Les prêtres libéraux, acteurs des cultes des martyrs révolutionnaires (États italiens, années 1840-années 1860) (original) (raw)

2022, De la parole du prédicateur au discours politique. Jalons pour une histoire de la critique religieuse du politique (Vincent Flauraud and Ludovic Viallet eds.)

In the mid-19th century, the tributes given to revolutionary martyrs were one of the most powerful tools of liberal politicisation in most pre-unitary Italian states. Their growing mobilisation was part of a wider context of secularised transfers of religious notions for the needs of mass mobilisation, such as catechisms or the Marian cult. The aim here is to study from its protagonists’ point of view a process already well known in its rhetorical and literary aspects, even though it is one of the main discursive media of the Italian cultural nation. The role of the so-called "liberal" priests, in the sense that they defended against the monarchical authorities the claims of political and economic freedom, was from this point of view decisive, revealed both by the very numerous police and judiciary sources and, in some states, by the few published sermons available, particularly at the time of the revolution of 1848 (Papal State and Tuscany). Focusing mainly on this episode, the contribution highlights three fundamental dimensions of the use of political martyrs by liberal priests: their insertion in public celebrations with a strong religious tone, the deployment of a rhetoric of revenge, carried by pulpit preaching, and the implementation of tools of assistance aimed primarily at "living martyrs", a category that emerged in Italian political discourse from the 1840s onwards.