Goffredo Varaglia

Basic information

Patronymic
Giaffredo
Other names
Giaffredo Varaglia, Theofredus Varaglia, Geoffrey Varaille, Geoffroi Varaille, and Geoffrey Varagle
Genre
Male
Place of origin
Busca, Duchy of Savoy
Date of birth
1507
Attributed date of birth
Yes
Age at the time of execution
51
Marital status
Not applicable
Last occupation / Qualification
Previous occupations
Religious status
Cleric
Religious order
Franciscans
Accusations
Waldensianism

Proceedings

Start date
1557/11/17
End date
1558/02/14
Courts involved
Inquisition of Turin
Extradition
No
Other judges involved
Parliament of Turin: Emé de St. Julien, third president, Girolamo Porporato and nine others; Andrea de Monte Dei, vicar of the archbishop of Turin
Notes

Start date: imprisonement

Sentence

Court
Inquisition of Turin
Local judge
Tommaso Giacomelli
Sentence date
Sentence place
Turin, Duchy of Savoy
Crime category
Formal heresy
List of crimes

He was retained heretic and schismatic for having preached doctrines contrary to the Church and French royal edicts, he sustained the doctrine of justification by faith, he denied the value of the good works for salvation, he sustained the doctrine of predestination, he denied the value of auricular confession, the value of the indulgences and the intercession of saints, he retained the veneration of sacred images idolatrous, he denied the existence of Purgatory, he considered the preaching of the pope and the clergy ungodly. He denied the spiritual and temporal power of the pope and his authority in convoking the Councils, in giving precepts, in interpreting the Bible.

 

Reason for conviction
Accessory penalties

Execution

Execution date
29 March 1558
Authority
Parliament of Turin
Execution place
Turin, Duchy of Savoy, Piazza Castello
Execution type
Burned
In effigy
No
After death
No
Presence of doctors / surgeons
Unknown
Name of the doctors / surgeons
Presence of comforters
No
Name of the comforters
Presence of rebels / riots
No
Sacraments imparted
No
Notes for execution

Sources

Letters

John Calvin to Goffredo Varaglia, 17 December 1557 (edited in Calvin John, Opera quae supersunt omnia. Ad fidem editionum principum et authenticarum ex parte etiam codicum manu scriptorum, additis prolegomenis literariis, annotationibus criticis, annalibus Calvinianis indicibusque novis et copiosissmis, ed. William Baum, Edward Cunitz, Edward Reuss, vol. 16, Brunsvigae, Schwetschke, 1877, p. 744)

Goffredo Varaglia to the Waldensian community of Bibiana, Turin, 12 January 1558 (edited in Papini, Il processo di G. Varaglia, pp. 62-65)

Goffredo Varaglia to the Waldensian community of Bibiana, Turin, 18 February 1558 (edited in Papini, Il processo di G. Varaglia, pp. 65-72)

Anonymous letter on the execution (edited in Lentolo, Historia and Papini, Il processo di G. Varaglia, pp. 73-74)

Local inquisitorial trials and documents
Decrees and acdf sources
Legal opinions consultations
Registers of the condemned
Other magistracies
Petitions
Confraternities
Medical treatises
Polemical histories and martyrologies

Bert Amedeo, I Valdesi ossiano i cristiani-cattolici secondo la Chiesa primitiva abitanti le così dette valli di Piemonte, Torino, Gianini e Fiore, 1849, pp. 435-438

Brez Jacques, Histoire des Vaudois, ou des habitants des vallées occidentales du Piémont, vol. 1, Paris, 1796, p. 61

Crespin Jean, Cinquieme partie du recueil des martyrs, qui en ces derniers temps en France en Flandre, Espagne, Italie & autres regions lointaines ont constamment enduré la mort pour la verité du Seigneur, [Genève], 1563, pp. 398-423

Foxe John, Rerum in Ecclesia gestarum quae postremis et periculosis his temporibus evenerunt commentarii, vol. 2, Basileae, per Nicolaum Brylingerum, 1563, pp. 334-335

Gerdes Daniël, Specimen Italiae reformatae. Sive observata quaedam ad historiam renati in Italia tempore reformationis euangelii, una cum syllabo reformatorum Italorum, Lugduni, J. Le Maire – Corn. Van Hoogeveen, Jun., 1765, pp. 127-132

Gilles Pierre, Histoire ecclésiastique des Eglises Réformées, recueillies en quelques Valées de Piedmont, et circonuoisines, autrefois appelées Eglises Vaudoises, commençant des l’an 1160 de nostre Seigneur, et finissant en l’an mil sex cent quarante trois, Genève, Iean de Tournes, 1644, pp. 65-66

Léger Jean, Histoire generale des eglises evangeliques des Vallees de Piemont ou Vaudoises, vol. 2, Leyde, Jean le Carpentier, 1669, p. 29

Lentolo Scipione, Historia delle grandi e crudeli persecutioni fatte ai tempi nostri in Provenza, Calabria e Piemonte contra il popolo, che chiamano valdese, ed. Teofilo Gay, Torre Pellice, Tipografia Alpina, 1906, pp. 87-113

Maccrie Thomas, Istoria del progresso e dell’estinzione della riforma in Italia nel secolo sedicesimo, Parigi, Baudry, 1835, pp. 265-267

Miolo Gerolamo, Historia breve et vera de gl’affari de i Valdesi delle Valli (1587), ed. E. Balmas, Torino, Claudiana, 1971, pp. 94-95

Monastier Antoine, Histoire de l’Église vaudoise depuis son origine et des Vaudois du Piémont jusqu’à nos jours, vol. 1, Toulouse, Société des Livres religieux, 1847, pp. 228-232

Muston Alexis, L’Israël des Alpes. Première histoire complète des Vaudois du Piémont et de leurs colonies, composée en grande partie sur des documents inédits, avec l’indication des sources et des autorités, vol. 1, Paris, Marc Ducloux, 1851, pp. 227-236

Parander Jean-Jacques, Abrégé de l’histoire des Vaudois depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu’à l’an 1871, Pignerol, Joseph Chiantore, 1872, p. 52

Salig Christian August, Vollständige Historie der Augspurgischen Confession, vol. 2, Halle, Reeger, 1733, p. 63

Sleidanus Johannes, Göbler Justinus, De Statu Religionis Et Reipublicae Commentarii […] Adiecta estetiam appendix, seu continuatio eorundem Commentariorum, Ab anno Christi MDLVI, Francofurti ad Moenum, per Petrum Fabricium, 1568, pp. 659-660

Storia delle persecuzioni e guerre contro il popolo chiamato valdese che abita nelle Valli del Piemonte, di Angrogna, Luserna, S. Martino, Perosa e altre, a far tempo dall’anno 1555 fino al 1561, ed. Enea Balmas, Carlo Alberto Theiler, Torino, Claudiana, 1975, pp. 92-93

Stoughton John, Footprints of Italian Reformers, London, The Religious Tract Society, 1881, pp. 8-10

The History of the Church of Christ, Previous to the Reformation Consisting Chiefly of Sketches of the Lives, and Extracts from the Writings, of Christians, During the Early and Middle Ages. Containing from the sixth to the twelfth century. With an account of the Waldenses to the commencement of the nineteenth century, vol. 3, London, Clowes, 1840, pp. 387-388

The Mountain Refuge, Or, Sure Help in Time of Need. A Tale of the Vaudois in the Sixteenth Century, London, Seeley, Jackson and Halliday, 1862, pp. 52-57

Un martyr piémontais, ou la place du château de Turin en 1558, in «Feuille religieuse du canton de Vaud», 17, 1848, pp. 289-300

Theological and legal texts
Collections of sermons

Beruatto Serafino, Sermoni e conferenze, Venezia, Istituto Evangelico Industriale, 1891, pp. 30-31

Printed or manuscript notices and reports
Chronicles
Travel diaries
Notarial acts and wills
Expense registers and economic documents
Memorial documents epitaphs etc

Plaques: Turin, piazza Castello, memorial plaque (reproduced in Papini, Il processo di G. Varaglia, pp. 40-41)

Toponymy: Via Goffredo Varaglia, Busca, Italy

Iconography
Other

Literature:

De Amicis Edmondo, Alle porte d’Italia, Roma, Sommaruga, 1884, p. 239