FRATICELLI, the name given during the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries to a number of religious groups in Italy, differing widely from each other, but all derived more or less directly from the Franciscan movement. The word is a plural diminutive of Ital. frate, brother. As early as 1238 Gregory IX., in his bull Quoniam abundavit iniquitas, condemned and denounced as forgers (tan quam falsarios) all who begged or preached in a habit resembling that of the mendicant orders, and this condemnation was repeated by him or his successors. The term Fraticelli was used contemptu ously to denote, not any particular sect, but the members of orders formed on the fringe of the church.
The name Fraticelli may more justly be applied to an extreme and fanatical offshoot of Franciscanism, which we hear of defi nitely in 1322 as established in Sicily, and known as Fraticelli. This group of exalted and isolated ascetics soon began to regard itself as the sole legitimate order of the Minorites and then as the sole Catholic Church. After being excommunicated as "schis matics and rebels, founders of a superstitious sect, and propagators of false and pestiferous doctrines," they proceeded to elect a general and then a pope called Celestine. For nearly a century they were able to carry on an active propaganda throughout Italy, until pope Martin V., in 1426, appointed two of the strict and orthodox section of the Franciscans known as Observants, with orders to make a special crusade against the heresy of the Frati celli. From 1426 to 1449 the Fraticelli were unremittingly pur sued, imprisoned and burned. The sect gradually died out after losing the protection of the common people, whose sympathy was now transferred to the austere Observants and their miracle worker Capistrano. From 1466 to 1471 there were sporadic burnings of Fraticelli, and in 1471 Tommaso di Scarlino was sent to Piombino and the littoral of Tuscany to track out some Frati celli, who had been discovered in those parts. After that date the name disappears from history.
See F. Ehrle, "Die Spiritualen, ihr Verhiiltnis zum Franziskanerorden and zu den Fraticellen" and "Zur Vorgeschichte des Concils von Vienne," in Archiv f iir Literatur- and Kirchengeschichte des Mittel alters, vols. i., iii. ; Wetzer and Welte, Kirchenlexikon, s.v. "Frati cellen"; H. C. Lea, History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, iii. 129-18o (London, 1888) .