DÖLLINGER ON THE TEMPORAL POWER 3 6 3
With all these privileges, the bulk- of the Roman clergy had little to do; little was expected of them, and their instruction was extremely deficient. At the end of the pontificate of Gregory XVI. the demand for reforms \vas loud and universal, and men began to perceive that the defects of the civil govern- ment \vere undermining the religious attachment of the people. The conclave which raised Pius IX. to the Papal throne was the shortest that had occurred for near three hundred years. The necessity of choosing a Pontiff disposed to understand and to satisfy the pressing requirements of the time, made it important to hasten matters in order to escape the interference of Austria. It \vas expected that Cardinal Gizzi or Cardinal Mastai would be elected. The latter had been pointed out by Gregory XVI. as his fittest successor, and he made Gizzi Secretary of State. The first measure of the ne\v reign, the amnesty, which, as Metternich said, threw open the doors of the house to the professional robbers, was taken not so much as an act of policy, as because the Pope was resolved to undo an accumulation of injustice. The reforms which followed soon made Pius the most popular of Italian princes, and all Catholics rejoiced that the reconciliation of the Papacy with modern freedom was at length accomplished, and that the shado\v which had fallen on the priesthood throughout the world was removed with the abuses in the Roman Government. The Constitution was, perhaps, an inevitable though a fatal necessity. "The Holy Father must fall," said his minister, "but at least he will fall \vith honour." The preliminary conditions of constitutional life \vere wanting -habits of self-government in the towns and provinces, security from the vexations of the police, separation of spiritual and temporal jurisdiction. It could not be but that the existence of an elective chamber must give to the lay element a preponderance in the State, \\'hilst in the administration the contrary position was main- tained, There could be no peaceful solution of this contradiction.. and it is strange that the cardinals, who
