In the year of our Lord 1091, the Milanese layman Lanfranco de la Pila and his wife Frasia drafted a judicial document in which they jointly confirmed Lanfranco's wishes expressed in his will of the same day. In the will, Lanfranco founded and endowed a new hospital with a substantial land estate, to be built outside the Comasina Gate, one of the six gates of medieval Milan. He entrusted its management to the community of citizens living near that gate. Specifically, he emphasized the absolute independence of the hospital from any ecclesiastical authority, making it one of the first secular hospitals in a domain traditionally controlled by the Church. However, the hospital was constructed near the powerful monastery of San Simpliciano, on land belonging to the monastery, which quickly asserted its influence. This led to a decades-long dispute in the 12th century over the hospital's management, involving not only the residents of the Comasina Gate area and the monastery but also the community of volunteer fratres who actively provided care for the poor and the sick. Initially, in 1147, the Archbishop of Milan, Oberto da Pirovano, recognized the hospital as part of the monastery's possessions, but in 1170, Archbishop Galdino instead granted the fratres' request to be directly subject to the archbishopric. At this point, the monastery of San Simpliciano appealed directly to Pope Alexander III, obtaining a bull that again confirmed the hospital as part of its holdings. In 1197, the citizens of the Comasina Gate area petitioned the Pope, invoking the founders' original will, but according to 13th-century documentation, their plea was not heard. The hospital would go down in history as the "San Simpliciano Hospital" instead of the "Comasina Gate Hospital," remaining under the constant protection of the monastery while continuing its important mission of caring for the city's poor and sick throughout the medieval period.