ABSTRACT
There are solid reasons for considering the Church, religious institutions, and initiatives by the organised laity when exploring the historical roots of Lombardy’s economic development during the 19th century. As highlighted in this chapter, this evaluation is mostly based on two aspects of the situation, both connected with the Italian national context in the long 19th century. First, the focus is on political attitudes, which were revolutionary at the outset and subsequently became liberal and secular, seeking to reduce the presence of ecclesiastical bodies in the Peninsula, especially their property, via the alienation of ecclesiastical goods and the consequences of this process. Second, the contribution considers the active response of these bodies to the unsatisfactory social outcomes of the Italian economic Risorgimento, including the difficulty of overcoming the agricultural–commercial balance underpinning the Italian economy. Both the “reaction” against suppressive legislation and the “action” taken to alleviate the difficulties of modern economic development involved all components of the Church present in Lombardy, a European region with a deep-rooted tradition of Catholicism, similar to Bavaria in Germany and a few others, but with its own original and distinguishing features. In the case of Lombardy, as Giorgio Rumi has stated, a solid and cohesive ecclesiastical network based on parishes had grown up in the region over the centuries, acting to “preserve identity” in a way that can still be perceived.
