Pius IX. governed without severity, founded charitable insti tutions, and restored order in the finances, where Mazzini had left a deficit. A really amazing amount of work for the public good was accomplished in the peaceful years which now fol lowed. Rome was provided with a good water supply, streets and squares were improved, and the railway to Frascati was con structed. The pope enriched the Vatican collections with new acquisitions, founded the Christian Museum in the Lateran, and encouraged excavations on the Palatine and at Ostia, as well as the important researches of de Rossi in the catacombs. Many churches were restored, the Damascus Court was altered, and the great marble staircase in the Vatican was constructed during this pontificate.
The basis of the temporal power of the pope was however no longer secure. The Italians were subjected to the most intense national and international propaganda. The principal centre of the movement was at this time the little Liberal State of Piedmont, which now stood forward as the chief representative of the idea of unity, and, supported by France, took up arms against Austria in 1859. The independence of Italy was everywhere proclaimed, and one revolt was succeeded by another. The abolition of the Papal States was one of the points in Cavour's programme, and it was faced with dissolution. It was reduced to one-fifth of its previous area in 1860. In the f ollow ing year Victor Emmanuel was proclaimed king of Italy, and Cavour, the creator of Italian unity, even as he lay dying, spoke in favour of a free Church in a free State (libera chiesa in libero stato). This watchword, together with that of "Roma capitale," were everywhere repeated as the dogma of nationalism. The Franco-Prussian War of .1870 encouraged the nationalists to take the final step. When the news of Sedan was received, and Italy was no longer obliged to consider the wishes of France, the excitement reached its highest pitch. On Sept. 20 the practically undefended city of Rome, the capital of Christianity, which be longs to all Catholic nations, was occupied by Italian troops. Rome became the capital of Italy. The so-called Guarantee Law of May 13, 1871, conferred on the pope the rights and honours of a sovereign, granted him an annual endowment, and recog nized the extra-territoriality of the papal palaces, but these were declared the property of the Italian State, and the pope was only allowed the usufruct of them. An international matter was thus settled by an individual State without any other guarantee. Pius
IX. persistently refused the offer made to him, and protested against what he called the usurpation. Both he and his successors, who, like him, refused to go outside the Vatican until the settle ment that was reached with the Quirinal in 1929, did not cease to join with Catholic Christendom in protesting against z position imposed by force, which did not provide the necessary guarantees for the complete independence of the supreme head of the Church.
In the midst of all these difficulties, Pius IX. was extremely active in Church affairs. Eminent men of all nations formed part of the College of Cardinals. New seminaries for Americans were set up in Rome, and new bishoprics were created both in America and in other parts of the world. The Latin Patriarchate in Jerusalem was restored. A Congregation of Cardinals was instituted to deal with the affairs of the religious Orders and their reform. The pope held a number of assemblies of bishops, as for instance in 1854, when he proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. The encyclical of 1864, with its condemnation of 8o theses (Syllabus errorum), was a reply to the violent attacks of liberalism. The pope uttered a warning against compromise in the struggle between God and the world which was an outstanding feature of the times, since compromise could only lead to the confusion of minds. In opposition to modern irreligious philosophy there grew up the new scholasticism, which aimed at a revival of the metaphysical and theological doctrines of St. Thomas Aquinas.
Pius IX. concluded concordats with a number of States. The concordat with Austria (1855) abolished what still remained of Josephism, but it was abrogated in the liberal era which ensued. Since the end of the Cologne disturbances, there had been a Catholic revival in Germany, and religious associations of various kinds took part in the social development of the day. The so-called Kulturkampf, which was instituted by Prussia after the creation of the new empire (1871), and the object of which was to give the State complete control of the Church, met with resistance from the bishops and from the leaders of the Centre Party, who were devout Catholics and rallied staunchly round the pope, who also remained steadfast. The Catholic hierarchy was restored in Holland and also in Eng land, where there were 12 bishoprics and the archbishopric of Westminster.