The Fine Arts.
The fine arts were also languishing, with every thing else, under the execrable régime of the Bourbons of Naples. But the taste for the fine arts survived their decay. The new Government instituted schools of art under the direction of the most skillful masters. Painting, drawing, sculpture, engraving, all received a new impulse.
Monasteries.
There were difficulties to be encountered in this attempt to regenerate an utterly depraved state more than can now be easily imagined. He who should attempt to erect a modern mansion upon the ruins of the Castle of Heidelberg would find more difficulty in removing the old foundations than in rearing the new structure. Thus Joseph found ancient abuses, hallowed by time, and oppressive institutions interwoven with the very life of the people, which it was necessary utterly to abolish or greatly to modify. The monastic institution was one of these. The land was filled with gloomy monasteries, crowded with idle, useless, and often dissolute monks. There had been in past ages seasons of persecution, in which the refuge of these sanctuaries was needed, but the spirit of the age no longer required them. They had rendered signal service in times of barbarism, but it was no longer needful for religion to hide in the obscurity of the cloister.
"Altars," said Joseph, "are now erected in the interior of families. The regular clergy respond to the wants of the people. The love of the arts and of the sciences, widely diffused, and the colonial, commercial, and military spirit constrain all the Governments of Europe to direct to important objects the genius, activity, and pecuniary resources of their nations. The support of considerable land and sea forces involves the necessity of great reforms in other departments of the general economy of the State. The first duty of peoples and princes is to place themselves in a condition of defense against the aggressions of their enemies. Still we do not forget that we ought to reconcile these principles with the respect with which we should cherish those celebrated places which, in barbaric ages, preserved the sacred fire of reason, and which became the dépôt of human knowledge."
Debate in the Council.
The debates upon this subject in the Council of State were long and animated. The peasantry, ignorant and superstitious, clung to their old prejudices, and could not easily throw aside the shackles of ages. Many of these religious communities were wealthy, the recipients of immense sums bequeathed to them by the dying. There was no legal right, no right but that of revolution and the absolute necessities of the State, for wresting this property from them. But it was manifest to every intelligent mind that the Neapolitan kingdom could never emerge from the stagnation of semi-barbarism without the entire overthrow of many, and the radical reform of the remainder of these institutions.
Reform of Monastic Institutions.
At length a law, very carefully matured, was enacted, suppressing a large number of these religious orders, and introducing essential changes into those which were permitted to survive. The possessions of those which were abolished, generally consisting of large tracts of land, reverted to the State, and were sold at auction in small farms. The money thus raised helped replenish the bankrupt treasury. The poor monks, expelled from their cells, with no habits of industry, and no means of obtaining a support, received a life pension, amounting to a little more than one hundred dollars a year.
The three abbeys of Mount Cassin, Cava, and Monte Verginè contained very considerable libraries, and were the dépôts of important records and manuscripts. These were intrusted to the keeping of a select number of the most intelligent monks. It was their duty to arrange and catalogue the books and manuscripts, and to search out those works which could throw light upon the sciences, the arts, and the past history of the realm. They retained the buildings, the necessary furniture, and received a small additional stipend.