Giacinto Achilli

Giovanni Giacinto Achilli (Italian pronunciation: [dʒoˈvanni dʒaˈtʃinto aˈkilli]; c. 1803 – c. 1860) was an Italian Roman Catholic Dominican friar and anti-Jesuit who was discharged from priesthood and imprisoned by the Roman Inquisition after being accused of child sexual abuse or for doctrinal heresy. Achilli escaped and subsequently became an evangelist for the Anglican Communion. He is noted for his activities in England, and victory in a legal case against John Henry Newman, who had made accusations about Achilli's past, for libel.

Early life as a priest

Achilli was born in Celleno, a village c. 30 km from Viterbo, then part of the Papal States. He joined the Dominican order in 1819 and was ordained a priest in 1825.

In 1833 Achilli obtained the degree of Master of Sacred Theology at the Roman College of St. Thomas, the future Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, The Angelicum.

In 1840, for being against the abuses of the Roman Inquisition, Achilli underwent a sequence of disciplinary actions and sanctions, largely arising from allegations by his pro-Inquisition opponents of sexual misconduct including the alleged rape of a 15-year-old girl in Naples.

On 16 June 1841, the Roman Inquisition finally lost patience and permanently suspended Achilli from the cure of souls, sentencing him to three years' penance at a remote monastery at San Nazzaro. However, in 1842, Achilli made his way to Corfu, then a British protectorate, and claimed political asylum alleging that he was a cavaliere and that he had escaped from the fortress at Ancona. The local authorities were minded to grant the papal consul's request for extradition until they discovered that Achilli was claiming to have converted to Protestantism and was engaged in fervent anti-Catholic propaganda, largely under the influence of Isaac Lowndes, the Scottish Presbyterian secretary of the Bible Society. He also made alliances with exiled Italian nationalists.