Hieronymites

Hieronymites or Eremites of the Order of Jerome, a monkish order which was first established about 1370 by the Portuguese Vasco and the Spaniard Peter Fred. Pecha, and was accredited by Gregory XI in 1373. Their dress is a white habit and a black scapulary. In Spain and the Netherlands this order became very opulent, being possessed of many convents; Charles V belonged to this order after his abdication. They spread also into the West Indies and Spanish America. At present they exist only in the latter country. Besides these, there exists also another order by the same name, with, however, but few members, founded by Peter Gambacorti, of Pisa, about 1380. — Helyot, Ord. Monast. ed. Migne, 3, 568; Brockhaus, Encyklop. 8, 916. (J. H.W.)