Fra Dia'volo

Fra Dia'volo, properly MICHELE PEZZA, a celebrated Italian brigand and renegade monk, born at Itri, in the Terra di Lavoro, in 1760. Of plebeian origin, he at first followed the trade of stocking-weaver, then entered the Neapolitan army, and subsequently the service of the pope; finally he abandoned military life and became a monk, but, being expelled for misconduct, withdrew to the mountains of Calabria, where he headed a band of desperadoes, whose strongholds lay chiefly along the frontier of the Terra di Lavoro. Pillage, bloodshed, and atrocious cruelties signalled his career. For years he evaded the pursuit of justice by retiring to his haunts amidst mountains and forests, and skillfully defeating, with much inferior numbers, all the armed forces despatched against him. He became at length known among the peasantry of the neighbourhood as Fra Diavolo. On the advance of the French into the Neapolitan states, along with his band he warmly espoused the royal cause, and in return they were not only pardoned and reinstated in civil rights, but promoted to the grade of officers in the royal army, Fra Diavolo himself becoming colonel. In 1806 he attempted to excite Calabria against the French, but was taken prisoner at San Severino, and was executed at Naples on the 12th November. The opera of Auber has nothing in common with Fra Diavolo but the name.