Capecelatro, Giuseppe

CAPECELATRO, GIUSEPPE. - Archbishop of Taranto, b. in Naples on 23 Sept. 1744, d. there on 2 Nov. 1836. Of a noble ducal family, at the age of twenty-two, after a long educational journey through Italy, he was ordained a priest and became chaplain of the Treasure of St. Januarius, then consistorial advocate for the Kingdom of Naples and later archbishop of Taranto. He was one of the most notable figures of that Neapolitan Jansenism which, as elsewhere in Italy, flowed into regalism and the Enlightenment.

Two of his works are in fact on the Index: Discorso istorico-politico dell'origine, del progresso e della decadenza del potere dei chierici sulle Signorie temporali, Filadelfia (Naples) n.d. (decr. 29 Jan. 1789), and Riflessioni sul discorso... dialogo del sig. Censorini, italiano col sig. Ramour, francese, Filadelfia (Naples) n.d. (1789, decr. 20 Feb. 1794), because they contain assertions that are false, seditious, heretical, injurious to ecclesiastical liberty and immunity, destructive of the primacy of the Pope, with a manifest tendency toward schism and rebellion (H. Reusch, Der Index der verbot. Büchern, II, Bonn 1885, p. 931). In the political field he adapted to the various forms of government, monarchical and republican, Italian and French, that succeeded one another, without leaving any particular mark. Before dying he retracted his errors.

Mario Zazzetta