Michele Carcano
O.F.M. Obs.
The Order of Friars Minor (also called the Franciscans, the Franciscan Order, or the Seraphic Order; postnominal abbreviation OFM) is a mendicant Catholic religious order, founded in 1209 by Francis of Assisi. The order adheres to the teachin ...
(Michael de Carcanis de Mediolano) (
Lomazzo
Lomazzo (Western Lombard: ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Como, in the Italian region of Lombardy. It is situated halfway between Como and Milan. The ancient historical center of the town was founded on the top of a hill situated in ...
, 1427- 20 March 1484) was an Italian
Franciscan preacher. He is known for his part in founding the
montes pietatis
A mount of piety is an institutional pawnbroker run as a charity in Europe from Renaissance times until today. Similar institutions were established in the colonies of Catholic countries; the Mexican Nacional Monte de Piedad is still in operatio ...
banking system, with
Bernardine of Feltre.
Background
The ''Montes Pietatius'' were charitable institutions of credit that lent money at low rates of interest, or without interest at all, upon the security of objects left in pawn, with a view to protecting persons in want from usurers. As Christians were forbidden to practice usury, i.e., taking loans on interest, it created a sort of monopoly of the credit business to the Jews. However, the so-called "Coarsini" (named after the town of Cavour in Piedmont), and the Lombards, who were a kind of travelling bankers, often charge interest much greater than Jewish lenders.
Life
Michele Carcano was born in 1427 to a noble family of Milan, he joined the Franciscans in 1442. After his ordination, he became an itinerant preacher.
The ''mons pietatis'' of Perugia was founded in consequence of Carcano's preaching in that city in 1461, in which he inveighed against the usury of the Jews. The fund for that charitable establishment was made up in part by voluntary contributions and in part by money lent by the Jews themselves.
He preached against usury, which he connected to the Jews. His anti-Semitic discourses did much to embolden persecution against Jews, particularly in the case of the
blood libel
Blood libel or ritual murder libel (also blood accusation) is an antisemitic canardTurvey, Brent E. ''Criminal Profiling: An Introduction to Behavioral Evidence Analysis'', Academic Press, 2008, p. 3. "Blood libel: An accusation of ritual mur ...
concerning
Simon of Trent
Simon of Trent (german: Simon von Trient, also known as Simon Unverdorben (meaning Simon Immaculate in German); it, Simonino di Trento), also known as Simeon (1472–1475), was a boy from the city of Trent (now Trento in northern Italy), in the ...
. On Holy Thursday in the year 1475, the child, then about 20 months old, son of a gardener, was missed by its parents. On the evening of Easter Sunday the body was found in a ditch. Several Jews were accused of the alleged murder, cruelly tortured, and executed.
His sermons were later printed as ''Sermones quadragesimales fratris Michaelis de Mediolano de decem preceptis'' (1492). They include arguments in favour of
religious art.
[Geraldine A. Johnson, ''Renaissance Art: A Very Short Introduction'' (2005), p. 37.]
References
External links
Franaut biographyIncomincia la Confessione Generale
From the Collections at the Library of Congress
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carcano, Michele
1427 births
1484 deaths
People from Lomazzo
Italian Franciscans