RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN ITALY.
ALL eyes are fixed with surprise and interest upon certain phe- nomena in the struggle which is now proceeding in Italy—the conflict between the Italian people and that system which is re- presented by their supreme ecclesiastical ruler. The surprise is natural, and yet not warranted by the facts. The world at large has simply overlooked the manifestations of strong feeling and strong conviction which have been growing up amongst the Italian people for the last thirty or forty years, against religious as well as political oppression. At last, under the guidance of earnest and practical statesmen, aided by a noble-minded Prince, the Italians have concentrated their energies upon the vindication of their national independence and their political freedom ; and, at this juncture the convictions which they had been gradually forming on the subject of religious rights have taken a sudden effect which is naturally mistaken for a sudden inception—na- turally but erroneously. It is, indeed, only a vast combination of external circumstances which has kept down the Italian people. One of the commonest mistakes of historians is to speak of indi- vidual causes, where, as in nature, all broad effects are the result of manifold causes ; to describe changes as the result only of proximate causes, and immensely to under-estimate the amount of time required for developing personal into national convictions. In this aspect, the period which has passed since the middle ages is but as a year in the life of a world—but as a day ; and within that short time we have the whole history of the Italian people. Emerging from the dark period, they led the way in political or- ganization before the rest of Europe ; inevitably, from want of experience, from want of external example, they committed themselves to mistakes ; and thus they seemed to be behind the rest of the European continent, precisely because they had attempted a more perfect civilization before the rest. One of the consequences of that earlier civilization was that, under the in- fluence of the sentiment of Christianity, interpreted with the barbaric philosophy of those early days, the princes and states- men of Europe cooperated in developing "Christian unity" under the sway of a supreme Bishop ; and Europe, in the middle of the nineteenth century, is governed by the hierarchy prearranged in the darker days. It would be a great mistake, however, to suppose that the people of Italy have not read the history of the world, or have not arrived at a true perception of the obsolete character of their hierarchical system. The divided condition of Italy,— one of the very consequences of the individual energy which marked her earlier organizations—has kept the different provinces segregated, has placed them more at the mercy of princes, and has prevented the public opinion of the peninsula from exercising a
its real away. The priesthood became at once the clients and the accomplices of temporal oppressors ; and the symptoms of an open rupture between the people and their spiritual oppressors have escaped observation, because they were repressed and concealed by the strong hand of temporal power. The moment that pres- sure is effectually removed, however, the truth appears; and, looking at affairs as they now stand, we may venture to assert not only that the present struggle between the people and their rulers is the result of a long, though smonldering antagonism, which has endured for ages, but that the long existence of these causes secures for it a permanency in future effect. In this view, the retrospect of the past furnishes us with the estimate of the future.
It is quite a mistake to suppose that Italy, the country of the, Pontificate, has been ignorant of movements towards religious reformation. Both in Tuscany and Southern Italy, the Re- formation was preached at an earlier period than it was in Eng- land and Germany; but, as soon as the innovators obtained follow- ers, the movement was crushed by a combination of foreign with native arms. And yet the action was overt and energetic, insomuch that leaders suffered at the stake. At a period when Europe still did homage to the Pope as the vicegerent of God upon earth, when every act of the Pontiff, however harsh and irrational, was con- sidered, even beyond the Alps, as an emanation of the divine will, in Italy the most popular and influential writers scourged the profligacy, intolerance, and oppression of priestcraft, either with burning censure or a still more terrible derision. These early satirists, whose pages have been quoted by reformers in countries beyond the Italian frontiers, have been pursued by the censures and denunciations. of the priesthood : but have they on that ac- count been repudiated by the Italians themselves? They have been anathematized. by Popes, but they are the boast of Italy.
When the great Reformation burst upon Germany and Western Europe, there were many reasons which contributed to faoilitate its action in those sterner climates, and to obstruct that action in Italy itself. The very principle of unity enabled the Pope to com- bine arms not his own in the suppression of a movement against a system which subserved the purposes of temporal Princes. Per- sonal accidents helped Luther in Germany ; local accidents as- sisted Calvin in Switzerland ; and extremely personal passions afforded that favourable turn which established the reformed Church in England. But Italy had not the advantage of these comparatively trivial circumstances, while, on the contrary, she concentrated the representatives of the ruling system around the centre which she furnished for temporal as well as spritual despotism. It must not be forgotten, however, that at this time many victims suffered at the stake, and that books were written in favour of the Reformation ; works buried in oblivion by those who then prevailed, to be rediscovered and published at a later age. Even at that time, in accordance with the views of the re- formers, the Bible was translated into noble and grand Italian, and publiehed in its integrity. It is now one of the books most studied and admired by Italians ; and they have kept up, or re- newed that study, in spite of the persecutions and punishments, which in the interval have been inflicted for the simple possession of a copy. These facts will show that the genius of Italy was not ignorant of the Reformation, although the upholders of the ruling system managed to keep it as it were administratively outside the barriers of their spiritual customhouse. If ever the habitual oppression of combined rulers succeeded in apparently stifling the natural curiosity and genius which had guided Italian studies, the native fire was never entirely trampled out ; it continued to smoulder. We might almost assert that at no time has any one of the clergy, or any one in power, shown the disposition and the ability to combat Ultramontane doctrines, even when Ultra- montanism was the accepted doctrine of the day, but the Italian people havended to the appeal in an unmistakable manner. We have already mentioned the responsive sympathy with the great German Reformation ; we cannot forget that good Bishop of Pistoja, who, in the days of •Leopold the Great of Tuscany, not only introduced practical reforms into the local administration of the church and of the temporal power, which was then much governed by the Church, but made no secret of his own pre- dilection for reformed opinions. At the time of the French rule in Italy, Napoleon the First gained favour with the Italians chiefly because he appeared as their champion against' the oppression of the Pope. Even the amiable Pins the Seventh met with as little sympathy from the Italians, among the educated classes or even amongst the body of the people, as " the benevolent Pope Pius the Ninth " has found. If amongst the clergy there appeared any man who avowed doc- trines deviating- from popular subserviency, or openly contested the stringent rule enforced by the creatures of Rome, he was cer- tain to attract a large followingivand to bequeath an. additional share of the Reformed spirit. e are, in fact, acquainted with remote Italian parishes where lingers the memory of old incum- bents who preached anti-Papal doctrines, and are therefore held in remembrance with affection and veneration to this very day; although, in some instances, nearly a century has passed since their doctrines were enforced by their own voices. Here, again, we do not find that the body of the people, who have tolerated, or have been made to tolerate the domination of Rome, repudiate the innova- tions I thus introduced. On the contrary, the affection with which they look back to those independent minds, shows how far the very body of society has been indoctrinated, while it also proves *that the spirit which has thus steadily developed itself through centuries is an indigenous growth. It might have been supposed that at the time of the Restoration, when there was a general re- lapse to the temper of a previous period, both in temporal and spiritual matters, Ricci and the many obscurer imitators whom he has had would have been, if not forgotten, execrated and re- pudiated ; but again, we say, the people of Pistoja continue, in some cases openly, to reverence the memory of their inde- pendent Bishop ; and the affection of the people which we have mentioned remains untouched ; and we find the very clergy of
Tuscany and Romagna voting now as a Ricci might have coun- selled. Let the reader for a momentpause, and ask himself what these very simple facts mean ? Let him look to the library of Italian books, from the dawn of literature downwards ; let him inquire into the study of English literature, its indepen- dence of opinion as well as its constitutional principles amongst the studious and easier classes of the Italian people ; and let him ask if such antecedents do not at once explain the general opinion and conviction which now seem so abruptly to have burst forth. Do the facts not prove that that conviction is more deeply rooted, is more mature, and more endowed with permanency than many have supposed ? Indeed, the doctrine of resistance to eccle- siastical tyranny is no new doctrine for the Italians ; it is the doctrine in which they have been bred by their fathers individu- ally, in which they have been guided by the genius of their lite- rature, and if it is only now that they can openly profess it with- out danger of the rack or the prison, of fine or the stake, the suddenness is in the opportunity, not in the opinion.
In those places where the immediate danger of punishment ceased, the doctrine triumphed ; and so far the advocates of the Ultramontane party were right, since they always held, and as- serted that, if the slightest concession were made to opinion, opin- ion would ultimately gain the day. Opportunity, once attained, was never voluntarily relinquished by the Italians. The sub- jects of Leopold the Second felt shamed before Europe at having suffered the immunities of Leopold the First to slip from them. Piedmont found a Prince to help it in throwing off the Papal yoke ; it abolished compulsory bondage in convents, introduced liberty of conscience, and declared its administrative independence of Rome. And, while the people of Piedmont and the Sardinian States showed that they had been sufficiently trained to applaud what had been done, the people in Tuscany instantly de- clared, with one voice—" Yes, that is our principle, our feeling, our purpose." On every one of these occasions the Prince, the statesmen, and people of the province were recognized as acting and speaking for Italy ; and wherever the combination of hostile princes, foreign armies, and domestic priestcraft could' be broken up, there the people have instantly joined the national movement. When called upon to express their opinion, they have never hesi- tated. to pronounce in favour of civil and religions liberty,
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against the Pope and ecclesiastical tyranny. Tt has sometimes been said that only the educated classes were prepared for such movements; but it has been forgotten that in all countries the educated classes not only represent the matured opinions of society, but give the tone to opinion from day to day, and by their own actions supply the key to popular action even at the first opening of opportunity. Thus, called upon to vote in a body, the Italian people did vote in millions, with an unanimity tested, not gainsaid, by the few dissentient votes which proved how freely the suffrage had been given. It is in this manner, on opportunity, by the persevering efforts of earnest statesmen like d'Azeglio, and practical administrators like Cavour, with the powerful aid of a frank and sincere prince like Victor Emmanuel, but always by the strong and honest convictions of the people themselves, that one half of Italy is now emancipated before the eyes of the whole world.
There remains, indeed, a remarkable distinction between Italy and the rest of Europe. In the conflict with ecclesiastical op- pression in Italy, no question has arisen respecting the con- tinuity of the apostolical authority in Rome, no question as j
to the jurisdiction of the Pope within his own spiritual province. The Italians are not " Protestants," in the Western sense of the word. Their Protestantism has been limited strictly to civil affairs. Even now in the Northern as well as the Southern half of Italy, they show their disposition to submit to the authority of the Pope, of their own free will, in purely ecclesiastical matters. All they demur to is the union of temporal with spiritual power, the opening of carnal instruments into spiritual hands, the tem- poral incidence of spiritual dictation. They recognize the Pope as Pontiff, but not as King. Perhaps the leaders think that the time for a more complete reformation has not arrived ; perhaps Western Protestantism is not congenial to the southern soil; and the most sincere friends of the Papacy undoubtedly are in hopes that the ecclesiastical freedom, so far effected in Northern Italy, will suffice. Perhaps it may. Should the Pope, however, or rather that party which asserts the absolute authority of the Pope, persist in oppos- ing the march of events, and the manifest intent of the Italian people,—should that party persevere in proving its impotency by vainly anathematizing Victor Emmanuel and the emancipated people of Italy, all and sundry, it will be impossible to place limits either on the spread or the growth of the Reformation.
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