The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-11-11 00:00:00

DEATH OF CARDINAL ANTONELLI.

The Correspondent of The Times writing from Rome,
tuader date Nov. 6, rays :--
_

.- -
Cardinal Antonelli, Pontifical Secretary of State,
died at the Vatican this morning at five o'cloele in
the 71st year of his age, ,For some years the Oardinal
has 61AM-red severtV"from gout, mid tinting the last
few weeks the attacks have greatly increased in
severity. Unwilling to recognize the gravity of his
case, he insisted on continuing the performance of the
duties of his office. Acting contrary to the advice of
his physicians, he not only refused to keep his
bed, but persevered: in pa:jug his daily visit to
the Pope, remaining with His flolfnsss for
eocee time for the despatch of business. The day
before yesterday he gave an audience to Baron
taude, the new French Ambassador. Yester-
day his Eminence was with the Pope, givine him an
account of the sums of money received from Spanish
Pilgrims, when he was suddenly taken with severe
attacks of his malady in the chest, and had to be
carried back to his apartment. The Pope was so
teuch alarmed that be immediately despatched Ines-
gengers for his own physician and surgeon, Drs.
l'eragallf and Ceccarelli, and, after bolding a consulta-
tion, they informed the Cardinal that he was at the
Point of death. At first he would not give credence to
what they told him, but afterwards he consented to
receive the last Sacraments. When these were
ltdministereci he was already too far gone to swallow
the wafer. Notwithstanding the many warnings lately
given him, Cardinal Antonelli placed so little belief in
hie approaching end that he was occupied, among other
things, in preparing a handeome present he intended to
offer personally to the Pope on his next name-day,
the Festival of St. John the Evangelist. just
before his death he sent to beg the Pope's last
bleasing,eimploring his pardon for all faults he may
have committed during his long administration of the
affairs of the Pontifical States. It is affirmed that he
never went outside the walls of the Vatican Palace
Mace September, 1870. His colossal fortune, it is said
will be divided equally among his brother, Count
.A.ngelo Antonelli, and three other members of his
family, and he has left his valuable and unique collec-
tion of precious stones and rare marbles to the Vatican
Museum. BY disposition of His Holiness, Moneignore
Vannutelli will for the time being succeed Cardinal
Antonelli in his office. Masses have been celebrated
Iu the Vatican during the day for the repose of his
sow,

e.,the Correspondent of The Times, writing from Rome on the
la, also nap :
Thig morning; all the ,4ktabassadors and Ministers
Credited to the Holy See called upon Monsignor°
cv,,_arlittelli, pro-substitute of the Pontifical Secretary of
"404te, and afterwards upon Monsignor Meech',
"xeitestro di Camera of his Holiness, to express their
coudolences on the death of Cardinal Antonelli.
The Cardinal's body lay be state to-day in a chapelle
rckette prepared in one of his reception rooms, next to -
wcee, containing his collection of precious stones. It
,as dressed in the violet robes of a. Cardinal Deacon,
'oe heeds fastened together on the breast in the atti-
tude of prayer, and holding a simple cross. On the head
Placed the Cardinal's Mitre. I observed hut very
little alteration in his face, except a elieht discolora-
!lop ardund the orbit of the right eye. His red beretta
1,111 placed upon a temporary altar, at which requiem
ulasees were celebrated all the morning. At °tie aide
o,f the room was the plain shell 1E414%e
;hich the body will
oe removed to-night' to -Santa,. .11? Trsuispontina,
_where a grand funeral ••
mass ii ]l,, celebrated on
LThersday morning. Ma,ses also-will be sung in his
itular church, Santa Maria, in Via Leta. His
.Idoliness the Pope visited.the dying , Cardinal twice
during the night of Sunday-ORA did not, as reported,
.minister the Sacram,nt to him in articulo mortis..
-Matey reporte are going about. ats,to who will be
Antonelli's sticetelsoe. . Cardinals Franchi and
rardi are spoken of; bat it Must be remembered that
46 Cardinal's Secretary er,State is considered as die-
for Pontifical election.
Moe
signor Bled, Major OMO to His Holiness, will
brovisionaLly assume the, duties Of the Palatine Ad-
thol.tration which:ii.innezed to that of Prefect of
e
'eacred Aptaitolk giNktoee, held by the late Cardi•
,
eardinel Antonelli is believed to have left about
Un
e
0001. 10,000,0001. of which, it is said, is invested
•nglan
1111,e Pope having given his consent to the Antonellt-4,
tia-"," Y choosing the place where the Cardinal's body'.
h Ad be interred, it will be laid lathe mausoleum they
n4ve recently erected in the Cemetery of San Lorenzo,
1.,--tltskide the walls. Intermural burial is nottrictlyt
ted by civil law.
h is said that when the Cardinal's death was an-
onaced to the Pop° hi burst into tears, and, sinking
on,
de his knees, he began to •tiris3i-fOr the soul of his
,saiParted Minister. He wanted to look upon him
-n in death, but was dissuaded.
Within. two hours after the death of Cardinal Antonelli,
°ant ovtlier notability connected with the temporal reign
It LW! IX passed away in the person of Prir ce
481:4311. Honorary General of Brigade in the Pontifical
th,:xl,„T' Ho was about leaving hie room at eeven o'clock in
p_ired—'ruing, when he was taken suddenly ill, and ex-
•-e,'""inediately. He was one year younger than
Cardinal Antonelli
e.T,)he Cardinal Vicar Patrizzi, who has been seriously
f r Bonze time, is reported better.
Cardinals Capalti and Blzzari are also confined to
their bede.
A Thq baily News givesthe following sketch of Cardinal
'lalfronelli's eventful life :--
, The deceased was born on the 2nd of April, 180% at.
eennino, a market-town on the Neapoliten frontier. His
I)lather. a neatherd and woodcutter, was des.cended from an
11, family in the Romagna. Alter the destruction of his
Ptrth-place, a notorious den of thieves, by the Pontifical
odarrnerie young Antonelli came to Rome, and entered
''l3 great Seminary. There he so diseinguished himself as to
tract the notice of rope Gregory XVI., who took him into
his confidence, and marked him for a Statesman's career.
Promoted to bis k prelate, and was then appointed as
etT,Vuleitr to the sepreme tribunal of Skate ; and, later
`s a delegate in Orvieto, Viterbo, and Macerate.
Fita. 1841 the Pope named him Under-Secretary of
/kr' 111 the Ministry of the Interior : In 1844,
ki_eser-Treasurer in the Finance Department: and in 1845
i:,,:lbeee Minister in place of ToatL When Pius IX. succeeded
etie,‘,e
,r)aPaey, Antonelli, who had hitherto been a zealous
ie,4.7e1 n of spiritual and temporal abselutism, allied him-
ithE; h the Liberal and reforming party, and so conciliated
he ..:IYrottr of hie new master. His pliability, behind which
ero'Z7i canning enough to conceal much energy of character,
to I;°4 hirn an influence over the Pope which speedily rose
ebte,,a real supremacy Having on the 12th of June, 1847,
eftt.,'"eed the cardinal's hat, he entered into the first Ministry
whose formation Pius IX. initiated his, reforms. The
late 51 agitations which since the events of February,
toe; 'Ad also swept Rome into their vortex took Antoneill
kokti, *hen time from the helm of the State, as the dis-
Stee.:eh „pi the time was repugnant to all priestly
teA"'"„titit whatever. But as early as the beginning of
he reappeared as President of a Liberal Ministry, con-
en_ett ot nine members, of whom only three belonged to the
ett7Jhood. The Cardinal thought it advisable, in prevailing
Oi *fiances, to swim with the stream. While the Pope
kt,e 14th of March proclaimed a real constitution, this
1,16:4ter fell in with the national enthusiasm and despatched,
Ceeftt explicit instructions, an army corps of 17,000 men
ke4e northern frontier to support the Piedmontese in Lom-
-A-ntonelli, however, soon convinced himself that the
be e rale of cardinal on the one hand and popular Minister
Lte other could not be kept up for ever, and accordingly
grZte(l the first opportunity of sliding back again into the old
Uteliae; After the capitulation of the Roman troops at Vicenza
!epre„l.lB4B), the Pope, at Antonelli's instigation, had to
44444 iteaseurhinscl army ermnation of the war, and to explain that he
to oppose the Austrians. The indigna-
Nn‘e the People at this desertion of the national cause
ed itaelf so menacingly in Rome that Antonelli and
,keri;;lleagtles resigned the conduct of puolic affairs to the
zetb,eani. mew
mter Lee• Antonelli, therefore, ceased to be the ,
e kee et Plus IX., but, all the same he remained ;
Of ret counsellor of his Holiness, and the real director I
tale rll3ll Miley. In Gaeta. whither he had followed
-ereit-ve on the latter" flight from Rome he was
IAW, with the dignity of a Secretary of State
'Natt "bus- After the capitulation of Rome he pre-
e the imnaediate return of the soft-natured Plus IX.,
't1e,)44.%e he o wished, tranquilly and out of harm's way, to pro.
Work the work of restoration. With the Pope he actually
retttr
tete on the 12th of April, 1850. By the laws of 11th
,the ent4,,ller, 1850, the Secretary of State became not merely
,72111e-'erelee. but the sole chief of the political constitution,
t',uStitt."B ,contemporaneoasly, as President of the Council
' 'Detained considerable influence over the admintstra-
-.get Justice in its higher reference; thence it came about
Ate 'Lee% the revolution Plus IX restricted himself more
toe reere to his spiritual functions, and made over the
ert,
_ scent to the Cardinal.
d otibted opponent to the Cardinal's reactionary policy
ril
etta red In Count Cavotu. For when the latter had at the
Congress 011856 drawn the attention of Europe to the
Ceil_everiament of Italy in general,
and the States of the
in particular, Antonelli found his position insecure,
01,0 in the Vatican itself he encountered
the most violent
topsition from the Jesuits. However, he remained at his
'the', kis, thanks to his diplomatic dexterity, he appeared to
elut Indispensable in the now rapidly precipitating poll-
Before all Antonelli tried to persuade the
the lean Powers that the disturbances that had broken out in
'it Legations Legations were the work of Cavour ; and after
Oki ramantiel, by the decree of the 18th December, 1860,
AgebaVien possession of the Romagna, Antonelli protested
t.in a Note, in which he assailed the Pledmontese Go-
littie,h'eed,ain the most violent terms. A similar proteatt
for
411411 els tfalel6' Sat Ke
piUmlb'iecrtgl6 fmcomnatenmuegtel rein' tennaiioonr
Ih_e4.l)2?.ropprerty belonging to the monastic institutions in the
teovinces. For the newly•established Empire of
la.,eL ezneelli at first had prepared the support of the
!tttetttb,' out later in its history, when Itiaximilian's Govern-
aasactetateadkell, in the autumn of 1834, a Liberal direction,
exte pemtio_ a. distinctly hostile attitude towards it.
ter r the m the Vatican increased in influence
ev
si avetirite of the Jesuits, the War Mints-
:ent "ode, fell in October, 1865. Though this
.I,'"'e rite to anticipations of a more .% coin-
accord
h'ntralattel et the Curia in its opposition to Victor
i;ertien
_arid the Unitarian party, yet Antonelli, after a
French garrison had, in terms of the Franco-
teh in!erition of Slatember, 1164, left the States of the
,ztewere eveniber, 1865, addressed a note to the European
et,Zlre Mee Atr_eluo the whole obstinacy of the Vatican policy
.444, 18e6. liwroeground Equally in a circular Note of Feb.
relati &Ai combatted the principle, of non 1 te t
Dr —Pt made r to the Church-State
‘ltliVec°t?.On The
es
hats
Drouvrilipecito Austriya to agree to a revision of the Conzordat
rpneat waihoe would intervene in Italy. But this, like the
lee'qerneer after Garibaldi's defeat at Mentalist in
"87, Antonelli addressed to the Spanish Minister
'eerez,en ailed. ln the preparations for the (Ecumenical
*Atjtiecihi Antonelli took no visible pert, as he matin-
aAtireh
w"hit_t,adiw i
tional opposition to a congress o e f h
4,1 Jesuit:2a
i„roas brought about by nil n es essentie-
he Austria wever. in a despatch addressed to
treed t_u Government on the 10th February,
_18.70.
dooaro secure the liberty of the Church in ttxt:ig
oraWal as opposed to the State. After the wi,h-
ter
-erd, the French troops from Rome in August, 1870, the Al tried, as there was no longer y doubt that the
at tCral Power of the Popo was near it end, to procure help
eleventh hour from Austria and Prussia. But in vain;
leor former, through decisions of the Council, had become
a
and more estranged from the Carla, Council
the latter had
48..6
°4 political interest in preventinz any '
alliance rear,,end France. After the Italian Government between
had taken
leeoresession of Rome, Aetonein restrictedllim lf S-pt ,
,Aetoht? % violent Note of protest against the me n
occupation.
''ecith'ent's influence over the Pope has since then steadily
1,61 '1 all the policy of the latter in the German Church
!Att4),f and the schism which broke out through the Old
thetC Movement, became more and more ideutilled with
11
te„,„ei the Jesuits. Take him for all in all, Antonelli
must
*it-3'1,,1,10t as a great, yet as a highly-gifted statesman
Vilt,tu:`„? fair share, no doubt, of human frailties, and not
winning and attaching qualities.
•
27it
MieS publishes the following letter :
°I tli',)----?enr readers may like to know something reliable
of the great man who has just died at Rome,
gle one ot his personalt friends, lam desirous to state
0 - facts ;
b "toal
onelli was not of noble blood. He belonged
"altgu'lY of what we should call very substantial and
tT' Yeoinen. They held valuable olive plantations
able. ~,.erracina, at the time when olives were moat vain-
-1411e circumstance gave a pretence for M. About in

174 tillittsdutoid
gal 11144,61 fia ft

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