Owen Chadwick
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198269229
- eISBN:
- 9780191600456
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198269226.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
Gregory XVI (pope 1831‐46) pursued a policy in reaction against ’innovators’, meaning political liberalism and the French Revolution and all it stood for, setting the tone for the dislike of the ...
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Gregory XVI (pope 1831‐46) pursued a policy in reaction against ’innovators’, meaning political liberalism and the French Revolution and all it stood for, setting the tone for the dislike of the modern world that characterized the papacy throughout the nineteenth century. Paradoxically, however, his assertion of the authoritarian power of the papacy came to be seen by Catholic minorities in Protestant states as the only source of defence of their rights and liberties. Gregory's papacy saw the condemnation of the liberal ideas of Lamennais and his followers in France and the beginnings of the long struggle between French Catholics and anti‐clericals over control of education. In Germany, where the Restoration settlement had created states with large confessional minorities, the papacy was in constant conflict with the Prussian government over the question of mixed marriages and the position of Catholics in the Rhineland. In Switzerland the religious conflict leading to the war of the Sonderbund strengthened the prestige of the papacy among Swiss Catholics. The pope, backed by a reactionary Curia, condemned the first stirrings of Italian nationalism and the compromise between Catholicism and nationalism proposed by the neo‐Guelf movement. Throughout his papacy Gregory was dependent on foreign troops, principally the Austrians, to suppress unrest in the papal states, as a result of which he died ’the most hated of popes’.Less
Gregory XVI (pope 1831‐46) pursued a policy in reaction against ’innovators’, meaning political liberalism and the French Revolution and all it stood for, setting the tone for the dislike of the modern world that characterized the papacy throughout the nineteenth century. Paradoxically, however, his assertion of the authoritarian power of the papacy came to be seen by Catholic minorities in Protestant states as the only source of defence of their rights and liberties. Gregory's papacy saw the condemnation of the liberal ideas of Lamennais and his followers in France and the beginnings of the long struggle between French Catholics and anti‐clericals over control of education. In Germany, where the Restoration settlement had created states with large confessional minorities, the papacy was in constant conflict with the Prussian government over the question of mixed marriages and the position of Catholics in the Rhineland. In Switzerland the religious conflict leading to the war of the Sonderbund strengthened the prestige of the papacy among Swiss Catholics. The pope, backed by a reactionary Curia, condemned the first stirrings of Italian nationalism and the compromise between Catholicism and nationalism proposed by the neo‐Guelf movement. Throughout his papacy Gregory was dependent on foreign troops, principally the Austrians, to suppress unrest in the papal states, as a result of which he died ’the most hated of popes’.
Owen Chadwick
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198269229
- eISBN:
- 9780191600456
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198269226.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
This history of the ninteenth‐century popes covers the papacies of Gregory XVI, Pius IX, Leo XIII and Pius X in their religious and political aspects. The period was dominated by the question of ...
More
This history of the ninteenth‐century popes covers the papacies of Gregory XVI, Pius IX, Leo XIII and Pius X in their religious and political aspects. The period was dominated by the question of whether the pope could hold political power and the relations of the papacy with the Catholic states of Europe. The major themes of the book are therefore the causes and consequences of the end of the Papal State as an independent power in Italy and the conflicts between the popes and the forces of the Risorgimento, fighting for the unification of Italy under the Piedmontese monarchy. At the same time it discusses the connected challenge of liberal movements in France, Spain and Portugal, and the separate question of the oppression of Catholic Poland by the Russian Empire. It shows how the popes opposed liberalism, democracy, socialism and ’the modern world’ in general, but how this intransigence served to strengthen papal authority among Catholic believers, with mostly unfortunate political consequences. The nuances in the attitude of each individual pope are traced through such major events as the revolutions of 1848, the First Vatican Council, the taking of Rome by Italian nationalists, the Kulturkampf in Germany, and the separation of Church and State in France. Catholic authority became more centralized, demonstrated by the Syllabus of Errors and the doctrine of papal infallibility and the moral demands made by the papacy over such issues as labour relations, marriage and divorce, and religious toleration. Separate chapters discuss the question of religion and national identity in Poland, Spain and Portugal; the fortunes of the religious orders; Catholic universities; the idea of reunion of the Churches; and the making of saints.Less
This history of the ninteenth‐century popes covers the papacies of Gregory XVI, Pius IX, Leo XIII and Pius X in their religious and political aspects. The period was dominated by the question of whether the pope could hold political power and the relations of the papacy with the Catholic states of Europe. The major themes of the book are therefore the causes and consequences of the end of the Papal State as an independent power in Italy and the conflicts between the popes and the forces of the Risorgimento, fighting for the unification of Italy under the Piedmontese monarchy. At the same time it discusses the connected challenge of liberal movements in France, Spain and Portugal, and the separate question of the oppression of Catholic Poland by the Russian Empire. It shows how the popes opposed liberalism, democracy, socialism and ’the modern world’ in general, but how this intransigence served to strengthen papal authority among Catholic believers, with mostly unfortunate political consequences. The nuances in the attitude of each individual pope are traced through such major events as the revolutions of 1848, the First Vatican Council, the taking of Rome by Italian nationalists, the Kulturkampf in Germany, and the separation of Church and State in France. Catholic authority became more centralized, demonstrated by the Syllabus of Errors and the doctrine of papal infallibility and the moral demands made by the papacy over such issues as labour relations, marriage and divorce, and religious toleration. Separate chapters discuss the question of religion and national identity in Poland, Spain and Portugal; the fortunes of the religious orders; Catholic universities; the idea of reunion of the Churches; and the making of saints.
