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b Geremia Bonomelli Condemned for Evolutionism? 5 For more than a century, Bishop Bonomelli has been cited as one of the authors who retracted his defense of evolutionism because of pressure from the Holy Office. The case is significant because Bonomelli was an important figure in Italian public life. The Archive of the Holy Office furnishes new data, although Bonomelli’s correspondence had already shown that his retraction was not the result of any official action of the Holy See, but rather a strategic retreat by the controversial bishop in the face of a possibility of a new condemnation: he already had another work on the Index of Prohibited Books, which had nothing to do with science nor with evolution, and he was not disposed to suffer another listing on account of evolutionism. The Vatican and the New Italy Geremia Bonomelli was born in Nigoline, Brescia, on September 22, 1831. His father was a small rural proprietor. He entered the Seminary of Brescia in 1851, was ordained in 1855, and was then sent by his bishop to Rome to continue his studies in the Pontifical Gregorian University. After receiving his doctorate in theology in 1858, he became professor of philosophy of religion and hermeneutics in the Seminary of Brescia. At the same time, he gave Lenten sermons and directed spiritual exercises for the clergy and “popular missions,” within his diocese and outside.1 In 1859 he was posted to the parish of Adro (also in Brescia) and in 1866 was named parish priest of Lovere. In this period he wrote the three volumes of his book The Young Student Instructed in Christian Doctrine, published between 1871 and 1874.2 In 1871 he was named bishop of Cremona, likewise in the north of Italy, where he remained until his death in 1914. Throughout his forty-three years as bishop of Cremona he was involved in numerous controversies that had public resonance. When he died, an obituary in La Civiltà Cattolica included the cryptic 204 | negotiating darwin comment: “How and why he almost suddenly changed the nature of his public conduct, at times even becoming a critic of the Church, of the clergy, and of Catholic laity, history will say. . . . But let us leave judgment to the Lord. The blessing of Pius X comforted him in his last hours, and we beseech peace for his soul.”3 Bonomelli was not an eccentric nor did he entertain heretical doctrines. He was especially known for his open support for the new Italian state, which was at odds with the Vatican’s opposition to it. For many centuries Italy had been divided into multiple territories: Milan, the Republic of Venice, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, and the Kingdom of Naples were among the principal ones, together with the central part of the peninsula, occupied by the Papal States, whose sovereign , spiritual as well as political, was the pope. In the nineteenth century there arose the idea of unifying the whole territory in a single nation and this undertaking concluded when the troops of the new Italian state occupied Rome in 1870. The pope was dispossessed of his temporal power and was confined to the Vatican. The official posture of the Vatican was to refuse to accept the new situation , giving rise to severe tension with the new Italian authorities. The problem, commonly called “the Roman question,” was not resolved until 1929, when Italy and the Vatican reached an accord that resulted in the current status. Bonomelli proposed a solution similar to the one that was finally adopted: that the Vatican recognize the new state of Italy and that, to guarantee the independence of the pope with respect to events of Italian policy, the pope would remain as sovereign of a minuscule territory in the Vatican. Bonomelli was well connected to figures in Italian public life, including the royal family (Italy was then a monarchy), and he favored resolving the Roman question as soon as possible. In 1889 Bonomelli published a pamphlet in which he set forth his solution, but his ideas clashed head on with the official stance of the Vatican, and the pamphlet was placed on the Index of Prohibited Books that same year.4 A Controversial Bishop In the Holy Office archives there is a thick file on Bonomelli, which reflects the controversies in which he was involved owing to ideas and behavior that, without being heretical or overly strident, were the object...

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