Lismanini was born in on
Corfu. His Greek parents soon moved to Italy and in 1515 the family arrived in
Kraków, Poland, where in 1525, Francis became a Franciscan friar. A fine preacher, he was chosen by Queen
Bona Sforza, compatriot and wife of King
Sigismund I the Old, as a preacher and confessor. In 1540, he was elected as a Franciscan Father, but as a humanist of the Erasmian circle and proponent of reformed doctrines, in 1550 he was suspected of heresy during a trip to Italy. In 1553, arrived in Moravia, then returning again to Italy and then Switzerland, where he openly proclaimed Calvinism and became a friend of
John Calvin,
Heinrich Bullinger and
Johannes Wolf. He returned to Poland to be part of the
Protestant Church of Poland. He tried to reach an agreement with the anti-Trinitarian church of the Polish Brethren to strengthen the Reform movement, but due to the opposition of Calvin and Bullinger, the attempt failed. Thus in the late 1550s he was involved with numerous Calvinist and Lutheran disputes with people such as
Francesco Stancaro. In 1563, he entered the service of Duke
Albrecht of Prussia in
Königsberg, where he died in April 1566. ==References==