RUFFO, FABRIZIO (1744-1827)

This article appears in Volume V23, Page 820 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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RUFFO, FABRIZIO (1744-1827) , Neapolitan cardinal and politician, was born at San Lucido in Calabria on the 16th of September 1744. His father, Litterio Ruffo, was duke of Baranello, and his mother, Giustiniana, was of the family of Colonna. Fabrizio owed his education to his uncle, the cardinal Thomas Ruffo, then dean of the Sacred College. In early life be secured the favour of Giovanni Angelo Braschi di Cesera, who in 1775 became Pope Pius VI. Ruffo was placed by the pope among the chierici di camerathe clerks who formed the papal civil and

financial

FINANCIAL

service. He was later promoted to be treasurer-general, a post which carried with it the ministry of war. Ruffo's conduct in office was diversely judged. Colletta, the historian of Naples, speaks of him as corrupt, and Jomini repeats the charge. Ruffo's biographer, Sachinelli, says that he incurred hostility by restricting the feudal powers of some of the landowners in the papal states. In 1791 he was removed from the treasurership, but. was created cardinal on the 29th of September, though he was not in orders. He never became a priest. Ruffo went to Naples, where he was named

administrator

ADMINISTRATOR

of the royal domain of Caserta, and received the abbey of S.

Sophia

SOPHIA (1630-1714)

Benevento

BENEVENTO

in commendam. When in December 1798 the French troops advanced on Naples, Ruffo fled to Palermo with the royal family. He was chosen to head a royalist

movement

MOVEMENT

in Calabria, where his family, though impoverished by debt, exercised large feudal powers. He was named vicar-general on the 25th of January. 17oo- On the 8th of February he landed at
La Cortona with a small following, and began to raise the so-called " army of the faith " in association with Fra

Diavolo

DIAVOLO, FRA (1771-1806)

and other brigand leaders. Ruffo had no difficulty in upsetting the republican government established by the French, and by June had advanced to Naples (see NAPLES and NELSON). The campaign has given rise to much controversy. Ruffo appears to have lost favour with the king by showing a tendency to spare the republicans. He resigned his vicar-generalship to the prince of Cassero, and during the second French conquest and the reigns of Joseph Bonaparte and Murat he lived quietly in Naples. Some notice was taken of him by

Napoleon

NAPOLEON

, but he never held an important post. After the restoration of the Bourbons he was received into favour. During the revolutionary troubles of 1822 he was consulted by the king, and was even in office for a very short time as a " loyalist " minister. He died on the 13th of December 1827.
The account of Ruffo given in Celletta's History of Naples (English translation, Edinburgh, 186o) must be taken with caution. Colletta was a violent liberal partisan, who wrote in

exile

EXILE (Lat. exsilium or exilium, from exsul or exul, which is derived from ex, out of, and the root sal, to go, seen in salire, to leap,
consul
- CONSUL
- CONSUL (in Gr. generally ihraros,ashortened form of errpavgybs 8hraeos, i.e. praetor maximus)
, &c.; the connexion with solum, soil, country is now generally considered wrong)

, and largely from memory. He has been corrected by the Duca de Lauria, Intorno alla storia del Reame di Napoli di Pietro Colletta (Naples, 1877). Ruffo's own side of the question is stated in Memorie Storiche sulla vita del Cardinale Fabrizio Ruffo, by Domenico Sacchinelli (Naples, 1836). See also Fabrizio Ruffo: Revolution and Gegen-Revolution von Neapel, by Baron von' Helfert (Vienna, 1882).

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