As a life-long Catholic, I had no idea who Pope Pius IX was, other than a past pope. That all changed after reading the fine book, “The Pope who Would be King” by David I. Kertzer (2018). What follows is mostly taken from this book. Pio Nono, as he was known in Italy, became Pope in 1846 and reigned until 1878. His life as Pope was overshadowed by his rule as the temporal leader of the Papal States. The Papal States comprised of about one quarter of Italy. Click here for a map. The Papal States had been ruled by the Popes for over a thousand years. The Pope was the head of state, the law and the judge of all his citizens. He was the all-powerful king of his subjects. All government jobs were held by the clergy. The Pope’s government advisors were his Cardinals, usually two or three of his most trusted clergymen. The most important advisor to Pio Nono was Cardinal Giacomo Antonelli. A shrewd and ambitions man, Antonelli was not a priest, but a Deacon when he was named Cardinal. Antonelli was no spiritual man; he was a power broker extraordinaire above all else.
Pope Pius IX saw his rule of the Papal States as a mandate from God and ruled that way. “He believed that God had bestowed on him the right to wield absolute power.” “Parliamentary government and individual freedoms, according to Pio Nono, were not only incompatible with the divinely ordained nature of his own states but inherently evil. It was a belief that he would hold for the rest of his life.” When he encountered resistance to his clerical rule, he was dumbfounded to see that his subjects did not see it the same way. The Papal States were bordered on the north by the Kingdom of Lombardy and Venice, which was controlled by the Austrian Hapsburg Empire and Tuscany which was an independent state. To the South it was bordered by the Kingdom of Two Sicilies, ruled by King Ferdinand II, of the Bourbon Dynasty.
Revolution was in the air for all of the time Pio Nono reigned. France had a revolution in 1848 which deposed King Louis Phillipe, creating the Second French Republic headed by Louis Bonaparte, a nephew of Napoleon. In Italy the entire peninsula was on fire for Italian unification and the removal of foreign armies, especially the Austrian Army which controlled the North East part of Italy. In the Papal States, the citizens hated the rule of priests and longed for Italian unification. They were tired of the oppression of the clerics. In the South, the Kingdom of Two Sicilies was in turmoil and revolting against their ruler, King Ferdinand II. This was the climate Pio Nono found upon being elected pope.
Citizens of the Papal States loved the Pope but hated being ruled by the heavy-handed priestly rule. Clergy were the police commanders, usually a bishop or a monsignor. The courts were also headed by clergy. The rule was nothing short of tyrannical. A priest could barge into a home and inspect it to make sure no religious rules were being violated. Any dissent or talk critical of the Pope was dealt with severely. People lived in fear of arrest and torture, even killing for not supporting the Pope and his rule. In Rome, the Jewish population was kept in a ghetto by law. Jews could not own property, they could only work in some professions, but not others; they could not testify in court. The Jews even had to pay a large sum each year to support the House of the Catechumens, the church organization dedicated to their conversion.
Subjects of the Papal States wanted a constitution and rule by civilians. They wanted a separation between the church and the state. The Pope refused. They wanted Italian unification; the Pope refused to consider it. Revolution was in the air and things were getting hot. When thousands of people besieged the papal residence and killed the Pope’s top government administrator, Pellegrino Rossi, as he was leaving his office, the Pope decided he needed to escape before they got him. With the help of the Bavarian ambassador, Pio Nono escaped to a small coastal town of Gaeta, near Naples in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, riding in a horse drawn carriage all night. King Ferdinand II welcomed him with open arms. After the Pope escaped Rome, the citizens established their own government headed by a triumvirate which called themselves the Roman Republic. Soon after settling down in Gaeta, the pope, meeting with his advisors and foreign dignitaries, plotted to regain his rule by using military force. He debated whether to ask the Austrian or the French for military help. He decided the French were more to his liking. The French agreed to send a military expedition to restore the pope to Rome.
France sent an expeditionary force of 30,000 troops to help the pope regain his kingdom. The troops landed in Civitavecchia, a port near Rome and marched into the city. The French troops underestimated Roman resistance. Although lacking a unified and trained army, they put together a defense made up of university students, former members of the papal army and local citizens who took up arms. They did have one ace in the hole; Giuseppe Garibaldi had by this time returned from leading military wars in Brazil and Urugary. He brought with him about 1200 of his trusted soldiers from South America. These were seasoned troops. When the French tried to break into Rome they met heavy resistance and were driven back with heavy losses. Garibaldi, one of the best military commanders of his day, led his troops aboard his white horse. His constant companion was a black man and a fierce warrior from Uruguay, the son of a former slave, Andrea Aguyar. Garibaldi was wounded in the first encounter, shot in the stomach, but survived. Aguyar, was killed in action on the last day of the battle. The French commander, General Charles Oudinot, stung by his initial defeat, withdrew to the rear to wait for additional troops which arrived shortly thereafter. Not only additional troops but additional heavy cannons were brought in to demolish the thick Roman defensive walls. Faced with overpowering odds, the Roman defenders had no chance. The French troops breached the walls, poured in and occupied Rome. Over 2,000 Romans were killed defending their city. Much of Rome lay in ruins, although the French were careful not to destroy many of Rome’s treasures. Upon the Pope's return, brutal reprisals were meted out to his opponents. Many were shot to death.
Pio Nono was ecstatic at the defeat of his enemies, although he said he lamented the loss of life. After the French occupation of Rome, French representatives, led by the famous Alexis de Tocqueville, and other French and Europeans emissaries begged the Pope to be lenient with his subjects. They all strongly asked him not to arrest the people who supported the new Roman Republic. Pio Nono would have none of it. He wanted punishment. After returning to Rome that is what happened. All those who had shown support for the Republic were arrested, many of them were tortured or killed. In Rome, the French placed warnings on Roman walls that anyone found with any weapon would be summarily executed. The executions were done in public squares. One man accused of carrying weapons was brought before a firing squad in Piazza del Popolo, one of the biggest Piazzas in Rome where a large crown gathered to watch his execution. The usual method of execution was by guillotine, but the guillotines were no longer working so they used firing squads. Later on, a French Archbishop sent the Pope two new guillotines which were later used to execute the Pope’s enemies.
It did not end there. After the French occupied Rome, many of its defenders managed to escape north. Giuseppe Garibaldi gathered his troops and his pregnant wife, Anita in St. Peter’s Square and they were led out of the city by fellow Romans. Anita had earlier come to Rome from Nice (Nizza), Garibaldi’s home town, against his wishes. The 27-year-old Brazilian beauty was also a seasoned warrior in her own right, having fought alongside her husband in Brazil and Uruguay. Later in their escape north, she fell ill and died in his arms, along with the unborn baby, seven months in gestation.
While the French were attacking Rome, the Austrians were occupying Papal State cities Bologna, Ferrara and Ancona with their troops. Upon reaching the tiny principality of San Marino, Garibaldi released many of his troops from their vow to fight to the death with him. The San Marino authorities mediated a compromise for Garibaldi’s released troops. The Austrian Army promised to let them go home if they would give up their arms; 900 of them did. They would soon come to regret it. The following day, these same men were marched in chains into Bologna; their fate unknown. Garibaldi continued with 300 of his ardent followers.
Ugo Bassi, a priest and chaplain serving Garibaldi’s troops, succeeded in reaching the town of Ferrara. There a local person reported him to the Austrians. The Austrians arrested him and sentenced him to death, without trial, on a bogus charge that he had been carrying arms. He was shot by a firing squad. Another popular Roman hero and a former supporter of Pio Nono nicknamed Ciceruacchio met even a crueler fate. He was captured with his two young sons and, without a trial, all three were sentenced to death. Tied together with his 13-year-old son, he begged the Austrians to spare the boy. All three were shot dead; the younger boy first then Ciceruacchio and lastly, the older boy. All for being part of the Roman Republic which opposed the pope. All in the name of Pio Nono.
In looking for current information on Pius IX, I learned that Pope John II, beatified Pius IX in the year 2000; the last step before being named a saint. Pius IX was the pope who first established Papal Infallibility in 1870; the doctrine that the pope, acting on his authority, or ex cathedra (from the chair) cannot err when teaching on faith and morals. It has been used only once, in 1950 by Pope Pius XII on the assumption of Mary.
I highly recommend the book. Excellent research and great story telling. Click on the link at the top of this essay.
Click here for an interview with the author of the book referred to here about Pope Pius IX.
