676 ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



ROSSINI, GIOACCHINO A. 



Church, with reason and with the greatest justice, 

 exacts and prescribes absolutely before the celebra- 

 tion of mixed marriages. It makes apostasy itself a 

 civil law both as regards the Catholic religion and 

 the Christian religion generally ; it suppresses 

 all authority of the Church over cemeteries, and 

 Catholics are bound to allow the bodies of heretics 

 to be buried in their churchyard if they have not 

 any of their own. Moreover, the same Government, 

 on the said 25th day of May of this present year, 

 did not hesitate to promulgate a law on marriage 

 which entirely cancels all the enactments agreed to 

 in the convention already alluded to. This law re- 

 stores the former Austrian laws, which are contrary 

 to the laws of the Church ; it admits, and even con- 

 firms, that form of marriage absolutely condemnable, 

 called civil marriage, when the authority of any con- 

 fession whatever refuses the celebration of the mar- 

 riage on grounds which are not admitted as valid, as 

 legal by the civil authorities. By this law, this same 

 Government has suppressed all the authority and 

 jurisdiction of the Church on matters relative to mar- 

 riage, as also all competent ecclesiastical tribunals on 

 the subject. It has also promulgated a law on educa- 

 tion which suppresses all the influence of the Church 

 over education, decreeing that the whole superior su- 

 pervision of education, literature, and science, as also 

 the inspection of schools, appertains to the State, 

 which finally decrees that religious teaching in the 

 public schools must be placed in the hands of mem- 

 bers of each separate confession ; that any religious 

 society may; open private or special schools for the 

 use of its faith ; that those schools shall also be sub- 

 ject to the supreme inspection of the State, and that 

 the school-books shall be submitted to the approval 

 of the civil authorities ; with the exception, however, 

 of such books as are meant for religious instruction, 

 books which must be submitted to the approval of 

 the competent authorities of each confession. You 

 see, consequently, venerable brethren, how neces- 

 sary it is strongly to reprove and condemn those 

 abominable laws sanctioned by the Austrian Gov- 

 ernment laws which are in flagrant contradiction 

 with the doctrines of the Catholic religion ; with its 

 venerable rights, its authority, and its divine insti- 

 tution ; with our power and that of the Apostolic 

 See, as also with our concordat already quoted, and 

 with natural right itself. In virtue, then, of the care 

 of all churches intrusted to us by the Lord Jesus 

 Christ, we raise our voice in your most illustrious as- 

 sembly ; we reprove and we condemn by our Apos- 

 tolic authority the laws which we have enumerated, 

 and every thing, general or special, in those same 

 laws, or in matters which refer to ecclesiastical right 

 which has been decreed or attempted unjustly, in 

 any manner whatsoever, by the Austrian Govern- 

 ment, or its subordinates, whomsoever they may be. 

 In virtue of this same authority which appertains to 

 us, we declare those decrees null and powerless in 

 themselves and in their effect, both as regards the 

 present and the future. As regards the authors of 

 those laws, especially those who congratulate them- 

 selves on being Catholics, and have not feared to pro- 

 pose, establish, approve, and carry out the above laws 

 and acts, we conjure and entreat them not forget the 

 censures and spiritual punishments which the eccle- 

 siastical institutions and the decrees of the oecumen- 

 ical councils inflict, as having been deserved i/pso 

 facto by the violators of the rights of the Church. 

 Meantime, we rejoice greatly in the Lord, and we 

 give our well-deserved praise to our venerable broth- 

 ers, the archbishops and bishops of the Austrian 

 empire, who, with truly episcopal energy, have not 

 ceased to warn their flocks of their duties boldly to 

 defend and protect, by speech as well as writing, the 

 cause of the Church and the said concordat conclud- 

 ed with us. "We also desire from our hearts that our 

 venerable brothers, the archbishops and bishops of 

 Hungary, following the examples of their colleagues, 

 will show themselves disposed to display the same 



zeal and the same ardor to protect the rights of the 

 Church and defend the said concordat against the 

 attacks which are directed against it. Nevertheless, 

 under these calamities which in these sad times afflict 

 the Church everywhere, we do not cease, venerable 

 brothers, with the deepest fervor and humility of 

 heart, to pray to God that He may upset all the crim- 

 inal designs of His enemies and those of His Holy 

 Church, suppress their impious efforts, and, in His 

 mercy, lead them back into the paths of justice and 

 salvation. 



(For the reply of the Austrian Government, 

 see ATJSTEIA.) 



ROSSINI, GIOACCHISTO ANTONIO, a celebrat- 

 ed and brilliant mnsical composer, born in 

 Pesaro, near Bologna, or, as some say, at Lugo 

 in Ravenna, February 29, 1792 ; died in Paris, 

 November 13, 1868. His parents were both 

 poor, and connected with a company of stroll- 

 ing players, his mother as a singer, his father 

 as an indifferent performer upon the French 

 horn. At the age of ten or twelve he was 

 able to accompany his father on the horn, in 

 the performances of the company, and devel- 

 oped so much talent that, at the age of fifteen, 

 the Countess Perticari, discovering his abilities, 

 sent him to the Lyceum of Bologna, where he 

 studied counterpoint and composition under 

 the celebrated Stanislao Mattel. The stern 

 rules and hard details of Mattel's system did 

 not satisfy the young composer, who gave his 

 days and nights to the study of the best com- 

 posers, and especially of Mozart. He speedily 

 attempted the composition of lyric music, but 

 his first opera, La CamMale de Matrimonio, 

 published in 1810, is entirely forgotten, and of 

 his second, Demetrio e Polibio, published in 

 1811, only a quartette and the overture are 

 now known. Of the next seven, published in 

 1812-'13, but little more than the titles are 

 now preserved, though one of them, ISInganno 

 Felice, possesses considerable merit. Far dif- 

 ferent was the fate of the next, Tancredi, pub- 

 lished at Venice in 1813. This at once made 

 its author famous, and placed him in the front 

 rank of his profession. Tancredi was the first 

 opera which contained the distinguishing marks 

 of his originality and peculiarities as a com- 

 poser. It was the foundation of what has 

 been since known as " the school of Rossini," 

 a school which has had more disciples and 

 exerted greater influence on lyric music than 

 perhaps any other in any art. A few months 

 later, he published L 1 Italiano in Algieri, which 

 was equally successful, and thus established 

 his reputation equally in opera seria and 

 opera ~buffa. These were followed by Aureli- 

 ano in Palmyra, a work of less merit, and II 

 lurco in Italia, an opera buffa which was 

 very popular. In 1815 Rossini was appointed 

 musical director of the Theatre of San Carlo in 

 Naples, and produced with marvellous rapidity 

 opera after opera, both for his own theatre and 

 those of other cities. Some of these proved 

 failures, but Elisaletta, Eegina d 1 IngJiilterra, 

 which had a great success, and II BarMer de 

 Seviglia, the best of all his humorous operas, 



