At Milan he lived by teaching humanities, while continuing to study law with Sfondrati. To avoid the constant warfare in the
Duchy he accepted an invitation from
Gian Giorgio, Marchese of Montferrat. He remained at the court of
Casale Monferrato for a while after the Marchese's death on 3 April 1533: his first daughter, future wife of
Girolamo Zanchi, was born at
Ceva on 8 November, and his second son Orazio at Casale in 1534. Here he became acquainted with
Fulvio Pellegrino Morato, professor at
Vicenza, who was visiting Piedmont: they agreed in religious matters so much that Morato later said that Curio had been for him what
Ananias had been for
St Paul. His brethren having died of the plague Curio should have returned to Moncalieri to settle his inheritance with his only surviving sister, but, faced with being denounced for heresy, he renounced his rights. Having failed to respond to a summons to Casale from
Federico Gonzaga, successor to the Marquessate, he took work as a teacher at
Castiglione Torinese, where in a disputation with a
Dominican preacher in 1535 he argued in defence of Luther. Denounced to the Suffragan of Turin he was imprisoned, but managed to escape by tricking the gaoler into shackling a false leg to the cell wall and escaping through the unbarred window. As the mystery of his escape gave rise to superstitious rumours, he later explained how it was managed in a Dialogue,
Probus. He took refuge at
Salò, where he was reunited with his family: two of his sons were born there, Leo in 1536 and
Agostino in 1538.
Pavia, Venezia and Ferrara In 1536 he obtained a chair in humanistic letters for three years at the
University of Pavia:
Andrea Alciati was his colleague there, and he wrote his first
Orations and the first draft of the three books of
Schola, sive De Perfecto Grammatico (not published until 1555). He described the perfect
Grammaticus as an orator who takes the classical foundations of
Cicero and
Quintilian to inform a contemporary embodiment of the humanist professor, one who dignifies his profession through full responsibility towards his role as educator and cultural guide. His renown as professor was tied to his anti-Catholic stances: as a result
Pope Paul III demanded his removal from the university. His admiring students accompanied him to his alternative lodgings in the city to defend him from possible attack. The Senate of Pavia, fearing a threat of excommunication from the Church, succumbed and in 1539 licensed Curio to leave the Duchy. He next went to
Venice, where he attended the French Ambassador to the republic, the
Bishop of Montpellier. To him he dedicated the
Aranei Encomion, a short tract treating the fable of
Arachne as an allegory of the Church and Holy Wisdom, published in Venice in 1540. In Lent he is likely to have heard the preaching of
Bernardino Ochino. He became the companion of the
Augustinian mendicant Giulio da Milano, a secret Protestant convert. Giulio, who had preached justification by faith alone, was arrested in 1541, and Curio, identified as his close associate, departed abruptly for
Ferrara. There his friend Pellegrino Morato, preceptor in the court of
Este, recommended him to
Duchess Renata, wife of
Ercole II d'Este. He remained briefly, forming a friendship with Morato's young daughter
Olympia Fulvia Morata, with whom he maintained a lifelong correspondence.
Lucca By October he was already in
Lucca, employed as preceptor by the nobleman Niccolò di Silvestro Arnolfini. The
Republic of Lucca was stirred up with religious and political reform movements. The Gonfaloniere, , hoped to end the dominion of
Cosimo I de' Medici and the temporal power of the Church in that region, and to create a federation of free
Tuscan cities. To this end he advocated to the Comune the formation of a special militia which he should lead. Burlamacchi himself was not Lutheran, but the various Protestant groups in the city (reflecting its mercantile and intellectual exchange with Germany) might approve his project. When Curio arrived, there was already a large active colony of Italian internal religious exiles, including Paolo Lazise, Celso Martinengo, the Jewish convert
Emanuele Tremellio,
Peter Martyr and
Girolamo Zanchi. From June 1541 Peter Martyr was Prior of the
Basilica of San Frediano, a position of considerable authority: he held a school for reading in the Gospels, the letters of St Paul, and
Saint Augustine, and encouraged direct reading and understanding of the Bible. His lessons were attended by young students and learned elders such as Curio himself and the humanist
Francesco Robortello alike. Cardinal
Bartolomeo Guidiccioni, non-resident
Bishop of Lucca newly appointed to the Roman Inquisition, in a letter to the Senate of Lucca dated 22 July 1542 denounced that Evangelic group and that "Cellio who dwells in the house of Master Niccolò Arnolfini". Burlamacchi's plan to subject the citizen power to his political and religious reforms was exposed. At the end of July Peter Martyr, the young disciple Giulio Terenziano, Lazise and Tremellius fled, while Curio took refuge at first in Pisa, where the Inquisition tried to catch up with him. Cardinal
Alessandro Farnese, on 26 August 1542, sent to Duke Cosimo from Rome the warrant for the arrest for that "wretched spirit called Celio of Turin", who however had already taken the road to Switzerland and was received, at the recommendation of the theologian
Heinrich Bullinger, in the Academy of
Lausanne. == In Switzerland ==