LUCIANI, AGOSTINO. - Hussite apostate, native of Vicenza, d. at Prague on 1 March 1493. Consecrated bishop of Santorino, he did not hesitate to confer priestly ordination upon certain Hussite candidates at Mirandola and Modena. Warned for this by the Holy See, he even contemplated moving to Bohemia (1482), where he was received by the heretics as their bishop.
The attempts immediately undertaken by Sixtus IV, by every means, to recall him to his precise duties proved futile; availing himself of the protection of the Utraquist party, L. continued with impunity to carry on his illicit activity in Bohemia. Nevertheless, repentant of his apostasy and resolved to return to Italy, he applied for this purpose first to the bishop of Passau at the end of 1484, and then, in 1486, to Card. G. Arciboldi, in order to obtain the pardon of the Holy See. But, intimidated by Innocent VIII’s injunction to return to Rome without any delay, he changed his mind once more, preferring to remain until the end among the Bohemian heretics.