# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Pius

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​PIUS, the name of ten popes.
Pius I, pope from about 141 to 154. He was the brother of Hermas, author of the Shepherd.
Pius II. (Enea Silvio de’ Piccolomini, known in literature as Aeneas Silvius), pope from 1458 to 1464, was born on the 18th of October 1405, at Corsignano (afterward called Pienza after him), near Siena. His family, though poor, was noble, and claimed to trace descent from Romulus. The eldest of eighteen children, he had to work on the farm with his father, until a priest taught him the rudiments of letters, which enabled him, at the age of eighteen, to go as a poor student to Siena, dividing his time between severe humanistic studies and a life of sensual. pleasure. He was attracted to Florence by the teaching of Filelfo. His father urged him to become a lawyer, but he accepted the position of secretary to Domenico Capranica, bishop of Fermo, and went with him to the council of Basel, where he stayed several years (1431–1435), changing masters whenever he could improve his position. As secretary of the bishop of Novara he became engaged in a conspiracy against Pope Eugenius IV.; his master was caught and imprisoned, and Aeneas only saved himself by a hasty flight. He was next (1435) employed as secretary of Cardinal Nicholas Albergati (d. 1443) at the congress of Arras, where peace was made between France and Burgundy. From here he took a long journey to Scotland and England, on a secret diplomatic mission; he had numerous adventures, in one of which he nearly lost his life. In 1436 he was back at Basel, and, although a layman, obtained a seat in the council and exercised considerable influence. In order to control it better Eugenius tried to get the council to move to Florence; a minority agreed and seceded; the majority, however, stayed where they were and took vigorous measures against the pope, culminating in his deposition on the 25th of June 1438. Aeneas took an active part in the council; and though he still declined to take orders, he was given a position on the conciliar conclave which elected Amadeus of Savoy as pope under the title of Felix V. In return for his services Felix made Aeneas papal secretary.
A new period of his career opened in 1442, when he was sent by the council to take part in the diet of Frankfort-on-Main. Here he met Frederick III. of Germany, who made him poet laureate and his private secretary. He ingratiated himself with the chancellor, Kaspar Schlick, at Vienna, one of whose adventures he celebrated in Lucretia and Eurialus, a novel in the style of Boccaccio. At this period he also wrote his witty but immoral play, Chrisis. In 1446 he took orders as subdeacon, and wrote that he meant to reform, “forsaking Venus for Bacchus,” chiefly on the ground of satiety, and also, as he frankly wrote, because the clerical profession offered him more advantages than he could secure outside it.
Aeneas was useful to Frederick as a diplomatist, and managed to give all parties the impression that he was the devoted advocate of each. During the struggle between pope and council he induced Frederick to be neutral for a while. He took an important part in the diet of Nuremberg (1444), and being sent on an embassy to Eugenius in the following year he made his peace with the pope. At the diet of Frankfort (Sept. 1446) Aeneas was instrumental in changing the majority of the electors from their hostile position towards pope and emperor into a friendly one. He brought the good news to Eugenius shortly before his death (Feb. 7, 1447), and made friends with the new pope, Nicholas V., by whom he was made bishop of Siena. He was an agent of Frederick in making the celebrated concordat of Vienna (also called concordat of Aschaffenburg) in February 1448. His services to pope and emperor brought him the titles of prince of the empire and cardinal, positions which he used rather unscrupulously to get as many lucrative benefices into his hands as possible. Those in Germany brought him two thousand ducats a year.
The death of Calixtus III. (who succeeded Nicholas V.) occurred on the 5th of August 1458. After a hot fight in the conclave, in which it seemed that the wealthy French cardinal, Guillaume d’Estouteville, archbishop of Rouen and bishop of Ostia, would be elected, the intrigues of Aeneas and of his friend Rodrigo Borgia (later the notorious Alexander VI.) gave the victory to the cardinal of Siena, who took the title Pius II., with a reminiscence of Virgil’s “pius Aeneas.” The humanists hailed his election with joy, and flocked around to secure a share ​of the good things, but they were bitterly disappointed, as Pius did not prove himself the liberal and undiscriminating patron they hoped. The fall of Constantinople in 1453 had made a deep impression upon Pius, and he never ceased to preach the crusade against the Turk. In September 1459 he opened a congress at Mantua for the purpose of considering what could be done in this direction. His proposals for the raising of troops and money met with general opposition. The French were angry because Pius had crowned the Spanish claimant, Ferdinand, king of Naples, and thus disposed of the pretensions of René of Anjou. The Germans also objected to Pius’s plans, but finally agreed to furnish some troops and money, promises which they did not carry out. Pius felt how much the position of the papacy had fallen in importance since the days of Urban and Innocent III., and, believing that the change was due to the general councils which had asserted power over the popes, he changed his position, which before his election to the papal throne had been that of a warm advocate of the conciliar claims, and issued (Jan. 1460) the bull Execrabilis et in pristinis temporibus inauditus, in which he condemned as heretical the doctrine that the councils were superior to the popes, and proclaimed the anathema against any one who should dare to appeal to one. He issued another bull at the same time, promising forgiveness of sins to those who would take part in the crusade, and then dissolved the congress.
While Pius was at Mantua war broke out between the French and Spanish in southern Italy, and a rising of the barons devastated the Campagna. Hurrying back to Rome Pius succeeded in quelling the disorders, and sent his nephew Antonio Todeschini to the aid of Ferdinand, who made him duke of Amalfi find gave him his natural daughter Maria in marriage. This measure still further alienated the pope from the French, with whom he was at that time negotiating for the abrogation of the Pragmatic Sanction. When Louis XI. came to the throne (Nov. 1461), he sent to Pius saying that he had abolished the Pragmatic Sanction, hoping in return to get the kingdom of Naples for his countryman René of Anjou. When Pius refused to do anything to the prejudice of Ferdinand, Louis changed his attitude, and allowed the protests of the university of Paris and the parlements to persuade him to restore the ancient liberties of the Gallican Church. At the same time a serious quarrel with the Germans prevented anything being done towards a crusade. George Podiebrad, king of Bohemia, was plotting to depose the emperor Frederick III., who was supported by Pius. Diether, archbishop of Mainz, took the side of Podiebrad, and replied to Pius’s measures by appealing to a general council. He was declared deposed by the pope, but kept his seat, and in 1464 compelled the pope to recognize him again. The quarrel with Podiebrad, who was accused of supporting the Utraquist heresy, continued with increasing bitterness, but without any decisive result, until the death of Pius. In the meantime the pope did what he could to further the cause of the crusade. The discovery of alum mines at Tolf a gave him an unexpected pecuniary resource, and to stimulate the zeal of Christendom, Pius took the cross on the 18th of June 1464. He set out for Venice, where he intended to sail for the East, but he was attacked with a fever, and on the 14th of August 1464 he died.
Pius II. was a voluminous author. Besides poems, a novel and a play, he wrote a number of orations, which were considered models of eloquence in their day. His most valuable work, however, is his Commentaries, a history of his own life and times, told in an interesting and rational manner. He is very frank about himself, and most of the adverse judgments which have been pronounced on his character have been based on his own confessions. He was an opportunist, sailing along with any favourable breeze, and not quite enough in earnest about anything to pursue the same tack steadily for long. We must give him the credit, however, of advocating a statesman-like policy in the interests of the whole of Europe in trying to get the powers to unite against the Turks, who threatened to overwhelm them all.
See Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopädie (1904), vol. xv., where a full bibliography will be found; M. Creighton, History of the Papacy during the Reformation, vol. ii. (London, 1882); L. Pastor, History of the Popes from the close of the Middle Ages (Eng. trans., 1896, vol. ii.); Voigt, Pius II. (1856–1863). The Commentaries of Pius were published in 1584, under the name of Gobelinus Persona. His other works are found in Aeneae Silvii opera omnia (Basel, 1551). See also W. Boulting, Aeneas Silvius (1909). (P. Sm.)
Pius III. (Francesco Nanni-Todeschini-Piccolomini), pope from the 22nd of September to the 18th of October 1503, was born at Siena on the 9th of May 1439. After studying law at Perugia, he was made archbishop of Siena and cardinal-deacon of St Eustachio, when only twenty-two years of age, by his uncle Pius II., who permitted him to assume the name and arms of the Piccolomini. He was employed by subsequent popes in several important legations, as by Paul II. at the diet of Regensburg, and by Sixtus IV. to secure the restoration of ecclesiastical authority in Umbria. He bravely opposed the policy of Alexander VI., and was elected pope, amid the disturbances consequent upon the death of the latter, through the interested influence of Cardinal della Rovere, afterwards Julius II., and was crowned on the 8th of October 1503. He permitted Cesare Borgia to return to Rome, but promptly took in hand the reform of the curia. Pius was a man of blameless life, and would doubtless have accomplished much had he lived. His successor was Julius II.
See L. Pastor, History of the Popes, vol. vi., trans. by F. I. Antrobus (London, 1898); M. Creighton, History of the Papacy, vol. v. (London, 1901); F. Gregorovius, Rome in the Middle Ages, vol. viii., trans. by Mrs G. W. Hamilton (London, 1900–1902); Piccolomini, “Il Pontificato di Pio III.,” in Archivio stor. ital., vol. v. (Firenze, 1903).
Pius IV. (Giovanni Angelo Medici, or “Medighino”), pope from 1559 to 1565, was born at Milan on the 31st of March 1499, of an obscure family, not related to the Medici of Florence (a claim to such relationship was advanced after Giovanni Angelo had attained to prominence). The fortune of the family was established by an elder brother, Gian Giacomo, who fought his way to the marquisate of Marignano and distinguished himself in the service of the emperor. Giovanni Angelo studied in Bologna and Pavia, and for some time followed the law. Entering the service of the Church, he found favour with Paul III., who entrusted him with the governorship of several important towns, and in 1549 made him a cardinal. Julius III. sent him upon missions to Germany and Hungary. With Paul IV. he was out of favour, because not in sympathy with his policy, and accordingly retired to Milan. In the protracted and momentous conclave that followed the death of Paul the election of Pius (Dec. 25, 1559) was due to a compromise between the Spanish and French factions.
In temperament and habit Pius was the antithesis of his predecessor: affable, vivacious, convivial. He was, moreover, astute, diplomatic and experienced in affairs. He allowed the reform movement free course, but tried to repair certain injustices of Paul IV. (for example, releasing and reinstating Morone, who had been imprisoned on a charge of heresy), and mitigated some of his extreme decrees. But to the nephews of Paul he showed no mercy: they were charged with various crimes, condemned, upon testimony of suspicious validity, and executed on the 5th of March 1561. The Colonnesi, who had been active in the prosecution, recovered Paliano. But under Pius V. judgment was reversed, the memory of the Caraffa rehabilitated, and restitution made to the family. Pius IV. himself was not guiltless of nepotism; but the bestowment of the cardinalate and the archbishopric of Milan upon his nephew, the pure and upright Carlo Borromeo, redounded to the honour of his pontificate and the welfare of the church.
​After a suspension of ten years the council of Trent reconvened on the 18th of January 1562. Among the demands presented by the various nations were, the recognition of the equality of the episcopate, communion in both kinds, clerical marriage, and the use of the vernacular in Church services. It required all the pope's diplomacy to avoid compliance on the one hand, and a breach with the powers on the other. Thanks to Morone and Borromeo, however, he achieved his end. The council was dissolved on the 4th of December 1563, and its decrees and definitions confirmed by the pope (Jan. 26, 1564), who reserved to himself the sole right of interpretation. The decrees were immediately accepted by most of the Catholic states; only tardily, however, and with reservation by France and Spain. Various measures were taken for carrying the decrees into effect: residence was strictly enjoined; plurality of benefices prohibited; the Inquisition resumed, under the presidency of Ghislieri (afterwards Pius V.); a new edition of the Index published (1564); and the "Tridentine creed" promulgated (Nov. 13, 1564).
After the termination of the council Pius indulged his desire for ease and pleasure, to the great offence of the rigorists. A certain fanatic, Benedetto Accolti, brooding over the pope's unworthiness, felt inspired to remove him, but his plot was discovered and punished (1565). Pius fortified Rome, and contributed much to the embellishment of the city - among other works, the church of Sta Maria degli Angeli in the Baths of Diocletian; the Porta Pia; the Villa Pia in the Vatican Gardens; and the Palace of the Conservatori. He died on the 9th of December, and was succeeded by Pius V.
See Panvinio, continuator of Platina, De vitis pontiff. rom. (a contemporary of Pius); Ciaconius, Vitae et res gestae summorum pontiff. rom. (Rome 1601–1602; also contemporary); T. Müller, Das Konklave Pius IV. (Gotha, 1889; more comprehensive than the title suggests); Ranke, Popes (Eng. trans., Austin), i. 323 seq., 358 seq.; and v. Reumont, Gesch. der Stadt Rom. iii. 2, 534 seq., 730 seq. (T. F. C.)
Pius V (Michele Ghislieri), pope from 1566 to 1572, was born on the 17th of January 1504, in the Milanese. At the age of fourteen he became a Dominican monk. His austere life, his vehemence in attacking heresy and his rigorous discipline as prior of several monasteries proved his fitness for the work of reform, and he was appointed inquisitor in Como, where his zeal provoked such opposition as to compel his recall (1550). The chief inquisitor, Caraffa, convinced of his value, straightway sent him upon a mission to Lombardy, and in 1551 appointed him commissary-general of the Holy Office. When Caraffa became pope, Ghislieri was made bishop of Nepi and Sutri, cardinal (1557), and finally grand inquisitor, which office he discharged in a manner to make the name of “Fra Michele dell' Inquisizione” a terror. In this office he was continued by Pius IV., whom, however, he repelled by his excessive severity, and antagonized by his censoriousness and obstinacy. But the movement with which he was so fully identified was irresistible; and, after the death of Pius IV., the rigorists, led by Borromeo, had no difficulty in making him pope (Jan. 7, 1566).
Though pope, Pius did not cease to be a monk: his ascetic mode of life and his devotions suffered no interruption. Without delay he applied himself to the work of reform. Decrees and ordinances were issued with astonishing rapidity: the papal court was rid of everything unseemly, and became a model of sobriety; prostitutes were driven from the city, or confined to a certain quarter; severe penalties were attached to Sunday desecration, profanity and animal baiting; clerical residence was enforced; conventuals were compelled to live in strict seclusion according to their vows; catechetical instruction was enjoined. A new catechism appeared in 1566, followed by an improved breviary (1568), and an improved missal (1570). The use of indulgences and dispensations was restricted, and the penitential system reformed.
Pius was the avowed enemy of nepotism. One nephew, it is true, he made cardinal, but allowed him no influence: the rest of his relatives he kept at a distance. By the constitution Admonet nos (March 29, 1567), he forbade the reinvestiture of fiefs that should revert to the Holy See, arid bound the cardinals by oath to observe it. In March 1569 Pius ordered the expulsion of the Jews from the states of the Church. For commercial reasons they were allowed to remain in Rome and Ancona, but only upon humiliating conditions. In February 1571, the Umiliati, a degenerate monastic order of Milan, was suppressed on account of its complicity in an attempt upon the life of the archbishop, Carlo Borromeo.
The election of Pius to the papacy was the enthronement of the Inquisition: the utter extinction of heresy was his darling ambition, and the possession of power only intensified his passion. The rules governing the Holy Office were sharpened; old charges, long suspended, were revived; rank offered no protection, but rather exposed its possessor to fiercer attack; none were pursued more relentlessly than the cultured, among whom many of the Protestant doctrines had found acceptance; princes and states withdrew their protection, and courted the favour of the Holy See by surrendering distinguished offenders. Cosmo de' Medici handed over Pietro Carnesecchi (and two years later received in reward the title of grand duke, Sept. 1569); Venice delivered Guido Zanetti; Philip II., Bartolome de Carranza, the archbishop of Toledo. In March 1571 the Congregation of the Index was established and greater thoroughness introduced into the pursuit of heretical literature. The result was the flight of hundreds of printers to Switzerland and Germany. Thus heresy was hunted out of Italy: the only regret of Pius was that he had sometimes been too lenient. In 1567 Pius condemned the doctrines of Michael Baius, a professor of Louvain, who taught justification by faith, asserted the sufficiency of the Scriptures, and disparaged outward forms. Baius submitted; but his doctrines were afterwards taken up by the Jansenists.
The political activities of Pius were controlled by one principle, war upon the heretic and infidel. He spurred Philip II. on in the Netherlands, and approved the bloody work of Alva. He denounced all temporizing with the Huguenots, and commanded their utter extermination (ad internecionem usque). While it cannot be proven that he was privy to the massacre of St Bartholomew, still his violent counsels could not fail to stir up the most savage passions. He exclaimed loudly against the emperor's toleration of Protestantism, and all but wished his defeat at the hands of the Turks. He urged a general coalition of the Catholic states against the Protestants; and yet published, in sharper form, the bull In coena domini (1568), which was regarded by these very states as an attack upon their sovereignty. One of his cherished schemes was the invasion of England and the dethronement of Elizabeth, whom he excommunicated and declared a usurper (Feb. 25, 1570); but he was obliged to content himself with abetting plots and fomenting rebellions. He did, however, effect an alliance with Spain and Venice against the Turks, and contributed to the victory of Lepanto (Oct. 6, 1571).
Thus lived and wrought Pius, presenting “a strange union of singleness of purpose, magnanimity, austerity and profound religious feeling with sour bigotry, relentless hatred and bloody persecution” (Ranke). He died on the 1st of May 1572; and was canonized by Clement XI. in 1712.
See Ciaconius, Vitae et res gestae summorum pontiff. rom. (Rome, 1601–1602; a contemporary of Pius); Ada sanctorum, maij, tom. i. pp. 616 seq., containing the life by Gabuzio (1605), based upon an earlier one by Catena (1586); Falloux, Hist. de St Pie V. (3rd ed., Paris, 1858), eulogistic; Mendham, Life and Pontificate of St Pius V. (London, 1832), a bitter polemic. The life of Pius has also been written by Fuenmayor (Madrid, 1595), Paolo Alessandro Maffei (Rome, 1712), and by T. M. Granello (Bologna, 1877). His letters have been edited by Catena (vide supra), Goubau (Antwerp, 1640), and a select number in a French translation, by de Potter (Paris, 1826). See also Hilliger, Die Wahl Pius V. zum Papste (Leipzig, 1891); Ranke, Popes (Eng. trans., Austin), i. 361 seq., 384 seq. and von Reumont, Gesch. der Stadt Rom. iii. 2, 557 seq. (T. F. C.)
Pius VI (Giovanni Angelo Braschi), pope from 1775 to 1799, was born at Cesena, on the 27th of December 1717. After taking the degree of doctor of laws he went to Ferrara and became the private secretary of Cardinal Ruffo, in whose bishopric of Ostia and Velletri he held the post of uditore until 1753. His ​skill in the conduct of a mission to the court of Naples won him the esteem of Benedict XIV., who appointed him one of his secretaries and canon of St Peter's. In 1758 he was raised to the prelature, and in 1766 to the treasurership of the apostolic chamber by Clement XIII. Those who chafed under his conscientious economies cunningly induced Clement XIV. to create him cardinal-priest of San Onofrio on the 26th of April 1773, a promotion which rendered him for the time innocuous. In the four months' conclave which followed the death of Clement XIV., Spain, France and Portugal at length dropped their objection to Braschi, who was after all one of the more moderate opponents of the anti-Jesuit policy of the previous pope, and he was elected to the vacant see on the 15th of February 1775.
His earlier acts gave fair promise of liberal rule and reform in the defective administration of the papal states. He showed discrimination in his benevolences, reprimanded Potenziani, the governor of Rome, for unsuppressed disorders, appointed a council of cardinals to remedy the state of the finances and relieve the pressure of imposts, called to account Nicolo Bischi for the expenditure of moneys intended for the purchase of grain, reduced the annual disbursements by the suppression of several pensions, and adopted a system of bounties for the encouragement of agriculture. The circumstances of his election, however, involved him in difficulties from the outset of his pontificate. He had received the support of the ministers of the Crowns and the anti-Jesuit party upon a tacit understanding that he would continue the action of Clement, by whose brief Dominus ac redemptor (1773) the dissolution of the Society of Jesus had been pronounced. On the other hand the zelanti, who believed him secretly inclined towards Jesuitism, expected from him some reparation for the alleged wrongs of the previous reign. As a result of these complications Pius was led into a series of half measures which gave little satisfaction to either party: although it is perhaps largely due to him that the order was able to escape shipwreck in White Russia and Silesia; at but one juncture did he even seriously consider its universal re-establishment, namely in 1792, as a bulwark against revolutionary ideas. Besides facing dissatisfaction with this temporizing policy, Pius met with practical protests tending to the limitation of papal authority. To be sure “Febronius,” the chief German literary exponent of the old Gallican ideas, was himself led (not without scandal) to retract; but his positions were adopted in Austria. Here the social and ecclesiastical reforms undertaken by Joseph II. and his minister Kaunitz touched the supremacy of Rome so nearly that in the hope of staying them Pius adopted the exceptional course of visiting Vienna in person. He left Rome on the 27th of February 1782, and, though magnificently received by the emperor, his mission proved a fiasco; he was, however, able a few years later to curb those German archbishops who, in 1786 at the Congress at Ems, had shown a tendency towards independence. In Naples difficulties necessitating certain concessions in respect of feudal homage were raised by the minister Tannucci, and more serious disagreements arose with Leopold I. and Scipione de' Ricci, bishop of Pistoia and Prato, upon the questions of reform in Tuscany; but Pius did not think fit to condemn the offensive decrees of the synod of Pistoia (1786) till nearly eight years had elapsed. At the outbreak of the French Revolution Pius was compelled to see the old Gallican Church suppressed, the pontifical and ecclesiastical possessions in France confiscated and an effigy of himself burnt by the populace at the Palais Royal. The murder of the republican agent, Hugo Basseville, in the streets of Rome (January 1793) gave new ground of offence; the papal court was charged with complicity by the French Convention; and Pius threw in his lot with the league against France. In 1796 Napoleon invaded Italy, defeated the papal troops and occupied Ancona and Loreto. Pius sued for peace, which was granted at Tolentino on the 19th of February 1797; but on the 28th of December, of that year, in a riot created by some Italian and French revolutionists, General Duphot of the French embassy was killed and a new pretext furnished for invasion. General Berthier marched to Rome, entered it unopposed on the 13th of February 1798, and, proclaiming a republic, demanded of the pope the renunciation of his temporal authority. Upon his refusal he was taken prisoner, and on the 10th of February was escorted from the Vatican to Siena, and thence to the Certosa near Florence. The: French declaration of war against Tuscany led to his removal by way of Parma, Piacenza, Turin and Grenoble to the citadel of Valence, where he died six weeks later, on the 29th of August, 1799. Pius VII. succeeded him.
The name of Pius VI. is associated with many and often unpopular attempts to revive the splendour of Leo X. in the promotion of art and public works—the words “Munificentia Pii VI. P. M.” graven in all parts of the city, giving rise amongst his impoverished subjects to such satire as the insertion of a minute loaf in the hands of Pasquin with that inscription beneath it. He is best remembered in connexion with the establishment of the museum of the Vatican, begun at his suggestion by his predecessor, and with an unpractical and expensive attempt to drain the Pontine marshes.
Authorities: Zopffel and Benrath, “Pius VI.,” in Herzog Hauck, Realencyklopädie, 3rd ed., vol. xv. pp. 441–451 (Leipzig, 1904, with elaborate bibliography); F. Nielsen, History of the Papacy in the 19th Century, vol. i. chap. vii. (London, 1906); J. Gendry, Pie VI. sa vie, son pontificat, d'apres les archives vaticanes et de nombreux documents inédits (2 vols., Paris, 1907). (W. W. R.*)
Pius VII (Luigi Barnaba Chiaramonti), pope from 1800 to 1823, the son of Count Scipione Chiaramonti and the deeply religious Countess Ghini, was born at Cesena on the 14th of August 1740 (not 1742). After studying at Ravenna, at the age of sixteen he entered the Benedictine monastery of St Mary in his native town: here he was known as Gregorio. Almost immediately he was sent by his superiors to Padua and to Rome for a further course of studies in theology. He then held various teaching appointments in the colleges of his order at Parma and at Rome. He was created an abbot of his order by his relative Pius VI., who also appointed him bishop of Tivoli on the 16th of December 1782, and on the 14th of February 1785, because of excellent conduct of office, raised him to the cardinalate and the see of Imola. At the death of Pius VI. the conclave met at Venice on the 30th of November 1799, with the result that Chiaramonti, the candidate of the French cardinal-archbishop Maury, who was most skilfully supported by the secretary of the conclave Ercole Consalvi, was elected pope on the 14th of March 1800. He was crowned on the 21st of that month; in the following July he entered Rome, on the 11th of August appointed Consalvi cardinal-deacon and secretary of state, and busied himself with administrative reforms.
His attention was at once directed to the ecclesiastical anarchy of France, where, apart from the broad schism on the question of submission to the civil constitution of the clergy, discipline had been so far neglected that a large proportion of the churches, were closed, dioceses existed without bishops or with more than one, Jansenism and clerical marriage were on the increase, and indifference or hostility widely prevailed amongst the people. Encouraged by Napoleon's desire for the re-establishment of the Roman Catholic religion in France, Pius negotiated the celebrated concordat, which was signed at Paris on the 15th of July and ratified by Pius on the 14th of August 1801 (see Concordat). The importance of this agreement was, however, considerably lessened by the “articles organiques” appended to it by the French government on the 8th of April 1802. In 1804 Napoleon opened negotiations to secure at the pope's hands, his formal consecration as emperor. After some hesitation Pius was induced to perform the ceremony at Notre Dame and to extend his visit to Paris for four months; but in return for these favours he was, able to obtain from Napoleon merely one or two minor concessions. Pius, who arrived in Rome on the 16th of May 1805, gave to the college of cardinals a rose-coloured report of his experiences; but disillusionment was rapid. Napoleon soon began to disregard the Italian concordat of 1803, and himself decreed the dissolution of the marriage of his brother Jerome with Miss Patterson of Baltimore. The irritation between France and the Vatican increased so rapidly that on the 2nd of February 1808 Rome was ​occupied by General Miollis; a month later the provinces of Ancona, Macerata, Fermo and Urbino were united to the kingdom of Italy, and diplomatic relations between Napoleon and Rome were broken off; finally, by a decree issued from Schonbrunn on the 17th of May 1809, the emperor united the papal states to France. Pius retaliated by a bull excommunicating the invaders; and, to prevent insurrection, Miollis - either on his own responsibility, as Napoleon afterwards asserted, or by order of the latter - employed General Radet to take possession of the pope's person. The palace on the Quirinal was broken open during the night of July 5th, and, on the persistent refusal of Pius to rescind the bull of excommunication and to renounce his temporal authority, he was carried off, first to Grenoble, thence after an interval to Savona on the Gulf of Genoa. Here he steadfastly refused canonical institution to the bishops nominated by Napoleon; and, when it was discovered that he was maintaining a secret correspondence, he was deprived of all books, even of pen and ink. At length, his nerves shattered by insomnia and fever, he was willing to give satisfactory oral assurances as to the institution of the French bishops.
In May 181 Napoleon, on the pretext that the English might liberate the pope if he were left at Savona, caused the aged and sick pontiff to be transported to Fontainebleau; the journey was so hard that on Mount Cenis Pius received the viaticum. Arriving safely, however, at Fontainebleau, he was lodged in a suite of regal magnificence to await the return of the emperor from Moscow. When Napoleon arrived, he entered into personal negotiations with the pope, who on the 25th of January 1813 assented to a concordat so degrading that his conscience found no relief till the 24th of March, when, on the advice of the cardinal Pacca and Consalvi, he abrogated it; and on the 9th of May he proceeded to defy the emperor by declaring invalid all the official acts of the new French bishops. In consequence of the battle of Leipzig and the entry of the allied forces into France, Napoleon ordered in January 1814 that the pope be returned to Savona for safe keeping; but soon the course of events forced him to liberate the pope and give back the States of the Church. On the 19th of March Pius left Savona, and was received with rejoicing at Rome on the 24th of May. While Consalvi at the Congress of Vienna was securing the restitution of nearly all the papal territory, reaction had full swing at Rome; the Jesuits were restored; the French legislation, much of which was of great social value, was repealed; the Index and the Inquisition were revived. On his return Consalvi conducted a more enlightened and highly centralized administration, based largely on the famous Motu proprio of 1816; nevertheless the finances were in a desperate condition. Discontent centred perhaps in the Carbonari, a Liberal secret society condemned by the pope in 1821. The chief triumphs of Consalvi were the negotiation of a series of valuable concordats with all the Roman Catholic powers save Austria. In the latter years of Pius's life royalty often came to Rome; the pope was very gracious to exiled kings and showed notable magnanimity toward the family of Napoleon. He also attracted many artists to the city, including the greatest sculptors of the time, one of whom, the Protestant Thorwaldsen, prepared the tomb in which repose the remains of the gentle and courageous pontiff, who passed into rest on the 10th of August 1823. His successor was Leo XII.
Authorities:—Zopffel and Benrath, “Pius VII.,” in Herzog Hauck, Realencyklopädie, xv. 451–458 (Leipzig, 1904), (long list of older literature); Ilario Rinieri, La Diplomazia pontificia nel secolo XIX. (Rome, 1902), two volumes treating the years 1800–1805, based largely on Vatican sources; I. Rinieri, Napoleone Pio VII. (1804–1813), relazioni storiche su documenti inediti dell’ archivio vaticano (Turin, 1906); H. Chotard, Le Pape Pie VII. à Savone (Paris, 1887); Mary H. Allies, Pius the Seventh (London, 1897), a popular Roman Catholic biography; Leo Konig, S.J. Pius VII. Die Sakularisation and das Reichskonkordat (Innsbruck, 1904), based chiefly on Vienna material; H. Welschinger, Le Pape et l’empereur, 1804–1815 (Paris, 1905); Louis Madelin, La Rome de Napoleon: la domination française à Rome de 1809 à 1814 (Paris, 1906), an elaborate study; L. G. Wickham-Legg, “The Concordats” (Cambridge Modern History, vol. ix. ch. 7, 1906); Lady Blennerhassett, “The Papacy and the Catholic Church” (Cambridge Modern History, vol. x. ch. 5, 1907). Both these last have good bibliographies. (W. W. R.*)
Pius VIII. (Francesco Xaviero Castiglioni), pope from 1829 to 1830, who came of a notable family at Cingoli near Ancona, was born on the 10th of November 1761. He studied canon law at Rome, became vicar-general at Anagni and later at Fano, and in 1800 was appointed bishop of Montalto. Because he refused the oath of allegiance to the Napoleonic king of Italy he was carried captive to France; but in 1816 his steadfastness was rewarded by his being created cardinal-priest of Sta Maria in Trastevere; and this same year he was translated from the see of Montalto to that of Cesena. In 1821 he was made cardinal-bishop of Frascati, also grand penitentiary; and later he became prefect of the Congregation of the Index. In the conclave which followed the death of Leo XII., Castiglioni, the candidate of France, was elected pope on the 31st of March 1829. He avoided nepotism, abandoned the system of espionage employed by his predecessor, and published an encyclical condemning Bible societies and secret associations. He rejoiced over Catholic emancipation in England, recognized Louis Philippe as king of the French, and exhibited a pacific spirit in dealing with the problem of mixed marriages in Germany. Worn out with work, he died on the morning of the 1st of December 1830. His successor was Gregory XVI.
Authorities: Zopffel and Benrath, “Pius VIII.,” in HerzogHauck, Realencyklopädie, xv. 458 seq. (Leipzig, 1904, with bibliography); F. Nielsen, A History of the Papacy in the 19th Century, ii. 31–50 (London, 1906); P. B. Gams, Series episcoporum ecclesiae catholicae (Regensburg, 1873).  (W. W. R.*)
Pius IX. (Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti), pope from 1846 to 1878, was born on the 13th of May 1792 at Sinigaglia, the fourth son of Count Jerome and Countess Catherine Vollazi; the family of Mastai was of ancient descent, and the title of count came to it in the 17th century, while later the elder branch, allied by marriage with the Ferretti family, took that name in addition. He spent some time at the College of Piarists in Volaterra, and then proceeded to Rome with the intention of entering the pontifical guard as an officer. In spite of his good connexions, he was disappointed in this aim as it became known that he suffered from epilepsy. The malady, however, was surmounted; and in 1819 he was ordained priest. After ministering for some time in his native town, he accompanied Cardinal Muzzi to Chile (1823). On his return he was entrusted by Leo XII. with the direction of the Roman hospital of San Michele: in 1830 he received the archbishopric of Spoleto, in 1832 the bishopric of Imola, and in 1840 Gregory XVI. created him a cardinal, with the title Santi Pietro e Marecellino.
On the death of Gregory XVI. (June 1, 1846) the College of Cardinals met in conclave on the 14th of June. But their deliberations were destined to last but a short while; for, on the 16th of June, Cardinal Mastai Ferretti had already obtained the requisite two-thirds majority, and ascended the papal chair under the title of Pius IX. In his various capacities he had gained much popularity: he had shown himself to be of a kindly disposition and a zealous churchman, and his reputation for piety and tact stood high; he possessed, too, a winning personality and a handsome presence.
The reign of Pius IX. began at an extremely critical time. The problem of the government of the Papal States, transmitted to him by his predecessor, stood in urgent need of solution, for the actual conditions were altogether intolerable. The irritation of the populace had risen to such a pitch that it found vent in revolts which could only be quelled by the intervention of foreign powers; and the ferment in the dominions of the Church was accentuated by the fact that the revolutionary spirit was in the ascendant in all the states of Europe. The proclamation of a general amnesty for all political offenders made an excellent impression on the people; and Pius at once instituted preparations for a reform of the administration, the judicature and the financial system. The regulations affecting the censorship were mitigated, and a breath of political liberalism vitalized the whole government. Pius at once acquired the reputation of a reforming pope. But the prestige so gained was not sufficient to calm the people permanently, and two demands were urged with ever increasing energy—a share in the government and a national ​Italian policy. The problem of giving the people a due share in the government was one of peculiar difficulty in the papal states. It was not simply a question of adjusting the claims of monarch and subject: it was necessary, at the same time, to oust the clergy - who, till then, had held all the more important offices in their own hands—from their dominant position, or at least to limit their privileges. That the clerical character of the administration could not be indefinitely retained was plain enough, it would seem, to any clear-thinking statesman: for, since the restoration of the papal state in 1814, the pernicious effects of this confusion of the spiritual and the secular power could no longer be denied. But Pius IX. lacked the courage and perspicacity to draw the inevitable conclusions from these premises; and the higher clergy at Rome were naturally opposed to a policy which, by laicizing the administration, would have deprived them of the power and privileges they had so long enjoyed. In these circumstances it is not surprising that the pope, while making concessions to his people, did so with reservations which, so far from restoring peace, served only to aggravate the turmoil.
By a motu proprio of the 2nd of October 1847 the government of the city of Rome was reorganized and vested in a council of 1 00 members, not more than four of whom were to be clerics. But the pope reserved to himself the right of nominating the first members, and the new senate was only later to have the right of filling up vacancies by co-optation. The institution of a state council (consulta) was announced on the 19th of April 1847; and on the 14th of October it was called into existence by a motu proprio. It consisted of 24 councillors, who were to be selected by the pope from a list of candidates to be submitted by the provincial assemblies. A cardinal and one other prelate were to be at its head. The consulta was to be divided into four sections, dealing with (1) legislation, (2) finance, (3) internal administration, (4) the army and public works. Matters of importance were, however, to be submitted to the College of Cardinals, after being debated in the consulta. A motu proprio of the 29th of December altered the constitution of the ministerial council. Nine mutually independent ministries were formed, and the principle of the responsibility of the ministers was established: but all the positions were filled by clerics.
The agitation for constitutional government was urgent in the demand for further concessions; but they came too late. On the 12th of February a proclamation of the pope transferred three portfolios to the laity; but the impression produced by the news of the revolution in Paris nullified the effect. At the formation of the Antonelli ministry (March 11), only the three departments of foreign affairs, finance and education, were reserved by the clergy; while the remaining six were entrusted to laymen. On the 14th of March 1848 Pius took the last step, and published a constitution (Fundamental Statute for the Secular Government of the States of the Church). Two chambers were to be formed. The first (alto consiglio) consisted of members nominated for life by the pope; the second, of a hundred elected deputies. The laws adopted by these two chambers had first to undergo the scrutiny of the College of Cardinals, before being submitted to the pope for his assent or rejection. Ecclesiastical, or ecclesiastico-political, affairs were exempted from the jurisdiction of the parliament; which was further required to abstain from the enactment of laws conflicting with the discipline of the Church, and from criticism of the diplomatic and religious relations of the Holy See with foreign powers.
The utility of this constitution was never tested; for the demand for an extension of popular rights was now eclipsed by a still more passionate aspiration towards the national unity of Italy. This nationalist movement at once took head against Austria. On the 18th of March the revolution broke out in Milan, and King Albert of Sardinia undertook the conduct of the war against the emperor. When news of the events at Milan reached Rome the populace was swept away in a whirlwind of enthusiasm: the Austrian embassy was mobbed; the imperial arms, surmounting the main gate of the palace, were torn down; and great troops of volunteers clamoured to be led against Austria. Pius was carried away at first on the flood-tide of excitement, and seemed, after his proclamation of the 30th of March, on the point of conferring his blessing upon the war against Austria. But the course of political events during the next few weeks damped his. ardour. When, on the 29th of April, in his allocation to the cardinals, he proclaimed the papal neutrality, the Romans received his vacillation as a sign of treachery; and the storm, precluded from discharging its fury on Austria, broke over his head. Whea the ministry in power resigned office on the 1st of May, the Mamiani administration was formed, only one cleric being included. Mamiani himself, whose writings were on the Index, had little sympathy with the pope, and did all that was possible to complete the secularization of government in the States of the Church. He received his dismissal on the 1st of August, and was followed by Count Fabbri, then by Count de Rossi, who made the last attempt to restore order by a moderate liberal policy. On the 15th of November, as he was about to open the Chambers, he was assassinated on the staircase leading to the hall of session. A state of anarchy ensued. Armed bands gathered before the Quirinal, and attempted to storm it. To avoid further bloodshed the pope was compelled to assent to the formation of a radically democratic ministry under Galetti. The Swiss, who composed the papal guard, were disbanded; and the protection of the pontiff was transferred to the civil militia; in other words, Pius IX. was a prisoner. On the evening of the 24th of November he contrived by the aid of the French and Bavarian ambassadors—the duc d'Harcourt and Count Spaurto leave the palace unobserved, in the dress of a common priest, and to reach Gaeta in the kingdom of Naples. From this refuge he issued a breve on the 27th of November, protesting against the sacrilege practised on himself, declaring all actions forced upon him null and void, and appointing a commission to carry on the government in his absence. Since the Chamber declined to recognize this step, and the pope was equally resolute in refusing to hold any intercourse with the deputation which it despatched to him, a supreme Giunta was provisionally created by the Chamber on the 11th of December to discharge all the functions assigned to the executive power by the constitution. On the 17th of the same month Pius made a public protest; and, as soon as the elections for a national assembly were announced, he forbade any participation in them, menacing the disobedient with the penalties of the Church (Jan. 1, 1849). The elections, however, were held; and on the 9th of February the constituent assembly decreed, by 142 votes to 23, the erection of a Roman republic. Pius answered by a protest dated the 14th of February. All the ecclesiastical property of the Roman state was now declared to be vested in the republic; convents and religious edifices were requisitioned for secular purposes; benevolent institutions were withdrawn from clerical influence; and church establishments were deprived of the right to realize their possessions. In the beginning of December Pius had already appealed to the European powers for assistance; and on the 7th of February 1849 it was resolved in the Consistory to approach officially France, Austria, Spain and Naples, with a view to their armed intervention. The French republic, under the presidency of Louis Napoleon, was the first state to throw troops into Italy. On the 24th of April General Oudinot appeared before Civita Vecchia; only to be defeated at first by Garibaldi. But, after receiving reinforcements, he prosecuted the war successfully, and made his entry into Rome on the 3rd of July; while, in the early part of May an Austrian army advanced into the north of the papal states. On the 14th of July Oudinot proclaimed the restoration of the pontifical dominion; and, three days later, Pius IX. issued a manifesto entrusting the government to a commission appointed by himself.
On the 12th of April 1850 Pius returned to Rome, supported by foreign arms, embittered, and hostile henceforward to every form of political liberalism or national sentiment. In Gaeta he had mentally cut himself loose from all ideas of progress, and had thrown himself into the arms of the Jesuits. His subsequent policy was stamped by reaction. Whether it might have been possible to avoid the catastrophe of 1870 is a difficult question. But there can be no question whatever that the policy which ​Pius now inaugurated, of restoring the old pre-revolutionary conditions, sealed the fate of the temporal dominion of the papacy. He made no attempt to regain the estranged affections of the populace, and took no measures to liberate himself and his subjects from the incubus of the last few years. He even sought to exact vengeance for the events of that period: the state officials, who had compromised themselves, lost their offices; and all grants in aid were forfeited if the recipients were discovered by the secret commissions (consigli di censure) to have taken part in the revolutionary movement. The tribunals extorted declarations on the part of witnesses by flogging, deprivation of food, and like methods of torture. In many cases the death sentence was executed at their instance, though the guilt of the accused was never established. The system of precautionary arrest, as it was termed, rendered it possible for any man to be thrown into prison, without trial and without verdict, simply on the ground that he lay under suspicion of plotting against the government. The priests, who usurped the judicial function, displayed such cruelty on several occasions that officers of the Austrian army were compelled to record a protest. The consequence of these methods was that every victim—innocent or guilty—ranked as a martyr in the estimation of his fellow-citizens. A subsidiary result was the revival of brigandage, which found a suspicious degree of support among the people. Corruption was rampant among the officials; the police were accused of illicit bargaining with criminals; and nothing but contempt was entertained for the papal army, which was recruited from the dregs of humanity. To this was added a disastrous financial administration, under which the efficiency and credit of the country sank to appalling depths. The system of taxation was calculated with a view to relieving the Church and the clergy, and imposing the main burden upon the laity. In this department the family of Cardinal Antonelli seems to have played a fatal part. The secretary of state was born in humble circumstances: when he died he left a fortune of more than 100,000,000 lire, to which a daughter succeeded in establishing her claim. His brother Felippo was president of the Roman Bank, and his brother Luigi the head of the Annona—an office created to regulate the import of grain. The pope himself had neither the will nor the power to institute searching financial reforms; possibly, also, he was ignorant of the facts.
The mismanagement which obtained in the papal dominions could not escape the observation of the other powers. As early as the Congress of Paris in 1856 the English ambassador, Lord Clarendon, had directed an annihilating criticism against the government of the pontiff; and a convincing proof of the justice of his verdict was given by Pius himself, in his treatment of the famous Mortara case. A Jewish boy of this name had been torn from his parents in Rome and the rite of baptism performed on him without their knowledge or consent. The pope flatly refused to restore the "Christian" to his Jewish parents, and turned a deaf ear both to the protest of public opinion and the diplomatic representations of France and England. The sequel to this mode of government was that the growing embitterment of the subjects of the Church came to be sympathized with outside the bounds of Italy, and the question whether the secular authority of the papacy could be allowed to continue became a much-debated problem. Even the expression of the doubt was symptomatic. In 1859 appeared an anonymous brochure, Le Pape et le congrès, composed by Laguerronniere, the friend of Napoleon III., in which it was proposed to ensure the pope “un revenu considerable” and the city of Rome, but to relieve him of a political task to which he was not competent. In 1861 another anonymous pamphlet, Pro causa italica ad episcopos catholicos, was published in Florence, advocating the ecclesiastico-political programme of Cavour; and the pope was horrified when he discovered that it came from the pen of Passaglia, the professor of dogmatic theology. In spite of all, the national idea gained strength in Italy, and the movement towards unity found powerful champions in King Victor Emmanuel of Sardinia and his great statesman Cavour. Free scope was given when the understanding between the two powers protecting the papal state—France and Austria—broke down. So soon as Napoleon and Cavour had come to an agreement war ensued, France and Sardinia being ranged against Austria (18J9). The result was that Austria lost the greater part of her Italian possessions, while the pope also forfeited two-thirds of his dominions. By the war of 1866, in which Italy fought on the Prussian side, Victor Emmanuel gained Venice in addition; so that the States of the Church now formed the last remaining obstacle to complete national unity. In September 1864, France—who had been the protectress of these states since 1849—had concluded a treaty with Victor Emmanuel, undertaking to withdraw her garrison from Rome in two years time; while, on his part, the king agreed to abstain from any attack on the papal dominions, and to guarantee the safety of the pope and the patrimonium Petri. The emperor Napoleon had, in point of fact, recalled his troops in 1866; but in 1867, when Garibaldi crossed the frontiers of the papal state at the head of his volunteers, he declared the treaty violated and again threw his regiments into Rome. Three years later the time came when he could employ his arms more advantageously elsewhere, and after the outbreak of the war with Germany Rome was evacuated. The news that the French Empire had fallen produced an electrical effect in Italy: the Italian parliament called on the king to occupy Rome; on the 8th of September Victor Emmanuel crossed the borders; and on the 10th of September the green-white-and-red of the tricolour floated over the Capitol. The protests of Pius IX. remained unheeded, and his attempts to secure another foreign intervention met with no success. On the 2nd of October Victor Emmanuel instituted a plebiscite in Rome and the possessions of the Church to decide the question of annexation. The result of the suffrage was that 153,681 votes were given in favour of union with Italy, and 1507 against the proposed incorporation: that is to say only the direct dependants of the Vatican were opposed to the change. The papal state was now merged in the kingdom of Italy, which proceeded to define its diplomatic relations with the Holy See by the law of the 13th of May 1871 (see Italy: History).
In his capacity as head of the Church, Pius IX. adhered to the principles of the Ultramontanist party, and contributed materially to the victory of that cause. The political reaction which followed the revolutionary era in most quarters of Europe offered a favourite soil for his efforts; and in several countries he found it possible to regulate the relations between Church and state from the standpoint of the curia. In 1851 he concluded a concordat with Queen Isabella II. of Spain, proclaiming Roman Catholicism the sole religion of the Spanish people, to the exclusion of every other creed (art. 1); and we find the same provision in another concordat with the South American republic of Ecuador (1862). A third concordat, negotiated with the emperor Francis Joseph I. of Austria (1855), entrusted the supervision of schools and the censorship of literature to the clergy, recognized the canon law, and repealed all secular legislation conflicting with it. France came into line with the wishes of the pope in every respect, as Napoleon needed clerical support in his political designs. Even in Germany he found no resistance; on the contrary, he was able to secure advantageous compacts from individual states (Hesse, 1854; Wurttemberg, 1857). In fact, the growing tendency to romanize Catholicism—to bring it, that is to say, into close connexion with Rome, and to a state of dependency on the guidance and instructions of the curia—made special progress in Germany.
Among the most important acts of Pius IX. must be counted his proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, by the bull Ineffabilis Deus, on the 8th of December 1854. In this bull the preservation of Mary from every stain of hereditary sin, in the first moment of her conception, was declared to be a divinely revealed truth, which consequently demanded universal acceptance (see Immaculate Conception). By this means a view, which till then had been no more than a pious belief, was elevated into a dogma to be held de fide; though grave doubts on the subject had always been entertained, even in the midst of the Church itself. For the inner life of that ​Church this solution of the controversy was of great significance, and created a desire for further dogmatic decisions on the Virgin Mary - her resurrection and ascension. But the procedure of Pius IX. proved of far-reaching importance from another point of view. True, he had taken the opinion of the bishops on the subject, and had received the assent of a large majority; none the less, the verdict was pronounced by himself alone, not by an ecumenical council. Thus, by arrogating the function formerly exercised by the ecumenical council, he virtually laid claim to the infallibility which had always been regarded as inherent only in the doctrinal pronouncements of such a council: in other words, he availed himself of a privilege not accorded to him till the 18th of July 1870.
Though the Marian dogma of 1854 received, with very few exceptions, an enthusiastic welcome in Roman Catholic circles, another measure of the pope, ten years later, excited a painful sensation even among the orthodox members of the Church. As reigning sovereign of the papal states Pius IX. had passed through a "liberal period": as head of the Church, he had never been liable to attacks of liberalism. Nevertheless, his return from exile left its mark on his spiritual administration. For from this period onwards he deliberately and stubbornly set his face against the influence of modernism on ecclesiastical life; showed his displeasure at and distrust of the scientific theology and philosophy which marked a moderate advance (Gunther, Frohschammer and Döllinger); and, entrenched in the stronghold of medieval ideals, combated the transformations of the new order of society, and the changes in the relationship between Church and state, which obtained in most countries of Europe since the French Revolution. After long and careful consultation, the adverse criticisms which he had expressed on various occasions were published on the 8th of December 1864, together with the encyclical Quanta cura, under the title Syllabus complectens praecipuos nostrae aetatis errores (see Syllabus). In this Pius claimed for the Church the control of all culture and all science, and of the whole educational system. He rejected the liberty of faith, conscience and worship enjoyed by other creeds; and bade an easy farewell to the idea of tolerance. He claimed the complete independence of the Church from state control; upheld the necessity of a continuance of the temporal power of the Roman See; and finally, in the last clause, declared that "the pontiff neither can be nor ought to be reconciled with progress, liberalism and modern civilization." The publication of this syllabus created a profound impression: for it declared war on modern society, and committed the papacy to the principles of Ultramontanism. But, as any attempt to translate its precepts into practice would entail a disastrous conflict with the existing regime as established by law, Roman Catholic circles have frequently shown a tendency to belittle the significance of the manifesto and to deny that its rules are absolutely binding. But these well-meant explanations, however comprehensible, are refuted by the unequivocal pronouncements of Pius IX., Leo XIII., and many recognized ecclesiastical authorities—e.g. Cardinal Manning, archbishop of Westminster, who described the syllabus as an emanation from the highest doctrinal authority in the Church.
The zenith of Pius's pontificate was attained on the 18th of July 1870 when the Vatican council proclaimed the infallibility of the pope and the universality of his episcopate, thus elevating him to a pinnacle which none of his predecessors had reached and at the same time fulfilling his dearest wish. That, personally, he laid great stress on the acceptance of the dogma, was a fact which he did not attempt to conceal during the long preliminary deliberations of the council; and his attitude was a not inconsiderable factor in determining its final resolutions. But the loss of the papal states, immediately afterwards, was a blow from which he never recovered. Whenever he brought himself to speak of the subject—and it was not rarely—he repeated his protest in the bitterest terms, and, to the end of his days, refused to be reconciled with the "sacrilegious" king of Italy. When, in Germany, the situation created by the Vatican council led to the outbreak of the Kulturkampf, Pius IX. failed to display the tact peculiar to his successor. For, in the encyclical Quod numquam (Feb. 5, 1875), he took the rash step of declaring invalid the Prussian laws regulating the relationship between Church and state—the only result being that the feud was still further embittered.
In these later years the dark days of his “captivity” were amply compensated by the proofs of reverence displayed by Roman Catholic Christianity, which accorded him magnificent ovations as his period of jubilee began to fall due. The twenty-fifth anniversary of his pontificate was celebrated with great splendour on the 16th of June 1871; for he was the first pope who had thus reached the traditional “years of Peter.” In 1872 his Both birthday gave occasion for new demonstrations; and 1875 was a so-called “year of jubilee.” Finally, in 1877, the fifty years of his priesthood were completed: an event which brought him innumerable expressions of loyalty and led to a great manifestation of devotion to the Holy See from all the Roman Catholic world. On the 7th of February 1878 Pius IX. died. His successor was Leo XIII.
Biographies.—Hulskamp, Papst Pius IX. in seinem Leben and Wirken (2nd ed., Munster, 1870); Legge, Pius IX. (London, 2 vols., 1872); Gillet, Pie IX., sa vie et les actes de son pontificat (Pat is, 18 77); Shea, Life and Pontificate of Pius IX. (New York, 1877); Trollope, Life of Pius IX. (London, 2 vols., 1877); F. v. Dellinger “Pius IX.” in his Kleine Schriften, ed. Reusch (Stuttgart, 1890), p. 558 sqq.); Stepischnegg, Papst Pius IX. and seine Zeit (2 vols., Vienna, 1879); Wappmansperger, Leben und Wirken des Papstes Pius IX. (Regensburg, 1879); Pougeois, Histoire de Pie IX., son pontificat et son siècle (6 vols., Paris, 1877-1886); Fr. Nielsen, The History of the Papacy in the 19th Century, translated under the direction of A. F. Mason, vol. ii. (London, 1906). For his work as sovereign of the papal states, see F. v. Döllinger, Kirche and Kirchen, Papsttum and Kirchenstaat (Munich, 1861); M. Brosch, Geschichte des Kirchenstaates, vol. ii. (Gotha, 1882); A. F. Nurnberger, Papsttum and Kirchenstaat (3 vols., Mainz, 1897-1900); C. Mirbt "Die Geschichtschreibung des vatikanischen Konzils," in the Historische Zeitschrift, ioi. Bd. (3. Folge, 5 Bd.) 1908, p. 529–600.
Sources.–Acta Pii IX. (4 vols., Rome, 1854 sqq.); Acta sanctae sedis (Rome, 1865 sqq.). A selection of the documents for the history of Pius IX. will be found in C. Mirbt, Quellen zur Geschichte des Papsttums and des römischen Katholicismus (2nd ed., Tubingen, 1901), §§ 422–442, pp. 361–390.  (C. M.)
Pius X (Giuseppe Sarto), elected pope in 1903, was born on the 2nd of June 1835, of humble parents, at the little town of Riete in the province of Treviso, Italy. He studied theology at the episcopal seminaries of Treviso and Padua, and was ordained priest in 1858. For seventeen years he acted as parish priest at various small places in Venetia, until in 1875 he was appointed canon of the cathedral and superior of the seminary at Treviso. In 1880 he refused the bishopric of Treviso, but in 1884, on the express command of Leo XIII., he accepted that of Mantua. On the 12th of June 1893 he was created a cardinal, and three days later was nominated patriarch of Venice. In Venice he made himself very popular owing to his piety, his simplicity and geniality, and by his readiness to act in harmony with the Italian government. He succeeded Leo XIII. in his election to the papal chair on the 4th of August 1903.