UMILIATI. – They arose as an evangelical movement of perfect Christian life among the wool workers of the suburbs of the Lombard cities, between 1170 and 1178.
Their origins in the 11th century, in a group of Milanese knights returning from German captivity, are legendary, as is their supposed monastic organization by St. Bernard during his stay in Milan in 1135; the biography of their alleged founder, St. Giovanni Oldradi da Meda, in the first half of the 12th century, is difficult to establish with precision. The wool workers and small wool merchants, living on the margins of urban feudalism and incorporated into the first industrial and commercial capitalism of the cloth trade, united in a lay association for religious and social purposes; the first u. lived with their families and assisted one another in their work; they “humbled themselves before God,” adopting coarse garments (“berrettine,” undyed caps), in opposition to the luxury of fine and colored fabrics; they abstained from lies, which, together with fraud, corrupted the moral sanctity of industry and commerce; they did not bring lawsuits, out of love for social peace; they kept themselves free from the constraints of feudalism and the guilds by refraining from oaths; strengthened by this ascetic conduct, they confronted the offensive of the various heretical sects in the second half of the 12th century through preaching and public debate. Because of this polemical orthodoxy, they cannot be regarded as a derivation of the Cathar movement (v.); their distinctive practices of family life and artisan occupation clearly separated them from the contemporary evangelical movement of the Waldensians (v.). The Roman Curia was then opposed to lay preaching, which escaped the control of episcopal authority; its unauthorized practice, together with secret assemblies, was regarded as a manifestation of heresy. The u., disobedient like the Waldensians, were expressly included among those condemned by the constit. Ad abolendam, promulgated at Verona in 1184 by Lucius III against heresy; one current advanced into schism and doctrinal error, drew close to the Waldensians of Lombardy, and in 1205 formed Poor Lombards (v.).
The u. who were reconciled with the Church through the peacemaking action of Innocent III had developed from the religious and working association of men and women who remained in the married state, which constituted the Third Order, into the lay and working monastic life of friars and nuns living in adjoining houses, who formed the Second Order; the clerical element that joined the movement was organized according to canonical norms in the First Order, which also included nuns solemnly consecrated to the choral religious life. Innocent III approved them in 1201 and authorized them to preach morally; in this activity the more learned among both clerics and laypeople, men and women, distinguished themselves as feared and effective opponents of the heretics. In 1216 there were 150 houses in the archbishopric of Milan; Bonvesin da Riva (v.), poet and narrator, counted in 1278 220 convents of the Second Order and 7 canonries of the First Order in the city and territory of Milan. The “praepositi” of the houses at Rondineto in Como, Viboldone near Milan, Viglione in Pavia, and Fossalto near Lodi directed the intense movement of expansion in turn; from 1246 they were governed by a single master general; in 1288 Nicholas IV exempted them from episcopal jurisdiction; the Second Order accentuated its monastic forms and drew closer to the First Order, while the Third Order established its own organization and in 1291 held an independent general chapter, at which particular constitutions were promulgated.
The u. did not lose their original characteristic of wool manufacture until the 14th century. They should not be regarded as promoters of a new manufacturing technique or of the development of the cloth trade in the 12th century; on the contrary, their asceticism represented a reaction against the luxury of dress. Yet from the well-organized workshops of their convents, to which the work of members of the Third Order also flowed, “Humiliati cloth,” a strong and durable wool-and-linen fabric, was introduced into commerce. The u. were invited by various Communes to expand local industry and promote the economic independence of the cities. The profits from their work were used for social welfare, especially hospitals and leprosaria. They shared with the Franciscans the sympathies of the people; the municipal authorities entrusted them with public offices, for example, as treasurers or financial officers of the Commune and its various administrations, of the tax and customs services, of the supervision of works of general interest, etc. But landed wealth and revenues, the cessation of manual labor, the transformation of offices and their associated profits into the personal benefices of their holders, and the commendatory system, together with the general external causes of the decline of religious Orders in the 14th and 15th centuries, undermined the life of the Humiliati convents, which became depopulated of religious.
The reform projects undertaken above all by St. Carlo Borromeo, protector of the Order, were obstructed by the opposition of the provosts, some of whom organized the attempt on his life of 26 October 1569; the Pope’s indignation was appeased by the execution of those responsible and the suppression of the Order. It then counted only 94 provostships with a mere 170 religious.