Cardinal Ruffo recruited the Sanfedisti in his native
Calabria. His recruiting poster of February 1799 reads: :"Brave and courageous Calabrians, unite now under the standard of the Holy Cross and of our beloved sovereign. Do not wait for the enemy to come and contaminate our home neighbourhoods. Let us march to confront him, to repel him, to hunt him out of our kingdom and out of Italy and to break the barbarous chains of our holy Pontiff. May the banner of the Holy Cross secure you total victory." . The
Sanfedismo movement nominally acted on behalf of
Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies. On January 25, 1799, two days after the proclamation of the Parthenopean Republic, Ferdinand appointed Ruffo, while both were taking refuge in
Palermo,
Sicily, to act as his
vicar-general on the Italian mainland. Ruffo landed in
Calabria on February 7 with no money or weapons and only eight companions, but bearing a banner with the royal arms on one side and a cross on the other, also bearing the ancient slogan "
In hoc signo vinces." It took Ruffo a month to amass a force of 17,000; mostly peasants, but also "bandits, ecclesiastics, mercenaries, looters, devotees, and assassins." During the campaign, Ruffo corresponded with Ferdinand's agent,
Sir John Acton, 6th Baronet, updating him on the military progress of the Sanfedisti: • "I beg the king [of Naples] to order at least a thousand handguns and many loads of lead shot to be sent to me" (February 12) • "I think it would be expedient to send a frigate with a mortar against
Cotrone and to destroy it absolutely" (February 26) • "
Catanzaro has really surrendered; many of the worst fellows have been massacred, others taken prisoner" (March 8) • "
Cosenza has been taken and sacked" (March 19) By the end of April, the Sanfedisti had subdued the entirety of Calabria,
Basilicata and most of
Apulia, and by June had begun a land siege of the city of
Naples. In the siege, the
Sanfedismo irregulars were supported by the British
Royal Navy under the command of Admiral
Horatio Nelson, for which Ferdinand gave Nelson the title of
Duke of Bronte, which Nelson affixed to his signature for the rest of his life. The Parthenopean Republic collapsed on June 19, 1799. Most of the Sanfedisti victories occurred in rugged terrain, which was "well-suited" to the irregular style of warfare employed by Ruffo. Similar to other anti-French uprisings in Italy, the Sanfedisti were not, as a rule, amiable towards Radicals, Freemasons and Jews, who were perceived as supporters of the Enlightenment ideology. Furthermore, Bishop
Giovanni Andrea Serrao, the
Jansenist leader in southern Italy and despite being a supporter of the Parthenopaean Republic, was
summarily executed on February 24, 1799, by the Republican soldiers of the
Potenza garrison, as Ruffo's forces were drawing near to the city. == Legacy ==