"Certain revolutions are inevitable. There may be eruptions of morality, breaking out like the physical eruptions of a volcano. When the chemic combinations producing them are complete, the volcanic eruptions explode forth, just as revolutions do when their moral factors arrive at the proper state. In order to predict them, the trend of ideas must be understandingly observed."
~ Napoleon Bonaparte To His Eminence Cardinal Micelus,
As proposed, the archbishopric of Jerusalem is due bestowed to you on the Fifth of January in a simple ceremony within the Basilica. His Eminence Cardinal Neo shall await your arrival pending an appraisal of your duties as pertaining to your current See, as well as those concerning to your new dominion. I expect he will press for industrialization of the region and tolerance of the inhabitants. I advise this as agreeable. Camerlengo Boksi likewise suggests the construction of a new state-funded hospital in the Holy Land, and I find this too a most excellent idea.
Within the Holy Land there is a small minority of Arab Christians known as the Coptics; they admit fealty to Christ but their understanding of his grace is imperfect; therefore I suggest you seek Cardinal Alz and tutor them in the proper ways of the Church. They and their brethren should provide insight into some familiar way to spread the Word of God throughout the region. Their assistance is valuable and so I ask you spare no effort in drawing these wayward Christians into the one true flock. The more zealous among them may prove eager to join the ranks of our Holy Army; please encourage this as nothing could further benefit our cause, and their tithes would help fund the infrastructure that would ultimately benefit they themselves the most.
An avalanche of requests from the Eastern Church for a Patriarchy was duly ignored in light of our pre-established arrangements.
May the Lord be with you always and forever.
~ C.C.C.G.G.
January 4, 1849
Apprehensive as the Vatican grows in Gregory's illness and the uncertainty of the peace after war, I cannot hold back the smile that comes when I think of the certainties waiting to unfurl. While some things like my own survival are impossible to determine as guaranteed, the end of next January will see the death throes of the monarchy. And when this comes to pass there will be a void to fill, a government to make. I must ensure a place for myself and the friendlier of those among my colleagues in the power to come.
Our mission to reclaim the Holy Land was a resounding success. I've tasked the new Expeditionary Engineers to secure the remains of the Citadel of the Hospitallers Knights. Sources indicate the complex was built along the northern walls of the City of Acre; it is there we'll begin fortifying our new territory against the looming Ottoman threat. On Oberst Sheb's request we've recalled the bulk of the Swiss Guard to Italia, and only a cursory force of Zouaves remain overseas.
In the name of His Holiness, myself and a coalition of liberal Cardinals enacted nationwide legislation to restrict the length of hours a man may work in a day. This will allow the common worker more free time to ruminate on his condition, while forcing our industrialists to make more efficient use of their capital. Since His Holiness is now incapable of conducting affairs of state in any formal capacity, those State responsibilities have fallen on my shoulders, while the Archpriest carries out most of the Holy Father's clerical duties. The infirmities of our nation and her king are intertwined, each exposing every weakness of the other.
Despite the objections of local governors, the First Farmer's Bank of Tripoli is allowed to continue operation as it has. It's important that the locals of Africa feel in command of their own personal destinies, for the moment they feel otherwise shall fall on the day they revolt in arms.
April 27
The new system of state controlled trade unions will facilitate mutually beneficial bargaining between industrial workers and capitalist leadership, while increasing the demand of our population for social reform by enlightening the masses of their own collective power. Furthermore, our nation will grow more attractive to migrants from less fortunate lands, and increasing our population is a high priority. The Great Powers of Europe boast a much broader base of people and intellect. A cosmopolitan Italy is our greatest chance to compete with such a disadvantage of manpower.
Yes, Cardinal Canalan's suggestions are in league with my own political designs, yet I'm still uncertain about his benefactors. For whom does he work? The Carbonari? Young Italy? Less likely still, is his struggle in solitude? I've seen him crossing the streets in the latest hours of night, and one day we'll determine whence he comes.
Cardinal Barbarossa likewise vexes me. The Bishop of Malta maintains some sort of rapport with one Bogdana Gavrilova, a Silesian palmist and reader of Tarot cards. Even a few of her furthest-flung neighbors know her and call her
la Vegliarda della Costa. The Order has, in the past, sought her services for birth charts and other select appliances of divination, but I am unprivileged as to the nature and outcome of these dealings. This may be for best comfort; a more unnerving
strega have I never witnessed.
June 30
Black, outrageous day! France has dissolved their alliance with the States, worse still, they've thrown their guaranteed support behind Sardinian Italy! Let Louis share the bite of Satan with Iscariot, curse him!
The west of Europe has gone dark, and the Papal States stand alone in the world. If we must prevail alone, then alone we shall prevail!
August 12
Cardinals Euchre and McCrea have proposed the deployment of Jesuit missionaries to disrupt some of the tribal Bedouin practices. I've held off on this for now. Tensions in Palestine are thick enough.
October 9
Portuguese revolutionaries seized control of Lisbon while the royal army was dispatched overseas in Africa. The rebels have exiled the monarchy and drafted a constitution protecting the civil rights of Portuguese citizens. We've sent a delegation of recognition to the new regime.
The British are already attempting to spread their influence on the new Portuguese government, and operatives are off to discredit them and hinder their efforts.
Palestinian Bedouins are in an uproar over the apparent disrespect our colonial police have shown one of their quaint nomad shrines while in pursuit of fugitives. I've impressed on our men often enough the importance of treating the natives of the East with dignity, but its not as though we can let a murderer escape just because they run into some sacred ground. Sanctuary is becoming an outmoded concept.
January 1, 1850
- Several of the pages appear to have been torn away.-April 21
At least France remains cooperative to the Holy See in spite of their abandonment. Still, without their oversight, we must move through the world more carefully. I can't say I very much enjoy it. One sleeps easier knowing half a million Frenchmen are at your disposal to kill.
Dear Lord, forgive me these morbid and unwholesome thoughts. The burden of command grows heavier with time, for there is no putting it down to rest.
May 2
Cardinal Boksi and I spent the past week discussing state affairs. By the efforts of vested interests, the powers of the College are likely to be preserved through the coming tempest. The access of the Roman See to the wealth and property of the Catholic Church will secure the relevance of the Curia for all time. Barring some unforeseen dilemma, of course.
June 15
A nationalist revolt emerges in Tripoli, the colonial government flees in terror. The Zouaves are sent to restore order and I expect their prompt victory to unfold within the next two weeks.
Discounting the Sicilian nationalist faction, Italian rebels are almost equally divided between militant reactionaries yearning for a return to the simple past, and liberal revolutionaries that wish to march to the wondrous future. While the Old Guard has a few thousand more minds in its sway, the liberal movement is strangely organized and far more prepared to move. The next few months should be interesting.
December 4
The British have brokered a peace between the United States and Mexico: Mexico is to cede a vast amount of territory to the Americans. While it may seem that the British threw the Mexicans under a cart, the reality is English intervention probably spared them from even greater losses.
January 2, 1851
There. France may be a colossus compared to our States, but for turning their back on us we can still pay them our displeasure.
January 5
There is no sense keeping an alliance that may prove disastrous for us. We've sent our regrets to the Swiss.
March 8
Street talk says the people are catching wind that politics and religion are intimate. This has been true of all ages. Kings have claimed a connection to Christ since Constantine; as far back as the Hebrews were in Egypt did the Pharoahs call themselves the children of Ra. Rulers have always tried to harness the spirit in reins, for there is no greater authority than that which determines the fate of the soul. Without it, one can only threaten a single death.
Whilst I remain a true believer in the Lord (let those in doubt come test their will in dissent!), and even in seeing the Church an ark of humanity in the floodwaters of sin, I submit she hath sprung a leak in her immorality and decadence. One might remember the integrity of the Cathars, and how pious and goodly they seemed in ascetic sacrifice, compared to the pomp and lavishness of the Church. Unworldly the Church is not, for all the demands of humility. She is a tainted beauty, like a nubile wench but infested with syphilis.
Let us uncover a cure henceforth.
April 15
DAMN YOU Garibaldi! Where did you find eighteen thousand men with a lust for bullet wounds and imprisonment?
June 9
The Redshirt rebellion is subdued, but Garibaldi escapes custody once again. I would bet a million lira the Sardinians are behind his continual strikes against our sovereignty.
August 22
Mexico loses land and glory with alarming haste. Great Britain has expectedly asserted her authority over some North American claims. I expect future tension between Great Britain and the United States, and that tension may be just what is needed to provoke a conflict with Britain. Relations between our States and the Americans continue to rise.
October 8
General Cesare Gironda has died. The body is on route to Rome and the nation is in mourning. The day is bitter and bleak. A large funeral will be held in St. Peter's on Saturday and Cardinal Euchre will be presiding.
November 23
Responding to continued French aggression against the beleaguered Kingdom of Spain, the Papal States are extending political influence to Iberia; I hope to establish friendly relations between our respective peoples in order to justify the excommunication of France and the threat of force to contain their designs on expansion. If France is allowed to continue unchecked there will be nary a power in the world to confront them.
January 2, 1852
The day has come. Maidens' tears shall mingle with the blood of patriots in the ashes of Roma, and like the phoenix of myth she will be reborn in splendor.
From Rome, the Cardinal Secretary of State Carlo Gaisruck forbade Papal forces from engaging the Republicans, claiming that "to turn our weapons on the citizens we are tasked to protect is unchristian and unworthy of heaven when all they demand is the ownership of their lives." Whether the Cardinal was making an attempt to protect himself, or relaying his true sentiments, or some admixture thereof, is a matter of uncertainty.
In the midst of the upheaval, Sergeant Sheb of the Papal Guard embarked on a fruitless campaign to the north of Italia; the dubious order is still of indeterminate origin. While the Swiss Guard combed the countryside in search of the northern rebels, other Papal units such as the Zouaves were deliberately withheld from action by their commanders, many of them loyal to the revolutionaries by bond of sympathy or coin, or else reluctant to attack Italian citizens. Uncontested outside a brief initial skirmish with the Guard in the streets of Rome, Arleone P. Mondetat marched unhindered to the steps of the Palace and replaced the Papal banner with the Roman Tricolor. The bedridden Pope Gregory could muster no resistance.
A former commander in the Redshirt Army, Mondetat's unilateral success meant both victory and failure for Garibaldi: republicanism had seized the Peninsula, but the clergy had not been removed from power -- for the College of Cardinals was designated the Supreme High Court of Rome; the strictly non-democratic branch of what would otherwise prove a decidedly democratic framework, while the Roman See held control of the vast militarized force it had built up along the previous decade. There was never a real separation of the Roman Church and the Roman State, even when, following the rebel victory, the Church fell into complete disorder and the Papal government underwent near-total collapse. Fireworks and gunshots, bells and whistles rang from the rooftops of Lazio while the farmers of Romagna for the first time drank from the casks filled by their own hands, once reserved for the indulgence of only the clergy. All of Italy was celebrating their newfound freedom, not least because there was much encouragement to celebrate, but the tendrils of the Holy See and those infiltrating it wound themselves tightly and silently to the newborn republic as the revelry unfolded.
It would be decades after 1852 before the truth of these events would come to light...~ From "The Revolution of Rome" by Alberto Pagano Benedetto
January 14
Every man, woman and child in Italy is free this day.
Herr Gott, dich loben wir! We are made in the image of God, and so like he we are completely free. Cardinals and other great people of Italy shall be sent invitations to participate in the construction of our new democratic government, ruled not by the whims of powerful men but through the rule of law and the voice of the common people. All the prominent figures of Papal Italy are coming to Rome to discuss the framing of our future, and if Signor Mondetat is not already affiliated with the brotherhood, he should be made so. Such a hero to the people should not go untapped.
Now all I need do is elude the assassin's dagger. I think I shall visit America for a time.
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