ABSTRACT
The Risorgimento, more than any other phase of Italian history, has captured the imagination of Italian and foreign historians. As a result, practically every aspect of the movement for unification has been studied and restudied to the point where there are a number of journals devoted primarily to the series of events that led to the formation of the Italian Kingdom. There is sufficient evidence that Camillo Benso di Cavour and the Piedmontese pursued a course that aimed to arouse rather than allay the fears of the Pontiff, a policy that sought to provoke rather than placate the Church. The liberal historiography has long maintained that the difficulty liberals encountered with the Church was the inevitable result of pursuing a national program, and that the conflict between Church and State was a necessary though unfortunate aspect of the Risorgimento. As early as the Renaissance, some noted Italians questioned the temporal power of the Papacy.
