CARBONARI, kir-b6-na're (colliers, or more strictly, charcoal-burners), the name of a large political secret society in Italy. Accord ing to Botta's 'Storia d'Italia' the Republicans fled, under the reign of Joachim (Murat), to the recesses of the Abruzzi, inspired with an equal hatred of the French and of Ferdinand. They formed a secret confederacy, and called themselves carbonari. Their chief, Capobianco, possessed great talents as an orator. Their war-cry was "Revenge for the lamb mangled by the wolf P When Murat ascended the throne of Naples he employed Maghella, a Genoese, in the Department of Police, and after ward as minister. All his efforts were directed to the union and independence of Italy, and for this purpose he made use of the Society of the Carbonari. The ritual of the Carbonari was taken from the trade of the charcoal burner. Clearing the wood of wolves (opposition to tyranny) was the symbolic expression pf their aim. By this they are said to have meant at first only deliverance from foreign dominion; but in later times democratic and anti-mon archical principles sprang up. They called one another good cousins. No general union of the order under a common head seemsto have been effected. The separate societies in the small towns entered into a connection with each other, but this union extended no farther than the province. The place of assembly was called the hut (barraca); the surrounding neighbor hood was called the wood; the meeting itself was distinguished as the sale (vendita). The confederation of all the huts of the province was called the republic, generally bearing the ancient name of the province. The chief huts (alter barraca) at Naples and at Salerno en deavored to effect a general union of the order, at least for the kingdom; but the attempt ap pears to have been unsuccessful. The order,
soon after its foundation, contained from 24, 000 to 30,000 members, and increased so rapidly that it spread through all Italy.. In 1820, in the month of March alone, about 650,000 new mem bers are said to have been admitted; whole cities joined the Society. The military, in particular, seem to have thronged for admis sion. The religious character of the order ap pears from its statutes: "Every Carbonaro has the natural and inalienable right to worship the Almighty according to the dictates of his con science." After the suppression of the Neapoli tan and Piedmontese revolution in 1821, the Carbonari throughout Italy were declared guilty of high treason, and punished by the laws. Meantime societies of a similar kind had been formed in France, with which the Italian Car bonari amalgamated, and Paris became the headquarters of Carbonarism. The organiza tion took on more of a French character, and gradually alienated the sympathies of the Italian members, a number of whom dissolved connection with it, in order to form the party of Young Italy, under Mazzini. Consult (Memoirs of the Secret Societies of the South of Italy, particularly the Carbonari' (London 1821) ; Conciliatore e i CarbonarP (Milan 1878) ; Johnston, R. M., 'Napoleonic Empire in Southern Italy, and the Rise of the Secret Societies' (London 1904) ; Bandini, (Giorriali e scritti politici clandestini della Carbonaria Romagnola, 1819-21' (Rome M).