FromConversion toCommunity 85
followed, in their own lay style, the ‘‘counsels’’ of Christ, something pre-
viously understood as the preserve of vowed religious alone. They foreswore
taking oaths, bearing arms, going to court, and so on. Statutes disciplined
public sins of members, such as breach of peace and concord, usury, gam-
bling, tavern haunting, association with ‘‘dishonest’’ or ‘‘bad’’ places or per-
sons, and blasphemy. But legislation on sexual sins and adultery is rare.^105
Penance culture gave particular importance to sacramental confession
and Communion, and all penitents sought to go beyond the norm of once-
yearly confession established by the Lateran Council of 1215. The penitent
associations linked the frequency of confession to the group’s general Com-
munions. All extant penitent statutes required members to confess more than
the Lateran canonical minimum. Generally, conversi practiced the pre- 1215
rule of confession and Communion thrice a year, at Christmas, Easter, and
Pentecost.^106 Statutes allowed members to confess fewer times, but only for
good reason and ‘‘if they had permission of their confessor.’’^107 At the end of
our period there seems to have been an increase in the frequency of confes-
sion among penitents and a loosening of its connection to general Commu-
nions, portending, perhaps, the more individualistic Eucharistic piety of the
later Middle Ages.^108
Medieval spirituality closely connected the state of penance with fasting,
and so did the penitents. But they did not carry this to excess. Conversi
observed the traditional fasts of the Church, including those of Wednesdays
and Saturdays and that during Saint Martin’s Lent ( 11 November to Christ-
mas), which had somewhat fallen out of use. To these traditional fasts, peni-
tent legislation added fasting on the vigils of feasts and saints’ days particular
to them or their city. In Piacenza, penitents fasted on the vigil of Saint Fran-
cis because he was patron of their city.^109 Penitents practiced a moderate
asceticism, avoiding extravagance at table. In particular, they were to avoid
convivia.As commentators on the ‘‘Memoriale’’ explained, this word meant
meals where entertainers and singers (ioculatores vel cantatores) were present.
The commentary forbade penitents to put onconvivia,even as fund-raising
events for poor relief (ad utilitatem pauperum).^110 Apparently someone had dis-
- Giuseppina De Sandre Gasparini, ‘‘Laici devoti fra confessione e penitenze,’’Dalla penitenza
all’ascolto delle confessioni: Il ruolo dei frati mendicanti: Atti delxxiiiConvegno internazionale, Assisi, 12 – 14 ottobre 1995
(Spoleto: Centro Italiano di Studi sull’Alto Medioevo, 1996 ), 243 – 44. ‘‘Memoriale,’’ 26 , Meersseman,
Dossier, 106 , places special emphasis on peacemaking. For typical ‘‘blue laws,’’ see Lucca, Biblioteca
Statale,ms 1310( 1299 ), fol. 8 r; Milan, Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense,msAC.viii. 2 , fol. 9 r; Piacenza,
Biblioteca Comunale,msPallestrelli 323 ( 1317 ), fol. 7 r. - ‘‘Memoriale,’’ 15 , Meersseman,Dossier, 101 ; see Gratian,Decretum, De cons.D. 2 , cc. 16 , 19 , for
pre-Lateranivnorms.PaceDe Sandre Gasparini, ‘‘Laici devoti,’’ 215 – 16. - Lucca, Biblioteca Statale,ms 1310, fols. 5 v– 6 r: ‘‘per alcuna legiptima cagione della qual’avesse
licentia dal suo confessore.’’ ‘‘Gli statuti di un’antica congregazione francescana di Brescia,’’ ed. P. Guer-
rini,AFH 1 ( 1908 ): 549 , requires confession twice a year. - E.g., the 1332 Pavia flagellant statutes in Milan, Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense,msAC.viii. 2 ,
fols. 9 r–v. On the Eucharistic piety of the penitents, see Weissman, ‘‘From Brotherhood,’’ 90. - Piacenza, Biblioteca Comunale,msPallestrelli 323 , fols. 6 v– 7 r.
- ‘‘Expositiones Regule,’’ 3 , Meersseman,Dossier, 114.