Peter of Capua

Peter Capuanus (often surnamed maior, German: Peter of Capua the Elder, ital: Pietro di Capua or Pietro Capuano, † August 30 1214 in Viterbo ) was a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church in the 12th and 13th centuries. His nephew, Peter Capuanus minor was in 1219 also made ​​a cardinal.

Peter came from a patrician family from Amalfi - the family Capuanus is there by the end of the 11th detectable until the middle of the 14th century - and studied theology in Paris with Robert of Courson, Stephen Langton and Lothario di Segni, the future Pope Innocent III. Still in his studies, he began with the discussion of a theological Summa, he. Following his appointment as cardinal deacon of S. Maria in Via Lata by Pope Celestine III Completed in 1193. As papal legate he was in 1197 in Poland and Bohemia, and in 1198 worked in France. He should also arrange for between Philip Augustus and Richard the Lionheart and promote the Fourth Crusade. On this occasion, Peter should also be used for the release of captured by Richard the Lionheart held Bishop Philip of Beauvais, who was a mortal enemy of the English king. According to the Histoire de Guillaume le compiled later Maréchal Richard the Lionheart had lost his temper when Peter had brought this subject up, after which he intended to castrate the papal legate. However, Peter was able to escape this fate by fleeing.

On December 23, 1200 Peter was appointed Cardinal Priest of S. Marcello, then legate for the Fourth Crusade. In this company he has had no significant impact and triggered from the main army, after the diversion of the crusade was decided to Constantinople Opel to travel directly to the Holy Land. However, he later traveled at the request of the Latin Emperor Baldwin I. and against the wishes of Pope Innocent III. but after Constantine Opel, there to guide the establishment of a Latin church hierarchy. Among other things, he had the relics of St. Andrew the Apostle convict in his home town of Amalfi. The appointment of Peter as Patriarch of Constantinople Opel failed in 1211 to the opposition of the Pope. The following year, he founded with his brother and his nephew Giovanni Mansone in Amalfi, the monastery of San Pietro della Canonica.