RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Italy
Italy, the Reformation in
their southern district twenty-five churches and stations, numbering all together some 2,000 communicants. They maintain elemen- 3. Foreign tarv scnooiSj ancj an orphan asylum
_lssj;°g ^y at Intra. The Methodist Episcopal tions and Church (of America) began missionary Churches. work m Italy in 1873. It now numbers twelve churches, forty mission stations, and about 1,500 communicants. It has day and evening schools employing upward of forty teachers, and also a theological school at Rome. The United Baptists, American and English, have been in Italy since 1870 and 1871. All together, they have eighty-one stations, some forty ministers, five colporteurs, and about 1,500 communicants. [George B. Taylor (d. at Rome in 1906) was for forty years at the head of the American Baptist Mission.] An independent missionary work is carried on by the Englishman Clarke in Spezia, Areola, Belluno, Levanto, Marola, Pordenone, and Seren.
There are English churches in Florence, Genoa, Milan, Naples, Rome, and Venice, American Protestant churches in Florence and Rome, and Scotch Presbyterian churches in Genoa, Naples, Rome, and Venice. The Germans in Italy have formed a number of congregations at various places. They maintain schools in Florence, Genoa, Messina, Milan, Naples, Palermo, and Rome, and hospitals in Florence, Genoa, Milan, Naples, and Rome. Since 1880 the German ministers in Italy have had their annual conference.
Perhaps the most flourishing Evangelical congregation in Italy is the Evangelical Military Association in Rome, which was founded by L. Capellini (d. 1898).
Of other educational and charitable institutions under Evangelical control may be mentioned the high schools for girls in Florence and . enevo- Naples; the Anglo-American Institute tutions " a* R°me; the elementary schools of Miss Carruthers at Pisa, S. Michele degli Scalzi, and Cisanello di Ghezzano; Dr. Comandi's orphan asylum for boys at Florence; the Feretti orphan asylum for girls at Florence; the Gould Institute at Rome, an educational institution for boys and girls; the work-school for women at Turin; the Boyce Memorial Home at Vallecrosia, an asylum for orphans, both boys and girls; and the Evangelical Rescue-Mission of Mrs. Hammond in Venice.
There are three Bible societies working in Italy, viz., the Italian Bible Society, which was founded in Rome in 1871, the British and Foreign Bible a d T % Society, and the National Bible Society Societies °^ Scotland. Since 1860 the British and Foreign Bible Society has distributed in Italy more than 3,000,000 Bibles and New Testaments. The Italian Tract Society, founded at Florence in 1855, has a printing-establishment at Florence and salesrooms in a dozen Italian cities. To this tract society the entire Protestant Church in Italy is indebted for the great bulk of its polemical and educational literature. This society also publishes L 'Italia Evangelica, an illustrated family weekly; L'Amico dei fanciulli, an illustrated
monthly for children; and L'Amico di casa, a popular calendar (annual edition, 35,000). Of less importance is the Baptist Tract Society in Turin.
Other Evangelical periodicals are La Rivista Christiana, a scholarly monthly; Le Temoin, the
weekly organ of the French-speaking
6. Periodi- Waldensians; La Luce, a Waldensian
cals. weekly; II Christiano, the monthly
organ of the Free Christian Church; La Civilta Evangelica, a monthly published by the Wesleyans; II Piccolo Messaggiere, the monthly of the Evangelical Italian Church; L' Evangelista, a weekly issued by the Methodists; II Testimonio, a Baptist monthly; and II Labaro, a monthly published by the Old Catholics. (K. Ronneke.)
Bibliography: The official Roman Catholic record is given in the annual, Gerarchia cattolica. More general works are: C. Hemans, Catholic Italy, 2 vols., Florence, 1861; J. H. Eager, Romanism in its Home, Philadelphia, 1899; A. Robertson, The Roman Catholic Church in Italy, London, 1903. On the Old Catholic movement in general consult: A. M. Scarth, Story of the Old Catholic and Kindred Movements, London, 1869; C. J. Loyson, Catholic Reform, ib. 1874; F. Meyrick, The Old Catholic Movement, ib. 1877. On Protestantism in general consult: R. Baird, Sketches of Protestantism in Italy, Boston, 1847; J. A. Wylie, The Awakening of Italy, London, 1866; H. H. Farrell, Italy Struggling into Light, Cincinnati, 1880; J. Stoughton, Footprints of Italian Reformers, London, 1881; J. W. Brown, An Italian Campaign, ib. 1890 (the Evangelical movement 1845-1887); E. Gebhardt, L'ltalie mystique, Paris, 1890; A. R. Pennington, The Church in Italy, London, 1895; G. B. Taylor, Italy and the Italians, Philadelphia, 1898. On the Free Churches consult the Reports of the General Assembly, usually published under the titles Verbali delta . Assemblea Generate della Chiese Cristiane in Italia; The Free Christian Church in Italy, Evangelization Report, Florence, 1874. For the Waldenses see the literature under Waldenses.