FromConversion toCommunity 79
penitents adapted the rule to their needs through special legislation and affil-
iated with other local groups to form larger provinces. Later papal letters
speak of a ‘‘Lombard Province’’ of the penitents and its specific legislation.
Between 1266 and 1268 , Saint Bonaventure spoke of the penitents as having
‘‘provincial superiors.’’ Legislative acts of penitenti councils for Lombardy
exist after 1280 —in particular, those by Piacentine penitents in 1288 and
those by the Bolognese penitents in November 1289.^61
Before 1221 , and even more before 1215 , custom, not written law, gov-
erned conversi life. Over time, such custom was written down and added to
the ‘‘Memoriale’’ as local legislation, but appearance in written form came
late. Confraternity legislation postdating the ‘‘Memoriale’’ can suggest the
customary practice that governed earlier piety and life. Even after the pa-
pacy and the hierarchy began to take an active role in supervising penitent
groups, the laity maintained their autonomy and independence. From the
beginning, groups of penitents had clerical advisors and visitators, but the
laity chose and invited these priests themselves. Bishops did not appoint
them. Nor did they appoint clerical supervisors for the penitents; these func-
tioned as overseers for a whole diocese, not as directors of individual fraterni-
ties. The one exception is telling in its outcome. In 1248 , Pope Innocent IV
subjected all Lombard and Florentine penitents to supervision by Franciscan
provincial superiors. The result was protest, and by 1260 Pope Alexander IV
had restored the laity’s right to choose their own visitators and chaplains.^62
Individual penitents related to provincial supervisors through the local lay
leadership. The ‘‘Memoriale’’ specified that such ‘‘ministers’’ report the pub-
lic faults of members to the regional visitator and, if the delinquent was male,
to the rector of the city.^63
Communal and ecclesiastical authorities recognized the ‘‘religious’’ status
of individual, unaffiliated conversi. A Bolognese statute of 1288 provided for
conversi who claimed canonical status without entering a religious house.
The city required that they have their vows notarized within fifteen days of
profession and place the document on record at the city offices. This process
stopped imposters from defrauding the city through dissimulation.^64 The
commune of Biella began auditing the books of male and female conversi
groups in 1245 to prevent similar fraud.^65 The Bolognese wanted to ensure
that no one claimed the rights of a penitent without the responsibilities, but
for penitent status they did not require membership in an ecclesiastically
- Meersseman,Dossier, 160 ; for extant acta, see ibid., 63 – 78.
- Ibid., 8 ; Meersseman,Ordo, 1 : 363 – 64 ; for the legislation of Innocent IV and Alexander IV, see
Meersseman,Dossier, 57 , 123 – 25. - ‘‘Memoriale,’’ 35 , Meersseman,Dossier, 111 ; spouses were not required to report each other’s
faults: ‘‘Memoriale,’’ 36 , ibid., 111. - Bologna Stat.ii( 1288 ), 5. 97 , 1 : 452 – 53.
- Biella Stat. 1. 3. 8 ( 60 ).