, surnamed Mofa, was a learned civilian of Padua, who, after being a law
, surnamed Mofa, was a
learned civilian of Padua, who, after being a law professor
at Padua, Pisa, and Pavia, as far as 1557, left Italy, in
order to make a public profession of the Protestant religion; but who, like some other Italian converts, imbibed
the heresy of the Antitrinitarians. After having been professor of civil law at Tubingen for some time, he quitted
the employment, in order to escape the punishment he
would have incurred, had he been convicted of his errors.
He was seized at Bern, where he feigned to renounce his
opinions, in order to escape very severe treatment; but, as
he relapsed again, and openly favoured the heretics, who
had been driven from Geneva, he would, as Beza intimates, certainly have been put to death, if he had not died
of the plague in September 1567, or as others say in 1564.
In a journey to Geneva, during the trial of Servetus, he
desired to have a conference with Calvin, which Calvin at
first refused, but afterwards granted; and then Gribaldus,
though he came according to the appointed time and place,
refused to confer, because Calvin would not give him his
hand, till they should be agreed on the articles of the
Trinity. He was afterwards cited to appear before the
magistrates, in order to give an account of his faith; but,
his answers not being satisfactory, he was commanded to
leave the city. He wrote several works, which are esteemed
by the public; as “Commentarii in legem de rerum
mistura, & de jure fisci,
” printed in Italy. “Commentarii in pandectas juris,
” at Lyons. “Commentarii in aliquot praecipuos Digesti,
” &c. Francfort, Historia Francisci Spira?, cui anno 1548, familiaris aderat, secundum quae ipse viclit & audivit,
” Basil, De methoclo ac
ratione studendi in jure civili libri tres,
” Lyons,