Bologna . Loderigo d'Andalo. The Order of Glorious Saint Mary. Where, what, why, when, who.

Bologna and "Infallibility" 
Women and Warfare
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Pope Sixtus V suspended what Pope Alexander IV approved:
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Military Orders for Women.
Then emerged:  institutional fear of autonomy, for women Religious.
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The Fallibility of Infallibility as a Doctrine
What "self-interest" occurred,
to warrant the policy's disbanding so suddenly.
Was it the program's success?
Whose self-interest was threatened by the independence of the Orders of militant women religious.
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Meet the Renaissance Guerriera
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Bologna is known for more than its University and excellent cold cuts and meat sauce. Its religious history is highlighted by those who expand and include; followed by those who are threatened by those ideas.  Watch the institutional roll away from the personhood of women, to their subservience as dogma evolves. There was a period, around the 12th-13th Centuries, where they excelled in theology and warfare, both.  Women had founded monasteries, for example, and were encouraged to do so.
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Loderigo (Ludovico?) d'Andalo, of Bologna (a nobleman) was an enlightened man who so encouraged. Spellings vary: Is this Ludovico d'Angalo?  It is also spelled Lodoringo Andalo, see http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Order+of+the+Glorious+Saint+Mary/ and that refers back to Wikipedia, a good source for overviews, but vet.
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We are working on finding primary sources here, and lay out in the nature of a filing cabinet what we have found. We hope to organize later. What is in venerable old libraries, records not online. We are looking up several phonetics to get to original sources. Centuries change sounds and representations.
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Ludovico d'Andalo

Ludovico d'Andalo established the military order of women known as the Order of the Glorious Saint Mary, or the Knights of Saint Mary, in 1233 AD.
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The Pope of the Day approved: Pope Alexander IV in 1261. This was an era, the 13th Century, of female full participation in ecclesiastical  and other cultural aspects of living, see http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/spiritus/v001/1.1hollywood.html; and The Contours of Female Piety in Late Medieval Hagiography, at a journal article by Michael Goodich at http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst;jsessionid=LhQf5gpWJvkSFlkhTms42hZpp00fVhW7y5xRGv7jMNWqyQt9pMSk!-1196327867!1517079229?docId=96511290/
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The context of female full participation is broad: There was already an independent female piety back then, apart from male control. What happened to it. By the 12th Century,  half the Church's saints were women, women starting their own military and religious orders, women of independent thinking and action.  The female knight. 

• The backdrop of the female knight:  they became too popular, too fabulous, too good at what they did. The chivalric feminine.  Chivalry, Cavalieres.  Women. 

These found their way into other areas, not just Italy.  See the female armor still (undestroyed as "heretical" in role) in Switzerland and elsewhere.
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Thun, Switzerland. Female armor. Not a religious order there, probably.

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Lady Knight Bradamante. 
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Earlier, consider the Legends of Charlemagne, in which the Lady Knight Bradamante, great heroine and fighter, set out on quests and overcame all sorts of creatures and perfidious people.  She was a fine role model whose stories found their way into Bulfinch's Mythology, see http://www.bartleby.com/183/8.html. The story is there, with this source given: Thomas Bulfinch, Age of Fable Vol IV, Legends of Charlemagne, Bradamante and Rogero.  Rogero (Ruggiero) was last seen unable to control his hippogriff, and disappearing over the mountaintop, oh, unskilled churl. Read the mindset of Bradamante:  chivalry ideals, honor, love, the quest. The cavaliere, who surpassed the cavalier.
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Was this, then, the mindset of those who roled the institutions:  Fear striking the heart of those who knew they could not prevail against such an one, and an woman to boot! Get rid of them all, now, while there is yet time. No more female knights will we tolerate. Launch the negative ads. The propaganda. Turn them into viragos. Focus on any misogyny of the past, not on whether those ideas are valid or not. Turn them into objects of jest. Disband them. Put them beneath and make them stay there. See FN 1

• The Renaissance Guerriera. The tradition was a strong one, and complex, and manipulated as time went on:  The Renaissance Guerriera, see Bradamante and Marfisa, An Analysis of the 'Guerriere' of the 'Orlando Furioso', both new to us, at ://www.jstor.org/pss/3725747 - and what a combination.  Beauty and "epic strength."
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And in 1358, the autonomy of women was firmed by the Council of Venice declaring prostitution a necessity for the world.  See http://civilliberty.about.com/od/gendersexuality/tp/History-of-Prostitution.htm
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More women in warfare, religious military orders:
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Order of the Hatchet 1149, Barcelona; Military Order of Santiago 1261.  And Chevalieres, or the Equitissa 1441.  Individuals also excelled in matters of conflict and enforcement: Meet Dame Nicolaa, or Nicolla de la Haye 1150-1230, a ten-year sheriff in Lincolnshire2; and in 1552, a duel between women is the subject of art: See   http://www.destreza.us/history/women/index.html
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Enter the Offended Pope Sixtus V.
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Pope Sixtus, however, pulled in the reins on women's autonomy and decision-making:  He gave out  a) the death penalty for prostitutes (probably not followed much), and b) declared the old rule that a foetus became a person at quickening, about 20 weeks, now out and no foeti, regardless of quickening, were to be aborted, see http://civilliberty.about.com/od/gendersexuality/tp/History-of-Prostitution.htm
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And in 1558, see http://www.destreza.us/history/women/index.html, he suppressed the women's military orders.  Documentation of the women in military orders has been hard to find since. 
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History, or at least those who refer to it, has a problem, however.  It appears that Sixtus did not become Pope until 1585.  Have to check dates for accuracy.  Another Sixtus? Did we transpose?  By the time of Sixtus V as Pope the Church already had moved to put women's religious Orders under the control of the men's, the contemplative and the military.  Attach them to the men's -- now under "supervision".  This fear of women's autonomy has nothing to do with original texts, but everything to do with the needs of a male instutition on the march.

Religion accumulates baggage. Time to unpack and inspect.

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Was self-interest to blame for the Papal shifts?
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Whose? An individual Pope who had power to compel; or an entire group.
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This is not a scholarly site, but rather a summary-dictionary site, but its attribution reflects information easily available:  The disbanding to the members of the Order of the Glorious Saint Mary was the succumbing to self interest, see http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Order+of+the+Glorious+Saint+Mary/.
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One self-interest,  control; over another, autonomy apart from those who would subserve it.  Who decided. On what grounds. The article passes the buck by saying it got its information from Wikipedia. Come on, now. Do some research, freedictionary.
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What were their actions as women knights?  A Spanish group, for example, fended off the Moors.  They were no-nonsense.
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We know there were women as knights, see http://www.heraldica.org/topics/orders/wom-kn.htm/. 
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Back to Sixtus.

So, who is this Pope Sixtus V, what was he doing and why, and even more important, who was Loderigo d'Angelo and what the women do to warrant this military order.  Women in war is not unusual, see Women in War.  We all know the warrior side was suppressed: even our Congress shrinks.  So what went on back then? Look at the armor showing women in war, at Castle Thun, Switzerland.
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Cast of Characters:
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1.  Sixtus V in 1585.  Birth and death - 1520-1590, Pope from 1585-1590.  We understand he suppressed the Order of Military Women, the Glorious Order of Saint Mary as soon as he took office, in 1585. What was the problem?
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Sixtus was twice an Inquisitor. Title: Inquisitor General of Venice.  He was forced out because of cantankerousness.  He was a mover, an enforcer, and a builder, autocratic and driven, an Administrator whose gift was in shaping administration (regardless of theology?) see http://www.nndb.com/people/332/000095047/.  My way or the highway as to anything Reformation.  Not unusual for the time.
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But there is no mention at the nndb site or at http://www.answers.com/topic/pope-sixtus-v/ as to his actions or inactions referencing the military order of women. Other sites are in Italian. How to decipher those?   Keep looking.  Suppression so complete that history itself was purged? Or just no interest, not worth mentioning?  Unlikely.  What Sixtus acted against, he did decisively.
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Sixtus was violent, but did bring peace to warring factions, see http://atheism.about.com/library/glossary/western/bldef_sixtusv.htm/. His other reforms were significant, and he is seen as a worthy pope.
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Infallibility had not entered the picture at that stage, so there was no doctrine that said anybody was, by definition, right on anything. Jockey away.  See a doctrine timeline at http://italyroadways.blogspot.com/#!/2012/02/salvation-or-marketing-religions.html
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2.  An earlier Pope, Pope Alexander IV, Pope from 1254-1261. We understand he approved the Order of Military Women, the Glorious Saint Mary.
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Pope Alexander IV was kind, religious, assiduous, but susceptible to flatterers who wanted him to attack the children of Frederick II (this politicking and intrigue is beyond us) as German Lucifers.  Nonetheless, he ruled spiritual affairs with dignity and prudence, see http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01287b.htm/. That site is a little suspect because it keeps adding value judgments like who is odious and who is not, so we need something more objective.  You sort this out.  See http://www.biographybase.com/biography/Alexander_IV_Pope.html/ We are interested in Glorious Saint Mary's Order.
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Here we are:  at Women Warriors of the 13th Century, at http://www.lothene.org/others/women13.html/
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Perhaps not so good. That is a circular reference back to Women Knights.
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But but it does add specific names, events, for women knights of the time: Countess of Pembroke, Jeanne of Navarre, Countess of Ross, Heldris of Cornwall (Heldris de Cournouaille).  Additional women noted at http://www.stanislavs.org/OldPages/oldboard/messages/1280.html/  But where is Glorious Mary?  Each one to be looked up.
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3.  Order of the Glorious Saint Mary - Many mentions of this among military orders of women in medieval times
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Knights in White Satin.  What line is that song from? Moody Blues at  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lazdg-eqmQ

Knights in White Satin. See them at http://sacredfems.blogspot.com/2006/01/knights-in-white-satin.html/  That site has an agenda, but do read its additional names and information and check it out.

Mom. Armory, Graz, Austria

At this encyclopedia site, http://www.crusades-encyclopedia.com/militaryorders.html/, see again the Order of the Hatchet and the Order of the Glorious St. Mary, under the heading of military orders. Bibliographies and articles are cited.  These get overwhelming.  It takes a graduate student, or dedicated undergraduate, to read all that and sift.
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Women Knights Templar is the topic at this google book at page 294 ff - see Guardians of the Holy Grail at  http://books.google.com/books?id=htS0qhsgI00C&pg=PA294&lpg=PA294&dq=Order+of+the+Glorious+Saint+Mary&source=bl&ots=B0yaRUFKWO&sig=HmtMXjq9zcWPUrXPvIqMgRP8GCw&hl=en&ei=XEUgS9bvI8j-nAef37zWDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CCIQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=Order%20of%20the%20Glorious%20Saint%20Mary&f=false/;  it also lists John the Baptist - that brings us back to Kremsmunster Abbey in Kremsmunster, Austria, where St. John the Baptist is the patron of the queen who is the relative of the Duchess there.  Go to Kremsmunster Abbey
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Read at that Guardians of the Holy Grail site about the central symbolic and actual role of women in the Templars, then and now.  Amazing.  Still looking for the Pope and the Nobleman.
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Is all this history of the church merely one set of powers against another, with no relevance to a deity whatsoever. Women as independent and autonomous thinkers, religious persons, fighters. The church? Where is the theology behind the dogma that suppressed them.  All we see are jockeyings for land and power underlying those centuries.  Great. A golden age of the first 1500 years, women autonomous, ended with Sixtus.
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This remains the easist read:  see http://destreza.us/history/women/index.html - Order of the Hatchet again, Military Order of Santiago, many names, events, women are no shrinking violets, even a duel for a man; and Dame Nicolaa de la Haye, sheriff of Lincolnshire 1216-1226, had full inheritance rights.  All interesting, but where is Glorious Mary. 
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4.  Lodorico d'Andalo/  He began this inquiry.  We understand he founded the military order of women, but can find no English site giving details. We are looking up various spellings.  Did he act in response to the heroism of the women in fighting back the Moors in Spain?
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Search this, see http://www.scribd.com/doc/66157963/Albertani-Traffico-di-denaro-nelle-grandi-citta-Il-prestito-cristiano-a-Bologna-tra-Due-e-Trecento,.  Hit the translate button and the option is for a download of an entire book typewritten document.
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5.  Conclusion so far
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There were women in holy military and other military orders until Pope Sixtus (who was also The Inquisitor) in 1585 or so.  Some had been brought under male orders control before then, but others did not survive at all and were suppressed until they died, for too much autonomy. Is that so?  The acts of suppression do not appear to be in Papal Bulls (enough of that), but the progress against women's orders and autonomy proceeded by other acts, more and smaller in scope, so well that it will take someone looking back at Papal decrees or whatever to find them.  The Vatican Library would be very helpful.
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FN 1 
Better yet, in modern times, to be sure few people look back at once was,  turn the name "Bradamante" into "wild lover" so noone will know her true nature and calling as brave, and questing, and skilled with weapons and prevailing. Is that so? See http://babynamesworld.parentsconnect.com/meaning_of_Bradamante.html/  Brado means more than "wild" - wild has come to mean crazy, actions all over the place. Instead, brado (and brada, its feminine) it means untamed, unbroken, as in the context of a wild animal, savage - see http://translation.babylon.com/Italian/to-English/. Even that is not accurate - Bradamante was clearly disciplined. Perhaps not in love, however, and we can't have that.

Babynamesworld is an Everyperson's flip site, but it also offers other possible connections, however, including blessed maiden, sweet maiden, from the Minoan and Greek Britomartis, see Greece Road Ways, Aegina and Britomartis
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The point is that there have been centuries and millennia of traditions of strong, hunting, warrior women, including groups, and suddenly in the 16th Century, she gets theologized out for the convenience of the powers of the church. Is that so?

Dolomites. World War I. Memorials, Southern Tyrol. Austria, Italy

 The Southern Tyrol

The Dolomites Front

Think trenches, hard winters, endless cold and suffering, and most of us think of routine eastern and western fronts from World War II. Think back to World War I. That war defined new boundaries and changed the cultural and legal landscape of this entire area.  See ://www.ansa.it/opencms/export/site/notizie/rubriche/daassociare/visualizza_new.html_990634442.html/  People raised in Austria soon found their land to be Italian. 

German is still spoken in much of the Dolomites, at restaurants, gas stations, although the land is technically Italian. Three languages are spoken at different places, including in remote spots, something called "Ladin".

Here, in the Southern Tyrol (we understand that East Tyrol refers more to the Austrian area to the north) the border mountains between Austria and Italy, the Dolomites, the hardships were magnified by the crags, the impossible task of moving men and materiel up cliffs, digging in. Tunnels. Trenches again.

World War II Memorial, Dolomites, Italian Side

This one just appeared.  Be careful - bikers may be sacking out behind, or doing other things.  We do not come upon these big sites and assume we can walk about at will out there, but so far have never had a problem.  Just mother's tapes, be careful, dear. And don't look surprised if people suddenly appear from behind, and get on hidden motorcycles somewhere near other rocks. Smile and nod, and move on about your own business.

Salzburg Castle in Austria has a series of exhibits on the World Wars, with scenes and mannequins in uniform, from the Tyrolean Front.  We were prepared, then, to see where they actually were. A forgotten front. These areas passed to Italy after WWI

The sheer size of the memorials is astounding. We think of a statue or two, a reproduction of a wall with a relief perhaps, a scene of soldiers slogging. This is enormous.

Then find the smaller, religious shrines for travelers. Our recollection is that this is also the Dolomites, but possibly it is Swiss.

Roadside religious shrine, Dolomites, Italy

The area of South Tyrol is now a UNESCO World Heritage site, see ://www.suedtirol.info/suedtirol_info//1272-en/en/The_Dolomites-_UNESCO_World_Natural_Heritage_.html/  The shapes of the mountains?  Originated as coral reefs 250 million years past, says the site.  Now fossilized.