Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1903-07-24

Ecnt for universal education and hns
Strivcn to make education and morals
confidc ia each other Not Il single
scandal from Rome in his paIaoy has
been conveyed to the world. He has
shown friendly disposition to the
world and could himself take place in
almost any learned faculty or congress
and hold his own in general knowledge
with scientists, bcllcs-lettrcs men and
doctors.
Elected pope in February, 1878, he
was then almost siXty-cight years of
age. and he had been for thirty-two
years the archbishop of ono quiet city,
porugia. which once belonged to the
papal states, but stood high among the
old Italian republics or feudaltcs for
its painters and men of gifts. This re
Cion, generally called Umbra, pro
duccd the highest trlumphs of art in
Raphael. III Pcrugia and its province
the archbishop was as distinctly the
foremost citizen or subject as the late
Phillips Brooks undoubtedly was in
Boston or Henry Ward Beccher in
Brooklyn.
He was born at a mountain town in
the Apcnnines, not far from Rome,
called Carpincti, on March .. 1910 To
this little place of about 5000 people
his ancestors had been expelled from
Siena about 800 years before. They
were mobiles in Siena, but had taken
part against their countrymcn when
the Medici of Florence resolved to
conquer and annex Siena. This indie
pendent republic, inspired with pas
sionate hatred against Florence, made
memorable defense, but the odds
were too strong.
Retiring into the state of the church,
the pope's family, named Pecci Oro
nounccd PcchD, formed new friend
ships, and the pope'S father was Il count
who either volunteered or was drafted
into NapOleon's service when he over
ran Italy. The popc's mother was a
countess. who brought property to her
husband
They lived in what is called palace
in Italy. u large building rising from
the rocks, two stories and an attic high
with flowers and terraces about its
/ base. 1t appears that the pope during
all his life has known no want. but has
enjoyed private revenue such as n
gentleman of noble descent would be
apt to have in any country who had
kept his estates.
He was born after the French rcpub-
/ leans had overrun Italy and been ev-
/ erywhere victorious and the greatest
/ change had taken place not only in the
Italian people, but even in the priest
hood.
/ The pope himself. Plus VII, had been
/ taken captive from Rome to France
/ and was only returned to Rome at the
/ fan of Napoleon in 1911. He restored
the Jcsuits. who We're the secular school
masters within the church. but they
had fallen under the hostility of several
/ of the kings and been for some time
! suppressed. Upon their return they
opened schools and gave the city ot
Rome something of its old clerical and
4 literary character.
In 1917 the late pope's mother took
her sons to Rome and the next year
put them at school at Niterbo. Il city on
a hill but few hours carriage ride
from Rome. This lady belonged to one
of the orders of the Franciscans and
when she died was buried in their
brown cloak and cord. Her death was
nearly mt the same time with that of
Plus VII.
The next pope, Leo NIL, branched
out as an educator. The Jcsuits college
was opened in Rome in 1894 with HOO
students. and among these We're the
two Pecci boys. of whom Joseph was n
Jesuit He was three years older than
his brother. These boys went home to
their mountain town on holidays, and
the pope was an active hunter and
fowler in the mountains. Rome was to
them like any American city to fami-
ly which lived in the neighboring coun-
try and spent the winters in the city,
The name of the pope was Joachim
Vincent Raphael Lodovico Pecci. lie
always went by the name of Vincent
Pecci until ut Il certain period after his
mothers death, when he became gen
orally known as Joachim Pecci.
He became fluent in the Latin and
wrote verses and orations in it and
gained prizes. After his mothers death
he lived with his uncle in the Mutt
palace in Rome. He somewhat knew
Pope Leo MI. and chose his papal
name with reference to that prelate.
He matriculated in 1880. graduated a
doctor of theology in 1882. which was
the time that he adopted the name of
Joachim, and he entered the diplomatic
class in the university called Sapienza,
or Wisdom, in Rome. Among his
friends and classmates were such no.
bles as Duke Sforza of the old Milan
lords
He was acquainted with Leo, as well
as with Plus Will, who lived but a
short time, and then came Gregory
XVI. in whose household he was one
of the prelates.
He first attracted special attention
during the cholera in Rome in 1887
when he was twenty-seven years old
He had parVa I'm an upnsuol 1aOroa