Francesco Negri was born of a noble and ancient family in
Bassano, in the
Republic of Venice, in 1500. Gifted with an active and penetrating mind, he became an excellent student. He entered the
Order of Benedictines. The principles of the Reformation preached in
Germany and
Switzerland penetrating Italy at this time, Negri came forward as one of the first to adopt the new doctrines, and promptly abandoning his order, he went to Germany, joined
Zwingli and accompanied the Swiss Reformer to the conferences of Marburg in 1529, and assisted at the
Diet of Augsburg in 1530. Negri defended with eloquence the famous Protestant profession of faith known under the name of the
Augsburg Confession, He afterwards returned to
Italy; but that country offering no security to the preachers of the Reformed doctrines, he went back to Germany. He stopped some time at
Strasbourg, then at
Geneva, and finally settled at
Chiavenna, a small village of the
Grisons, where he married, and became the teacher of a school. His small salary scarcely sufficed to support his family. It appears that he attempted to better his position by going again to Geneva; but he was not more fortunate than before, and he returned to Chiavenna, where he died some time posterior to 1559. In his last years Negri departed from the theological platform of his old teachers,
Luther and Zwingli, and embraced
Socinianism.
Works
Turcicarum rerum commentarius (Paris, 1538), translated in
Italian by
Paolo Giovio.
Rudimenta grammaticae, ex auctoribus collecta (Milan, 1541), reprinted under the title of Canones Grammaticales (Peschiaro, 1555).
Tragoedia de libero arbitrio (Geneva, 1546, 4to, and 1550, with additions). This singular dramatic allegory upon one of the most disputed questions between the Catholics and the Reformers is rare and recherche; the denouement of the piece is the triumph of Justifying Grace over king Free Will, who is beheaded, and over the
Pope, who is recognised as
Antichrist. The drama was translated into
French under the title La tragedie du roi Franc-Arbitre (Villefranche [Geneva], 1559).
De Fanini Faventini ac Dominici Bassanensis morte, qui nuper ob Christum in Italia Romani pontificis jussu impie occisi sunt, brevis historia (Chiavenna, 1550), one of his rarest and most curious books.
Historia Francisci Spierae civitatulani qui quod susceptam semel Evangelicae veritatis professionem abnegasset, in horrendam incidit desperationem (Tiibingen, 1555).
^Opere, documenti e testimonianze di
Camillo Renato, Antonio Rotondò - 1968 "Francesco Negri (1500-1563). Nativo di Bassano e avviatosi dapprima a studi umanistici, nel 1521 entró nell'ordine dei Benedettini. Nel 1525 lasciô il convento di Santa Giustina in Padova e andó in Germania, forse ad Augusta."
^Oxford encyclopedia of the Reformation: Volume 2 Hans J. Hillerbrand - 1996 ... after his escape he traveled to join Biandrata in 1562 in Poland, where he became a member of a small Italian antitrinitarian community in Pinczow that included himself and
Biandrata plus
Alciati and Francesco Negri (1500-1563).