Prisoner of the Vatican (56 page)

13. AAEESS, Italia, pos. 631, fasc. 402, ff. 27–28, Documenti relativi al primo viaggio del Re Umberto per le provincie del Regno. Num 7.

14. Soderini 1934, pp. 121–22; "Lettera della Santità di Nostro Signore Leone XIII a Sua Eminenza Reverendissima II Signor Cardinale Lorenzo Nina, Segretario di Stato,"
Civiltà Cattolica
1878, IV, pp. 128–34; Liberatore, Matteo, "Sgomento della Rivoluzione italiana prodotto dalla lettera di Papa Leone XIII,
Civiltà Cattolica
1878, IV, pp. 135–44; Mellano 1982, p. 84.

15. AAEESS, Italia, pos. 267, fasc. 67, ff. 4r–5v, 20 agosto 1878.

16. AAEESS, Italia, pos. 267, fasc. 67, ff. 8r–14v, 20 agosto 1878.

17. AAEESS, Italia, pos. 267, fasc. 67, ff. 16r–24r, Rapporto della adunanza di 22 ago. 1878.

18. AAEESS, Italia, pos. 267, fasc. 67, ff. 36r–37v, Progetto d'istruzioni da comunicarsi agli Ordinari delle Provincie usurpate in occasione della visita del Re. 23 agosto 1878

19. AAEESS, Italia, pos. 267, fasc. 67, ff. 44r–47v, Venezia, 29 agosto 1878.

20. AAEESS, Italia, pos. 267, fasc. 67, ff. 48r–49v, Monsig. Vescovo di Brescia, 30 agosto 1878.

21. AAEESS, Italia, pos. 267, fasc. 67, ff. 50r–50v, Emo Sig. Card.e de Marchesi di Canossa Vescovo di Verona, 30 agosto 1878.

22. AAEESS, Italia, pos. 267, fasc. 67, ff. 73r–74v, 1 settembre 1878.

23. AAEESS, Italia, pos. 267, fasc. 67, ff. 76r–77r, 28 agosto 1878.

24. AAEESS, Italia, pos. 267, fasc. 67, ff. 79r–80r, Brescia, 2 settembre 1878.

25. AAEESS, Italia, pos. 267, fasc. 67, ff. 81r–82v, Vescovato di Piacenza, 1 settembre 1878; ff. 83r–83v, 5 settembre 1878.

26. AAEESS, Italia, pos. 267, fasc. 68, ff. 8r–12r, Catania, 9 settembre 1878.

27. AAEESS, Italia, pos. 267, fasc. 68, ff. 14r–18r, all'Arcivescovo di Catania, 18 settembre 1878.

28. Luciani 1997, p. 176.

29. Masini 1989, p. 30.

30. 
Civiltà Cattolica
1878, IV, pp. 620–22; emphasis in original.

31. AAEESS, Italia, pos. 271, fasc. 70, ff. 4r–5r, Sul contegno che la'S.Sede debba prendere in occasione dell'attentato al Re Umberto I, compiutosi a Napoli il 17 novembre 1878, Istruzione al Card. Vicario circa il canto del "Te Deum" nella suddetta occasione.

32. AAEESS, Italia, pos. 271, fasc. 70, ff. 6r–7r, Arcivescovado di Napoli, Napoli, 18 novembre 1878; ff. 12r–13r, 20 novembre 1878; ff. 20r–21r, Segretario di Stato, 22 novembre 1878.

33. Grimaldi 1970, pp. 152–53.

34. Candeloro 1953, pp. 137–38.

35. The correspondence, from the AAEESS, is dated October 19 and 26, 1878, with a subsequent reply by the archbishop on November 4, 1878, and is reproduced in Mellano 1982, pp. 147–51.

36. Leo XIII's opposition to a Catholic political party identified with the right would shortly extend to France as well. In 1885 he would call a halt to a project led by Albert de Mun to form a French Catholic party (Launay 1997, p. 44).

37. The story of this struggle is told in Ignesti 1988; De Rosa 1970, pp. 131–33; and Fonzi 1990, pp. 277–79. Also see Campello's (1910, p. 142) first-person account.

38. Zocchi 1881;
Civiltà Cattolica
1881,1, pp. 7, 9; emphasis in original.

13. The Pope's Body

1. ASR, Tribunale Civile e Correzionale, processi penali, b. 3849, fasc. 23135, Trasporto della salma di Pio IX, 12 Luglio 1881; "Il testamento di Pio IX,"
L'Osservatore Romano,
16 febbraio 1881, p. 1; Pelczar 1911, v. 3, p. 401.

2. Halperin 1939, p. 404; "L' 'Ostentazione insolente' di Satana e i prossimi trionfi di Gesù in Roma,"
L'Unità Cattolica,
20 giugno, 1889, p. 581.

3. ASR, Prefettura di Roma, Gabinetto, b. 212, Trasporto della salma di Pio IX, 23 Giugno 1881 Vespignani a Gravina; 28 Giugno 1881, Gravina a Tonelli e Vespignani; 5 luglio 1881, Vespignani a Gravina; 10 luglio 1881, Gravina a Vespignani.

4. ASV, SS, EM, a. 1882, r. 241, fasc. 3, ff. 22v–23r, 15 luglio 1881, Dichiarazione relativa al permesso domandato ed ottenuto dal Questore di Roma per l'accompagnamento della salma di Pio IX nella notte del 13 Luglio.

5. ASV, SS, EM, a. 1880, r. 241, fasc. 4, ff. 67V–68V, Appunti per la Inchiesta ordinata dal Ministro dell'Interno al Comm.re Astengo sui fatti avvenuti in Roma la notte del 13 Luglio 1881, Interrogatorio del Questore Bacco. It is unclear how this handwritten copy came into the Vatican archives. ASR, Prefettura di Roma, Gabinetto, b. 212, Bacco al Prefetto, 11 luglio 1881.

6. ASR, Prefettura di Roma, Gabinetto, b. 212, Prefetto al Questore, 12 luglio 1881; Telegramma, Bacco al Prefetto 12 luglio 1881, ore 14,10; Prefetto al Signor Comandante la Divisione Militare di Roma, 12 luglio 1881; Sindaco di Roma al Prefetto di Roma, 12 luglio 1881.

7. Giovanni Cornoldi, "La notte del 13 luglio in Roma,"
Civiltà Cattolica
1881, III, pp. 258–59;
Civiltà Cattolica
1881, III, pp. 374–75, Cronaca Contemporanea. The
Civiltà Cattolica
itself, realizing that its estimate was likely to be disbelieved, made its case this way: "And so that no one thinks that we are exaggerating, just listen to what
la Libertà,
a Judaic paper and so above suspicion, had to say: 'To offer a very low estimate, one could say that along the nearby road and in St. Peter's Square there were no fewer than 100,000 people.'"

8. Manfroni 1920, pp. 53–54;
L'Osservatore Romano,
14 luglio 1881, pp. 1–2.

9. This description is based on a large number of police reports and other documents found in ASR, Prefettura di Roma, Gabinetto, b. 212, Trasporto della salma di Pio IX; and ASV, Segreteria di Stato, a. 1882, r. 241, fasc.4 (salma Pio IX); as well as Guiccioli 1936, p. 304; Manfroni 1920, pp. 48–56; and
Fatti nuovi,
vol. 1; and the above-cited accounts in
Civiltà Cattolica.

10. Chadwick 1997, pp. 373–79.

11. ASR, Prefettura di Roma, Gabinetto, b. 212, Prefetto al Ministro dell'Interno, Telegramma urgente, 13 luglio 1881, ore 5 ant.

12. Atti Parlamentari, Senato del Regno, Sessione del 1880–81, Tornata del 13 Luglio 1881, Interrogazioni dei Senatori Alfieri e Cambray-Digny al Minstro dell Interno, copy attached to ASV, SS, EM, a. 1880, r. 241, fasc. 4, ff. 1088v–113r.

13. ASV, SS, EM, a. 1882, r. 241, fasc. 4, ff. 67V–71V, Appunti per la Inchiesta ordinata dal Ministro dell'Interno al Comm.re Astengo sui fatti avenuti in Roma la notte del 13 Luglio 1881, Interrogatorio del Questore Bacco; Ciampani 2000, p. 262. Manfroni, who also took some of the blame, was outraged by what he regarded as the whitewash of the affair and the failure of those higher up to take the responsibility he thought they bore for the disaster (1920, pp. 57–58).

14. He first telegraphed his nuncio in Paris with an account of the disorders, instructing him: "See that this is published in the Catholic newspapers, and send this telegram in code to the offices of Vienna, Madrid, Lisbon, and Munich, for it is not prudent to telegraph them directly from Rome" (ASV, SS, EM, a. 1882, r. 241, fasc. 3, f. lov, 13 luglio 1881).

15. ASV, SS, EM, a. 1882, r. 241, fasc. 3, ff. 13v–16r, prot. 45390, circolare, 15 luglio 1881. Leo XIII's attitude is described by the French ambassador to the Holy See: MAES, v. 1070, ff. 255r–259r, Desprez à Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, 18 Juillet 1881. Catholic newspapers inside Italy were similarly using the funeral debacle to demonstrate that their characterization of the pope as a prisoner of the Vatican was not an exaggeration. As
Veneto Cattolico,
Venice's Catholic paper, put it: "the savage scenes of last night demonstrate to the whole world that where the Revolution has implanted itself by force, the popes are necessarily condemned to perpetual imprisonment" (quoted in "Stampa italiana,"
L'Osservatore Romano,
16 luglio 1881, p. 2).

16. DDI, series 2, vol. 14, n. 102, Il Ministro degli Esteri, Mancini, agli Ambasciatori a Berlino, de Launay, a Londra, Menabrea, a Pietroburgo, Nigra, a Vienna, di Robilant, ai Ministri a Bruxelles, Fe' d'Ostiani, a l'Aja, Bertinatti, a Lisbona, Oldoini, a Madrid, Greppi, e agli Incaricati d'Affari a Parigi, Marochetti, e a Berna, Riva, 15 luglio 1881.

17. ASV, SS, EM, a. 1882, r. 241, fasc. 3, ff. 143v–144r, Nunzio Vienna a Jacobini, 21 luglio 1881.

18. MAES, v. 1070, ff. 292r–293v, 23 Juillet 1881, Ministère des Affaires Etrangères à Desprez.

19. DDI, series 2, v. 14, n. 112, LAmbasciatore a Berlino, de Launay, al Ministero degli Esteri, Mancini, 24 luglio 1881. Throughout Europe, bishops were sending denunciatory letters to the priests in their dioceses to read to their congregations, aimed against the Italian government. In one case, the primate of Spain, Cardinal Moreno, after recounting what happened to the funeral procession, concluded: "This is the reason that the Church so insistently calls for temporal power for the Holy See, now more necessary than ever for the free exercise of spiritual power ... In Rome there cannot be any sovereign other than the pope ... The Papal States belong to the Catholic world" (dated 16 July 1881, reproduced in "Il trasporto della salma di Pio IX, l'episcopato cattolico,"
L'Osservatore Romano,
31 luglio 1881, p. 2).

20. ASV, SS, EM, a. 1882, r. 241, fasc. 2, if. 117V–121V, circolare ai nunzi, 27 luglio 1881.

21. "Conseguenze,"
L'Osservatore Romano,
4 agosto 1881, p. 2.

22. Manfroni 1920, vol. 2, pp. 58–59.

23. MAEI, v. 64, ff. 201r–202r, Noailles à M. St. Hilaire, Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, 3 août 1881; DDI, series 2, v. 14, n. 134, L'ambasciatore a Vienna, di Robilant, al Ministro degli Esteri, Mancini, 4 agosto 1881.

24. Isastia 1989, pp. 37–52; Chadwick 1997, p. 377; Della Peruta 1989, pp. 104–9.

25. Perodi 1980, p. 431.

26. Fonzi 1977, pp. 60–61.

27. For a selection of Alberto Mario's anticlerical writings, see Mario 1867,1964.

28. ASV, SS, EM, 1882, r. 241, fasc. 3, ff. 176v–176r, Comizio tenuto nel Politeama Romano il 7 agosto 1881, allegato alla Circolare ai Nunzii, 8 agosto 1881; MAES, v. 1071, ff. 43r- 45r, de Bâcourt à M. Barthélémy St. Hilaire, Ministère des Affaires étrangères, 8 août 1881. On the confiscation of
L'Osservatore Romano,
see "Il sequestro dell'Osservatore Romano,"
L'Osservatore Romano,
10 agosto 1881, p. 1; on the other newspaper confiscations, see Talamo 1979, p. 83. The Vatican lost no time in bringing these new outrages to the world's attention. The day after the Politeama meeting, Cardinal Jacobini sent a circular to all the nuncios with a detailed account attached. The calls for the end of the law of guarantees and, indeed, for the seizure of the Vatican, the secretary of state reported, had been met by the feeblest of government reactions. They had only stopped the meeting after it was largely completed, and they had only confiscated the Roman newspapers that reported the speeches after most of the copies had been sold. The Holy Father had been declared a liar, he had been repeatedly referred to as "Signor Pecci" and called an enemy of the people. "Thus is the dignity and security of the Pontiff protected in Rome." The nuncios were instructed to bring the matter to the attention of the governments at which they were stationed in order to make clear "the Holy Father's true condition and how well founded his apprehensions are." The nuncios were also told to give the material to the Catholic press in each country (ASV, SS, EM, 1882, r. 241, fasc. 3, ff.
176v–176r,
Circolare ai Nunzii, 8 agosto 1881; f. 178V, Jacobini al nunzio, Parigi, 8 agosto 1881). Mancini, knowing just what use the Vatican would want to make of the Politeama events, sent a telegram on the evening of the eighth to all the Italian ambassadors in Europe. He wrote, he explained, to correct erroneous accounts of what had transpired. Various violent speeches against the law of guarantees had been made, but when a motion was read that not only called for the abolition of the guarantees but advocated the occupation of the Apostolic palaces, "an officer of public safety, following instructions given him by his superiors, immediately dissolved the assembly without having to resort to force. The city remained entirely calm." The lesson to be drawn from the events was clear: "The government has thus demonstrated that it is fully committed to reconciling its scrupulous respect for the freedom of assembly with the absolute protection for the freedom and the guarantees of the Sovereign Pontiff. Newspapers using the occasion of the meeting to publish articles offensive to the pope were immediately seized and brought before the court for action" (DDI, series 2, v. 14, n. 141, 8 agosto 1881).

14. Rumors of a French Conspiracy

1. Cornold, Giovanni, "La notte del 13 luglio in Roma,"
Civiltà Cattolica
1881, III, pp. 264–65.

2. This quotation is from correspondence cited in Chadwick 1997, pp. 374–79.

3. Ciampani 2000, pp. 264–66.

4. ASV, SS, EM, a. 1882, r.241, fasc. 3, ff. 162v–163r, nunzio Vienna a Jacobini, 29 luglio 1881.

5. 
Civiltà Cattolica,
1881, III, Cronaca contemporanea, pp. 624–26; "Via da Roma!,"
L'Osservatore Romano,
20 luglio 1881, p. 2.

6. MAES, CP, vol. 1071, St. Hilaire à M. de Bâcourt, chargé d'affaires de France, Saint Siège, 14 août 1881.

7. Chadwick 1997, p. 380; Duggan 2000, pp. 502–3; Giordano 1994, p. 38. The text of the first Triple Alliance agreements can be found in Anchieri 1959. For a discussion of some of the reasons that Bismarck decided to back a treaty with Italy at this time, see Pflanze 1990, p. 93.

8. MAEI, CP, vol. 64, ff. 254r–255v, Noailles à M. St. Hilaire, 15 août 1881.

9. ASR, Questura, b. 16, fasc. 106, 26 agosto 1881, Notizie sul Vaticano. Pilgrimages to Rome had of course a very long history, but with the pronouncement of papal infallibility, the taking of Rome, and the centrality of the image of the prisoner of the Vatican, the nature of these pilgrimages changed from one that focused on visiting the major churches to the desire to see the pope himself. At the same time, the advent of the train and other improvements in transportation made such trips much easier and less expensive (Papenheim 2001, pp. 141–42).