GREGORY XVI(February 2, 1831 — June 1, 1846 |
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This shameful font of indifferentism gives rise to that absurd and erroneous proposition which claims that liberty of conscience must be maintained for everyone. It spreads ruin in sacred and civil affairs, though some repeat over and over again with the greatest impudence that some advantage accrues to religion from it. "But the death of the soul is worse than freedom of error," as Augustine was wont to say. When all restraints are removed by which men are kept on the narrow path of truth, their nature, which is already inclined to evil, propels them to ruin. Then truly "the bottomless pit" is open from which John saw smoke ascending which obscured the sun, and out of which locusts flew forth to devastate the earth. Thence comes transformation of minds, corruption of youths, contempt of sacred things and holy laws -- in other words, a pestilence more deadly to the state than any other. Experience shows, even from earliest times, that cities renowned for wealth, dominion, and glory perished as a result of this single evil, namely immoderate freedom of opinion, license of free speech, and desire for novelty. Encyclical Mirari Vos (1832), 14 |
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AG
S • SEDIS • LATERAN • POSSESS • PRID • KAL • IVN • MDCCCXXXII
Angels bearing the Papal Tiara and Keys of St. Peter, the Holy Spirit above. "Possession of the Holy Lateran Seat, May 31, 1832" Possessio medal, 1832. |
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Æ 39 mm
GREGORIVS • XVI. PONT • MAX • AN • II
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Rev.: (in exergue:) NON • PREVALEBVNT • | ADVERSVS • EAMArmed figure of Roma, with Tiber River at left, banishing a figure at right (heresy? anti-authoritarian revolutionaries?); walls and gate of Rome behind at left, St. Peter's Basilica behind at right. GIVS • CERBARA • F Mazio, 614 Bartolotti E832 |
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AG GREGORIVS • XVI. PONT • MAX • AN • III
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Rev.: PACIS ET | RELIGIONIS | AMOR Mazio, 614 |
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Æ 39 mm
GREGORIVS • XVI. PONT • MAX • AN • IV
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Rev.: (in exergue:) CATILLO • MONTE • AD • ANIENEM • •The River Anio breaking through new tunnels through Monte Catillo, ending regular floods in the neighborhood of Tivoli. Pope Gregory was present at the opening of the Cunicoli Gregoriani on October 7, 1835. The Villa Gregoriana has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Bartolotti E 834. |
The ancient Roman politician, C. Plinius Secundus, records one of the terrible floods, that of A. D. 105 (Epistulae 8. 17):
"Can the weather be as bad and stormy where you are? Here we have nothing but gales and repeated floods. The Tiber has overflowed its bed and deeply flooded its lower banks .... The Anio, most delightful of rivers...has torn up and carried away most of the woods which shade its course. Where the banks rise high, they have been undermined, so that its channel is blocked in several places with the resultant landslides; and in its efforts to regain its lost course it has wrecked buildings and forced out its way over the debris... Many people have been maimed, crushed, and buried in such accidents... "
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Æ 36 mm
GREGORIVS • XVI. PONT • MAX • A • VI
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Rev.:
Date in field, surrounded by wreath of oak and olive. Engraver: Giuseppe Cerbara (1770-1856) |
Reverse is very similar to the design of the scudo or some of the baiocci.
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Æ 39 mm
GREGORIVS • XVI. PONT • MAX • A • VII
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Rev.:
The Tiber River, seated, reclining on a torus, with cornucopia; Calpitoline wolf and Romulus and Remus at left. A monument behind at left. Engraver: Giuseppe Girometti (1779-1851) |
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Æ 44 mm
GREGORIVS • XVI. PONT • MAX • A •VIII
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Rev.: (in exergue:) PORTICV • ERVTIS | SOLO • VEIENTE • COLVMNIS | EXTRVCTA
Engraver: Giuseppe Cerbara (1770-1856) |
See: Giuseppe Moroni, Dizionario di erudizione storico-ecclesiastica 32 (Venezia 1847) 319; and Antonio Nibby, Roma nell' anno MDCCCXXXVIII Volume 2 (Roma 1841) p. 841 (who quotes the dedicatory inscription). Once the offices of the Reverenda Camera Apostolica (Treasury), the Post Office is now the Palazzo Wedekind, on the western side of the Piazza Colonna. The palazzo was refurbished and its façade ornamented by Pietro Camporese.
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Æ 39 mm
GREGORIVS • XVI. PONT • MAX • A • IX
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Rev.: (in exergue:) VII • KAL • IVN • | M • DCCC • XXXVIIII •
Engraver: Giuseppe Girometti (1779-1851) |
On May 26, 1839, Pope Gregory raised to the rank of sainthood Alfonso de Liguori, Francesco di Girolamo, Giovanni Giuseppe della Croce, Pacifico di Sanseverino, and Veronica Giuliani. Moroni, Dizionario Volume 32 (Venezia 1845), 321.
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Æ 39 mm
GREGORIVS • XVI • P • M | ANNO • SACRI • PRINC • X
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Rev.:
Engraver: Giuseppe Girometti (1779-1851) |
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Æ 65 mm
GREGORIVS • XVI | PONT • MAX • ANNO • XI
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Rev.: (in exergue:) AVCTA • FIRMATA | M DCCC XLI
Engraver: Giuseppe Girometti (1779-1851) |
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Æ 39 mm
GREGORIVS • XVI • PONT • MAX • AN •XII
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Rev.: ARCE ANCONITANA RESTITVTA | NOVIS OPERIBVS MVNITA | AN • M • DCCC • XXXXII • (Giuseppe Cerbara's cipher) The citadel of the fortress of Ancona, restored and extended by Pope Gregory XVI in 1842. Mazio, 646 |
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Æ 44 mm
GREGORIVS • XVI. PONT • MAX • A • XIII
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Rev.: PORTV• TARRACINAE |
Bartolotti E843. |
In 1839 and again in 1843, Pope Gregory XVI paid visits to Terracina, during the second of which he dedicated the new harbor installations which he had ordered built. G. Moroni, Dizionario di erudizione storico-ecclesiastica Volume 32 (Venezia 1845), 321 and 324.
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Æ 39 mm
GREGORIVS • XVI. PONT • MAX • AN • XIV
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Rev.: VALETVDINARIO • INCVRABILIVM | AD S • IACOBI IN AVGVSTA | RESTITVTO • AMPLIATO | AN • M • DCCC • XXXXIV • The buildings of the Hospital for Incurables, next to the Church of S. Giacomo on the Via del Corso, restored and extended.
Bartolotti E844. |
Saint Giacomo on the Corso
