NATALI, MARTINO. - Scolopian and Jansenist, b. at Bussana (Imperia) on 21 Dec. 1730, d. at Pavia on 28 June 1791. A pupil of G. B. Curlo, in Rome he formed friendships with the most tenacious opponents of the Jesuits and the warmest promoters of Jansenism, and was able to give expression to his own ideas. Warned, he did not yield, but his polemical character grew so vehemently that he drew suspicion upon himself even from the Holy Office.
The occasion was a course of 500 theses *De summo Pontifice deque S. Romanae Ecclesiae cardinalibus* and the printing of these and other theses (with the Roman publisher Zempel), in which, under the guise of defending Catholic truths, he insinuated Jansenist theories. Reprimanded by Fr. Mamachi and subjected to an examination by the Holy Office, he was not condemned, but was forbidden to continue teaching theology at the Calasanzio College (1763). Transferred to Urbino the following year, with the favor of friends he returned to Rome, where he wrote in an aggressive tone: *Lettera d'un chierico delle Scuole Pie scolare del p. M. N., al p. maestro Mamachi di Scio, teologo casanatense a giustificazione di sé*. From 1766 to 1769 he was prefect of studies at the Calasanzio College, in which year he was ordered to transfer to Milan for a chair of dogmatic theology at the University of Pavia. The Pavia courses produced the works: *S. Augustini doctrina de Gratia Dei* (Pavia 1786); *Scriptura et Patrum doctrina de Deo eiusque attribuitis seu praelectionum theologicarum ad usum auditorum* (ibid. 1787–1788). He also wrote: *Lettera contro il Tournely* (ibid. 1770); *Lettera sopra la morte di Gesù e la sua discesa all'Inferno* (ibid. 1776), in which he rejects the common doctrine on Limbo and defends free discussion against the common teaching on theological matters; two years later he added to this work a *Sermone di s. Agostino* in which he treats of the punishment of children who die without baptism. Particularly popular were the *Sentimenti di un cattolico sulla predestinazione dei santi* (ibid. 1782), the *Preghiere della Chiesa per ottenere da Dio la sua santa Grazia* (ibid. 1783), and an *Epitome* to the work of Francesco Veronico (ibid. 1785). He was also a frequent contributor to the Pistoiese collection of *Opuscoli interessanti la religione* edited by De’ Ricci, translator of various literature by the French appellants, apologist for the schismatic Church of Utrecht against the history of that Church written by Mozzi (v.), in a small work he left unfinished, concluding at last with a truly daring effort: *Dubbio sul centro dell'unità cattolica della Chiesa* (ibid. 1790); a dark vision of the Church by a believer poisoned and a revolutionary to the core. Codignola rightly considers it his literary, theological, and polemical testament. Many of his friends rejected II. He exercised his office as royal censor in a Jansenist manner, above all in the case of Bellarmine’s catechism, seeking, as he put it, against the “Lollard doctrines” the “sound truth and doctrine,” always devoted and humble toward the imperial government, but hostile and bitter toward the Roman Curia. He maintained constant relations with the principal Italian and foreign Jansenists, but failing to rise above polemics, also because of the unoriginal complexity of his work and intellect, he remained only a bold and daring exponent of Ligurian Jansenism and the theological circle of Pavia.