THE HISTORY OF THE PAPACY IN THE XIXth CENTURY

CHAPTER XVII

FIRST YEARS OF PIUS IX

Gaspare Vanvitelli: View of Rome, St Angelo

"At the death of Gregory XVI the Liberal associations could with difficulty restrain their hatred and their thirst for revenge; the Sanfedisti had the upper hand, and they reaped benefit from the general ignorance. That party among the Liberals, who called themselves moderates, made it their object to fight against bad government by lawful resistance, by the help of the Press, and by civil courage; the honest and intelligent section of the friends of the Papacy (papalini) acknowledged that reform of one kind or another was necessary.

"We had only a few badly disciplined troops, who were poorly paid, and not to be trusted. The foreign regiments were good and faithful, but were the object of the jealousy of our soldiers, and of the hatred of the people, and they constituted a heavy burden upon the treasury. Commerce was in a miserable condition, and we had no industry on a large scale. Smuggling had been made into a system, and proved stronger than the government. The police were arbitrary and persecuted the Liberals; town and country alike were not safe against the brigands, who were but ill kept in check. There were no statistics, and all the public departments were in disorder. The taxes and customs were heavy and unjustly distributed, resting almost entirely upon landed property; and the tax on flour, in some parts of the Marches and of Umbria, was bitterly resented. The wealth of the community could not increase because of bad civic and economic laws, because railways were forbidden, and because the large estates as a rule remained in the same hands. Law-books were wanting, and all citizens were not equal in the eye of the law; there were numerous exemptions and privileges. The administration of justice was intricate, slow, costly, and partial. Instruction and education were on the whole, even as regards religion, insufficient—husks without kernel. Commissions in the army were closed to the educated youth, because they led neither to advantage nor to honor, and because of the contaminating influence of foreign mercenaries.

"A diplomatic career was a privilege of the clergy; the same was the case with politics, administration, and the Civil Service, because only priests could attain to the highest posts and dignities. The censorship of the Press and of foreign papers and books was exceedingly strict and hypocritical. Thousands and thousands of citizens had been 'warned', and were thereby excluded from every honorable and well-paid position in the service of their towns or of the State. There were a great number of families, who after 1831 were persecuted by the government or the Sanfedisti from political motives. Nearly two thousand were in exile, proscribed, or under prosecution. There was a standing military commission. Everything that might further or help civilization was repressed or neglected.

CONDITION OF PAPAL STATES

The high Roman nobility, the dukes, and the princes, paid respect to the Papacy, as an institution to which they owed their good fortunes, their dignities and ancient rights, but they were no friends of the absolute rule of the priestly caste; there was no energy in it, and it was not distinguished either by knowledge or by virtue. The provincial nobility was either in opposition or enmity to the papal government, or else it was quite indifferent; not a few of the nobles in the provinces took part in the various conspiracies. Only a small fraction of the citizens in Rome had by their wealth and other circumstances gained an independent position, and these were not the friends of the government.

The cardinals and prelates had numberless clients and servants, and there were many who lived on abuses.

There was a multitude of talkative and fraudulent people, an effeminate and sensual crowd, weak, full of flattery for their masters, but without soul, without faith, without vigor. The artisans and lower class in the population of Rome perhaps felt affection for the Pope as the head of the Church, but they did not submit to him as their sovereign and ruler; they were proud of being Romans, wild and combative. The dwellers in the provinces were deeply implicated in the affairs of the political associations, and were bold partisans. The country population were peaceful, and cherished affection for the head of their religion, and reverence for the clergy; but they were discontented with the heavy taxes. The lower grades of the clergy, both in the capital and in the provinces, were simple, and but little enlightened, and they grumbled at the abuses in Rome and at the bad government; with few exceptions, however, the priests were neither immoral nor troublesome. That part of the priesthood in town, who consisted more of foreigners than of Romans, and who either lived in luxury or at least hoped to be able to do so by the help of abuses, was false and hypocritical, and when circumstances demanded it, were given to factions and parties.

"The government, shortly stated, was neither beloved by its subjects nor generally respected. From foreigners it met with strong censure and ridicule; they saw that fresh movements were needed, and that speedy and real reforms were demanded. The diplomatists feared disturbance and revolution".

ATTITUDE OF THE POWERS

It is one of the moderate and patriotic citizens of the Papal States, Luigi Carlo Farini, already mentioned above, who unfolds for us this cheerless picture of the Papal States at the death of Gregory XVI. If we turn to the party of Mazzini the shadows are still deeper.

Gregory himself, as we have already said, had a feeling that he was walking on a volcano. During his last illness he had expressed the wish that the Conclave should be opened immediately after his death, and he is supposed to have had it in his mind at an earlier date to issue a document which gave the cardinals permission to proceed immediately to the election of his successor, if there were any danger of the liberty of the Conclave being violated. For he feared that disturbances would break out in the provinces with the change of pope, and, in that case, first an Austrian and then a French invasion might be expected. Radetzky stood ready to occupy the Legations as soon as the least revolutionary movement was observed, and Pellegrino Rossi, who, in spite of his Liberal past and his Protestant wife, had been appointed, a few days before the death of Gregory XVI, French ambassador to the Vatican, was seen early and late in the circle of the cardinals, engaged in counteracting the influence of Austria. He had received orders from his government to act "according to the Liberal but anti-revolutionary policy which France had inscribed upon her banner", but he had received no further instructions. The interests of France would be satisfied if he could hinder the election of a friend of the Jesuits, a legitimist, or a friend of Austria. It was specially to prevent such an election that Count Rossi was so active that the Romans called him il conte dello Spirito Santo.

The sovereigns did not seem this time to have fixed upon particular candidates. Ferdinand, King of Naples, was content with expressing the hope in general that a pope might be elected who was sincerely religious, and a man of experience, and possessed of firm character. Charles Albert's government wanted "a man, who could set up a strong defence against the enemies who attacked the Church of Christ from all sides", and Austria desired a pope, who was a determined opponent of all political novelties, and who was willing to listen to the friendly advice of the Viennese Court. Nor do the diplomatists seem to have had any favourites. Seven or eight candidates for the tiara were mentioned, according to what Rossi wrote to Guizot; but all were more sure which cardinals they did not want, than which they wanted.

The people, on the other hand, had made their choice; they were anxious to have the Capucin General Micara for Pope. He was one of the few cardinals who had escaped unscathed amid the pasquinades that flew from mouth to mouth. The rumor was spread abroad that at the meetings of the College of Cardinals, after the death of Gregory XVI, he had advocated a policy of economy and of Liberal reforms. When he showed himself in the streets he was received with enthusiasm, and inscriptions were scratched on the walls advising his election. He was ill when the Conclave was opened; he was obliged therefore to drive alone to the Quirinal. On the way thither his carriage was surrounded by a crowd which greeted him as Pope. He rose up in the carriage, and it made a strong impression on the people when he cried out with his strong voice: "Be careful! with me you will get the gallows as well as bread". Micara's commanding figure, that called to mind the Moses of Michelangelo, and the favorite cardinal's well-known severity, gave these words a special weight. People understood, as Gualterio said, that in his capacity of Capucin General he could be not only as democratic as a Jacobin, but also as absolute as a Sixtus V.

Without regard to the wish of Gregory XVI for a quicker summoning of the Conclave, the cardinals arranged for the burial of the late Pope in the customary manner. From morning to night the bells were tolled from all the towers and domes of Rome, and in the Chapel of the Sacrament in St Peter's a colossal temple-like building was erected for the coffin. To the superstitious Romans it was a bad omen, that a huge allegorical representation of Religion that was to crown the whole building fell down and broke into a thousand pieces, so that they had to be satisfied with a smaller one which had been kept from the Castrum Doloris of Pius VIII. But there was one good thing about the ill-luck—namely, that the Romans could not agree how far the omen was to be considered a judgment on the reign of Gregory XVI or a forerunner of great misfortunes under his successor.

THE CONCLAVE

The cardinals were depressed when they proceeded this time to the Conclave. On the road to Rome soldiers were posted who watched all travellers, and a message was sent to Ancona to forward to Rome the few guns which the see of St Peter had at its disposal. The cardinals, who were legates in the Legations unwillingly left their posts, and chose the strongest prelates to act on their behalf during their absence. There were at that time sixty-two members of the Sacred College in all. Thirty of these lived at Rome, seventeen in the papal provinces, eight in other parts of Italy, the rest in foreign countries. Only forty-nine cardinals were present at the appointed time of meeting. Most of those who could attend proceeded on the evening of the 14th June to the Quirinal, in pouring rain, so pressed by the surrounding crowds that the eminent princes of the Church could neither walk in the proper order nor preserve their dignity. The spectators thought that there were remarkably few fine faces in the long procession.

As soon as the procession had passed into the Quirinal the crowd dispersed. The members of the Conclave went straight into the chapel, and there Cardinal Macchi delivered an address in which he admonished the cardinals to hasten with the election of a new pope, and to forget all worldly considerations. But preparations had been made for a long Conclave. Not less than 6,000 voting papers had been printed, which would suffice for three months, if two votes were taken each day.

The usual opposition between Conservatism and Liberalism appeared in this Conclave as in others. On one side stood Lambruschini, with the "Gregorians" and the cardinals friendly to the Jesuits, who considered that all new ideas ought to be totally kept at a distance, and that the least giving way would only foster new and more extreme demands. Opposed to them was a group of cardinals, who, partly out of sympathy, partly from fear, wished to see a pope who would be to the liking of the people by reforming the worst abuses, and who would keep off the threatening storm. To this group belonged such men as Micara, Gizzi, and Oppizzoni, the Cardinal Archbishop of Bologna, who had declined to receive the Jesuits into his diocese. There could be no question of electing two of the most important cardinals, Lambruschini and Bernetti, because they had been Secretaries of State; and nobody believed seriously in Micara's election, because an old saying declares that he who goes into the Conclave as Pope, will always go out as Cardinal.

When the first vote was taken on the morning of 15th June, Lambruschini obtained nine, and Mastai eight votes. As had been customary in the latest Conclaves, a vote per accesso was immediately taken after the real vote, and Lambruschini then obtained six more votes, Mastai two. A great many cardinals therefore had abstained from voting. In the evening Lambruschini received only thirteen votes, but Mastai received seventeen. It was reported afterwards that Falconieri, who belonged to Lambruschini's group, and really was one of its candidates, had firmly declared that he himself would not take the tiara, but that he had recommended Mastai. In the forenoon of 16th June Lambruschini's votes decreased to ten, whilst Mastai per accesso polled twenty-seven. His aura was therefore unmistakable, and in the afternoon, whilst some of the cardinals were taking siesta, others went round from cell to cell to enlist votes for Mastai, who had no small chance of being elected, because they knew much that was good of him, but nothing bad. The effect of the agitation was seen when the evening vote was taken; Mastai, who himself was one of the three tellers who were to count the votes, became more and more nervous the more votes he counted for himself. When twenty-eight votes had been recorded for him, he turned faint, and the perspiration stood in beads on his forehead, and he begged his colleagues to let another continue the counting. This would have interrupted the voting, and by such an interruption it would become invalid. Therefore the cardinals sitting nearest to him asked him to rest awhile and then go on again. He did so, and meanwhile pointed remarks were let fall by the witty cardinals. Thus Bernetti whispered to his neighbor: "Well, after the policemen come the ladies". The conclusion of the voting is variously related. According to one account, Cardinal Mastai is said to have fainted when he had received thirty-four votes; according to another he knelt down with folded hands and prayed the cardinals to choose another more worthy. He obtained altogether thirty-seven out of fifty votes, and, when the polling was finished, he said with a trembling voice: "O God, I am Thy unworthy servant; Thy will be done!"

CARDINAL GIZZI