5 - The People’s Patrimony: Defining Historical Value
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 May 2021
Summary
Abstract
In the contemporary world of nineteenth- and twentieth-century politics, Monte Cassino's patrimony passed from the monks of the abbey to the sovereign nation state; as ideological claims over the abbey's (universal) heritage became more pronounced with the threat of imminent disaster, however, its heirs became the wider world. Recognition of its value became formalised as external interest in its preservation increased; as an object deemed worthy of protection, the abbey came to signify not only a united Europe, but an emblem of Western civilisation. This chapter traces the development of this idea, paying particular attention to its emergence and uniqueness in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It argues for Monte Cassino's role in this era as an etic symbol of continuity capable of transcending national and international borders – an order of ideas whose interrogation reveals a process of consecration and institutionalisation.
Keywords: patrimony; unification; Gladstone; Tosti; preservation; protection; veneration; historic monuments
‘History is European. […] [I]t is quite unintelligible if treated as merely local.’
On 31 July 1866, Mr John Hubbard rose in the House of Commons to address ‘certain circumstances relating to the great Benedictine monastery of Monte Cassino’. He was concerned, first and foremost, with the preservation of this distinguished seat of learning. Its monks ‘were not what we supposed the inhabitants of convents generally to be’; they ‘were men of family, education, and independence’, he said, ‘who in their retirement guarded literary treasures of great value, and whose learning had been of advantage to the whole of Europe’. Moreover, they ‘had taken a warm interest in the progress of Italy’, whose government had recently issued a ‘statute for the suppression of Ecclesiastical Corporations’. The House wished to gather more information on the matter, to discern whether the Italian government might make an exception to the law of suppression, or to find out whether institutions like Monte Cassino might be preserved without violating the sovereign decree.
The cause for concern was not merely political. Religious institutions like Monte Cassino were centuries old and distinguished. As such, it was asked, have they not ‘acquired the sympathy and respect of the civilized world?’ The answer from within the House was a resounding ‘yes’.
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- The Destruction and Recovery of Monte Cassino, 529–1964 , pp. 159 - 186Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2021