Betti Francis

Betti Francis (1520-1590)

B etti Francis a noble Roman of the sixteenth century, and an exile from his country on account of his religion, took up his residence at Basle. He was the friend and correspondent of Acontius, who, in a Dedicatory Epistle to one of his works, cited by Bayle, thus addresses him. "The laborious and anxious employment in which we have long been engaged together, the similarity of our studies and inclinations, and, what is above all, our union of sentiment in religion, and the resolution which we have taken of abandoning our native country for the sake of it, have knit us together in the dearest and most indissoluble bonds of friendship."

At the period in which Francis Betti and Acontius lived, Italy was fruitful in men of learning and piety, who made the most costly sacrifices, to enjoy the Christian religion, in its native purity and simplicity ; and it is much to be lamented, that Ecclesiastical History has preserved so few traces of these disinterested and high-minded individuals, many of whom possessed far clearer views of religious liberty and Christian truth, than those of their contemporaries, whom we are generally taught to regard as the most distinguished luminaries of the Reformation. Of the personal history of Francis Betti, few traces now remain ; but the little which is known of him is highly honourable to his character. Peter Ramus, who lost his life in the massacre of St. Bartholomew, mentions him, in the following terms, among the friends whom the University of Basle entertained as its guests. "Italy has scarcely reckoned in the number of her sons two more candid and pious men, than Francesco Betti and Sylvestro Teglio. Betti, in his native language, instructs his country in the truths of Christianity. Teglio has made Machiavelli's 'Prince' speak Latin, and is daily raising loftier monuments of his own fame."

Nicholas Camulius, a wealthy merchant, and liberal patron of Antitrinitarians, in a letter written about the year 1563, associates the name of Francis Betti with that of Darius [Socin], as being then expected at Zurich ; but whether as a guest, or a permanent resident does not appear. Betti was also upon terms of the closest intimacy with Faust Socin, and was a fellow-sufferer with him in the cause of Christian truth. Bock reckons him among the number of Crypto-Socinians, who had taken up their residence at Basle. (Hist. Ant. T. II. p. 665.) When Faust Socin came to that city, Francis Betti was residing there ; and Faust calls him "his very particular, and very old friend, a pious man, and one not moderately versed in religious controversy." During Betti's residence at Basle, Francis Pucci occasionally wrote to him about his opinions ; and in the course of their correspondence, Betti told him, that Socin was at Basle, and that, if they should ever chance to meet, he would gain a clearer knowledge of the truth from his intercourse with Socin. In consequence of this, Pucci left England, and went into Switzerland, where, in 1578, he held his celebrated Disputation with Socin, "On the State of the First Man before the Fall."

Betti was the author of a letter to the accomplished Marchioness of Pescara, Vittoria Colonna, in which he mentions the reasons of his departure from Italy. To this letter Jerome Mutius published a reply, entitled, "Risposta di Girolamo Muzio a una lettera di Francesco Betti, scritta alla Marchesa di Pescara. Pisauri, A. 1558," 8vo.

In the Expurgatory Indexes, the name of Francis Betti is placed among those of heretics of the first class.

(Vidend. Zindsey's Hist. View, Chap. ii. p. 80, Note (c). Bock, Hist. Ant. T. H. pp. 665. 817. De Porta, Hist. Ref. Eccles. Raet. T. I. L. ii. C. xx. p. 544. Schelhornii Diss. Epist. de Mino Celso, p. 62, Not. (e).)

 
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