Collegia Funeraticia

COLLEGIA FUNERATICIA. - Term coined by Theodor Mommsen (De Collegii, p. 91) to designate certain "Confraternities" or ancient Roman corporations, established with the primary purpose of providing for the funerals and burial of their own members.

I. ORIGINS

Already in the republican period there existed colleges of artisans whose members had in common not only their trade or profession but also their tomb (for example, the collegium anularium, CIL, I, 1107; CIL, VI, 9144; restionum, CIL, VI, 9856; tibizinum, CIL, VI, 3877). Certain colleges of artisans, even in the imperial age, bearing names of a religious character, probably also had a funerary character (for example, the collegium Salutare, Bull. arch. com., 1885, p. 51, pl. 6; collegium Sanctissimum, CIL, VI, 404; collegium Victoriae Augustae, CIL, III 1365, etc.). Of the existence of colleges with exclusively religious and funerary purposes we have record only from the times of the empire: such are the collegia tenuiorum (Marcian, Dig., XLVII, 22), associations that arose in the Augustan age and gathered people of modest means (clients, freedmen, slaves), with the twofold purpose of venerating a common protecting deity and of ensuring a fitting burial for their deceased members.

Contrary to the opinion of Mommsen (loc. cit.), who identifies all the c. f. with these collegia tenuiorum, it must be held that other varieties of the latter also existed; all the more so since the statement of Commodian (Instruct., II, 33, 12) that one joined the pagan colleges in order to have sumptuous funerals also presupposes the existence of c. f. made up of people of ample means. There were then, as has been said, several colleges that also had, but not exclusively, a funerary character.

II. AIMS AND CHARACTERISTICS

The principal aim of the c. f., which comprised, it seems, a limited number of members, was to constitute a "mutual provident fund" (arca communis) for the expenses of the worship and burial of the members (sodales). This was done through the payment, by each of the members, of a fixed monthly contribution (funeraticum) to the said fund. The college, in turn, undertook to pay out, upon the death of one of its members, a "premium" to the heirs of the latter to cover the expenses of the funeral and burial. At the same time the college rendered worship to the divinity whose name it bore. Like all authorized colleges, these too could have at their disposal a hall or a meeting place (schola, templum) and a burial place or a common sepulchral monument for all their members, sometimes also for the women and children of their household (CIL, VI, 9384, 9569; IX, 584, etc.). Slaves also were part of the colleges, with the prior authorization of their masters (Dig. 6, 6).

III. LEGAL REGULATION

The functioning of each of the c. f. was regulated by a specific body of legal norms, such as to constitute a veritable "statute." The norms concerning the Lanuvian college of the Cultores Dianae et Antinoi, established in 133 A.D. (CIL, XIV, 2112), and the legal sources inform us on this point.

The members of the college could not assemble more than once a month, so that they might not abuse the authorization granted to them (Marcian, Dig., I, XLVII, tit. XXII, leg. 1, n. 1); but for religious purposes (e.g. sacred banquets) they could assemble whenever they wished, always on condition of not engaging in unlawful conduct. The right to funeral rites and burial was conditional upon payment of the monthly contribution (stips mentrua) to the treasury of the college. Whoever had not paid this contribution for 6 or more months lost the right to the benefit (CIL, X, 1579) or was struck off the rolls of the college. If the majority of the members proved to be in default, the college was obliged to dissolve. In case of insolvency, the college could be sued by one of its members or by the heir of one of them; conversely, the creditor of a member of the college could not make claims against the latter, except when he had ceded his right for half of the inheritance (CIL, XIV, 2112).

Only the testamentary heir had a right to the funeral benefit; if a member died intestate, the college itself directly provided for the funeral. If a parietus died (CIL, XIV, 2112, lin. 26), he was entitled for his funeral to 300 sesterces, of which 50 were divided ad vagus (sic) exequiri nomine. If he died more than 20 miles from his municipium and his death could be announced, the college had to choose from among its members three "commissioners," who were to go to the place to provide for the funeral and render an account of the expenses incurred (ibid., lin. 26-29). Whoever died by suicide, whatever reason had moved him, lost the right to funeral rites (ibid., lin. 5).

Generally the college itself took care of the funerals (CIL, V, 4504, 7869; VI, 9384; VII, 49; XII, 732, 736, 1189, 5874); the members were obliged to take part in them, under penalty of a fine for anyone who failed to attend (CIL, XIV, 2112; Eph. epigraphica, 5, 1884, 498). If the member had made a will, the college, releasing itself from its duties, entrusted them to the appointed heir (CIL, XIV, 2112, II, lin. 1-9). In the colleges of artisans the sepulchral monument often appears erected by a heres et conlega (or procurator, CIL, III, 196, 265; VI, 8809, etc.) who had undoubtedly received the funeral "benefit."

IV. RELIGIOUS CHARACTER

The fundamental concept that informs the genesis of these c. f. is essentially religious in nature; for in ancient Roman civilization the funeral rites are closely connected with beliefs about the afterlife, and the burial of the dead is the essential condition for the peace of their spirit.

Alongside the cult of deceased members, the cult of the eponymous deity is practiced in the c. f., as has been said (for example, collegium Aesculapii, Iovis Corneni, etc.), in relation to which the members are called cultores (for example, collegium cultorum Dianae et Antinoi, CIL, III, 926). The deceased members are honored on certain annual solemnities by the adornment of the tombs and by commemorative banquets; the latter are often alluded to by the designations of the members (comestores, CIL, IX, 3693; convictores, CIL, III, 1825; CIL, IX, 5383; here qui epulo vesci solent, CIL, XI, 6244; sodales ex symposio, CIL, V, 6492). The wealthier members of the collegia sometimes granted legacies for this purpose. The greatest diffusion of these c. f. coincides, in Italy and in the Latin provinces of the Empire, with the course of the 2nd century A.D. In Africa few examples are known, in the East and in the Greek provinces they are unknown. During the imperial age, in connection with particular social conditions of the members, more complex forms took shape, such as collegia of legionaries that also provided for other needs besides that of burial, such as travel expenses, etc. (Vegetius, in Salmasius, De usuris, p. 46; L. Renier, Inscriptions romaines de l'Algérie, Paris 1855-1886, pp. 60-70).

To explain the origins of the Church's property in the era (2nd century A.D.) in which Christianity was officially proscribed, G. B. De Rossi put forward the theory that Christians took advantage of the legislation concerning the pagan c. f. by presenting their communities under this aspect. But this theory is weakened by a set of circumstances: the repugnance of Christians at being passed off as members of the pagan c. f. which they opposed (cf. Tertullian, Apolog., 39); the contradiction for Christians of placing themselves under the protection of a law that they would have violated, by dissembling an illicit association; the difficulty of disguising as pagan c. f., normally composed of a few dozen people, a body of several thousand faithful. No documentation, whether literary or epigraphic, finally, supports this theory. It is certain, on the other hand, that the collegia tenuiorum disappear under the influence of Christianity, since the Church itself provides directly for the burial of the poor. In the time of Justinian there must no longer have been any trace of c. f. On the various theories put forward by scholars to explain the juridical position of the Church in the first three centuries, v. CHIESA (A, I, VI).

Maurizio Borda