16 Facts About Fulgenzio Manfredi

Fulgenzio Manfredi, OFM, or Fra Fulgenzio, was a Franciscan friar, an observant minor, and active preacher in Venice from 1594.

Fulgenzio Manfredi was a colleague of the famous theologian and scholar Paolo Sarpi in the defence of the Venetian Republic in its struggle against the Curia.

Fulgenzio Manfredi was executed in the Campo di Fiore, in Rome.

Fulgentio Fulgenzio Manfredi was probably born in Venice circa 1563, the son of Ludovico Fulgenzio Manfredi.

Fulgenzio Manfredi joined religious life as an acolyte in 1580 and became a priest in 1586.

Fulgenzio Manfredi studied theology, and joined the Capuchin Franciscans, the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin.

Fulgenzio Manfredi alternated oratory activity with the production of religious and historical writings.

The republican Paolo Sarpi, wrote to the German exponent of Protestant Union, Christoph von Dohna, maintaining that Fulgenzio Manfredi's sermons were "only against the Pope" and they "criticised the ecclesiastical defects very effectively".

Berlinghiero Gessi, the papal nuncio to Venice wrote to Cardinal Scipione Borghese shortly on his arrival, admitting that, although Fulgenzio Manfredi had said many things from the pulpit, that should a case be taken against him "they could prove little" for lack of witnesses: and that "sadly he cannot be condemned, and he himself will only confess to having dissuaded the observance of the Interdict, and all the rest it is claimed he opposes, he denies".

Meanwhile, Fulgenzio Manfredi, who was feeling increasingly isolated and betrayed by the republic he had passionately defended, became gradually more receptive to a plan to return him to obedience to the Church, devised by nuncio Gessi.

Some attempted to dissuade and warn him about the patrician sarpiano Nicolo Contarini, whom the government had tasked with preventing Fulgenzio Manfredi from carrying out anti-Venetian activity once in Rome.

Fulgenzio Manfredi found himself relieved from office, prevented from preaching, disappointed with his commission, opposed by the confreres and viewed with increasing suspicion by the authorities, and petitioned Venice in early 1610 for his return.

Fulgenzio Manfredi, who was in the Tor di Nona prison, was dejected and humble, "against his custom".

Fulgenzio Manfredi was transferred to the prisons of the Inquisition Congregation, and tried.

Fulgenzio Manfredi denied all charges and claimed they were the result of misunderstanding.

Fulgenzio Manfredi was found guilty, declared a "relapso", and handed over to the secular arm.