Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/166

156 PIUS respects admirable pontificate of more than twenty-three years duration was brought to a close by an accident. His thigh having been broken by a fall in July 1823, acute inflammation supervened, and he died on the 20th August in that year. His successor was Leo XII. PIUS VIII. (Francesco Xaviero Castiglioni), pope, was born at Cingoli near Ancona on November 20, 1761. After having been appointed bishop of Montalto in 1800, cardinal and bishop of Cesena in 1816, and bishop of Frascatl in 1821, he was in 1829 declared successor of Leo XII. His unimportant pontificate was of little more than sufficient duration to enable him to give expression to convictions largely characterized by narrowness and intolerance in his choice of Cardinal Albani as head of affairs, and in his encyclical letter against the liberty of the press, civil marriage, and similar impious institutions. His death took place at Rome on the 30th November 1830. He was succeeded by Gregory XVI. PIUS IX. (Giovanni Maria Mastai Ferretti), pope from 1846 to 1878, was born 13th May 1792 at Sinigaglia, near Ancona, the fourth son of Count Jerome and the Countess Catherine Vollazi of the same place. The family of Mastai is of ancient descent, and its representatives have frequently filled the office of mayor in Sinigaglia. The title of count was first given to its head by Prince Farnese, duke of Parma, towards the close of the 17th century. Somewhat later the elder branch, having become allied by marriage with the last representative of the family of Ferretti, assumed its second name. From the age of eleven to sixteen Giovanni received his education at the college of Piarists at Volterra, in Tuscany ; a liability to epileptic fits precluded, however, much application to study. On one occasion, when thus attacked, he fell into a lake and was only saved from drowning by the intervention of a herdsman who observed the occurrence. A handsome lad, with a certain charm of expression and demeanour which characterized him throughout his life, he frequently attracted the attention of visitors to the college. On leaving Volterra, he conceived an attachment for a lady (afterwards a duchess), and the non-requital of his passion is said to have been a main cause of his resolu tion to enter the church. In 1818 he was invited to accom pany Monsignor Odescalchi, a prelate attached to the ponti fical court, on a visitation tour in his native province. On returning to Rome, he was encouraged by Pius VII. to persevere in his design of entering the church, was admit ted (18th December 1818) to deacon s orders, and cele brated his first mass at the church of S. Maria del Falignani on Easter Sunday 1819. His benevolent dis position had led him about this time to interest himself in an orphanage, familiarly known by the name of " Tata Giovanni," and he was now appointed by Pius to preside over the establishment, and continued to fill the post for five years. In 1823 he accompanied the apostolic delegate, Monsignor Muzi, to the republic of Chili, and remained at Santiago for two years, actively engaged in missionary labours. In 1825 he returned to Rome, was made a canon of S. Maria in the Via Lata, and appointed to preside over the hospice of San Michele, a vast charitable insti tution for destitute children. Here he remained somewhat less than two years, being promoted 21st May 1827, by Leo XII., to the archbishopric of Spoleto. His residence in that city was marked by many acts of benevolence, and especially by the foundation of a large orphanage where poor children were maintained and educated and also taught some mechanical art. Here, as at Rome, his genuine kindliness and conciliatory disposition made him deservedly popular, but his defects were also not less apparent. He had allowed the hospice to become financi ally embarrassed, and after succeeding to the episcopal office showed himself incapable of duly regulating his own expenditure. During the insurrectionary movements which followed upon the election of Gregory XVI. to the papal chair, headed by Menotti and the two Napoleons Charles Louis (afterwards emperor of the French) and his brother Archbishop Mastai did his best to protect the insurgents. He disapproved of the reactionary policy of the new pope, and strongly resented the oppressive rule of the Austrians. When Napoleon (against whom sentence of death had been pronounced) fled to Spoleto, the archbishop, to whom he applied for help, obtained for him the services of an officer who conducted him beyond the frontier to a place of safety. In the following year (1832) he was translated to the bishopric of Imola, and a few years later was elected a cardinal, being reserved in petto in the consistory of 23d December 1839, and proclaimed cardinal 14th December 1840. It was not until overcome by the persuasion of others that Gregory XVI. consented to bestow this dignity on his future successor. He is said to have expressed his conviction that Mastai s liberal tendencies and impulsive disposition unfitted him for power, and that if he should ever become pope he would be the ruin of the church. During the tenure of his bishopric at Imola, Mastai gained additional reputation by the foundation of various philan thropic institutions and marked simplicity of life. On the death of Gregory XVI, he repaired to Rome, and on the evening of 16th June 1846 was elected to the papal chair as Pius IX., having chosen this name out of respect for his predecessor in the see of Imola, Pius VII. His election, at the final scrutiny, proved to be unanimous, the cardinals Patrizzi and De Angelis throwing all their influence in his favour. On the following morning, when it was too late, the Austrian ambassador received instruc tions from his Government to veto the new pope s elec tion. Pius s first act in his new capacity was to proclaim a general amnesty for political offences, whereby thousands of unhappy beings who had dragged out weary years in prison or in exile, ignorant, many of them, even of the offences with which they were charged, were restored to society. With genuine catholicity of feeling he visited and relieved even the poor Jewish population in the city. He authorized the construction of railways, organized a civil guard, and considerably modified the restrictions on the press. In order to develop further reforms he instituted a commission largely composed of laymen; and in 1847 he brought forward his scheme of a Consufta, or council of state, designed to assist him in the general temporal government. But, notwithstanding these concessions, the supreme power remained in the hands of ecclesiastics, and no measure passed by the council could acquire validity until it had been examined and approved in a conclave of cardinals. Hence, although both MAZZINI (</.v.) and Garibaldi were among his avowed supporters, the liberal party were still far from satisfied. His policy was regarded, on the one hand, with extreme dissatisfaction by Austria, and on the 17th July 1847 that power sent a force of 1500 men into Ferrara, where she was entitled by the treaty of 1815 to maintain a garrison. To this direct menace Pius replied by counter demonstrations and an indignant protest, but hostilities were ultimately averted. His policy was viewed with not less dislike at the court of Naples, but by the rest of Italy and throughout Europe he was at this time regarded as the champion of the national rights of his countrymen. Such was the posture of affairs when the revolution in Paris (February 1848) fanned into flames the already smouldering elements of insurrection throughout Europe. The Austrians were

driven out of Milan ; a republic was proclaimed in Venice