CONFRATERNITY. – An ecclesiastical corporation composed predominantly of lay faithful, canonically erected and governed by a competent superior, with the purpose of promoting Christian life through special works of charity directed either to divine worship or to the good of one’s neighbor. Often worship and charity are combined 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 bequests, of administering their funds, and of holding real estate in exclusive possession, at least where civil laws do not forbid II.
They must not, however, be confused with those institutions that go under the name of pious causes (hospitals, refuges, orphanages, conservatories), which have a more complex purpose; nor yet with those occasional pious unions held together simply by the will of their members. Indeed, even the departure of the majority of its members—or even of all of them—does not of itself extinguish the confraternity, which continues to exist thanks to its canonical erection. Confraternities depend on the diocesan bishop or on the generals of certain religious Orders to which they are originally aggregated or by which they were founded. They take the name of archconfraternities if they have obtained the faculty of aggregating to themselves particular confraternities legitimately erected with the same purposes and under uniform regulations.
Confraternities must also be carefully distinguished from the Third Orders of the laity, which are strictly connected with the religious Order from which they take their name, and from the guilds of craftsmen and tradesmen, which in the past pursued a predominantly social and economic purpose, although these too placed themselves under the protection of special patron saints. It should be noted, however, that true confraternities sometimes consisted of persons recruited exclusively from those of the same trade or profession, without thereby being organized as proper guilds.
I. HISTORY
Traces of associations of lay persons can be discerned as early as the Carolingian age, but a true movement in this regard is not evident until later, when the common people of cities and boroughs had attained a greater capacity for association. Indeed, the first confraternities documented by sources are those that, from the tenth century, included within their ranks the entire clergy of a city, independently of disciplinary relations with the bishop; whereas confraternities composed of lay persons are not securely attested before the twelfth century, by which time communal life, at least in Italy, was already in full flower. No example is found, however, of a confraternity that included within its ranks the entire laity of a place. Each confraternity, according to its importance and development, had an altar, a chapel, or a church in which to carry out its religious practices (Masses, processions, special prayers) and also a place where its members could assemble under the guidance of a leader and the assistance of a secular or regular priest, as the case might be. The purposes they pursued, beyond the general exercise of these practices and of Christian virtues, included assistance to sick members, suffrages and funerals for the deceased, aid to the poor even outside the confraternity, and the dowries of young women. At their meetings they often sang sacred lauds in the vernacular (Companies of Laudesi), sometimes in dialogue, and on certain days they also held sacred representations for the edification of the people. At other times the members 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 Disciplinati, which arose in Perugia in 1260 and spread throughout Italy, gave rise to numerous confraternities that combined the practice of personal flagellation, either in private or in public processions, with that of beneficence by promoting aid to the poor, particularly in hospitals; many of these institutions owe their foundation and more effective assistance to the zeal of the Flagellants. A similar movement is that of the
CAPITULA STATUTORY AND REGULATORY
Of the Venerable Company of the Most Holy Rosary.
Founded in the Church of Santa Maria della Misericordia in Rome, of the Order of Preachers, in the year 1481, which will henceforth be united to the Company of the Most Holy Name of God, noted for the coats of arms that they bear, keeping the greater part of their membership, assisted by their colleagues, and later imitated in this field also by the secular clergy. The same must be said of the Congregations that the Jesuits themselves established in the churches under their care for adults of different social classes.
Also to be 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 various places with their respective statutes. Nor should be forgotten the associations erected for the benefit of missions among the infidels, of which the first were those called the Propagation of the Faith and those of the Holy Childhood. But with these institutions and others similar to them one draws ever closer to the pious unions of which mention has been made above, although in them a general organization prevails that stands above simple confraternities and archconfraternities.
These institutions first encountered their adversaries in the reforming princes of the late eighteenth century, who, like Joseph II of Germany, hampered their particular activity in the field of charity by sequestering their patrimonies for the benefit of state charity. The Napoleonic laws permitted only parish confraternities of the Most Holy Sacrament, and where such laws were applied the confraternities lost their patrimonies.
Italian legislation has generally been hostile to confraternities: without directly concerning itself with those that pursue only a spiritual purpose and do not hold real estate, it has subjected them without more ado to the authority of the State. Among these, those intended for charity must conform to the legal provisions regarding pious 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 activity within the bounds assigned by law and to granting those authorizations that moral persons need for the various acts of their activity.
CONFRATERNITY – Title page of the Capitula Statutory and Regulatory of the Venerable Company of the Most Holy Rosary, Rome 1585. Rome, copy in the National Library.
of the Gonfalone, founded in Rome in 1264, and the White Penitents of 1399 in northern Italy. Other confraternities established with the specific aim of promoting the growth of hospitals for the sick or pilgrims soon became full-fledged hospitaller orders, such as that of S. Spirito in Sassia in Rome, of S. Giacomo di Altopascio in Tuscany, and of S. Antonio Abate in Vienne, France. Particular importance was acquired in Rome, especially during the fifteenth century, by confraternities formed among members of different nations for the assistance of the poorest among them or of those arriving as pilgrims; noteworthy are the Confraternity of S. Maria dell’Anima and of S. Maria dei Tedeschi for the Germans, of S. Giuliano dei Belgi, of S. Luigi dei Francesi, etc. Examples are not lacking of similar institutions along the routes frequented by these foreigners for their travels, such as a German confraternity in Udine. With the spread of all these confraternities, and especially following the example set by the Flagellants, it became customary for members of the confraternities to wear, during their meetings and processions, a long linen habit of various colors with a hood that sometimes covered the face, leaving only two holes for the eyes.
The Confraternities of Charity, and in particular the Compagnia del Divino Amore, founded in the principal cities at the beginning of the sixteenth century with the intent of fostering a more intense Christian life through enlightened charity toward one’s neighbor, contributed greatly to the renewal of Christian life in Italy. Through their members, they promoted the founding of hospitals for the Incurables, shelters for penitent women and those in danger of falling into sin, orphanages, and aid for the shamefaced poor.
Of a different nature and with an almost exclusively devotional character are the Confraternities of the Scapular, governed by the Carmelite friars, those of the Cincture promoted by the Augustinian Hermits, those of the Rosary spread everywhere by the Dominicans, and particularly those of the Most Holy Sacrament, which, already numerous in the fifteenth century, had
II. JURIDICAL NATURE
association (v.) formally erected by decree of the Ordinary (or by religious who hold the privilege), having as its purpose, even if not exclusive, the promotion of public worship (canons 707–708 and 713).In addition to the general norms established in the Code of Canon Law for associations of the faithful (canons 684–699; V. ASSOCIAZIONE), and the special norms on confraternities (canons 707–725), each confraternity is governed by statutes approved by the Ordinary.
Each confraternity must have its seat in a church or in a public or semi-public oratory (canon 712 §1; for changes of seat cf. canon 719); it must also have a name or title derived either from the attributes of God, or from the mysteries of the Christian religion, or from the feasts of the Lord or of the Blessed Virgin, or from the Saints, or finally from the specific purpose of the confraternity itself (canon 710); and normally no more than one confraternity with the same title or purpose may be established in the same place (canon 711 §1).
All Catholics who are not enrolled in condemned societies or notoriously censured or public sinners may belong to a confraternity, provided they meet the requirements prescribed by the statutes (canon 693). However, confraternities are by nature associations of men; women may belong to them only to obtain the indulgences and other spiritual favors granted to the brethren (canon 709 §2).
The brethren may not take part in the religious functions of the confraternity unless they wear the habit or insignia proper to the association (canon 709 §1; cf. also canon 713 §2 and 714).
Under the authority and supervision of the local Ordinary, the confraternity may hold assemblies, appoint officers, administer its own property (the confraternity is always a juridical person), conduct non-parochial religious functions (canons 715–717), and, unless the Ordinary disposes otherwise, must take part in public processions with its own insignia and separated by sex (canon 718).
Confraternities that have the faculty of aggregating other confraternities are more properly called archconfraternities (canons 720–721). Canon 711 §2, recommending that Ordinaries establish in every parish the Confraternities of the Most Holy Sacrament and of Christian Doctrine, stipulates that, once constituted, they are ipso iure 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 specifically granted by the Holy See to the aggregating association (canon 722).
In addition to these archconfraternities, there are others that, by concession of the Holy See, bear this title merely as an honorary distinction.
Confraternities soon acquired substantial assets, which attracted the covetousness of various governments that, inspired by eighteenth-century jurisdictionalism, sought to intrude ever more invasively into their affairs. After the French Revolution and in the upheavals of the nineteenth century, confraternities were largely destroyed and their goods confiscated; the state claimed the right to dispose of them as it saw fit. This also occurred in Italy, though with notable regional variations, through various eversive laws. If the confraternities were charitable, their goods were absorbed by the Congregations of Charity; if they were devoted to worship, their purpose could be transformed (cf. especially the law of 17 July 1890, no. 6972). The implementation of these laws, however, was far from uniform and complete throughout the territory of the state.
The Concordat of 11 February 1929 (art. 29, lett. c) established that confraternities whose purpose is exclusively or predominantly one of worship are no longer subject to further transformation of their purpose and depend on ecclesiastical authority for their operation and administration; those with a predominantly charitable purpose, however, are subject to intense oversight by the civil authorities (cf. decree of 2 December 1929, no. 2262, arts. 52 and 55).
Among the Roman archconfraternities, particular mention is due to: the Archconfraternity of the Gonfalone, whose origins are traced to 1263 and to St. Bonaventure; it was enriched by the popes with notable privileges and is based 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 dates to the time of Pope Innocent III, who in 1908 approved it together with the Spadai Canons and those of S. Spirito; the Archconfraternity of the Most Holy Savior: it is based near the Sancta Sanctorum of the Sancta Sanctorum and was instituted during the Avignon exile to guard the Acheropita; the Archconfraternity of St. Anne of the Grooms (now the parish church of the Vatican City): it was erected in 1378 by Urban VI for the groom of the papal palace; the Archconfraternity of the Pietà of the Florentines in S. Giovanni dei Fiorentini, erected during the plague of 1448; among its chaplains were St. Philip Neri and Baronius; the Archconfraternity of SS. Ambrose and Charles of the Lombards, erected in 1471 by Sixtus IV: it is based in S. Carlo al Corso; the Archconfraternity of Mercy or of St. John the Beheaded, erected in 1488 by various Florentines for the assistance of the condemned: it is based in the oratory of S. John the Beheaded; the Archconfraternity of SS. Roch and Marina, at the Ripetta harbor, erected under Alexander VI in 1499: it still has its seat in the aforementioned church, rebuilt in 1697 and in the 19th century; the Archconfraternity of Charity, instituted by Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici in 1520 (who later became Pope Clement VII) and seated 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 received very great privileges, including the right to free a condemned man; the Archconfraternity of Prayer and Death: it began in 1538, especially to provide burial for the dead found abandoned in the Roman countryside, and has its seat in its church on Via Giulia; the Archconfraternity of SS. Bartholomew and Alexander of the Bergamasques: it began under Paul III in 1538 for the Bergamasque nation and still has property and its seat in S. Maria della Pietà in Piazza Colonna; the Archconfraternity of St. Joseph of the Carpenters: on the slopes of the Capitoline toward the Forum, it was erected in 1539; the Archconfraternity of the Most Holy Trinity of the Pilgrims: instituted by St. Philip Neri in 1548, it still flourishes in the grand church near Ponte Sisto, and in the past has earned notable merits during the great pilgrimages of 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 on the Monte Calvario 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 reigning Pope, and as perpetual director a cardinal; the Archconfraternity of the Most Precious Blood, of the Blessed Gaspar del Bufalo, in S. Giuseppe a Capo le Case. — See pl. XI.
CONFRATERNITIES (COMPANIES) OF THE MOST HOLY SACRAMENT. — Pious associations duly recognized by ecclesiastical authority, having as their purpose the public honor of the Most Holy Sacrament through particular devotional manifestations. In their constitution they do not differ from other confraternities (q.v.), which the spirit of association gave rise to throughout the Christian West beginning in the 13th century, except for the object of their particular veneration.
In the German cities, during the 14th-15th centuries, these were found constituted even exclusively by priests; in Italy only by laity with the assistance of priests or religious. In Italy they became gradually more frequent during the 16th-17th centuries; the Franciscans Cherubino da Spoleto and above all the Blessed Bernardino da Feltre at the end of the 15th century became zealous promoters of them, insisting in particular on the practice of accompanying the Most Holy Viaticum when it was taken to the sick. Particular importance was acquired in Rome by the Company erected in 1501 at S. Lorenzo in Damaso by humble devotees for this particular purpose; another was instituted a few years later near the parish of S. Maria della Trasportina, which obtained the church of S. Giacomo a Scossacavalli. In 1538 the Dominican Fra Tommaso Stella established a new Company 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 to all special indulgences. 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 a distinctive cape during functions) and of women. They were endowed with their own patrimony, sometimes quite considerable, and were governed by a prior, subprior, provost, treasurer and other officials as needed; they therefore held their meetings with the assistance of their priest.
They had great merit in promoting the veneration of the Most Holy Sacrament. The Italian law of 1807, which suppressed all other confraternities, respected for the individual parishes those of the Most Holy Sacrament; today they follow common laws.
The most common obligations of 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 take part in a solemn Eucharistic procession on the first Friday after the feast of Corpus Domini; to prepare infirm confrères for Communion; to recite every week a Pater, Ave, Gloria. All this under penalty of deprivation of spiritual graces.