50 LaCitadeSancta
Reggio, Fiesole, Pistoia, Pisa, Lucca, and Volterra, although we lack founda-
tion dates. Priestly confraternities were a product of communal society.
Their statutes paid special attention to admission and to internal self-gover-
nance, since the confraternities were democratic in organization.^219 In the
south, such associations were lacking until the later fourteenth century, and
in some places until even later.^220
The confraternities were not guilds or unions, although their grassroots
nature made them a powerful instrument for defending the rights of the
lower clergy. In Siena, for example, the priest’s confraternity protested the
bishop’s demand that priests pay fees to participate in processions.^221 Like
the contemporary lay associations I discuss in the next chapter, the priestly
societies’ focus was spiritual and devotional. In Florence, the clerical confra-
ternity required all chaplains to recite the Votive Mass for Forgiveness of Sin
on Wednesday and that of the Holy Cross on Friday. On both days the
priests urged the laity to attend the Mass and contributei loro obolifor poor
relief.^222 At Ferrara, where the city was divided into two sections, the clergy
of each section attended the patronal feasts of each chapel there. The priests
came together for Vespers of the vigil and for the Office and Mass of the
day. They urged their own parishioners to attend as well.^223
The Conventus of the clergy of Ferrara is among the best documented of
such groups.^224 It included the archpriest of the duomo, the chaplains of the
urban cappelle, and the priors of collegiate churches. Its statutes mostly con-
cern prayers, suffrages, funerals, and mutual charity.^225 The clergy of the
Conventus held monthly meetings, with sermon or exhortation. Sometimes
the group focused on the clergy’s internal concord or on mediating disputes
between priests and parishioners.^226 Meetings rotated through the chapels of
the quarter, and each was a parishwide event at the church of the month.
All member priests attended Mass at the chapel of the convocation.^227 It fell
- Rigon, ‘‘Congregazioni,’’ 7 – 10 ; and on the associations in Padua specifically, see id.,Clero e citta
: ‘‘Fratalea Cappellanorum,’’ parroci, cura d’anime in Padova dalxiialxvsecolo,Fonti e ricerche, 22 (Padua: Istituto per la Storia Ecclesiastica Padovana, 1988 ); and for Piacenza, see G. Bertuzzi, ‘‘Consorzio o congregazione dei parroci della cittadi Piacenza,’’Indicatore ecclesiastico piacentino 72 ( 1941 ): xxvii–xlii. - See Antonio Samaritani, ‘‘Il ‘Conventus’ e le congregazioni chiericali di Ferrara tra analoghe
istituzioni ecclesiastiche nei secolix–xv,’’Atti del convegno di Parma ( 1976 ), 163 – 64. - Archivio di Stato, Diplomatico Opera della Metropolitana, 13 May 1197 ; cited by Mauro Ron-
zani, ‘‘Aspetti e problemi delle pievi e delle parrocchie cittadine nell’Italia centro-settentrionale,’’Pievi e
parrocchie,ed. Erba et al., 1 : 344. By the late Middle Ages, confraternities became a vehicle for voicing
lower-clergy grievances: Richard C. Trexler, ‘‘Diocesan Synods in Late Medieval Italy,’’Vescovi e diocesi
in Italia dalxivalla meta`delxvisecolo,ed. Giuseppina De Sandre Gasparini et al. (Rome: Herder, 1990 ),
322 – 23. - Meersseman,Ordo, 1 : 186.
- Ferrara Clergy Const. ( 1278 ), col. 436 ; similar legislation is found at Treviso in 1310 : Rigon,
‘‘Congregazioni,’’ 15 , citing Treviso, Archivio della Curia Vescovile, Missaletum, pt. 2 , fol. 1 v. - Ferrara Clergy Const. ( 1278 ), col. 433.
- E.g., ibid., cols. 433 – 40.
- Samaritani, ‘‘Conventus,’’ 173 – 74.
- See, e.g., Antonio Rigon, ‘‘La congregazione del clero intrinseco di Verona e i suoi statuti
( 1323 ),’’Gli Scaligeri ( 1277 – 1387 ),ed. G. M. Varanini (Verona: Mondadori, 1988 ), 429 – 30.