CRISPI, FRANCESCO. – Statesman, born in Ribera (Girgenti) on 4 Oct. 1818, died in Naples on 11 Aug. 1901.
A doctor of law and magistrate, he practiced law in Naples and took part in the constitutional movement. In Sicily in 1848 he was part of the provisional government. Expelled for his republican ideas, he wandered to Malta, London, Paris, and Athens. In London he met Mazzini and adopted his unifying ideas. In 1859 he was among the organizers of Garibaldi’s Expedition of the Thousand. As deputy in Turin, he opposed Cavour and Ricasoli but later separated from Mazzini and in 1865 adhered to the monarchy. Fiercely opposed to the papacy, he incited Garibaldi to the venture at Mentana and fought the Law of Guarantees because he deemed it too favorable to the Holy See. He was President of the Council when, in 1887, an attempt at reconciliation between the Holy See and the Italian State took place. The year before, under Depretis’s ministry, talk had been rife about the possibility of reconciliation, but the head of Freemasonry, A. Lemmi, had firmly opposed II.
Although Crispi was an active Freemason, he proved favorable to the thesis of a solution to the Roman Question and made use of Abbot L. Tosti, whom he considered an excellent interpreter of Leo XIII’s thought. The disavowal of Tosti’s famous pamphlet *La Conciliazione* showed this to be incorrect. The clamorous end of the “conciliatory dream,” on which foreign pressures may have had an influence, provoked a hardening of positions on both sides. The Pope appointed Cardinal M. Rampolla as Secretary of State, who, as a fellow countryman of Crispi’s, seemed a more effective antagonist, and Crispi, backed by Freemasonry, embarked on an anti-clerical policy of reprisals culminating in the law against charitable institutions (*Opere pie*, 1890), and in the removal of Rome’s mayor, Leopoldo Torlonia (1 Jan. 1888), for having paid homage to Leo XIII on the occasion of the Jubilee. Returning to office in 1893, Crispi resumed dealing with ecclesiastical matters with a no longer hostile spirit, availing himself of personal friendships with Cardinals G. Sanfelice and G. A. Hohenlohe, Monsignor Di Marzo, Baron Pezzana (Rampolla’s brother-in-law), and especially Monsignor Isidoro Carini, his fellow countryman. Two delicate and difficult issues were thus resolved: the granting of the *equipaggio* to the Patriarch of Venice, Monsignor G. Sarto (later Pius X), and the sending of Italian Capuchins to Eritrea to replace French religious. Rumors, not entirely unfounded, circulated that Crispi harbored the hope of achieving reconciliation; it is certain, as he confessed to Monsignor Carini, that he would have wished to link his work to so important an end; and it is also certain that at this time dates his break with Freemasonry.
For some time Crispi’s pro-German policy had provoked a schism among pro-French Freemasons. Thus it came about that the most bitter opposition to Crispi was led by Freemasons such as Nicotera and Cavallotti: he was accused of bigamy (in fact, after having married Rosalia Mont... in Malta with only a religious rite, the woman who had been his companion in exile and war, Crispi married another woman in Italy with only a civil rite) and a moral question was agitated against him, implying charges of political impropriety. As regards his attitudes toward the Church, it must be acknowledged that even during his Masonic solidarity with Lemmi’s obedience he sought to distance himself from the most heated sectors. He refused to join an initiative of the *Associazione G. Bruno* (founded “in the face of the Vatican”), writing: “I am not an atheist. I do not fight against those who believe in God, nor against those who do not. I am for freedom of conscience.” To anti-clerical accusations, Crispi replied: “... Belief in God is the fundamental basis of the healthy life of the people, whereas atheism sows the irreparable seed of corruption. This is what I believe. It is ridiculous to say that I have gone to Canossa: I want peace with the Church, but I will never abandon the State to the appetites of temporal power.” An excessive sense of self, for which many accused him of megalomania, gravely impaired his actions. His ministry fell with the defeat at Adwa (1896).
Principal works: *Discorsi parlamentari*, Rome 1915; *Lettere dall’esilio*, ibid. 1918; *Politica interna* (diary and documents collected by T. Palmenghi Crispi), Florence 1924; *La prima guerra d’Africa* (documents and memoirs collected by T. Palmenghi Crispi), Milan 1939.
---
**CRISSPINA, Saint, Martyr.** – Born in Tanger, she suffered martyrdom by beheading on 5 Dec. 304 at Theveste (Africa), where the ruins of the ancient basilica dedicated to her are believed to have been found, and in which her tomb is said to have been located. The Acts of her martyrdom remain, composed in the second half of the 4th or early 5th century, which, despite interpolations of suspect details and the lack of some precise and indispensable information known from other documents, are an authoritative reproduction of the court record drawn from the trial archives.
According to these Acts, C., accused of despising imperial edicts, was brought before the tribunal of Anullinus; after a long interrogation in which she did not yield to threats or flattery, firmly refusing to sacrifice to idols, she was condemned to capital punishment. St. Augustine, delivering two discourses on the anniversary of her death in her honor (PL 37, 1605–18, 1774–85), provides several other details about her social standing, family, and trial that are missing from the Acts. It has therefore been thought that the Saint knew a more complete account of C.’s martyrdom, particularly widespread in African Catholic circles, whereas the one we possess would be of Donatist origin. The cult of C. soon spread in the Church; her image appears in the mosaics of S. Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna.