Were in delusion lost....
—(Cary’s Translation.)
At the time of this visit the founder’s tomb was in course of restoration, and amongst those who contributed to the good work was Mr. Gladstone, who requested Panizzi to pay, in his name, to the restoration fund the sum of 100 ducats, equivalent to about £16 of English money.
One of the first acts of the newly-established Government of Italy was the suppression of the religious houses. Although it cannot be denied by the candid student of history that, in mediæval times, Monastic Societies were of the utmost benefit, and, indeed, in many respects, actually necessary to civilization, and to many other important ends; and although the debt we owe them for the preservation of literature and art, which, but for their fostering care, would have eternally perished, can never be duly estimated; yet it must be admitted by the most determined lover of antiquity that, in the state of modern society, the monastery is at the present day somewhat out of place. The ends such Institutions formerly subserved, and their power to subserve such ends, have alike become extinct. In our times they appear to exist simply to perpetuate the vicious and unreasonable principle that a man may live in the world, yet not be of it, that he may cast aside his duties as a citizen and every feeling which binds him to his country, sacrificing such sacred obligations to the devout (and selfish) care of his own soul.
At the time of which we write, Italy, above all nations, abounded to superfluity in these establishments; and suspicions, not ill-founded nor unreasonable, were entertained of the loyalty of some of their members, from the perpetual drain made by them on the able-bodied population.
It is, however, to be regretted that the officials to whom was entrusted the dissolution of the convents of Italy did not set about their far from pleasant duties in such a manner as to contrast more favourably with the conduct of Henry VIII. under similar circumstances, whereas they displayed an amount of harshness and brutality—nay, cruelty—calculated to throw discredit not only on themselves, but on the country by which they were employed, and, what is more serious still, on the character of Italians in general.
Panizzi, ever alive to injustice and cruelty, and jealous of the fair fame of his country, with an equal abhorrence of the wrongs committed in the name of freedom and of a liberal constitution, though weighed with the tyrannies of King Bomba, was especially indignant at the conduct of the Commission. On this painful subject he gave free vent to his feelings in a letter dated the 13th of January, 1863, and, as the following lines will show, did not confine himself to a simple expression of feeling:—
“... What will you think of my having turned protector of monks and nuns? Yet such is the fact. I have been so disgusted with the harsh proceedings of the President of the Commission appointed to take possession of the property of religious corporations that I could not help doing my best to get the fellow removed from his office; and I am glad to say he has been recalled to Turin by telegraph, and another person appointed, of whom everybody speaks well. The illegalities which are committed are innumerable....”
Similar sentiments are expressed in another letter to Mr. Gladstone, from which the following is an extract: