He still hoped to acquire either Piedmont or some other part of northern Italy, and he was in touch with the Sanfedisti and the Concistoro, reactionary Catholic associations opposed to the Carbonari, but not always friendly to Austria. Against the Carbonari and other Liberals he issued the severest edicts, and although there was no revolt at Modena in 1821 as in Piedmont and Naples, he immediately instituted judicial proceedings against the supposed conspirators. Some 350 persons were arrested and tortured, 56 being condemned to death (only a few of them were executed) and 237 to imprisonment; a large number, however, escaped, including Antonio Panizzi (afterwards director of the British Museum). The ferocious police official Besini who conducted the trials was afterwards murdered. The duke actually proposed to Prince Metternich, the Austrian chancellor, an agreement whereby the various Italian rulers were to arrest every Liberal in the country on a certain day, but the project fell through owing to opposition from the courts of Florence and Rome. At the congress of Verona Metternich made another attempt to secure the Piedmontese succession for Francis, but without success. The duke became ever more despotic; Modena swarmed with spies and informers, education was hampered, feudalism strengthened; for the duke hoped to consolidate his power by means of the nobility, and the least expression of liberalism, or even failure to denounce a Carbonaro, involved arrest and imprisonment. But strange to say, in 1830 we find Francis actually coquetting with revolution. Having lost all hope of acquiring the Piedmontese throne, he entered into negotiations with the French Orleanist party with a view to obtaining its support in his plans for extending his dominions. He was thus brought into touch with Ciro Menotti (1798–1831) and the Modenese Liberals; what the nature of the connexion was is still obscure, but it was certainly short-lived and merely served to betray the Carbonari. As soon as Francis learned that a conspiracy was on foot to gain possession of the town, he had Menotti and several other conspirators arrested on the night of the 3rd of February 1831, and sent the famous message to the governor of Reggio: “The conspirators are in my hands; send me the hangman” (there is some doubt as to the authenticity of the actual words). But the revolt broke out in other parts of the duchy and in Romagna, and Francis retired to Mantua with Menotti. A provisional government was formed at Modena which proclaimed that “Italy is one,” but the duke returned a few weeks later with Austrian troops, and resistance was easily quelled. Then the political trials began; Menotti and two others were executed, and hundreds condemned to imprisonment. The population was now officially divided into four classes, viz. “very loyal, loyal, less loyal, and disloyal,” and the reaction became worse than ever, the duke interfering in the minutest details of administration, such as hospitals, schools, and roads. New methods of procedure were introduced to deal with political trials, but the ministerial cabal by which the country was administered intrigued and squabbled to such an extent that it had to be dismissed.
On the 20th of February 1846 Francis died. Although he had many domestic virtues and charming manners, was charitable in times of famine, and was certainly the ablest of the Italian despots, Liberalism was in his eyes the most heinous of crimes, and his reign is one long record of barbarous persecution. (L. V.*)
FRANCIS V. (1819–1875), duke of Modena, son of Francis IV.,
succeeded his father in 1846. Although less cruel and also less
intelligent than his father, he had an equally high opinion of
his own authority. His reign began with disturbances at Fivizzano
and Pontremoli, which Tuscany surrendered to him according
to treaty but against the wishes of the inhabitants (1847),
and at Massa and Carrara, where the troops shot down the
people. Feeling his position insecure, the duke asked for and
obtained an Austrian garrison, but on the outbreak of revolution
throughout Italy and at Vienna in 1848, further disorders
occurred in the duchy, and on the 20th of March he fled with his
family to Mantua. A provisional government was formed, and
volunteers were raised who fought with the Piedmontese against
Austria. But after the Piedmontese defeat Francis returned to
Modena, with Austrian assistance, in August and conferred many
appointments on Austrian officers. Like his father, he interfered
in the minutest details of administration, and instituted proceedings
against all who were suspected of Liberalism. Not content
with the severity of his judges, he overrode their sentences in
favour of harsher punishments. The disturbances at Carrara
were ruthlessly suppressed, and the prisons filled with politicals.
In 1859 numbers of young Modenese fled across the frontier to join
the Piedmontese army, as war with Austria seemed imminent;
and after the Austrian defeat at Magenta the duke left Modena to
lead his army in person against the Piedmontese, taking with him
the contents of the state treasury and many valuable books,
pictures, coins, tapestries and furniture from the palace. The
events of 1859–1860 made his return impossible; and after a short
spell of provisional government the duchy was united to Italy.
He retired to Austria, and died at Munich in November 1875.
Bibliography.—N. Bianchi, I Ducati Estensi (Turin, 1852); Galvani, Memorie di S. A. R. Francesco IV (Modena, 1847); Documenti riguardanti il governo degli Austro-Estensi in Modena (Modena, 1860); C. Tivaroni, L’Italia durante il dominio austriaco, i. 606-653 (Turin, 1892), and L’Italia degli Italiani, i. 114-125 (Turin, 1895); Silingardi, “Ciro Menotti,” in the Rivista europea (Florence, 1880); F. A. Gualterio, Gli ultimi rivolgimenti italiani (Florence, 1850); Bayard de Volo, Vita di Francesco V (4 vols., Modena, 1878–1885). (L. V.*)
FRANCIS OF ASSISI, ST. (1181 or 1182–1226), founder of the Franciscans (q.v.), was born in 1181 or 1182 at Assisi, one of the independent municipal towns of Umbria. He came from the upper middle class, his father, named Pietro Bernardone, being one of the larger merchants of the city. Bernardone’s commercial enterprises made him travel abroad, and it was from the fact that the father was in France at the time of his son’s birth that the latter was called Francesco. His education appears to have been of the slightest, even for those days. It is difficult to decide whether words of the early biographers imply that his youth was not free from irregularities; in any case, he was the recognized leader of the young men of the town in their revels; he was, however, always conspicuous for his charity to the poor. When he was twenty (1201) the neighbouring and rival city of Perugia attempted to restore by force of arms the nobles who had been expelled from Assisi by the burghers and the populace, and Francis took part in the battle fought in the plain that lies between the two cities; the men of Assisi were defeated and Francis was among the prisoners. He spent a year in prison at Perugia, and when peace was made at the end of 1202 he returned to Assisi and recommenced his old life.
Soon a serious and prolonged illness fell upon him, during which he entered into himself and became dissatisfied with his way of life. On his recovery he set out on a military expedition, but at the end of the first day’s march he fell ill, and had to stay at Spoleto and return to Assisi. This disappointment brought on again the spiritual crisis he had experienced in his illness, and for a considerable time the conflict went on within him. One day he gave a banquet to his friends, and after it they sallied forth with torches, singing through the streets, Francis being crowned with garlands as the king of the revellers; after a time they missed him, and on retracing their steps they found him in a trance or reverie, a permanently altered man. He devoted himself to solitude, prayer and the service of the poor, and before long went on a pilgrimage to Rome. Finding the usual crowd of beggars before St Peter’s, he exchanged his clothes with one of them, and experienced an overpowering joy in spending the day begging among the rest. The determining episode of his life followed soon after his return to Assisi; as he was riding he met a leper who begged an alms; Francis had always had a special horror of lepers, and turning his face he rode on; but immediately an heroic act of self-conquest was wrought in him; returning he alighted, gave the leper all the money he had about him, and kissed his hand. From that day he gave himself up to the service of the lepers and the hospitals. To the confusion of his father and brothers he went about dressed in rags, so that his old companions pelted him with mud.
