FromConversion toCommunity 95
as lay chaplains to the municipal jail. They made and distributed bread to
prisoners, a task for which the jail warden had to provide funds, lest he incur
a penalty of 20 s.^165 At Parma, thefratresmaintained the books listing those
banned, that is, exiled or condemned to death. Popes entrusted the penitents
with peacemaking. When Innocent IV sent penitents to make peace at Flor-
ence, he excused the imposition, saying that such work was for them not a
‘‘burden’’ but rather that the penitents gavesubsidiumto the city.^166 Penitents
served the cities in less sensitive matters, especially in public works. Reggio
in 1267 gave oversight of walls, gates, canals, and bridges to a pair of lay
penitents, providing them with a stipend of £ 8 reg. At Bologna, a committee
of three or four brothers supervised road maintenance outside the walls and
collected taxes on grain shipments, a service for which they each received
2 s. bon. annually.^167
Freelance conversi in government and administration easily assimilated to
secular functionaries. This risked bringing the entire movement into disre-
pute. In 1262 , at Parma, the minister of the brothers tried to reassert his
proper control over conversi doing city work. The city agreed to appoint as
municipal servants only brothers with the minister’s explicit permission. He,
in return, promised to make sure that they properly executed the work as-
signed—an exception being made for the aged Fra Uberto Blaxa, longtime
servant of the commune. Too old and sick to work, he could remain on the
city payroll in recognition of past service.^168 But with office came tempta-
tions. Secularization and loss of religious identity plagued penitents in gov-
ernment service during the later communal period. At Bologna and
Florence, the city stripped penitents and Frati Gaudenti of their exemption
from taxes on inheritances and real estate in 1288.^169 That the poor penitents
were possessed of wealth sufficient to attract the attention of tax collectors is
troublesome. In 1299 , the podesta of Citta`di Castello expelled all penitents
who claimed exemption from labor on the city walls.^170 At Bologna in 1289 ,
the city excluded conversi from administrative, judicial, and financial re-
sponsibilities in neighborhood corporations.^171 At Verona and Brescia in the
same period, the Humiliati lost their roles in city administration.^172 By the
early 1300 s, thefratresleft the civil service, never to return.^173 The Church
had for a long time been taking up the slack.
- Bologna Stat.i( 1252 ), 10. 74 , 3 : 169 – 71.
- ‘‘Bullarium,’’ 20 (Innocent IV, 21 January 1246 ), Meersseman,Dossier, 56.
- Reggio Stat. ( 1267 ), 1. 47 , pp. 118 – 19 ; Bologna Stat.ii( 1288 ), 3. 49 , 1 : 142.
- Parma Stat.i( 1262 ), p. 445 ; reaffirmed later, ibid. ( 1264 ), p. 445. But penitents did take on new
responsibilities, such as bridge construction and repair of the piazza of the commune: ibid. ( 1262 ), 447 ;
( 1264 ), 458. - Bologna Stat.ii( 1288 ), 9. 10 , 2 : 117 ; Florence Stat.ii( 1325 ), 5. 42 ,p. 392.
- Meersseman,Dossier, 27.
- ‘‘Ordinatione Fratrum de Penitentia’’ (Bologna, 1289 ), 11 , ibid., 175.
- E.g., Verona Stat.ii( 1276 ), 1. 69 ,p. 62 ; Brescia Stat. (before 1277 ), col. ( 170 ).
- As noted by De Sandre Gasparini inStatuti di confraternite,lii–liii.