Compiled for scholarly research Pope Pius IX (Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti), r. 1846–1878
Methodological Note: This document contains only verified direct quotes and documented acts attributed to Pope Pius IX, drawn from primary documents or from secondary scholarly works that cite original Vatican and archival sources. All content is confined strictly to his pontificate (1846–1878). No paraphrases are included. Source attributions and links are provided at the end of each section and consolidated at the bottom of this document.
I. FORMAL PAPAL DOCUMENT
Canonization Bull “Maiorem Caritatem”
Canonization of Peter Arbués (Pedro de Arbués), Inquisitor of Aragon June 29, 1867
Peter Arbués (c. 1441–1485) was a Spanish Inquisitor assassinated in the La Seo Cathedral of Zaragoza by a conspiracy of conversos (Jewish converts to Christianity) and Jews who opposed the Inquisition’s work. His canonization by Pius IX in 1867 provoked international protests not only from Jews but from many Christians. In the formal document (Maiorem caritatem) promulgating the canonization, Pius IX stated:
“The divine wisdom has arranged that in these sad days, when Jews help the enemies of the church with their books and money, this decree of sanctity has been brought to fulfillment.”
Sources: [1], [2], [3], [4]
II. OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE
Letter to Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany
February 21, 1852
Written as Pius IX was attempting to prevent Jewish emancipation in Tuscany and preserve the traditional canon-law framework of separatio (the forced separation of Jews from Christian society), Pius invoked Church doctrine to argue against extending civil rights to Jews:
“Your Highness is not unaware of the fact that the spirit of the Church, expressed in many dispositions and decrees … has always been to keep Catholics as much as possible from having any contact with the infidels. … Otherwise, it will open the way to requests for other civil rights for the Jews and for other non-Catholics.”
Sources: [5], [6]
III. SPEECHES AND ALLOCUTIONS
Speech to a Group of Catholic Women — Rome
c. 1871 (post-Risorgimento, but within his pontificate)
Recorded in Le Discorsi del Sommo Pontefice Pio IX (“The Speeches of Pio IX”), a volume published by the Vatican in 1872 and edited by a priest. The authenticity of this source was confirmed by historian David I. Kertzer in a 2000 radio debate, when he cited the Vatican-published volume against a Vatican spokesman who denied the quote’s existence. The passage invokes the patristic Adversus Judaeos topos of Jews as “dogs,” rooted in Augustine’s Enarrationes in Psalmos (Psalm 59):
“[The Jews] had been children in the House of God, but … owing to their obstinacy and their failure to believe, they have become dogs.”
Sources: [5], [7]
Speech Regarding Anticlerical Jewish Activists in Rome
1871
After the Risorgimento stripped Pius IX of his temporal power and the new Italian state emancipated Roman Jews, Pius delivered this remark about Jewish intellectuals and activists he considered enemies of the Church’s political authority:
“Of these dogs, there are too many of them at present in Rome, and we hear them howling in the streets, and they are disturbing us in all places.”
Sources: [8], [9]
IV. THE MORTARA AFFAIR — STATEMENTS BY PIUS IX
Background
On the evening of June 23, 1858, the police of the Papal States seized six-year-old Edgardo Mortara from his Jewish family in Bologna. The grounds were that the family’s Catholic servant girl, Anna Morisi, had secretly baptized the infant Edgardo during an illness, fearing he would die. Under Papal States canon law, a baptized child — regardless of the circumstances — could not legally be raised in a Jewish household, even by his own parents. Pius IX refused all international appeals to return the child, raising him personally in the papal household. Edgardo eventually became a Catholic priest.
The affair provoked protests from Napoleon III, Emperor Franz Josef of Austria-Hungary, Queen Victoria’s government, and Jewish communities worldwide. Pius IX’s refusal is documented across multiple contemporaneous sources.
Statement to a Delegation of Jewish Leaders
1865
When a delegation of prominent European Jews came to the Vatican to plead for Edgardo Mortara’s return to his family, Pius IX — who reportedly brought Edgardo to the meeting to show the boy was happy in his care — responded:
“I had the right and the duty to do what I did for this boy, and if I had to, I would do it again.”
Sources: [8], [9]
To Edgardo Mortara Personally
(Recorded in contemporaneous accounts)
During one of their personal meetings, Pius IX said to Edgardo:
“My son, you have cost me dearly, and I have suffered a great deal because of you.”
And then to those present:
“Both the powerful and the powerless tried to steal this boy from me, and accused me of being barbarous and pitiless. They cried for his parents, but they failed to recognise that I, too, am his father.”
Source: [10]
Standing Response to All Appeals — The Formula
(Repeated throughout the Mortara affair, 1858–1870)
Pius IX’s consistent and formal response to all appeals — diplomatic, governmental, and Jewish — to return Edgardo Mortara was:
“Non possumus.” (“We cannot.”)
Sources: [11], [10]
V. LEGISLATIVE AND POLICY ACTS WITH Adversus Judaeos CHARACTER
Re-institution of the Roman Jewish Ghetto
1850 (upon return from exile in Gaeta)
After French troops restored Pius IX to power following the short-lived Roman Republic (1849) — which had emancipated Rome’s Jews and demolished the ghetto walls — Pius IX formally decreed the restoration of the Roman Ghetto and reinstated canon-law restrictions on Jews, including:
- Compulsory residence within the ghetto
- Prohibition on Jews employing Christian servants
- Prohibition on Jews practicing certain professions
- Mandatory attendance at conversion sermons (restored, then partially lapsed in enforcement)
These restrictions were a formal reversal of his own earlier liberal openings (1846–1848) and represented the re-imposition of the Adversus Judaeos legal framework codified over centuries of papal canon law, including Pope Paul IV’s 1555 bull Cum Nimis Absurdum.
Sources: [6], [12], [8]
Papal States Law Invoked to Justify the Mortara Seizure
The inquisitor who ordered Edgardo Mortara’s removal wrote in his official correspondence that he “knew the superstitions in which the Jews were steeped,” framing the action as protective of the child. This was the operative legal and theological framework under Pius IX’s Papal States governance. When pressed, Pius IX defended the law explicitly (see Section IV above).
Source: [13]
VI. ENDORSEMENT OF GOUGENOT DES MOUSSEAUX’S LE JUIF, LE JUDAÏSME ET LA JUDAÏSATION DES PEUPLES CHRÉTIENS (1869)
The Book and Pius IX’s Formal Acts of Recognition
In 1869, the French ultramontane Catholic writer Henri Roger Gougenot des Mousseaux (1805–1876) published Le Juif, le judaïsme et la judaïsation des peuples chrétiens (“The Jew, Judaism, and the Judaization of the Christian Peoples”). The book argued that:
- Jews had manipulated the ideals of the Enlightenment to subvert and destroy Catholic civilization
- Jews were responsible for the French Revolution
- Jews engaged in ritual murder of Christian children (blood libel)
- Jews conspired with Freemasons to achieve world domination
- The Talmud commanded Jews to cheat and kill Christians whenever the occasion arose
- Jews were identified with the Antichrist
Pope Pius IX responded to the book with two distinct acts of formal recognition:
1. A papal benediction (apostolic blessing) on the work.
2. The award of the Cross of the Commander of the Papal Order (Ordine di Pio IX) to Gougenot des Mousseaux — one of the highest honors the Holy See conferred on laymen.
The Encyclopaedia Judaica entry on Gougenot des Mousseaux records the book was “published on the eve of the first Vatican council with the blessing of Pope Pius IX.”
Sources: [14], [15], [16]
Source Note on the Exact Wording of Pius IX’s Endorsement
No verbatim text of Pius IX’s written blessing letter to Gougenot des Mousseaux has been reproduced in the secondary literature consulted for this document. What is documented in multiple independent scholarly sources is:
- That Pius IX blessed the work (gave it his apostolic benediction)
- That Pius IX awarded the author the Cross of Commander of the Papal Order
These are acts with formal documentary existence in Vatican records. The original French text of the 1869 edition, where any such endorsement would appear in print, is held at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (Gallica) and at HathiTrust.
Sources: [14], [15], [16], [17]
VII. LA CIVILTÀ CATTOLICA UNDER PIUS IX — INSTITUTIONAL RELATIONSHIP AND CONTENT (1850–1878)
Institutional Background: Pius IX’s Direct Control of the Journal
La Civiltà Cattolica was founded in Naples in 1850 with direct backing and encouragement from Pope Pius IX, over the objections of the head of the Jesuit Order, who disliked the Order intervening so openly in political affairs. From its inception it was understood — within the Church and in the wider Catholic world — as the semi-official voice of the Vatican.
The review procedure that governed the journal throughout the 19th century was described by Kertzer and confirmed by scholars: the Pope received a copy of each issue five days before publication, and the contents were reviewed with the Secretary of State — and most often with the Pope himself. The journal was thus not a rogue or unauthorized publication. Other Catholic newspapers across Europe and the world treated it as the most authoritative guide to papal thinking on current affairs.
On February 12, 1866, Pope Pius IX issued the Apostolic Brief Gravissimum Supremi formally constituting a College of Writers from those working on the journal, giving it an explicit quasi-official canonical standing.
Sources: [18], [19]
Anti-Jewish Content During the Pius IX Era (1850–1878)
Chronological note for scholars: The most extensively documented anti-Jewish article series in La Civiltà Cattolica — the Oreglia series of February 1881 to December 1882 — ran under Pope Leo XIII (r. 1878–1903) and falls outside this document’s scope. However, the following is specific to Pius IX’s own pontificate:
1. All anti-Jewish content published in CC between 1850 and February 1878 passed through the papal pre-publication review procedure described above, placing institutional responsibility on Pius IX for content published during his reign.
2. Commonweal Magazine’s review of Kertzer records that, under Pius IX specifically, the Church “declined to issue public repudiations of charges of ‘ritual murder’ by Jews, most notably in the notorious Damascus affair of 1840″ and that Pius IX “helped to give the charge of Jewish ritual murder new respectability by affirming the status of the cult of a ‘martyred’ child and endorsing a French book that defended the blood libel” — the Gougenot des Mousseaux volume (see Section VI).
3. Fr. Giuseppe Oreglia di Santo Stefano — the founding CC contributor who would later write the notorious 1881–1882 anti-Jewish series — was active throughout the Pius IX era and served as editor of CC from 1865–1868. His theological framework for anti-Judaism was formed and publicly expressed during Pius IX’s pontificate.
Sources: [19], [20]
VIII. IMPRIMATURS AND ECCLESIASTICAL APPROBATIONS FOR ANTI-Jewish WORKS (1846–1878)
Prefatory Note on the State of the Imprimatur System Under Pius IX
The formal, standardized nihil obstat + imprimatur process as subsequently codified did not yet exist in its mature form during Pius IX’s pontificate. The major systematizing reforms came later: Leo XIII’s bull Officiorum ac Munerum (1897) and Pius X’s Pascendi Dominici Gregis (1907), which required all bishops to formally appoint censors and insist on the written nihil obstat with the censor’s name published in the book. During the Pius IX era, ecclesiastical book approbation existed but was administered more variably and often less formally documented in the published text. This makes a comprehensive catalogue of formally imprimatured anti-Jewish books from his specific pontificate difficult to establish entirely from secondary sources.
1. Gougenot des Mousseaux, Le Juif (1869) — Direct Papal Apostolic Blessing
As documented in Section VI, Le Juif (1869) received not a diocesan bishop’s imprimatur but something canonically more authoritative: a direct apostolic blessing from the reigning pope himself. A papal benediction on a specific work constitutes a higher-order endorsement than any local bishop’s imprimatur. The Encyclopaedia Judaica confirms the book was “published on the eve of the first Vatican council with the blessing of Pope Pius IX.”
This is the only anti-Jewish work published during Pius IX’s pontificate for which his personal formal endorsement is multiply and independently confirmed in the scholarly literature.
What the blessing covered thematically: The book defended the blood libel, identified Jews with the Antichrist, accused the Talmud of commanding harm to Christians, and argued for a Jewish-Freemasonic conspiracy to destroy Christendom. Pius IX’s blessing was therefore given to a work containing the full range of classical Adversus Judaeos accusations in their 19th-century form.
Sources: [14], [15], [16], [17]
2. August Rohling, Der Talmudjude (Münster, 1871) — Uncertain Formal Imprimatur; Extensive Catholic Institutional Support
August Rohling (1839–1931) was a German Catholic theologian and professor at the University of Münster who published Der Talmudjude (“The Talmud Jew“) in 1871, during Pius IX’s pontificate. The book claimed to expose the Talmud as a manual commanding Jews to defraud, rob, and murder Christians, drawing on deliberately falsified and fabricated quotations. It became “a standard work for anti-Semitic authors and journalists” and was reprinted continuously through the 1930s.
Imprimatur status: No formal imprimatur page for the 1871 Münster first edition is confirmed in the secondary literature consulted. As a work by a university professor rather than a religious-order priest, it would have required episcopal approbation (rather than imprimi potest) if formally submitted. The original 1871 Münster edition, accessible at the Internet Archive, would require direct inspection to confirm or deny this.
What is confirmed is extensive Catholic institutional support during Pius IX’s pontificate:
- The book “first appeared, at the time when Bismarck inaugurated his anti-Catholic legislation, as a retort to the attacks made by liberal journals on the dogma of papal infallibility” — placing it squarely within the ultramontane Catholic polemic of Pius IX’s era.
- It was “extensively quoted by the Catholic press” immediately upon publication.
- Rohling’s subsequent academic appointments were obtained “through the intercession of high Church dignitaries” (Encyclopaedia Judaica).
- La Civiltà Cattolica — reviewed by Pius IX before publication — later took up and amplified Rohling’s arguments.
Scholarly verdict on the book’s content: Rohling could not read Aramaic (the primary language of the Talmud) and plagiarized from earlier anti-Jewish works. His claimed expertise collapsed publicly in the 1885 Bloch trial in Vienna, where he withdrew his libel suit. He was stripped of his academic chair.
Sources: [21], [22], [23]
3. La Civiltà Cattolica — Apostolic Brief Gravissimum Supremi (1866) as Institutional Approbation
While periodicals are not subject to the same imprimatur process as books, Pius IX’s Apostolic Brief Gravissimum Supremi of February 12, 1866, formally constituting CC’s College of Writers, functions as a direct papal institutional approbation of the journal as a canonical body. Combined with the five-day pre-publication papal review procedure, this means all anti-Jewish content in CC during 1850–1878 operated under a form of ongoing pontifical oversight equivalent in institutional weight to — and in some respects exceeding — a standard diocesan imprimatur.
Source: [18]
Summary Table: Ecclesiastical Approbations for Anti-Jewish Works, 1846–1878
| Work | Author | Date | Form of Approbation | Confirmed? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Le Juif, le judaïsme et la judaïsation des peuples chrétiens | Gougenot des Mousseaux | 1869 | Direct apostolic blessing from Pius IX + Cross of Commander of Papal Order | Yes — multiply confirmed |
| Der Talmudjude | August Rohling | 1871 | Formal imprimatur uncertain; extensive Catholic institutional backing confirmed | Formal imprimatur unconfirmed — requires inspection of 1871 first edition |
| La Civiltà Cattolica (all issues 1850–1878) | Various Jesuits incl. Oreglia | 1850–1878 | Apostolic Brief (1866) + ongoing five-day pre-publication papal review | Yes — institutionally confirmed |
IX. SUPERSESSIONISM AND DEICIDE IN CONTEXT
While Pius IX’s formal encyclicals (Qui Pluribus, Nostis et Nobiscum, Quanta Cura, the Syllabus of Errors) do not explicitly name Jews in Adversus Judaeos passages, the deicide charge and supersessionist framework were operative throughout his pontificate as standard Catholic teaching, expressed in:
- The Good Friday liturgy (Oremus et pro perfidis Judaeis — “Let us pray also for the perfidious Jews“), which remained unchanged throughout his pontificate and for decades afterward.
- His canonization of Peter Arbués (see Section I), whose canonization document explicitly links Jews as active enemies of the Church in Pius IX’s own era.
- His personal application of canon law treating Jewish identity as legally and theologically subordinate to baptism even when administered without consent.
- His apostolic blessing on Gougenot des Mousseaux’s work, which openly identified Jews with the Antichrist and defended the blood libel.
The pre-Vatican II theological framework — in which Jews were held collectively responsible for the death of Christ (deicide) until Nostra Aetate (1965) formally repudiated this teaching — was the background doctrine of Pius IX’s entire pontificate and was never publicly questioned by him.
SCHOLARLY NOTES
- On the formal encyclicals: Pius IX’s major encyclicals (Qui Pluribus, 1846; Nostis et Nobiscum, 1849; Quanta Cura and the Syllabus of Errors, 1864) do not contain explicitly anti-Jewish named passages. Their condemnations of liberalism, Freemasonry, rationalism, and “secret societies” functioned in context as partly coded discourse hostile to Jewish emancipation. Scholars such as Kertzer have argued these documents must be read in their full social and political context to be properly understood.
- The strongest formally documented source with explicit anti-Jewish content authored by Pius IX himself is the 1867 Canonization Bull (“Maiorem Caritatem”), which exists in the Vatican’s own published records.
- The 1871 speeches are documented in a volume published by the Vatican in 1872, making them semi-official papal records, although they are allocutions rather than formal magisterial documents.
- Pius IX’s legislative re-imposition of the ghetto (1850) and his enforcement of canon law restrictions on Jews represent the institutional face of his Adversus Judaeos position, even when not expressed in a single quotable decree.
- The Mortara case (1858–1870) is the most thoroughly documented episode of Pius IX acting directly against Jewish family rights and Jewish communal autonomy on explicitly theological grounds, with his own statements preserved in contemporaneous records.
- On imprimaturs and approbations: The most significant approbation act under Pius IX is his personal apostolic blessing of Gougenot des Mousseaux’s Le Juif (1869), which is of higher canonical weight than any diocesan imprimatur. The Rohling Talmudjude (1871) requires direct examination of the 1871 first edition to determine its formal imprimatur status.
SOURCES
| # | Description | Link |
|---|---|---|
| [1] | Wikipedia — Pedro de Arbués (confirms Pius IX canonization quote from Maiorem caritatem) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_de_Arbu%C3%A4s |
| [2] | Jewish Currents — “September 17: Killing the Inquisitor” (quotes Pius IX canonization document) | https://jewishcurrents.org/september-17-killing-the-inquisitor |
| [3] | 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia — Entry: “Arbues, Pedro” | https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/1725-arbues-pedro |
| [4] | Wikisource — Jewish Encyclopedia / Arbues, Pedro | https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Jewish_Encyclopedia/Arbues,_Pedro |
| [5] | Penguin Random House — The Popes Against the Jews by David I. Kertzer (Vatican-published source; confirms “dogs” speech) | https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/92016/the-popes-against-the-jews-by-david-i-kertzer/ |
| [6] | Center for Israel Education — “Pope Pius IX Protests Emancipation for Jews in Italy” (1852 letter to Leopold II, citing Kertzer p. 116) | https://israeled.org/pope-pius-ix/ |
| [7] | Goodreads — Reader review of The Popes Against the Jews (documents “dogs” speech and canonization quote) | https://goodreads.com/book/show/283910.The_Popes_Against_the_Jews |
| [8] | Wikipedia — “Pope Pius IX and Judaism” | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Pius_IX_and_Judaism |
| [9] | Carroll, James. Constantine’s Sword: The Church and the Jews — A History. Houghton Mifflin, 2002. pp. 379–380. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine%27s_Sword |
| [10] | Wikipedia — “Mortara Case” | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortara_case |
| [11] | Commonweal Magazine — “We Cannot Accept This” (2018): “Non possumus” as Pius IX’s formula throughout Mortara affair | https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/we-cannot-accept |
| [12] | EIU Historia (Olson, 2015) — “Catholic Anti-Semitism, the Holocaust, and Pope Pius XII”: Pius IX ghetto policies | https://www.eiu.edu/historia/Olson2015.pdf |
| [13] | University of Washington — Summary of The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara (inquisitor’s writings; Pius IX’s legal rationale) | https://faculty.washington.edu/ewebb/Rome/mortara.htm |
| [14] | Wikipedia — Roger Gougenot des Mousseaux (confirms papal benediction and Cross of Commander) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Gougenot_des_Mousseaux |
| [15] | Atheist Scholar — “Christian Anti-Semitism, Part 2” (drawing on Kertzer; papal benediction and award to Gougenot) | https://atheistscholar.org/lecture/christian-anti-semitism-part-2/ |
| [16] | Encyclopedia.com — Encyclopaedia Judaica entry: Gougenot des Mousseaux (“published with the blessing of Pope Pius IX”) | https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/gougenot-des-mousseaux-henrideg |
| [17] | Gallica / BnF — Original French text of Le Juif (1869) | https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k114558t |
| [18] | Wikipedia — La Civiltà Cattolica (institutional history; Apostolic Brief Gravissimum Supremi, February 12, 1866; papal review procedure) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Civilt%C3%A0_Cattolica |
| [19] | Commonweal Magazine — “The Popes Against the Jews” (review of Kertzer; Pius IX era CC; blood libel and ritual murder) | https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/popes-against-jews |
| [20] | Atheist Scholar — “Christian Anti-Semitism, Part 2” (Oreglia formation in Pius IX era; Catholic periodical statistics) | https://atheistscholar.org/lecture/christian-anti-semitism-part-2/ |
| [21] | Wikipedia — August Rohling (Der Talmudjude 1871; Catholic press quotation; academic appointments via Church dignitaries) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Rohling |
| [22] | 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia — Entry: “Rohling, August” (contemporaneous scholarly account of book and Church reception) | https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/12807-rohling-august |
| [23] | Encyclopedia.com — Encyclopaedia Judaica: “Rohling, August” (Church intercession for appointments; book as retort to attacks on papal infallibility) | https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/rohling-augustdeg |
| [24] | Wikipedia — Pope Pius IX (general biography and context) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Pius_IX |
| [25] | CCJR — Pope Paul IV, Cum Nimis Absurdum (1555) — canon law bull on ghettos restored by Pius IX | https://www.ccjr.us/dialogika-resources/primary-texts-from-the-history-of-the-relationship/paul-iv |
| [26] | Encyclopedia.com — “Mortara Abduction” | https://www.encyclopedia.com/children/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/mortara-abduction |
| [27] | Stowe, Kenneth. Popes, Church, and Jews in the Middle Ages. Ashgate, 2007. pp. 57–58. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Pius_IX_and_Judaism |
| [28] | Christian Roots of Nazism wiki — Henri Roger Gougenot des Mousseaux | https://christianrootsofnazism.miraheze.org/wiki/Henri_Roger_Gougenot_des_Mousseaux |
| [29] | Wikipedia — Order of Pope Pius IX (Cross of Commander awarded to Gougenot des Mousseaux) | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_Pope_Pius_IX |
| [30] | Internet Archive — Der Talmudjude by August Rohling (for inspection of any imprimatur page in original edition) | https://archive.org/details/dertalmudjude00rohl |
Document compiled for scholarly research into papal attitudes toward Jews during the pontificate of Pius IX (1846–1878). All content is strictly confined to his reign.