ABSTRACT
After 1815 secret societies still flourished. There were many different sects, of varying views: e.g. Calderari, Concistoriali, Guelfi and the Adelfi, who in 1818 became known as the Perfect Sublime Masters, led by the veteran revolutionary Filippo Buonarroti and influential in northern Italy. The most significant of all were the Carbonari (charcoal-burners), who attracted thousands of ex-Napoleonic officers and officials. By 1820 there were as many as 300 000 Carbonari, half of them in the mainland south. With such numbers the societies could be secret only in name. They had their own solemn oaths and initiation rites, and between seven and nine grades of membership: you learned the true purpose of the organization only on reaching the top grade. Most of their activities were charitable. They were local societies, influential in provincial towns among professional men, small landowners and artisans, and they differed much among themselves on social and political issues. Yet they adhered vaguely to the ideal of Italian independence from foreign rule, to constitutional liberties (for instance in the form of the Spanish constitution of 1812) and even to Italian unity, at least in a federal or confederal form. They were much feared by the paranoid Restoration governments, and blamed for every sign of unrest (Rath, 1964; Roberts, 1972).
