TURRETTINI

Family of Genevan Calvinist theologians, originating in Italy near Lucca. The Italian branch became extinct in the 18th century. The Geneva branch descended from Francesco (1547–1628), who left Italy for religious reasons and settled in Geneva (1592).

Benedict, son of Francesco; b. Zurich, Nov. 9, 1588;d. Geneva, March 4, 1631. He was responsible for introducing the decrees of the Synod of Dort (1618–19) into France. He wrote Défense de la fidélité des traductions de la S. Bible faites à Genève, 3 v. (Geneva 1618–20) in answer to Pierre coton's Genève plagiaire (Paris 1618).

François, son of Benedict; b. Geneva, Oct. 17, 1623;d. Geneva, Sept. 28, 1687. He was educated at Geneva, Leyden, Utrecht, Paris, Saumur, Montauban, and Nîmes, and he served as pastor of the Italian congregation at Geneva (1647). He was a professor of theology at Geneva (1653), an ardent opponent of the theology of Saumur, and an equally ardent defender of the orthodoxy of the Synod of Dort, and one of the authors of the Formula Consensus Helvetica (1675).

Jean Alphonse, son of François; b. Geneva, Aug. 13, 1671; d. Geneva, May 1, 1737. After being educated at Geneva and Leyden he was received into the Vénérable Compagnie des Pasteurs of Geneva (1693). He became pastor of the Italian congregation (1693), professor of Church history (1697), and professor of theology (1705). An advocate of liberalization of the Geneva theology, he helped to abolish the Formula Consensus Helvetica and endeavored, without success, to unite all Protestants on the basis of a few fundamental doctrines.

See Also: confessions of faith, protestant.

Bibliography: f. turrettini, Notice biographique sur Bénédict Turrettini (Geneva 1871). e. de budÉ, Vie de François Turrettini (Lausanne 1871); Vie de J. A. Turrettini (Lausanne 1880). r. pfister, Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 7 v. (3d ed. Tübingen 1957–65) 6:1089–90.

[c. j. berschneider]