Kulturkampf were viewed in Jesuit and Vatican circles with
feelings of the utmost complacency.
The purely ecclesiastical policy of Pius IX. was guided by the earnest desire to see the doctrine of Papal Infallibility brought to universal recognition. The definition of the Immaculate Conception (1854) and the proclamation of the Syllabus (1864) were finger-posts pointing the way to the Council of 1870. The pope had been persuaded that the proclamation of the new dogma would be effected without difficulty and without discussion; and when the pronouncement actually met with opposition, he was both surprised and embittered. For a moment the idea was entertained of giving way to the opposition and deferring a decision in the matter, or, in the manner of the fathers in the Council of Trent, adjourning it to the Greek kalends. But the party that needed for its purposes an infallible pope readily persuaded Pius IX. that if the council broke up without arriving at a decision favourable to the papacy, this would be tantamount to a serious defeat of the Holy See and an open victory for the Gallican system. The consequence was the bull Pastor aeternus, which Pius IX. issued on the 15th of July. This did not by any means represent all the demands of the Jesuits, and it was couched in terms which appeared not unacceptable to the majority of the Catholics. The fact that the bishops were prepared to forego their opposition was not unknown in Rome. It was anticipated by the authorities. But in Germany, as also in France, the waves of anti-Infallibility were rolling so high, that the further development of events was viewed with no small concern. Under normal conditions, the situation could not fail to terminate favourably for the Vatican. That the Kulturkampf had followed so rapidly upon the war was the greatest piece of good fortune that could have befallen the Holy See. The war demanded both in Germany and France the sacrifice of all available energy and public spirit; while the Kulturkampf, by bringing into relief the question of the external existence of the Church, thrust all internal dogmatic interests and problems completely into the background. The egregious blunder in the May Laws was the punitive clauses directed against the inferior clergy. Instead of enlisting them as friends, the Prussian government contrived by wild and wanton persecution to make them its enemies. The open protection it accorded to the Old Catholic movement contributed in no small measure to estrange those influential elements which, whilst favouring the suppression of Ultramontane tendencies, desired no schism in the Church, and viewed with horror the idea of a National Church in Bismarck’s sense (see Old Catholics). Thus we find that the bitter years of the Kulturkampf extricated the Vatican from one of the most difficult situations in which it had ever been placed. Pius IX. could now fold his hands, so far as the future was concerned. It is well known that he fed on inspirations, and expected each day the advent of some supernatural occurrence which should bring about the triumph of the Church. In this frame of mind, on the 24th of June 1872, he addressed the German Leseverein, and referred to the stone that would soon fall from on high and crush the feet of the Colossus. Yet the stone has not fallen from the summit of the holy hill, and the Colossus of the German Empire has not crumbled into dust, which is more than can be said for the pope’s inspirations, which led him to expect the sudden withdrawal of the Italians from Rome, and a solution of the Roman question in the sense inspired by his visionary policy. The Holy See directed all its energies towards the solution of the problem; in the event of its proving to be insoluble, it would take care that it should remain a festering sore in the body of the monarchy. (For the Kulturkampf see further Germany: History.)
The documents of the Vatican Council which have been published since 1870 leave no room for doubt that the proclamation of Papal Infallibility was intended to be followed by a further declaration, to the effect that the doctrine of the temporal power of the pope should be regarded as a revealed article of faith; yet the advantage and necessity of the temporal power were not to be regarded as a revealed dogma properly speaking, but as a truth guaranteed by the doctrinal body of the Holy Church. These articles, contained in the 5th Scheme, and zealously championed by the sectaries of the Jesuit order, reveal the immediate object for which the council of 1869–1870 was convened. The resolutions were devised to save the situation, in view of the impending loss of the temporalities. No one could expect that Pius IX. would recognize the annexation of Rome by Italy. Rome, even in the 19th century, had been a spectator of many changes in the political world. It had seen more than one kingdom rise and fall. No wonder, then, that the Vatican, confronted by a new Italy, observed The Papacy and the new Italian Kingdom. a passive and expectant attitude, and sanctioned no jot or tittle that could infringe its rights or be interpreted as a renunciation of its temporal sovereignty. It was quite in keeping that Pius IX. availed himself to the full of the (for him) convenient clauses of the Italian Law of Guarantees (May 13, 1871), while refusing the civil list of three and a quarter million lire provided for his use, and inhibiting Italian Catholics from participating in the elections to the House of Deputies (nè elettori nè eletti).[1] This step was regarded in Italy as a natural one. Although the Liberal record of the pope was a thing of the past, and his policy had, since Gaeta, become firmly identified with the reactionary policy of Antonelli, yet the early years of his pontificate were in such lively recollection as to allow of Pius IX.’s appearing to some extent in the light of a national hero. And rightly; for he had always had a warm heart for Italy; and had it not been for the anti-ecclesiastical policy of the house of Piedmont, he would not, in the ’sixties, have been wholly averse from reconciliation. The hitherto unpublished correspondence of the pope with Victor Emmanuel contains remarkable proofs in support of this contention, and a further corroboration can also be perceived in the conciliatory attitude of Pius IX. on the death of the king.
Pius died on the 7th of February 1878, only a few weeks later than his opponent. He had long passed the traditional years of Peter’s pontificate, had reigned longer than any previous wearer of the tiara, and had seen some brilliant days—days of illusory glory. On his death he left the Church shaken to its very foundations, and in feud with almost every government. In Italy the Holy See was surrounded by a hostile force, whose “prisoner” the lord of the Vatican declared himself to be. In Spain and Portugal, and also in Belgium, a Liberalism inimical to the Church was in power. Prussia, together with other German states, was in arms against pope and episcopate. In France the Conservative Monarchical party had just shown its inability to preserve the Crown, whilst the Republic had anchored itself firmly by denouncing the clergy as its enemy. There was hardly a sovereign or a government in Christendom against which Pius IX. had not either protested or against which he had not openly declared war. Such was the heritage that devolved upon Leo XIII. on his election on the 20th of February 1878.
Leo XIII. brought to his new dignity many qualities that
caused his election to be sympathetically received. In contrast
to his predecessor, he was a man of slow and calm
deliberation, and it was natural to suppose that he
was little, if at all, accessible to impulses of the
moment or to the persuasions of his entourage. He was endowed
Leo XIII.
1878–1903.
with a certain scholastic erudition, and enjoyed the reputation
of being a good Latinist. As nuncio in Brussels he had become
acquainted with the trans-Alpine world, and had been initiated
into the working of the machinery of modern politics and modern
parliamentary government. The fact that he had for so long
been absent from Rome afforded ground for the belief that he was
not inclined to identify himself with any of the parties at the
Vatican court. These were the considerations that had caused
- ↑ By the Law of Guarantees the pope was recognized as an independent sovereign, with jurisdiction over his own palaces and their extensive precincts and the right to receive diplomatic representatives accredited to him. He also received the right to appoint bishops, who—except in Rome and the suburbicarian districts — were to be Italian subjects; and, with a significant exception, the exequatur, placet regium, and every form of government permission for the publication and execution of acts of ecclesiastical authority were abolished. (See also Italy: History.)
