444 



ITALY. 



On March 6th the Pope addressed an auto- 

 graph letter to the king, requesting the latter's 

 consideration of three points, namely, the re- 

 turn of the bishops to their sees, the nomination 

 of other ecclesiastics to fill the vacant sees, and 

 the admission of the titular ecclesiastics already 

 appointed by the Holy See without the consent 

 of the Italian Government. The ministers were 

 unanimously of opinion that this letter should 

 be followed up, and decided to send, in com- 

 pliance with the request of the Pope, a layman 

 to Rome, to confer upon the three points above 

 mentioned, and to endeavor to come to some 

 agreement. The mission was intrusted to the 

 Commander Xaverio Vegezzi, with the Cavalier 

 Advocate Giovanni Maurizio as colleague. The 

 instructions confided to them established, be- 

 fore all, that no political question was to be 

 introduced at the conferences ; which would 

 also exclude any subject not connected with 

 the three points above mentioned, and particu- 

 larly any matter which might be within the 

 competence of the legislative power. In the 

 second place, the instructions declared that, 

 while in the course of the conferences on sub- 

 sequent negotiations, it was not necessary to 

 touch upon the recognition of the Italian Gov- 

 ernment on the part of the Holy See, in order 

 that the conferences and negotiations should 

 not lose their true character of an arrangement 

 concerning interests entirely religious and spir- 

 itual; yet it could not, and ought not, to bo 

 allowed, either in the whole or upon any spe- 

 cial point, that these conferences and negotia- 

 tions should imply the negation de facto of the 

 existence of the kingdom of Italy. The instruc- 

 tions relative to the three points were that 

 those bishops would be restored to their sees 

 whose return would no longer be a cause of the 

 disturbance of public tranquillity, and who 

 would undertake to observe the laws of the 

 State, and cause the same to be observed by 

 their clergy ; that among the vacant sees those 

 only would be filled up which it might be de- 

 termined to maintain on the future diocesan 

 circumscription of the kingdom ; that the pre- 

 sentation of the prelates would be made by the 

 king, with the preliminary agreement of the 

 Holy See, and that this presentation would be 

 stated in the act of appointment, and the bulls 

 which would be submitted to the royal exequa- 

 tur ; and, finally, that some of the titular eccle- 

 siastics already nominated would be admitted 

 from grave motives of public order and political 

 expediency ; others would be admitted not fall- 

 ing under these exceptions, provided the Holy 

 See granted the translation to other sees of the 

 prelates nominated to sees which it might be 

 determined to suppress, and that their presenta- 

 tion by the king be stated in the bulls, which 

 would also be submitted to the royal exequatur. 

 The negotiators arrived in Rome in April. Find- 

 ing the Papal Government disposed not to re- 

 quest the return without distinction of all the 

 absent bishops, they made it understood that 

 the Italian Government would renounce then* 



resolution of imposing particular conditions up- 

 on their return. And as the Pope had not dis- 

 avowed the expediency of a new circumscrip- 

 tion of the dioceses of the kingdom, they did 

 not feel t>ound to insist upon the precise num- 

 ber of the sees to be left vacant or filled up. 

 Moreover, the Pope not displaying any marked 

 dislike to enter into the views of the Govern- 

 ment relative to some of the bishops already 

 nominated, the negotiators testified the desire 

 of the Government to facilitate to the Pope the 

 means of securing the conditions of all the 

 others in a suitable and honorable manner. 

 Difficulties were raised on the part of the Pope 

 respecting the exequatur for the bulls nominat- 

 ing the bishops and relative to their oath, and 

 the negotiators therefore returned to the seat 

 of their Government, to obtain new instructions. 

 The Italian Government deemed it inexpedient 

 to grant the demands of Rome concerning these 

 two points, as they only vindicated to the Ital- 

 ian Government a right which Italy has held 

 in common with nearly all the Catholic States. 

 The negotiators were .therefore instructed to 

 insist on the oath of the bishops and the royal 

 exequatur, being, however, authorized to make 

 concessions as to the form. They returned to 

 Rome in June, but then no longer observed the 

 conciliatory disposition which they believed they 

 had discovered on then* first visit. The proposi- 

 tions relative to the oath of the bishops and the 

 exequatur were rejected, and this led to the non- 

 pursuance of the negotiations upon the other 

 points ; only it was stated that the Italian Gov- 

 ernment would not depart from their resolution 

 to consent to the gradual return of those absent 

 bishops who could be restored to their sees 

 without danger of public disturbance, since this 

 was viewed as being only a measure of inte- 

 rior order, which had already been previously 

 determined upon by the Government itself. 

 After this the negotiators returned from Rome, 

 and resigned their mission. The official report 

 made (July 8th) by the prime minister, La Mar- 

 mora, to the king, on the progress and failure 

 of this mission, closes with this important hint : 

 " The day, perhaps, may not be far distant when 

 the so much desired separation of Church and 

 State will bring with it the complete separation 

 of religious and spiritual from political interests, 

 to the common benefit of both Church and 

 State, and particularly to the advantage of 

 Italy, which, from their confusion, has suffered 

 such long and severe trials." 



A royal decree, issued on September 7th, dis- 

 solved the Italian Parliament, ordered new 

 elections to take place on October 29th, and 

 convoked the Chambers for the 15th November. 

 A circular addressed by the Minister of the In- 

 terior to the Prefects, sets forth the policy the 

 Government intended to pursue. The circular 

 announced that shortly after the assembling of 

 Parliament the ministry would bring forward 

 a measure for the suppression of religious bodies, 

 and the readjustment of ecclesiastical property. 

 This measure would ameliorate the position of 



