Neo-Guelphism
신겔프주의
The 19th-century Catholic-liberal movement, launched by Vincenzo Gioberti in his Of the Moral and Civil Primacy of the Italians (1842), that hoped for a confederation of Italian states under the Pope. It raised great hopes with the election of Pius IX in 1846 but collapsed when the Pope refused war with Austria in 1848.
In depth
In an age without modern parties the Neo-Guelphs were circles of intellectuals, aristocrats, journalists and businessmen with Catholic and unitarian leanings, preferring a confederation under the Pope to strong nationalism. In Piedmont Cesare Balbo (March–July 1848) and Gioberti himself (December 1848 – February 1849) served as prime minister, and the papal minister Pellegrino Rossi was a supporter.
When Pius IX withdrew from the war with his allocution of 29 April 1848 and fled to Gaeta in November, Catholic liberals were disheartened and the anticlerical left took it as proof that the papacy was inherently reactionary. With the defeat in the First War of Independence Neo-Guelphism, seen as too moderate and "papist", declined in favour of a parliamentary right seeking unity under the House of Savoy.