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Liberalism and anticlericalism (Click to select text)
Why was anti-clericalism such an important aspect of liberalism in France and Italy in the second half of the nineteenth century? The mid-nineteenth century was a time of great change throughout Europe. Revolutions and social upheavals meant new ideologies and perspectives coming to the forefront as existing social orders began to crumble under popular pressure. Liberalism was one of these new causes, designed to make a fairer and more benevolent society for all its sectors. However Liberalism could not succeed in a church dominated state. Thus anti-clericalism came to become a symbolic part of the liberal cause. Before examining separate aspects of the liberal struggle, it is necessary to look at the whole movement and its aims. The liberal idea was to make the government and economy fairer and more accessible to the lay person. They wanted a constitution with representational institutions which would make the wishes and opinions of the people known to the rulers without bias or cover up. They also wanted parliamentary representation of individual citizens rather than mass group electorates such as the estate system. Freedom of speech, freedom of press, and free trade were another liberal demand, as well as equality before the law, with open trials free from influence or interference. To accompany the new franchise system would be upgraded education and economic development to civilise the new nation. The liberals were not necessarily atheists or even opposed to Christianity all, so why did anti-clericalism become such an integral part of their regime? In France one of the foremost reasons for this was the churches' views with regard to social change. The Catholic Church had always been a great advocate of traditionalism. They looked back to the ancien regime when the church had been all-powerful, and though since 1789 its influence had been in decline, it continued to believe in the rigid class structure which had set them ahead before. It was towards this end - retention, or better, resurrection of the old class structures that the church made their political perspectives clearly right wing, and increased links with the conservatives, thus setting itself against liberalism. One of the key ideas of the liberal struggle was equality, both mercantile and jurisprudential . Yet the church has always regarded itself as blessed with divine right that sets its members ahead , and thus they should be owed special power and privileges. They fought for this because the church's self assumed right is the basis of its authority over the people. By cutting priests and bishops down to size, making them equal to the next man, perceptions of them would alter, making them more mundane and losing their spiritual power over the people. The liberals also were not blind to the lessons of the past. They remembered the church as linked with both the ancien regime and the restoration monarchy. They remembered even two hundred years later the harsh seigneurial duties and the burden of church tithes upon the peasants, and seeing the church designs for return to the old system inspired a wave of antagonism toward the clergy. Even if the church was to no longer to impose fiscal or territorial taxes, it had still the reputation of a harsh tyrannical master and was associated with so many past injustices that for the liberals any alliance or even mutual coexistence could be injurious to the image that they tried to portray. It was partly the church actions themselves which increased the whole fervour of the liberal anti-clerical feeling. The Catholic Church was never one to advocate docility to a threat, and thus during the nineteenth century when the possibility of power loss came, the church responded. Firstly in the mental sphere where the priests' tactics seemed to be to bully the public into obedience rather than foster spiritual devotion. Scathing attacks from the pulpit were launched upon drinking, dancing, failure to observe the Sabbath and of course contraception. People began to feel uncomfortable with church attitudes: many needed to work on Sunday to keep food on the table; others wanted to use contraception to keep family sizes small and affordable, and of course to forbid the youth drinking and dancing just meant incurring natural adolescent rebellion and making the event more enjoyable. The Catholic Church has always preached hard line doctrine and this was nothing new or unacceptable except in its aggressive fervour. However what really did make the church unpopular was the use of spiritual blackmail for political ends. Even as early as 1827 the Bishop of Nancy responded to the liberal threat by ordering his clergy to refuse absolution to readers of liberal newspapers. Similarly the Bishop of Maret refused sacraments to the parents and teachers, and first communion to the pupils of lay schools using non-approved texts. Later again in 1891 the populous were told by the Archbishop of Rennes that it was a 'sin' to vote for men who were not resolute in the 'interests of religion'. Actions such as this served to change then liberals policies from mild aversion to the clergy, bordering on tolerance, to full-on warfare. Eventually this political agitation was pushed too far and it was agreed that the priests were abusing positions of spiritual trust for temporal ends. The liberal response was to take action through the Emperor Bonaparte, against various Catholic papers and to review the Concordat, interpreting it in a distinctly less favourable view and placing restrictions on papal pronouncements in France. Also the priesthood was gradually phased out of the public education system, which they had previously dominated, thus losing a strong potential power on the minds of the forthcoming generation. The situation in Italy in many respect reflects French reasons for the decline in church popularity, yet here the whole Italian unification factor gives an added dimension to the situation. The liberal government set up after the risorgimento had good reason to hold anti-clerical views. In the struggle to unite the Italian state the Pope had opposed and bitterly fought the Italian liberals all the way through their hard battle. Eventually when Italy was successfully declared a Sovereign State the victory seemed hollow and incomplete, as she was still split and separated by the physical and political barrier of the Vatican States. Even when the Marches and Umbria had finally been stripped from the Pope, the Liberals were still denied a central Parliament in the only truly historical, cultural and geographically appropriate city - Rome - for another ten years. Similarly to France, Liberalism and Catholicism also could not combine in Italy through the clash in both perspectives and popular perceptions. The church stood for the old regime, it was linked with the Austrian oppressors and a symbol of the pre- resurgent, fragmented collection of provinces that had become Italy. Now a new country had been born, with a new government, new leaders and new policies. Everything had changed and Italy now belonged to the Italian people who needed no authority and owed no allegiance to anyone except their own elected government. The triumvirate behind the risorgimento were decidedly against the Catholic Church, especially Mazzini, famed for his extremist anti-clerical views, having been forced by the Pope into exile for many years. Their state was to be new and democratic, and the retrospective and restrictive attitudes of the traditionalistic Vatican could only fetter its growth. Anti-clericalism from the liberal perspective was also a smart political tactic. The new government was by no means supported by such a powerful sector of the populace as to make it invincible, and various legislative reforms against the church were certainly able to help strengthen the Liberals' position. In the 1857 elections, for example, Cavour was able to invalidate many of the right wing votes by claiming a constitutional breach in the use of the pulpit and confessional for electoral purposes, thus cementing a liberal majority at the churches expense. The Pope's response to this was to further widen the gulf with the Liberals by denouncing the new state and justifying if not quite inciting insurrection from the people. Throughout the 1870's and 1880's, the Catholic Press played upon public grievances such as taxes and unemployment, urging the people to boycott all political agenda . Then in 1864, Pope Pius IX's Syllabus of Errors was published, a blatant attack on the Piedmontese government. However this was an error in itself, as it was seen as a condemnation of basic liberal rights and it forced many Catholic Liberals to abandon a previously neutral standing in favour of the Liberal side of the Church-State war. The Pope's next tactic was to show his contempt of the liberal democracy by boycotting it all together, and persuading those still loyal to him to do likewise, thus the non-expedit declaration of 1868 which declared it unnecessary for Catholics to vote in Italian elections, which towards the end of the century was upgraded from advice to a compulsory prohibition to all catholic subjects, in an attempt to collapse the whole electoral system. Universally the liberal rise to power brought many changes, both through their own initiative and through the natural improvement in social conditions and general welfare throughout Europe during this period. Better education meant changing perceptions of society and scientific explanations of phenomena which had previously been justified by the clergy; enhanced communications and transport along with agricultural innovations and the resulting improvement in the food supply meant that living standards in general were raised to a degree where the church's promises of heaven and the eternal afterlife were no longer needed to justify a life time of rewardless toil. Suddenly the package deal offered by the catholic church seemed a little outdated. Also with the spread of cafes, bars and other social venues, the church ceased to be the social centre of each region, and lost popularity due to this. Basically anti-clericalism was such an important part of Liberalism in the second half of the nineteenth century because of the incompatibility between the liberal ideal and the existing church, and the inability of either side to change sympathetically and encompass the other. Liberalism was a new ideology, looking to the future, where the Church was an old institution with the weight of centuries behind it. It was time for change, and though the Liberals had no argument with Christian devotion, the churches' temporal power, both political and economical, needed to be culled. The Catholics were always looking back and trying to force the situation into one consistent with church requirements, rather than adopting the church itself to face the requirements of the existing situation. Social improvement left the church outdated and weakened in its wake, and the Liberals hadn't got the historical affiliations or obligations to support such a failing institution, especially one as treacherously power-hungry and ambitious , and thus ultimately dangerous, as the Catholic Church.
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