Page:Men of the Time, eleventh edition.djvu/736

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LUCA,

719

Pacca (afterwards a Cardinal), who was sent as Ablegate Apostolic to present the Cardinal's hat to the Bishop of Arras, Mgr. De la Tour d'Auvergne. On this occasion Mgr. De Luca received signal marks of esteem from Louis Philippe, and formed the acquaintance of the most remarkable men in the de- partments of science and literature. Cousin, Minister of Public Instruc- tion, made him by diploma Member of the Listitute for Historical Correspondence. De Luca became in Some a member of the Accademia Tiberina, of the Arcadia, and of the Archaeological Academy. He was made Censor of the Accademia of the Catholic Religion, and he took part in the revival of the Accademia Liturgica, which was founded by Benedict XIV., but had fallen into decay by reason of the revolution. The Catholic Uni- versity of Louvain conferred upon De Luca, and upon the celebrated Father Lacordaire, in 1840, the laurea ad honorem in Sacred Theo- logy. Pope Gregory XVI. appointed De Luca to be Consultor of the Congregations of the Index and the Propaganda, and nominated him also an honorary Professor in the Boman University, Director of the Polyglot Press in the Propa- ganda, Vice-President of the Pon- tifical Academy of Noble Eccle- siastics, and Cameriere Segreto Sopranumerario at the Vatican Court. In the consistory of Nov. 24, 18i6, Mgr. De Luca was promoted by Gregory XVI. to be Bishop of Aversa, near Naples, and he re- ceived episcopal consecration on Dec. 8 following from Cardinal Fransoni . In 1853 he was advanced to the Archbishopric of Tarsus, i. p. %., and was sent as Apostolic Nuncio to the court of Bavaria, where he remained from May, 1854, till Oct., 1856. From Bavaria he was transferred to a still more im- portant office, that, namely, of Nuncio to the Emperor of Austria, to whom he presented his creden-

tials, dated Nov. 1, 1856. The new Nuncio had a difficult task to ac- complish. In Aug., 1855, a Con- cordat had been concluded between the Emperor and the Pope, but by recent laws passed by Francis Joseph II. the jurisdiction, rights, properties, and privileges of the Church had been injuriously af- fected. It was the endeavour of the Nuncio to bring back every- thing to a state conformable to the tenor of the Concordat, and espe- cially to restore the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical tribunals of the Archbishops and Bishops of the Austrian Empire, and to regulate all appeals according to the rules of the canon law. Cases affecting ecclesiastical persons and proper- ties, and matrimonial causes, were restored to the sole jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts. In 1858 Mgr. De Luca executed a special charge committed to him by the Soverei^ Pontiff, and went on a delegation to the orthodox Boume- nians in Htmgary and Transylvania. Pius IX. created Mgr. De Luca a Cardinal in the consistory of March 16, 1863, and he received the beretta from the Emperor of Austria on May 13 following, and was also decorated with the Grand Cross of St. Stephen of Hungary. Cardinal De Luca, as Pro-Nuncio, represented the Holy See at Vienna till Sept. 10, 1863. Eetuming to Bome at the end of that month, he received the hat from the hands of Piiis IX., and the presbyteral Title of the church of SS. Quattro Coronati. At the end of the year he became Prefect of the Congregation of the Index. In the Vatican Coimcil Cardinal de Luca was second in order of seniority of the five Presidents of the Council, and was in constant commimication with the Austrian, Bavarian, French, and Italian bishops. In the consistory of July 15, 1878, he was declared Bishop of Palestrina, and Vice-Chancellor of the Holy Roman Church, and Sommista of Apostolic Letters. On the same