ACHILLI, GIACINTO. — A Dominican from Viterbo, he became, during the Roman Republic (February–July 1849), a propagator of Protestantism in Italy. After the fall of the republic, he was imprisoned. Father Theiner, an Oratorian, tried in vain to dissuade him from his error. He escaped from prison and, taking refuge in London, proceeded to spread slanders against the Church, the Inquisition, and the Pope. Cardinal Wiseman exposed him in a hasty article in *The Dublin Review*. Undeterred, Achilli went to Birmingham to repeat his slanders there, where Newman was rector of the local Oratory of St Philip. Newman rose to the occasion and, in turn, reiterated the accusations already made by Cardinal Wiseman, revealing details of Achilli’s unedifying life.
Achilli’s supporters persuaded him to bring a lawsuit, and thus (March 1851) a judicial proceeding began in which all the anti-Catholic passions against the leader of the Oxford Movement were unleashed. Pusey called the trial “the greatest event since the Reformation.”
When Newman arrived in London for the trial, he could write: “As I stand before my judges, I know that ten thousand Catholic hearts accompany me to the threshold of the tribunal, and I feel no anxiety, no unease, nor any fear whatsoever about what may befall me.” The judgment was set for 21–22 January 1852. Five lawyers pleaded Newman’s cause. Judge Coleridge, unable to free himself from sectarian prejudice, though acknowledging “Newman’s talents, his ardent piety, and his holy life,” nevertheless found him guilty of defamation and imposed a fine of one hundred pounds sterling. The fact that Newman’s innocence and veracity were acknowledged by all was evidenced by the *Morning Chronicle*’s retraction of Achilli on 2 February 1853, affirming that he had no connection with Anglicanism.
Achilli later died adhering to the sect of the Vescobergians.