Pietro Caperolo

Friar Minor, date of birth unknown; d. at Velletri in 1480

Friar Minor

,

date

of birth unknown; d. at

Velletri

in 1480; he was a man of much energy and great learning, and was held in high esteem as a preacher by the people of

Brescia

,

Velletri

, and other cities of Northern

Italy

. Caperolo played an important part in the religious disturbances, which arose about the year 1475, between the

Franciscan

provinces of

Milan

and

Venice

, and which were occasioned in great measure by the

war

then going on between

Milan

and the

Venetian

Republic. After considerable difficulty Caperolo succeeded in obtaining permission from

Pope Sixtus IV

to separate several

convents

of the

Venetian

province from the obedience of the Observants, and to form a

vicariate

, which was placed under the obedience of the

Conventuals

, but retained the

right

to

elect

its own provincial superior. The members of the new congregation were known as Caperolani, from Caperolo their founder. The death of Caperolo, however, put an end to the Caperolani as a distinct branch within the order, and all the members of the new vicariate without exception returned to the obedience of the Observants.

Sources

Wadding, Annales Minorum (Rome, 1732), XIII, 402; XIV, 242; Kobler in Kirchenlex., s.v.