**TURPILOQUIO** – Speech involving base matters that provides the intellect and will with material for dishonest thoughts and actions.
Already St. Paul warned Christians against pagan buffoons who amused the public with their witticisms and equivocal gestures (Eph. 4:29).
The Fathers of the Church (cf. Clement of Alexandria, *Paedagogus*, bk. 2–3; St. John Chrysostom: *PG* 56, 263–70) and popular preachers—such as St. Bernardino and Savonarola—have spoken strongly and effectively against turpilquy (cf. R. Mecacci, *L'educazione cristiana nelle opere di S. Bernardino*, in *Bullettino di S. Bernard.*, [1941], pp. 21–48, 90–121). Nor is the struggle against turpilquy less opportune in our own day, where sensationalism and equivocation abound in comedies, variety shows, and the like.
Turpilquy varies in gravity according to its content, the persons to whom it is addressed, and the purpose for which it is uttered. If it occurs among those hardened in vice, it may be slightly evil, since it does not excite sensuality nor give scandal; but the same discourse may be highly reprehensible and harmful if held in the presence of persons who might be disturbed by II. Already the pagans observed that “magna debetur pueris reverentia,” and the Gospel contains a terrible threat against whoever scandalizes children (Mt. 18:7). The scandal of turpilquy assumes a most grave malice when its purpose is to corrupt the innocent, depriving them of purity and leading them to corruption and perversion.
Article 726 of the Italian Penal Code states: “Shall be liable to a fine of up to 500 lire whoever, in a public place or open to the public, uses language contrary to public decency.” The article was introduced under the impetus of a great national campaign in Italy for the defense of honest speech, launched in Verona on 16 April 1922 by a group of persons who formed a Central Committee against blasphemy and turpilquy. The Committee launched and spread throughout Italy an appeal that received the blessing of Pope Benedict XV, the adhesion of the Government, all political parties, and the most important institutions. All propaganda industries were set in motion: from special visiting cards to posters for markets, sports fields, and public places. School competitions on propaganda were introduced. A great national referendum was also held among eminent persons. Four national congresses discussed and addressed the struggle against blasphemy and turpilquy in all its aspects. The movement, which had become national, pressed upon the legislative organs. The law took up the cause of the movement.
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**TURRETTINI** – A Lucchese family whose progenitor, Francesco, left Lucca in 1574 and settled in Geneva in 1593.
Among his descendants, the following became notable: Benedetto, son of Francesco (1588–1631), minister of the Italian Calvinist Church in Geneva, sent to the Synod of Dort (or Dordrecht), whose doctrine he ardently defended and propagated. Against the book of Fr. Cotton, *Geneva plagiaria*, he wrote *Difesa della fedeltà delle traduzioni della S. Bibbia fatte a Ginevra*; he also published a *Storia della Riforma in Ginevra*. Francesco, son of the latter (1623–87), likewise a minister of the Italian Calvinist Church, wrote against the Pope *De circulo pontificio* and, to defend justification without works, *Concordia Pauli et Jacobi in iustificationis articulo*; he also published the *Instituto theologia Helvetica*, used in various Calvinist academies. Giovanni Alfonso, son of the latter (1671–1737), is the most famous; he successively served as professor of ecclesiastical history, rector of the academy, and of the Church of Geneva. Throughout his life he worked actively for the union of Protestants; to this end he wrote *De pace protestantium ecclesiastica* and in 1707 the *Oratio de componendis protestantium dissidiis*. He corresponded with Leibniz, with certain cardinals (A. M. Quirini and D. Passione), and even with the Anglican archbishop of Canterbury (Wake). From the letter to Wake he took occasion to write in 1719 *Nubes testium pro moderato et pacifico de rebus theologicis iudicio et instituenda inter protestantes concordia*. He sought to suppress absolute formulas of Protestant confessions and to attenuate differences among the doctrines of the various sects; indeed in 1725 he succeeded in having the absolute formula of the Calvinists of Dort removed in the Church of Geneva—namely, that one should teach neither in word nor in writing, privately nor publicly, anything contrary to the canons of Dort—and replaced it with that of Calvin. He professed to hold the doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles as contained in the books of the Old and New Testaments. Yet toward the end of his life he had to confess that union was impossible among those who disagreed on fundamental points of the Gospel, adding that it might still be effected where the discord was merely accidental. Against Bossuet’s *Variations des Églises protestantes*, he wrote *Pyrrhonismus pontificius* or *Tesi storico-teologiche sulle variazioni dei pontificii intorno all'infallibilità della Chiesa*. For his writings, some clearly heretical, others tending to reconcile different doctrines, he was said to be the last of the good Protestants and the first of the bad. His works were published in 3 vols. in Geneva, 1774–76.
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**TURISI, Diocese of:** *V. Anglona e Tursi, diocese of.*
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TURSI
A city in the province of Matera, situated on a hill near the Ionian Sea, known since ancient times. It was the seat of a bishop from the 9th century, as attested by a privilege of Pope Leo IV to Bishop Virbono of Tursi between 847 and 855. The most beautiful Romanesque churches of Lazio are preserved and considered there: S. Maria Maggiore and S. Pietro, located along the carriage road at the edge of the town of Tursi. S. Maria Maggiore was also the first cathedral of Tursi, which was later transferred to S. Pietro, and in 1572 to the church of S. Giacomo. The two aforementioned churches display their architectural development from the 8th to the 13th century, but they must have replaced pre-existing places of worship.
Tursi is immediately subject to the Holy See and has its court of appeal at the Vicariate of Rome. — *Vedi tav. XLIV.*
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