Free-Masonry and the Secret History of Italian Unification

The Two Risorgimentos

The unification of Italy, the 19th-century movement known as the Risorgimento (the "Rising Again"), is conventionally told as a story of "great men" and brilliant statecraft. This is the official history, the one taught in textbooks and memorialized in marble: the sophisticated diplomacy of Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, the prime minister of Piedmont-Sardinia who masterfully maneuvered Italy onto the European stage; and the royal ambition of King Victor Emmanuel II of the House of Savoy, who in 1861 became the Padre della Patria, the Father of the Fatherland. This was a "top-down" revolution, a community-based project that was successfully "harnessed by the Piedmontese monarchy" and transformed into a territory-based one.

But running parallel to this public narrative of politics and diplomacy is a second, clandestine history. This is a "bottom-up" story of revolutionary fervor, decades of failed uprisings, and ideological warfare conducted in the shadows. It is a history of secret societies, of oath-bound fraternities, and of "subversive political freethinkers" who operated in clandestine hubs of political intrigue. At the center of this hidden history lies Free-Masonry.

While the monarchist statecraft of Cavour and Victor Emmanuel ultimately completed the unification, the Risorgimento as a movement—its core ideals, its revolutionary personnel, and its unyielding resilience—was forged in the lodges of Italian Free-Masonry and its radical offshoots. Long before Cavour made unification a pragmatic possibility, these secret societies were the "imagined community" where the very concept of a secular, united "Italy" was kept alive. They provided the essential ideological, organizational, and transnational framework without which the "official" history could not have occurred.

This co-existence of two rival narratives—the public, monarchical one and the clandestine, republican one—is not a mere historical curiosity. It represents the foundational political fracture of the modern Italian state. The final Kingdom of Italy proclaimed in 1861 was an uneasy, pragmatic compromise. It was one that subordinated the radical, republican, and Masonic ideals of figures like Giuseppe Mazzini to the moderate, aristocratic, and monarchical vision of Cavour. This compromise, which saw "republicans condemn[ing] monarchists", left many of the original patriots "dissatisfied with the new state". The suppressed republican impulse, born in the lodges, never fully reconciled with the monarchy that claimed victory, planting the seeds of the "notoriously unstable political system" that would define Italy for the next century.

The Italian Peninsula in the Age of Absolutism

To understand the rise of secret societies, one must first understand the Italy they sought to overthrow. Following the 1815 Congress of Vienna, which restored the old order after Napoleon's defeat, the Italian peninsula was little more than what Austrian Chancellor Metternich famously dismissed as "a geographical expression". It was a patchwork of "several kingdoms, duchies, and city-states", united by a shared cultural heritage but brutally divided by politics.

The political map of the era revealed a landscape of total fragmentation. In the northwest sat the Kingdom of Sardinia (composed of Piedmont and Savoy), the only state with a native Italian monarch. The northeast, including Lombardy and Venetia, was under the direct and repressive control of the Austrian Empire, whose Hapsburg rulers also held sway over much of the rest of the peninsula. The south was dominated by the Bourbon Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, based in Naples.

Bisecting the peninsula, both physically and ideologically, was the most significant obstacle: the Papal States. This was a conglomeration of territories under the direct, sovereign temporal rule of the Pope. For centuries, the existence of this papal kingdom, which stretched from Rome to the Adriatic, had "proved an obstacle to national union" by literally dividing Italy in two.

This fragmented land was held in stasis by two seemingly insurmountable forces:

• Foreign Domination: The Austrian Empire, the chief power in the region, was committed to crushing any hint of liberalism, nationalism, or constitutionalism.
• The Papal Barrier: The Papal States were not just a physical barrier but an ideological one. The government of Pope Gregory XVI and later Pius IX was a "reactionary, backward, absolutist regime", a feudal theocracy that rejected all modern political thought.

In this environment of absolute monarchy, foreign occupation, and vigilant papal police, all forms of "subversive political freethinkers" were systematically suppressed, imprisoned, or executed. This very political structure created the necessity for secret societies. The "clandestine quality" of the Masonic lodge was not merely a matter of romantic ritual; it was the only space where pan-Italian, nationalist, or liberal ideals could be cultivated. The secrecy and sworn oaths of the brotherhood were a practical defense mechanism "to evade surveillance". The form of Restoration-era oppression, therefore, directly dictated the form of the resistance.

From the Carbonari to the Lodge

The first engine of this resistance was the Carbonari, or "charcoal burners". Emerging in the early 1800s, this secret society was the primary source of opposition to the conservative regimes after 1815. Historians identify it as a direct "offshoot of Free-Masonry" or a movement that "closely resembled Free-Masonry".

But where philosophical Free-Masonry was often more concerned with self-improvement and abstract ideals, the Carbonari were its "active" or "operational counterpart". Their ideology was explicitly political, "advocating liberal and patriotic ideas". They were "strongly anticlerical" and dedicated to a single purpose: "to defeat tyranny and establish a constitutional government". A key distinction from traditional Free-Masonry was their "openness... to the lower classes," including craftsmen and farmers, not just the nobility and bourgeoisie who typically filled the lodges.

The Carbonari were responsible for the revolutionary uprisings of 1820-21. With the help of the army in Naples, they succeeded in forcing King Ferdinand I to temporarily grant a constitution. However, the movement was ultimately doomed. Austrian intervention crushed the revolts, and the society's own internal flaws—a lack of a "clear immediate political agenda" and a "monstrously disorganized" and "incoherent" structure—led to its suppression and failure.

The failure of the Carbonari, however, was essential for the ultimate success of the Risorgimento. Their chaotic and failed revolts provided a critical, harsh lesson for the next generation of revolutionaries. The most astute student of this failure was a young Carbonaro from Genoa named Giuseppe Mazzini. Mazzini had joined the society in 1829 and was arrested for it in 1830. While in prison, he reflected on the Carbonari's weaknesses, concluding that their complex, hierarchical secrecy and "incoherent political aims" made them incapable of mobilizing the masses. Immediately after his release, he renounced the Carbonari and, in 1831, founded Giovine Italia (Young Italy). This new clandestine organization, which he considered a "superior group", was the direct result of the Carbonari's lessons. The Carbonari were the Risorgimento's failed first draft, and their implosion directly catalyzed the creation of Mazzini's far more effective movement, which would successfully "arouse the national consciousness".

This new movement was built upon the ideological bedrock of Continental Free-Masonry. Unlike the Anglo-American tradition, which strictly banned the discussion of politics and religion within the lodge, the Continental (or Liberal) tradition embraced it. Italian Free-Masonry drew from a "secular and rationalist current". Its core principles were "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity," "mutual tolerance," and "absolute freedom of conscience". Most importantly, it "refuses all dogmatic affirmation", a position that placed it in direct and irreconcilable conflict with the dogmatic assertions of the Catholic Church.

Profiles in Secrecy

The Risorgimento was led by two men who perfectly embodied the ideals of this clandestine world: one was its "Soul," the other its "Sword." Their precise relationship with the Craft, however, reveals the complex and often contradictory nature of Free-Masonry's role.

Giuseppe Mazzini

Giuseppe Mazzini was the "intellectual" and moral "Soul" of the movement. He was an "Italian nationalist in the historical radical tradition" who, unlike Cavour, did not want a kingdom. He sought a unified, independent republic founded on a "civic religion" of popular democracy.

A central ambiguity of the Risorgimento is the great debate: was Mazzini himself a Free-Mason? The evidence is deeply contradictory. Multiple contemporary and later sources, including Time magazine and Britannica, flatly state that he was a Mason. One source even identifies him as a "33rd Degree Free-Mason", and his Young Italy movement has been described as being founded on the "Italian Mason Giuseppe Mazzini's Young Italy model".

The case against his initiation, however, is just as strong. More sober academic analyses note that while "many of Mazzini's followers were masons," he himself was not a formal initiate. Most significantly, the Grand Orient of Italy's (G∴O∴I∴) own website "question[s] whether he was ever a regular Mason and do[es] not list him as a Past Grand Master"—a stark contrast to its treatment of Garibaldi.

This debate over Mazzini's formal membership ultimately misses the point; it is a historical red herring. The real connection is that Mazzini's ideology was the purest expression of the political aspirations of Continental Free-Masonry. He was, as one Masonic source describes him, a "born man of Mason", even if he never formally joined. Having been a Carbonaro in his youth, he understood the Masonic model but found the existing lodges, like the Carbonari he quit, to be organizationally inept and ideologically muddled.

Mazzini's solution was not to join a lodge; it was to create a better one. Giovine Italia was his answer—a bespoke secret society, built on a Masonic chassis and dedicated to a "quasi-religious movement". It was streamlined for a single, political purpose: achieving his "religion of politics" and establishing the Italian republic.

Giuseppe Garibaldi (The Grand Master)

If Mazzini was the "Soul," Giuseppe Garibaldi was the "Sword". He was the "Hero of the Two Worlds", a revolutionary general whose military enterprises made him the most popular and iconic figure of the Risorgimento.

In stark contrast to Mazzini's ambiguity, Garibaldi's involvement with Free-Masonry is "active," "keen," and undeniable. His Masonic career was forged in the crucible of revolution and exile. He was initiated around 1844 in Montevideo, Uruguay, in a lodge that offered "asylum" to political refugees. His status became legendary, and he was eventually elected as the Grand Master of the Grand Orient of Italy.

Garibaldi was, above all, a pragmatic Mason. He reportedly "had little use for Masonic rituals". For him, the Craft was a practical tool for "human liberation". He viewed Free-Masonry as a "network that united progressive men as brothers", both within Italy and as a global community. His Masonic-fueled anti-clericalism was notorious. The famous "wary" gaze of his statue on the Janiculum Hill "toward the Vatican" and his 1862 battle cry, "Roma O Morte" ("Rome or Death"), were direct, existential threats to the temporal power of the Pope.

Garibaldi's career demonstrates the true 19th-century function of the Craft: it was a transnational support network for a global class of revolutionaries. His initiation in exile and his use of lodges in New York to find supporters prove that the brotherhood was a vital geopolitical and military asset, allowing him to recruit "comrades in arms" and find international support.

This Masonic network, however, was not a monolith. The deep ideological split of the Risorgimento—republic versus monarchy—was fought inside the Grand Orient of Italy itself. In 1862, a critical election was held for Grand Master. Garibaldi, the republican hero, ran against Filippo Cordova, an eminent politician and ally of the monarchist Cavour. Garibaldi lost the close election, 15 to 13. "Soured by the defeat," he immediately accepted the leadership of a rival Masonic Supreme Council based in Palermo. This "Masonic civil war" is a perfect microcosm of the entire national struggle: the radical, republican, Garibaldian wing of Free-Masonry versus the moderate, monarchist, "filo-Savoy" wing. The lodges were not just supporting the revolution; they were the battleground where two different versions of Italy clashed for supremacy.

The Craft vs. The Crozier

At the heart of the Risorgimento was an irreconcilable, existential conflict. This was not simply a war for territory; it was an ideological war between two worldviews, two "kingdoms." On one side was the new, secular vision of the Free-Masons; on the other, the ancient, theocratic power of the Papacy.

The Catholic Church did not view Free-Masonry as a mere political opponent, but as a theological one. In his 1884 encyclical Humanum genus, Pope Leo XIII framed this battle in apocalyptic terms. The entire "race of man," he wrote, was "separated into two diverse and opposite parts." The first was the "kingdom of God on earth, namely, the true Church of Jesus Christ." The other was the "kingdom of Satan," which, he stated, was "led on or assisted by that strongly organized and widespread association called the Free-Masons". The Papacy viewed the Masons as "a deceitful and crafty enemy", and Catholic intransigents portrayed the 1848 revolutions as a "satanically inspired conspiracy by secret societies".

This war was waged via a century of papal condemnations:

• 1738 - In eminenti apostolatus: Pope Clement XII issued the first papal bull condemning Free-Masonry. It ordered the immediate excommunication of any Catholic who dared to join the Craft.
• 1821 - Ecclesiam a Jesu Christo: Pope Pius VII explicitly condemned the Carbonari, identifying them as a "Free-Mason secret society" and excommunicating all its members for plotting against Church and State.
• 1846-1873 - Pope Pius IX: The Pope who lost the Risorgimento, Pius IX issued numerous encyclicals (Qui pluribus, Quanta cura) as he watched the revolutionaries—many of them avowed Masons—dismantle his territories piece by piece.

The capstone of this ideological war is Pope Leo XIII's 1884 encyclical, Humanum genus. The historical context of this document is everything: it was written after the Masons had won. The 1870 Capture of Rome had occurred, the Papal States were gone, and the Church had lost its thousand-year temporal power. The encyclical is a direct, point-by-point refutation of the victorious Masonic ideals that had just formed the legal and philosophical basis of the new Kingdom of Italy.

Pope Leo XIII specifically condemned:

• Naturalism: The Masonic belief that human reason and nature are the ultimate guides, a philosophy that "den[ies] that free will is not at all weakened and inclined to evil" and thus rejects the need for divine revelation and Church authority.
• Popular Sovereignty: The "fatal" new idea, which he attributes to the Masons, that all political power derives from "the people" and not from God—a doctrine that holds "that no one has the right to command another".
• Separation of Church and State: The "evil" modern concept that the State "should be without God" and that all religions should be treated with "indifference".

This encyclical is perhaps the single most powerful piece of evidence for Free-Masonry's central role in the Risorgimento. It is the Papacy's own admission of defeat. It is a detailed, "loser's history" of the unification, an after-action report that analyzes why the Church lost its kingdom and directly names the "strongly organized and widespread association called the Free-Masons" as the victor. Humanum genus is the "smoking gun" that confirms the Risorgimento was, at its core, an ideological war, and that Free-Masonry provided the winning ideology.

The 1860 Expedition, An International Plot?

No event better captures the blend of Masonic networking and political intrigue than Garibaldi's 1860 "Expedition of the Thousand". With a corps of only 1,000 "Redshirt" volunteers, Garibaldi sailed from Genoa, landed in Sicily, and, in a matter of months, conquered the entire Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, "single-handedly" uniting southern Italy with the north.

This stunning victory has long been the subject of "conspiracy" narratives, claims that are still potent in neo-Bourbon (pro-monarchist) and Catholic-intransigent historiography. This narrative argues that the expedition was not a popular revolt but an "act of international piracy" and an "international plot". The chief plotters, according to this view, were "international Free-Masonry" and its powerful state sponsor, "Perfidious Albion" (a pejorative for England).

The evidence cited by these critics is specific: the entire expedition was "monitored by British Free-Masonry", it received "a large financial contribution from England", and Garibaldi's landing at Marsala was "covered" by the protective presence of the British Royal Navy fleet.

This "plot" narrative is, in fact, a pejorative description of verifiable historical events. The "conspiracy theory" and the "academic history" are describing the same set of facts but using different language. What critics call a "wicked Masonic plot" was, in practice, a masterful example of "clandestine transnational organizers" leveraging their international network.

• Masonic Support (Fact): The "plot" was real networking. One historical analysis states explicitly that Garibaldi (a Mason) "landed in Calabria with the help of the Sprovieri brothers, who were masons, and in September he entered Naples escorted by Liborio Romano, a mason".
• British Support (Fact): This was also real, though driven by liberal idealism and geopolitical self-interest. The British government provided crucial "moral and diplomatic support". Garibaldi was a celebrated hero in Britain, seen as a champion of liberty. A "British Legion" of armed volunteers was even raised to go and fight for him. This support was driven by "British pride in its freedom" and a pragmatic desire to see a unified Italy as a balance against France and Austria.

The "plot," therefore, was not a "conspiracy theory"; it was a successful transnational political operation. The pejorative language of "conspiracy" is simply the term used by the losers—the Bourbons and the Papacy—to de-legitimize a stunning victory won by a superior, better-networked, and more ideologically motivated international coalition.

The Breach of Porta Pia (September 20, 1870)

By 1870, the Risorgimento was nearly complete. Only one piece remained: Rome itself. The city was still the capital of the Papal States, defended by the Pope's own troops and a protective garrison of French soldiers sent by Emperor Napoleon III. The new Kingdom of Italy had declared Rome its capital in 1861, but it could not take it.

The opportunity came, as it so often did, from geopolitics. The outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 forced a desperate Napoleon III to recall his garrison from Rome to defend France. The new Italian government, led by Prime Minister Giovanni Lanza, immediately seized the moment. An army of 50,000 men was dispatched to the papal border under the command of General Raffaele Cadorna.

On September 20, 1870, after Pope Pius IX refused a final offer to surrender, the Italian artillery began its bombardment. It targeted a section of the ancient Aurelian Walls at Porta Pia, which was quickly breached. The elite Bersaglieri corps (light infantry) were the first to enter the city, meeting only token resistance from the papal Zouaves.

The Breccia di Porta Pia (Breach of Porta Pia) was the final act of the Risorgimento. It marked the definitive end of the Papal States and the 1,116-year temporal power of the Pope. After a plebiscite, Rome was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy and finally designated its capital.

This military event was far more than a simple conquest; it was the ultimate symbolic victory of secularism over theocracy, of the 19th century over the Middle Ages. The most profound evidence for this is what happened next: Italian Free-Masonry immediately adopted September 20th as its official "feast," a "manifestation of civic pride" that is celebrated by the Grand Orient of Italy to this very day. The date itself, immortalized in the Via XX Settembre streets found in cities across the nation, became the permanent marker of the "culture war" that the Masons had decisively won. It is the "ground zero" of the new secular state, celebrated annually by the Craft and mourned by the Church. September 20th is, in effect, the Masonic High Holiday of Italian liberation.

The Hidden Hand in the New Kingdom and The Masonic Legacy

With the capture of Rome, the "hidden role" of Free-Masonry transformed. The secrecy that had been a revolutionary tool now became a governing one. The "fires of Risorgimento patriotism" stoked in the lodges had successfully forged a nation. In the new Kingdom of Italy, those same lodges "became a substitute for political parties" and the primary source from which the new ruling class was drawn.

This new liberal state was, in its early decades, dominated by Masons. As historian John Dickie notes, "Liberal Italy had ten or eleven Masonic Prime Ministers". This new Masonic-led ruling class immediately set about waging a "real battle to secularize the schools and free them from the influence of Catholic culture". The anti-clerical, rationalist, and secular ideals of the lodge were systematically translated from revolutionary theory into the foundational law of the new state.

This programmatic phase of the revolution, which took place in the Italian parliament, was the final and most permanent victory of the Masonic worldview.

Key Masonic-Backed Legislation (1866-1877)

This new elite, however, created a structure whose shadow would stretch deep into the 20th century. In 1877, a new and elite lodge, Propaganda Massonica (Masonic Propaganda), was founded in Rome. Its purpose was practical: it was a clandestine hub for the new elite, a place for "members of parliament, senators and bankers" who were Masons but, due to their high-profile state duties in the capital, could not attend their local lodges. Its illustrious members included future Prime Minister Francesco Crispi.

This 19th-century lodge—itself a tool of legitimate (if secret) political networking for the new rulers—set the historical precedent and organizational template for the most infamous secret society in modern Italian history: the Propaganda Due (P2) lodge.

This is the tragic paradox of the Masonic legacy in Italy. The P2 lodge, exposed in 1981 as a "clandestine... criminal organization" and a "state within a state" that planned to take over the Italian government, was the pathological evolution of the very secrecy that created the republic. The structure of the 19th-century lodge (a clandestine hub for the political and financial elite) was perfectly repurposed by P2's "Worshipful Master" Licio Gelli for criminal and anti-democratic ends. The P2 membership list was a dark mirror of its 19th-century predecessor: "generals, judges, journalists, bankers, and politicians". The secrecy that was once a "means of popular resistance to authority" to birth the republic became the disease that nearly destroyed it a century later.

The Double-Edged Sword of Secrecy

The history of the Risorgimento is incomprehensible without its "hidden" Masonic engine. The movement that forged modern Italy was born, nurtured, and defended within the clandestine network of lodges that stretched from the capitals of Europe to the battlefields of South America.

Free-Masonry provided the essential components of the revolution. It provided the ideology—a potent, anti-clerical, and rationalist brew of secularism, liberalism, and republicanism. It provided the organizational model—a clandestine, cell-based structure of brotherhood that Mazzini perfected for Young Italy. It provided the personnel—most notably the revolutionary general and Grand Master Giuseppe Garibaldi, who used the Craft's transnational network as a military and political weapon. And it provided the space—a "substitute for political parties" where the new nation's elite could be forged in secret, safe from the spies of Austria and the Vatican.

The victory of September 20, 1870, and the subsequent secularization of Italian law were the total, unambiguous triumph of the Masonic political vision over the a millennium of papal temporal power. The hidden hand had successfully forged a nation.

This legacy, however, is a double-edged sword. The very secrecy that was a shield for patriots in an age of absolutism cast a long and complex shadow over the new state. It created an enduring political culture of sottogoverno (hidden power) and elite, clandestine networking that has plagued Italian public life ever since. This shadow found its most malignant expression in the P2 scandal, where the tool of the 19th-century revolutionary became the tool of the 20th-century "deep state". The hidden hand that forged the nation remains, to this day, the source of both its secular, liberal identity and its most enduring political pathologies

Article By Antony R.B. Augay P∴M∴