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HUMILIATI

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Originally appearing in Volume V13, Page 884 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HUMILIATI , the name of an See also:

Italian monastic See also:order created in the 12th See also:century. Its origin is obscure. According to some chroniclers, certain noblemen of See also:Lombardy, who had offended the See also:emperor (either See also:Conrad III. or See also:Frederick See also:Barbarossa), were carried See also:captive into See also:Germany and after suffering the miseries of See also:exile for some See also:time, " humiliated " themselves before the emperor. Returning to their own See also:country, they did penanceand took the name of Humiliati. They do not seem to have had any fixed See also:rule, nor did St See also:Bernard succeed in inducing them to submit to one. The traditions See also:relating to a reform of this order by St See also:John of Meda are See also:ill authenticated, his Acta (Acta sanctorum See also:Boll., See also:Sept., vii. 320) being almost entirely unsupported by contemporary See also:evidence. The "Chronicon anonymi Laudunensis Canonici " (Mon. Germ. hist. Scriptores, See also:xxvi. 449), at date 1178, states that a See also:group of See also:Lombards came to See also:Rome with the intention of obtaining the See also:pope's approval of the rule of See also:life which they had spontaneously chosen; while continuing to live in their houses in the midst of their families, they wished to See also:lead a more pious existence than of old, to abandon oaths and litigation, to content themselves with a modest See also:dress, and all in a spirit of See also:Catholic piety. The pope approved their resolve to live in humility and purity, but forbade them to hold assemblies and to preach in public; the chronicler adding that they in-fringed the pope's wish and thus See also:drew upon themselves his See also:excommunication.

Their name, Humiliati (" Humiles " would have been more appropriate), arose from the fact that the clothes they wore were very See also:

simple and of one See also:colour. This See also:lay fraternity spread rapidly and soon put forth two new branches, a second order composed of See also:women, and a third composed of priests. No sooner, however, had this order of priests been formed, than it claimed See also:precedence of the others, and, though chronologically last, was called See also:primus ordo by hierarchical right—propter tonsuram (see P. See also:Sabatier, ' " See also:Regula antiqua Fr. et Sor. de poenitentia " in Opuscules de critique historique, See also:part i. p. 15). In 1201 Pope See also:Innocent III. granted a rule to this third order. Sabatier has See also:drawn See also:attention to the resemblances between this rule and the Regula de poenitentia granted to Franciscanism in the course of its development; on the other See also:hand, it is incontestable that Innocent III. wished to reconcile the order with the Waldenses, and, indeed, its rule reproduces several of the Waldensian propositions, ingeniously modified in the orthodox sense, but still very easily recognizable. It forbade useless oaths and the taking of See also:God's name in vain; allowed voluntary poverty and See also:marriage; regulated pious exercises; and approved the solidarity which already existed among the members of the association. Finally, by a singular concession, it authorized them to meet on See also:Sunday to listen to the words of a See also:brother " of proved faith and prudent piety," on See also:condition that the hearers should not discuss among themselves either the articles of faith or the sacraments of the See also:church. The bishops were forbidden to oppose any of the utterances of the Humiliati brethren, " for the spirit must not be stifled." See also:James of Vitry, without being unfavourable to their tendencies, represents their association as one of the peculiarities of the church of his time (Historic orientalis, See also:Douai, 1597). So broad a discipline must of See also:necessity have led back some waverers into the See also:pale of the church, but the Waldenses of Lombardy, in their congregationes laborantium, preserved the tradition of the See also:independent Humiliati. Indeed, this tradition is confounded throughout the later 12th century with the See also:history of the Waldenses.

The " Chronicon Urspergense " (Mon. Germ. hest. Scriptores, See also:

xxiii. 376-377) mentions the Humiliate as one of the two Waldensian sects. The celebrated decretal promulgated in 1184 by Pope See also:Lucius III. at the See also:council of See also:Verona against all heretics condemns at the same time as the " Poor Men of See also:Lyons " " those who attribute to themselves falsely the name of Humiliati," at the very time when this name denoted an order recognized by the papacy. This order, though orthodox, was always held in tacit and ever-increasing suspicion, and, in consequence of See also:grave disorders, See also:Pius V. suppressed the entire See also:congregation in See also:February 1570-71. See See also:Tiraboschi, Vetera humiliatorum monumenta (See also:Milan, 1766) ; K. See also:Muller, See also:Die Waldenser (See also:Gotha, 1886) ; W. Preger, Beitrdge zur Geschichte der Waldensier (See also:Munich, 1875). (P. A.

End of Article: HUMILIATI

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