Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/479

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

STATISTICS.] I T A L Y 450 also over dioceses administered by suffragan bishops. Their position is indicated in the following table (XXXII.): Metropolitans. S/tffrayant. Accrcnza-Miitcra ...... Anglona-Tuisi, Potenza, Tricarico, Vcnosa. Bari ........................ Conversano, liuvo-Bitonto. Benevento ............... S. Agata do Goti, Alise, Ariano, Ascoll-Cerignola, Avell iio, Bojano, Bovine, Larino, Luccra, S. Severe, Tclese (Cer- reto), Tennoli. Bologna .................. Faenza, Imola. Brinilisi .................. Ostuni. Cagliari .................. Galtelli-Nuoro, IgU-sias, Ogliastra. Capun ..................... Caia/.zo, Calvi-Tcano, Caserta, Isernia- Venafro, Sc-ssa. Chieti ..................... Vasto. Cosenza .................. S. Angelo dc Lombnrdl-Blsaccla, Campagna, Lacedonia, Muro l.ucano. Fermo ..................... Macerata-Tolentino, Montalto, Ripatransone, S. Severino. Florence .................. Horgo S. Scpolcro, Colle di Val d Elsu, Fiesole, S. Miiiiato, Modigliana, Pistoia-Prato. Genoa .................... Albenga, Bolibio, Brnjrnato, Lnnl-Sarzana, Savona-Xoli, To:tona, Ventimiglia. Lanciano ................. Ortona. Manfredonia .......... Vicsti. Messina .................. Lipari, Nicosia, Patli. Milan .................... Bergamo, Brescia, Como, Crcma, Cremona, Lodi, Mantua, Pavla. Modena ................... Carpi, Guastalla, Massa-Carraia, Ileggio. Monreale ............... Caltanisetta, Girgenti. Naples .................... Acerra, Ischia, Nola, Pozzuoli. Oristano .................. Ales-Terralba. Otranto .................... Gallipoli, Lecce, Ugento. Palermo .................. Cefalu, Mazzara, Trapani. Pisa ........................ Leghorn, Pescia, Pontremoli, Volterra. Ravenna .................. liertimoro, Cervia, Ccscna, Comacchio, Fori i, Ithnini, Sarsina. Keggio Calabria ...... Bora, Cassano, Catanzaro, Cotrone, Geracc, icastro, Oppido, Nieotera-Tropea, Squillace. Salerno ................... Accrno, Cnpaccio-Vallo, Diano, Marsico-Nuovo (Potcnza), Noeera dei Pagani, Nuseo, Po icastro. Sassari .................... Alghoro, Ainpurias (Castel Sardo) Tempio, Bisarcio, Bosa. S. Severino .............. Cariati. Siena ...................... Cliiusi-Pk-nza, Grosseto, Massa Maritlima, Sovann(Soana)- Pitigliano. Syracuse ................. Caltagirone, Noto, Piazza. Sorrento .................. Castellamare. Taranto .................... Castcllancta, Oria. Turin ..................... Acqni, Alba, Aosta, Asti, Cuneo, Fossano, Ivrea, Mondovi, Pinerolo, Saluzzo, Susa. t rbino ................... S. Angelo in Vado-Urbania, Cagli-Pergola, Fossombrone, Montefeltro, Pesaro, Sinigaglia. Venice .................... Adria, Belluno-Feltre, Ceneda (Vitti.rio), Cliioggia, Con- c irdia-Portogruaro, Padua, Treviso, Verona, Vicenza. Vercelli ................... Alessandria della Paglia, Biell a, Casale, Nuvara, Vigevano. Eleven archbishops and sixty-three bishops arc independent of all metropolitan supervision, and hold directly of the Holy See. The archbishops are those of Amain, Aquila, Camerino, Catania, Cosenza, Ferrara, Gaeta, Lucca, Rossano, Spoleto, and Udine, and the bishops those of Acireale, Acquapendente, Alatri, Amelia, Anagni, Ancona- Uinana, Aquino-Sora-Pontecorvo, Arezzo, Ascoli, Assisi, A versa, Bagnorea, Borgo San Uonino, Cava-Sarno, Citta di Castello, Citta della Pieve, Civita Castellana-Orte-Gallese, Corneto-Civita Vecchia, Cortona, Fabriano-Matelica, Fa.no, Ferentino, Foggia, Foliguo, Gravina-Montepeloso, Gubbio, Jesi, Lnni-Sarzana, S. Marco- Yisig- nano, Marsi (Pescina), Melli-Rapolla, Mileto, Molfetta-Terlizzi- Giovennazzo, Moiiopoli, Montalciuo, Montefiascone, Montepulciano, Nardo, Narni, Noeera in Umbria, Norcia, Orvieto, Osimo-Cingoli, Parma, Peime-Atri, Perugia, Piacenza, Poggio Mirtcto, Recanati- Loreto, Rieti, Segni, Sutri-Xej)i, Terarno, Terni, Terracina-Piperno- Sezze, Tivoli, Todi, Treia (Camerino), Trivento, Troia, Yalva- Sulmona, Yeroli, Viterbo-Toscanella. There are 24,980 parishes in tlie kingdom, and the parish priest has a considerable influence in the country districts, though since 1866 he can no longer act as a state official. About 800,000 lire are spent annually by the Fondo pel Culto in augmentation of the paro chial stipends. The parishes vary greatly both in size and popula tion, some having as many as 14.000 inhabitants, and others less than 100. The priest in the country has a glebe or poclcrc which he cultivates like any of the lesser landholders of his district ; and he is thus interested in the state of the markets, the character of the harvest, and the general condition of affairs. As in every diocese there is a seminary or diocesan school, the number of such institutions exceeds that of the royal, provincial, and communal lyceums (licei) and gymnasiums (ginnasi). In so far as they concern themselves with secular education, they are subject to the supervision of the minister of instruction. At the time of the inspection of 1877 -78 they were found to have 17,478 pupils, of whom only 3547 were studying theology. The only Protestant denomination with a true historical position in Italy is that of the Waldensians, which has taken advantage of the religious liberty of the new kingdom to come down from the mountain fastnesses. Besides the sixteen churches (with 11,958 members in 1879) which it possessed at the time of its recognition by law in the kingdom of Sardinia in 1818, it numbers thirty-nine churches and thirty-two mission stations scattered throughout the country as far south as Sicily ; and it maintains between twenty and thirty elementary schools. The Free Italian Church," founded in 1870 by twenty-three churches whi -h declared themselves independent of the Waldcnsian organization, consisted in 1879 of thirty-six churches and thirty-five stations ; and since 1876 it has a theological college in Rome. In a number of the larger cities of Northern and Central Italy there are considerable congregations of the "Free Christian Church," a community or " brotherhood " which believes that stated ministers and church statistics are both un-Christian. The "Wesleyan Methodist Church, having carried on evangelizing operations in Itulv since 1861, has forty-three churches and stations with about 1300 communicants, and in its elementary schools 776 scholars. Of less extent are the more modern attainments of the American Episcopal Methodists, the American Baptists, and the English Baptists. Several orphanages, refuges, and schools of special purpose owe their existence to Protestant benevolence. Compare Giorgio Curcio, " Progarnma per una statistics dei exilti in Italia," in Annuli di Stat., 1880. Religious Foundations. As far back as 1855 an Act was passed in the Sardinian states for the disestablishment of all houses of the reli gious orders not engaged in preaching, teaching, or the care of the sick, of all chapters of collegiate churches not having a cure of souls or existing in towns of less than 20,000 inhabitants, and_of all private benefices for which no service was paid by the holders. The property and money thus obtained were used to form an ecclesiasti cal fund (Cassa Ecclesiastica) distinct from the finances of the state. This Act resulted in the suppression cf 274 monasteries with 3735 friars, of 61 nunneries with 175b nuns, and of 2722 chapters and benefices. In 1860 and 1861 the royal commissioners (even before the constitution of the new kingdom of Italy had been formally declared) issued decrees by which there were abolished (1) in Umbria, 197 monasteries and 102 convents with 1809 male and 2393 female associates, and 836 chapters or benefices ; (2) in the Marches, 292 monasteries and 127 convents with 2950 male and 2728 female associates ; (3) in the Neapolitan provinces, 747 monas teries and 275 convents with 8787 male and 7493 female associates. There were thus disestablished in the space of seven or eight years 2075 houses of the regular clergy occupied by 31,649 persons : and the confiscated property yielded a revenue of 9,957,457 lire, or 398,298. And at the same time there had been suppressed 1 1,889 chapters and benefices of the secular clergy, which yielded an annual income of 4,978,728 lire, or 199,149. "The value of the capital thus potentially freed from the dead hand was estimated at 12,000,000 ; though hitherto the ecclesiastical possessions in Lombard y, Emilia, Tuscany, and Sicily had been left untouched. As yet the Cassa Ecclesiastica had no right to dispose of the pro perty thus entrusted to it; but in 1862 an Act was passed by which it transferred all its real property (bcni stalili or immobili) to the national domain, and was credited with a corresponding amount by the exchequer. The property could now be disposed of like the other property of the domain ; and except in Sicily, where the system of emphyteusis was adopted, the church lands began to be | sold by auction. In order to encourage the poorer classes of the | people to become landholders, it was decided that the lots offered for sale should be small, and that the purchaser should be allowed to pay by five or ten yearly instalments. By a new Act in 1S66 the process of secularization was extended to the whole kingdom. All the members of the suppressed communities received full exercise of all the ordinary political and civil rights of laymen ; and annuities were granted to all those who had taken permanent religious vos prior to ISth January 1864. To priests and choristers, for example, of the proprietary or endowed orders were assigned 600 lire per annum if they were upwards of sixty years of age, 400 if upwards of 40, and 360 if younger. The Cassa Ecclesiastica was abolished, and in its stead was instituted a Fondo pel Culto, or public wor ship fund, attached to the department of grace and justice, and administered by a director and a council consisting of three senators, three deputies, and three nominees of the king. From the general confiscation were exempted the buiklings actually used for public worship, as episcopal residences or seminaries, &c., or which had been appropriated to the use of schools, poorhouscs, hospitals, &c., by the communes and provinces in keeping with the acts of 1861 and 1864 ; as well as the buildings, appurtenances, and movable property of the, abbeys of Monte Casino, Delia Cava dei Tirrcni,*San Martino della Scala, Monreale, Certosa near Pavia, and other estab lishments of the same kind of importance as architectural or his torical monuments. An annuity equal to the ascertained revenue of the suppressed institutions was placed to the credit of the fund in the Government 5 per cent, consols. A fourth of this sum was to be handed over -to the communes to be employed on works of i beneficence or education as soon as a surplus was obtained from that I part of the annuity assigned for the payment of monastic pensions; | and in Sicily, indeed, 209 communes entered on their privileges as ! soon as the patrimony was liquidated. Another Act following on | August 15, 1867, decreed the suppression of certain foundations j which had escaped the action of previous measures, put an extraordinary tax of 30 per. cent, on the whole of the patrimony of the church, and granted the Government the right of issuing 5 per cent, bonds sufficient to bring into the treasury 400,000,000 lire, which were to be accepted at their nominal value as purchase