THE PAPACY VS. UNITY
We have seen how, before the battle of Solferino, Modena and Parma as well as Tuscany had declared in favour of union with Piedmont. After the Peace of Villafranca the states south of the Po united under Garibaldi in a military league which had for object the repulsion of all attacks from without and the hindrance of all attempts at restoration on the part of the particularists and reactionists within. Even Bologna and a great part of the Romagna withdrew from the pontifical state and petitioned Victor Emmanuel to take them under his protection. This request was not refused however hot might be the wrath of the holy father. Under the leadership of D’Azeglio the necessary steps towards union with Sardinia were taken throughout Romagna, and by New Year of 1860, a specially established ministry deliberated on the affairs of the new-fledged state of middle Italy, to which was given the name of Emilia, from the old Via Æmilia of Rome.
Ruins of a Temple of Minerva
Neither the curses of the Vatican nor the wrath of the ultramontanes all over Europe could retard in the least degree the march of events. Although the confederation decided upon at Villafranca and Zurich was never made a fact, owing to the disinclination of Austria and the pope to institute the necessary reforms, the neutral attitude maintained by England and France yet materially assisted Italy to realise her dream of national unity. Towards the end of 1859 a pamphlet published in Paris entitled Pope and Congress first startled the world with the thought that it was time the temporal power of the pope should cease, that his rule ought hereafter to be confined to the precincts of Rome itself. This naturally threw the whole Catholic world in an uproar, and elicited from the pope repeated violent denunciations, yet in the course of time the idea became an accomplished fact. Napoleon had never forgotten that the holy father had refused him consecration at the time of his coronation.
[1860-1861 A.D.]
The union of the middle Italian state’s with Sardinia was the forerunner of all those “annexations” which was soon to transform completely the character of the peninsula. Napoleon was willing to permit the expansion of the upper Italian kingdom provided Savoy and the countship of Nice be ceded to France. From the time of Cavour’s resumption of his place in the ministry in January, Napoleon and the crafty minister exerted every art known to diplomacy to bring about the end they had in view. At last in March, 1860, the popular vote was obtained which gave Savoy and Nice to France and made Tuscany, Parma, Modena, and the Roman legations a part of the kingdom of Sardinia. The pope excommunicated all who had taken part or even connived at this despoliation of Rome; but the papal bull, once so formidable a weapon, had in the course of time lost much of its early terrors. The 2nd of April witnessed the opening of the first Italian parliament, in which were representatives not only from Sardinia and Lombardy, but from Tuscany, Modena, Parma, and the Roman legations. “Our fatherland is no longer the Italy of Rome,” declared the crown speech, “nor of the Middle Ages; neither shall it be the arena wherein shall meet for combat the ambitions of all nations. Now and forever it is the Italy of the Italians.”