Church History, Volume 3 (of 3)Kurtz, J. H. (Johann Heinrich)
History
Church History, Volume 3 (of 3)
Kurtz, J. H. (Johann Heinrich)
Church history
cura_, of December 8th, 1864, and the accompanying syllabus
cataloguing in eighty-four propositions all the errors of the
day, by which not only the antichristian and anti-ecclesiastical
tendencies, but also claims for freedom of belief and worship,
liberty of the press and science, the state’s independence of the
church, the equality of the laity and clergy in civil matters, in
short all the principles of modern political and social life, were
condemned as heretical. Three years later the centenary of Peter
(§ 16, 1) brought five hundred bishops to Rome, with other clergy
and laymen from all lands. The enthusiasm for the papal chair
was such that the pope was encouraged to convoke an œcumenical
council. The jubilee of his consecration as priest in A.D. 1869
brought him congratulatory addresses signed by one and a half
millions, filled the papal coffers, attracted an immense number
of visitors to Rome, and secured to all the votaries gathered
there a complete indulgence. On the Vatican Council which met
during that same year, see § 189.[542]
§ 185.3. =The Overthrow of the Papal States.=--In the Peace of
Villafranca of 1859, which put an end to the short Austro-French
war in Italy, a confederation was arranged of all the Italian
princes under the honorary presidency of the pope for drawing up
the future constitution of Italy. During the war the Austrians
had vacated Bologna, but the French remained in Rome to protect
the pope. The revolution now broke out in Romagna. Victor Emanuel,
king of Sardinia, was proclaimed dictator for the time over that
part of the Papal States and a provisional government was set
up. In vain did the pope remind Christendom in an encyclical
of the necessity of maintaining his temporal power, in vain
did he thunder his _excommunicatio major_ against all who would
contribute to its overthrow. A pamphlet war against the temporal
power now began, and About’s letters in the _Moniteur_ described
with bitter scorn the incapacity of the papal government. In his
pamphlet, “_Le Pope et le Congrès_,” Laguéronnière proposed to
restrict the pope’s sovereignty to Rome and its neighbourhood,
levy a tax for the support of the papal court on all Catholic
nations, and leave Rome undisturbed by political troubles. On
December 31st, 1859, Napoleon III. exhorted the pope to yield
to the logic of facts and to surrender the provinces that refused
any longer to be his. The pope then issued a rescript in which
he declared that he could never give up what belonged not to
him but to the church. The popular vote in Romagna went almost
unanimously for annexation to Sardinia, and this, in spite of
the papal ban, was done. A revolution broke out in Umbria and
the March of Ancona, and Victor Emanuel without more ado attached
these states also to his dominion in A.D. 1860, so that only
Rome and the Campagna were retained by the pope, and even these
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