Pope Pius VIII (; born Francesco Saverio Maria Felice Castiglioni; 20 November 1761 – 30 November 1830) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 31 March 1829 to his death in November 1830.

His brief papacy witnessed the Catholic Emancipation in the United Kingdom in 1829, which he welcomed, and the July Revolution in France in 1830, which he accepted with reluctance.

He served as the Vicar General of Anagni (1788–1790), Fano (1790–1797) and Ascoli Piceno (1797–1800). However, he failed to gain the necessary votes, in part due to controversy surrounding an alliance between him and another favorite, Secretary of State Ercole Consalvi. Annibale Cardinal della Genga was elected instead, and he took the name of Pope Leo XII. Leo XII stated that Castiglioni would one day be called "Pius VIII".

Papacy

Election

thumb|259x259px|Illustration of Pope Pius VIII

After the death of Pope Leo XII in 1829, Castiglioni, who had all the qualities and skills required to be pope, was again considered to be a major candidate, though was questioned due to his frail health and age. Despite these concerns, he was elected as pope in the papal conclave of 1829. Given that both Popes Pius VII and Leo XII had referred to him as Pius VIII, it seemed only suitable that it was the pontifical name that he chose. He was crowned on 5 April 1829 by Cardinal Giuseppe Albani.

When the conclave opened, the French cardinals were told that the French court would support seven cardinals for the papacy, which included Castiglioni. King Charles X had a very positive opinion of Castiglioni, and favored either Castiglioni, Placido Zurla, Emmanuele de Gregorio, or Cesare Brancadoro to become pope. Castiglioni led in the first ballot with eleven votes, and on 4 March in his capacity as the Major Penitentiary distributed ashes to the cardinals since it was Ash Wednesday. While there were whispers of a faction supporting de Gregorio, a faction consisting of Cardinals Antonio Maria Frosini, Carlo Maria Pedicini, Antonio Palotta, Tommaso Maria Raimondo Leopoldo Arezzo, and Agostino Rivarola was said to have started shoring up support for Castiglioni. On 6 March, de Gregorio was still in the lead, with Castiglioni receiving fifteen votes in the afternoon scrutiny. Due to a series of controversies surrounding de Gregorio throughout the day, de Gregorio's votes had fallen on 7 March, while Castiglioni received fourteen in the morning and fifteen in the afternoon. On 14 March, Castiglioni received 20 votes in the morning and 23 in the afternoon, while fluctuating on 15 and 16 March. Castiglioni received 22 votes in the 20 March morning vote while Bartolomeo Pacca's votes increased that afternoon from 11 to 19 in a bid to end the deadlock and elect a compromise candidate. Castiglioni's voting total remained the same on the following day.

In the morning vote on 23 March, he had received 24 votes and received 26 in the afternoon. Meanwhile, Cappellari received 19 votes that had originally been cast for Pacca due to his supporters deciding upon him as an amenable compromise and because Pacca was officially vetoed. On 24 March, Cardinals Carlo Oppizzoni and Fabrizio Sceberras Testaferrata, from different factions, were both privately in agreement to canvass additional support for Castiglioni. While Cappellari received 22 votes in an indication that his candidacy was improving, Castiglioni received 23 votes while de Gregorio had sunk to two votes. On 26 March, in the afternoon scrutiny, de Gregorio had suddenly risen to 24 votes while Castiglioni had sunk to 14 or 15. He sunk to 13 on 28 March, though the results changed on 30 March in which de Gregorio had secured 23 votes and Castiglioni had secured just over 25 in the morning, only for both candidates to sink in the afternoon scrutiny. On 31 March, he had secured 28 votes with a clear lead, and barely had two-thirds majority in the morning ballot. In the next ballot, Castiglioni was elected as pope with 47 votes.

On 25 March 1830, in the brief Litteris altero, he condemned the masonic secret societies and modernist biblical translations.

A further letter of pastoral concern sent to the Upper Rhineland bishops, which Pius wrote at the end of June 1830, is referred to by his successor Gregory XVI in the latter's papal brief Quo Graviora of 1833. Gregory refers to a request for information on the bishops' actions in response, which he says "though three years have elapsed", had not yet been received.

Marriage

Pius accepted the situation on mixed marriages between Protestants and Catholics in Germany, but he opposed changes in Ireland and Poland, which were still strongly Catholic. In his brief Litteris altero abhinc, he declared that a mixed marriage could only be blessed by a priest if proper promises had been made to educate the children of the marriage as Catholics. However, the brief also which allowed priests to offer "passive assistance" at a mixed marriage ceremony when the non-Catholic party declined to make the oath providing for the children of the marriage to be brought up as Catholics. The provision for "passive assistance" meant that a priest could conduct a wedding, acting as a witness, but the marriage would not be blessed or seen as a sacrament.

Organisation of Catholic dioceses

The Holy See's website refers to three papal briefs ("breve") bearing the name Inter multiplices:

  • a brief of 15 May 1829 establishing the Diocese of Mobile, at that time covering the states of Alabama and Florida.
  • a brief of 11 August 1829 separating the pastoral care of Prince Edward Island (PEI), New Brunswick and the Magdalen Islands in Canada from the Diocese of Quebec, creating a new episcopal see based in Charlottetown, PEI.
  • a brief of 4 September 1829 separating the territory of Cape Breton from the Diocese of Quebec and placing it in the care of the Apostolic Vicar of Nova Scotia.

In the last of these letters, he wrote that his concern for "the state of the Dioceses distributed over the entire earth" occupied a place second to none among his cares. Pius VIII also nominated eight cardinals "in pectore" in the March 1830 consistory, however, he never publicly revealed the names before his death hence rendering the appointments moot.

Beatifications

He canonized no saints during his brief pontificate but he beatified two individuals. On 23 December 1829 he beatified Benincasa da Montepulciano, and on 4 March 1830 he beatified Chiara Gambacorti. Pius VIII proclaimed Saint Bernard of Clairvaux a Doctor of the Church on 20 August 1830, titling him as "Doctor mellifluus" ("Mellifluous Doctor").

Other activities

thumb|right|200px|1829 painting by [[Horace Vernet of Pius VIII in the Sedia gestatoria]]

Pius' brief pontificate saw the Catholic Emancipation in the United Kingdom and the July Revolution in France, which occurred in 1829 and 1830, respectively. Pius VIII recognised Louis Philippe I (1830–48) as French king and allowed him to use the French king's customary title "Roi Très Chrétien", which means "His Most Christian Majesty".

Also of remarkable importance to the future is a letter of his to a French bishop, in which he allowed the taking of moderate interest (under the principle of foregoing a profit by investing the lent capital; see Vix pervenit for the discussion of the topic).<!-- I had been thinking that this can be found in Ferdinand Elger, Lehrbuch der katholischen Moraltheologie. What can be found in Elger is that an answer to a dubium, by the Penitentiary, not the Pope in person, was issued in the reign of Pope Pius VIII, and later a statement of Pope Gregory XVI. It still seems the letter of Pope Pius VIII to a French bishop which made the Holy See's stand clear, with the latter concurring, but I cannot at the moment find it. !-->

Being, at that time, head of the Papal States, he remained popular for decades for removing the so-called cancelletti (grids) from the taverns, which Leo XII had ordered to be put there to hinder the consumption of wine unless accompanied by a meal. A poem was written about him that ran thus:which in English roughly reads: At the time when the highest Pius / approached God in the highest / He asked him: What have you got done? / He answered: "There's nothing I've got done." / But the angels present knew better: / "He cancelled the cancelletter".

Health and death

thumb|200px|left|Monument and Tomb in Saint Peter's Basilica

Pius VIII was in very poor health during most of his papacy. He became very ill in early November 1830, developing fistulas on his neck and knee while his entire body became covered with pustules, which the doctors were able to manage by 15 November. Pius VIII became seriously ill again on 23 November, had difficulties in breathing for the following three nights, and was given the Viaticum on 28 November and the Extreme Unction later that day at 9:30pm. He died on 30 November 1830 at the age of 69 in the Quirinal Palace in Rome.

Certain theories have emerged suggesting that Pius VIII was poisoned, but no proof has been found to verify this claim.

  • Cardinal Scipione Rebiba
  • Cardinal Giulio Antonio Santorio
  • Cardinal Girolamo Bernerio
  • Archbishop Galeazzo Sanvitale
  • Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi
  • Cardinal Luigi Caetani
  • Cardinal Ulderico Carpegna
  • Cardinal Paluzzo Paluzzi Altieri degli Albertoni
  • Pope Benedict XIII
  • Pope Benedict XIV
  • Cardinal Enrico Enríquez
  • Archbishop Manuel Quintano Bonifaz
  • Cardinal Buenaventura Fernández de Córdoba Spínola
  • Cardinal Giuseppe Doria Pamphili
  • Pope Pius VIII

See also

  • Cardinals created by Pius VIII
  • List of popes

References

Sources

Literature

  • Papal Encyclicals Online
  • Pope Pius VIII encyclicals and other works, IntraText Digital Library
  • Agostino Chigi Diary, IntraText Digital Library
  • Catholic-Hierarchy entry