The Seizure Of Rome

( Originally Published Early 1900's )

MUCH has been said respecting the annexation of Nice and Savoy to France. These were two small countries upon the French side of the Alps; the one containing about one hundred thousand inhabitants, and the other five hundred thousand. They spoke the F end' language, and were French in all their tastes, manners, and customs, industrial pursuits, and commercial relations. By the treaties of 1815, Savoy and Nice were taken frow France, and annexed to Sardinia. As Italy was now being re-organized by the absorption of all its fragmentary provinces into one king-dom, the inhabitants of Nice and Savoy were anxious to return to France. As they geographically belonged to France (being on the French side of the Alps, and ethnologically were Frenchmen), Victor Emanuel, respecting the doctrine of nationalities, gave his ready assent. Napoleon III., true to his principle of popular suffrage, had the question submitted to the vote of the people, whether they would remain witl. Italy, or return to France. The question was decided by an overwhelming majority in favor of re-union with France.

On the 21st of March, 1860, a deputation from Savoy and Nice had an interview with the emperor in the Palace of the Tuileries. In reply to their address, the emperor said,-

"I thank you for the sentiments which you have ex pressed to me, and I receive you with pleasure. The king of Sardinia having acceded to the principle of the union of Savoy and of the county of Nice to France, I can, without failing in any international duty, testify to you my sympathy, and accept the expression of your wishes. The circumstances under which this rectification of our frontiers has been effected are so unusual, that, in responding to legitimate interests, no principle is wounded, and consequently no dangerous precedent is established.

"Indeed, it is neither by conquest nor insurrection that Savoy and Nice will be re-united to France, but by the free consent of the legitimate sovereign, supported by popular adhesion. Thus all that there is in Europe which does not cling to the antagonistic spirit of another epoch regards as natural and equitable this annexation of territory. The response made to the communications addressed by my government to the powers representLd in the Congress of Verona authorizes a reasonable hope that the subject will receive from them a favorable examination."

As I have mentioned, the States of the Church extended entirely across the breadth of Italy, from the Tuscan to the Adriatic Sea. It is generally supposed that the majority of the inhabitants were in favor of annexation to the newly-formed kingdom of Italy ; though this is denied by some of the warm friends of the pope. It is very certain that the inhabitants of the Italian peninsula, in general, had awakened to an intense yearning for the unification of Italy, with Rome for its capital. But Victor Emanuel was not in favor of seizing upon the States of the Church simply by the right of might; and he was well aware that the Catholic world might enter a very vehement protest against an act of unprovoked aggression. The emperor of France also, while renouncing all disposition to dictate to the king of Sardinia, counselled him to respect the historic rights of the Holy See."

But Victor Emanuel found himself in a very embarrassing situation. There was a strong democratic and infidel party in Italy, led by such men as Garibaldi and Mazzini, who were ripe for any measures of violence in reference to the pope. They would gladly hurl him from his spiritual as well as from his temporal throne, and confiscate all the property of the Church. These men formed the nucleus of a strong opposition to the constitutional monarchy of Victor Emanuel. They wished to overthrow his throne, and to establish the government of a radical democracy. With great efficiency, they raised the popular cry of "United Italy, with Rome for its capital." The Journal " Italie " of Sept. 15, 1870.. says, —

" The Italian democracy has seen in the question of the capital too good a pretext to perpetuate agitation to permit it to escape them."

By the disaster at Sedan on the 2d of September, 1870, the emperor of France was taken captive. The mob in Paris rose, and also in several other large cities, and declared the empire abolished. Provisional governments were established, which were called republics. The French troops were recalled from Rome. This revolution in France so roused the Italian democracy, that the government of Victor Emanuel felt compelled to take the lead of the popular impulse, which had become so strong, that it threatened to sweep them from power. To save the monarchy, it was deemed essential to seize upon Rome ; for, unless the government should do it, the revolutionists would rise en masse, and proclaim a republic in the captured city. Apparently, the only way to baffle the intrigues of the revolutionists was to anticipate them in the movement.

The news of the disaster at Sedan reached Florence, the then capital of Italy, on the 4th of September. It was on this day that the democracy in Paris declared the empire abolished, and proclaimed the so-called republic. This government of a democratic committee in Paris was in favor of the overthrow of all thrones, and of the establishment of a universal republic. The agitation in Italy became so great, that the government of Victor Emanuel was impressed with the necessity of immediate action. Both of the leading journals in Florence, on the 7th, published rousing articles, entitled " To Rome," in which they declared that the time had come when the temporal power of the pope must cease. A fortnight of intense agitation passed away. There were enthusiastic meetings all over Italy, — in Milan, Turin, Verona, Venice, Naples, Palermo, — calling for the seizure of the territories of the pope, and the appropriation of Rome as the capital of Italy. The enthusiasm was so general, that those who were in the opposition found it expedient to keep silent.

" Indeed," writes a gentleman who was then in Florence, " no ministry, not the monarchy itself, could for one day have resisted the popular will. A wand could as soon have resisted the spring-flood of the Arno at midcourse as the government have told the Italian people at this time that they could not go to Rome."

The papal government, confessedly the worst in Europe, being a combination of both secular and ecclesiastical absolutism, was inveterately inimical to the constitutional monarchy of Victor Emanuel. On the 7th of September, the Italian minister of foreign affairs, in Florence, issued a circular to the cabinets of Europe, in which he stated that the interests of the Italian monarchy demanded immediate action in taking possession of the States of the Church. " The security of Italy," he wrote, " renders it essential that an end should be put to a state of things which maintains in the heart of the peninsula a theocratical government in open hostility to Italy, and which, by its own confession, can only subsist by means of foreign intervention, and whose territory offers a base of operations to all the elements of disorder."

Several of the most distinguished statesmen of Italy were summoned to Florence to confer with the government upon the difficult affair. It was universally admitted that no monarch in Europe had a better title to his throne than Pia Nino. It was, consequently, necessary to devise some plausible excuse for wresting his realms from him.

The court at Florence sent a letter to the pope by an eminent nobleman of Sardinia, — Count Ponza di San Martino. This document, which was very deferentially worded, announced to the holy father the determination of the Italian government to take possession of the States of the Church, and to constitute Rome the capital of United Italy. The pope was assured of the profound respect with which the Italian government would still regard his spiritual power. But he was informed that it was one of the necessities of the times that he would be deprived of his temporal power; and he was entreated to submit to the inevitable with as good a grace as possible.

The reply of the pope, which was a very laconic and emphatic refusal, was given in a formal audience which was granted the ambassador on the 10th of September, 1870. The very next day, — Sunday, Sept. 11, — the troops of Victor Emanuel crossed the frontier, and entered the States of the Church at three points.

General Cardona, with the principal army, marched from Terni directly upon Rome. General Bixio, with another division, advanced from Orvieto upon Civita Vecchia. General Angioletti, with another force, advancing from the south-east, invaded the papal territory by the way of Frosinone and Anagni. These military bands were so strong as to render any effectual resistance on the part of the pope impossible.

The next day, the 12th, the Italian court issued a proclamation to the Catholic bishops, announcing that the pope's independence would be respected, and his spiritual power supported ; but that:

"The clergy will not be permitted by any act or discourse, or in any other manner whatever, to stir up disobedience to the measures of the public authority by censuring the institutions or laws of the State ; and all offenders will be proceeded against with all the rigor of the law."

The ecclesiastical influence of Italy was generally strongly in favor of the pope. The next morning, the three leading journals of Northern Italy — one at Turin, one at Milan, and one at Bologna — were suppressed by the Italian government for containing articles unfriendly to the movements in progress. In the mean time, the armies of invasion pressed rapidly on, the feeble forces of the pope retiring before them. The pope, conscious that any resistance would be unavailing, commanded that there should be only such show of force at the gates of Rome as to prove to the world that his realms were wrested from him by military violence.

At half-past five o'clock on Tuesday morning, Sept. 20, the Sardinian troops, having arrived before the walls of the city, opened fire upon the Porta Pia and upon the Porta Salavia. At half-past eight, a breach was effected at the Porta Pia; and at half-past nine it was carried by storm. At ten o'clock, two divisions of General Cardona's army entered Rome, and took possession of the city; and the struggle ceased.

Rome is divided by the Tiber. On the left bank of the river are found the Palace of the Csars, the Forum, and nearly all the mouldering remains of the " lone mother of dead empires." On the right bank are found the Vatican, St. Peter's, and nearly all the monumental and artistic wealth which the Catholic Church has accumulated there during a period of more than a thousand years. This ecclesiastical portion of the world-renowned metropolis is often called ,he Leonine city, from the immense improvements made in it by Pope Lec X. about the middle of the ninth century.

The Leonine city was respected by the invaders. A regiment of Italian troops was sent to encamp under the windows of the Vatican for the protection of the pope. General Mari was placed in charge of the captured metropolis. On the 2d of October the question was submitted to the suffrages of the people of Rome, whether they would renounce their temporal allegiance to the pope, and become the subjects of United Italy. The vote was almost unanimous in favor of the change. But the clerical party refused to vote, affirming that they were overawed by sixty thousand bayonets, and that the pretended appeal to the ballot-box was a mere farce.

On the 1st of November, the Italian government issued the following decree: " All the. political authority of the pope and the Holy See is abolished, and will remain so. The pope will be entirely free in the exercise of his ecclesiastical rights which he now possesses as the supreme chief of Catholicism, and will enjoy all the honors and liberties which constitute sovereign prerogative. The appanage of his holiness and his court shall be furnished by Italy, which also assumes the debts hitherto contracted by the Pontifical States."

I have written the above narrative, not in the interests of Catholicism or of Protestantism, but in the interests of historical verity. The intelligent American reader wishes to know the facts just as they are; and he is abundantly capable of drawing from them his own inferences. I have endeavored to be perfectly impartial, The Protestant world, with great unanimity, commends the seizure of the Papal States and the occupation of Rome : the Catholic world, with at least equal unanimity, condemns those measures. What the final result will be, it is impossible to foresee. The agitation caused by these transactions is rapidly on the increase. An intense feeling of indignation is roused among the Catholics throughout the world by the occupation of the city of Rome by the Italian troops, and the deposition of the pope from his temporal sovereignty. The following resolutions, drawn up by the Right Rev. Bishop McFarland, Bishop of Hart-ford, and adopted by all the churches in his diocese on Sunday, March 12, 1871, will give the Protestant reader an idea of the view which the Catholics take of this all-important question. We give the resolutions, with the circular letter addressed by the bishop to the pastors of the various churches.

PROVIDENCE, March 6, 1871.

REV. AND DEAR SIR, — The following resolutions of sympathy for the holy father were adopted last night by a very large meeting, held in our cathedral, in this city.

I wish to have similar meetings called in all the churches of our diocese, on next Sunday or the Sunday following. You will please inform me of the action taken by your congregation, that I may be able to convey information of the same to his holiness.

Very truly, yours in Christ,

F. P. MCFARLAND,

Bishop of Hartford

1. Resolved, That, in the name of the two hundred thou-sand Catholics in this diocese, we desire to express our deep and heartfelt sympathy with our holy father, Pope Pius IX., in his present distress, and our reprobation of the unmerited wrongs which have been inflicted on him.

2. Resolved, That the invasion of Rome by Victor Emanuel, in violation of solemn treaties, and without any pretence of a casus belli, was a flagrant breach of the laws of nations, and that acquiescence in such iniquity must en-danger the security of nations, and end in international anarchy.

3. Resolved, That, besides the violation of justice and faith, we condemn this act of the government of Florence as a sacrilege against the person of the vicar of Jesus Christ, who has been exposed to insult, and held as a prisoner in his own palace; and also against the Church, whose patrimony has been plundered, and given over to the hand of the spoiler.

4. Resolved, That these sacrilegious outrages have inflicted injury on all countries having Catholic subjects or citizens, as every such nation is deeply interested in the complete freedom and independence of the head of the Catholic Church.

5. Resolved, That, while we insist on the necessity of the freedom of the Holy See from the control of any and every civil government, we also demand the right for ourselves of approaching the holy father, and of communicating with him, without let or hinderance from any other civil ruler whatever.

6. Resolved, That we will use all the means in our power to console and support the holy father in this the day of his affliction, and will endeavor by every lawful means to hasten the hour when he will be restored to his rights.

7. Resolved, That we hold the independence of the sovereign pontiff to be essential to the freedom of conscience from secular control.

8. Resolved, That, in the present condition of civil society, we consider the temporal sovereignty of the pope to be the surest guaranty of his independence, and of his free action in the government of the church.

9. Resolved, That the government of Pius IX., during his long and glorious pontificate, has entitled him to the love and fidelity of his subjects, and to the approval and support of all Catholics.

10. Resolved, That, as men prompted by a sense of justice, we protest against the seizure of Rome as a violation of right ; that as American citizens, bound to uphold the supremacy of law and of the rights of property, we protest against the act of robbing the weak by the strong; that as Catholics, prompted by devotion to the Church, we protest against this crime as a violation of the rights of the Catholic world, to which the Christian monuments of Rome belong.