The War Upon Religion / Being an Account of the Rise and Progress of Anti-Christianism in Europe

by Francis A. Cunningham

One of the first acts of the exiled Pope at Gaeta was to issue a proclamation addressed to his subjects. Therein he expressed the hope that his misguided subjects would repent of their conduct toward him. But seeing that they were every day proceeding from one excess to another, he felt constrained to appeal against them to that supreme power of which he was the depository, and to arm himself with the spiritual sword which Jesus Christ had placed in the hand of His earthly Vicar. Therefore, he pronounced the decree of excommunication against all those who had taken an active part in the Revolution. Then, as if in sorrow for the righteous severity, to which he was obliged to have recourse, and of the just defence which he had to make for the rights of the Church, he promised mercy and pardon to all who should give evidence of repentance.

His words, however, fell upon deaf ears. Mazzini was still in power. Atrocities of the most horrible type disgraced the streets of Rome, Imola, Ancona and Loretto. The clergy were persecuted and some of them strangled. Indeed, the triumvirs made use of fallen priests to celebrate the sacred ceremonies. It was then that the Catholic nations began to attest their veneration for the exile of Gaeta. France sent pressing offers of hospitality. Spain, Portugal, Austria, Bavaria, even Prussia and Russia offered their aid towards his restoration.

ROME IS TAKEN BY PAPAL ALLIES.

It was finally to France that he owed the glory of his return. While the Austrians were advancing through the Legations, the French army under Oudinot, Duke of Reggio, entered Rome after a siege of twenty-six days. At the end of June, 1849, the city finally capitulated, and General Oudinot proclaimed the restoration of the Pontifical sovereignty. On April 12, 1850, the Holy Father took possession of the City. An amnesty was granted, but with certain exclusions, among them being the triumvirs, the military chiefs and the members of the provisional government.

On December 8, 1854, Pope Pius IX proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, which was received in all Catholic lands with a concert of acclamations. But this triumph of Mary was only like a symbol of hope before the approaching storm whose mutterings could already be heard in the distance.

When Pius IX had returned from Gaeta, the secret societies made a solemn oath that they would yet obtain possession of Rome. Not content with wishing to deliver Italy from foreign domination, they held up before the Italian people the illusory hope of becoming, through the defeat of the Papacy, the first nation of Europe. To attain this end it was necessary not only that the States should unite in one solid confederation, but that they should constitute one kingdom the government of which should be confided to the princes of the House of Savoy, to be held at the discretion of the sectaries. Their method consisted in spreading broadcast calumnies against the Holy See, in discrediting in Austria the House of Hapsburg which had been the last in Europe to shield the Papacy with the sword of the Holy Roman Empire, and in assuring the hypocritical neutrality of Napoleon III., who had ascended the throne only to be their supple instrument. Then they would place the King of Piedmont and Sardinia, Victor Emmanuel, upon the conquered throne of United Italy, first in the North and South, and finally in the Eternal City itself.

CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE HOLY SEE.

In fact, the first attacks upon the temporal power of the Pope came from the sectaries abroad. In the Congress of Paris, just after the Crimean War, the ministers of France, Sardinia and England formulated against the Papal States certain accusations, which they hastened to make public. Therein they declared the government of the Pope to be the most retrograde and perverse of the age. The Minister of Piedmont, Cavour, already dreaming of the unification of Italy, placed in the hands of the French and English ministers a verbal note in which he outlined a scheme for the expropriation of the Papal States. The note had no immediate effect, but combining with other hostile expressions against the Holy See, it was the signal of the storm which was about to burst upon the Church.

POPE PIUS IX.