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Necessary for Salvation: a History of the Papacy, 1836-1936

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I love the Pope's Cologne.
Have I played too much Paradox games when I see 'the Pope's Cologne' and think, 'OMG, the Pope captured Cologne? Has Rome been annexed? Or is the Pope just that awesome?' :p
 
GreatUberGeek said:
I love the Pope's Cologne.
Have I played too much Paradox games when I see 'the Pope's Cologne' and think, 'OMG, the Pope captured Cologne? Has Rome been annexed? Or is the Pope just that awesome?' :p
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Or the Archbishop of Cologne has become the Anti-Pope. :)

(I mostly play CKII at the moment.)
 
"Dude I should totally retcon the Vatican Council mini and do a general update instead. Time to get this rolling again!"

*le playthrough*

"Oh... I see."

My AARs have a premature annexation problem ;-;
 
In Italy in years gone by,
and this is widely known,
the Pope had land and Parliaments,
a Kingdom of his own.

But then the Redshirts came and err-
or of his ways was shown,
He's truly beat and in defeat,
and went to Avignon.

Now he sits without a land
Well and truly alone,
So he has not much more to do
Than make his own cologne.
 
Ah.

Well Ab, it was wonderful while it lasted. One day, I'm sure you will successfully finish an AAR – and I'll be there when you do. Until then, I wish you the best of luck with whatever you decided to work on next. :)
 
A Beautifull AAR that ended too soon. May your next AAR be as interesting as this one.
 
Mr. Santiago said:
And thus it ends.
Papal states, RIP
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And may the memory live long.
Scrapknight said:
In Italy in years gone by,
and this is widely known,
the Pope had land and Parliaments,
a Kingdom of his own.

But then the Redshirts came and err-
or of his ways was shown,
He's truly beat and in defeat,
and went to Avignon.

Now he sits without a land
Well and truly alone,
So he has not much more to do
Than make his own cologne.
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Thank you for this <3
DensleyBlair said:
Ah.

Well Ab, it was wonderful while it lasted. One day, I'm sure you will successfully finish an AAR – and I'll be there when you do. Until then, I wish you the best of luck with whatever you decided to work on next. :)
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Your patronage is important to me. I'm currently exploring concepts for my next AAR, which should be debuting soon. I haven't decided what nation it will be, but I hope to see you there.
TJDS said:
A Beautifull AAR that ended too soon. May your next AAR be as interesting as this one.
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Thank you very much, I'm sure it will be.
 
Maybe he killed the Papal States so he could finish it the AAR...

Conspiracy theories rulez.
 
99KingHigh said:
Maybe he killed the Papal States so he could finish it the AAR...

Conspiracy theories rulez.
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By... somehow triggering a random rebellion? Nah. I could have tagswitched to France and forced an intervention, but the French were seriously busy in Asia and by the time I could have pulled back the necessary resources the Papal States would have been dead anyhow.
 
+AMDG+

Reject all Questioning and Controversy
The Pontificate of Pius IX, 1866-1876

428px-Popepiusix.jpg


"But before We conclude, We remind you again of what We most desire: that is, that you reject all questioning and controversy which, as you know, disturb the peace and injure love and which afford arms to the enemies of the Church, arms with which to oppose and destroy her. Therefore let it be nearest to your heart to have peace among yourselves and to pursue peace with all, seriously reflecting that you are legates for Him who is not a God of dissension but of peace. He never ceased to prescribe peace to His disciples; indeed Christ, as each one of you knows, promised all of his gifts and rewards in the preservation of peace. If we are the heirs of Christ, let us remain in the peace of Christ."
-- Pope Pius IX, Inter Multiplices
​
With 1867 dawning, especially after the violence of the previous decade, the ageing Pontiff tasked military theoreticians with developing a new system of defense for the States of the Church, termed by them the "point-defense" system. Rather revolutionary -- as sparingly as that term was ever used in the Papal States -- in it's design, point-defense concentrated on the defense of specific buildings rather than broad areas, and made special use of artillery to defend its positions. The Pope was approving of this system, and plans began to be drawn up for a future defense of Rome using the principles it evoked. January also saw His Holiness issue a rescript, Primo de iure ad Repraesentationem, expanding the electoral franchise to a greater portion of the wealthy. It wasn't much due to how weak the Parliament was to begin with, but it pleased much of the lesser nobility and was seen by a hopeful population as perhaps a prelude to greater reform in the future. The Pope's liberalism in the early years f his reign had been tempered by the assassination of Cardinal Secretary Gizzi and the appointment of a reactionary in his stead, but perhaps, just perhaps, times were changing. Unpleasant news arrived in Rome that June of a new, unprecedented Franco-Italian alliance contracted between Napoleon III and Victor Emmanuel II. Having been at war just a few short years before over an Italian attempt at annexing the States of the Church this new alliance was surprising and unwelcome. It wasn't until the French ambassador assured the Holy Father in audience that Paris would still see to the safety of his patrimony that worries were calmed.

Months later, at a session of Parliament that the Pope himself had deigned to preside over, a furor was raised when a liberal senator, the Duke of Ancona (a Peerages Act, establishing such titles in lieu of the traditional Papal house honours and familial histories, bringing the Papal aristocracy in line with others across the civilised world, had been just recently passed) stood and gave a passionate speech in favour of laissez-faire trade policies. Although booed down by the conservative and reactionary contingents of the Senate the Duke also had a wide selection of supporters who were shocked when the Pope began to applaud at the end of the Duke's speech. The reactionaries, shocked, sat in cold silence as their liberal foes clapped alongside the Holy Father, Vicar of Christ on earth. Laissez-faire trade was suddenly quite in vogue amongst those who knew where their bread was buttered. After the War of Italian Aggression in 1865 the military forces of the Papal States had been once again decimated; reminiscent of the disastrous war with Austria in the dawn of Pius IX's reign. It wasn't until September that the armed forces of the Pope made their fresh debut. Numbering twelve-thousand souls all told they were divided into the Papal Zouves, which comprised mostly volunteers, the famed Swiss Guard, and the new Papal House Guard dedicating to protecting the rest of St Peter's Patrimony. The parade was a rousing success, and the appearance of the Pope at the end of it was met with approving cheers.

It was perhaps the warm memories of that adulation which led to the publication of the rescript Non omne quod nitet in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis on the Feast of St Sardis of Melito, 1868; abolishing weighted voting within the wealth franchise, expanding (or perhaps diminishing) the wealth limit and making the votes of all those who qualified be equal to one another. In May there finally began modifications of the Roman landscape in accordance with the ideals of point-defense and a conspicuous number of artillery batteries began to flower around the city; pointedly facing either out towards invaders or, in more radical districts, towards palazzi and urban gathering places. Some stirrings of unrest resulted from the perception that the Holy Father was afraid of his own people, but they quickly passed. Of much more notability was the ill-fated missionary attempt which would go down in history as the Pallavicini Expedition. Shortly after the point-defense system appeared in Rome, there was also published news that the wealthy and influential Pallavicini would be funding a Catholic missionary expedition to the famed port city of Tunis. Being funded by a powerful noble family had its perks, so the planned expedition got such press as there was at the time. The dashing charisma of the Irish monsignor Fr Francis Chisholm, a noted Marian theologian and missionary-cum-adventurer who was to lead the expedition, certainly didn't hurt. The States of the Church, the Pope, and indeed the entire Catholic world were shocked then when the terrible news came back months later in August: the Monsignor, missionaries, and nuns who had accompanied them, had all been put to death on the orders of the Bey of Tunis.

The reaction was one of fury, as the Pope promulgated a lengthy encyclical entitled Per gravi corde, warning Catholic missionaries abroad to be careful and instilling and reaffirming the importance of the Great Commission of Christ to evangelise to the nations. As well, he "gravely conscious of Our duties" issued a declaration of war against the Beylik of Tunis on the 23rd of that month. Two days later, the Emperor issued a decree from Paris stating that the Empire would of course be assisting the Holy Father in avenging this travesty against Christendom. On the Eleventh of November word came from Orazio Colonna, commander of the Papal House Guard, that Papal forces had made landfall in Tunisia and were besieging the city of Gabes. It wasn't until March of 1869 the next year that anything was heard of Tunisia, fortunately coinciding with the beginning of parliamentary elections. While Papal forces continued the siege of Gabes French troops from Algeria were setting siege to Bizerte and the capital of Tunis. Unusually, the elections were marked by excessive violence. Pan-nationalist sentiment still lingered in many parts of the country and liberals took the advantage to riot and rabblerouse as was their want. The Pope generously refused to sanction armed intervention in the streets and merely commented that it was "unfortunate." In April word reached Rome that Papal forces had finally been able to establish control over the city of Gabes and the surrounding province; and the Papal House Guard advanced towards the interior province of Tozeur while the Swiss Guard and Papal Zouves went up the coast to Kairouan. It was in Tozeur that the only Papal engagement of the war took place, as General Colonna and the House Guard took on a small Tunisian army of a little under three thousand. The entire force was wiped out with less than three hundred Papal casualties, and the General ordered a Mass of Thanksgiving to be celebrated in the desert.

A summertime outbreak of rioting in Rome prompted the Parliament, still in session as elections dragged on, to pass an act guaranteeing minor subsidies to the unemployed. Passing with flying colours through examination by the College of Cardinals and happily given the stamp of approval by Pius IX, the act was lauded as an example of the Catholic virtue of charity and compassion for the less fortunate and was well received by all portions of the population. Unintentionally however, it also had the effect of sparking a discussion regarding the implementation of greater reforms. Naturally, during an election season, the question of an expanded franchise was raised. The Pope was unusually supportive of such a thing, displeasing many of the nobility and the wealthy and signalling yet another departure from his post-Gizzi conservatism. Giacomo Antonelli, his Cardinal Secretary, was reportedly quite displeased with the Pope's support, being a conservative himself, and very nearly resigned his curial position in protest. He was mollified however on August 14th of that year when the French Imperial embassy announced that Moroccan ambassadors, on behalf of their Tunisian allies, had accepted the annexation of Tunisia as the first and only colonial possession of the Papal tiara. Anton Cardinal Orioli, an elderly prelate who had served in curias past, was appointed as the Papal Legate to and effective governor of the territory; and the Catholic world patted itself on the back as the remains of those who had served in the Pallavicini Expedition were re-interred in Rome.

It was in September, finally, that elections ended, returning an almost unanimously Liberal parliament to its seats. The domination -- insofar as it could be had -- of Papal politics by the liberal faction had long been a puzzlement. Although of course not explicitly secularist the liberals argued for both a much lighter hand of the Church in government and for expanded rights for the people, and much to the continued bewilderment of the Pontiff they continued to win election after election. Although urged many times by cardinals and prelates to abrogate Parliament and appoint one much more amenable to the Bride of Christ, Pius continually refused. To risk angering the Roman people in such an extreme fashion was unwise. As an ancient and venerable institution the Church took a lengthy view of history and it was not so long ago by her estimation that Popes had been deposed for angering their subjects. Disgraceful and unlawful of course, but a lesson that should be kept continually in mind. In November a vast recruitment drive aimed at re-establishing the Pontifical Army (as opposed to merely the Zouves and Swiss and House Guards) was completed, as well as the tentative establishment of a colonial militia in Tunisia under experienced Papal officers. It was a splendid success and the size of the Pontifical Army alone, fifteen-thousand men, dwarfed the already-established forces. The new army was placed under the command of Corrado Bonaccorsi, a member of a cadet branch of the House of Chigi, and quickly set to drilling. It was December of 1869 though which held the most portentous changes both domestically and abroad. Internationally the rather comforting news of the dissolution of the Franco-Italian alliance reached the Holy See, but along with something less pleasing: North German soldiers had entered Alsace-Lorraine; evidence of the French losing the Polish War on the behalf of their Russian allies. The Pope, distraught by a Catholic nation siding with an Orthodox schismatic's attempts to annex the Catholic nation of Poland, could only pray for peace and the conversion of Russia. It was perhaps this dismay which lead him to issue the rescript Popularibus enim pax, declaring the universal right of all male Catholic subjects of His Holiness to vote in parliamentary elections; albeit with the votes of nobles and the wealthy "counting in the degree of their status in society." The cardinals and conservatives could only mutter as 1870 dawned.

1870 would prove to be a year defined by merely three events: the Treaty of Florence, universal suffrage, and the Vatican Council. All of which began or were accomplished, incidentally, on the 28th of July. The negotiations for the Treaty of Florence had been continuing in its namesake city for months previously as both Victor Emmanuel and Pius IX sought an amicable end to the Roman Question. Although the Italian sovereign himself had no personal qualms with annexing the States of the Church as demanded by many of his subjects, he was well aware that Napoleon III (and more importantly perhaps, his wife) would not take kindly to his doing so and he did not wish a repetition of his humiliating first attempt. The Pope on the other hand was tired of relying upon Napoleon for protection. In order to silence both of their demons the Treaty that was signed stipulated a mutual alliance between the two states and the guarantee of Italian military access permanently throughout the States of the Church, which would quiet Italy's military defense concerns and silence all but the most hardcore, bomb-hurling anticlerical. After the Treaty was signed, both the encyclical Christi Sponsa Immortalis and the rescript Sed placet et caritas were gazetted in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis. Both were sensational as the former convened an ecumenical council and the latter allowed for complete, universal suffrage throughout the States of the Church and without weighted voting. While the former was of no concern to many conservatives -- indeed, convoked as a response to increasing theological liberalism and challenges to Papal spiritual supremacy throughout the Catholic world, it was likely to be a boon to them -- the latter sparked an intense backlash as the Cardinal Secretary finally resigned in protest (posted vengefully as Nuncio to Paraguay by a slighted Pius IX thereafter) and many members of the Roman nobility demanded an audience with His Holiness. These were rejected and the Pope appointed Monsignor Giovanni Simeoni, a noted political liberal and former nuncio to Spain, as his new Cardinal Secretary. It seemed that his chilly relationship with Cardinal Antonelli had finally helped him overcome his grief at the assassination of Cardinal Secretary Gizzi.

In October, the Pope sent his congratulations to Wilhelm, King of Prussia and President of the North German Federation, for having assumed the Imperial crown of Germany after a proclamation in Berlin. The rise of a new, united, and mostly-Protestant power on the border of his ally in France worried his Holiness, but where was little he could do. In any event it was the spring of 1871 which would cause him even more trouble. A wave of unrest swept the erstwhile Papal ally of Italy as first a liberal regime overthrew the moderately conservative government in Florence and instituted a fully constitutional monarchy; but was swiftly thrown out on its heels as a traditionalist counterrevolution backed by the Italian army overthrew that government in turn. Victor Emmanuel, much to his muted pleasure, now served as an absolute monarchy as any constitution or legislature was done away with. While the instability in a large neighbouring country was obviously viewed as a threat, the new regime had the unexpectedly side effect of staunching pan-nationalist sentiment in the comparatively politically liberal States of the Church. The Pope and Parliament capitalised on this sentiment by enacting proportional voting reforms and legalising formal political parties later in the year, increasing the Papal States' rosy comparison to the assuredly despotic hellhole of Italy. 1872 saw a continuance of the Pope's policies of peace and reform as Pius IX declined to declare war against the Ottomans for their transgression of a wayward geological survey team accidentally crossing into Tunisia from Ottoman Tripoli, refused to pursue territorial claims against Italy, and further lifted restrictions on the recently-legalised political parties. As His Holiness' pastoral care of course extended not only throughout his own lands, but throughout all the world, the Pope also wrote a personal letter that November to Fr Damien De Veuster, a Catholic priest who had volunteered to reside in the leper colony of Molokai in Hawaii; congratulating him on his heroic witness for Christ.

1873 was notable for the sweeping political changes which it brought to the States of the Church. At an international abolitionist conference which the Pope had generously allowed to be hosted in Rome, the conduct of many of the women in attendance scandalised conservative Roman society, both in their immodest manner of dress and in the fact that they expected to be able to vote. The Pope intervened and put an end to such mad Jacobin notions, but not without an outcry from the liberal Parliament on the issue; who felt that such micromanaging was beneath the dignity of the Successor of St Peter. The elections convened that year were again marred by unaccountable violence, and it was the deaths that resulted that prompted Pius IX to make the most radical alteration to the States' political structure since he first introduced the Fundamental Statute in 1846. While the Pope remained as theologically conservative as ever, condemning modernist ideas and heresies as often as needed, he gradually began to liberalise on the form of government needed for the Papal States. It was with this in mind that he introduced in December the Constitution of 1873. It re-affirmed the position of Parliament, but created in essence a secular Papal government distinct from that of the Roman Curia and ecclesiastical hierarchy, replete with a Prime Minister. Being of course a constitution where the head of state is the Pope, it also took great pains to guarantee the rights of the Church, of the Pope, and ensure the Church her role as the proper guiding force for a civilised society. Anarchy would of course not be permitted and the virulent condemnations of Pius IX's Syllabus of Errors were respected in all their particulars. Still, there was a great celebration and the Pope's popularity vastly improved.

The elections finished in March 1874 as the Liberals were returned to power with 63.55% of the vote and a comfortable supermajority in Parliament. Having established themselves as the party of order and the constitution, they humbly requested that His Holiness appoint a Prime Minister. This he did, appointing the Duke of Ancona who had impressed him what seemed like so long ago, as the first Prime Minister of the States of the Church. The new government celebrated by passing a voting reform in June formalising the private ballot. 1875 saw the Duke's government handling a flu pandemic, the first to strike the Papal States since the early years of the Pope's reign. The government reacted swiftly and moved to contain the spread of the disease as quickly as possible, but many fell through the cracks and overall it was felt that the issue was not handled satisfactorily. His Holiness chastised his Prime Minister in a private audience, but no formal action was taken against him such as his dismissal. In an effort to shore up his stock with the Pope, the Prime Minister quickly had a minimum wage bill passed assuring a basic minimum wage to be paid to all workers and labourers in the Papal States; which was of course a rousing success. Little attention t was paid to Italian troubles as the reactionary Italian government continued to suffer defeat after defeat at the hands of the Austro-Hungarians and Russians. Both were granted military access by His Holiness' Government in an attempt to weaken the eternal foe of the States of the Church By February 1876 this aim was accomplished as the Austro-Hungarians forced the release of a puppet state in Romagna, headed by a Habsburg king, and the dismantlement of fortifications in Lombardia. The Papal government regarded itself with excusable smugness until news came to Rome that September of an Anglo-Italian alliance. In any future conflict, even with the help of the French, Italy would now be a more than formidable foe. It was that portentous note which characterised the rest of the year, and perhaps influenced his choice of Scripture for his Christmas Address, Psalm 29:11...

The Lord will give strength unto his people; the Lord will bless his people with peace.
 
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Jape said:
Great to see this back and excellent update. If the British are getting involved, might want to keep getting cosy with the Germans. Also nice to see the slow march towards democracy.

Can we see a map of Rome's new colony and the reduced Italy?
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sy7af7.jpg

Europe and the Mediterranean, 1877​
 
+AMDG+

Guard the Church I Loved So Well
The Pontificate of Pius IX, 1876-1878

the-body-of-his-holiness-pope-pius-ix-lying-in-state.jpg


"Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall all indeed rise again: but we shall not all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet: for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall rise again incorruptible. And we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption: and this mortal must put on immortality. And when this mortal hath put on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting? Now the sting of death is sin: and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who hath given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast and unmoveable: always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labour is not in vain in the Lord."
-- St Paul the Apostle, I Corinthians XV:LI-LVIII​
The final year of the Pope's life was characterised by his suffering. Since 1868 Pius IX had been afflicted with St Anthony's Fire, which produced swathes of bloated and pus-filled rashes across his face and body along with open sores on his leg which often oozed in the Roman heat. Ever-conscious of his duties however the Pope continued to say daily mass at St John Lateran with little care or regard to the instructions of his doctors. In 1877 his health improved and the sores tended not to weep as copiously as they had been used to, with the Pope's popularity climbing higher as he personally saw to the passage of expanded unemployment subsidies. The news that Austria-Hungary had fallen into the diplomatic sphere of the German Empire was also concerning to the new Papal Foreign Office as memories of the Kulturkampf ran bitter and deep. To attempt to hedge slightly against growing German diplomatic influence, an alliance was signed with King Francis-Carl of Romagna who while being a Habsburg himself had aligned his new kingdom with the French, rather than German or Austro-Hungarian empires.

In March as the weather mellowed from an unseasonably bitter cold, the Pope was able to meet with his favoured military theoreticians over the issue of iron muzzle-loaded artillery which His Holiness wished to see introduced to the Pontifical Army as soon as was realistic. The theoreticians, valiantly ignoring the greenish-yellow stains which were visible through the brilliant white cassock, assured the Holy Father that they would do everything in their power to see the introduction thereof "while there is still time." After having kissed his ring and departed, they were spotted weeping quietly by a passing cardinal. The heat that summer was quite intense and much worsened the Pope's health as the sores on his legs began to rot under the harsh sun. Eventually he had to be carried to and from his celebrations of Mass and the cathedral gradually grew empty as the number of those who could bear the smell -- even mingled, as it were, with incense -- dwindled. By September he could not walk or stand at all, and was forced to grant himself a dispensation from his priestly ministry. The division of the nascent women's suffrage movement that month, the Roman Ladies' Union dividing itself from the Catholic Wives' Association, was thin comfort to those forced to witness the decline of their beloved pontiff; but Cardinals exercised their influence in any case to push quietly for a more conservative agenda.

In October, the Pope wished to go big game hunting in Tunisia. Confined mostly to a bed placed in his cherished library there was no possible way short of a bona fide miracle that he would be able to make such a trip and yet his determinations let to an hours-long fight with most of the Curia, and then his Government, at his bedside arguing with their wildly-gesticulating sovereign. Eventually it was only the firm intervention of his doctors which put an end to the dispute, yet the Pope ordered that hunting expeditions with foreign dignitaries be undertaken in his stead. The next month Parliament was shocked by a long-winded tirade in the Senate, delivered by the Marquess of Viterbo, in which he castigated the government for supposedly failing to handle social unrest throughout the States of the Church and even went so far as to declare himself openly to be a socialist; to the shock and horror of the assembled. The very next day the Papal rescript Graviter paveatis sumus was gazetted, stripping him of his title and banning him from public office in an unusual act of force. Clearly socialism was still not to be tolerated. On December 8th, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception which he himself had defined, Pius IX's health improved considerably to the point where he could stand and walk short distances. By the 20th he was permitted to go out and inspect the new artillery unites which had been finally introduced to the Army per his request in March. The Pope was delighted and personally thanked the engineers and theoreticians with whom he had initially met, much to their great pleasure.

December was also notable for the grave changes which came about in France. The terrible assassination of Napoleon III and his wife on their return from midnight Mass on the 24th portended the sudden end of the Second French Empire; as a liberal constitutionalist republic was declared in Paris the next day... only to be just as suddenly overthrown by an even more liberal regime. The Franco-Papal bonds held and the alliance continued, but as French Algeria was re-absorbed into its namesake and the French enclave in India having slipped its bonds into independence, the ailing pontiff prayed that order and a crown might be someday restored. On January 9th, Victor Emmanuel II of Italy finally died; in good standing with the Church after the Pope lifted his ecclesiastical censures upon hearing of his impending death. On the 18th, 1878 the Pope published the rescript Est gaudio magno approving yet another bill from Parliament to extend subsidies. His health was steadily improving and by February he was even permitted to offer Mass in St John Lateran again, celebrating the 75th anniversary of his First Communion; but then events rapidly turned against him. On the fourth His Holiness slipped and fell in his apartments, fracturing a hip. This, coupled with a sudden onset of bronchitis, spelled his doom. The Cardinal Vicar ordered that bells be tolled ceaselessly throughout Rome for his recovery, and an act of Parliament extended the order throughout the nation. But no miracle would occur, as Pius IX, 255th Pontiff of the Universal Church and Bishop of Rome, passed away in his bed on the 7th of February while praying the Rosary with his cardinals. His last words were reported to be "guard the Church I loved so well and sacredly."
 
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It's alive? It's alive!

I hope either that Italy annexes the mainland and the Pope becomes an exile in Tunisia or that you can liberate the Two Sicilies and solve the problem of awful borders once and for all. :p Excellent work so far!
 
Scrapknight said:
It's alive? It's alive!

I hope either that Italy annexes the mainland and the Pope becomes an exile in Tunisia or that you can liberate the Two Sicilies and solve the problem of awful borders once and for all. :p Excellent work so far!
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I'm afraid the bisection will remain :p
 
Great to see a return to updating here, Ab!

The demise of Pius IX raises some alarm as to whether his successor will be as liberal as he proved – though I assume you'll plump for Leo, in which case I have few worries.

I must also ask seeing as the event is drawing near, but will we be seeing any of John Newman and the UK in the coming years? Something on the warming in relations between the UK and the Holy See would be interesting.
 
DensleyBlair said:
Great to see a return to updating here, Ab!

The demise of Pius IX raises some alarm as to whether his successor will be as liberal as he proved – though I assume you'll plump for Leo, in which case I have few worries.

I must also ask seeing as the event is drawing near, but will we be seeing any of John Newman and the UK in the coming years? Something on the warming in relations between the UK and the Holy See would be interesting.
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I will indeed have Leo elected as his successor. Leo was historically a shade more easygoing than Pius IX as concerned his views on Church and State, as the first Pope to reign without actually ruling temporally. While thankfully that fate has avoided him in this timeline, I imagine that he will retain the same temperament as he did in our timeline. No constitutional rollbacks, I assure you. As for Cardinal Newman... ehhhh. I'm on the fence. On the one hand, I tend to leave ecclesiastical appointments and the like as OTL if I can help it, but I'm of a very divided opinion on His Eminence and might just decide to withhold the red hat from him here. He'll get a mention though.

Jape said:
I feel sorry that Pius had to have such a drawn out, graphic decline. Hopefully the States' reformism can continue under his successor

What's all this about France's colonies? Is Pondicherry its own country or has it been absorbed into someone else?
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Yes, His Holiness' decline was very unfortunate. At least in this timeline he was far from a prisoner of the Vatican :) As for reformism, Leo will probably push social reforms very heavily; and we'll also begin to see comments on labour in the States of the Church throughout his pontificate, seeing on how pioneering he was with Catholic social teaching. Pondicherry is now the tiny OPM of Karnatak, and Algeria snatched back their coast from the French and have now civilised.
 
+AMDG+

The Rights of God
The Pontificate of Leo XIII, 1878-1886

968e22_898d4449a5ab4db4ac03e2473b9dff21.jpg


"The world has heard enough of the so-called rights of man. Let it hear something of the rights of God. "
-- Pope Leo XIII, Tametsi Futura Prospicientibus
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With the death of Pius IX, an era had passed. The longest-reigning pope apart from St Peter himself Pope Pius reigned for over thirty years. His reign was paradoxical as he instituted the most monumental political reforms in the history of the States of the Church yet was a staunch religious conservative who defined Papal infallibility and cracked down on popular heresies which opposed Petrine primacy. The task of electing his successor was a grave one, but in many ways the Conclave was already decided. Pius IX's legacy was a mixed bag; leaving an incredibly poisonous relationship with the Italian crown but a strong and lasting partnership with France. His domestic policies emphasised a distinct form of liberalism but in particular his harsh treatment of Jews in the States of the Church -- his policy of forcing them into ghettos went unnoticed until criticised in a widely-publicised speech by William Gladstone before the House of Commons, a political move depicting the Church as backwards in the aftermath of diocesan structures being re-introduced into England -- alienated many world leaders who considered themselves to be living in more enlightened times. It was clear that his successor would have to continue his domestic policies and rule with a softer touch, while still having the strength to deal with the troubles the Church faced. Danger from Italy was ever-present and the definition of Papal infallibility had caused schism and division within the Church. It was with these criteria in mind that three days after the Conclave began, Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Cardinal Pecci was elected as 256th Pontiff of the Universal Church and Bishop of Rome.

Taking the regnal name Leo XIII, the new Pope dissolved Parliament the next month in order that fresh elections and a new Parliament might provide a clean slate for his reign. As an auspicious omen, these elections proved to be the first elections in the history of the Papal States that were not marked by violence but were instead calm and orderly. The memory of the dearly department Pope Pius was held by some to be the only possible explanation but others, more hopeful, seemed to think this was the beginning of a lasting trend. Over the course of the election Leo XIII took pains to personally oppose, in an appropriately quiet manner for a constitutional sovereign, the programme of the Liberals and the Duke of Ancona. While he was very much a liberal on social improvement and wished to see the expansion of welfare programmes begun under Pius IX, he vehemently opposed things such as the abolition of the appointed Senate or introduction of a free press. It was perhaps due to this and the loosened restrictions on political parties that lead to the shocking results: whereas in the last election the Liberals had gained singlehandedly over 60% of the vote and a supermajority, here they garnered only 24% and failed to form a coalition government. The reactionary and moderate conservative factions, on the other hand, gained a little over 40% of the vote and combined for form a government. The Pope happily offered the post of Prime Minister to Filippo Pacelli, Baron of Vasto, who then shortly became the second Prime Minister of the States of the Church. In It Italy, a Republican revolt which at its height saw fifteen thousand men draw to the colours in defense of a Repubblica resulted in the collapse of the absolutist system which Victor Emmanuel's successor Humbert had tried to maintain; as a constitutional government similar to that of the Papal States was instituted in the aftermath. December saw another positive first in the history of the Papal States: a happy people. A tour of the country by the Holy Father revealed that for the first time the countryside was at peace. Militancy was at record lows and confidence in the government was at record highs as the domestic spectre of Italian pan-nationalism faded into obscurity.

April of 1879 was marked by a funeral of a General, Corrado Bonaccorsi. General Bonaccorsi was one of the commanders during the Tunisian Campaign under General Orazio Colonna of the Papal House Guard, who himself passed away in January, and his funeral was widely attended by aristocratic friends and relatives -- the Duke of Ancona was a distant cousin -- and by veterans of the campaign. The Funeral Mass itself was celebrated by Raffaele Monaco Cardinal La Valletta, Vicar of Rome and one of the few curial appointees to retain temporal power; essentially serving as the appointed mayor of Rome. The new steel muzzle-loaded artillery pieces were fired in his honour, and the general moved on to watch over the Church Militant while resting in the Church Triumphant. In June came yet another colonial incident as Ottoman Tripolitanian troops attempting to put down a revolt in their own territory accidentally slaughtered a village of Tunisians. The relations of the Papal tiara with her subjects in Tunisia was a notoriously delicate one, as Islam was officially outlawed in the colony, but the Holy Father's pastoral nature extended also to his subjects who laboured in wicked ignorance and Leo XIII was appalled by the news. A more vigourous Pontiff now than Pius IX had been at the time of the first incident he gave his approval for the preparation of an offensive, but news of an Ottoman alliance with London put a kibosh on such plans. The situation of the Church in the United Kingdom was fragile at the moment, as the blowback from the re-establishment of Catholic dioceses had not yet settled down; and especially due to the situation of Fr John Henry Newman. Father Newman, a convert from Anglicanism, was a famous orator and apologist who had faithfully served the Church since his ordination and ceaselessly did public battle with naysaying heretics. Although not well trusted by Pius IX, upon his death Pope Leo was urged by no less august a personage as the Duke of Norfolk, among others, to raise Newman to the Cardinalate. Leo XIII's eventual decision to deny Newman the red hat due to uneasiness about Newman's theory of development of doctrine won him little praise and strained relations between British Catholics and the Holy See. Unwilling to risk a break over war, and knowing that even France could not stand up to British might, no war with the Sublime Porte was prosecuted.

At 5 AM January 22nd 1880, Italy struck. Simultaneously as the Italian ambassador was delivering a declaration of war to the Pope, who he had demanded be roused from bed for the occasion of an audience, Italian forces swept over the southern border into Lazio and Perugia. By noon, the Swiss Guard had been massacred in their valiant efforts to allow the Pope to escape Rome; and by that point it was entirely too late. Roman citizens helped man the defenses of the city itself and the artillery fortifications installed by Pius IX suddenly came in handy but there was little they could do. Rome was soon an occupied city as the fifty-thousand man Italian army dispersed to pacify the countryside and the Pope himself was confined by Royal edict to the area of the Mons Vaticanus, which had to advantage of being cut off from the rest of the city by medieval defensive walls and the bank of the Tiber and therefore easier to patrol and keep Leo as leverage. While the Pope was imprisoned in the Vatican and protected only by his small Noble Guard under the command of the Marquess of Abruzzo; the Prime Minister and sections of the cabinet and curia were able to escape, as unlike the Pope the Italians had little idea of what they actually looked like, and it was from here that they were able to keep diplomatic channels open and direct the war effort. Both France and Romagna honoured their alliances -- the French doing so being an especial relief, as this was the first major test of the alliance since the Second Empire was overthrown -- and by three in the afternoon confirmation had arrived from the British consulate in Ravenna that Her Majesty's Government had dissolved the alliance with the Kingdom of Italy. Excellent news undoubtedly. The Papal Zouves were swiftly dispatched as reinforcements to the embattled Pontifical Army in Perugia, but they again were massively outnumbered and along with the Papal House Guard perished within days. The entire military force of the States of the Church was annihilated within five days while the Royal Italian Army suffered less than a thousand casualties.

Lord Vasto, the Prime Minister, managed to escape over the Adriatic into the Austro-Hungarian Empire before Ancona itself came under siege and thence proceeded to friendlier, French climes. A little less than a month later, by February 18th, the Papal government was seated in Paris while French forces advanced over the border into northern Italy. With Papal forces largely removed from the equation all the Prime Minister, or for that matter the imprisoned Pope, could do was trust their faith in la Republique. King Humbert was soon forced to evacuate his own capital of Turin as the French took possession of it, and directed his own war effort thence from Florence. In the last, best effort of the Church the Pope's Own Colonial Regiment would be transported from Tunis in order to reinforce French troops in the defense of Corsica but they too perished after a valiant battle. After the conclusion of the war their heroism in service of an alien sovereign and religion would be commemorated by rare posthumous baptisms so that the doors of Purgatory might be opened to them. It wasn't until three months later however that the tables would truly turn on the Italians. While the Italian Army was better equipped and better trained the French had one asset to their credit: an almost endless supply of manpower. By May 11th, everything from Turin to Modena was under French military occupation while French forces were as far south as Ancona where they relieved the long-suffering people in resisting the Italian siege. The next day, probably at the urging of Lord Vasto and his exiles, word came down from Paris to the Italian government which was by now seated in Naples: no peace would be accepted without the full abdication of King Humbert and the House of Savoy, and until the young Prince Philippe d'Orléans, Duke of Orléans was proclaimed King of Italy. Humbert and his government scoffed. Within a week however Ancona had secured liberation and Italian forces routed as the Papal government returned there from exile. On the 24th the First Army under Charles Bazaine was sent to reinforce French units under attack in Florence while Thomas de Gaulle's much smaller Eleventh Army assisted French troops in the Liberation of Rome. Things were already looking grim for the Italians.

On the 28th of May the news arrived that mobilised French reinforcements would soon be arriving from France itself, and two days later an eleven thousand-strong Italian army was massacred at Parma as yet more reinforcements were dispatched to French aid in Florence. By July 7th the French had won major engagements in Venice, Treviso, Siena, Padua and Parma as the once-formidable Italian war machine began to collapse fully from the sheer weight of numbers which the French brought to bear. On the 20th the French High Command announced it would be commencing a full-scale liberation of the States of the Church; much of which still lay under Italian occupation. In October the faltering Italians were able to launch a strong offensive against French forces in the Papal States and wiped out over twenty thousand French troops at the Second Battle of Rome, the worst French defeat of the war. French troops garrisoned in Ancona also found themselves heavily outnumbered and it was only emergency reinforcements from the pacification of Perugia which enabled them to not suffer heavy casualties. After weeks of fighting the Third Siege of Ancona saw a pyrrhic victory for the French as they managed to repel a slightly larger Italian army but suffered almost twice the casualties, underscoring the consistent pattern of heavy French losses even in their victories. Manpower could only do so much. By November 18th Paris announced that the entirety of northern Italy was under French control as they began to marshal their troops for the final liberation of the States of the Church (this having been previously been announced in July, but stymied by the October Offensive from the Mezzogiorno) and the capitulation of Italy once and for all. The legendary size of the French invasion force would make it into the history books, as well over three-hundred thousand soldiers were used in the invasion of Naples and Sicily.

On December 19th, the French had established control over the southern province of Aquila and launched an offensive to relieve their men in Foggia before occupying the coastal province of Potenza; the heel of the Italian boot. French forces continued to besiege Naples and Gaeta and hammer away at the defenses that the Italian had erected during their occupation of Rome. Christmas Day 1880 saw the liberation of the Pope from the confines of the Vatican by French troops who had finally managed to take the city; and the general liberation of the States of the Church. Ensconced in a Babylonian Captivity, the Vicar of Christ was free again. From then on it was the beginning of the end for Savoy Italy. Less than a month later King Humbert abdicated the Italian throne for himself and all his successors and on the Feast of St Isabel of France, 1881 the Pope crowned the Duke of Orléans as Louis V of Italy; who had chosen one of his middle names rather than his Christian name in order to evoke continuity with some of the Holy Roman Emperors and Ostrogothic kings of the peninsula. Under the terms of the surrender agreement King Louis' new government ceded the power to declare war and conduct foreign affairs to the French, essentially turning Italy into a French protectorate. This had the twofold benefit for the Republic of essentially exporting the Orleanists and their sympathisers to Italy and of also establishing a new ally and securing the future of the States of the Church; quieting internal Catholic elements who took issue with the secular domestic policies of the government. For the Pope, of course, the reorganisation of Italy meant finally a temporal security that hadn't been enjoyed since the earliest days of his predecessor. From the comfort of the Quirinal Palace he could watch the mass Savoyardist uprising in Italy be put down by the French over the next six months, and personally negotiated the end of a labour strike in Lazio. The end of the strike specifically, and the hand he played in it, exemplified the great interest that Leo XIII took in labour relations between social classes and the state, and would later come to much greater fruition. The Autumn of 1881 would later become known in the Papal States for the prevalence of Romantic musical trends, with their complex and lively themes being well suited to the mood of the nation postwar.

January 22nd 1882 saw the publication of The Chains of Capitalism in the Dominion of Canada by German immigrant Karl Marx; expounding upon the Communist theories put forwards by Japanese philosophers in The Communist Manifesto. Marx's theories, with their emphasis on revolutionary class struggle and dialectical materialism, became the seed of a new political philosophy which would come to be known as Radical Popularism by its adherents. The Pope immediately issued the encyclical De statu civili condemning this new ideology, but it would despite his best efforts soon spread around the globe. It was this alarm which finally lead to the expansion of unemployment subsidies to truly generous amounts as the pope published the rescript Ad beatitudinem est populus; overriding the Papal Parliament due to its inability to pass the reform because of staunch opposition from the Duke of Lazio and his Restaurazionisti faction within the Senate. This rather unexpected use of Papal prerogative proved to be a brilliant move as the liberals and republicans who supported the reform wouldn't speak against it, and the conservatives and reactionaries who opposed it couldn't be seen to oppose the licit exercise of the Pope's temporal prerogatives. Months later, news reached Rome which would prove to be some of the most momentous of Leo XIII's reign: Turkish republicans had overthrown the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire; cutting all international ties as Europe and the world watched in fear at the fall of such a truly ancient dynasty to the rabble. A few days later, on September 24th, Papal elections began. Continuing the positive tradition begun by Leo with the elections immediately after the death of Pius IX, they were both orderly and marked by a sense of widespread conservatism in favour of Lord Vasto and his government; although the Duke of Lazio and his reactionaries also made gains. The reactionaries and conservatives were able to do favourably by capitalising on colonial incidents in the spring of 1883, promising a harsh response to yet another Turkish colonial intrusion and refusing to back down in the face of a wave of unrest in Tunisia.

This would enable them to form yet another coalition government, this time with 42% of the popular vote in a slight improvement from their last electoral results, again under the premiership of the Baron of Vasto who was subsequently invited to kiss hands by the Pope. Exactly a week after the installation of the second Vasto Ministry, a Papal bull appeared in Acta Apostolicae Sedis entitled Est autem ad pacem Christi. This would later be known as "the letter that launched a thousand ships" in pale allusion to the beauty of Helen and more formally it declared war on the Republic of Turkey "for the liberation of the Holy Land, so sacred to Us and the Catholic and Apostolic Church, from the Mohametan indignities under which it has long laboured." The next day, on the 1st of April, the rather irritated looking French ambassador assured the Holy Father that, yes, the Republic would join in this endeavour. In the port of Rome soldiers marshaled to be sent across the Mediterranean in response to the Turks laying siege to Gabes as the rather scanty post-Second War of Aggression forces under the Pope's command were supplemented by tens of thousands of Catholics from around the world flocked to join what was poetically known as "the Last Crusade." Across they went in a grand fleet; but unfortunately vim and vigour do not stack up against fortified earthworks and a familiarity with desert terrain. Papal forces were dealt a humiliating defeat by a Turkish force a tenth of their own strength while attempted to relieve the citizens of Gabes and were forced to retreat north to Tunis, losing all their artillery to the harsh sands in the process. Once in Tunis proper however, the regrouped units were able to put paid to a surprising attempt by the Turks' Bulgarian allies to make a landing there and by August 1st had regained enough strength to this time rout the Turkish soldiers in Gabes. There followed the next month another slaughter of Bulgarian troops in Kairouan and the slaughter of Turkish troops in the interior province of Tozeur. In November, as French Moroccan colonial units invaded the province of Tripoli and Papal troops set siege to the coastal city that gave the province its name, Turkey began to crack. On New Year's Day, the Turkish government ceded Palestine to the States of the Church and Fezzan to the French Republic.

The scale of the festivities was scarcely seen before in modern history. Jerusalem and the Holy Land were under the direct control of a Christian power, the direct control of the Pope no less, and celebrations were held from Warsaw to La Paz as the entirety of the Catholic world rejoiced in the restoration of Christianity in the land where it was first birthed. Pope Leo XIII entered into Jerusalem at the head of a lavish procession, in a golden and jewel-studded carriage pulled by horses of a brilliant white. Wearing his most ornate vestments and a glittering tiara and flanked by bishops, cardinals, and prelates in a haze of incense the message here was unmistakable: where Christ had entered Jerusalem first on the back of a donkey, now entered Christ the King in glorious triumph. The Turks were not at all impressed and announced a full alliance with the German Empire on the 28th of that same month. With the States of the Church allied to France and Turkey now allied to the Germans, in the likely event of conflict between the two the Holy Land would be vulnerable to reconquest by the infidel. To guard against this threat Pope Leo summoned the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, who was as well the Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, and informed him that it was now the quite literal responsibility of the Order -- which by this point was purely symbolic -- to defend the Holy Land as the forebears of the Order had. The Patriarch accepted this role with elan and immediately set about reforming the order; dipping into the funds of its aristocratic members to raise, fund, and train a modern cavalry force as befitted an Equestrian order. His policy of accepting Palestinian and Italian Catholics into the order equally, and even training Orthodox Christians as an auxillary, improved the material fortunes of the Christian community and provided many Palestinians with a vested interest in being loyal to the Pope as their temporal sovereign. In November the Pope, pleased with the technological advances made in the Papal armies but vastly displeased with the quality of his officer corps, announced a new academic training regimen for all NCOs and above. Covering military planning, statistic, decision-making, and professionalism the courses would last for several months and do much for stiffening the army's aristocrat backbone.

In May of 1886, 1885 having passed with little note, a pan-nationalist rebellion broke out in Romagna. This puzzled everyone; from the Romagnese to the Italians, as Italy was generally a rather poor and indigent country since being burned to the ground by the French and of course still remained a French protectorate. Nevertheless it was apparently the will of many revolutionaries within the realm of King Charles Louis that they be united with their Italian brothers under the House of Orleans rather than live under the absolute Habsburg reign of their sovereign. The King's father, Francis Charles, had broken off relations with France after the death of Napoleon III and ever since the States of the Church had been the little country's only ally. After diplomatic back-and-forth with the King, who didn't wish to admit that he needed the help of a neighbouring country to retain his throne, Papal troops were finally granted military access and by July had subdued all the Carbonari rebels within the country after a series of small engagements. Things remained quiet until September. Then things heated up. Croatian miscreants had been agitating against Austro-Hungarian rule for some time and had managed to retain the attention of the German Kaiser's ambassador to his Imperial counterpart in Vienna. In exchange for promising to plop a Hohenzollern on the Croatian throne, he promised the Croatian secessionist leaders that Germany would support their cause; and duly brought up the issue with Vienna. Austria-Hungary of course refused any notion of Croatia gaining her independence and when Germany insisted the issue soon spiraled into a crisis. The French soon backed the Austro-Hungarians in a bid to spite the Germans and as negotiations dragged on throughout the remainder of the year war loomed ever closer. With the fortunes of the Successor of St Peter so closely intertwined with the Eldest Daughter of the Church, the prospect of what would surely prove to be a titanic struggle drove Pope Leo to his knees in prayer; where he would remain until the early hours of January 1st, 1887.
 
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