La spada e la Parola. Bernardino da Balvano e il maestro Piutraro (Lecce, XVI secolo)

Bernardino from Balvano is a Capuchin friar from the religious Province of Puglia who lived in the sixteenth century. Itinerant preacher and author of religious works, he refuted heresies and spread the teaching of the Catholic Church. Among the features that describe his fascinating figure as a minor friar, there is that of "hammer of the heretics", in particular of the Waldensians, whose presence in Salento dates back to the second half of the fourteenth century. The ancient Capuchin chronicles report an incident in Lecce in which Father Bernardino was assaulted by the head of a heterodox sect at the gates of the city. The clash ended with the victory of the friar and the extinction of the heresy outbreak.