Prisoner of the Vatican

by David I. Kertzer

16. "Ultime notizie," L'Osservatore Romano, 17 agosto 1870, p. 3.

  17. DDI, series 1, vol. 13, n. 540, Il conte Kulczycki al Segretario Generale degli Affari Esteri Blanc, Terni, 20 agosto 1870. The count added that he could guarantee the accuracy of this account, as it came directly to him from someone in His Holiness's entourage.

  18. Boiardi 1989, p. 3.

  19. De Leonardis 1980, pp. 192–93, based on the British diplomatic correspondence.

  20. ASV, SS, EM, a. 1870, r. 165, fasc. 2, f. 14V.

  21. L'Osservatore Romano, 20 agosto 1870, p. 2, quoting "La questione di Roma," in L'Opinione. The Church newspaper was also reporting that England would not allow the Italians to cross over the border into Roman lands ("Ultime notizie," L'Osservatore Romano, 29 agosto 1870, p. 3).

  22. "Ultime notizie," L'Osservatore Romano, 22 agosto 1870, p. 3; ASV, SS, EM, a. 1870, r. 165, fasc. 2, ff. 17V–18V.

  23. ASV, SS, EM, a. 1870, r. 165, fasc. 1, ff. 95V, 103v–106r.

  24. Lanza 1938, n. 1864, Rapporto 25 agosto 1870.

  25. Tivaroni 1897, pp. 303–5.

  26. Rosi 1937, pp. 580–81.

  27. Aliberti 1989, pp. 411–28; Chabod 1951, pp. 564–68.

  28. DDI, series 1, vol. 13, n. 580, Il Ministro degli Esteri, Visconti Venosta, ai Rappresentanti Diplomatici all'Estero, 29 agosto 1870; DDI, series 1, vol. 13, n. 581. Ministro Degli Esteri, Visconti Venosta, al Ministro a Parigi, Nigra, 29 agosto 1870.

  29. Lanza 1938, n. 1865, Colucci a Lanza, Caserta, 31 Agosto 1870.

  30. L'Osservatore Romano, 31 agosto 1870, p. 3.

  31. DDI, series 1, vol. 13, n. 661, Il conte Kulczycki al Segretario Generale degli Affari Esteri, Blanc, 5 settembre 1870.

  32. Tavallini 1887, vol. 2, pp. 40–41.

  33. DDI, series 1, vol. 13, n. 681, Ministro Degli Esteri, Visconti Venosta, ai Rappresentanti Diplomatici Al'Estero, 7 settembre 1870.

  34. DDI, series 1, vol. 13, n. 677, Ministro Degli Esteri, Visconti Venosta, al Ministro a Parigi, Nigra, 7 settembre 1870.

  35. Lanza 1938, n. 1919, Lanza a Ponza di San Martino, 8 settembre 1870.

  36. Pirri 1951, n. 113, Vittorio Emanuele II a Pio IX, Firenze, 8 settembre 1870, with annex of the same date from the Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri. It is worth noting that in the king's offer, the Leonine city was defined as including the Vatican palaces, the Castel Sant'Angelo, and the neighborhood between the Vatican and the Tiber, all of which were surrounded by the wall built by Pope Leo IV in the ninth century.

  37. DDI, series l, vol. 13, n. 712, Il conte Kulczycki al Segretario Generale degli Affari Esteri, Blanc, 8 settembre 1870.

  38. Ugolini 1989, p. 450.

  39. Pirri 1951, n. 115, Relazione del Card. Antonelli dell'incontro col Conte Ponza di San Martino, 9 settembre 1870. Ponza's own report on his meeting to Lanza is much less detailed; it paints a picture of a secretary of state who, while not ceding an inch, was a sufficient realist to see the futility of papal resistance.

  40. Lanza 1938, n. 1931, Ponza di San Martino a Lanza.

  41. Reproduced in Cadorna 1889, p. 120.

  42. Reproduced in Bardi 1970, p. 32.

  43. Pirri 1951, n. 114, Pio IX al Re Vittorio Emanuele II, 11 settembre 1870.

  4. Conquering the Holy City

  1.ASV, SS, EM, a. 1870, r. 165, fasc. 2, ff. 43 V–44V, undated but 11 settembre 1870.

  2. ASV, SS, EM, a. 1870, r. 165, fasc. 2, ff. 44v–r, 12 settembre 1870, nunzio apostolico, Vienna, to Antonelli. Beust himself wrote a long letter to Cav. Palombo, in Rome, on September 13, setting out much the same reasoning for Austria's decision. See ASV, SS, EM, a. 1870, r. 165, fasc. 2, ff. 50V–55V. Palombo was serving as Antonelli's unofficial representative in making the Holy See's case to the Austrian government. Although Beust apparently did not tell the Austrian nuncio, he had, on September 13, sent a long letter to Visconti, in Florence, calling on the Italian government, in marching into the papal state, to show the greatest regard for the pope and do nothing to increase the anxiety already being felt in the Catholic world about the fate of the Holy See. In Bardi 1970, pp. 164–65.

  3. The various quotes are from citations in Martina 1990a, pp. 234–38. Martina (1995, p. 311) credits this account of the pope's remarks to Ponza and believes Ponza left them out of his report due to his fear that they would displease Lanza.

  4. These three documents are reproduced in Cadorna 1889, pp. 152–54.

  5. Lanza 1938, n. 1995, Rapporto, 17 Settembre 1870.

  6. These two documents are reproduced in Cadorna 1889, pp. 167 and 172–73. While Cardorna here appeared to define the boundaries of the Leonine city as extending all the way up the Gianicuium hill to the Porta San Pancrazio, the boundaries of what was generally viewed as the Leonine city—identified as the area within the ninth-century wall—were less extended.

  7. This account is taken from the testimony at Pius IX's beatification proceedings: Pirri 1951, n. 116, Dal Processo Romano di beatificazione di Pio IX.

  8. Discussed in two dispatches of Count Kulczycki: DDI, series i, vol. 13, n. 721 (8 settembre 1870) and n. 739 (10 settembre 1870). The day before the Italian attack, Pius issued new instructions. "Now that a great sacrilege is about to be committed," he wrote to General Kanzler on September 19, "and the greatest injustice, as the troops of a Catholic king, without any provocation, indeed without even the fig leaf of any pretext, have besieged the Capital of the Catholic world, I want first of all to thank you, Signor General, and all of your troops." He then gave his final orders. The goal of the defense "must only consist in an act of protest against the violence, and nothing more; that is, talks for a surrender should be undertaken as soon as the breach [in the walls] has been made." Pius continued: "At a time in which all of Europe deplores the large number of victims of a war taking place between two great nations [France and Prussia], it should never be said that the Vicar of Jesus Christ, however unjustly attacked, agreed to a large loss of life. Our Cause is that of God, and We put Our defense entirely in his hands." These instructions represented a slight, but important, change from those he had given the generals earlier. The pope had first told his generals to initiate talks for surrender "at the first sounds of cannon fire." Now he was telling them instead to keep fighting until the Italian army had breached the city's walls. The change was made against the advice of Antonelli, who feared that the pope would be blamed for needless bloodshed. Pius IX had been convinced to amend his orders at the last minute by Kanzler, who had come to see him earlier on the nineteenth and begged him to allow his soldiers to fight. Since these feelings meshed with the pope's own wish to make clear to the world that the Holy City was being taken by violence, he went along. As a result, scores of Italian and papal soldiers would die, and scores of others would carry wounds for life (Pirri 1951, n. 117, Pio IX al Generale Kanzler, Pro-Ministro delle Armi, 19 settembre 1870. On the change in orders, see Martina 1990a, pp. 239–43).

  9. The text of the proclamation was published in L'Osservatore Romano, 13 settembre 1870, p. 1.

  10. Stock 1945, pp. 354–56, D. M. Armstrong to Hamilton Fish United States consulate, Rome, 23 September 1870.

  11. Tivaroni 1897, pp. 251–53; Cadorna 1889, p. 56; Halperin 1939, p. 60. Bixio died three years later, having left the navy to seek his fortune as captain of a commercial vessel. He contracted cholera while bound for southeast Asia.

  12. "Cronaca cittadina," L'Osservatore Romano, 17 ottobre 1870, p. 2 (this was the first issue of the paper after the taking of Rome).

  13. Quoted from the Tribuno, in Bartoccini 1985, p. 418.

  14. Martina 1990a, pp. 243–45; Pirri 1951, n. 116, Dal Processo Romano di beatificazione di Pio IX; Cadorna 1889, pp. 191–202.

  5. The Leonine City

  1. Martina 1972, p. 99.

  2. DDI, series 2, vol. 1, n. 41, II Ministro a Vienna, Minghetti, a Lord Acton, Vienna, 23 settembre 1870.

  3. Cadorna 1889, pp. 216–18.

  4. Lanza 1938, n. 2022, Lanza a Cadorna, 22 settembre 1870.


  5. Talamo 1979, p. 2–12; Gallon 1971, p. 87.

  6. Idem.

  7. Cadorna 1889, p. 158, Lanza to Cadorna, 1 ottobre 1870. DDI, series 2, vol. 1, n. 153, Blanc to Visconti, 2 ottobre 1870.

  8. Cadorna 1889, pp. 266–69. In all of the Roman territories that day, about 80 percent of those registered voted. Unlike the electoral system in place for parliament, in the plebiscites the rules specified that all adults had the right to vote, regardless of their literacy or wealth. It was regarded as so obvious that women were excluded from this right that no mention was made of it in the regulations (Pavone 1957, pp. 336–44).

  9. Civiltà Cattolica, 1871,1, pp. 220–21.

  10. DDI, series 2, vol. 1, n. 158, Blanc to Visconti, 2 ottobre 1870.

  11. DDI, series 2, vol. 1, n. 207, Blanc to Visconti, 7 ottobre 1870.

  12. ASV, SS, EM, a.1870, r.165, fasc.2, f. 71V.

  13. DDI, series 2, vol. 1, n. 251, Blanc to Visconti, 12 ottobre 1870.

  14. Pavone 1958, pp. 346–48. See also Visconti's letter to Minghetti, then Italian ambassador in Vienna; DDI, series 2, vol. 1, n. 164,3 ottobre 1870. La Marmora's reputation was not helped by his having been been the general in charge of the Italian forces at the biggest military debacle of the Risorgimento, the battle of Custoza (Tivaroni 1897,302.).

  15. Lanza 1938, n. 2072, Lanza a La Marmora, 13 ottobre 1870.

  16. Lanza 1938, n. 2095, La Marmora a Lanza, 19 ottobre 1870.

  17. Sella quoted in Fiorentino 1996, p. 45. See also Quazza 1999, v. 3, p. 230. DDI, series 2, vol. 1, n. 371, Visconti al fratello Giovanni, 25 ottobre 1870.

  18. Gregorovius 1907, pp. 388, 390; diary entries for October 30 and November 27, 1870.

  19. ASV, SS, EM, a. 1870, r. 165, fasc. 4, ff. 17v–r.

  20. ASV, SS, EM, a. 1870, r. 165, fasc. 4, f. 73V.

  21. ASV, SS, EM, a. 1870, r. 165, fasc. 2, ff. 56v–57r.

  22. ASV, SS, EM, a. 1870, r. 165, fasc. 2, ff. 69v–r, 1 ottobre 1870. The pope's complaint about his lack of freedom to use the mails and telegraph prompted the Italian foreign minister to send a circular to all his ambassadors on October 11. Nothing could be further from the truth, Visconti argued; the Vatican had been allowed unfettered access to post and wire service. Antonelli had turned down the government's offer to establish a separate Vatican post and telegraph service, with direct access to the foreign postal services guaranteed, an offer that Visconti reiterated. (DDI, series 2, vol. 1, n. 237, Il Ministro degli Esteri, Visconti Venosta, ai Rappresentanti Diplomatici all'Estero, 11 ottobre 1870.)

  To give the Italian ambassadors more ammunition in lobbying foreign governments, the following week Visconti sent them a new circular, arguing that the pope's continued exercise of temporal power, which he described as "the last debris remaining of the institutions of the Middle Ages," had no place in the modern world. "Political sovereignty that does not rest on popular consent," wrote Visconti, "can no longer exist." (DDI, series 2, vol. 1, n. 282, Il Ministro degli Esteri, Visconti Venosta, ai Rappresentanti Diplomatici all'Estero, 18 ottobre 1870.)

  23. DDI, series 2, vol. 1, n. 321, Il Ministro degli Esteri, Visconti Venosta, ai Rappresentanti Diplomatici all'Estero, 22 ottobre 1870.

  24. Quoted in L'Osservatore Romano, 19 ottobre 1870, p. 1. The meeting was held on October 11.

  25. ASV, SS, EM, a. 1870, r. 165, fasc. 4, ff. 50 V–53V. The nuncio's report is dated 20 ottobre 1870, and the archbishop's letter to the Prussian king dated 7 ottobre 1870.

  26. ASV, SS, EM, a. 1870, r. 165, fasc. 3, ff. 35v–r.

  27. ASV, SS, EM, a. 1870, r. 165, fasc. 3, ff. 38V- 391-, 31 ottobre 1870.

  28. ASV, SS, EM, a. 1870, r. 165, fasc. 1, 103v–10ór, nov–112r, Tours, 27 ottobre 1870.

  29. "Ultime notizie," L'Osservatore Romano, 25 ottobre 1870, p. 3; "Rivista dei giornali," L'Osservatore Romano, 26 ottobre 1870, p. 2.

  30. ASV, SS, EM, a. 1870, r. 165, fasc. 1, ff. 130v–135r, Tours, 10 novembre 1870.

  31. ASV, SS, EM, a. 1870, r. 165, fasc. 1, ff. 139v–143r, 12 novembre 1870.

  32. The nuncio's telegram (ASV, SS, EM, a. 1870, r. 165, fasc. 2, f. 156V, 17 novembre 1870) reporting this conversation was followed by a longer report (ASV, SS, EM, a. 1870, r. 165, fasc. 2, ff. 163V–164V, 18 novembre 1870).

  33. ASV, SS, EM, a. 1870, r. 165, fasc. 4, ff. nv–112r, 19 novembre 1870.

  6. The Reluctant King

  1. My description in these opening paragraphs is based largely on Dalla Torre 1972 and Mack Smith 1989. The Venetian appearance is described by Grimaldi 1970, p. 111.

  2. Mazzonis 2003, pp. 111–18,146.

  3. Mack Smith 1989, p. 23.

  4. Quoted in Mack Smith 1989, pp. 42–43.

  5. Quoted in Mack Smith 1989, p. 7.

  6. Chabod 1997, pp. 199–203.

  7. Negro 1977, p. 10; Bartoccini 1985, p. 416; Russo 1989, p. 25.

  8. Quoted in Halperin 1939, p. 136.

  9. Typical was the experience of Italy 's ambassador to Bavaria. On September 29, the Bavarian foreign minister advised him that, if the pope was not to flee Rome, it was advisable for Italy not to rush into moving its capital. "Italy has already taken Rome, national sentiment has been satisfied," the Bavarian foreign minister said. "It should view the moving of the capital as a secondary question." Cadorna 1889, pp. 366–67.

  10. DDI, series 2, vol. 1, n. 338, Il Ministro degli Esteri, Visconti Venosta, al Ministro a Vienna, Minghetti, 23 ottobre [1870].

  11. Lanza 1938, n. 2110, Lanza a La Marmora, 27 ottobre 1870.

  12. Lanza 1938, n. 2117, Lanza a La Marmora, 31 ottobre 1870.

  13. Lanza 1938, n. 2119, La Marmora a Lanza, 2 novembre 1870.

  14. Lanza 1938, n. 2121, La Marmora a Lanza, 5 novembre 1870.

  15. Pelczar 1911, vol. 3, p. 4.

  16. Ghisalberti 1978, pp. 180–82.

  17. Pesce 1970, pp. 279–90.

  18. Quoted in Fiorentino 1996, p. 111. Also see Gregorovius's entry for December 31: Gregorovius 1907, p. 393.

  19. Curiously, before learning of the king's plan, Pius IX had himself told a group of his advisers: "If I were King Victor Emmanuel, I would choose this occasion to come to Rome, because it would give me a plausible humanitarian pretext and so I could avoid political demonstrations, compromises, and unpleasantness" (Ghisalberti 1978, pp. 188–89).

  20. Ballerini, Raffaele "Le due capitali in Roma: L'8 dicembre 1881," Civiltà Cattolica 1881, IV, p. 651.

  21. Dalla Torre 1972, pp. 161–62; Ghisalberti 1978, pp. 192–94.

  22. Rothan 1885, vol. 2, entry dated 6 janvier 1871, pp. 178–79; Pelczar 1911, vol. 3, p. 8.

  23. Quoted in Halperin 1939, p. 145.

  24. Visconti himself, the envoy reported, "recognized that the very existence of Italy would be compromised if, by the force of events, following the complete transfer, they had to abandon Rome."

  25. Correspondence found in Rothan 1885, pp. 388–98.

  26. DDI, series 2, vol. 2, n. 484, Il Ministro a Vienna, Minghetti, al Ministro degli Esteri, Visconti Venosta, 5 giugno 1871.

  27. Gregorovius 1907, pp. 404–5.

  28. Halperin 1939, p. 208; Mazzonis 2003, pp. 147–48.

  29. Martina 2000, p. 1064; Bartoccini 1985, p. 482.

  7. Pius IX in Exile Again?

  1. In Halperin 1939, pp. 101–2.

  2. Chadwick 1998, p. 366, discusses this point. Much of the concern of the high French clergy, and French government, about a rapprochement between the Vatican and the Italian state stemmed from this fear. In a January 1871 letter, for example, Charles Lavigerie, the archbishop of Algiers, wrote to a colleague: "The pope will not leave Rome. This is a great misfortune, because it is already leading to compromises, which will end up wounding ... many Catholics." He warned, "What is certain is that Italy is openly showing its intention of employing the central government of the Church as an extension of its influence in the world." Here the cardinal mentioned in particular a presumed Italian plan to use the Catholic missions in the Orient to repl
ace France's influence there. Four years later, Lavigerie—who went on to become an influential cardinal—was still fearful, as can be seen in a letter he wrote to the French minister of Cults: "The head of the Church, deprived of his temporal power and political independence that his sovereignty assured him, is, from now on, in effect, in the hands of the Italian government" (Aubert 1972, pp. 25–26).

  3. The text of the law of guarantees is found in AAEESS, Italia, pos. 973–74, fasc. 319, ff. 19r–21r.

  4. DDI, series 2, vol. 2, n. 444, Il Ministro degli Esteri, Visconti Venosta, ai Rappresentanti Diplomatici all'Estero, 20 maggio 1871.

  5. English translation taken from www.papalencyclicals.net. The Italian version is published in Civiltà Cattolica, 1871, II, pp. 719–29, Ministro degli Esteri Visconti Venosta al Ministro a Berlino, de Launay, 7 marzo 1871.

  6. DDI series 2, vol. 2, n. 230, Il Ministro degli Esteri, Visconti Venosta, al Ministro a Berlino, de Launay, Firenze, 7 marzo 1871.

  7. Martina 2003, pp. 19–20,73.

  8. Aubert 1990a, pp. 443–44.

  9. Acton 1870, p. 97.

  10. Gregorovius 1907, p. 396, entry for March 5,1871.

  11. Theiner was an unusual character. A member of the Oratorian order and a German cobbler's son, he had a scholarly reputation throughout Europe for his work on Church history. In 1855, Pius IX named him prefect of the Vatican Secret Archives. Theiner's appointment was controversial; just three years earlier he had published a book on Clement XIV, praising the pope who had disbanded the Jesuits. This stance, along with a more general reputation for free thinking, had earned him the enmity of the Jesuits, a feeling he heartily reciprocated. When Fiorentini came to see him that November day, Theiner had even more reason to resent the order. A few months earlier the pope had urgently summoned him and, quaking with anger, ordered him to hand over the keys to the Vatican archives at once. At this, the sixty-six-year-old monk began to sob uncontrollably, finally gaining enough composure to ask the pope why he was so enraged. You have been giving secrets of the Vatican archives to my enemies at the council, the pope told him, and I will not have it. Despite Theiner's protestations of innocence, he was dismissed. The special door that gave the monk direct access to the archives from his apartment in the Vatican was bricked up so that there was no chance he could sneak in again. In Theiner's view, it was the Jesuits who had poisoned the pope's mind against him (Martina 1986, pp. 629–36; Hill 2000, pp. 209–10, 240–41; Chadwick 1978, pp. 51–76).