CONFORTI, GIOVANNI FRANCESCO. — Theologian, born at Calvanico on 7 January 1743. Ordained a priest, he went to Naples, where he published De variate religionis christianae et theologicis locis (1771). Rector of the Collegio nobile dell’Annunziatella and later professor of history at the university, C. was court theologian together with the Franciscan Morone and Abbot Caracciolo. In 1780, again in Naples, he published the Anti-Grozio, an important work of ecclesiastical law in which he criticized the twelve Grozian chapters on the power of the Church.
Appointed royal censor with responsibility for monitoring foreign publications, with particular attention to their political content, he held this office for a long time until, suspected of liberalism for having defended Mario Pagano before the tribunal of the Inquisition, he lost the favor of the court, which had been frightened by the progress of the French Revolution. He was first deprived of his chair and then of his other positions, and was arrested. Released a few months before the French entered Naples and the republic was subsequently proclaimed, he was appointed minister of the Interior. Upon the return of King Ferdinando, he unsuccessfully sought refuge in the fortress of Capua; captured, he was condemned to death and executed in Naples on 7 December 1799.