Protestant families from Locarno fleeing across Lake Zurich, panel painting from the 17th century. — **Protestant families from Locarno fleeing across u003cemu003eLake Zurichu003c/emu003e, panel painting from the 17th century.** Private archive of the von Orelli family / Photo: Archive of the von Muralt family in Zurich

The Protestants of Locarno

It’s often forgotten that Locarno was a hotspot of confessional strife. The Locarnese Protestants and their subsequent expulsion in 1555 precipitated significant comment and a high degree of interconfessional distrust among the Swiss Confederates.

James Blake Wiener

James Blake Wiener is a world historian, Co-Founder of World History Encyclopedia, writer, and PR specialist, who has taught as a professor in Europe and North America.

Website: worldhistory.org

The Old Swiss Confederation’s participation in the Italian Wars between 1495 and 1513 brought much of what is present-day Ticino under its control. Formerly a possession of the Duchy of Milan, Locarno fell under the shared governance of the twelve Swiss cantons that participated in the War of the Holy League. The city and its environs counted as one of the transalpine territories (ennetbirgische Vogteien). It was therefore a common lordship (Gemeine Herschaften) controlled by the Swiss and lying over the Alps. Rotating governors (Landvogte) held office for a term of two years, while the ruling cantons oversaw and discussed important matters of policy at the frequent meetings of the Swiss Diet. Much power, however, still remained concentrated in the hands of the Locarnese: a territorial council of 21 men oversaw daily governmental activities, whereas the capitanei, composed of local nobles, exuded considerable economic and political influence. Locarno’s land clerk (Landschreiber) was arguably the most powerful man in the territory as he liaised between the rotating governors and the Locarnese elite. Moreover, this position was permanent, ensuring unto him a degree of unparalleled political power.

**The transalpine territories of the Old Swiss Confederacy.** Wikimedia / Marco Zanoli

Zwingli’s Reformation had little effect on Locarno and the transalpine territories until the late-1530s. The Catholic cantons and Reformed cantons continued to administer the Mandated Territory of Locarno jointly without hostilities. Nonetheless, it is known that a certain Baldassare Fontana – a Carmelite friar active in Locarno – wrote a letter to Zürich requesting books and other documents written by Protestant reformers in 1531.

Shortly thereafter, a Protestant network of preachers and educators slowly coalesced to form Locarno’s evangelical community. A priest and schoolmaster, Giovanni Beccaria, who was active in the vicinity of Locarno by 1535, proved instrumental in the founding of Locarno's Reformed community. A member of a prominent Milanese family, Beccaria was an instructor at a prestigious school, which was adjacent to the convent of San Francesco in Locarno. At some point around the year 1539, Beccaria experienced his own evangelical awakening – salvation could indeed come through faith alone. Fearful of recrimination, Beccaria initially sought to avoid religious controversy by preaching evangelical sermons, while continuing to respect the Catholic mass.

**Church and former monastery of San Francesco in Locarno.** Wikimedia

However, as Beccaria was a gifted lecturer and an impassioned preacher, his heterodoxy soon attracted the interest of his most-talented students, Taddeo Duno and Martino Muralto. They were among the first to convert to the Reformed faith. Additionally, two preachers open to church reform, the Minorite Benedetto Locarno and the Franciscan Cornelius of Sicily (Cornelio di Sicilia), began preaching evangelical sermons by 1542. Historical evidence suggests that Benedetto Locarno had already worked closely with Beccaria during the late-1530s.

The role of Swiss German reformers and politicians was crucial to the establishment of Protestantism in Locarno as well. The Protestant governor (Landvogt) Joachim Bäldi from Glarus facilitated a steady stream of Protestant texts and pamphlets into Locarno in the 1540s, and Beccaria entered into a lively and friendly correspondence with Konrad Pelikan, a reformer living in Zürich, by 1544.

**Konrad Pelikan, anonymous, 1590-1600.** Swiss National Museum

The number of believers is increasing day by day, even though the Antichrist does not cease through his false teachers to oppress those whom he knows to have pure and faithful opinions of Christ.

Giovanni Beccaria in a letter to Konrad Pelikan in April 1546

Catholics in Locarno became concerned by the end of the 1540s as the number of converts rose. Fears that Ticino would emerge as a bastion of the Reformed faith appeared substantiated after the expulsion of Gabriele Benedetti from Lugano in 1545 for preaching an evangelical message in Morcote. The concerns of the Catholic Locarnese were soon echoed by the elites in the Swiss Catholic cantons. In 1548, the exiting governor (Landvogt), Jakob Feer of Luzern, advised Swiss Catholic politicians to banish Beccaria . These sentiments were shared by the devout Catholic Walter Roll of Uri, who held Locarno’s state secretary position between 1540-1556. The Protestant Locarnese were in clear violation of the terms of the 1531 Second Peace of Kappel, which authorized each canton to determine the confession of its inhabitants.

**The Second Peace of Kappel of 1531, which shaped the confessional map of the Confederation.** Zurich State Archive

The close ties which existed between the Protestants in Locarno and Zürich confirmed the worst fears of the Catholic cantons. They believed a dangerous game of religious and political subversion was at hand. Religious uniformity in Locarno was essential to the maintenance of peace across the Old Confederation. The Catholic cantons decided that a theological disputation was necessary to gauge the sincerity of Locarno’s evangelical community. This disputation, held on August 5, 1549, was disastrous. Beccaria failed to provide an adequate answer when directly asked by the Catholic governor Nikolaus Wirz from Unterwalden if he believed in the core tenets of the Catholic Church. Wirz had Beccaria immediately arrested after the disputation, but due to Beccaria’s popularity and fears of a popular revolt, Wirz exiled him from Locarno. Beccaria fled to Mesocco in Graubünden's Val Mesolcina, and his former student, Duno, emerged as the leading figure among the Locarnese Protestants.

**The reformer Beccaria at the disputation in Locarno, 1549. Etching from 1835.** e-rara

In 1551, the Locarnese Protestants published a statement of faith in Latin that was in line with the Reformed Swiss churches. Despite the presence of three successive Protestant governors in Locarno from 1550 to 1556 – Hans Jeudenhammer of Basel, Kaspar Stierli of Schaffhausen, and Esaias Röuchli of Zürich – none were able to challenge Walter Roll, who was determined to eradicate Protestantism from Locarno. Inspired by the proceedings of the recent Council of Trent, Roll believed that his actions against Protestantism were just. In his efforts, he was supported by many. As early as 1550, a delegation of prominent Locarnese attended the Swiss Diet, proclaiming their loyalty to the Catholic Church. In 1553 and 1554, Catholics in Locarno ordered all inhabitants to attend confession and receive the eucharist during the Easter holiday. Curiously, most of the Protestants followed the orders of their local officials, which perhaps belies their desperation. The Locarnese Protestants increasingly relied upon Zürich for spiritual and material support, as is evidenced by the flurry of letters sent between Duno and the Zürich reformer Heinrich Bullinger.

**First letter from Taddeo Duno to Heinrich Bullinger dated August 9, 1549.** Bullinger digital / Zurich State Archive

Although Bullinger was a strong supporter of the Locarnese evangelicals, defending them even against charges of Anabaptism in particular, political and religious elites in the other Protestant Swiss cantons were less receptive to their plight. Bern was far more interested in the acquisition and integration of the county of Greyerz than in the fate of Locarno's Protestants. The maintenance of peace and stability along their western border with Savoy was an additional, preoccupying concern due to the outbreak of the Italian War in 1551. The antagonization of Swiss Catholics was a risk the Bernese were simply unwilling to take. Basel and Schaffhausen, for their part, lacked the resolve and material resources to handle a clash with Swiss Catholics on behalf of Locarno’s Protestants. In October 1554, Bern, Basel, and Schaffhausen declared that the Catholic majority in Locarno had to be respected. They confirmed that the presence of Protestants in Locarno was a transgression of the Second Peace of Kappel. Zürich protested these decisions.

The church is God’s vineyard.

Heinrich Bullinger

In November and December 1554, the Swiss Diet met in Baden. Passions ran high along confessional lines, but thanks to the intervention of Othmar Kunz of Appenzell and Aegidius Tschudi of Glarus, a compromise was reached. Protestants in Locarno would be encouraged to reconvert to Catholicism. Those who wished to remain steadfast in their Reformed faith would be forced to emigrate by March 3, 1555. As a result of this pronouncement, Zürich boycotted the compromise altogether. In January 1555, emissaries from the Old Confederation’s Catholic cantons arrived in Locarno to proclaim the decision of the Swiss Diet, and handle the process of reconversion and emigration. The rural communities surrounding the city had remained overwhelmingly Catholic and demonstrated commitment to their ancestral faith without any hesitation. In the city proper, events unfolded more slowly. Out of a population of nearly 4,000, 211 people – 71 men, 54 women, and 86 children – declared themselves Protestant. After a period of intense harassment and reconversion, this number was reduced by half. On March 3, 1555, a hundred people left Locarno for Zürich, arriving two months later in mid-May 1555.

Panel paintings from the 17th century tell of the events leading up to the emigration of the Protestant families from Locarno to Zurich. Private archive of the von Orelli family / Photo: Archive of the von Muralt family in Zurich

**The exodus of the Protestant families from Locarno in 1555, depicted with their coats of arms.** Archive of the von Muralt family in Zurich

Bullinger met the refugees personally and lobbied on their behalf. It is thanks to him that the beleaguered Locarnese were at last able to worship freely in Italian in Zürich’s St. Peter’s Church. However, the Locarnese refugees were largely met with suspicion and distrust by most Zürchers. Historical records reveal that Zürich’s guildsmen feared they would use their status as refugees to gain economic advantages. Some Locarnese would later relocate to Basel, Graubünden, and Valtellina to pursue new economic opportunities and set up commercial ventures. Others stayed in Zürich, where despite periodic social and religious tensions, they managed to build successful businesses. They capitalized on their native Italian, building networks of shared faith and business interests with other Italian-speaking emigrants. In time, the Duno, Muralto, and Orelli, just like the Pestalozzi and other Italian émigré families, would receive citizenship and assume prominent roles in the social, economic and religious history of Zürich.

**The Muraltengut in Zurich once belonged to the politician and industrialist Hans Conrad von Muralt.** Baugeschichtliches Archiv der Stadt Zürich

**The Orell Füssli bookshop goes back to a Protestant printing company in which the Orelli family, later Germanized as Orell, had a stake.** Baugeschichtliches Archiv der Stadt Zürich

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