The Pope Who Would Be King, page 49
CHAPTER 18: APPLYING THE BRAKES
1. An original copy of the cardinals’ proclamation is found at ASV, Segr. Stato, Spoglio Pio IX, 3, f. 270r; Farini 1850–53, vol. 4, pp. 246–48; Martina 1974, p. 380; Barrot 1876, pp. 408–10. The tearing down of the proclamation, and the advice the cardinals received regarding their planned procession to St. Peter’s, are recounted in a report of the secretariat of state: ASV, Segr. Stato, An. 1849, Rubr. 155, fasc. 2, ff. 2r–11v. The French chargé d’affaires in Rome reported to Tocqueville on the Romans’ negative reaction to the cardinals’ initial announcement. Belcastel à Tocqueville, Rome, 4 août 1849, MAEN, RSS 410. Rayneval, in reporting on these developments, concurred in his estimation of the negative popular reaction to the news, added that Cardinal Della Genga in particular was “decidedly very unpopular.” Rayneval à Tocqueville, Gaëte, 4 août 1849, n. 161, MAEC, PAR.
2. An original copy of the “notification” is found at ASV, ANM, b. 313, f. 205r.
3. Petre to Palmerston, Rome, July 25, 1849, inclosure 1 to doc. 102 in Parliament 1851, pp. 91–92.
4. Palomba, console generale d’Austria a Civitavecchia, a Schwarzenberg, Civitavecchia, 7 agosto 1849, doc. 118 in Blaas 1973, pp. 328–32; De La Rochère 1853, pp. 180–81; “The Papal States,” letter dated August 5, TL, August 14, 1849.
5. “We are here perfectly tranquil, under the influence of 30,000 French bayonets, but men, though they speak not above their breaths, grind their teeth, and vow vengeance.” “The French and the Pope,” datelined Rome, August 7, TL, August 18, 1849.
6. Ripari (1860) recounts his experience in an open letter to Cardinal Antonelli. He would spend seven years in jail.
7. Tocqueville à Corcelle, Paris, 2 août 1849, doc. 132 in Tocqueville 1983, vol. 1, p. 346; Tocqueville à Rayneval, Paris, 4 août 1849, MAEN, RSS 274.
8. Tocqueville à Oudinot, Paris, 4 août 1849, MAEN, RSS 411. Rayneval shared Tocqueville’s view of the vicariate tribunal. In his letter to Tocqueville later in the month, he noted that these tribunals operated throughout the Papal States, each under the supervision of the local bishop, aimed at policing people’s morals. It was, reported the French ambassador, “the most detestable invention in the world.” Rayneval à Tocqueville, Gaëte, 24 août 1849, particulière, MAEC, PAR.
9. Tocqueville à Corcelle, Paris, 4 août 1849, doc. 133 in Tocqueville 1983, vol. 1, p. 348.
10. Rayneval à Tocqueville, Gaëte, 4 août 1849, n. 161, MAEC, PAR.
11. Rayneval à Tocqueville, Gaëte, 6 août 1849, n. 163, MAEC, PAR.
12. The transcript of the National Assembly session of August 6 is found in Assemblée nationale 1849c, pp. 250–68. The next day La Presse praised Tocqueville for the frankness of his speech but observed that while he was no doubt sincere in describing his efforts to ensure that the pope did not return to the abuses of the past, he was naïve in thinking he would be successful. “He has inflicted a wound on the majority, and he has not satisfied the minority. His speech is one which does honour to the man, but which diminishes the influence of the Minister.” “France,” TL, August 9, 1849.
13. Farini 1850–53, vol. 4, pp. 220–26; Hoffstetter 1851, p. 450; Vecchi 1851, pp. 509–10; Garibaldi 1888, p. 252.
14. The diarist is Bottrigari, quoted in Beseghi 1946, vol. 2, p. 220.
15. Among the personal items they took from Bassi, a prolific poet, was the draft of his latest poem, “The Victorious Cross.” Informed of Bassi’s arrest, the local vicar general, acting in place of the absent bishop of Comacchio, demanded that he be turned over to him, for as a monk Bassi enjoyed ecclesiastical immunity and, in the Papal States, could only be disciplined by church authorities. When the Austrian commander refused, the cleric sent an urgent letter to the archbishop of Bologna informing him what had happened. Meanwhile news of the famed monk’s arrest reached Monsignor Bedini, the papal commissioner in charge of Bologna. He made no move to save the monk but had news of Bassi’s arrest placed in the official Bologna newspaper. The next day Austrian soldiers put the manacled monk in a cart, bound for Bologna. Luigi Carlo Farini (1850–53, vol. 4, p. 250) observed that Bedini, who would head the temporary government in Bologna following the fall of the papal states a decade later, “seemed more like a pupil of Austria than a pontifical prefect.”
16. Beseghi 1946, 2, pp. 221–48. The people of Bologna had a new martyr and new cause for their hatred of the Austrians and their own newly restored papal government. The place of the monk’s execution and nearby burial quickly became a pilgrimage site, the people piling flowers high over the newly sacred ground. Alarmed, Monsignor Bedini, the pope’s commissioner for Bologna, decided to act. On August 19 he sent a letter to the cardinals’ commission in Rome reporting that “it was thought prudent to move the cadaver secretly in the night to the cemetery of Certosa, placing it in a secluded spot unknown to the public.” The monsignor added with evident satisfaction that they had accomplished their mission “with great circumspection and discretion, in such a way that most people believe that it was not the work of the Government, but was done by those devoted to the person of Father Bassi.” Mons. Bedini alla Commissione Governativa di Stato, 19 agosto 1849, in Gualtieri 1861, pp. 187–88.
17. Beseghi 1946, vol. 2, p. 86n; Modena 2011, pp. 192–97.
18. Rayneval à Tocqueville, Gaëte, 9 août 1849, particulière, MAEC, PAR.
19. Tocqueville added, “What an appalling scarcity of good men!…That’s the first thing that one learns when one arrives in power.” Tocqueville à Corcelle, Paris, 8 août 1849, doc. 135 in Tocqueville 1983, vol. 1, pp. 350–51; Ghisalberti 1949, pp. 150–51.
20. Esterházy thought Corcelle not up to the task he had been given. Corcelle, the Austrian ambassador observed, had won the pope’s sympathy through his “religious sentiments and his pious admiration for Pius IX.” But, thought Esterházy, the new French envoy was painfully naïve. Corcelle had asked the Austrian ambassador for his help in “giving an amiable physiognomy to the Church.” Esterházy was not impressed: “M. de Corcelle displayed an ardor and insistence which gave evidence of zeal rather than ability, and certainly not of familiarity with the conditions of the terrain on which he moved.” Esterházy à Schwarzenberg, Gaëte, 13 août 1849 and 18 août 1849, docs. 119 and 125 in Blaas 1973, pp. 333–34, 355–57; Engel-Janosi 1950, p. 152. Illness was a constant fact of life in Gaeta, with both Rayneval and Esterházy also often being ill for various stretches of time. Esterházy à Schwarzenberg, Gaëte, 14 août 1849, doc. 120 in Blaas 1973, p. 342; Corcelle à Tocqueville, Mola-de-Gaëte, 14 août 1849, doc. 137 in Tocqueville 1983, vol. 1, pp. 355–57; De Chambrun 1936, p. 490. The pope’s account of Corcelle’s mental breakdown was reported by Esterházy. Esterházy à Schwarzenberg, Gaëte, 18 août 1849, doc. 124 in Blaas 1973, pp. 355–56.
21. Antonelli recounted what happened at the session in a memo to his nuncio in Vienna. After rehearsing the reasons why the pope could not agree to a council with decision-making power over finances, he added: “Only the French envoy, caring little for these serious concerns, did not stop strongly insisting that the decision-making vote be allowed.” Antonelli al nunzio di Vienna, Gaeta, 14 agosto 1849, ASV, ANV, b. 330, ff. 211r–212r. Rayneval offers his own analysis of the Spanish ambassador, Martínez, and his relationship with the pope in an early September report to Paris. Rayneval à Tocqueville, Gaëte, 3 septembre 1849, n. 180, MAEC, PAR.
22. Rayneval à Tocqueville, Castellamare, 19 août 1849, n. 169, MAEC, PAR. Rayneval had gone to Castellamare to confer with the bedridden Corcelle.
23. An original copy of the notificazione on the councils is found at ASV, ANN, b. 392, f. 136r. The names of the ten men appointed to the Central Council of Censorship were not made public but are found in ASV, Segr. Stato, An. 1849, Rubr. 155, fasc. 2, ff. 73v–74r. They included two prelates. On the censorship of newspapers, see ASV, Segr. Stato, An. 1849, Rubr. 155, fasc. 2, ff. 91v–92r.
24. De Cesare 1907, pp. 23–24; Gabussi 1851–52, vol. 2, p. 502; Rayneval à Tocqueville, Gaëte, 24 août 1849, MAEC, PAR. “My government’s formal instructions,” Oudinot informed Savelli in turning down his request, “oppose having the French army collaborate in purely political arrests.” Oudinot à Tocqueville, Rome, 16 août 1849, MAEC, PAW, ff. 37r–37v.
25. Stato pontificio 1850, pp. 50–51.
26. Adolphe Niel à Gustave Niel, Rome, 19 août 1849, doc. 12 in Niel 1961, p. 478. On August 22 the British naval captain Key reported that “the detestation of the cardinals and priests, and a dread of their return to power, is openly expressed by the Roman people of all classes.” Key 1898, p. 207.
27. Conservative British sentiment of the time might be judged by an editorial the London Times ran on August 20, blasting the reactionary nature of the pope’s restoration: “He has kept himself aloof from his kingdom; has garrisoned his capital with foreign bayonets, and has commissioned a Triumvirate, whose very names are symbolical of misgovernment and tyranny, to dispose of the liberties and fortunes of his people.”
Heedless of French warnings, the pope was bringing back all the old abuses. “With so weak a man as Pius IX,” Tocqueville wrote to his good British friend, Nassau William Senior (Senior 1872, vol. 1, p. 237), “the influence of those immediately around him is omnipotent. The cardinals, old, ignorant, timid and selfish, detest all change, and he does not venture to differ from them.”
28. Should the French government recall its troops, predicted Falloux, “all the Holy See’s enemies would rejoice and perhaps, after a few weeks, a new revolution would erupt in the certainty that France would not return.” Nunzio, Paris, a Antonelli, 15 agosto 1849, ASV, Segr. Stato, An. 1849, Rubr. 165, fasc. 2, ff. 115r–118v. On receiving the nuncio’s report, Antonelli quickly wrote to the three cardinals in Rome, sending them a copy and recommending that they help Falloux by being sure to inform the French commander in Rome in advance of any important measure they planned to take. Antonelli, Gaeta, ai Cardinali Componenti la Commissione Governativa, Roma, 25 agosto 1849, ASV, Segr. Stato, An. 1849, Rubr. 165, fasc. 2, ff. 113r–114r.
29. Rayneval à Tocqueville, Gaëte, 26 août 1849, n. 173, MAEC, PAR. Although it appears that Rayneval had not yet received the news, on August 22, with Harcourt having been dismissed and no longer in Rome, and Corcelle still indisposed, he had been named interim ambassador to the Holy See. MAEC, PDI Rayneval, 22 août 1849.
CHAPTER 19: LOUIS NAPOLEON AND THE POPE
1. A copy of Louis Napoleon’s letter is found in MAEC, MD, 121, ff. 328r–329v. It can also be found in Barrot 1876, p. 414. See also Barrot 1876, pp. 430–44.
2. Falloux 1888, pp. 527–30. Falloux reports that he was not completely naïve and so imagined that the letter might well end up being shown to the three cardinals in Rome. This, he thought, might not be such a bad thing, as it would vindicate what he had said about the depth of French government anger toward the pope and the prospect that the government might well withdraw its troops from Rome.
3. Tocqueville à Corcelle, Paris, 18 août 1849, doc. 139 in Tocqueville 1983, vol. 1, pp. 360–63. Tocqueville’s account differs from Falloux’s in asserting that Louis Napoleon’s letter was only sent off after they had seen it. Hoping to stave off disaster, Tocqueville wrote a new set of directions to Rayneval. As the pope kept citing the continued presence of former members of the Constituent Assembly in Rome as a reason why he could not return, the French needed to see that the men were safely removed from the Papal States. For this purpose he had ships ready at Marseilles to take them to America. At the same time, Rayneval and Rostolan were charged with seeing that the inquisitorial courts that the papal government was trying to put into action in Rome were stopped, and the practice of using ecclesiastical courts to try laypeople ended. Rayneval was also to convince the pope that his planned amnesty be as broad as possible. Only a small number of people should be excluded. Otherwise, wrote the foreign minister, the amnesty would be “illusory.” While Tocqueville reluctantly accepted the pope’s insistence that he would not tolerate a constitution, the French, the foreign minister instructed, needed to ensure that people’s rights be as similar to those found in constitutional governments as possible. Tocqueville à Rayneval, Paris, 29 août 1849, MAEN, RSS 411.
4. Rayneval à Tocqueville, Rome, 28 août 1849, n. 175, MAEC, PAR.
5. Rostolan à Tocqueville, Rome, 30 août 1849, MAEN, RSS 537 bis.
6. Rayneval à Tocqueville, Rome, 30 août 1849, n. 176, MAEC, PAR; Rostolan à Tocqueville, Rome, 30 août 1849, MAEN, RSS 537 bis.
7. Palomba, console generale d’Austria a Civitavecchia, a Schwarzenberg, Civitavecchia, 5 settembre 1849, doc. 129 in Blaas 1973, pp. 364–68. An English text of the Débats August 31 letter from Rome was published in “The Papal States,” TL, September 10, 1849. At five p.m. on August 31, the second day Louis Napoléon’s letter was being circulated in Rome, General Rostolan ordered a proclamation to be posted on the city’s walls reiterating the warning that any public gathering or demonstration would be immediately put down by the military and its promoters tracked down and punished. Repubblica romana n. 15, Roma, 31 agosto 1849, ASV, Segr. Stato, An. 1849, Rubr. 155, fasc. 2, ff. 123r–128v. Resentment against France by the cardinals of the Sacred College, already great, now grew even more. “This sentiment of ill will for France that animates all the men who want to see the Holy Father return with the plenitude of his absolute powers,” the French chargé d’affaires in Rome reported on the thirty-first, “is expressed in all circumstances.” Belcastel à Tocqueville, 31 août 1849, Rome, n. 8, MAEC, CP, Rome vol. 989, f. 366r.
8. The French, Rayneval added, are being blamed for the failure to establish order in Rome. “It is indeed remarkable,” he observed, “that the Sacred College [of Cardinals] has a deeply engrained hatred for the only power that is truly Catholic, truly dedicated to the Catholic cause.” Rayneval à Tocqueville, Rome, 31 août 1849, n. 179, MAEC, PAR. On Venice, see Chantrel 1861, p. 61; “Venice,” TL, September 5, 1849. If Esterházy seemed to the French to be resolutely on the side of reaction, Schwarzenberg’s position was more nuanced. Meeting with the papal nuncio in Vienna in late August, he expressed his own displeasure with reports that all the old abuses of ecclesiastical government were being restored to the Papal States and urged that some effort be made to institute reform without threatening the pope’s absolute power. Viale Prelà, Vienna, a Antonelli, 28 agosto 1849, ASV, ANV, b. 322, ff. 55v–57r.
9. “Monsieur,” wrote the despondent ambassador in concluding his report to Tocqueville, “what little optimism I still had deserts me now. To get more than we have gotten so far is not possible. Our role, in continuing to insist…would only make us look ridiculous….These people are blind. They don’t see the sun shining in the middle of the day. They have a different language from us. Only one man is for us: the pope, and he is slipping out of our hands. He is becoming bitter. They are surrounding him, they are turning him against us.” Rayneval à Tocqueville, Rome, 3 septembre 1849, n. 180, MAEC, PAR.
10. Palomba a Schwarzenberg, Civitavecchia, 5 settembre 1849, doc. 129 in Blaas 1973, p. 367.
11. “Diario della venuta e del soggiorno in Napoli di sua Beatudine Pio IX,” settembre 1849, ASV, ANN, b. 392, ff. 187r–188v; Blois 1854, pp. 200–207. At the time, Antonelli predicted that the pope’s stay in his new quarters would last only a matter of weeks. Antonelli a Cardinal Patrizi, Gaeta, 28 agosto 1849, ASVR, Segr. Vicariato, Atti, b. 8, fasc. 12, ff. 1r–2v.
12. Bollettino n. 17, Roma, 15 septembre 1849, ASV, Segr. Stato, An. 1849, Rubr. 155, fasc. 2, ff. 186r–193v; Palomba a Schwarzenberg, Civitavecchia, 15 settembre 1849, doc. 135 in Blaas 1973, pp. 384–85; Prefettura di polizia, 30 agosto 1849, ASV, Segr. Stato, An. 1849, Rubr. 155, fasc. 2, ff. 121r–121v. Rayneval advised Tocqueville not to let the refugees know they were in fact bound for America lest they refuse to leave. Rayneval à Tocqueville, Naples, 11 septembre 1849, n. 185, MAEC, PAR.
13. Adolphe Niel à Gustave Niel, Rome, 20 septembre 1849, doc. 13 in Niel 1961, p. 479.
14. By this time, the letter had been published in several French newspapers, provoking positive comments. In an editorial printed alongside it, the French Débats added its words of approval for the president’s message: “All that has been done at Rome since we re-established the Pontifical authority there has been done in spite of us….It was a state of things which could not continue….It would be to inflict a mortal insult on the Sovereign Pontiff to go and re-establish in the capital of his States those institutions which he had himself destroyed….We have given an army to Pius IX, and not to Gregory XVI.” The text of the Débats article is reported in “France,” TL, September 10, 1849. Louis Napoleon’s letter to Ney was also published in Le Moniteur on September 7. Milza 2004, pp. 182–83.
15. Corcelle à Tocqueville, Naples, 20 septembre 1849, doc. 154 in Tocqueville 1983, vol. 1, p. 415; Rayneval à Tocqueville, 20 septembre 1849, n. 147, MAEC, PAR. That same day, Rostolan renewed his request: “I once again beg the minister of war,” he wrote, “to put an end to my mission. I am not the right man for the government’s current policy.” Rostolan à Tocqueville, Rome, MAEC, CP, Rome, vol. 993, f. 226r.
16. The Austrian ambassador reported on this meeting of the cardinals, expressing his own view—shared by Schwarzenberg—that the pope should move to an Austrian-held area only as a last resort. It was better if some kind of understanding could be reached with the French. The possibility of conflict between Austria and France following a move of the pope to Austrian-held territory, leaving the French to rule Rome, was too great. Esterházy à Schwarzenberg, Naples, 11 septembre 1849, doc. 133 in Blaas 1973, pp. 380–82. On the pope’s political change of heart, see Martina 1974, pp. 366–67. On Lambruschini’s warnings, see Rayneval à Tocqueville, Naples, 13 septembre 1849, n. 186, MAEC, PAR.
