[Count]. Italian cardinal, born on the 17th of August 1843, at Polizzi, in the Sicilian diocese of Cefalù. Having completed his studies in the Capranica College at Rome, and having taken holy orders, he studied diplomacy at the College of Ecclesiastical Nobles, and in 1875 was appointed councillor to the papal nunciature at Madrid. Two years later he was recalled to Rome and appointed secretary of the Propaganda for Eastern Affairs, and for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs. Consecrated titular archbishop of Heraclea in 1885, he returned to Madrid as nuncio, but was shortly afterwards created cardinal and appointed to the papal secretaryship of state. New to the Sacred College and free from traditional preconceptions, he was admirably fitted to carry out the papal policy under Leo XIII. Rightly or wrongly, he was held personally responsible for the rapprochement with France and Russia and the opposition to the Powers of the Triple Alliance; and this attitude had its effect on his career when Leo XIII. died. Rampolla was undoubtedly the favourite among the papabili cardinals; but the veto of Austria was interposed, and the votes of the Sacred College fell to Cardinal Sarto, who on the 4th of August 1903 became pope as Pius X. Cardinal Rampolla at once resigned his office as secretary of state, being succeeded by Cardinal Merry del Val, and ceased to play any conspicuous part in the Curia. When Pius X. was elected pope, Cardinal Rampolla resigned all his appointments, retiring into the background. He had always been filled with a high sense of the dignity of his office, and while secretary of state had entertained in princely style; but personally he was a man of austere habits, and after his retirement he led the simplest life. A sound scholar, he devoted his last years to study, particularly to hagiography and Christian archæology. He died in Rome on the 17th of December 1913.
