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CAPUCIATI
. The Capuciati exemplify the mix of politics and religion, of lay religiosity and social
revolution, that characterizes the high Middle Ages. In 1182, responding to an infestation
of brigands in the wake of the Plantagenêt-Capetian wars, a carpenter from Le Puy
named Durand Dujardin had a vision of the Virgin telling him to form a brotherhood of
peace. This confraternity of humble men wearing white hoods (capuciati) took a
collective oath to go to Mass, to forgive each other all sins, and to renounce gaming,
blaspheming, and frequenting taverns. Their numbers grew with astonishing rapidity,
spreading throughout the central and southern provinces of France (Berry, Limousin,
Gascony, Aquitaine, Provence). Chroniclers initially praised the movement and admired
the piety of these laymen, and both lay and ecclesiastic nobles in their regions supported
them. Within a year, the sworn Peace militias of the Capuciati had defeated several
armies of brigands, slaughtering thousands.
Flushed with success, the Capuciati extended their definition of plunder to include
prelates and nobles who exploited their serfs; they even invoked Adam and Eve as proof
that all should be free and equal. This may be the earliest reference we have to the
invocation of the Creation myth among European commoners to denounce aristocratic
privilege; in later peasant revolts (England in 1381, Germany in 1525), we hear the ditty:
“When Adam delved and Eve span/Who was then the Gentleman?” It is noteworthy that
in all three cases these revolts of the commoners were preceded by translations of the
Bible into the vernacular (by Waldo in the 1170s, Wyclif in the 1370s, Luther in 1521).
The aristocracy, perceiving the threat, turned against the Capuciati. Chroniclers
denounced their “madness” and branded them heretics; and the brigands, now with the
assistance of the nobility, took vengeance for their earlier defeats, massacring the
Capuciati both on the battlefield and in their towns. Hugh of Noyers, a bellicose lord of
royal lineage, became bishop of Auxerre in 1183, defeated the upstart peasants, and
condemned them to go for a full year without covering their heads. By 1185, there seems
to be no trace left of the Capuciati. Their fate recalls that of the peasant coniuratio of 859
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