Porta, Egidio Di

Porta, Egidio di a Roman Catholic monastic, flourished in the period of the great Reformation movement of the 16th century. He had early taken the black cowl of the Augustinians, moved thereto, as he himself tells us, "under the impulse of a certain religious feeling, but not according to knowledge." For seven years he discharged the office of a preacher of the Word of God in deep ignorance; then, enlightened by the writings of the Swiss reformer Zwingli, which Providence had thrown in his way, he imparted the knowledge of the truth to his brethren of the same convent. It is to be regretted that we can learn nothing of his personal history beyond this period.