There are a few chapels and churches around Malta which sport an intriguing Latin sign: “Non gode immunity ecclesiastica” (“Doesn’t provide ecclesiastical immunity”). I wanted to understand why a church would not be a place of refuge, and why some other churches still were sanctuaries.

Background

By 1759, the Maltese islands had gone through a golden age under the patronage of the Knights of St John. For almost 200 years no major attack had troubled the islands and the people lived a safe life. The Grand Master of the Knights at the time was Portuguese Manoel Pinto de Fonseca.

He had invested huge sums of money on the islands and people had yet to notice he had borrowed so much money he bankrupted the Order of St John. The bulk of the investment went into the main cities and the harbour area.

In other words you only benefited from this largesse if you were somehow connected to the Knights’ maritime forces. People living in the countryside were not so lucky.

On 10 February 1759 Pinto wrote to his ambassador in Rome about burglaries taking place in Malta¹. Gangs of thieves attacked houses to steal whatever they could¹. They terrorised people so the Knights roamed the countryside for protection¹.

These thieves often admitted their crimes and fingered accomplices hiding in churches around Malta¹. Pinto argued that thieves gained immunity from the law through any church¹. Wouldn’t it make sense to “restrict immunity to those churches where the Holy Sacrament is kept” he asked¹.

Meanwhile Pinto promised a reward of 100 scudi for any thief captured alive, and 50 scudi if dead.

Things soon became complicated.

Complications

Rome wanted to prevent problems and issued guidelines to its Bishop within a month¹. It was not prepared to accept this abuse of the Church’s position¹. Refugees in churches now had a time limit of 3 days to leave before they would be turned over to the authorities¹.

Despite this change, the people abusing the situation took things a step further. One thief stoned a court official who went to see who was hiding in church¹. In another case, a gang of thieves shot and attacked other court officials¹. In yet another, a prostitute took refuge in a chapel and used it as a brothel².

This was one insult too much for Pinto who was eager for Rome’s opinion. The Pope agreed this was an abuse of the principle of sanctuary but didn’t see the need to help out¹. He let his Bishop in Malta take care of the situation instead.

The Bishop agreed with Pinto’s assessment that the sheer number of churches – and therefore sanctuaries – in such a small diocese was the problem¹.

End game

On 10 January 1761, Pope Clement XIII wrote to Malta’s Bishop restricting sanctuaries to churches and chapels that kept the Holy Sacrament¹. Pope Clement cited two reasons for this – the intolerable danger to public peace, and the great number of churches in Malta (327 at the time)¹.

The Curia published this edict on Saturday 30 May, and explained it to their congregations the next day¹.

On Monday 01 June the Church ordered carpenters to fix a notice on the main door of places that no longer were sanctuaries¹. It was up to the curator of each church to make sure this was not hung upside down¹.

These notices are still there today. Rather than a simple sign nailed to the church door, the message Non gode immunity ecclesiastica is now visible on a ceramic sign by the main door.

It didn’t take long before some clerics wrote to Rome asking for ’their’ church to be exempt from this edict¹. The Vatican sent a new edict on 17 June 1762 restoring immunity to churches important enough to merit this¹. Among these are churches in Valletta, the capital, and Balzan which is my home village¹.

In total 93 chapels and churches no longer were sanctuaries¹.

References

1. Non Gode l’Immunitá Ecclesiastica; Frans Ciappara; Melita Historica; (Retrieved 2019-11-04) [↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩]
2. The Last of the Crusaders; Roderick Cavaliero; 1960[↩]

Remember: links were correct at time of publication.