388 BuoniCattolici
£ 3 ; and Nuta, avestita,£ 2. Perhaps strangely for a Gray Penitent, her one
corporate donation (£ 50 ) went, not to the Franciscans, but to the Domini-
cans.^37 Only one male’s will, that of Bello Ferrantini of Florence ( 27 May
1277 ), exhibits the concern for family and individuals seen in these women’s
wills. He left £ 800 flor. parv. to his daughters, and his horse to a friend. But
his familial piety was overshadowed by a grant of £ 1000 flor. parv. to the
poor and ‘‘pious places’’ (piis locis). This sum and some small grants to local
churches were disbursed at the discretion of the ministers of the Black Peni-
tents.^38 Perhaps he had neglected to make provision for his family earlier.
If this small sample reflects more general concerns, dying men thought
first of the poor, perhaps because in life they had victimized them by taking
usury. After that, they favored larger local religious communities. The
women, perhaps unburdened by social sins, bestowed their charity on indi-
viduals, especially needy people they knew or simply on their friends. Mass
bequests are rare. That duty normally devolved on the relatives, friends, and
neighbors. The narrowly expiatory and personal focus of wills, even those of
these professionally pious penitents, moved some communes to enact laws
modifying testamentary provisions to provide for public charities. In 1250 ,
Bologna ordered that one tenth of all testaments go to the reconstruction of
the duomo, since ‘‘that church is the mother of all the churches of the clergy
and laity of the city... and the Lord said to honor your father and
mother.’’^39 A benefaction to the duomo would have worked to the glory of
the city and pleased God, but it seems that the dying seldom made it. On
the other hand, it does seem that the dying heard the call for more socially
conscious benefactions generally. Over all, our period saw an increase in
bequests to religious entities, especially hospitals.^40
After the foreboding task of drafting a will, the ministering priest urged
the one dying to make a full and humble confession, omitting nothing. Ex-
tant rituals give forms for this general confession.^41 These rites preserve the
old dialogue format of the twelfth century. The priest began by examining
the dying on the articles of the faith, using a question-and-answer format
not unlike that used at baptism, although somewhat more extended. This
examination not only excluded heretics from the consolations of the Church
but reminded Catholics that confession was a ‘‘second baptism.’’ If under-
taken in faith, it left the one confessing in a state of innocence, ready to
- Ibid., 30 , pp. 219 – 20.
- Ibid., 15 ,p. 198.
- Bologna Stat.i( 1250 ), 5. 6 , 1 : 443 – 44 : ‘‘Quia ecclesia sancti petri episcopatus bon. mater est et
capud omnium ecclesiarum clericorum et laicorum habitancium jn civitate predicta et eiusdem diocesis,
et ab eis omnibus debeat exaltari et honorari dicente Domino honora patrem et matrem tuam ut sis
longevus super terram, quod de matre spirituali que nos regenerat debeat intelligi.’’ - A change that Antonio Rigon, ‘‘Orientamenti religiosi e pratica testamentaria a Padova nei secoli
xii–xiv(prime ricerche),’’Nolens Intestatus Decedere, 51 , calls, using the words of Vauchez, a ‘‘re ́volution de
la charite ́.’’ - I follow here the forms found in theRituale di Hugo [di Volterra], 285 – 87 (ca. 1180 ).