Mariano Rampolla

Born in Polizzi Generosa, Sicily, Rampolla was the son of Ignazio Rampolla, Count of Tindaro, and of his wife, Orsola Errante. Rampolla entered the Vatican Seminary in 1856, and in 1861 continued his education at the Collegio Capranica and the Pontifical Gregorian University. Having displayed a considerable knowledge in Oriental affairs, he was sent to the Pontifical Academy of Ecclesiastical Nobles as preparation for service in the Roman Curia. In 1866 Rampolla was ordained a priest. He obtained a doctorate in utroque iure (Canon Law and Civil Law) in 1870 and in 1874 he was named a Canon of the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore. In 1875, he was sent to Madrid as Auditor of the Apostolic Nunciature to Spain. Appointed Secretary for Oriental Affairs of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith in 1877, the following year he was made a Protonotary apostolic de numero participantium, the highest rank of monsignor. In 1880 came the appointment as Secretary of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, the office of the Holy See which dealt with areas of the world in which there was no regularly constituted hierarchy of bishops. Then Rampolla was in addition appointed Secretary of the Congregation of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs, the subsection of the Secretariat of State that dealt with the foreign affairs of the Holy See. On 1 December 1882 Rampolla was promoted to become titular archbishop of Heraclea in Europa, and on 8 December 1882 was consecrated to the episcopate by Cardinal Edward Henry Howard. This was in preparation for his appointment as Apostolic Nuncio to Spain, which came later the same month on 19 December. ==Cardinal==

{{Infobox cardinalstyles In the consistory of 14 March 1887, Pope Leo XIII created Rampolla del Tindaro a Cardinal-Priest, and on 26 May assigned him the titular church of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere. On 2 June he was appointed Secretary of State. In this office, as he had previously in Spain, Rampolla employed Giacomo della Chiesa, the future Benedict XV, as his secretary. On 21 March 1894, Pope Leo XIII named Cardinal Rampolla Archpriest of Saint Peter's Basilica. As Secretary of State, Cardinal Rampolla supported the Austrian Christian Social Party, led by Karl Lueger, sometime mayor of Vienna (1897–1910). Lueger entered office in the face of the disapproval of Emperor Franz Joseph thanks to the personal intervention of Leo XIII. Lueger's Christian Social Party was the first Catholic social movement that was both anti-liberal and anti-Semitic. Rampolla began to swing papal policy from support of Austria-Hungary toward support of France, Austria's enemy. In Italy, he opposed every government that came to office, on the grounds that there was nothing to lose, and perhaps something to gain, especially on the international scene. He fought for the restoration of the pope's sovereignty over the former Papal States and fought new penal codes that aimed to criminalize clerical activity. Rampolla expressed his opinion that the French people were obligated to support Prime Minister Jules Méline at the height of the Dreyfus Affair. 1903 Conclave When Leo XIII died in 1903, it was widely expected that Rampolla would be elected pope. His candidacy gained momentum until the last moment when the Austrian Emperor Francis Joseph I imposed the jus exclusivae vote during the conclave. Cardinal Jan Puzyna de Kosielsko, Archbishop of Kraków, declared the veto on the Austrian Emperor's behalf. Rampolla was reported to have received enough votes to win. or that Austria-Hungary was acting on behalf of Germany. He was buried in the Campo Verano Cemetery near the Basilica of San Lorenzo fuori le Mura. His friend and closest collaborator, Giacomo della Chiesa, who soon succeeded Pius X as Pope Benedict XV, presided over his funeral ceremonies. On 19 June 1929, twelve days after the Italian Parliament ratified the Lateran Treaty, the body of Cardinal Rampolla was transferred to Santa Cecilia in Trastevere. ==Notes==