The Religious Basis of Giuseppe Mazzini's Political Thought

If the reputation of a historical figure is measured by the amount of attention historians have given him, then undoubtedly Giuseppe Mazzini is one of the most prominent men in Italian history. There are many reasons for historians focusing their attention on him. Certainly the role of the idealist in the Risorgimento and the national movement accounts for much of the interest he has evoked in Italy and abroad. To interpret Mazzini as essentially a political figure, however, is to misinterpret the man and indeed to misinterpret a very important aspect of the Risorgimento with which Mazzini is so intimately, identified. If Mazzini's fame rests upon his early emphasis on Italian nationalism, his program centered upon the religious regeneration of mankind. Few great men have been adequately understood by their followers and successors, and Mazzini did not have the good fortune to be in this select group. Undeniably a number of writers have been attracted by Mazzini's unusual personality and his enigmatic religious outlook, and these have helped place him in the historical limelight. Yet the complexity of his thought and the apparent contradictions in his system have combined to keep his outlook veiled and his new religion inex plicable. Mazzini was a unique figure in the nineteenth century, and not since the Middle Ages has there been a similar architect of life. Both friends and foes admit that he produced a second Divine Comedy for Italians and for all humanity. Like the great poem of