Humiliati

HUMILIATI. - 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 from a group of Milanese knights returning from German captivity are legendary, as is their monastic organization at the hands of St. Bernard during his stay in Milan in 1135; the biography of their supposed founder St. Giovanni Oldradi da Meda, in the first half of the 12th century, is difficult to pin down. The workers and small wool merchants, living on the margins of urban feudalism and framed by the early industrial and commercial capitalism of cloth, joined together in a lay association with a religious and social purpose; the first Humiliati lived in their families and assisted one another in their work; "they humbled themselves for God," adopting coarse clothing (undyed "berrettine"), against the luxury of fine, colored cloth; they abstained from lies, which together with frauds corrupt the moral holiness of industry and commerce; they did not bring lawsuits for the sake of social peace; they kept themselves free from the constraints of feudalism and the guilds by abstaining from oaths; strong in this ascetic conduct, they confronted with preaching and public debate the offensive of the various heretical sects in the second half of the 12th century. Because of this polemical orthodoxy they cannot be regarded as an offshoot of the Cathar movement (v.); the peculiarities of their family life and artisan profession clearly distinguish them from the contemporary evangelical movement of the Waldensians (v.). The Roman Curia was at that time opposed to preaching by laymen, which was withdrawn from the control of episcopal authority; its abusive exercise, together with secret assemblies, was regarded as a manifestation of heresy. The Humiliati, disobedient like the Waldensians, were expressly included by name in the constitution Ad abolendam promulgated in 1184 at Verona by Lucius III against heresy; one current progressed into schism and dogmatic error; it drew close to the Waldensians of Lombardy and in 1205 constituted the sect of the Poor Lombards (v.).

The Humiliati who were reconciled with the Church through the pacifying action of Innocent III had developed, from the religious-working association of men and women who remained in the married state, which constituted the Third Order, to the lay and working monastic life of friars and sisters, living in adjoining houses, who formed the Second Order; the clerical element, which adhered to the movement, organized itself 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 moral doctrine, in which both clerics and laymen, men and women, the more educated, distinguished themselves as feared and effective opponents of the heretics. In 1216 there were 150 houses in the archbishopric of Milan; the famous Humiliatus Bonvesin da Riva (v.), poet and storyteller, in 1278 counted 220 convents of the Second Order and 7 canonries of the First Order in the city and countryside of Milan. The "praepositi" of the houses of Rondineto in Como, of Viboldone near Milan, of Viglione in Pavia, of Fossalto near Lodi, directed in turn the intense movement of expansion; 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 gave itself its own organization and in 1291 held an independent general chapter, in which particular constitutions were issued.

The Humiliati lost only in the 14th century the original characteristic of the wool industry. They should not be regarded as promoters of a new manufacturing technique and of the development of the cloth trade in the 12th century; on the contrary, their asceticism represented a reaction to the luxury of dress. But from the well-organized workshops of their convents, to which the labor of the members of the Third Order also flowed, the "panni umiliati," a strong and resistant half-woolen cloth, were placed on the market. The Humiliati were sought by various communes to increase local industry and to favor the economic independence of the city. The profits of their labor were employed in works of social assistance, above all hospitals and leprosaria. They shared with the Franciscans in popular sympathy; public offices were entrusted to them by the communal authorities, for example, that of treasurer or steward of the Commune and of its various administrations, of the gabelles and tolls, 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 related profits into personal benefices of their holders, 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 were depopulated of religious. The projects of reform, especially through the work of St. Charles Borromeo, protector of the Order, were hindered by the opposition of the provosts, some of whom organized the attempt on his life of 26 Oct. 1569; the Pope's indignation was appeased with the execution of those responsible and the suppression of the Order. It then counted only 94 provostships with only 170 religious.

Ilarino da Milano