RIGDON, SIDNEY. 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 691 



and the French title of Due de Montmorat. 

 He had resided several years in France, and 

 his wile, the ex-Queen, survives him. 



RIGDOX, SIDNEY, one of the founders of 

 Moi'monism, born in St. Clair township, Alle- 

 ghany County, Pa., February 19, 1793; died 

 in Pittsburg, Pa., January, 1873. As a boy 

 Rigdon seems to have been shrewd, artful, and 

 designing. He had obtained a fair English 

 education, and had learned the printing busi- 

 ness, and was working at his trade in an office 

 in Pittsburg, in 1812-'13, when a somewhat 

 erratic genius, a preacher, by the name of 

 Solomon Spaulding, brought to the office, a 

 manuscript of what he termed an historical 

 novel. lie gave it the title of ''The Manu- 

 script Found ; or, The Book of Mormon." The 

 book was crude and worthless as a fiction, 

 but it took the fancy of Rigdon, and he copied 

 it. It was eventually returned to the author, 

 who soon afterward died. After remaining 

 three or four years longer in the printing-of- 

 fice, Rigdon withdrew, and commenced preach- 

 ing, at first professing evangelical doctrines, 

 but before long he gathered a congregation of 

 his own, to whom he broached some of the cru- 

 dities of this "Book of Mormon." In or about 

 1829 he became acquainted with Joseph Smith, 

 Jr.. the Mormon prophet, and formed an asso- 

 ciation with him, furnishing him with Spauld- 

 ing's manuscript, portions of which Smith pub- 

 lished, asserting that they were translated from 

 some golden plates which he had found. Rig- 

 don also transferred to him as many of his fol- 

 lowers as he could. From that time Smith and 

 Rigdon worked together, and were partners in 

 all their enterprises, even to their practice of 

 polygamy. 'When Smith removed to Kirtland, 

 Ohio, Rigdon went with him, was his most 

 efficient preacher, and cashier of the bank 

 of whicli Smith was president. The Missouri 

 enterprise, which came to such a tragic end- 

 ing, was mainly conducted by Rigdoc, who 

 denounced the anti-Mormons with great sever- 

 ity and bitterness. When the Mormons es- 

 tablished themselves at Nauvoo, 111., Rigdon 

 wag one of the presidents of the Chnrch. He 

 had been twice tarred and feathered, and sev- 

 eral times imprisoned, for his alleged conspira- 

 cies and misdemeanors. When Joseph and 

 Hyrum Smith were shot at Carthage, June 27, 

 1844, Rigdon, who was then at liberty, as- 

 pired to the leadership of the sect, but the 

 "twelve apostles" preferred Brigham Young, 

 and chose him. Rigdon refused to submit to 

 his authority, and for his contumacy was de- 

 clared to be "cut off from the communion of 

 the faithful and delivered to the devil to he 

 buffeted in the flesh for a thousand years." Thus 

 cant out, he sank into obscurity, and for the 

 lifetime of a generation had gone out of the 

 memories of men, till his singular history was 

 recalled by his death. 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. The year 

 1873 witnessed increased complications in the 

 relations of the Roman Catholic Church with 



the governments in various countries, especial- 

 ly Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Turkey, Mexi- 

 co, and Brazil. Pope Pius IX. remaine'd in the 

 Vatican at Rome, supported by voluntary of- 

 ferings of his adherents throughout the world, 

 declining to accept the proffered stipend of 

 the Italian Government. He was not molested 

 in his appointments of archbishops and bishops 

 to Italian sees, steps being taken to avoid any 

 collision,' but he could not prevent the seizure 

 of many convents and religious houses at 

 Rome, including even those of the generals of 

 orders, having branches or missions in various 

 Christian and pagan lands. In all cases the 

 Italian Government seized not only the build- 

 ings under pretext of their being necessary 

 for national use, but also took possession of 

 the libraries and archives, thus in the case of 

 the heads of orders effectually crippling the 

 operations of those branches of the Church 

 throughout the world. 



Under instruetions from the Cardinal- Vicar 

 a protest was made by each community before 

 yielding to force : " The undersigned, Superior 

 of the Religious House * * * having been sum- 

 moned by the Junta liquidating ecclesiastical 

 property at Rome to present in a- special form, 

 within a delay of three months, a tabular state- 

 ment of the goods, credits, and debts, belong- 

 ing to the said House, replies that he (or she) 

 cannot spontaneously furnish it. But since in 

 case of refusal, heavy penalties are threatened, 

 he transmits, in order to avoid graver evils, 

 the tabular statement required, and at the 

 same time protests and declares that he takes 

 no part in the act of spoliation, and yields only 

 to violence." 



Under the decree of January 16th, seventeen 

 convents were seized on the 2Gth. A protest, 

 made June 2d by generals and procurators of 

 religious orders, produced no effect. A decree 

 of June 19th doomed them all, and from that 

 to the close of the year the work of suppres- 

 sion was carried on without any indulgence. 

 The property belonging to the churches, even 

 of St. Peter's, St. John Lateran, the especial 

 churches of the Pope, and necessary to their 

 maintenance, was seized and sold at auction, 

 The seizure of the property belonging to the 

 Irish College led to the interposition of the 

 British Government. 



This course of the Italian Government drew 

 from Pope Pins IX. the following allocution, 

 delivered to the cardinals of the Holy Roman 

 Church, in the hall of the Vatican, on July 

 25, 1873. 



VENERABLE BRETHREN : What we foretold when 

 wp addressed you at the close of the past year to 

 wit, that we might have to speak again of vexations 

 of the Church daily increasing; the work of iniqui- 

 ty, then proposed, having now been consummated, 

 our office calls us to declare, in whose ears seems to 

 sound that voice of one laying : Cry! 



So soon as we learned that an enactment was to be 

 proposed to that Legislative Assembly whicli, in this 

 propitious city as well as in the rest of Italy, "was to 

 suppress religious houses, and to put up ecclesias- 

 tical property to be Bold; denouncing the impious 



