Part 14 (1/2)

Piedmont, under the silent and inactive eye of France, crushed that army on September 18, 1860. A few days later Ancona capitulated, and the Marches and Umbria were lost to the Holy See. In the South, Francis II.

was still enclosed in Gaeta; Cialdini hastened thither and laid siege to the town. The King defended himself bravely, but at length, February 13, 1861, was obliged to yield and retired to Rome.

_USURPATIONS OF VICTOR EMMANUEL._

At length, through robbery and brigandage, Victor Emmanuel, in February, 1861, took the t.i.tle of King of Italy, which Europe had the weakness to recognize. The moment seemed propitious to make the Rome of the Popes the capital of the new kingdom; Garibaldi tried to effect it, but was shamefully defeated at Aspromonte and forced to retreat. On September 15, 1864, took place the famous Convention, whereby Piedmont agreed to respect what remained of the Pontifical Kingdom, while France withdrew her forces from the Papal States.

The promise of Piedmont was illusory, and deceived no one. Garibaldi marched almost immediately on Rome with six thousand revolutionaries.

Happily he was overtaken by Captain Costes, who commanded 388 hors.e.m.e.n, and this delay, although only twenty-six hours, saved the city for that time. The bands of Garibaldians were again defeated by the troops of Saussier and de Charette, at Mentana, November 3, 1867.

From that time until 1870, the power of France maintained the Pope on his throne. But when the Prussian war broke out, Napoleon recalled his troops to the number of 5000; he needed them, he said, for the defence of France in her danger. Nothing now could oppose the Piedmontese. The Court of Florence at once sent 60,000 men, commanded by a renegade, General Caderna, who arrived before Rome in September. The whole Papal force amounted to scarcely 10,000, so that resistance became practically impossible. The Holy Father, nevertheless, went through the form of resistance. The enemy was obliged to force its way through a breach in the wall at Porta Pia, and entered Rome thus on September 20, 1870.

_FALL OF ROME._

The same evening Cardinal Antonelli, the Papal Secretary of State, sent a circular of protest to all the civilized governments. It met, however, with silence, except in one instance. The Republic of Equador, through its President, the heroic Garcia Moreno, sent a message of sympathy, so full of courage and loyalty as to call forth the admiration and affection of Pius IX.

In order to give an appearance of decency to his usurpation, and to throw dust into the eyes of the European governments, Victor Emmanuel caused a plebiscite to be taken at Rome. This pretence of a popular vote called out only 40,000 names, most of which belonged to soldiers of the invading army. A law of guarantees was also published, whereby the person of the Pope was declared sacred and inviolable; the honors of sovereignty were to be maintained by him; he was to possess the Vatican Palace, the Lateran, and the country palace at Castel Gandolfo, besides an annual indemnity of 3,225,000 francs, which was naturally refused.

There was also a guarantee of full liberty for future conclaves and ec.u.menical councils. Only one thing was certain under all the guarantees: that the usurpers would have their way in any case.

After the taking of Rome by the Piedmontese, Pius IX shut himself up in the Vatican from which he was never to go forth alive. There he died, February 7, 1878. Victor Emmanuel, who had fixed his Court at the Quirinal, lived only until January 9, 1878.

_ACCESSION OF LEO XIII._

The new Pope, Leo XIII., a native of _Carpinetti_, of the family of the Pecci, was one fitted to guide the bark of Peter in the trying circ.u.mstances in which he found it. The law of guarantees apparently in force could be said to s.h.i.+eld the person of the Holy Father only because he gave no opportunity for its infringement. As a prisoner in the Vatican he could not easily come into conflict with the radical elements of the City who would show him scant courtesy did he choose to appear in the public streets, notwithstanding the law of guarantees.

In fact the temper of the mob has betrayed itself on more than one occasion. On the night of July 12, 1881, as the remains of the late Pope Pius IX were being borne to their last resting place in the cemetery of San Lorenzo. The event was made the occasion of rowdyism unimpeded by any surveillance on the part of the government authorities. As the funeral cortege moved along, the chorus of mockery and insult was raised on all sides. The police did nothing to silence the disturbers.

Encouraged by this tolerance the mob went still farther. Insults were succeeded by threats. Then followed violence; stones were hurled and blows rained upon the members of the cortege. The faithful followed piously chanting the Miserere or reciting the Rosary, while the enemy howled the Garibaldian song. In the Piazza dei Termi the crowd hurled showers of stones. The attending prelates were insulted, threatened with death, and struck upon the face. The faithful gathered around the funeral car determined to resent the profanations of the savage mob. It was only when the Church of San Lorenzo was reached that the police at length thought fit to intervene. The danger was then over, and the funeral obsequies proceeded in comparative peace.

_LEO XIII. AND LABOR._

The true genius of the prisoner of the Vatican began first to manifest itself in his att.i.tude towards the Knights of Labor in the States of America and Canada. Cardinal Taschereau of Quebec, and the Canadian prelates, as well as some prelates of the extreme party in the United States had almost secured the condemnation of this great labor organization by the Sacred Congregation at Rome. This body, it was claimed, was const.i.tuted somewhat after the model of Freemasonry; it had its secrets hidden from the outside world, and it had likewise a code of signs and pa.s.swords known only to the initiated. Catholics numbered largely among its members, and for this reason it was considered that the characteristics of this organization were those of a secret society which brought it under the ban of the Church.

[Ill.u.s.tration: POPE LEO XIII.]

But for the Pope the condemnation of the Knights of Labor by the Sacred Congregation would no doubt have been p.r.o.nounced. Freemasonry, with its stupendous oaths and its invocations of dire and dreadful penalties in case of the violation of such oaths, with its liturgical services and elaborate ceremonial--not to mention Continental Freemasonry with its factional political policy and aims--was an altogether different thing from the const.i.tution and workings of the society known as the Knights of Labor. The avowed object of the Knights of Labor was the right of the laborer to a voice in determining the price at which he should part with his labor. It had no suggestion of anything revolutionary or anti-Christian. To have condemned this particular organization would have meant the condemnation of labor unionism everywhere.

Leo had already shown his sympathy for the workingman in many an expression of marked significance. His unconcealed admiration for much of what was characteristically American made him glad of the opportunity to p.r.o.nounce officially in favor of this great organization of American workingmen.

The Encyclical which followed in 1891 made glad the sons of Labor throughout the world, and gave satisfaction to all democratic communities. Some of the sentences may well be quoted here: ”The customs of working by contract, and the concentration of so many branches of trade in the hands of a few individuals, have brought about a condition of things by means of which a very small number of rich men have been able to lay upon the ma.s.ses of the laboring poor a yoke little better than slavery itself.... Is it that the fruit of a man's own sweat and labor should be possessed by someone else?... If the workman has to accept harder conditions because the employer will not grant him better, he is the victim of force and injustice.” Sentiments like these had been expressed by other writers and other teachers, but coming from such a quarter and at such a time, they powerfully influenced the minds of the working cla.s.ses, and won a regard for the Pope which has not died with his death. Even so great an aristocrat as Dr. Moorehouse, the Protestant Bishop of Melbourne, later of Manchester, in speaking of the Pope's Encyclical, said: ”He shows a spirit very vast, a great depth of knowledge and a foresight most sagacious.” Barres, the celebrated French Socialist, said: ”Let the Pope go on, and democracy will no longer see an enemy in the priest.”

President Cleveland recognized the Pope's spirit by sending him a bound copy of the American Const.i.tution, to which his Holiness graciously replied, and added these words: ”In your country men enjoy liberty in the true sense of the word, guaranteed by that Const.i.tution of which you have sent me a copy. The character of the President rouses my most genuine admiration.” The Pope's recognition of the French Republic was part of his policy of conciliation, and gained for the Church many practical benefits in France.

Leo XIII. died peacefully on July 20, 1903. He was succeeded by Cardinal Joseph Sarto, patriarch of Venice, a native of Riese near Padua in Northern Italy, where he was born June 2, 1835. He was ordained to the priesthood September 18, 1858; was made Bishop of Mantua November 10, 1884; Cardinal and Patriarch of Venice in June, 1893; and finally Pope, taking the name of Pius X. on August 4, 1903.

_ACCESSION OF PIUS X._