Connecticut western news., 1903-07-23


 l novels. He and the future pope be-
 came warm friends. So did the king 1 and queen take most cordially to the nuncio.
 He busted himself mainly in rearing | up the Catholic schools and universi- ties of Belgium, which had gone into a decline. His acutenesS on political af- fairs was such that Leopold one day said to him, You are as clever a poli- tician as you are bright churchman." Always moderate and always learn ing, Archbishop Pecci was also active
 for his church and raised money in Bel
 gium to found college in Rome to ed
 ucate the priests of that country.
 Before he returned to Rome in 1S46
 he visited London with letters to Vic toria and Albert and was By them we'll
 entertained, and he mingled among the best people in England and took close observations upon the country. This species of intercourse no doubt broad
 ened his mind and made him see that the modern world could not be reduced
 to the haggard outlines of Italy.
 From London he went to France and
 paid visit to Louis Philippe, who was
 dangerously near his fall.
 When he got to Rome Pope Gregory was dying.
 Pecci was we'll acquainted with Car dinal Feratti, who soon became Plus Tx, and that pope made him archbish- op of Perugia at the age of thirty-six. Nearly at the same time the new pope to1 Fo, offenses and was for a time regarded
 as man of liberal intentions. | 1t was fortunate for Archbishop Pee
 ci that he could retire to distance i from Rome in the mountains toward | Tuscany and exercise his prerogatves
 without becoming involved in the ris- ing political passions at the Eternal : City, where very soon MazZini, Gari-
 baldi and others revolutionized Rome
 and formed q triumvirate of dictators
 and had to stand a siege by the French, heartily frightened that he revoked his i liberal dispositions.
 i Retired to city of about 60O00 peo- { pie, the archbishop of Perugia. as has
 been said, lived there thirty two years, or down to the year 1878. He was q ! universal reader and among the wise saints in the Catholic age he chose St. i Charles Borromeo as man to initiate, i the giver of his riches to aims and edu- 1 cation. He thereupOn gave his mind to i the study of education in Peruga. 1 He made up his mind in the first place to educate his clergy thoroughly tn hot hnfr ho1 h trious and pure. Next he set upon the
 education of the upper classes, many of
 whom were contemptibly illiterate. | Finally he came down to the children | At one time the revolutionary ele-
 ments in Perugia arose. and a conflict
 took place between them and the papal
 troops, who were of all nations, Swiss. l German, Irish, and even American, and
 the populace was worsted.
 The archbishop surrounded himself
 with friends of like tastes with bis own, favorable to education and sincerely de,
 sirous of seeing morals made voluntary
 He had been received in the city. when | he returned there the second time, with
 magnificent demonstration. AS the
 ruler. both ecclesiastic and civil, he in
 hablted the palace upon the public square, which had on one side of 1t the city hall and on the other the cathedral. In 1854 he was made a cardinal. and this entitled him to take part in the se- l lection of future popes.
 Glancing back for a moment at these
 dates. we will see that the pope was born in the year after Gladstone, that
 he became a full priest near the close of General Jackson's administration
 and that he became archbishop of Pc
 rugia at the time of our Mexican war.
 His habits did not differ at any time He was remarkably laborious. of a | spare frame. with a high, capacious | forehead. a large mouth, full. long
 and expressive nose and an Expression
 of thorough refinement, purity and
 acuteness.
 Being a nobleman of theJ best class of | Italian descent and of atnation imme- | moSially ardent for knowledge and lov- 1 ing the arts. he was also destitute of
 sourness and had convictions without
 being opinionated
 None could impeach his private life l He was ever accessible to his priests
 and to those people who required him as a spiritual friend, but he also had high spirit and when browbeaten dis | closed something like military power
 within, and he could use indignant
 words. He was too worldly wise to be cheated. too discreet to commit himself in either word or deed except as his judgment and conscience were touched, and after the Italians in 1860 overran his state they found that he was a diff ficult man to handle in that he kept on 1 the side of intelligent public opinion. In short, he was a pope in spirit. rep
 resenting the antiquity and anthoritv