He managed to draw down upon himself alone the burden of the condemnations pronounced.
Many condemnations followed, and hundreds of politicals were immured in hideous dungeons, a state of things which provoked Gladstones famous letters to Lord Aberdeen, in which Bourbon rule was branded for all time as the negation of God erected into a system of government.
As in 1894, excessively severe sentences were passed by the military tribunals upon revolutionary leaders and other persons considered to have been implicated in the outbreak, but successive royal amnesties obliterated these condemnations within three years.
His encyclical issued at Easter 1902, and described by himself as a kind of will, was mainly a reiteration of earlier condemnations of the Reformation, and of modern philosophical systems, which for their atheism and materialism he makes responsible for all existing moral and political disorders.
In 1358 the parte Guelfa made these enactments still more stringent, punishing with death or heavy fines all who being Ghibellines held office, and provided that if trustworthy witnesses were forthcoming condemnations might be passed for this offence without hearing the accused; even a non-proved charge or an ammonizione (warning not to accept office) might entail disfranchisement.
