92 LaCitadeSancta
In the north, corporate hymn singing also appears in the 1260 statutes of
the Bolognese flagellants. These statutes describe the prayer book used in
their corporate devotions. It included lauds to Christ and the Virgin, as well
as prayers for the pope, the Christian faithful, the Roman Church, the city
of Bologna, those doing penance, pilgrims, benefactors, and even the group’s
enemies (illis qui fecerunt nobis iniuriam).^150 Later devotional collections linked
to confraternities usually included indulgenced Latin prayers adopted from
the public liturgy of the Church and lists of indulgences granted for activities
like confession and general Communion, visits to the confraternity’s patronal
altar, and even mere active membership.^151
While manuscripts containing penitents’ rituals, as opposed to hymns, are
lacking until the early 1300 s, their creation is certainly older. In their devel-
oped form, their ritual books included hymns or laments in honor of Christ’s
Passion, rituals for the washing of feet,laudein honor of the patron saint,
and prayers for the dead.^152 Bolognese confraternity prayers are less an ad
hoc collection than a lay version of the Church’s liturgical prayers. Floren-
tine and Mantuan flagellants included in their devotions vernacular bidding
prayers modeled on the Church’s liturgy of Good Friday. During their rituals
the brothers knelt and recited a Pater and an Ave for each intention. These
intentions, like those in Bologna, followed the Good Friday order, invoking
God’s grace on the hierarchy, civil authorities, the local group, and those in
need. At both Florence and Mantua, the Latin formula of the Paters and
Aves, along with collects lifted from the Church’s liturgy, added hieratic
solemnity to a service in which the prayer intentions were pronounced in the
vernacular so they might be understood by all.^153
Statutes of one Florentine Marian confraternity describe the liturgical de-
votions typical of monthly meetings in the confraternities of the late commu-
nal period.^154 This group ritualized their corporate penance by adaption of
a monastic practice known as the ‘‘chapter of faults.’’ The group’s leader, or
1 – 96. For a handlist of manuscripts and editions, see Ignazio Baldelli, ‘‘La lauda e i disciplinati,’’Rassegna
della letteratura italiana 64 ( 1960 ): 396 – 418 , esp. 399 – 409.
150. ‘‘Statuto dei Disciplinati di Bologna’’ ( 1260 ), 28 , Meersseman,Ordo, 1 : 490.
151. E.g., Piacenza, Biblioteca Comunale,msPallestrelli 323 , fols. 4 v– 5 r( 1317 Piacenza flagellant stat-
utes); Milan, Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense,msAC.viii. 2 , fols. 42 v– 45 v( 1332 Pavia flagellant statutes);
Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale,msII.iv. 686 , fols. 34 r– 36 r(statutes of Florentine flagellants from
the 1320 s).
152. Summarized by Baldelli, ‘‘La lauda e i disciplinati,’’ 405 , whose sources are late, e.g., Assisi,
Archivio di San Rufino,ms 78(dated to 1327 ). For an example of foot washing, see Milan, Biblioteca
Nazionale Braidense,msAC.viii. 2 , fol. 27 r.
153. Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale,msII.iv. 686 , fols. 3 r– 9 r; for bidding prayers, see Gia-
como Benfatti,Li statuti et ordinatione per la compagnia de’ fratelli disciplinanti in del loco de Sancta Maria de la
Misericordia,ed. Augustine Thompson, in ‘‘New Light on Bl. Giacomo Benfatti, Bishop of Mantua, and
the Mantua Disciplinati,’’AFP 69 ( 1999 ): 167 – 69. On bidding prayers of other flagellants, see Giuseppe
Landotti, ‘‘La ‘Preghiera dei fedeli’ in lingua italiana da secoloxiiial secoloxx,’’Ephemerides Liturgicae 91
( 1977 ): 101 – 9.
154. Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana,msAcq. e Doni 336 (xivcent.), fols. 12 v– 14 r(on the
examination of faults), 14 r– 18 r(on the prayers).