280	THE   RISE   OF   ITALIAN   FASCISM
and attacked in the press for its alleged connection with
the Popolari, as if the latter were an emanation of the Holy
See or represented the Catholics in the country or in
parliament. Against these insinuations the Holy See has
always energetically protested, constantly declaring that,
faithful to its principles of keeping outside political
rivalries, it has remained and means to remain in the future
totally separate from the Popolari, as from all other political
parties ; and that it intends to censure or blame them,
like any other party, if they act in opposition to the
principles of religion and Christian morality/
The right wing of the Popolari won an important victory
over the list for the municipal elections in Milan after the
* legal' dissolution of the socialist council. At an early
meeting the idea of putting up a separate list had prevailed,
but on October 23, after a referendum, over which the
Archbishop of Milan brought all his influence to bear, the
proposal simply to support the list of the national bloc was
carried by a large majority.
At that time the Republican Party was greatly reduced in
strength, though it had important centres in the Romagna
and in Genoa, the city of Mazzini. In the Romagna hatred
of the socialists had thrown some of the republicans into the
arms of the fascists, who had made a point of showing
republican tendencies. In August, after the general strike,
the republicans withdrew the e moral support3 they had
given to the Alliance of Labour.
During the second half of 1922 the many 'loyalist3
declarations made by Mussolini and other fascist leaders
had diminished their enthusiasm and their hopes of founding
some sort of republic with the aid of fascism. But Mussolini
was busy fostering a separatist movement inside the small
Republican Party. Towards the end of August ' republican
fasci' began to appear, the first of which, in Genoa, an-
nounced c its perfect agreement with the methods used by
the National Fascist Party to combat the political and
economic aims of every sort of anti-nationalist party '. On
October 16 there was founded in Rome the e National
Mazzini Union', on the initiative of an adventurer of the