Giacomo Antonelli

1806-1876. Cardinal and Vatican secretary of state to Pius IX, 1848-76. He was the principal political executive of the States of the Church, known as the Temporal Power of the pope. His work and policy consisted chiefly in resisting, unsuccessfully, the final and revolutionary overthrow of the pope's political rule and its incorporation into the secular kingdom of Italy (1859-61, 1870). Although not a priest but only a deacon, he formulated an active ultramontane policy in internal and foreign affairs, relying upon, and resenting, the occupation by French and Austrian troops from 1850 to maintain basic order and support the papacy. His education was to the rank of doctor in law and philosophy. His character remains much debated, but his competence was never questioned.