It is interesting for historians to note that the fraternity called for by Pope Francis in Fratelli Tutti was an idea abhorred by his predecessors in the 19th century. Fraternity, along with liberty and equality, had been demanded by the French revolutionaries in 1789, and had led to the slaughter of nuns and priests, an attempted genocide of the Catholic population of the Vendée, and the annihilation of the Church in France.
After the final defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo, Pope Pius VII became once again the absolute ruler of Rome and the Papal States. By no means a blind conservative by nature – as Bishop of Immola, he had said that democracy was compatible with Catholicism – he nonetheless felt that, after the horrors of the French Revolution, Rome should, for the sake of order, support the re-establishment of traditional monarchies which in turn supported the Church – the alliance between throne and altar. A privileged position was restored to the nobility, thereby thwarting the ambitions of the growing educated middle class. In Rome those Italians who had benefited from the rule of Napoleon were edged aside by returned emigrés, regardless of whether they lacked the former’s merits or talents.
