ABSTRACT
When Egidio is mentioned in the context of the Fifth Lateran Council, most scholars think immediately of his famous sermon at its opening session that so stirred hopes of an imminent initiation of the long-awaited church reform that grown men came to tears. The agenda set for the Fifth Lateran Council by Julius II included a general reform of the Church in head and members. A significant part of the clergy were members of religious orders and in the century prior to the council a reform movement known as observantism was sweeping through the monastic and mendicant orders. Another aspect of the reform of the religious orders had to do with their relations with local ordinaries. On the eve of the Fifth Lateran Council, various prelates used their office to promote a reform of the religious orders.
