The CEcumenical Council which was opened by the pope at Rome on Dec. 8, 1860, was unable to improve the influence and the prospects of the papacy among the Italians. The government, the Parliament, and the people at large repudiated the claims of the council more generally than was done in any other purely Cath- olic country. The nation became more impatient than ever for the overthrow of the temporal sovereignty of the pope, and the incorporation of his states with the kingdom ; and when, in 1870, the Franco-Cierman war caused the Avithdrawal of the French troops from Rome, and ultimately led to the destruction of the French Em- pire, the Italian government could no longer resist the pojinlar pressure for the annexation of the papal states. In September, 1870, count Ponza di San IMartino was sent to Rome, and, in the name of the Italian govern- ment, proposed to the pope to renounce the temporal rule and to dissolve his army; he was, in this case, to retain the Leonine part of Rome, a civil list, and the right of diplomatic representation. The government also offered to guarantee the free exercise, by the poj^e, the bishops, and the priests, of their ecclesiastical juris- diction, and the immunity of all carduials and ambas- sadors. Wlien the pope rejected all these offers of com-
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promise, on Sept:. 11, the Italian troops, in compliance with numerous petitions from the subjects of the pope, entered the States of the Church, and on Sept. 20, by the occupation of the city of Kome, put an end to the temporal power of the pope. A note from cardinal An- tonelli, the secretary of state, to the foreign govern- ment, protested against the act ; and the bishops and the ultramontane party in all the countries re-echoed the protest, and manj' princes, both Catholic and Prot- estant, were called upon to interfere and to restore the pope to his throne. 'Die pope issued a new brief of excommunication, in which he said, "We declare to you, venerable brethren, and through you to the Avhole Church, that all those (in whatever notable dignity tliey may shine) who have been guilty of the invasion, usur- pation, occupation of any of our provinces, or of this holy city, or of anything connected therewith, and like- wise all who have commissioned, favored, aided, coun- selled, adhered to them, and all others who promote or carry out the things aforesaid, under any pretext what- ever, and in any manner whatever, have incurred the greater excommunication {excommunicatio major), and the other censures and penalties which have been pro- vided in the holy canons of the apostolical constitutions and the decrees of the oecumenical councils, in particu- lar that of Trent." None of all these measures produced the least oft'ect. When the first Parliament of all Italy met. tlio king declared, " We entered Kome in ^-irtue of tlie national right, in virtue of the compact which unites all Italians to one nation. We shall remain there, keep- ing the promises which we have solemnly gi\'en to our- selves ; freedom of the Church, entire independence of the pope in the exercise of his religious functions, and in his relations to the Catholic Church." None of the foreign governments interrupted its amicable relations with the Italian government. In July, 1871, the gov- ernment transferred its seat to Rome, where, in spite of all the papal excommunications, it received the enthu- siastic applause of a large majoritj' of the Italian peo- ple, and where it was at once followed by the represent- atives of all the foreign governments.
Although nearly all the bishops and the ovenvhelm- ing majority of the jjriests showed themselves as parti- sans of the papacy in its struggle against the govern- ment and the public opinion of Italy, the idea of reform- ing the Church by rejecting all or much of the corrup- tions which had crept into it during the IMiddle Ages and in modern times, and by reconciling it with the civilization of the 19th century, found more adherents among the priests of Italy than among those of any other country. In a political point of view, tlie reform- ers desired the Church, in particular, to abandon the temporal rule of the pope, to recognise the national luiity of Italy, and to aid in carrying through a separ- ation between Church and State. In th'e province of religion they all wished to restrict the power of the popes, to enlarge that of the bishops, and one portion went so far as to enter into amicable relations with the High-Church party of the Church of England. The}^ had an organ, the Examinatore of Florence ; and as cxan one of the six hundred bishops (cardinal D'Andrea), and the Jesuit Passaglia, who had long been regarded bj- the ultramontane party as one of their ablest theologians, and other men of high prominence, declared their con- currence with a part or the M-hole of the reformatory projects, there seemed to be good reason for hoping last- ing results from the movement. More recently, the re- formatory movement in Germany, headed by Dr. Bol- linger, has found the warmest sympathy among the Italian reformers.
After the sujipression of the Reformation in the 16th century, cruel laws made it for more than two hundred years impossible for any Italian to declare himself a Protestant; only the Waldenses (q. v.),in their remote valleys, maintained with difficulty, and amidst great per- secutions, their organization. At the close of the 18th century the victorious French republic recognised the