The Medieval system of the Confraternities

Since ancient times, the Lay Confraternity have endeavored to ensure that the division of goods was perceived as the right means of “making charity”. Pious associations of the laity were formed to express a religious sentiment in a society in which faith was a pivotal and indispensable element, a society that over the centuries felt the need to reconnect with the religious sentiment of the Church. They exercised a form of power that allowed them to openly administer services such as assistance, relief and forms of public religiosity. In some different centers and regions of Italy the “phenomenon” of Confraternities develops more as they guide local political choices and forms of aggregation of society, they control public religiosity, the practices of assistance to the needy and the management of ‘hospitality.