From Prison to Scaffold: Confraternities of Comforters in Early Modern Italy

Abstract

Since medieval times, religious associations of laymen (and sometimes also of women), which were bound by a corporative tie and dedicated to ritual pious practices, were very common all around Europe and mainly in urban contexts. Each of these confraternities had its own areas of interests and there were also those which took care of prisoners in jail and sometimes specialized in supporting prisoners sentenced to death. In this case, the members of the confraternity had to prepare the condemned for a good Christian death and then bury their bodies.Here I will refer specifically to a Milan confraternity of comforters entitled “School of St. John the Baptist beheaded at the ruined houses” (Scuola di san Giovanni Decollato alle case rotte). I will take this as an example of a very ancient association of this kind and I will concentrate on its role during Counter Reformation, a particularly interesting period.