Roman question: Difference between revisions
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The '''Roman Question''' was a political dispute, |
The '''Roman Question''' was a political dispute, with far-reaching negative ramifications, between the [[History of Italy as a monarchy and in the World Wars|Italian Government]] and the [[Pope|Papacy]] from 1861 to 1929. |
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Rome had been declared Capital of Italy in March 1861, when the first Italian Parliament met in Turin. However the Italian Government could not take possession of its Capital because [[Napoleon III]] kept a French garrison in Rome protecting [[Pope Pius IX]]. |
Rome had been declared Capital of Italy in March 1861, when the first Italian Parliament met in Turin. However the Italian Government could not take possession of its Capital because [[Napoleon III]] kept a French garrison in Rome protecting [[Pope Pius IX]]. |
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Revision as of 04:54, 2 September 2006
The Roman Question was a political dispute, with far-reaching negative ramifications, between the Italian Government and the Papacy from 1861 to 1929.
Rome had been declared Capital of Italy in March 1861, when the first Italian Parliament met in Turin. However the Italian Government could not take possession of its Capital because Napoleon III kept a French garrison in Rome protecting Pope Pius IX.
When the Franco-Prussian War broke out in July 1870, Napoleon III recalled his garrison from Rome. After the collapse of Napoleon III at the Battle of Sedan, the Italian Army entered Rome on 20 September 1870.
The following are excerpts from the book by Raffaele De Cesare, The Last Days of Papal Rome, Archibald Constable & Co, London (1909).
- The Roman question was the stone tied to Napoleon's feet--that dragged him into the abyss. He never forgot, even in August 1870, a month before Sedan, that he was a sovereign of a Catholic country, that he had been made Emperor, and was supported by the votes of the Conservatives and the influence of the clergy; and that it was his supreme duty not to abandon the Pontiff. [Chap. XXXIV, p 440]
- For twenty years Napoleon III had been the true sovereign of Rome, where he had many friends and relations ... . Without him the temporal power would never have been reconstituted, nor, being reconstituted, would have endured. [Chap. XXXIV, p 443]
The Roman Question lingered after the annexation of Rome and the consequent cessation of temporal power over the Papal States and ended with the Lateran treaties between Mussolini's government and Pope Pius XI.
Pope Pius IX, asserting that the Holy See would maintain absolute independence from the Italian state, rejected the Law of Papal Guarantees of 1871, which offered an annual financial payment to the pope, an agreement which Pius IX percieved as reducing the pope to the "chaplain of the King of Italy."[1]
Historical dramas such as Fabiola and Quo Vadis, based upon the Vatican Secret Archives (opened in 1883), which implicitly compared the Roman Question and the persecution of the early Catholic Church.[2]
See also
References
- Pollard, John F. (2005). Money and the Rise of the Modern Papacy: Financing the Vatican, 1850–1950. Cambridge University Press.
Notes
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