PIUS
131
PIUS
the free towns of Italy, furnished monthly contribu-
tion.s to the Christians of Hungary, and endeavoured
especially to bring Maximilian, Philip II, and Charles
IX together for the defence of Christendom. In 1567
for the same purpose he collected from all convents
one-tenth of their revenues. In 1.570 when Solyman
II attacked Cyprus, threatening all Christianity in
the West, he never rested till he united the forces of
Venice, Spain, and the Holy See. He sent his blessing
to Don John of Austria, the commander-in-chief of the
expedition, recommending liim to leave behind all
soldiers of evil life, and promising him the victory if
he did so. He ordered public prayers, and increased
his own supplications to heaven. On the day of the
Battle of Lepanto, 7 Oct., 1.571, he was working with
the cardinals, when, suddenly, interrupting his work,
opening the window and looking at the sky, he cried
out, "A truce to business; our great ta,sk at present
is to thank God for the victory which He has just
given the Christian army ". He burst into tears when
he heard of the victorj", which dealt the Turkish
power a blow from which it never recovered. In
memory of this triumph he instituted for the first
Sundaj" of October the feast of the Rosary, and added
t o t he Lit anj- of l/:>ret o t he supplicat ion " Help of Chris-
tians". He was hoping to put an end to the power of
Islam by forming a general alliance of the Itahan cities,
Poland, France, and all Christian Europe, and had
begun negotiations for this purpose when he died of
gravel, repeating "O Lord, increase my sufferings and
my patience!" He left the memorj- of a rare virtue
and an unfailing and inflexible integrity. He was
lieatified bv Clement X in 1672, and canonized by
Clement XI in 1712.
XlENDHAM. Life and Pontificate of St. Pius V (London, 1832 and 1S35)- Acta SS., I Mav; Toukox, Hommes illustres de I'ordre de Sl- Dominique, Vt; F.tLLOux. Hisloire de S. Pie F (Paris, 1S53) ; P.\s- TOR, Ge^ch. der Papste, Art.wd de Moktor, History of the Popes (New York. 1867); Pope Pius V, the Father of Christendom in Dublin Retieu; LIX (London, 1866). 273. T. LatASTE.
Pius VI (GiovAXXi AxGELico Braschi), Pope, b. at Cesena, 27 Dec, 1717; elected 15 Feb., 1775; d. at Valence, France, 29 Aug., 1799. He was of a noble but impoverished family, and was educated at the Jesuit College of Cesena and studied law at Ferrara. After a _^_.^_^ diplomatic mission to Naples, he was . ^ appointedpapal secretary and canon ^ijk of St. Peter's in 1755". Clement
XIII appointed him treasurer of the
Roman Church in 1 766. and Clement XIV made him a cardinal in 1775. He then retired to the Abbey of Subiaco, of which he was commen- datorv abbot, until his election as Pius VI.
Spain, Portugal, and France had at first combined to prevent his election, because he was beheved to be a friend of the Jesuits; he was well disposed towards the order, but he dared not revoke the Bull of their suppression. Still he ordered the liberation of their general, Ricci, a prisoner in the Castle of Sant' Angelo in Rome, but the general died before the decree of liberation arrived. Upon the request of Frederick II of Prussia he permitted the Jesuits to retain their schools in Prussia; while in Russia, he permitted an uninterrupted continuation of the order. Soon after his accession he took steps to root out the Galilean idea on papal supremacy which had been spread in Germany by Hontheim (q. v.; see Febroxianism). Joseph II forbade the Austrian bishops to apply to Rome for faculties of any kind, and suppressed innu- rnerable monasteries. Pius VI resolved to go to Vienna; he left Rome on 27 Feb., 1782, and arrived in Vienna on 22 March. The emperor received him respectfully, though the minister, Kaunitz (q. v.), neglected even the ordinarj' rules of etiquette. The
.\RM8 OF Pius VI
pope remained at Vienna until 22 .-^pril, 1782. All
that he obtained from the emperor was the promise
that his ecclesiastical reforms would not contain any
violation of Catholic dogmas, or compromise the dig-
nity of the pope. The emperor accompanied the pope
on his return as far as the Monasterj' of ISIariabrunn,
and suppressed this monasten,- a few hours after the
pope had left it. Scarcely had the pope reached Rome
when he again saw himself compelled to protest
against the emperor's unjustifiable confiscation of
ecclesiastical property. But when Joseph II filled the
vacant See of Milan of his own authority. Pius sol-
emnly protested, and it was prnbahly at this nnrasinn
that he threatened the f!iip(_T(jr with excoiiiiiiuiiirat ii in.
On 23 Dec, 1783,
the emperor un-
expectedly came
to Rome to return
the papal visit. He
was determined to
continue his ec-
clesiastical re-
forms, and made
known to the
Spanish diplomat,
Azara, his project
of separating the
German Church
entirely from
Rome. The latter
however, dissuad-
ed him from tak-
ing this fatal step.
To avoid worse
things, the pope
granted him the
right of nominat-
ing the bishops in
the Duchies of
Milan and Man-
tua, in a concor-
dat dated 20 Jan.,
1784 (see Xussi,
" Conventiones de
rebus ecclesiasticis
et civilibus inter S. Sedem et civnlem potestatem",
Mainz, 1870, 138-9).
Joseph's example was followed in Tuscany by his brother, the Grand Duke Leopold II and Bishop Scipio Ricci of Pistoia. Here the antipapal reforms culminated in the Synod of Pistoia (q. v.) in 1786, where the doctrines of Jansenius and Quesnel were sanctioned, and the papal supremacy was ehminated. In his Bull "Auctorem fidei" of 28 .\ug., 1794, the pope condemned the acts, and in particular eighty-five propositions of this sj-nod. In Germany the three ecclesiastical Electors of Mainz, Trier, and Cologne, and the Archbishop of Salzburg attempted to curtail the papal authority by convening a congress at Ems (q. v.). With Portugal the papal relations became very friendly after the accession of Maria I in 1777, and a satisfactory concordat was concluded in 1778 (Xussi, loc cit., 138-39). In Spain, Sardinia, and Venice the Governments to a great extent followed in the footsteps of Joseph II. But the most sweeping anti-ecclesiastical reforms were carried out in the Two Sicilies. Ferdinand IV refused the exequatur to all papal briefs that were obtained without the royal per- mission, and claimed the right to nominate all eccle- siastical beneficiaries. Pius VI refused to accept the bishops that were nominated by the king and, as a result, there were in 1784 thirty vacant sees in the Kingdom of Naples alone, which number had in- creased to sixty in 1798. The king, moreover, refused to acknowledge the papal suzerainty which had existed for eight hundred years. The pope repeatedly made overtures, but the king persisted in nominating to all
Statue of Pirs VI
Angelo Siciliano, Milan Cathedral
