Hundred Years’ War 357the Twelfth Century(Philadelphia: University of Pennsyl-
vania Press, 1988).
Humiliati They were a religious movement in north-
ern ITA LYfrom the late 12th to the 14th century whose
members wore a humble woolen garment and tried to fol-
low the evangelical ideal of an apostolic life. First appear-
ing in the towns of LOMBARDYamong the laity, the earliest
Humiliati consisted of married people who remained in
the world but formed communities practicing CELIBACY.
They lived in poverty and only from the fruits of their
own labor and, abstained from swearing oaths or bearing
arms. They usually wore simple gray garments, fasted fre-
quently, discussed religious ideas with each other at Sun-
day meetings, and did public PREACHING. These often
unsupervised religious activities drew the suspicion of
the clerical teaching authority of the church, and they
were condemned along with the WALDENSIANSin 1184.
They differed from most of these other heretics in terms
of the spiritual value they put on manual labor and the
state of matrimony.
The absorption of most of the Humiliati to the
church was brought about in 1201 by Pope INNOCENTIII,
who organized them into three orders to be governed by
a general chapter. The first consisted of clerics, canons,
and nuns, the second, of continent LAITYliving in houses
of men and women according to a monastic rule. The
third group, that of married people, was also given a sim-
ple monastic-like rule. By the mid-13th century, the
movement had been absorbed into a clerically controlled
system, usually the FRANCISCANand DOMINICANorders.
The Humiliati were active in economic life, particu-
larly agriculture and in the textile industry, where work-
ing together they produced cloth. They accumulated
considerable landed wealth. With their good social and
moral reputations, they were in demand to fill public
offices. They enjoyed real respect among the other laity.
See alsoHERESY AND HERETICS.
Further reading:Frances Andrews, The Early Humil-
iati (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999);
Sally Mayall Brasher, Women of the Humiliati(New York:
Routledge, 2003).
humility Humility was understood as a virtue, submis-
siveness to GOD. For BERNARD OFCLAIRVAUX, humility was
a virtue acquired from true self-knowledge and the love
that led to the example of the self-abasement of Christ.
The Virgin MARYprovided another admirable example.
VARIOUS PERSPECTIVES ON HUMILITYIn his THEOLOGYof the virtues, Thomas AQUINASconsid-
ered humility as a kind of modesty. It was a virtue that
tempered the SOUL and prevented it from having an
excessive desire for greatness. It fortified the soul and
drew it to the pursuit of great acts as derived from right
REASON. Knowledge of one’s weakness was an element of
humility. While acknowledging God’s gifts in oneself and
in others, the practice of humility did require people to
value themselves below their neighbor in any way.
Humility prevented excessive self-confidence and was
cultivated properly with temperance and gentleness.
Behind the theological virtues, the intellectual virtues,
and JUSTICE, humility was the first among other virtues. It
prepared and helped the soul to gain salvation.
Another point of view was adopted by BONAVENTURE,
a disciple of FRANCIS OFASSISI. For them humility was a
sister of poverty, and the foundation of Christian perfec-
tion. Humility consisted in external and internal contempt
of the self assumed for the love of Jesus Christ. Bonaven-
ture believed that Christian perfection consisted of humil-
ity or the external and internal annihilation of the self.
Further reading:Bernard of Clairvaux, The Steps of
Humility,trans. George Bosworth Burch (1940; reprint,
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1942);
Roberta C. Bondi, To Love as God Loves: Conversations with
the Early Church (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1987);
Jacques-Guy Bourgerol, “Humility,” EMA,1.702.humors SeeMEDICINE.Hundred Years’ War The Hundred Years’ War was a
dynastic military struggle between the kings of France and
England that lasted with various levels of intensity
between the somewhat artificial dates of 1337 and 1453. In
1328, the extinction of the line of “direct” CAPETIANSwas
felt in the kingdom of FRANCEas a break in dynastic conti-
nuity. The consecration of King Philip VI (r. 1328–50) of
VALOIS, the nearest heir in the male line, caused no contro-
versy. However, 12 years later, King EDWARDIII of ENG-
LAND, already engaged in an armed conflict with the king
of France in FLANDERSand Gascony, chose to shift the
focus of the struggle from economic issues to one of
dynastic succession. He claimed the French Crown as the
nearest heir through the female line, his mother, Isabel.
Despite their numerical superiority, the French
armies suffered a series of reverses at the Battles of Sluys
in 1340, CRÉCYin 1346, and above all at POITIERS, a dis-
aster marked by the capture of the king in 1356. For the
English, despite these initial successes and the political,
social, and economic crisis that did serious damage to
France, Edward III managed only temporary territorial
gains. The war then went through several stages and sev-
eral generations of combatants, with the English king,
HENRYV, actually assuming the crown of France in 1420.
At times it did tremendous damage to lands in France. In
the end the English were expelled from most of the Con-
tinent by 1453. Its history can be best followed by the
careers of several kings of France and England, its princi-
pal battles with their effects on the economy and society
of its main theatre of war in France.