The Revolution Comes to Italy 581
flourished in Italy after Jansenism in France had been reduced to a clandestine and
lower- class persuasion.^32 Jansenists taught in the Italian universities and acted as
advisors to governments. Considering themselves to be good Catholics, or indeed
the best Catholics, they objected to domination by Rome, had little concern for its
temporal power, were critical of monastic establishments, believed the Church too
wealthy for its own good, advocated a more apostolic simplicity, and approved the
confiscation and resale of church- owned property by the state. It is thought also
that Jansenism, by its inner moral attitudes, favored the growth of “Jacobinism” in
Italy, since on Christian grounds it emphasized principles of brotherhood and
equality, and a spark of liberty in the individual soul, given by grace, apart from
worldly and ecclesiastical institutions. The Italian revolutionary movement never
became as anti- Christian as the French did, with the result that anti- Christian
episodes, when they occurred, were more shocking to the public and more disrup-
tive to the revolutionary parties than they had been in France.
The idea that it was possible to create a better state, a purer church, or a more
modern society was mainly voiced by the newer middle classes, with much support
from many noblemen and men holding some position within the church. The bulk
of the population played a negative role, setting limits to effective political action,
both for the old governments and for those issuing from the revolution.^33 Cities
were large, with Milan, Venice, Rome, Naples, and Palermo all having over 100,000
inhabitants, and being larger than Lyon, the second city of France; but there never
was any true popular revolutionism of the sans- culotte kind, nor even as much as
in the Dutch cities. The rural areas swarmed with an increasing population, which
rose during the century from about eleven to about eighteen millions for Italy as a
whole, so that in many places there were crises over land, employment, and subsis-
tence. It is possible that the burden of taxation and seigneurial dues was lighter
than north of the Alps, since no Italian state was a great power with the chronic
costs of war and large armies, and expensive living habits were perhaps less com-
mon among the Italian aristocracy than among the French. In any case, there was
no peasant revolution as in France in 1789, directed against government and sei-
gneurs, and less articulate peasant discontent than in Hungary. The peasants saw
little to gain in the programs of Italian reformers and revolutionaries as they un-
derstood them, and they blamed their troubles, often rightly enough, on the activi-
ties of their own neighboring townspeople, and after 1796 on the exactions, requi-
sitions, and pillage that followed military occupation by the French.
The Italian revolution, in short, was an affair of newer and enlightened elements
among middle- and upper- class townspeople, impatient at old vested interests, at
32 There is a large literature on Italian Jansenism in its connection with the political revolution
and the secularization of Italian society. See M. Vaussard, Jansénisme et gallicanisme aux origines reli-
gieuses du Risorgimento (Paris, 1959); E. Codignola, Illuministi, giansenisti e giacobini nell ’ Italia del
Settecento (Florence, 1947); A. Bersano, L’abate Francesco Bonardi e i suoi tempi: contributo alia storia
delle società segrete (Turin, 1957); and the fascinating case study by E. Rota, Giuseppe Poggi e la formazi-
one psicologica del patriota moderno, 1761–1843 (Piacenza, 1923), reprinted from Nuova rivista storica of
1922 and 1923.
33 This is seriously qualified or denied by Peroni, Candeloro, and others, who prefer to believe that
there was a potential revolutionism among the Italian popular classes, which could have been brought
to life if French policies had been more favorable.