Ruffo was born at
San Lucido, in
Calabria Citra (today in
province of Cosenza), then part of the
Kingdom of Naples. His father,
Litterio Ruffo, was a
Calabrian aristocrat, holder of the title of
duke of Baranello, while his mother, Giustiniana, was of the
Roman family of
Colonna. Fabrizio owed his education to his uncle, cardinal
Tommaso Ruffo, then
dean of the College of Cardinals. In early life he secured the favour of Giovanni Angelo Braschi, who in 1775 became
Pope Pius VI. Ruffo was placed by the pope among the
chierici di camera, the clerks who formed the papal civil and financial service. He was later promoted to treasurer-general, a post which carried with it the ministry of war. Ruffo's conduct in office was diversely judged.
Pietro Colletta, the historian of Naples, speaks of him as corrupt, and
Jomini repeats the charge, but these can be dismissed as part of a hostile tradition, as they both participated in favour of France. In fact, he was widely regarded as a reformer. Ruffo's biographer, Sachinelli, says that he incurred hostility by restricting the feudal powers of some of the landowners in the
Papal States. In 1791 he was removed from the treasurership, but was created cardinal on 2 September, though he was not in orders and in fact never became a priest. Ruffo went to Naples, where he was named administrator of the
royal domain of Caserta, and received the abbey of
Santa Sofia, Benevento in commendam. On account of the equity of his fiscal norms he made an enemy of the Roman aristocracy, which put pressure upon the Pontiff. In 1791, Pope Pius VI removed Mgr. Ruffo from his office and offered to create him a cardinal (according to the traditional
Latin proverb
promoveatur ut amoveatur). On 21 February 1794 Ruffo was created cardinal of the Roman deaconry of
Sant'Angelo in Pescheria and charged with the administration of the
Ager Romanus. He also announced
Pope Leo XII's election in the papal
conclave of 1823.
Sanfedismo When in December 1798 the French troops advanced on Naples, Ruffo fled to
Palermo with the royal family. He was chosen to head a royalist movement in
Calabria, where his family, though impoverished by debt, exercised large feudal powers. After having received the title of King's General Official, Ruffo weighed anchor from
Palermo and landed in
Calabria on February 8, and began to raise the so-called "army of the faith" in association with Michele Pezza, "
Fra Diavolo", and other brigand leaders. His feuds of
Scilla and
Bagnara were the first places to be used for a massive enlistment of 25,000 farmers skilled to arms. They formed the Christian and Real Army, also known as
Esercito della Santa Fede in Nostro Signore Gesù Cristo, and conquered
Crotone moving to the
Basilicata and
Apulia regions (
Altamura and
Modugno), and finally in the
Principato Ultra. At the head of his army, cardinal Ruffo participated to the battles of the
Second anti-French Coalition which defeated
Naples on 15 June 1799. Ruffo appointed the member of the State juncta that processed the rebels for the crime of
Lèse-majesté. Backed by the Russian fleet of
Admiral Ushakov, Ruffo had no difficulty in upsetting the
Parthenopean Republican government established by the French, and by June had advanced to Naples. Possibly exceeding his authority, he promised the Neapolitan republicans immunity from reprisals and obtained their surrender in June 1799. In the meantime Rear-Admiral
Horatio Nelson, sent from Palermo by King Ferdinand, appeared in the Bay of Naples with his fleet; he called the cardinal to task for his leniency, and revoked the terms of surrender. The republicans, it was asserted, had surrendered under terms that were unclear. One of the main republican figures, former Admiral
Francesco Caracciolo, was ignominiously executed on 30 June, and widespread reprisals and executions of other republican sympathizers in Naples followed. While Ruffo was a personal confidant of the
king of Naples, the queen preferred the admiral
Horatio Nelson to him. Eventually, an English official decided the destiny of the Neapolitan prisoners: they were entrusted to Bourbon justice and 124 of them were put to death. The campaign gave rise to much controversy among nineteenth-century historians. Ruffo appears to have lost favor with the king by showing a tendency to spare the republicans. He resigned the vicar-generalship, which he had been granted on 25 January 1800, to the prince of Cassero, and during the second French occupation and the reigns of
Joseph Bonaparte and
Joachim Murat he lived quietly in Naples. Some notice was taken of him by
Napoleon, but he never held an important post. After the restoration of the Bourbons he was received into favor. During the
revolutionary troubles of 1822 he was consulted by the king, and was even in office for a very short time as a loyalist minister. ==Return to the Holy See and role in the Kingdom of Naples==