GIOVANNI BATTISTA GUADAGNINI. — Archpriest of Cividate in Valcamonica, a Jansenist of the Pavia group, TAMBURINI, PIETRO (v.) and a learned man, born in 1723, died in 1807. Gioberti, in *Il Gesuita moderno*, speaks of him as a scholar of ecclesiastical history.
In chronological order, his principal works are: *De antiqua paroeciarum origine* (Brescia, 1782), in which he demonstrates the venerable antiquity of parish priests, upholding their divine origin, their succession from the seventy-two disciples, and the power given to them directly by the Redeemer; *Difficoltà sopra il pio esercizio della Via Crucis* (Venice, 1786), dedicated to Msgr. Scipione De’ Ricci, Bishop of Pistoia, proposing reasons that should exclude its liturgical practice and denying the Church’s prevailing doctrines on indulgences; *Nuovo esame di alcuni testi del Concilio di Trento relativi all'assoluzione...* (Pavia, 1787), where he defends the opinion that absolution from reserved sins by a priest lacking the faculty to do so is illicit but valid; *Risposta al libro dello stato dei bambini* by Abbot G. Bolgeni (ibid., 1788); *De tollenda ecclesiastici calendarii perenni stabilitate* (ibid., 1788); *Apologia di Arnaldo da Brescia* in two books (ibid., 1790). With these and other historical, critical, and polemical publications (many of which were placed on the Index), and particularly with the *Apologia of Arnaldo da Brescia*, G. lent his voice and scholarly authority not only to advancing the Jansenist plan for ecclesiastical reform but also to denying the pope and bishops divine rights and directive authority in the Church, preferring in the administration of ecclesiastical property the authority of lay magistrates dependent on secular princes.