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YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

Gift of
MRS. WINTHROP DWIGHT

THE STOEY

OP THE

LIFE OF PIUS THE NINTH.

BY

T. ADOLPHUS TROLLOPE.

IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. IL

LONDON :
EICHAED BENTLEY AND SON,
^ixblxshtxs in ©rbinars to ^tx Jttajjsts tht t^vimx.
1877.

CONTENTS OF VOL. II.

BOOK in.— Continued.

CHAPTEE III.
Estimate of the French Success against Eome — Difficulties
of the Position of France — Attitude assumed by the
Pope and his Counsellors — Papal Demands — Pope Master
of the Situation — Social Aspect of Eome at that Time —
Te Deum at St. Peter's on the 15th of July — Speech of
the French General in the Church — Efforts of France to
make the Intentions of the Pope Liberal — All Liberal
Tendencies Extinct in the Pope's Mind — Cause of this —
His Character — Causes of the apparent Change in the
Character of the Pope — No such Change really — France
suspected at Gaeta — Manifesto of the Pope after the Entry
of the French Troops — Nomination of a Commission —
Difficulties of the Position of France — Aspects of Society
at Eome — Wishes at this Period of the Eoman People —
Names of the Commissioners of the 31st of July — -Procla
mations by the Commissioners— Memorandum presented
to Antonelli by French Eepresentatives — Nc/s Mission
to Eome — Napoleon's Letter to him — Has no Effect — De
claration of the Pope's Despotic Intentions— Acquiescence
of France .........

IV CONTENTS.

CHAPTEE IV. FADE
The Pope thinks of returning to Eome — Leaves Gaeta —
Sojourns at Portici — His Excursion to Naples — Favourable
Eeception by the People — The Pope leaves Portici — Part
ing with the King of Naples — The Pope's Blessing — Arri
val at Eome — Consistory of the 20th of April — English
Catholic Episcopacy — -Arrangements for the New Adminis
tration — Eeturn to Despotism — Why Priests are neces
sarily Unforgiving — Persecution — Punishment of the
Disaffected  25
CHAPTEE V.
Condition of Eome after the Eeturn of the Pope — Hatred of
his Subjects — Isolation of the Pope-— Baffled in his Hope
of being a Great King, he turns his Ambition to be
coming a Great Pope — The Policy of the Church in de
vising New " Eeligions " — Sincerity of Pius the Ninth's
Belief — His Motives for decreeing a New Dogma in Ee-
spect to the Virgin — In what Sense the Dogma was New
— Opportuneness of the Definition of it — No Additional
Burthen to the Consciences of Believers — Preparation for
taking the Step of the " Definition " — Assembly of Digni
taries in Eome — The Ceremony of the Definition at St.
Peter's — Festivities — Singular Present to the Pope from
France .......... 36
CHAPTEE VI. •
Consecration of the Church of St. Paul on the Via Ostia 
The New Church — Its Cost — The Adventure of the Pope
at the Basilica of St. Agnes — Consistory of the 22nd of
January — Pope's Complaints of the Piedmontese Govern
ment — Excommunication pronounced against all con
cerned in the Eecent Piedmontese Legislation — Complaint
of Spain and Switzerland — Concordat with Austria 
Journey of the Pope — Leaves Eome on the 4th of May 
Holy House at Loreto— Pope's Journey by Terni, Spoleto,
Perugia, Sinigaglia, etc., to Loreto— His Journey to

CONTENTS.

Bologna — Visits of Great Personages — Visit to Modena —
— To Ferrara — To Eavcnua — Journey to Tuscany — Entry
into Florence — Pope at the Pitti Palace — Visits Volterra,
etc. — Grand Duke's Hospitality — Cost of it — The Pope's
Eeturn to Eome  52
CHAPTEE VII.
Petitions of the People of the Legations neglected — Pope's
Speech on his Eeturn to Eome — Words of Napoleon the
Third to the Austrian Ambassador on the 1st of January,
1859 — ^War breaks out — Position of the Pope — Views of
France and Austria — Peace on the 6th of July — Papal
Protest of the 15th of June — Papal Allocution — Expedi
tion against Perugia — Allocution of the 26th of Septem
ber — Sardinian Minister leaves Eome — Proposed Con
gress — The Pamphlet " The Pope and the Congress " —
Papal Eeply to it — ^Pope's Speech on the First Day of
1860 — Letter of Napoleon to the Pope — Error of Napo
leon's View — The Pope's Eeply — Non Possumus . .66
CHAPTEE VIII.
French View of the Pope's Position Erroneous — Tempera
ment of Pius the Ninth — Encyclical Letter of the 19 th of
January — ^Eeply of the French Government— Communica
tion by the Means of the French Ambassador on the 12th
of February — Proposals of Piedmont Offensive to the
Holy Father — Letter of Pius to Victor Emmanuel — An
nexation of the Legations — Protest and Complaint of the
Pope — All concemed in the Annexation excommunicated
— Papal Government arms — ^Lamoricifere appointed General-
in-Chio'"— His Address to the Army — Isolation of the Holy
Father— Further Diplomatic Negotiations — Proposals of
France and of Austria — Eejected in toto by the Pontiff,
14th2 April, 1860— Difficult Position of the Piedmontese
Government — Communication by Cavour to Cardinal
Antonelli — Eeply of Antonelli— France withdraws her
Minister from Turin — Determination of Cavour — ^Battle of
Castel Fidardo  83

VI CONTENTS.

BOOK IV.
CHAPTEE I.
PAGE
The Constancy of Pius the Ninth— His Dauntless Determi
nation — Prudence of his Conduct as regards the Church
— Question of Freedom of Communication — Limits of the
Pontifical Dominions after Castel Fidardo — Votation of
the Marches and Umbria — Various Projects for arranging
the Papal Affairs — Cavour's Declaration of the Necessity
of having Eome— Papal Allocution— A Second Allocution
— Efforts and Views of the French Government — Difficul
ties of the Emperor — Opinion of Thiers — Absolute Un
yieldingness of the Pope — General Character of the
Negotiations between Italy and France before and after
Castel Fidardo — Convention fixing the Italian Capital at
Florence — The Pontiff remains entirely Inflexible . .107
CHAPTEE IL
Cheerfulness of Disposition of Pius the Ninth — His Ecclesi
astical Activity more Important in the History of the
World than his Efforts as a Temporal Prince — Has been
a really Great Pope — The Encyclical Letter of the 8th of
December — Character of this Document — Its Style — No
thing New in the Doctrines promulgated— Position of the
Church relatively to the World — Effect on this of the
Syllabus — Specimen Passages from the Encyclic — Form of
the Syllabus — Headings of the Divisions of it — The Syl
labus contains no New Matter — Allocutions on which the
Syllabus is based — Specimen Passage of the Original Text
of an Allocution — The Syllabus producixl greater Effect
than the Allocutions, and Why — The Gist of the Syllabus
— Question whether the Church injured her own Inte
rests by the Publication of the Encyclic and the Syllabus , 129
CHAPTEE IH.
Expectations of the Pope after Castel Fidardo — Pius not
contented with the Sovereignty left to him — Effects of

CONTENTS. VU

the Encyclic and Syllabus — Determination to summon a
Council — Advice of the Sacred College — Determination of
Pius to act in opposition to it — Who were his Supporters
and Advisers ] — The Jesuits — ^Society for upholding the
Infallibility Doctrine — Profound Knowledge of the Church
manifested by the Jesuits — Character of Pius favourable
to the Plans of the Company — Whether the Jesuits
judged rightly for the Interests of the Church . . .153
CHAPTEE IV.
Definitive Announcement of the Council — The Term " (Ecu
menical " — How Far the Use of it is Justified — Motives
which prompted the Calling of the Council — Eeasons
against it — Citation from Pomponio Leto — Summary of
the Nature of the Position of the Church when the Coun
cil was decided on — Incapacity of the Sacred College for
dealing with it — The Jesuits — Their Purposes in the Call
ing of the Council — Difficulties they had to contend with
— Protestant Opinion respecting the Jesuits — Success as
regards the Council — Eventual Success yet to be Seen —
Personal Character of the Pontiff eminently adapted to
their Views .......•• 159
CHAPTEE V.
The Opening of the Council on the 8th of December— Meet
ing in the Hall in the Vestibule over St. Peter's — Proces
sion thence to the Church — The Hall prepared for the
Council in St. Peter's— The Door- Keepers of the Council—
The Arrangement of the Members — Imperfect Acoustic
Conditions — Scene presented at the Opening — Divergence
between the Sentiments and the Votes of many Members
— The Opening Ceremonial — The Pope's allocution — His
Emotion — ^Emotions not Convictions — Characteristics of
the Temperament of Pius the Ninth— Conclusion of the
Ceremony, and of the First Day's Sitting . . -184:
CHAPTEE VI.
Effect of the Dogma of the Infallibility on the Character of

vm CONTENTS.

Pius— The History of the Council— The Motives and Cha
racter of the Promoters — Tampering with the Voice of the
Church — Preparations for the Work of the Council —
Secrecy observed with reference to the Topics to be dis
cussed — Position and Attitude of the " Civiltk Cattolica "
—Opposition raised by it — The Work of the " Congrega
tions" — The Work of Pomponio Leto on the Council —
Position assumed by Archbishop Manning as Leader of the
Infallibilist Party — The Declaration of Personal Infalli
bility the great Object and Aim of the Council — Number
and Hopes of the Opposition — St. Peter's Day — Growth
of the Doctrine of Papal Infallibility — Approach of the
Hot Season — Pope's Speech on the Day of Corpus Domini
— Commencement of Discussion on the 18th of June —
Oration of Cardinal Guidi — Eestriction of Debate — ^No
Formula of Conciliation Possible — Appeal of the Opposi
tion to the Pope — Effects of the increasing Heat — Hurried
Character of the concluding Scenes  197
CHAPTEE VII.
The Intentions of the Vatican become Evidenf>— Monday the
4th of July in the Council — Violence of the Majority —
Breaking up of the Sitting of the 4th— Conduct of the
Dissentients criticised — Indignation of the Minority —
Divided Opinion of the Minority — Formula of the Dogma
of the Infallibility — Protestants might Freely Sign the
Formula !— Opinions respecting the wording of the
Formula— Misgivings of the Party of the Vatican— The
Eesult of the Voting in Congregation on the 13th— De
termination of the Majority to proceed at all Hazards 
Additional Clause to the Formula— Announcement that the
Council was not prorogued, only suspended— Meeting of
Members of the Opposition on the 17 th— Last Attempt at
Conciliation — Eejection of it by the Pope — The Signing
of the Protest, and rapid Departure of the Protestors 
The Final Voting— Two Non Placets— Cardinal Guidi and
the Pope — Archbishop Manning and the Jesuits . . 222

CONTENTS. IX

BOOK V.
CHAPTEE I.
FAQIt
The Misfortune of France was Italy's Opportunity — Jules
Favre and .the Italian Government — Victor Emmanuel's
Letter to the Pope — Minghetti's Eeport from Vienna —
Eeply of the Bavarian Government — Eeply from Baden —
From England — From Belgium— Question of Catholic In
tervention — Spu'itual Liberty of the Pontiff — Pope's Letter
to General Kanzler — Count Arnim's Intercession — Entry
of the Italian Troops into Eome — Struggle at the Breach
— Terms of Capitulation — Plebiscite — Decree of the Italian
Government — Circular to Eepresentatives at Foreign
Courts — Law of the Guarantees — Vanity of it — Holy See
rejects an International Guarantee — -The Pope in his
New Character — Application to Austria, and Austrian
Eeply  245
CHAPTEE II.
The End of the Pope's Civil Sovereignty — The Coming of
the King to Eome — Pope's Appeal to the Powers — Ad
dress by the Pope to the French Minister, 26th of April,
1871 — Impossibility of satisfying the Papal Demands —
The Pope never enjoyed fuU Spiritual Liberty at any
Time — Nor can he ever be permitted to do so — Suspen
sion of the Sittings of the Council — Circular of the Italian
Minister for Foreign Affairs — The Council could have met
in Perfect Freedom — Comedy of the Pope's Imprisonment 263
CHAPTEE III.
Published Discourses of the Pope — Some Specimens of them
— The Pope's DaUy Life — Secretary — Heads of Congrega
tions — Foreign Ambassadors — Bishops — Private Persons
— ^Mode of receiving Private Persons — Pope's Eoyal
Memory — The Pope's Walk — His Garden Seat — His
Aviary — Dinner — His Eeading of the Newspapers — His

X CONTENTS.

Evening — The Pope a Bad Sleeper — Unaffected by the
Death of Antonelli, and even by that of his old Cat —
Unlike Pope Paul the Third in this Eespect . . . 272
CHAPTEE IV.
Anniversary of the 3rd of June — Coincident "Festa di
Statuto '' — Change of Circumstances Subsequently to the
First Planning of Pilgrimages — The Pope's Discourses —
Pope's Freedom in the Exercise of his Spiritual Power —
Marcini's Bill for Eepression of Clerical Abuses — Papal
Allocution pending Discussion of the Bill — Circular of
Cardinal Simeoni — The Pilgrimages — Labour undergone
by the Pope — Adulation addressed to him — Offerings
brought by Pilgrims — Exhibition of Presents — Pope's
Cheerfulness — Probable Canonisation — Services rendered
by him to the Church — Temperament and Character of
Pius the Ninth  288
Appendix  309

THE LIFE OF PIUS THE NINTH.

BOOK II I.— Continued.

CHAPTEE III.

ESTIMATE OF THE FRENCH SUCCESS AGAINST ROME.- — DIFFI
CULTIES OF THE POSITION OF FRANCE. — ATTITUDE ASSUMED
BY' THE POPE AND HIS COUNSELLORS. — PAPAL DEMANDS. —
POPE MASTER OF THE SITUATION. — SOCIAL ASPECT OF ROME
AT THAT TIME. — TE DEUM AT ST. PLTER'S ON THE 15TH OF
JULY. — SPEECH OF THE FRENCH GENERAL IN THE CHURCH. —
EFFORTS OF FRANCE TO MAKE THE INTENTIONS OF THE POPE
LIBERAL. — ALL LIBERAL TENDENCIES EXTINCT IN THE POPE'S
MIND. — CAUSE OF THIS. — HIS CHARACTER. — CAUSES OF THE
APPARENT CHANGE IN THE CHARACTER OF THE POPE. — NO
SUCH CHANGE REALLY. — FRANCE SUSPECTED AT GAETA. —
MANIFESTO OF THE POPE AFTER THE ENTRY OF THE FRENCH
TROOPS. — NOMINATION OF A COMMISSION. — DIFFICULTIES OF
THE POSITION OF FRANCE. — ASPECTS OF SOCIETY AT ROME. —
WISHES AT THIS PERIOD OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE. — NAMES OF
THE COMMISSIONERS OF THE 31ST OF JULY. — PROCLAMATIONS
BY THE COMML'^SIONERS. — MEMORANDUM PRESENTED TO ANTO-
VOL. II. 23

LIFE OF PIUS IX.

NELLI BY FRENCH REPRESENTATIVES. — NEY'S MISSION TO
ROME. — napoleon's LETTER TO HIM. — HAS NO EFFECT.— DE
CLARATIONS OF THE pope's DESPOTIC INTENTIONS. — ACQUI
ESCENCE OF FRANCE.
Mazzini and his colleagues, in the hopeless attempt
to found a Republican Government on the ruins of
the papal authority in Home, said, in their procla
mation to the Bomans, that " Whoso touched^ in
the guise of an enemy, the sacred soil of Home was
accursed of God !" It was probably the only senti
ment he could have expressed in which the PontifF
and his brethren of the Sacred College would have
fully agreed with him ! And in truth, both parties
might point to the issue of more than one such
tentative in justification of the assertion. France
had succeeded in her enterprise. She had conquered
the little band of enthusiasts, Avho, in a city divided
against itself, had attempted to hold its crumbling
old walls against her ! The enterprise was not a
difficult one ; and no man, let his political sympathies
be what they may, will deny that aU the heroism)
all the glory, was on the side of those who fought
desperately and hopelessly to resist the foreign in
vader. But if the military difficulties of General Oudinot
were not great, the political difficulties of those who

LIFE OF PIUS IX.

sent him on his inglorious enterprise wore so. And
they began to show themselves to be so, as soon as
ever the object Oudinot had been sent to achieve
had been attained. No nation ever, perhaps, found
itself in so thoroughly and irremediably false a posi
tion. Had Austria marched on Rome and put down
the republicans and their make-believe government
by force, her course would have been straight and
simple before her. She would have conveyed back
the Pope in triumph to his capital ; she would have
sent as much of her material force as was necessary
to render the wiH and the fiat of the Pontiff and his
counseUors absolutely irresistible ; and as soon as
this work had been thoroughly accomplished, she
would have retired. Such a restoration, so operated,
the French said would be " brutal." Much suffering
would have ensued, much vengeance would have
been wreaked, and the Pope would have been re
placed on his throne by hrute force. The assertion
of France as to the character of the work which
would have been done by Austria (or possibly by
Naples, in whose hands the business would assuredly
have been done in a far more "brutal" manner), if
she, France, had not intervened, cannot be denied ;
but Austria, in acting thus " brutally," would have
23—2

LIFE OF PIUS IX.

been acting truthfuUy. She would have been doing
what she reaUy beUeved, and what all the world
perfectly well knew that she believed, to be right
and in accordance with the best interests of humanity,
as weU as in accordance with her own professions,
traditions, and principles.
France did not act "brutally," but her action, her
professions, her policy, were untruthful; and they
were so much at variance with the position she held,
and the professions she made at home, that they
were scandalous.
And the difficulties, which seemed to furnish an
apparent fulfilment of the curse uttered by Mazzini,
began to develop themselves as soon as ever the
French army found itself within the walls. Of
course, the triumph at Gaeta was complete — the
triumph, but not the contentment ! " Well, you
have accompUshed your task — gloriously accom
plished it I There is but one step more to be made I
Complete your work ! Why delay ?"
But France had declared before all Europe that
she had gone to Rome to moderate the return from
anarchy to authority — from Mazzini to Pius the
Ninth— from Gaeta to Rome — and to support her
own influence in Italy — the latter being the truth,

LIFE OF PIUS IX.

the former a pretext. And France knew perfectly
well that such restoration pure, simple, and imme
diate as A^-as desired at Gaeta, would not have been
effected with any of those characteristics of modera
tion which she had announced it as her mission
to ensure.
The French Government had already been met
by the first s3'mptoms of the difficulty that awaited
them in this matter of moderating the accompani
ments of the papal restoration. Before the capture
of Eome, the French ambassadors had urged the
Pope to publish a manifesto promising, as Farini
says, a civilised and humane, if not a Liberal Govern
ment ; but his Holiness had replied that respect for
his own dignity and authority would not permit him
to announce determinations the merit of which might
be attributed by the Avorld to the foreigners who had
counselled him and assisted him, and that he could
publish no manifesto to his people till the French
should have fully restored his government in Rome.
Such a pubUcation, his Holiness urged, " would
appear not the spontaneous act of a free and inde
pendent sovereign, but rather a bargain imposed on
him by his protectors. Let them complete the work,
and he would then talk about it ! Let them cause

LIFE OF PIUS IX.

to disappear, as it was indeed high time, all the
traces of the revolution ! Let them truly restore the
rule of the Pope, and then the Pope would take such
steps as would become a Pope !" Much indignation
began to be felt at Gaeta because the French, since
they had made themselves masters of Rome in the
interests of the Pope, did not at once, and without
delay, proceed to replace the Papal Government in
the full enjoyment of its rights — did not instantly,
and with public solemnity, re-install in their places all
the servants of the Apostolic Government, and all the
armorial escutcheons and other such visible signs of
supremacy. Since, however, as Farini remarks, the French
had been led by their own errors into the necessity
of either doing violence to the sovereignty of the
Pope for the sake of pleasing the people and caring
for their own dignity, or of causing the affliction of
the people and injuring their own reputation for
the sake of being agreeable to the Pope, the final
triumph of the Court at Gaeta was perfectly
certain." In Rome, no iUusion seems to have been cherished
on this head after the entry of the French into the
city. A severe censorship, which permitted the

LIFE OF PIUS IX.

expression of no liberal views or aspirations, was
established. The picture of the social aspect of
Rome at that time given by the historian I have so
frequently quoted, Farini, is remarkable : " Priests
and friars and their supporters were continuaUy going
about in quest of adhesions, and it was bad for
those who expressed any liberal aspirations. French
o-enerals and commissaries seemed Uke cavcdieri
servcnti of the priests. At sight of a cassock, of a
prelate's mantle, of a cowl, they fell into ecstasies of
delight, and went off" into compliments and caresses
Avithout end !"
There was a Te Deum at St. Peter's ; and a suffi
ciently singular and notable ceremonial it must have
been. It was on the 15th of July. The artUlery —
that same artiUery which had so recently been used
to batter down the waUs of Rome and the defenders
of them— was firing salvoes of joy. The beUs— those
same beUs which had so recently with despairing
clang caUed the citizens to the breach— were ringing
out festive peals. AU the troops were marched to
St. Peter's; generals, colonels, ambassadors were
swarming there. And Cardinal Castracani intoned
the hymn of praise and thanksgiving. Then Car-
• dinal Tosti preached a sermon addressed to General

LIFE OF PIUS IX.

Oudinot — to the liberator of Rome, who had saved
it from the horrors of war, and purged it of monsters
who were a disgrace to the human race. Admiration
for his beneficent acts was mingled, said the Cardinal,
with the tears of all good men for the French hlood
ivhich had been shed !
Then Oudinot, in the church, got up and spoke ! —
a regular parliament, as Farini says, in open church !
Words of course. Not to him, but to France, the
merit of the enterprise I To Providence must be
ascribed the victory which had liberated Rome from
the foreign yoke (I) and restored the temporal govern
ment of the Pope amid the applause of the whole
Catholic world. Then the Cardinal replied that the
words of the General were dictated by the Spirit of
God, who would bless him and France !
It must be owned that the strange and monstrous
spectacle of Voltairian France thus turned crusader
for the suppression of those liberties at Rome which
she had just plunged into revolution to secure for
herself, was a sight as revolting to every sentiment
of truthfulness, honour, and justice, as was ever pre
sented to the world. And the French Government
was by no means insensible to the odiousness of the
position it had assumed. France would fain, had it

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 9
been possible, have attained the real object of her
conduct, without disjoining it from that which she
had so loudly declared to be her purpose. France
was now striving hard to attain this ; but it was
difficult. She would fain have had Pius the Ninth
return to Eome and inaugurate a Liberal, or at least
a Liberalising Government under her own tutelao-e.
But this did not in any degree suit the views of
Pius the Ninth ; his Liberalism, which had never
been of a calibre calculated to fall in with the ideas
of French republicans, had now entirely disappeared.
And it did not at all suit his feelings of Italian
patriotism (which, despite all that had come and
gone, he was by no means without), and still less
his notions of his own papal dignity and authority,
to submit to any such tutelage.
His Liberalism had vanished, never more to
return. But it is not, I think, just to attribute this,
as it has very generally been attributed, altogether
to alarm and to that ill-temper which arises — and
with especial force in the case of a weak and vain
man — from hurt feelings, from disappointment in his
attempts to be beneficent, and from what repre
sented itself to his mind as the " ingratitude " of his
subjects. Doubtless all these causes contributed

10 LIFE OF PIUS IX.

somewhat to that sudden and very violent change in
the man and in his tendencies and conduct, which
has ever since been a subject of astonishment and
interest to the world. But the main cause of this
remarkable change, of this return on his steps and
eager advance in the opposite direction, is to be
found in the fact that he had discovered something
of which he was before ignorant. He had ascended
the throne with the intention of being a Liberal
Pope. What it was to be a Pope he understood
with sufficient accuracy. But he was almost wholly
ignorant of what it was to be Liberal. He had now
discovered the incompatibility of the two things.
And as soon as ever that discovery was made, no
shade of doubt or hesitation remained in his mind.
There has been no such extraordinary change in the
man as the world has wondered at. Nor was there
any insincerity in the beneficent intentions with
which he mounted the throne. They were alloyed —
and what human virtue is unalloyed ! — by an in
ordinate craving for applause and admiration, but
they were benevolent and sincere. Only they were
nourished under a mistake. And the mistake was
now discovered ! The same discovery would have
produced the same result at any moment of his

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 11

career. He had told his subjects, as has been seen,
at the outset of his reign that he intended to hand
down the papal power to his successor intact as he
had received it from his predecessors. And this
intention was the paramount, the ruling, the one
unalterable intention of the man's inmost heart and
conscience. Not even for the applause of men would
he forego or knowingly endanger that !
The subjects of the Apostolic See are grievously
sufterino', terriblv misofoverned. He is willing' to
make any change, to do anything — that shall not
touch the sacred ark. But the Church itself is
endangered. Modifications are absolutely necessary
to enable it to continue to exist in the world. Deus
lyrovidehit ! But some politic concessions — - ? Non
possumus !
An absolutely sincere non iMssumus ! He had
found out what these suggestions of the world were
to lead to. And no consideration could or should
induce him ever again to advance one step on that
path ! He had smelt the blood of a slaughtered
Church within the shambles to which they were
driving him, and no driving could any more urge
him to advance a step in that direction ! Non
possumus !

12 LIFE OF PIUS IX.

The reputation of France, too, added to the diffi
culty of the task she had set herself Eome did not
much like or trust her protector. She would far
rather have been assisted and restored by Austria, or
even by Naples. And for the nonce, and for the
immediately coming years Austria would have been
the more convenient and thorough-going friend. But
looking farther ahead, it will still be to the eldest
son of the Church that the Church in her oldest age
will turn. France will want a Pope, though maybe
one of her own making, when the time shall have
come that Austria will want none.
And France wanted a Pope of her own now ! She
did not want a very Liberal one either. Frenchmen
were one thing, Eomans quite another. But she
wanted such a show of Liberalism as would have
permitted her to cloak before the eyes of Europe the
nakedness of her invasion with some rag of the veil
she had provided for the purpose. And the Pope
would not help her in this ! If he would pretend a
little Liberalism % The Church never hesitates to
pretend for a holy purpose ! But Pius did not trust
his friends sufficiently to accommodate them in this
respect. It is towards the shambles that you are
driving me I Non fossumus I

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 13

Shortly after the entry of the French trooi>s the
Pope published the foUowing manifesto :
" Pius the Ninth to his well-loved subjects. God
has lifted up His arm, and has commanded the tem
pestuous sea of anarchy and impiety to be at rest I
He has led Catholic arms to sustain the rights of
trampled humanity, of the Faith attacked, and those
of the Holy See and of our sovereignty. Eternal
praise be to Him, who in the midst of His wi'ath
does not forget mercy. Well-beloved subjects, if in
the vortex of the tremendous events which have
happened, our heart has been saturated with sorrow
at the thought of so many evUs suffered by the
Church, by religion and by yourselves, not for that
has the affection which has always loved and con
tinues to love you been diminished. We eagerly
look forward to the day which shall bring us once
again among you. And when it shall have arrived,
we shaU return to you with the earnest desire to
bring you comfort, and with the wish to occupy
ourselves to the utmost of our power for your wel
fare, applying difficult remedies to exceedingly great
evUs, and consoling good subjects, who, while they
look for such institutions as shall meet their needs.

14 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
desire, as we desire, to see the liberty and indepen
dence of the supreme Pontiff, which is so necessary
to the tranquillity of the Catholic world, guaranteed.
In the meantime, for the re-ordering of public affairs,
we proceed to name a Commission, which, furnished
with full powers and assisted by a Ministry, shall
regulate the government of the State. That bene
diction of the Lord, which we have ever, even
when far from you, implored for you, we this day
invoke with even increased fervour ; and it is a
great comfort to our heart to hope that all
those who have chosen to render themselves in
capable of enjoying the fruit of this blessing by
their misguided conduct, may make themselves
deserving of it by a sincere and consistent repent
ance." The French had been anxious for the Pope to
speak. He had now spoken, but his utterance con
tained nothing of Avhat they wanted to hear. There
was no word as to the nature and form of government
which he intended to adopt. There was only a very
unmistakable hint that he should be glad to be quit
of their tutelage and surveillance. Nor, as Farini
remarks, could the result of the French policy have

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 15

been other than it was. " Nor," he writes, " Avith all
the boasting they had made, and continue to make
(respecting the Liberalising influence they should
exercise over tlie restored Pope), boasting which
took a much stronger tone at Paris than that which
it took at Eome, and much stronger at Eome than
that wliich it took at Gaeta, could they hope that
the Pope would aUow himself to be conducted to
Eome without much greater guarantees for his own
independence and power, to their own greater
humUiation, or would return thither as long as they
gave any indication of an intention to protect him
after their fashion and dictate to him."
In short, the little Court at Gaeta perceived clearly
enough that the insincerity of France had had the
effect of making it the master of the situation.
France had declared that she had taken Eome from
the Eomans to restore it to its legitimate sovereign,
the Pope. She could not in the face of Europe
avoid so restoring it. She could not, for very shame,
even if it would have suited her own views to do so,
which of course it would not, give the city back into
the hands of the revolutionaries. And the Pope and
his counsellors had only to hold off", practise a
masterly inactivity, and bide their time, in order to

16 LIFE OF FIUS IX.
return unconditionally and work their own will in the
Eternal City.
The position of the Fre nch in the meantime was
not a pleasant or a dignified one at Eome. Here is
the curious account which Farini gives of the social
condition and aspects of Eoine at that period.
" The Eomans," he says, "took little heed of the
manifesto, and continued to treat the French with
hatred and contempt. For though they had all the
force of the army in their hands, and full power over
the citizens, who were deprived of every liberty, and
though the clergy were swelling with pride and
honours of aU sorts, nevertheless continual injuries
and violences were committed at Eome against both
the priests and the French soldiers, and the temper
of the city was very bad towards both the one and
the other. So much was this the case, that you
might hear in the streets the same bitter abuse
against the clergy and against the Pope and Car
dinals, that might have been heard at the high tide
of the Mazzinian rule ; and the copies of the papal
manifesto were torn down and defiled, and the
French officers met no face that was not bitter and
hostile. In the streets they were alone ; alone at
the theatres ; alone in every place of public resort.

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 17

Not a salutation, not a hand was offered to them.
The very men who paid court to them in private, did
not dare to show any courtesy to them in public.
Any one who did so was pointed at. Any Avoman
Avho looked at any one of them otherwise than
sternly, was run down Avithout mercy. They suffered
much from all this. But inasmuch as the discipline of
the army was complete, and many of the officers and
soldiers sufficiently ciAdlised to understand the reasons
that caused this treatment, they supported in peace
things against which soldiers ordinarily are quick to
rebel. And AvhUe the generals and superior officers
attributed the hostility of the people to the perfidy
of the revolutionists, and considered themselves to
have deserved the gratitude of the Eomans for the
enterprise they had taken m hand, those in the loAver
ranks of the army deemed that the enterprise needed
an excuse. The former affected ostentatious devo
tion towards the priests ; the latter expressed their
contempt for them. It occurred frequently that
when in the streets some insult was offered to some
prelate or priest in the sight of French subalterns or
soldiers, the latter, instead of taking the part of the
insulted ecclesiastic, joined noisily in the laugh
asfainst him. And it Avas common to hear them in
VOL. II. 24

LIFE OF PIUS IX.

the cafds and streets loud in their abuse of the
Clerical Government and in insults to the clergy.
And on the other hand, the clergy, Avho were con
scious of all this, and Avho lived in constant suspicion
of the opinions and conduct of the French, grumbled
at them in devout circles, and were pleased that the
people thus felt ill-will against their OAvn allies and
defenders." It is to be observed that this remarkable and cer
tainly truthful picture of the social condition of
Eome at the time of the French occupation, suffi
ciently disposes of the official talk — perhaps the
official delusion — that those who were opposed to the
Papal Government Avere "a fcAV factious men,"
" strangers from other countries and cities," " a sect
of anarchists," and the like. The body of the popu
lation, the vast majority of the people, almost all
M ho Avere not bound to the Church and the Court by
ties of interest, saw with unconquerable and uncon
cealed dislike the restoration of Clerical government.
It is true that a comparativel}^ small number of the
citizens Avas Avilling to foUoAV Mazzini to the logical
consequences of their oAA'n doctrines, and much less
to those of his political and social doctrines. At the
time of the elevation of Pius the Ninth, they had

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 19

been as ignorant as he as to the absolute impossibility
of the Liberal Papacy which he and they had both
hoped to realise. The Pope had by this time found
out the truth. The people had only partially found
it out. They were not sure that such a scheme was
utterly and for ever impossible. Consequently they
Avere not sure and concordant as to their wishes. If
the sint ut sunt necessity could have been at once
clearly expounded to them ; if they had been made
to understand that the only alternative before them
Avas the utter destruction of the papal temporal
power, whether in faA'our of a republic, or a confede
ration, or a monarchy of united Italy on the one
hand, and the restoration of the Clerical Government,
pur et simple, on the other hand, there would have
been no hesitation in making the choice. At all
events, they have noAV attained the same amount of
knowledge and certainty of conviction upon this
point that Pius the Ninth has !
On the 31st of July, the Commission named by
the Holy Father in accordance Avith the manifesto,*
which has been cited in externa, arrived in Eome. It
consisted of the Cardinals Delia Genga, Vannicelli,
and Altieri. They immediately pubUshed a procla
mation, in Avhich it was promised that " the Holy
24—2

20 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
Father Avas occupying his truly beneficent mind Avith
providing those ameliorations" and those institutions
which may be compatible Avith his dignity, with the
supreme power of the Pontiff, with the nature of this
State, the conservation of Avhich interests the entire
Catholic Avoiid, and with the real necessities of his
AA^ell-beloved subjects."
Their Eminences, and the Pontiff", in Avhose name
they were speaking, cannot be accused of attempting
to deceive the people Avhose allegiance they were
claiming. Few restored sovereigns have ever re
turned to their thrones Avith promises more accurately
in accordance with their real intentions !
On the 3rd of Auguct another proclamation was
issued, nuUifying all the acts of the recent Govern
ment ; and on the foUoAving day another, setting
forth that, although the proclamation of the preced
ing day would, if unmodified, haA'e the effect of ren
dering Avorthless all the paper money Avhich had been
issued by the late pretended Government, the Holy
Father, taking into consideration that such a result
Avould cause the ruin of many families, especially of
the poorer sort, had decreed that such notes should
have currency at the rate of sixty -five per cent, of
their nominal value.

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 21

France, finding the disagreeable nature of her
position, began to be urgent Avith the Holy Father
to take some of the steps AAdiich might serve to
justify her intervention, and prove the liberalising
influence of her counsels. The French diplomatists —
there w^ere tAvxT of them, De Courcelles and De Eey-
iieA'al — on the 19th of August presented a memo
randum to Antonelli setting forth the views of
France, and Avhat she desired of the Pope, " the
articles of the Statuto confirmed anew ; elected
AssembUes for the provinces and communes ; secu
larisation of the administration !" and other small
matters of the like kind. Was the French Govern
ment really so Uttle informed of the circumstances of
the case, and of the minds of the Pope and his coun
seUors, as to imagine that there was any chance that
such demands should be accorded % Or was she
merely acting a comedy for the benefit of Europe,
and saying the appropriate thing to be said in the
r6le which she had assumed ? At all events, Anto
nelli must ha\'e smiled grimly to himself as he put
the text of the memorandum into his pigeon-hole !
Then the French Napoleon of the day had sent
Colonel Ney to Eome to see if he could expedite
matters, and wrote to him pointing out that France

22 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
had never sent her soldiers to Eome except under
the idea that the Pope would do as he was bid in the
matter of Liberal institutions, and how sorry he was
that the army of occupation did not find its quarters
so pleasant as could be AA-ished. " I have heard with
much pain that even in respect of its physical com
forts the army has not been treated as it deserves.
I trust that a stop will be put to such a state of
things. Nothing ought to be spared for the due and
fitting lodgment of our troops." Since it was so
important that they should make themselves com
fortable, it would seem that there was small chance
of their going away very soon ! Ney went to the
office of the Official Gazette to insist that Napoleon's
letter should be printed in its columns. Finding
that it did not appear, he returned on the 14th of
September accompanied by General Rostolan, avIio
had replaced Oudinot, to insist afresh on its publica
tion. " They demanded and insisted energetically,"
says the editor (who chanced to be that same Coppi,
who afterwards published the very valuable annals
from Avhich I quote), "but the Cardinals of the
governing Commission objected to the pubUcation ;
and — it was not published. Indeed the letter did
not produce any effect, or have any consequence I"

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 2 3
The incident is only Avorth mentioning as a very
significant, if small, indication of the position as
sumed by the Pope and his adherents towards their
much-mistrusted friends.
On the 31st of August Antonelli replied to the
memorandum of the French diplomatists by a note
in which he speaks of the intention of the Holy
Father to give his subjects such institutions as,
having regard to anything that might become a pre
text for the return of disorder, are not inconsistent
idth the nature of the Pontifical Government. " The
basis of these institutions," says the Secretary, " are
such, as whUe they assure all fitting liberty {con-
venienti lilertd) to the subjects of the Holy See,
assure also at the same time the liberty and inde
pendence of the Head of the Church, Avhich it is
obUo-atory on him to preserve intact in face of the
Universe." And a few days later, on the 12th of September,
the Pope promulgated a decree, Avhich in fact
replaces the foundations of governmental authority
on the basis on Avhich they rested in the time of
Gregory the Sixteenth.
If it is to be believed that the French Govern
ment had,, previously to this, laboured under any

24 LIFE OF PIUS IX.

illusion as to the intentions of the Holy Father with
regard to the spirit of the government he proposed
to institute on his restoration, it would be childish to
suppose that they could have continued to entertain
such subsequently to this declaration.
On the 18th of September the Holy Father pub
lished an amnesty ; but it was so heavily loaded with
restrictions and exceptions, that any good effect as a
means of conciliating the affections of the people was
entirely destroyed.
The French Government wrote to their represen
tatives that these declarations of the Holy Father
and his Ministers filled them with " dolorous sur
prise !" But in the French Chamber the Minister
for Foreign AflTairs on the l7th of October told the
Deputies that " it had never been the intention of
the French Government to abuse the force of which
it disposed for the constraining of the AviU of the
Holy Father." And the conduct of the Govern
ment was, after a three days' debate, approved by a
vote of 469 against 180. It became tolerably clear
that the Pope, as regarded his subjects, Avould be
alloAved to act as it might seem good to him. But it
was not by any means clear when they and he would
be liberated from his "Uberators."

CHAPTER IV.

THE POPE THINKS OF RETURNING TO ROME. — LEAA'ES GAETA. —
SOJOURNS AT PORTICL — HIS EXCURSION TO NAPLES. — FAVOUR
ABLE RECEPTION BY THE PEOPLE. — THE POPE LEAVES POR
TICI. — PARTING AVITH THE KING OF NAPLES. — THE POPE'S
BLESSING. — ARRIA'AL AT ROME. — ^CONSISTORY OF THE 20TH
OF APRIL. — ENGLISH CATHOLIC EPISCOPACY. — ARRANGEMENTS
FOR THE NEAV ADMINISTR.A.TION. ^RETURN TO DESPOTISM. —
AVHY PRIESTS ARE NECESSARILY UNFORGIVING. — PERSECUTION.
^PUNISHMENT OF THE DISAFFECTED.
It having become sufficiently clear that AvhateA-er
memorandum the French diplomatists might hand
to the Papal Government —that is to Antonelli — ¦
might AAathout any danger be consigned to the waste-
paper basket; that no amount of "dolorous sur
prise " that might be felt by the French Govern
ment was in the least likely to move them to any
active interference with the Holy Father's carrying
on his own government in his own fashion, and that
even imperial letters to "my dear Ney" might

26 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
safely be treated by the editor of the Official Gazette
as editors are wont to treat troublesome and unAA? el-
come correspondents — aU this, I say, having been
made sufficiently manifest and unmistakable, the
Pontiff thought that the time was come Avhen he
might venture to leaA^e his refuge at Gaeta.
He did so on the 4th of September, after having
resided there nine months and nine days. And the
contrast betAveen the circumstances Avhich attended
his departure and those Avhich had characterised his
arrival there, AA'as such as to emphasise the change
Avhich had taken place in the fortunes of the Papacy.
Attended by the King and Queen of Naples, by
five Cardinals, and by a brilliant suite, he embarked
on board a Neapolitan steamer, Avhich was followed
by tAvo other vessels carrying the same flag, by tAVO
Spanish ships, and one French one. And in the
afternoon of the same day he reached Portici, Avhere
the royal palace had been prepared for his reception.
Nothing could exceed the demonstrations of rever
ence and affection AA'ith which he Avas received by aU
classes of the population. He made several excur
sions to Naples, and on the 6th of September
celebrated Mass in the cathedral there. On the 9th
he imparted his solemn benediction to the Neapolitan

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 27

troops from the balcony of the royal palace in
Naples. On the 16th he did the same for the
people, and it Avas calculated that fifty thousand
persons Avere present in the A'ast piazza in front of
the palace. Afterwards he Aasitod many of the
churches of the city and a A'ariety of ]3ublic entertain
ments, and was eA-eryAvhere received after the fashion
so dear to his eyes and ears !
No doubt it Avas true, as he complains in his
addresses and proclamations, that his heart had been
saddened by the defection of his subjects, and the
loss of their affection. No doubt his ears missed
painfully the tribute of thundering applause to which
he had been accustomed. But now he Avas emerging
from his eclipse, the incense of flattery and the
music of applause was once again offered to him ;
and though it was to be of a different sort and
quality from that on which he had hitherto feasted,
it Avas never more to fail him ! A journal Avas pub
lished at Naples during his stay in the neighbour
hood for the express purpose of chronicling his
doings and the festivities and rejoicings that Avere
organised in his honour. From the 30th of October
to the 2nd of November the Pope Avas occupied in a
little excursion to the mountain-enclosed, ancient

LIFE OF PIUS IX.

little city of Benevento, which with a small amount
of territory around it, forms a portion of the Apos
tolic dominions, though it is surrounded on all sides
by Neapolitan territory.
Pius the Ninth remained all that winter at
Portici, not quitting it till the beginning of April,
1850, to return at length to Rome. The night of
the 4th he passed at Caserta, and that of the 5th at
Sessa. The next day Ferdinand the Second accom
panied him as far as the frontier of the kingdom of
Naples. There the monarch descended from his
carriage, kneeled before the Pontiff, kissed his feet,
and asked for his benediction. The Pope said : " I
bless you ! I bless your family ! I bless your king
dom ! I bless your people ! I knoAV not hoAV to
express to you my gratitude for the hospitality you
have given me !" " I have but done the duty of a
Christian I" said the King. " Your filial affection,"
returned the Pontiff, " has been great and sincere I"
And there can be no doubt that Pius spoke his
thanks and blessings in all the sincerity of his heart.
But the Neapolitans might AveU conceive that the
upshot irresistibly proved the truth of the well-known
and wide-spread superstition to the effect that Pius
the Ninth has " the evU eye," which brings iU-luck

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 29

to all it looks on. For never surely Avas so emphatic
a blessing so signally foUoAved by the exact rcA'ursc
of all the Pontiff" prayed PleaA'en to grant !
That same CA^ening Pius arriA^ed at Terracina,
Avhere he remained tAA^o days. On tho 9th he Avent
to Frosinone, on the 10th to Velletri, and on the
12th of April he made his solemn, and surely his
triumphal, entry into Rome. Eight Cardinals accom
panied him, as AveU as the Avhole body of foreign
diplomatists, and he Avas received Avith very general
acclamations. On the 20th the Pope held a Consistory, in which
he pronounced a discourse solemnly thanking by
name and severally all the Powers which had assisted
him to suppress the rebeUion in his States, and had
enabled him to return to his throne. He especially
called attention to the fact that even the non-Catholic
PoAvers had contributed to the maintenance of his
authority, Avherein we are specially called upon to
admire that diAdne Providence which has for so
many ages destined a place in which the Supreme
Pontiff may freely exercise the authority Avhich
God has committed to him.
The first public act, however, Avhich he did after
his return, Avas to erect a Catholic archbishopric at

30 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
Westminster, with twelve suffragan bishops named
from the principal cities of the kingdom — a measure
which gave rise to the celebrated Catholic Titles BiU,
passed the following year, and instantly allowed to
become obsolete.
A variety of arrangements and appointments were
made in conformity Avith the statement of the Holy
Father's intentions which had been put forth by
Cardinal Antonelli : On the 10th of September a
"CouncU of State" and a "Ministry;" on the 28th of
October a board of finance; on the 22nd of November
a scheme for provincial administration ; and on the
24th another for the communes. But all this was
absolutely valueless, and, if not intended to throw
dust into the eyes of the Romans — Avhich it by no
means succeeded in doings was mere puerile juggling
Avith names. AU the councilmen, the deputies, the
commissioners, the ministers, and by whatsoever
other names they may have been called, were every
man of them selected by the Holy Father. All
authority and poAver remained in his hands, and
his government w^as as perfect a despotism as that
of any of his predecessors had been, and as a papal
government must needs be.
And it was in accordance Avith the general current

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 31

of the times that such should have been the case at
Rome. The immense Avavo of popular uprising
Avhich had passed over Europe in 1848 and the
foUoAving years had subsided, and, as Avas to be
expected, the seA'erity of despotism AA'hich succeeded
in each country Avas A'ery accurately proportioned to
the degree of violence which had characterised the
popular movement which had preceded it. The
" repression " in the Papal States Avas severe.
It is an old reproach against the ecclesiastical
caste that priests never forgive ; but it must be
remembered that what a priest is called on to forgive
(under circumstances AA'hich demand from another
man forgiveness for opposition to his claims, his
status, the amount of his power) is an attempt
against his existence ; while at the same time he is
justified in beUeving, if he be a true priest, that his
existence is of all things the most necessary to the
Avelfare of mankind. The absolute verity of the sint
ut sunt must be taken into consideration. The Pope
had by this time learned the conditions of his own
existenee : " He who talks of reforminfc me means
to aboUsh me ; or whether he means it or not, that
is what his efforts tend to. And this abolition of me
is felony against the human race — the most perni-

32 LIFE OF PIUS IX.

cious and deadliest sin and wickedness which a
human creature can compass !" Our faith is mostly
so nebulous, our belief in doctrines professed such
half-belief, that we are apt to undervalue the cogency
of the conclusions to Avhich a Pope who is not a con
scious impostor must be, logically enough, driven in
considering these matters. " On me alone, and on the
maintenance of me in my position, depends the
eternal happiness or misery of untold myriads of
human beings throughout tens of generations yet
unborn ! Shall talk about the constitutional liberty
of a few thousands of Italians — shall the question of
a score or so of lives more or less saved from the
gallows or forfeited to it, weigh for an instant, even
as dust in the balance, against the necessity of re
moving the most remotely-threatening danger to me
and my ministry !"
The argument is cogent, and the conclusion inevit
able ; and this should be borne in mind when Ave
censure the persecutions which the Church has prac
tised. She is fully justified in persecuting to the
utmost extent to which the Avorld is fool enousrh to
allow her to do so. She is driA-en from her position
into quibbling and false facts and false arguments
only Avhen she attempts to deny the principle on

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 33

AAdiich she persecutes. No other person, or sect, or
authority should persecute for opinion's sake, hoAV-
ever strongly they may hold their opinion, or however
important they deem it; but the Church should do
so. Why ? and what is the difference % None other
but that the Church holds theoretically that it is
absolutely sure, by means above those attainable by
other human beings, that her opinions are true. The
Church is sure of the truth of her doctrine, sure of
the consequences of alloAving it to be attacked. In
such a case the suppression of a spreader of false
doctrine, even though by such means as a mad dog
is suppressed, is an absolute and indeclinable duty.
If we do not like this, the priest must be abolished
or restrained.
This pontifical duty Pius had learned the necessity
of, and was now minded to do, nothing doubting.
There can be no question of the entire sincerity of
his faith ; the fibre of his intellect is not sufficiently
mascuUne to be afflicted by doubt. Of too concrete
and objective a nature to exercise his intelligence
much on qualities and the nature of attributes, he
believes facts and statements on what appears to
him to be good evidence, and acts in accordance with
his belief.
VOL. II. 25

34 LIFE OF PIUS IX.

Considerable persecution, accordingly, was exer
cised during the years which succeeded the Pope's
restoration to power against those who were deemed
dangerous to it. Vengeance is declared by the
chroniclers of the time to have remorselessly pursued
those who had shown themselves to be enemies to
the papal system ; but it must be remembered that
those who had done so were the same persons who
were stiU dangerous. I think that any person, of
whom it could have been believed that he was
genuinely resipiscent, would have been received with
open arms by the Ecclesiastical Government, and
this from motives of policy. I do not think that
. Pius the Ninth is a tender-hearted man in such sort
that sufferings inflicted on his enemies out of his
sight whould be heavy at his heart. It would have
delighted him at any time to pardon a repentant and
imploring culprit in the midst of a hemicycle of ad
miring eyes, especially if the object of his clemency
kneeled in an effective attitude ; and he would have
looked as admirably melodramatic a representative
of God-like clemency in person as it is possible for
sculptor or painter to conceive. But the admiring
eyes must be there I
These were, as I take it, the considerations, and

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 35

this is the temper of mind, in Avliich the punishments
for the past Avere inflicted, and the precautions for
the future taken, during those years. And having
said thus much, it does not seem to be AVorth while
to detail the diff'erent cases in AA^hich punishments of
death, imprisonment, or exile Avere inflicted on the
" Liberals" in Rome and in the provinces.* They
AA'ere as many as the Ecclesiastical Government
thought necessary to make themselves safe ; I do
not think they were more.
* The several cases may be found registered in the Avork of the
Cavaliere Achdle GennarelH, entitled " II Governo Pontificio e lo
Stato Eomano." Prato, 1860.

25—2

CHAPTER V.
CONDITION OF ROME AFTER THE RETURN OF THE POPE. —
HATRED OF HIS SUBJECTS. — ISOLATION OF THE POPE. — BAFFLED
IN HIS HOPE OF BEING A GREAT KING, HE TURNS HIS AMBITION
TO BECOMING A GREAT POPE. — THE POLICY OF THE CHURCH IN
DEVISING NEW " RELIGIONS." — SINCERITY OF PIUS THE I^INTH'S
BELIEF. — HIS MOTIVES FOR DECREEING A NEW DOGMA IN
RESPECT TO THE VIRGIN. — IN WHAT SENSE THE DOGMA WAS NEW.
— OPPORTUNENESS OF THE DEFINITION OF IT. — NO ADDITIONAL
BURTHEN TO THE CONSCIENCES OF BELIEVERS.— PREPARATION
FOR TAKING THE STEP OF THE "DEFINITION." — ASSEMBLY
OF DIGNITARIES IN EOME.  THE CEREMONY OF THE DEFINI
TION AT ST. PETER'S. — FESTIVITIES. — SINGULAR PRESENT TO
THE POPE FROM FRANCE.
Life at Rome had fallen back, in the years which
immediately followed the return of the Pope, to a
condition very simUar to that which it had been
accustomed to under Gregory the Sixteenth. Order
reigned in the Eternal City ; but it was order tem
pered by continual more or less overt, more or less
dangerous, conspiracy. The hopes of the Liberals,

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 37

of the Giovine ItaUa, of " the sectarians," of " the
revolution," as the clerical and retrograde party loved
to call them, were not extinguished, not kiUed, but
only scotched. And the attitude and acknowledged
hopes of Sardinia kept these aspirations alive, in a
great degree supplied the means of fostering them,
and in some degree of furnishing, more or less indi
rectly, the means of carrying them into the sphere
of action. The police were continuaUy, even fever
ishly, on the alert in Rome, and rigorous repression
was the order of the day.
It was dreary work, and a dreary life for the
Pontiff! He was hated in the city, the loving ad
miration of which he had so earnestly desired. And
he weU knew himself to be hated. And the pain
which his nature was calculated to suffer from this
consciousness was embittered by a sense of the in
gratitude of those Avho hated him. He had wished
and intended to be so beneficent !
The violence of the hatred with which the Pope
was now regarded by aU Italians, and by his own
Romans most of aU, was as unreasonably excessive
as the love and admiration they had in the early days
of his pontificate expressed for him. And it was far
more genuine ! But if this hatred appears to have

38 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
been unreasonably excessive to an impartial outside
spectator of the drama, what must it have appeared
to the Pope from his point of vieAV ! Why did they
hate him % Because he would not be killed and
abolished; because he Avould not betray what he
held to be a sacred trust ; because he strove to
uphold the institutions which he in his inmost con
science deemed to be of aU conceivable things by
very much the most vitally important to the well-
being of mankind ; not Avhich he believed to be such,
seeing the possibiUty, even ever so faint an one, that
the opinion of others A^'ho thought differently might
be right, but which he knew to be such with a know^-
ledge which admitted of no shade of doubt, or pause,
or misgiving ! It must have been very bitter to such
a man as Pius the Ninth !
GraduaUy — and not very graduaUy either— he
found that he and his stood alone ; that every man's
heart, if only as yet the hands of the more enter
prising and violent, Avas against him. The gulf
between the Church and the world was widening,
and becoming more evident, more phenomenal, and
more avowed from day to day. There he sat, in his
Apostolic palace, a man forbid ! — he to whom the
applause of mankind was as the breath of his nos-

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 39

trils ! A barrier of desolation, like that A\'hich
physically interposes its melancholy desert betA\'een
his OAvn city and the rest of the world, was isolating
him from the sympathies of mankind !
But he had still his oAvn — the faithful few, the
men of his own caste, his brethren in the hate of
the world — the Church ! Upon them, and upon the
Church, aU his sjmipathies were throAvn back. In
that Avorld he might stiU find — Avell, not, perhaps,
affection ; priests do not for the most part much feel
or need affection, and Pius the Ninth as little as any
— but applause, admiration, reverence, and flattery
in such abundance, such seas and rolling AvaA^es of
flattery ever beating Avith sAveetest music on the foot
of his throne, as never monarch enjoyed before !
He had hoped to be a beloved and beneficent
monarch. That dream was over ! The Avicked
world would not accept him. The times were out of
joint. His attempt had been made ; his failure
signal, immense ! There remained the other aspect
of his two-fold character. If he could not be a great
king, it was still open to him to be a great Pope !
To that ambition he now turned himself. In that,
time and the hour, and the tenacious vitality of the
Mastai blood assisting, he has been more successful.

40 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
It was necessary to him to do something — some
thing that should place him once more en evidence
before the world, and should replace him at least in
some degree on a pedestal, which if not quite so
high an one as that from which he had been so
miserably thrust, should be at least safer, and more
sure of the ungrudging homage of that public to
Avhich it Avould appeal. The nature of the something
to be done must be such as Avould strike the imaofina-
tion (always, of course, bearing in mind the special
public Avhich was to be addressed), should be of
interest " ur\>i et orhi," and should be capable of
assuming a visible and material existence in the
daily lives of those who constituted the public in
question. Nothing could have been found better fitted to
answer all the purposes it was intended to serve than
the scheme to which the Holy Father put his hand
at the close of the year 1854.
The wisdom of the rulers of the CathoUc Church
as regards matters material, and its unwisdom as
regards matters spiritual, so notably evidenced by
many pages of its history, is in nothing more con
spicuously seen than in its efforts to secure for its
flocks ncAv objects of devotion, new " religions," as

LIFE OF PIUS IX.

these playthings are termed in the languages of
Latin origin. And the marked propensity of the
male portion of the populations of Latin race to
Avorship a female, in preference to a male, idol,
renders a new superstition connected with the Virgin
Mary the most effectiA^e invention that could be
imagined. ,
And to Pius the Ninth it Avas especiaUy of im
portance that his new religion should be effective !
Not that it is to be supposed that he was, or is,
otherAvise than entirely sincere in the matter. But
the inmost nature of the man seeks and turns to
i.
that which is effective, theatrical, ^orn.e.idolon capable
of decorous presentation to the multitude. There is
no reason to doubt that Pius the Ninth really does
believe (that is, assumes as a certain truth in nowise
needing examination or thinking about) that the
being he has always heard spoken of as the Virgin
Mary reaUy was miraculously born without any
share in that inheritance of sinfulness which is,
according to the theory of the universal Church,
derived from the disobedience of Eve to every other
human being, with the one exception of her Son, our
Saviour ; further, that it would be a good and laud
able thing, useful to the interests of the Church, and

42 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
of mankind, that this fact should be authoritatively
and officially recognised by the Church ; that to do
this would be especially gratifying to the same Virgin
Mary, eternally existing in heaven, with a nature
and sentiments calculated to be pleased by such
recognition, and would be likely to induce her to
cause blessings and advantages of various kinds to
be bestowed on all who should contribute to procure
for her this pleasure, in a degree to which she would
not be disposed to extend her benevolence otherAvise ;
and lastly, that for him to be the principal means of
securing these advantages to religion, to the Church,
to mankind, and to the Virgin Mary herself, would,
while assuring to him a vast amount of immediate
admiration, applause, and opportunity for display, shed
a halo of immortal glory over his Papacy. There was
of course much that was of the earth earthy in the
latter clauses of the considerations thus set forth.
But it Avould be exceedingly unjust— it would be
judging Pius by a standard which we cannot hope or
pretend to apply in judging of the greatest of our
species— to maintain or insinuate that the foibles
Avhich thus mingled themselves with his motives
invalidated or even detracted from the force and
cogency of the higher considerations which guided

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 43
him. And it must be admitted that a Pope, holding
the opinions which have been above rehearsed, acted
rightly and well in " defining the dogma " of the
immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary.
For it must be understood — of course by all
Catholics is understood — that the present Pontiff in
noAvise invented this doctrine. It was a very
ancient and wide-spread notion in the Church, as
may be seen set forth at great length in the abun
dantly learned work of the Jesuit Passaglia, in three
quarto volumes, published by the College of the
Propaganda. And the action of the present Pontiff
Ihnited itself to issuing an authoritative declaration
of the truthfulness and accuracy of this notion, and a
decree making it imperative and obligatory on all
persons to beUeve it to have been, and to be so, on
pain of incurring aU those penalties which are at
tached to the Avilful rejection of any other portion
of the doctrines of the Church.
But if this doctrine had been for many generations
and centuries extensively held in the Church, and if
all the good things above set forth were to be got by
the authoritative establishment of it in the manner
adopted by Pius the Ninth, why, it may be asked,
was it left for him and for the middle of the nine-

44 LIFE OF PIUS IX.

teenth century to accomplish this AVork ? To which
it may be replied, in the first place, that previously
to the definition of the doctrine by Pius, no Pope
and no other man was obliged to believe it on pain
of imperfection in his orthodoxy. And it may well
be that many generations have elapsed since a Pope
has sat in St. Peter's seat endowed with a capacity
to believe it. In the second place, it does not follow
that if a Pope speculatively believe this doctrine to
be true, it Avas therefore incumbent on him to impose
it as a necessary article of faith on the Church. And
the question whether it Avas desirable and for the
interest of the Church so to do, would depend on
many and various considerations connected with the
condition of the Church, of the world, and of men's
minds at the time being. It has been very much
questioned, looking at the matter from the stand
point of an outsider, and putting aside all reference
to the intrinsic value and credibility of the doctrine,
whether now the promulgation of the doctrine as an
obligatory article of faith was in the interests of the
Church a prudent ste]3 or otherwise. It was pro
bably a wise one. Those who think otherwise, object
that the loading of consciences with additional
burthens will cause some, who cannot endure them,

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 45

to leaA'e the Churcli. But this notion of addition
seems to be an erroneous one, based on the imperfect
appUcability of a metaphor. To believe anything in
contradiction to the best exercise of the reasoning
faculties of AA'hich the individual is capable on the
authority of another is a burthen pleasant to some
minds, easy to many, difficult to a foAV, and to a yet
smaller number impossible. But to believe tAvo
statements — or ten — regarding subjects of the same
sort, instead of one only, is no additional difficulty.
In fact, be the articles of beUef as many and as con
tradictory to the ordinary intelUgence as they may,
the proposition AA'hich the faithful have to accede to
is one only. It is more probable that that which I
— the Church — tell you is true, should be the truth,
than that the conclusions arrived at b}^ your own
mental powers should be so. No disciples, therefore,
wiU be lost by the imposition of the new article of
faith. Those Avho might be supposed losable by it,
are lost already. In the ages when quieta non movere
was the best wisdom of the Church, when the con
formity of the world sat Ughtly on it, because think
ing Avas rare, it Avould have been imprudent to risk
awakening sleeping doubts by the startUng trumpet
proclamation of a new thing to be believed. But

46 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
now when the world is far more accurately and
exhaustively divided into believers and unbelievers,
there is no danger of injuring the robust faith of the
former ; while, on the other hand, the stimulus
supplied to their emotional activity, the invention of
something new to do, the amusement of new associa
tions, new confraternities, a-nd new formulse of
devotion, are well calculated to stir their zeal. For
the rest, it is the interest of the Church at the present
day to make high and visible the hurdles that
separate the sheep from the goats. There are very
many practical infidels who are such by reason of
the operation of their hearts, not of their heads,
who may be frightened into the right fold by an
unmistakable manifestation of the fact that they are
at present in the Avxong one.
For Avhich reasons it seems to me at least very
questionable Avhether Pius the Ninth Avere not Avell
advised, assuming, as there is no reason to doubt,
that he is sincere in his own beUef in taking the
step Avhich he took on the 8th of December, 1854.
As early as the 2nd of February, 1849, he had
sent forth circulars from Gaeta to all the Bishops of
the Catholic Avorld, asking them Avhat they them
selves thought of the doctrine in question, hoAv far

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 47

their flocks were disposed to devotion to the Im
maculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin, and
Avhat Avere their OAvn AAashes and ideas as to a defini
tion of it (i.e., such a pontifical declaration as should
make it thenceforth an obligatory article of faith),
and as to giving the greatest possible solemnity to
the act of the Pontiff in defining it.
j\Iore than five hundred Bishops — that is, nearly
all those of the Catholic world — replied, declaring*
their oAvn very special devotion to the Immaculate
Virgin, attesting the " singular " — it is the word of
the ecclesiastical chronicler — piety and devotion of
their clergy and their flocks to this particular form of
worship, and imploring almost unanimously that the
doctrine in question should be " defined."
Of course they did ! When a Pope asks such
questions of his Bishops, it would be a miracle
indeed if any other answer save that Avished for were
returned !
On the 1st of December Pius, having received the
desired answers, called the Cardinals to a Consistory,
and asked of them if it seemed good to them that he
* With some very noteworthy exceptions, Avhich may be found
given at length in Dr. Pusey's "Eirenicon," in a letter to the
author of the Christian Year, Oxford, 1865. Note B, p. 351.

48 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
should issue a dogmatic decree, affirming the Im
maculate Conception of the Most Blessed Virgin
Mary 1 And every member of the Sacred College
replied that it Avas the best thing he could possibly
do — of course !
For many weeks past there had been an immense
influx of Cardinals and Bishops into Rome. Strangely
enough they came from the uttermost parts of the
earth, without Avaiting for the reply of the Sacred
College to the Pope's question — so that they might
have had all their journey in vain ! Happily it was
not so ! The names of all who came were
chronicled day by day as they arrived, and may be
read in the columns of the Official Gazette; and a
more permanent record of them has been inscribed
with pardonable pride by the Pontiff on tablets of
marble, affixed to the north and south AA'alls of the
chancel of St. Peter's. Most of them were speciaUy
invited. Many came uninvited. All Avere received
with the utmost gladness and hospitality by the
Holy Father. It Avas emphatically a case of the
more the merrier !
On the great day fixed for the ceremony, the 8th,
fifty-three Cardinals, forty-two Archbishops, and
ninety Bishops were assembled in the great Basilica

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 49
of St. Peter. An enormous croAvd of persons of
every class of society thi'onged the church, eager —
as an ecclesiastical chronicler puts it — " to hear what
thing it was that they Avere to believe firmly." At
half-past eight in the morning the ceremony began.
The Pontiff himself performed Mass. Then his
Eminence Cardinal Macchi, as Dean of the Sacred
CoUege, asked in the name of all the anxious world
that the Pontiff should proceed to the definition of
the doctrine. Then the hymn " Veni Creator " was
sung by the whole assemblage. After which the
Pontiff, with his magnificent voice slightly quavering
at first Avith emotion, pronounced urbi et orbi the
decree as follows : " By the authority of Jesus
Christ, our Lord, and by that of the Apostles Peter
and Paul, to the honour of the Holy and Indivisible
Trinity, to the decoration and exaltation of the
Virgin, to the exaltation of the Catholic Faith, and
to the increment of the Christian religion, we de
clare, pronounce, and define that it is a doctrine
revealed by God that the Most Blessed Virgin by
the singular grace and privilege of omnipotent God,
out of regard for the merits of Jesus Christ, the
Saviour of the human race, was preserved free from
every stain of original sin from the first instant of
VOL, II. 26

50 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
her Conception ; and this, therefore, it behoves aU
the Faithful constantly and firmly to believe."
Great festivities and rejoicings celebrated the
event. The city Avas magnificently illuminated that
evening, and two thousand five hundred crowns'
worth of bread and meat Avere distributed to the
people — panem et circenses. An exceedingly ugly
column Avas erected out of the special oblations of
the faithful in the Piazza di Spagna, immediately in
front of the College de Propaganda Fide, in com
memoration of the day and the work that had
hallowed it.
And it may be safely assumed that Pius the
Ninth had never, since the day when the cheering
and enthusiastic populace took his horses from his
carriage and dreA\^ him in triumph to the Quirinal
amid the plaudits of the entire city, known so happy
a moment as that in AA'hich he announced, from his
high place in St. Peter's, the new article of faith,
urbi et orhi.
It must not be supposed that the brief formula of
proclamation quoted above constitutes the sole pro
mulgation of the Immaculate Conception. This has
been done in due form by a BuU, which is a very
much more lengthy affair. A someAvhat curious and

LIFE OF PIUS IX.

remarkable offering to the Holy Father, sent quite
recently (February, 1877) by his faithful children in
France, assures in a singular fashion the preservation,
and at need the diffusion of it. A colossal cabinet,
as magnificent as ivory, precious Avoods, mother of
pearl, and carA'ing can make it, having a statue of
the Inimaculata in silver on the top of it, and fur
nished with three hundred drawers, has arrived at
the Vatican, and has been set up in the middle of
the hall consecrated to the memory of the promulga
tion of the neAV dogma. And in every one of the
three hundred drawers there is an elegantly-bound,
beautifuUy-Avritten, and admirably-iUumined volume,
each of Avhich contains the Bull defining the dogma
of the Immaculate Conception in one of the three
hundred dialects into Avhich the designers of this
unique offering have caused it to be translated.

26—2

CHAPTER VI.
CONSECRATION OF THE CHURCH OF ST. PAUL ON THE VU
OSTIA. — THE NEAV CHURCH. — ITS COST. — THE ADVENTURE OF
THE POPE AT THE BASILICA OF ST. AGNES. — CONSISTORY OF
THE 2 2nd of JANUARY. — POPE'S COMPLAINTS OF THE PIED
MONTESE GOVERNMENT. — EXCOMMUNICATION PRONOUNCED
AGAINST ALL CONCERNED IN THE RECENT PIEDMONTESE LEGIS
LATION. — COMPLAINT OF SPAIN AND SWITZERLAND. — CON
CORDAT AVITH AUSTRIA. — JOURNEY OF THE POPE. — LEAVES
ROME ON THE 4TH OF MAY. — HOLY HOUSE AT LORETO. —
pope's JOURNEY BY TERNI, SPOLETO, PERUGIA, SINIGAGLIA,
ETC., TO LORETO. — HIS JOURNEY TO BOLOGNA. — VISITS OF
GREAT PERSONAGES. — VISIT TO MODENA. — TO FERRARA. — TO
RAVENNA. — JOURNEY TO TUSCANY. — ENTRY INTO FLORENCE.
— POPE AT THE PITTI PALACE. — VISITS VOLTERRA, ETC. — GRAND
duke's HOSPITALITY. — COST OF IT. — THE POPE'S RETURN TO
EOME.
The Pontiff took the opportunity offered by the
extraordinary number of great ecclesiastical digni
taries assembled in Rome for the promulgation of
the new dogma, as related in the foregoing chapter,
to consecrate the noAv Church of St. Paul. The

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 53
ancient basilica existing in this spot, marked, accord
ing to tradition, by the martyrdom of the Apostle of
the GentUes, had been burned doAvn in 1823. Leo
the Twelfth, in 1825, ordered the reconstruction of
it, charging the revenue Avith an annual expenditure
of not less than fifty thousand croAvns, and appealing
to all the Catholic Avorld for help to complete the
Avork. Three hundred and forty -tAvo thousand crowns
Avere subscribed, and various sovereigns, especially
the non-CathoUc Emperor of Russia and the infidel
Mehemet AU, Viceroy of Egypt, sent marbles of
great value. The edifice, at least as regards the
sumptuous interior, Avas now' completed, and awaited
consecration. About one mUlion of crowns had been
expended on it. Never Avas money and human effort
so foolishly thrown away. And all the huge sums
that were expended on the work by the Papal
Government were borrowed money, supplied on such
terms as seemed to Rothschild a sufficient motive
for advancing it ; while the Apostolic Government
was year by year increasing its indebtedness to pro
portions which menaced a financial catastrophe. The
spot in the midst of the Campagna, about three miles
from Eome, towards Ostia, on which the church
stands, is one of those subjected in a special degree

54 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
to the scourge of the malaria. The priests who serve
the church cannot in the summer or autumn remain
there, but hurry out to perform the prescribed ser
vices, and escape in all haste from -the desolate spot.
Congregation, of course, there is none ; and no
thought of the possibility of there ever being one
entered into the imagination of any of those who
contributed to the erection of the noAV church. It is
good that historical traditions should not be allowed
to perish; but surely this one, however important,
might have been securely perpetuated at a less cost
than that of this splendid but grossly inartistic and,
sestheticaUy speaking, vulgar building. Outside, it
is a colossal brick-and-mortar barn, without the
smaUest pretension to any attempt at architectural
beauty of any kind ; in the interior it is gorgeous,
with a tasteless accumulation of rare and costly
marbles and gilding. That the workmanship should
by its exceUence exceed the value of the material on
which it is expended was once deemed the special
characteristic of a work of art ; but few buUdings
have ever been raised in which the reverse is so
conspicuously the case as in this BasiUca of St.
Paul. It had now, however, to be consecrated. There

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 55

Avas at hand a notable assembly of the principal
representatives of the Catholic Avorld to do honour
to the occasion, and on the 10th of that December,
1854, the Pontiff had another happy day.
And the 12th of the foUoAving April had a yet
greater good fortune and pleasure in store for him,
in an event Avhich not only broke the tedium of an
existence the quietness of Avhich must have palled on
the taste of one accustomed to such a life as that of
the early days of his papacy, but placed him person-
aUy en evidence before admiring Europe, and pro
vided a long succession of pleasant anniversaries !
The remains of an ancient basUica — that of St.
Alexander, Pontiff and martyr — had recently been
discovered about seven miles from the Via Nomen-
tana; and on the 12th of April, 1855, the Pope
made an excursion to visit the spot. On his return,
he stopj^ed to dine in the convent of St. Agnes,
attached to the basilica of that name. It was a
pleasant little festival. Forty persons had the
honour of being invited to the papal table. And
after the cUnner, a number of the students of the
Propaganda were admitted to kiss the foot of the
Holy Father. There were six Cardinals of the party,
and several Bishops, and all were finding the day a

56 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
delightful one, when suddenly a beam which sup
ported the floor of the large room in which the party
was assembled gave way, and the whole of them,
about a hundred and twenty in number, were precipi
tated into the apartment beloAv ! The alarm and
confusion were great. But it Avas found at length,
when all had been extricated, that nobody had been
killed, nobody badly hurt, and only a few, among
whom was the Pope himself, received some sUght
wounds and bruises. A miracle ! All flock into the
adjoining church of St. Agnes to return thanks —
Pope and his subjects, influenced by the same emo
tions of past alarm and escape from danger. It was
really a happy day ! And all the subsequent feUci-
tations ! the recognition of the special intervention of
the Virgin Mary, watchful over the especial and be
loved worshipper who had so recently done so much
for her ! Could there be a better feather for a papal
cap ?
Nevertheless, the years that intervened between
the return from Gaeta and 1849, the date of the war
against Austria, which was the beginning of the end
of the temporal sovereignty of the Pontiffs, though
tranquU, were troubled ones. Even the tranquUlity
was not without its bitterness to the Pope, for it was

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 57

the result of the occupation of Eome by the French.
And Pius the Ninth Avanted much to have his own
capital in his oAvn hands ! But much worse Avas the
line of conduct which the Piedmontese Government
Avas taking.
On the 22nd of Januaiy in this year, 1855, the
Pope, who had been highly displeased by various
acts of the Subalpine Government, assembled the
Cardinals in Consistory ; and having caused to be
distributed to them a document, in which the various
grounds of complaint by the Apostolic See against
Piedmont were set forth — such as the freedom of
the press, the subjection of missives emanating from
Eome to the royal exequatur, the suppression of
ecclesiastical immunities, the expulsion of the Jesuits
and of the Archbishops of Turin and Cagliari, the
aboUtion of tithes in Sardinia, Protestant places of
Avorship opened in Turin and in Genoa, the proposal
of a law to make marriage a civil contract, and,
finaUy, the now threatened suppression of religious
houses — ^the Pope declared to the members of the
Sacred CoUege, that " words were wanting to him to
express the bitterness with which his heart was op
pressed at seeing the infinitely cruel and scarcely
credible acts that are from day to day committed

58 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
against the venerable rights of the Church, and
against the supreme and inviolable authority of this
Holy See," by the Piedmontese Government. He
goes on to say that the time has come when it is
necessary to put a stop to these eAdls, and he declares
all the laws made and acts done, to the ends above
rehearsed, to be null and void ; and desires that all
such as have been in any way or capacity engaged in
doing these things, to consider carefuUy the pains and
penalties attached by the decrees of the CouncU of
Trent to such offenders.
The Piedmontese Government made no answer to
this allocution ; but the Parliament passed the bill
for the suppression of the convents by large majori
ties in both houses, on the 22nd and 28th of May,
and on the 29th of that month a decree was pub
lished by which three hundred and thirty-four con
vents were suppressed in the Piedmontese dominions.
On the 26th of July the Pontiff summoned another
Consistory, in which he declared that it was " Avith
incredible sadness of mind that he was compelled "
to declare that all those who had proposed, approved,
sanctioned the laws in question, or Avho had acted on
them, favoured them, executed them, or adhered to
them, had incurred the greater excommunication,

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 59

and all the ecclesiastical censures and pains fulmi
nated against such offenders.
In the same Consistory he complained that he
" saw, Avith the utmost Avonder and bitterness of
heart," that Spain Avas disregarding the terms of the
Concordat made Avith that nation, " Avhich he should
never have believed of that country ;" and that he
had in consequence found it necessary to recall his
legatefrom Madrid.
In the same Consistory he bitterly complained
also of the state of ecclesiastical matters in Switzer
land. On the 3rd of November, however, the Pope was
able to communicate the good news that a Concordat
had been arranged with Austria, by virtue of which
the communications between the Austrian Bishops
and the Holy See would not be subjected to any
supervision or permission of the Austrian Govern
ment, and the Bishops would be subjected to no
censureship as regarded the publication of their pas
torals. The Pontiff was at the same time much
gratified by the present of a hundred thousand.florins
from the EmjDeror Francis Joseph, to be expended in
pious work, by preference, " for the erection of the
column of the Immaculate Conception in the Piazza

60 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
di Spagna, and the completion of the church of St.
Paul." Unquestionably the course of these years, though
unmarked by any important event in the life of the
Pontiff, was made heavy to him by the almost unin
terrupted succession of symiDtoms, more or less
marked and unmistakable, that things were going
badly with the Church. But it is probable that the
manner in which the important events, which led
directly up to the catastrophe that Avas even then
overshadowing him, would be brought about, Avas
still unforeseen.
On the 4th of May, 1857, the Pontiff found him
self able to accomplish a strong desire Avhich he had
long felt. Pius the Ninth, Ave are told, had " ahvays
ardently wished to accomplish a special act of reli
gion," by visiting the Holy House at Loreto. It is
not probable that he had " always " been anxious to
make this visit, for he might very easily have done
so in the old days of his residence at Sinigaglia,
which is but a few miles to the south of Loreto.
But now that he had assumed the position of a very
special devotee and patron of the Virgin Mary, it is
intelligible that it behoved him to do so. The legend
of the Holy House is too well knoAvn for it to be

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 61

necessary to spend many Avords on the subject. It
is a small brick and mortar house, consisting of one
chamber and a closet behind it, which is said to have
been the residence of the Virgin Mary, and to have
been miraculously transported, after sundry adven
tures by the Avay, to the spot Avhere it now stands.
A magnificent church has been built over and around
it ; and the treasury, consisting of the offerings of
the faithful during many generations, was the
Avealthiest in Europe till the contents were stolen by
the French. It is of course a celebrated place of
pilgrimage. On the 4th of May the Pope left Eome on this
pious expedition. His wish to do so had been duly
notified to aU the civil and ecclesiastical authorities
of the districts through which he would have to pass ;
and the result Avas " a deputation " to implore his
HoUness to condescend to do what he desired to do.
Taking with him many of the principal j^ersonages
of his household, and the prelate Berardi, subse
quently raised to the purple, as pro-Secretary of
State, he traveUed by Terni, Spoleto (where striking
reminiscences and some curious contrasts must have
awaited him), Assisi, Perugia, Camerino, and Mace-
rata, and reached Loreto on the 14th. Thence,

62 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
having performed his devotions in due form, and
after an excursion to Fermo and Ascoli, he continued
his journey by Ancona, Sinigaglia (contrasts and
memories yet stranger than before !), Pesaro, Eimini,
Cesena, Forli, Faenza, Imola (once more among old
acquaintances !), and thence to Bologna, where he
purposed remaining some little time, and took up
his residence at the suburban villa of St. Michele in
Bosco. At various points of this journey he re
ceived the visits and the homage of a great variety
of great personages. In Perugia, the Archduke
Charles came to him, as the representative of his
father, the Grand Duke of Tuscany ; in Pesaro, the
Archduke Maximilian of Austria. In Bologna he
received the visits of Louis, King of Bavaria, of
Eobert, Duke of Parma, and his mother, the Duchess
of Berry. Leopold, the Grand Duke of Tuscany,
and Francis the Fifth, Duke of Modena, also came
to pay their respects to him at Bologna, and begged
him to visit their respective capitals. The Emperor
of Austria also sent Count Bessingen, the Governor
of the Venetian provinces, and the King of Sardinia
sent the Commendatore Boncompagni, his Minister
at the Court of Tuscany, to Avait on him at Bologna.
It was only a fcAV months previously that he had, as

LIFE OF PIUS IX, 63

has been seen, excommunicated the King of Sardinia
(not specially and individually, or by name, but im
plicitly) ; but it is to be presumed that no allusion
Avas made on the present occasion to that untoward
fact. On the 2nd of Jul}' the Holy Father Avent to
Modena, gladdened the pious Duke by his presence
for tAvo days, and on the 4th returned to Bologna.
On the 10th he visited Ferrara, returning again to
Bologna on the 15th; and he spent the days from
the 21st to the 26th in Eavenna. After that he re
mained at the Villa Michele, in Bosco, till the 16th
of August.
Then setting out for Tuscany, he passed the night
of his arrival at a villa called Le Maschere, not far
from Florence, whence he made his ceremonial entry
into that city the next morning.
The Grand Duke Avent out to meet him ; and the
present writer, who Avas then at Florence, well re
members aU the difficulty and debate there was
among the masters of ceremonies and the like on
the question what rule of precedence should regulate
the entry of the Pope and the Duke into the capital
of the latter. It seems to have been a very knotty
point whether the carriage of the Pope or that of

64 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
the Duke should precede. It appears, indeed, to
have been insoluble ; for it was at length settled that
they should make their entry in the same carriage,
seated side by side. The same witness well remembers
how flat an affair that entry Avas — how utterly the
Florentines refused to make demonstration of any
pleasure or rejoicing on the occasion. The Holy
Father must have received a rencAved assurance that
he must for the future look to the ranks of his OAvn
caste alone for sympathy, applause, and flattery.
One entire floor of the Pitti Palace was assigned
to the Holy Father and his suite while he remained
in the City of Flowers ; and the irreverent Floren
tines, less used to such matters of ecclesiastical
etiquette than the Eoman world, made great fun of
the fact that all the female portion of the ordinary
inhabitants of the apartments in question had to be
removed from them on the occasion.
Pius remained at Florence, save for a short visit
to Prato and Pistoria, till the 23rd. On the 24th he
started on his return to Eome, and, visiting Pisa,
Leghorn, and Lucca by the Avay, reached Volterra
on the 26th, where he passed the foUoAving day, for
the sake of visiting his old school On the 28th he
went to Siena, and on the 31st quitted Tuscany by

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 65
the Valdichiana. The Grand Duke had accompanied
him during the whole of his travels in Tuscany, and
had during the Avhole time played the host in a very
splendid manner. The Tuscans, meanwhUe, were
grudgingly coimting the cost, Avhich was calculated
to have exceeded seventy thousand francesconi, or
more than fourteen thousand pounds.
On the first night of the Pontiff's return to his
OAvn dominions he slept at OrAaeto, and passed the
foUowing day there. The 3rd and 4th of September
he passed at Viterbo, and on the 5th re-entered
Eome, where he was received with every possible
demonstration of rejoicing and enthusiastic welcome
— by the clergy.
He had been absent from Eome just four months,
and had in the course of his travels visited almost
every city of note in his dominions, as well as nearly
the whole of Tuscany.
The expense incun'ed on account of this journey by
the deeply-indebted and embarrassed Papal Govern
ment was about one mUUon and twenty thousand
crowns.

VOL. II. 27

CHAPTEE VII.
PETITIONS OF THE PEOPLE OF THE LEGATIONS NEGLECTED. —
POPE'S SPEECH ON HIS RETURN TO EOME. — WORDS OF NAPO
LEON THE THIRD TO THE AUSTRIAN AMBASSADOR ON THE IST
OF JANUARA', 1859. — WAR BREAKS OUT. — POSITION OF THE
POPE. — VIEWS OF FRANCE AND AUSTRIA. — PEACE ON THE
5th of JULY. — PAPAL PROTEST OF THE 15TH OF JUNE. —
PAPAL ALLOCUTION. — EXPEDITION AGAINST PERUGIA. — ^ALLO
CUTION OF THE 26th of SEPTEMBER. — SARDINIAN MINISTER
LEAVES EOME. — PROPOSED CONGEESS. — THE PAMPHLET "THE
POPE AND THE CONGEESS."— PAPAL EEPLY TO IT. — POPE'S
SPEECH ON THE FIEST DAY OF 1860. — LETl'EE OF NAPOLEON
TO THE POPE. — BEEOR OF NAPOLEON'S VIEW. — THE POPE'S
REPLY. — NON POSSUMUS.
The • populations of the provinces of the pontifical
dominions, more especially of the Legations, as they
are called — that is to say, of Eomagna and Emilia —
seized the opportunity of the Pontiff's presence among
them to endeavour to bring to his notice the very
unsatisfactory condition of the country, and the suf
ferings of a large portion of the inhabitants: No

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 67

formal presentation, hoAveA'er, of those petitions and
representations AA'as permitted, and the Government,
we are told, " was informed of them only by means
of the vast number of copies of them Avhich were in
circulation ;" and Avhatever amount of information
may haA-e reached the Pontiff by these means,
nothing was done, and no attention Avas paid to the
Avishes or the complaints of the people. It may be
that no cry of complaint or supplication for reUef was
suffered to reach either the ear or the eye of the
Pontiff. If he Avere not ignorant of the expression- of these
sufferings and of these petitions, he was guilty of
very gross hypocrisy and falsehood when, on the
25th of September, after his return to Eome, in an
aUocution in Consistory respecting his journey, he
" gave thanks to the Most High for the satisfaction
of having seen that all the populations of the pro-
Adnces he had visited had shoAvn themselves so
devoted to the Holy See — that his journey had
seemed a perpetual and solemn triumph of our most
holy religion." He said that he had very willingly
listened to the magistrates, " who had set forth the
local needs of the different places, or the measures
required for the augmentation of their commerce,
27—2

68 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
with the respectfulness and in the manner which
befitted subjects of the Holy See." He spoke of
the great pleasure with which he had received attes
tations of respect from so many Sovereigns, especially
in Modena and Tuscany (and here he spoke with
unquestionable sincerity), and finally he expressed
his thanks to all, and particularly to the Eoman
people. The Pontiff was delighted with the proper and
respectful manner in which his subjects expressed
their wishes and needs. He had traveUed over
nearly the whole of his dominions, and had found
that order reigned at Perugia, at Bologna, at
Ferrara, at Eavenna, as at Rome. And there was
the reassuring thought that this " order " was
guaranteed by the solid force of France in the south
and Austria in the north ! It was not agreeable to
the Holy Father to have the troops of France in
Eome, and he Avould have much preferred that they
should have afforded him the requisite protection
from a greater distance. But as it was, "order
reigned ;" and there seemed no immediate danger of
those " changes " which " perplex monarchs."
But on the first day of the year 1859 the curtain
began to rise on a new drama. On that day Napoleon

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 69
the Third, then the arbiter of European destinies, said
to the representative of Austria at his Court, " I am
sorry that our relations Avith your Government are
not so good as heretofore ; but pray teU the Emperor
that my sentiments toAvards him personally are un
changed." A A-ery quiet little Avord ! But on
hearing it Austria immediately sent thirty thousand
men to reinforce her army in Italy ! On the 1 0th of
January Victor Emmanuel, opening the Piedmontese
ParUament, sounded a simUar note. And in a word
it was evident that there was to be Avar in the north
of Italy ; and that the two protectors of the Holy
Father were about to enter on an internecine
struggle. In these aAvkAvard circumstances the first fear of
the Pope was that active hostilities might ensue
between the Austrians who were at Ancona, and
the French who were at Eome. And the step which
he took to remove this danger was a communication
from Cardinal Antonelli to the ambassadors of
Austria and France on the 22nd of February, in
which he represented that the Holy Father thought
himself sufficiently strong to be able to secure the
maintenance of peace in his States ; and that he was
consequently ready to make arrangements with the

70 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
two Powers in question for the simultaneous with
drawal of the troops of both those Powers from his
dominions with the least delay possible. This step
on the part of the Papal Government was a very
remarkable one, inasmuch as it indicates an ignor
ance of the state of Italy and of the prevailing
wishes and aspirations of the subjects of the Holy
See, Avhich seems altogether incredible. It is incon
ceivable that the Pope's advisers, if not the Pontiff
himself, should have had any doubt about the fact
that, if the Holy Father had been left alone Avith his
subjects, unprotected as well as untrammeled by any
foreign power, his temporal government would not
have endured a week ! Nor is this a case in which
the event is needed to throw a light upon the cir
cumstances of the time. There could hardly have
been a layman in Italy at that time, of those at aU
capable of forming an opinion on the subject, who
could not have foretold as much I
The application of Cardinal AntoneUi to the am
bassadors was wholly unattended to. Both protectors,
while fighting out their own quarrel, treated the
Holy Father as nurses treat a child who cries for
what is not good for it I But their own ultimate
intentions with respect to him were very different.

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 71

Austria of course Avas fighting for a universal status
quo, and had she been victorious Avould have made —
or at least Avould have done her best to make — Pius
the Ninth every inch a Pope and Pope-king again.
France Avas fighting to make and support for herself
an influence in Italy, and Avith ultimate intentions
Avith regard to the Holy Father of a very different
nature from those of his real friend Austria. For
while supporting him in the exercise of his temporal
power, France could not in the circumstances of her
oma position at home and in Europe do otherAvise
than press him to make reforms which he had ascer
tained to be incomjiatible Avith that poAver. More
over it had become sufficiently clear by this time
who the Pope's real, dangerous, and deadly enemy
was — Piedmont ; and France was going to __ war as
the friend and aUy of Piedmont.
The story of the Avar and its results is a well-
knoAvn one. Peace was made at ViUafranca on the
6th of July, 1859, one of the stipulations between
the two Emperors being that an Italian confedera
tion should be estabUshed under the honorary presi
dency of the Pope. Of course this would have well
suited the vicAVS of France, as they were explained
by the Emperor himself to his own Senate subse-

72 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
quently. But here, again, it seems extraordinary
that the Emperor and his- counseUors should not
have possessed sufficient knowledge of Italy, of its
constituent parts, and of the temper and views of the
Italians, to be sure that such a scheme Avas a
chimerical one. Possibly the Emperor did know it
to be chimerical !
But while France and Piedmont on the one side,
and Austria on the other, had been settUngf the
destinies of Northern Italy, the dominions of the
Holy Father had been showing how much truth
there was in his statements of their devotedness to
himself, by throwing off his yoke in the Legations,
and striving to do so in Umbria. On the 15th of
June Cardinal AntoneUi addressed a circular to the
representatives of the Powers residing at Eome,
protesting against aU that had been done in the
Legations ; and on the 1 8th of the same month the
Pontiff wrote a long encyclical letter to the " Patri
archs, Primates, Archbishops and Bishops of the
CathoUc world," in which he declares that he is pre
pared to suffer any affliction " rather than abandon
in any respect our apostolic duty, or permit any
thing contrary to the sanctity of the oath by which
we were bound, when Ave, however unworthy, were

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 73
raised to this supreme seat of the chief of the
Apostles, the fortress and bulwark of the Catholic
Faith." On the next day but one his Holiness addressed a
long aUocution to the Cardinals, rehearsing with much
violence of reprobation the rebellious acts of his
subjects in Bologna, Eavenna, Perugia, and other
cities ; declaring that the object of such felonious
deeds is to destroy the Catholic religion itself; set
ting forth the absolutely imprescriptible title on
Avhich he holds the sovereignty of his dominions ;
fulminating excommunication against aU those en
gaged in these rebeUions and resistance to his
authority ; and concluding by saying that his hope
of a happy exit from aU these evUs "is certainly
increased by the fact that the French armies at
present existing in Italy wUl, in accordance with the
declarations of our very dear son in Christ the
Emperor of the French, not only abstain from doing
anything against our temporal power and that of
the Holy See, but on the contrary wiU defend and
preserve it."
The ApostoUc Government at the same time took
active measures to do what lay in its own power to
put down rebeUion at least in the nearest of the

71 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
revolted provinces ; and sent the troops of Avhich it
could dispose to Perugia, with results which are but
too well known, the story of which, however, does
not fall within the scope of this work. It is fair,
perhaps, to consider that the excesses of the soldiery
sent to Perugia make no part of the personal bio
graphy of the Pontiff. Nevertheless it is not per
missible for a biographer to forget, however gladly
he would do so, that so far from reproving or even
deploring the hideous excesses that were committed
by his troops in Perugia, the Holy Father saw fit to
thank the general in command, and to cause a com
memorative medal to be struck as a memorial of his
gratitude and a rcAvard to the soldiers for doings
which no other civilised state would have tolerated
in its agents ! No compassion for those guUty of
rebelUng against his authority could reach the heart
of a sacerdotal ruler, and no ferocity in the repressing
of such rebellion seem to priestly eyes aught but
holy zeal !
On the 26th of September the Holy Father again
delivered a long address to the Cardinals assembled
in Consistory. Going over again the facts of the
rebeUion, and protesting against them and the
authors of them, he proceeds to say that, " Moved

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 75
by undisguised hatred to his Holy See, they have
dared to meet together in Bologna on the 6th of this
month in an assembly called by them the National
Assembly of the people of Emilia, and to promulgate
a decree fuU of false accusations and false pretexts,
in which, mendaciously asserting the unanimity of
the people, they declared, in opposition to the rights
of the Church, that they would no longer remain
under the Pontifical Government. And on the fol
lowing day they simUarly declared, as is now the
fashion, that they Avished to unite themselves to the
dominions of the King of Sardinia and to become his
subjects." The Holy Father then laments that
these same rebellious and impious men are doing
everything in their power to corrupt the morals of
the people, " especiaUy by means of books and
journals printed at Bologna and elsewhere, by means
of which universal license is favoured, the Vicar of
Christ is lacerated with abuse, the exercise of piety
and reUgion is ridiculed, and the prayers addressed in
honour of the Immaculate and Most Holy Mother of
God the Virgin Mary for the invocation of her most
potent protection are derided. In the theatres also
morality is offended ; and modesty and virtue and
sacred persons are exposed to public contumely and

76 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
derision. And these things are done by those who
call themselves Catholics and reverently devout
towards the supreme spiritual power and authority of
the Roman Pontiff" !" The Holy Father proceeds at
great length to reneAv his protests against all that
had been done in the revolted provinces, to declare
aU their acts void and of no effect, and to declare the
ecclesiastical penalties incurred by all who had re
belled or abetted the rebellion.
After this allocution the representative of the
King of Sardinia could hardly continue to reside at
Rome ; and on the 1st of October Cardinal Anto
neUi wrote to Count della Minerva, informing him
that the dignity of the Holy Father did not permit
that a representative of the King of Sardinia should
any longer reside in his Court, and he Avas therefore
obliged to send him his passports. On its becoming
known to the public that he was about to quit Rome,
nearly four thousand individuals caUed and left their
cards on him; and so great a crowd gathered to cheer
him as he left the city, that it was deemed necessary
to call out the troops to preserve order.
These were sufficiently significant symptoms that ,
nothing save foreign force could any longer maintain
the temporal power of the Holy See, and that the

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 77
European Congress, Avhich it was proposed should
meet in the beginning of the year 1860, for the
arrangement of the affairs of Central Italy, and
especially of the Papal States, would have a task
of no ordinary difficulty on their hands.
Some of those who Avere invited to join it were of
that opinion, and declined the task. Instead of the
Congress, a French pamphlet, which became very
celebrated, made its appearance. It Avas entitled
" The Pope and the Congress," and was anonymous,
but was supposed to be written by " one De Guer-
roniere," as the ItaUan annalist says, and to express
the ideas and purposes of Napoleon the Third.
These were, briefly, that it was needful, for the sake
of the Catholic reUgion, that the Pope should con
tinue to be a temporal Sovereign ; but that, as he
was an extremely bad one, his sovereignty should be
as small as possible ; that aU his dominions should
therefore be taken from him save Rome and the so-
caUed " patrimony of St. Peter," the rule over the
inhabitants of which should be secured to him by the
Powers of Europe, for the good of the faithful in all
the other parts of the world. The arrangement Avas
enUnently satisfactory to all parties except the Pope
himself, and the victims who were to be sacrificed to

LIFE OF PIUS IX.

the religious requirements of their fellow-creatures.
The former lost no time in crying aloud against the
fate proposed for him. A statement immediately
appeared in the Roman Official Gazette, to the effect
that the pamphlet in question was " a homage to the
revolution," filled with "hidden poison "¦ — " a subject
of grief for all good Catholics " — " a reproduction of
errors and insults vomited against the Holy See,"
etc. In short, the Pope would in nowise consent to
the proposed arrangement.
On the first day of 1860, Avhen receiving the visits
of the representatives of the Powers, and of the
generals of the French occupying force, the Pope
said that he prayed God to enlighten the French
Emperor, to the end that he might " securely tread
the difficult path before him, and recognise the false
hood of certain principles which had appeared within
the last fcAV days in a Avork which may be described
as a notable monument of hypocrisy, and an ignoble
collection of contradictions. We hope," continued
the Pontiff, " that by the assistance of this Divine
illumination, or rather we are persuaded, that by the
assistance of this illumination he will condemn the
principles contained in this Avork ; and Ave are the
more convinced that he wiU do so from the circum-

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 79

stance that Ave possess certain documents Avhich lie
had the goodness to place in our hands some little
time since, Avhich are a veritable condemnation of
the principles in question. And in this conviction we
implore from God that He Avill spread His benedic
tions over the Emperor, over his august Consort, over
the Prince Imperial, and the Avhole of France."
Of course, there Avould have been no object in
noticing the offending pamphlet if it had not been
known to proceed from the Emperor !
When the Congress had first been proposed, Pius
had written to the Emperor, begging that he would
support at it the entirety and inviolability of the
temporal dominions of the Holy See, and protect it
against the iniquitous rebellion ; and the Emperor
had repUed at considerable length. The gist of his
letter is that, if the Pope had taken the advice of
the Emperor at the time of the conclusion of peace
at ViUafranca, and had separated the administration
of the Legations from that of his other States, and
appointed a lay governor over them, those provinces
would, in his opinion, have returned to their allegi
ance ; that the coming Congress would no doubt
recognise the right of the Holy See to the provinces
in question, but would probably decline to use force

80 LIFE OF PIUS IX.

for the subjection of them to the Holy Father ; that
he, the Emperor, had not had power to prevent the
rebellion in those proAances and the determination of
the people to Avithdraw themselves from the authority
of the Pontiff; that the only thing now to be done
Avas for the Holy Father freely to renounce his
sovereignty over those provinces, asking the Euro
pean Powers to guarantee to him the remainder of
his dominions in exchange for that sacrifice ; and
that he, the Emperor, doubted not that, if that
course Avere followed, the immediate return of order
would be the result.
If the Emperor really thought as he says he does
in this letter, it indicates that he was singularly
ignorant of the social condition of Italy, of the state
of opinion and temper among the ItaUans in all parts
of the peninsula, and of the forces which, more or
less overtly, were at Avork from one end to the other
of it. But there are other portions of his poUcy, and
other of his utterances on the subject previously and
subsequently, which would go to show that he really
was thus ignorant, and that his suggestions to the
Holy Father may, therefore, have been sincerely
made. The Pope, who knew better, replied on the 8th of

LIFE OF PIUS IX.

January, 1860. He points out, Avith unansAverable
force of argument, that the guarantee of the Euro
pean Powers, which then declined to use force for
the restoration to him of the Legations, to Avhich
they admit his right, Avould be worth little as an
assurance to the Holy See that it Avould not subse
quently be despoiled of what remained to it, seeing
that the same reasons Avhich availed to dissuade
them from using force in the present case would
exist and continue equally cogent in the future case.
But the consideration which Avas paramount with
Pius the Ninth, which ruled then and has ruled his
conduct ever since, is set forth in the following
words : " A project of such a nature presents insur
mountable difficulties ; and to acquire a conviction
that such is the case, it aa'UI suffice to reflect on my
situation, on my sacred character, and on the rights
of the Holy See — rights which are not those of a
dynasty, but of all Catholics. The difficulties are
insurmountable because / can not give up that Avhich
does not belong to me. ... I find myself under the
obligation of declaring openly to your Majesty that
/ can not yield the Legations without violating the
solemn oaths Avhich bind me ; without producing an
evil and a shock to the other provinces; without
VOL. II. 28

82 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
doing evil and causing injury to all the Catholic
world." The letter is very long, and in parts devoid neither
of strength of argument or of eloquence. But the
important kernel of it is contained in the above pas
sage. It is the authoritative declaration of the non
possumus, Avhich has become proverbial, and which
has been the unbending rule by which the Pontiff
has governed the Avhole of his subsequent conduct.

CHAPTER VIII.
FRENCH VIEAV OF THE POPE'S POSITION ERRONEOUS.- — TEMPERA
MENT OF PIUS THE NINTH. — ENCYCLICAL LETTER OF THE 19TH
OF JANUARA'. — REPLY OF THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT. — COM
MUNICATION BY THE MEANS OF THE FRENCH AMBASSADOR
ON THE 12th OF FEBRUARY. — PROPOSALS OF PIEDMONT OFFEN-
SIArE TO THE HOLY FATHER. — LETTER OF PIUS TO VICTOR
EMMANUEL. — ANNEXATION OF THE LEGATIONS. — PROTEST AND
COMPLAINT OF THE POPE. — ALL CONCERNED IN THE ANNEXA
TION EXCOMMUNIC.A.TED. — PAPAL GOVERNMENT ARMS. — LAMO-
RICIERE APPOINTED GENERAL-IN-CHIEF. — HIS ADDRESS TO THE
ARMY. — ISOLATION OF THE HOLY FATHER. — FUETHEE DIPLO
MATIC NEGOTIATIONS. — PKOPOSALS OF FRANCE AND OF AUSTRIA.
— REJECTED IN TOTO BY THE PONTIFF, 14TH APPJL, 1860. —
DIITICULT POSITION OF THE PIEDMONTESE GOVERNMENT. —
COMJIUNICATION by CAVOUR TO CARDINAL ANTONELLI. — REPLY
OF ANTONELLL — FRANCE AA'ITHDRAAVS HER MINISTER FROM
TURIN. — DETERMINATION OF CAVOUR.- — BATTLE OF CASTEL
FTOARDO.
There can be no doubt noAV, even if there could have
been any doubt at the time, that the Emperor Avas
mistaken in supposing that the Pope could have
secured the possession of his other provinces by rehn-
28 — 2

84 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
quishing the Legations, and that the Holy Father
Avas right in his opinion and declaration that the
guarantees suggested for giving him that security
would prove illusory. The months of this 1860
must have been a very bitter time to the Pontiff !
He had discovered during the early years of his
pontificate that he had no friends among his own
subjects, that the requirements of his position as
Pope-king inevitably placed a barrier of dissension
and hatred between them and him. He was now to
find himself equally deserted and left alone in face
of his enemies by all his brother sovereigns ! The
experience of those months would have gone far to
kill any man killable by disappointment and sorrow !
But Pius the Ninth did not grow thin ; his cheek
did not pale ; liis eye retained its brightness ; the
magnificent volume of his voice rolled in as fuU a
body as ever through the Hall of Consistory, as he
pronounced allocution after allocution, despairing
enough in the tenor of them, to the assembled Car
dinals. And so it has been during the whole of his
long life I Sorrow seems to have no hold on him —
passes over him as water from a duck's back I Of
course, in the estimation of the devout of his own
Avorld-Avide flock, the explanation of the phenomenon

LIFE OF PIUS IX.

is not far to seek ! Hoav should such a man l)e
suffered to faint for Avant of support ? Hoav should
the "Definer" of the Immaculate Conception bo
Avithout the even miraculously giAcn comfort of Mary
the Consoler? While minds cast in a different mould
AA'iU probably see in the same facts only the natural
results of an eupeptic condition of the organism,
together AA'ith a certain manifestation of that hard
ness to aU exterior troubles of a not absolutely per
sonal description, which is often seen to accompany
the melodramatic temperament, and which the reader
wUl find strongly marked in other circumstances of
che Pontiff's life.
On the 19 th of January Pius issued an encyclical
letter to aU the Bishops of the Catholic Avorld, assur
ing them of his unalterable determination to maintain
to the utmost of his ability the entirety and inviola
bility of his temporal power, " which is a matter of
interest to all the Catholic world." He goes on to
caU upon them " never to cease from every effort
and endeavour to protect the Catholic Church and
this Holy See, and for the preservation of the civil
sovereignty of the same, and of the patrimony of St.
Peter, the defence of which belongs to all Catholics."
The French Government put forth a reply to this

86 LIFE OF PIUS IX.

encyclic on the 8th of February, in which it was
insisted that "the Court of Rome was not well
inspired in endeavouring to establish a sort of indis
soluble connection between two orders of interests
which cannot be confounded without danger." This,
it is abundantly evident, is a mere begging of the
question. The document, hoAvever, goes on to point
out that it Avas not then for the first time that the
situation of the Legations had been examined under
a purely political aspect, which is true enough. But
it would have been more to the purpose if the French
Foreign Office had shown, as they might so easily
and so abundantly have done from the pages of the
history of medieval Italy, the absurdity of maintain
ing that the due discharge of the duties and functions
of the Papacy depended on the possession of sove
reign power which the Popes did not possess till
comparatively modern times.
A few days later, on the 12th of February, the
French Government addressed a letter to the Due
de Grammont, then Ambassador at Rome, in which
the Pope was again urged to separate the religious
from the political question, and allow the question of
the Legations to be debated on that footing.
Cardinal Antonelli replied to these despatches on

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 87

the 29th of the same month, urging at length that
the discontent, disaffection, and rebellion in the
Legations had not been caused by any maladminis
tration of the Papal Government, but had been pro
duced purposely and artificially by means from with
out — in short, by Piedmont ; that the religious and
the political questions were, in the case of the
Pontiff, inseparable ; and that it Avas impossible
for the Holy Father to yield that AA'hich was in fact
a principle. On the 2nd of March a long conference took place
between Antonelli and the French ambassador, in
which the former again declared that the Pope would
never come to any accord for the cession of the
Legations. About the same time, the King of
Sardinia, or rather Count Cavour, in his name, sent
a long letter to Pius the Ninth, justifying himself
for the part he had taken in promoting Italian unity,
and concluding by saying that if the Pope " would
demand my frank and loyal assistance, a way might
be found to establish, not only in Romagna, but also
in the Marches and Umbria, such a state of things
that, reserving for the Church her superior sove
reignty, and assuring to the Supreme Pontiff a
glorious position at the head of the Italian nation,

88 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
would cause the inhabitants of those provinces to
partake in the benefits which a strong and supremely
national Government assures to the districts of
Central Italy."
The Pope was highly offended at these proposals,
as well he might be ! A more palpable, one might
almost say insolent, attempt to throAV dust in the
eyes of an adversary, Avas surely never made ! A
more foolish attempt too, it might be thought !
Could Cavour have deemed it possible that the Pope
and Antonelli, and his other counseUors, could have
been caught with such chaff"? The probability is
that he never did deem any such result of his letter
possible ; and that it Avas intended only as a contri
bution to the justification for the line of conduct
already determined on, which it was desirable to
prepare for contemporary diplomatic Europe and for
future history.
The Pope replied to it by a letter to the King, in
which he told him that the idea he had put forward
was " not a wise one, and certainly not worthy of a
Catholic sovereign, and specially of a King of the
House of SaA'oy ! My reply," added his Holiness,
" has already been printed in my encyclical letter to
the Bishops of the Catholic world, which you may

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 89

easily read. For the rest, I am afflicted, not for
myself, but for the unhappy condition of your
Majesty's soul, entangled as you are in censures
AA'hich Avill faU on you Avith greater weight Avhen the
act of sacrilege, Avhich you and yours have the
intention of committing, shaU have been consum
mated." In March the act was consummated, the first of
sundry acts of the same kind that were to follow.
The Legations, by vote of the populations, declared
that they would no longer be subjects of the Pontiff,
but Avould be united to the kingdom of the King of
Sardinia. And the Piedmontese Government ac
cepted the proposal. On the 20th of March the
King wrote a second letter to Pius the Ninth,
giving his reasons for acting as he had done for the
advantage of Italy, and promising that, if the Pope
would enter into negotiations with his Government,
he would make up to the Holy See anything that
might be lost to it in revenue from the loss of the
provinces in question. On the 2nd of April the
Pope repUed, declaring, of course, the impossibility
of his coming to any such terms in any way. With
regard to the statement that the populations of the
revolted provinces had declared by universal suffrage

90 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
that they would no longer belong to the Pope, Pius
the Ninth remarks : " I might tell you that the so-
called universal suffrage was not spontaneous, but
imposed on the people ; but upon this subject I
abstain from asking the opinion of your Majesty on
universal suffrage, as I refrain also from manifesting
mine." The Holy Father concludes his letter, which
is written in a very severe tone throughout, by saying
that when his Majesty shall calmly read over again
the letter Avhich he had written to him, he Avill find
in it much cause for repentance !
Cardinal AntoneUi at the same time protested
against the spoliation of the Church in a circular
addressed to the representatives of the Powers, in
which he expressed the Holy leather's persuasion
that the different Governments will not recognise
such an act of usurpation. And on the 26th of
March the Pope published a brief, in which he
declares that, " in the crafty and perverse machina
tions," which have resulted in detaching the Lega
tions from the Apostolic dominions, " the Subalpine
Government has taken the principal part ; not only, I
say it Avith horror, despising my admonitions, my
complaints, and all ecclesiastical penalties, but stiff-
necked in its dishonesty against all right, extorted a

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 91

popular vote by dint of money, of threats, of terror,
and other artifices." He, therefore, after having by
both public and private })rayer implored the en
lightenment of the Holy Spirit, and after having
taken counsel with " a select congregation of our
venerable brothers the Cardinals of the Holy Roman
Church," again and afresh pronounces the greater
excommunication against all who have in any way
AA'hatsoever, either by Avord, deed, or Avish, contri
buted to the detachment of the provinces in question
from the ApostoUc See.
Finding himself entirely abandoned by the Powers
of Europe, and left whoUy to his own resources, the
Holy Father and his counsellors determined to do all
that in them lay to protect at least the provinces
Avhich yet remained to them, if not to act on the
offensive for the recovery of those already lost. In
AprU the Prelate De Merode, who in his early
youth had fought in Africa, was named Minister of
War ; and his first act was to appoint General
Lamoriciere, a French general in retreat, commander-
in-chief of the papal army.
On Easter day, the 8th of April, the general
issued an address to his troops, which is perhaps
worth giving to the reader, as an indication of the

92 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
ideas with which the clerical Avorld went into the
struggle for the preservation of the temporal power
of the Church :
" His Holiness, our Lord Pius the Ninth, having
deigned to call me to the honourable task of com
manding you for the defence of his rights, dis
regarded and threatened, I have not hesitated an
instant to take again my sword in hand. At the
sound of that mighty voice, Avhich recently issued
from the Vatican to make knoAvn to the world the
dangers Avhich threatened the patrimony of St.
Peter, the Catholic Avorld stirred itself, and the
emotion rapidly diffused itself over the Avhole world.
From that it is clear that Christianity is not only
the religion of the civilised world, but the principle
and the life itself of civilisation. It shows, too, that
the Pope is the foundation on which Christianity
rests. All the Christian nations seem at the present
moment to be conscious of these great truths, which
constitute our faith. The revolution menaces Europe
at the present day, as Islamism menaced it for
merly ; and now, as formerly, the cause of the
Papacy is that of civilisation and of the liberties of
the world. Soldiers I have faith, and be certain

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 93

that God AA'iU sustain our courage at the height
demanded by the cause, the defence of Avhich He
has entrusted to our hands."
The cause for AA-hich General Lamoriciere took up
his SAVord was foredoomed to faUure, exactly because
each one of the assertions in his address was Aery
accurately the reverse of the truth. Hoav far the
General and his employers beUeA'ed the truth to be
as he states it is of course another matter, and one
of less importance. That reference to Islamism
indicates A-ery completely the idea of the question
pending betAveen the Papacy and the lay world
which the Church and its friends held, and Avhich
they woiUd fain haA-e persuaded themselves and
others Avas held by the rest of mankind. A new
Crusade Avas what Avas needed ! " The revolution "
(a phrase Avhich is always used technically by the
Church and its friends to signify the opposition to
ecclesiastical domination and claims Avhich has been
produced by modern thought, whether found in
conjunction with one or with another school of
political opinion; so that Bismarck, M. Thiers,
Victor Hugo, Minghetti and Victor Emmanuel are
all equally " revolutionists " in the language of the

04 LIFE OF PIUS IX.

Vatican) — the revolution stands in the place of
Saladin, and all civilised Europe is to rush with the
old battle-cry to the rescue ! But the Christian
nations do not seem at the present moment to be
conscious of the truths General Lamoriciere thinks so
evident to them ! The Avorld is persuaded that the
cause of the Papacy is not that of civilisation and of
the liberties of mankind. The emotion caused by
the misfortunes of the Pope did not rapidly diffuse
itself over the Avhole world ! On the contrary, the
world looked on Avith feelings which effectuaUy pre
vented even those fellow-sovereigns who might
have wished to lend the Pope a helping hand from
doing so. It was clear that no help would come
that would be of any avaU. What did happen is
stated Avith great accuracy by the annalist Coppi, the
continuer of Muratori's Avork, Avho albeit himself a
priest, and not Avithout ecclesiastical Avishes and pro
clivities, is entirely to be trusted.
"At the ncAVs," says the annalist, "that the
menaced Pope was arming against the Liberal sup
porters of modern ideas, malcontent Germans,
Belgians, Irish, and especially French Legitimists,
hastened to Rome, eager to fight for the re-establish
ment of the ancient governments and Avays, together

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 95

Avith the influence of the Supreme Head of the
Church." Meantime diplomatic attempts to arrange the
matters in dispute continued. France Avas especially
anxious to arrive at some result Avhich the Holy
Father would accept. For her oAvn position Avas a
difficult one. The fact that she Avas compelling
ItaUans to submit to a retrograde government of
very much Avorse character than that Avhich at the
cost of revolution France had rejected for herself,
cried aloud to the conscience of the civilised world !
It Avas in the April of that year that France made
the overtures to Austria for a common action for
the arrangement of the aflairs of the Holy Father,
which occasioned such a renewed refusal on the part
of the Pontiff to come, to any terms, as led the
French Government to give up all attempt at
negotiation. The proposal to the Austrian Govern
ment Avas to the effect, that inasmuch as the Holy
Father felt himself precluded from publishing his
intentions respecting reforms in his administration as
long as the Legations Avere in a condition of rebel
lion, and inasmuch as there Avas no present pros
pect of his being able to reco'ver his possession of
those proAdnces, the Holy Father should enact such

06 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
reforms as should be expedient in the provinces
which remained to him, making a reservation in
regard to the Legations ; that the Catholic Powers
should contribute a yearly sum each towards the
maintenance of the Holy See, to be inscribed on the
register of the national debt in each country ; and
that these measures would, as it Avas suggested, have
so good an effect on the inhabitants of the provinces
remaining to the Apostolic See, that it would become
possible for the Holy Father to dispense with ulterior
foreign support.
The Papal Government, immediately on the con
tents of this communication being brought to its
knowledge, lost not an hour in replying (14th April,
1860) that it would have none of these things!
However tempting the corn in the sieve might be,
his Holiness started away from it with undisguised
misgiving and alarm !
In the first place, the Holy See could consent to
no protocol or document of any kind in which any
reserve respecting the Legations Avas introduced, be
cause it might seem as if the Apostolic Government
thereby admitted that something had been done
Avhich estabUshed a diff'erence betAveen those pro-
A'inces and the remainder of the ecclesiastical domi-

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 97

nions. The HoIa' See Avould put its hand to no
document saA-e one AA'hich should express its own
unalterable determination to use its utmost power
for the recovery of those provinces, and the purpose
of the other signatories that they should be restored
by the Power Avhich had usurped them to the victim
of his usurpation.
In the second place, the Holy See would never
accept any guarantee for its remaining provinces,
because that also Avould imply the recognition of a
difference between the position of those which had
revolted and that of the others.
In the third place, the Pope would not accept any
sum guaranteed by the CathoUc Powers, unless, per
haps, it took the form of compensation for certain
ancient canonical dues on vacant benefices formerly
paid. On the communication of these determinations of
the Holy See to the French Government, Thouvenel,
the Minister of Foreign Affairs, wrote to the Due
de Grammont, ambassador resident at Rome, that,
since the Holy Father placed himself in a point of
view so different from theirs, they could not cherish
any hope of modifying it, and could only, with infinite
regret, leave it to time to bring the Apostolic Govern-
VOL. II. 29

98 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
ment to resolutions more consistent with its own
interests. Meanwhile the situation was becoming exceedingly
difficult for the Subalpine GoA'ernment. The motley
bands of Catholic supporters which the Papal Govern
ment had succeeded in collecting were probably suffi
cient to put down any attempt at insurrection in the
provinces which had not been annexed to Piedmont,
if the Pope and his army on the one side, and the
populations of the provinces on the other, were left
to settle the question between them. And it might,
in that case, have been possible, terrible as was the
prospect of the forcible repression of the insurrec
tionary tendencies of these unhappy provinces by cos
mopolitan bands of foreign mercenaries, to wait till
time, as the French Minister had said, should bring
the Apostolic Government to better counsels. But
that was not the condition of the problem. There
was Garibaldi to be reckoned with — Garibaldi and
his volunteers, animated by an enthusiasm for Italian
unity which Avas raging at blood-heat from one end
of the peninsula to the other. If the troops of the
Piedmontese Government held aloof and did not
enter the Pope's provinces, Garibaldi Avould ! But
it may be urged that it was the duty of Victor

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 99

Emmanuel's GoA'ernment to restrain its subjects
from filibustering enterprises against a neighbouring
state. But Avas it in the poAver of Cavour and the
Piedmontese Government to do so ? The attempt to
answer this demand Avould lead to an examination of
the much-A-exed and intricate question of the genuine
ness and good faith of all the professed desire and
efforts of the Turin GoA'ernment to restrain Garibaldi
and his volunteers. It can hardly be believed that
Victor Emmanuel's Government really wished that
Garibaldi and his associates should desist from their
effort and remain quiet, so as to take from the Turin
Ministry all pretext for intervening ; and it is pro
bable that if the Piedmontese Government had really
and in earnest exerted all its power to check Gari
baldi and crush the filibustering of his volunteers,
that would have very seriously risked Victor Em
manuel's crown — not, perhaps, in his old dominions
in Piedmont, but in the newly-annexed provinces —
and would have fatally compromised the hope of
national unity. But, at the same time, there was
equal or greater danger in remaining inactive and
aUowing Garibaldi and the volunteers to act freely
against the papal troops, in concert with the insur
gent population of the Pope's provinces. The result
29—2

100 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
would have been the proclamation of an anarchic
republic after terrible scenes of disorder and carnage,
to be crushed afterwards by Austria or by France.
Cavour determined to intervene, and to send the
troops of Piedmont across the papal frontier. On
the 7th of September he wrote to Antonelli, sending
his letter to Civita Vecchia, Avhere it was delivered
to the pontifical governor, to be sent to Rome. This
despatch, pointing out that his Sardinian Majesty
could not stand by and see Italians subjected to the
undisciplined violences of a horde of foreign mer
cenaries, informed the Cardinal that the King's
troops had orders to prevent, " in the name of the
rights of humanity," the pontifical mercenary bands
from repressing by violence the sentiments • of the
populations of the Marches and Umbria. The
writer, therefore, invites his Eminence to give im
mediate orders for the disarmament and dispersion
of those troops, " ih.Q existence of which is a con
tinual menace to the tranquillity of Italy."
The Pontiff and his Ministers were, as may be
imagined, furious. On the 12th of the same month
the Cardinal sent his reply.
Passing over, he says, the irregular manner in
Avhich the despatch of Count Cavour had reached

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 101

his hands, he had given it calm attention, but must
declare that he had been obliged, in doing so, to put
a very strong restraint upon liimself He goes on t<.)
complain, at considerable length, of the injustice,
falsehood, and calumny of the accusations brought
against the pontifical troops, the unheard-of novelty
of the pretension that a Sovereign could not be per
mitted to take foreign soldiere into his pay, and the
AAa'ong Avhich Avas being done to the ApostoUc See,
and concludes by saying : " Your Excellency finishes
your disgusting-"''' communication bv inviting me, in
the name of your Sovereign, to order immediately
the disarmament and dispersion of the troops in
question, and the invitation is not unaccompanied by
a sort of threat to the effect that Piedmont Avill
otherwise impede the action of the troops in question
by means of the royal forces. A quasi intimation is
thus manifested [one would have said that it was by
no means " quasi "], Avhich I willingly abstain from
characterising. The Holy See can only reject it
with indignation, knowing itself to be strong in its
legitimate right, and appealing to the laAV of nations.''
The principal difficulty of the situation as regarded
* " Disgustosa.'' Perhaps the sense Avould be more accurately
given by the word "distasteful,"

102 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
Piedmont, however, arose from the line of conduct
adopted by France. Immediately on the communi
cation to the French Government of the note sent
by Cavour to that of Rome, the Emperor ordered
Talleyrand, then his Minister at the Court of Turin,
to declare to Count Cavour that, unless he could
assure the French Government that no results would
foUoAV from the note sent to AntoneUi, France
" would be under the necessity of breaking off diplo
matic relations with the Court of Turin, and of
publicly disapproving a policy which it considered
harmful to the tranquiUity of Europe, and fatal to
the future of Italy." This communication was made
by Talleyrand on the 10th of September. On the
following day Cavour said to Talleyrand : " If we are
not at La Cattolica* before Garibaldi, it is afl up
with us ! [siamo perduti). The revolution Avill run
over the whole of Italy. We are compelled to act !"
And Talleyrand thereupon quitted Turin.
The short story of the little campaign which foUoAved
these diplomatic transactions does not belong in any
wise to this place. The result — a very foregone con
clusion — which happened on the 18th of September
at Castel Fidardo — the battle-field is within sight of
* A small town on the frontier of the Marches, towards Ancona.

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 103

the oreat Church of Loretto and of tho conventual
buildings attached to it — and at Ancona, is suffi
ciently well knoAvn ; and Pius the Ninth, who fifteen
years preAdously had entered on his pontificate amid
the enthusiastic applause and affection of his oAvn
people, and the good Avishes and favourable anticipa
tions of all Christendom, found his dominions reduced
to his capital city and the province lying around it,
and himself the most bitterly-hated individual in all
Italy.

BOOK TV.

FROM THE VICTOBY OF CASTEL FIDARDO, ON THE
18th SEPTEMBER, 1860,
TO THE SUSPENSION OF THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL,
ON THE 18th JULY, 1870.

CHAPTER I.
THE CONSTANCA' OF PIUS THE NINTH. — HIS DAUNTLESS DETER
MINATION. — PRUDENCE OF HIS CONDUCT AS REGARDS THE
CHURCH. — QUESTION OF FREEDOM OF COMMUNICATION. — LIMITS
OF THE PONTIFICAL DOMINIONS AFTER CASTEL FIDARDO. —
VOTATION OF THE MARCHES AND UMBRIA. — VARIOUS PROJECTS
FOR ARRANGING THE PAPAL AFFAIRS. — CAVOUR'S DECLARATION
OF THE NECESSITY OF HAA'ING ROME. — PAPAL ALLOCUTION. —
A SECOND ALLOCUTION. — EFFORTS AND VIEAVS OF THE FRENCH
GOA'ERNMENT. — DIFFICULTIES OF THE EMPEROR. — OPINION OF
THIERS. — ABSOLUTE UNYIELDINGNESS OF THE POPE. — GENERAL
CHARACTER OF THE NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN ITALY AND
FRANCE BEFORE AND AFTER CASTEL FIDARDO. — CONVENTION
FIXING THE ITALLiN CAPITAL AT FLORENCE. — THE PONTIFF
REIVUINS ENTIRELY INFLEXIBLE.
The " nailing of colours to the mast " is an operation
which, if often of doubtful poUtical expediency, has
always appealed to emotions and sympathies which
have their root in the noblest portion of the complex
nature of mankind, and has rarely, so far as ensuring
the admiration and applause of the crowd goes,

108 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
appealed in vain. But religious — or rather ecclesi
astical — prejudices and hatreds, which have their
root in some of the meanest and lowest passions of
humanity, have prevented the contemporary world
of Pius the Ninth and his little band of counsellors
from awarding to them the meed of appreciation on
this score, which has been fairly their due. No ship
of war going down, with every man of her crcAv
standing at their guns, rather than strike their
colours to the enemy, has shown to the world a more
indomitable preference of duty to expediency than
has the absolute and consistent refusal of the Pontiff
to bend to the storm which has raged around him.
Unquestionably it was in his power to have made
himself safe, and have baffled (for the time) all the
attempts at Italian unity, if he would have con
sented to accept an European guarantee for the
inviolability of the little sovereignty of Rome and
the immediately surrounding districts as the price of
abandoning aU claim to the other proArinces which
had been taken from him. He might probably have
secured even Umbria and the Marches on the same
terms. No question of revenue need have entered
into his calculations — no doubt, did not so enter.
Revenue was offered him by the Catholic Govern-

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 109
ments ; and experience has shown that even apart
from this, he could abundantly trust to the generosity
and devotion of his oavii flock. He might have
remained the Sovereign of Rome, guaranteed to him
by Europe, Avith a plentiful revenue, Avith every facility
for the performance of the gorgeous ceremonials of
his Church, and maintaining in all their ancient and
accustomed splendour the dignity and importance of
the Sacred CoUege, the princes of the Church ; but
he refused the bait Avith unflinching constancy,
because his duty, as he understood and saw it, for
bade him to accept the tempting alternative. He
has fought a good fight, and even yet continues with
might and main to fight to the last. He has been
brought down to his knees — not in supplication to
his enemies, but as the old hero at Otterburn was,
because his legs have been cut from under him ; and
he continues like him to fight on his stumps ! The
old man is going down with his face to his foes,
using every arm that has been left him to the last !
It cannot be denied that it is, from certain points of
view, a gallant sight ! And that is what has made
him to the people of his own Church such an object
of admiration, devotion, and veneration as few Popes,
if ever any one, have been.

no LIFE OF PIUS IX.
We — nous autres — cannot stretch a hand to aid or
comfort him. For what he wants is to lop from the
tree of humanity all the choicest blossoms which
have been produced by the slow growth of countless
centuries ! What he wants is, what many an aged
father has wanted, to push back his adult son into a
go-cart and leading strings ! In short we aU know
Avhat he wants, and that even if we were any of us
desirous of giving it to him, it would be wholly
impossible to do so. But, after all, this is only
begging the question as between him and us. We
say so ! He thinks otherwise ! And both parties
must do their duty accordingly. But that need not
prevent us from recognising that there has been
something very grand about his unshakable firmness.
It has been thought by some of his OAvn Church,
and by many of those outside its pale, that Pius the
Ninth and those who have counselled and aided him,
have from their OAvii jjoint of vieAV — that of men
bound in conscience and in honour to act for the
best interests of the Church — been mistaken in
rejecting so absolutely all the terms off"ered to them;
that they would have done better for the Church if
they had accepted the restricted sovereignty which
Avas offered to them ; that they have injured their

LIFE OF PIUS IX. Ill

own cause by making the claims of their Church s(j
high and so enormous, as to increase the number of"
those Avho cannot persuade themselves to grant them.
But it seems to me that those Avho hold this opinion
take a lower, a narrower and shorter vieAV of the
matter in question than Pius the Ninth and his
advisers. I think that they underrate the value of a
principle as operative on the minds of men. An
attempt at compromise and conciliation would not
have secured the aUegiance of minds not cast in the
mould of those to whom authority is acceptable and
the acceptance of it possible ; while unbending and
unfaltering consistency of principle is Avell calculated
to secure and rivet the devotion and excite the zeal
and enthusiasm of that class of minds which, looking
a little into the future, can alone be counted on as
the supporters of any Church.
The Pope and his supporters have, I think, made
a mistake in putting forward so prominently and
insistantly the necessity that the Holy Father
should have secure and free communication with the
Bishops and the heads of the Church throughout
the Catholic world as a reason why temporal
sovereignty should be necessary to him. He abso
lutely refused throughout the negotiations, the course

112 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
of which Ave have been tracing, to allow any differ
ence to be established, even inferentially, between
the Legations and the provinces nearer Rome, on
the ground that all were equally his, and the wrong
done by usurping any of them as absolutely a wrong
as the usurpation of all. And this was the true
ground to take. For it would have been very diffi
cult to show — we may say, rather, impossible to
maintain — that whereas the sovereignty of Rome
and the district around the city could not secure the
freedom of communication desired, the more ex
tended sovereignty did so ! And it seems in truth
an equally untenable position that the sovereignty
of the city and its province would secure the free
dom in question, whereas the sovereignty within his
OAAai residence does not accomplish the end in view.
For the freedom of communication with foreign
Bishops must depend not on the sovereignty in
existence in the spot whence the communications are
sent, but on that which exists in the country to
Avhich they are sent. Temporal sovereignty over
the Avhole Catholic world would alone secure the
freedom of communication desired. The communi
cations, let them take what form they may, can as
easily be intercepted at the point where they leave

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 113

the papal territory, be it more or less extensive, sa
they can be on leaving the Vatican. They can also
be intercepted at the entry into the territory of the
sovereign under Avhose sAvay the Bishop, with whom
it is desired to communicate, is residing. In a word,
it cannot be maintained that any temporal sove
reignty is needed for the purpose put forward,
because no temporal soA'ereignty, short of one co
extensive with the Catholic Avorld, would attain
the end in view.
The sovereignty stiU enjoyed by the Holy Father
was noAv reduced to Rome and the provinces imme
diately around it ; if even he could be said to be
sovereign there, AvhUe in truth the real masters were
the French troops, which on the 6th of October, 1860,
occupied Viterbo, VeUetri, Civita Castellana, Tivoli,
Palestrina, Frascati, Albano, and Valmontone —
every part in short of the territory over which the
Pope stiU nominaUy ruled. It is true their real ob
ject was to protect the Holy Father from the
attempts and incursions of Garibaldi and his volun
teers. The result of the votation of the population of
Umbria and the Marches on the question whether
they would be annexed to the new kingdom of Italy
VOL, n. 30

114 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
and become subjects of Victor Emmanuel, or would
remain subjects of the Pope, was in Umbria the
record of 97,075 votes for the sovereignty of Victor
Emmanuel, and 380 for that of the Roman Pontiff;
in the Marches, 133,783 for the former, and 1212 for
the latter alternative. There is no reason whatever
for thinking that the votes were not truly given as
recorded ; and there can be no question that the
hatred for the Apostolic Government was very great,
and the enthusiasm for the new kingdom of united
Italy immense. But none the less was the " plebis
cite " a farce, as such an attempt always must be ;
and the irony of Pius the Ninth, when he wrote to
the King of Sardinia, that he would abstain from
inquiring what his Majesty thought of universal suff
rage, as well as from expressing his own opinion on
the subject, was enthely justffied.
How far Pius the Ninth and those in whose' judg
ment he trusted were at that time able to foresee
that no long time would elapse before he would be
deprived of the remaining shred of territory which
he still held, it is impossible to say. But he and
they surely might have done so Avithout any remark
able sagacity in reading the signs of the times.
Various ideas were subsequently put forth by those

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 115

Avho were anxious that the affairs of Italy should be
finally and permanently settled in some not alto
gether intolerable fashion, and by some Avho were
desirous of securing some remnant of sovereign
authority for the supreme Pontiff, with a vieAV to
such an arrangement. It Avas proposed that Rome
itseff should be made into a little sovereignty for his
HoUness ; then that his domain should be restricted
to the " Leonine City," as it is called ; that is to
say, to that portion of the city which is on the right
bank of the river, including the Vatican, Castel St.
Angelo, and St. Peter's, together with a small por
tion only of the town. But, as might readily have
been foreseen, all such schemes, even had they given
much better promise of being practically realisable
than they did, were foredoomed to failure, from the
constancy with which the Pope refused to lend him
seff to any transaction or compromise whatsoever.
At the opening of the Piedmontese Parliament,
on the 18th of February, 1861, Victor Emmanuel
said in his address to the Houses : " In other circum
stances my words were bold. But wisdom consists
no less in daring at the right time, than knowing how
to temporise on occasion. Devoted as I am to Italy,
I have never hesitated to risk for her my life and my
30—2

116 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
crown. But no man has a right to endanger the
existence and the destinies of a nation."
This meant that any attempt to realise the national
aspirations by seizing on Rome would be too danger
ous in the then conditions of Europe ; and that the
nation must be content to wait yet awhile for that
fulfilment of its desires. And on the 22nd of the
foUowing month, the French Legislature rejected by a
majority of 246 votes against 5 a proposition for the
immediate evacuation of Rome by the French
troops. But events were marching rapicUy ; and three days
later, on the 25th of March, Cavour in the first
sitting of the Deputies for the " kingdom of Italy,"
of which Victor Emmanuel had accepted the sove
reignty on the preceding 17th of the same month,
said : "I consider myself obUged to proclaim in the
most solemn manner before the nation the necessity
of having Rome as the capital of Italy, because with
out Rome for the capital, Italy cannot be constituted.
I have said, gentlemen," he repeated, " and I affirm
yet once again, that Rome, and Rome only, can be the
capital of Italy."
The Pontiff meantime, immediately on the pro
mulgation of the law by virtue of AA'hich Victor

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 117
Emmanuel assumed the title of King of Italy, in a
secret Consistory held on the 18th of that same month
of March, after having described modern civilisation
in such terms as may be readily imagined, continued :
" And this is the civiUsation to which it is supposed
that the Roman Pontiff can hold out a friendly hand !
When that which is not right is demanded of us, we
cannot grant the prayer. If instead, our pardon
Avere asked for, we should be abundantly disposed to
grant it 1"
On the 30th of the foUoAving August, the Pope
held another secret Consistory, in which he addressed
the Sacred CoUege in an allocution in which the
following passage occurs :
"There is no man who does not see what a
sequence of calamities, crimes, and evils of every
kind has been let loose, especially on unhappy Italy,
since the great and criminal rebeUion committed
there. For, to use the words of the prophet, male
diction, falsehood, homicide, robbery, and adultery
have inundated the world, and blood has been covered
with blood ! But inasmuch as we have the divine
promise of our Lord Jesus Christ, that He AviU be
Avith His Church even until the consummation of
ages, and that the gates of hell shaU not prevaU

118 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
against it, we are sure that God wUl not fail in His
word ; and that the day wiU come when God shall
show that this terrible tempest has not been raised to
submerge the vessel of the Church, but on the con
trary to exalt it."
A few months later the French Government made
a renewed attempt to induce the Pope to consent to
the opening of negotiations with a view to concilia
tion with the ItaUan Government. M. Thouvenel
writes to the French Ambassador at Rome, then M.
de la VaUette, in the following terms : " All that we
have now to inquire is whether we may nourish, or
whether we must abandon, the hope of seeing the
Apostolic Court lend itself, while admitting faits
accomplis, to the study of some combination which
should assure to the sovereign Pontiff such perma
nent conditions of dignity, of security, and independ
ence as are necessary for the exercise of his power.
This order of ideas once admitted, we would use our
most sincere and most energetic efforts to cause
such a plan of concUiation as we should arrange with
the Holy See to be accepted at Turin."
And the Apostolic Government could have had
no doubt as to the sincerity of the intention of
France that the base and sine qud non of anv such

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 119

project should be the assurance of the temporal
power of the Pope in that portion of his dominions
which still remained to him. In the January o
1864 the legislative body of France rejected a pro
posal for the withdrawal of the French troops from
Rome by 218 votes to 12 I And on the 11th of
November, 1866, after the convention, in accordance
Avith which the Italian capital was moved to
Florence, the French Foreign Minister writes to
the French Ambassador at Rome : " The Emperor
has always desired the independence of the Holy
See, and that of Italy. Now that Italy is definitively
constituted, the affirmation of the temporal power of
the Pope becomes henceforward the main object of
our efforts." And a few days later the Emperor
sends General Fleury on a confidential mission to
the Italian Court, charged to make the following
" categorical declarations " to the King of Italy and
his Ministers : " 1st. The Emperor, both from regard
for what is right and from political considerations,
cannot abandon the Holy Father ; and will employ
all his efforts to prevent him from leaving Rome.
2nd. The Emperor is persuaded that the King both
wiU and can keep all quiet in Italy ; but if, when
the French troops shall have left Rome, the Pope

120 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
should be driven to withdraw by reason of a popular
movement, the Emperor will not hesitate to bring
him back by means of his army. And to this end
he will always have a for(!e of twenty thousand men
betAveen Toulon and Marseilles ready to be trans
ported to Civita Vecchia at the first call."
There could be no doubt, in short, as to the wishes
of the French Emperor and of the French nation
with regard to the maintenance x)f what remained of
the temporal power of the Pope, either in the minds
of the Italians or in that of the Pontiff. Of course
nobody imagines that this policy and this determina
tion Avas the result of religious principle, feeling, or
conviction of any sort. It was the continuance of
the same policy which led Napoleon to strive so
perseveringly to induce Tuscany to declare its wish
for Tuscan autonomy and a separate Tuscan Govern
ment. It was the same policy which led M. Thiers
to say on the 14th of March, 1867, in the French
Chamber : " If I had the honour of directing the
affairs of France, I would employ aU the forces at my
command to prevent Italian unity." Again six days
later the same statesman said to the same audience :
" You have produced Italian unity, and it is a great
misfortune," The complaints which were raised in

LIFE OF PIUS IX. \ 2 1

the French Senate to the effect that the ideal of the
Mediterranean becoming a French lake was hoav
destroyed, are a further indication, if any such Avere
nedded, of the real Avishes and feelings which moved
France to insist on the maintenance of the temporal
poAver of the Pontiff.
Nevertheless the course of the Emperor was not
an easy or a clear one. As far back as the 30th
May, 1862, the French Minister, M. de Thouvenel,
directs the French Ambassador at Rome, when once
agaui presenting to the Papal Government fresh pro
positions for an accord on the basis of the status quo,
to "let the Papal Government understand, if you
are met by the theory of immovability as categori-
caUy as heretofore — if, that is, the Pontiff persists in
his Non possumus — that the Government of the
Emperor cannot conform its conduct to any such
theory ; and that if the Emperor should unhappily
acquire the conviction that his efforts would be
henceforth useless, it would become necessary for
him, while guarding as far as possible the interests
Avhich he has been hitherto solicitous to protect, to
take thought for coming out himself from a situation,
which if prolonged beyond certain limits would give
a wrong direction to his policy, and would only serve

122 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
to throw the minds of people into a yet greater
disorder." But the Pope and his little band of counsellors
were as impervious to threats as to entreaties and
promises. Alone during all the compUcated nego
tiations of the years which intervened between the
discomfiture of the papal troops at Castel Fidardo and
Ancona, which limited the Pontiff's temporal power
to Rome and its immdeiately surrounding provinces,
and the entrance of the Italian army into Rome on
the 20th of September, 1870, which finaUy put an
end to it, the Holy Father remained absolutely the
same and immovable ! " We can't ! We won't I
We wUl listen to no proposals, no agreements ! We
will come to no terms with the spoiler and usurper.
Do you come to announce to us that our provinces
are to be restored to us, and that our enemies sue
for our pardon ? If so, we are ready to hear you
and talk with you I But we can listen to nothing
else !" From the time that the ItaUan monarch and
nation accepted the votation which annexed the
Legations to the kingdom of Italy, to this present
day, nothing has induced the Pope to waver for an
instant I
I have said that the negotiations which Av^erc

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 123

going on during these years chiefly betAveen Italy
and France, Avith every now and then a fresh appeal
to the Holy Father, which met with the same
invariable ansAver, were complicated. And as
regards the steps by which Italy gradually crept on
towards her object, and the opposition, constant in
its aim and views, varied in its means and degree of
vehemence, which France opposed to that object, they
were such — too much such by far for any detailed
account of them to find its proper place in these
pages. But the general drift of them all may be
briefly characterised. France having victoriously
fought to turn Austria out of Lombardy, because it
seemed to her better that little Piedmont, which
would never be made strong enough by the acqui
sition of that province to cause any umbrage to
France, should possess it, and having figured before
Europe and before her OAvn people as the champion
of Liberalism and progress against Austria, the
champion of the opposite views and policy, could
not, as openly, avowedly, and straightforwardly as
Austria would have done, support the Pope in his
demands to be aUowed to govern his states as he
pleased. Yet, if she had taken Lombardy from
Austria and given it to Piedmont, only to lay the

124 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
foundation of a strong and poAverful kingdom at her
own doors, a rival Latin kingdom, she would, as
Thiers saw and said, have made a very terrible mis
take. Therefore the Pope had to be supported and
protected, and the religious necessity of his temporal
power put forward as the motive and excuse for
giving him such support, not without difficulty and
some shamefacedness. The Pope, too, made the
diffiimlty of the part France had to play very
provokingly great by his absolute and impracticable
unyieldingness. France proposed to interfere to
temper difficulties, to conciliate, to smooth the
shocks and conjure the dangers incidental to such a
change as was taking place in Italy. But she con
ciliated nothing and smoothed over no difficulties,
because the Holy Father would not be conciliated, or
even pretend to moderate his position by a hair's-
breadth !
Italy, on the other hand, had her object clear
before her; but she was not strong enough to ven
ture to advance towards it in spite of French opposi
tion ; and she had at the same time to count with
Garibaldi and the volunteers, and the seething ex
citement of the nation. And these things were at
once an assistance and a source of embarrassment to

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 125
her. They Avere an assistance inasmuch as they
helped her to force Napoleon's hand, and formed an
excuse for taking a more active part in seconding the
aspirations of the nation than she could otherwise
have ventured to do. But they were at the same
time a source of embarrassment, in that there was
real reason to fear that Garibaldi's success might
haA'e resulted in landing the nation, or at least the
southern portions of it, in an anarchical republic
instead of a compact and orderly monarchy, and also
that his temerities might have the effect of seriously
embroiling the Government of Victor Emmanuel
Avith the Emperor. And this is the explanation of
the doubtful, sometimes inconsistent, and not straight
forward conduct of the Turin Government towards
the volunteers and Garibaldi— a line of conduct
AA'hich the attitude of France rendered unavoidable,
and the evU results of which have not by any means
yet altogether ceased to vex the young nation.
The convention between Italy and France, by
which it was arranged that Italy should undertake
not to attack or to permit to be attacked the territory
of the Holy Father, that France should withdraw
her troops from the pontifical dominions, and that
Italy should move her capital to Florence, was

126 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
signed on the 15th of September, 1864. And the
Pontiff might have been tempted to acquiesce in that
arrangement, which the contracting parties professed
to consider, and which France doubtless intended
should be, the definitive systemisation of Italy, as
assuring to him the domains which remained to him,
while finally destroying all hope of recovering those
which he had lost. But he yielded to no such
temptation. Then, as aU through those weary years,
he remained firm in his refusal to abandon one iota of
his claim, or to consider the Government of the Sar
dinian King in the provinces beyond his old frontier
aught else than a wicked and lawless usurpation. To
him alone, of all those who Avere more or less promi
nently concerned in arranging the affairs of Europe,
did his course appear clear before him and unobscured
by doubts or conflicting considerations. To each new
application inviting him to come to terms Avith those
who had it in their power to compel obedience to
their wishes ; to deign to modify his own system of
Government in the states remaining to him in such
sort as to render it more tolerable to those subjected
to it, and less a disgrace in the face of Europe to
those who were supporting it by force of arms ; to
accept guarantees for the continuance of his sove-

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 127

reignty in those portions of his dominions Avhich he
stiU held at the cost of relinquishing his demands for
the restoration of those he had lost, he replied by a
consistent, unmodified, unflinching refusal ! Non
possumus ! We cannot do what is demanded of us I
Our oaths, our duty to the Church, our duty to the
universal body of the faithful forbid it ! Non possu

mus

I

But on considerations of prudence ! For the sake of
the Church I For the interests of the Papacy ! The
protection that now upholds the temporal power of
the Holy See within its present restricted limits,
cannot in the nature of things be perpetual ! And
what wUl happen then 1 Would it not be better to
make such concessions as may render it possible for
us, your friends, to make arrangements to secure you
against the certain overthrow which must overtake
you, when that time comes, if no such arrangements
be made ?
To all such urgings and arguments Pius the Ninth
repUed, greatly to the astonishment and annoyance
of the statesmen on both sides of the Alps who were
endeavouring to arrange his affairs for him, in the
spirit of a man who reaUy does in earnest trust in
God ! There is nothing so impracticable as a man

128 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
who trusts in God ! A man warned by God in a
dream (to the best of his belief) that certain num
bers would win a prize in the lottery, continued to
play on them with a trust so perfect that he beg
gared himself and his family. Pius the Ninth, how
ever, while clearly perceiving that such an one was not
justified in such a trust, and that his OAvn case was a
very different one, was equally inaccessible to aU warn
ings of worldly prudence. " I know what my duty
is in the matter ! I walk forwards directly in the
path of it, looking neither to the right nor the left —
nor indeed to the future, save in the sure and certain
knowledge of what that future will at an earlier or
later day be ! The gates of hell shall not prevail
against it "¦ — the Church, including of course the
Sacred College and the sovereignty of Bologna, etc.,
etc., etc. ! He said so over and over again during
the attempts at negotiation of which we have been
speaking ; and he said so again only the other day.
What was the use of protocoiling and " having the
honour to be," as Carlyle says, in dealing with such a
man as this !

CHAPTER II.

CHEERFULNESS OF DISPOSITION OF PIUS THE NINTH. — HIS ECCLESI
ASTICAL ACTIAITY MORE IMPORTANT IN THE HISTORY OF THE
AA'ORLD THAN HIS EFFORTS AS A TEMPORAL PRINCE. — HAS
BEEN A REALLY GREAT POPE. — THE ENCYCLICAL LETTER OF
THE 8th of DECEMBER. — CHARACTER OF THIS DOCUMENT. —
ITS STYLE. — NOTHING NEW IN THE DOCTRINES PROMULGATED.
— POSITION OF THE CHURCH RELATIVELY TO THE WORLD. —
EFFECT ON THIS OF THE SYLLABUS. — SPECIMEN PASSAGES
FROM THE ENCYCLIC. — FORM OF THE SYLLABUS. — HEADINGS
OF THE DFVISIONS OF IT. — THE SYLLABUS CONTAINS NO NEW
SIATTER. — ALLOCUTIONS ON WHICH THE SYLLABUS IS BASED.
— SPECIMEN PASSAGE OF THE ORIGINAL TEXT OF AN ALLO
CUTION. — THE SYLLABUS PRODUCED GREATER EFFECT THAN
THE ALLOCUTIONS, AND AVHY. — THE GIST OF THE SYLLABUS. —
QUESTION WHETHER THE CHURCH INJURED HER OWN INTERESTS
BY THE PUBLICATION OF THE ENCYCLIC AND THE SYLLABUS.
Inasmuch as the support and comfort which a trust
in God is so uniquely calculated to bestow depend
in nowise on the reasonableness but wholly on the
genuineness and sincerity of the trust, Pius the
Ninth has throughout the misfortunes which have in
VOL. II. 31

130 LIFE OP PIUS IX.
SO extraordinary a degree marked his pontificate,
been eminently blessed by a calm and tranquil mind
and heart and a cheerful spirit. The heathen raged
together, and the people imagined a vain thing ; but
he doubted not that he, or his successors, would in
the name of the Lord destroy them and their AVork !
But this tranquil confidence has never in the
Pontiff's case degenerated, as it is often wont to do,
into inertness, acquiescence in evil, and — if the vul
garity of the metaphor may be pardoned on the score
of its aptness — throwing up the sponge I
Activity is a part of the law of the present Pope's
nature. His good qualities and his weaknesses con
tribute to make it so. He hates to be idle ; and he
hates to be out of sight. Sleeping behind the
coulisses would not suit him at all ! He wants to act
his part ; and he wants to be on the stage with aU
the glare of the foot-lights on him and in the full
sight of the house. But his activity, as the occupa
tions and duties of a temporal ruler were taken from
him, necessarily and naturaUy centred itself more
and more in the exercise of his spiritual functions.
And accordingly the story of his life is from this time
forward a more strictly and entirely ecclesiastic one.
It Avas but too clear to the mind of Pius the Ninth

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 131
that " the times Avere out of joint ;" but there is no
evidence in his conduct or in his recorded utterances
of an A' such weakness as might have led him to deem
it a " cursed spite that he AA'as ever born to set them
right." On the contrary, there is the most remarkable
CA'idence that he deemed it to be his especial duty to
do so, and in nowise doubted his capacity and capa-
bUities for the task.
His efforts to accompUsh the duty thus set before
him have been most notable, and, as usual, unflinching
and uncompromising. And the record of these
efforts forms by very far the most important portion
of the story of his Ufe. The history of his efforts,
first of aU to be a beneficent temporal ruler, and, when
that was found to be impossible, to preserve quand
meme the temporal authority, which he believed it to
be his duty to maintain intact, are of comparatively
temporary interest and importance. Lis judicata est.
And though Rome naturaUy wiU not admit that it is
so, and though the Pontiff may personaUy have in
all its fulness the faith he professes to have in the
reversal of the judgment that seems to have been
pronounced, it may be supposed that the wisest of
the rulers of the Catholic Church have little expecta
tion of any such quashing of the sentence that has
31—2

132 LIFE OF Plus IX.
been passed. And future Pontiffs may well, and
probably wiU find reason to be of the opinion, that
their successorship to the great Apostle does not
necessarily require them to pretend to any material
kingship, and that the interests of their Church may
best be served by making their Bishoprick wholly and
solely one of souls.
But it will be very difficult indeed for any future
successor in the Chair of Peter to recede from any of
the positions taken up by Pius the Ninth in the war
Avhich he has proclaimed between the Church and the
Avorld. He has in doing this placed himself on his
true ground. We may meet him on it. We may
take part with the world, and fight him and his inch
by inch. But Ave cannot insist that he has no locus
standi. We cannot put him out of court with a
declaration that his claim is one which ought never
to have been made. And in taking sides in this
matter, there ought to be no shirking of the question,
" Under which king, Bezonian ?" We must, if we
take our stand Avith the world against the Church,
do so avowedly and knoAvingly.
Pius the Ninth has done a great thing ! He has
brought his generation unmistakably to the forking
of the ways. He could not be let to be a great king.

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 133

So he determined to be a great Pope. And he has
become a greater Pope than almost any one of his
predecessors ! It is not all mere flattery that has
prompted the immense admiration and reverence that
has incensed him to a degree one may probably say
neA'er seen before. Much has sprung no doubt from
the circumstances of struggle and defeat in which he
has been placed ; but not all — not the greater part of
the exceeding reverence in which he is held by the
understanding members of his own communion.
It was on the 8th of December, 1864, that the
world Avas startled by the first trumpet-note of the
spiritual warfare that the Pope, beaten at all points
in his character of temporal king, was minded to
Avage Avith mankind. It came in the form of an
Encyclical letter addressed to "All our Venerable
Brethren the Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, and
Bishops in grace and communion with the Apostolic
See." This is the celebrated EncycUc which was
accompanied by the yet more celebrated " Syl
labus COMPLECTENS PR^CIPUOS NOSTR.^ ^TATIS
EREORES, QUI NOTANTUR IN ALLOCUTIONIBUS
CONSISTOEIAIJBUS, IN ENCYCLICIS ALIISQUE APOS-
TOLICIS LITTERIS SaNCTISSIMI DoMINI NOSTRI PiI
Pap^ IX."

134 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
The Encyclical letter consists of about twelve such
pages as those of this volume ; while that meaning
which it wishes to convey to its readers might be set
forth in the half of one of them. The style of the
Curia Romana is well known to all who have had
occasion to consult the documents on which much of
the history of the Church is based. It is always the
same ; and no one could read a dozen lines of one of
those compositions without recognising it. The com
piler, whose duty it is to express the ideas which the
Holy See thinks fit to put forth to the world in the
language deemed proper for that purpose, is evidently
a person educated ad hoc. Probably it may be he
Avho fills the position of " Secretary for the Latin
Briefs." But in any case the composition of these
documents is a specialty, and reveals the hand of an
expert. The first impression produced by the perusal of the
famous Encyclic is surprise that it should have
caused such a commotion in the world. It contains
nothing that one did not very well know before to be
the view and opinions held by the authors of it.
Nay ; it contains nothing that does not logicaUy,
legitimately, and necessarily follow from the funda
mental positions AA'hich the Church holds. And to

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 135
be entirely honest, it must be oAvned that it Avould
be a far more difficult task for the members of some
other Christian communions to show why they ob
ject to any of the teaching of the Encyclic, than for
those of the Roman Catholic Church to defend their
adherence to it ! If there be certain truths, the
knowledge of AA'hich is absolutely necessary for the
eternal welfare of mankind, and is possessed by a
certain body of men with a degree of certainty Avhich
precludes aU possibility of error, and by them alone,
aU the rest that the Church of Rome maintains,
claims, teaches, and does, is duly maintained, fairly
claimed, judiciously taught, and AV.ell done ! If there
be certain men on earth who have a knoAvledge of
the wUl and purposes of the Creator, of a kind and
degree unattainable save by the members of their
caste, ought not those men to be the kings and rulers
of the world ? What trash are parliaments, and
public opinion, and vox populi and all the rest of it,
from St. Stephen's down to a select vestry, if we have
got among us some in(Uviduals who can and will tell
us truly what is God's will in the matter I Just such
useless and pernicious trash as the Popes have
always assured us that they are !
All the countless tons of supei-fluous logomachy

136 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
which have destroyed good paper and load the
shelves of libraries, consist only of developments of
their primal thesis, together with statements ac
cumulated for the purpose of showing that men have
at different times admitted the claims based on it, on
the one side, and on the other side of efforts to
dilute or veil Avith more or less of self-consciousness
and clear-sightedness the only one possible answer to
the pretensions of Rome ; which is, " We do not
believe one word of the statements you make as to
your possession of the knowledge on which you base
your claims !"
And the reason Avhy the nations were made so
angry by the new Encyclic, and why many church
men deemed the issue of it to be unwise, was that it
advances a strong step towards forcing these truths
on the attention of the world. The new document
is of the nature of the tearing doAvn of a veil, hung
up for decency, comfort, and the convenience of all
parties ! There is in general nothing that the world
so much detests and resents as the tearing down of
its veils. Not that the Encyclic does this thoroughly,
entirely, or intentionally. But it is a step towards
it. It is like the touch of earnest introduced by
some rather too eager playmate into a child's ^ame

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 137

of romps, and Avhich leads some of the party, startled
and discomposed, to declare that if that sort of
thing is to be done they " won't play." Surely they
all knoAv that the Pope and his Church meant all
the things he says that he means in this document,
but they had not been used to his saying so in so
crude a manner !
" It is impious and absurd to maintain that a
civil government ought not to make it a part of its
duty to compel its subjects by penalties to observe
the true religion." Well ! granted the fundamental
position of the Church, it is so. Liberty of con
science, and of religion, and of manifesting opinion
on these subjects by means of speaking, writing and
printing, is denounced as most fatal to the CathoUc
Church and the salvation of souls. And men in
preaching this doctrine " do not consider that they
are preaching a Uberty of perdition," as St. Augustin
caUs it. Of course they are, if what the Church says
is true. The Encyclic, as is constantly the case in
the utterances of the Church, seems to be begging
the question. But of course the Church must always
assume the real gist of the question to be begged and
granted. In some passages of the EncycUc — though nothing

138 LIFE OF PIUS IX.

is said, and no pretence put forward which is ncAv
in princij)le — doctrines are enunciated with an
especial view to recent circumstances. For instance :
" Because the true idea of justice and human law is
obscured and lost, and material force takes the place
of justice and of true right wheresoever religion is
banished from civil society, it is clearly to be seen
wherefore certain men, setting at nought the most
certain principles of sound reason, dare to publish
that the will of the people, manifested by that
which they choose to call public opinion, or in any
other manner, constitutes a law Avhich is supreme
and independent of all divine and human right, and
that in the political world accomplished facts acquire
the force of right merely because they are accom
plished." Of course it is more than sufficiently
clear what special wickedness it was which was
vexing the heart of the Pontiff Avhen this sentence
Avas penned. But the process of reasoning which
hooks the conclusion and the premises together is
someAvhat difficult to be seized save by the Ught of a
highly-condensed enthymematic method. The same
remark may be made on the following passage :
"Who does not see," says the Pontiff, "who does
not perfectly well feel that a community withdrawn

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 139

from the laAA's of religion and of true justice can have
no other object than to amass and accumulate riches,
or any other law in aU its acts, than an indomitable
desire to satisfy its passions, and to procure for itself
enjoyments ? That is the reason why men of this
sort pursue with a bitter hatred the religious orders,
taking no account of the immense services rendered
by them to religion, to society, and to literature.
That is Avhy they rage against them, saying that
there is no legitimate reason for their existence, thus
echoing the calumnies of the heretics."
There would be little interest in any further
examination of this celebrated document. There is,
as has been said, absolutely nothing new in it ; and
the declaration of the irreligious tendencies of the
age is set forth not only without the smaUest at
tempt at anything in the nature of eloquence, but
with a superfluity of verbiage that absolutely buries
the meaning under it. I will, however, transcribe a
few lines — in pity for the reader they shall be but
few ! — absolutely taken at hazard from this docu
ment, as a specimen of the peculiar style of the
Curia Romana, and of the curious method of the
wrappages in which Rome envelopes her communi
cations Avith the outer world.

140 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
" Et quoniam ubi a civili societate fuit amota
religio, ac repudiata (Uvinse revelationis doctrina et
auctoritas, vel ipsa germana justitise humanique
juris notio tenebris obscuratur et amittitur, atque in
verse justitise legitimique juris locum, materialis
substituitur vis, inde liquet cur nonnuUi, certissimis
sanse rationis principiis penitus neglectis posthabi-
tisque, audeant conclamare, voluntatem populi,
publica, quam dicunt, opinione vel alia ratione
manifestatam, constituere supremam legem ab omni
divino humanoque juri solutam, et in ordine poUtico
facto consummata, eo ipso quod consummata sunt,
vim juris habere."
There ! I did not purpose giving the reader so
much of it, but could not sooner reach a fuU stop.
The sample is a perfectly trustworthy one ; and the
entire mass is perfectly homogeneous.
The ratification with which the document con
cludes is worthy of note. It runs thus : —
" Given in Rome at St. Peter's on the 8th day of
December, in the year 1864, the tenth from the
Dogmatic Definition of the Immaculate Conception
of the God-bearing Virgin Mary, the nineteenth
year of our Pontificate. Pius Ninth, Pope."

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 141

The more important document, however, is the
" Syllabus, embracing the principal errors of our
time," Avhich accompanied the Encyclic. This
Syllabus consists of a collection of eighty proposi
tions, which are formaUy condemned and anathe
matised. They are formulated in such sort that it is
to be understood that the contradictory proposition
is affirmed. Thus the second proposition (it is much
shorter than the first) runs thus : " Neganda est
omnis Dei actio in homines et mundum." "All
action of God on mankind and on the world is to be
denied." The meaning being that the Church con
demns the assertion or opinion that God does not
exercise any action on man or on the world. But
this backward mode of stating her meaning leads the
Church into logical difficulties ; the contradictory to
the proposition in question being, " Neganda non est
omnis," etc., or, every action of God is to be affirmed,
which is assuredly not what the Church means to
assert. But the real intention of the author of the
SyUabus wiU be most clearly arrived at by supposing
the words, " It is not true that," to be prefixed to
each proposition gibbeted.
The eighty condemned positions are ranged under"
ten headings or categories. The 1st of these is

142 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
" Pantheismus, Naturcdismus, et Rationalismus abso-
lutus." Pantheism, Naturalism, and absolute Ra
tionalism, containing seven propositions. 2. " Mo
derate Rationalism," with seven propositions.
3. " Indifferentism and Latitudinarianism," with
four propositions. 4. " Socialism, Communism,
Secret Societies, Bible Societies, Liberal Clerical
Societies," the whole of which are condemned in one
conpendious proposition, which runs thus, and must
be taken as an exception to that rule for the inter
pretation of the Syllabus which has been laid down
above : " Pests of this sort have been frequently
reprobated and with very grave forms of words in" —
such and such utterances of the Pope duly referred
to. 5. " Errors concerning the Church and its
Rights," containing twenty propositions, the first
affirming the independence of the Church on the
State. 6. " Errors relative to Civil Society and to
the relation of Civil Society with the Church,"
with fifteen propositions. 7. " Errors concerning
Natural and Christian Ethics," Avith nine proposi
tions. 8. " Errors concerning Christian Marriage,"
with ten propositions. 9. " Errors concerning
the Temporal Dominion of the Roman Pontiff,"
with tAVO propositions ; and lastly, 1 0. " Errors

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 143

referring to modern Liberalism," Avith four pro
positions. NoAV this SyUabus, containing these eighty anathe
matised propositions, is entitled " A Syllabus com
prising the principal errors of our time, which are
noted in the Consistorial Allocutions, Encyclical
and other ApostoUc letters of our most Holy Lord
Pope Pius the Ninth." And the Syllabus has
been printed in a volume, together with all the
allocutions and letters in which Pius the Ninth had
aheady anathematised, and as he with somewhat
less accuracy says, confuted the errors in question.
So that, in truth, he not only says nothing more in
his Syllabus than the Church was well known to
hold, but nothing more than he himself had pre
viously at different periods authoritatively declared.
And it seems at first sight strange that, such being
the case, the publication of the Syllabus should
have profoundly disturbed the complacency of
Europe ! But an examination of the volume men
tioned will diminish this surprise. References are
provided to enable the reader to refer to the passage
or passages in which each special proposition is to
be found condemned. And in each case something
will be found in the interminable and incredibly

144 LIFE OF Plus IX.

Avordy productions refeiTcd to bearing on the sub
ject; something doubtless in which the same judg
ment as that formulated in the Syllabus is to be
found. But in the first place, no lay human being
had ever read the allocution and letters in ques
tion. And in the second place, it is the concen
tration of the sacerdotalism in the SyUabus which
produced the stunning effect of it. An amount
of carbonic acid gas may be mixed Avith the atmo
sphere with no greater result than the production
of a slight evil smell, which if gathered within
narrow limits will knock a man down ! And it
was precisely in this way and for this reason
that the world was knocked down by the papal
Syllabus. In order that the reader may see the sort of
relationship which the Syllabus bears to the papal
utterances on which it is based, and at the same
time have a specimen of the sort of ratiocination and
nexus of ideas that are to be found in these papal
letters and allocutions, I aa'UI give the passage
referred to in support of the condemnation of the
error, which consists in affirming that the celibacy of
the clergy ought to be abolished. It occurs in an
Encyclic letter to the Episcopacy of the Church,

LIFE OF PtVS IX. 146
issued on the 9th of November, 1846 — a fcAv months,
that is to say, after his election.
The Holy Father has been pointing out that
the object of the Secret Societies was the destruction
of all religion ; and having then remarked that
"the horrible system" of believing that men may be
saved in any religion tends to the same end, he
thus proceeds : "To the same end tends that most
foul conspiracy against the sacred celibacy of the
clergy, Avhich is cherished — oh grief! — by some
ecclesiastics even, Avho, miserably forgetful of their
OAvn dignity, suffer themselves to be conquered and
lulled by the snares and blandishments of pleasure.
To the same end tends that perverse method of
teaching, especially in philosophic studies, which
deceiA'es improvident youth in a miserable manner,
corrupts them, and gives them to drink the gall
of the dragon in the cup of Babylon — ' ei fel
draconis in calice Babylonis j9roj3*na^.' To this
same end tends that infamous doctrine of Com
munism, as they call it, which is absolutely opposed
even to natural justice, and which once admitted,
the rights, goods, and property of everybody,
and human society itself, is wholly overturned."
Etc., etc., etc.
vol. il 32

146 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
But no further Avord is heard of the celibacy
of the clergy. The abominable doctrine that
clerical ceUbacy should be abolished is said to
be confuted. One turns to the passage in the
expectation of finding at least a statement of
the views of the Church upon the subject, if not
some attempt at meeting the objections which have
been urged on so many grounds against it. But
one finds no Avord of anything of all this ; literally
nothing, save that passing allusion, before the
Holy Father rambles on to other subjects, which are
connected by the thread of his discourse only as
beads are by the string that holds them together.
Take the next sentence in the original Latin
as a specimen of these pontifical utterances, which
have availed to move the world and constitute
their author a great Pope. The fact that the lines
to be transcribed are a true and honest specimen
of the style of these letters and allocutions, and
the extremely curious nature of the style and man
ner of the composition, must be the excuse for
placing before the reader a page full of such unut
terably tedious verbiage.
" Hue denique" (to the destruction of religion)
ut csetera, quae Vobis apprime nota ac perspecta

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 147

sunt, omittamus, teterrima tot undique volantium,
et peccare docentium A'oluminum ac libellorum
contagio, qui arte compositi, ac fallacia' et artificii
pleni, immanibusque sumptibus per omnia loca in
Christianas plebis interitum dissipati, pestiferas doc-
trinas ubique disseminant, incautorum potissimum
mentes animosque depravant, et maxima religioni
inferunt detrimenta. Ex hac undique serpentium
errorum coUuvie, atque effrenata cogitandi, loquendi,
scribendique licentia mores in deterius prolapsi,
sanctissima Christi spreta religio, divini cultus
improbata majestas, hujus Apostolicse Sedis divexata
potestas, Ecclesise oppugnata atque in turpein
servitutem redacta auctoritas, Episcoporum jura
conculcata, matrimonii sanctitas violata, cuj usque
potestatis regimen labefactum, ac tot alia tum
chiistianae, tum civilis reipublicse danina, quae coin-
munibus lachrymis una vobiscum plere cogimur,
VenerabUes Fratres !"
Exhibitions of this compound administered to
the Avorld in doses of from ten to twenty pages at
a time had not much stirred it. And it was only
the concentration of the doctrinal theories to be
gathered from a very large quantity of it that
did succeed in startling the outside world. The
32—2

148 LIFE OF Plus IX.
allocutions of the 27th of September, 1852, and
the 15th December, 1856, attracted no particular
attention. But the proposition affirmed, it should
seem, in both of them, to the effect that " it is not
true that the forum ecclesiasticum for the decision
of the temporal causes of the clergy, whether civil
or criminal, ought to be abolished, even without
consulting the Holy See, and against its desire,"
is certainly calculated to give pause to a modern
legislator. It is not a little alarming too, though
no doubt one has heard it before, and, as we here
learn, the present Pope himself had affirmed
it on the 30th September, 1861, to hear it laid
down as an active principle to be observed in the
Avorld of the nineteenth century, that the ecclesi
astical poAver ought to exercise its authority with
out the permission and assentment of the civil
government." We find also that it is a damnable
error to maintain that " the Church has not
the right to employ force, and that she has
no temporal power direct or indirect, or that
the Sovereign Pontiff and the CEcumenical Councils
have OA^erpassed the limits of this poAver, have
usurped the rights of princes, and have even
erred in their definitions of faith and morals."

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 149

In a Avord, that Avliich I said above of tho
Encyclic may be said yet more emphatically of the
Syllabus. It is a declaration that the world has been
mistaken in its idea that the Church was disposed
to aUow some of the more preposterous of its claims
on mankind tacitly to sink into oblivion ; that, on
the contrary, Rome intends to insist on them with
more earnestness than ever. Multa renascuntur
quce jam cecidere ! And, as it has been elsewhere
expressed^ all the old rusted weapons in the Pope's
arsenal are furbished up and called into modern use.
Of course the champions of the Court of Rome will
not admit that these weapons have ever fallen into
desuetude. No authority will ever admit that of
powers AA'hich it has always itself been conscious of
possessing. But, on the other hand, it is not true
that any claims or theories altogether new have been
put forAvard (at least so far as the SyUabus is con
cerned), or noAV for the first time declared to be de
fide. It is merely a declaration that the Church
whoUy declines to take any account of aU that pro
gress and aU those circumstances which have contri
buted during the last eighty years to change the
relationship between the world and the Church ; that
for its own part it stands, and purposes to stand.

150 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
just where it did three, six, or nine hundred years
ago ; that such being the case, it summons the Avorld
to shape and fashion itself into such a form and
semblance as shall fit it to live in due harmony and
correspondence with such a Church, or failing to do
so, to take the consequences, comprising absolute
political deadlock, incapability and ruin in this
world, as well as the prescribed penalties in the
next. It is the uncompromising and thoroughly
frank nature of this demand that has startled the
world, and caused statesmen to doubt whether Pope
Pius in his earnestness and craving activity have
not done more to injure the Church than any
one of his predecessors for many generations
past. I am, for my oAvn part, much disposed to doubt
the correctness of such an opinion. Churchmen of
the old school cannot persuade themselves that those,
Avho assure the Church that she is and will be the
stronger for the loss of her temporal poAver, are
speaking honestly and sincerely. They consider all
such assurances as the scarcely veiled mockeries of
triumphant enemies. But they do not sufficiently
consider that the same causes Avhich gradually, but
very rapidly in the course of this nineteenth century.

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 151

made it clear that it Avould not long be possible for
the Popes to continue to be temporal sovereigns,
rendered this poAver, Avhile it lasted, a source of
Aveakness to them. Nor, as regards the Encyclic
and the Syllabus, do they, Avho deem the publication
of those trumpet-tongued defiances to the Avorld to
have been a suicidal step, sufficiently bear in mind
that although that step was taken before the last
remnant of the temporal power had been finally
stripped from the Pontiff, it Avas taken at a time
when it was already abundantly clear that the tem
poral crown was doomed, and that the Church Avas
at bay among its enemies. And when it is con
sidered what the course of events must necessarily
have been if the Apostolic See had at that time
adopted a conciliatory, a moderate, or even a tem
porising line of conduct, it Avill be seen that upon the
whole, pulhng off the mask (for during all the easy
going time the Church had worn a mask), hoisting
the true colours, recognising as enemies all who were
not true friends Avas the best policy that Rome could
have adopted.
But a still stronger, a more remarkable and a
more memorable step in the same direction Avas
coming ; and the attempt to estimate the strength

152

LIFE OF PIUS IX.

and the weakness of the position which the Church
made for itself by these acts, to which the considera
tion of the Encylic and the Syllabus invites us, may
be advantageously deferred tUl we come to speak of
the CEcumenical Council,

CHAPTER III.

EXPECTATIONS OF THE POPE AFTER CASTEL FIDARDO. — PIUS NOT
CONTENTED WITH THE SOVEREIGNITY LEFT TO HIM. — EFFECTS
OF THE ENCYCLIC AND SYLLABUS. — DETERMINATION TO SUM
MON A COUNCIL. — ADVICE OF THE SACRED COLLEGE. — DETER
MINATION OF PIUS TO ACT IN OPPOSITION TO IT.— WHO WERE
HIS SUPPORTERS AND ADVISERS. — THE JESUITS. — SOCIETY FOR
UPHOLDING THE INFALLIBILITY DOCTRINE. — PROFOUND KNOW
LEDGE OF THE CHURCH MANIFESTED BY THE JESUITS. —
CHARACTER OF PIUS F-AVOURABLE TO THE PLANS OF THE
COMPANY. ^WHETHER THE JESUITS JUDGED RIGHTLY FOR THE
INTERESTS OF THE CHURCH.

Although a larger view of the general tendencies of
Europe than an inhabitant of the Vatican could
reasonably be expected to attain to, might have
avaUed to assure the Pontiff that the days of his
temporal power were numbered, it is probable that
he may have continued during the ten years that
elapsed between the defeat of Castel Fidardo on the
18th of September, 1860, and the entry of the

154 LIFE OF PIUS IX.

Italian troops into Rome on the 20th of September,
1870, to believe that he would be alloAved to remain
Sovereign over the small dominion left to him. As
regards the confidence in the purposes of ProAddence
which Pius expressed so remarkably in his letter to
the almoner of his troops on the eve of the Castel
Fidardo campaign — saying, " We have a firm faith
that the Church will always triumph, and that God
will either bring back its enemies into the path of
salvation, or will crush and exterminate them !" — he
might and doubtless did and does preserve his confi
dence in the ultimate designs of Providence in this
respect ; but the issue of the campaign on which he
entered with the expression of those hopes must
have sufficed to teach him that Providence could not
be counted upon for any intention to preserve him,
Pius the Ninth, personally in the enjoyment of his
kingship. But if the prophetical promises of Holy Scripture
were found to be, hoAvever certain, too vague to
convey any reliable assurance with regard to the
more immediate and terrestrial destinies of the
Papacy, there were the promises of Napoleon the
Third, which seemed more definite. Of these pro
mises, hoAvever, seasoned by the exhortations which

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 155

accompanied them, the Holy Father had had many.
And even so late as the close of 1866, the Emperor,
on sending General Fleury to Rome on a confidential
mission, declared categorically : " The Emperor in
consideration for Avhat is right as well as on account
of political interests, can never abandon the Holy
Father ; and AviU use all his efforts to prevent him
from leaAdng Rome." And further on in the same
document : "If nevertheless, when the French
troops shall haA'e departed, the Pope should be
obliged to Avithdraw from Rome in consequence of a
popular tumult, the Emperor would not hesitate to
bring him back by means of his troops." It is true
that the Emjperor had not interfered by force to pre
vent the Holy Father from being stripped of the
Legations and, a second time, of Umbria and the
Marches in 1860. Nevertheless there is little reason
to doubt that, had the Emperor himself not fallen,
he Avould have supported his protege the Pope by
force of arms against all the power the ItaUans could
have brought against him. For his " political
interest," as he and France understood it, required
that the Pope should be kept at Rome for the pur
pose of preventing the consolidation of Italian unity.
And it needed no less a revolution in the European

156 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
A\'orld than the absolute destruction of the power
of France to render that consummation possible.
But the preservation of the little shred of sove
reignty that Avas left to him, even if its permanency
had been ever so thoroughly assured, by no means
contented the Holy Father or those around him.
The position which the sovereignty of such a State
made for him in Europe was far from being such as
to satisfy one ambitious of a much more brilliant and
important role. Nor was the Pontiff or the Church
in the slightest degree disposed to abandon the hope
of a reversal of all that had been done in Europe
since 1848, or perhaps even since 1789. And the
best means of remedying both these sources of dis
content was to be found in pursuing the path which
the publication of the Encyclic and the Syllabus had
opened. For the emotion which had been occasioned by the
publication of those memorable documents did not
prove to be as transitory as might perhaps at first
sight have been expected. On the contrary, it
seemed as if it required some little time for lay
Europe to appreciate at their true value the declara
tions of doctrine and the claims put forward by those
nianifestoes. It was not immediately that the world

LIFE OF Plus IX. 157

realised the fact that Rome really intended in a
practical spirit and in earnest to advance claims, the
result of admitting Avhich Avould be that, whether
the Roman Pontiff possessed any temporal sove
reignty or not, he Avould exercise such a sovereignty
over the entirety of mankind that no other Sove
reign or Government could call or deem itself inde
pendent of him ! Gradually this seems to have
become manifest to the lay mind of Europe. And
the result Avas a chorus of exclamations that the
Pope had now done for himself ! — that it was sui
cidal ! — that " quem Deus vuilt perdere prius de-
mentat !" — that this wonderful Pope, who had al
ready set at nought all the traditions of the Papacy
by holding it for a longer time than the tAventy-five
years of St. Peter, would be the last of his line,
because of the inconceivable audacity with which he
had throAvn down the glove in token of war to the
knife wdth a power — that of the modern spirit and
civilisation of mankind — against which he must
needs dash himself to pieces !
Despite this chorus, however, which Avas by no
means confined to the non-Catholic portion of
Europe, or to the enemies of the Church, the Holy
Father determined, under the very remarkable cir-

158 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
cumstances to be more particularly adverted to
presently, to take another and a yet more startling
and remarkable step in the same direction. In the
summer of the year 1867, there Avere an unusual
number of Bishops assembled in Rome for the cele
bration of the centenary of the martyrdom of St.
Peter ; and the Pontiff availed himself of the occa
sion to announce in public consistory his intention of
summoning an CEcumenical Council, with the object
of " providing a remedy required by the evils with
which the Church is affected." On the following
1st of July, in another allocution he a second time
announced his intention. Before definitively taking
the step he had thus announced, hoAvever, he con
sulted the Sacred College on the two-fold question.
" An sit necessarium ?" " An oporteat ?" — " Is it —
the Council— necessary ?" " Is it fitting ?" To both
questions the Cardinals gave a negative reply. The
Sacred College Avas of opinion that it was neither
necessary nor desirable to call an CEcumenical
Council at that time. Whereupon the Holy Father
proceeded to realise his purpose just as if the Sacred
College had replied in a sense exactly the reverse of
that in which they had replied 1
That is a very remarkable circumstance I The

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 159

line of conduct thus adopted by Pius the Ninth Avas
one of extreme audacity and hardihood. It Avould
seem to indicate a strength of character, a power of
standing alone, which very feAv men possess ! Let
it be remembered AA'hat the calling of an CEcumenical
Council is and involves, and Avhat the relationship
between the Pope and the body of Cardinals ! The
Sacred College is the appointed Council of the
Pontiff. That office is the sole raison d'etre of such
a hieratic order. Without them, according to all
ecclesiastical theory, the Pope Avould stand absolutely
alone and isolated. And as regards the welfare of
the Church, the calling of an CEcumenical Council
is by very far the most important act that a Pontiff
can do ! It is an act from which most Popes have
shrunk — from very unworthy motives it may be
said. And it may be argued that the Pope who
desires and spontaneously calls together a Council of
the Church, must at least feel the assurance that he
can meet the Universal Church with a clear con
science and a heart fearless in its undoubting recti
tude. And the argument is a cogent one. Never
theless it is not always or only the upright who rush
in where Avise men have feared to tread I And those
who have feared the assembling of that awful body.

160 LIFE OF Plus IX.

the world-wide Council of the Universal Church,
have been, if not among the best of men, assuredly
among the wisest of all who Avere not among the
best. But Pius the Ninth not only did not fear the
assembling of a Council, but ardently desired it ; and
not only desired it, but determined to have it despite
the advice and adverse opinion of the only body of
men appointed by the Church to assist him Avith
their counsel. Think^ — looking at the matter froiri
a papal point of view — of the consequences that may
ffow from the causes which are set in motion by the
meeting of an CEcumenical Council I Think of the
responsibility of him who not only decides upon
taking such a step, but decides upon it on his own
sole will and judgment, in direct opposition to the
opinion and advice of his appointed counsellors !
Now, was Pius the Ninth the man to play such a
part ? Was he a man of exceptional hardihood and
strength of character ? Was he one gifted with that
rare degree of self-reliance and superiority to the
judgments and opinions of other men, Avhich alone
could prompt such a line of conduct ? Surely he was
one of the last men from whom that might be
expected ! Surely, if ever there was a man who
lived on and for the favouring breath of others, Pius

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 161
is he I Never Avas there a man who shoAved less of
self-reUant, self-contained strength ! Of tenacity,
called by liis friends conscientious firmness, and by
his enemies, less fairly, mule-like obstinacy, he has
shoAvn abundance, supported as he has been by the
enthusiastic and admiring adherence of his own
world. But this last clause may fairly be considered
a sine qud non in considering the Pope's actions and
general Une of conduct. He is a man of all others
AA'ho needs the support of approbation from those
around him.
And yet he is the man Avho takes one of the
biggest and most pregnant resolutions which a
mortal man can take, not only Avithout the approba
tion, but in defiance of the advice and wishes of
those who are his official counseUors, and moreover
are the world, to whose opinion he is— or ought to
be — most amenable !
Surely the explanation of the phenomenon is that
he did not stand alone, when he came to the decision
of summoning the Council in despite of the opposition
of the Sacred College. Though he thus slighted the
opinions of those to whose opinions he ought to have
been most amenable, there must have been others to
whose advice and opinion he was in fact more
VOL. II. ^^

162 LIFE OF Pius IX.
amenable. It cannot be that Pius the Ninth stood
all alone, self-contained and self-reliant, facing a
world in opposition to him, when he took this great
step. He must have had support, and of a valid
kind. Who were his supporters ? Probably there is
not a member of his own Church who would be at a
moment's loss for the reply. They were the Jesuits.
He acted under the influence of the Fathers of " the
Company," in opposition to the counsel of his more
constitutional advisers ! That the celebrated " Com
pany " should thus take a Une of its own, and one
opposed to the policy of the secular Church, is quite
in accordance with all the traditions of its history,
and on this occasion at least was one perfectly intel
ligible to the meanest capacity. A curious little
phenomenon, which was scarcely visible to the naked
eye outside the pale of the Church, manifested itself
in that same year, 1867, and was recognised by all
those acquainted with such matters as indicating
beyond danger of mistake the workmanship of a
Jesuit craftsman.
A neAV " religion " was invented. The word is stUl
used by the peoples of Latin stock in the old sense.
When they speak of a new " religion " they mean a
neAV observance, or method of doing something for

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 163

the promotion of zeal in themselves and others on
behalf of the old reUgion. Many new religions have
been iuA'ented of late years, and have been found
exceedingly successful in promoting the objects for
Avhich they Avere initiated. And in each case the
Jesuit body has been the inventor Avho earned the
gratitude of the Church. Noav, the new religion
which suddenly appeared in the devout world in
1867, consisted in " offering to God a formal vow to
profess and defend the doctrine of the infallibility of
the Pope, usque ad effusionem sanguinis," — even unto
the shedding of your blood for it ! All the well-
knoAvn means for pushing, propagating, and popu
larising this iuA'cntion to such an extent as should
cause it to be powerfuUy operative on public opinion
were put in action. Societies, affiliated one to the
other, were formed. The members undertook to
circulate books advocating the doctrine, which was
the special object of the society, and to do their
utmost to suppress such as should have a contrary
tendency. France especiaUy was inundated with
little ornamental cards, on which the rules of the
society were printed, and the possession of which
indicated membership. The Holy Father addressed
briefs of felicitation to prominent persons, who took
33—2

164 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
a leading part in the society. And it is very remark
able that, despite the general condemnation of secret
societies by the Church, this papal infallibility society
was a secret society. Probably the secrecy attached
to membership was not very profound, and was due
mainly to the thoroughly Jesuitical idiosyncrasy
which estimates — perhaps not too highly — the value
of professed secrecy as a means of acting on the
popular imagination. It may be, however, that it
Avas not considered desirable to attract the attention
of outsiders prematurely to the preparations for the
grand transformation scene that was being got up for
the astonishment of the world.
As for the rulers of the Church, to whichever
party in it they belonged, whether to that which
has come to be, with very sufficient accuracy, known
as Ultramontane — the word being supposed to be
used by one on the northern side of the Alps —
or to their opponents, whether knoAvn as " Old
Catholics," i.e. nonconformists to the novelties
engendered by the Council, or as liberal Catholics,
they all no doubt were well aware of the main and
real object for which the CouncU was desired. And
the amount of opposition which was manifested to
the project in the Church, especially out of Italy

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 165

(though there also, as has been seen, the highest
and most important body in the Church had pro
nounced against it), was such that the unflinching
carrying out of the purpose in spite of it, shoAVS
in a very striking manner the exceedingly perfect
knowledge which its authors the Jesuits must have
possessed, if not in a larger sense of the world,
of mankind, and of human nature, yet unmistakably
of the Church, of churchmen, and of sacerdotal
nature. What was wanted was by a successful vote of
the Universal Church to cause a doctrine, involving
a more grovelling, more degrading, and more
dangerous superstition than any which "the ages
of faith" had invented or tolerated, to be adopted as
a constituent part of the Catholic faith, now in
the midst of the nineteenth century, in the midst
of the breakdown of faith under the burthen of
doctrinal requirements already too heavy for the
world's capacity of beUeving, and by a Church all
the salt of which, all that was best in which, was
known to be utterly opposed to the doctrine in
question ! Who would not have said that the
attempt was an entirely — a monstrously impossible
one ! The Jesuits judged otherwise. They were

166 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
fully and accurately aware of the amount of oppo
sition, of the number of recalcitrants, of the effect
which the promulgation of the new doctrine would
have on the minds of mankind. But they thought
the thing might be done notAvithstanding. They
were of opinion that it could be carried ; and they
were right ! No doubt they trusted much to the
overpowering dread of causing a schism which
might be little less than a death-blow to the Church ;
and yet more to the wonderful perfection of dis
cipline which the organisation of the ecclesiastical
hierarchy has produced. But the best card in
their hand, the circumstance which above all
others rendered the present a fitting moment
for the attempt, was the character of the reigning
Pontiff. A man whose powers of believing were unlimited
by any exercise of the intellectual faculty, as sUoaati
in the " definition" of the Virgin's . Immaculate
Conception ; a man whose imaginative power was
sufficient to render the attribute to be claimed
for him seductive to his fancy, but not sufficient
to represent to him the monstrosity and absurdity
of it ; a man balked in his first attempts at attitu-
diiiising on the world's scene in the part of hero

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 167
of the piece to be played in his day, and tormented
by the desire to distinguish himself in that eccle
siastic Avorld Avhich alone remained to him, eager
for some role AA'hich should bring him with suffi
cient prominence before the eyes of his generation,
thirsting for the forehead-to-earth reverence of his
contemporaries, capable of believing that Godlike
qualities had been bestowed on him, and not feeling
that there was any antecedent improbability that
they should be so ; this surely was of all others
the man for the purposes of the Fathers of the
Company !
In contradiction to all that might have been
previously supposed, the Jesuits were right in their
estimate of the possibUity of causing the Church
to accept the measure. May it not be that they
are equally right in believing, in opposition to the
opinion held by the far largest portion of the
educated part of mankind, that the measure in
question AviU be found to act favourably rather
than the reverse for the interests of their Church ?
It will alienate some persons from their communion.
But is there not reason to think that such persons
would not have long remained to them, or at all
events would not have been of much use to them

168 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
under any circumstances 1 When some general,
of whom history tells, halted his army before
advancing to some arduous enterprise, and after
explaining to his men all the difficulty and the
danger of the task before them, announced that
all those who felt no inclination to go forward,
were at full liberty to go back, his force was none
the weaker for the weeding that was the result.
And when a hard fight has to be fought, such as
the Church well knows she has to fight in the days
which lie before her, it is a very desirable thing
that your forces should be compact, that you should
know without any doubt who your own men are,
and that they can be trusted to be thorough with
the work in hand, and that an impassable and
unmistakable line of demarcation should exist
between them and the enemy.
The course of the next generation will show more
clearly ; but the experience of this generation would
seem to give reason to believe that, despite the
stand made by " Old CathoUcs," the Church has
been strengthened rather than the reverse by the
monstrosity which the Council voted.

CHAPTER IV

DEFINITIVE ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE COUNCIL. — THE TERM
"CECUMENICAL." — HOW FAR THE USE OF IT IS JUSTIFIED. —
MOTIATES WHICH PROMPTED THE CALLING OF THE COUNCIL,^
REASONS AGAINST IT. — CITATION FROM POMPONIO LETO. —
SUMMARY OF THE NATURE OF THE POSITION OF THE CHURCH
AVHEN THE COUNCIL WAS DECIDED ON. — INCAPACITY OF THE
SACRED COLLEGE FOR DEALING WITH IT. — THE JESUITS.^
THEIR PURPOSES IN THE CALLING OF THE COUNCIL. — DIFFI
CULTIES THEY HAD TO CONTEND WITH. — PROTESTANT OPINION
RESPECTING THE JESUITS. — SUCCESS AS REGARDS THE COUNCIL.
— EVENTUAL SUCCESS YET TO BE SEEN. — PERSONAL CHARACTER
OF THE PONTIFF EMINENTLY ADAPTED TO THEIR VIEAVS.
In the two allocutions of the 26th of June and the
1st of July, 1867, Pius the Ninth had, as has been
seen, announced his intention of calling an CEcu
menical Council ; but he did not formally do so
tiU the 22nd of June in the following year. In
an allocution of that date, and more formally by a
Bull dated on the 29th of that month, the as
sembling of the Council was definitively fixed for

170 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
the 8th of December, 1869. Thus eighteen months
were allowed for the necessary preparations for the
great event. They were not more than may be
deemed sufficient for the purpose even in these days,
when the meaning of the term CEcumenical, and of
the pretensions impUed by the use of it are con
sidered. The word is a great one, signifying the
inhabited portion of the earth's surface ; and the use
of it is intended to imply that the habitat of the
Catholic Church is de jure if not de facto coextensive
with that. And of course the original theory of
the supreme and inappealable authority of a Council
of the Church depended on this quaUty of its
universality. Of course, also there never was a
time when fact and theory did not very widely
diverge as regards this matter. The eighth century
was probably the time when the fact and the theory
most nearly coincided, but even then they were
far from wholly coinciding, and ever since they
have been diverging more and more from age
to age.
The meeting beneath the dome of St. Peter's of
.the Patriarch of Babylon with the Bishop of Chicago
— the world of the past with the world of the future
T^was a sight not a little wonderful, as a French

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 171

Avriter has observed. But, as the soi-disant " Pom
ponio Leto,"* remarking on the passage, says : "If
one comes doAATi to the naked fact, and if one turns
from the exterior form to consider the substance of
the matter, the Bishop of Chicago does not represent
a Catholic Chicago any more than the Patriarch of
Babylon represents a CathoUc Babylonia. And it
would not so much signify that these two extremities
do not represent two Catholic communities ; but how
many other bishops are there in the same condition ?
To saynothing of all the bishops inpartibus infidelium,
what do the American bishops represent in reference
to the titles of their dioceses 1 What does the Arch
bishop of New York represent in face of the Catholic,
that is to say the Universal Church ? But passing
over also the non-CathoUc nations, how many of the
French bishops are there who feel themselves to be
reaUy the pastors of the whole, or of the greater
part of their flocks ? or who are the real representa
tives of a truly Catholic society, or at least of a true
CathoUc majority ?" In short, it is evident that the
title " CEcumenical" represents a pretension only, and
nothing else. The Council was a general council of
* " Otto Mesi k Eoma durante il Concilio Vaticano. Impres-
sioni di un Contemporaneo, per Pomponio Leto."

172 LIFE OF PIUS IX.

that portion of Christendom which still considers
itself in communion with Rome. Nevertheless, when
thus stripped of pretences, which are merely such,
and reduced to the dimensions of genuine fact which
really belong to it, it cannot but be felt that a councU
of the Catholic Church is a great thing !
Granting that the supposition put forward in the
last chapter is correct, and admitting it to be true
that the Pope in this the greatest act of his pontifi
cate was but a tool in the hands of the Fathers of
the Company of Jesus, the question arises. What was
the motive which prevailed with that very astute and
well-informed body of men to take a step which, pro
bably, no one of their body or any other churchman
could haA'e regarded as otherwise than a risky one ?
Never, from the first foundation of the Church, had
it occurred that so long a period had been aUowed to
elapse without the calling of a Council, as had passed
since the last Council separated at Trent in 1563.
The quiet times which succeeded the storms that
attended the crisis of the Reformation, the indif
ferentism in religious matters which was the character
of recent generations, and the ill success of the
Council of Trent, which failed ignominiously to heal
the schisms which it was called to put an end to,

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 173
while it had the result of enfeebling the authority of
the episcopate, and intensifying the autocratic ten
dencies of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, furnish reasons
more than sufficient to account for the fact that no
CouncU was caUed for more than three hundred years
after the ending of that of Trent.
It must be admitted, however, that the position of
the Church in relation to the populations which still
professecUy formed its flock, was such at the time the
CouncU was decided on, as required the adoption of
some heroic measure of remedy. Yet thrice has a
CouncU faUed to heal a schism arising from a
divergence of opinion, backed by a divergence of
material interests and circumstances. The fourth
CouncU of Constantinople, and the Council of
Florence, faUed wholly to do anything towards
healing the schism of the East and West. The
CouncU of Trent failed equaUy, as has been said, to
heal the schism of the Reformation. And now, as
the author already quoted remarks, "The third phase,
which has for nearly a century past been threatening
Catholicism, is that which for want of a name is called
genericaUy the revolution. . . . When the Italian
events of 1859-60 menaced so nearly the very exist
ence of the Court of Rome, the Pontifical Govern-

174 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
ment, finding the ground failing beneath its feet in
Italy, and unable to discover there any means of
existence, had recourse, as it had always done in
similar conjunctures, to the Catholic Powers. But
inasmuch as the political condition of Europe was
such that no reliance could be placed on the Govern
ments for assistance, the Church, with a tendency to
accommodate herself to the times entirely character
istic of her, addressed herself to public opinion instead
of 'to the Governments, availed herself of newspapers,
of public meetings, and of all the other means of
influencing it. Instead of a governmental policy,
she made for herself a party policy. Thus the so-
called Catholic party was generated, or rather rose
again, grcAV, and at last showed itself weU defined and
organised with a clear and (Ustinct programme, Avith
a zealous determination, and a very good organisation.
The party formed itself, disciplined itself, and kept
itself in continual communication with Rome by
means of the vast assemblages of people drawn
together thither by the definition of the Immaculate
Conception, by the canonisation of saints, and by the
centenary of St. Peter. The institution of the Peter's
penny for meeting the expenses of the Papacy, also
contributed to the strong organisation of the party ;

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 175
as also did the enrolment of Pontifical Zouaves for very
brief periods of service, so as almost to renew the
Avhole body of them every year ; also the foundation
of several journals, various publications, civil and
religious festiA'als, and other such means of action.
In a AVord, the traditional poUcy of the Court of
Rome, keeping itself ahvays the same, changed its
ground, and made use of a cosmopolitan Catholic
party instead of the Holy Alliance, thus gathering
to itself interests and passions of very heterogeneous
kinds, and combating the adverse tendencies of
the times not without success. To this end the
Company of Jesus served as an admirable instrument,
capable as it was by means of its possession of a
discipline unique in the world, by its authority, and
by its diffusion over aU the earth, of organising and
performing this work Avith a unity of action and of
thought that could hardly have been secured by any
other means."
Considering that the writer who calls himself
"Pomponio Leto" is one who knows the Church
intus et in cute, and that not by any means as an
enemy, but as a friend, the above is a very remark
able passage. It gives us the raison d'etre of the
CouncU with a truthfulness that few indeed of those

176 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
Avho kneAV would have been wiUing to imitate, and
an accuracy which the many who have wished to
give the world information on the subject were not
in a position to rival.
In a few words the position was this. The Church
had lost, to all appearances finally, its old and accus
tomed support from "the Powers of Europe," the
CroAvned Heads, the Governments, and their police
men and armies. She had lost, in a great measure,
and was rapidly losing yet further, the aUegiance and
support of the masses of the people. It was neces
sary and high time that " something should be done."
And the something must be such as should provide
a new source of support to stand in the place of that
which the civU governing Powers of the world no
longer gave, and at the same time should reanimate
the sentiments in the people which make the strength
of the sacerdotal caste. The appointed, recognised
rulers of the Church were altogether incapable and
unfitted for undertaking any such task — very
naturaUy. The Sacred College had not been filled
with men chosen with any view to such work I
They were, almost aU of them, only fit to go on as
they had always gone ; to stick to the ship going to
wreck as long as they could ; to watch the progress

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 177

of the ruin spreading around them Avith sad eyes and
folded hands, and hope that things might hold together
at least their time ! There Avere men amon<>' them
AveU fitted for doing diplomatic Avork in the cabinets
of ministers, for dealing Avith schemes by Avliich this,
that, or the other European PoAver might be played off
against each other, and induced to adopt measures
judged useful for the interests of the Church. But
to handle the levers, and pull the Avires of that
entirely different sort of machine, Avhich was to work
by the creation of " a Catholic party " among the
masses of the people, was wholly out of their sphere
and out of their power. So much so that Avhen tho
" something that might be done " was suggested to
them they shook their heads, and said that that
Avould never do. It Avas too big a thing, too startling,
too bold, too full of risks and dangers !
But there Avere men — there was an organised body
of men — Avho Avere equal to the crisis which the
Princes of the Church Avere incapable of dealing
Avith. Those who had suggested the bold stroke, the
mere contemplation of Avhich frightened the recog
nised counsellors of the Apostolic See, were capable
of carrying it into effect without them and despite of
them and their fears ! Might it not be thought — of
VOL. IL 34

178 LIFE OF PIUS IX.

course has been thought and said Avith veritable con
viction by, the devout — that Loyola had been provi
dentially directed to the creation of his militia ad
hoc ? Now was the moment Avhen they and they
only could save the Church ! And by a further
manifestation of Providential care, they had ready
to their hand the one thing needed, outside their
own organisation, an occupant of the Seat of St.
Peter, who Avas exactly the very man for their
purposes !
And these purposes were not single, but manifold.
Their scheme of a Council, like every good and
masterly scheme, was to testify to its excellence,
even as the arrangements of the Divine government
of the universe testify to their goodness and autho
rity, by securing not only manifold but hetero
geneous advantages. Not only was the Church and
her interests to be so presented to mankind as to
render possible the formation of a genuinely popular
Catholic party ; but the constitutionalism of the
Church, Avhich had for ages been an obstacle and a
thorn in the flesh to those Avhose modes of action
and whose poAver require a despotic monarch, the
back-stairs entree to Avhose cabinet should be in their
own keeping, Avas to be destroyed. And this the

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 170

Council Avas destined to effect, and has most ANondcr-
fuUy, and in defiance of all that might antecedently
have been deemed probable or even possible,
effected I
Could it haA'e been deemed possible that an
assembly of the Bishops of the universal Church,
AA'ho had for generations jaast been feeUng that the
old episcopal liberty and authority of the primitive
Church was gradually being confiscated to the profit
of a central despotism, and had been more or less
audibly groaning under the oppression, Avould have
given their own votes for the absolute and final sup
pression of that liberty and authority ? Could it
have been deemed possible that an assembly of
Bishops, brought together by the exercise of despotic
authority, in defiance of the Avishes and the opinion
of the recognised and constituted advisers of the
Holy See, could do this thing ? The Jesuits thought
that it was possible. They judged that the difficulty
Avas not too great to be overcome by the means at
their disposition — and they judged rightly I
So much romantic trash has been written and
talked about the Jesuits, and Protestant intolerance
and bigotry has revolted so many minds by its Avide-
eyed bugaboo absurdities, that a reaction has been
34—2

180 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
produced in public opinion, Avhich has carried its
ever-swaying pendulum very much too far in a con
trary direction. The world will find out yet that
those who knoAV the Jesuits best are those who fear
them most. And surely the well-known and ascer
tained facts of the history of the Company ought to
suffice to persuade the Avorld of this truth. If we
decline to accept as gospel all that Mr. Whalley
teUs us, we must admit that Clement the Four
teenth kncAv something about the Fathers of the
Gesii. How far and how entirely the Jesuits have suc
ceeded in getting the future of the Church into their
own hands will not be known tUl the world sees the
result of the next Conclave, Avhich no man, not even
Father Beckx himself, surveying the progress of the
game from the serene heights of Fiesole, can predict
Avith any degree of assurance. Of course the Sacred
CoUege is very far from being the same body noAV
that it Avas Avhen it vainly counselled the Pontiff
against his design of summoning an CEcumenical
Council. And of course every fresh creation of
Cardinals modifies the chances of the result of the
next election. But there can be no doubt that the
Jesuitising faction at the Vatican has gained much

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 181

ground in the College since that day; and much
doubt Avhethor a similar question put hoav to their
Eminences Avould meet (if votes Avere taken) with a
similar reply.
At any rate, the Jesuits have succeeded Avonder-
fuUy thus far. And their success has probably
aA'ailed to conA'ert to their vicAvs some members of
the Sacred College, anxious only for Avhat they deem
the interests of the Church. The occupation of the
pontifical throne by a man Avith such virtues and
such fadings as Pius the Ninth made a priceless
opportunity for them. An old and often repeated
observation has pointed out the singular analogies
AA'hich may be discovered between the sacerdotal and
the female character. And it must have been the
study of such priests as the present Pontiff Avhich
first prompted the remark : " With, with a woman's
failings, not against them, must he work, Avho
seeks her overthrow !" says Taylor in his " Van
Artevelde."''' And that Avas the way the Jesuits
went to work Avith Pius the Ninth. " You shall
step forth before the converging eyes of the whole
admiring world, a God on earth ; or if not absolutely
* Or iu better Avords to the same effect. I quote from memory,
and have not the book at hand.

182 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
a God, a God's Vicegerent endowed Avith absolutely
God-like power and attributes ! You, absolutely you
individually, not the mere personified abstraction of
an impersonal Church, shall in your proper person
enjoy an authority and a dignity and an awful
reverence, which no man yet on earth, save the God-
Man Himself, has ever enjoyed or known ! You
shall be a Pope such as no Pope from Peter down
wards has ever been !"
And AvonderfuUy have they kept the word of pro
mise ! With what glorious magnificence has he stood
before the reverent Avorld alone upon the stage,
draped in the ample folds of the great pontifical
- mantle, which so entirely and decorously concealed
the humble, crouching, gleaming-eyed, black figure
in square-cornered cap, pulling the Avires that regu
lated the movements of the majestic puppet !
But no j)agan Leo the Tenth, no clever sceptical
Benedict the Fourteenth, no shreAvd Clement the
Fourteenth Avould have served the turn, or could
have played the part. It needed the enormous
capacity of faith requisite to enable an infallible
Pope to believe in himself It needed a sincerity of
piety strong enough to supply a motive for the devo
tion of a life, joined to a poverty of native intelli-

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 183

gence capable of seriously accepting practices,
institutions, and inventions based on superstitions of
the most grovelling and fetish-like kind, and in con
junction Avith these qualities a personal vanity,
craving for admiration, and love of representation
ruling the mind Avith the intensity of a master-
passion. AU these Avere present in the Pontiff, whom the
Jesuits found prepared to their hand mainly by
nature, but in great part also by the singular
vicissitudes of his Papacy. And the CEcumenical'
CouncU Avas the result. What that will eventually
result in time AviU show !

CHAPTER V.
THE OPENING OF THE COUNCIL OF THE 8TH OF DECEMBER. —
MEETING IN THE HALL IN THE VESTIBULE OVER ST. PETER'S.
— PROCESSION THENCE TO THE CHURCH. — THE HALL PREPARED
FOR THE COUNCIL IN ST. PETER'S. — THE DOOR-KEEPERS OF THE
COUNCIL. — THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE MEMBERS. — IMPERFECT
ACOUSTIC CONDITIONS. — SCENE PRESENTED AT THE OPENING. —
DIVERGENCE BETWEEN THE SENTIMENTS AND THE VOTES OF
MANY MEMBERS. — THE OPENING CEREMONIAL. — THE POPE'S
ALLOCUTION. — HIS EMOTION. — EMOTIONS NOT CONVICTIONS. —
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TEMPERAMENT OF PIUS THE NINTH.
— CONCLUSION OF THE CEREMONY, AND OF THE FIRST DAY'S
SITTING.
At nine in the morning of the 8th of December,
1869, the guns on the Monte Aventino, and the
bells of all the churches in Rome announced to the
world the opening of the twentieth CEcumenical
Council. And at the same hour those who were
to take part in it were assembling in the great halj.
Avhich is over the vestibule of the Church of St.
Peter. It was remarked at the time that the Pope,

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 185

in defiance of the ordinary etiquette which pre
scribes that in any ceremony or function of any
kind he does not leave his private apartments till
everything is ready and everybody in his appointed
place, Avas among the first Avho came to the hall
of meeting, and seating himself, awaited the
assembling of aU Avho Avere to file down before him
into the church.
Various authorities give the number of those
Avho assembled somcAvhat differently. But the
following statement may be accepted as very nearly
if not absolutely accurate. There Avere forty
Cardinals, somewhat over scA'en hundred Bishops,
twenty Mitred Abbots, five Abbots nullius, and
about thirty Generals of Orders. It is, however,
quite certain that the votes given at the first A'oting
were six hundred and seventy- eight — of the Bishops
present nine were Patriarchs, four of the Latin,
five of the Oriental rite ; five Archbishop Primates,
and over a hundred and thirty Archbishops. It
must be understood, however, that all these Bishops
were not Diocesans. Many Avere Bishops in
partihus. Some of the Patriarchs, as Pomponio
Leto observes, had never left Rome in their lives ;
and many of the Bishops would have been puzzled

186 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
to tell the geographical position of the places from
which they took their titles. All these, as AveU as
the Abbots and Generals of orders, were admitted
to sit at the Council, and by special privilege to
vote ; a concession which, as Pomponio Leto
remarks, and many others have remarked, exercised
an importantly modifying effect on the com
position of an assembly which should have consisted
only of Bishops having the cure of souls ; an office
which certainly must be held to ensure a greater
degree of responsibUity and a larger amount of
knowledge and experience than was likely to be
found in men who for the most part were mere
creatures of the Pope and courtiers of the Apostolic
Court. Their presence, however, contributed to
make the Council of the Vatican the most numerous
of any which the Church has ever seen.
When all were assembled, the Pontiff rose, and
going to prostrate himself before the altar began
to intone the Vod Creator Spiritus, Avhich the choir
took up after him, as the procession put itself
into movement. First went the Pope's Chamber
lains and private Chaplains ; next the Advocates
of Consistory, the Prothonotaries of the Council and
the Members of the Choir. Then came the " Ab-

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 187

breviatori del Parco maggiore," the " Votanti di
Segnatura," the Clerks of the Chamber, the " Audi-
tori di Rota ;" from Avhich four bodies eight pre
lates, chosen tAvo from each, acted as scrutators
of A'otes at the Council. After them came the
^Master of the Sacred Hospital, and two chaplains,
one carrying the threefold tiara, and the other the
Pope's mitre. After these began the defile of those
Avho were to form a constituent part of the Council.
Preceded by an incense-bearer, and the Apostolic
Subdeacon carrying the papal cross between two
acolytes, the Mitred Abbots walked first, then the
Abbots nullius, the Bishops, Archbishops, Prelates,
Patriarchs, and then the Cardinals according to
their order. Each Bishop and Cardinal was accom
panied by a train-bearer. Behind the Cardinals
came the Senator and the " Conservators" of Rome,
the Vice-treasurer of the Holy Church, the " Prince
attendant on the throne" (a lay office always held
by one of the princij)al of the Roman aristocracy),
then tAVO Prothonotaries, the Cardinal Deacon, the
masters of the ceremonies, and behind them the
Pope, carried in the " sedia gestatoria"— the chair
raised on men's shoulders, the appearance of which
is so well known from very many engravings of

LIFE OF PIUS IX.

papal ceremonies — Avith the canopy or " baldac-
chino" held aloft over him. Behind him foUoAved
various officials attached to the service of the Council
in sundry capacities ; then the Generals of the
religious orders ; then other officials, the secretaries,
the notaries, and lastly the stenographers.
The procession moved between two compact
masses of clergy of all ranks inferior to the epis
copal, passing first by the hall which lies between
the Sistine and Paoline chapels, and thence by the
Scala Regia to the portico of the church, and
entered it by the great central door. For the first
time in the memory of man, as more than one eye
witness has remarked, the vast Basilica seemed to
be full ! The Pope, as well as every other dignitary
forming the procession, Avas dressed in white,
" because it was the day sacred to the Immaculate
Conception." The Pontiff Avore not the threefold
crown, but a very precious mitre which had been
made for the occasion, the use of Avhich, instead of
the " triregno," was adopted to signify the equality
of all Bishops as such. At the entrance to the
church the Pope descended from the " sedia ges
tatoria," Avalked to the papal altar, and then halted.
The hall prepared for the sittings of the Council

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 189

consists of the right hand or southern transept of
St. Peter's Church. This Avas Availed in for the
purpose, and has indeed remained in the same con
dition eA'er since. The great door in the Avail which
divides it from the body of the church remained
open to the curiosity of the public during the first
formal sitting ; and this was the case also on the
occasion of all the subsequent public meetings of
the Council. It was kept shut only during the
private or debating sittings of that body. It was
a question to whom the "keeping" of this door
should be entrusted. For on the one hand an
ancient privilege attributed this duty to the
Knights of St. John, or of the Order of Jerusalem ;
and on this occasion the representatiA'es of that time-
honoured Order presented themselves for the purpose
of undertaking the duty. On the other hand, it is
the special duty of the Pope's Noble Guard to be
always on guard VA'herever the Pope may be. So
the matter was settled by entrusting the keeping
of the CouncU door to both these bodies in con
junction. Over this door is inscribed in large gilt
letters, " Docete omnes gentes. Ecce ego vobiscum
sum omnibus diebus usque ad consummationem
sseculi,"

190 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
On a raised dais at one end of the hall is the
papal throne, and around it the seats for the
Patriarchs and Cardinals, then in a semicircle of
seven tiers of benches, one below another down to
the level of the floor, the seats for the Bishops.
Every seat is numbered, and to every member of
the Council Avas distributed a ticket Avith a cor
responding number on it, which Avas also the number
attached to the individual in the printed catalogue
of the members, with which every member was
furnished. A few paintings decorated the hall,
the general appearance of Avhich was grandiose
from the size and character of the locality, but in all
other respects very simple. No sooner, hoAvever,
were the members of the Council congregated
within it, than its one great defect was disclosed —
the acoustic conditions were very bad, as indeed
might have been anticipated from the enormous
height, the colossal proportions of the arches, and
the form of the building.
As Pomponio Leto sarcastically puts it, " The
immense vaults and huge arches of the nave adapted
themselves Avith marked partiality to the Avishes of
that portion of the Council AA'hich is accused of
having been no very Avarm partisan of discussion."

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 191
For the work of voting, acoustic perfection Avas in
nowise needed !
It Avas nearly eleA'en o'clock before the members
got seated in their places in the hall, "the Pope
upon his throne " — I quote again from the same
Avriter — " the Cardinals and Patriarchs in their seats,
and then all the Bishops, Latins, Greeks, Ruthenians,
Roumanians, Bulgarians, Syrians, Chaldeans, Maro-
nites, Copts, Armenians, each on his proper bench,
and dressed in the pontifical vestments peculiar
to his rite. Assembled as they Avere on that day,
they presented one of the most solemn and mar-
A'ellous spectacles that could be offered to the eye of
man, especially in our days, Avhich are so far removed
from exhibitions of such external pomp. Nor was it
possible for any spectator, however little well-dis
posed towards that assembly, not to be struck with
Avonder, not so much at the magnificence of the
ceremony as at the vigour of that institution, Avhich
after so many, many ages of existence could without
any means more cogent than a simple letter of invi
tation bring together into the presence of a single
man from the farthest parts of the earth such an
assembly of men of all nations, bound by a discipline
which possesses hardly any sensible sanction, and

192 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
yet, as regards many among them, devoted to a
degree unknown to any other assembly in the Avorld,
to the voluntary and deliberate effacement of them
selves, that is to say, and intent not on the extension
of their own prerogatives, but, on the contrary, on
tenaciously struggling against public opinion for the
diminution of them. How Avell in the presence of
such a sight does one conceive the indomitable sen
timent of poAver and authority Avhich has always
dominated the Popes ! None save they have ever
reached to so prodigious an altitude of dominion, and
above all of reverence !"
Yes I a Avonderful sight indeed ; and Avell calcu
lated to induce a very sufficiently far-reaching train
of reflections ! But supposing, as I take it was the
case, that the author of the above sentences Avrote
them immediately after the event he chronicles, and
while he was still under the impression of it, it
seems probable that he must before the close — or
rather the suspension — of the Council, have some
what modified his opinion as to the eagerness of the
majority of the members, or at least of the more
conspicuous and authoritative among them, to con
tribute to the AVork of destroying their OAvn preroga
tives, liberty, poAver, and independence. They gave

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 193
the votes that cft'ected this, it is true. But the most
Avonderful thing in the Avonderful story of that
assembly is the action of the force which compelled
them — or at least many of them — to do the things
they Avould not, and to give ¦ votes against their own
convictions and wishes ! That this Avonderful power
existed, that this extraordinary result could be
brought about, the Jesuits, and they only, ante
cedently to the proof, understood and perceived.
And wisdom was justified of her children !
As soon as ever the Pope had entered the hall,
the Cardinal Vicar began to celebrate a solemn Mass.
Then the Bishop of Iconium preached a Latin ser
mon ; and when that Avas finished the Pope " re
ceived the obedience" of every member of the
immense assembly ; which ceremony consists of each
one by one kneeUng before him and kissing his
knee. " What a prodigious force of memory," re
marks Pomponio Leto, "must a Servus Servorum
Dei possess to remember that humble formula during
the whole of such a ceremony !"
Thrice, when this had been got through, the
Pontiff blessed the assembly ; and then he pro
nounced the allocution 6f the opening of the Council.
Towards the end of his address a thrill of genuine
VOL. II. 35

194 LIFE OF PIUS IX.

emotion ran through the assembly, and by virtue of
the contagious nature of such sentiments, which
operate with an accumulated force proportioned to
the numerousness of the gathering, caused a chord of
genuine feeling to vibrate in many an aged breast
long unused to such. The Pope himself was in a
state of high enthusiasm during the whole of the
immensely long and most fatiguing ceremony. Any
one who has formed any tolerably accurate concep
tion of the nature and character of Pius the Ninth
Avould be sure that such Avould be the case. But I
will once more quote from the same eye-witness I
have so often cited in the above account of this
memorable day, his description of the Pontiff's bear
ing on the occasion.
" All," says he, "Avho have ever had an oppor
tunity of knowing him, are aAvare how sensitive and
prone to vivid emotions is the nature of the Pope.
In that instant (the conclusion of his opening allocu
tion), the most profound faith and the highest
enthusiasm seemed to fire him, and, despite his great
age (then seventy-seven), kept him alert in person and
indefatigable during the whole of the immensely long
and fatiguing ceremony. It is the specialty of strong
convictions and powerful sentiments to communi-

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 195

cate themselves rapidly.* The Pope, Avho had been
much nioA'ed during the Avhole ceremony, uttered at
the end of his allocution tAvo invocations, one to the
Holy Spirit, the other to the Virgin. When he
came to that point in his discourse, he rose, lifting
up his arms to heaven, and all the assembly as by a
common impulse stood up. It Avas at that moment
a very solemn spectacle ! The germs of those
divisions which Avere to come over those minds and
cool that enthusiasm had not yet shown themselves ;
and aU the emotions, all the fears, and all the hopes
of the CathoUc world were seething in the hearts ot
its universal assembly."
A solemn and a moving spectacle and moment no
doubt ! But how much more so would it have been
had it really been the case that convictions could
have been communicated by contact as well as
emotions. In the case of the Pope no such dis
tinction either in that moment or any subsequent
moment existed to diminish the genuine fervour of
his enthusiasm. Endowed with a nature incapable
* The eloquent observer Avho Avritcs thus makes a mistake.
It is the specialty of strong emotions thus to communicate and
propagate themselves. Convictions can be communicated in no
such manner, but only by verj' different means. The error is a
characteristic one.
35-2

196 LIFE OF PIUS IX.

of distinguishing betAveen convictions and emotions,
they were in him one and the same thing. And in
the present case no doubt the green-room rule, which
teaches an actor that to reach the summit of his art
and powerfully move his audience, he must not be
mastered by his OAvn emotions, was not applicable.
Pius felt all that at that great moment he seemed to
feel, and he did profoundly move his audience.
When the allocution was concluded, further prayers
were recited, the Veni Creator was sung, and the
formal decree for the opening of the CouncU was
read. Then the formal question had to be put to
the members of the assembly, Avhether .it pleased
them that the labours of the Council should beo'in.
To this the classical placet was spoken in -reply ;
another hymn was sung ; the next sitting was ap
pointed for the 6th of January, 1870, and the first
sitting of the twentieth CEcumenical Council was at
an end.

CHAPTER VI.

EFFECT OF THE DOGMA OF THE INFALLIBILITY ON THE CHARAC
TER OF PIUS. — THE HISTORY OF THE COUNCIL. — THE MOTIVES
AND CHARACTER OF ITS PROMOTERS. — TAMPERING AVITH THE
VOICE OF THE CHURCH. — PREPARATIONS FOR THE WORK OF
THE COUNCIL. — SECRECY OBSERVED AVITH REFERENCE TO THE
TOPICS TO BE DISCUSSED. — POSITION AND ATTITUDE OF THE
" CIVILTa cattolica." — OPPOSITION RAISED BY IT. — THE AVORK
OF THE " CONGREG.A.TIONS." — THE AVORK OF POMPONIO LETO
ON THE COUNCIL.— POSITION ASSUMED BY ARCHBISHOP MAN
NING AS LEADER OF THE INFALLIBILIST PARTY. — THE DECLA
RATION OF PERSONAL INFALLIBILITY THE GREAT OliJECT AND
AIM OF THE COUNCIL.— NUMBER AND HOPES OF THE OPPOSI
TION. — ST. Peter's d.vy. — groavth of the doctrine of papal
INFALLIBILITY. — APPROACH OF THE HOT ' SEASON. — POPE'S
SPEECH ON THE DAY OF CORPUS DOMINI. — COMMENCEMENT
OF DISCUSSION ON THE 18tII OF JUNE.— ORATION OF CARDINAL
GUIDI. — RE&TRJCTION OF DEBATE. — NO FORMULA OF CONCILIA
TION POSSIBLE. — APPEAL OF THE OPPOSITION TO THE POPE. —
EFFECTS OF THE INCREASING HEAT. — HURRIED CHARACTER OF
THE CONCLUDING SCENES.

Few events AA'hich have ever happened in the world
can be supposed to have done anything towards

198 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
modifying the character of a man in Avhose seventy-
seventh year they occurred. But I think that may
be supposed to have happened to Pius the Ninth from
the holding of the CEcumenical Council. Of course
all the world knoAvs that the most notable, the most
portentous result of the Council Avas the dogmatic
definition, in such sort as to render the tenet an
article of faith necessary to salvation, of the personal
infallibility of the Pontiff! The bare statement of
such a proposition is staggering in its monstrosity ;
and when it is contemplated in conjunction with a
recollection of some of the most salient pages of
ecclesiastical history, and with the consideration that
all former Popes must needs have been as personally
infallible as the present Pontiff, the mind is lost in
amazement at the brazen-faced audacity of those who
propound, and the utpote- cadaver ^^k.Q self-denial and
prostration of the intellect of those who receive it !
Of course it is not meant that the man who is Pope
can in his own person do no AA'rong, or fall into no
error. The doctrine is that that which the Pope as
Pope and ex cathedrd declares to be right and true,
cannot be wrong or false. And this is supposed to
have been the case Avith such men as Leo the Tenth
and Alexander the Sixth.

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 199

I think that this greatness cannot be thrust upon
a man ca'cu in his seventy-seA'enth year, Avithout
modifying his nature and his character. And there
can be no doubt that in the case of the Pontiff, the
modification Avas very much for the Avorse.
This is not the place for a history of the Council.
Such a history of that great event, the full greatness
and signfficance of AA'hich has hardly yet been appre
ciated by the Protestants of this country, as should,
Avithout entering on the technically theological por
tion of the subject, set forth to the English reader
with sufficient detail ivhat was done by the Council,
and hoiu it Avas done, would not, I think, be found
uninteresting by a large number of persons in this
country. But a volume about as large as that which
the reader has in his hand would be needed for the
purpose ; and if it had been essayed here Avould have
caused a digression out of all proportion Avith the
other facts of this narrative. Nevertheless an
attempt must be made to tell as briefly and sum
marily as may be both what was done and hoAV it
was accomplished.
It is usually said to be unwise and uncharitable to
impute motives Yet it is often the business and
the duty of an historian to do so ; and all that the

200 LIFE OF PIUS IX.

moralist can say to him on the subject is to bid him
remember that his estimate should be charitable, and
must needs be doubtful. And it must especially and
greatly be doubtful when those Avhose conduct has
to be estimated are of so different a category of
human beings from the appraiser of it, as are the
ecclesiastics who ruled the operations of the Council
from an English Protestant. This must be duly
borne in mind. But bearing it in mind, and en
deavouring to give the consideration its due weight,
it is still hardly possible to doubt that those who
guided, or forced rather, the Council to do the work
it did, must have had the conscience that they were
doing ill. Of course the A. M. D. G. can do much
toAvards forming a conscience differently constituted
from that of other moralists. But the sanctity of a
Council, the more than merely human value of the
consensus of the Universal Church, the awful and
mystic authority of its sanction, must have been to
the minds of those men either a certain and un
speakably solemn reality, or a base imposture and a
farce. If the latter — res judicata est ! But if the
former were the case, hoAV is such a belief compatible
Avith the attempt — the successful attempt, to falsify,
juggle Avith, and force the solemn verdict of the

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 201

assembly, on the genuineness of whose freely and
independently recorded opinion the entire theory of
their system is based \ It is possible to conceive
that the promoters of the doctrine of the personal
InfaUibUity of the Pope may have held the opinion
that that dogma tended to the advantage of the
Church, and that this was identical with the truest
and best interests of mankind. The latter opinion
is, as Ave aU know, most sincerely held by a large
portion of mankind. But it is wholly impossible to
conceive that the man who thus thinks of the Church
should imagine that good, which depends on the
fundamental postulate of the Church's unity, could
be secured by fraudulent tampering with that unity,
and with the voice professing to proceed from it.
And now let us see, so far as is compatible with
the necessary brevity, whether the managers of the
Council were not guilty of such tampering.
Of course preparation was needed for the dis
cussions of such a body as the Council. It was
simply impossible that a parliament of six or seven
hundred individuals, however competent each one of
them might be, could set about the discussion of any
subject Avithout a plan and without guidance. And
this Avas accordingly provided. After the proclama-

202 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
tion put before the meeting of the Council, the Pope
appointed a commission of eight Cardinals, Patrizi,
Reisach, Bernabb, Panebianco, Bizzarri, Bilio (who
is said to have had a great part in the draAving up of
the Syllabus), Caterini, and Capalti, to undertake
the direction of the preparatory business. This com
mission appointed six other commissions, presided
over by six of their own number, to each of which a
special category of subjects was entrusted. Bilio
was at the head of that to which dogmatic theology
Avas entrusted ; Reisach of that which undertook
ecclesiastical polity ; Bernabb, Oriental affairs ; Biz
zarri, matters concerning the religious orders ; Patrizi,
ceremonial affairs ; Caterini, ecclesiastical discipline.
The members of the six commissions thus formed
Avere theologians selected by the Pope and the eight
Cardinals AA'ho have been named from among church
men of all Catholic nations. And to these persons
thus selected were confided " entirely, or at least
almost entirely,"* the subjects Avhich it was intended
that the Council should discuss under the seed of the
most pircfound secrecy. At the same time a very
much smaller list of subjects Avas communicated to
the Bishops, for their study in preparation for the
* Pomponio Leto, p. 27,

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 203
meeting of the Assembly. With the exception of
this restricted list of subjects, the most 2'>i'ofound
secrecy as to the matters to be brought before the
CouncU Avas observed at the Vatican.
And here at the very threshold we come to the
first thing that cannot but give rise to suspicion that
this Council of the Vatican Avas not intended to have
those characteristics on Avhich the entire value of an
CEcumenical Council depends. Why this secrecy ?
It might have been imagined that it Avould have
teen desired that the whole Catholic world, or at
least the whole of the ecclesiastical portion of it
should have been made acquainted with the subjects
Avhich Avere to be brought before the Council. And, in
fact, this secrecy did awaken suspicion in the Chu:rch.
It was much commented on and complained of,
especially in Germany. And it was at the same
time remarked, that the mode of proceeding thus
adopted had the effect of placing the Episcopate of
the Church at a serious disadvantage, inasmuch as
these despotically-selected theologians were thus
placed in a notably superior position to the Bishops
Avho were their hierarchical superiors, and a position
which in fact gave them a much greater power and
authority in the CouncU. This was the first indica-

204 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
tion of the path on Avhich the Vatican was entering
that engendered that opposition party in the Church,
Avhich its subsequent proceedings, so fatally to the
unity of the Church, confirmed and increased.
The next thing that astonished and scandalised
the ecclesiastical world was the strange position of
influence and authority in the preparations for the
Council assumed by and accorded to a newspaper —
the Civilta Cattolica ! This paper was known to be
highly influential at the Vatican, and it was soon
seen that it was the only public organ in Europe
that had the information necessary to enable it to
speak with knowledge, and the only one in Rome
that was permitted to speak on the subject whatever
it chose to say. , In fact, the Civilta Cattolica was
simply and avowedly the voice of the Jesuits. The
Fathers of " the Company " entered largely into the
composition of the commissions that have been
referred to ; but it is known that they nevertheless
found some difficulty in imposing on those bodies the
entire acceptance of their views. But they did
succeed in doing so to an extent Avhich emboldened
them to commence in the Civilta a series of articles
on " Matters relating to the Council," Avhich in fact
set forth their programme . of the conduct of the

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 205
Council, and of the matters to be treated at it. And
the astonished Catholic Avorld saw a nevvspaper
assuming tones of authority and direction as to the
deliberations of the Universal Church ! But those
Avho kneAV what that ncAvspaper was, felt alarm as
Avell as surprise and indignation. And these senti
ments culminated in a general outcry, when on the
6th of February, 1869, the Civilta came out Avith
(under the transparent veil of a correspondence from
France) a regular and complete programme of the
work to be done by the Council, the main scope of
Avhich it announced to be the dogmatic adoption and
proclamation of the Syllabus, of the Infallibility of
the Pope, and of the Corporeal Assumption of the
Virgin Mary. The Civilta had at the same time the
audacity to state that the preparatory labours of the
Council was in so great a degree complete, and the
opinion of the Church so manifest, that the Council
Avould have but little work to do, and would be of
short duration.
The outcry occasioned by this audacious article
was such that the Jesuits deemed it prudent to
retreat a little, which the Civilta did in its April
number, declaring that it had merely printed the
ideas of a French correspondent. Nevertheless it con-

206 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
tinned to defend and enforce those ideas ; the defence
put forAvard availed nothing; and the opposition
party in the Church became more alarmed, more '
decided in opposition, and more convinced that the
Jesuits did not intend that the CEcumenical Council
should have those characteristics which alone could
entitle it to be considered such by the Universal
Church. Immediately after the first public session, which
has been described in a former chapter, the " congre
gations " began. The first were for the public and
formal voting and declaration of what was done, and
what determinations arrived at. The second took
place with closed doors ; and the business of dis
cussion and all the real work of the CouncU was
done in them. They were secret ; but, as Pomponio
Leto remarks, such secrecy as is possible Avhen seven
or eight hundred j^eople share the secret, cannot
prevent the world from being informed Avith sufficient
accuracy of all that took place.
But I must not suffer myself to be led into occupy
ing the . reader with the history of the Council, or
even to stray so far from the proper subject of these
volumes as to indicate the causes of the continually
increasing discontent, Avhich beginning, as has been

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 207

seen, before the opening of the Assembly, became
constantly greater and more pregnant Avith schism
till its close. It would take too much space to
explain in a manner intelligible to those to Avhom the
subject is a ncAV one, all the many various tricks and
inventions to which the Vatican managers of the
Council had recourse for the purpose of limiting the
freedom of debate, preventing intercommunication of
opinion, and forcing votes by compelling the voters
to give them hoodAvinked, and by shutting out from
them any other exit than that towards which they
were being driven. Those who would judge for
themselves how much justification may be found
under aU these headings for the accusation that the
Jesuits and Jesuitising managers of the Council
proved themselves to be fraudulent impostors by tam
pering with that voice of the Church, on the sanctity
of which they profess the entire value of their action
to depend, must consult the work which I have so
often quoted, and to which I am under such large
obligations.* I hurry on to the great work of the Council, the
declaration of the personal Infallibility of the Pontiff.
* " Otto Mesi a Eoma durante il Concilio Vaticano. Impres-
sioni di un Contemporaneo, per Pomponio Lsto." Firenze, 1873.

208 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
Its advocates and promoters did not confine their
efforts to the debates in the Council HaU. "An
address," says Pomponio Leto, " was carried round
by the Archbishop of Westminster,* and by the
Fathers of the Civilta Cattolica, accompanied by a
letter addressed to the Bishops urging them to
demand from the Council the proclamation of the
personal Infallibility of the Pope in matters of faith
and morals. It was all very well to talk of other
subjects ; this was the dominant point of the matter,
the question of the Vatican Council. All other
subjects yielded place, and grouped themselves
around this. Everybody, according to his mode of
thinking, according to his views and his wishes^ felt
that in that was centred the to be or not to be."\
It would seem from various impartial and care
fully-considered data for calculation that the number
of adherents obtained in the first instance in this
manner was about four hundred. The first signature
to the address was that of the Archbishop of West
minster. It was said also that the Bishop of Balti
more, one of the very few American Infallibilists,
* Dr. Manning Avas considered as the leader of the Infallibilists,
as Dupanloup, Bishop of Orleans, was of the Auti-infallibilists.
t Sic in orig.

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 209

was one of the eighteen aa'Iio signed it. And it Avas
noted that among them there Avas but one, if any,
Italian. But in such an Assembly as that of the
Council, though votes may be formally and officially
counted, the moral value and result must depend on
the weighing of them. And though it is unquestion
able that the Jesuit manao-ers of the Council Avere
sufficiently adroit masters of the art of Avorking on
human weaknesses to secure a considerable nume
rical majority for the affirmation of the doctrine,
which they were determined to thrust down the
throat of the Church, the record, nevertheless,
remains ineffaceable that it was finally protested
against by almost every man, authoritative either by
personal qualifications or by the importance of the
See represented by him.
The long debates on this the great question of the
Council are highly instructive and interesting ; but
Ave must hurry on to the conclusion.
It was the middle of June, and the formula of the
intended definition had not yet been made known to
the Council. The festival of St. Peter was approach
ing ; and it was known that the Infallibilists had
counted on obtaining the desired vote on that day.
All kinds of speculations were rife among the
VOL. II. 36

210 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
anxious Fathers of the Church, as to the shape Avhich
the dreaded/or m«/a would take. The more optimist
flattered themselves that the Vatican might be con
tent with that adopted by St. Antonine, the sainted
Bishop of Florence, according to Avhich the Pope is
infallible when he teaches in accordance with the
counsel of the Bishops and the assent of the Universal
Church. But an assertion so harmless as this would
by no means have contented the Infallibilists of the
nineteenth century. And those who were best aware
of their intentions felt very little hope that anything
short of a declaration of infallibility, pure and simple,
would serve their turn.
Much anxiety Avas felt also as to the number of
those who might be counted on to oppose the decree,
and it was thought that this number might be
reckoned at something between eighty and a
hundred and thirty. This it is to be understood was
the number not of those who were known to be
adverse to the doctrine in their hearts, or even
of those who had opposed it in the congregations,
but of those who could be counted on to speak out
their " non placet" publicly at the time of voting
in the presence of the Pope, which was a very
different matter. But all these countings and cal-

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 211

culations Avere considered to bo labour lost by many
who believed that the majority Avould really do as
they loudly declared they Avould, vote the decree by
force of numbers Avithout any regard to the minority.
StUl the opinion was strong in many, both in Rome
and throughout the Catholic Avorld, that the Jesuits
and the majority Avould not venture to declare the
doctrine voted and accepted by the Universal
Church in the face of an opposition so considerable
in point of numbers, and more considerable still in
weight of authority and character.
The discussions on the points which preceded
that concerning the Infallibility were rapidly got
over, many Bishops even professing to deem them
of no importance, so entirely Avere the minds of all
occupied Avith the one great question. The dis
cussion of that was reached on the 15th of June.
And as the names of eighty orators were inscribed
to speak against it, it was evidently impossible that
the dogma should be pronounced on the festival of
St. Peter and St. Paul — the 29th — to the great
disappointment of the dominant party. Far more
importance had been attached to this, than persons
of modern and unecclesiastical habits of mind Avill
readily imagine. It was thought that the grand
36—2

212 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
coup de thedtre of the announcement of the Infal
libility urbi et orbi, Avould have made a greater
effect and been found more impressive if it could
have been proclaimed on that day. This, however,
was now manifestly impossible.
Most curious and interesting is the story of the
slow and often interrupted progress and growth in
the Church of the notion of Papal InfaUibUity.
Most remarkable is the regularity with which each
recurring attempt of the human mind to emancipate
itself from the yoke of the papal pretensions has
been followed by an advance of the theories of
unconditional submission. Not that the attempts
have been wholly unsuccessful. But every dimi
nution in the numbers of the papal flock has been
followed by the assumption of increased authority
over those which have remained to him. Each loss
in quantity (so to express it) has been followed by
a gain in quality. Each restriction of the papal
authority to a smaller area has had the effect of
intensifying the exorbitance of the Pontiff's pre
tensions within that area. And the causes which
have produced this undeviating progression are the
same, which seem to the present Avriter to make it
questionable Avhether Pius the Ninth has not upon

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 213

the whole done Avell instead of ill for the future of
his Church by his SyUabus and his Council.
But interesting as this story is, and despite a
certain notion Avhich the present Avriter confesses
himself to entertain that he could so tell the story
as to make it interesting to " the general reader,"
it cannot be told here.
The impossibility of attaining the proclamation of
the desired dogma on the 29th caused the managers
of the Council and the majority to be in less hurry
than Avould have otherwise been the case. Never
theless the Roman summer Avas at hand, and this
Avas a very serious consideration. But it was one
which might cut tAvo ways. There has never been a
Papal Conclave in the latter summer or autumn at
Rome without loss of life. Several Cardinals have
in some cases died of an autumnal Conclave. What
then might not be expected from the presence in
Rome at that season of some seA'en or eight hundred
stranger Bishops ? That the prospect of continuing
the sitting of the Council during July, August,
and perhaps September, was a somewhat appalling
one, was in noAvise doubtful. The doubt was which
party would be most likely to be frightened by it !
The majority, however, had this pull — that the

214 LIFE OF PIUS IX.

opposition were prevented from making up their
minds and concerting their plans to face the danger
at all costs by a very general opinion that the
managers would not take the responsibility of keep
ing the Fathers in Rome during the unhealthy
season. On the other hand, both parties were
equally aware that all might be lost or all gained
by an adjournment. They Avere also aware that this
adjournment would be a triumph for the Anti-
infallibilists. The Thursday was the festival of the Corpus
Domini, and on that account no Congregation was
held on that day. The Pope receiving the felici
tations of the Sacred College by the mouth of the
Cardinal- Vicar, as usual made a very remarkable
reply, in Avhich speaking of the Bishops assembled
in Rome, he divided them into three categories :
the 1st, of those dominated by the spirit of the
world, who care for popularity more than for truth
(i.e. the opposition party), for Avhose better illumi
nation he prayed ; 2nd, those who were uncertain,
on whose behalf he prayed that the Holy Spirit
would grant them more decision ; and 3rd, those
who walked in the paths of the Lord (i.e. the
Infallibilists), Avhom he fervently blessed. It was

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 215

thought at the time by all save the latter, that
this speech, A\-hich thus professed to decide the
very point Avhich the Council Avas called to discuss,
Avas rather a strong proof of the correctness of the
opinions of the opposition ! But Pius the Ninth
has not an intellect capable of perceiving the
logical difficulties AA'hich are apt to be generated by
the mental habit of begging questions.
On Saturday, the 18th of June, the real dis
cussion of the doctrine in question Avas commenced
in the Congregation — "a memorable day, inas
much as it saw the opening of the final combat,
which (though from aU that had already passed it
might be deemed already decided) was nevertheless
that Avhich was to decide irrevocably the fate of the
CathoUc Church in its conflict— the gravest which it
ever yet had ! — with the tendencies and the civil
society of our days." *
The first to speak on that day Avere the Cardinals
Ranscher, Pietro, Bonnechose, CuUen, and Guidi.
But the event of the day was the speech of the last
— Cardinal Guidi. A very eloquent address brought
him to the conclusion that the Pope cannot define a
doctrine without the Council, or without the counsel
* Pomponio Leto, p. 269.

216 LIFE OF PIUS IX.

of the Church. Whether he said "sine ConciUo"
or " sine consilio" Avas doubted. But in either case
his speech fell like a bombshell among "the Infal
libilists ! It had been fully expected that he would
have spoken on the other side. It Avas thought
at the time that he had been led by his OAvn
eloquence to go a step farther than he had intended
at the moment of commencing his address, when he
demanded the anathema for Avhoso should maintain
the contrary proposition ; a decree which, as it was
remarked, would seem, considering all that he had
taken upon himself to do, to involve in an anathema
Pius the Ninth himself Cardinal Guidi was " sent
for" the next day to the Vatican. What passed
between him and the Holy Father can of course only
be guessed.
The debate continued to drag its slow length
along amid the increasing heat till the end of June.
Stringent measures were taken by the managers to
restrict its duration. No orator Avas allowed to
speak more than twenty minutes, the expiration
of that time being inexorably marked by the ringing
of a bell. Nevertheless the end of June was
reached, and nothing had as yet been done ; or at
least nothing save the attainment by both parties of

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 217
the conviction that a prolonged search for some form
of Avords which by sailing curiously close to the
wind might so far satisfy both parties as to serve
for a compromise, Avas hopeless. As Pomponio Leto
puts it : " All those tentatives Avere equally vain from
the same cause — that the majority would on no
account make any concession respecting the personal
Infallibility of the Pope ; and on the other hand the
opposition, AA'hich had suffered from so many iUusory
hopes and so many deceptions, and was now greatly
irritated, Avould not lend itself to any fresh equivoca
tions, and had become more distrustful and less yield
ing. There was besides this Avhat may be called
the technical difficulty arising from the fact, that
inasmuch as the Popes had by a constant and
insensible expansion of their authority graduaUy
reached the most absolute authority, and inasmuch
as being in possession of this authority with full
jurisdiction over the entire Church, and thus in fact
enjoying all the substance of Infallibility, it hence
came to pass that in the course of this long and
undisputed advance of encroachment all the subtleties
of phraseology, all the sophisms, all the most
ingenious combinations of words and shades of
significance had already been exhausted in the pro-

218 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
cess, and there was nothing more to be done in that
line. Nothing further remained but to say the
word. And the Council therefore was placed in this
inevitable dilemma : either it must proclaim the
Infallibility pure and simple, or leave matters as
they were. But the latter course was held by
the Infallibilists of the majority to be equivalent
to a defeat." As it unquestionably would have
been. In these circumstances the opposition at the end of
June determined to make one more attempt, by sug
gesting an issue which seemed to them to offer an
opportunity to the Holy Father and the majority of
escaping from a position which could not but have
been full of difficulty and embarrassment to them,
without any semblance of defeat, and which would
have satisfied all parties. They prepared a memorial
to the Pontiff, signed by a great number of Bishops,
in which they begged for a prorogation of the
Council on the ground of the sanitary condition of
Rome. The heat had become very great ; many
Bishops had already fallen ill during the last few
days ; it might be expected that many more Avould
from day to day be incapacitated from taking part
in the business of the assembly. Would it not

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 219
be better to adjourn it to a more healthful
season ?
But this memorial shared the fate of various
others, by Avhich many of the leading Bishops had at
an earUer period striven Avith most eloquent en
treaties to turn the Pope from his purpose. No
answer Avas returned to it, save that the Pontiff Avas
inexorably determined that the Congregations should
continue their Avork uninterruptedly until the matter
for the consideration of Avhich they had been called
together should have been discussed.
I must quote again from my guide Pomponio :
" Whoever has felt the Roman summer may
imagine the effect it must have produced on all
those northern Bishops accustomed to the salubrious
airs, the abounding waters, and fresh shades of
Germany ! In advanced life these mutations of
climate, which in other subjects might not produce
important consequences, cause serious and immediate
results. A great part of those northern Bishops
and of their attendants fell ill ! It is difficult to
describe the weariness and discouragement which
took possession of those temperaments accustomed
to so different a climate during the long sittings and
arduous and painful toil of the Council, under a

220 LIFE OF PIUS IX.

temperature which to the Calabrian, the Spaniard
and the Mexican was normal and agreeable. Pro
bably these latter had counted on the effects on
their brethren of thirty-eight and thirty-nine degrees
of Rdaumur in the shade ! This consideration had
not been absent from the minds of the opposition
when they had begged for adjournment. But the
South was in the place of power, and the North
could not obtain a hearing for this or any other of its
pretensions." In fact there was no longer any doubt that it was
definitively determined by the managers of the
Assembly and the majority to vote the dogma, for
the sake of which the Council had been convened,
despite all opposition, by sheer force of numbers.
Some thirty German and Hungarian Bishops left
Rome ; and the party of the opposition was thus
seriously weakened. After this the work Avas pushed
on with a haste that was audaciously reckless and
indecent. And the conclusion was marked by
characteristics Avhich Avill hereafter undeniably
justify the Church of some future day in refusing to
recognise the Council of the Vatican as a true and
free Council of the Church, and in rejecting the
dogmas and definitions it professes to have estab-

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 221

lished. There can be little doubt that such a future
will arrive. But Avhether it Avill arrive sooner or
later, will in all probability depend on the issue of
the next Conclave.

CHAPTER VII.
THE INTENTIONS OF THE VATICAN BECOME EVIDENT. — MONDAY
THE 4TH JULY IN THE COUNCIL. — VIOLENCE OF THE MAJORITY.
— BREAKING UP OF THE SITTING OF THE 4TH.— CONDUCT OF
THE DISSENTIENTS CRITICISED.— INDIGNATION OF THE MINORITY.
—DIVIDED OPINION OF THE MINORITY. — FORMULA OF THE
DOGMA OF THE INFALLIBILITY. — PROTESTANTS MIGHT FREELY
SIGN THE FORMULA ! — OPINIONS RESPECTING THE WORDING OF
THE FORMULA. — MISGIVINGS OF THE PARTY OF THE VATICAN.
¦ — THE RESULT OF THE VOTING IN CONGREGATION ON THE
13th. — DETERMINATION OF THE MAJORITY TO PROCEED AT
ALL HAZARDS. — ADDITIONAL CLAUSE TO THE FORMULA.—
ANNOUNCEMENT THAT THE COUNCIL WAS NOT PROROGUED
ONLY SUSPENDED. — MEETING OF MEMBERS OF THE OPPOSITION
ON THE 17th. — LAST ATTEMPT AT CONCILIATION. — REJECTION
OF IT BY THE POPE.— THE SIGNING OF THE PROTEST, AND
RAPID DEPARTURE OF THE PROTESTORS. — THE FINAL VOTING.
TWO NON PLACETS — CARDINAL GUIDI AND THE POPE. — ARCH
BISHOP MANNING AND THE JESUITS.
From the beginning of July there was no longer any
possibility of a doubt as to the intentions of the
Vatican. It was the unbending purpose of the
party which had the power in its hands to override

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 223

all opposition, and proceed to their aim per fas aut
nefas. On the Sunday, the 3rd of July, the
opposition held a meeting, at which, after much
argument, it was determined to cease from all
further effort in debate and allow the general dis
cussion to be closed. This would be analogous to
alloAving the bill to be read a second time. The
entirety of the "definition" would have to be voted
at a subsequent " congregation," which may be
likened to the third readino; ; but after that a more
solemn and formal voting by "Placet" and "Non
placet" at a public session in the presence of the
Pontiff would be necessary to complete the decla
ration and promulgation of the dogma.
A Congregation was held on Monday the 4th.
The business in hand was the discussion of the
third clause of the "scheme" or law, as Ave should
say, "concerning the Church." This third clause
concerned the primacy of the See of Rome. The
opposition went into " congregation" that day, as
we have seen, decided to abandon further discussion.
From the very beginning of the day's work the con
duct of the majority justified their decision. The
first Bishop Avho rose to speak on the opposition
side was interrupted by sneers and expressions of

224 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
impatience and cries of " Abstineas !" " Rinuncias !"
and the like. Strossmayer then got up, and declared
that he and his friends renounced their right to
speak further. Thereupon a Bishop of the majority
jumped up, and said that since the opposition had
nothing furt^her to say, the discussion might be
pronounced to be closed. And Cardinal de Luca,
one of the Presidents, losing not a moment in
acting on the suggestion, said a few words in praise
of it, complimented those Avho renounced their right
to speak as deserving the gratitude of the Assembly,
and declared the discussion closed.
Curious was the scene which ensued on this
rising of the Fathers almost immediately after the
commencement of it ! The carriages of almost all
of them had been sent away, as nobody had imagined
that the sitting would come to so sudden a conclu
sion. Quietly, many on foot, many huddled together
into hack-carriages, they got back to the Vatican,
where most of them were lodged, while the Romans
were at a loss to think what so unusual a pheno
menon indicated, guessing little, as Pomponio Leto
says, of the influence which that humble procession
was to exercise on the political and religious future
of the world I

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 225

The conduct of the opposition in thus deciding to
abstain from future debate has been much criticised.
But in the first place, anything like free debate had
become impossible amid the ill-will, the disappro
bation, the interruptions, the ironical sneers, and
oppression of the majority. Nor, in truth, was
there much more to be said on the topics under
discussion. The nature of the subject made it
ijievitably necessary that the same things should be
said over and over again. When it had once
become clear that the Pope was determined to refuse
aU proposals of prorogation, and to propose to the
CouncU a formula expressing his personal infalli
bility pure and simple, there was nothing more to
be done than to vote for it, or vote against it !
Besides this, there was the very strong consideration
that further delay was likely, or rather certain, to
injure the cause of the opposition instead of the
reverse. The strength of the opposition was among
the men from the north ; and these were the men
who could not stand the heat. Day by day the
strength of the opposition was weakened by one or
more of its members falling ill, or leaving Rome ;
and, as the only hope of averting the promulgation
of the dogma, which they deemed so fatal to the
VOL. II. 37

226 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
future of the Church, depended on the possibUity
that the majority might still at the last shrink from
pubUshing as the consentient doctrine of the Universal
Church that which was dissented from by so large a
portion of it, it was important that the vote should
be reached before the number of dissentients was yet
further diminished.
From that day, the 4th of July, when the general
discussion was closed under circumstances so memo-
rable, matters were pushed on at break-neck speed to
the conclusion. The emendations which had been
agreed to had to be printed, which caused a little
delay ; but the votation of the third clause was pro
ceeded to on the 11th. When this clause came to
the votation, it was discovered that some words had
been added to the formula agreed upon, as was
supposed by the Pope himself. The fact gave rise
to a manifestation of disgust and indignation on the
part of the opposition ; but they were so worn-out,
so discouraged, so harassed, and so hopeless, that
they aUowed the matter to pass Avithout making it
the cause of further delay.
The conduct of the opposition raised the hopes of
the Vatican greatly — a result which was increased
by the knowledge that dissension had entered the

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 227

ranks of their opponents. The French, under the
leadership of the Bishop of Orleans, thought that
the best course open to them was to sign a solemn
protest, setting forth the excesses of the constraint
that had been put upon them, the determination of
the Pontiff and the majority .to proceed with the
work of the Council at a time and under sanitary
circumstances intolerable to most of the members of
the minority, and the violent repression of all real
debate, especiaUy during the latter days, and then to
depart. Bishop Haynald and the Germans were, on
the contrary, of opinion that they ought at every
cost to remain to the end. They argued that so
many protests had been made with utter futility
aheady, that it was hardly consistent with the
dignity of the opposition to make any more ; and
that, wholly just and true as the grounds of the
proposed protest were, they were of such a nature as
to be with difficulty proved in a sufficiently cogent and
undeniable manner. It might, and ought to have
been added, that, inasmuch as their best hope de
pended on the patent monstrosity of declaring a
doctrine to be that of the Universal Church, which
was openly declared not to be such by a large
number of dissentient votes, given in the face of the
37—2

22 g LIFE OF PIUS IX.

world by members sitting in the Council, it was of
the last importance that as large a number as pos
sible of such votes should be recorded at the last
formal" voting. I do not find that this entirely
conclusive argument was urged with the prominence
due to it, and there is reason to fear that this was
due to the fact that the members of the opposition
were by no means sure how far they could count
upon the constancy of the individuals composing
their party. At all events, the protest was not
made, and the opposition seem to have proceeded
in a sufficiently disorganised manner with no fixed
plan of action. •
Before the Congregation separated, after having
declared the general discussion of the third clause
closed, in the manner that has been related on the
4th of July, the formula of the declaration of InfalU-
bility was at last distributed to the members I This
had been long and eagerly waited for by the Assem
bly, but was not allowed to be known till almost
the eve of the day on which it was to be voted !
And such a fact alone is sufficient to demonstrate
the altogether unjustifiable attitude assumed by
those in power at the Vatican towards the Fathers
of the Council. What ! Avere the Bishops of the

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 229
UniA^ersal Church, assembled from every part of
Christendom to deliberate on the teaching Avhich
Avas held to be necessary for the salvation of the
souls of the entire human race, to be treated after
the fashion of schoolboys going in for a competitive
examination, to whom their papers are given out
immediately before they are to go to AVork on them,
for fear they should obtain extraneous assistance 1
And it is dreamed that the preposterous decision of
a Council thus treated will be recognised by the
Church of future generations as the true voice of
the Universal Church !
^\i% formula Avhich the Bishops were caUed upon
to vote runs thus :
" Itaque nos traditioni a fidei Christianee exordio
perceptae fideliter inhaerendo, ad Dei Salvatoris
nostri gloriam, religionis Catholicse exaltationem, et
Christianorum populorum salutem, sacro approbante
Concilio, docemus, et divinitus revelatum dogma esse
definimus : Romanum Pontificem, cum ex cathedrd
loquitur, id est, cum omnium Christianorum Pastoris
et Doctoris munere fungens, pro suprema sua Apos-
tolica auctoritate doctrinam de fide vel moribus ab
universa Ecclesia, tenendam definit, per assistentiam

230 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
divinam, ipsi in beato Petro promissam, ea Infalli-
bUitate poUere, qu^ divinus Redemptor Ecclesiam
suam in definienda doctrina de fide vel moribus
instructam esse voluit."
" Therefore We, faithfully adhering to the tradi
tion of the Christian faith as received from the
beginning, to the glory of God our Saviour, to the
exaltation of the Catholic Religion, and to the salva
tion of Christian peoples, with the approbation of
the Sacred Council, teach and define to be a divinely
revealed dogma : that the Roman Pontiff, when he
speaks ex cathedrd (that is, when in the discharge of
his office of Pastor and Teacher of aU Christians, he
by his supreme Apostolic authority defines any
doctrine concerning faith or morals as necessary to
be held), has by the Divine assist-ance promised to
him, in the person of St. Peter, the power of that
Infallibility, with which the Divine Redeemer wUled
that His Church should be furnished in defining a
doctrine concerning faith or morals."
The first thing that strikes a reader on perusal of
this document is that it might be signed by any
Protgstant without hesitation ! The Pope is in the

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 231
possession of that InfaUibUity Avhicli Christ willed
that His Church should possess. And that is no
infallibility at all I But the formula was pro
posed to men who firmly believed, or at least were
precluded by their antecedents from professing
disbeUef in, the infallibUity of the Church. And
the day has not yet come Avhen the Church will
rid itself of the one proposition by abandoning
the other.
It was intended that this formula, distributed on
the Monday, should have been considered on the
Tuesday or Wednesday, but the insistance of some
Bishops that the conclusions come to respecting the
third clause should be printed before they were
voted, obtained from the Assembly a delay for the
consideration of it tUl the 11th, the following Mon
day. And the intervening days were passed in
eager and earnest debate on the wording of the
formula, some maintaining that it was worse, some
trying to persuade themselves that it was a shade
less obnoxious than had been anticipated. But, as
Pomponio Leto remarks, all this was of infinitely
little import. " When a man has said that snow is
white, there is little room for discussion whether it
might have been better or worse said. In saying it

232 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
is white, aU is said, and there can be no more talk
about it."
Meantime, the Jesuits and the Vatican party were
not altogether easy as to the result of the next and
the following sittings. Antonelli — as always, more
of a statesman than a priest — was anxious, and had
misgivings as to the line of conduct that might be
adopted by the various Governments of Europe
when they found that their Bishops were to have no
power of their own, which of course was a national
power in some degree depending on the national
Sovereignty ; but were to be the representatives and
mere mouth-pieces of a foreign Power, having in
terests and a policy of its own, and a discipline more
cogent for the guiding of them than any sentiment of
national duty or patriotism or allegiance. AntoneUi
saw this, and AA^as not Avithout anxious misgivings.
But he was overruled by bolder or more ignorant
spirits. They were, however, stiU anxious about the con
duct of the minority, and evidently shrank from
proceeding to the promulgation of the dogma in the
teeth of the proclaimed dissent of such a body as
that which still composed the minority. Means
were accordingly taken to sound the opposition

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 233
members individually as to what their line of conduct
would be if it was decided to promulgate the doc
trine in spite of them. And it was at the same time
hinted that a document Avas being prepared to be
presented for signature to all the recusants, by
which they undertook either to submit or to vacate
their Bishoprics ! The opposition did not feel
sufficient confidence in all its members to meet this
threat with a bold front. And it was certain that
the fear of this menace had much effect in producing
the upshot which foUowed.
The amendments which had been proposed to the
formula, nearly one hundred in number, Avere all
disposed of on the Monday, the 11th, and Wednes
day, the 13th — that is to say, the proposers of them
simply renounced their right to support them — and
the formula was put to the vote— not to the ultimate
public vote, it wiU be understood, but the vote of
the Assembly in congnegation — on the 13th. The
result was as foUows : Placet, 451. — Non placet,
88. — Juxta modum (i.e., conditionally — in such a
case a mere timid mode of saying " Non placet "),
62, among whom Avere three Cardinals. — Absent, 91,
among whom was AntoneUi. (About thirty .of
these were either ill, or had previously left Rome.)

234 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
The remaining sixty consisted evidently of inten
tional abstentions. The absence of the Secretary of
State was thought to indicate that he was not yet
certain what would be the issue.
And there were many persons who, after the vote
which has just been recorded, stiU doubted whether
the Jesuitising party would even now succeed in
carrying out their programme. The doubt, however,
did not last long. When the Assembly separated on
the 13th, the Legate managers contented themselves
with saying that the votes juxta modum would
receive due consideration, and a special report be
presented respecting them at the next Congregation.
It was, however, intimated to the leaders of the
opposition that same evening that it Avas the inten
tion of the Vatican to proceed with its purposes irre
spectively of the votes just given, and to name the
day for pubUc proclamation of the dogma as soon as
possible. The opposition thereupon held a meeting
on the Thursday, the 14th, and again on Friday, the
15th, to decide upon the line of conduct they should
adopt under these very grave circumstances. It was
determined that a committee should be appointed
to present themselves personally before the Pope,
in the name of the whole of the dissenting members,

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 235

and implore him to suspend the definition of the
dogma, laying before him the necessity which Avould
compel them, if their appeal were disregarded, to
repeat to their own great sorrow at the pubUc
session before the Universal Church, and in the face
of the world, the Non placet, Avhich they had spoken
in the private Congregation.
The Committee was composed of the Cardinal
Schwartzenberg, the Archbishop of Paris, the Arch
bishop of Lyons, the Archbishop of Milan, and the
Archbishop of HaUfax.
These prelates did their utmost to move the Holy
Father. They spoke much of the danger to the
Church which would infaUibly arise from schism ;
they implored him Avith the most earnest entreaties
to pause ; they pointed out to him that they could
count with certainty upon a hundred and twenty
votes, and left to his consideration the effect that
would be produced by promulgating a dogma by an
authority, the whole force of which depends upon
the universality of its consent, while such a minority
were proclaiming aloud their dissent.
In reply to these urgent remonstrances and
entreaties the Pope gave evasive and uncertain
answers. He was not sufficiently informed on the

236 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
subject. He would confer with the Legates on the
point. He would consider all that they had repre
sented to him.
This was on the Friday. On Saturday, the 16th,
another Congregation was held, in which an amend
ment to the formula was proposed by the dominant
party ; and to the stupefaction of the minority, this
was found to consist in an intensification of the pro
position laid down in the formula as presented on
the 13th ! It was proposed to add to the formula
the words, " Ideoque ejusmodi Romani Pontificis
definitiones ex sese absque consensu Ecclesice irre-
formabiles esse." " So that such definitions of the
Roman Pontiff are in themselves irreversible, and
without the consent of the Church."
But the unblushing audacity of so bold and crude
an assertion as this was too much even for the
sufficiently unscrupulous majority. And the words
were changed to " ex sese, non autem ex consensu
EcclesicB irreformabiles esse " — " are in themselves,
but not by the consent of the Church, irreversible."
The difference is an infinitesimal one, but it
sufficed for the majority ; and the additional claim
Avas added to the formula. A further addition was
added at the last moment, despite the protestations

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 237
and endeavours of the minority to escape from it,
which was thus AVorded : "Si quis autem hinc nostrcB
definioni contradicere, quod Deus avertat, prcesump-
serit, anathema sit." " But if any one shall presume,
which God forbid ! to contradict this our definition,
let him be anathematised."
Before the Congregation of the 16th separated,
the Legates announced that the Council was not to
be considered prorogued; that the Holy Father
merely granted them a vacation for the summer
months, after which they would again be iuAated to
the Vatican to continue their labours.
This was the work of the Congregation of Satur
day, the 16th. And the solemn public sitting of the
Council at which the dogma was to be promulgated
was fixed for Monday, the 18th. During the hours
which remained between the close of the Congrega
tion on Saturday and the opening of the session on
Monday, the opposition continued by every possible
means, by written supplications, by vivd voce repre
sentations, to avert the result, or at least obtain
some delay. Their efforts were, as surely they must
have known, wholly fruitless ! A portion of the
opposition limited their efforts to obtaining the sup
pression of the last phrase in which the anathema is

238 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
launched against dissidents. But it was all un
availing. On the Sunday, the 17th, the members of the
opposition held a last meeting, at which it was
debated yet once again whether they should appear
at the public sitting and utter their solemn " Non
placet," or whether they should protest and leave
Rome. The latter opinion was adopted ! But
before it was finaUy determined on, the Archbishop
of Vienna went yet once again on that Sunday after
noon to the Pope, to make one final appeal, and
failing, to inform him of the line of conduct which
the dissentient Bishops had determined to adopt.
Upon this occasion the manner and behaviour of
his Holiness was altogether changed from what it
had been, when the last committee waited on him.
He received the Archbishop with a short and sharp
refusal to hear him, and added observations of so
little kindly a sort, that on the return of this last
messenger of conciliation, the dissentients signed
their protest in all haste, and made aU the speed
they could to leave Rome, " from fear," says Pom
ponio Leto, who unquestionably knew what he was
talking about, "that the victorious party might
proceed to personal violence, or that when the dogma

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 239
Avas once promulgated, they might find themselves
in the hard alternative of being compelled to submit
or to abandon their sees ; perhaps even — who
knows 1 — to quit the bosom of the Church altogether
— a fear to which the addition of the " anathema " to
the formula lent but too much countenance."
On that Sunday evening a protest was signed by
sixty-three Bishops, all of them the occupants of
sees with cure of souls, and the majority of them
holding the most iUustrious sees in Christendom.
And most of them were before morning beyond the
frontiers, fortunately not distant, of the territory of
the Holy Father !
On the fated 18th of July, therefore, there was
nothing further to impede the accomplishment of
the purpose of the Holy Father and the Jesuitising
portion of the Church. The historians of the Council
— men Uttle given ordinarily to " graphic " Avriting
or sensational modes of thought — tell of the black
skies, and of the tremendous thunderstorm, which
broke over the Eternal City, whUe the work of the
Council was being consummated at this last sitting
on the 1 8th of July. It shows at least how deeply
their minds were moved by the event I Of the 692
members of which the CouncU was composed, there

240 LIFE OF Plus IX.
were present in the hall on that day 535. And 533
pronounced the " Placet " which was required of
them. Two only, the Bishop of Caiazzo, in the
Neapolitan territory, and the Bishop of Little Rock,
in Arkansas, said in reply to the roll-call, " Non
placet." The latter was the last name called in the
roll, and his strong " Non placet," the last word
of all the debate heard in that hall, sounded as it
rung beneath the vaults as the condemnation of the
Council !
Those who signed the protest ought unques
tionably to have done as those two did ! No doubt
many and valid excuses are to be found in the
circumstances of the case for the line which, upon
the whole, they thought it best to adopt, but it
would have been better had they judged otherwise.
Nor, considering the nature of the forces and
persons against whom they had to struggle, can
it be considered at all certain that the Vatican
and its party would have at the last minute
proceeded to the promulgation of the dogma in the
face of the " Non placet" of so numerous and such a
body of dissentients. As it was, they made the path
of their adversaries plain before them !
And if only they could have looked forward but

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 241

a little ! if only they could have protracted matters
for about sixty more days or so I if only they
could have reached the quickly-coming 20th of
September — the Infallibility Avould never have been
promulgated !
As it Avas, the body of protesters and seceders
gave a notable example to many whose opinions
were equally adverse to the dogma, but Avhose
firmness was not equal to theirs ! There Avere many
conversions at the last hour. Among others Car
dinal Guidi, Avhose strong speech against the dogma
had made such a sensation, bowed his head, and
uttered his "Placet!" It was said that the Pops
looked him full in the face when his name Avas
caUed and he had to give his vote, and muttered
" Buon' uomo" when he heard him thus speak
what he kncAV to be against his conscience ! But
the mind of Pius the Ninth is above all else one of
those in Avhich allegiance to himself is a merit
paramount, and sufficient to eclipse all other faults
or virtues.
The Archbishops of Pisa, Rheims, Avignon,
and Salzburg were among the conA'erts of the last
hour. There is one other name and one other fact that
VOL, II, 38

242 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
must be placed on record before this necessarily
very imperfect sketch of the story of the Council is
brought to a conclusion. There are a great many
persons in more than one country of Europe who
would do well to remember the fact in conjunction
Avith the name.
On the day of the promulgation of the dogma,
the Archbishop of Westminster received a present
of the portrait of Bellarmine, with the foUoAving
inscription :
HENRICO EDVARDO MANNING
ARCHIEP. WESTMONAST.
SODALES SOC. JESU
COLLEGII CIVILTATIS CATHOLICS
SESSIONIS IV CONCILII VATICANI
MNEMOSYNON. *
* To Henry EdAvard Manning, Archbishop of Westminster, the
members of the Society of Jesus, of the Association of the Civilta
Cattolica, this memorial of the fourth session of the Vatican
Council.

BOOK V.
PIIJS THE NINTH AS A PEIVATE BISHOP.

38-2

CHAPTER I.
THE MISFORTUNE OF FRANCE AA'AS ITALY'S OPPORTUNITY. —
JULES FAVRE AND THE ITALIAN GOVERNMENT. — VICTOR EM
MANUEL'S LETTER TO THE POPE. — MINGHETTl'S REPORT FROM
A'lENNA. — REPLY OF THE BAVARIAN GOVERNMENT. — REPLY
FROM BADEN. — FROM ENGLAND.- — FROM BELGIUM. — QUESTION
OF CATHOLIC INTERVENTION. — SPIRITUAL LIBERTY OF THE
PONTIFF. — pope's LETTER TO GENERAL KANZLER. — COUNT
arnim's INTERCESSION. — ENTRY OF THE ITALIAN TROOPS
INTO ROME. — STRUGGLE AT THE BREACH. — TERMS OF CAPITULA
TION. — PLEBISCITE. — DECREE-OF THE ITALIAN GOVERNMENT. —
CIRCULAR TO REPRESENTATIVES AT FOREIGN COURTS. — LAW
OF THE GUARANTEES. — VANITY OF IT. — HOLY SEE REJECTS AN
INTERNATIONAL GUARANTEE. — THE POPE IN HIS NEAV CHA
RACTER. — APPLICATION TO AUSTRIA, AND AUSTRIAN REPLY.

In those scorching July days, when the Roman
climate was contributing perhaps even more remark
ably than ever before to the working out of the
history of the Papacy, both the temporal and the
spiritual fortunes of Pius the Ninth and his Church
Avere being hurried forward with extraordinary

246 LIFE OF PIUS IX.

rapidity on the path of this destined evolution. Of
course it was clear enough to everybody, to the
friends of the Vatican, to those of Victor Emmanuel,
and to the French Government equally, that the
former depended, at all events for the nonce, on the
fortune of the war between Germany and France.
The Church, amid the storms which had overtaken
her, had no earthly support to hope save that of her
eldest son. That her eldest son's object in support
ing her was to make her serve as the means of
preventing the unification of Italy, she of course
perfectly well understood. But the support tendered
was none the less, rather the more, valuable on
that account, in that the continuance of it was the
more assured.
But now it seemed likely that France would no
longer be able to give support to anybody or any
thing I Scarcely could the progress of the war have
been watched in Paris itself with more breathless
anxiety and interest than in Rome I The Moses
of the Vatican held up his hands, we may be very
sure, unweariedly ! But his prayers Avere unavaU-
ing ; and the events which were darkening the
horizon of the temporal power hurried on to the
moment of total eclipse.

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 247
All round the horizon the helmsman of St. Peter's
barque looked, and there Avas no hope anyAvhere.
The last French troop Avhich had lingered at Civita
Vecchia left it on the 19th of August. On the
21st and the 24th the Chamber of Deputies and the
Senate sittino- at Florence uro'ed the Italian
Ministry to " solve the Roman question in accord
ance with the national aspirations." On the 29th
the Italian Foreign Minister desired the Cavaliere
Nigra, the Italian Minister at Paris, to call the
attention of the French Government to the fact
that circumstances Avere very " grave" in Italy, and
in short, that the time had come when it Avas impos
sible any longer for the Italian Government to hold
off from taking possession of the remaining shred of
pontifical territory and of Rome. It seems almost
cruel to have " called the attention" of the rulers of
France to anything at that moment. It was Uke
compeUing a man to look into the accounts of his
estate when he is in extremis. Four days later
Sedan was fought, and all Avas over ! And on the 8th
of September poor Jules Favre said to the ItaUan
representative, in reply to further intimations as to
the course the Italian Government was about to take :
"The Convention of the 15th of September is dead

248 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
enough. Nevertheless I will not declare it to be at
an end. If France was victorious and prosperous I
would willingly yield to your wish." (Credat JudcBus
Apella ! If France had been victorious, France
would unquestionably never have quitted Rome !)
" But my country is conquered ! And I am too
unhappy to have the courage to inflict pain on a
venerable old man who is himself in misfortune. I
will not therefore formally declare the Convention
of the 15th of September to be at an end. But
neither will I demand the execution of it. I have
neither the poAver nor the wish to prevent anything.
I think with you that if you do not go to Rome,
Rome will fall into the poAver of dangerous agitators.
I shall prefer to see you there. But it must be
perfectly understood that France gives you no
consent, and that you accomplish this enterprise on
your own proper and unique responsibility " In a
word, the misfortune of France was Italy's oppor
tunity. Nobody in Europe could possibly be
unaware of that ; and nobody was disposed to move
a finger to prevent her from using her opportunity.
On the 7th, Visconti Venosta, the Italian Minister
for Foreign Affairs, informed all the Powers by
circular of the purpose of the Italian Government to

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 249

take possession of Rome and its territory : and on
the 8th, Count Ponza di S. Martino carried an
autograph letter from Victor Emmanuel to the
Pope, informing his Holiness that the King found
himself under the necessity of occupying Rome in the
interest of the Holy Father's OAvn safety and the
preservation of order. Nor was this in the smallest
degree a hypocritical manner of putting the fact.
For it is beyond all question, that if the Govern
ment of the King of Italy had held aloof, and had
simply let the forces in action take their course,
there Avould have ensued a revolution at Rome and
a doAvnfaU of the Pope of a very different kind and
degree from that Avhich the Pontiff suffered at the
hands of the Italian Government. Nor would the
Pope or his friends attempt to deny this. But they
would say : " You ought truly to have come and
l^ut down revolution and preserved order, but you
ought to have done so for us and not .for your
selves." On the 10th, Minghetti, resident Minister repre
senting the Italian Government at Vienna, wrote to
the Minister of Foreign Affairs : " It is the earnest
Avish of the Government that our occupation of the
territory and city of Rome should, if possible, take

250 LIFE OF PIUS IX.

place without conflict or the shedding of blood, and
that all regards may be paid to the Pope, so that he
may be able to remain in his See. The Austro-
Hungarian Government has no intention of putting
any obstacle in the way of our action as regards the
pontifical territory and Rome." The Minister
resident at Munich wrote on the same day to the
effect that the Bavarian Government desired the re
conciliation of the Holy Father with Italy ; but that
if the Italian Government thought proper to proceed
to occupy Rome, the Bavarian Government would
adhere to its declared purpose of not intervening in
Italian affairs. The Grand Ducal Minister at
Baden at the same time expresses himself as recog
nising the right of the Italian Government to act
freely with reference to the requirements of its own
needs in the present circumstances. England did
not feel herself called upon to interfere even by an
observation. The Italian Minister at London writes
to his Government on the 13th that, "having
mentioned in his conversation Avith Lord Granville
the fact of the occupation of the papal territory by
the Italian troops, his lordship did not express any
opinion, and less still any objection, on the subject."
The Belgian Government, or the Italian Minister at

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 251

that Court, Avriting on the 12th — recognises that the
temporal power is not necessary to the Holy Father's
discharge of his functions toAvards the Avorld, but
points out that " it is necessary at all cost to find
some combination Avhich shall permit him to exer
cise his spiritual functions Avith full and entire
liberty of action, and further, that such a combina
tion should receive the collective guarantee of the
great CathoUc Powers."
Here the Belgian Government, by the mouth of
Mens'"- Anethan, touched a burning question- of
which the world has not yet heard the last. As to
the necessity for the guarantee of the PoAvers,
which he speaks of, it must be presumed that the
statesmen who ruled the other Catholic Powers did
not agree Avith him in this respect, for no such
guarantee was, so far as is known, asked for by the
Apostolic See, and certainly none such was given.
Nevertheless, this question of liberty for the exercise
of the spiritual functions of the Papacy seems likely
to occasion a greater degree of trouble in Europe
than the simpUcity of the principles which ought to
regulate it would seem to justify. It would be
desirable that any person, statesman or other, seek
ing to form a clear opinion on the subject, should

252 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
begin by asking himself what exactly he means by
" spiritual power ?" And surely the asking of such
a question Avould very shortly lead the asker to the
admission of the fact that the only possible or con
ceivable spiritual power which any human being can
exercise must consist in persuading some other human
being to think, or feel, or believe something, or in
acting on such persuasion already achieved. Now,
the liberty of exercising this spiritual power is
assured to every citizen of every free government
(certainly to every citizen of the Kingdom of Italy),
within certain limits, and has never been, and can
never be, granted to any man beyond those limits.
No civil government in the Avorld can permit, or has
permitted, any man to use an eloquent tongue or a
powerful pen in persuading others to break the law.
If attempts to do so have been disregarded, it has
been because rulers have considered the persons
making the attempt to be incapable of exercising any
spiritual power. Nor, to come down to the naked
truth, which will most assuredly have to be recog
nised sooner or later, will it be possible that any
spiritual liberty greater than that so guaranteed to
all should be allowed to the Pope. Perfect freedom
of communication with all the agents by whose

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 253
means he exercises this spiritual poAver, is, of course,
assured to him by the same means and Avithin the
same limits. But, once for all, the pretensions Avhich
Catholic ecclesiastics in all countries have put forward
so loudly, which some Catholic Governments have in a
hesitating, half-hearted sort of Avay, shown some dis
position to put forward, and Avhich the Italian Govern
ment has not as yet felt itself strong enough to deny
absolutely with that firmness with Avhich it will be
inevitably necessary to deny it — pretensions to the
effect that, whereas certain other countries contain
vast numbers of Catholics among their subjects, and
whereas aU these Catholics deem it essential to their
religious interests that the Pope should enjoy
certain liberties or prerogatives beyond such as are
conceded to any other subject, therefore the Govern
ments of the countries in which such Catholic
populations live, have some more or less clearly
defined right to demand of the Italian Government
that the Pope should have some status in Italy
different from that of any other subject — all such
pretensions, I say, will have to be utterly and
entirely disallowed. Doubtless these considerations
may be made use of by the Pontifl' as an argument
that the only solution of the inherent difficulties of

254 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
the case is that he should be an independent sove
reign somewhere. It may be so, say the Italians,
but nothing imposes on us the duty or the necessity
of furnishing you Avith the required kingdom. We
cannot spare Rome. It is in noAvise incumbent upon
us to care for the religious necessities of the inhabi
tants of other countries, and we decline to supply the
Pope AAdth a sovereignty for their behoof here !
There are indications that it may be necessary for
the Italian Government to assume the ground here
indicated with firmness. But it is certain that, at
the moment which must surely have seemed the
most proper time for the formal putting forward of
any such demands, no one of the Governments of
Europe made any attempt of the kind, nor did any
other than Belgium hazard a suggestion on the
subject so outspoken as that of Mons'- Anethan.
At the present day (June, 1877) it is impossible
to avoid being struck by the light which the history
of the Vatican from that day to this, and especially
that of the last fcAV months, has throAvn upon the
theory and the demand put forAvard by the Belgian
Minister. It does not seem to have been sufficiently
noted at the time, or, indeed, subsequently, that Mens''-
Anethan was dernanding for the Pope a greater

LIEF OF PIUS IX. 255

degree of liberty of action than he has over enjoyed
at all events for the last three hundred years !
What would Louis XIV. — Avhat Avould Bossuet
have said to such a demand ? When has the Pope
been aUoAved full and entire liberty for the exercise
of his sphitual functions ; that is, the free use of his
powers of authority and persuasion over the sub
jects of a sovereign State ? But this is, in fact,
Avhat he has been enjoying and very unrestrictedly
using under the regime made for him by the legisla
tion of the ItaUan Parliament. No demand to such
an effect as that suggested by Mens'- Anethan Avas
made by any of the European Powers, but Italy
unasked provided it for the Pontiff. If Pius the
Ninth had continued to be a temporal sovereign, with
a kingdom of his own, is it conceivable that he could
have ventured on such utterances as he has on
repeated occasions indulged in lately ? A temporal
sovereign is exposed to attack by the same secular
means as those Avhich can be brought to bear on
every other government. As things are at present,
the Pope is absolutely safe from any such modes of
deaUng Avith him. He has the inestimable advan
tage of being Vox et prceterea nihil ! And those to
whom that voice is a source of infinite danger and

256 L,IFE OF PIUS IX.
calamity have the immense disadvantage Avhich
must ev'er attend those who have to contend against
spiritual with material power, plus the difficulty
arising from the engagements which Italy has
assumed towards the Papacy !
Returning, howe\'er, to the course of events, as
they developed themselves at that critical moment of
the Pontiffs deposition from his temporal throne, the
Holy Father wrote, on the 19th of that eventful
September, as follows to General Kanzler, the com
mander-in-chief of his forces :
" Noav that the great sacrilege and most enormous
injustice is about to be consummated, I feel the desire
to thank you. General, for your wUlingness to conse
crate yourself to the defence of this metropolis. As
regards the duration of the defence, it ought to con
sist merely in a protest sufficient to give evidence of
the exercise of violence, and nothing more ; that is
to say, to open negotiations for the giving up of the
city as soon as ever a breach shall have^been effected."
Count Arnim, then resident at Rome as represen
tative of Prussia, endeavoured in vain to prevail on
the Pontifical Government to abandon the idea of
offering any opposition to the entrance of the ItaUan

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 257

troops, and on that same day, the 19th of September,
the 4th division of the Italian army surrounded all
that part of the city Avhich Ues on the left bank of
the Tiber, and at ten the next morning the famous
entry of the Italian troops at the breach at Porta
Pia, after a short and perfunctory resistance on the
part of the papal troops, took place.
In the short struggle, which, in accordance with
the directions which the Pope had given to General
Kanzler, was maintained no longer than was sufficient
to show to all the world that the occupation of
Rome by the Italian troops was accomplished by
violence, eighteen private soldiers and three officers
were kiUed, and a hundred and twelve soldiers and
five officers wounded.
The terms of capitulation were as follows :
" The City of Rome, with the exception of that
part of it which forms the Leonine City (the part on
the right bank of the Tiber, including Castel St.
Angelo, the Vatican, and St. Peter's), together with
its armament, banners, etc., is given up to the troops
of H.M. the King of Italy. The garrison goes out
with the honours of war. The foreign troops are to
be disbanded and sent to their own countries. The
VOL. II. 39

258 LIFE OF PIUS IX.

native troops to be handed over without their arms,
retaining their present pay."
On the 1st of October, the votes of the population
of Rome were taken on the question whether they
would become the subjects of Victor Emmanuel, or
remain subjected to the Pope. The next morning
the result was published at the Capitol as follows :
For the King, 40,785 ; for the Pope, 46 ! The
numbers indicate decisively enough the force of the
stream and the rush that was carrying men's minds
away, but it indicates nothing else I There never
has been, in these modern Vox-populi-vox-Dei days,
a plebiscite, the attendant circumstances of which
have not shown the entire proceeding to be a farce !
And the voting of the Italian people was assuredly
no exception to the rule !
The " voting " of the Cabinets of Europe was yet
more unanimous. They all without exception felici
tated the King of Italy on the step he had taken,
that of Paris being the most [effusive of them
aU! On the 9th of October, the Italian Government
published a decree in these terms : " Rome and the
Roman provinces form a part of the Kingdom of
Italy. The Supreme Pontiff preserves the dignity.

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 259
the inviolabUity, and all the personal prerogatives of
a Sovereiofii." On the 18th of the same month the Foreign
Minister, Visconti Venosta, sent a circular to the
Italian representatives at the different Courts, in
which he says : " Our first duty in making Rome
the capital of Italy is to declare that the Catholic
world wUI not be menaced in its religious beliefs by
the fact of the achievement of our unity. The great
situation which personally belongs to the Holy
Father, his character of Sovereign, his pre-eminence
over other Catholic princes, the civil list which
belongs to him, wUl be amply guaranteed to him.
His palaces and residences wiU have the privilege of
extra-territoriaUty . "
And then came " the law of the guarantees," and
aU the rest of the floods of talk, and promises, and
assurances, none of which served in any degree to
console, satisfy, or reassure the Pontiff, reasonably
enough. Every word that he says in pointing out
that the "guarantees " offered him are no guarantees
at aU is abundantly true ! LaAv of guarantees !
Why, a vote of the Chamber can unmake it as a
vote hath made ! What can a parliamentary
Government guarantee ? Just as much as, and no
39—2

260 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
more than, an infallible Pope, soon to be succeeded
by an equally infallible successor, who is as compe
tent to undo as he is to do ! The Pope and his
advisers were right enough in their utter refusal to
accept the guarantee law as any guarantee at all;
but they perhaps hardly considered how soon their
adversaries might remind them of all the arguments
they used to prove that such guarantees might be,
and were likely to be, overruled, set aside, and
disregarded, if not by the same men who voted
them when in a different mind, at aU events by the
parliamentary generation which was to follow
them !
The Pope and his counsellors we're equally deter
mined not to stoop to the acceptance of even such
somewhat greater security of guarantee as might
have been assured to them by giving to the law in
question the character of an international fact. On
the 4th of January, 1871, the Minister representing
the French Government at Rome wrote to M. Jules
Favre that Cardinal Antonelli replied to the offers of
the Powers to concert together for the demanding
from the Italian Government some minimum of
guarantee for the Holy See to the effect that " the
Holy Father could not ask for anything other than

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 261
reintegration in his rights, or even wish that the
Powers should solicit concessions, which they
would necessarily have to pay for by a more or less
formal recognition of a state of things against which
the Holy See has protested and will continue to
protest." MeanwhUe the Holy Father lost not an instant
in assuming the attitude and " get up" Avhich he
deemed adapted for the new part he had to play
before the pubhc of Europe. The scene-shifters had
barely had time to run the new decorations into
their places before the Pontiff came out from behind
the scenes in the character of the unfortunate
prisoner, putting his hand through the gratings of
his prison Avindow, with " Pity the sorrows of a poor
old man !" His first movements in his new character
were not successful, however. On the 16th of that
October the ItaUan Minister at Vienna Avrote to his
Government to say that Cardinal Antonelli had
asked Count Trautmansdorff, then Austrian Foreign
Minister, whether he would so far pity the sorrows of a
poor old man as to intercede with the Italian Govern
ment to obtain permission for the Holy Father to pass
acrpss the Italian territory so as to get out of Rome ?
and telling how the Austrian Government in reply

262 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
had winked at the Holy Father and told him that
he was " a jolly old humbug !" — at least I take that
to be the correct translation into the vernacular of
the Austrian Minister's answer to the effect that he
imagined that the Italian Government needed no
intercession to induce it to leave to the Holy Father
fuU liberty of movement, but that the advice which
he should permit himself to offer with aU possible
respect to the Holy Father, would be that he should
stay where he was.

CHAPTER II.

THE END OF THE POPES CIVIL SOVEREIGNTY. — THE COMING
OF THE KING TO ROME. — POPE'S APPEAL TO THE POWERS. —
ADDRESS BY THE POPE TO THE FRENCH MINISTER, 26TH OF
APRIL, 1871. — IMPOSSIBILITY OF SATISFYING THE PAPAL
DEMANDS. — THE POPE NEVER ENJOYED FULL SPIRITUAL LIBERTY
AT ANY TIME. — NOR CAN HE EA'ER BE PERMITTED TO DO SO.
— SUSPENSION OF THE SITTINGS OF THE COUNCIL. — CIRCULAR
OF THE ITALIAN MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS.— -THE COUN
CIL COULD -EAVE MET IN PERFECT FREEDOM. — COMEDY OF
THE pope's IMPRISONMENT.
So now " the great sacrUege was consummated !"
The patient work of fifteen centuries was all undone,
and the Pope was put back again to where he
was before Constantine "fece il prime ricco
padre !"
Of course the very marks of respect and deference
with which the Italian Government and the states
men of other countries sought to gild the pill, which
they had all made up their minds that the Pope

264 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
must be forced to swallow, had to the mind of the
Holy Father all the bitterness of covert irony. The
King came to Rome on the last day of the year,
taking occasion of this his first visit to his new
capital from his desire to visit and assist those who
were suffering from the effects of the recent inunda
tion of the Tiber. And no sooner had he arrived
than he wrote to his Holiness in the most obsequious
terms, telling him the nature of his visit and its
motive. Of course the letter seemed like an insult
to the Pontiff! It would have seemed worse to
come and take no notice of him ! It was one of
those cases in which it was impossible to do right,
or satisfy the person you had to deal with. Flog
high, flog low, the Holy Father stUl cried out against
the operation !
He still seems to have retained a hope that the
last outrage and indignity of establishing the capital
and the Government of the usurpers under his nose
in his own Rome might be spared him. He told
the representatives of the Catholic Powers, as we
learn from a despatch from Count d'Harcourt to
M. Jules Favre— 28th February, 1871— that he
comprehended the impossibility of an armed inter
vention in his favour ; but he did hope that the

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 265
Governments would not sanction the daily increasing
pretensions of the Court of Florence, and would not
authorise their representatives accredited to King
Victor Emmanuel to follow him to Rome ; and
trusted that they would cause the Italian Govern
ment to comprehend that it was doing wrong to
transport the capital to Rome.
But it was all no use ! Nobody would stir a
finger to help the Holy Father in his distress ! And
there appears to have been a moment when his
hopes and demands were limited to more humble
proportions, than has, as it should seem, subsequently
been the case. On the 26th of April in that year,
1871, addressing M. d'Harcourt, the French Mini
ster accredited to the Vatican, he said :
" I am sensible to the good wishes you transmit to
me. It is the interest of aU nations that the condi
tion of Rome should not remain such as it is at
present. You have troubles of your own, which do
not leave to you liberty of action. I ask no more
than ought to be asked. I desire only that your
Government should counsel the Italian Cabinet to
be prudent, and should warn it to proceed cautiously,
and not adopt precipitate measures, or enter on paths
which may easily become dangerous. They want at

266 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
all hazards to establish themselves definitely at
Rome ; and there are a thousand reasons why Rome
can never become their capital. But the future wiU
be as it may please God. Sovereignty is not to be
sought for in such times as the present. I know
that better than any other, be he who he may. All
that I desire is some corner of earth where I may
be supreme. Not that I would refuse the proffer, if
the offer of restoring to me my States were made to
me ; but as long as I have not such a corner of
earth, I cannot exercise my spiritual functions in all
their completeness."
But the main difficulty and objection to furnishing
him with any such corner of earth, consists in the
fact that none of the Governments of the world
would be content to allow him to exercise his
spiritual power in aU its completeness. When was
he ever allowed to do so ? The possession of his
territory as an ItaUan Sovereign did not help him
much in the matter. Louis the Fourteenth — ^pious
Catholic as he was — did not allow him so much
liberty for the exercise of his spiritual power as the
present Italian Government does I The fact is, that
a human being, whom several mUUons of other
human beings persist in believing to be an infaUible

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 267

teacher in faith and morals, is a most portentous and
disastrous phenomenon, pregnant with danger to all
human society. And it is wholly impossible and
out of the question that such a person should be
aUowed the unUmited exercise of his spiritual power I
No civil power has ever done so ; none will ever do
so ! If the Pope had the corner of earth he told
the French Minister was all he asked, he might
exercise his supreme Uberty by speaking, writing,
and printing what he pleased. But does anybody
imagine that other States would allow his words
to have any such publicity as might be deemed
dangerous within their oAvn borders %
The true answer, therefore, to the complaints of
the Pontiff that the loss of the temporal power
involves the loss of his liberty of spiritual action, is
that his temporal power never yet secured to him
any such Uberty ; that no temporal dominion would
secure it to him now, short of a despotism co-exten
sive Avith CathoUcism ; that it never was, never will
be, and never can be conceded to him. It is mere
shuffling and equivocating to attempt to maintain
that the Pope, as it is, has liberty to exercise his
spiritual power in its entirety. He has no such
power — and it cannot be permitted to him 1

268 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
And the principal occupation of his leisure (so far
as the outside world may presume to penetrate the
secrets of his "prison-house") has consisted in
proving to the world how totally impossible it is
that he should be entrusted with any such liberty.
One of his first acts was the suspension of the
Council, which had been told that it was to meet
again this autumn. On the 20th of October an
Apostolic letter contained the foUowing announce
ment : " The sacrilegious iuA'asion of this holy city,
and of the remnant of the provinces of our temporal
dominion, perpetrated against all law, and with in
credible audacity and perfidy, have Adolated the
indefeasible rights of our civil principality and of the
ApostoUc See, and have placed us, by the permission
of God for His inscrutable reasons, in such a position
that we are absolutely subjected to another and a
hostile Power. In which deplorable state of things,
seeing that we are impeded in the free exercise of
our authority, and that the Fathers of the Vatican
Council could not enjoy the liberty, security, and
tranquillity necessary for treating in conjunction
with us the affairs of the Church ... we suspend the
said Council until a more opportune and fitting time
to be named by his Apostolic See."

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 2G9
To this manifesto the Foreign Minister, Visconti
Venosta, replied by a circular addressed to all the
Italian representatives at foreign Courts, in order
that they might bring it under the notice of the
respective Governments to AA'hich they were ac
credited, to the following effect :
" The Pontifical Bull by Avhich his Holiness has
announced the suspension of the sittings of the
Council alleges, as the cause of that suspension, the
Avant of liberty which the Council would have to
suffer in consequence of the new order of things
estabUshed at Rome. It is my duty to declare that
there is nothing to justify these fears. It is evident
that the Holy Father is free to call together the
Council at St. Peter's or in any other church of
Rome or Italy."
He should have added that it was equally evi
dent that the Council might, when so called to
gether, have deliberated in perfect freedom, Avithout
the smallest attempt on the part of any human
being to disturb, influence, or meddle with them or
their deliberations in any way. And I am afraid
that it is beyond the power of the utmost effort

270 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
that charity can make, to suppose that the Pope and
his advisers were not quite as Avell aware of that
fact as every one else was ! It was the Holy
Father's first public appearance in his new part in
the great comedy which has been in the course of
representation before Europe from that time to the
present — a period of about seven years !
AU that time the comedy has been played with
persistent and admirable constancy and patience 1
All the gorgeous and impressive ceremonials in the
church of St. Peter and the Sistine chapel, in which
the Holy Father used to take part, are discontinued.
The Pontiff cannot perform his part in them because
he is a prisoner ! The Cardinals cannot show them
selves in the streets of Rome because the Pope is a
prisoner ; and besides it is clear that they would of
course be insulted, if not murdered, were they seen
by the people ! In remote parts of Europe, where
distance could lend enchantment to the view, straws
from the litter on which the Holy Father had slept
in his prison cell have been sold as precious relics 1
And no allocution has contained any word calculated
to tranquillise the hearts of the faithful on this
score ! In a Avord, by himself, by all about him,
and by thousands of tongues and pens in every part

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 271
of Europe, this comedy has been persistently played
for the last six years and more ; and the entire story
of the remaining years of the life of the Pontff has
nothing further to teU save his consistent and admir
able playing of it !

CHAPTER III.
PUBLISHED DISCOURSES OF THE POPE. — SOME SPECIMENS OF
THEM. — THE POPE'S DAILY LIFE. — SECRETARY.— HEADS OF
CONGREGATIONS. — FOREIGN AMBASSADORS. — BISHOPS. — PRI
VATE PERSONS. — MODE OF RECEIVING PRIVATE PERSONS. —
pope's royal MEMORY. — THE POPE'S WALK. — HIS GARDEN
SEAT. — HIS AVIARY. — DINNER. — HIS READING OF THE NEWS
PAPERS. — HIS EVENING. — THE POPE A BAD SLEEPER. — UN
AFFECTED BY THE DEATH OF ANTONELLI, AND EVEN BY THAT
OF HIS OLD CAT. — UNLIKE POPE PAUL THE THIRD IN THIS
RESPECT.
From the 5th of January, 1871, to the 13th of May,
1875, the Pontiff pronounced four hundred and eleven
discourses, Avhich have been published in three octavo
volumes, and occupy between thirteen and fourteen
hundred octavo pages. This would give an aA'erage
of nearly two discourses every week, and many of
them are of considerable length. It cannot in truth
be said that the prison life of the incarcerated Pope

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 273

has been an idle one. And these discourses repre
sent but a small portion of his activity.
It cannot, indeed, be said that the preparation or
deUvery of these discourses required or indicate
either the possession or the exercise of any notable
mental powers. They consist of little more than a
slightly varied repetition of the same thing over
and over again. The deplorable condition to which
the Church has by God's anger, roused on account
of some altogether inscrutable causes, been reduced —
the consequent advance and increase of wickedness
in the world, especiaUy here in Rome — the never-
ceasing efforts of " the revolution" (by which is
meant indistinctly the Italian Government, modern
civilisation and freethought generaUy) to destroy
CathoUcism — the constant insults offered to religion
and to the Supreme Pontiff — the inability for the
due discharge of his religious functions to which he
has been reduced by his imprisonment — and his
hope for a speedy recovery of the Church from her
eclipse, together with his absolute certainty of
such a recovery in God's good time ; such is the
constant subject-matter of his discourses, delivered
often, specially to religious persons of his own
Church, very much in the ordinaiy form and
VOL. IL 40

274 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
manner of a very commonplace Roman Catholic
preacher. The classes of persons to whom these discourses
have 'been delivered were exceedingly various : " To
the new Archbishops ;" " To a hundred Roman girls
bringing a carpet as a gift ;" " To a party of English
Catholics ;" " To the women of certain Roman
parishes ;" " To a deputation of Roman young
men ;" " To the parish priests of Rome ;" " To a
deputation from the diocese of Tarragona ;" " To
a deputation of women from Gorizia ;" " To a great
number of foreigners ;" " To French, to English, to
Germans, to Spaniards, to Catholics, to heretics
(almost exclusively English and Americans), to
(leputations of every imaginable kind, to pilgrims
from every part of the world 1" And occasionally
some few words and phrases may generally be found
which are or may be supposed to be especiaUy
adapted to the occasion in hand. But the main
subject of the Holy Father's eloquence is the same.
To a large number of ladies — chiefly foreigners —
who waited on him on the 9th of March, 1871 ; he
said : " You are come to see him A\'hom they call
the prisoner of the Vatican I And truly I am such I
Physically speaking I could go out doubtless. But

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 275

luoraUy I could not do so* Avithout seeing a spectacle
of misery, scandal, and profound affliction, such as
is presented by the city so changed for the worse as
it now is. Every step, every glance would over
come me ! For this reason I will never go out
hence until God puts an end to this bitter trial to
Avhich He has seen fit to subject me. Your prayers
wUl hasten that day," etc. On the 17th of De
cember, 1871, speaking to the Romans of the
parish of Santa Maria in Portico, he said : " I am
not John the Baptist, but I also may say of myself
what he said of himseU" : ' Ego sum vox.' If he was
a voice crying in the AvUderness, if he said, ' Ego vox
clamantis in deserto,' I am a voice that cries from the
Vatican. Ego vox clamantis de Vaticano !"
Often his talk is Uttle better than mere nonsense,
as in the foUoAving specimen. It occurs in a dis
course addressed to certain " Daughters of Mary"
from a certain parish in Rome. Telling them to be
active in prayer and good works, so as not to merit
the reproach of standing idly gazing up to heaven,
he continues— the thought evidently suggested
* Here, as frequently, the Holy Father's mode of expression is
faulty. He means to say, " Morally, I cannot go out ; for if I did
go out, I should see," etc., etc.
40—2

276 LIFE OF Plus IX.

merely by the words he had just uttered : " Cer
tainly I should not say to certain people, ' Why
stand ye looking up into heaven ?' I should say
rather, ' Why do ye look down upon the earth ?'
Those too who have the public affairs in their hands,
those who govern, look down upon the earth. Or
rather I would say better, the world has always
been so ; it has always looked down upon earth.
Now, these men do not simply look down on earth,
but truly they look into the depth under the earth.
I tell you that you ought to look up to heaven,
and to work for heaven. All the rest has nothing
to do with our eternal salvation."
But these discourses, as I have said, are the result
of but a small part of the activity of the Holy
Father's life, since he has been playing at being a
prisoner in the Vatican. And the following brief
account of one of the Holy Father's days will he
accepted as indicating a very extraordinary amount
of activity and capacity for work in an old man
between eighty and ninety years of age.
He gets up,* Avhether in summer or in winter, at
* The foUoAving account is mainly taken from a letter sent by
the present Avriter to the Standard. He had the means at the time
of knoAving the statements containedin it to be correct, and thinks,
therefore, that he cannot do better than reproduce it.

LIFE OF PIUS L\: 277

six, and immediately " celebrates," that is to say,
performs a mass, as every Roman Catholic priest,
whether beneficed or not beneficed, is bound to do
every day of his life, and to do fasting. Imme
diately after haA-ing celebrated, the Pope hears a
mass ; and then he goes to his breakfast — a simple
cup of coffee and a morsel of bread. Directly after
breakfast the Secretary of State — for so many years
Antonelli, now his successor Cardinal Simeoni —
comes to him for the transaction of business ; and
there is always plenty in hand to be transacted.
Then, as soon as the Secretary leaves him, the heads
of the different Congregations wait on him. These
are Cardinals presiding each over one of the great
variety of " Congregations," or permanent com
missions, which the Apostolic Court has established
for the supervision of different departments of the
business of the Universal Church. There is the
Congregation of the Inquisition, the Congregation
of Consistories, the Congregation of Episcopal Resi
dences, the Congregation of the Condition of the
Regular Clergy, the Congregation of Ecclesiastical
Immunities, the Congregation of the College de
Propaganda Fide, the Congregation for the Affairs
of the Eastern Church, the Congregation of Rites and

278 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
Ceremonies, the Congregation of Indulgences and
Sacred Relics, of the Fabric of St. Peter's, of the
Holy House of Loreto, and many others. Of course
the Cardinals presiding over all these Congregations^
do not need to- have interviews with the Holy Father
every day. But there is no day on which some one
or other, and probably several of them, have some
business which needs to be attended to.
After the Presidents of the Congregations such
of the Foreign Ambassadors as may desire to see
the Holy Father are introduced. And it is rarely
the case that some one or more of these does not
occupy the Pope's attention for some portion of the
morning. After the Ambassadors, any Bishops
who may have come to Rome on business which
requires an interview with the Pontiff are admitted ;
and of such visitors, if only for purposes of com
pliment, there are always many. Then come the
audiences of people of all sorts, who Avish to see and
pay their respects to the Pope. These are of the
most varied description. Sometimes there wiU be a
"pUgrimage" to be received; sometimes a depu
tation from some body associated for some pietistic
purpose ; an association of schoolgirls in Normandy
for the special " cultus" of the Sacred Heart ; young

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 279
men from the Tyrol, or old Avomen from Belgium
banded together to gather Peter's pence for the
Holy Father in his dungeon ; sometimes a body of
the faithful of both sexes ; often a mixed company
of Catholics and heretics, gentlemen and ladies,
English, German, French, Americans, Spaniards,
and from every country under the sun. The non-
Catholic are almost entirely English and Americans.
None are refused. And these are the parties tq
whom for the most part the three volumes of dis
courses which have been referred to were addressed.
These audiences are generaUy appointed for midday.
But the party to be received often has to wait a
considerable time, which is in nowise the fault of
the Pontiff or dependent on his Avill. AU the time
that he keeps them waiting is so much cut off from
his own very restricted recreation hour, which
foUows the audience. But it is impossible to tell
beforehand how long the business to be transacted
with the Ambassadors, or with the heads of
Congregations, or with the Bishops may detain
him. At the audience he usually walks down one side
of the gallery, at the far end of which his red velvet
and gilt arm-chair is placed, and back again to his

280 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
seat on the other side, so as thus to pass immediately
in front of each person present, to some of whom he
often addresses a few words. It is well known in
Rome, but it may not be so in England, that the
etiquette on these occasions is for gentlemen to wear
ordinary evening dress, and ladies black up to the
neck, no other head covering save a black lace veil,
and no gloves. For the most part, his manner on
these occasions is very cheerful, and many anecdotes
are current in Rome of little incidents said to have
occurred at the audiences of more mixed character.
The general gist of them is such as to indicate a
kindly, good-humoured, but essentially shaUow
nature. When receiving, he usually addresses to
his visitors a few words from his seat, which are
spoken in a voice audible thence throughout the long
gallery. Rarely, when the assemblage consists of a
mixed party of Catholics and Protestants, does the
Pontiff ever touch on the sufferings and persecution
to which the Church is subjected, and as rarely does
he faU to do so when he has only those of his own
flock before him. In either case he always concludes
by giving all present his benediction. He also
e operation it is to be understood,
)uld be work for many hours, all the

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 281
various articles which the people have brought Avith
them for that purpose, rosaries, crosses, devout pic
tures, medals, and the like. The quantity of this
ware, which is brought to be blessed, is wonderful.
Even Protestants take advantage of their visits to
his HoUness, to carry home something that Avill be
valued by their Catholic friends. The other day
the Pope spoke a feAv words, touchingly enough, of
the speed with which his OAvn eighty -five years had
floAvn away, how they seemed like a dream when he
looked back over the course of them, and hoAV truly
from his OAvn experience he could warn his hearers that
their own days would run past them, and away from
them with a rapidity that would make the retro
spect in any case wonderful, terrible if they were
wasted or iU-employed. His Holiness vindicates
his claim to his temporal sovereignty by at least
the possession of one attribute, which has usually
been considered as special to royal personages, a
singularly accurate memory for persons whom he has
once seen. The other day, on being revisited after
a lapse of ten years by a non-Catholic American
gentleman of no especial note, he referred to his
former interview with him, and remarked on the
number of the population belonging to the Methodist

282 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
connection in the district from which the gentleman
came. As soon as the audience of the day is at an end,
and there is rarely a day Avithout one, the Pope goes
for his walk, the locality of which is determined by
the state of the weather and by his own greater or
lesser disposition for exercise. If the weather be
unpropitious, and he is not incUned for much move
ment, he will go to the Sala Matilda, a large hall on
the floor of the Vatican below that on which he
resides, and take a turn or merely sit there awhile ;
or, if the weather be bad, and he Avants a walk, he
will take one in the vast galleries of the Vatican,
which are of an extent capable of furnishing any
amount of pedestrian exercise ; or, if the weather be
inviting, he wUl take a walk in the garden. Those
very few persons who have permission to use the
garden receive on those days a notice to the effect
that during certain hours they must abstain from
going thither. The walk which he prefers, and
almost invariably uses, is a very lovely one. It is
entered by the gate leading from the statue-gaUery
to the garden, and forms a terrace, sheltered to the
north by a high waU, entirely clothed with magnifi
cent orange-trees, overlooking a flower-garden at a

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 283
lower level, and across this commanding the finest,
indeed I may say the only fine, near vicAV of tho
dome of St. Peter's. At the farther end of this
straight, broad terrace-walk, there is a tree imme
diately in front of the iron and Avire gates of a large
aAdary, containing a numerous population of birds of
no very rare or uncommon sorts, pigeons, and ducks,
and fowls for the most part. Often Pius wUl stand
at these gates for a few minutes and amuse himself
Avith looking at his poultry. But beneath the tree
which has been mentioned there are a few very
common and uncomfortable-looking iron garden-seats
placed in a sort of semicircle. And on one of these,
always the same, the Pope sits, while the two or
three famiUars whom he has asked to accompany
him in his walk, dignitaries of the Church almost
invariably. Cardinals often, but not always, sit on the
others and chat.
After the walk, at two or three o'clock, as the
business of the day may have decided, comes the
very simple and moderate dinner, eaten of course by
the Pope alone at table. Both in eating and drink
ing he is very moderate ; but likes that the small
quantity of wine he takes should be of the best, and
he prefers Bordeaux. When dinner is over he looks

284 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
at the newspapers, and perhaps goes to sleep in his
chair over them. He by no means limits his read
ing to the Catholic or clerical organs of the press,
but has the papers of all colours and of all parties.
He rather specially, I am assured, is in the habit of
looking over the " red " journals.
After his hour's repose after dinner, whether it be
spent in indulging in a nap or in reading, he goes
for another little walk if the weather be fine. Then,
returning to his apartment, he takes some very small
matter for supper, and after that sits with a few
habitues, who come to see him, or with any Bishop
from the country whom he may have asked for a
little chat, then retires to his priA'ate chapel for his
evening prayer, and is in bed by ten.
The Pope is not a good sleeper ; and the atten
dants in the adjoining room, one or other of whom
makes a point of being awake all through the night,
frequently hear him praying, and very often singing
in his bed, to while away the tedium of sleepless
hours. Such is the daily life of Pius the Ninth, and it
will be admitted that it includes a degree of activity
and an amount of labour very remarkable in a man
of his age. It is occasionally slightly varied by the

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 285
holding of a Consistory, or the utterance of a more
than ordinarUy important allocution, involving the
subsequent amusement of seeing aU the chatter that
it has occasioned in aU the newspapers of Europe,
much as boys watch the widening circles on the sur
face of a pond into AA'hich they have thrown a stone !
More rarely he is occupied by the business, and aU
the circumstances attending the most important of
all the acts, the doing of which is stUl left to the
Holy Father — the creation of new Cardinals. But,
as a rule, the days of the life of Pius the Ninth have
been, for the last six years, very unbrokenly such
as that above described.
Nor is the tranquil and even flow of them dis
turbed by any of these incidents, whether great or
small, which often act injuriously on the physical
condition of the aged by giving a shock to the moral
feelings. When, a few weeks ago. Cardinal Anto
neUi, who had been the Pope's friend and counsellor,
and devoted servant for little less than thirty years,
and whom he was in the habit of seeing every day,
Avas dying, the people of the Apostolic Court were
much afraid of the effect the tidings might have on
the Holy Father. But their anxiety was quite need
less, and all their solicitude thrown aAvay. The

286 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
Pontiff heard the tidings that his old servant had
breathed his last, in the rooms there immediately
over his own, with the most good-humoured indif
ference. And within three hours of the death of
the old Secretary, wrote with his own hand the
telegraphic despatch which was to appoint his
successor. But the Court was relieved from a yet more pain
ful anxiety and alarm, when, not long after the death
of the Secretary, the Pope's old cat died. He had
lived with the Pontiff many years, and was the Pope's
constant companion at dinner, never appearing in his
master's presence at any other time. He always came
in with the soup, sat gravely in a chair opposite the
Pontiff till the latter had finished his dinner, then
received his oAvn portion from his master's hand, and
took himself off till the same hour on the foUowing
day. And now poor old puss was dead ! The
people round the Pope feared that he might be
painfully affected by the death of his old favourite —
Popes have so fsAV things to love ! But to the great
relief, surprise, and satisfaction of the entire Court,
he did not seem to care a bit more for the death of
the old cat than he did for that of the old Secretary.
When he was told that his old favourite was dead,

LIFE: OF PIUS IX. 287
he shrugged his shoulders and said, "One Pope dies !
Make another I"
When the old Farnese, Paul the Third, who had at
tained much about the present age of Pius the Ninth,
though at the conclusion of a papacy of only half
the duration, turned his face to the waU, he died
broken-hearted at the misconduct and ingratitude of
his chUdren. Pius the Ninth has been far too
regular a man to have any chUdren ; but if he had
had them by dozens, they could not have shortened
his Ufe, let them behave as they might I If Pius
lives tUl he dies of a broken heart he will survive
most of us yet !

CHAPTER IV.

ANNIVERSARY OF THE THIRD OF JUNE. — COINCIDENT "FESTA
DI STATUTO." — CHANGE OF CIRCUMSTANCES SUBSEQUENTLY TO
THE FIRST PLANNING OF PILGRIMAGES. — THE POPE'S DIS
COURSES.— POPE'S FREEDOM IN THE EXERCISE OF HIS SPIRITUAL
POWER. — marcini's BILL FOR REPRESSION OF CLERICAL ABUSES.
¦ — PAPAL ALLOCUTION PENDING DISCUSSION OF THE BILL. —
CIRCULAR OF CARDINAL SIMEONI. — THE PILGRIMAGES. — LABOUR
UNDERGONE BY THE POPE. — ADULATION ADDRESSED TO HIM.
— OFFERINGS BROUGHT BY PILGRIMS. — EXHIBITION OF PRE
SENTS. — pope's CHEERFULNESS. — PROBABLE CANONISATION. —
SERVICES RENDERED BY HIM TO THE CHURCH. — TEMPERA
MENT AND CHARACTER OF PIUS THE NINTH.
The 3rd of June, 1877, was the fiftieth anniversary
of the consecration of Pius the Ninth as a Bishop,
and immense and world-wide preparations were made
for the due celebration of the day. An enormous
concourse of "pilgrims," gathering from all parts of
the earth to offer their homage and congratulations
to the Pontifl", who alone of all the long line has
surpassed in the duration of his Pontificate that

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 289

attributed by tradition to St. Peter, Avas expected, in ac
cordance Avith the arrangements made, to be assembled
in the Eternal City on that occasion. It was feared,
even, with not a little of misgiA-ing by the more timid,
and Avith a certain amount of anxiety even by the
Italian GoA'ernment, that the 3rd of June would not
pass without serious disturbances. It was difficult
to say, indeed, what the " pilgrims " could do to
assist the cause they haA'e at heart, even if there
should be, as was at one time imagined, thirty thou
sand of them. But a street riot is easily begun ;
and it is undeniable that, if it should so have hap
pened that two or three pUgrims should have been
shot down in the streets of Rome by Italian soldiers,
such an occurrence would have admirably suited the
views and purposes of the rulers of Roman Catholic
poUcy. Precautions were accordingly taken, which
seemed to the civU authorities to be sufficient for the
preservation of the peace under any circumstances.
And there was at one time a talk of deferring, or
anticipating, the " Festa di Statuto," the national
hoUday which is prescribed by law to be held on the
first Sunday in June. It was feared that the simul
taneous presence in the streets of two masses of
people, each animated by sentiments bitterly hostile
VOL. II. 41

290 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
to the other, might be dangerous. The 3rd of
June has passed, however, and nothing whatsoever
has occurred to disturb the peace of the Eternal
City. Subsequently to the planning of the pilgrimages in
honour of this certainly very remarkable anniversary,
however, circumstances occurred which gave to the
celebration an increased importance, and imparted to
it a political significance more accentuated than its
projectors could originaUy have hoped. I have
already spoken of the Avonderful number of dis
courses which, during the whole period of his " cap
tivity," Pius the Ninth has been in the almost daily
habit of pronouncing. The number of those col
lected in the volumes I have spoken of in a former
chapter must have been doubled since they were
collected. Some of these were, of course, much
more important than others, for they were spoken
on every sort of occasion, from solemn harangues to
the members of the Sacred College, to improvised
addresses to little schoolgirls. The discourses of
the former years of the " captivity " Avere carefully
gathered and published. And, doubtless, the pro
duct in this sort of the latter years will also in due
time be given to the world. The former collection,

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 291
amid the great mass of mere Avords, of course, calling for
no remark, contained, on some of its pages, passages
Avhich were calculated to try in some degree the
equanimity of the Italian Government. And every
now and again in his later discourses, his Holiness,
Avhen led to refer to his OAvn present position and
the Avrongs of the Church, not unnaturally, nay,
almost inevitably, spoke words which civil govern
ments, especiaUy such as have to be on their guard
against a pretender to the crown, are not wont to
tolerate. In the solemn allocutions which his Holi
ness put forth on special and important occasions,
this, as was naturaUy to be expected, occurred in a
more marked degree.
To what extent was this freedom of seditious speak
ing to be tolerated ? It had been promised to the
Pope and to Europe, at the time when Italy was
about to take possession of Rome, that the free and
independent exercise of his spiritual power should
be secured to him. It was a most imprudent
promise, and was probably made with a very small
amount of consideration as to the meaning of
" spiritual power," and as to what the freedom of
exercising it involves. Unquestionably it involves
the right of saying and disseminating, by the press
41—2

292 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
or otherAvise, whatsoever he may choose to say !
And now the Italian Government is beginning to
discover that this is a right which it is most incon
venient to permit him to exercise. A small amount
of very ordinary consideration of the subject
would surely have sufficed to suggest to the states
men who made the promise in question, that this
entire liberty of exercising his spiritual authority is
what no civil government has ever found it pos
sible to permit to the Pope. Nor will it be pos
sible for the ItaUan Government permanently to
do so.
Of course, the promises of the rulers of a country
governed by an elective chamber are worthless, as
the Pope himself has on more than one occasion
pointed out. One set of men cannot engage the
consciences of another body. And even less can it
be supposed that one generation can bind those that
come after it. It is, therefore, but little to the pur
pose to urge that any law restraining the Pontiff
from publishing seditious matter, would be an in
fringement of the laAv of "the guarantees." Such a
restriction is unquestionably an infringement of that
laAV and of the promises made by it. But this was
not the ground on which the most thoughtful of

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 293
those Avho objected to the attempt at legislation
on this subject, unsuccessfully made by the Italian
Cabinet in the winter of 1876, felt themselves bound
to oppose it. The laAv introduced by Signer Man-
cini, the LaAV Minister of the Radical Cabinet, not
only proposed to make penal the publication of
ecclesiastical manifestoes of a seditious nature, from
whatever source they might come, but created clerical
offences in terms the vagueness of AA'hich Avould have
made them, if the laAv had not become a dead letter,
the instruments of the most intolerable tyranny. And
the proposed laAV, passed in the Chamber of Deputies
by a majority composed of men singularly incom
petent and unfitted for the business of legis
lation, Avas rejected by the better sense of the
Senate. Pius the Nmth is reported to have received the
tidings of this rejection Avith a heartfelt " Thank
God !" But there is very good ground for believing
that to a certain number of members of the Sacred
College this rejection Avas a disappointment. And
these men were, I think, wiser in their generation
than the children of comparative light. The penalties
Avhich Signer Mancini's bill proposed to inflict on the
printers and publishers of the Pope's seditious

294 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
speeches Avould by no means have availed to prevent
their publication. Abundant candidates for the
martyrdom, to be obtained by committing the offence,
would have been forthcoming. The discourses in
question would have been printed in Switzerland,
and smuggled across the frontier by the hundred
thousand. They would have been reproduced by
scores of newspapers in France, Belgium, Switzer
land, and even England. It would have needed
a system of more than Chinese isolation and exclu
siveness to keep such matter out. And the only
result of the law would have been to attract a greatly
increased amount of attention to the documents in
question, and to have created a fictitious interest in,
and appetite for them. On the other hand, the pass
ing of the law would have put into the hands of the
Clerical party one of those weapons Avhich they
know how to use with such admirable effect. It
would have given them a cry ! And the speeches
and allocutions would have been published aU the
same. While the matter was pending, the Pontiff pro
nounced a more than ordinavily violent allocution,
which in fact was nothing less than an exhortation
to all the Catholic Powers and CathoUcs of the world

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 295

to engage in a crusade for the destruction of tho
kingdom of Italy and the restoration of the Pope
to his former position of a Sovereign Prince. The
ordinary laAV regulating press matters Avould have
amply justified the Government in stopping the
publication of this inflammatory document. But
the printing and circulation of it was in nowise
interfered with. In fact, it Avould have been exceed
ingly cUfficult for the Ministry to have done so. For
one of the objections most strongly urged against
Signer Mancini's bill for the repression of clerical
abuses was, that as regarded one A'ery important part
of it, it Avas unnecessary, seeing that the object it
professed to have in view was already provided for
by existing legislation. The boldness of the aUo
cution in question, however ; the fact that, as the
Clericals of course put it, the Ministry was afraid to
interfere with the publication of it ; the very wide
attention which had been drawn throughout Europe
to the bill which the Chamber of Deputies had
passed after a debate which was truly scandalous
and disgraceful on the part of several of the more
violent supporters of the ministerial measure ; and
lastly, a circular upon the subject, which Cardinal
Simeoni, the Pope's Secretary of State, had addressed

296 LIFE OF PIUS IX.

to all the Nuncios at the various Catholic Courts, all
contributed to give, as I have said, an increased
eclat and significance to the anniversary of the 3rd
of June, and to the pilgrimages performed in cele
bration of it.
For many weeks before the day to be celebrated
statements of the numbers of pilgrims expected from
the different countries of Europe were published
daily. It was calculated by the Catholic organs
that from tAventy to thirty thousand might be
looked for. There is no doubt that this number was
greatly exaggerated. But many thousands have
come and gone. But they were not here all at the
same time on the 3rd of June, as it was at one
time expected they would be. Perhaps it was
feared that so great a concourse would be unmanage
able even by their own ecclesiastical friends. Indeed,
if the labour incidental to the reception of them by the
Pontiff had not been spread out over a period much
longer than it was possible for the greater part of
the pilgrims to remaim in Rome, it would seem
impossible for so aged a man to have survived it.
As it is, it seems truly wonderful that Pius in his
eighty-fifth year should have gone through the
amount of fatigue he has sustained. During the

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 297

greater part of May and the first week of June he
has held receptions almost every day, and on some
days many — one after the other. And on every
occasion he has been expected to speak, and has
spoken mostly at considerable length ! Some of
these receptions have been attended by scores only
of persons, but many of them by thousands. And
during the earlier portion of the time named, the
aged Pontiff went through this labour under great
sufferingr from sciatica. It was at no time true, as
was so frequently asserted, that he was dangerously
UI, or paralysed, or indeed ill at all save from
rheumatic pains and sciatica. But the necessity of
receiving and addressing daily crowds of strangers
under such circumstances must have been very
trying. However, " the labour we delight in physics
pain 1" And the desire for admiration, approbation,
and adulation which has been so marked a cha
racteristic of Pius during his entire life, must truly
have been satiated by such a tribute in that kind as
has rarely been offered to any mortal. The terms
in which the Pontiff was addressed day after day by
his visitors, and in which his reception of them was
chronicled by the organs of the clerical press, were

298 LJFE OF PIUS IX.
very frequently all but, if not altogether, such as
reverential Protestants would deem fitting to be
addressed to Deity alone. It seemed as if each
new-comer was striving to outdo those who had
gone before him in the outrageousness of his adula
tion. Certainly I should imagine that such a mass
of flattery, and all but worship, had never before
been addressed to a human being. Assuredly for
once at least in his life Pius must have had enough
to satisfy him of the incense he loves best of all
things. But the pilgrims from every country under the
sun did not come to the papal footstool laden only
with offerings of praise. AU brought according to
their means presents in cash and gifts of every con
ceivable kind. The sum total of the money offerings
has been stated at various sums. But no one save
the papal treasurer can be in a position to state the
amount with any pretension to accuracy. Nor,
indeed, can the account be yet finally made up ; for
at the time at which these lines are penned (9th June,
1877) the series of pilgrimages is not at an end.
The cry is still they come ! And none come
empty-handed. Probably the entire sum may be
reckoned at somewhat less than ten millions of francs.

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 299

More remarkable and interesting, hoAvever, is the
collection of articles Avhich have been brought to
the Holy Father as presents in some instances from
indiAdduals, but in the A-ery great majority of cases
from bodies of persons banded together for the
purpose. The Avhole of this wonderfully hetero-
sreneous mass of articles has been collected for
exhibition to the holders of tickets, very easily
procured, in those A-ast galleries of the Vatican,
which are knoAvn as the Galleries of the Maps,
Assuredly a more extraordinary exhibition Avas never
offered to the examination of the curious. Rich and
poor, high and lowly, clerks and laymen, young and
old, nuns and artificers, charity children and princes,
the old world and the new, have contributed to
bring together this vast mass of heterogeneous
objects, the sole link of connection among which is
the sentiment which has animated the donors.
And assuredly the friends of the Papacy may
point with some triumph to this singular col
lection, in which each object is labelled with the
name, address, and quality of the donors as a proof
that there is scarcely to be found a corner of the
civiUsed world in which Catholic feeling strong
enough to inspire self-sacrifice is not to be found.

300 LIFE OF PIUS IX.

Certainly, looking at the thing merely as a sight,
so strange an one has rarely been seen. Of course
the first thing that strikes one on entering is the
predominance of ecclesiastical properties, comprising
every description of the numerous articles needed
for the sumptuous celebration of Roman Catholic
worship. An almost endless series of copes and
other vestments, all richly embroidered, and some of
them miracles of art and splendour, lined the walls.
There must have been many hundreds of them.
Enormous quantities of linen for surplices and altar-
cloths, ornamented with the finest lace that human
fingers can produce, and still larger masses of less
splendid linen intended to be distributed among the
poorest congregations, loaded the tables below.
Chalices, reUquaries, ostensories, thuribles, complete
altar services, some, chef-d'ceuvres of the goldsmith's
art, and gorgeously ornamented with precious
stones, many of solid gold, and all of them dazzlingly
brilliant, were ranged in really almost countless
numbers. In one place there were piled a stack of
little canvas portmanteaux, each containing all the
requisites for the celebration of the mass and
intended for the use of missionaries. Among the
ecclesiastical objects must be numbered immense

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 301

quantities of gaudily painted and ornamented
Avax candles and tapers. There Avere a great
number of pictures of every degree of merit
and demerit, of more or less religious character —
among them one by Guide Reni and one by Van
Dyck. But among aU this A-ast collection of church furni
ture, there Avere an infinite number of articles, of
kinds far too numerous for any attempt to specify
them, Avhich had no relation to ecclesiastical matters.
PUes of cheeses, sausages, bottles of Avine in large
numbers, articles of furniture, Avriting-desks, tables,
of more or less artistic merit and beauty, were massed
together Avithout any principle of arrangement, ex
cept a geographical one, according to the countries
from which they came.
There Avas the splendid gold chalice presented by
the Duke of Aosta ; a bishop's cross and ring in
precious stones, sent by the Dukes of Nemours and
Alen§on ; a magnificent piece of Gobelins tapestry,
the gift of Marshal MacMahon ; a poor necklace of
coral beads and a pair of earrings, the gift of some
poor peasant woman who had absolutely nothing
else to give ; and from the parish priest of Cognac
three bottles of brandy, bearing respectively the

302 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
dates 1792, 1819, and 1827, being the years of the
Pope's birth, ordination as a priest, and consecration
as a bishop I A very notable idea of anniversary
keeping, it must be admitted, has his reverence of
Cognac I
Many manufacturers seem to have endeavoured to
unite a stroke of worldly with the more avowed
heavenly business of the occasion ; and have sent
splendid specimens of their Avares, as they would to
any mundane " exposition !"
Altogether, this Vatican exhibition is a most
extraordinary one ; and it is very improbable that
the world will ever see its like again ! Only for a
few days, indeed, was it possible for the non-clerical
world to see it at all. It was very shortly closed ;
and an announcement was put forth in the clerical
organs to the effect that that measure had been neces
sitated by certain improprieties which had taken
place. It is to be supposed that some of those ad
mitted to visit the galleries were sufficiently base and
unprincipled to express their hatred of the Church by
damaging the Pope's private property.
Some little time ago, in the spring, those who had
occasion to see the Pontiff reported that his manner
was much changed ; that the constant good humour

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 303

and cheerfulness Avhich had characterised him in so
marked a degree had disappeared ; that he had become
fretful and cross. The fact Avas that he Avas greatly
suflering. And those who have ever made acquaint
ance Avith sciatica will not find it difficult to under
stand, even Avithout being a Pope and eighty-five,
that to be obliged to receive strangers, and con
strained the while by the proprieties from manifest
ing any symptom of pain, under such circumstances
is not conduciA'e to genial amiabUity. But Avith the
hot weather and the pUgrims, his HoUness seems to
have become himself again. He is cheerful, gay
even, fuU of jests and quips and cranks among his
intimates, and inexhaustible in the talk he addresses
to the unceasing series of " pilgrims," deputations,
school chUdren, bishops, parish priests, and even mere
gaping heretic sightseers who come to him. Pro
bably the cessation of this labour, and of the excite
ment and gratification of his vanity accompanying
it, might go far towards ending his life. But there
is no prospect of any such evil chance befalling him.
And for aU that is apparent, he may live yet some
years !
I remember being told at the " Sagro Eremo," on
the ridge of the backbone of the Apennines above

304 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
Camaldoli, that the recluses there held in great
reverence the memory of a brother of the house,
who had died about a hundred years ago, and Avas —
whether by regular canonisation or only by local re
putation, I know not — held to be a saint. And on
inquiry respecting the merits of one among a society
all of whom live in complete inaction, and in the
practice of the most rigid asceticism, I was told, in a
tone which implied that the information given was
abundantly sufficient, that the holy man had lived as
porter of the house to the age of one hundred and
tAVO ! So that one may not only live down an evil
reputation, as the phrase is, but live into a saintly
one, by mere virtue of perduration !
There is little doubt that Pius the Ninth will be
duly canonised. And though it would not perhaps be
fair to represent that he has no claims to such an
honour beyond those of the old Camaldolese porter,
it is yet certain that he would not have been consi
dered to have earned a place in the calendar if he
had died twenty years ago. But if canonisation is
to be considered, as probably it should be considered,
to be the mede of service and utility to the Church,
it must no doubt be admitted that many saints have
deserved it less than Pius the Ninth.

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 305

His intellectual calibre is such as to enable him to
believe Avith entire sincerity all that a Poj)o should
believe, and beyond this — a rare qualification in any
educated man at the present day — to accept in his
OAvn pereon with genuine conviction, and add to the
field of Roman Catholic belief", ncAv forms of super
stition so gross, so earthly, so grovelling, as to be
especially calculated for ecclesiastical use in an age
when it has become necessary to restrict the Church's
fold ; to cast out all such as are made haff-hearted by
gUmmerings of inteUigence fatally mixed with aspi
rations after truthfulness ; and to ruddle-mark the
faithful flock AA'ith a symbol vouching each man's and
each woman's acceptance of the Jesuitic " perinde ac
cadaver." For the tendency of the age is to separate
Churchmen from non-Churchmen, not, as heretofore,
in accordance with accidents of birth, education, and
country, but in accordance with the mental tempera
ment and intellectual calibre of each individual. And
the ecclesiastical legislation of Pius has been, and
AviU hereafter, in a yet greater degree, be incalculably
useful in securing to the Church militant that acces
sion "of strength which is so often coincident with
restriction in numbers, and in placing a gulf wide
as that which separated Dives from Lazarus
VOL. n. ^2

306 LIFE OF PIUS IX.
between the Church's friends and the Church's
foes. Pius the Ninth has never been deemed by those
who have knoAvn him best as layman, and priest, a
lover or practiser of truth. But his untruthfulness
is in nowise incompatible with sincerity in his theo
logical belief It is probable, on the contrary, that a
mind greatly in love with truth for its OAvn sake
would be less capable of accepting, with that un
questioning acquiescence which is commonly called
belief, such assertions and doctrines as many of
those to which Pius has, doubtless without any
conscious insincerity, given the authority of his
affirmation. It will have become sufficiently apparent to those
Avho have read the foregoing chapters, that the tem
perament and character of Pius the Ninth are not
marked by any tenderness of feeling or vdvidness or
largeness of sympathy. He probably never loved
any human being. But he is a genial and kindly
man, as eupeptic people are, whose blood runs whole
somely and calmly in their veins ; and as those more
especially are whose happiness is so largely depen
dent, as his is, on the manifest approbation and
applause of his feUow-creatures. There is no reason

LIFE OF PIUS IX. 307
to doubt that it is tar more agreeable to him to
confer benefits and spread happiness around him,
than to do the reverse. But his beneficence is not
beyond the reach of being affected by small resent
ments. He is not prone to forgive. That such is
the case may be gathered from his conduct on sundry
occasions of his public career ; and the fact might be
further Ulustrated by certain anecdotes, of too inti
mate a nature for the publication of them at the
present date to be consistent Avith propriety. It is,
perhaps, impossible for one so inordinately vain to
be prompt to forgive offence. For the pain caused
by it to the person offended must be in proportion to
the strength of the feeling hurt.
And finaUy, to return to what has been so often
set forth in these pages, vanity — or if the passion
seem to be nobUitated by such phraseology, let it be
caUed love of admiration and approbation — is the
master passion of the man, and the key to his
character. An ever hungry, never satiated craving
for admiration — not such as can be satisfied by the
consciousness of having secured the favourable ver
dict of his own and of future generations, but such
applause as the actor covets, the present and visible
clapping of hands, and loud manifestations of the
42—2

308

LIFE OF Flu's IX.

multitude — is the ruling passion, as of the youngster
flaunting in the streets of his native Sinigaglia, so of
the aged Pontiff spending his last strength in gather
ing in the tribute to it, offered by devotees from
every quarter of the earth.

APPENDIX.

The passage in Avhich the proclivity of Pius the Ninth's mind to
superstitions of a A'ery gross and debasmg kind has been spoken
of in this volume, might be justified by many passages from the
annals of liis ecclesiastical administration. But perhaps the follow
ing translation of a document published in Eome, Avith the per
mission and approbation oi the Holy Father, may be deemed
sufficient for the purpose,
The paper in question is entitled, " A true letter of Jesus Christ
sent by the hand of the Guardian Angel to a girl called Bridget,
nine miles distant from St. Marcel in France, printed in letters of
gold and found at the foot of a crucifix, Avhere there Avas a girl,
Arho for seven years had not spoken, and suddenly, on hearing the
present letter, she spoke, and said three times, ' Jesus and Mary !'
and thenceforAvard continued to speak, and died holily at the age
of twelve years."
The letter runs as foUoAvs :
" On Sunday, which is an obligatory festival, go to Holy Church
and pray to God to forgive you your sins. I have left you six days
to labour and the seventh for rest. You ought on that day to
attend the Holy Mass, and hear the DiAdne services and sermons,
and give alms to the poor according to your means, so that you
may be by Me made to abound in Avealth. If in addition you Avill
fast five Fridays in the year in honour of My five wounds, which
I receiA'ed on the Cross, I will grant to you many favours of those
you shall ask of Me. All those who shall speak against this My
holy letter, who shall assert that it did not proceed from My holy
mouth, as also all such as shall keep it concealed and shall not
publish it, shall be abandoned by Me. And all those who shall
manifest it, and shall say that it proceeded from My holy mouth, I

310 APPENDIX.

will pardon * them all their sins, and they shall be blessed by Me
eternally. Those, moreover, who shall make it knoAvn, shall have
no malignant spirits about them, shall be free from lightning stroke,
from tempests and scourges j and if any woman cannot be deli
vered of child, by putting upon her this My holy letter, and thrice
reciting Ave Maria to the most Holy Virgin, she shall be happily
delivered. All those who shall obey My holy commandments shall
enjoy the holy glory of Paradise eternally. I received thirty blows
on the mouth ; and when I was near the house of Anna I fell three
times ; I had four hundred and five blows on the head, and the
soldiers who conducted Me were three thousand two hundred and
forty ; and those Avho carried Me when I was bound were eight.
The drops of blood which I shed were three millions and eight
hundred ; and to that person who shall say to Me every day for
three years continuously, two Paters, an Ave, and a Gloria, to equal
the drops of blood which I shed on Mount Calvary, I Avill grant
five favours — 1st. Plenary indulgence and remission of all his sins ;
2nd. I will not alloAv him to sufifer the pains of purgatory ; 3rd.
I will grant him to be as a martyr who has shed his blood for the
Holy faith ; 4th. I will come down from Heaven upon earth to
take his soul, when together with the souls of his relations to the
fourth degree, even though they be in purgatory, I Avill carry them
to enjoy the Holy glory of Paradise for eternity ; 5th. The Blessed
Virgin Mary shall go to assist the souls of those persons who shall
carry this Holy letter about them for eight days before they die ;
and they shall not die of sudden death. Their house shall be free
from all evil."
This is put forth by Pius the Ninth, A. M. D. G., and for the
edification of the faithful ! I think my case is sufficiently proved.
* I translate literally, keeping the imperfection of the sentence as in the
original.
THE END.

J3ILLING AND SONS, PRINTERS, GUILDFORD, SURREY. S. & B.

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