Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/502

 TANUCCI

446

TAOISM

"Hymns Ancient and Modern" in the (Baltimore) "Manual of Prayers", and in the "English Hymnal". Some of the earliest translations of the two lines ai-e: "And where our sense is seen to fail, There must faith supply restore" (Primer, 1604); "And faith with all, those wants supply Wherein the senses feel defect" (Primer, 1619) ; "Let faith in Jesus Christ supply The senses' insufficiency" (Primer, 1685); "And faith for all defects supply, Whilst sense is lost in mystery" (Primer, 1706). One of the most recent translatiora is that of the revised Husenbeth, "The Missal for the Use of the Laity" (London, 190.3, 286): "Let us pro- foundly bend before This awful mystery, and adore; Let types of former days give way. Like darkness at the blaze of day; And sense's failure be suppUed By faith, our firm support and guide."

H. T. Henry.

Tanucci, Bernardo, Marchese, Italian states- man, b. at Stia in Tuscany, of poor family, in 1698; d. at Naples, 29 April, 1793. At the LTniversity of Pisa, where certain benefactors enabled him to study, he was appointed in 1725 to a chair of law, and attracted attention in the republic of scholars by the vehe- mence, rather than by the erudition, with which he defended the authenticity of the Codex Pisanus of the Pandects. When Charles, son of Philip V of Spain, passed through Tiiscany on his way to con- quer the Kingdom of Naples, he took Tanucci with him; he appointed him at first council of state, then superintendent of posts, and finally prime minister. On the last occasion the king ennobled him. As prime minister he was most zealous in establishing the supremacy of the State over the Church, and in abolishing the privileges of the nobility together with feudalism. He restricted the jurisdiction of the bishops, impeded the last increment of the so-called mortmain, and reduced the taxes belonging to the chancery of the Roman Curia. All this was sanc- tioned in the Concordat of 1741, the application of which, however, went far beyond the intentions of the Holy See. For controversies which might arise in consequence of the Concordat a mixed tribunal, composed of ecclesiastics and lajTnen, was consti- tuted. But Tanucci went much farther, establishing the principle that not more than ten priests should be ordained for every thousand souls, which number was later reduced to five for each thousand. The Placet was rigorously enforced. The censures of bishops against laymen incurred by obedience to the state laws were annulled. Without permission of the king new churches could not be erected.

His hostile policy to the Church led Tanucci to neglect other interests, above all the foreign relations. In 1742 an English fleet seriously threatened the Nea- politan coasts, and the kingdom was saved only by the signature of an act of neutrality in the war be- tween Spain and Austria. For the reformation of the laws he instituted a commission of learned jurists with instructions to compile a new code, which was, how- ever, not put into force. When Charles III of Naples succeeded to the throne of Spain in 1759, Tanucci was made president of the council of regency instituted for the nine-year-old Ferdinand V. The latter, even when he attained his majority, preferred to hold aloof from the government business and plunged into the pleasures of the chase. Furthermore, the former King Charles III, although in Spain, continued by his instnictions to Tanucci to govern the kingdom. The latter could now with greater freedom take up his hostile ix)licy to the Church. The revenues of the vacant bishoprics and abbeys — and as time went on their number always increased — were confiscated. Thirty-eight convents were suppressed; tithes were at first restricted, then abolished; the acquisition of new property by mortmain was forbidden, and new re- Btrictiona were made against the recruitment of the

clergy. The Placet was even extended to ancient papal Bulls, and the principle was established that concessions of an ecclesiastical nature, not made or assented to by the king, could be revoked at pleasiu'e by the same king or by his successors. In this man- ner it was possible to suppress or change testaments in favour of the Church at the pleasure of the king, who, according to Tanucci, possessed this power di- rectly from God. Appeals to Rome were forbidden without the royal permission. Matrimony was declared a civil contract by nature, from which principle the trial of matrimonial cases by civil courts was deduced. By the order of Charles III the Jesuits were suppressed and expelled from the Kingdom of Naples (1767).

This expulsion of the Jesuits was part of the movement of the Bourbon courts throughout Europe to destroy the Society, Pombal in Portugal, Aranda in Spain, Choiseul in France, and Tanucci in Naples acting in concert to this end. Scarcely had Clement XIV been elevated to the pontificate than he was urgently soUcited by the Bourbon courts to suppress the Jesuits, and no effort was left untried by the Bourbon ministers to accomplish this purpose. The pope pleaded time and patience in the examination of the charges against the Society, but was overborne by the incessant and menacing attitude of the Bour- bon league against the Jesuits. Tanucci laboured with no less energy in the war upon the Society of Jesus than Pombal, Aranda, and Choiseul, with whom he was in clo.se sympathy in their general hos- tility to the Church as well as in their determinat ion to bring about the complete suppression of an order of men, whose widespread influence was a check upon their own high-handed methods against the freedom of the Church. To excommunication by Clement XIII Tanucci responded with the occupation of Bene- vento and Pontecorvo, which were not evacuated until after the suppression of the Jesuits in 1773. The protests of the bishops against many of the new teachings in the schools after the expulsion of the Jesuits were dismissed as invalid. One of the last of his acts was the abolition of the chinea, that is the annual tribute which the kings of Naples since the time of Charles of Anjou had paid to the pope as sovereign (1776). His unfortunate pohcy in finance and in regard to the food taxes provoked popular revolutions on several occasions. But when, in 1774, Queen Caroline, an Austrian princess, entered the Council of State, the power of Tanucci began to decline. In vain he endeavoured to neutralize the in- fluence of the queen, and in 1777 he fell into disgrace and was dismissed. Retiring into the eountrj', he died neglected and childless.

Tanucci represents the Italian type of that unfor- tunate species of statesman of the eighteenth century the most prominent example of which was the notori- ous Pombal. Sceptics in faith and in morals, they were "anti-clerical" because they aspired to a uni- versal tjTanny of the State, in which the king should be a figurehead while the minister himself was the master. They desired to expel the Jesuits, accusing them, as one would say to-day, "of hberalism"; they ably prepared the way for the power of sects and the crash of revolutions.

Lastre, Elogio del marchese Tanucci (!^oveUe letterarie fiorentine) (Florence, 1783); Colletta. Storia del regno di NapoH dat 1735 al isas, I (Capolago. 1834). See also the documents and statutes on the suppression of the Jesuits. Among the publications of Tanucci are Epistola de pandeciis piaanis (2 vols.. Florence, 1731).

U. Beniqni.

Taoism (T.\o-ki.40) is the second of the three state religions (Sutt-kiao) of China. This religion is derived from the philosophical doctrines of Lao-tze. "Lao- tze's Taoism", says Legge (Religions of China, 229), "is the exhibition of a way or method of living which men should cultivate as the highest and purest