Giovanni Beccaria (reformer)

Giovanni Beccaria or Johannes Baccaria (* 1508 or 1511 in Locarno ; † 1580 in Chiavenna , then in Graubünden , Switzerland , now Valtellina , Italy ) was a Swiss Catholic priest , teacher and reformer from Locarno and in Misox , deacon and catechist in Zurich and Reformed pastor in Bondo in Bergell in Graubünden .

Life

Beccaria came from a wealthy Milanese family who had settled in Locarno for political reasons and received citizenship. He received part of his training as a priest in Rome , where he came into contact with Italian humanists who were also informed about the Reformation in German-speaking countries. In 1535 he returned to Locarno, where a year later he was entrusted with the management of the Latin school in the monastery of San Francesco, but received no desired priesthood.

Beccaria's interest in the Bible and the writings of the Reformation awoke around 1539 . Soon he passed the newly discovered evangelical faith on to his students and interested parties. His closest circle included five young men named Lodovico Ronco, Taddeo Duno , Martino Muralto , Giovanni Muralto and Luigi Orello, who supported him, accepted and spread the new faith. He also received financial help from Glarner Landvogt Joachim Bäldi and theological support from the Zurich reformers Konrad Pellikan and Heinrich Bullinger . In 1547 he abolished the daily Holy Mass , which made the conflict with the Catholic clergy public and thus intensified it.

On August 5, 1549, Beccaria, Duno, Ronco, Martino and Giovanni Muralto took part in a public religious debate in the governor's palace chaired by governor Wirz. On the Catholic side, Fra Lorenzo, Andrea and Girolamo Camuzzi, Galeazzo Muralto and the land clerk from Lugano, Hans Zumbrunnen, were involved. The "conversation" was broken off without an agreement because the Evangelicals had to accept or reject the closing speeches written by Fra Lorenzo. Beccaria only wanted to accept them to the extent that they would agree with the Bible. Thereupon he was arrested by the Catholic bailiff, but soon released under pressure from the population. However, he had to leave Locarno in 1550 due to pressure from the Catholic towns and for security reasons.

Beccaria first moved to Misox, then through the Bündnerland to Glarus, where he visited the former governor Joachim Bäldi. He moved on to Zurich, where he met Pellikan and Bullinger. Then he informed the Reformed estates of Bern , Basel and Schaffhausen about the pressure on the Ecclesia Locarnensis , the new Protestant community of Locarno. They promised to support the reformed Locarnese. He moved to Roveredo and then to Mesocco im Misox, where he worked as a teacher, preacher and reformer. Sometimes the Evangelical Locarnos sent their children to his classes. In 1555 he moved with the evicted Reformed Locarnos through Graubünden to Chur , where he met the reformer Philipp Gallicius . He took the exiles to Zurich, where he worked as their catechist, deacon and elder. He also took students into his home. He did not accept the preaching position offered for Italian speakers after an existing exam in Zurich because he did not feel up to the theological demands with his inadequate priestly training. Instead, the more educated Bernardino Ochino was appointed pastor of the Italian-speaking community in St. Peter's Church in Zurich.

In 1559 he resumed his preaching activity at Misox. In 1561 he was banished from there due to Catholic interventions as part of the Counter Reformation . The town of Chiavenna now became his refuge, but he tried unsuccessfully to return to Misox in 1570. Finally, in 1571, he went to neighboring Bergell, where he became a Reformed pastor in Bondo.

literature

• Emidio Campi : Giovanni Beccaria. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . April 22, 2002 , accessed December 5, 2019 .
• Simona Canevascini, Piero Bianconi: L'esilio dei protestanti Locarnesi. Armando Dadò, Locarno 2005, ISBN 88-8281-170-0 , pp. 105-219.
• Rudolf Pfister: For the sake of faith. The Protestant refugees from Locarno and their admission to Zurich in 1555. Evangelischer Verlag, Zollikon 1955, pp. 20–132.
• Rudolf Pfister : The Reformation Community of Locarno 1540–1555. In: Zwingliana, 10. Zurich 1955, pp. 161–181, digitized .
• Unknown: The reformer Johann-Giovanni Beccaria, 1511–1580. New Year's Gazette, City Library, Zurich 1835.
• Paul Steinmann: L'espulsione - Una pièce sull'esilio della communità dei riformati locarnesi nel 1555. The expulsion - A game about the exile of the Reformed community of Locarno in 1555 , Associazione R500
• Mark Taplin: The Italian Reformers and the Zurich Church, c. 1540-1620 , St. Andrews Studies in Reformation History, Routledge, 2017, ISBN 978-1-35188-729-8
• Manfred E. Welti: Brief history of the Italian Reformation (= writings of the Association for Reformation History . Vol. 193). Mohn, Gütersloh 1985, ISBN 3-579-01663-6 , pp. 102-103 ( digitized in the Google book search).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Rudolf Pfister: For the sake of faith. The Evangelical Refugees from Locarno and their admission to Zurich in 1555. Evangelischer Verlag, Zollikon 1955, pp. 23-25
2. ↑ Rudolf Pfister: For the sake of faith. The Evangelical Refugees from Locarno and their admission to Zurich in 1555. Evangelischer Verlag, Zollikon 1955, pp. 33–39
3. ↑ Rudolf Pfister: For the sake of faith. The Evangelical Refugees from Locarno and their admission to Zurich in 1555. Evangelischer Verlag, Zollikon 1955, pp. 39–40
4. ^ Leo Weisz : The economic importance of the Ticino religious refugees for German Switzerland. Report House, Zurich 1958, pp. 16–28: The initial friction between the refugees and the Zurich craftsmen
5. ↑ On the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017 , the theologian Paul Steinmann developed a theater project to which Stefano Nicastro contributed the music and Remo Sangiorgio directed. The bilingual game about the exile of the Reformed community of Locarno is called L'espulsione - the expulsion and is also based on the script Taddeo Duno: From the persecution of the Locarnesi from 1602; see also: Paul Steinmann: L'espulsione - Una pièce sull'esilio della communità dei riformati locarnesi nel 1555. The expulsion - A game about the exile of the Reformed community of Locarno in 1555 , Associazione R500 ( Memento of the original from October 10th 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
6. ↑ Rudolf Pfister: For the sake of faith. The Evangelical Refugees from Locarno and their admission to Zurich in 1555. Evangelischer Verlag, Zollikon 1955, pp. 124–128
7. ^ Mark Taplin: The Italian Reformers and the Zurich Church, c. 1540-1620 , St. Andrews Studies in Reformation History, Routledge, 2017, ISBN 978-1-35188-729-8
8. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from October 10, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.