The Express.
London, England, 1863-05-26 00:00:00

THE SUPPRESSED MONASTIC ORDERS IN
THE NEAPOLITAN PROVINCES.

(nom Air OCCAMONAL CORRISPONDIMIT.)
NAPLES, MAY 16.

The Director of the Ecclesiastical Treasury
(Ca' Ecelesiastica) of the suppressed monastic
houses of the Neapolitan provinces recently pub-
lished a full report of the operations and present
state of that administration from the beginning of
1861 to the end of 1862. This suppression has
been one of the most important events in the
last Italian revolution, and I think it will
interest many people in England to know
bow this delicate question has been dealt with by
the Italian governmeut, as well as the extent of
their measures and some statistical data. A few
words of history must precede.
Everybody knows that Italy was, from the fifth
century, one of the greatest strongholds of Imo-
, nachism in Europe, being the centre of that *axle-
I siastical system, whence it was spread to carry the
truth of Christian religion abroad. It had its
period of greatness, not unmixed with evils, which
caused its decline. It was revived, however, at the
period of the Reformation, when monacbism of
every kind was more or less trained so as to
oppose a barrier to every idea of religious, civil,
and political liberty. We need scarcely say, in
justice to the Italians, that the most dangerous of
the monastic orders, the Jesuits, were founded in
Spain, whence they found their way to Rome. •At
the end of the last century, however, they were all
swept away by the French Revolution, which in-
vaded Italy ; and people remember still the saying
of the First Napoleon :

Poeti prod
Nieste frail
Tart[ soldati.

The restoration of the Italian princes brought them
back in large numbers, but the suppression of a
good many of the houses was acquiesced in ; and
they re-established nearly all the mendicant orders
because they had no property to give them back,
and those monasteries whose members were consi-
dered strenuous supporters of the throne and the
altar—that is to say, despotism and superstition.
Though very much reduced in number, however,
they were not reduced in power, and they made
themselves more obnoxious than before to every
branch of progress. No wonder, therefore, if at
every outbreak of the liberal party in the penin-
sula those religious associations were the first in-
stitution., against which people vented their indigna-
tion, more especially those of the Jesuits.
Revolution, then, was scarcely triumphant in the
Neapolitan provinces, and Gaeta bad scarcely been
taken, than a decree of the Prince of Carignan'.
administration (17th February, 1861) suppressed
indiscriminately all nunneries and monasteries, and
declaredall they possessed the property of the crown,
and placed wider the patronage of ,the statepollegiate
churches, church benefices, chaplainships, abbeys,
livings, and other similar foundations. Many
people questioned the opportuneness of such an
irritating measure against a very large body
of most influential men, having adherents among
all classes of society, and made more formidable by
their compact organization, at a moment when the
newly-established government was in need of sup-
port from every quarter. But the liberal party
claimed the consummation of their victory. Econo
mical principles made the measure appear useful
and advisable, besides it was one of those
points more likely to succeed if carried by storm
than if weighed by calm discussion. In Sicily, in
fact, although much longer in the hand of radical
governors, the measure was not adopted, and the
government find it difficult to discuss the subject
before Parliament, as some Sicilian members have
expressed an opinion contrary to it.
It so happened, however, that the government
itself, through • mistake which can only be ex-
plained by the rapid change of men in power, and
by the multifarious questions which engaged their
minds, forfeited a good many of the advantages of
the decree by delaying for nearly ten months its
execution. The consequence of this delay was to
perplex the minds of the liberals, and to weaken
the authority of the new government, for while the
first were all for radical measures, the legions
of friars and priests spread the report that the
government would not dare to challenge their
influence. They were allowed, meanwhile, to col-
lect their rents, of which they made use to help the
cause of the Pope, the brigands, and the Bour-
bons, while many properties changed hands by
forged conveyances, many titles of endowments were
destroyed, figures were altered, and all moveable
effects of, great value disappeared without any
chance of ever being recovered.
At last the Camas Ecclesiastics, or Ecclesiastical
Treasury, was established, to which the duty devolved
of taking possession of the properties of the sup-
pressed houses, administering them, paying pensions
out of their income to their members, and giving in-
formation to the parliament and government upon
everything which was declared to be the special
object of that department. The refusal of the
monks to produce the inventories of the properties
and the registers of their revenue, the opposition of
the nuns to allow the government officers to pene.
trate into their convents, the compulsion which they
were obliged to make use of in Order to have the law
respected, and the scenes of excitement which were
thus produced in country places, in the midst of an
ignorant and superstitious people, are so many fea-
tures of the Italian revolution of which very little
has transpired abroad, but which may be consi-
dered no less dramatic and interesting under their
social aspects than Garibaldi's achievements and
Cialdini's victories are as feats of arms.

Notwithstanding all this, out of 1,107 religious
houses which, in the absence of exact statistical infor-
mation, had been registered as falling under the decree
of suppression, 927 had been taken possession of by
the government at the end of December, 1862. Of
these 1,107 establishments, 647 were declared as
belonging to mendicant and 460 to endowed orders ;
840 were inhabited by monks, and 267 by nuns ;
and of 927 already suppressed, 698 are of the first,
and 229 of the second ; so that there remain at
present 180 unsnppreaaed establishments, 142 of
men and 38 of women, of which 133 are endowed
and 47 mendicants.
The members of the 460 endowed establish-
ments amount to 8,954, of which 1,983 are men
and 6,971 women ; 238 of the first and 432 of the
second live still in communities. The members
of the mendicant orders in the 459 out of 637
establishments which were suppressed at the end
of last year are 6,475, of which 6,386 are males and
only 89 females. So that we have a total of 14,755
people who have nearly all returned to society—
that is to say, 8,131 men and 6,524 women. There