ON BL. PETER CAMBIANO, OF RUFFIA, PRIEST OF THE ORDER OF PREACHERS,
IN THE YEAR 1365
CommentaryPeter Cambiano of Ruffia, of the Order of Preachers. (B.)
BY F. V. O.
[1] Peter Cambiano, recognized as Blessed by Pius IX, The church of Turin and the Order of Friars Preachers keep the memory of Bl. Peter Cambiano of Ruffia, who, general inquisitor of the catholic faith, fell a martyr at Susa, in the Val di Lanzo, by the sword of Waldensian assassins on 2 February 1365. And the matter having been maturely considered, Pius IX on 4 December 1856 confirmed the public and ecclesiastical cult paid from time immemorial to the aforesaid Blessed Peter Cambiano of Ruffia [The decree of approbation of the cult is in C. Turletti, Storia di Savigliano, vol. IV (Savigliano, 1879–90), p. 905.]. But since the anniversary day of his slaying was impeded by the solemnity of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, he appointed his feast to be celebrated on 7 November, on which his relics were translated in the year 1516 from the convent of the Friars Minor at Susa into the church of Saint Dominic situated at Turin See the inscription ibid., vol. III (1883–88), p. 48..
[2] little known, But the more brilliantly the veneration of the dead man shines forth, the thicker the darkness in which the things he did while living are wrapped. If anyone wishes to be aware of this penury, let him run diligently through the sum of the matters which his latest biographer, Casimiro Turletti, has industriously gathered and arranged in his excellent work Storia di Savigliano Ibid., pp. 9–63.. Very many things explained by him wander beyond the subject matter; and what bears on the matter he has amplified beyond measure, lingering much in exploding the errors of the writers who preceded him, yet in such a way that he himself did not abstain from frail conjectures. Thus, led only by the similarity of the word Cambiano with the word of lower Latinity cambiare, he at once asserts, neglecting every philological consideration, that the ancestors of Bl. Peter exercised the office of money-changers and that therefore the name Cambiano was given them Ibid., p. 9.. although noble by origin, But there is no one among the Piedmontese, not even Turletti, who does not know that Cambiano was first a village, then a municipality, bordering on the city of Chieri. From here sprang a certain family, rich and noble, whose chief heads already appear among the magnates who
on 17 September 1217 swore to the pacts and covenants of alliance and friendship of the men of Asti and the men of Savigliano Ibid., vol. IV, doc. 55, p. 60 ff.. And afterwards a certain marquis of Saluzzo in the year 1336 consented that Petrino of Cambiano and his brothers should acquire for themselves three parts of the castle, with the men and jurisdiction of the place of Rudulfia Ibid., doc. 189, p. 287. or Ruffia.
[3] His renowned martyrdom These things concerning the beginnings and the name of our Blessed's family there is no need to hesitate to accept. And from a public instrument drawn up on 31 May 1365, and from the letter attached, by which the bishop of Turin on 9 May of the same year had ordered that the cloister of the order and convent of the Friars Minor of Susa be reconciled, polluted on account of the death of the late Brother Peter of Ruffia, of good memory, inquisitor of heretical depravity, it is clear that the slaying had been perpetrated not long before. This most weighty document, especially in a matter so meagre, we are pleased to print here again, using the copy which served the Sacred Congregation of Rites [Summarium super dubio an constet de cultu publico ecclesiastico ab immemorabili tempore praestito, pp. 4–6. From this Turletti, work cited, vol. IV, doc. 227, p. 355.]. For this, transcribed from the original, as is noted at the end, agrees entirely with a seventeenth-century copy [The very same copyist excerpted in the margin a passage from Marc' Aurelio Rorengo, Memorie historiche dell' introduttione dell' Heresie nelle valli di Lucerna. This book came out in the year 1649.] among the Balbo manuscripts of the Royal Library of Turin marked vol. 60, num. 96. We designate the former by the letter R, the other by the letter T.
[4] is attested by a contemporary document. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. In the year of the same running one thousand three hundred tercentesimo T. and sixty-five, the third indiction, on the last day of the month of May, done at Susa outside the walls of the said place, in the cloister of the church of Saint Francis of the order of Friars Minor of Susa, there being present the noble man the lord Giacomo Giovane of Susa, jurist, the noble Obertino of Gorzano of Turin, vice-castellan of Susa, the noble Clemente of Gorzano of the said place of Turin, Manuello Savii, Pietro Ascheri, Giovanni of Bardonecchia called of the Hospital, Tommasetto Lovarenchi, Lorenzetto Galicii, Giovanni of Lisimonte, all of Susa, and Giovanni Allyaudi of Ialiono, notary, and several others called and asked as witnesses to these things. By this present public instrument let it appear evidently to all, that the Reverend Father in Christ the lord Thomas Ferreri of Chieri, bishop of Thyatira [A learned man named Nasi, who wrote the Turin copy, added in the margin: "A charter of the Archiepiscopal Archive under 18 February 1369, fol. 18, mentions Thomas Ferrerio, of the lords of Monterotondo, bishop of Thyatira in Anatolia. He was perhaps the suffragan of Bishop John."], specially constituted commissary in this matter by the Reverend Father in Christ and lord Domino adds T. John, by the grace of God and of the Apostolic See bishop of Turin [Giovanni Orsini of Rivalta held the episcopal see of Turin from 15 January 1365 to the month of May 1411.], as appears of the said commission by the open letters of the said lord bishop written on paper and sealed with the seal of the lord bishop himself, the tenor of which is written below, at the instance and request of the lord Brother Antonio of Casalgrasso, custos of the order of Friars Minor of Piedmont, and of Brother Ruffino, now guardian of the order and convent of the Friars Minor of the church of Saint Francis of Susa, and of me the public notary written below, solemnly stipulating and receiving after the manner of a public person in the stead and name of the aforesaid church and convent, and of the Friars Minor of the same, and of all and each whom it concerns or may concern, in the presence of me the public notary written below and of the witnesses aforesaid, and of all others there present, by virtue of the aforesaid commission made to him, consecrated and reconciled the cloister of the aforesaid church of the order and convent of the aforesaid Friars Minor, polluted on account of the death of the late Brother Peter of Ruffia Ruffia T., of good memory, inquisitor of heretical depravity. And the tenor of the said commission is such: To the Reverend Fathers in Christ, Brother Thomas, bishop of Thyatira, and to all and each catholic bishops who shall inspect the present letters, John, by the grace of God and of the Apostolic See bishop of Turin, greeting in the Lord. Prevented by certain reasons and causes, confiding more fully in your probity, we commit our functions in this matter by the presents to you and to each of you, so that you may consecrate and reconcile the cloister of the order and convent of the Friars Minor of Susa, polluted on account of the death of the late Brother Peter of Ruffia, of good memory, inquisitor of heretical depravity; in testimony whereof we have caused the presents to be made and to be strengthened with the protection of our seal. Given at Susa on the ninth day of the month of May, one thousand three hundred and sixty-five MCCCLXV T.. Commanding me, the notary written below, that as many public instruments of the aforesaid things as shall be opportune be made by me the notary written below, to be dictated, corrected, remade and emended as often as there shall be need, at the counsel and dictation of one or more experts. And I, Luchino Bermondi of Ialiono, public notary by Imperial authority, was present at all the aforesaid things, and being asked wrote this charter and signed it with my accustomed sign.
Copied from the original which is preserved in the Archive of the Reverend Friars Minor Conventual of Susa [In the Vita del B. Pietro Cambiano, compilata da Carlo Marco Arnaud, which exists in the first and only volume (Turin, 1792) of the continuation of Gallizia's work, Atti de' Sancti Beati e venerabili nel dominio della reale casa di Savoia, a part of the same document was also edited, whose parchment original the writer notes is preserved with the Franciscan fathers of the convent of Susa (pp. 223–25).], and with which I found this copy, collated with it, to agree; therefore I have subscribed here in faith, etc.
Manualmente sottoscritto: Anastasius Curlandus Tabularii Regiae Curiae Rationalis Procustos. [Signed by hand: Anastasius Curlandus, Deputy Keeper of the Archive of the Royal Chamber of Accounts.]
Per copia conforma a quella autentica, come sovra esistente in questi Archivi spedita a richiesta del Signor F. G. Tom. Tosa de' Predicatori Professore di Teologia nella R. Università di Torino il 20 luglio 1853. [Copy conforming to the authentic one, existing as above in these Archives, issued at the request of Signor F. G. Tom. Tosa of the Preachers, Professor of Theology in the Royal University of Turin, on 20 July 1853.]
V. Regio Vice intendente generale Poccardi. Seen. Royal Deputy Intendant-General Poccardi.
Il Segretario capo della Divisione degli Archivi delle Finanze Gio. Demarchi. The Chief Secretary of the Division of the Finance Archives, Gio. Demarchi.
Luogo † Sigillo (Descriptum-Sigillo) omits R.. Place † of the seal.
[5] Indeed, the very day on which Bl. Peter was slaughtered is indicated clearly enough by Pope Gregory XI, who, by a letter dated 20 March 1375, exhorts Amadeus VI, He fell on 2 February 1365, count of Savoy, to proceed against the wicked men, infected with the stain of heretical depravity, who had savagely butchered two censors of the faith. And having recounted the case of the first, namely Bl. Antony Pavoni, O. P., he continues thus: Nor do we omit that, as a report worthy of credit made to us has it, and as it is said to be notorious, it is not long since, in the cloister of the place of the Friars Preachers of your land of Susa, of the said diocese, on the day of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a like sacrilege was perpetrated upon a certain other inquisitor Raynaldus, Annales ecclesiastici, at the year 1375, num. XXVI.. That an error manifestly crept into this sentence, when the scribe put Preachers in place of Minors, the Sub-promoter of the Faith has already pointed out, led by these reasons, that there had never been any convent of the Friars Preachers at Susa, whereas on the contrary the house of St. Francis had flourished there from the beginning of the order, and that apart from Peter of Ruffia no other Inquisitor of the faith had been slain at Susa Informatio super dubio an constet de cultu, p. 3.. Nor will it seem an unusual rumour, falsely spread at Avignon, whence that letter was sent, that a son of the family of the Preachers had fallen at Susa, where he was devoting his labour to fulfilling his office, in some house of his own order. Already discharging the office of Inquisitor from the year 1351.
[6] That these duties of defending the catholic religion against the heretics had been entrusted to blessed Peter already from the year 1351 is attested by a public instrument which is shown on fol. 45 of a certain authentic codex of the archiepiscopal Archive of Turin, commonly called the Protocol, and marked on the back of its cover with the number 8 and the year 1351: which year is repeated at the beginning of the document itself. It is to be noted besides that the document is incomplete, inasmuch as, for writing it out entire, some blank pages were left there by the episcopal notary. And the fragment begins thus: Charter of Brother Peter of Ruffia, inquisitor of heretical depravity, and of the Nobles Tomagnio and Giacomo, sons of the late lord Aymonetto, of the lords of Luserna.
On the ninth day of the month of May. At Turin in the episcopal palace, there being present the lords the Reverend Father in Christ the lord Thomas, by the grace of God and of the apostolic see bishop of Turin [Thomas of Savoy, canon of Orléans, was bishop of Turin from the year 1348 to the year 1362. Eubel, Hierarchia catholica medii aevi, vol. I, p. 501.], Folchino Bersatore, provost of Turin, Giacomo Marchoando, provost of Moncalieri, Antonio Nassaporis, archdeacon of Turin, and Giovanni of Ruviglasco, archpriest of that same place of Turin, witnesses, etc., called and asked … Summarium super dubio, pp. 3–4.. The rest is missing.
And since our Blessed is reported to have been distinguished with the same dignity in the testament by which a certain Lady Leonetta on 10 July 1361 instituted as her universal heir the convent of the Friars Preachers of Turin … and ordained that the executors of her said testaments should be, and ought to be, Brother Peter Rophia, inquisitor of heretical depravity [The whole testament has been edited by Turletti, work cited, vol. III, pp. 29–31, note 2.], and others named there, the venerable servant of God is rightly to be judged to have borne this dangerous burden until his death [There are those who also adduce a mandate given by James, prince of Achaia, in the year 1354, at the instance of Peter of Ruffia, general inquisitor of Piedmont. So Rorengo, book cited, p. 17, and Arnaud, book cited, pp. 217–18 and p. 228, note 3. But Turletti, place cited, pp. 26–27, easily showed that these authors erred in the name, since the true reading was of Brother Ruffino de' Gentili.].
[7] Therefore, from what has been collected and weighed up to this point, we hold it established that Peter Cambiano of Ruffia, a son of the order of Preachers, The fame of a martyr spread quickly. inquisitor of the catholic faith already from the year 1351, on 2 February 1365 at Susa, the heretics infesting the neighbouring valleys,
the Waldensians [It is difficult to say from where the Piedmontese Waldensians took their origin. More probably, with H. Haupt (Neue Beiträge zur Geschichte des mittelalterlichen Waldenserthums, Historische Zeitschrift, vol. LXI, pp. 57–61), we think that they belong to the Italian branch. Compare nonetheless S. Berger, Revue historique, vol. XXXVI, pp. 416–17.], was killed. The fame of his martyrdom so grew that St. Vincent Ferrer, in the letter which he sent on 17 December 1403 to the Master General of his order, made mention of the heretics of the valley of Lanzo, otherwise of Quino, to which the slayers of Bl. Peter Martyr once fled A. Teoli, Vita di S. Vincenzo Ferrerio (Venice, 1736), p. 519., as of a very well-known matter.
[8] The penury of biographers; On unfolding these older testimonies, indeed, which can be gathered concerning Bl. Peter Cambiano, all who attempted to weave his Life have laboured. They have produced a thing wholly empty, sterile, and sprinkled with blemishes and faults. So have erred, besides Turletti and Arnaud, named above, some authors of Calendars, Menologies, Diaries, Ecclesiastical Annals of Savoy and Piedmont, and other works of that kind; whom I have thought it superfluous to review one by one. By building conjectures upon conjectures the aforesaid Turletti has tried to establish that our Blessed was born in the year 1320 of Petrino Cambiano and his wife, who was the only daughter of Frederick I, marquis of Saluzzo, and was enrolled in the order of St. Dominic about the year 1336 Work cited, vol. III, pp. 12–16.. Nothing has come down to the knowledge of posterity concerning the religious life of him whom, according to the witness of Luis de Páramo, Nicholas Eymerich, O. P., a nearly contemporary writer († 1399) and especially learned in the sacred inquisition Quétif and Echard, Scriptores ordinis Praedicatorum, vol. I, p. 709., commemorates among the seven more distinguished inquisitors of the faith … sermon 2 of St. Peter Martyr [Luis de Páramo, De origine et progressu officii Sanctae Inquisitionis, book II, title 2, chap. 23 (Madrid, 1598), p. 246.]. a certain cult, But his memory, made sacred by a bloody death, not only survived but was also perpetually honoured by the pious attentions of the people; and it was a matter of no difficulty to bring his equipollent beatification, as they call it, to a happy issue Informatio super dubio…, pp. 1–14.. but moderate Today at Turin, in the church of St. Dominic, on the left horn of the altar of St. Mary of Graces, is seen a painted likeness of our Blessed, beneath which his bones are laid up in a casket, marked with this inscription: Relics of the body of Bl. Peter, Martyr, O. P. And the religious men who are set over the keeping of this treasure have reported to us that his feast on 7 November is kept with moderate solemnity [In the very recent, skilfully made book La Chiesa di S. Domenico in Torino, illustrata da F. Rondolino, R. Brayda (Turin, 1909), pp. 74–75, nothing new about the ecclesiastical cult of Bl. Peter is disclosed.].