FromConversion toCommunity 75
ownership of property, the San Desiderio group’s way of life closely resem-
bled that found in the form of life approved by Innocent III for the Humiliati
lay tertiaries ( 1201 ), a text drawn on for the earliest extant rule of the Brothers
and Sisters of Penance ( 1221 ).^36 In 1188 , the San Desiderio penitents received
a church of their own from the cathedral chapter of Vicenza. This served as
their cultic and administrative center. Possession of a church implied the
exercise of jurisdiction, something laypeople could not possess. So the chap-
ter took responsibility for the group, but the canons left day-to-day religious
affairs to the members. The conversi had the right to find a priest-chaplain
for themselves and present him to the chapter. The group symbolized its
subjection to the chapter by an annual tax (nomine census pro signo obedientie)of
20 s. This offering the society placed on the altar of the Virgin in the cathe-
dral. Eventually the group received episcopal approbation.^37 The San Desid-
erio conversi were by no means unique. They were but one of the many
associations of conversi that appeared in the late 1100 s and early 1200 s with
ecclesiastical approval. The Catholic hierarchy even extended protection to
penitent groups of reconciled heretics, such as the Poor Catholics ( 1208 ) and
Poor Lombards ( 1210 ). Authorities asked only that the ex-heretics live their
corporate life of penance as orthodox Christians within the bosom of the
Church.^38
By the early 1200 s, the transition from penitents with private vows to
rudimentary private association and finally to canonically erected religious
institution was well advanced. Typically, the first move from private vows to
a canonically recognized association happened when a group’s membership
reached thirteen—twelve members and a leader—the evangelical number
of Christ and his apostles. This was the number specified in canon law and
was the size reached by Saint Francis and his early followers when he first
sought Church approbation.^39 In the early 1200 s, voluntary lay associations
were common enough so that notaries drew up formulas to create them for
both religious and secular purposes.^40 Although the Lateran Council of 1215
forbade the composition of new ‘‘rules’’ for religious life, clerical and lay
groups created new ‘‘constitutions’’ and ‘‘statutes’’ with abandon, encounter-
ing no real resistance from the ecclesiastical hierarchy.^41 Associations of con-
versi took their inspiration from earlier rural associations like that of San
Desiderio, their legal language from notarial books, and their discipline from
- Ibid., 1 : 313 – 14. Cf. ‘‘Propositum des Humilie ́s’’ ( 1201 ), Meersseman,Dossier, 276 – 82. On the bor-
rowings from Humiliati, see Casagrande,Religiosita`, 97 – 98. On Humiliati tertiaries, see Frances Andrews,
The Early Humiliati(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999 ), esp. 100 – 106. - ‘‘Pergamene dei Penitenti di S. Desiderio’’ 3 , Meersseman,Ordo, 1 : 309 – 11 , 330 – 31 ; for episcopal
approbation, see ibid. 1 : 347 – 48. - For these groups, see ‘‘Propositum des Pauvres Catholiques,’’ Meersseman,Dossier, 282 – 84.
- See Meersseman,Ordo, 1 : 153.
- E.g., Boncompagno of Signa,Cedrus, Briefsteller und Formelbu ̈cher des elften bis vierzehnten Jahrhunderts,
ed. Ludwig Rockinger (Munich, 1863 ), 122 ; on which, see Trexler,Public Life, 395. - Powell,Albertanus, 43.