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Rh PIUS IX 157 (see ITALY, vol. xiii. pp. 488-89); and a &quot;free Italy&quot; became the general cry. At first Pius, who felt but little sympathy with the views represented by the son of Philippe Fjgalite&quot;, seemed disposed to head the movement. He dismissed his state-secretary, Gizzi, an irresolute and timorous politician, and appointed Cardinal Ferretti in his place. On 14th March 1848 appeared the Statuto Fonda- mentale, a more complete scheme for the reorganization of the temporal government of the papal states. By this two deliberative assemblies were created, the first, the high council, the members of which were to be nominated by the pope himself for life ; the second, the council of depu ties, to be elected by the people, and to be entrusted with the chief voice in all questions relating to taxation. Over both these bodies, hovever, the college of cardinals retained the supreme authority ; without its consent no measure could acquire legal validity. Liberty of the press was promised, but the ecclesiastical censorship was to be retained. A new ministry was formed, which, with two exceptions (Antonelli and Morichini), was composed of laymen. But at this juncture Pius began to waver. Although he had hitherto shown no sympathy with the Jesuits, he endeavoured to protect them against the measures now brought forward with a view to their expul sion, and when his general, Durando, crossed the Po with out his orders, and denounced the Austrians as &quot; the enemies of the cross of Christ,&quot; he disowned, in an allocu tion (29th April), all intention of participating in an offen sive war for the purpose of rectifying the boundaries of Italy, and at the same time disavowed all complicity in the schemes then in agitation for creating an Italian federal republic, with himself as the nominal head. This apparent desertion of the national cause, at a time when the public mind had been roused to the highest pitch of excitement by the course of events at other centres, created an irreparable breach between Pius and the people. His new chief minister, Mamiani, who wished to see him a constitutional monarch, advocated further concessions the handing over of the political government to the new assemblies and a responsible ministry. But after the Austrian successes in the north and Radetsky s entry into Milan (5th August), Mamiani was dismissed, and his place was filled by Count Rossi, the French ambassador, a states man of signal ability and intrepid character, but of conser vative views. On the 15th November 1848, as Rossi was alighting at the steps of the house of assembly, he was assassinated in broad daylight. It was an ominous symptom of the prevailing temper of the capital that this atrocious act elicited no expression of disapproval in the assembly, and drew forth no marks of sympathy with the victim s family. Two days later a numerous mob, largely composed of disbanded soldiers, assembled in the square of the Quirinal, and proffered fresh demands, at the same time intimating their intention, if these were not conceded, of commencing a general massacre of the inmates, excepting only the pope himself. After his secretary, Palma, had been shot by a bullet, Pius, in order to avert further bloodshed, made the requisite concessions, and assented to the formation of a new ministry, while he him self was made a virtual prisoner. On the 24th November he effected his escape, with the connivance of the French Government, to Gaeta, disguised as a dependant of Count Spaur, the Bavarian minister. Thus terminated what has been described as &quot; the first and only attempt of a pope to govern in a liberal spirit.&quot; From Gaeta he published a formal protest against the violence to which he had been subjected, and wliereby his latest enactments had been extorted from him, at the same time declaring all measures decreed in Rome during his absence null and void. Gioberti, the Sardinian minister, endeavoured without success to gain his concur rence in a new scheme for the formation of an Italian federation of princes. In the following February it was resolved in a consistory of cardinals to appeal to the chief Catholic powers (France, Austria, Spain, and Naples) for their aid in bringing about the re-establishment of the temporal sovereignty. About the same time (3d February 1849), as if to mark his undisturbed sense of his spiritual supremacy, Pius himself addressed an encyclic to the superior Catholic clergy throughout the world, enjoining that on appointed days of the year the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception B.V.M. should be preached through out their dioceses. The decisive defeat of the Sardinian forces at Novara by Radetsky (23d March 1849) encouraged the papal party now to demand that Pius should be rein stated at Rome without any conditions being attached to his restoration. This demand created a divergence of opinion among the above-named powers eventually General Oudinot landed at Civita Vecchia with 10,000 French soldiers, and De Tocqueville, the French minister for foreign affairs, sought to induce Pius to resume his sovereignty on the basis of the 8tatuto Fondamentale. This he resolutely refused to do, and after the occupation of Rome by Oudinot s forces he was permitted to return (12th April 1850) unfettered by any condition whatever. Pius returned an altered man in relation to his state policy, in which, in fact, he was from this time guided almost entirely by Antonelli. A certain profession of a design to reform abuses was indeed made, but the former ecclesiastical ascendency in the government was re-estab lished, while the pope entered into the closest relations with the Jesuit party. Notwithstanding his specious dis claimers of any desire to take revenge for the past, the Documenti Ojficiali, published in 1860, prove that little mercy was shown to those who were suspected of disaffec tion. As, however, the continuance of the French occupa tion relieved him from any anxiety with respect to the maintenance of order, Pius was enabled to devote his attention chiefly to the objects which undoubtedly lay nearest to his heart, the more complete definition of Roman dogma and the enhancement of the prerogatives of his office. In this direction his views had never been characterized by any liberality, as is sufficiently shown by his encyclic of 9th November 1846, his letter to the arch bishop of Cologne (3d July 1847), and his allocution of 17th December 1847, in which all the modern tendencies to a more philosophic interpretation of doctrine are visited with unqualified condemnation. He now proceeded skilfully to avail himself of the reaction that began to set in, especially in Germany and in England, after the repression of the revolutionary movements, by taking, as the burden of his allocutions, the essential connexion between political innovation and freedom of scientific or religious thought. The activity of the Jesuits was studiously encouraged ; the &quot; beatification &quot; of several eminent deceased members of their order was proclaimed ; and lives of the saints, full of marvellous and legendary incidents, were widely circulated among the poorer laity. A combination of circumstances, at this period, largely contributed to the success of these efforts both in Europe and in America. By the bull &quot; Inetfabilis Deus &quot; (8th December 1854) the doctrine of the immaculate conception was formally &quot;defined,&quot; as a dogma binding on the acceptance of all the faithful, and in pamphlets favourable to the assumptions of the curia it was pointed out that the supreme pontiff had thus defined the doctrine iritliout recourse to any council. In 1862 the canonization of six hundred and twenty mission aries, who had met with martyrdom in Japan some two centuries and a half before, was made the occasion of an ! imposing ceremonial. In a letter (1 1th December 1862) to