Fanino or Fannio, Faventino

Fanino or Fannio, Faventino a nativeof Faenza, in Italy, one of the first martyrs of the Reformation in Italy. The Scriptures in Italian (probably Bruccioli's version, 1532) fell into his hands, and he soon began to speak of the truth to his neighbors. When the ecclesiastical authorities heard of his course they arrested and imprisoned him. His wife and family came to him with entreaties and tears when first apprehended, and he yielded to their persuasions to gain his release from prison by recantation. Under the bitter reproaches of conscience he soon determined to confess Christ openly, and he went publicly through Romagna preaching the Reformed doctrines. He was arrested at Bagna Cavallo, and condemned to the stake. He was removed to Ferrara, where, for eighteen months, persuasion, promises, and tortures were used in vain to induce him to recant. Soon after the accession of pope Julius III a brief was issued for the execution of Fanino. He embraced the messenger, saying, "I accept death joyfully for Christ's sake." Being urged to recant for the sake of his wife and children, whom he was about to leave without a protector, he replied, "I have recommended them to the care of the best of guardians." "What guardian?" "Jesus Christ! I think I could not commit them to the care of a better." He was ironed,and led out to execution; and on the way, being reproached by his enemies for his cheerfulness, when Christ was exceeding sorrowful at the approach of death, he answered, "Christ sustained all manner of pangs and conflicts with death and hell on our account, and by his sufferings freed those who really believe in him from the fear of them." He was strangled at dawn, and his body was burned at noon, in September, 1550. — Young, Life of Aonio Paleario (1860, 2:111); M'Crie, Reformation in Italy, chapter 5.