ABIGNENTE, FILIPPO. - A political figure, born in Sarno (Salerno) on 9 April 1814, died in Rome on 13 June 1887. He was elected in 1848 as a deputy to the Neapolitan Chamber. Exiled to Nice, he returned to Naples in 1860 and was appointed professor of Church history in that city. A deputy to the Italian parliament from 1867 to 1886, he maintained, during the session of 27 January 1871, in the general discussion of the bill on the guarantees for the Holy See, the impossibility of reaching a reconciliation with the Papacy according to the formula "a free Church in a free State" after the proclamation of the dogma of papal infallibility, following which only "a Catholic solution" was possible, which, according to A., amounted to "the absence of all freedom."
ABIGNENTE, FILIPPO
BIBL.: R. Mariano, F. A. Napoli 1888; Parliamentary speeches and political and scholarly writings of F. A., collected and published by Hon. Prof. Giovanni Abignente, Rome 1902. Silvio Furlani