On February 21, 1241, Pope Gregory IX sent a bull to archbishops and bishops alerting them to

The purpose of this letter was to deal with groups of women who apparently had taken to dressing up in a similar way to the nuns of the Order of San Damiano, founded by Clare of Assisi some decades earlier. The bull thus instructed the ecclesiastical authority that these women had to give up their belts, ropes, and habits. The complaint of scandal from the Franciscans and the nuns of San Damiano about these women not only drew attention to the fact that these women were “fooling the trustful pious” with their attire, but also that, with the Damianites being strictly cloistered nuns, the religio simulata of these wandering women reflected poorly on the virtuous disciples of St. Clare, who did observe the norms of claustration.

Yet, as Herbert Grundmann has asserted, there was more to the conflict. These women seemed to have a genuine desire to enter the Order of San Damiano, but had not found a way to do so since, at least between 1228 and 1245, the order was neither accepting new members nor building new convents to accommodate this demand. Therefore, these women might have been more than just impostors, wandering around the cities and trying to trick the devout by appearing to be Damianites. Perhaps they were yet another group representing the wider movement of lay piety that had started to materialise throughout Europe by the end of the twelfth century and which expanded especially among women during the thirteenth century. Nevertheless, despite the possibility that their actions were indeed founded on pious intentions, Innocent IV repeated the tone of Gregory IX's bull, twice in 1250, and again in 1252, with harsh words for these mulieres who went around in a habit similar to the one of the Order of San Damiano.