Their origins in the 11th century are legendary, tracing back to a group of Milanese knights returning from German captivity, as well as to a monastic settlement allegedly established by St. Bernard during his stay in Milan in 1135. The biography of their supposed founder, St. John Oldradi of Meda, in the first half of the 12th century, is difficult to verify. The wool workers and small merchants, living on the fringes of urban feudalism and organized by the early capitalist industry and trade in fabrics, united in a lay association with religious and social aims. The early *Umiliati* lived in their own homes and assisted one another in their work; they humbled themselves for God by adopting coarse, undyed garments (and caps), in opposition to the luxury of fine, colored fabrics. They abstained from lies, which through fraud corrupted the moral integrity of industry and commerce; they avoided lawsuits out of love for social peace; and they remained free from the constraints of feudalism and guilds by refraining from oaths. Emboldened by this ascetic conduct, they confronted the offensive of various heretical sects in the second half of the 12th century through preaching and public debate. Due to this polemical orthodoxy, they cannot be considered a derivation of the Cathar movement (v.). Their distinctive family life and artisan profession set them apart from the contemporary evangelical movement of the Waldensians (v.). At the time, the Roman Curia opposed lay preaching, which was removed from episcopal control; its unauthorized exercise, along with secret gatherings, was deemed a manifestation of heresy. Like the Waldensians, the disobedient *Umiliati* were explicitly included in the constitution *Ad abolendam*, promulgated in 1184 in Verona by Lucius III against heresy. A progressive faction drifted into schism and doctrinal error, aligning with the Waldensians of Lombardy and forming in 1205 the sect of the Poor Lombards (v.).
The *Umiliati* who reconciled with the Church through the pacifying efforts of Innocent III evolved from a religious-working association of men and women in the married state, which constituted the Third Order, into a lay and working monastic life of friars and sisters living in adjacent houses, forming 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 life of choral prayer. Innocent III approved them in 1201 and authorized their moral preaching, in which both clergy and laity—men and women, the more educated—distinguished themselves as formidable and effective opponents of heretics. By 1216, there were 150 houses in the archdiocese of Milan. The renowned *Umiliato* Bonvesin da Riva (v.), a poet and writer, counted in 1278 a total of 220 convents of the Second Order and 7 canonries of the First Order in the city and countryside of Milan. The "prepositi" (superiors) of the houses at Rondinetto in Como, Viboldone near Milan, Vignalone in Pavia, and Fossalto near Lodi, took turns directing the intense expansion movement. 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 held an independent general chapter in 1291, where specific constitutions were issued.
The *Umiliati* lost their original characteristic of the wool industry only in the 14th century. They should not be regarded as promoters of a new manufacturing technique or the development of the fabric trade in the 12th century; indeed, their asceticism represented a reaction against the luxury of clothing. However, from the well-organized workshops of their convents, which also utilized the labor of Third Order members, they produced and marketed the "panni umiliati," a strong and durable half-wool fabric. The *Umiliati* were sought after by various communes to boost local industry and promote economic independence. The profits from their labor were used for social welfare, particularly hospitals and leper hospitals. They shared popular sympathy with the Franciscans and were entrusted by municipal authorities with public offices, such as treasurer or steward of the Commune and its various administrations, tax collection, and oversight of public works. However, the accumulation of landed wealth and rents, the cessation of manual labor, the transformation of offices and related profits into personal benefices for their holders, the commendatory system, along with the general external causes of decline affecting religious orders in the 14th and 15th centuries, undermined the life of the *Umiliati* convents, which became depopulated of religious. Reform efforts, particularly by St. Charles Borromeo, the Order’s protector, were obstructed by the opposition of the provosts, some of whom organized the assassination attempt on his life on October 26, 1569. The Pope’s anger was appeased by the execution of the perpetrators and the suppression of the Order. By then, it consisted of only 94 preposits and 170 religious.