Neo-Guelph

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Neo-Guelph movement was a Nineteenth century Italian political society which wanted to unite Italy into a single kingdom with the Pope as its king. Some of its leading lights were Vincenzo Gioberti and Cesare BalboIt. However, it received very little popular support. Neo-Guelphists were concentrated in the north, particularly Piemonte. They were also linked both to ontologism, a philosophical movement, and rationalist-leaning theology. Many Neo-Guelphists thought that Giovanni Mastai-Ferretti (elected pope Pius IX in 1846) would boost their cause, but he rejected their movement. This rejection was disheartening to Catholic liberals everywhere, and the anti-clerical left saw it as proof that the papacy was inherently reactionary -- ready to sacrifice its very autonomy and an Italian state simply to protect narrow temporal interests, such as noble interests in the papal states. It should be noted that popes generally came from this nobility, to say nothing of the curia and Vatican hierarchy in general.