CAPUCHINS, an order of friars in the Roman Catholic Church, the chief and only permanent offshoot from the Francis cans. It arose about the year 1520, when Matteo di Bassi, an "Observant" Franciscan, became possessed of the idea that the habit worn by the Franciscans was not the one that St. Francis had worn; accordingly he made himself a pointed or pyramidal hood and also allowed his beard to grow and went about barefooted. His superiors tried to suppress these innovations, but in 1528 he obtained the sanction of Clement VII. and also the permission to live as a hermit and to go about everywhere preaching to the poor; and these permissions were not only for himself, but for all such as might join him in the attempt to restore the most literal observance possible of St. Francis's rule. Matteo was soon joined by others and a recognized order grew out of the move ment, their hood (capuche) giving them their popular name. In 1529 they had four houses and held their first general chapter, at which their special rules were drawn up. The eremitical idea was abandoned, but the life was to be one of extreme austerity, sim plicity and poverty—in all things as near an approach to St. Francis's idea as was practicable. The great external work was preaching and spiritual ministrations among the poor. In theology the Capuchins abandoned the later Franciscan school of Scotus, and returned to the earlier school of Bonaventura (q.v.) The new congregation at the outset underwent a series of misfortunes, of which the most disastrous was the secession of the third vicar, Bernardino Ochino (q.v.), who became a Calvinist, 1543, and married. This brought the whole congregation under suspicion of heretical tendencies and the pope resolved to suppress it ; he was with difficulty induced to allow it to continue, but the Cap uchins were forbidden to preach, a prohibition that lasted for two years. The congregation then began to multiply with ex traordinary rapidity, and by the end of the 16th century the Capuchins had spread all over the Catholic parts of Europe, and in 1619 they were constituted into an independent order, with a general of their own. They were one of the chief factors in the Catholic Counter-reformation, working assiduously among the poor, preaching, catechizing, confessing in all parts, and impressing the minds of the common people by the great poverty and auster ity of their life. By these means they were also extraordinarily successful in making converts from Protestantism to Catholicism. Nor were their activities confined to Europe; from an early date they undertook missions to the heathen in America, Asia and Africa, and at the middle of the 17th century a Capuchin mis sionary college was founded in Rome for the purpose of preparing their subjects for foreign missions. A large number of Capuchins suffered martyrdom for the Gospel. This activity in Europe and elsewhere continued until the close of the i8th century.
Like all other orders, the Capuchins suffered severely from the secularizations and revolutions of the end of the i8th century and the first half of the 19th; but they survived the strain, and during the latter part of the 19th century rapidly recovered ground. They still keep up their missionary work and have some 200 missionary stations in all parts of the world—notably India, Abyssinia and the Turkish empire. Though "the poorest of all orders," it has attracted into its ranks an extraordinary number of the highest nobility and even of royalty. The celebrated Father Matthew, the apostle of Temperance in Ireland, was a Capuchin friar. Like the Franciscans the Capuchins wear a brown habit.
In order fully to grasp the meaning of the Capuchin reform, it is necessary to know the outlines of Franciscan history (see FRANCIS CANS) . References to the literature will be found in the article "Kapuzinerorden" in Wetzer and Welte, Kirchenlexicon (2nd ed.), which is the best general sketch on the subject. Shorter sketches, with the needful references, are given in Max Heimbucher, Orden and Kongregationen (1896), i. § 44, and in Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklo padie (3rd ed.), art. "Kapuziner," F. Cuthbert, art. "Capuchin Friars Minor" in the Catholic Encyclopaedia. On their missions, see Spitz, art. "Missions (Christian, Roman Catholic)," in Hastings, Encyclo paedia of Religion and Ethics, viii., pp. 713 ff. .