The Pope Who Would Be King, page 40
26. Rossi à Guizot, Rome, 17 juin 1846, in Ledermann 1929, pp. 332–34. In his response to Rossi, Guizot, the French foreign minister, adopted a tone of guarded optimism, expressing the hope that the new pontiff might quickly adopt needed reforms that were well overdue. Guizot à Rossi, 27 juin 1846, MAEN, RSS 272.
27. Lützow to Metternich, 17 June 1846, quoted in Bortolotti 1945, pp. 122–23.
28. Metternich à Lützow, Vienne, 23 juin 1846; Metternich à Lützow, Vienne, 28 juin 1846, in Metternich 1883, pp. 247–48, 248–50.
29. Martina 1974, p. 95; Gizzi 1996–97, pp. 202–5.
CHAPTER 2: THE FOX AND THE CROW
1. The original Italian text is found in Ventura 1848, pp. 361–62; the British envoy in Rome sent London an English translation, found in Freeborn to Viscount Palmerston, Rome, July 18, 1846, BFSP, vol. 36 (1861), pp. 1196–98. The internal discussions leading to the decree are examined in Pirri 1954, pp. 207–23; Gizzi 1995, pp. 134–35; and Gizzi 1996–97, pp. 33–34.
2. Giovagnoli 1894, p. 68; Roncalli 1972, pp. 198–200; Gizzi 1996–97, pp. 36–37; De Broglie 1938, pp. 132–33.
3. Rossi à Guizot, Rome, 18 juillet 1846, in Ideville 1887, p. 149; Guizot à Rossi, Paris, 5 août 1846, MAEN, RSS 272.
4. Metternich à Lützow, Vienne, 12 juillet 1846, in Metternich 1883, pp. 251–56; Pirri 1954, pp. 208–12; Gizzi 1996–97, pp. 33–34; Bortolotti 1945, pp. 160–63; Martina 1974, p. 110. “Je n’aime pas le peuple,” one of the prelates attached to the French embassy in Rome remarked on seeing the imposing crowd. De Broglie 1938, p. 133.
5. Bortolotti 1945, pp. 174–76.
6. Martina 1974, pp. 113–15; Gizzi 1995, pp. 132–33; Demarco 1947, p. 12; Giovagnoli 1898, p. 137.
7. Guizot 1872, p. 345; Ideville 1887, pp. 151–53, 198; Fraser 1896, pp. 159–60; Gemignani 1995, pp. 16, 100.
8. Arcuno 1933, pp. 12–14.
9. Gizzi 1995, p. 136. Martina (1974, p. 109) quotes the September 19, 1846, letter from Cardinal De Angelis to Cardinal Amat.
10. Mack Smith 1994; Matsumoto-Best 2003, p. 17; King 1911. Mazzini’s letter is quoted in Quazza 1954, vol. 1, pp. 69n–70n.
11. De Broglie 1938, pp. 139–41.
12. Roncalli 1972, p. 219; Spada 1868–69, vol. 1, pp. 113–14.
13. Pius IX al Conte Gabriele Mastai, 5 novembre 1846, in Monti 1928, p. 248; Gizzi 1995, p. 137.
14. Balleydier 1847, pp. 164–73; Roncalli 1972, pp. 220–21.
15. Ludolf a Scilla, Roma, 21 novembre 1846, in Arcuno 1933, pp. 122–23. The democrat’s quote is from Filippo de Boni, cited in Candeloro 1972, pp. 29–30.
16. An English translation of Qui Pluribus is found at http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Pius09/p9quiplu.htm.
17. Minghetti 1889, vol. 1, pp. 213–15.
18. Ranalli 1848–49, vol. 1, p. 77; Roncalli 1972, pp. 225–26; Ventura 1848, pp. 139–43; Martina 1967b, p. 211.
19. Lützow’s letters of August 8 and December 26 and 31, 1846, quoted in Bortolotti 1945, pp. 182, 201–2.
20. Minoccheri 1892, pp. 35–36; Aubert 1990, p. 38; Ventura 1848, pp. 7–14, 180–81; Desmarie 1860, p. 39.
21. D’Azeglio’s account of his March 13, 1847, meeting with the pope is found in his letter to Cesare Balbo, reproduced in Predari 1861, pp. 188–91.
22. Quazza 1954, vol. 1, p. 44.
23. A few months later, Gizzi followed up this edict with a new public warning. Every printed page or image that was not submitted to the censorship board for prior approval would be declared clandestine. The authors, printers, and hawkers of such materials would be punished by imprisonment of six months to a year and subject to a large fine. Jankowiak 2007, pp. 144–50; Candeloro 1972, p. 37; Petre to Hamilton, Rome, August 26, 1847, attached to n. 103, Sir George Hamilton to Viscount Palmerston, Florence, August 30, 1847, BFSP, vol. 36 (1861), pp. 1257–58; Farini 1850–53, vol. 1, pp. 313–14.
24. Pareto al Solaro, 1 aprile 1847, quoted in Quazza 1954, vol. 1, pp. 80–81.
25. Bortolotti 1945, p. 202; Pareto a Solaro, 6 aprile 1847, quoted in Quazza 1954, vol. 1, pp. 82–83; Giovagnoli 1898, p. 137; Gualterio 1851, pp. 111–14; Gizzi 1995, p. 140; Minghetti 1889, vol. 1, pp. 216–17.
26. Badie 2012, p. 31.
27. Fuller, May 1847, Rome, letter XIV in Fuller 1856, pp. 224–25. For a recent biography of Fuller, see Marshall 2013.
28. Farini 1850–53, vol. 1, pp. 192–93; Martina 1974, p. 130; Roncalli 1972, pp. 257–58; Liedekerke, 26 avril 1847, quoted in Martina 1974, p. 131.
29. De Broglie 1938, pp. 144–45 (28 avril 1847).
30. Metternich added that the revolutionaries’ next step would be to institute a Civic Guard as a means of ejecting the Swiss Guard who protected the pope. For these conspirators, he warned, “the cries of Railroads! and of Gas lamps on the Streets!” were only a ruse. Metternich à Lützow, à Rome, Vienne, 15 mai 1847, in Metternich 1883, pp. 410–13.
31. In sending an English translation of this edict to London the next day, the British envoy in Rome added his own note of approval. “With regard to these public meetings and processions,” he wrote, “it was certainly desirable that they should be put an end to.” While initially spontaneous, they were now, he warned, “gradually getting under the management of 200 or 300 individuals” with clearly seditious intent. Moreover, added the envoy, the repeated gatherings in front of the papal palace and appearances of the pope to bless them were “little suitable to his dignity.” George B. Hamilton, Florence, to Viscount Palmerston, June 28, 1846. Hamilton, the British consul in Florence, received the report from the British envoy in Rome, William Petre, and sent it on with the English translation of the edict to the British foreign minister. BFSP, vol. 36 (1861), pp. 1218–21; Chantrel 1861, p. 32.
32. Pareto, 26 giugno 1846, quoted in Quazza 1954, vol. 1, pp. 167–68.
33. Lützow à Metternich, 2 juillet 1847, excerpted in Quazza 1954, vol. 1, pp. 173–74.
CHAPTER 3: AN IMPOSSIBLE DILEMMA
1. In Guizot 1872, p. 350.
2. Lützow à Metternich, 2 juillet 1847, quoted in Quazza 1954, vol. 2, pp. 5, 20.
3. Freeborn to Viscount Palmerston, Rome, July 5, 1847, BFSP, vol. 36 (1861), pp. 1221–22; Francia 2012, p. 41. A parallel demand for citizen militias was sweeping the Grand Duchy of Tuscany at the same time. Francia 2012, pp. 65–70. In Tuscany, as in the Papal States, many property owners saw the guard as a means of protecting them against popular unrest that seemed to be getting out of hand. Candeloro 1972, pp. 38–39.
4. In Gizzi 1995, p. 143. On hearing the news of Gizzi’s resignation, Metternich had a similar reaction. Things were spinning out of control, and God alone knew how it would all end. “Cardinal Gizzi’s successor,” he told his ambassador in Rome, “will have a difficult task to accomplish. I just hope that it does not become impossible.” Metternich à Lützow, Vienne, 18 juillet 1847, in Metternich 1883, pp. 413–14.
5. In Natalucci 1972, p. 431. This is the text of the pope’s message as found in the Ferretti family private archive. Curiously, a different text, seeming to reflect the pope’s sometimes mischievous sense of humor, is reported by Sardinian ambassador Pareto: “Most Eminent Cousin, The Most Eminent Gizzi for the second time has given his resignation, and we could do no less than accept it. Do you know who is the new Secretary of State? The Most Eminent Ferretti. Come immediately to Rome. Have courage that God is with us.” Attachment to Pareto report of July 17, in Quazza 1954, vol. 2, p. 15.
6. Martina 1974, pp. 172–73; Martina 2004, pp. 190–91; Giovagnoli 1894, pp. 73–76.
7. Quazza 1954, vol. 2, p. 30.
8. Giovagnoli 1894, pp. 73–76; Modena 2011, pp. 29–35; Trebiliani 1972; Francia 2012, pp. 80–81; Ranalli 1848–49, vol. 1, pp. 56–57; Ventura 1848, pp. 210–11; Quazza 1954, vol. 2, p. 4; Roncalli 1972, pp. 261–62. Or as the Sardinian prime minister put it, “Modern Rome could boast of its Ciceruacchio as ancient Rome could boast of Cicero.” Britain’s consul in Rome likewise reported in July that “the influence of 1 individual of the lower class, Angelo Brunetti, hardly known but by his nickname of Ciceruacchio, has for the last month kept the peace of the city more than any power possessed by the authorities, from the command which he exerts over the populace.” Mr. Petre to Sir George Hamilton, July 21, 1847, BFSP, vol. 36 (1861), p. 1226.
9. Florence Nightingale to Miss Nightingale, Embley, Rome, November 26, 1847, letter XIII in Keele 1981, p. 65.
10. Martina 1967b, pp. 200–201; Story 1864, vol. 1, pp. 54–55.
11. “I popolani di Roma e l’Università Israelitica,” Roma, 6 luglio 1847, signed “Uno Spettatore,” BSMC, FS, n. 1236457; Roncalli 1972, pp. 267, 269–70.
12. Metternich was also worried that if he waited until revolution erupted in Rome itself and then sent troops there, it might provoke a war between Austria and France. Candeloro 1972, pp. 45–46.
13. The Austrian troop entry into Ferrara is recounted in Pareto a Solaro, Roma, 21 luglio 1847, in Quazza 1954, vol. 2, pp. 38–39; and Candeloro 1972, p. 48. The Austrian diplomatic correspondence regarding Metternich’s intentions is examined in Quazza 1954, vol. 2, pp. 40–41.
14. Lützow à Metternich, 25 juillet 1847, excerpted in Quazza 1954, vol. 2, p. 43.
15. The quotes are from Metternich’s two letters to Count Rodolphe Apponyi, the Austrian envoy to Paris, both dated August 6, 1847, in Metternich 1883, pp. 414–16. Keeping Britain, Europe’s other great power, informed, Metternich justified his troops’ movements in the Papal States on the grounds that a revolution had already begun. Britain’s foreign minister, Lord Palmerston, judged such concerns “extremely exaggerated.” “Whatever may be passing in the minds of some few enthusiasts,” he observed, “nothing has yet happened which can justly be called a revolution, or which can indicate any probability of an attempt to unite Italy under one authority.” He acknowledged that “deep, widely spread, and well-founded discontent exists in a large portion of Italy.” But for this very reason, he argued, the new pope’s interest in correcting many of the abuses that had produced the discontent was to be praised and encouraged. Metternich à Dietrichstein, 2 août 1847 (communicated by Dietrichstein to Viscount Palmerston, August 11), in BFSP, vol. 36 (1861), pp. 1231–32; Viscount Palmerston to Viscount Ponsonby, Foreign Office, August 12, 1847, and August 13, 1847, in BFSP, vol. 36 (1861), pp. 1232–34. The Roman situation took on a new complexion for the British foreign minister when he later received word that Pius IX had sent a messenger to the Sardinian king, Charles Albert, in Turin, asking if he might take refuge in his lands should the Austrians decide to occupy all of the Papal States. He asked, Palmerston was told, that a ship of war be sent by Charles Albert to Civitavecchia, Rome’s port city, to await his orders. R. Abercrombie, Turin, to Viscount Palmerston, 18 August 1847, in Palmerston Papers, online.
16. Ferrari 1926, pp. 32–98; Bartoccini 1969; Stroud 2000.
17. “Protesta del Governo Pontificio contro gli Austriaci,” 10 agosto 1847, BSMC, FS; Pareto a Solaro, 9 settembre 1847, doc. IV in Ferrari 1926, pp. 95–96; Ventura 1848, pp. 265–66. Amid the ferment, the pope received a most unusual piece of unsolicited advice. It came in the form of a long letter from Giuseppe Mazzini, the best known—and in many courts of Europe, the most despised and feared—champion of government by the people and exponent of Italian nationalism. If there was a man capable of taking advantage of the pope’s political naïveté and desire to please his subjects, it was the infamous exile in London.
“Most Blessed Father,” Mazzini began, “Permit an Italian, who has studied your every step for some months with great hope, to address you…some free and profoundly sincere words.” What the pope had likely heard of him, the Italian patriot advised, was in error. “I am not a subverter, nor a communist, nor a man of blood, nor a hater, nor intolerant….I adore God, and an idea which seems to me to come from God: Italy an angel of moral unity and of progressive civilization to the nations of Europe….There is no man not only in Italy but in all Europe, more powerful than you.” Thanks to the depredations of his predecessors, Mazzini told the pope, “Catholicism is lost in despotism….Look around you; you will find the superstitious and the hypocritical, but not believers.” For the pope to fulfill his divinely ordained mission, wrote Mazzini, he must lead the fight to unify Italy. “Take no counsel except from God, from the inspirations of your heart….God will protect you….Unify Italy, your country.” Giuseppe Mazzini, “A Pio IX, Pontefice Massimo,” Londra, 8 settembre 1847, in Mazzini 1912, pp. 154–60.
18. The conversation, with the prominent Jesuit philosopher, Father Luigi Taparelli, is recounted by Martina 1974, p. 118. As Taparelli reported it only years later, under very changed political circumstances, there is some reason to treat it with caution.
19. Engel-Janosi 1952, p. 13; Metternich à Apponyi, 7 octobre [1847], in Metternich 1883, pp. 341–43. Britain’s envoy in Rome, by contrast, reported the creation of Rome’s city council enthusiastically: “This is without a doubt the first great reform effected by Pius IX.” Mr. Petre to Sir George Hamilton, Rome, October 4, 1847, BFSP, vol. 36 (1861), pp. 1291–92.
20. Another visitor to Rome at the time, the Russian author Alexander Herzen, then thirty-five years old, got to see Cardinal Lambruschini, former secretary of state, as he approached the pope. The cardinal “looked like an old jackal,” recalled Herzen. “I waited for him to bite the holy father, but they embraced each other most peacefully.” His impression of the other cardinals curiously mirrored Montanelli’s, although their backgrounds could scarcely have been more different: “what faces they were, carrying the scent of unhappiness and recalling the Inquisition….Each gesture of these old men without families expresses a life led in duplicity and solicitation, a hatred for everything free, love for power, envy.” Herzen 1996, pp. 81–82. Herzen, an early socialist and not a Roman Catholic, was in any case not positively disposed to the Catholic Church, as is evident in his description of witnessing a special papal ceremony at the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in late 1847: “Pius IX was borne through the church in an armchair under varicolored fans. This Indian appearance in no way suited him. It was terribly hot in the church, the pope swayed as on a boat, and, pale from oncoming seasickness, his eyes closed, he dispensed blessings right and left. Soldiers lined both sides of the path, the red guardia nobile and the varicolored Svizzeri in medieval dress. At the approach of the cortege, the officers commanded ‘Armi!’ and in the middle of the church rifles were presented with a clatter; the officers commanded ‘Ginocchio,’ and the soldiers knelt at the beat. I cannot get used to the military setting….Add to them the unpleasant singing of the castrati, the crowd of fattened monsignors and sated canonists…along with the dry and jaundiced Jesuits and the half-savage monks from remote monasteries, and you will understand what the impression must have been.” Herzen 1996, p. 82.
21. Montanelli 1853, vol. 2, pp. 54–58.
22. Like other Protestant countries, including the United States, Great Britain had no formal diplomatic relations with the Papal States and so had no ambassador in Rome. Queen Victoria herself had doubts about the wisdom of getting involved in what was going on in the Papal States and so had to be persuaded to allow Lord Minto to be sent. Prince Albert had reminded the prime minister that it was a crime under English law to have any relationship with the Holy See. Queen Victoria to Lord John Russell, 29 August 1847, with Memorandum of Prince Albert, doc. 4 in Curato 1970, vol. 1, pp. 39–41 et passim. Among the main goals of Minto’s mission was to enlist the new pope’s aid in preventing priests in Ireland from helping to foment revolt. Palmerston’s instructions regarding Ireland are expressed in an October 29 letter: “We are entitled I think to make to the Pope the plain and simple and reasonable request that he would exert his authority over the Irish priesthood to induce them to abstain from meddling in politics, but on the contrary…to exhort their flocks to…obedience to the law and abstinence from acts of violence.” Palmerston to Minto, 29 October 1847, doc. 64 in Curato 1970, vol. 1, pp. 128–30; Wallace 1959, p. 15.
23. Minto created quite a stir when he arrived at the Quirinal for his first audience with Pius IX. The proper male dress for a papal audience was a formal morning coat, a dark suit with a long tail, and a vest. Minto came dressed in clothes that the papal entourage deemed more appropriate for a foxhunt. Minto’s diary entry for November 8, 1847, is found in Curato 1970, vol. 2, pp. 238–40; see also Minto to Palmerston, Rome, 14 November 1847, doc. 103 in Curato 1970, vol. 1, pp. 190–94.
24. Candeloro 1972, p. 113; Hales 1962, pp. 39–43; Whyte 1930, pp. 9–10; Traniello 2001; Borutta 2012, pp. 192–93. Rossi’s original instructions regarding the Jesuits is found in “Instructions de M. Rossi,” 15 mars 1845, MAEN, RSS 272. Some sense of the reaction to these attacks by the Jesuits in Rome at the time can be found in ARSI, Ital 1015 0145 (24 dicembre 1847).
