This article reveals for the first time how Catholic clerics survived financially during the Napoleonic period in Italy (1796–1814). Despite the very rich, 200-year historiography on one of the Church's most critical periods, there is almost nothing on how religious clerics coped at this time. Their institutions had been despoiled by the French, often in collaboration with locals, negating traditional forms of clerical income, such as alms or rental income from non-ecclesiastical properties. This caused clerics to search out unorthodox – at times, non-canonical – ways of eking out a living, either for themselves, their religious communities or both, as such distinctions were often blurred. Masses were monetized and traded; ecclesiastical paraphernalia composed of precious metals were smelted and commodified, and relics were sold for profit. The uncovering of these controversial acts by men who in normal times were upstanding reveals the desperation of the times and provides insight into the rich discussion on determining the degrees of separation (and overlap) between the sacred and profane.

中文翻译：

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亵渎神圣：1796-1814 年拿破仑时期天主教神职人员的非正统金融活动

本文首次揭示了天主教神职人员在意大利拿破仑时期（1796-1814 年）如何在经济上幸存下来。尽管关于教会最关键时期之一的 200 年历史编纂非常丰富，但几乎没有关于当时宗教神职人员如何应对的内容。他们的机构被法国人掠夺，通常与当地人合作，否定传统形式的文书收入，例如施舍或非教会财产的租金收入。这导致神职人员寻找非正统的——有时是非规范的——谋生的方式，无论是为了自己，还是为了他们的宗教社区或两者兼而有之，因为这种区别往往是模糊的。大众被货币化和交易；由贵金属组成的教会用具被冶炼和商品化，遗物被出售以获取利润。