The Towianist Inquests. The Roman Catholic Church against Romantic Messianism (1841-1859)

This dissertation focuses the reaction of the Roman Catholic Church to Towianism, the heterodox Catholic current named after the Polish religious leader Andrzej Towiański (1799-1878). Towianism was a religious and social movement that supported the affirmation of national independences and proposed a new conception of social and political relations. Its history spans from the third decade of the nineteenth century to the first half of the twentieth century, and touched Italy, France, Switzerland, Poland, Lithuania, and the German region of Hesse. Using a historical-critical methodology based on archival sources, this dissertation aims at addressing three aspects of the religious, social, and political landscape of the middle of the nineteenth century such as the attitude of the Church towards a non-institutionalised Catholic movement, its reaction to a new vision of society according to which the influence and control of the Church would be drastically reduced, and the development of a movement that was grounded on Catholicism while at the same time opposed by the Church. The dissertation is divided into five chapters. The first chapter explains the methodology, the status quæstionis, and gives an overview of Towiański’s doctrine. The second chapter displays Towiański’s travels and the rooting of Towianism in France from 1841. The third chapter shows the diffusion of Towianism across Europe. The fourth chapter is devoted to the reaction of the Roman Catholic Church to Towianism after 1854. The fifth chapter presents an analysis of the Towianist phenomenon in relation to the Church within the given historical period.