GRIBALDI, MATTEO. - Italian jurist and reformer, b. at Chieri, in Piedmont, into the Gribaldi Mofa family, at the beginning of the 16th century, and d. at Farges (Switzerland) in Sept. 1564. He taught law at the Universities of Perugia, Toulouse, Valencia and Grenoble. Exactly when his full adherence to the Reformation took place cannot be known with certainty; it is certain, however, that his sympathies must have wavered very early, if one considers that at that time Protestantism was very widespread in Piedmont. But it was perhaps during the period of his teaching at Padua (1548-55), where he met Pier P. Vergerio, with whom he was afterwards on terms of intimate friendship, that he decided unreservedly for the Reformation.
He had epistolary and personal relations with Calvin, whose tenacious opponent he later became in the field of doctrine and who repaid him with continual abuse, denigrations and accusations of heresy, above all for having publicly condemned the trial and death of the Spaniard Michael Servetus (v.).
Having definitively left Padua on 22 Apr. 1555 because of the injunctions of the Venetian rulers, G. withdrew to Switzerland, whence he then made his way to Tübingen, having been called by Duke Christopher of Württemberg to teach at that University. Having gone, however, before reaching Tübingen, to Geneva, he was summoned in vain by Calvin for an interview on 29 June. But soon even his residence at Tübingen was no longer safe for him, since Calvin and his faithful Beza had by every means placed him in a bad light in the eyes of the Duke; invited therefore to defend himself against the accusations that had rained down upon him so abundantly, and to clarify his thought explicitly, G. asked for three weeks' time to reply; in the meantime, however, he deemed it more opportune to take refuge at Farges, whence nevertheless he justified himself in writing in a letter sent to the academic senate of the University. Accused nonetheless by the Duke, the Signoria of Bern instituted proceedings against him, on account of which he had to appear before the Bernese preachers, who forced him to sign a confession of faith on 20 Sept. 1557. Banished from Bern, after a period of exile at Fribourg, he returned to teach at Grenoble, whither he was recalled in 1559; but the following year he had to leave the city again, because the Studium could no longer dispose of the funds necessary for his stipend. From this date all trace of G. is lost, and of him it will be known only that he fell victim to the plague four years later at Farges.
G. is considered the leader of Italian anti-Trinitarianism, whose theories he expounded a first time (1554) in the Italian church of Geneva and then in a letter subsequently addressed to its leaders.
Of his entire juridical output, the notable work is: De methodo ac ratione studendi in iure civili (Lyons 1541), in which is outlined the analytical method of teaching law according to the practice of the Italian schools, and known as nos italicus ius docendi.
Bibliography6 works
Niccolò Del Re