Fulgenzio Manfredi

Fulgenzio Manfredi, OFM (Venice, c. 1560 – Rome, 5 July 1610), commonly known as Fra Fulgenzio, was a Franciscan friar, an observant minor, and active preacher in Venice from 1594. During the Venetian Interdict imposed by Pope Paul V, he gained particular prominence for his anti-Roman sermons, preaching against papal regulation of religious orders in the Venetian republic.

He was a colleague of the famous theologian and scholar Paolo Sarpi in the defence of the Venetian Republic in its struggle against the Curia. Manfredi was tried by the Roman Inquisition, declared a relapsed heretic, and sentenced to be burnt. He was executed in the Campo di Fiore, in Rome.

Fulgentio Manfredi was probably born in Venice circa 1563, the son of Ludovico Manfredi. We know of two brothers; Giambattista, painter and engraver, and Gabriele, sensale di cambi.

He joined religious life as an acolyte in 1580 and became a priest in 1586. He studied theology, and joined the Capuchin Franciscans, the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin. From as early as 1594 he was preaching in churches in Venice and outside, as well as in San Francesco della Vigna, where he was assigned. Known for his eloquent but biting polemic, he was banned from preaching for four years in 1594.

Manfredi alternated oratory activity with the production of religious and historical writings. However his authorship of certain works is quite speculative. In 1598 a compendium on the lives of the doges appeared, that consisted of twelve tablets engraved in copper with the portraits of ninety doges, with brief biographical notes. The carving was by his brother, Giambattista, and Antonio Foscarini ascribes the biographical notes to Manfredi.

Manfredi's fame however rests less in his literary productions, and more in his public oratory.

During the Venetian Interdict, his participation in the anti-Roman campaign from the ranks of the so-called "minor theologians" alongside the official ones, brought him to prominence. The fact that he was not "a public or salaried minister" was popular. From the pulpits of Il Redentore and the Church of Humility, which had been confiscated from the Jesuits and entrusted to Manfredi, in front of a large audience among whom were many senators, Manfredi excoriated "the customs of the Roman court" By 1605, the Roman Congregation of the Index, had condemned a document protesting reforms imposed on his Order, attributed to him. At the end of 1606, he was summoned by the Congregation of the Holy Office "ad respondendum de fide" (to answer for the faith), but did not attend. In a "Manifesto" written to the Roman Inquisition which had summoned him to appear (Venice 1606) he addresses "All the Most Reverend Fathers in Christ, the gratitude of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, and the zeal of the Apostles," and professes himself, "an openly veritable preacher, a staunch defender of the Evangelical doctrine and most humble follower of the Apostolic life" The excommunication issued on 5 January 1607 brought him growing notoriety, popularity, and accusations of heresy. The republican Paolo Sarpi, wrote to the German exponent of Protestant Union, Christoph von Dohna, maintaining that Manfredi's sermons were "only against the Pope" and they "criticised the ecclesiastical defects very effectively". Even the conservative statesman, Girolamo Cappello, denied that Manfredi had affirmed "heretical things"

The general tendency was to dismiss him as a mere friar who made distasteful pronouncements against Catholic customs. Berlinghiero Gessi, the papal nuncio to Venice (Sept 1607 – July 1610) wrote to Cardinal Scipione Borghese shortly on his arrival, admitting that, although 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". Nevertheless, Manfredi's exuberance concerned all the parties to the dispute. The Republic of Venice was careful to distinguish 'firm defense of the jurisdictional princes', from 'attacks on the pontiff's own person'. On 21 April 1607 following Cardinal François de Joyeuse's intervention in the Interdict dispute, Manfredi was withdrawn from governance of the Church of Humility and his activities limited. Nuncio Gessi, angrily protested the provocative megalomaniac posting of a festoon on the door of the Church of the Humility showing the symbol of the Holy See in a "vacant" configuration, and a separate act of displaying a portrait, with the caption "Evangelicae veritatis propugnator acerrimus" (Ardent Defender of Gospel Truth).