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Sources for the early history of the humiliati

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Brenda Bolton
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Extract

The task of understanding the significance of any religious movement in its historical context normally depends upon documents being available for description and analysis. In the case of the humiliati this is almost impossible. Such documentary evidence as exists for the period 1179 to 1216 comes not from the humiliati themselves but from others whose reasons for mentioning them varied considerably - suggestions as to why this is so will be made as the paper develops. Analysing these sources for information about the humiliati will thus be difficult. Nevertheless, as these documents cover certain aspects peculiar to the movement, they can be used to indicate such information as the humiliati might themselves have given. Indeed, if carefully pieced together, an even more coherent whole can appear on the principle that onlookers see more of the game than the players. The scope of this paper therefore is to examine the sources available in an attempt to show something of the early history of the humiliati; bearing in mind all the time, the limitations involved; the inevitable omissions in such accidental or incidental evidence; and the demonstrable bias which will be found to exist. That these documents are few in number and only rarely rich in detail increases the difficulty.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 11: The Materials Sources and Methods of Ecclesiastical History , 1975 , pp. 125 - 133
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1975

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References

1 General books and articles on the humiliati are few in number. But See Stefano, A.de, ‘Delle origini e della natura del primitivo movimento degli Umiliati’, Archivium Romanicum, 2 (Geneva 1927) pp 31–75;Google Scholar Davison, E. Scott, Forerunners of St Francis (London 1928) pp 168–200 Google Scholar; Maccarrone, M., ‘Riforma e sviluppo della vita religiosa con Innocenzo III’, Rivista di storia della Chiesa in Italia, 16 (Rome 1962) pp 29–71 Google Scholar especially pp 46-50; Grundmann, [H.], Religiöse Bewe gungen [im Mittelalter] (2 ed Darmstadt 1970) pp 70–97, 487-538Google Scholar and my article ‘Innocent Ill’s treatment of the Humiliati’ in SCH, 8 (1971) pp 73-82.

2 A detailed introduction to Innocent III’s letters is given by Cheney, [C. R.], Medieval Studies and Texts (Oxford 1973) pp 16–39;Google Scholar there is also a useful general chapter on sources in Mundy, J.H., Europe in the High Middle Ages 1150-1309 (London 1973) pp 1-21.Google Scholar

3 [Tiraboschi, G.] V[etera] H[umiliatorum] Monumenta], 3 vols (Milan 1766-8).Google Scholar

4 Zanoni, [L.], Gli Umiliati [nei loro rapporti con l’eresia, l’industria della lana ed i communi nei secoli xii e xiii], Biblioteca historica Italia, Serie II, 2 (Milan 1911).Google Scholar The appendix includes the Chronicle of John de Brera 1421 pp 336-44 and the Chronicle of Marcus Bossius 1493 pp 345-52.

5 VHM I p 79; Mansi 22 cols 476-8; PL 201 (1855) cols 1297-300.

6 PL 214 (1855) col 789. Here the humiliati are listed with cathars, arnaldists and poor men of Lyons.

7 Cipolla, C., ‘Statuti rurali veronesi’, Archivio veneto 37 (Venice 1889) pp 341–5.Google Scholar

8 VHM II pp 156-7; Potthast I no 4945.

9 PL 214 (1855) col 921; VHM II p 139.

10 The letters to the third and second orders are dated respectively 7 and 12 June: VHM II pp 128-38. The privilege to the first order was sent on 16 June: ibid pp 139-48.

11 The original and strongest branch comprised a group of laymen living at home with their families. These were the tertiaries or third order. The first and second orders were composed of priests and unmarried laymen and women who lived separate and ascetic lives in religious communities.

12 Zanoni, Gii Umiliati pp 341, 350.

13 Chenu, [M.-D.], [‘The Evangelical Awakening’], in his Nature, Man and Society [in the Twelfth Century: Essays on New Theological Perspectives in the Latin West] ed and translated by Taylor, J. and Little, L.K. (Chicago 1968) pp 239-69.Google Scholar

14 Grundmann, Religiöse Bewegungen p 88 note 33.

15 Ibid pp 72-5.

16 Ibid pp 90-1.

17 PL 214 (1855) cols 695-9; PL 216 (1855) cols 1210-14; Potthast Ino 781; Grundmann, Religiöse Bewegungen pp 97-100.

18 Cheney, Medieval Studies and Texts p 253.

19 Burchardt et Cuonradi Urspergensium Chronicon ed Abel, O. - Weiland, L., MGH, SS23 (Hanover 1874) p 377 Google Scholar. Burchard was in Italy in 1210 and must have encountered the humiliati there: Grundmann, Religiöse Bewegungen p 90 note 37.

20 VHM II p 142.

21 de Vitry, Jacques, Historia Occidentalis ed Moschus, F. (Douai 1597) p 335.Google Scholar I have unfortunately not been able to use the new edition ed Hinnebusch, J. F., Spicilegiutn Friburgense 17 (Fribourg 1972).Google Scholar

22 Moorman, J., A History of the Franciscan Order from its origins to the year 1517 (Oxford 1968) p 16.Google Scholar

23 VHM II pp 133-4.

24 Chronicon Universale Anonymi Laudunensis, ed Cartellieri, A. and Stechèle, W. (Paris 1909) pp 23–30.Google Scholar

25 Wakefield, W. and Evans, A. P., Heresies of the High Middle Ages (New York 1969) p 229.Google Scholar

26 Lettres de Jacques de Vitry ed Huygens, R.B.C. (Leiden 1960) pp 72–3.Google Scholar

27 Historia Occidentalis p 335.

28 Grundmann, Religiöse Bewegungen p 81 thinks it unlikely that the humiliati had attempted to expound dogma because they were more interested in moral questions but sees a new distinction between clerical and lay sermons.

29 VHM II pp 128-34.

30 Chenu, Nature, Man and Society pp 260-2.

31 Historia Occidentalis p 335.

32 VHM II p 132. For valuable insights into the medieval family See Aries, P., Centuries of Childhood translated by Baldick, Robert (London 1973) especially pp 327-99.Google Scholar

33 VHM II pp 132-3. On fraternities see the study by Bras, G.Le, Études de sociologie religieuse, 2 vols (Paris 1955-6) II ‘Les confréries chrétiennes’, pp 418-62;Google Scholar Moore, Robert, ‘History, economics and religion: a review of the Max Weber thesis’ in Max Weber and Modern Sociology, ed Sahay, Arun (London 1971) pp 82–96.Google Scholar Compare Chenu, Nature, Man and Society pp 261-4.

34 Hyde, J.K., Society and Politics in Medieval Italy: the Evolution of the Civil Life 1000-1150 (London 1973) pp 120-1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar See also the excellent bibliography.

35 Printed in Zanoni, Gli Umiliati pp 261-3; Grundmann, Religiöse Bewegungen pp 158-61.

36 Zanoni, Gli Umiliati p 157.

37 Grundmann, Religiöse Bewegungen pp 158-69.

38 VHM II p 132. They were to have only two sparse meals a day, to give back all wrongfully acquired possessions and to give all income in excess of their own needs to the poor.

39 Chenu, Nature, Man and Society p 249 n 12.

40 Historia Occidentalis p 334.

41 PL 214 (1855) col 921; VHM I p 44

42 PL 214 (1855) col 789.

43 Grundmann, Religiöse Bewegungen p 89 n 34.

44 PL 215 (1855) cols 820, 1043.

45 Lettres de Jacques de Vitry pp 72-3.

46 See the review article by Little, L.K. in Speculum 48 (Cambridge Mass., 1973) P 345.Google Scholar