Italian Protestant Churches
The so-called Italian Protestant Churches, some of which have continued their weak existence up to the present day, are the following:
1) The “Independent Church” or “Christian Evangelical Church” (1854–65), founded by Luigi de Sanctis (1808–69) and Bonaventura Mazzarella (1818–89) when both separated from the Waldensians. Owing to internal dissensions and because many of the new Church’s followers adhered to the “plumitism” introduced into Italy by P. GUICCIARDINI, FRANCESCO (v.), de Sanctis returned to Waldensianism, while Mazzarella, occupied with public and private affairs, lost interest. Once deprived of their leaders, Gavazzi (v.) and, with the aid of various foreign Protestants, formed a new Church at the Bologna Congress of 1865, namely:
2) The “Free Italian Church” (1865–89), also called the “Free Christian Church,” which lasted until Gavazzi’s death (1889). It lived on foreign subsidies, mainly from the Scottish Presbyterian MacDougall, and vainly attempted to unite with the Waldensians.
3) The “Italian Evangelical Church” (1889–1905). After Gavazzi’s death, the Free Church adopted a name more in keeping with other Protestant bodies and styled itself the “Italian Evangelical Church.” It was constituted a legal entity by royal decree of 2 July 1891. Yet this too collapsed through the inexperience and errors of its leader Luigi Fera, and its assets were absorbed by the American and English Methodist missions, so that it ceased to be a legal entity (1905). A few adherents who refused to become Methodists reorganized as a simple association under the same name and under the direction of Notarbartolo, aided by the “Italian Section in behalf of the Evangelical Church of Italy,” which formed part of an American Protestant society. Finally, apart from a handful who continued under the same name, a new structure emerged in 1929:
4) The “National Protestant-Presbyterian Church of Italy.” The followers of this sect, which has some twenty preaching stations, claim to represent the genuine Italian Protestant element in contrast to Italian Protestants affiliated with foreign bodies.
To these few Churches, each deriving from its predecessor and culminating in the last mentioned, we may add, at least as historical information, several others, such as the “Italian Catholic Church” (v. CAMPANELLO); the “Liberal Catholic Church,” which in 1932 maintained a secretariat in Milan; the “Free Catholic Church,” founded after the publication of the encyclical Pascendi; and the “Italian National Catholic Church,” of no significance whatever, founded and served as vicar general by Luigi Prota-Giurleo.
V. CAMPANELLO