Il papato e le comunità religiose dell’Italia settentrionale

From the 12th century tha papacy tried to recognize trustworth reference points in the Po Valley, a region out of Roman’s Church direct influence and strategical for the connection between Rom and the countries beyond the Alps. The activ involvement of the episcopacy with the empire and the communal government made difficult to accept in local seat the papal policy. A valid solution arose when news religious groups started in the region began to ask the apostolic see to obtain papal approval against the charge of heresy decreed by Lucius III. Innocent III acknowledged the Humiliati, the Poors Catholic, the Poors Reconcile and approved the rule of the Regular Canon of S. Marco, giving to them, also through his legates, the apostolic protection. Cardinal Hugo of Ostia, between 1217 and 1221 for three times papal legate in Central-North Italy, recognized in Dominic of Caleruega and Francis of Assisi the favoured interlocutors for putting into practice the project of reform decided by the IV Lateran Council. The Mendicant Orders were the solution axpected by the papacy: their centralized organization, their zeal in the Po Valley area in preaching in favor of the crusade as of the peace between the cities made them as the most important instrument to communicate the papal instructions from center to periphery.