Like most of the rest of Europe, nineteenth-century Italy passed through a phase of heightened political and cultural conflict over the place of religious allegiances in a modern polity. Yet the Italian experience of culture war was also in some respects quite distinctive. In Italian parlance, the word ‘Kulturkampf’ was used untranslated as a foreign expression that referred specifically to German conditions. The Italian culture war was less consistently organised at state-bureaucratic level than in Germany and the issues over which it was fought were in some respects quite different. By contrast with France, there was no strong republican-laïciste tradition. In order to convey a sense of what was distinctive about the Italian culture war, we should begin with an overview of the most important flashpoints of the conflict.

FLASHPOINTS

The presence of the papacy and of the ‘Roman question’ made the church–state relationship in Italy unique. But it is important to note that the history of ‘the pope and Italy’ had not always been one of unremitting antagonism. The unification of the country and the promotion of a national identity were not always seen as inimical to the interests of the papacy. Between 1815 and 1848, there were strong neo-Guelph tendencies within the Italian national movement. In 1843, writing from his exile in Brussels, Vincenzo Gioberti argued that Italy owed its unique historical position in the world to the outstanding imperial achievement of ancient Rome, and its claim to contemporary pre-eminence to the presence of the Holy See.