Siccardi, Giuseppe

SICCARDI, GIUSEPPE. - Statesman, b. at Verzuolo (Cuneo) on 13 Oct. 1802, d. at Turin on 29 Oct. 1857. A jurist of clear fame and a university lecturer, he entered the magistracy in 1829, rapidly reaching the high office of first officer of the Ministry of Grace and Justice (1840). Invested with the dignity of count in 1846, the following year he became a councillor of the Court of Cassation, then fiscal advocate general and regent of the Advocate General's Office of the State.

The year 1849 brought him to the forefront in politics, when he was commissioned to go to Portici to obtain from Pius IX consent to the removal of the archbishop of Turin, Lud. Fransoni, and of the bishop of Asti, Filippo Artico, who were unwelcome to the Government, as well as to the abolition of the ecclesiastical forum in the Sardinian States. Not even S. succeeded where others before him had failed in this aim, inasmuch as the Holy See — which would not have opposed the suppression of a special legislation for the clergy had the measure, instead of being promoted unilaterally by the civil authority, been included among the articles of a Concordat — refused to meet the wishes of the ministry of Turin. The unhappy outcome of the negotiations induced the Keeper of the Seals De Margherita to tender his resignation, whereupon d'Azeglio replaced him with S., created senator for the occasion. On 25 Feb. 1850 S. thus presented to the Subalpine Chamber, forestalling the parliamentary initiative of the left, a legislative bill — the so-called S. Laws — entailing the abolition of the ecclesiastical forum, the suppression of numerous holy days of obligation and the prohibition for religious corporations from increasing their property in any way without sovereign authorization. The last of the nine articles furthermore announced provisions on civil marriage. Amid the lively reaction of Catholic circles, the Chamber discussed at length, separately from the rest, the five articles on the ecclesiastical forum and approved them by 130 votes to 26, as the Senate then did by 51 votes to 29. The law was promulgated on 9 Apr., provoking immediate protests from the Holy See, which had been kept officially informed of the beginning of the parliamentary discussion. Incidents of various kinds followed, culminating in the arrest of Msgr. Fransoni, who had circulated to his clergy a circular against the law approved by the Chambers. Hence another ground of dissension between the Sardinian Government and the Holy See: a dissension that could not fail to trouble the conscience of S., who considered himself a devoted son of the Church and scornfully refused to ascertain the proceeds of a subscription opened in his honour by the liberal press. With the sum collected, a commemorative monument to the abolition of the ecclesiastical forum was later erected in Turin (1853). S.'s gesture — he had no responsibility whatsoever in the approval, which followed in 1855, of the anti-ecclesiastical laws that likewise go under his name, but should instead be entitled to De Foresta — cost him the popularity he had acquired, so that d'Azeglio was induced to remove him. A favourable occasion to do so presented itself a few months later, when S. energetically opposed the request of the left-wing parties, shared by the majority of the ministers, to proceed with the retirement of magistrates who did not apply the legal sanctions against clergy opposed to the provisions of 9 Apr.

Finding himself in conflict with his colleagues, S. had to plead reasons of health in order to withdraw temporarily from the government, only to tender his definitive resignation shortly afterwards. Placed on the waiting list with the rank of first president of the Court of Cassation, he died suddenly six years later, after having held the vice-presidency of the Senate from 7 Jan. to 16 July 1857.

Renzo U. Montini