicist Abbot Giacomo Margotti, director of the newspaper L'Armonia, at first met strong opposition, even in a notable part of the episcopate, which considered such a method ruinous. It nevertheless enjoyed ever greater success, until it was adopted even by the Holy See as a general norm in political elections (v. NON EXPEDIT). This was not without drawbacks, even serious ones; but it nevertheless had the advantage of preparing the ground for the future, cleared of political preconditions and subservience. And it is noteworthy that although abstention from political life cost no small sacrifices, and there was no lack of allurements and intimidations of every sort, there were no serious defections in the Catholic camp, especially in the hierarchy.
IX. RELIGIOUS LIFE IN OTHER COUNTRIES
In France, where political divisions made the action of the Holy See particularly delicate even in the religious field, still deeply tinged with lingering Jansenist and Gallican survivals, the influence exercised by P. was truly wide and profound. In highly thorny questions, such as the law on freedom of teaching, the exclusion of the pagan classics from Catholic schools in 1850, the adoption of the Roman liturgy, and other similar matters, the wisdom and moderation of P. knew how to triumph over no small difficulties, thanks also to the universal sympathy that his name and his misfortunes aroused throughout the great nation.
Austria, after the restoration of 1849, seconded with greater commitment the religious action of P., and in 1855 concluded with him new concordats, which eliminated the Josephinist spirit of those in force until then; but as a sign of protest against the proclamation of pontifical Infallibility, the new concordats were abolished throughout the Empire. But despite certain attitudes of official religious policy, the true spiritual rebirth and union with Rome, animated by men of the caliber of a Windthorst in Germany, a Vogelsang, a Lueger, a Rauscher in Austria, was great, as in all the other countries: as in Switzerland through the work of a Mermillod and a Lachat; as in the Spain of Balmes and of St. Anthony Claret, however much enslaved to sectarian liberalism and torn by political factions; as in the Protestant countries, in Holland (1853) and in England (1850), where it was possible to reconstitute the hierarchy, and in the United States, where Catholic life was able in a few years to take on an avant-garde development that was the admiration of all the countries of the world.
Of P.'s solicitude for Latin America, testimony is borne by the diplomatic relations he re-established with those Republics, the concordats concluded with a great part of them, and in particular the foundation in Rome of the Pio Latino-American Seminary, on behalf of all the South American Republics.
An period of exceptional importance was the pontificate of P. for the revival of Catholic life in Germany. The first years were full of bright promises. But the political supremacy attained by Prussia, until then the stronghold of Protestantism, over the other German principalities, and the iron regime established by Bismarck, unleashed that stubborn and violent struggle against Catholics, known by the name of Kulturkampf (v.). Its repercussions were felt, besides in Prussia, in other principalities with which good concordats had been concluded, such as Württemberg (1857), Baden (1859), Nassau (1861). It was not granted to P. to see the glorious epilogue of the titanic struggle, but he tasted the satisfaction of seeing the German Catholic clergy and laity gather ever more compactly and devoutly around the pontificate. The tragedy of Catholic Poland, as it was a subject of worries and tears for Gregory XVI, was likewise so for P., who did not omit the most earnest solicitations with Nicholas I and Alexander II, for a modus vivendi that would ensure the religious and civil freedom of that unhappy nation. But he had to suffer the bitter disappointment of seeing denounced in 1866 the agreements that he himself had concluded in 1847 at the price of so many laborious negotiations; and of witnessing the apostasy of the Uniate Church of Chelm (1875), fomented and willed by the tsarist government.
X. EXPANSION OF THE MISSIONS
Missionary activity had suffered a mortal blow in the last decades of the 18th century, and the work of reconstruction after the restoration of 1815 progressed, but at a slow pace; after a first vigorous impulse given by Gregory XVI, who had been Prefect of the S. Congr. de Propaganda Fide, there followed the far greater one given by Pius IX.
A very intense effort was directed at calling the schismatic Churches back to unity; on 14 Dec. 1847, Pius addressed a warm appeal to them, sent an apostolic visitor and stirred up movements toward union in the Balkan countries and the Near East, Moldavia, Wallachia, Serbia, Romania, Greece, Armenia, Palestine. Glad promises were held out especially by the Church in Bulgaria, frustrated by the reaction of Russia. Pius reconstituted the Latin patriarchate of Jerusalem, an archdiocese in Athens, etc., and with the constitution Romani Pontifices of 16 Jan. 1862 erected within the S. Congr. de Propaganda Fide a special Congregation for the Eastern Churches. Denmark, Norway, Scotland, previously closed to Catholic influence, each received an apostolic prefecture in 1868.
As for the evangelization of the infidels, it suffices to mention the name of Maximilian Ryllo, apostle of the White Nile, of Lavigerie (v.) in the regions of the Great Lakes, of Comboni (v.) in central Africa, of Massaja (v.) among the Galla, of De Jacobis (v.) and Ghebra-Michael in Abyssinia, of Cagliero (v.) in Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. There arose in this period the Seminary of Sts. Peter and Paul in Rome for the foreign Missions (1867), the Seminary for the foreign Missions of Milan (1850), the Pont. Albanian College (1858), the Brignole-Sale College in Genoa (1855), the Seminary of Mill-Hill near London (1866); and there came into being the missionary Congregation of Scheut (1863), of the White Fathers, of Nigrizia (1867), of Steyl (1875).
XI. DOCTRINAL MAGISTERIUM
Pius IX was tireless in promoting everything that had a bearing on studies and the sacred sciences, repressing, as opportunity and need required, deviations or errors that could endanger the purity of doctrine and ecclesiastical discipline. The action carried out by Pius in this field makes him the worthy precursor of Leo XIII.
Worthy of mention are the encyclical Qui pluribus (9 Nov. 1846) on biblical rationalism, the consistorial allocutions Ubi primum (17 Dec. 1847) on religious indifferentism, Quibus quantisque (20 Apr. 1849) on secret societies, In Concistoriali (1 Nov. 1850) concerning ecclesiastical immunity, Singulari quadam (9 Dec. 1854) on the intrusions of civil authorities into matters pertaining to the Church, Iandudum (18 March 1861) against the separatism of national Churches; as well as the apostolic letters by which the errors of Nuyte (22 Apr. 1851), of Gunther ([v.] 15 June 1857), of Baltzer ([v.] 30 Apr. 1860), of Froschammer (11 Dec. 1862), etc., were condemned. The struggle of Masonic radicalism against the Church in many countries gave him the occasion to clarify in various documents the Church's doctrine on the relations between the two powers. His tender devotion toward the Most Holy Virgin inspired him to promote her cult and to illustrate her singular prerogatives. In 1848, his first thought upon arriving at Gaeta was to honor the Mother of God; with an encyclical dated 2 Feb. 1849 he wished to consult the episcopate concerning the definability of her Immaculate Conception; and on 8 Dec. 1854, with the dogmatic bull Ineffabilis, he proclaimed it an article of faith.
On the occasion of the solemn canonization of the Japanese Martyrs on 9 June 1862, with over 300 bishops from all parts of the world present, he delivered the allocution Maxima quidem, which contains in summary the condemnation of the principal errors of the time. It preludes the celebrated encyclical Quanta cura of 8 Dec. 1864 and the Syllabus attached to it, in which, referring back to his earlier documents, he listed in 80 propositions the false principles of the speculative, moral, political and social order of decadent modern civilization, systematically classified. In the various countries governed by liberal regimes and dominated by Freemasonry, a veritable uprising broke out against the Syllabus, and it was regarded as a challenge to civilization and progress. In France the minister Baroche prohibited the clergy by a circular from communicating it to the faithful.
The most memorable religious event of the pontificate of Pius IX is the Vatican Council which, announced in 1867 on the occasion of the jubilee of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, and carefully prepared by special commissions, was convoked with the bull Aeterni Patris of 29 June 1868, and inaugurated on 8 Dec. 1869; it continued its work until July 1870, that is, until the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War. The invitation was extended also to the separated Churches, and an appeal was addressed to the Protestants. The Catholic sovereigns were not invited, since for too long they had abandoned their mission as defensores fidei. The work of the Council must be divided into two phases, the first devoted to dogmatic matters, which concluded with the constitution De fide catholica, the second which had as its epilogue the proclamation of the infallibility of the Pope as an article of faith (v. VATICANO, CONCILIO).
Epilogue. - Pius died on 7 Feb. 1878 and his body was placed in a temporary tomb in the Vatican, until it was transferred, as he had arranged, to the basilica of St. Lawrence outside the Walls, which he had restored and embellished. The transfer took place in 1881, at night, amid shameful scenes of sectarian spite. He rests in the crypt artistically decorated by Lodovico Seitz, at the initiative of the Gioventù Cattolica Italiana, with the contribution of Catholics from all over the world.
Although the pontificate of Pius, the longest that history records, unfolded amid incessant political and religious turmoil, the work of regeneration and expansion that he promoted was intense and profound in every field. «Bien des choses ont changé dans le monde et dans l'Eglise entre 1846 et 1878», concludes Aubert (op. cit. in bibl., p. 502); «Aucune peut-être n'a changé davantage que la qualité de la vie catholique moyenne».
Indeed that fervor of enthusiasm that arose at the beginning of his pontificate never waned, even when the historical phase had changed. This is shown by the crowds flocking to his feet in ever greater numbers, the generous subsidies that flowed in from every side to relieve his august indigence, the veneration and esteem that even his political adversaries nourished for him. While he was still alive his figure appeared to his contemporaries surrounded by an unmistakable halo of holiness, for which in 1897 Leo XIII authorized the regular process of his beatification.
Braz.: la letteratura relativa a P. è quasi sconfinata; fra molti scritti d'intonazione apologetica e viziata da livore e pregiudizi politici, non mancano studi seri e monografie pregevoli. Essa sarà fondamentalmente rinnovata quando gli studiosi potranno usufruire degli Archivi Vaticani i quali per il pontificato di P. ancora non sono, se non eccezionalmente, accessibili. Cf. i due preziosi saggi di bibl. sistematica di P. Dalla Torre, uno sulla attività amministrativa nello Stato romano, in appendice allo studio L'opera riformatrice ecc. (v. sotto), l'altro sugli armamenti, in Rassegna stor. del Risorg., dic. 1937. Per un orientamento critico si veda l'opera dell'Aubert citata appresso. Fonti: Acta Pii Papae IX, 7 voll., Roma 1854 agg.; Acta S. Sedis, 35 voll., ivi 1865 agg.; Collec. Lacaeus: Acta et decreta SS. Concil. recentium, II-VII, Friburgo 1876-90; Jus Pontif. S. C. de Prop. Fide, II, VI, VII, Roma 1894-1909; Mansi, XL-LIII; A. Mercati, Race, di concordati su materie ecclesiast. tra la S. Sede e le autorità civili, Roma 1919; P. Gasparri, CIC, Fontes, 9 voll., ivi 1923-39, v. indici; Civ. Catt., 1850 agg.; D. Charmard e A. Chaurrel, Annales ecclesiast., 2 voll., Parigi 1893 e 1899. Biografie: Moroni, LIII, pp. 188-235; M. Marocco, Della vita, del pontif. e del regno di P., 7 voll., Torino 1863 agg.; M. De St-Albin, Hist. de P. et de son pontificat, Parigi 1870; id., La captivité de P. Hist. des huit dernières années de son pontif., Parigi-Bruxelles 1878; P. Balan, Continuaz. alla Storia universale dell'ab. Rohrbacher, 3 voll., Torino 1879-86; id., Storia d'Italia, vol. IX, Modena 1879; B. Castaldi, P. e i suoi tempi, Roma 1882; G. S. Pelczar, P. e il suo pontif., trad. it., 3 voll., Torino 1909-11; E. Clerici, P. Vita e pontif., Milano 1928; A. Monti, P. nel Risorgim. ital., Bari 1928; J. Schmidlin, Papstgeschichte der neuesten Zeit, II, P. und Leo XIII, 1846-1903, Monaco 1931; G. Mollat, s. v. in DThC, XII, coll. 1686-1716; J. Hayward, P. et son temps, Parigi 1948; R. Aubert, Le pontificat de P. (1846-1878), ivi 1922 [Hist. de l'Eglise di Fliche-Jarry, 21], con ricca e aggiornata bibl. Monografie e studi: G. Spada, St. della rivolta di Roma e della restaurazione 1846-49, 3 voll., Firenze 1869-70; G. Margotti, P. e il suo episcopato di Spoleto ed Imola, Torino 1877; Mem. stor. della vita episcop. in Spoleto di P., Roma 1877; R. Ballerini, Le prime pagine del pontif. di P., ivi 1909; id., La quest. ital. nel 1850, in Civ. Catt., 1859, I, pp. 609-656; id., P., Vittorio Emanuele II e Napoleone III, ibid., 1889, III, pp. 257-69, 402-17; id., La causa nazionale negli anni 1847, 1848, 1849, ibid., 1898, IV, pp. 129-43, 373-86, 657-77; A. Cani, Procès romain pour la cause de béatific. et de canonisat. de P., Parigi 1910; G. Pontrandolfi, P. e Volterra, Volterra 1928; F. Mourret, Hist. g'nér. de l'Eglise, VIII, Parigi 1928; E. Vercesi, P., Milano 1930; F. Zanetti, Nella Città del Vaticano: cinque Papi attraverso gli aneddoti, Roma 1929; D. Massè, P. e il gran tradimento del '48, Alba 1938; A. M. Ghisalberti, Nuove ricerche sugli inizi del pontific. di P. e sulla Consulta di Stato, Roma 1939; F. Crispolti, P., Leone XIII, Pio X, Benedetto XV, Pio XI.
Ricordi personali, Milano 1939; P. Pirri, P. e Vitt. Eman. II dal loro carteggio privato, I, La laicizzaz. dello Stato sardo 1845-66, Roma 1944; id., La missione di mons. Corbeli-Bussi in Lombardia e la crisi della politica ital. di P., in Riv. della Stor. della Chiesa in Ital., 1 (1947), pp. 38-84; 2 (1948), pp. 183-214; 3 (1949), pp. 191-234; 4 (1950), pp. 399-446; id., Relaz. incid. di S. Liebl sulla fuga di P. a Gaeta, in Misc. Paschini, II, Roma 1949, pp. 421-510; P. Dalla Torre, L'opera riformatrice ed amministrativa di P. fra il 1850 e il 1870, ivi 1945; D. Demarco, P. e la rivoluzione del 1848, Modena 1947. Allocuzioni e discorsi: Recueil des allocut. consistor., encycliques, etc. citées dans l'Encyclique et le Syllabus du 8 déc. 1884, Parigi 1865; P. De Franciscis, Disc. del S. Pont. P., 4 voll., Roma 1872-78; Lettere e disc. di P. e Leone XIII alla Soc. della Gioc. Catt. Ital., 2 voll., Udine 1893; De civili principato Roman. Pontif., Excerpta ex actis P. et L'onsis XIII, Roma 1901. Potere temporale e Questione romana: L'Orbe catt. a P. esulante da Roma, 1848-50, Napoli 1850; L. C. Parini, Lo Stato rom. dall'a. 1815 al 1850, 4 voll., Torino 1850-53; P. IX ed i suoi popoli nel 1857, ossia mem. intorno al viaggio di P. per l'Italia centrale, 2 voll., Roma 1860; E. Kanzler, La campagna romana dell'eserc. pontif. nel 1867, Bologna 1868; C. Cadorna, La liberaz. di Roma nell'a. 1870, Torino 1889; H. Bastgen, Die römische Frage. Dokum. und Stimmen, 3 voll., Friburgo 1917 agg.; A. Vigevano, La fine dell'esercito pontif., Roma 1920; F. Hayward, Le dernier siècle de la Rome pontif., 1814-70, 2 voll., Parigi 1928; La Quest. rom. negli anni 1860-61. Carteggio del Conte di Cavour con D. Pantaleoni, C. Passaglia, O. Vimercati, a cura della R. Commiss. Editr., 2 voll., Bologna 1929; F. Salata, Per la storia diplomat. della Quest. rom., I, Da Cavour alla triplice alleanza, Milano 1929; A. Piola, La Quest. rom. nella stor. e nel dirit. da Cavour al Tratt. del Laterano, Padova 1931; S. Jacini, Il tramonto del potere tempor. nelle relaz. degli ambassiat. austriaci a Roma, 1860-1870, Bari 1931; G. Mollat, La question romaine de Pie VI a P. XI, Parigi 1932; A. Luzio, Aspromonte e Mentana, Firenze 1933; P. Dalla Torre, L'anno di Mentana, Torino 1938; id., Materiali per una stor. dell'eserc. pontif., in Rass. stor. del Risorg., genn.-febbr. 1941; id., Pellegrino Rossi, il Neogruffismo e l'Italia, in Arch. Soc. Rom. di Storia Patria, 71 (1948), pp. 163-68; id., P. IX e la Restaurazione del 1849-50, in Accum. 23 (1949), pp. 267-98; A. Ventrone, L'amministraz. dello Stato pontif. dal 1814 al 1870, Torino 1938; S. Negro, Seconda Roma, 1850-70, Milano 1943; A. C. Jemolo, Chiesa e Stato in Italia negli ultimi cento anni, Torino 1948; V. Del Giudice, La Quest. Rom. e i rapporti fra Stato e Chiesa fino alla Conciliazione, Roma 1948; P. Pirri, P. e Vitt. Eman. II dal loro carteggio privato, II, La
Roman Question, 1856-64, 2 vols., ibid. 1951, with an extensive bibliography. Political and religious relations with the Italian states: N. Bianchi, Stor. document. della diplomazia europea in Italia dall'a. 1814 all'a. 1861, 8 vols., Naples-Rome 1869-72; A. Rosmini-Serbati, Comment. della missione a Roma negli anni 1848-49, Turin 1881; L. Chiala, Lettere edite e ined. del conte C. di Cavour, 5 vols., ibid. 1883; P. De la Gorce, Hist. du Second Empire, 6 vols., Paris 1903-1905; E. Bourgeois and E. Clermont, Rome et Napoléon III, 1849-1870, ibid. 1907; A. Bozzola-Buttini, Stato e Chiesa nel Regno di Sardegna negli anni 1849-50 e la missione Pinelli a Roma, in Risorgim. ital., new series, 13 (1920), pp. 217-60; 14 (1921), pp. 294-375; P. Matter, Cavour et l'unité ital., 3 vols., Paris 1922-27; A. Omodeo, L'opera politica del Conte di Cavour, part 1, 2 vols., Florence 1940. With foreign states: B. D'Harcourt, Les quatre ministères de M. Drouyn de Lhuys, Paris 1882; P. Berthe, Garcia Moreno président de l'Équateur vengeur et victime du droit chrétien, ibid. 1890; P. Thoreau-Dangin, La renaiss. cathol. en Angleterre au XIXe siècle, 2 vols., ibid. 1909; E. Lecanuet, L'Église de France sous la IIIe République, 4 vols., ibid. 1910-31; G. Goyza, Bismarck et l'Église: Le Kulturkampf, 1879-78, 2 vols., ibid. 1911-22; A. Boudou, Le St-Siège et la Russie, 1814-1882, 2 vols., ibid. 1922-25; E. Palandri, La nuova orientaz. polit. relig. della Toscana nei primordi del pontif. di P., in Rass. stor. del Risorgim., 1929; J. Maurain, La politique ecclésiast. du Second Empire de 1832 à 1869, Paris 1930; R. Mori, Il Concordato del 1851 tra la Toscana e la S. Sede, in Arch. stor. it., 99 (1941), pp. 133-46; Ch. Poulet, Hist. de l'Église de France, III, Époque contemporaine, Paris 1949. Religious and social action: v. VATICANO, CONCILIO. In addition: G. Lamantia, Stor. della legislaz. ital., Roma e Stato rom., Turin 1888; F. Olgiati, La storia dell'Az. Catt. in Italia, 1865-1914, 2nd ed., Milan 1922; A. Quacquarelli, La crisi della religiosità contemporanea dal Sillabo al Conc. Vatic., Bari 1946; R. Aubert, op. cit. In addition: Kathol. Soziallehre: Kirche und modernes Leben, Lexikon päpstl. Weisungen, I and II, Eichstätt, Rome, Munich 1948-50; DThC, under the entries GÜNTHER; IMMACULÉE; LIBERALISME CATHOLIQUE; ONTOLOGISME.
Pietro Pirri