He also ended press censorship, allowed Jews out of the ghetto, granted Rome a constitution to replace absolute papal rule and created the Consulta, an elected body to advise the Pope. His strong evidence of liberalism encouraged nationalist and liberals, such as Piedmont and Tuscany in 1848 both reduced censorship and gave more liberal constitutions. Also the pope had seemed to be anti-Austrian as in 1848 when the Pope forbade Austrian troops from entering the Papal states.
The Catholic Church shows to a great extent of evidence of hindering unification. In 1848 revolutions, attitudes of Pope Pius IX had changed from liberal to reactionary. E. g. the 1848 Papal Allocution. This condemned Italian nationalists, rejected the Risorgimento and refused to use Papal troops to fight against Austria. This ended dreams of neo-Guelph’s such as Gioberti who had envisaged a Confederation of states with the Pope as leader.
In 1849, the Pope excommunicated all who tried to reduce the temporal power of the papacy and denounced the Roman Republic. In 1861 the Catholic Church forbade Catholics from having any connection with the new Kingdom of Italy, clearly against any liberalism. In 1864, the Syllabus of Errors which was directed criticisms of liberalism. IT attacked freedom of expression and thought. It said that the papacy and Catholics should not accept progress, liberalism and modern civilisations.
