Fra angustie di coscienza e ordine politico

Until the mid-twentieth century, the theme of the ‘civil’ oath of ecclesiastics was still very topical: the institute had – however – very deep roots, especially in the historical-juridical tradition of the Savoy states in modern times, to then move on to pre-unification events and its formal abolition by the Kingdom of Italy in 1871 with the Laws of guarentigie. [..] Around these historical-political vicissitudes, significant juridical problems emerge about the legitimacy of oaths, their “ecclesiastical” nature and the importance of the dispensation granted by the pope in a few months (from November 1821 to September 1822) in the form of a real act of derogation from an imperative fee contained in the Liber Extra. […] All this fits – also – in the precise historical context of the Savoy Restoration, whose institutional, juridical and political events have been for years a meeting ground for different historiographical perspectives. Starting from the important contribution of Enrico Genta, on the legal eclecticism of the Restoration, it was possible – in fact – to grasp some features of the institutions and legal culture of the Kingdom of Sardinia, which had remained on the background of the more traditional reconstructions.