Carbonari - Organisation, Relations with the Church, History, Members of the Carbonari, Carbonari in Literature, Notes and References

Members of the Neapolitan secret society known as Carboneria, linked with freemasonry and probably founded under Napoleonic occupation. Liberal and loosely nationalist in outlook, they played a major role in the Neapolitan revolution of 1820 (by which time membership may have numbered 300 000–500 000) and in the early stages of the Risorgimento, but its failure provoked a crisis in the Carboneria and after 1831 most of its members joined the Giovine Italia.

The Carbonari ("charcoal burners") were groups of secret revolutionary societies founded in early 19th-century Italy.

Organisation

They were organised in the fashion of Freemasonry, broken into small cells scattered across Italy.

Relations with the Church

The Carbonari were anti-clerical in both their philosophy and program. The controversial document, the Alta Vendita, which called for a modernist takeover of the Catholic Church, was attributed to the Sicilian Carbonari.

History

Although it's not clear where they were originally established, they first came to prominence in the Kingdom of Naples during the Napoleonic wars. This success inspired Carbonari in the north of Italy to revolt too. In 1821, the Kingdom of Sardinia obtained a constitutional monarchy as a result of Carbonari actions. Faced with an enemy overwhelmingly superior in number, the Carbonari revolts collapsed and their leaders fled into exile. In 1830, Carbonari took part in the July Revolution in France. A bid in Modena was an outright failure, but in February 1831, several cities in the Papal States rose up and flew the Carbonari tricolour. A volunteer force marched on Rome but was destroyed by Austrian troops who had intervened at the request of Pope Gregory XVI After the failed uprisings of 1831, the governments of the Italian states cracked down on the Carbonari, who now virtually ceased to exist.

Members of the Carbonari

Silvio Pellico (1788–1854) and Pietro Maroncelli (1795–1846) were prominent members of the Carbonari; Other prominent members of the Carbonari included Giuseppe Mazzini, Louis Napoleon (the future French emperor Napoleon III) and French revolutionary Blanqui.

Carbonari in Literature

The story Vanina Vanini by Stendhal involved a hero in the Carbonari and a heroine who became obsessed by this.

Notes and References

^ "CARBONARI (an Italian word meaning charcoal-burners)" from the Carbonari article in the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica ^ "apprentice could rise to the grade of a master before the end of six months." From Carbonari in the Catholic Encyclopedia ^ "Freemasons could enter the Carbonari as masters at once." From Carbonari in the Catholic Encyclopedia ^ "It is not certain whether the Carbonari, as a political society, had its first organization in France or Italy." From the Carbonari article in the Catholic Encyclopedia ^ "The Carbonari were probably an offshoot of the Freemasons, from whom they differed in important particulars, and first began to assume importance in southern Italy during the Napoleonic wars." From the CARBONARI article in the 1911 Encyclopedia Brittanica