The Methodist Church in Mutignano and Protestantism in Italy

Mutignano is a small village close to Atri, in Teramo Province in Abruzzo Italy. Due to its territorial contiguity with Atri and the defense of the port of Cerrano, in 1326, ir was one of the thirteen villages subject to the Acquaviva family.  It shared some medieval history being chosen as a meeting place between some powerful players of the late Middle Ages, thanks to the Bishop of Monopoli, Nicolò Acciapacci, under Queen Giovanna II, the Queen of Naples. Later, some aristocratic families from Atri moved there, such as the Filiani, whose villa stands near the Pineto train station. Train building moved the focus of the government administration from the interior hill country to the coast and in the 19th and early 20th centuries, Mutignano lost its importance and became a frazione of the new commine of Pineto.

Mutignano is also very important to me personally being the ancestral home of my father and almost all paternal ancestors. One of the unknown historical points of interest in the town is the former Methodist Church at 78 Corso Umberto. A Methodist Church?? Yes, a Protestant church in Italy and in some out of the way backwater. Who woulda thunk it??

Protestants in Italy

According to Italian Wikipedia, Protestants in Italy today are estimated at 750,000 (435,000 Italian citizens) who are divided into numerous denominations, which can be divided into 1) "historical" Protestant Churches, i.e. “storiche” (Waldensians, Lutherans, Calvinists/Reformed, Anglican, Baptists, Methodists), and 2) “restorationist” i.e. “restaurazioniste” denominations like the Churches of Christ, the Free, Pentecostals, "Holiness Movement" i.e. “Movimento di Santità” and many minor churches.

The most numerous Protestant congregations in Italy are Pentecostals, with approximately 300,000 adherents in numerous churches, and the Assemblies of God with about 250,000 members. In contrast the largest "historical" Protestant denomination populations are the Waldensians with about 21,000 members, the Evangelical Christian Brethren Church (with its ties to the Risorgimento) with 15,000, the Baptists with 6,000, the Lutherans with 4,500, the Methodist (including a union with the Waldensians) with 3,000, the Anglican Church, also with about 3,000, and the United Protestant Church (Italian-speaking Lutherans) with several hundred members.

The brief history of the reformation and protestants in Italy

Church reform in Italy began BEFORE Martin Luther. During the 11th through the 15th centuries a variety of religious dissidents appeared in Northwestern Italy and in Rome (like the patarini, the dulcinians, Arnaldo da Brescia, fraticelli, Albigensians or Cathars); however, all were unsuccessful (executed or murdered) except for the Waldensians, who settled in the inaccessible valleys of the western Alps in Piemonte. The Waldensians could be seen as proto-Protestants, but they mostly did not raise the doctrinal objections characteristic of sixteenth-century Protestant leaders during the Reformation.

Arnaldo da Brescia, from Lombardy, who called on the Church to renounce property-ownership and participated in the failed Commune of Rome of 1144–1193

Later in the 15th century, an Italian priest, Girolamo Savonarola who is regarded as a predecessor of Martin Luther in Italy, stigmatized the abuses of the Catholic clergy, as well as demanding a "moral revival" and the destruction of statues and images at churches. However, unlike Luther, Savonarola did not gain the protection of influential patrons, and he was limited to Florence, and soon executed.

Naples was also an important center of the Reformation. At the end of the 15th century, a Spirituali circle (proto-evangelists) was formed, concentrated around Spanish immigrant Juan de Valdés. Then in the 16th century after Luther, Venice and its possession Padua were temporarily places of refuge for Italian Protestants. These cities, along with Lucca, were important centers of the Italian Reformation because they were easily reached by new religious ideas spreading from the North. However, Protestantism there was quickly quashed by the Inquisition (influenced by Spain-controlled southern Italy and Milan, and influencing much of the remainder of Italy). Italian Protestants then fled mainly to German duchies and to Switzerland.

In the 1520s, soon after publication of the first letters of Luther, the first few Italian Lutherans appeared. However, the effect of Lutheranism was minimal because Luther wrote in German and directed his mission mainly at Germans, and the Church censorship in Italy was very effective. Waldensianism was, however, revitalized with the Protestant Reformation, and aligned itself to Calvinism by becoming a part of it in 1532. Also by 1550, Pope Julius III affirmed that 1,000 Venetians might be counted as belonging to the Anabaptist sect.

The Italian Reformation then collapsed after only about 70 years of existence because of the quick and strong reaction of the Roman Church. In the summer of 1542 the Italian Inquisition had organized itself in order to fight Protestants in all Italian states more effectively.

As a result of this Roman threat, the majority of Italian reformers escaped to countries in Northern and Eastern Europe, including Poland, where an influential group of Italian Unitarians came into existence, supported unofficially by the Queen of Poland, the Italian-born Bona Sforza. By about 1600, almost all Protestantism ceased to exist in Italy, with Catholicism remaining the religion of the Italian states, except for the Waldensians, limited to their inaccessible mountain retreats.

Another cause of the Italian Reformation's collapse was the aggressive politics of the Holy Roman Empire (led by the Spanish Hapsburgs) toward Italian states. Italian princes soon identified the Reformation a threat to their rule and joined in the persecutions.

Freedom of Religion in the Kingdom of Sardinia and the Kingdom of Italy

It was not until 1848 when Charles Albert, king of Sardinia (and Piemonte), granted religious freedom and civic emancipation to the Waldensians. Freedom of worship and equality of civic and political rights were later extended to Jews and into the other Italian states that were progressively annexed to Sardinia during the process of unification of Italy. Newer Waldensian congregations sprang up as well such as the Free Christian Church (which lasted from 1852 to 1904) and the Evangelical Christian Church of the Brethren. Meanwhile British and American missionaries began to preach and establish Anglican, Methodist and Baptist churches.

The second largest “storiche” church, the evangelical Christian Church of the Brothers (or Assembly of Brothers) is attributable to the Anglican Church and was organized in Tuscany by Count Piero Guicciardini, of an aristocratic Florentine family in 1806. Protestants became hopeful that the Risorgimento would be accompanied by religious reform but they constituted a very small minority in the peninsula (32,684, according to the 1861 census). The influence that Protestantism exercised over the Risorgimento culture was actually remarkable. Several protagonists of the Risorgimento (from Cavour to Lambruschini, from Terenzio Mamiani to Ricasoli, and from Carlo Cattaneo to Ferrari) had close contacts with the Protestant world and some were of Protestant faith. At the end of the Risorgimento with the capture of Rome in 1870, all the evangelical churches opened places of worship in various cities. Subsequently, an evangelical organization was structured and under Piero Guicciardini and Theodoric Pietrocola Rossetti, the assemblies of the Brothers took root.

In the early 20th century, missionaries spread the Pentecostal gospel throughout Italy which became the dominant Protestant sects (see numbers above).

The Methodists of Italy

Methodism appeared on the scene of Italian history in 1859 with the arrival of William Arthur, secretary of the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society of London. He toured Italy to better understand the social and political developments of the Risorgimento. In his report "Italy in transition" he affirmed the need to open a missionary field not to found a Methodist Church, but to support the evangelicals already present (Waldensians and Free Church) in the commitment to religious reform in an evangelical sense that would provide the necessary spiritual support to ferment political and cultural reform.

In 1860 the Wesleyan Society of England sent Richard Green, who initially stopped in Florence, where he came into contact with exponents of the "free" churches (Gavazzi and Guicciardini); then pushing on to Naples, recently liberated by Garibaldi. In 1861, Green repatriated for health reasons, and Henry J. Piggott was sent to Italy. The organization of the mission in the South, a territory who Piggott understood with great acuity, was entrusted to Thomas W. Jones. In 1870, Leroy M. Vernon, sent by the Methodist Episcopal Church of the United States of America, also arrived in Italy (replaced after a few years by William Burt).

Henry J. Pigott

Piggott and Vernon began to organize their respective denominational churches: first the Wesleyan Methodist Church and second the Methodist Episcopal Church, agreeing however to carry out a complementary, non-competitive enterprise.  Churches were opened in large cities as well as in rural areas. These efforts were also popular with the lowest strata of the population: e.g. in the area of ​​Mezzano in Emilia, for example, as in the industrial suburbs of Genoa; in the towns of Maiella, as among the laborers of Ragusa (in Sicily) or the workers for the construction of the Sempione tunnel. It was joined by day and evening schools, professional training and job placement institutes, mutual aid organizations, in Padua, Venice, La Spezia, Villa San Sebastiano, Intra, Scicli, Naples, Mezzani, Mutignano and Portici.

In the center of Bassignana, a town in the province of Alessandria, a large Methodist church was built, after the citizens found themselves in complete disagreement with the parish priest and therefore decided to embrace Methodism. The Evangelical Church of Gorizia, founded in the 19th century as a German-speaking Lutheran church after the First World War, and the city increasingly acquired the characteristics of an Italian community of Methodist identity, until, after the Second World War, it became a local Methodist church.

The two branches of Methodism, the English and the American, united in 1946 founding the Evangelical Methodist Church of Italy. In 1975 the Methodist Church integrated with the Waldensian Church, subscribing to a common doctrine. Currently in Italy the Methodist Church has 39 communities and churches, about 5,000 church members.  

Methodist Mutignano

In the heart of the historic center there is the Methodist Church. It lies on the site of a Catholic church first built in the early 1800s. Initially this small chapel was dedicated to St. Ilario, patron saint of Mutignano since 1682 (he was replaced S. Silvestro to whom the parish church is still dedicated). The replacement of saints was due to relics which had arrived from Rome, (as in Atri, in 1605, those relics of S. Reparata had arrived, thanks to the interest of Claudio Acquaviva, uncle of Rodolfo). Following a building collapse due to a landslide the church was completely rebuilt in 1881 in neo-Gothic style for Methodist worship.  

In 1932 the church was completed/renovated by some local families (Sfredda, De Stephanis, Leonzi). But it could only enter into operation in 1944 after the end of the fascist dictatorship. It functioned as a place of worship until 1996. 

I share a name on the dedication plaque of the church in 1929. I don't know if I am related

The Methodist church was erected, thanks to emigrants from Mutignano who had fled to the north and found hospitality in the transalpine countries. As a thank you for the hospitality, conversion to the new faith took place. A similar case occurred in the Valle Siciliana in Teramo. The money earned in the north allowed in addition to the return home, the construction of a sacred building. 

The church presents itself with the physiognomy of a Catholic building, with the neo-Gothic facade and the bell gable. On the portal the writing, motto of the faith "My parish is the world" and this is the first sign of a non-Catholic church, because such cartouches usually read in Latin, the language of Catholicism. The building, bordered by private homes, is located a stone's throw from the eighteenth-century church of S. Antonio di Padova, now utilized as an auditorium. The interior, in the shape of a hall, with some neo-Gothic features, such as the pointed arch single-lancet window, has the pulpit, the most important sacred furniture of the bare liturgy of the reform, in wood.

 

Mutignano had a small community of Reformed people, about forty adherents. The church philosophy, different from the Catholic one, linked to the current Parish of S. Silvestro, did not create problems. The people of Mutignano accepted their reformation brothers and sisters.

The Reformed community was active in Mutignano until 1996, when the decreasing number of faithful led to the closure of the now valuable neo-Gothic building. Since 2010, the church has been a private building, purchased by an English-speaking descendant of the Protestants.

One Son's Father - My Father's Battles, Monte San Michele, World War 1, La Grande Guerra - PART 3

Prelude: The Strafexpedition

On March 19, 1916 the Macerata Brigade was relieved from the front during the Fifth Battle of the Isonzo and returned behind the front lines for rest, training and other work details.  They were encamped at Campolongo (al Torre), Armellino and Aiello del Frulio, until May 8. On May 15 the Austrians attacked in the Trentino area (the Strafexpedition). General Cadorna had to move many troops from the Isonzo (those in reserve and behind the lines) as the attack produced significant Austrian movement and Italian losses. The Italians, however, turned the tide by June 3. 

Moreover, the Russian Brusilov offensive that June would produce the largest Entente victory of the war to date, crippling the Dual Monarchy in part because of Austria's decision to move men to the Italian Trentino front.  Unable to maintain the Italian offensive after having lost 100,000 in the battle, and pressured in the East, the Strafexpedition ran out of steam.  200,000 out of remaining 300,000 Austro-Hungarians would quickly be shuffled to the Eastern Front, leaving the few troops who remained under a withering Italian counterattack.  At the loss of 140,000 troops, including 50,000 prisoners, the Italians rolled back large chunks of the Austrian gains. 

But the Italian hopes for a war of conquest lay in tatters. Popular support for the war cooled. The military emergency also triggered a political crisis in Rome: Prime Minister, Antonio Salandra, resigned and was replaced by Paolo Boselli, who set up a “national government” along the lines of the French Union Sacrée. Cadorna himself feared he would be replaced. Now he needed a clear victory to strengthen his own position and began to plan another Isonzo offensive

Battle of Monte San Michele. GAS

Meanwhile back at the Isonzo, as a new offensive was in the works, the situation was relatively calm. During the spring months, little progress had been made around Gorizia, Monte Sabotino and Monte San Michele. However, as the fighting in Trentino abated, the tempo of operations at the Isonzo intensified.  Beginning in the second week in June Italian patrols grew larger and more aggressive.  On Monte San Michele, the work of weakening the enemy defenses by the 3rd Italian army continued: by now the two front lines were in close contact, and the Italian superiority of armament had been achieved creating an untenable situation for Austro-Hungarians of the 5th army of General Boroevic.  The soldiers of the Italian IX Army Corps had succeeded in advancing up to a few tens of meters from the first Austro-Hungarian line, building new trenches and safe positions for the bomb launchers.

On June 14 the Italian III Army began a limited but powerful raid on the Carso’s southern flank.  After several hours of intense shelling at Monte Sei Busi, two Italian divisions advanced towards the Austrian 106th Militia Division trenches. An intense firefight between the Italian Infantry and the Czech riflemen of the 11th Austrian Militia Regiment erupted for control of the trenches around Hill (Sector) 118.  

The fight dragged on into the first week in July. The Austrians managed to hold their positions (despite losing 1,400 men) in the fighting which lasted three days.  After a few days the Italians continued their heavy harassment in this area.  Again the Austrians held their ground but lost another 4,700 casualties. Italian losses were higher in this minor offensive.

Meanwhile, Boroevic had been preparing for a surprise offensive attack by his troops at Monte San Michele.  Boroevic wanted to retake positions around San Martino and San Michele especially Hill (Sector) 197 believing that these areas were going to be used by the Italians in an effort to seize the

Hill 197 at Monte San Michele

heights at Monte San Michele in anticipation (correctly as it turns out) of another Cadorna offensive.  A division sized offensive was planned for the last week in June.  This was to be similar to smaller skirmishes that had been ongoing in these areas between the major assaults at Isonzo for the past year.  But the planning for this attack was dramatically different because it would include the use of chemical (gas) warfare. Previously in March (and only once) at San Martino del Carso, a small village on the western slopes of Monte San Michele, the Austro-Hungarians had counterattacked with success using tear gas. 

Other than that, neither the Austrians nor Italians had used gas before despite its use on the western front in the prior year by the Germans. Both armies had small units of chemical warfare specialists but they had been sitting idle. Two Sappeurbattaillonen – the 61st and 62nd - provided the nucleus for the new Spezialformationen der k.u.k Sappeurtruppe (Special Sapper Units), in February 1916, Sappeur-Spezial-Battailon, which later reverted to k.u.k. Sappeurbatailon 62nd.

The Austrian idea to use chemicals first arose during November 1915 when the Italians had threatened to break through the Carso, but it was believed to be impracticable. But the chemical specialists had now changed their minds and Boroevic seized upon the idea of their use to give his surprise attack a decided advantage.

In the first week of June the VII Corps readied its assault force from elements of the 17th (aimed at Hill 197) and 20th Divisions (aimed at San Michele).  Although the units were ready on June 10, the operation had to wait for two weeks favorable weather conditions.  The Special Sapper Battalion was ready with over 6,000 canisters in the forward trenches of San Michele Sector. The weather was cleared on June 28 and the order (personally cleared by Emperor Franz Josef) was obtained after mid-night.  By 04:15 the canisters were in place and the release of poison gases – phosgene - were launched at 05:15 of June 29, 1916 from the trenches in the town of San Martino del Carso, preceded by an intense artillery fire.  The attack lasted for over one-half hour as the gas cloud was blown westward over and into the front-line trenches of the 21st and 22nd divisions (mainly belonging to the "Regina" and "Pisa" brigades) of the Italian XI Corps.  

Italian Soldiers in the aftermath of gas attacks, perhaps a scene witnessed by my father

The Austrian columns, after the launch of the gases, easily penetrated the first Italian lines, finding only corpses or soldiers dazed by the gases, while the soldiers (from the second lines) still conscious were taken by panic and retreated. The 8th brigade of the 20th (Hungarian) division began the attack. Also in this sector thick clouds hit the first and second lines, the shelters and the walkways, extending their effect up to Peteano and Sdraussina. The attack was particularly violent against the troops that held the positions just below the peaks of San Michele; some battalions of the 19th and 20th regiments (Brescia) were almost completely destroyed, while the survivors were overwhelmed by enemy troops. 

The intervention of Colonel Gandolfo, commander of the Italian 10th regiment, was able to stop part of the unorganized and panicked retreat of the affected, while Major General Sailer with the rest of the Brigata Regina, supported by the artillery and the troops deployed in the Bosco Lancia, began the counterattack.  The Hungarian troops began to experience stiff resistance from the rear-stationed Italian infantry who battled with resolve as they realized the use of poisonous gas by the Imperial Army.  In the afternoon, thanks to a sudden change in the direction of the wind that made the gas disperse to the Austrians coming down, and to the tenacious reorganization effort made by the Italian troops, the lost ground had been entirely reconquered.

Bosco Cappuccio where the 121st Infantry of my father was positioned on June 29, 1916

Between June 29 and 30, in the sector of the San Michele-San Martino del Carso front, from the gases and the contemporaneous enemy attack resulted in 100 deaths among the officers and 2,600 deaths among the soldiers; 98 officers and 3,900 troops were seriously poisoned; altogether about 200 officers and 6,500 troops were put out of action. Among the Austrians, the losses amounted to 23 officers and 1,549 soldiers.

On June 29 the 121st Regiment was occupying the trenches near Cappuccio close-by the Regina Brigade.  One of my father’s fellow infantrymen of the 121st Regiment, Pietro Storari wrote in his diary that day:

On June 29, 1916, … the enemy, after a sudden and intense bombardment, attacked with asphyxiating gases on the line held by the Regina Brigade (Monte Cappuccio) and part of the section occupied by the 121st Regg. Infantry. This was accomplished in a moment and immediately the assault began. Given the almost total losses of the men of the Regina Brigade, the enemy managed to temporarily occupy the 121st Monte Cappuccio trench. On the line held by the 121st [the attack] did not succeed because [we were] well equipped with means of defense against the asphyxiating gases. 

In fact immediately, fires were lit with firewood and other specially prepared Nicolaidi equipment [anti-gas devices], succeeding at the same time in dispelling the gas barbarously launched on the morning of June 29th. However, [the unit] immediately had to leave Monte Cappuccio (position taken at the Regina Brigade) and return to the starting position because our artillery was massacred by the barrage. The 9th and 10th Infantry members of the aforementioned Brigade lost almost all those present.

The corpses were mostly greenish from the powerful gas that had suddenly struck them, those that were stunned, among which a Major was barbarously slaughtered with iron maces, one of which I possess, which I keep as a memory of war.

The military trucks continued for two days to transport the corpses to the nearby military cemetery located in Sagrado at the foot of the Monte San Michele. So I passed my 24th birthday in view of death and in the midst of a painful massacre. The attacks continued on both sides but without success.

What happened next is reported in the tragic testimonies of soldiers and officers shocked by the sight of the Italian trenches. Corporal Valentino Righetti (19th Brescia Brigade) said he reached the trench at night thinking it was completely deserted given the total silence surrounding the area. To his surprise, the soldiers were all in their place, but strangely asleep. At dawn the corporal made the gruesome discovery: hundreds of men had died within minutes the previous day.

For a period of time the Austro-Hungarian soldiers in these areas, were in great danger from the revenge minded Italians.  Imperial Army soldiers who surrendered to become prisoners learned to do so in large groups.  If they were part of a small group they were likely to be shot and killed so was the disdain for the troops that had used poison in battle.

Aftermath

Notwithstanding the use of gas in Italy, Cadorna pressed on with a plan to attack in August 1916. The Sixth Battle of the Isonzo also called the Battle of Gorizia grew out of the Italian defense at Asiago in the Strafexpedition. This brought the heretofore lagging Italian spirit to a new high and united to bring the war into Austria.  Cadorno believed that the Imperials were discouraged by their experience in the Trentino and the fact that many troops had been removed to the eastern front to defend against the Brusilov offensive.  The Imperial command would likely not expect a rapid offensive to be launched so soon after the Asiago defense. Moreover, the western front was also bringing pressure to bear on the German allies at Verdun (where the French had turned the German offensive of the spring around) and at the Somme by the British. These actions would keep the Germans from supporting its Austrian ally.  In these beliefs Cadorna would be proven correct.