CAMPELLO, ENRICO. - Religious agitator, born in Rome in 1831 to an ancient impoverished family, and died there in 1902. Having entered ecclesiastical life, he successively became canon of S. Maria Maggiore and of S. Peter. In 1881 he apostatized, and in the same year published his Confessione di Fede, which was practically almost that of the Old Catholics, namely that the hierarchy was indeed of divine institution, but that bishops and parish priests had to be elected by the clergy and the laity; he recognized the Pope only as the “primus inter pares,” denying him infallibility; the liturgy was to be celebrated in the vernacular; ecclesiastical celibacy was well accepted by God, but the obligation to observe it for priests was unjust and tyrannical and had to be abolished, etc.
On these principles he sought to found the so-called “Italian Catholic Church.” Assisted by Anglicans of the “Anglo-Continental Society,” he founded in Rome the newspaper *Il Labaro*, which soon disappeared, and then moved to San Remo under the direction of Ugo Janni. In 1883, urged on by the Anglican minister Dr. Nevin, he inaugurated in Rome, in via Genova, a chapel, opened some schools, and was recognized as a priest of the “Church of God” by the Episcopal bishop of Long Island in the United States. At this time some apostates joined him, such as G. B. Savarese, who later reconciled himself with the Church, and Cicchitti-Suriani. In 1886, as the affairs of the new church were not prospering, C. made a trip to London to consult with his Anglican friends, and there it was decided that he should leave Rome and go to spread the new doctrines in the Valnerina, among whose populations he labored for many years, especially in Casteldilago, Arrone, Ferentillo, and in some other small villages, with a brief stint also in San Remo under the aegis of Ugo Janni.
In 1902, at the age of 71, C. made his abjuration in the chapel of the Pontificio Collegio Pio Latino Americano in Rome and returned to the Church, in which, penitent for his faults, he died.