Clergy Dissent in the Old South 1830-1865

[STS Lincolnite]

(03-06-2015 10:57 PM)LincolnToddFan Wrote:  The impression that I have gotten is that Pope Pius IX at least was sympathetic to the Confederate Cause.. he is alleged to have sent Jefferson Davis a crown of thorns while Davis was in prison.( This "crown" can be seen at the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond.)

I think the Pope, like many other European leaders, was at least somewhat sympathetic to the Confederacy. But as others have posted, he was too busy with his own problems to be in a position to offer any sort of official recognition much less help.

The Pope did send an autographed picture to Jefferson Davis during his imprisonment but probably not a crown of thorns as been alleged. The famous (or infamous?) crown of thorns was more likely woven by Varina Davis. This was brought up in another thread not too long ago but I can't remember which one. Here are the websites that I posted in that thread.

This was an original blog post discussing the crown. It was updated after reading some reader comments (one of which was from Karen Cox articulating that the Museum of the Confederacy's research had shown that it was Varina that had woven the crown) that called into question the veracity of the crown being sent by the Pope.
http://cwmemory.com/2009/09/10/so-it-was...after-all/

This one is a follow up post that gives some more information on the historical confusion.
http://cwmemory.com/2009/09/27/update-on...of-thorns/