Liberals initially welcomed Pope Pius IX (1846–1878). He was a warm, kindly, well-meaning man, and the liberals took him for a true reformer when, on March 14, 1848, he gave the Papal States a constitution that permitted the people a moderate degree of participation in their government. Some dreamed of an Italian federation under the pope. But Pius suddenly changed his mind about the Papal States when revolutionaries assassinated the first papal prime minister, Count Pellegrino Rossi. Revolution broke out in Rome, and Pius was forced to flee. With French military help he regained Rome and the
...more
