88

LIFE OF COLONEL MACERONI.

of naval architecture ; a naval academy, and a corporationof pilots. Further to encourage trade, he repealed thepenal statutes which had been issued by Charles V. , againstthe Jews , who consequently flocked to Naples in greatnumbers with very considerable riches. He assigned to thema quarter of the city for their residence, not in the spirit ofdistinction, but for their own convenience, and gave themthe rights of citizenship. Tanucci proceeded to annul thepayment of an annual nominal tribute to the Pope, anddeprived him of his assumed privilege of naming the Neapo-litan bishops. All privileges, immunities, asylums, affordedby churches, convents, or other ecclesiastical establishments,which gave impunity to crime, were abolished. A multitudeof convents were suppressed ; the erection of any new ones, orof churches, was most strictly prohibited. Several churcheswhich were subsequently built, in violation of this law, weredemolished or converted into schools, or hospitals. Subse-quently to this, in 1759, Tanucci became a member of theRegency in the minority of Ferdinand the son of Charles ,who left Naples to ascend the throne of Spain . Of theeight members of the Regency, Tanucci was the only man ofbusiness, so that in fact he governed alone, and with morethan regal authority, because it was with the approbationand benedictions of the wise and good.

Fresh convents were suppressed; ecclesiastical tithesabolished; all testamentary bequests to ecclesiasticalbodies, or persons (save relatives) declared null and void.Many curious subterfuges of this law, such as pious personsleaving their estates “ to their own souls,” that is for massesto be said for their said “ souls,” &c., were detected, an-nulled, and punished in the persons of the priests or bishopswho had received the bequests. All ecclesiastical jurisdic-tions were abolished, and ecclesiastics of all grades sub-mitted to the action of the common law. The number of