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Pope Gregory XVI

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Pope
Gregory XVI
Bishop of Rome
Portrait by Paul Delaroche, 1844
Portrait by Paul Delaroche, 1844
Church Catholic Church
Papacy began 2 February 1831
Papacy ended 1 June 1846
Predecessor Pius VIII
Successor Pius IX
Previous posts Vicar General of the Camaldolese Order (1814–1826)
Cardinal Priest of San Callisto (1826–1831)
Prefect of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (1826–1831)
Orders
Ordination 1787
Consecration 6 February 1831
by Bartolomeo Pacca
Created cardinal 21 March 1825 (in pectore)
13 March 1826 (revealed)
by Leo XII
Personal details
Born Bartolomeo Alberto Cappellari
18 September 1765
Belluno, Republic of Venice
Died 1 June 1846 (aged 80)
Rome, Papal States
Other popes named Gregory

Pope Gregory XVI (Latin: Gregorius PP. XVI; Italian: Gregorio XVI; born Bartolomeo Alberto Cappellari; 18 September 1765 – 1 June 1846) was head of the Catholic Church and leader of the Papal States from 2 February 1831 to his death in June 1846.[1] He had adopted the name Mauro upon entering the religious order of the Camaldolese. He is the most recent pope to take the pontifical name "Gregory", the last to govern the Papal States for the whole duration of his pontificate, and the most recent not to have been a bishop when elected.

Born in Belluno, Cappellari joined the order of Camaldolese when he was eighteen. Ordained as a priest in 1787, he was a teacher of both philosophy and theology. Cappellari was made a cardinal, and, in 1831, he was elected as pope, taking the papal name Gregory XVI. A staunch defender of traditional doctrine against new ideas, he worked to protect the Papal States from attacks by Italian patriotic movements. His pontificate saw a renewed commitment to missionary work overseas. In his 1839 papal brief In supremo apostolatus, Pope Gregory XVI condemned both the slave trade and the continuance of the institution of slavery. He died of erysipelas in June 1846.

Biography

Early life

Bartolomeo Alberto Cappellari was born at Belluno in the Republic of Venice, on 18 September 1765, as the last of five children, to a local Italian lower noble family, notable since the 16th century, aggregated to the local Nobility Council in 1670 and traditionally linked to liberal professions but not to the consecrated life. He was baptized at the parish of Bolzano Bellunese by his uncle Antonio Capellari. His parents were from a small village named Pesariis, in Friuli. His father, Giovanni Battista Capellari, was a notary. His mother, Giulia Cesa was a daughter of a notary. At the age of eighteen, Bartolomeo Cappellari joined the order of the Camaldolese[2] (part of the Benedictine monastic family) and entered the Monastery of San Michele in Murano, near Venice. He was ordained a priest in 1787.[3] As a Camaldolese monk, Cappellari rapidly gained distinction for his theological and linguistic skills, and was assigned to teach philosophy and theology at San Michele in 1787, at the age of 22.

In 1790, at the age of 25, he was appointed censor librorum for his Order, as well as for the Holy Office at Venice.[3] He went to Rome in 1795 and in 1799 published a polemic against the Italian Jansenists titled II Trionfo della Santa Sede ("The Triumph of the Holy See"),[4][5] which passed through various editions in Italy and was translated into several European languages. In 1800, he became a member of the Academy of the Catholic Religion, founded by Pope Pius VII (1800–1823), to which he contributed memoirs on theological and philosophical questions. In 1805, at the age of 40, he was appointed abbot of the Monastery of San Gregorio on Rome's Caelian Hill.[6]

When the army of the French Emperor Napoleon took Rome and arrested and deported Pius VII to France in 1809, Cappellari fled to Murano, where he taught in the Monastery of St. Michele of his Order, where he had first become a monk. From there he and a group of monks moved their little college to Padua in 1814. After Napoleon's final defeat, the Congress of Vienna re-established the sovereignty of the Papal States over central Italy and Cappellari was called back to Rome to assume the post of vicar general of the Camaldolese Order. He was then appointed as Counsellor to the Inquisition, and later promoted to be Consultor (29 February 1820) and then, on 1 October 1826, Prefect of the Congregation of Propaganda Fide ("Propagation of the Faith"),[6] which dealt with all missionary work outside of the Spanish Empire, including missions to the non-Catholic states in Europe.[7] Twice he was offered a bishopric and twice he refused.[3]

Cardinal

On 21 March 1825, Cappellari was created cardinal in pectore (published 13 March 1826) by Pope Leo XII,[8] and shortly afterwards he was asked to negotiate a concordat to safeguard the rights of Catholics in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, a diplomatic task which he completed successfully. He also negotiated a peace on behalf of Armenian Catholics with the Ottoman Empire. He publicly condemned the Polish revolutionaries, who he thought were seeking to undermine Russian Tsar Nicholas I's efforts to support the Catholic royalist cause in France by forcing him to divert his troops to suppress the uprising in Poland.[9]

Cappellari had never travelled outside Italy and was most familiar with Venice and Rome. He spoke Italian and Latin fluently, but no other European languages, and did not understand European politics.[10] However, he was proficient in Armenian, and Haruti'iwn Awgerian (Pascal Aucher)'s 1827 Venice edition of works attributed to Severian of Gabala and translated into Armenian was dedicated to him.

Pontificate

Papal election

On 2 February 1831, after a fifty-day conclave, Cappellari was unexpectedly chosen to succeed Pope Pius VIII (1829–30). His election was influenced by the fact that the cardinal considered the most papabile, Giacomo Giustiniani, was vetoed by King Ferdinand VII of Spain.[3] There then arose a deadlock between the other two major candidates, Emmanuele de Gregorio and Bartolomeo Pacca. What finally drove the cardinals to make a decision was a message from the government of Parma notifying them that revolt was about to break out in the northern Papal States.[10] To resolve the impasse, the cardinals turned to Cappellari, but it took eighty-three ballots for the canonically required two-thirds majority to be reached.[11]

At the time of election, Cardinal Cappellari was not yet a bishop; he is the most recent man to be elected pope prior to his episcopal consecration. He was consecrated as bishop by Bartolomeo Pacca, Cardinal Bishop of Ostia and Velletri and dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals,[6] with Pietro Francesco Galleffi, Cardinal Bishop of Porto e Santa Rufina and sub-dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals, and Tommasso Arezzo, Cardinal Bishop of Sabina, acting as co-consecrators.

The choice of Gregory XVI as his regnal name was influenced by the fact that he had been abbot of the Monastery of San Gregorio on the Coelian Hill for more than twenty years, and in honour of Gregory XV, the founder of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith.[3] The Monastery of San Gregorio was the same abbey from which Pope Gregory I had dispatched missionaries to England in 596.

Actions

The revolution of 1830, which overthrew the House of Bourbon, had just inflicted a severe blow on the Catholic royalist party in France. Almost the first act of the new French government was to seize Ancona, thus throwing Italy, and particularly the Papal States, into a state of confusion and political upheaval. Gregory issued a proclamation on 9 February 1831, one week after his election, expressing good will towards his subjects.[12] In the course of the struggle that ensued, the Pope found it necessary more than once to call in Austrian troops to fight the red-shirted republicans engaged in a guerrilla campaign.[13] The conservative administration of the Papal States postponed their promised reforms after a series of bombings and assassination attempts. The replacement of Tommaso Bernetti by Luigi Lambruschini as Cardinal Secretary of State in 1836 did nothing to appease the situation.

In the northern territories, the leaders of the revolt were middle-class gentry opposed to the general inefficiency of the government.[10]

Governance of the papal states

Some authors from a much later period, publishing accounts without any verifiable proof, claim that Gregory XVI and Cardinal Lambruschini opposed basic technological innovations such as gas lighting and railways,[13] believing that they would promote commerce and increase the power of the bourgeoisie, leading to demands for liberal reforms which would undermine the monarchical power of the Pope over central Italy. Gregory XVI is believed by some to have banned railways in the Papal States, with apocryphal accounts claiming he called them chemins d'enfer ("road to hell", a play on the French for railroad, chemin de fer, literally "iron road") - however, there is no document or public statement from the Pope banning or saying anything of the sort.[14] Evidence suggests that railway projects were just postponed for purely economic reasons, as the papal territory was mountainous, making railroads more expensive than in other countries, in addition to the need to import iron and coal from abroad, which at the time would have crippled state finances. Only years later, already under Pius IX, with the increase in global production and supply of commodities, did imports become viable for the state budget and railways were built.[15]

The insurrections at Viterbo in 1836, in various parts of the Legations in 1840, caused by the salt wars at Ravenna in 1843 and at Rimini in 1845, were followed by wholesale executions and draconian sentences of hard labour and exile, but they did not bring the unrest within the Papal States under the control of the authorities. Gregory XVI made great expenditures for defensive, architectural and engineering works, having a monument to Pope Leo XII built by Giuseppe Fabris in 1837.[13] He also lavished patronage on such scholars as Angelo Mai, Giuseppe Mezzofanti, and Gaetano Moroni. This largesse, however, significantly weakened the finances of the Papal States.

Encyclicals

Gregory issued nine encyclical letters (enciclica or epistola encyclica) during his reign as pope. According to the Holy See's website,[16] these were:

No. Title (Latin) Title or English translation Subject Date
1. Quel Dio "That God..." End of the insurrection in the Papal States[17] 5 April 1831
2. Le armi valorose "The Valiant Weapons" On the pacification of the Papal States 12 July 1831
3. Cum primum "When the First [report]" Condemnation of the November Uprising in Kingdom of Poland 9 July 1832
4. Mirari vos "That You Wonder" The conditions of the time as Gregory saw them, and condemnation of liberalism and indifferentism[18] 15 August 1832
5. Singulari Nos "Us in Particular" Condemnation of the ideas of Félicité de La Mennais 25 June 1834
6. Commissum divinitus "Divinely Commissioned" Condemnation of certain doctrinal errors being adopted especially in parts of Switzerland 17 May 1835
7. Augustissimam beatissimi "Most August, Most Blessed" Restoration of the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls[19] 21 December 1840
8. Inter ea "Among These [concerns]" Condemnation of anti-clerical laws in the Swiss Confederation 1 April 1842
9. Inter praecipuas "Among the Special Schemes" Condemnation of non-Catholic Bible translations 8 May 1844

Other activities

Apostolic letters

In supremo apostolatus, an apostolic letter or papal bull, was issued by Pope Gregory XVI regarding the institution of slavery. Issued on 3 December 1839, as a result of a broad consultation among the College of Cardinals, the bull resoundingly denounced both the slave trade and the continuance of the institution of slavery.[20]

He wrote to four Bohemian bishops in 1845 affirming the liturgical use of the term "Immaculate Conception" in relation to the Virgin Mary.[21]

Canonizations and beatifications

Gregory XVI canonized Veronica Giuliani, an Italian mystic, during his papacy. During his reign, five saints were canonized (notably Alphonsus Liguori) and thirty-three Servants of God were declared Blessed (including the Augustinian Simon of Cascia). In addition, many new religious orders were founded or supported and the devotion of the faithful to the Blessed Virgin Mary increased, both in private and public life.[3]

Consistories

The pope created 75 cardinals in 24 consistories, in which the pope elevated 35 cardinals "in pectore", including his future successor Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti, who would become Pope Pius IX. The pope also created six additional cardinals in pectore, though the pope died before these names could be revealed, therefore cancelling their appointments to the cardinalate.

In 1836, the pope wanted to nominate Charles Joseph Benoît Mercy d'Argenteau to the College of Cardinals, but the archbishop refused the nomination because he did not wish to leave his family and home for a possible position in the Roman Curia. Gregory XVI nominated four in pectore cardinals on 21 April 1845 and one on 24 November 1845; Gregory XVI also named another in pectore cardinal in the 12 July 1841 consistory, never revealing his name. According to Philippe Boutry, Alerame Maria Pallavicini (the Master of the Sacred Palace) was the in pectore cardinal announced on 24 November 1845; however, Pope Pius IX refused to publish his name upon his ascension to the papacy less than a year later.[22]

Death and burial

On 20 May 1846, he felt himself failing in health. A few days later, he was taken ill with facial erysipelas. At first, the attack was not thought to be very serious, but on 31 May, his strength suddenly failed, and it was seen that the end was near.[3]

Gregory XVI died at 9:15 am on 1 June 1846 at age 80.[23] That morning, he received the Extreme Unction from the sub-sacristan Agostino Proja. After his funeral, he was buried in Saint Peter's Basilica.[24]

See also

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Pope Gregory XVI, (Mauro, or Bartolomeo Alberto Cappellari), b. at Belluno, then in the Venetian territory, 8 September, 1765; d. at Rome, 9 June, 1846. His father, Giovanni Battista, and his mother, Giulia Cesa-Pagani, were both of the minor nobility of the district and the families of both had in former times been prominent in the service of the state. When eighteen, Bartolomeo gave evidence of a religious vocation, and after some opposition on the part of his relations, was clothed in 1783 as a novice in the Camaldolese monastery of San Michele di Murano, taking the name Mauro. Here, three years later, he was solemnly professed, and was ordained priest in 1787. The young monk soon showed signs of unusual intellectual gifts. He devoted himself to the study of philosophy and theology, and was set to teach these to the juniors at San Michele. In 1790 he was appointed censor librorum for his order, as well as for the Holy Office at Venice. Five years later he was sent to Rome, where he lived at first in a small house (since destroyed) in the Piazza Veneta, afterwards in the great monastery of San Gregorio on the Coelian Hill. The times were not favourable to the papacy. In 1798 took place the scandalous abduction of Pius VI by General Berthier, at Napoleon's orders, and in the following year the death of the pope in exile at Valence. It was this very year, 1799, that Dom Mauro chose for the publication of his book, "Il trionfo della Santa Sede", upholding papal infallibility and the temporal sovereignty. The work, according to Gregory himself, did not attract great attention till after he had become pope, yet it attained three editions and was translated into several languages. In 1800 Cardinal Chiaramonti was elected pope at Venice, and took the name of Pius VII, and returned to Rome the same year. Early in that year Dom Mauro had been nominated Abbot Vicar of San Gregorio, and in 1805 the pope appointed him abbot of that ancient house. He retired to Venice to rest, but returned in 1807 as procurator general, only to be driven out in the following year, when General Miollis repeated on the person of Pius VII the outrage of Berthier on Pius VI. Dom Mauro returned to Venice, but San Michele was closed as a monastery the next year by the emperor's orders. In spite of this the religious remained, in secular habit, at the monastery, and Dom Mauro taught philosophy to the students of the Camaldolese college at Murano. But, in 1813, the college was transferred to the Camaldolese convent of Ognissanti at Padua, Venice being too disturbed and inimical. The following year Napoleon fell from power, Pius VII returned to Rome, and Dom Mauro was at once summoned thither. In rapid succession the learned Camaldolese was appointed consultor of various Congregations, examiner of bishops, and again Abbot of San Gregorio. Twice he was offered a bishopric and twice he refused. It was considered certain that he would become a cardinal, and it caused general surprise when, in 1823, Pius VII chose in his stead the geographer, Dom Placisdo Zurla (also a Camaldolese). In that year the pope died, and Cardinal della Genga, who took the name of Leo XII, was elected. On 21 March, 1825, the new pope created Dom Mauro cardinal in petto, and the creation was published the following year. Cappillaria became Cardinal of San Callisto and Prefect of the Congregation of Propaganda. It was in this office that he successfully arranged a concordat between the Belgian Catholics and King William of Holland in 1827, between the Armenian Catholics and the Ottoman Empire in 1829. On St. George's Day of the latter year Cardinal Capillaria had the joy of learning that Catholic Emancipation had become a fact in the British Isles.

On 10 February, 1829, Leo XII died, and Pius VIII, broken by the revolutions in France and in the Netherlands, followed him to the grave on 1 December, 1830. A fortnight later the conclave began. It lasted for seven weeks. At one time Cardinal Giustiniani appeared likely to secure the requisite number of votes, but Spain interposed with a veto. At last the various parties came to an agreement, and on the Feast of the Purification, Cardinal Capillaria was elected by thirty-one votes out of forty-five. He took the name of Gregory XVI, in honour of Gregory XV, the founder of Propaganda. Hardly was the new pope elected when the Revolution, which for some time had been smouldering throughout Italy, broke into flame in the Papal States. Already on 2 February the Duke of Modena had warned Cardinal Albani that the conclave must come to a speedy decision, as a revolution was imminent. The next day the duke caused the house of his erstwhile friend, Ciro Menotti, at Modena, to be surrounded, and arrested him and several of his fellow conspirators. At once a revolt broke out at Reggio, and the duke fled to Mantua, taking the prisoners with him. The disturbance spread with prearranged rapidity. On 4 February Bologna revolted, drove the pro-legate out of the town, and by the eighth had hoisted the tricolour instead of the papal flag. Within a fortnight nearly the whole of the Papal States had repudiated the sovereignty of the pope, and on the nineteenth Cardinal Benvenuti, who was sent to quell the rebellion, became a prisoner of the "Provisional Government". Even in Rome itself a rising projected for 12 February was only averted by the ready action of Cardinal Bernetti, the new secretary of state. In these conditions, the papal forces being obviously unable to cope with the situation, Gregory decided to appeal to Austria for help. It was immediately forthcoming. On 25 February a strong Austrian force started for Bologna, and the "Provisional Government" soon fled to Ancona. Within a month the whole movement had collapsed, and on 27 March Cardinal Benvenuti was released by the rebel leaders, on the understanding that an amnesty should be granted by the pope. The cardinal's action, however, was without authority and was not endorsed, either by the papal government or by the Austrian general. But the rebellion, for the moment, was crushed, and after an abortive attempt to seize Spoleto, from which they were dissuaded by Archbishop Mastai-Ferretti, all the leaders who were able to do so fled the country. On 3 April the pope was able to assert that order was re-established.

In the same month, the representatives of the five powers, Austria, Russia, France, Prussia and England, met in Rome to consider the question of the "Reform of the Papal States". On 21 May they issued a joint Memorandum urging on the papal government reforms in the judiciary, the introduction of laymen into the administration, popular election of the communal and municipal councils, the administration of the finances by a skilled body selected largely from the laity. Gregory undertook to carry out such of these proposed reforms as he deemed practicable, but on two points he was determined not to yield: he would never admit the principle of popular election to the councils, and he would never permit the establishment of a council of State, composed of laymen, parallel to the Sacred College. By a succession of edicts, dated 5 July, 5 October, and 5 and 21 November, a comprehensive scheme of reform of the administration and of the judiciary was set afoot. The delegations were to be divided into a complex hierarchy of central, provincial and communal governments. At the head of each of these bodies respectively was to be a pro-legate, a governor or a mayor, representing the pope, and assisted by, and (in financial matters) controlled by, a council who was selected, out of a triple-elected list, by the government. All these bodies were to keep the pope informed as to the wished and requirements of his subjects. The reform of the judiciary, as regards civil litigation, was even more thorough. An end was put to the confusing multiplicity of tribunals (in Rome no less than twelve out of the fifteen conflicting jurisdictions, including that of the arbitrary uditore santissimo, were abolished), and three hierarchies, composed each of three civil courts, one for Bologna and the legations, one for Romagna and the Marches, and one for Rome, were established. In each of these the agreement of any two courts inhibited further appeal, and most of the courts were to be composed largely of laymen skilled in the law. The criminal courts were not so radically reformed, but even in these an end was made of the vexatious and often tyrannous secrecy and irregularity that had hitherto prevailed.

All these reforms, however, despite their extent, were far from satisfying the aims of the revolutionary party. The Austrian troops were withdrawn on 15 July, 1831, but by December much of the Papal States was again in revolt. Papal troops were dispatched to the aid of the legations, but the only result was the concentration of 2000 revolutionists at Cesena. Cardinal Albani, who had been appointed commissioner-extraordinary of the legations, appealed on his own authority for aid to the Austrian General Radetsky, who at once sent troops. These forces joined the papal troops at Cesena, attacked and defeated the rebels, and by the end of January had taken triumphant possession of Bologna. This time France intervened, and as a protest against the Austrian occupation, seized and held Ancona, in sheer violation of international law. The pope and Bernetti protested energetically and even Prussia and Russia disapproved of this act, but though, after long negotiations, the French commander was ordered to restrain the outrages of the revolutionists in Ancona, the French troops were not withdrawn from that city until the final departure of the Austrians from the Papal States in 1838. The rebellion, however, was quelled and no further serious outbreak occurred for thirteen years. But, amidst all these disturbances in his own kingdom, Gregory had not been free from anxieties for the Faith and the Universal Church. The revolutions in France and the Netherlands had created a difficult situation: the pope had been expected by the one party to condemn the change, by the other to accept it. In August, 1831, he issued the Brief, "Sollicitudo Ecclesiarum", in which he reiterated the statements of former Pontiffs as to the independence of the Church and its refusal to be entangled in dynastic politics. In November of the same year, the Abbé de Lamennais and his companions came to Rome to submit to the pope the questions in dispute between the French episcopate and the directors of "L'Avenir". Gregory received them kindly, but caused them to be given more than one hint that the result of their appeal would not be favourable, and that they would be wise not to press for a decision. In spite, however, of the representations of Lacordaire, Lamennais persisted, with the result that, on the feast of the Assumption, 1832, the pope issued the Encyclical "Mirari vos", in which were condemned, not only the policy of "L'Avenir", but also many of the moral and social doctrines that were then put forward by most of the revolutionary schools. The Encyclical, which certainly cannot be considered favourable to ideas that have since become the commonplaces of secular politics, aroused a storm of criticism throughout Europe. It is well to remember, however, that some of its adversaries have not read it with great attention, and it has been sometimes criticized for statements that are not to be found in the text. Two years after its publication, the pope found it necessary to issue a further Encyclical, "Singulari nos", in which he condemned the "Paroles d'un croyant", the reply of Lamennais to "Mirari vos".

But it was not only in France that errors had to be met. In Germany the followers of Hermes were condemned by the Apostolic Letter, "Dum acerbissima", of 26 September, 1835. And in 1844, near the end of his reign, he issued the Encyclical, "Inter praecipuas machinationes", against the unscrupulous anti-Catholic propaganda in Italy of the London Bible Society and the New York Christian Alliance, which then, as now, were chiefly successful in transforming ignorant Italian Catholics into crudely anti-clerical free-thinkers. While he was engaged in combating the libertarian movements of current European thought, Gregory was obliged also to struggle with the rulers of States for justice and toleration for the Catholic Church in their realms. In Portugal the accession of Queen Maria da Gloria was the occasion of an outburst of anti-clerical legislation. The nuncio at Lisbon was commanded to leave the capital and the nunciature was suppressed. All ecclesiastical privileges were abolished, bishoprics filled by the ex-king, Dom Miguel, were declared vacant, religious houses were suppressed. The pope protested in consistory, but his protest only led to severer measures, and no efforts on his part were successful until 1841, when the growing popular uneasiness forced the queen to come to terms.

In Spain, too, the regent, Queen Maria Cristina, was able, during the minority of her daughter, Queen Isabella, to carry out an anti-clerical programme. In 1835 the religious orders were suppressed. Then the secular clergy were attacked: twenty-two dioceses were left without bishops, Jansenist priests were admitted to the committee appointed to "reform the Church", the salaries of the priests were confiscated. In 1840 bishops were driven from their sees, and when the nuncio protested against arbitrary acts of the government in power, he was conducted to the frontier. Peace was not restored to the Church in Spain till after Gregory's death.

In Prussia, at the very commencement of his reign, the question of mixed marriages was causing trouble. Pius VIII had dealt with these in a Brief of 28 March, 1830. This, however, did not satisfy the Prussian Government, and von Bunsen, the Prussian ambassador, exhausted every means, honest and dishonest, of bringing about a modification of the Catholic policy. The Archbishop of Cologne and the Bishops of Paderborn, Munster, and Trier were induced, in 1834, to enter into a convention not to put into execution the papal legislation. But the archbishop died the following year, and his successor, von Droste zu Vischering, was a man of very different calibre. In 1836 the Bishop of Trier, feeling his end approach, revealed the whole plot to the pope. Events moved quickly. The new Archbishop of Cologne announced his intention of obeying the Holy See, and was in consequence imprisoned by the Prussian Government. His arrest caused general indignation throughout Europe, and Prussia endeavoured to justify its action by inventing charges against the prelate. Nobody, however, believed the official story, and the Archbishop of Gnesen and Posen, who had imitated the courageous example of his brother of Cologne, was also imprisoned. But his arbitrary action aroused the indignation of German Catholics, and when King Frederick William III died in 1840 his successor was more ready to come to terms. In the end Archbishop Droste zu Vischering was given a coadjutor, and retired to Rome; the Archbishop of Gnesen was released unconditionally and the question at issue was quickly allowed to be decided in favour of the Catholic doctrine.

But no such success was possible in Poland and France. In the former unhappy country the Catholic religion was, then as now, inextricably united with the nationalist aspirations. As a consequence the whole force of the Russian autocracy was employed to crush it. With monstrous cruelty the Ruthenian Uniats were driven or cajoled into the Orthodox communion, the heroic nuns of Minsk were tortured and enslaved, more than 160 priests were deported to Siberia. The Catholics of the Latin rite were no better treated, bishops being imprisoned and prelates deported. Gregory protested in vain, and in 1845, when the Emperor Nicholas visited him in Rome, rebuked the autocrat for his tyranny. We are told that the Czar made promises of reform in his treatment of the Church, but, as might have been expected, nothing was done.

In France, the success of the Catholic revival had been so great that the anti-clericals were infuriated. Pressure was brought to bear upon the Government to obtain the suppression of the Jesuits, always the first to be attacked. M. Guizot sent to Rome Pellegrino Rossi, a former leader of the revolutionary party in Switzerland, to negotiate directly with Cardinal Lambruschini, who had replaced Bernetti in 1836 as secretary of state. But Gregory and Lambruschini were both firmly opposed to any attack on the society. Rossi, therefore, turned his attention to Father Roothan, the General of the Jesuits, and through the Congregation of Ecclesiastical Affairs, was successful in obtaining a letter to the French provincials advising that the novitiates and other houses should be gradually diminished or abandoned.

The reign of Gregory was drawing to its close. In August, 1841, with the intention of entering into closer relations with his people, he undertook a tour throughout some of the provinces. He travelled through Umbria to Loreto, thence to Aneona, and on to Fabriano, where he visited the relics of St. Romuald, the founder of the Camaldolese. He returned by Assisi, Viterbo and Orvieto, reaching Rome by the beginning of October. The progress had cost 2,000,000 francs, but it is very doubtful whether it had the intended result. Cardinal Lambruschini, to whom the pope as he grew older confided more and more of the actual direction of state affairs, was even more arbitrary and less accessible to modern political doctrines than Bernetti; the discontent grew and threatened. In 1843 there were attempts at revolt in Romagna and Umbria, which were suppressed with relentless severity by the special legates, Cardinals Vannicelli and Massimo. In September, 1845, the city of Rimini was again captured by a revolutionary force, which, however, was obliged to retire and seek safety in Tuscany. But the impassioned appeals of Niccolini, of Gioberti, of Farini, of d'Azeglio, were spread throughout Italy and all Europe, and the fear was only too well founded that the Papal States could not long outlast Gregory XVI. On 20 May, 1846, he felt himself failing, and ordered Cretineau-Joly to write the history of the secret societies, against which he had struggled vainly. A few days later the pope was taken ill with erysipelas in the face. At first the attack was not thought to be serious, but on 31 May his strength suddenly failed, and it was seen that the end was near. He died early on 9 June, with but two attendants near him. His tomb, by Amici, is in St. Peter's.

Gregory XVI has been treated with but scant respect by later historians, but he has by no means deserved their contempt. It is true that in political questions he showed himself almost as opposed as his immediate predecessors to even a minimum of democratic progress. But in this he was but similar to most rulers of his time, England itself, as Bernetti sarcastically remarked, being ready enough to suggest to other reforms it would not try at home. Gregory believed in autocracy, and neither his inclinations nor his experience was such as to make him favourable to increased political freedom. Probably the policy of his predecessors had made it very difficult for any but a very strong pope to oppose the growing revolution by efficient reforms. In any case both his temperament and his policy were such that he left to his successor an almost impossible task. But Gregory was by no means an obscurantist. His interest in art and all forms of learning is attested by the founding of the Etruscan and Egyptian museums at the Vatican, and of the Christian museum at the Lateran; by the encouragement given to men like Cardinals Mai and Mezzofanti, and to Visconti, Salvi, Marchi, Wiseman, Hurter, Rohrbacher, and Gueranger; by the lavish aid given to the rebuilding of St. Paul's Outside-the-Walls and of Santa Maria degli Angioli, at Assisi; by researches encouraged in the Roman Forum and in the catacombs. His care for the social welfare of his people is seen in the tunnelling of Monte Catillo to prevent the devastation of Tivoli by the floods of the river Anio, in the establishment of steamboats at Ostia, of a decimal coinage in the Roman States, of a bureau of statistics at Rome, in the lightening of various imposts and the re-purchase of the appanage of Eugene Beauharnais, in the foundation of public baths and hospitals and orphanages. During his reign the losses of the Church in Europe were more than balanced by her gains in the rest of the world. Gregory sent missionaries to Abyssinia, to India, to China, to Polynesia, to the North American Indians. He doubled the number of Vicars-Apostolic in England, he increased greatly the number of bishops in the United States. During his reign five saints were canonized, thirty-three servants of God declared Blessed, many new orders were founded or supported, the devotion of the faithful to the Immaculate Mother of God increased. In private as in public life, Gregory was noted for his piety, his kindliness, his simplicity, his firm friendship. He was not, perhaps, a great pope, or fully able to cope with the complicated problems of his time, but to his devotion, his munificence, and his labours Rome and the Universal Church are indebted for many benefits.

BIANCHI, Storia documentata della diplomazia europea in Italia dall' anno 1814 al 1861 (Turin, 1865-72), III; Cambridge Modern History, X, iv, v (Cambridge, 1907); CIPOLLETTA, Memorie politiche sui conclavi da Pio VII a Pio IX (Milan, 1863); COPPI, Annalo d'Italia dal 1750, VIII (Florence, 1859); CRETINEAU-JOLY, L'Eglise romaine en face de la Revolution (Paris, 1859); DARDANO, Diario dei conclavi del 1829-30-31 (Florence, 1879); DARRAS and FEVRE, Histoire de l'Eglise, XL (Paris, 1886); DASSANCE, Gregoire XVI in Biographie Universelle, XVII (Paris, 1857); DOLLINGER, The Church and the Churches (London, 1862); FARINI, Lo stato romano dall' anno 1815 (Turin, 1850-3); GIOVAGNOLI, Pellegrino Rossi e la rivoluzione romana (Rome, 1898); GUIZOT, Memoires pour servir a l'histoire de mon temps (Paris, 1858-67); KING, History of Italian Unity (London, 1899); LAVISSE and RAMBAUD, Histoire generale du IVe siecle a nos jours, X (Paris, 1898); LUBIENSKI, Guerres et revolutions d"Italie (Paris, 1852); MAYNARD, J. Cretineau-Joly (Paris, 1875); METTERNICH, Memoires (Paris, 1880-4); Nielsen, Gregor XVI in Realeneyk. fur prot. Theol., VII (Leipzig, 1899); NIELSEN, History of the Papacy in the Nineteenth Century, 11, 51-101 (London, 1875); ORSI, Modern Italy, 1748-1898 (London, 1900); PHILLIPS, Modern Europe, 1815-1899 (London, 1902); SILVAGNI, La corte e la societa romana ne' secoli XVIII e XIX, III (Rome, 1885); SYLVAIN, Gregoire XVI et son Pontificat (Lille, 1889); VON REUMONT, Zeitgenossen, Biografien u. Karakteristiken, I (Berlin, 1862); WARD, Life and Times of Cardinal Wiseman, I (London, 1897); WISEMAN, Recollections of the last four Popes and of Rome in their times (London, 1858).

References

  1. Back to citation Pham 2004, p. 187.
  2. Back to citation McBrien 2000, p. 336.
  3. Back to citation occurrence 3.0 Back to citation occurrence 3.1 Back to citation occurrence 3.2 Back to citation occurrence 3.3 Back to citation occurrence 3.4 Back to citation occurrence 3.5 Back to citation occurrence 3.6 Toke, Leslie. "Pope Gregory XVI". The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 7. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 20 November 2015
  4. Back to citation McBrien 2000, p. 337.
  5. Back to citation Gregory XVI (Mauro Cappellari) (1832). Il trionfo della Santa Sede e della Chiesa: contro gli assalti dei novatori combattuti e respinti colle stesse loro armi (in Italian). Venice: G. Battaggia.
  6. Back to citation occurrence 6.0 Back to citation occurrence 6.1 Back to citation occurrence 6.2 Pham 2004, p. 322.
  7. Back to citation Salvador Miranda, "Biographical notes on Mauro Cappellari". Retrieved 10 May 2016.
  8. Back to citation McBrien 2000, p. 335.
  9. Back to citation "Pope Gregory XVI to Bring about a Decision" (PDF). C Korten. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 January 2019. Retrieved 13 July 2017.
  10. Back to citation occurrence 10.0 Back to citation occurrence 10.1 Back to citation occurrence 10.2 Chadwick, Owen (2003). A History of the Popes, 1830–1914. Oxford University Press. p. 31. ISBN 978-0199262861.
  11. Back to citation J. P. Adams, Sede Vacante 1830–1831.. Retrieved 10 May 2016.
  12. Back to citation Pope Gregory XVI, Proclama: Chiamati Dalla Divina, in Italian, published on 9 February 1831, accessed on 22 August 2024
  13. Back to citation occurrence 13.0 Back to citation occurrence 13.1 Back to citation occurrence 13.2 McBrien 2000, p. 276.
  14. Back to citation Pham 2004, pp. 20–21.
  15. Back to citation The Rise and Fall of the Italian Economy, 2023 & pp.16-36.
  16. Back to citation Holy See, Gregory XVI, accessed on 27 February 2023
  17. Back to citation Quel Dio was written following Carbonari-led disturbances in the Papal States in 1831 and addressed to tutti i sudditi dello Stato Pontificio ("To all the subjects of the Papal States"). Holy See, Quel Dio, (in Italian) dated 5 April 1831, accessed on 18 February 2023 This letter was concerned with the "restoration of peace" within the pope's realm following the uprisings, described as the "anxieties which had afflicted his reign" from its beginning... driven by "the machinery of impiety" (le macchine dell’empietà). Holy See, Quel Dio, (in Italian) dated 5 April 1831, accessed on 18 February 2023 The Romagna and all parts of the Papal States except Lazio were affected by the Carbonari disturbances. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., The rebellions of 1831 and their aftermath, accessed on 25 February 2023 The letter recorded Gregory's gratitude to the imperial Austrian army for its role as the "liberator" and "saviour" of the Papal States. Francis I of Austria is praised with "indelible gratitude" by Gregory for his role in supporting the restoration of order. Wikipedia Foundation, Quel Dio in the German language Wikipedia, accessed on 20 February 2023 Cardinal Giovanni Antonio Benvenuti, Bishop of Osimo e Cingoli, was singled out for comment: he had been sent to subdue the rebellion but was imprisoned by the Carbonari "provisional government"; later he was released. Catholic Answers, Gregory XVI, accessed on 25 February 2023
  18. Back to citation This was Gregory's first encyclical intended to reach the wider church rather than those affected by specific issues.
  19. Back to citation Augustissimam beatissimi asked the bishops of the Catholic Church to collect offerings from the people of their dioceses to fund the remaining work to be undertaken in restoring the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls of Rome, damaged by a fire in 1823. By October 1840 the central altar and other parts of the building had been restored but funds were needed for the remaining parts of the project. The entire building was reconsecrated in 1854 in the presence of Pope Pius IX and fifty cardinals. Gregory's letter praises Paul the Apostle, drawing in particular on language used by St. John Chrysostom. Holy See, Augustissimam beatissimi (in Italian), issued on 21 December 1840, accessed on 23 June 2023
  20. Back to citation "Pope Gregory XVI 3 December 1839 Condemning Slave Trade". Retrieved 16 February 2010; Gillis, Chester (1999). Roman Catholicism in America. Columbia University Press. p. 58. ISBN 978-0-231-10871-3; Diène, Doudou (August 2001). From chains to bonds. Berghahn Books. p. 271. ISBN 978-1-57181-266-7; "In supremo apostolatus". Papalencyclicals.net. 3 December 1839. Retrieved 23 June 2013.
  21. Back to citation Pope Gregory XVI, Summa quidem (in Italian), published on 23 April 1845, accessed on 20 July 2026
  22. Back to citation Salvador Miranda. "Gregory XVI (1831–1846)". The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. Retrieved 20 February 2022.
  23. Back to citation De Mattei 2004, p. 9.
  24. Back to citation Catholic Encyclopedia

Bibliography

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