ABSTRACT
Among the most distinctive features of late medieval cities, the institutions of lay confraternities take prominent place. These pious associations reflected both the development of ‘civic religion’ as well as shifts in broader political culture. Through the direct involvement of their members in the social and political life of the city and indirectly through shaping public worship by votive commissions, confraternities played a significant role in civic life. The nature of a confraternity’s involvement in the civic sphere of devotion depended not only on several factors such as the organisation’s gender (male–female–mixed), social hierarchy (patrician–commoner) and purpose (professional–charitable–flagellant, etc.), but also on the wider urban context, ranging from the type of governmental system to the relation to the sovereign or military threat. This chapter discusses consororities’ role in shaping devotion to civic patrons and compares male and female devotional commissions, placing them in political context, to explore their role in the construction of official forms of urban civic piety.
