From the National Review. PAPAL ROME. * Ir is the singular privilege of the present generation to witness the union in one person of the royal and prophetic of fices. What philosophers and theologians might have pictured to themselves in their dreams, but could scarcely in their most enthusiastic moods have hoped to see practically realized, has become an actual and indisputable fact; and strange to say, it is in the center of fashion, and not in the spiritual metropolis of the Christian world, that this phenomenon has manifested itself. Until the assumption of the reins of government by the Emperor Napoleon III., there was in the diplomacy of European nations something hard, cold, and pedantically formal, which seemed to be the exaggerated essence of secular and material domination. Great questions, under the intricate but systematic manipulation of well-trained diplomatists, were carefully and even anxiously emptied of any thing approaching to a declaration of vital principles at issue, and with a skill worthy of the most practiced special pleader were made to turn on secondary and unexciting points of detail, which might contain the kernel of the matter, but so disguised its existence from vulgar eyes, that no hereditary sensibilities were shocked by bold unconventionalities, and no popular attention was directed to a department of knowledge as sacred as the inner mysteries of the ancient priesthood. Compromise could scarcely be said to be a constant accompaniment to that of which it was a corporate part, and to the ordered vagueness of which its nature so completely assimilated. Real sentiment was as little to be found as in a lawyer's brief; and sentimental motives, when put forward, *La Rome des Papes; son Origine, ses Phases successives, ses Maurs intimes, son Gouvernement, son Système administratif. Par un ancien Membre de la Constituante Romaine. Traduction de l'ouvrage Italien inédit. Premier volume. Bâle : Schweighauser. London: John Chapman, 1859. Le Pape et le Congrès. Paris, 1859. were as much matter of mere decent form as the considerations of love and duty introduced into legal documents. Now, however, there is a great change. Diplomacy has become suddenly subordinated to sentiment; the de facto to the de jure; the conventional to the "natural;" the practical to the theoretical; the actual to the traditional; in short, the present to the future and the past. If nations are summoned from their inglorious repose, it is by ancestral memories and bright prophetic visions of greatness that they are roused to action; if, on the other hand, it seems fit, in the balance of philosophical considerations with the laws of eternal justice, that a people should be relegated to the inertia of disappointed hopes, it is by the resources "of contemplation, the arts, the study of ruins, and prayer," that its acquiescence in this lot is to be fulfilled and consecrated. We seem to breathe a clearer and trancendental air when we meet with expressions and arguments such as these in grave documents of an official stamp; and it is in such moments that we most keenly recognize the advancing spirit of the age, and the inherent greatness of our common humanity. Next, however, to the actual subjects of this "prophetic" statesmanship, it is, perhaps, antiquaries and historians who have the most reason to be grateful for the inauguration of this new era. Hitherto, whatever special aptitudes may have led certain classes to the study of the records and memorials of the past, the pressing claims of the hour that is, have drawn away the attention of the busy many from this branch of knowledge. History, in all but its latest and cotemporary stages, and medieval antiquities, except so far as they were available as food for the odium theologicum, required the picturesque and exceptional eloquence of Macaulay, or the quaint humor of Carlyle, to render them even partially palatable; and even then they were regarded as a respectable amusement rather than | fortune of any inheritor of the sacred keys. as a serious matter of interest. This also The revolted legations of Ferrara, Bolog is now changed-doubtless for the better, na, Ravenna, and Forli, which appear to certainly to the immediate enhancing of be irretrievably lost to the Pope, occupy the value of historical and antiquarian more than a quarter of the whole area of knowledge. The years following 1848 the Papal States, and contain nearly a have imparted a much more general ac- third of the whole population. The requaintance with geography than "all the maining portion of the pontiff's territories schools" had been able previously to im- lying between the Apennines and the part. We are now, however, being taken Adriatic, and known by the general title through a course of instruction of a far of the Marches, are, at the time when we higher and deeper character, extending write, in a state of semi-revolt, and can from the consideration of natural, physi- hardly fail to follow, sooner or later, the cal, and moral boundaries for nations and destinies of the northern Legations. Their nationalities, to the subtlest problems severance from Rome would entail an adwhich could task the mind of the philoso- ditional loss of an area rather larger, and phical historian and moralist. In an in- a population rather smaller, than in the quiry of such vast proportions even the former case; and, taking them together, minutiae of antiquarian research play no the loss of the trans-Apennine provinces unimportant part; the device on a mold- will strip the Pope of more than half his ering scutcheon may determine the "nat- territories and more than half his subjects. ural" destinies of a whole people, and a In point of revenue, and political and comnew reading of the crabbed hand-writing mercial importance, the loss will be seof some old charter may (if authenticated) rious; and to any government less inert turn the trembling balance in the fate of in developing the material resources and millions. To trace out the ancient basins availing itself of the political capital which of rivers becomes no mere antiquarian were thus placed at its disposal, the loss speculation in this age of confirmation to would be much more serious still. But the natural; and happy he who is well- this is not likely to be the whole extent of read enough in the earliest chroniclers, or the papal losses, should the present movestored enough with ethnological analogies, ment not be crushed by foreign intervento become the Tell of his fatherland against tion. The annexation of Tuscany and the the philosophical claims to dominion of a four northern Legations to Piedmont, and more dangerous pretender than any stolid the proximate revolt of the Marches, will Austrian potentate. place another group of the papal provinces in a very peculiar position. Interposed like a wedge between the eastern frontier of Tuscany and the Apennines, lie the Umbrian districts, which formerly made part of the great duchy of Spoleto, and the southern boundary-line of which, together with the southern frontier of Tuscany and the frontier of Naples towards the Marches, make almost exactly a parallel from sea to sea, to the northern frontier of Tuscany and the boundary-line of the northern Legations and the Marches. These districts have, to some extent, a distinct history, and their antecedents connect them with the southern Trans-Apennine Marches rather than with the papal provinces which lie immediately to their south. Their area is less than that of the Marches by 1560 square miles, and their population not quite half in number. As to the disposition of their inhabitants towards the papal dominion, it is only necessary to observe that one of their principal towns is the ill-fated Perugia, It is scarcely surprising that in such a diplomatic revolution the papal anomaly should have drawn to itself a large share of attention. It is not the first time in the history of the world that the prophet and the priest have stood face to face in natural antagonism; though the obscurity which so often surrounds the language of the one, and the serpentine subtlety of ac tion so appropriate to the other, may often cloak the directness of the opposition; while, in the present case, the singularity of this avatar of "the nephew of his uncle" has had the effect of mystifying the simple-minded spectator into very natural incredulity as to the actual issue. Its reality seems, however, unquestionable. The donation of the pious Pepin and Charlemagne is being recalled, or at least rendered untenable, by the occupant of their seat; and the titular successor of St. Peter seems to be about to approximate to the apostolical pattern more closely than for many centuries has been the which was so recently given up to the best practical answer. The papal authorlicense of the papal mercenaries. The re-ity may be possibly again extended by maining territories of the Pope, exclusive external agency over the lives and fortunes of the city of Rome and its immediate of his disaffected subjects, but the living vicinity, or "Conarca," do not make up men themselves will always remain politi more than 4019 square miles out of the cal Protestants against such a government, 17,494 of the whole Papal States, and by a prescriptive right to which even contribute not many more than 450,000 apostolic canons, if authenticated, must inhabitants towards the whole population themselves bow. But leaving this arroof three millions. It is within these last- gant priestly assumption to its own natnamed provinces, if any where, that the ural fate in the general scorn with which Pope must find his future willing subjects; it will be received, it is a not uninteresting for of the hostile disposition of the city of subject of inquiry, how far the history of Rome itself, late accounts can leave no past centuries has realized this principle reasonable doubt in the mind of any one. of the inalienable and integral attachment Without speculating on the possible balance of the papal temporalities to the papal of parties within these western provinces chair, and how far the existence of the of the Pope-the old "Patrimony of St. spiritual supremacy of the Bishop of Rome Peter," the Sabina and the Campagna- has been inextricably connected with the whose voice is at present suppressed by preservation intact of his princely authorforeign occupation and garrisons of mer- ity. The general character of the answer cenaries, the prospects of the papal tem- which history returns to these questions poralities will be seen from the foregoing can be a secret to no one who ever glanced sketch to be gloomy enough. In these through the pages of medieval or modern days of "natural boundaries," the union history; but some of the features of this of Tuscany with Piedmont carries with it, historical demonstration may just now be as will be seen, much the same geograph- recalled to memory with something of the ical argument with respect to the destiny vivid interest attaching to cotemporary of the Marches and the Umbrian wedge events. Neither the names most promithat the annexation of Parma and Modena nent in the story, nor the general characpresented as to the fate of the four Lega-ter of the plot, at any rate, will be strange tions; and should the south-western pro- to newspaper readers at the present movinces throw off the papal yoke, a compact ment. kingdom of Southern Italy would be at once created by annexation to Naples. It is a matter curious in itself, though only consonant with human nature, that exactly at the time when the disintegration of the papal temporalities is most striking, the inalienable right of the Holy See to the whole of its territories should be most loudly maintained; and that a jurisdiction which the Church of Rome has been hitherto contented to rest on the donations of emperors and kings, should now be placed on the same footing of indefeasible right on which are based the spiritual pretensions of the holy father. The forged donation by Constantine of the Italian possessions of the Roman empire is no longer put in the front of the argument for the preservation of the papal territories without diminution; the inviolable right of the Church is now stretched back to some mystical apostolic prescription, with a semper as absolute as the formula of spiritual infallibility. To such a preposterous claim the actual status quo and the inevitable course of events are the VOL. XLIX.-No. 4 The first thing which must strike any one on looking at a map of Italy, with respect to the Papal States, is their scattered and disconnected position, seeming to imply distinct histories and separate interests and feelings. The Legations and the Marches, with the Apennine as a barrier on one side, and the Adriatic as a boundary on the other, seem as if they were intended to amalgamate with the south-western dominions of the Pope about as little as with any State. Neapolitan territory would supply the natural coast-line to the Roman state on the east, and Tuscany would form its most suitable complement to the north. The Umbrian provinces would as naturally seem intended to follow the destinies of their neighbor Tuscany. The It is impossible not to entertain doubts as to the continuity of title over SO strangely distributed a territory. We feel at once that the authority of the Holy See must have been of a most precarious and interrupted character over these outlying provinces, or it would in 20 evitably have not stopped here, but would have extended itself over a much larger area. The eye takes in with one glance the natural historical contingencies of the Trans-Appennine provinces; and not till these are satisfactorily exhausted, does it turn in the direction of the "Patrimony of St. Peter." One sees instinctively that it must have been some peculiar set of circumstances, quite unconnected with any predetermined purpose or natural sequence, that gave the Holy See any hold in this particular di rection. Such is indeed the fact; the special connection of the Legations with Rome was at first purely accidental, was then a mere arbitrary and inoperative transfer of title, and until the sixteenth century was never properly substantiated. Since that time discontent and rebellion have done quite as much to prevent the bond from becoming indissoluble as the lapse of time has effected in the opposite direction. The Umbrian and south-western provinces owe their subjection to the Pope to an equally fortuitous course of circumstances; and if closer neighborhood rendered the bond for some time more real in their case, its duration seems to be as precarious for the future as its formation was gradual and long postponed. There is one sense in which Constantine may be truly said to have been the founder of the temporal authority of the bishops of Rome. So long as the city of Rome remained the seat of government of the whole Roman Empire, the imperial authority overawed and stifled the birth of any rival power within its walls. The glories of that Rome which had achieved such greatness gathered around the person of the representative of the Cæsars; the spell of victory and empire in the diadem of Augustus left no room in the imaginations of the Romans or of the Roman world for the idea of the infallibility and universal headship of the possessor of the sacred keys. The desertion, however, of the city of Rome as an imperial residence by Constantine, in the year 326, and his removal of the seat of government four years later to the site of the ancient Byzantium, first opened the door to the transference of the prestige of Rome from non-resident and often alien Cæsars to a resident and generally native bishop. The definite partition of the empire on the death of Theodosius in 395, while it destroyed the unity of idea attaching through all previous divisions of power to the Roman Empire, might have restored to Rome much of her old position as the center of a still vast monarchy; but this was not destined to be the case. In the year 404, after the first retreat of Alaric, the young Emperor Honorius took up his residence at Ravenna; and under him and his successors that now subordinate capital of a papal legation became the imperial city of the West. From this time, during the remaining seventy-two years of the nominal Western Empire, the city of Rome, while it shared in the misfortunes of the emperors, derived little dignity from their continued supremacy, unless we consider as such the attraction of barbarian chiefs one after the other to the assault of its walls, by the glory of its once great name, or the reputation of its still remaining wealth. The downfall and the disappearance of the name even of the Western Empire were certainly favorable to the tranquillity and safety of the city, though they left it in a strange and unparalleled position. The tide of empire had ebbed away from its walls, and it remained isolated and unprotected, but yet unassailed and almost disregarded amidst the struggle of contending races, and the rise and fall of ephemeral kingdoms. It is during this period that the earliest approaches to the exercise of temporal functions must have been made by the popes. Such duties would be at first rather forced upon them by great emergencies and dangers to the city than claimed by them as primal accompaniments of their office. They were still what they had been during the reigns of the successors of Constantine-merely pastors of the Church in Rome, exercising no authority but that which sprang from the respect inspired by their sacred duties or the influence commanded by their Christian virtues. It is some testimony to the moral character of these earlier pontiffs that the power of the Church grew as that of the civil government which sup ported it declined, until, on the removal and sucession of the emperors, the Bishop of Rome was recognized as the natural leader of the Roman people. The recovery of Italy in the sixth century to the eastern branch of the old empire, by the arms of Belisarius and Narses, led to the nominal subjection of the city to the im perial authority, represented by an ex- walls they were the revered colleagues of arch at Ravenna; but the "duchy of a free sovereign people, from whose great Rome," as it was now called, scarcely felt traditions they derived much of their a dependence practically nullified by the own lustre in the eyes of civilized Europe, threatening attitude assumed by the Lom- and to whom in their turn they were an bard invaders towards the Exarchate. ægis of protection against foreign aggresThe Idoloclastic "heresy," as it was sions by the sanctity of their office, and a called, of the Emperor Leo afforded a fresh source of pride and self-gratulation pretext to the popes for removing even by identification with the grandeur of this last relic of the old government of their spiritual pretensions. To a position Rome. In his spiritual capacity as a such as this, material assistance from faithful guardian of the doctrines of the without might become necessary against church, Gregory II. authorized the Ro- restless neighbors; but no accession of mans to refuse the continuance of their territories or assumption of temporal sovtribute to Leo; and about the year 726 ereignty could add any thing of importdeprived the "Duke" Marino and the ance, while they might seriously affect its Exarch Paul of all authority, and by basis, the strength of which lay in its agreement with the Lombards, established simplicity and indefiniteness. So far from a sort of republic in Rome, which lasted the temporalities of the Holy See being till the time of Charlemagne. Under a essential to its independence and authoristate of things thus inaugurated, it was ty, this period, during which they had no natural that the popes should enjoy con- existence, is exactly that in which the siderable power; but they were still not spiritual pretensions of Rome first took sovereigns of Rome, which was an inde- root in the kingdoms of Europe, and in pendent state under its own civil officers, which the papal chair was most completeits bishop exercising a sort of coördinate ly independent of foreign influence. With and undefined influence over public af the appeal which the popes made to the fairs. The Roman laity, on the other French monarchs, and with the ambighand, still had a certain authority in ec- uous temporal grants of the Carlovingclesiastical matters, the popes being elect-ians to the chair of St. Peter, began that ed by the joint votes of the clergy, senate, and people; and while the connection with the empire continued, the old subordination of the priest to the prince being still marked by the necessary formal confirmation of their election at Constantinople. In some of the documents of this period the pope is styled the "Præses" of Rome. In the treaty with Luitprand, king of the Lombards, the expression used is the " duchy of Rome." Pope Stephen wrote to Pepin and his sons "in the name of the Church, dukes, consuls, tribunes, people, and army of Rome." In the Liber Pontificalis, Pepin is recorded by the chronicler as "by the will of God aggrandizing (dilatans) the state (rempublicam) and the whole sovereign people, (dominicam plebem.") Pepin's own phrases are, "the Church, senate, and state (respublica) of the Romans;" or "the holy Church of God and the Roman state, (respublica.") The position, then, of the Roman pontiffs at this epoch was very remarkable. From the imperial city of the Caesars they spoke with a voice of spiritual authority to the world without as the representatives of the "chief of the apostles," and within its state of discord and ruinous ambition at home and dependence abroad which has deprived the see of Rome of half its spiritual efficiency. Between the Lombards, who had established great principalities in Spoleto and Beneventum, and the Roman people there seems to have existed a mutual hatred and contempt of no ordinary kind. The Romans despised and ridiculed the Lombards as rude barbarians; the Lombards could scarcely find words to express their contempt for Roman effeminacy and their disgust at Roman vices. Though they had the traditions and the free forms of the early Roman republic, the Romans of the eighth century were a worn-out and effete race; too much puffed up with the conceit of their ancestry to see their own degradation, and too much enamored of their inglorious vices. to desire any practical revival of the manlier virtues of old Rome, which they were so fond of extolling in words. In short, the descendants of the conquerors of the world could form themselves into turbulent mobs, but possessed nothing but the name of an army." The popes, alarmed at this state of things, turned first for 66 |