Bernardino da Feltre°
BERNARDINO DA FELTRE°
BERNARDINO DA FELTRE° (1439–1494), *Franciscan friar, born at Feltre, N. Italy. From 1471 Bernardino began to attain a great reputation throughout northern Italy as a preacher, especially of the Lenten sermons urging the people to repentance. Pursuing the policy of his order, Bernardino inveighed against the Jews and supported the foundation of public loan-banks (*Monte di Pietà) in order to displace Jewish moneylenders. His preaching was mainly responsible for the blood libel at *Trent in 1475. In the following year, he made a similar attempt at Reggio, and then in Bassano and Mantua; in 1485 he instigated the expulsion of the Jews from Perugia, and in 1486 from Gubbio. In 1488 he was expelled from Florence to prevent disorders. In 1491 in Ravenna he succeeded in having the Jews expelled and the synagogue destroyed. In 1492 he secured the expulsion of the Jews from Campo San Pietro, and from Brescia in 1494. Shortly after his death he was beatified.
bibliography:
E. Lazzareschi, Il beato Bernardino da Feltre, gli Ebrei e il Monte di Pietà in Lucca (1941), Roth, Italy, 170–6, passim; Milano, Italia, index; U. Cassuto, Gli Ebrei a Firenze nell' età del Rinascimento (1918), 52–53, 56–60, 62–63.
[Cecil Roth]