CHAPTER V

THE SYLLABUS OF POPE PIUS IX

THE long pontificate of Pope Pius IX (1846-1878) covered a tempestuous period of history throughout Continental Europe and especially in Italy. He was the last of the Popes to hold the Temporal Power or secular monarchy over the Papal States or States of the Church, a territory comprising in 1853 some sixteen thousand square miles and upwards of three million people.1

The troubles of the pontificate of Pope Pius IX were occasioned largely by the claim of the Papacy to temporal power, and the efforts of the Pope to repel the forces that menaced its continuance. It is important to distinguish between the pontifical sovereignty of the Bishop of Rome over Christendom, in virtue of his 1 E. B., vol. xxv, p. 805 d.

The Temporal Power developed from the gift in 754 by Pepin, the usurper of the Frankish throne, of territory wrested from the Emperor of the East (See L. Duchesne, The Beginnings of the Temporal Sovereignty of the Popes, p. 37). It was given to the Pope, or restored to him in recognition of an earlier title, in return for the purely political interference of the Vicar of Christ in deposing the degenerate King Childeric, and seating the usurping Pepin in his place, with right of succession in Pepin's heirs. (Bryce, p. 39; C. E., vol. xiv, p. 259 d). Thus the way was opened for the Empire of Charlemagne (Pepin's son), the joint political creation of Charlemagne and Pope Leo III in 800. The territory given by Pepin to the Pope became the States of the Church-the Patrimony of St. Peter -and the Temporal Power made its appearance in history. The territory of the States of the Church was added to by the gifts of the Countess Matilda of Tuscany. (C. E., vol. x, p, 50 a).

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office as Pope, and the Temporal Power vested in the Bishop of Rome over the Papal States as their secular prince or monarch. The pontifical sovereignty and the temporal sovereignty had no constitutional connection, but a thousand years of history had united them in such fashion that in the opinion of many, and certainly in the mind of Pius IX, the Temporal Power was necessary to the pontifical sovereignty, if not divinely ordained. The strategical and material value of the Temporal Power to the Papacy was very great. The Pope's prestige among the monarchs of Europe and much of his political influence had long been supported by it. The taxation of the States of the Church produced a large Papal revenue, and some three million subjects had sustained Papal fleets and armies and surrounded the temporal throne with all the power and splendor of an earthly monarch. It would seem, therefore, that it is not unjust to ascribe to the threatened loss of the States of the Church a reason for profound anxiety and distress of mind in the reigning Pontiff. The situation in respect to the Temporal Power was aggravated by the Liberalism of the nineteenth century, which made the era memorable. In this Liberalism the Pope detected an ultimate skepticism that might invade the Church and impair his pontifical sovereignty.

The whole century was one of change in human thought and in human institutions. Through it surged the currents of democratic life released by the French Revolution, and they beat with force and fury upon both the Spiritual and the Temporal Thrones at Rome.

2 Syllabus, Propositions LXXV, LXXVI and note; infra appendix II, p. 302.

Italy was stirring with the spirit of national unity and a sense of the Civic Primacy of her people. The idea of a united Italian people menaced the Temporal Power and the security of the Pope's government over the States of the Church.

The difficulties with which Pope Pius IX was called to contend would have taxed the genius of a great statesman. There may be a difference of opinion as to the ability which he displayed in his effort to command the situation, but there can be no doubt of his fidelity to the great trust committed to him, as he understood it.3

Toward secular Liberalism, even in the government of the Papal States, the Pope had at first shown favor, but he very quickly took alarm in his experience with the turbulent spirit of the times and his liberal attitude was converted to one of grave apprehension. Under popular demand he yielded a constitution to the Papal States that for a time changed their government from an absolute to a constitutional monarchy, but riot after riot indicated the popular unrest. Palma, a cleric and

3 Dr. Döllinger, whom Pius IX subsequently excommunicated, in a notable passage, after referring to the Pope's irreproachable youth and his conscientious discharge of his episcopal duties before he was elected Pope, paid him this tribute: “. . . he has no other passion but that of doing good, no other ambition but to be beloved by his subjects. His day is divided between prayer and the labours of government; his relaxation is a walk in the garden, a visit to a church, a prison, or a charitable institution. Free from personal desires and from terrestrial bonds, he has no relatives, no favourites to provide for. For him the rights and powers of his office exist only for the sake of its duties. . . . Untouched by human folly, unmoved by human malice, he proceeds with a firm and regular step on his way, like the stars of heaven." Kirche und Kirchen, Papsttum und Kirchenstaat, pp. 625-626, quoted by Acton, History, pp. 365–366.

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a friend of the Pope, was shot, and Rossi, the Papal Premier, was stabbed to death on his way to open the new constitutional parliament. The Pope himself was besieged in the palace of the Quirinal, from which he escaped in disguise to Gaëta, near Naples, where he assembled the Papal Court and government around him. Rome for a time was left to an unsuccessful experiment in popular government. The flight of the Pope before the resurgent forces of modern Italy ended his entente with Liberalism. He appealed for aid to the powers of Europe, not to his Italian subjects, but to the ancient absolutism that lingered on, decrepit but persistent, in Spain, Naples, France and Austria.5 More than with any other power the Pope allied himself with Louis Napoleon, the usurper of France and a "dubious representative of the Lord's Anointed." His troops occupied the city of Rome. His army brought Pope Pius IX back from Gaëta to the Quirinal and supported him in the government of the Papal States until after the last session of the Vatican Council. But this support was withdrawn when the activities of the Hohenzollerns called for the presence of the French troops in another jurisdiction, and the shadow of the FrancoPrussian war fell on Europe.7

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On the 16th of October, 1870, three months after the adjournment of the Vatican Council, a plebiscite

4 C. E., vol. xii, p. 135 c; vol. xiv, p. 266 b, c.

5 Ibid., vol. xii, p. 135 c.

6 Referring to the election of Louis Napoleon as Prince President of France, Dr. Burgess, The Sanctity of Law, p. 221, says: "When thoroughly looked into later, it was discovered that the Roman Catholic Church was the great factor in the promotion of this result." 7 C. E., vol. xiy, p. 267 b.

or popular vote instituted by King Victor Emmanuel in Rome decided on union for the States of the Church with the new Kingdom of Italy. The popular vote was 133,681 in favor and 1,507 against the proposition. The Civic Primacy of the Italian People had repudiated the Temporal Power of the Pope at the end of a thousand years. Upon its fall, the Pope, having excommunicated those who had joined in depriving him of the Temporal Power, retired within the Vatican in a voluntary imprisonment which the present Pope continues.9 Under the aggression of New Italy, the Papal territorial possessions contracted to that palace and its gardens. Victor Emmanuel sat in the Pope's place on the temporal throne of the Kingdom of Rome. But the pontifical sovereignty claimed by the Pope over all Christians throughout the world was not affected.10

8 E. B., vol. xv, p. 60 d.

9 C. E., vol. xiv, p. 267 b, c.

10 Dr. John Bassett Moore in his Digest of International Law, vol. i, p. 39, gives the following expression of the changes in Papal sovereignty after the fall of the Temporal Power: "The Pope," he says, "though deprived of the territorial dominion which he formerly enjoyed, holds, as sovereign pontiff and head of the Roman Catholic Church, an exceptional position. Though, in default of territory, he is not a temporal sovereign, he is in many respects treated as such." Dr. Moore then refers to the rights of active and passive legation and the special privileges of his envoys and Apostolic Nuncios, and to his practice of making treaties with the secular powers, which are called Concordats.

The distinction between the former Temporal Power and the Pontifical Sovereignty seems to be lost sight of at times even in enlightened circles. Mr. Walter Lippmann in his article "The Catholic Issue in Politics" in Vanity Fair, July, 1927, p. 31, referring to the article by the Hon. Alfred E. Smith in the Atlantic Monthly, May, 1927, p. 721, says: "For in denying the temporal power of the Pope, he (Governor Smith) does not fall into the very easy error of attributing universal power to the State."

It is obvious that Governor Smith could not deny the Temporal