Confraternities - Vinculum Information System Guide

Chronological span

The oldest Portuguese confraternities date back to the confraternal association of clerics linked to monasteries and parishes in the twelfth century¹. The confraternities still exist today, integrated into the various Associations of the Faithful².

Normative documents (main)

The confraternity regulated itself internally and externally through a statute generally designated as a compromisso³. These documents do not refer to the capacity of the confraternities to administer entails and limit the information about the religious activity in the institution to the existence of a chaplain (and more rarely of a chapel) and the celebration of masses for the benefit of its members/brothers and benefactors, as exemplified in the following compromissos:

Instituição da confraria de Santa Maria da Anunciada de Setúbal, dated 12 September 1330, with additions dated 23 May 1476 in a copy from 1496⁴;
Compromisso da confraria de Santa Maria do Vale de Torres Novas, dated 8 December 1429⁵;
Compromisso da confraria de Santa Catarina de Ribamar, dated 28 July 1460⁶;
Compromisso da confraria dos Mercadores Borgonheses em Lisboa, in a royal confirmation dated 11 July 1472⁷;
Regimento e compromisso da confraria e hospital dos Clérigos de Montemor-o-Velho, dated 4 December 1495⁸.

Competences

General

The confraternities provided a multifaceted support in death and poverty, namely in terms of assistance to dying confreres and the organization of their funerals, help for abandoned children, support for prisoners, and the redemption of captives¹². From the sixteenth century onwards, the Tridentine provisions reoriented their functions towards the organisation of worship and the salvation of the souls in purgatory¹³.

On entails

The confraternities did not have a specific vocation for managing assets entailed in chantries and morgadios, although they could benefit from the administration of entails established by individuals in a precarious financial situation or line of succession¹⁴.

Institutional organisation and the roles of its agents with regard to entails

Institutional organisation

The confraternities had a simple organisation centred around juízes (judges), responsible for the exercise of justice, the supervision of the other officials of the institution, and the management of their patrimony, and mordomos in charge of the daily management of the confraternity’s financial, religious, and charitable affairs¹⁸. The organisational framework of these institutions was generally completed by a procurador, scribe, and chaplain, responsible respectively for the representation, the documentary record of the confraternity’s proceedings, and the performance of the religious ceremonies at the institution in favour of its members and benefactors, extendable to the sick and dead in the hostel or hospital that may be attached to the confraternity¹⁹.

The “royal” hospitals, such as Todos os Santos in Lisbon, had a much more complex organisation, which is known in its general outlines²⁰.

The roles of its agents

In these institutions, there was no official responsible specifically for matters related to entails.

Relations with other institutions with regard to entails

The confraternities could be subject to visitation by the ordinary or his representative, as well as being inspected by the provedores das comarcas in what concerns the nomination of their officials, their accounting, and the fulfilment of the associated pious duties²¹.