Bernardin of Rome

Bernardin Of Rome (surnamed the Small), an Italian theologian and preacher, was born at Feltri about 1420. He was of the order of Minorites. Sixtus IV and Innocent XIII employed him in some important affairs. His eloquence was admirable. — Bernardin of Butis, his fellow-laborer, attributed to him miraculous power, and claimed that there were millions of angels in the air as he preached. But the grandest proof which he gave of his charity was the erection of the loan bank for the relief of the poor, which the Jews crushed with usury. He died at Pavia in 1494, leaving a small treatise On the Manner of Confession (Brescia, 1542); and some sermons in Italian (Venice, 1532). See Dupin, Hist. Eccles. Writers, iii, 76; Cave, Hist. Lit. ii, App. p. 195; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, s.v.