MURRI, ROMOLO. – Priest and sociologist, b. at Montesampietrangeli (prov. of Ascoli Piceno, diocese of Fermo) on 27 Aug. 1870, d. in Rome on 12 March 1944. He completed his theological studies in Rome, where he was ordained priest in 1893. In the same year he enrolled in the Faculty of Letters at the University of Rome, where in a student environment saturated with violent doctrinal and political rivalries he began his social activity as a propagandist with fervent zeal. Together with G. Salvadori, F. Ermini, F. Crispolti, and G. Semeria he founded the university circle and a journal of his own, *Vita nuova*, laying the foundations of the Italian Catholic University Federation. He enthusiastically adhered to Christian Democracy (v.).
He founded the journal *Cultura sociale*, whose first issue appeared on 19 Jan. 1898, to expound his ideas. These soon developed in contrast with the conservative Opera dei congressi (v.), for which M. launched a violent article in *Cultura sociale* against the outgoing president Paganuzzi, entitled *Il crollo di Venezia* (14 Aug. 1902). The noise, protests, and polemics aroused by this writing were enormous. The Bologna Congress of 1903 brought notable success to the Murrian faction, but also a legacy of bitter controversy. The dispositions of the new pope Pius X on Catholic Action provoked the rebellion of some young Christian Democrats and created an autonomous movement: M., with them, founded in Bologna the *Lega democratica nazionale*, which was condemned by Pius X, who in the letter *Pieni l’animo* of 28 July 1906 forbade priests to join II. By now the conflict was shifting increasingly from the political to the religious plane. M., who
had already in a speech delivered at San Marino on 25 Aug. 1902 extolled the religious tendencies of Tyrrell and Loisy, thus entered the heart of the controversies then agitating the modernist question and which gradually led him away from the correct interpretation of dogma. These factors, together with the rebellious attitude he adopted, led the pope Pius X first to suspend him *a divinis* (1907) and later (1909) to remove him from ecclesiastical authority in the new journal *Rivista di cultura*, the organ of the *Lega democratica nazionale*. This movement soon lost in scope and intensity, ceasing at the outbreak of the First World War. In 1909 M. was elected deputy in the constituency of Montegiorgio, laid aside the ecclesiastical habit, contracted a civil marriage, and carried on political activity in a party of the extreme left. He then became a contributor to liberal newspapers such as *Il Corriere della Sera* and *La Stampa*, but had already lost all influence on Italian political life. He returned to the bosom of the Church a year before his death.
Works: Among M.’s numerous writings (over a hundred volumes and pamphlets) the following are worthy of note: *Propositi di parte cattolica* (Rome 1899); *Battaglie d’oggi* (4 vols., 1903–1904); *La politica clericale e la democrazia* (Milan 1903–1904); *La monarchia alla repubblica – Lettere portoghesi* (IV, 1910); *Della religione, della Chiesa e dello Stato* (Rome 1910); *La croce e la spada* (Genoa 1915); *Cavour* (IV, 1915); *Dalla Democrazia cristiana al Partito popolare italiano* (Florence 1920); *Lo Stato e i partiti politici in Italia nel dopoguerra* (Rome 1921); *La conquista ideale dello Stato* (Milan 1923); *L’ulivo di Santana, note sulla Conciliazione* (Rome 1930); *Il messaggio cristiano e la storia* (IV, 1943); *Democrazia cristiana* (IV, 1944), posthumous work, interesting for the one-sided vision of the protagonist on the period 1894–1907.