The Tragedy of Success
In the cynical atmosphere of the Congress of Vienna, Consalvi imposed himself on his fellow statesmen and fought a successful battle for the restoration of the Papal States. E.E.Y. Hales describes a master of European diplomacy.
“He was the master of us all.” That was Lord Castlereagh’s verdict on -the Papal plenipotentiary, Cardinal Consalvi, at the Congress of Vienna of 1814-15. How did the Cardinal reach such a position? How, in that atmosphere of realpolitik and cynicism, did this representative of a petty Italian principality which was bankrupt, without an army, and occupied by the allies, succeed in so imposing himself on the Congress that he captivated Castlereagh and Talleyrand, outmanoeuvred Metternich, and recovered the full extent of the Papal territories right up to the river Po?
Here is a question sufficiently curious. But we must add to it a further one, more consequential. How was it that this brilliant and unexpected political success served only to usher in the saddest era of Papal Rome, those last dismal decades in the life of the Papal States? Was Consalvi’s victory at Vienna a misfortune? Had he really set Rome on the wrong path again? Or should we rather blame his successors for ruining his work?
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