detailed in Oil. CATHOLICISM, etc. One Of the foulest
biota on the pages of history regarding his reign i- the forcible conversion of the .lew boy Mortara,andofa piece witli this is the abject condition of the Hebrews at Rome, where the walls of the Ghetto were only removed with the establishment of the Italian power. The pri- vate life of the pope was marked by great simplicity of habits.
talleydier, Histoin <l< laRevoLdt Rom (Lyons,
1851,2 \ ■!-. 8vo) : Maguire, Rome,its Ruk >■ and its Tnsti-
Saint-Alvin, Pie IX fParis I860);
Pirn IX: the Story of his Lift (Lond. 1875, 2 vols.
PtUS IX i ibid. 1*77. I' vols. Svo);
Legge, Growth of tht Temporal Power of th Papacy (ibid. 1870); also, Lift of Pius /X i ibid. 1875, 8vo); Hitchmann, Biog. of Pius IX (ibid. 1878, 12mo) ; New mne, Feb. 8, 1878 ; Christian Union, vol. xvii, No. , : Christian Advocate, Feb. 1*7*: Thompson, '/'//< Papacyand iht Civil I'.,,,-,,- (\. v. is77. l2mo); Prince- March, 1*7*. (J.H.W.) Pius Societies. The stormy years of 1848 and 1849 brought u'reat hopes and urreat dangers to the Ro- ilic < hurch of Germany, especially the hope of entire emancipation from the State, and the danger of enslavement to the despotism of a liberalism hostile to the < hurch. But its representatives knew how to fully between the Scylla and Charybdis. In November, 1848, the German bishops of the Romish body assembled at WUrzburg, to consult together con- cerning lb.- best means to proceed in this critical period. Invars ing faithfulness to the papacy was the tir-i point settled; voluntary co-operation with tl political re- generation" of the fatherland, the second; thankful ac- ceptance of the promise of unconditional freedom ol conscience in the fundamental rights of the Frankfort Parliament I, in order to accomplish the most complete
independence of the Church and absolute control of national education, from the elementary to the high schools, the third. Shortly before this, however, an or- ganization of far-reaching significance bad been effect- ed, in which also -and prominently— the laity were to co-,,perate. viz., the Pius Society, a Roman Catholic counterpart of i lie Protestant Church Diet (q.v.). Soon after the revolutionary struggles of March, union- were formed at several places in Germany having for their object the protection and advancement of Roman < ath- olic interests. At the anniversary of the building of the cathedral at < lologne, in August, 18 18, the mi mbi ra of several of these unions met together and resolved upon a general convocation, in October, 1*1*. at May- ence, where the lirst union of this kind was formed, under the name of /'ins Society. Here all I be single unions were formed into a great collective union under the name of " Catholic Union of Germany ;" although in practice the shorter name of Puts Society has been preferred. To direct the business of the collective union, one of the single unions was to be chosen every tune from the annual general convention, which was called "Vorort." The object of the union was "the obtaining and maintenance of the freedom of the • hurch and control of the same over the schools: national cult- ure in the Roman Catholic spirit ami practice of Chris- tian mercy: as fundamental law. obedience to the pope and to the episcopate: pacific posture towards the Mate and towards every existing form of government, so far as the rights of the Church were not thereby preju- diced: and defensive, not aggressive, posture towards the non-Catholic confessions. The Virgin Mary was chosen as patroness of the union, and every member hound himself to repeat a daily Paternoster and Ave Maria to further the objects of the union." flu first general assembly, which was held at Mayence in 1848, was represented by eighty-three different societies ; and a letter received from the pope I Feb., 1849 i, in which he- gave his approbation and blessing to this union, only Strengthened the- movement, and gave not only author- ity, but also the name. A second assembly was held at Breslau, where the papal letter was received, and where the assembly openly expressed it that "a united Oer- inany was only possible with a Catholic Christianity." Here a new society was also organized, the Vincentius Society, iox missionary work at home. The third gen- eral assembly was held at Regensburg (October, 1849). Ibre. besides the i irgan iz.iit ion of the Bonifacius Soci- ety, a paper was started. Katholischer VereinsboU fur dasdeutschi Reich, in the interest of all societies organ- ized in the spirit of the Pius societies. Every year new societies of like tendency and spirit were organ- ized, till in the year 1*.">1 the number was bo great that the original Pius societies, with the now-existing branch associations, were finally amalgamated into one. as all were only serving one purpose— the advanct menl of ultramontanism in Germany. Vet. in spite of all these efforts, the Beventh general assembly, held ,-u Vi- enna (Sept, 1858), was forced to acknowledge that it had nol Bucceeded in attracting the masses, for only the same faces were present. The meeting at Cologne in 1854 became discordant, because the committee refused to gu e tli« Prussian government a guarantee of abstinence from political utterances and confessional polemics. The ninth general assembly, held at Salzburg in 1857, was a living •■testimonium paupertatis," which the Roman