ABSTRACT

When Victor Emmanuel II was proclaimed King of Italy on 17 March 1861, the Savoyard set of rules determining the financial relationship between the State and the Catholic Church was based on Law no. 878 of 29 May 1855. This law is so callled as Rattazzi law. The Rattazzi Law also created a public institution called cassa ecclesiastica or clerical treasury, which was provided with its own budget and was independent from State finances. The Cassa ecclesiastica system had been based upon the so-called historical continuity between the ecclesiastical politics of the Kingdom of Sardinia and those of the Kingdom of Italy and founded on the principle that, if the State had to distribute funds for clerical expenses, it would be able to do this using only funds of ecclesiastical origin and not by taking money from tax revenues.