GIOVANNI FRANCESCO CONFORTI. – Theologian, born at Calvanico on 7 Jan. 1743. Ordained priest, he went to Naples where he published *De veritate religionis christianae et theologicis locis* (1771). Rector of the noble College of the Annunziatella, then professor of history at the university, C. served as court theologian alongside the Franciscan Morone and Abbot Caracciolo. In 1780, still in Naples, he published the *Anti-Grazio*, an interesting work on ecclesiastical law in which he criticised Grotius’s twelve chapters on the power of the Church.
Appointed royal censor with the task of monitoring foreign publications, especially with regard to their political tenor, 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 favour of the court, intimidated by the advances of the French Revolution. He was first deprived of his chair and then of his other posts and was arrested. Released a few months before the French entered Naples and the republic was proclaimed, he was given the post of Minister of the Interior. On the return of King Ferdinand, he vainly sought refuge in the fortress of Capua, was captured, condemned to death and executed in Naples on 7 Dec. 1799.