Davide Lazzeretti

Davide Lazzaretti (1834-1878) was the leader of the Giusdavidic Church in Italy (Monte Amiata). Killed in a clash with the Carabinieri (19th century). The dramatic climax appears to be linked to the suggestive power of the Messianic prophecy. After a wait of prayer and fasting duration 3 days, David can not defer more than the fulfillment of the prophecy which announced, and, driven by the expectations it has aroused, goes in procession to meet his destiny. (Mario Di Fiorino, 1996, 1999)

For some people, Lazzaretti was an impostor. Among these are counted the experts, who saw in David a political agitator: "we suspect that Lazzaretti intended a double goal, provoke a religious fanaticism and propagate a political party -- the first aim was merely a pretext, the second was his main objective". Other Authors have hypothesized that there might have been imposture at the beginning. David could have simulated, but then he would have been imprisoned in the acted part. Barzellotti writes: “A singular condition of mind with spirit, this, for which reason he, like so many others of the same nature, began perhaps by playing a part in public, in which there was a great amount of self-love and the craving for popularity, and ended with believing himself, with being in fact, for as much as it depended on him, the personage he had assumed.” And also a doctor, Dr Bottoni, so Verga reports, had supported this interpretation: “It is assumed that is, that, moved by an over-riding ambition, he had right from the start to get himself looked upon as a prophet, an envoy from God, and that by dint of speaking of the visions he had been privileged to have, of the high mission he had received from God, he had finished up by himself believing in this and in that” . Barzellotti did not turn a blind eye, moreover, to the psychopathological elements: “In that so far I have said not only that I do not exclude, but presuppose that he might have been insane, that the morbid impulses, manifest in him from his youth, were then such, especially in the later years of his life, as to dominate his will entirely.”. Had Lazzaretti the “will to believe” (in the sense given to it by William James)? Had he used trickery, such as, for instance, impression of the mark on his forehead? Is he to be considered, at least so far as genealogical claims go, an impostor? For a psychitrist, Verga, the central element was that given by the hallucinatory experience. The happenings of visions and hallucinations support the structuring of delusional themes and “open the way to madness.”

The Bible wisely warns: "of that day and hour no one knows, no, not even the angels" (Matthew 24:36). It is true, however, that the faithful are encouraged to be aware of the signs of times. Hence it is not surprising that believers feel legitimized in their interest for what should remain inscrutable. There will continue to be expectations – of Christ, of the end of the world, of the New Age, of extraterrestrial saviours… – and disappointments following failed prophecies. But we know that, "when prophecy fails" (Leon Festinger, 1956), followers sometimes persevere and are not discouraged to try again. Scholars with backgrounds in various disciplines have undertaken to explore the fascinating world of apocalypticism in its various forms. But there is still a lot to do in order to understand better the dynamics of apocalyptic movements. The names of David Lazzaretti and the Giurisdavidica Church are not unknown to the small circles of millenial experts. (Jean-François Mayer, 1999)

The psychiatrists gave very different interpretations on the story of David. The experts of the Court of Rieti, Silvaggi and Benghini,who were able to visit Lazzaretti in jail argued for malingering. They described the "brand name" on the forehead "an irregular parallelogram of which the upper side had 13 dots arranged in a weird way ...". Cesare Lombroso wrote about the language of David, full of neologisms and paralogie: "the clearest light of his madness Lazzaretti has offered it in his writings". Another psychiatrist, Verga, titled his book: "David Lazzaretti and sensory madness", attributing great importance to hallucinations in the genesis of the disease.