DAVID LAZZARETTI. 127 arch. In the spring of 1878 he urged the adoption of sacerdotal marriage, he disregarded fast-days, administered communion to his disciples in a rite of his own, and composed for them a creed of which the twenty -fourth article was, " I believe that our founder, David Lazzaretti, the anointed of the Lord, judged and condemned by the Roman curia, is really Christ, the leader and the judge." That the people accepted him is seen in the fact that for three successive Sundays the priest of Arcidosso found his church with- out a worshipper. David founded a " Society of the Holy League, or Christian Brotherhood," and proclaimed the coming Republic or Kingdom of God, when all property should be equally divided. Even this communism did not frighten off the small proprietors who constituted the greater portion of his following. There was general discontent, owing to a succession of unfortunate harvests and the increasing pressure of taxation, and when, on August 14, 1878, he announced that he would set out with his disciples peace- fully to inaugurate his theocratic republic, the whole population gathered on Monte Labbro. After four days spent in religious exercises the extraordinary crusade set forth, consisting of all ages and both sexes, arrayed in a fantastic uniform of red and blue, and bearing banners and garlands of flowers with which to revolu- tionize society. Its triumphal march was short. At the village of Arcidosso its progress was disputed by a squad of nine cara- bineers, who poured volleys into the defenceless crowd. Thirty- four of the Lazzarettists fell, killed and wounded, and among them David himself, with a bullet in his brain.* Whether he was en- thusiast or impostor may remain an open question. Travel and study had brought him training ; he was no longer a rude moun-
- Barzellotti, David Lazzaretti di Arcidosso detto il Santo. Bologna, 1885.
Somewhat similar is the career of an ex-sergeant of the Italian army named Gabriele Donnici, who has founded in the Calabrian highlands a sect dignifying itself with the title of the Saints. Gabriele is a prophet announcing the advent of a new Messiah, who is to come not as a lamb, but as a lion breathing ven- geance and armed with bloody scourges. He and his brother Abele were tried for the murder of the wife of the latter, Grazia Funaro, who refused to submit to the sexual abominations taught in the sect. They were condemned to hard labor and imprisonment, but were discharged on appeal to the Superior Court of Co- senza. Other misdeeds of the sectaries are at present occupying the attention of the Italian tribunals.— Rivista Cristiana, 1887, p. 57.
