CAPPUCCIATI. — Members of an association of laymen of a religious-social character, founded on the initiative of a carpenter, Duranto Chaduiz, in Auvergne around 1182, around the sanctuary of Our Lady of Puy-en-Velay. They proposed to fight, even with weapons, against the enemies of peace, and especially against the numerous bands of bandits and adventurers who harassed peaceful people in various provinces of France. They were called C. because they wore a white hood bearing the image or medal of the Virgin and Child with the inscription: « Ecce Agnus Dei ». They achieved considerable expansion, but, accused of heterodoxy, were opposed precisely by those who had initially protected them.
Toward the end of the 14th century, Wycliff’s Lollards are also designated by the name C., because, out of sectarian spirit, they refused to remove their hoods before the Most Blessed Sacrament.
Giovanni di Guadalupe, a disciple of Giovanni della Puebla, wishing to introduce into the Franciscan Order an observance even stricter than the Italian one, obtained in 1496 a brief from Pope Alessandro VI permitting him to live with six fellow brothers in a hermitage near Granada, observing the Rule of St. Francis literally. He and his followers altered the Minorite habit, using a shorter mantle and a pyramidal hood, and walked completely barefoot. For this reason the people called them Discalceati or C., or also Brothers of the Holy Gospel.