DEATH OF THE POPE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 37, 12 February 1878, Page 2

DEATH OF THE POPE.

London, February 8. The Pope died at three o'clock yesterday afternoon. The following biography of the deceased pontiff is from " Men of the Time " :— Pius the Ninth (Pope), a member of the noble family of Ferretti, named Giovanni Maria Mastai Ferretti, born at Sinegaglia, May 13, 1792, was intended for the army, but resolved, to devote himself to the Church. For several years after his ordination he attended to his pastoral duties with exemplary self-devotion, and was nominated by Pius the Seventh on a mission to the Government of Chili, in South America, shortly after the recognition of the independence of that republic. The duties of this mission were performed by him with great discretion, aud immediately ou his return to Rome he was appointed by Leo XII. to one of the most important of the ecclesiastical-civic departments of administration. In 1836 he was sent as Apostolic Nuncio toNaples, while the cholera was raging there, and hisjname is still revered by the poorer inhabitants of that city, in gratitude for his'.disiuterastcd efforts to alleviate their sufferings. In 1840 he was created Cardinal Archbishop of Imola.in the Romagua, where much political disaffection existed ; but lie devoted himself to the duties of his diocese with so much zeal and self-denial, and displayed such liberality of sentiment, that he soon gained the affections of the people, aud restored peace and tranquility to the district. Pope Gregory XVI. died June 1, 1846, and Cardinal Ferretti waselected to the Papacy, under the name of Pius the Ninth, June 16. The new Pope at first acquired much popularity by favoring the hopes and wishes of the people for the reform of the Papal Government ; aud the enthusiasm not only of the Romans, but of the whole Italian people, was raised to the highest pitph-. But the French Revolution of 1848 gave a much mors powerful impulse to the enthusiasm, not only of the Italian patriots, but of the friends of liberal institutions all over Europe, awakening a demand not for mere administrative reforms, but for popular systems of representative government. These sweeping changes the Pope was not prepared to support, and from that moment his popularity began to decline. A policy of reaction commenced, whioh only widened the breach between the Papal Government and the people, and gave an impetus to the agitation for organic changes. The populardisaffection was greatly increased on his taking for his minister Couut Rossi, one of the must aristocratic and unpopular men io Rome ; and, indeed, the fury of the geople could with difficulty be restrained. Count Rossi was assassinated November 15 and Pius himself, a few days later, escaped from Rome in disguise, and arrived safely in Gaeta, the first town in the Neapolitan territory, whither he was followed by the members of the Papal court and the diplomatic corps, lie sent to Rome an ordonuauoc on November 27, declaring void all the acts of the Government, which he superseded by a state commission. This document the Roman Chambers treated with contempt, appointed a Provisional Government, and set about improving the victory they had achieved. The Pope remained nearly a year aud a half at Gaeta and Port ici, an object of sympathy as the head of the Roman Catholic Church. Duria^ his abseucD, Koine which was in the posses sion of the native troops under Garibaldi, was besieged and afc last taken by storm by the French army under General Oudiuofc, after sustainina some reverses. The Pope left Portici April 4, lSju, escorted by Neapolitan j and French dragoons, and accompanied by the King of Naples aucl several members of his family. He crossed the frontier afc Terracina, April (J, and re-entered Rome April 12, with great ceremony ami splendour. The events of the years 18,30 and 1800 tended greatly to weaken the temporal power of the Holy Sec. A rebelliou broke out iv the Legations, and the inhabitants expressed a desire to submit themselves to the Government of the King of Sardinia. This was subsequently effected. Jn September, 1860, the Sardinian troops, to the number of about 50,00', entered" the Papal territory, took Pesaro, F:mo i Urbino, Perugia, and Spoleto, and brought the campaign to a close by the capture of Ancoua on September 28, when General Lamoriciere, to whom the defence of the Papal forces had been entrusted, surrendered with the entire garrison as prisoners

of war. All the States of the Church were now seized by the Sardinian troops with the exception of Rome, Civita Vecchia, and certain districts that were occupied by the French army. Differences arose also between the Holy See and the French Government, and in 1864 the famous September Con /ontion was concluded between 1 taly and France, the latter power engaging to withdraw all her troops from the Pontifical States within the space of two years, while Italy engaged not to attack the territory of the Holy Father, iind to prevent even by force every attack upon that territory from without. Italy further engaged to raise no protest against the organisation of a Papal army, and declared herself ready to enter into an arrangement to take under her charge a proportionate part of the debt of the former States of the Church. Ou the Bth of December following, the Pope issued his Encyclical, accompanied by a Syllabus of Errors, condemnatory of the revolutionary principles of 1789. At the commencement of the year 1866 his Holiness obtained leave from the French Government to raise in France a corps of foreign treops, called the Antibes Legion, destined for the defence of the Holy See after the withdrawal of the French soldiers. The impatience of Garibaldi and his followers, however, precipitated the crisis, and led to the prolongation of the French occupation beyond the period stipulated in the Convention of September. The " red-shirts " advanced into the Pontifical territory, and defeated the Pontifical troops at Monte Rotondo (Oct. 20); but a few days later (Nov. 4) they were in turn completely vanquished at Mentana by the nnited Pontifical aud French armies. The French troops remained at Rome until the war took place between France and Germany, when the Emperor Napoleon felt himself compelled to withdraw them Accordingly the last detachment left the Pontifical territory Aug. Bth, 1870, and on the 20th of the following month, notwithstanding the agreement made by King Victor Emmanuel not to invade the Pope's dominions, the Italian troops, under General Cadorna, entered Rome after a short resistance from the Pontifical troops, who ceased firing at the request of the Holy Father himself. Since that period the Sove- ; reign Pontiff has lived in seclusion in the Vatican, refusing to take part in the grand religious ceremonials which formerly attracted so many thousand visitors to the Eternal City, and declining to enter into any compact with the Italian Government on the basis of the Papal guarantees voted by the Parliament at Florence. On the occasion of his completing the twenty-fifth year of his eventful pontificate, on June 16, 1871 the Holy Father received the congratulations not only of his religious subjects in every part of the globe, and of the rulers of Catholic nations, but also of several non-Catholic soverlegns, including Queen Victoria and the Emperor of Germany. The chief ecclesiastical acts of the Pope have been the condemnation of the Irish Colleges ; the division of England into Roman Catholic dioceses in 1850; the formal definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Dec. 8, 1854; the publication of the famous Encyclical and Syllabus, Dec. 8, 1864; the canonization of the Japanese martyrs; and lastly, the Oecumenical Council of the Vatican, convoked by a bull, Dec. 8, 1867, and solemnly opened in the Vatican Basilica, Dec. 8, 1869. The total number of patriarchs, archbishops, and bishops who took part in the Council at any time between Dec. 8, 1869, and July 18, 1870, when it was suspended, in consequence' of the invasion of Rome, was 704. Tho most important act of the Council was tbe definition of the dogma of the Infallibility of the Roman Pontiff, in the following terms: — "We teach and define that it is a dogma divinely revealed : that the Roman Pontiff, when he speaks ex cathedra — that is, when in the discharge of the office of pastor and teacher of all Christians, by virtue of his supreme apostolic authority he defines a doctrine regarding faith or morals to be held by the Universal Church— is, by the divine assistance promised to him in Blessed Peter possessed of that infallibility with which the Diviue Redeemer willed that His Church should be endowed in defining doctrine regarding faith or morals ; and that therefore such definitions of the Roman Pontiff are of themselves, and not from the consent of the Church, irreformable."