Giovannali

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The Ghjuvannali or Giovannali were a sect in Corsica . According to the thesis of Alexandre Grassi (1866) they were the " Cathars " of Corsica. For more recent historians it is a split from the Franciscans . This community originated in Carbini in the region of l'Alta Rocca in the 14th century . It existed for a period of about 50 years.

to teach

The Giovannali were led by the Franciscan brother Giovanni Martini . As is customary with the Franciscans, their teaching was determined by vows of poverty and self-giving. There was no property and all goods were given to the community. Therefore they seem to have had less in common with the Cathars. There are more connections to the fraticels . They imposed penance and various scourges . Their ideals were humility, simplicity, poverty and non-violence. By rejecting the sacrament of marriage, they created a reputation for licentiousness and, according to their persecutors, also celebrated Sabbaths .

“They founded this sect in Carbini in which women entered just like men; their law required that they should have everything in common, women, children, as well as all goods; perhaps they wanted to revive the Golden Age of Saturn's epoch that poets sang about. They imposed certain penalties according to their own kind; They gathered in churches at night to offer their sacrifices, and there, after certain superstitious practices, after some empty ceremonies, they lit the torches, then assumed the most shameful attitudes and positions imaginable, and gave themselves, one to the other for satisfaction, without distinction to women and men. "

- Abbé Letteron : Histoire de la Corse - Tome 1 , Bastia 1888.

The community developed in the south of the island, in the Delà des Monts or Terra di i Signori (Land of Lords). Because they refused to pay taxes, they became enemies of the state. There was also a group in the north of the island, in Alesani.

history

According to Giovanni della Grossa , this sect was born in 1354. The champions of the sect were Polo and Arrigo d'Attalà, illegitimate brothers of Guglielminuccio, lord of Attallà .

Polo d'Attalà was the leader of the sect, the territory of which extended to the Deçà des Monts ( Terre de Commune ).

In 1352 the Bishop of Aléria excommunicated the " heretics ". At the end of the same year the Ghjuvannali appealed to the Archbishop of Pisa (Giovanni Scarlatti) and obtained the lifting of the excommunication. As a result, they radicalized themselves against the church hierarchies, which they condemned in contrast to the Christian message. Her spirituality, her religious and social approach caused reactions all over Corsica. But in 1354, shortly before his death, Monseigneur Raimondo, Bishop of Aléria, turned to Pope Innocent VI. and once again confirmed that the Ghjuvannali heretics were «irrespectueux envers l'autorité épiscopale» . The Pope, at that time already in residence in Avignon , declared the Ghjuvannali heretics.

His successor, the Benedictine Urban V , maintained the excommunication and sent a legate to Corsica. The papal commissioner, with the support of local lords, organized a holy military crusade in the region of Carbini and the plain to the east. A number of Ghjuvannali, including women and children, were massacred in the name of the Church between 1363 and 1364 in Carbini, Ghisoni , in the monastery of 'Alesani and in other villages. The last executions were carried out in Ghisoni. There the Ghjuvannali were burned at the foot of the mountain called Kyrie Eleison et Christe Eleison .

“He sent a commissioner to Corsica with some soldiers. Those Corsicans who abhorred the sectarians allied themselves with the commissioner and attacked the Giovannali in Alesani, from where they were forcibly expelled. The sectarians were beaten and dispersed, and wherever one of their own was recognized on the island, they were instantly massacred without mercy. This is where the expression that is used in Corsica to this day comes from when you compare it to someone who is threatened to the point of death with his whole family: 'You are treated like the Giovannali'. "

- Abbé Letteron : : Histoire de la Corse - Tome 1 , Bastia 1888th

In this time of hunger, disaster and disease, it is one of the darker pages of Corsican history.

Popular culture

A chanson by the Corsican group Canta u Populu Corsu on the album Rinvivisce is entitled I Ghjuvannali .

literature

  • Abbé Letteron : Histoire de la Corse. Tome 1 , Bulletin de la Société des sciences naturelles et historiques de la Corse, Imprimerie et librairie V e Eugène Ollagnier Bastia 1888. in Chronique de Giovanni della Grossa , pp. 219-220.
  • Philippe Franchini: Les chemins de granit, I ghjuvannali . Colonna édition 2011.
  • Francis Pomponi : Histoire de la Corse . Hachette, Paris 1979, ISBN 2-01-003859-2 .
  • Daniela Müller: The Giovannali - A little-known Corsican dissident movement. In: Hans-Jürgen Becker, Andreas Thier, Heinrich de Wall (ed.): Journal of the Savigny Foundation for Legal History: Canonical Department; Vol. 82, 1, Aug 1996: 403-418. ISSN Online 2304-4896, ISSN (Print) 0323-4142
  • Heidrun Moser (ed.): Corsica. Michelin, the green travel guide. Univ. Press of Mississippi 2008: 101.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Daniela Müller is based on research by l'abbe Casanova from the early 20th century, which were supported in the 1950s by Dorothy Carrington. - Revue Pyrénées - Spécial Cathares - 2003
  2. ↑ "Ils formèrent à Carbini cette secte dans laquelle les femmes entrèrent also bien que les hommes; leur loi portait que tout serait commun entre eux, les femmes, les enfants, ainsi que tous les biens; peut-être voulaient-ils faire revivre l'âge d'or du temps de Saturne qu'ont chanté les poètes. Ils s'imposaient certaines pénitences à leur manière; ils se réunissaient dans les églises la nuit pour faire leurs sacrifices, et là, après certaines pratiques superstitieuses, après quelques vaines cérémonies, ils éteignaient les flambeaux, puis prenant les postures les plus honteuses et les plus dégoûtantes seiner qu'ils livraient, l'un à l'autre jusqu'à satiété, sans distinction d'hommes ni de femmes. "- Abbé Letteron: Histoire de la Corse - Tome 1, Bastia 1888. p. 220.
  3. ↑ Abbé Letteron: Histoire de la Corse - Tome 1 , Bulletin de la Société des sciences naturelles et historiques de la Corse, Imprimerie et librairie V e Eugène Ollagnier Bastia 1888.
  4. ↑ according to information from the Accademia corsa : Les Ghjuvannali
  5. ↑ "Il envoya en Corse un commissaire avec quelques soldats. Les Corses qui exécraient les nouveaux sectaires se joignirent au commissaire et allèrent attaquer les Giovannali dans la piève d'Alesani où ils s'étaient retranchés fortement. Les sectaires furent battus et dispersés et partout où l'un d'eux était reconnu dans l'île, il était massacré aussitôt sans pitié. De là vient qu'encore aujourd'hui en Corse, lorsqu'on parle de certaines personnes qui, pour une raison quelconque, ont été poursuivies avec toute leur famille jusqu'à la mort, on se sert de cette comparaison: Ils ont été traités comme les Giovannali. "Abbé Letteron: Histoire de la Corse - Tome 1 , Bastia 1888, p. 220.

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