PIUS IX

PIUS IX (Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti; 1792–1878), pope (1846–1878).

Pius IX (in Italian, Pio Nono), the longest reigning pope, was a major protagonist in the ideological struggles of the nineteenth century. He commenced his pontificate as a prince who sought to modernize the Papal State (1846–1848), but following the revolutionary events of 1848 and the restoration of 1849–1850, he reigned as a priest determined to shield the church from the perils of the modern age. Although troubled by civil and religious controversy, he reorganized the papacy and reoriented the church, and had a profound impact in Europe and the world beyond. During his momentous pontificate, Pius IX shaped the character of the Catholic Church prior to the convocation of the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), and the role of the papacy to the present. Forging dogmatic unity in the church and strengthening the position of the papacy, he provided some compensation for the collapse of the temporal power.

Pius IX had an impact on the diplomatic as well as the religious issues of the day, influencing the policies of the emperors Francis Joseph of Austria and Napoleon III of France, and of the German Empire under the chancellor Otto von Bismarck, and was especially embroiled in the affairs of the Italian peninsula. The ruler of the Papal States until their disappearance in 1870, and the head of the church from 1846 to 1878, he influenced the Risorgimento, which culminated in the unification of Italy, and the counter-Risorgimento, the bitter papal opposition to the creation of the Italian kingdom. Pius refused to accept the loss of his territory, which was incorporated into the unitary state, and rejected the concessions granted by the Italian government in the Law of Papal Guarantees (13 May 1871), declaring himself a prisoner in the Vatican and refusing to leave its palaces and grounds until his death on 7 February 1878. His intransigent opposition to the Italian kingdom provoked the Roman Question, or dissidio, which troubled relations between the Vatican and Italy until 1929.

Waging war against the secular philosophies of the modern world and the anticlerical policies he perceived they inspired, Pius responded by championing ultramontanism, which exalted the papacy by increasing centralization of authority in Rome. Among other things he defined the Immaculate Conception of Mary as born without original sin (1854); condemned the ideologies of liberalism, naturalism, nationalism, socialism, and communism (1864); and convoked the First Vatican Council (1869–1870) and encouraged it to proclaim papal infallibility (18 July 1870), fostering the structure of the modern, infallible papacy. He refused to bow to the anti-Catholic measures unleashed by Bismarck and his liberal allies in the Kulturkampf in the newly created German Empire and denounced the anticlerical course championed by the Third French Republic, which succeeded the Second Empire. His reach transcended Europe, and he almost became embroiled in the diplomacy of the Civil War in the United States.

early life and career

Born Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti on 13 May 1792, in Senigallia near Ancona, the future pope received his early education from his mother, the former Caterina Solazzi, who was devoted to Mary. In 1803, at the age of eleven, he was sent to Saint Michael's school in Tuscany, but his studies there were interrupted by an attack of epilepsy in October 1809. He resumed his studies at the Roman College at the end of 1815. Determined to enter the priesthood, he was ordained in 1819, despite his malady, by special dispensation of Pius VII (r. 1800–1823), to whom he was devoted. His initial assignment was at the Roman orphanage of "Tata Giovanni," where he remained until 1823. From 1823 to 1825 he formed part of a papal diplomatic mission to Chile and Peru to explore the prospect of Rome's establishing relations with the former Spanish colonies; this made him the first person to become pope to have been to America. Upon his return to Rome, he became the director of the hospice of San Michele (1825–1827). Serving as archbishop of Spoleto from 1827 to 1832, he was appointed bishop of Imola in 1832, and cardinal by Gregory XVI (r. 1831–1846) in 1840. Both at Spoleto and Imola, Mastai-Ferretti was appreciated for his receptivity to some of the ideas of the nineteenth century, including aspects of liberalism and nationalism. On the other hand, he was conservative in his theological outlook, and thus had a wide appeal in the conclave convened following the death of Gregory XVI in 1846. He was elected pope on 16 June 1846, assuming the name Pius in honor of Pius VII, who had supported his ordination.

the reforming pope

Upon assuming the tiara, the new pope, recognizing that the papal regime confronted increasing discontent, championed a limited reformism and common-sense measures to prevent the outbreak of revolution. Although not a liberal, and indeed ultra-orthodox in religious matters, Mastai-Ferretti believed that conditions in his state could, and should, be better attuned to the needs of its people, and favored innovations such as the building of railways and the illumination of major avenues in Rome. He had earlier championed technical reforms in his "Thoughts on the Administration of the Papal States," which even invoked a collegiate body to advise and coordinate its administration. Committing himself to administrative, economic, and limited political changes, Pius promised to implement many of the reforms Gregory XVI had rejected when he shelved the Memorandum of 1831, in which France, Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia had suggested a degree of modernization to the Rome government.

Following the conservative, often autocratic course of Gregory XVI, Italians responded enthusiastically to Pius IX's limited reformism; some identified him with the pope-liberator prophesied by Vincenzo Gioberti in his Del primato morale e civile degli italiani (1843; On the civil and moral primacy of the Italians). Because he was perceived as a reformer as well as a patriot, Italians approved his appointment of Cardinal Pasquale Gizzi, considered a leading liberal, as his secretary of state, and his amnesty of political prisoners (16 July 1846). The amnesty aroused enthusiasm throughout the peninsula, leading the conservative Klemens von Metternich of Austria to quip that God pardons, but does not grant amnesties. The revised press law of 1846 permitted the publication of liberal and national sentiments and widely disseminated the innovations of the new pope. In 1847 Pius announced the formation of a consulta, or consultative chamber, to advise him on administrative and political matters and instituted a council of ministers, permitted to discuss crucial administrative and political matters. These reforms led to the expectation that more would be forthcoming from the pope, who appeared to support liberal and national aspirations.

Adulation was not universal, as conservatives inside and outside Rome warned of the adverse consequences wrought on church and state by these changes. Pius, meanwhile, was torn between his obligation to protect the church and his desire to please his people. Consequently, he had reservations about creating a civil guard, granting his people a constitution and establishing a political league in Italy—but reconsidered his stance early in 1848, as revolution threatened Italy and Europe. The guard was created, a constitution was drafted for the Papal States, and talks were opened with the other Italian princes for the formation of a political league that transcended the tariff league the pope had originally intended. In March 1848 he announced the formation of the constitutional ministry headed by Cardinal Giacomo Antonelli and published a statuto, or constitution, that created two deliberative councils for the formation of law.

Despite massive demonstrations, Pius refused to secularize his administration, introduce constitutionalism into the church, accord equality to non-Catholics, or to wage war on Catholic Austria. The call for papal participation in a war of national liberation against Austria proved especially troubling, revealing the rift in his dual role as prince and priest. The papal refusal to enter the war, announced in an allocution of 19 April 1848, provoked the assassination of his minister Pellegrino Rossi (15 November 1848), followed by a revolutionary outburst in Rome. This led the pope to flee to Gaeta in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies on 14 November 1848. His flight was followed by the proclamation of a republic in Rome later led by Giuseppe Mazzini and Giuseppe Garibaldi.

the restoration papacy

Pius IX and Cardinal Antonelli invoked the intervention of France, Austria, Spain, and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, and these Catholic powers over-turned the Second Roman Republic in 1849, paving the way for the pope's return in 1850. These revolutionary events led Pius to question his reformism as well as constitutionalism. He complained that his efforts to introduce legitimate change had been subverted by calls for inadmissible innovations that threatened his spiritual and temporal power and deplored the fact that his refusal to wage an aggressive war against Catholic Austria had provoked revolution and necessitated his flight. During his exile, he had recognized the incompatibility between constitutionalism and the governance of the church.

Fearing religious incredulity and social dissolution, his restored government abandoned many of the liberal as well as national concessions of the prerevolutionary period. Among other things, Jews in the Papal State were again restricted in their movement, with the pontifical government stipulating that the Israelites should not be permitted to leave their usual residence without a permit from the Holy Office. Thus, the reformist pope of 1846–1848 turned into the conservative of the second restoration and was portrayed by some as the personification of reaction. The Piedmontese complained that he conspired with the Austrians to annul Turin's constitutional regime.

A priest first and a prince second, once back in Rome (1850) a chastened Pius concentrated on church affairs, focusing on the moral life of the rank and file of the clergy. He left much of the political responsibility, if not decisions, to his secretary of state and chief minister, Cardinal Giacomo Antonelli. Pius had previously restored the Latin patriarchate in Jerusalem in 1847, and reestablished the hierarchy in England in 1850 and in the Netherlands in 1853. His devotion to Mary led him to proclaim the Immaculate Conception (the dogma that Mary was free from original sin from the moment of her conception), and he remained convinced that she helped him and others escape injury when the floor of the convent of Sant'Agnese collapsed in April 1855. In gratitude, he visited her shrine at Loreto in 1857. Opposed to the "pernicious secularism of the age" and the "flagrant immorality associated with the modern philosophies," Pius sought solace in scripture and the consolation of religion, fostering centralization and uniformity in liturgical matters, which became the hallmark of his pontificate. Shunning theological innovation, he laid the foundation for neo-Scholasticism in church teaching. To facilitate centralization, Pius encouraged seminarians to study in Rome, founding a French seminary there in 1853. This was followed by the inauguration of the North American College in 1859.

His strong religious fervor often conflicted with political expediency, perhaps most notably in his refusal in 1858 to return the Jewish boy Edgardo Levi Mortara, who had been secretly baptized by a Christian servant in Bologna and seized by papal forces, to his parents. The papal action in the "Mortara affair" outraged public opinion in liberal circles in Europe and America; alienated Napoleon III, who served as protector of the pope; and thus worked to undermine the Papal State, which was condemned as medieval and out of touch with the modern world. His intransigent stance facilitated the seizure of most of his territory or temporal power in 1859–1860, especially following the battle of Castelfidardo (18 September 1860). Following these events, Pius was left only with Rome and its immediate environs, protected by the troops of Napoleon III. When these forces withdrew during the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871), Pius had to endure the loss of Rome as well. The pope perceived the criticism of his policies and the seizure of his state as integral parts of the broader attack on the church and its principles. He therefore proved unwilling to negotiate on the issue of the temporal power or accept its absorption into a united Italy, considering it essential for the preservation of the pope's spiritual power.

assessment of pius ix and his pontificate

In the decade between his return to Rome, and the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy (1861), Pius IX issued numerous condemnations of Count Cavour (Camillo Benso) and his colleagues, who were responsible for Italian unification and the seizure of his state. His encyclical Jamdudum Cernimus of 1861 denounced the modern philosophies and ideologies that the pope believed inspired the Piedmontese aggression. In September 1864 the French and Italians signed the September Convention, by which Napoleon III promised to withdraw his troops from Rome within two years, in return for a pledge from the Italian government to respect and protect the surviving Papal State from outside incursions.

Pius was appalled by the Convention, claiming it left the wolves to guard the sheep. He responded later that year (December 1864) in his encyclical Quanta cura, to which was appended the "Syllabus of Errors," which rejected the notion that the temporal power should be abolished, while denouncing liberalism, socialism, communism, nationalism, secret societies, and the separation of church and state. By his actions, Pius was seen to align the papacy and the church against contemporary developments. The papal counteroffensive was continued by the convocation of the Vatican Council, which, guided by Pius, culminated in the declaration of papal infallibility (18 July 1870), even as the Italians entered Rome (20 September 1870) and made it their capital. Both critics and admirers acknowledge that Pius played an important role in the Council and its proclamation of infallibility. The Powers responded negatively to the proclamation, but it was generally accepted by the Catholic laity, except for the "Old Catholic" minority movement.

Although he was heralded at his accession as a reformer, some claimed that Pius IX closed his pontificate as a reactionary. He was seen to range the church not only against the Risorgimento and Italian unification, but against much of the prevailing culture of the century. Furthermore, his opposition did not prevent Italian unification, and was seen to place the church on a collision course with the modern world. Rejecting the national faith of the age, his conflict with liberalism and nationalism contributed to the Roman Question in Italy and the Kulturkampf in Germany, and troubled relations with the French Republic that followed the collapse of Napoleon III's empire. Nonetheless, the Catholic masses in Europe and abroad admired his courage and tenacity in the face of adversity.

Although he lost his state, the ecclesiastical accomplishments of Pius IX were more substantial. He founded over two hundred new dioceses and erected thirty-three apostolic vicariates along with fifteen prefectures. His proclamation of the Immaculate Conception (8 December 1854) provided encouragement to the strong Marian movement in the nineteenth century, and the development of Marian devotion in the twentieth. His fervor for the missions led him to establish a special seminary for the training of missionary priests under the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, and encouraged missionary activity in the second half of the nineteenth century and into the early twentieth century. Following his death there was talk of Pius IX's beatification (the second step in the process toward sainthood), and his cause was opened in 1955 by Pius XII (r. 1939–1958). He was beatified by John Paul II (r. 1978–2005) in 2000, along with John XXIII (r. 1958–1963).

See alsoCatholicism; Kulturkampf; Papal State; Roman Question.

bibliography

Primary Sources

Atti del sommo pontefice Pio IX, felicemente regnante: Parte seconda che comprende I motu proprii, chirografi editti, notificazioni, ec. Per lo stato pontificio. 2 vols. Rome, 1857.

Blakiston, Noel, ed. The Roman Question: Extracts from the Despatches of Odo Russell from Rome, 1858–1870. London, 1962.

Franciscis, Pasquale de, ed. Discorsi del sommo pontefice Pio IX prounziati in Vaticano ai fedeli di Roma e dell'orbe dal principio della sua prigionia fino al presente. 4 vols. Rome, 1872–1878.

Stock, Leo Francis, ed. Consular Relations between the United States and the Papal States: Instructions and Despatches. Washington, D.C., 1945.

——. United States Ministers to the Papal States: Instructions and Despatches, 1848–1868. Washington, D.C., 1933.

Secondary Sources

Chadwick, Owen. A History of the Popes, 1830–1914. Oxford, U.K., and New York, 1998.

Coppa, Frank J. Cardinal Giacomo Antonelli and Papal Politics in European Affairs. Albany, N.Y., 1990.

——. Pope Pius IX: Crusader in a Secular Age. Boston, 1979.

Hales, Edward E. Y. Pio Nono: A Study in European Politics and Religion in the Nineteenth Century. New York, 1954.

Martina, Giacomo. Pio IX. 3 vols. Vatican City, 1974, 1986, 1990. The three volumes cover the time periods 1846–1850, 1851–1866, and 1867–1878.

Serafini, Alberto. Pio Nono: Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti, dalla giovinezza alla morte nei suoi scritti e discorsi editi e inediti. Vol. 1. Vatican City, 1958.

Frank J. Coppa