The revolutionary movements of 1848 at first appear- ed to have a great influence upon the religious affairs of the country. In Rome a Constituent Assembly was called, which on Feb. 5, 1849, abolished the temporal pow- er of the pope, and proclaimed the Roman republic. The greatest enemies of the papacy in Italy, Mazzini and Garibaldi, were at the head of the republic, which, how- ever, only a few months later (June 4), was struck down by the French troops, which Louis Napoleon, the presi- dent of the French republic, had sent there for the res- toration of the temporal power. But, although the rev- olutionary movements, which, if successful, would have abolished throughout Italy the prerogatives of the Cliurch of Rome, were imsuccessful, one of the state governments, Sardinia, remained favorable to the cause of national union and of a Uberal legislation in the prov- ince of Church aifairs. The Legislature, in 1850, adopted liberal laws, introduced by the minister Siccardi (hence called the Siccardian laws), which provided, 1, that all civil suits must be decided in civil courts and according to the common law; 2, that all priests in criminal cases be subject to the jurisdiction of the state ; 3, that crim- inals may be arrested in churches and other sacred places. When archbishop Franzoni, of Turin, resisted tlie new law of the state, he was promptly arrested ; and when he refused the sacraments of tlie Church to the dying minister Santa Rosa, he was deposed from his of- fice (Sept. 20, 1850) and exiled. The archbishop of Cag- liari shared his fate. In the threatening allocutions of the pope (the first dated Nov. 1, 1850), the government replied by sequestrating the revenues of the archbishop. In consequence of the violent opposition made to tlie government by the monks, the ministry of Cavour (1852- 1858), the greatest Italian statesman of modern times, issued the stringent laws of March 2, 1855, by which the convents of all monks who did not devote them- selves to preaching, to instruction, or to the nursing of the sick were suppressed (331 out of G05). The papal anathema against the authors of these laws remained without the least effect. On the contrary, when the king of Sardinia, in consequence of the war against Aus- tria and the successful revolutions in central and south- ern Italy, united all the provinces of Italy, with the only exception of a part of the papal territory and of Vene- tia,into the kingdom of Italy, the liljeralSardinian laws were not only retanied, but made more stringent. No- body seemed to care about thy Church laws against those who spoliated the patrimony of St. Peter (the States of the Church), and on Jan. l,'l8G(), the obligatorv civil marriage was introduced. The government and
the Parliament were fully agreed in the wish to com* plete, as soon as possible, the unity of Italy, by the an- nexation of Venetia and the remainder of the papal ter- ritory, inclusive of the city of Rome. In accordance with the plan of Cavour, the Parliament, as early as 1861, almost unanimously declared in favor of making Rome the capital of Italy, though they expressed a will- ingness to give to the pope full guarantees for the free and independent exercise of his ecclesiastical functions. The movements of Garibaldi showed that the inhabi- tants of the papal provinces alone, aided by volunteers from other parts of Italy, would have been fully able to depose the papal government, and unite the territory with the kingdom of Italy ; and it reqiured the presence of a large French army in Rome to maintain the de- tested papal rule. Venetia was obtained as a result of the war of 1866, but the expedition of Garibaldi against Rome in 1867 led to a new occupation of the papal ter- ritory by a French army.
The wretched financial condition of Italy, which had become more threatening than ever by the war of 1866, and the September convention of 1864. by which the government engaged to assume a part of the jiapal debt, compelled the ministry in 1867 to bring in a bill for the confiscation of the property of the Church. The sub- ject had been under deliberation since 1865, when a per- sonal correspondence took place between the ])0])e and the king, which induced the latter to make to the Church a few concessions. But the sale of the Church property, though for a time delayed, was urgently de- manded by the Parliament and public opinion as the only escape from a general bankruptcy, and the govern- ment therefore laid a bill before the Parliament which met on March 22, 1867 ; but the committee elected by the Parliament rejected the project of the government as too compromising and not suflSciently radical, and in the very first article of its own draft demanded the ab- olition of all monastic institutions, and the confiscation of the whole property of the Church. The government yielded to the views of the committee, and, after sever- al modifications had been agreed upon by the govern- ment and the Parliament, both chambers adopted the bill for the sale of the Church property by an immense majority (the lower chamber, on Jul}' 27, by 296 votes against 41; the senate, on Aug. 12, by 84 against 29). The actual sale began at Florence on October 26, 1867, though even before this drafts on the revenue to be realized by the sale had been issued to the amount of 400 million francs. The new excommunications pronounced against all buyers of Church property failed to have any effect ; the government and the overwhelming majority of both chambers unwaveringly persisted in carrj'ing out the new laws concerning the Chiu-ch and her property.