CONFRATERNITY. - An ecclesiastical corporation, composed of faithful who are predominantly laypeople, canonically erected and governed by a competent superior, with the purpose of promoting the Christian life through special good works directed to divine worship or to charity toward one's neighbor. Many times worship and charity are purposes associated in the statutes of confraternities. Conceived in this way, they are true and stable ecclesiastical foundations with their own organization, capable of having particular statutes, of accepting legacies, of administering their treasury, of holding real estate in exclusive possession, wherever at least the civil laws do not prevent it.
They must not, however, be confused with those institutions that go under the name of pious causes (hospitals, shelters, orphanages, conservatories), which have a more complex purpose: nor even with those occasional pious unions held together simply by the will of their members. In fact, the abandonment even of the majority of its members or even of all of them does not of itself extinguish the confraternity, which instead subsists thanks to its canonical erection. Confraternities depend on the diocesan bishop or on the generals of certain religious Orders to which, by original foundation, they are aggregated or by which they were founded. They take the name of archconfraternity if they have obtained the faculty of aggregating to themselves particular confraternities legitimately erected with the same purposes and with uniform ordinances.
Confraternities must also be kept clearly distinct from secular Third Orders, which are closely linked with the religious Order from which they take their name, and also from the associations of arts and crafts that in the past pursued a predominantly social and economic purpose, although even these placed themselves under the protection of special patron saints. It should be noted, however, that true confraternities were sometimes composed of persons recruited exclusively from those of the same trade and profession, without being for this reason organized into arts properly so called.
I. HISTORY
Traces of associations of laypeople can be discerned as far back as the Carolingian age, but a true movement in this regard can be noted only later, when the common people of the cities and towns had reached a greater maturity in associating. In fact, the first confraternities attested by documents are those which from the 10th century included within their ranks all the clergy of a city, independently of disciplinary relations with the bishop; on the other hand, of those composed of laypeople, no sure evidence begins to exist before the 12th century, when communal life, at least in Italy, was already in full flower. No example, however, is found of confraternities that included within their ranks all the laity of a place. Each confraternity had, according to its importance and development, an altar, a chapel, a church in which to carry out its religious practices (Masses, processions, special prayers) and also a place in which to gather under the guidance of a head and the assistance of a secular or regular priest, as the case might be. The aims they set themselves were, besides in general the exercise of these practices and of the Christian virtues, assistance to sick confreres, suffrages and funerals for the deceased, aid to the poor, even those outside the confraternity, and the providing of dowries for young women. At the gatherings sacred lauds in the vernacular were often sung (Companies of laudesi), sometimes in dialogue form, and on certain days sacred representations were also held for the edification of the people. At other times the confreres took upon themselves the task of collecting alms for some extraordinary need or of assisting those condemned to death or prisoners.
The great movement of the Flagellants, or Battuti, or Disciplinati, which arose in Perugia in 1260 and spread throughout Italy, gave rise to very numerous confraternities which, with the practice of personal flagellation in private or in public during processions, joined that of charity by promoting aid to the poor, particularly in hospitals; many of these owe their foundation and more effective assistance to their zeal. A similar movement is that
Of the Venerable Company of the Most Holy Rosary.
Founded in the Church of Santa Maria della Minerva in Rome, of the order of Preachers, in the year 1481, which were formerly common to the Company of the Most Holy Name of God, changed because of the things that the diversity of the Company made fruitful, the facts must be changed, and newly come from the Most Reverend Father General of the order of Preachers, with the intervention of many Reverend Fathers. According to which Chapters all the other Companies of the same Most Holy Rosary and Name of God, placed in whatever place, must also be governed.
IN ROME, At the expense of the Company of the Most Holy Rosary
By Meredi d'Avvio Bido, General Impassi 1585.
(phot. Enc. Catt.)
CONFRATERNITY - Title page of the Capitoli Statuti et ordinazioni della Venerabile Compagnia del S.mo Rosario, Rome 1585.
Rome, copy in the National Library.
of the C. del Gonfalone, which arose in Rome in 1264, and the other of the Bianchi in 1399 in northern Italy. Other confraternities founded with the specific purpose of providing for the growth of hospitals for the sick or for pilgrims soon changed into true hospitaller Orders, such as that of S. Spirito in Sassia in Rome, of S. Giacomo di Altopascio in Tuscany, of St. Anthony Abbot in Vienne in France. Particular importance was acquired in Rome, especially during the fifteenth century, by the confraternities formed there among the members of the various nations, for the assistance of the poorest among them or of those who came there as pilgrims; mention should be made of the C. of S. Maria dell'Anima and of S. Maria dei Teutonici for the Germans, of S. Giuliano dei Belgi, of S. Luigi dei Francesi, etc. There is no lack of examples of similar institutions along the routes traveled by these foreigners on their journeys, such as a confraternity of Germans at Udine. With the spread of all these confraternities, and especially as a result of what was practiced by the Battuti, the custom spread for the members of confraternities to wear at their meetings and processions a long linen tunic of various colors with a hood that sometimes came down to cover the face, leaving only two holes in front of the eyes.
The Compagnie della Carità, and in particular the Compagnie del Divino Amore, founded in the principal cities with the aim of providing for a more intense Christian life by means of an enlightened charity toward one's neighbor, contributed greatly to the renewal of Christian life at the beginning of the sixteenth century in Italy. Indeed, through their members they promoted the founding of hospitals for the Incurabili, of shelters for the Convertite and the Pericolanti, of orphanages, and of assistance to the poor who were ashamed to beg.
Of another nature, and with an almost exclusively devotional character, are the C. del Carmine governed by the Carmelite friars, those of the Cintura promoted by the Hermits of St. Augustine, those of the Rosary spread everywhere by the Dominicans, and particularly those of the Most Holy Sacrament, which, already numerous in the fifteenth century, received particular growth and diffusion from the sixteenth century onward, especially after Paul III enriched them in 1539 with special privileges. By promoting frequent attendance at Mass and Communion and by the practice of accompanying the Sacrament in theophoric processions, which it made more frequent, and when it was carried publicly to the sick, they soon constituted in the parishes, under the direct governance of the parish priests, a first-rate element in the reform of popular life.
The Marian Congregations (v.) for youth that the Jesuits organized, for the most part keeping their direction alongside their colleges, and later imitated in this field also by the secular clergy, also have the appearance of confraternities. The same must be said of the Congregations that the same Jesuits erected in the churches they officiated for adults of the various social classes.
Also equated with confraternities are the Pious Unions of the Daughters of Mary (v.) for young women, and those of Christian Mothers (v.) for married women, erected in the various countries with their respective statutes. And the associations erected for the benefit of the missions among unbelievers must not be forgotten, of which the first were those called the Propagation of the Faith and those of the Holy Childhood. But with these institutions and with others similar to them one draws ever closer to the pious unions mentioned above, although in them a general organization prevails that stands above the simple confraternities and archconfraternities.
These found their first adversaries in the reforming princes of the end of the eighteenth century, who, like Joseph II of Germany, hampered their particular activity in the field of charity, confiscating their patrimonies for the benefit of state welfare. The Napoleonic laws admitted only the parish confraternities of the Most Holy Sacrament, and, where such laws were applied, the confraternities lost their patrimonies.
Italian legislation showed itself in general opposed to confraternities: without concerning itself directly with those that pursue a purely spiritual aim and have no real-estate patrimony, it subjected them without further ado to the authority of the State: among them, those destined for charity must conform to the legal provisions regarding charitable works; the others, which have a purpose of worship, have not been made the object of a special law, and the authority limits itself to keeping their action within the boundaries assigned by law and to granting those authorizations that moral bodies need for the various acts of their activity.
Bibliography4 works
Pio Paschini
II. JURIDICAL NATURE
It is a sodality (v.), erected by formal decree of the Ordinary (or by the religious who have the privilege thereof), having as its end, even if not exclusively, the increase of public worship (cann. 707-708 and 713).
Besides the general norms established in the CIC for associations of the faithful (cann. 684-699; v. ASSOCIAZIONE), and the special ones on confraternities (cann. 707-725), each confraternity is governed by a statute approved by the Ordinary.
Each confraternity must have its seat in a church or in a public or semi-public oratory (can. 712 § 1; for changes of seat cf. can. 719); it must further have a name or title, taken either from the attributes of God, or from the mysteries of the Christian religion, or from the feasts of the Lord or of Our Lady, or from the Saints, or finally from the pious end of the confraternity itself (can. 710); and normally no more than one confraternity with an identical title or purpose may be established in the same place (can. 711 § 1).
All Catholics may be members of a confraternity who are not enrolled in condemned sects or notoriously censured or public sinners (can. 693), provided they have the requirements prescribed by the statute. But confraternities are in themselves associations of men; women may be members only for the purpose of gaining the indulgences and other spiritual favors granted to the confreres (can. 709 § 2).
The confreres may not take part in the religious functions of the confraternity unless they wear the habit or insignia proper to the association (can. 709 § 1; cf. also cann. 713 § 2 and 714).
The confraternity, under the authority and supervision of the local Ordinary, may hold assemblies, appoint its officers, administer its own property (the confraternity is always a juridical person), and carry out non-parochial religious functions (cann. 715-17); and it must, unless the Ordinary directs otherwise, take part in public processions with its own insignia and its own banner (can. 718).
Confraternities having the faculty of aggregating other confraternities are more properly called archconfraternities (cann. 720-21). Can. 711 § 2, recommending to Ordinaries that they erect in every parish the confraternities of the Most Holy Sacrament and of Christian Doctrine, establishes that, as soon as they are constituted, they are by right aggregated to the respective archconfraternities erected in Rome by the cardinal vicar. Aggregation generally has the effect that the aggregated association enjoys the indulgences, privileges, and other spiritual graces directly and specifically granted by the Holy See to the aggregating association (can. 722).
Besides these archconfraternities, there are others which, by concession of the Holy See, bear this designation as a merely honorary title.
Confraternities soon came to have considerable patrimonies, which drew upon them the appetites of the various governments that, inspired by the jurisdictionalism of the 18th century, sought to intrude into their life in an ever more invasive manner. After the French Revolution and in the upheavals of the 19th century the confraternities were for the most part destroyed and their property confiscated: of those preserved, the State claimed to dispose at its pleasure. Thus it happened also in Italy, with notable differences in the various regions, by means of various suppressive laws. If the confraternities were charitable, their property was absorbed by the Congregations of Charity; if they were for worship, their end could be transformed (cf. especially the law of 17 July 1890, no. 6972). The implementation of such laws was, however, far from being uniform and complete throughout the territory of the State.
The Concordat of 11 February 1929 (art. 29, letter c) established that confraternities having an exclusive or prevalent purpose of worship are no longer subject to further transformations of their ends and depend on the ecclesiastical authority for their functioning and their administration: those with a prevalent charitable purpose are instead subject to extensive controls by the government authority (cf. decree of 2 December 1929, no. 2262, arts. 52 and 53).
Among the Roman archconfraternities particular mention deserves to be made of: the Archconfraternity of the Gonfalone, whose beginnings are traced back to 1263 and to St. Bonaventure: it was enriched by the pontiffs with distinguished privileges and resides in its church of S. Lucia del Gonfalone in Banchi Vecchi; the Archconfraternity of S. Spirito in Sassia: it has its seat in the church of the Annunziata near S. Spirito and goes back to the time of Pope Innocent III, who in 1198 approved it together with the Canon Hospitallers of S. Spirito; the Archconfraternity of the Most Holy Savior: it resides near the Sancta Sanctorum of the Holy Stairs and was instituted during the Avignon exile for the custody of the Acheropita; the Archconfraternity of S. Anna del Palafrenieri (now the parish church of Vatican City): it was erected in 1378 by Urban VI for the grooms of the pontifical palace; the Archconfraternity of the Pietà dei Fiorentini in S. Giovanni dei Fiorentini, erected during the plague of 1448: St. Philip Neri and Baronio were chaplains there; the Archconfraternity of Sts. Ambrose and Charles of the Lombards, erected in 1471 by Sixtus IV: it has its seat in S. Carlo al Corso; the Archconfraternity of Mercy or of S. Giovanni Decollato, erected in 1488 by various Florentines for the assistance of the condemned: it has its seat in the oratory of S. Giovanni Decollato; the Archconfraternity of Sts. Roch and Martin, at the port of Ripetta, erected under Alexander VI in 1499: it still has its seat in that church, rebuilt in 1697 and in the 19th century; the Archconfraternity of Charity, instituted by Card. Giulio de' Medici in 1520 (who later became pope under the name Clement VII) and with its seat in S. Girolamo della Carità, to which St. Philip Neri was attached; the Archconfraternity of the Holy Crucifix of S. Marcello, erected during the plague of 1522: it had very great privileges, among them that of freeing one condemned to death; the Archconfraternity of Prayer and Death: it began in 1538, especially to give burial to the dead found abandoned in the Roman countryside, and has its seat in its church on via Giulia; the Archconfraternity of Sts. Bartholomew and Alexander of the Bergamasques: it began under Paul III in 1538 for the Bergamasque nation and still has property and seat in S. Maria della Pietà in piazza Colonna; the Archconfraternity of S. Giuseppe del Palegnami: on the slopes of the Capitoline toward the Forum, it was erected in 1539; the Archconfraternity of the Most Holy Trinity of Pilgrims: instituted by St. Philip Neri in 1548, it still lives in the grand church near Ponte Sisto, and has in the past acquired distinguished merits during the great pilgrimages of the Holy Years; the Archconfraternity of the Dying, erected in 1616 in the church of the Nativity of Jesus, with its seat at piazza Pasquino; the Archconfraternity of the Most Holy Name of Mary: in the church of the same name at the Forum of Trajan, erected in 1688 during the siege of Vienna; the Archconfraternity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, commonly called that of the « Sacconi », founded in 1729, with its seat in S. Teodoro at the foot of the Palatine; the Archconfraternity of the Lovers of Jesus and Mary at Mount Calvary or of the Way of the Cross, founded by St. Leonard of Port Maurice in 1751 under Benedict XIV; it guarded the Colosseum, where it followed the Way of the Cross, has as its protector the Pontiff pro tempore, and as perpetual director a cardinal; the Archconfraternity of the Most Precious Blood, of Bl. Gaspare del Bufalo, in S. Giuseppe a Capo le Case. - See plate XI.
Bibliography5 works
Pio Ciprotti - Vittorio Bartoccetti
CONFRATERNITIES (COMPANIES) OF THE MOST HOLY SACRAMENT. - Pious associations duly recognized by ecclesiastical authority, having as their purpose to honor the Most Blessed Sacrament publicly with particular devotional manifestations. In their constitution they do not differ from the other confraternities (v.) which the spirit of association caused to arise throughout the Christian West from the 13th century onward, except for the object of their particular veneration.
In the Germanic cities, during the 14th-15th centuries, they are found constituted even exclusively by priests, in Italy only by laypeople with the assistance of priests or of
THE DECREES, OR CONSTITUtions of the venerable and most pious Archconfraternity of the Most Holy Body of our Lord
Jesus Christ, established and foun-ded in the devout Church of St.
Lawrence in Damaso
of the City of Rome.
With its Privileges, Exemptions, and Indulgences.
Collegii
Germanni religious. In Italy they became gradually more frequent during the 16th-15th centuries; the Franciscans Cherubino da Spoleto and especially the blessed Bernardino da Feltre toward the end of the 15th century became zealous propagators of them, insisting in particular on the practice of accompanying the Most Holy Viaticum when it was carried to the sick. Particular importance was acquired in Rome by the C. erected in 1501 at S. Lorenzo in Damaso by humble devotees with this particular purpose; another was instituted a few years later at the parish of S. Maria della Traspontina, which obtained the church of S. Giacomo a Scossacavalli. In 1538 the Dominican friar Tommaso Stella instituted a new C. in the church of S. Maria della Minerva, which Paul III approved with a bull of 30 Nov. 1539, so that it might serve as a model for the others that were arising, granting special indulgences to all of them. Indeed they were founded in almost all the parish churches of Italy, thanks also to the spirit of piety that spread after the Council of Trent. Some of them had special regulations: they were composed of men (who wore their own cape during functions) and of women. They were endowed with their own patrimony, sometimes quite considerable, and were governed by a prior, subprior, provveditore, by a treasurer and other officials, according to need; they therefore held their meetings with the assistance of their priest.
They had great merit in promoting veneration of the Most Holy Sacrament. The Italian law of 1807, which suppressed all the other c., respected for the individual parishes those of the Most Holy Sacrament; today they follow the common laws.
The most common obligations of the individual members were: to accompany the viaticum to the dying with a lighted torch; to attend a solemn Mass on the third Sunday of the month with a lighted candle during the elevation, to participate in a solemn eucharistic procession on the first Friday after the feast of Corpus Domini; to prepare the infirm confreres for Communion; to recite every week a Pater, Ave, Gloria. All this under penalty of deprivation of spiritual graces.
Bibliography3 works
Felice da Mareto