Chapter 654 The Papal States

Chapter 654 The Papal States

In fact, while Franz was causing trouble everywhere, Prime Minister Metternich was not idle, but he still followed the historical trajectory and slid to Italy.

The four countries of Parma, Lucca, Modena, and Tuscany in Central Italy are actually controlled by Austria and are only nominally independent countries.

Especially with the construction of railways and the establishment of the Apennine Commercial Alliance, these areas' increasingly strengthened ties with the Austrian Empire have actually become part of the Austrian market.

As for the most powerful Kingdom of Sardinia in the entire Italian Peninsula, it has also had many marriages with the Austrian Empire. It is also influenced by the latter to a certain extent, at least on the surface it is surrendered.

Ferdinando II of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies directly changed from an extreme liberal to an extreme conservative due to constant rebellions in the country and a deep fear of death.

Conservative to the point of being closed to the country, that's right, the king who established the first railway on the Italian peninsula, the first modern shipping company, and laid the first telegraph line.

Ferdinand II even cut off foreign trade routes for fear of revolutionaries landing from the sea, which eventually led to domestic famine and the decline of commerce.

The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was too far away from the Austrian mainland, and this insane way of governing was naturally not Metternich's cup of tea. He was targeting the Papal States.

If Tsarist Russia was the sewer of literacy among the great powers, then the Papal States was the bottomless pit of literacy among non-great powers.

Peasants, who make up the vast majority of the population, do not have the right to receive education or financial resources. The operation of the country does not depend on the government or the law, but depends on the mood of the pope and priests.

At that time, priests in the Papal States had great power. They could enter any house in the parish (similar to a community) at any time and judge whether the holy teachings of the Church were observed.

They are both police chiefs, judges, and prosecutors. In addition, they also hold the military and legislative power, as well as the functions of acting on behalf of the Holy See and judging heretics.

In short, priests are gods in their own diocese, and the things they do may make the benevolent African kings in later generations look much "wiser".

More than three million people out of a population of 3.3 million in the entire Papal State are chronically hungry. People live a medieval life, and there is almost no public lighting at night.

The poor people's houses were made of mud and stones, and their roofs were covered with straw. Even the luxurious palaces where nobles and priests lived were covered in stench because they also had no sanitation system.

Piles of filth can be seen everywhere on both sides of the road, as well as buckets hanging by second-floor windows.

There are quite a few people who cannot afford iron tools, many people are not fully clothed, and some families even only have one pair of trousers. The terrible poverty is not only difficult for modern people to believe, but also for diplomats stationed in the Papal States.

Rudolf von Lützow, the Austrian ambassador to Rome, wrote in his diary.

"It's hard for me to believe that I saw the most blasphemous thing in the place closest to God.

People were hungry, poorly clothed, and didn’t realize it. Ridiculousness and ignorance are not enough to describe what I saw.

On the way to Rome I met a very cute child who seemed very interested in my cat.

Because the child had a beautiful face, beautiful eyes, and a beautiful voice, but he had no clothes on and his hair was very long, so I couldn't determine its gender.

As a traditional Viennese, I love children, so I gave my cat to the cute little guy, a shirt, and a silver coin, hoping that he or she would have a happy life one day.

After about a quarter of an hour, I found that the child had forgotten to take the cat food. I didn’t want Mr. Saswa (the cat’s name) to leave his beloved dried fish, so I turned back.

However, what I saw was a dirty woman wearing the white shirt I gave away, and on the wooden shelf beside me was a bloody Mr. Saswa.

I angrily took out my single-shot pistol from the box and wanted to make the dirty woman in front of me pay for Mr. Saswa's life.

But when I saw the grateful and expectant eyes of the two children beside me, I chose to get back on the carriage and leave as fast as I could."

The poverty, backwardness, and ignorance of the Papal States can be seen. When the cardinals rode through the streets in extremely luxurious carriages, countless beggars were shuttled through the city.

They beg at every street corner, in every square, at every monument and at every church door. They are as omnipresent as the infinite power described by the Church.

Pope Gregory XVI was not a beloved ruler, and his incompetence and stupidity were deepening the country's crisis.

Pope Gregory XVI was born into a local aristocratic family in Lombardy, northern Italy. He has a tall nose, downturned lips, and a permanent frown expression. The most terrifying thing is the tattoo on his face. The tumor forced him to live in seclusion.

Pope Gregory XVI regarded himself as an ascetic, but he successively established financial institutions such as the Discount Bank, the Bank of Rome, the Holy Spirit Bank and the Savings Bank. He also established a holy water company and appointed entrepreneurs to manage the internal affairs of the church. His desire for money far exceeded that of his predecessors. .

However, due to poor management, the Papal State could only borrow money to survive the current crisis. By 1846, the total debt had reached 36 million ztyro gold coins (1 ztyro gold coin = 0.4 pounds).

Among them, France's Rothschild Bank alone lent nearly 20 million francs, and the debt owed to the Austrian Empire exceeded 50 million florins.

In order to repay debts, Gregory XVI mortgaged tax cards from various places, as well as the trading privileges of wine, salt, fish, cane sugar, and cotton cloth to merchants.

This further exacerbates the divide between rich and poor, with the "black aristocracy" controlling everything, while millions of people suffer from poverty and hunger.

The black nobility refers to the descendants of the pope and relatives of cardinals. It is also said that the monks are called black nobility because they wear black clothes.

Under such a rule, coupled with the spread of nationalist ideas, uprisings were inevitable.

At first, the Papal States did not realize the seriousness of the problem. Maste Ferre, then Bishop of Bologna (later Pius IX), did not evaluate the rebels as follows:

"The whole mob in Perugia, Foligno, Spoleto and Terni numbered no more than 500"

"Without uniforms, no leadership, and no courage, these people have no ability to scare anyone!"

Then the so-called five hundred rebels defeated the Papal State's 12,000-strong army under the city of Bologna. The team quickly grew, rushed into the town, killed the clergy, and robbed the holy treasury everywhere.

Mastefele abandoned the city and fled, but he did not think that he had lost, but that he suffered an epileptic seizure that prevented him from leading the expedition, which caused his morale to collapse, and he applied to the Holy See to take command again.

The senior officials of the Holy See felt that he was very brave and decided to give him another chance.

As a result, they suffered another disastrous defeat in the Imola region, and the 30,000-strong army of the Papal State was defeated in one blow. Gregory XVI had to send people overnight to France and Austria to mobilize reinforcements.

In 1831, the July Monarchy had just overthrown the rule of the Bourbon dynasty, and Louis Philippe had no time to visit, so he only sent 250 soldiers to guard the Holy See.

Gregory XVI was so angry that he almost suffered a stroke. Fortunately, Ruigi Lambruschini, the Holy See's chief secretary of state, defied all odds and invited the Austrians.

Both the then Emperor Franz II and Prime Minister Metternich thought this was a good opportunity.

As a result, the Austrian army entered the territory of the Papal States to quell the rebellion. The result was shocking. The rebels, which the Pope had previously claimed could only be fought by uniting Catholics from all over the world, were easily defeated by the Austrian army in Bologna.

However, although the rebellion was put down, the root problem has never been solved. As time went by, by the time Francis II passed away in 1835, the Austrian Empire's annual military expenditures in the Papal States had reached millions.

After the death of the "Italian Emperor", Metternich, who had no one to support him, naturally had no choice but to cut expenses and survive in order to maintain the papal rule.

However, history has changed at this time. With the Austrian Empire joining the German Customs Union in 1834, and the subsequent intervention of Franz, its economic strength far exceeded that of the same period in history.

Metternich was not stupid. He knew that the times were quietly changing, and those governments that failed to make changes in time would be swept into the trash heap of history.

For example, the Bourbon dynasty, which was successfully restored after the Napoleonic Wars, was unknowingly overthrown by its people.

The Papal State borders Lombardy and Venetia, and is closely connected with the small states in Central Italy. Its stability will directly affect Austria's rule in Italy.

Metternich was determined to strengthen the rule of the Papal States, but he had also been to the Papal States and met the Pope himself, so he believed that reform was necessary.

Metternich wanted to use his ideas to transform the Papal States and let capable people dominate the government, which was completely treason in the eyes of Gregory XVI.

As a result, a lot of money was spent, but with little effect, people became more miserable, and uprisings and riots occurred one after another. Tens of millions of florins are spent every year, but the Pope does not appreciate it, and there is even a tendency to turn to France.

At this time Franz made some intervention (mentioned before, but it is too long to briefly describe it here).

Franz's advice to Metternich was to treat this as a transaction, because Gregory XVI was a businessman.

No matter how selfless the Austrian Empire is, it still deserves it in the eyes of the other party. After all, Gregory XVI was the church, and the Austrian Empire was a Catholic state.

Therefore, before sending troops, first send people to the Holy See to ask for the expenses of sending troops. This can greatly ease the relationship between the two countries.

As a result, the Holy See's attitude towards the Austrian Empire changed significantly. Not only did it alienate France, it also gave the Austrian Empire two more cardinal positions.

However, this approach treats the symptoms rather than the root cause. The Austrian Empire still needs a large amount of military funding every year to maintain the rule of the church.

While doing so, it also became the target of public criticism. The people regarded the Austrian Empire as an accomplice of the black nobles. The people and nobles of the country felt that this kind of support was a complete waste.

The great powers even accused the Austrian Empire of interfering in the internal affairs of the Papal States with the intention of being detrimental to the Pope. Italian nationalists even listed Austria as their number one enemy.

Revolutionaries in other regions also listed the Austrian Empire as the number one reactionary force, and it even had a worse reputation than Russia for a time.

Franz did not agree with things like selling troops to aid the United States, so he suggested Metternich to change from suppression to rule very early. For Ferrara and Bologna, which are relatively close to Austria, you can consider directly sending troops to garrison. The reason is to facilitate continued suppression.

This proposal has indeed been approved by the Papal Office. In the eyes of the top leaders of the Papal State, preserving their own status and security is more important than anything else. The long-term presence of the Austrian Imperial Army will not only reduce rebellions, but also save the need to go to Vienna every time to bring reinforcements. cost.

Then Austria proposed to help govern the Papal States. After all, there may still be dangerous elements in these areas where rebellions occurred.

Those people had massacred Holy See officials. In order to avoid this tragedy, the Austrian Empire could help govern and collect taxes.

The senior leaders of the Holy See immediately expressed their support upon hearing this. On the one hand, they were indeed worried about security issues, and on the other hand, they had no reason to refuse since they could get something for nothing.

However, Gregory XVI was not a fool, but fortunately he was a negotiable leader.

Finally, after the Austrian Empire guaranteed to donate half a million florins to the papal treasury every year, Gregory XVI finally agreed to hand over the regions of Ferrara and Bologna to the former for management.

However, Gregory XVI firmly opposed the construction of railways on the land of the Papal States, so the Austrian railway could only be built to the border of Ferrara.

Then the "corrupt" rule of the Austrian Empire won unanimous praise from the local people, and the Papal State's hundreds of years of educating the people were not in vain.

As long as the Austrian side gives the people a little benefit, the latter will burst into tears of gratitude and fall into submission. In fact, Austrian businessmen still control most important industries, but the local people's requirement is just to have enough food.

It is not difficult to do this in this era of rapid agricultural development. So comparing the two, the locals quickly came to the conclusion that the Austrian faith was more pious than the Roman faith, because the land could produce more food under the former's governance.

This kind of self-brainwashing consciousness is a very excellent quality in the eyes of rulers. In order to fulfill the old emperor's long-cherished wish, Metternich was also steadily advancing the area of ​​Austria's administrative area.

However, paper cannot cover the fire. Someone noticed the Austrian Empire's intentions and informed the Holy See. Gregory XVI immediately ordered the return of Ravenna, Ancona and other places, but soon war broke out again and he had to invite the Austrian army back.

The rebellion never stopped in the following years, so much so that even a fool can see that Metternich was responsible.

However, what the Prime Minister thought was a clever strategy at this time was actually playing with fire. Not to mention the opposition of the great powers, the top leaders of the Papal State alone could not always allow Austria to encroach on it like this.

All the achievements made at this time were achieved under the money-grubbing and fatuous ruler Gregory XVI. If it were replaced by a more capable pope, Austria would definitely be hindered and even had to move Its giving up.

However, what Franz didn't know was that the new pope who was about to appear on the stage could be said to have taken the word "people hate dogs" to the extreme.

There are very few people in this world who can be hated by both conservatives and liberals, by poor people and rich people, and even he himself hates himself very much.