a congregation of the minor order of Observants, in Italy, so called from Peter Caperole their founder, in the fifteenth century.

During the Milanese and Venetian war, the superiors in the province of Milan, whose jurisdiction extended as far as Venice, behaved so haughtily to the Venetians, that the monks of Brescia resolved to shake off their yoke. The superiors, informed of this, drove out of the province those whom they considered as the authors of the plot, the principal of whom were Peter Caperole, Matthew de Tharvillo, Gabriel Malheureux, and Bonaventure of Brescia. Peter Caperole, with a view to separate the convents of Brescia, Bergamo, and Cremona, from the province of Milan, instituted a law-suit against the vicar-general, which was determined in his favour; and the convents, in 1475, by the authority of Pope Sixtus IV., were erected into a distinct vicariate. Soon after, by the interposition of the doge of Venice, this vicariate was erected into a congregation, which from him was called Cuperolana. On the death of Caperole, they were incorporated with the Observantine order, but retained a separate jurisdiction, under the title of the Province of Brescia. They consist of about twenty-four convents in Brescia, Bergamo, Cremona, and other places.