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Revolution and Unification (1730-60)


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Revolution of 1831

A number of young Umbrians who had fought for Napoleon and suffered exile after his fall coalesced in ca. 1830 to form the Umbrian branch of “Young Italy”.   prominent among them were Francesco Guardabassi of Perugia and  Louis Pianciani of Spoleto.  The patriots converged on Bologna in February 1831 and marched on Rome.  However, the insurrection failed and many of the participants were driven into exile.

Pope Pius IX (1846-78)

Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti, Archbishop of Spoleto (1827-32) and subsequently bishop of Imola, became a cardinal on 1840 and was elected as Pope Pius IX in 1846.  He was popular because of his sympathy for reform: he appointed Cardinal Tommaso Pasquale Gizzi, a leading liberal, as his secretary of state, relaxed censorship and announced an amnesty for political prisoners.  Thus he was affectionately known as “Pio Nono”.  Cardinal Gizzi resigned in 1847, when he went so far as to permit the towns and cities of the Papal States to form civic guards, which involved the arming some of their citizens.

In January 1848, revolution broke out in Naples.  In order to reduce tension in Rome, Pius IX  formed a liberal ministry under Cardinal Giacomo Antonelli with a new constitution for the Papal States.  Revolution against the Habsburgs broke out soon after in Vienna, prompting Metternich to flee and unleashing similar uprisings in Milan and Venice under King Charles Albert of Piedmont and Sardinia.  Pius IX was equivocal in his support and this led to revolution in Rome in November 1848.  The unpopular Minister of the Interior, Pellegrino Rossi, was murdered, and people took to the streets demanding was against the Habsburgs.  Pius IX fled south to Gaeta. 

Pius IX refused to negotiate with the Roman Republic, which had been formed in February 1849, and called on the Catholic powers to crush it.  The republican government, which included Carlo Armellini, Giuseppe Mazzini and Aurelio Saffi, received military support when Giuseppe Garibaldi and his "Italian Legion" entered Rome in April 1849.  However a French army took Rome for the papacy in July. 

Garibaldi left Rome with about 4,000 volunteers on 2nd July 1849.   He reached Terni , where some 900 volunteers under the English Colonel  Forbes joined him.  He then progressed to Todi, Orvieto, Chiusi and Città della Pieve.  He came to a stop outside Arezzo later in the month, and many of his followers melted away.  He also failed to obtain entrance to  Città di Castello.  He therefore switched his attention to Venice, then under an Austrian siege, and decided to head for a port of the Adriatic.

Pius IX, who distrusted the French, did not return to Rome until 1850.  By this time, he had completely abandoned liberalism.

Pius IX refused to negotiate with the Piedmontese and  would not recognise the Kingdom of Italy when it was formed in 1860.

His encyclical of 1864, “Quanta cura”, denounced any suggestion that the temporal power of the papacy should be abolished and condemned liberalism, nationalism and the separation of church and state.  The counter-offensive culminated at the Vatican Council (1870) with the declaration of papal infallibility.

Casse di Risparmio

Casse di Risparmio” (savings banks) began to replace the Monti di Pietà in the 19th century.  The first of these was formed in Padua in 1822.   Monsignor Gioacchino Pecci, the papal legate in Perugia, introduced the concept to Umbria in 1843.



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