Francesco Spiera

Francesco Spiera (1502-December 27 1548) was a Protestant Italian jurist.

He was born at Cittadella, 20 km north of Padua, then part of the Republic of Venice. Interest in Spiera is due to the fact that the Protestants of the sixteenth century used his case as an example of the dreadful consequences of the sin against the Holy Ghost, since he discerned Evangelical truth, but denied and abjured it for external reasons. Spiera had won an esteemed position in his native town; and a well bestowed house, in which ten children grew up, appeared to insure his happiness. Besides the Scriptures, there fell into his hands various Evangelical writings, such as "The Benefit of Christ's Death", "Doctrine Old and New", and "Summary of Sacred Scripture", which instilled in him doubt as to the Roman Catholic teachings on purgatory, veneration of the saints, etc.

With others he was arraigned before the inquisition at Venice; and his trial came off between May 24 and June 20, 1548. On the latter day in St. Mark's Spiera made solemn abjuration of his "errors," and subscribed the abjuration, which he then repeated on the following Sunday in Cittadella, after mass in the cathedral. On returning home, so he related it himself, "the Spirit," or the voice of his con science, began to reproach him for having denied the truth. Amid grounds of comfort that either he or his friends advanced, and a state of despair that grew more and more hopeless, there began a terrible struggle within himself, which soon so affected even his sturdy physique that it gave occasion for conveying him to Padua to be treated by the most celebrated physicians. The treatment was vain, and the conflict, which Pier Paolo Vergerio and others witnessed, ended in his death, shortly after his return to his home. That Spiera laid violent hands on himself is later invention.

References

"This entry incorporates public domain text originally from the Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge."