ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the years after 1876, when the left inaugurated a more aggressive anticlerical policy. Liberal anticlericalism was founded on the belief that without help from the state the Church's stranglehold on consciences could not be broken. In the decade a series of conflicts, culminating in the capture of Rome, widened the gap between Church and state. The coming to power of the Left in 1876 opened up new opportunities for the freemasons in politics. The climactic moment of Italian anticlericalism was attained in 1889, when the statue of Giordano Bruno was unveiled in the Campo de' Pion, the place where he had been burnt at the stake. But the prevailing tendency was towards extreme caution. Officially, the freemasons in 1871–2 adopted a line of non-interference in politics. In any case the spontaneous anticlericalism of much of the left gave the freemasons considerable political leverage.
