Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/168

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POR—POR

158 PIUS IX the archbishop of Munich, the teaching of Frohschammer, a distinguished professor of philosophy in the university in that city, was singled out for severe reprobation. The famous encylic Quanta cura, and the Syllabus, or list of prevalent errors calling for especial reprobation, appeared in December 1864. The war between France and Austria and the treaty of Villafranca (8th July 1859 ; see ITALY, vol. xiii. p. 490) seemed at one time likely to result in placing the temporal power on a basis somewhat resembling that indicated in Gioberti s pamphlet of 1843, and the ultramontane party waited with lively expectation the assembling of the congress. Among the inhabitants of the Romagna them selves, however, discontent with the political administra tion was intense. The papal rule had become almost as oppressive as that at Naples ; and the prisons of Rome were filled with inmates against whom no more definite charge could be brought than that of suspected disaffection towards the Government. The manner in which the currency had been tampered with was alone sufficient to produce the gravest discontent, and the lira papalina was eventually accepted at the money-changers only at a heavy loss to the holder. When, in the spring of 1857, Pius visited central Italy, it was observed that, while in other provinces he was greeted with enthusiasm as the pope, in his own dominions he was received with sullen coldness. A pamphlet published at Paris in December 1859 (ascribed to imperial inspiration), after describing the condition of the Romagna, openly raised the question of the continuance of the temporal power, and suggested that it would at least be desirable that it should be restricted to the capital itself. Pius replied in an encylic issued on the 19th of the ensuing January -a document since widely known as his Non Possumus. His obstinacy proved of no avail. The Romagna was occupied by Sardinia, and the Central-Italian states shortly afterwards formed themselves into a league to prevent its reoccupa- tion by the pontifical forces. Antonelli rejoined by raising a motley force, composed of French, Belgians, Bavarians, and Irish, who were placed under the command of Lamori- ciere, an able French officer who had seen active service in Algiers. There can be no doubt that, in making this apparently hopeless effort, the curia was deluded by the belief that, if matters proceeded to extremities, France would intervene in its behalf. After a stubborn resistance at Ancona, the superior forces of Sardinia prevailed, and in September 1860 the whole of the States of the Church, with the exception of the patrimonium Petri(s6Q POPEDOM), were annexed to the kingdom of Victor Emmanuel. From the reduction of Ancona to the year 1870 Pius was maintained in Rome only by a French garrison. The emperor of the French was reluctant to appear altogether to desert the papal cause, while Cavour was unwilling, in like manner, to proceed to extremities. After the capture of Garibaldi at Aspromonte, however, Victor Emmanuel felt himself strong enough to put in a formal claim for Rome; and it was eventually arranged, by the convention of loth September 1864, that the French should withdraw from the city before the end of 1866. This stipulation was duly observed, and on the llth December 1866 the last of the French forces quitted the capital. The engagement was, however, virtually violated by the entry, in the following year, of the Antibes legion, and for some time longer the French soldiery continued to ward off both the daring assaults of Garibaldi and the more insidious approaches of Ratazzi. In this manner, at the outbreak of the war of 1870, France had come again to be looked upon as the ally of the papacy ; and the overweening claims put forward by Pius in convening a general council to proclaim the dogma of Papal Infallibility were generally interpreted as in a certain sense correlative with the aggressive designs of France on Protestant Germany. The dogma was decreed in the Vatican on the 18th July, but not without strenuous opposition on the part of some of the most distinguished members of the Catholic episcopal order, who, at the same time, were staunch supporters of the temporal power (see OLD CATHOLICS). At nearly the same time the occupation by the French came definitively to an end. Their forces were withdrawn from Civita Vecchia at the outbreak of the war, when the Due de Gramont announced that his Government relied on the convention of 1864, whereby Italy was bound not to attack the papal territory. That territory being now, however, again exposed to the dangers of revolution, Victor Emmanuel, on receiving the tidings of the battle of Gravelotte, notified to Pius that " the responsibility of maintaining order in the peninsula and the security of the Holy See " had devolved upon himself, and that his army must enter the pontifical dominions. This intimation was received by Pius with demonstrations of the liveliest indignation, but the appearance of the Sardinian troops was hailed by his own subjects with enthusiasm. On arriving outside Rome, General Cadorna summoned the garrison to sur render, and after a short bombardment the white flag was hoisted. On the following day (21st September 1870) the Zouaves, some nine thousand in number, after receiving, as they stood massed in the square of St Peter s, the pontifical blessing, marched out of Rome, and the temporal power of the pope had ceased to exist. For the rest of his days Pius IX. remained unmolested at the Vatican, while the king resided at the Quirinal. The pontiff was virtually a prisoner ; and his position, although viewed with comparative indifference in Rome, was regarded with not a little sympathy by the Catholic world at large. The tribute of Peter s Pence was revived in order to supply, in some measure, the loss of his alien ated revenues ; and numerous pilgrimages, in which dis tinguished and wealthy individuals took part, were made to St Peter s from all parts of Catholic Christendom, and especially from England. His advanced years, fine pre sence, dignified demeanour, and elasticity of spirits (unbroken by his adverse fortunes) combined to invest both the person and the office of the pope with a kind of fascination for devout minds, which those about him well understood how to turn to the best advantage. Occasion ally, however, his naturally impetuous temper still mani fested itself. The complicity of the Roman Catholic clergy with the Polish insurrection of 1863 had been punished by Russia with excessive rigour, and, on receiving the Russian deputies who came to offer the customary felicitations on New Year s Day 1866, Pius so far forgot the proprieties of the occasion as to himself address them in terms of reproach. A suspension of diplomatic relations ensued ; and Russia now eagerly availed herself of the pretext afforded by the promulgation of the new dogmas to aim a severe blow at Roman Catholic influence within her dominions, by annexing to the Russian Church the bishopric of Chelm, with a population of over 300,000 souls. Pius showed his resentment by espousing the side of Turkey in the struggle of that country with the Russian power. On the 3d June 1877 he celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of his consecration to the archbishopric of Spoleto, and the event was made singularly memorable by the spectacle of numerous deputations, bearing costly offerings, from all parts of the world. Pius died on the 8th of the following February, and was succeeded by Cardinal Pecchi as Leo XIII. The life of Pius has been written by the late J. F. JIaguire (2d ed., 1878), and by Leopold Wappmannsperger, Leben und

IVirkcn dcs Pupates Pins dcs Ncunten (Katisbon, 1878). Both