Sanfedismo Sanfedismo ( Italian for " Holy Faith " ) was a popular anti - Republican movement , organized by Cardinal Fabrizio Ruffo , which mobilized peasants of the Papal States against the Parthenopaean Republic in 1799 , its aims culminating in the restoration of the Bourbon Kingdom of Naples under Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies . Its full name was the Army of Holy Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ ( Italian : " Armate della Santa Fede " ) , and its members were called Sanfedisti . The terms " Sanfedismo " and " Sanfedisti " are sometimes used more generally to refer to any religiously - motivated , improvised peasant army that sprung up on the Italian peninsula to resist the newly created French client republic s . Campaign . Ruffo recruited the Sanfedisti in his native Calabria . The recruitment manifesto of February 1799 reads : The Sanfedismo movement nominally acted in the name of Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies . Ruffo was deputized by Ferdinand , while both were taking refuge in Palermo , to act as his vicar - general on the Italian mainland on January 25 , 1799 , two days after the proclamation of the Parthenopean Republic . Ruffo landed in Calabria on February 7 with no money or weapons and only eight companions , but bearing a banner with the royal arms on one side and a cross on the other , with the inscription " " In hoc signo vinces " . " It took Ruffo a month to amass a force of 17 , 000 ; mostly peasants , but also " bandits , ecclesiastics , mercenaries , looters , devotees , and assassins . " During the campaign , Ruffo corresponded with Ferdinand ' s agent , Sir Henry Acton , updating him on the military progress of the Sanfedisti : By the end of April , the Sanfedisti had subdued the entirety of Calabria and most of Puglia , and began a land siege of Naples in June . In the siege , the Sanfedismo irregulars were supported by a British naval force under the command of Horatio Nelson , for which Ferdinand gave Nelson the title of Duke of Bronte , which Nelson affixed to his signature for the rest of his life . The Parthenopean Republic collapsed on June 19 , 1799 . Most of the Sanfedisti victories occurred in rugged terrain , which was " well - suited " to the irregular style of warfare employed by Ruffo . Similar to other anti - French uprisings in Italy , the Sanfedisti were not , as a rule , amiable towards Jews , who were perceived as supporters of the Enlightenment ideology . Furthermore , Bishop Giovanni Andrea Serrao , the Jansenist leader in southern Italy and a supporter of the Parthenopaean Republic , was summarily executed on February 24 , 1799 by the soldiers of the Potenza guard , as Ruffo ' s forces were drawing near to the city . Legacy . The role of Cardinal Ruffo in the movement was a contemporary source of controversy , attributing to Ruffo both cruelty and bloodlust ; apologist writings defending him are only extant with respect to the sack of Altamura . The name of " Sanfedismo " itself was a source of criticism , dubbed " a word sprung up , by which this new phase of wickedness might be called " by a contemporary . Sanfedismo , and Ruffo himself , became synonym ous with the " recalcitrant , truly counter - revolutionary clergy " as opposed to those who were more sympathetic to the French Revolution . The name " Sanfedisti " was also used by Bourbonist peasant uprisings against the House of Savoy during Italian unification . The " Canto dei Sanfedisti " is still remembered by heart among many in the Mezzogiorno , and sometimes sung by folk groups . It is a parody of La Carmagnole , a popular French Revolutionary song . Later scholarly views of the Sanfedisti have dubbed them a " counter - revolutionary " group , but not homogeneously a " reaction [ ary ] " one .