The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1906-01-11
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world has never seen, and never will
see again. Like under the Caesars, the
Eternal City, under the pontifcate of
many "strong" popes, exercised world
influence under which many of the
most powerful emperors and kings
were forced to bow their heads and to
submit humbly to the dictates issued
from Rome-dictates which referred as
we'll to temporal as to spiritual affairs.
Emperor Henry w. was forced by Pope
Gregory VII. (Hildebrant) to make a
pilgrimage to the Italian Castle of
Canossa, and there, during inclement
weather, had to do penitence by stand
ing barefooted in the castle yard for
three days before the great pope deigned
to accept him into his good graces. It
matters little that the emperor, I'm after
years, managed to punish this same
pope severely; for the humiliation be
had to endure will remain an eternal
blot on himself and on Germany. Of
course, this was the most fragrant ex-
hibition of papal power; but through
out the entire history of the middle
age, even up to the middle of the last
century, history presents an almost
continuous succession of the papal in.
fluence in temporal affairs of state.
While strife and bIoodshed could be
found everywhere in Italy, science and
the fine arts f1ourished to very high
degree. The painters, sculptors, poets
and musical composers and sstrono-
mers rank among the greatest of their
rOfession-many of them as the great
est Of all. It is only necessary to
mention such names as Titan,
Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michael
Angelo, Dante. Galileo, etc. The COM
posers, tho not ranking with the great
masters of Germany, have created a
very large amount of highly tuneful
and very popular music.
AS it is impossible to do full justice
to the Italian vitality in condensed
sketch of this kind, I shall now pic
ture the Italy of the year 1859-only
forty-six years ago. Then the penin-
sula contained conglomerstion of
small independent states, none Of
which had any political connection
with another, altho the influence of the
House of Hapsburg was felt in several
of them. In the North, Lombardy and
Venetia, the two richest provinces of
Italy, constituted parts of the Austrian
Empire. In the extreme Northwest,
was the little Kingdom of Sardinia,
reigned over by Victor Emanuel, the
only Italian ruler who was not exc.
Grated by his subjects. Tuscany was
an independent grandduchy, and
Parma and Modena were independent
duchies. In the South was the King
dom of both the Sicilys, which had
been shockingly mismandged by their
king and his predecessors. In the
center of the peninsula, completely
separating the North from the South,
was the papal dominion, reigned over
by Pope Plus *, the temporal sover-
eign.
The two French revolutions, the rev.
olutionary movement of 1848, the spirit
of the times and, above all, the odious
tyranny of the princes. had made the
italian people ripe for revolution. But
whenever an agitatOr made himself
conspicuous, he was quickly impriso oned
or had to flee the country, and that
generally ended his career. Only one
little, sickly man made an exception
from the general rule. This man was
Mazzini, to whom, more than to any,
body else, the credit for the liberation
of Italy must be given; for to his un-
firing efforts, and to his educating the
masses of the people in the principles
of freedom, is due the spirit which led
to the overthrow of the obnoxious
princes. Mazzini, after being impris-
oned and exiled for political agitation,
fed to England. From there he made
strenuous propaganda for the cause of
Italy, and he managed to food every
Italian city and village with his PAM
phlets-not once, but continually for
a number of years.
Still, it is very doubtful that MAJ
zini's efforts could have succeeded,