ot 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
bare-footed. 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. The Observants
opposed the movement, but the Conventuals supported it, and so Matteo
and his companions were formed into a congregation, called the Hermit
Friars Minor, as a branch of the Conventual Franciscans, but with a
vicar of their own, subject to the jurisdiction of the general of the
Conventuals. From their hood (_capuche_) they received the popular name
of Capuchins. 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,
simplicity and poverty--in all things as near an approach to St
Francis's idea as was practicable. Neither the monasteries nor the
congregation should possess anything, nor were any devices to be
resorted to for evading this law; no large provision against temporal
wants should be made, and the supplies in the house should never exceed
what was necessary for a few days. Everything was to be obtained by
begging, and the friars were not allowed even to touch money. The
communities were to be small, eight being fixed as the normal number and
twelve as the limit. In furniture and clothing extreme simplicity was
enjoined and the friars were to go bare-footed without even sandals.
Besides the choral canonical office, a portion of which was recited at
midnight, there were two hours of private prayer daily. The fasts and
disciplines were rigorous and frequent. 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 of its history underwent a series of severe blows. The two
founders left it, Matteo di Bassi to return to the Observants, while his
first companion, on being superseded in the office of vicar, became so
insubordinate t