Humiliates
The humiliates ( Latin humilis , 'low, humble') were supporters of a medieval Christian poverty and penance movement in northern Italy. Originally founded as a community of lay people , it rose to the rank of order from 1201 .
history
The community of humiliates was formed in the 12th century by Lombard nobles after their return from captivity in Germany . The Milanese nobleman Johann von Meda is considered to be the founder .
The humiliates lived from collaborative work in craft cooperatives. The purpose of their union was to lead a simple and humble life in their understanding of God in following Christ . The guideline for this was the gospels of the Bible . They preached as lay people and devoted themselves to combating heretics . Its members were allowed to marry but refused to swear oaths .
The conflict with the Catholic Church arose in particular because of the practice of lay preaching , which only clerics were allowed to do . The Humiliates were therefore by Pope Lucius III. In his decretals , written in 1184, Ad Abolendam was condemned together with other Christian lay movements (including Waldenses , Cathars ) and banned from church . From then on, the humiliates were considered heretics . After negotiations with the church under Pope Innocent III. In 1201 she was reintegrated into the church. In return for the approval ( approbation ) of their association, which thus received the rank of an order , the humiliates had to accept the statutes prescribed for them by the church, which massively restricted the right to preach by laypeople. Many humiliates then turned away from their community and joined the Waldensians. Nevertheless, the humiliates experienced a considerable boom in the first decades of the 13th century, especially in the Milan area .
In the 14th century the male and female branches of the order were separated, and both branches adopted the Benedictine rule . When the order was to be reformed in the 16th century and the priest La Farina carried out an assassination attempt on the responsible Cardinal Borromeo , Pope Pius V lifted the male order in 1571. The female humiliates, who are also called the Blassonian nuns after their founder, Clara Blassoni from Milan , exist in Italy to this day.
literature
- Maria Pia Alberzoni: The humiliates between legend and reality . In: Mitteilungen des Institut für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung 107 (1999), pp. 324–353.
- Herbert Grundmann: Heretic History of the Middle Ages , a manual. 3rd edition, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1978 (= The Church in its History ), ISBN 978-3-525-52327-8 , p. 28 ff.
- Antonietta Moretti: Gli umiliati, le comunità degli ospizi della svizzera italiana. Helbing and Lichtenhahn, Basilea / Francoforte sul Meno 1992, ISBN 3-7190-1225-5 (= Helvetia Sacra , Italian).
- Antonietta Moretti: Humiliates. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
