SPEDALIERI, NICOLA. - Apologist and publicist, b. at Bronte (Catania) on 6 Dec. 1740, d. at Rome on 26 Nov. 1795.
He completed his early studies at the Seminary of Monreale, where, having been ordained a priest, he taught philosophy, mathematics and theology. Having moved to Rome (1773), he was admitted to the Arcadia with a free diploma and there assumed, in accordance with the custom of that institution, the name Melanzio Alcioneo, holding frequent dissertations there. He also cultivated music, painting and poetry. By Pius VI he was made a canon beneficiary of the Vatican Basilica. He died suddenly (there was even talk of poisoning) and was buried in the demolished little church of Sts. Michael and Magnus, where an epigraph by his friend Msgr. Nicolai commemorated him. In 1903 a large bronze statue was erected to him in the little square of S. Andrea della Valle (the work of Mario Rutelli), at the inspiration of a committee of Masonic figures (promoted by his fellow countryman Cimbali) who, however, distorting — as was later demonstrated, out of ignorance — his figure and thought, wished thereby to exalt a supposed revolutionary character of the "Jacobin priest," which S. never was, arousing conflicts and bitter polemics which, to the evident embarrassment of the ill-advised promoters, reestablished the truth. The monument, for reasons of traffic, was transferred in 1951 to the little square Sforza Cesarini.
S.'s fame is linked to his vast apologetic output. In the Analisi dell'esame critico del sig. Nicola Freret sulle prove del cristianesimo (Rome 1778) he defends the veracity and authenticity of the books of the New Testament; and in the Confutazione dell'esame critico del cristianesimo fatto dal sig. E. Gibbon (ibid. 1784) he demonstrates the absurdity of the rationalist theories on the origin of Christianity. Some of his theses, censured at Monreale as suspected of heresy, were instead, upon his appeal, approved by the Vatican Curia and published (1772) under the title Propositionum theologicarum specimen, etc. In Rome he had also begun a Historia delle Paludi Pontine, whose reclamation Pius VI had begun. The work, left unfinished by the author's death, was later printed, translated into Italian and expanded by his friend Msgr. Nicolai.
The major work, which at its appearance aroused discord and polemics, especially because of the reaction of the Jansenists and the European courts, is: Dei diritti dell'uomo libri sei nei quali si dimostra che la più sicura custode dei medesimi nella società civile è la religione cristiana (Assisi 1791). The 1st ed., issued at Rome but with the false date of Assisi by agreement with the Vatican itself, quickly sold out, and the fourth was soon reached, while almost all the European courts hastened to proscribe it. In it S., besides combating deism (v.), atheism (v.) and the so-called "natural religion," which had triumphed with the rise of the French Revolution, defends Catholicism also against Jansenism (v.) and Freemasonry (v.), prevailing here more and there less, in support precisely of the absolutism and despotism of the reforming princes. With a limpid and elegant style the A. demonstrates that the proclamation of rights must be followed by a valid protection of those same rights, possible only in Christian doctrine, where rights and duties merge together in the sacred character of the individual personality. The work nevertheless aroused lively opposition in many Catholic circles, which accused S., but without solid foundation, of having taken Rousseau (v.) as his model. In bk. I S. maintains that sovereignty resides in the people, which nevertheless deposits it in the hands of the princes and rulers who are merely its depositaries. Not a few modern authors (V. Mangano, V. Schilirò, E. Martire) hold, and not without reason, that S. represents an authentic source of that social and political doctrine which was later developed by other Catholic writers, giving impulse and life to Christian Democracy (v.).
Bibliography7 works
Valerio Mario