Brotherhoods of Active Piety

From the book “The Shattered Temple. Reformation in Europe"

Historian Anna Seregina reconstructs the greatest schism in the history of Western Christianity. In her presentation, Martin Luther's theses are not a sudden rebellion, but the result of difficult circumstances of religious life that developed over a long and painful time. An important element of this life in the late Middle Ages were brotherhoods of believers. Read more in an excerpt from the book “The Broken Temple. Reformation in Europe".

All of us, since February 24, 2022, have found ourselves in the face of advancing barbarism, violence and lies. In this situation, it is extremely important to preserve at least the remnants of culture and support the values ​​of humanism - including for the sake of the future of Russia. Therefore, the editors of Gorky will continue to talk about books, reminding our readers that there is still a place for thought and fiction in the world.

Anna Seregina. Broken Temple. Reformation in Europe. M.: Slovo/Slovo, 2026

Between the world and the monastery: brotherhoods of believers

Medieval piety had to be active piety, since it was in deeds that Christian love for one’s neighbor—caritas—was manifested. Piety contributed to the emergence in Europe of the beginnings of a system of public charity. The desire to care for the poor, the disabled, the sick and orphans led to the emergence of charitable institutions in European cities - orphanages, hospitals, hospices, etc. The impulse here spread from the most urbanized areas of Europe - Italy, the Netherlands and Lower Germany, which were also the richest. Here, pious lay people united in brotherhoods (in different countries they could be called confraternia, guilds, etc.), whose members collected funds for the establishment and maintenance of such institutions, built churches at them and financed the activities of monastic communities that ran hospitals and shelters. Members of the fraternities directed the activities of these institutions along with the monks, and often instead of them. In addition to charitable activities, the brothers were united by the veneration of a patron saint (a certain type of activity associated either with an organization that the brotherhood financed or with the main profession of the brothers), as well as piety - prayer rules, pilgrimages, shared ascetic practices: fasting, abstinence from considered obscene activities and entertainment.

Brotherhoods differed in composition: some accepted exclusively men or even only representatives of one profession, could cover the whole country or just one city, others included both men and women, admitted only boys/girls, etc. Their scope also varied: from modest groups within a city parish, united by the veneration of a saint, to large prestigious brotherhoods that attracted representatives of the city elite. An example of such a “nationwide” brotherhood was the Guild of the Holy Trinity from Coventry, a prestigious association with tens of thousands of members and famous for organizing annual theatrical productions of a cycle of mysteries based on gospel stories.

Another example of prestigious brotherhoods that united representatives of the elite are the Venetian “grand brotherhoods”, “scuole grande”. Their brothers organized solemn prayers and processions, distributed money, food and clothing among their poor brothers, provided dowries for their daughters, buried the poor whose burial there was no one to take care of, fed prisoners in prisons and maintained hospitals. Members of the fraternities were supposed to encourage each other to virtue and provide material and spiritual assistance (i.e., pray for deceased brothers). By the beginning of the 16th century, there were five scuole in Venice: Our Lady of Mercy (Santa Maria della Carita, 1260), St. Mark (1260), St. John the Evangelist (1261), Mercy (1308) and St. Roch (1481). In 1552, another one was added to them - St. Theodore. The brotherhoods held large city festivals dedicated to their patrons and the holy relics they had.

For example, the Brotherhood of St. John the Evangelist kept a piece of the True Cross and annually organized solemn processions dedicated to it. The brotherhoods also built churches for communal worship, in which all their members were present. Music was composed for them, making the scuole the center of development of the Venetian musical tradition. In addition, the brotherhoods commissioned works of religious art from the best artists of their time: first of all, paintings that told about the miracles of patron saints (for example, St. Mark) or about miracles performed in the city by a particle of the True Cross.

Penitential brotherhoods, which appeared already in the 13th century, were widespread in Italy, and then in the south of France and Spain. The brothers united in them were bound by mutual support of repentant sinners who sought to atone for their sins through asceticism - mortification of the flesh and charity. The brothers practiced flagellation, wearing a hair shirt, strict observance of fasts, etc. Many brotherhoods began their existence as associations of flagellants - penitent sinners who flagellated themselves during public processions. However, over time, active love began to occupy an increasing place - helping the sick and disabled through the construction and maintenance of hospitals and leper colonies, help and comfort, and then the burial of those sentenced to death, helping the poor and burying the poor.

Brotherhoods could also unite around pious practices. These were the numerous sodalia (brotherhoods) dedicated to the Virgin Mary and the brotherhoods of the rosary. The Rosary is a cycle of 50 or 150 prayers “Ave Maria” (“Mother of God”). According to legend, it appeared thanks to a vision of the Virgin Mary to Saint Dominic in 1214. The spread of the rosary prayer is associated with the sermons and writings of the 15th century Dominican, a native of Brittany, Alain de la Roche (Alain de Rupa). In 1460, he had a vision of the Virgin Mary, in which it was revealed to him that she had previously appeared to Saint Dominic, and in addition, the Virgin Mary made fifteen promises to those who would pray the rosary (rosary). The promises included protection from troubles in earthly life, from death without repentance, and liberation from the torments of purgatory. The preaching of Alain de la Roche contributed to the spread of the first confraternities of the rosary after 1475.

In the 15th century, there was another tradition of praying the rosary, dating back to a completely different Dominic - the Carthusian monk Dominic of Prussia, whose activities were associated with Trier. Dominic combined prayers to Our Lady with the practice of devotional reflection on the life of Jesus. After each Hail Mary prayer, ending with the words “Fructus ventris tui, Jesus” (“Fructus ventris tui, Jesus”), there followed a reflection on one of the episodes from the life of Christ. To the cycle of 50 “Ave Maria” were added “Our Father” and “Glory”. This version of the rosary prayers was called the “Jesus Psalter” and was widespread in the 15th century.

The example of the rosary confraternities points to the important role that such communities played in promoting new types of pious practices. The spread of veneration of the Body of Christ was facilitated by the brotherhoods of the same name that arose everywhere. Other cults spread in a similar way - the Five Wounds of Christ, the Holy Name of Christ, the Sacred Heart of Christ, etc. The veneration of the Holy Name of Christ is usually associated with the preaching activities of St. Bernardine of Siena and the Franciscan Observants, but it was also shared by the Dominicans (for example, the German mystic Heinrich Suso), and it was quickly picked up by monks of other mendicant orders. Focused attention to the Passion of Christ determined the development and veneration of the Holy Cross, also associated with brotherhoods and monastic preaching. The veneration of Our Lady of Sorrows is closely connected with the Passion of Christ. It was this image that was most often reproduced in late medieval painting, sculpture and later in engravings.

Focusing on the Passion of Christ was an important part of the practice of mystical union with God. Without rejecting the tradition that dates back to the writings of the pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite and implied complete self-denial and acceptance of the unknowability and unlimitedness of God, late medieval mystics (especially in writings addressed to the laity) preferred the affective tradition. It implied emotional involvement and a desire for an almost or completely physical feeling of participation in the Passion of Christ through the imagination. The highest expression of such a mystical tradition was the receipt by St. Francis of Assisi of the stigmata - that is, physical participation in the suffering of Christ. It is no coincidence that the affective mystical tradition was actively spread by the Franciscans. She also had a great influence on the evolution of Western religious art, first in Italy and then abroad. Affective practice involved a lot of imaginative work on the part of the believer, who was required to imagine the events of Scripture in their physical reality. Visual images were a great help. However, they had to look recognizable to the eye, realistic. Accordingly, starting from the 13th century, artists of the Italian Renaissance gradually moved away from the symbolic stylization of the Byzantine type, moving towards a more realistic image, the use of perspective, etc.

This feature of late medieval religiosity was also manifested in what researchers sometimes called “obsession with death.” The visual arts, fiction, and drama of this period are replete with relevant imagery. Let us recall, for example, the ubiquitous “danse macabre,” involving representatives of all classes: this plot appeared in book miniatures, in paintings, reliefs and in printed engravings. He also played out in the mysteries. Typically, the “obsession with death” is explained by the feeling of the proximity of death that Europeans experienced in the 14th and 15th centuries during the repeated plague epidemics after 1348, which reduced the population of Europe by almost a third and made people especially acutely aware of the transience of life and the inevitability of suffering and the end. It is necessary, however, to keep in mind that the appearance and dissemination in handwritten and printed form of numerous treatises and manuals on the “art of dying”, ars moriendi, Latin and vernacular, in the 15th - early 16th centuries was determined not so much by these circumstances (after all, wars and epidemics accompanied Europeans for centuries before and after the period in question), but rather by the spread beyond the monasteries of a certain type of religious culture built around affective mystical tradition, and above all prayerful reflection on the Passion of Christ. It was with the latter that numerous guides for pious Europeans were genetically linked to what a “good death” was and how to achieve it. These benefits were addressed to priests and monks - the mentors of the dying person, as well as to the laity who found themselves next to his bed, because death was not only a personal matter, but also affected the entire community, relatives and neighbors. The dying person was experiencing the main drama of his life, because it was in the period immediately preceding death that the decisive battle between good and evil took place, which determined the posthumous fate of the soul. At this time, the soul was subjected to temptation, for the devil used the last opportunity available to him to destroy it. Accordingly, edifying texts devoted much attention to these temptations and the fight against them. These included rejection of illness and the inevitability of death and, consequently, lack of humility, irritability towards caregivers, fear of death and hellish torment, despair, and disbelief in the possibility of salvation. The task of the priest and the people who were next to the dying person was to give him the opportunity to settle earthly affairs (make a will, reconcile with enemies and say goodbye to friends), as well as lead him to repentance, confession and final communion and anointing.

These features of late medieval religiosity indicate the spread of many types of pious practices from monks to the laity in response to the need of the laity to find their ideal of a virtuous life, which would not require a complete renunciation of ordinary secular activities and family life. One of the ways of adapting monastic piety to secular life was fraternities - as a rule, the fruit of cooperation between monks and laity under the leadership of the latter. Northern Germany and the Netherlands created their own version of such cooperation - brotherhoods of common life, which arose during the spread of the New Piety movement (Devotio Moderna), inspired by the ideas of the Carthusian monk Geert Grothe (d. 1384) from Deventer (Netherlands). Grote was an ordained priest and believed that the secular priesthood lived too worldly a life, abandoning strict adherence to ascetic rules and neglecting pastoral duties. The community of Brothers and Sisters of Common Life he created was an association of priests and laity (men, usually preparing for ordination, and women) who did not take monastic vows, but settled together to lead a chaste life of work and prayer. The Brothers of Common Life, unlike traditional monastic orders, did not study science or theology, although one of the main activities of men in their communities was the copying or compilation of edifying texts, as well as the making of copies of the Gospels and books of hours intended for the laity. The most famous devotional text to emerge from the Brethren of Common Life was Thomas a à Kempis's The Imitation of Christ. The brothers did not preach to the laity, but since the communities prepared for the priesthood, sermons addressed to students were regularly given in their schools. The ascetic practices of the brothers and sisters were quite moderate, part of their contemplative life was the work of scribes (for men) or spinning and weaving (for women). The products produced by the community were sold, thereby supporting its life.

The brothers and sisters' lives were filled with regular prayers and meditation on the Passion of Christ. Although the brothers were heavily influenced by the contemplative monastic traditions (especially the Desert Fathers, Cassian, Bernard of Clairvaux, and Bonaventure), and their movement had its own mystical tradition (reflected in the writings of Heinrich Suso and Ruisbrock), most brothers were encouraged to follow the affective tradition of meditation. This work should have been based on the text of Scripture, the writings of the Holy Fathers and the revelations of the saints. Therefore, communities encouraged literacy among their members and the laity and created schools whose purpose was to spread knowledge of the Scriptures and piety.

Communities of Brothers and Sisters of Common Life quickly spread to the north of the Netherlands and Germany, reaching as far as Cologne and Rostock. Almost from the very moment of their appearance, the communities were subject to pressure from church authorities, who insisted that their members take formal monastic vows and join one of the existing orders. Already in 1386, some of the brothers and sisters accepted the charter of canons and canonesses of the Order of St. Augustine, forming the congregation of Windesheim in Northern Germany. Some communities (mainly in the Netherlands) retained their charter. The schools of the Brothers and Sisters of Common Life became one of the sources of religious instruction for the inhabitants of the Netherlands and Northern Germany, mainly city dwellers. However, most parishioners in these and other European countries received their ideas about Christian doctrine in other ways. At the beginning of the 16th century, the vast majority of women and a significant number of men in Europe remained illiterate. Accordingly, their religious education - like the religious education of most lay men of the lower class - was reduced to the passive assimilation of the basic tenets of the doctrine, more or less regularly expounded by the parish priests.