Description
Book SynopsisDays after the assassination of his prime minister in the middle of Rome in November 1848, Pope Pius IX found himself a virtual prisoner in his own palace. The wave of revolution that had swept through Europe now seemed poised to put an end to the popes'' thousand-year reign over the Papal States, if not indeed to the papacy itself. Disguising himself as a simple parish priest, Pius escaped through a back door. Climbing inside the Bavarian ambassador''s carriage, he embarked on a journey into a fateful exile.Only two years earlier Pius''s election had triggered a wave of optimism across Italy. After the repressive reign of the dour Pope Gregory XVI, Italians saw the youthful, benevolent new pope as the man who would at last bring the Papal States into modern times and help create a new, unified Italian nation. But Pius found himself caught between a desire to please his subjects and a fear--stoked by the cardinals--that heeding the people''s pleas would destroy the church. The resultin
Trade ReviewGrippingly written, pageturning and scholarly, this book is an immense achievement which few can hope to equal. This is a magni?cent book; analysis and narrative at their ?nest. * Ambrogio A. Caiani, Journal Of Ecclesiastical History *
Table of ContentsProloguePart 1: The Beloved1: The Conclave2: The Fox and the Crow3: An Impossible Dilemma4: Papal Magic5: The Tide Turns6: Fending Off Disaster7: The Assassination8: The EscapePart II: The Reviled9: The Reactionary Turn10: Revolution11: Pressuring the Pope12: The Friendly Army13: The French Attack14: Negotiating in Bad Faith15: Battling For Rome16: The Conquest17: The OccupationPart III: The Feared18: Applying the Brakes19: Louis Napoleon and The Pope20: The Unpopular Pope21: "Those Wicked Enemies of God"22: Returning to RomeEpilogueNotesIndex
