Brotherhoods
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
RELIGIOUS, were societies instituted for pious and benevolent purposes, and were numerous in the Middle Ages. Such brotherhoods or confraternities, were, in earlier times, those of Mary, of the Scapular, and of the Rosary; in later times, that of the Sacred and Immaculate Heart of Mary, for the conversion of sinners, that of Francis Xavier, or the Mission Brotherhood, and that of Christian Learning (Fréres Ignorantins) for the education of the people. The bridge-building brotherhood (Fratres Pontifices) orig inated in southern France toward the end of the 12th century, and was recognized by Pope Clement in 1189. Their occupation tion was to keep up hospices at the most frequented fords of great rivers, maintain ferries and build bridges. Other brotherhoods were the Familiars and Crossbearers of the Inquisition in Spain, and the Fratres Calendarii in north Germany and the Netherlands. The great Brotherhood of Common Life was founded about 1376 by Geert Groote (born 1340; died 1384) and Florentius Radewin (born 1350; died 1400) at Deventer. Its members were sometimes styled Brethren of Good Will, also Hieronymites and Gregorians, from Hieronymus and Gregory the Great, whom they claimed as patrons. Community of goods, ascetic habits, industry, and the use of the vernacular language in divine service, were some of the chief points insisted on by the brethren, who were not fettered by monastic or any other vows. Their principal occupations were the copying of the Bible and other books for the common purse, prayer and the instruction of the young, and their services in the last direction can hardly be overestimated. Their most famous houses were those of Windesheim, near Deventer, and Agnetenberg, near Zwolle. They became numerous in the Netherlands and north Germany, but also spread themselves in Italy, Sicily, and Portugal, so that in 1430 they reckoned more than 130 societies. The last was founded in Cambrai in 1505. The most important and distinguished members of the society were Gerhard Zerbold of Zutphen, the famous Thomas à Kempis, and the learned Cardinal Nicholas Cusa. Female societies of a similar character sprung up at the same time with those of the Brothers of Common Life. Even within the Protestant Churches, single their brotherhoods have been formed, as the 1861) Rauhes Haus, founded by Wichern at of Hamburg in 1833. Several similar institutions for women exist within the Church of England. See SISTERHOODS.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The medieval history Collier's set out in 1921 still stands, with one striking exception: the bridge-building Fratres Pontifices, said there to have been recognized by a Pope in 1189, are now widely regarded by historians as largely a fabrication of early modern writers, who spun an organized order out of scattered charitable bequests for bridges and ferry hospices. The living brotherhoods have fared very differently. The teaching order Collier's calls the Fréres Ignorantins "the Brothers of the Christian Schools, founded by Jean-Baptiste de La Salle">rose to some 16,000 members by the mid-twentieth century and has since fallen to a few thousand, part of a general collapse in religious vocations in Europe and North America after the 1960s. One point the Brethren of the Common Life were praised for insisting on, worship in the vernacular, became normal for the whole Roman Catholic Church after the Second Vatican Council of 1962-65; Wichern's Rauhes Haus in Hamburg, cited as a Protestant example, survives as a diaconal social-work foundation.
Written for this edition, 2026.