Humiliati

Humiliati (hmĭl'ēä`tē) [Lat.,=the humbled ones], Roman Catholic association of laymen formed in the 11th cent. in Lombardy. They wore plain clothes and lived under special vows, but mingled freely with the world. They were protected by the papacy in most of the 12th cent., and some of them were organized into an order or joined other orders. There were occasional defections from the Humiliati to the Waldensians, and some conversions in the other direction. The Humiliati were finally suppressed in the 16th cent. after their orthodoxy had long been questioned.