RIVAROLA, AGOSTINO. - Cardinal, b. in Genoa on 14 March 1758, d. in Rome on 7 Nov. 1842. Having entered the Roman Curia at a very young age, he held important offices there. Governor of Sanseverino in 1793, apostolic protonotary at the Conclave of Venice in 1800, delegate of Perugia, prolegate at Macerata, in 1808 he underwent six months of imprisonment for having proclaimed his fidelity to the Pontiff against the Napoleonic usurpation.
In 1814 he was entrusted with the task of taking possession of Rome and of a large part of the re-established Papal State in the name of Pius VII. A convinced absolutist, he gave his government a particular severity, in contrast with the conciliatory instructions that Card. Consalvi sent him from Vienna, where he was participating in the Congress. Relieved of his functions upon Consalvi's return, the cardinalatial promotion, which followed on 1 Oct. 1817, appeared, more than a reward, to be the end of R.'s political activity, who in fact withdrew into the shadows for about seven years. Leo XII, firmly determined to crush sectarian activity in the Romagna, sent R. to Ravenna in 1824 with full powers to free the Legations from the secret societies. R. carried out with inflexible zeal the mission entrusted to him, and his name has remained linked to the trial that closed on 31 Aug. 1825 against hundreds of defendants from the Legations and the Marches, precisely when similar trials were being held in the Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom against Federico Confalonieri and the Milanese and Brescian Federates. The condemned totaled 513, of whom seven were sentenced to capital punishment; but a measure of clemency immediately followed, by which all the penalties imposed by the special tribunal were commuted and reduced.
Nevertheless, R. was struck by sectarian vengeance: on 23 July 1826, in Ravenna, he was the target of an attack, from which he emerged unharmed, while the canon Muti fell killed at his side. This and other bloody events gave rise to the so-called Invernizzi trial, named after the prelate who directed it, and it concluded on 26 Apr. 1828 with five capital executions. After a brief stay in Genoa, R. returned to Rome, where he received the appointment of Prefect of the Congregation of Waters and Roads. Michele Rosi formulates the following judgment on him: « A convinced conservative, a pious priest, he gave proof of courage not always united with prudence, he was severe in exacting respect for the laws and superior orders, yet also inclined to clemency ».
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Renzo U. Montini