ABSTRACT
The most serious impact that the Liberal Revolution had upon the institutional church in the period of unification and after was on its property and revenues. The extension of Piedmontese ecclesiastical legislation to the various terri-
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provinces), meant the confiscation of all church property except that attached to parochial benefices (glebe lands). Chiefly, this meant the property of bishoprics (the mensa), the cathedral chapters and religious orders, male and female.3 The ban on ecclesiastical bodies from making further acquisitions of property (including bequests and donations), as well as from alienating (selling or giving) it, and thus acquiring more liquid assets, meant an impoverishment of some benefices. The confiscation of the property of lay confraternities and congregations, whose objectives were usually liturgical or charitable, reduced the financial independence and room for manoeuvre of the average parish priest. Henceforth, the proceeds of the sale of all confiscated church property was to be held and administered by government bodies, most importantly the Fondo per il Culto established in 1866 and the Fondo per l’uso di religione della città, which was established for Rome in 1873, both of which were under the control of the Ministry of Justice.4 From the returns on the investment of 60 per cent of the church lands sold, plus a special tax on the income of surviving ecclesiastical benefices which varied from 5 to 20 per cent, a stipend would be paid to the poorer benefices in order to equalise incomes.5 Over the years, these payments had to be supplemented by a direct grant from the Italian treasury, partly because the ‘administration of the funds was costly and inefficient’.6
