Working in the Vineyard of the Lord: Jesuit Confraternities in Early Modern Italy 9781442683679

Table of contents :
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
1. Preparing the Soil: The First Jesuit Confraternities and Poor Relief in Rome
2. Training the Vine: Reformed Prostitutes and the First Jesuits: The Casa di S. Marta and the Compagnia della Grazia
3. Protecting the Roots: Daughters of Prostitutes and the First Jesuits: The Compagnia delle Vergini Miserabili di S. Caterina della Rosa
4. Grafting New Shoots: Jewish and Muslim Converts and the First Jesuits: The Casa dei Catecumeni and the Arciconfraternita di S. Giuseppe
5. Working in the Vineyard: The First Jesuit Confraternities in Italy: Toward a Geographic and Chronological Survey
Abbreviations
Appendices
Notes
Sources
Index

Citation preview

WORKING IN THE VINEYARD OF THE LORD: JESUIT CONFRATERNITIES IN EARLY MODERN ITALY

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Lance Gabriel Lazar

Working in the Vineyard of the Lord: Jesuit Confraternities in Early Modern Italy

U N I V E R S I T Y O F T O R O N T O PRESS Toronto Buffalo London

www.utppublishing.com © University of Toronto Press Incorporated 2005 Toronto Buffalo London Printed in Canada ISBN 0-8020-8854-6

Printed on acid-free paper

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Lazar, Lance Gabriel Working in the vineyard of the Lord : Jesuit confraternities in early modern Italy / Lance Gabriel Lazar. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8020-8854-6 1. Jesuits - Missions - Italy - History - 16th century. 2. Church work with the poor - Italy - History - 16th century. 3. Church work with prostitutes - Italy - History - 16th century. 4. Church work with new church members - Italy - History - 16th century. I. Title. BX3737.L39 2005

271'.530945'09031

C2004-907182-3

University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council. University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support for its publishing activities of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP).

For Marieke

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Contents

Preface

ix

Acknowledgments

xi

1 Preparing the Soil: The First Jesuit Confraternities and Poor Relief in Rome 3 2 Training the Vine: Reformed Prostitutes and the First Jesuits: The Casa di S. Marta and the Compagnia della Grazia 37 3 Protecting the Roots: Daughters of Prostitutes and the First Jesuits: The Compagnia delle Vergini Miserabili di S. Caterina della Rosa 71 4 Grafting New Shoots: Jewish and Muslim Converts and the First Jesuits: The Casa dei Catecumeni and the Arciconfraternita di S. Giuseppe 99 5

Working in the Vineyard: The First Jesuit Confraternities in Italy: Toward a Geographic and Chronological Survey 125 Abbreviations

153

viii Contents Appendix 1: Papal Bulls and Other Documents Relating to Jesuit Confraternities 157 Appendix 2: Chronology of the Metamorphoses ofS.Marta 175 Notes Sources Index

177 257 367

Illustrations follow page 176

Preface

This book explores the goals of Jesuit missionary activity and the organizations through which those goals were achieved by focusing on three of the first Jesuit confraternities, founded in Rome in the 1540s. These confraternities administered houses for reformed prostitutes (S. Marta), daughters of prostitutes (S. Caterina), and newly converted Jews and Muslims (S. Giuseppe) and became the models for similar institutions throughout Italy. They illustrate a central feature of the Jesuit urban apostolate: to enlist elites in the reform of those living on the margins of an idealized Christian society. Drawing on the language of the Old and New Testaments, especially Isaiah 5 and John 15, the Jesuits came to see their goals in terms of cultivating and pruning vines so as to produce the finest and most abundant fruit. The story of these institutions belongs to the story of the great changes in poor relief that took place throughout Europe in the sixteenth century, particularly the broadening of scope whereby charitable initiatives sought to redeem as well as to assist the poor. Wherever one looked, the poor loomed larger in the eyes of reformers, regardless of their confessional identity. From the time they received papal approval in 1540, the Jesuits set out to redeem the whole of society from top to bottom, and they engaged in active ministry in hospitals, soup kitchens, and other charitable works, in addition to preaching, teaching, directing devotions, hearing confession, and administering the other sacraments. These activities came to characterize a distinctively Jesuit 'way of proceeding' - what Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the order, habitually described as 'working in the vineyard of the Lord.' But while the Jesuits themselves, and later scholars in their footsteps, have focused on

x Preface

the Jesuits' own activities, they have paid less attention to the Jesuits' promotion of confraternities for the laity. To date, most scholarship on Jesuit confraternal activity has focused on the Marian congregations, which began in the Roman College in 1563 and spread rapidly throughout Europe and the world, wherever the Jesuits settled. Because the Marian congregations were invariably linked to a school or professed house, they provided the Jesuits with their own 'third order,' nestled securely under their protective gaze. This close affiliation of the Marian congregations guaranteed that the members (whether students or adults) undertook the same kind of activity as the Jesuits, in hospitals, soup kitchens, and so on. Yet the earliest Jesuit confraternal institutions did not follow this pattern of close affiliation, and indeed, the Jesuits sought to avoid responsibility for their ongoing administration. Their importance lies elsewhere: in the years when the order was small and mostly itinerant, the first Jesuits pioneered a new kind of 'high-profile' charitable initiative that targeted individuals publicly outside the sphere of Christian society. S. Marta, S. Caterina, and S. Giuseppe became models not of organizational structure but of outreach and apostolic activity, and as such they were widely imitated and enormously influential. Focusing on these institutions and the many others they inspired helps to uncover the centrality of confraternies in the Jesuit missionary enterprise, as well as both the power and the adaptability of the confraternal model for poor relief in the Mediterranean world. It also helps to recover women's roles in Catholic reform, to measure attitudes toward subcultures perceived as threatening, and to provide a clearer picture of the Jesuits, their ministerial strategies, and their relations with the laity generally.

Acknowledgments

Among the finer pleasures in life is the opportunity to thank all those whose guidance, encouragement, and support have made possible the completion of a large project. Since this is my first book, I feel a special obligation to acknowledge my profound debt to a great many individuals and institutions that have provided inspiration and assistance along the way, and without whose integral help this book would not have come into being. Scholarship is hardly possible in the contemporary world without the assistance of foundations and institutions committed to providing financial support for intellectual enterprises, even at the very outset. My progress toward my doctoral degree and the archival research underlying this project were made possible through the support of a great variety of institutions. At Harvard University, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the History Department, and the Graduate Society provided financial support both general and specific for my research. The communities of Dudley House and Adams House provided financial resources and stimulating intellectual engagement. The book is based upon two years of archival research in Rome and numerous return trips to other archives across the Italian peninsula. I wish to thank the Fulbright Commission, the Lemmermann Foundation, the Andrea Palladio Center for Architectural Studies, Venice International University's Summer Seminars, and the University Research Council of the University of North Carolina for providing the necessary funding. Other institutions have supported the writing, and I wish to thank the Charlotte Newcombe Foundation and the Institute of the Arts and Humanities at UNC for fellowships. The abiding friendship of Anthony Worcester, along with the support of Arts Europe and Patron

xii Acknowledgments

Travel, has also facilitated numerous archival forays, and provided wonderful company to boot. The happy task of recovering and reinvigorating the past is contingent upon the wisdom of societies that conserve their cultural patrimony in documents and records and also preserve their material environment: the buildings, belongings, records, and writings furnish the most vital conduits to our intellectual and cultural heritage. As every archival scholar knows well, that task is impossible without the collaboration and aid of archival and library staff, who act as the essential guides and guardians. The specific individuals from whose help I have benefited are countless, but I wish to acknowledge the institutions that have made this project possible. In Rome, the focal point of the book, I wish to thank the staff of the following libraries and archives: Archivio Capitolino, Archivio della Congregazione per la Dottrina della Fede, Archivio di stato di Roma, Archivio segreto vaticano, Archivio storico del vicariato di Roma, Archivum Romanum Societatis lesu, Biblioteca Alessandrina, Biblioteca Angelica, Biblioteca Casanatense, Biblioteca Corsiniana, Bibliotheque de 1'Ecole franchise de Rome, Biblioteca Hertziana, Biblioteca Lancisiana, Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emmanuele, Biblioteca Vallicelliana, Bibliotheca apostolica vaticana, Centra di Cultura Ebraica, and the Institutum Historicum Societatis lesu. In Sicily, I wish to thank staff of the Biblioteca communale di Palermo, the Biblioteca regionale di Palermo, and the Biblioteca Lucchesiana (Agrigento); in Naples, the Archivum Neapolitanum Societatis lesu; in Parma, the Archivio di stato di Parma; in Bologna, the Biblioteca universitaria; in Verona and Bergamo, the Biblioteche civiche; in Florence, the Archivio di stato di Firenze, the Biblioteca Nazionale, and the Biblioteca Riccardiana Moreniana. In Venice, I was helped especially by the Archivio degli Istituti di ricovero ed educazione, the Archivio di stato di Venezia, the Archivio storico del patriarco di Venezia, and the Bibliotheca Marciana. Not all of Italy's bibliographical patrimony is located in Italy, and I wish also to express thanks to the librarians and staff of the Bibliotheque Royale-Koninklijke Bibliotheek in Brussels, the Newberry Library in Chicago, the Houghton Rare Book Library of Harvard University, Duke University's Special Collections Library, and the Wilson Library Rare Book Collection of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as well as the indefatigable interlibrary loan staff of Widener Library at Harvard and Davis Library at UNC.

Acknowledgments

xiii

The history of Jesuit confraternal activity has occupied my attention for some time, and I have published previous redactions of portions of this book in a variety of venues. This monograph comprises the culmination, expansion, and unification of this research, and I wish to acknowledge the reuse and elaboration of passages from my following publications: 'Jesuit Missions in Italy, Confraternities, and the Jubilee of 1575: Centers and Peripheries/ Archivum Historicum Societatis lesu 74:2 (2005); 'Negotiating Conversions: Catechumens and the Family in Early Modern Italy/ in Piety and the family in Early Modern Europe: Essays in Honor of Steven Ozment, ed. Marc Forster and Benjamin Kaplan (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005), pp. 152-77; 'Devotion, Belief, and Memory in Early Modern Italian Confraternities/ Confraternitas 15:1 (Spring, 2004): 3-33; 'Efaucibus daemonis: Daughters of Prostitutes, the First Jesuits, and the Compagnia delle Vergini Miserabili di S. Caterina,' in Confraternities and the Visual Arts in Renaissance Italy: Ritual, Spectacle, Image, ed. Barbara Wisch and Diane Ahl (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), pp. 159-79; and 'The First Jesuit Confraternities and Marginalized Groups in Sixteenth-Century Rome/ in The Politics of Ritual Kinship: Confraternities and Social Order in Early Modern Italy, ed. Nicholas Terpstra (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 132-49. All excerpts are here reproduced with permission, as are the images. In addition, the map of catechumen houses was created with Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) ArcGIS 9.0, using data from ESRI World Basemap Data downloaded from http:// www.esri.com, and I wish to acknowledge kindly the efforts of Amanda Henley in UNC's Davis Library in producing the map. On a more personal level, I have been blessed with many fine mentors, who have enriched my life and whose model and inspiration I hope to honour with this work. Whereas some people may be born knowing precisely how they will make a contribution in life, others grope hopefully for their niche. These hopeful souls (and I fall decidedly into this category) are led and illumined by the example of those who demonstrate with their own integrity and accomplishment a world and a life that can be. I wish to express my profound gratitude to all those who have thus opened my eyes and expanded my horizons. I had a particularly happy introduction to the life of the mind and the joys of scholarship under the aegis of David Lagomarsino, Michael Ermarth, and Charles Wood in the History Department and Robert Fogelin in the Philosophy Department at Dartmouth College. I fell under the spell of Italian civilization through the introduction and

xiv Acknowledgments

guidance of Walter Stevens, now at Johns Hopkins, who has also provided support and encouragement over many years. The ground was prepared in an important way by the example and encouragement of my high school Latin instructor Helene Kansas, and my German and drama instructors John and Pam Harbaugh. The two years I spent working in the Continental Europe group with the First Boston Corporation in New York provided skills, incentives, and resources enabling my return to academia; in particular I wish to acknowledge the support of Pedro Baeza, Bruce Belfiori, and Eileen. A circle of mentors at Harvard, including Simon Schama and Howard Burns, has profoundly influenced my formation as a historian. This book began its life as a dissertation, and I am especially grateful for the guidance of my advisers, James Hankins and John W. O'Malley, both of whom steered me through the thickets of my first archival forages in Italy, and whose examples of scholarship and collegiality continue to inspire. This book, and the dissertation that preceded it, would most certainly not exist without the perpetual guidance, example, and support of my doktorvater, Steven Ozment, for which I am deeply grateful. Since my arrival in Chapel Hill, I have been the superabundant beneficiary of an extraordinarily erudite and congenial community of scholars in the orbit of the Renaissance Workshop, the Medieval Studies Program, and Duke University's Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. These individuals foster an energizing interdisciplinary environment for scholarly engagement and interchange that has enriched my research methodologies immeasurably and provided invaluable criticism, encouragement, and support. While so many have contributed to building this Parnassus in the Piedmont, I wish to thank in particular those whose feedback and efforts have improved portions of my book and furthered my professional development, including Carolyn Allmendinger, Jim Banker, Lucia Binotti, Dino Cervigni, Stan Chojnacki, Angelique Droessaert, Paul Grendler, Barbara Harris, Hans Hillerbrand, Kate Lowe, Michael McVaugh, Phil Stadter, and Jessica Wolfe. Still others have superseded every recognizable standard in their demonstration of scholarly collegiality and integrity, including Reid Barbour, Melissa Bullard, John Headley, Al Rabil, and Tom Robisheaux. Within the department of Religious Studies, I am most grateful for the righteous example and support of John Dixon, David Halperin, Jim Sanford, John van Seters, Joanne

Acknowledgments xv

Waghorne, and, especially, my nearest colleague, Peter Kaufman, and the many fine graduate students. Special gratitude must also be extended to that congenial tribe of scholars involved in research on confraternities, popular devotion, and charity in Italy. If ever groups of scholars can constitute voluntary associations of mutual support, the confraternity mafia must rank among them. I wish to thank the following scholars whose example has provided explicit models for my own work, and who have offered pointed and helpful comments on portions of this manuscript at various stages in its development: Bobbi Wisch, Diane Cohl Ahl, Michael Maher, Pat Donnelly, and Philip Gavitt. I am most indebted to three scholars who read the entire manuscript, and whose example, counsel, and tutelage have benefited me profoundly over the years: Christopher Black, Konrad Eisenbichler, and Nick Terpstra. More recently, I wish to thank my editor at the University of Toronto Press, Suzanne Rancourt, who is a model of grace and temperance, and my most talented copy-editor, Theresa Griffin, who has rescued my prose and arguments from countless pitfalls. In addition, I am grateful to the anonymous readers and the editorial board of the University of Toronto Press, whose careful reading and constructive criticisms have produced, I hope, a more polished result. On the most intimate level, I wish to thank those closest of all, my family, who share my life. Creation is a messy process, and the story is not complete without acknowledgment of those who have lived with this work and its author for a long time. I am grateful for the love I receive from my brothers, Bill and Mark, my sisters, Karen and Kimberley, and my father, Gabriel, who is the source of my strength. My mother, Florence, could not be here to share this moment, but I know she is smiling nonetheless. My two angels, Chloe and Eleanor, are too young to know what Daddy is up to, but they know he reads and writes a lot, and they will be very pleased to see their names in print. Marieke, my beloved, is my partner in creation, and to her my indebtedness knows no bounds.

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WORKING IN THE VINEYARD OF THE LORD: JESUIT CONFRATERNITIES IN EARLY MODERN ITALY

CHAPTER ONE

Preparing the Soil: The First Jesuit Confraternities and Poor Relief in Rome

Europeans in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were learning new ways of expressing their devotion. Whether looking out to the Baltic, the Atlantic, or the Mediterranean, Early Modern Europeans found new models for the roles and responsibilities of the individual, the church, and the state. Many factors - the advent of printing, the discovery of new worlds and new peoples, the invention of new cosmologies, the permanent establishment of a plurality of Christian theologies and practices, and so on - set Europeans' most fundamental ideas about their relationship to their neighbours, their world, and their God in flux. Wherever they found themselves, what it meant to be a 'devout Christian' was changing. In the Mediterranean world - particularly in Spain, France, and Italy, which remained largely in the Catholic fold - these changes were no less profound than in the Protestant lands. While the theology remained for the most part the same, the practice of the faith, for those who might consider themselves 'devout Catholics/ underwent farreaching transformations. Just as the hierarchical church began to modify its organization and administrative habits (in the head and the members, i.e., the Roman Curia and the distant dioceses), so new models arose for channelling initiatives in religious devotion on the individual and collective level. Scholars of the Reformation in Germany have drawn attention to the process of forming a cultural and institutional identity based on new practices of faith, by using the term confessionalisierung (confessionalization).1 Especially for the later sixteenth century, these scholars have examined a broad array of tools used to bring about an interior conversion within the individual believer, including preaching, visitations,

4 Working in the Vineyard of the Lord

catechisms, missions, confession, the inquisitorial process, capital punishment, and self-disciplining. Precisely because religion commanded profound and fundamental allegiances, and martialled the most complex symbolic gestures in society, new Protestant denominations along with zealous groups within Catholicism found their way toward constructing new identities and practices. Scholars of religion and culture in Early Modern Italy have begun to investigate this process more broadly.2 Among the many means of approaching this formation of a cultural identity, works exploring missionary efforts and confraternities have proved particularly fruitful, especially for those interested in understanding popular devotion and expressions of religious enthusiasm percolating up from the people.3 Missionary activity and confraternal organizations functioned at the juncture where the goals of shepherding the people and moulding devotion from above intersected with new waves of enthusiasm and energy from below. As voluntary organizations, confraternities relied on the consent of the members and often the larger community for economic support, and at the same time they modelled and steered that support in new directions. Confraternities also represented a familiar, flexible, and traditional approach. Indeed, one might consider them a perennial form of social collectivity, spanning both the pagan culture of antiquity and modern secularized organizations, with a notable period of Christian development in between.4 Especially from the thirteenth century, spurred on by the new mendicant orders, confraternities grew to be perhaps the most characteristic expression of Christian devotion before the Reformation. And in response to the great changes in the nature, scope, and goals of institutions for charity and reform across sixteenth-century Europe, confraternities came to be the paramount charitable model for Italian cities and towns, even where large centralized organizations were established. In this monograph I explore the interplay of popular devotion, charity, and religious reform in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Italy by examining the first confraternities founded by the Society of Jesus. While other new orders (such as the Barnabites, the Theatines, the Somascans, and, later, the Oratorians) tended to focus on one pious work, the Jesuits aimed for great breadth, and their wider focus propelled them ever further into the full life of communities. They established or revitalized numerous confraternities devoted to helping orphans and teaching Christian Doctrine (in some cases their catecheti-

Preparing the Soil: The First Jesuit Confraternities 5

cal organizations became a support system for the schools the Jesuits later founded). Other Jesuit confraternities focused on the poor, by helping impoverished nobles who were too ashamed to beg, by providing dowries for women hoping to be married, or by visiting and financially assisting those in debtors' prison. Still others (especially those intended for students) often had no primary charitable responsibility at all but focused on organizing devotion to the Eucharist or to the Virgin Mary, though they might arrange for visitation to hospitals or to the sick along with other ad hoc activities. Indeed, by the end of the sixteenth century, the establishing of confraternities had become a primary element of Jesuit ministerial strategy wherever they settled, throughout southern and northern Europe as well as in Asia and the New World.5 Here a brief word about the terminology concerning congregations, confraternities, sodalities, and other pious lay associations is in order. Early Modern Italians employed a variety of terms to refer to these voluntary associations, including confraternita, compagnia, congregazione, consorzio, gremio, sodalizio, and scuola, often interchangeably. Nuances and distinguishing characteristics could vary greatly depending on geographical area. In Jesuit practice, which I will follow throughout this book, the terms 'congregation' and 'sodality' came to be reserved for the groups of students and adults collected tightly around a Jesuit priest and devoted to the Virgin Mary, which obtained a distinct canonical status after 1584. The terms 'confraternity' and 'company' were used more generically to include the broadest swathe of pious associations of lay men and women. 'Archconfraternity' (in Italian, arciconfraternita) designates the 'prototype' organization, which might receive papal indulgences or privileges, which would then trickle down to the affiliated or aggregated groups that, typically, shared its standardized rules and goals.6 While the Marian congregations (aggregated to the 'Prima Primaria' congregation, founded by the Belgian Jesuit Jan Leunis in the Roman College in 1563) came to be the primary model for confraternal organization promoted by the Jesuits, their first confraternities were different in important ways.7 Unlike the Marian congregations, the first Jesuit confraternities were established with far greater independence from the outset, and frequently became detached from any significant Jesuit connection within a few years. Their independence was largely a result of the more transient and itinerant model of Jesuit ministerial strategy before the schools necessitated greater stability and made the long-

6 Working in the Vineyard of the Lord

term management of a pious association possible.8 Furthermore, the character and goals of the Jesuits' first confraternities differed substantially from those of the Marian congregations, and here the guiding influence of the Jesuits' founder, Ignatius of Loyola, was crucial. Building on his Spanish heritage and on his experiences in the Low Countries, England, and Paris during his student years, Ignatius envisioned and established new kinds of charitable initiatives that focused on marginalized groups within the urban population, especially prostitutes and non-Christians. Accordingly, in order to address the ideological sources and goals of Jesuit missionary activity and the social organizations and strategies by means of which the goals were implemented, I will organize my discussion around the three most influential confraternal institutions founded by Ignatius during the 1540s in Rome. These confraternities administered houses for reformed prostitutes, daughters of prostitutes, and newly converted Jews and Muslims, and they became the models for similar institutions throughout Italy. They illustrate a central feature of the Jesuit urban apostolate: to enlist elites in the reform of the most 'public' sinners living on the margins of society. Attending to these institutions also helps to shift scholarly attention from the Jesuits themselves to their engagement with the laity, including poor and elite women and marginalized groups. Prostitutes, Jews, and Muslims stood out as conspicuous symbols of the need for conversion because they were highly visible figures considered to be outside God's grace. By 1542, Ignatius of Loyola had established a new kind of institution, the Casa di S. Marta (House of St Martha), as a shelter where former prostitutes and battered women could stay before deciding whether to become nuns, to be reconciled with their husbands, or to get married; its administration was entrusted to a confraternity, the Compagnia della Grazia (Confraternity of Grace).9 Almost simultaneously, a second confraternal shelter, the Conservatorio di S. Caterina delle Vergini Miserabili (Conservatory of St Catherine of the Poor Virgins), was established for the daughters of prostitutes and other young women who were thought to be in danger of turning to prostitution. Although the Casa di S. Marta eventually reverted to a more traditional conventual format, it and S. Caterina provided models the Jesuits transplanted to numerous other cities throughout the Italian peninsula, in most cases preserving the original formula. Also in 1542, Ignatius persuaded Pope Paul III to remove the

Preparing the Soil: The First Jesuit Confraternities 7

requirement for Jews and Muslims to forfeit all property upon conversion.10 Shortly thereafter, he founded a house where new converts could live while learning the new faith, and placed it under the administration of the Confraternita di S. Giuseppe dei Catecumeni (Confraternity of St Joseph of the Catechumens). As with the women's shelters, the Jesuits relied heavily on support from noblewomen and their aristocratic Spanish connections to get this institution off the ground. The organization of these institutions places the Jesuits squarely in the midst of the new experiments in poor relief taking place throughout Europe in the sixteenth century. Recent attention to Early Modern poor relief has shown that welfare policy cut across confessional lines and needed to be flexible in order to adjust to local circumstances.11 Within Italy, ruling groups vied with prelates to gain control of confraternities, which remained the predominant model for charitable activity through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, though their devotional role became ever more linked to communal goals.12 Scholars such as Brian Pullan have argued that the most telling legacy of sixteenth-century schemes for the poor was expansion of the scope of organized charity, which came to be undertaken not only to support the poor but actively to redeem them as well.13 The new institutions sought to amend the character and behaviour of the outcast poor in order to integrate them in a highly disciplined Christian society. As Hans Hillerbrand has aptly put it, by the end of the sixteenth century 'there was no room for the Other in the inn/ 14 It is within this context of increasing identification of and coercive attention to the Other and the outcast that Jesuit confraternal initiatives targeting marginalized groups most closely fit. Popular Religion and Confraternities Scholarly interest in expressions of religious sentiment and its relation to broader societal forces has a long pedigree.10 Reacting to the traditional intellectual history of the elites, and emphasizing new cliometric methodologies founded in social and economic history, the Annales school in France sounded a clarion call in the 1940s that led the way toward unprecedented interest in the experience of the masses.16 In their wake, a second generation of scholars represented by Fernand Braudel continued to emphasize the longue duree, employing hard analytical data in the explanation of continuity and change.17 More recently this tradition has continued in the work of Robert Muchem-

8 Working in the Vineyard of the Lord

bled and Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie.18 Within the narrower sphere of popular religion, Gabriel Le Bras and Henri Bremond broke ground toward the foundation of a sociology of religion, while Jean Delumeau remodelled assumptions about a medieval 'Age of Belief with his thesis of a late and imperfect christianization of Europe that occurred only in the wake of the religious reformations.19 A generation of scholars followed Bernd Moeller's fundamental essay 'Imperial Cities and the Reformation' in opening the floodgates of political, economic, and sociological explanations for the Reformation in Germany.20 As these approaches have shown, allegiance to and identity with a confessional group was far more than a shared theological ontology, and human motivations are far too complex to be accounted for exclusively through sentimental constructions of belief. Yet in parsing confessional allegiances and explaining complex motivations, models of social control have often taken the foreground. More recently, the pendulum has swung back, as some scholars seek to understand human motivations without bracketing a desire for associating with like-minded individuals and for constructing a part of personal identity around a shared vision of service and worship of God.21 Indeed, I argue that Early Modern religious identity cannot be satisfactorily accounted for by deterministic models of social cohesion based exclusively on the program of an ascendant state or ecclesiastical authority. Most recently, scholars have turned their attention once again to the sociology of religion, seeking new models by means of which to reincorporate belief.22 What is at stake is the interplay of complex human actors with deterministic models of 'historical (or societal) forces/ which in important ways rest on the theoretical foundation laid by Emile Durkheim in his classic The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. While giving ample room to religion, Durkheimian approaches tend to explain religion in terms of its empirical consequences for society: 'Religion is first and foremost a system of ideas by means of which individuals imagine the society of which they are members and the obscure yet intimate relations they have with it.'23 Such an instrumental understanding of religion, as an expression of the aims and needs of society, while consonant with post-Enlightenment secularizing trends (which in turn informed Durkheim), anachronistically distorts the mentalite and motivations of Early Modern Europeans, for whom belief was a category and end in its own right.24 In turn, by seeking to 'reduce/ 'deconstruct/ or 'explain' religious belief through its 'under-

Preparing the Soil: The First Jesuit Confraternities 9

lying' or empirically verifiable motivations and objectives, the postmodern successors of Durkheim have misplaced a vital hermeneutic tool for interpreting European culture. If modern scholars 'cannot believe in "belief,"' their unbelief becomes an impediment to a more nuanced understanding of pre-Enlightenment civilization rather than a foundational principle for an interpretive methodology.25 This is not to say that a 'hermeneutic of suspicion' (which deconstructs a text to identify its self-fashioning, or identifies extrinsic pressures or forces influencing individuals' choices) cannot add considerably to our interpretation of the pre-modern past. There is room for a both/and rather than an either/or approach, and furthermore, as we shall see, Early Modern European administrators could be every bit as sceptical and circumspect about the motivations of potential charitable beneficiaries as postmodern critics may be today. Nor do I wish to advocate that belief need be the only or the primary category of interpretation: I advocate neither a naive acceptance of statements of belief, nor a return to the classic position of Lucien Febvre, which finds belief so all-pervasive in the sixteenth century as to negate the possibility of non-belief or atheism.26 Indeed, the painstaking efforts of numerous scholars have shown that modern secularism and atheism can be traced back confidently to the sixteenth century.27 Here again I would argue that sixteenth-century observers were all too aware of the tentative and fragile nature of belief, and therefore sought to buttress it as actively as possible in a variety of ways. Lastly, I am emphatically not suggesting that, because scholars can interpret believers' own explanations of their religious behaviour as irreducible, and therefore to be understood in properly religious terms rather than explained away with reference to ulterior motives, scholars must regard those explanations as true. Rather, I am advocating a methodology that accommodates human agency in all its messy inconstancy, and that posits complex actors who respond to a myriad of motivations, both internal and external, some of which they could recognize and others of which perhaps they could not. Thus, I do wish to argue for an appreciation of belief as an end in itself, as a category of explanation, that can assume due proportion in the complex interplay of human motivations. Belief is then a suitable object of scholarly interpretation, and need not be bracketed as unverifiable and therefore outside the purview of interpretation.28 Looking at voluntary collectivities can serve as a partial corrective by providing models that accommodate the political and economic as

10 Working in the Vineyard of the Lord

well as the aesthetic, traditional, familial, and fraternal attachments and affections that pull at individual hearts. Such broader models can allow for the sometimes conflicting but often dovetailing and mutually reinforcing motivations of self-interest on the one hand, and of duty and obligation as framed by familial, class, regional, or national identity on the other.29 Precisely because of the rupture (at least on a mythic level) of the unity of Christianity due to the Reformation, the need to find associative spiritual communities became all the more pressing, and the loss of toleration of dissent all the more likely. So occasions for fraternal companionship, and the reinforcement of common beliefs and practices found in an identity group, helped to make the leap of faith less vertiginous, and provided a surer support, foundation, and confirmation in moments of doubt. Examining voluntary collectivities also offers the opportunity to see how models arose in the Mediterranean context that inspired willing participation, rather than exercising a kind of coercion. As has recently been shown, the Early Modern cult of martyrdom showed the stridency of religious beliefs, practices, and identities for those who died as well as for those left behind.30 In a similar way, the voluntary associations chosen in life show the more mundane commitment and participation of the laity who Voted with their feet' by swelling the membership of confraternal organizations. While the confratelli did not pay the highest price as did the martyrs, they nevertheless offer an enormously more representative sampling of the population and of widespread practices.31 Their participation is significant precisely because it did not tax the members to the core (and they took part again and again in growing numbers). Indeed, its very ubiquity confirms the resonance of the call, and the desire to form affective communities that reinforced the spiritual, the material, and the fraternal. Scholars have long seen confraternities as excellent barometers of popular piety and mentalite, since these bodies directed much of the everyday practice, festive life, and public charity of their communities.32 From their medieval origins, confraternities were voluntary associations, directed predominantly by laymen.33 While always organized within a religious framework, they often served as mutual aid societies providing members with 'social insurance' in life and death. As the groundbreaking work of Brian Pullan, Richard Trexler, Edward Muir, and Robert Weissman on Venice and Florence has shown, they commissioned art, built and restored churches, arranged public spectacles, dramas, and banquets, and participated in government and civic

Preparing the Soil: The First Jesuit Confraternities 11

life, and they therefore provide an ideal window on the culture of their times.34 As an important consequence of the vita apostolica (apostolic life) movement of the late twelfth century, the newly founded mendicant orders, especially the Franciscans and Dominicans, furthered the establishment of 'third orders' as a way of co-opting the restless religious energies of the laity (they were called 'third orders' to distinguish them as pertaining to the laity, both male and female, who did not take any formal vows; 'first orders' referred to the male branch, while 'second orders' referred to the female branch).35 Beginning in 1260, spontaneous new lay initiatives erupted in the form of compagnie di penitenti and compagnie di laudesi (penitential and praise societies) that spread like wildfire throughout Europe.36 The penitential companies, which usually practised some form of self-flagellation, drew as much criticism as praise, but they remained enormously popular, especially in times of crisis or rising apocalyptic expectation, such as in 1348 with the arrival of the Black Death, or in 1399.37 Flagellation was an outgrowth of the medieval devotion to Jesus as the Man of Sorrows, a devotion that concentrated on his experience of physical suffering. This approach saw in the unmerited suffering of Jesus-the-man a ground for feeling compunction and initiating interior reform based on the universal righteousness of Jesus-the-God. This juxtaposition worked as one of the classic rhetorical inversions based on the language of the Sermon on the Mount, especially the Beatitudes, in which intuitive opposites paradoxically win out. Thus, as penitents physically atone for their own sinful state, they also share vicariously in the freely accepted suffering that Jesus underwent for them, and gain first-hand insight into the salvilic logic of Anselmic satisfaction.38 By experiencing the suffering of Christ at first hand, the flagellant had an intimate appreciation of the sacrifice and payment made for his own sins. While they could not participate in Christ's crucifixion (although medieval criminals were subject to public shaming and sometimes mutilated on the wheel, a kind of crucifixion-like punishment), they could still follow the admonition of Matthew 16:24: 'If anyone wants to come with me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.'39 The ubiquity of confraternities, and their vital role as providers of mutual assistance and assurance, makes them perhaps the most characteristic form of devotional organization in the Middle Ages.40 Although there were earlier precedents, momentum began to build toward more outward-reaching and philanthropic goals with the foun-

12 Working in the Vineyard of the Lord

dation of the Compagnia del Divino Amore (Confraternity of Divine Love) in 1497.41 They supported hospitals, plague houses, orphanages, and homes for the poor and for reformed prostitutes. Three confraternities - Divino Amore, Servi dei Poveri, and Vergini di S. Orsola - even led to the foundation of three new religious orders, the Theatines, the Somascans, and the Ursulines.42 Much scholarship examining medieval confraternities has highlighted their affiliation with particular religious orders (particularly the Dominicans and Franciscans) and the necessary consequences for their piety, practices, and organization.43 However, the character of such affiliation for Early Modern confraternities has been neglected.44 When considering the sixteenth century, some scholars have noticed a shift in the role of confraternities during and after the reforms of the Council of Trent (1545-63), as the ecclesiastical hierarchy sought ever more to direct the piety of the laity.45 While the foundation of new religious orders has traditionally been seen as a hallmark of Early Modern Catholicism, the involvement of the new orders with confraternal charity and the resulting close interaction with the laity has never been systematically considered.46 To what degree are the spirituality and devotional practices of these confraternities shaped by the founding order? Toward which charitable activities and which social groups do these affiliated confraternities cluster? How closely is the initial affiliation maintained over time? Such questions reflect but a sampling of the important issues at stake in understanding the new religious orders' involvement in confraternal piety. Following the Jesuits in their makeshift progress toward integrating confraternal piety in their ministerial strategy will greatly expand our understanding of the character of Early Modern Catholicism and of the mechanisms shaping the multivalent currents of reform during this formative period. Poor Relief and Rome Demographic changes at the turn to the sixteenth century flooded the cities with unprecedented numbers of the indigent, prompting the contemporary compiler Ortensio Landi to comment on the ubiquity of poverty: Tt would seem to me superfluous to record a list of modern poor because they are so many; I truly do not believe that those poor described in antiquity could compare with the seemingly infinite numbers of poor that I know/47 Much nineteenth- and twentieth-century

Preparing the Soil: The First Jesuit Confraternities 13

scholarship on Early Modern poor relief contrasts attitudes toward the poor taken by Protestant and Catholic states during the Reformation.48 These studies stress the rationalization and laicization of poor relief at this time and trace it to the Protestant rejection of the belief that almsgiving and other good works affected the salvation of the giver's soul.49 Recent studies of poor relief, as noted above, emphasize that welfare policy cut across confessional lines and needed flexibility in order to adjust to local circumstances.50 Some historians, following Michel Foucault, have focused on the social control typical of houses for the poor, finding in them a 'great confinement.'51 Others, such as Brian Pullan, have argued that the most significant legacy of sixteenthcentury poor relief was its expansion to include not only the relieving of 'respectable citizens/ but also the amendment of the morals and behaviour of the outcast poor. The new institutions sought such amendment of the poor in order to integrate them in a new ideal for a highly disciplined Christian society.52 While the members of the Society of Jesus have often been regarded as ecclesiastical reformers and innovators, little attention has been directed to their initial activity with respect to confraternities and their innovative efforts at relief of the poor. Any broad consideration of Early Modern poor relief should also take into consideration the city of Rome, which, as the most important model for purposes of Catholic propaganda, incarnated many of the reform efforts within the Church. The condition of Rome's poor loomed large in the eyes of the most zealous, as indicated by the efforts of at least a dozen Catholic saints who involved themselves with public charity in Rome during the sixteenth century.53 Nevertheless, while both Protestant and Catholic cities throughout Europe turned to more centralized schemes, Rome's model remained strikingly diffuse. Accordingly, the function of Jesuit initiatives in Rome must be seen within the broader nexus of public assistance in the papal city. Throughout the sixteenth century, Roman charity moved steadily in the direction of intervention and coercion, culminating in a belated and ultimately unsuccessful institution for the poor, the Spedale di S. Sisto dei Poveri Mendicanti. From the time of Pope Leo I, one of Rome's titles had been alma mater caritatis, although by the early sixteenth century its role as the corrupt Babylon of the Book of Revelation had become equally proverbial.54 As ecclesiastical authorities gradually came to accept the permanence of the Protestant Reformation, they called all the more for reform of the

14 Working in the Vineyard of the Lord

Church in its head and members. The reform of the physical condition of Rome and the state of its public assistance became an important early testing-ground for this reforming zeal. But while Rome's charity led in some arenas, it lagged in others. Northern cities such as Nuremberg, Ypres, and Lyon had in the 1520s and 1530s legislated greater consolidation and control in municipal poor relief through more direct taxation, concentration in central institutions, and the prohibition of begging.55 Some Italian cities (such as Venice and Verona) implemented ever more stringent and discerning controls on the poor at this time.56 Even within the Papal States, in the second city of Bologna, a centralized Opera dei Mendicanti that had been planned since 1548 was operating by 1563.57 Yet the comparable institution in Rome, the Spedale di S. Sisto, was established by Gregory XIII only in 1581, and despite the financial support of his papal successors, the hospice soon foundered. Centralized institutions for poor relief were hardly new in Italy. Gian Galeazzo Visconti had established a municipal commission in Milan in 1396 to survey the existing hospitals, and by 1406 it had founded the Officium Pietatis Pauperum, intended to corral the poor along with the sick in the city's hospices.58 Centralization of poor relief in Milan continued when Filarete built perhaps the best-known archetype, the Ospedale Maggiore, in 1459-64.59 Indeed, Sandra Cavallo has counted no fewer than twenty northern Italian cities opening ospedali maggiori (general hospitals caring for a broad range of people, including the sick, orphans, foundlings, pilgrims, the poor, and the aged) from 1437 through 1513.60 In 1419, Brunelleschi's Innocenti complemented Florence's older hospital of S. Maria Nuova, to provide similar concentrated aid (for foundlings) amid a cluster of smaller institutions.61 Rome, by contrast, was late to develop an extended network of confraternities of any kind, owing to its comparatively low population during the Avignon papacy and the Great Schism, but it was quick to catch up.62 Whereas only 5 confraternities had been founded before 1430, another 22 arose before the end of the fifteenth century, and more than 100 were added in the sixteenth century - truly Rome's golden age of confraternal affiliation.63 The soil was fertile, then, for the Spedale di S. Sisto. But what might have been the prize-winning rose of Roman charity within the course of fifteen years would become a barren bush. To understand just what went wrong, it is important first to sketch the matrix of overlapping and interlocking charitable institutions in which S. Sisto fit. Besides

Preparing the Soil: The First Jesuit Confraternities 15 individual confraternity archives, the two most important primary sources for Roman charitable activity in the sixteenth century are the English priest Gregory Martin's Roma sancta (written in 1581 but first published, in Rome, by George Bruner Parks in 1969) and the Sienese priest Camillo Fanucci's Trattato di tutte le opere pie dell'alma citta di Roma ... (Rome, 1601). Each attempts to provide a synoptic view of the tangled web of Roman charity; the two works are well known to confraternal scholars, but have never been broadly compared.64 Both writers were ideologically committed to the rejuvenation and defence of the Tridentine Church; indeed, their treatises are superlative examples of the 'right thinking' to which Frederick McGinness has drawn scholarly attention.65 Each sought to construct a triumphant civitas sancta to confound 'the impious Heretics who hold that Rome is a confused Babylon/ in Fanucci's words in his dedication.66 Since Martin wrote in English for a recusant audience in Elizabethan England, he everywhere stresses the polemical point that sixteenth-century Rome has in no way degenerated from ancient Christianity. Rather, it is the only true heir and continuator of the early Church, and where different, it is better than before, having washed off the stain of pagan error.67 Thus, both authors acknowledge that their goal is not only to edify the pious co-religionist but to overwhelm the sceptic. Within this battleground of poverty and charity, on one point all contemporary observers agreed, whether with pain or satisfaction: Rome was teeming with beggars. In order to defend the decentralized relief practices despite the ubiquity of poverty, Martin and Fanucci sought to expose the 'invisible hand' of Roman charity. In order to impose order on the chaos, the two authors chose to present their case thematically, organizing their discussion conceptually around the kind of relief provided, and then, as a sub-category, around the characteristics of the organization providing it.68 Because Fanucci's is the more copious and systematic description, I will generally follow his lead. Interestingly, both authors begin by breaking the broad conceptual framework I have just described. Rather than concentrating on any one municipal service, they focus first on the multivalent charity funded directly by the popes. Among other considerations, this shows their respect for decorum: when in the caput mundi, begin with the caput ecclesiae. Both describe the office of the papal almoner, who recorded and controlled all disbursements, beginning with the tradition (supposedly inaugurated by Gregory the Great) of feeding twelve poor each day, and the Friday distribution of bread and wine (to as many as

16 Working in the Vineyard of the Lord

two thousand hungry each week, according to Fanucci).69 Besides this material distribution, both authors cite monetary subsidies to individuals and institutions amounting to 400 or 500 scudi per month. Next, provisions for dowries (for both brides and nuns) and for the poveri vergognosi, or shamefaced poor, as well as certain pensions and subsidies for colleges, come to the suspiciously round number of 100,000 scudi per year for Fanucci (Martin suggests more than twice that amount). Fanucci also adds a special endowment left by Pius V to provide 2,000 scudi per year to be distributed on four occasions, and which replaced the uncouth spectacle of money thrown to the assembled crowds (which sometimes resulted in deaths and injuries).70 Both authors take pains to stress that these are only the regular overt distributions; they do not include the secret and allegedly larger amounts known only to the popes, the almoner, and God. Nonetheless, if we accept these figures, the various provisions might have amounted to 120,000 scudi each year, a respectable sum almost reaching the canonical 10 per cent threshold, when measured against papal revenues. Peter Partner's survey of archival research on papal finances, however, produces more sober estimates. He concludes that papal almsgiving increased steadily in the period from 1480 to 1619, to reach a high point of about 8 per cent of revenues only at the end of the period under Paul V Borghese, who spent almost, but not quite, as much on charity as he did on enriching his own family.71 While Martin proceeds to describe Gregory XIII's special affection for the English (focusing on the seminaries and colleges he established for them), Fanucci turns his attention from papal charity to the largest and most common municipal relief institutions, the hospitals. As an example of his deep sense of decorum, and of the significance of precedence and competition among such institutions, Fanucci distinguishes first among the public, the 'national/ and the guild hospitals, and within each subset he discusses each institution based on its antiquity, starting with the oldest.72 After discussing the largest and oldest hospital, S. Spirito, founded by Innocent III in 1204, he describes 2 hospitals from the thirteenth century, 1 from the fourteenth, 4 from the fifteenth, and 8 from the sixteenth, for a total of 16 hospitals in all. Even Martin Luther was favourably inclined toward these Roman and other Italian hospitals; they are recalled with enthusiam in his 'Table Talk.'73 A testimony to his diligent research during his two-year stay in Rome in 1576-8, Gregory Martin counts 11 hospitals (4 were founded after his departure from Rome) and misses only the tiny pilgrims' hospice dating from

Preparing the Soil: The First Jesuit Confraternities 17

1459 that provided free lodging for visiting secular priests. Some of these generally larger public hospitals accepted all persons, whatever their ailment; others were more specialized, such as the Pazzi for the insane, S. Rocco for women in childbirth, S. Giacomo for syphilitics, S. Lazzaro for lepers, the Trinita for convalescents recuperating from treatment in one of the other hospitals, and portions of S. Spirito for orphaned children. To these, Fanucci adds 19 generally smaller, private hospitals affiliated with Italian city states or with 'national' groups, from Portugal to Poland, as well as 4 hospitals associated with specific occupations, for a total of 39 in all. Thus, for a city of about 110,000 in 1600, there were more than 2,000 beds available for men and women a number that in times of crisis could swell to more than 3,000. In the second of his four books, Fanucci turns his benevolent gaze upon the colleges and monasteries (or conservatories), cataloguing a second tier of public services directed to the poor, including many institutions that bore the stamp of the new, redemptive charity that arose in the sixteenth century.74 Among the 33 institutions listed, 9 provided students with room and board; another 9 provided cloistered surveillance of children, women, and new converts; 3 corresponded to new religious orders (Jesuits, Oratorians, Camilliani); 3 provided free education; 3 provided bridal dowries; 2 provided free legal services; and the remaining 4 provided prison visits, bread distribution, penitential confession, and loans for the poor. Fanucci devotes Books III and IV to a description of the confraternities: they are either universal, that is, open to broad membership (Fanucci counts 51); or national, that is, open to persons of the same national origin (21); or grouped around a particular trade (29), for a grand total of 101 confraternities. Among the universal confraternities, fully 16 are devoted to the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament; 8 administer hospitals (to a certain degree duplicating the previous listing); and 5 meet in the Minerva under the control of the Dominicans. Of the remaining confraternities, most raise dowries for poor women (the usual rate until the seventeenth century was 50 scudi, or about two hundred days' wages for a bricklayer).75 Besides providing dowries, many carry out a more specialized service: the oldest Roman confraternity, the Gonfalone, ransoms captives; the SS. Dodici Apostoli focuses on the povcri wrgognosi; the Carita, reserved for noble members, administers a convent for reformed prostitutes, aids prisoners, and organizes distribution of the papal almoner's charity; the Oratione e Morte provides free burial; the S. Giovanni Decollate consoles those

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condemned to die; the S. Monica, meeting in the church of S. Agostino, is made up of and governed entirely by women. Fanucci does not hesitate to make special claims for the important confraternity of which he was a deputy: the Trinita, which, along with aiding convalescents, focuses on lodging pilgrims at no cost. Book IV indicates that the fifty national and guild confraternities directed their charity almost exclusively to their own members: they provided medical care, aided sick and disabled members and their families, and even, on occasion, when no members' daughters were in need of dowries, provided financial support for worthy but needy women outside the confraternity. Martin does not describe the full range of confraternities covered by Fanucci, who had spent a lifetime in Rome (half of Martin's treatise deals with devotion, and he also includes descriptions of traditional religious orders and of the organization of the papal court). Nevertheless, Martin surveys roughly 90 per cent of the Roman confraternities of his time. Thus, by the last quarter of the sixteenth century, Rome offered a relatively wide array of services for its poor: from weekly disbursements of food and alms to opportunities for credit, and hospices throughout the city open to both narrowly and widely defined groups of the indigent. The momentum for more explicit intervention with regard to social welfare had been growing since the first decades of the century. The arrival of Ettore Vernazza and the formation of the Roman Compagnia del Divino Amore (which undertook the care of syphilitics) started the ball rolling/6 In 1519, Cardinal Giulio de' Medici founded the Compagnia di S. Girolamo della Carita, and in 1520 his cousin, Pope Leo X, placed in its care the newly founded Monastero di S. Maria Maddalena for converted prostitutes. In 1526, Giulio, as Pope Clement VII, established the first public debt for the papacy, which Paul III expanded in 1539.77 In the 1540s a cluster of confraternal institutions forwarded by Ignatius of Loyola (including the House for Orphans, Rome's first female conservatory, the first House of the Catechumens, and the first halfway house for malmaritate) accelerated the move toward more active intervention.78 Simultaneously, Paul reinstituted the Holy Office in 1542, and Vives's 1526 De subventions pauperum, advocating the prohibition of begging, reached a broader audience with an Italian translation printed in Venice in 1545.79 Paul IV took broad steps toward the segregation and reclusion of marginal groups by confining the Jews to their ghetto in 1555.80 Within a year he had encouraged vagabonds to collect around the Piazza del Popolo to keep them removed from the

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19

city centre.81 In the wake of Paul's disastrous war with Spain, the unprecedented influx of beggars prompted Pius IV in September 1561 to issue the first definitive prohibition of begging within the entire city limits.82 The popes, like Caesar before them, had 'crossed the Rubicon/ regarding intervention with respect to the poor. The ascetic Pius V quickly followed his predecessor's example with a slightly mitigated bando in April 1566 prohibiting moral offenders from entering churches during services. That same year, on the feast of St Mary Magdalen, 22 July, he published an edict expelling all prostitutes within six days, but he was forced to rescind the order. Notwithstanding that rebuff, he increased sumptuary legislation, and by 1569 he was walling the prostitutes into their own ghetto in the Campo Marzio.83 Satisfied with the headway he had made against prostitutes, he turned again to the poor, and, as announced in an avviso (public proclamation) of 21 March 1569, he planned to divide the poor into four quarters of the city and there provide for their needs.84 These attempts to mitigate the phenomenon of increasing poverty, never carried out, were telling steps along the path toward coercive centralized enclosure of the poor in Rome. Clearly by this time, abject, involuntary poverty (as distinct from chosen poverty) was seen more as an incitement to sin than as a spiritual ideal.81 But because the last years of Pius V's reign were spent marshalling a holy league against the Turks (culminating in Lepanto in 1571), the final step in implementing a centralized hospital for poor relief fell to his successor, Gregory XIII. When Ugo Buoncompagni assumed the tiara he was already 70 years old, but he filled his remaining thirteen years by supporting numerous foundations that directly impacted on Rome's charitable infrastructure. Besides greatly expanding the Roman and German Colleges, Gregory founded the English, Greek, Maronite, Armenian, and Hungarian Colleges and endowed the Collegio dei Neofiti. On top of such enormous building projects, he undertook construction of the Quirinal Palace and of villas outside Rome.86 The inevitable financial strain, coinciding with a period of poor harvests from roughly 1578 through to the harsh famine of 1590-3, brought sharply increased banditry and poverty.87 Since these negative effects were not felt fully until the late 1570s and early 1580s, Gregory continued to increase funding to Rome's existing charities rather than taking the more drastic step of forced confinement, despite the precedents set by Pius V. Ironically, at precisely the same time that Gregory was reversing his policy (with a brief on 1 February

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1581 calling for the obligatory lodging of all beggars in the hospital of S. Sisto),88 Gregory Martin was busy in Reims writing encomiastic descriptions of Gregory's policy of non-confinement (which Martin remembered from his sojourn in Rome three years before). In a chapter apologizing for the prevalence of beggars on Rome's streets and their preference for uncertain alms rather than a sure allowance, Martin explains: 'And bicause it was so ordained for their benefite and for pity of their case, therefore when they estemed it otherwise, it was not forced upon them, lest they should have double affliction, of body and of discontented minde.'89 Of course, since Martin was ideologically committed to praising Gregory before he set pen to page, if Gregory had mandated a centralized institution before Martin's arrival, then Martin would certainly have commended it, and polished off the arguments for a more hardened attitude to the poor. Precisely such arguments would later cause Fanucci to lament the rise in public vagabondage when apologizing for the demise of S. Sisto in the 1590s. The conflict of intuitions regarding forced confinement of the poor continued into the seventeenth century, when even members of the same religious order could oscillate between praise and blame. The Dutch Jesuit Jeremias Drexel, in his Gazophylacium Christi; sive, De elemosyna (Lyon, 1697), rehearses a traditional defence of unfettered begging and almsgiving reminiscent of Domingo De Soto: The poor are not ... to be subjected to too much prying curiosity.'90 In stark contrast, Drexel's fellow Jesuit Martin Becanus, in his Summa theologiae scholasticae (Paris, 1634), argues on three grounds that confinement is justified: local poor are preferable to immigrant poor in a city; strangers bring disease, heresy, and dissent; and many poor could live from the work of their hands, and expulsion or confinement would bring them to the necessary reflection on their predicament.91 Yet another Jesuit, Andre Guevarre, reached a sophistic pinnacle in his defence of confinement by responding to forty objections in his Mendicita proveduta (Rome, 1693). Innocent XII had commissioned this treatise to pave the way for his general hospital for the poor, the Ospizio Apostolico dei Poveri Invalid! (Apostolic Hospice for Poor Invalids), housed in the Lateran Palace, when the pendulum regarding confinement swung back at the end of the seventeenth century.92 A loyal and devoted Bolognese, Gregory XIII took the time to establish the national confraternity of the Bolognese, S. Giovanni Apostolo & Evangelista, during the crowded schedule of the Jubilee year of 1575.93 Having spent the first thirty-seven years of his life in Bologna,

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21

Gregory kept his thick Bolognese accent even at age 78, when Montaigne heard him speak.94 Gregory was also a close friend and financial supporter of Bologna's redoubtable cardinal Gabriele Paleotti, who supported the highly successful Opera dei Mendicanti (Beggars' House) located there.95 Also, given Gregory XIII's great personal devotion to his namesake, Gregory Nazianzus (he transferred the saint's relics in a triumphal procession to the Cappella Gregoriana, which he built in St Peter's, and declared an extraordinary Jubilee indulgence on that day in 1580), it comes as no surprise that Gregory wanted to transplant the successful Bolognese institution for relieving the poor to Rome in order to crown his already extensive charitable legacy there. But by 1580, when the pressure from banditry and poor harvests had mounted, Gregory must have realized that for such an ambitious plan to work it would need two indispensable features: a capable administration, and, if possible, a site already built - undertaking large-scale building ex nihilo at his advanced age would have seemed imprudent. Fanucci claims that Gregory had recommended the confraternity Oratione e Morte (Prayer and Death), and, indeed, a short list of candidates might have included that group, along with the Carita, the Gonfalone, and the S. Spirito confraternities.96 But after the virtuoso performance of the Trinita during the Jubilee of 1575 (to the edification and stupefaction of the entire Catholic world), it became apparent that no other administration would be acceptable. Estimates place the overall Jubilee attendance at more than 400,000 pilgrims during 1575, of which 170,000, or nearly half, are documented as passing through the Trinita dei Pellegrini.97 By the end of the Jubilee year, the prestige of the confraternity had been enormously enhanced, and charitable donations and bequests were at high tide through the rest of the decade.98 Although Fanucci, as a deputy, records that the administrators of the Trinita were less than pleased with the feasibility of adding such a large responsibility to their other two obligations, Gregory would not accept no for an answer. With regard to the location, serendipitously or not, the Dominican nuns in the old convent of S. Sisto, near the baths of Caracalla, were seeking to flee the 'sad air' of the remote site and move closer to the abitato, or built-up city centre. Gregory found the nuns a site on the Quirinal (and one must presume that 'good air' accompanied the lovely vistas from this hilltop site) and thus was free to move the poor beggars to S. Sisto, which, though still inside the walls, was decorously far from the mischief of the city (the Mendicanti in Bologna was like-

22 Working in the Vineyard of the Lord

wise outside the city centre). The name of the convent, which happened to be dedicated to one of Rome's favourite early Christian martyrs, was an added bonus, since in the years following the Reformation both martyrs and early Christian saints had returned to vogue." Thus the slow churn of curial bureaucracy ground forward, until on the awaited day, 27 February 1581, a procession of fully 850 poor and crippled men, women, and children made its way for about two miles from the Trinita to S. Sisto, as Fanucci informs us.100 Remarkably, Montaigne happened to visit S. Sisto on 1 March, the day on which Pope Gregory visited his creation, just two days after the procession, which, Fanucci cannot resist adding, outdid any procession of the ancient Romans. Montaigne noted in his journal that it was a fine arrangement for accommodating the poor outside the city, and recorded that the cardinals gave 20 scudi each, while Pope Gregory endowed his institution with an income of 500 scudi per month, or 6,000 per year.101 With his usual elan, Gregory intended his latest foundation to be a success, and quickly endowed it with a sizeable income. Despite Gregory's financial support, the remoteness of the institute, which Montaigne found salubrious, meant that few aristocrats came to visit and to offer financial assistance. The avvisi (public gossip sheets, a precursor of a newspaper in Early Modern Rome) even report an apocryphal tale that the poor offered to pay Gregory 2,500 scudi in return for their freedom!102 Perhaps Gregory Martin's reference to a 'double affliction, of body and of discontented minde' had proved prophetic. The Trinita was soon unable to handle the fixed costs, and petitioned the pope to relieve them of their onus. By 1583, Gregory had unleashed the poor once again into his city, and his proud phoenix died in flames. Yet this phoenix waited for only four years and a new pope before rising again from its ashes. Sixtus V had an autocratic bent, and though his reign lasted only five years, he left a remarkable imprint not only on the urban fabric of the city, but also on its institutions. He chose the name Sixtus in honour of his fifteenth-century Franciscan predecessor, but it provided him with another connection to the defunct hospital he inherited from Gregory. Sixtus quickly set himself to reduce the problem of banditry, a goal he accomplished through a brutal campaign of executions in his first two years as pope.103 Meanwhile, new bandi regulating the weight and price of bread in 1587 and 1589 signalled the return of lean years in the Eternal City.104 With characteristic resolve, in May 1587 Sixtus promulgated the bull Quamvis infirma, which resurrected the hospital of S. Sisto but stipu-

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lated a new location to be patched together from some existing buildings and other new construction at the end of the Via Giulia - right next to the bridge built by Sixtus IV as well as the church and oratorio of the Trinita. He assigned the administration once again to the Trinita, but also included two senators as representatives of the city government. The foundation bull allocated 9,000 scudi in annual rents, as well as certain tax exemptions. Besides contributing a one-time lump sum of 31,752 scudi to subsidize the construction, he directed to the hospital a number of other incomes and revenues from fines (for playing cards), so that in a short time the hospital could expect an annual fixed revenue of roughly 20,000 scudi.105 Thus S. Sisto had a new lease on life, and for the years up to 1591, at times more than two thousand poor lodged there. But this blossoming also was destined to be fleeting. Sixtus died in 1590, at the very beginning of what would prove the most difficult famine of the century, lasting until 1593. The attendant economic pressure was exacerbated by the rapid succession of three popes, until stability returned once again with Clement VIII Aldobrandini in mid-1592. But the pendulum swung once more, as Clement showed himself a supporter not of confinement or centralization but of the more decentralized and diffuse system that had so often prevailed in Rome. Clement's approach was also favoured by the relatively prosperous years after 1593, which significantly reduced the economic pressures that so often pushed those on the margins over the line into vagabondage. Moreover, as the fin de siecle drew near, Rome experienced a new blooming of smaller confraternal organizations, with thirteen new additions and three hospitals founded in the last decade of the century. Clement was not returning to a Quattrocento model of independent and diffuse charitable activity such a move was no longer possible - but he was distancing himself from the centralizing telos, and preferring relief provided by smaller and more numerous institutions. Finally, Clement had his own favourite charities, of which S. Sisto was not one, so, even though for a brief period the institution was able to coast, by 1597 only 280 poor were resident in the hospital, and by 1601 the figure was down to about 150, of whom most were servants of the organization itself. During the height of the famine in 1593, the Trinita scrambled to support as many inmates in S. Sisto as it could; Noel O'Regan's recent work shows that the choral and instrumental music performed and commissioned for the confraternity - to which the membership had grown accustomed in the halcyon years - came to a resounding

24 Working in the Vineyard of the Lord

silence.106 By 1599, in anticipation of the new century and the new Jubilee, the Trinita even successfully scavenged 3,000 scudi from the allotment for S. Sisto, a clear sign that the organization had been reduced to a carcass, since its incomes were being stripped away. The rapid rise and decline of S. Sisto stands out as a symbol of ecclesiastical experimentation with alternative practices for relief of the poor. In this city where the ecclesiastical and secular always intertwined, the failure of the Spedale di S. Sisto highlights the competitive allegiances and aims of this multilayered network of charities, and the vagaries that quasi-public institutions could suffer owing to shifts in the policies of the pontiffs. Since the reign of Leo X, papal policy had moved inexorably toward greater rationalization, centralization, and control of municipal charity, though the change invariably took place incrementally and in a step-bystep fashion. Rome's charitable infrastructure sought to identify and to help the needy and also to enable the pious donor to carry out the works of mercy. Paul IV had taken a considerable step toward enforced confinement by enclosing the Jews in their ghetto. Even Gregory XIII's leap of faith into the world of coerced confinement for the poor was made possible only by his being audacious or brazen enough to attempt such a program, along with the support offered by the convenient and successful model of the Mendicant! in Bologna and by the virtuoso performance of administrators during the recent Jubilee. Because Rome's first experiment with imposed centralization and economies of scale was artificially supported by the centralizing yet destabilizing arm of the pope, it failed to garner the broader popular support that buttressed other existing institutions. So when papal support dried up, there were no other deep pockets from which to draw. Thus, exploring this demise of consolidation in charitable activity in the centre of Catholic reform helps highlight more broadly the always precarious nature of confraternal charity. Still more important, it shows that developments in ecclesiastical government were parallel to developments in the Early Modern state. In the sphere of poor relief, however, as in many other important spheres by the end of the sixteenth century, the secular Rome of seven hills had been replaced by the new Rome of seven churches. The Jesuits It is within this nexus of increasing coercion coupled with competing and contrasting organizations and ideologies of poor relief that the

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Jesuits came to operate their charitable ministries. But the Jesuits' goal of 'working in the vineyard of the Lord/ and in particular their 'way of proceeding' with regard to charitable initiatives, had its own gestation in the experiences and guidance of Ignatius. The true root of Jesuit confraternal charity directed to society's outcasts was Ignatius's experiences in Azpeitia, which were translated into the environment of Rome. Shortly after Ignatius and two of his companions arrived in Rome in the fall of 1537, they began preaching, teaching, administering the sacraments (especially confession and communion), directing the Spiritual Exercises, and visiting hospitals and prisons. These ministries coincided with the companions' period of deliberation on how they should proceed: whether to join another order, or start their own.107 Yet Ignatius's return to his home town of Azpeitia in northern Spain for three months in 1535 provides an equally important key to understanding his attitudes toward social justice for the poor, and the role of women in the reform of society. Ignatius had made a vow to go to Jerusalem (or Rome) with the six other original companions at Montmartre in 1534, and in many ways had taken the first steps toward the formation of a new order.108 Having returned to the land where the Loyolas were the principal family, he was able to exercise considerable influence in shaping a more pious community. His activity in Azpeitia represents in germinal form the model for the later Jesuit apostolate.109 Ignatius did not stay with his brother in the family castle, but instead chose to live in the poor Magdalen hospital. Besides caring for the sick in the hospital, he began teaching Christian Doctrine (catechism) to children, and soon afterward to adults. Although not yet a priest, he preached so fervently against fornication that five women leading wayward lives repented, as he later recalled. He engaged in peacemaking within his own family as well as between rival town factions, and resolved disputes between clergy and laity, including disputes over the abuse of benefices. He endorsed confraternal charity, especially the new Confraternity of the Most Blessed Sacrament (SS. Sacramento), which he later encouraged to affiliate with the archconfraternity in the Dominican order's principal church of S. Maria sopra Minerva in Rome.110 In all these activities, Ignatius anticipated the future missionary practices of the Jesuits. Moreover, he launched four initiatives in Azpeitia in the area of social reform, all directed toward the laity.111 First, he instituted the noontime ringing of church bells as a reminder

26 Working in the Vineyard of the Lord

to the citizens to recite prayers for those in mortal sin, and he designated the remainder of his own inheritance in order to endow the bellringers' salaries in perpetuity. Second, he procured through town officials a ban on the playing and selling of cards. Third, he arranged for statutes with tough penalties for single women who illicitly wore the hats reserved for married women. Here, Ignatius was targeting priestly concubinage (far more than just seeking to control women's fashion through sumptuary laws) and the clerics and women who openly flaunted sexual mores and ecclesiastical law through public affiliation. Fourth, and most important, Ignatius had the town council draw up ordinances prohibiting begging from door to door and providing public relief coordinated by the stewards of the poor.112 Travellers and even pilgrims on the way to Compostela were not permitted to beg, and instead were directed to a suburban hospital designated to aid them with shelter and food. The ordinances discriminated among the local poor as well: on pain of fines, citizens were required to inform the stewards of all beggars who were able to work but refused to do so, the latter being subject to six days in prison and a hundred lashes. The town council was charged with investigating and cataloguing all the needy, and only those listed would have a right to assistance. The ordinances also anticipated the needs of the shamefaced poor by providing two additional stewards (one chosen from the laity and one from the clergy) to assist poor nobles 'too ashamed' to beg. Besides collecting alms on Sundays and feast days, the stewards administered and distributed all public revenues allocated for poor relief. These provisions are remarkably similar to the tough new poor laws of humanist inspiration established in Protestant Germany and the Catholic Low Countries in the 1520s and promulgated throughout the lands of Charles V and in France and England in the 1530s.113 Ignatius's program thus placed little Azpeitia on the map of the Europewide reform of poor relief. It is highly likely that Ignatius came in contact with the new approaches during his summer excursions in 1528, 1529, and 1530 to the Spanish communities in Flanders (and once to England) in order to beg support for his university studies in Paris. Ignatius would have had ample first-hand experience of the laws implemented in 1525 and 1526 in Ypres and Bruges, and on one such excursion (probably in 1529) he enjoyed the hospitality of Juan Luis Vives.114 Vives's ideas on poor relief gained notoriety when the Franciscan vicar of the bishop of Tournai sniffed the odour of Lutheran her-

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esy (in the prohibition of begging), but the De subventione pauperum (1526) soon reached a broad European audience in several Latin and vernacular editions. Whether or not Ignatius immediately warmed to Vives's ideas, he was still in Paris pursuing his studies in 1531 when the Sorbonne pronounced that the poor-relief reform of Ypres was indeed in accord with the Sacred Scriptures, the teachings of the apostles, and the laws of the Church - so Ignatius knew that his reforms had already passed the test. Ignatius's initiatives in Azpeitia resemble the Flemish model more closely than the radical model pursued in Protestant Germany. The Flemings employed and embellished existing institutions, and, while emphasizing lay involvement, did not impede clerical prerogatives. Highlighting their accretive rather than abortive characteristics, the Flemish reforms have been characterized as a gradual process of 'municipalization/ in contrast to the outright 'secularization' found in Germany.n5 Underlying all Ignatius's reforms, however, are two guiding principles: first, that the community as a whole is responsible for the moral well-being of all its members, including those at the margins;116 and second, that the best way to shepherd the strays back to communal norms is through pragmatic lay initiatives. Thus, one finds in this brief stay in Azpeitia the kernel of the Jesuit urban mission. It is in Rome, however, that these guiding principles received their greatest elaboration, and that the distinctively Jesuit model of mobile missionary activity was forged.117 Indeed, Rome provided the most important model for the Constitutions, which codified the Jesuits' 'way of proceeding.' In part VII, 'The Distribution of the Incorporated Members in Christ's Vineyard and Their Relations There with Their Fellowmen,' Ignatius sets out guidelines for discerning between alternative courses of action, and the measures to apply in apportioning limited resources so as to effect the greatest good.118 Here Ignatius advises that when 'other considerations are equal... that part of the vineyard ought to be chosen which has greater need, [or] where the greater fruit will probably be reaped ... For that reason, the spiritual aid which is given to important and public persons ought to be regarded as more important, since it is a more universal good.'119 Here is the theoretical justification for the consistent attention paid by the Jesuits to ministries involving elite groups. But their attention to the margins of society was just as consistent: they characteristically engaged the elites to sponsor initiatives directed to the poor. Ignatius also recognized that, although the Jesuits' mission was mobile, the needs of the recipients of poor

28 Working in the Vineyard of the Lord

relief were usually best met over an extended time: 'When there are some spiritual works which continue longer and are of more lasting value, such as certain pious foundations for the aid of our fellowmen, and other works less durable which give help on a few occasions and only for a short while, then it is certain that the first ought to be preferred to the second/120 It was precisely to solve this conundrum - how to build stable, self-sustaining institutions when the members of the order were constantly on the move - that confraternal charity presented the ideal medium. It also helps to explain the ubiquitous involvement of the Jesuits in confraternal charity throughout Italy, and especially in Rome. The Marian Congregations Research on Jesuit confraternal activity has often focused on the Marian congregations (discussed more in chapter 5), beginning with the Prima Primaria congregation founded by Jan Leunis in the Roman College in 1563.m These devotional sodalities, which could count among their members emperors, popes, kings, and cardinals, sought not only the conversion of the individual soul, but also the reform of the whole of society.122 By the time of the suppression of the Jesuits in 1773, there were roughly 2,500 congregations. They were subsequently dispersed on the diocesan level and multiplied geometrically; by the 1950s there were more than 80,000 aggregated congregations.123 The Jesuits characteristically targeted the elites, but by the end of the sixteenth century (when they frequently had multiple congregations attached to each professed house, as well as multiple congregations for students in every college) they had expanded the formula to include professionals, merchants, and artisans. Nevertheless, their congregations were always segregated by class so as to promote affinity, decorum, and social stability.124 While limiting their membership to strictly segregated social classes, the affiliated congregations from the outset directed much of their charitable activity toward the poor. In this regard, the Marian congregations were following the patterns established by the earliest Jesuit confraternities, which in turn took their shape from Ignatius's direction of charitable works in Rome. With the bull Omnipotentis Dei, which the Jesuit superior general Claudio Acquaviva secured from Pope Gregory XIII in 1584, these sodalities were deemed canonically distinct from confraternitites as organizations explicitly under Jesuit control and affiliation. Therefore, although I use the terms 'congregation' and 'sodality' interchangeably, the bod-

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ies referred to represent a distinct subset of the more general category of confraternities. The Roman Models Whereas most religious orders kept their headquarters outside Rome, whether for tradition or autonomy, the Jesuits joined the Augustinians (and later the Oratorians) in settling their administrative core in Rome. Rome thus provided the model, the test case, and the charismatic centre for a great majority of the Jesuit missionary activities. Precisely this sense of pride and possession of the Eternal City is evident in the image Roma Ignatiana, 'Ignatian Rome/ produced in the early seventeenth century to demonstrate the urban impact of Jesuit initiatives (see fig. 1). As Ignatius's secretary Juan de Polanco wrote in a letter in 1547: I know that everyone there wants to know about what our Lord is doing for those who are in Rome, the city that is the head, and in another respect the stomach of all Christendom. For this Society it seems to be both the one and the other: and, if one could add a third element, it is the heart of the Society. It is like the head in that from here the Society is directed and moved, and like the stomach in that from here are dispensed and distributed to all its members that which maintains their well-being, and their fruitful progress. So too, one can call it the heart, in as much as it is the [vital] principle of the other members, and also because it seems to be the seat of life in the entire body of the Society. Without the connection to Rome, no matter how much the Society were to increase in numbers, things would surely go badly for its preservation. For this reason, those who know the importance of this house in Rome most reasonably want to know what is going on there in it.125

Besides founding the three confraternities governing S. Marta, S. Caterina, and the Catechumens, Ignatius in the 1540s organized the Arciconfraternita de' SS. Dodici Apostoli (Archconfraternity of the Twelve Most Holy Apostles), which provided aid for the shamefaced poor (in this case, nobles who had fallen into financial difficulty yet, owing to societal status and pride, could not publicly beg). They shouldered some of S. Marta's responsibilities after 1563, and in the seventeenth century administered Rome's largest free pharmacy.126 Though not its founder, Ignatius also gave much early support to the Arciconfraternita di S. Maria della Visitazione degli Orfani (Archconfraternity of St Mary of the Visitation of the Orphans), Rome's largest

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orphange for boys and girls, approved by Paul III in 1540.127 Diego Lainez, the second superior general, continued regularly to support these Ignatian initiatives, and provided the first buildings for the Confraternita and Spedale di S. Maria della Pieta dei Pazzerelli (Confraternity and Hospital of St Mary of Pity for the Insane), Rome's first insane asylum (and Europe's oldest in continuous existence), founded by Ferrante Ruiz, who had been a chaplain for S. Caterina in 1548.128 The Prima Primaria Marian congregation, founded in the Roman College in 1563, proved so popular that it had split into 4 separate congregations (in addition to another 3 for students in the German College, and 4 for future priests in the Roman Seminary) by the end of the century.129 Precisely this splintering due to growth made it necessary to designate the original institution the 'first among the firsts/ prima primaria, so as to distinguish it from its offspring. Usually the Marian congregations practised a variety of works rather than a single or principal charity, but they became especially known for visiting prisons and hospitals. Meeting in the Casa Professa by the church of the Gesu, the Jesuit headquarters, were another six congregations for adults: the Assunta, for nobles (1593); the Nativita, for merchants (1594); the Annuntiata, for artisans (1595); the Concettione, also for artisans (1597); the Immacolata Concettione, for priests (founded in 1618 and moved to the Gesu in 1648); and the Buona Morte (Good Death), added by General Carafa in 1648.130 In the nearby oratory of Francis Xavier, just off the Via del Corso, Father Caravita organized peripatetic general communions that attracted as many as 30,000 communicants in a day with the help of the Congregazione della Madonna della Pieta e di S. Francesco Saverio (Congregation of the Madonna of Pity and St Francis Xavier) in the second and third decades of the seventeenth century.131 The Arciconfraternita della Pieta dei Carcerati (Archconfraternity of Pity for Prisoners), founded by the French Jesuit Jean Tellier in 1575, rounded out the lot:132 in total, there were more than two dozen confraternities to which the Jesuits lent their talents in the Eternal City.133 Overview While much attention has been directed to the Jesuits, far less has been directed to what the Jesuits saw as central to their ministry: the active engagement of the laity in pious devotions. A primary purpose of this study is to correct this lack of attention, and to that end I expand on the

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confraternal models founded by Ignatius in Rome in the early 1540s, which became the primary focus for Jesuit confraternal engagement before the Marian congregations became the norm. Following the lead of the archival documentation preserved for each institution, I address differing facets of early Jesuit confraternal activity. For S. Marta, I focus on the membership and composition of the confraternity, the members' participation in the charitable work, and the models applied to the women admitted. For S. Caterina, I look most closely at the recipients of charity, and the ideological motivations of the members. For the Catechumens, I focus on the means and strategies for conversion, and a few representative cases. In chapter 2, I focus on the house of S. Marta and its confraternity, Delia Grazia, seeking to add to our understanding not only of the genesis of this organization but of its charitable character, its innovation, and its consequences for later Jesuit confraternal engagement. In chapter 3, I examine a spin-off of S. Marta, the confraternity of S. Caterina delle Vergini Miserabili. Attending specifically to the young daughters of prostitutes, this confraternity undertook a related but distinct charitable activity. It entailed a longer commitment to the individuals accepted (there was not nearly as much turnover as in S. Marta), and it eventually required a far greater material outlay because it handled almost three times as many individuals. In chapter 4, I examine the House of the Catechumens and its confraternity of S. Giuseppe. Because of its careful supervision by the popes and their integration of it with broader papal policies, as well as its overtly proselytizing purpose, it provides an opportunity for seeing the Jesuits both as polemicists and as enticers of new converts through their portal to Christianity. Finally in chapter 5, 1 expand my scope beyond Rome and provide some more general conclusions regarding the nature and methods of Jesuit confraternal charity. Chapter 2 analyses the development, propagation, and evolution of Europe's first influential 'halfway house' for prostitutes and battered women, the Casa di S. Marta. Along with public preaching, hospital visiting, and feeding of the poor, the early Jesuits quickly came to focus on reaching out to two groups most publicly on the margins of the predominantly Christian order of society, the prostitutes and the Jews. Their heightened visibility and their status as specific targets of the Jesuits are telltale signs of the gradual shift from accommodation to intervention that is characteristic of Early Modern reform efforts. Indeed, the figure of the reformed prostitute, with her powerful identi-

32 Working in the Vineyard of the Lord

fication with the repentant Mary Magdalen, could serve as the locus dassicus for revealing the development of Christian reform movements generally.134 The most important innovation was the provision of a place for a woman in distress to stay for a limited time before deciding either a) to become a nun, b) to get married (with a dowry provided by the confraternity), c) if already married, to be reconciled with her husband, or d) to be placed as the domestic servant of an aristocratic woman (which presumed a chaste life). An institution offering the woman in question such a range of possibilities and such an opportunity for selfdetermination was atypical in sixteenth-century Europe, and, as with many such social experiments, it could not be sustained: within a few decades the Casa di S. Marta reverted to a more traditional format in becoming a monastery of convertite, or repentant prostitutes. Yet it served as a flagship institution for the Jesuits in the early years, and it was transplanted to more than a dozen other cities along the Italian peninsula, all of which, to a greater or lesser degree, preserved the original formula. Ignatius's experience with the plight of repentant prostitutes in the Casa di S. Marta soon brought to his attention a related condition: the presence in bordellos of the prostitutes' daughters and other young women without alternative means of support. By the mid-1540s Ignatius had begun to address this perceived need in Rome by forming another important new institution for women, which will be the subject of chapter 3. The conservatory and confraternity of S. Caterina delle Vergini Miserabili (St Catherine of the Poor Virgins) admitted the daughters of prostitutes, and other young girls living in poverty who in the eyes of sixteenth-century society were at great risk of turning to prostitution. Once again, Ignatius had recourse to his network of spanophile matrons to set this project on its feet, but he also secured a powerful and interested cardinal protector, Federico Cesi, whose substantial financial endowments established a secure foundation for the young institution. After some lean years at the end of the sixteenth century, the conservatory became so comfortably endowed that by the mid-seventeenth century it had evolved into the premier boarding school for the daughters of Roman patrician families. The story of the conservatory of S. Caterina underscores many of the issues relating to gender, sexuality, and reform discussed with respect to the house of S. Marta, but also greatly expands our understanding of how sixteenth-century elites conceived of their obligation to society.

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Precisely because it targeted young girls (in principle no older than 12), the confraternity sought to nurture virtue and inculcate 'right belief/ thereby necessitating long-term intervention. Society can be at its most coercive with regard to children, who are often seen as its most vulnerable members, as those most in need of protection, and as those least capable of making decisions for themselves. Yet this very willingness of the conservatory of S. Caterina, and institutions like it, to take a preemptive step (intervening and imposing themselves before a child might become involved in morally unacceptable alternatives) became a hallmark of the sixteenth-century attitude to charity. Across Europe, as 'consensus Christianity' gave way to separate and competitive confessional groups, toleration for deviant behaviour decreased while recourse to measures of social control increased. S. Caterina stands at the vanguard of this important and growing trend. Alongside prostitutes and their daughters, another traditional target of reforming zeal was the non-Christians present in numerous Italian cities, that is, the Jews and Muslims. For Early Modern reformers, these non-believers represented a tear in the fabric of Christian society that needed careful repair, lest it spread. While the Jews in the Papal States had traditionally been shielded from the persecution common elsewhere in Europe, the climate of reform prompted new efforts to proselytize them. Here again, Ignatius took the important step of influencing Pope Paul Ill's bull of 1542, Cupientcs ludaeos, which removed the requirement for Jews and Muslims to forfeit all property upon becoming Christian, an obvious impediment to conversion to Christianity. Shortly thereafter, he formed a confraternity for new converts (catccinneni) and a house where they could live while learning the new faith, and these will be the subject of chapter 4. The mid-sixteenth century saw particularly troubled relations between the Church and the Jews, which perhaps reached their nadir during the pontificate of Paul IV, who enclosed the Jews in their ghetto in Rome in 1555; but the Casa dei Catecumeni made it easier for Jews to become Christians, and the Jesuits replicated it throughout Italy (and the catechumen houses in Venice and Naples contained many Muslim converts as well). The efforts on behalf of non-Christians, like those on behalf of prostitutes and young girls, exhibit the intersecting goals of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, the new reform orders, and the laity. The redoubled efforts at conversion were tied to apocalyptic expectations, but also reflect the discomfort associated with recognizing the presence of marginalized groups who do not conform to the reigning ideologies. Thus, the cate-

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chumen houses were a material product of the heightened religious tensions of the sixteenth century, and also an integral institutional arm, along with the Holy Office (or Inquisition), of the enforcement side of Early Modern Catholicism. They also helped to localize the spectacle of worldwide evangelization, as the public conversion of a few Jews or Muslim slaves brought home in the most immediate fashion the faraway conversions of thousands in India or the New World. They could thus help sustain hope that Catholic Christianity would be victorious, even when Turkish incursions or Protestant gains were all too evident. Interestingly, unlike the institutions for women, the catechumen houses did not evolve away from their original purpose, but remained the primary portal to Christianity right through the nineteenth century, a continuity that demonstrates their vital role in the ideologically charged arena of religious conversion. Chapter 5, the last chapter, moves beyond these three models which proved to be the most frequently emulated in the earliest years to give the first panoptic view of Jesuit confraternal activity, culminating in the development and propagation of the Jesuits' own distinctive confraternal institution, the Marian congregations. The earliest Jesuit confraternal initiatives emulated those of the Jesuits themselves, who sought to engage fully in the life of local communities. In the first decades in Rome and across Italy, the Jesuits founded numerous confraternities for tending the sick, sheltering and educating orphans, teaching Christian Doctrine, helping poor nobles, providing dowries for women about to be married, or visiting and financially assisting those in debtors' prison. Still others sought to control blasphemy, or had no externally directed focus other than organized devotion to the Eucharist or to Mary and the saints. From the outset, when the peripatetic model of itinerant preaching predominated in Jesuit practice, confraternities provided an ideal solution to a conundrum, whereby a relatively short period of evangelization nevertheless had as its goal the preservation of the fruits of conversion over time. By setting up a new confraternity or reviving a defunct one, the itinerant Jesuit could leave behind in lay hands an institution that would incarnate and perpetuate the zeal and fervour awakened during the Jesuit's presence in a town. The earliest Jesuit activities were concentrated in the cities, so their confraternal practices reflected urban conditions and societal class structure. Later, as the number of Jesuits grew and their reach extended into smaller towns and villages as part of their expanding

Preparing the Soil: The First Jesuit Confraternities 35

missionary activity, the same practices could be modified and redeployed in evangelizing the capillary regions. While of course not every Jesuit established a confraternity or was interested in utilizing the confraternal model, certain patterns in Jesuit confraternal strategy emerge. Especially after the Jubilee year of 1575, when the Jesuit missions became more methodical and more dispersed, the confraternities were regularly incorporated into the processions accompanying the opening and closing of missions, spectacles that became increasingly more elaborate and involved. Confraternal organization tended to accept and to reinforce societal organization and hierarchies, rather than seeking to remodel society or to impose ideal structures. Where possible, the goals of existing social hierarchies might well dovetail in service to the Church, but Utopian social engineering was not a feature of Jesuit confraternal practice. Interestingly, a significant number of the earliest Jesuit confraternities were open to both women and men - indeed, the Jesuits seem to have made many of their initial contacts and received significant financial support via the prominent aristocrats' wives whose confessions they heard and to whom they administered the Spiritual Exercises. Often, the Jesuits used their Spanish connections to full effect in their funding of these organizations, particularly in the south of Italy, where the Spanish were the hegemonic power. But just as Jesuit ministry evolved to address new circumstances and challenges, so the Jesuit confraternal model changed over time. Increasing numbers of Jesuits became involved with teaching in their schools and colleges, and a more stationary, scholastic model consequently came to predominate in Jesuit ministry, and this change registered in the Jesuit confraternal model as well. Indeed, it was in the Roman College in 1563 that Jan Leunis launched the first Marian congregation, and its rules and organizational structure bear the strong imprint of a scholastic organization, with a Jesuit priest appointed as authoritative head, and a subordinate system of officers, members, and practices carefully moulded by the clerical leader. Such an authoritative role would have been inconceivable and impracticable for an itinerant evangelist, and accordingly one finds Jesuit Marian congregations appearing first in the colleges for the students, and then later spreading to the professed houses, where adult laypersons and secular priests more commonly were members. In either case, the Marian sodalities existed only where there was a prolonged institutional Jesuit presence. But as the order grew and became more stationary, the Marian congregations expanded exponentially; often there were five or

36 Working in the Vineyard of the Lord

more sodalities existing in the same college or professed house, divided along class lines (separate sodalities for nobles, professionals, tradespeople, and servants, for instance). Indeed, by the time the order was suppressed in the eighteenth century, the Marian congregations numbered more than 2,400 affiliated organizations throughout the world, more than any other Christian lay collectivity up to that time (these sodalities were subsequently folded into parochial organization and, as noted earlier, totalled upwards of 80,000 affiliated organizations by the mid-twentieth century), and in their fourth assembly of the World Federation in 1967 formally changed their name to 'Christian Life Communities/ which continue to the present.135 The Marian congregations thus represent the culmination of Jesuit confraternal activity, or at least its mature development. But let us turn our attention now to the origins of Jesuit engagement with the laity, to the insights of Ignatius, who, while walking the streets of Rome, saw women in need and a willingness in the community to lend a hand.

CHAPTER TWO

Training the Vine: Reformed Prostitutes and the First Jesuits: The Casa di S. Marta and the Compagnia della Grazia

Following the model of Jesus and the woman taken in adultery in John .8:3-11, Christians have often seen prostitutes as ideal subjects for the exercise of forgiveness, repentance, and conversion. In times of rising anxiety or crisis, reform-minded individuals have tended to tolerate less the presence of prostitutes in the urban environment, and have taken the occasion to advocate for programs designed to remove the perceived causes of prostitution, to provide alternatives for prostitutes, and, thereby, to alleviate the problem. Ignatius of Loyola represents just such a zealous Christian, in that he was shocked by the presence of prostitutes, as much in his home town of Azpeitia as in the heart of Christendom, Rome. From his earliest activities upon arriving in the caput mundi in the winter of 1538, and while still seeking to discern the shape of his ministerial model, Ignatius wasted no time in settling on a ministry to prostitutes. Precisely because the paradigm is perennial, paying attention to the solutions employed by Ignatius and the early Jesuits can provide valuable insight into the nascent Jesuit apostolate as well as into the prevailing attitudes and presuppositions of Early Modern Italian society. Accordingly, exploring the formation and character of the house of S. Marta for repentant prostitutes, and the Confraternity of Divine Grace which ran it, will enable us to observe the application of evolving understandings of society's obligations to its outcasts, and the roles of societal elites in effecting social change. Christian Attitudes toward Prostitution That prostitution is the oldest human profession is a cliche familiar to schoolchildren. By pointing to 'prostitute-like' behaviour in primates,

38 Working in the Vineyard of the Lord

some suggest it may even be older than humanity, while others prefer to point to motherhood as the oldest model for human activity.1 Christians inherited many of their attitudes toward prostitution from their Greek and Roman forebears, from the Athens of Solon and the Rome of Augustus.2 The three conditions codified by Ulpian in the third century as demarking prostitution - palam, sine dilectu, pecunia accepta; that it be public, without pleasure, and for payment - were repeated innumerable times in legal statutes throughout the West.3 But owing to the greater emphasis placed by Christianity on chastity, virginity, and marital fidelity, the consequences of prostitution were generally seen in a darker light.4 Christian responses ranged from rejection, and thus expulsion or punishment, to rehabilitation or toleration, and thus legislative control.5 Christians quickly developed a variety of theoretical arguments to support this spectrum of legal responses. Tertullian, John Chrysostom, Jerome, and Augustine all devoted much energy to the exaltation of chastity and the condemnation of fornication. The authority of Augustine, however, from the thirteenth century on came to be particularly associated with the view that prostitution ought to be tolerated as a necessary or lesser evil, owing to the spurious attribution to his De ordine of the argument that 'prostitutes in a town are like the gutters in the palace, if removed, the whole place will reek/6 This spurious attribution gained authority from the De regimine principum, which was associated with Thomas Aquinas though probably completed by Ptolomeo of Lucca, Thomas's confessor. Ptolomeo (or Thomas) continued by quoting Aristotle's argument that if soldiers did not have prostitutes, they would turn to abusing chaste women and children or other men. Prostitutes therefore ought to be tolerated as a lesser evil: their existence would prevent greater harm (in the form of rape, child molestation, or homosexual acts) from being done. This justification on the basis of a lesser evil had been in currency at least from classical times, but Aquinas gave it the most concise formulation as well as dissemination in his Summa theologiae.7 Alongside the universal condemnation (albeit toleration) of the sin, the Church in the Middle Ages developed numerous pastoral practices meant to redeem the sinner. The lives of such saints as Mary Magdalen, Mary of Egypt, Thai's, Pelagia, Mary the niece of Abraham, and Afra of Augsburg provided the primary models for individual conversion.8 Another model, for a communal life of repentance for former prostitutes, was established as early as 532 by Justinian's wife, Empress

Training the Vine: S. Marta and the Compagnia della Grazia 39

Theodora.9 Procopius tells us that she opened a neglected palace she renamed Metanoia (Repentance), across the Bosphorus from Constantinople, for as many as five hundred women, after learning that procurers were visiting country towns and villages to persuade hardpressed parents to sell their daughters into the capital's sex industry.10 Although Metanoia reportedly resulted in failure, later Byzantine emperors followed Theodora's example by establishing similar refuges for prostitutes.'' In the West, Visigothic, German, and Lombard law codes record severe penalties for prostitutes without mentioning institutions aimed at their redemption. Prostitutes were common appendages of military encampments, and laws were passed to drive them out of Crusader camps, in 1097 for example.12 In 1158, Frederick Barbarossa tried to remove the prostitutes who were accompanying the armies in his Italian campaigns by punishing both the soldiers and the prostitutes (by cutting off their noses in order to disfigure them and thereby eliminate their market appeal).13 The first attempts in the West to convert prostitutes by offering them a monastic alternative, similar to Empress Theodora's Metanoia, date from the early twelfth century, and they include one of the four Augustinian foundations of Robert d'Arbrissel at Fontevrault (one each for nuns, for monks, for lepers, and for prostitutes).14 The monastery of StAntoine, established on the outskirts of Paris around 1198 by two priests, Foulques de Neuilly and Pierre de Roissy, was on a larger scale and drew more attention since it was in the capital city.1^ It was originally designed as an institution for both prostitutes and pimps, but the men were later separated and the women required to follow the Cistercian Rule. 16 A pragmatic and innovative reformer, Foulques also organized a substantial dowry (1,000 livres provided by the Parisian authorities and 250 by the university students) for every former prostitute who contracted an honourable marriage.17 Almost simultaneously, another pragmatic reformer, Innocent III, preached that marrying a prostitute was 'not least among the works of charity,' and granted indulgences for the prospective husband,18 effectively matching the financial incentives with heavenly ones. Beginning at the turn to the thirteenth century, this new zeal for redeeming prostitutes was just one manifestation of a renewed emphasis on the vita apostolicci that found many forms of expression, from the new mendicant orders to the heretical movements of the Waldensians and Cathars. 19 Redemption for prostitutes meant their being directed

40 Working in the Vineyard of the Lord

to one of the two traditional places where acceptable female behaviour was modelled, the convent or marriage.20 Foulques's and Innocent's successors were quick to follow their lead. By 1226 the bishop of Paris, Guillaume d'Auvergne, had opened a convent for repentant prostitutes called the Filles-Dieu. This convent drew the attention of King (St) Louis IX, who reportedly sent two hundred women there and endowed it both financially (with an annual pension of 400 livres, according to Joinville) and legally (with laws prohibiting prostitution, in 1254 and 1256).21 The pious gestures of the bishop and the king did not pass unnoticed. Similar convents of repentant prostitutes were opened in the south of France, in Avignon (c. 1257), Marseille (c. 1272), Aix-en-Provence (13th century), Toulouse (c. 1300), Carcassonne (c. 1310), Narbonne (c. 1321), Montpellier (c. 1328), and Limoux (14th century).22 Almost simultaneously with the foundation of the Filles-Dieu in Paris, Rudolf of Worms founded the Order of the Penitents of St Mary Magdalen, and in 1227 Pope Gregory IX provided his sanction, so that Magdalen houses for prostitutes (as well as presumed virgins) began to spread throughout Europe, especially in Germany, where more than forty such convents had been founded by the end of the thirteenth century23 (see fig. 2). In Italy, short-lived houses for repentant prostitutes opened in Pisa in 1240 and in Viterbo in 1243, and a monastery of S. Maria Maddalena delle Convertite was functioning in Bologna by 1250, when it is first mentioned in city statutes.24 In 1257 the bishop of Avignon even endowed the Bolognese convent with incomes, and in the same year a similar convent was opened in Florence.25 Rome could claim its own convent by 1255, when Pope Alexander IV asked the Cistercian cardinal Juan of Toledo to establish a convent in the church of S. Maria sopra Minerva; it was later moved to S. Pancrazio.26 Other Italian cities followed suit (Messina, 13th century; Naples, 1324; Venice, 1357, etc.).27 Yet prostitutes were frequently not alone in the attention they received as public sinners. At the instigation of a layman, Fardo Ugolini, Viterbo gained two monasteries in 1322, one for converted prostitutes and the other for converted Jews. Confirming the link between these two outcast groups, Pope John XXII authorized the local bishop to offer a forty-day indulgence for any individual who financially supported either of these institutions.28 Indeed, the dramatic conversion of prostitutes and Jews in the wake of revival sermons by popular preachers became a virtual barometer of the preachers' success, and proof of the fruitfulness of such preaching.29

Training the Vine: S. Marta and the Compagnia della Grazia 41

The reformed prostitute, through her powerful identification with the repentant Mary Magdalen, could well be considered as presenting the locus dassicus for the development of reform movements.30 Leo X stressed this in his bull of confirmation for a new monastery of converted prostitutes in Rome, citing Luke's familiar passage that there is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need to repent.31 Indeed, the founding of this new convertite monastery in 1520 suggests that it was a tangible result of the reform spirit accompanying the Fifth Lateran Council32 (see fig. 3). Coinciding with the initial zeal for the reform of prostitutes as expressed in the foundation of convents of convertite from the thirteenth century on), city governments across Europe implemented a crackdown in the form of sumptuary legislation, restrictive laws, and fines until roughly the mid-fourteenth century. In the years following the Black Death, however, these same towns reversed their course and legislated policies of toleration, or rather concentration, of prostitutes in publicly administered brothels.33 Laws affecting prostitutes were aimed at identifying and segregating them from other groups of women, at sharpening the distinction between honour and shame.34 From examining the records of the Onesta in Florence from 1403, Richard Trexler has also argued that prostitutes were imported for the explicit purpose of curbing homosexual acts, and a similar motivation may have been at work in Genoa and Venice.35 Yet such an explanation can at best be partial, and other scholars have seen the institutionalization of prostitution as an indicator of prostitutes' important mediating function in late medieval and Early Modern economies, given the realities of delayed marriages for men and an expensive dowry market for women.36 Indeed, prostitutes had grown so conspicuous that one observer refrained from trying to list them: 'It would be like trying to count the stars in the sky.'3/ The heyday of public brothels had ended by the midsixteenth century for numerous and interlocking reasons: the advent of syphilis and the broad association of prostitutes with contagion;38 the growing crackdown on crime and a more paternalistic treatment of the poor;39 in Protestant countries, the elimination of the double standard for sexual behaviour and the focus on the single norm of the patriarchal nuclear family; 40 in Catholic countries, a renewed determination to enforce traditional patterns of chastity and honour.41 While seeking to bring the practice of prostitution to an end, reformminded contemporaries also focused on the causes leading women

42 Working in the Vineyard of the Lord

into prostitution in the first place (the male client was almost never factored into the equation). The Bolognese moralist Sperone Speroni cited two traditionally recognized causes, fear of poverty and introduction by a widowed mother needing support from her children, before suggesting his own explanation - the irrevocable loss of honour consequent upon an early and impetuous love-affair.42 A more common opinion, in an age of increasing suspicion of the poor, was that portrayed in Pietro Aretino's Dialogues: the prostitute was a greedy and clever swindler who employed every possible subterfuge to separate a suitor from his money.43 The author of such a text assumes the role of a revealer of secrets, who exposes the many tricks and wiles of the corrupt prostitute.44 While describing all the professions of the world, Tomaso Garzoni even went so far as to paint the pimp/procuress as a master of all trades.45 A variant of this theme can be found in picaresque literature, such as Francisco Delicado's La lozana andalusa (The Saucy Andalusian, 1528), in which the (anti-)heroine, while clever, is forced into her role by her impoverished circumstances but ultimately triumphs over the evil of prostitution.46 By relying on court depositions and other archival records, Thomas and Elizabeth Cohen have shown that prostitutes led a far more ambivalent existence than these worldly literary sources would suggest.47 While, on the one hand, they could be important figures in their neighbourhoods, on the other, their positions were always precarious and vulnerable, as their appearances in court records attest. Inevitably, prostitutes and the various schemes for their redemption became tied to religious polemic. In the first book written in English ever published on Italy, William Thomas's The History of Italy (1549), the Protestant author could not help but notice with contempt the vain excesses of Paul Ill's papal court in Rome. He also insinuated a charge of sodomy, and reported on the exalted status of courtesans over respectable women, quoting a proverb: 'In Roma vale piii la putana che la moglie Romana: that is to say, "In Rome the harlot hath a better life than she that is a Roman's wife."'48 It was precisely to counter aspersions of this type within the ideologically charged atmosphere of postTridentine Rome that the English priest Gregory Martin wrote his treatise on Roman charity, Roma sancta (manuscript completed in 1581).49 Although clearly ideologically committed, Martin provides a succinct summary of sixteenth-century arguments for and against the toleration of prostitution.50 Since he cannot avoid confronting Rome's reputation as a haven and

Training the Vine: S. Marta and the Compagma della Grazia 43

centre for the courtesan, Martin's first defence is to catalogue the laws that limit and control prostitutes. He informs his reader that they are all confined to one corner of the city, which is shunned by virtuous citizens (in this detail, his account already conflicts with Montaigne's, among others)/1 and he lists the limitations on their mobility, clothing, spiritual status (they are prohibited from receiving communion), legal status (their possessions are subject to confiscation upon death)/"12 and choice of a gravesite (a dunghill is prescribed). In addition, preachers address daily sermons to the prostitutes, to exhort them to enter one of two houses, the convent for Magdalens or the Casa Pia, a house founded by Pius IV to take over the role of halfway house, after the Casa di S. Marta had shifted toward the model of a convent. Martin next confronts the objection that all these restrictions could best be replaced by an outright ban on prostitution. He replies first that, indeed, Pius V published just such a ban; but since that effort proved futile, he must address the issue in greater detail. He summarizes at length the arguments of a highly respected contemporary canonist and casuist at the Poenitentiaria apostolica (papal office for confessions), Martin de Azpilcueta (called Dr Navarre).53 Azpilcueta advocates a position of zero tolerance for seven reasons: first, it is difficult to excuse the renters of brothels for the use of prostitution; second, young men given the opportunity afforded by the presence of prostitutes will tend to sin sooner than they otherwise would; third, lust is not quenched but rather inflamed by brothels; fourth, good women and daughters are not spared, because their abusers are not those who frequent brothels; fifth, young men, personally known to Azpilcueta, have been corrupted in both body arid soul by prostitutes; sixth, once prostitutes grow old, they shift to a variety of other evils; and seventh, the true remedy of concupiscence is chastity, and avoidance of the near occasion of sin. In refuting the position of this Catholic theologian, Martin does not address Azpilcueta's points individually, but rather produces seven arguments of his own to support the pope's practice of toleration. First, he wheels out Augustine's authority and his response regarding the problem of the passions (i.e., 'take away the prostitutes, and you introduce the problem of the passions'; see above, and n6 to this chapter), and emphasizes that 'harlots do serve the order of the Whole' by sparing honest women. Second, he points out that Augustine and other Church Fathers do in fact argue for bans on the entertainment of the amphitheatres and other pagan spectacles, but do not place an

44 Working in the Vineyard of the Lord

absolute ban on prostitution, though they were familiar with it in their cities. Third, Martin adduces Sacred Scripture: Jesus tells the scribes and Pharisees that the 'Publicans and whoores' shall enter the Kingdom of God before them (Matt. 21:31); for Martin this is a sign that Jesus and the Jews knew of prostitution (Mary Magdalen, Tamar, and Rahab also serve as his examples), but that nowhere in the New Testament does Jesus blame the Jews for having prostitutes in their cities. Fourth, Martin makes a familiar analogy: although the Jews blaspheme Christ in their synagogues, nevertheless they are tolerated, and therefore King Sisibutus's expulsion of the Jews from Spain is to be criticized (here Martin conveniently elides the more recent expulsions of 1492). Martin's fifth argument compares an analogous vice: usury is condemned yet tolerated throughout the Christian world. In his sixth argument, he moves to the offensive against the Protestants: even though stews are banned in England, the practice continues. Seventh, Martin takes on Germany with another analogy: in many places the brothels have been closed, but has drunkenness also been banned, and all drunkards expelled? Here, Martin cannot help but take a swipe: if that were the case, the country would be left without inhabitants. For Martin, the moral is that many actions are tolerated while not condoned; indeed, he continues, even God tolerated much, by permitting the 'stiffenecked Jewes' to divorce their wives in Levitical Law, 'not because it was good, but because they would have done worse.' Finally, Martin returns to Augustine to provide the concluding context for his discussion of the treatment of prostitutes: those practising vices should be persuaded 'monendo magis quam minando, by exhorting rather than by threatening.'54 Thus, the chief tools for conversion are preaching and charitable initiatives. The prostitute, like the poor beggar in the traditional medieval view, becomes part of the economy of salvation for the donor, one who offers the Christian an opportunity to exercise the virtue of charity.55 It is this virtue that reconciles the divergent views of the very Catholic authorities Martin has compiled. Rather than trying to harmonize the discordant opinions into a definitive conclusion, Martin is ultimately satisfied (as likely were many confraternity members in the sixteenth century) to let others wrangle about the theory. He prefers to proceed to the business of helping those one can help: 'whiles Christian pollicy, to avoid greater inconveniences, geveth not sentence against the whole, [nevertheless] let Christian charity be worthely praysed and extolled for the manifold meanes of saving a great part.'56

Training the Vine: S. Marta and the Compagnia della Grazia 45 Roman Prostitutes and the Road to Reform While Gregory Martin himself may not have exhibited the most charitable attitude toward Germans and Jews, as can be inferred from his comments above, Rome in the early sixteenth century provided perhaps the ideal forum in which to exercise the virtue of charity toward prostitutes. Prostitutes were so thoroughly integrated in Roman culture as to have an institutionalized role in the annual Carnival celebrations.57 Always an important social problem in Rome, prostitution increased to a troubling degree during the early sixteenth century.58 Given the high ratio of men to women and the transience of the population, the city's prostitutes found their clientele among the members of the pontifical court and the diplomatic corps of Christendom. Because clerics and courtesans were so openly affiliated, the reigns of Julius II and Leo X have been called the golden age of prostitution.59 The women who entertained the highest levels of the clergy were the aristocracy of prostitution, the cortesanae honestae (honest courtesans) as Johannes Burchard, the master of ceremonies for the court of Alexander VI Borgia, called them.60 These courtesans were the epitome of refinement, as elegant as they were rare. Admired as a revival of the ancient Greek hetaera, the courtesan emerged in the Early Modern Roman world blessed by the humanists' esteem for the antique.61 Fiammetta, Imperia, and, later, Isabella de Luna and Tullia d'Aragona were but the most notable, accomplished, and highly praised by poets and Htternti.62 Alongside these few elite courtesans were legions of other women who plied their trade in brutal conditions without much hope of alleviation. These were the meretrices publicae, who solicited men in the streets and squares, in their homes and in bordellos, and sometimes also in churches.63 That women plus poverty equalled prostitution was an equation not lost on contemporary observers.64 Limited employment opportunities for the poorest women and the high cost of wedding dowries forced many into prostitution as a means of self-support. Indeed, Guido Ruggiero has discerned at least six levels of prostitution in the major cities of Italy, covering the social spectrum, from the common brothel whore to the bejewelled courtesan.65 A chronicler in the time of Innocent VIII even claimed, on the basis of the 1490 census, that in a population of fewer than 50,000 in Rome, there were 6,800 prostitutes, 'in addition to concubines and brothel prostitutes.' In La lozana andalusa, a character named Dovizia offers the

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preposterous figure of 30,000 prostitutes and 9,000 procuresses.66 A more recent estimate comes from Domenico Gnoli, using the 1527 Roman census.67 Gnoli arrives at a figure of 4,900 prostitutes out of a population of 55,035, but notes that this number is in addition to hundreds of pimps, procuresses, and servants earning a living from prostitution. The area of highest concentration was the Campo Marzio region, by the mausoleum of Augustus and nearest to the north gate (Porta del Popolo), where the greatest number of travellers and pilgrims lodged upon entering the city. Here, of 4,574 inhabitants, perhaps 1,250 (more than 25 per cent) may have been prostitutes.68 While these numbers are certainly inflated - their accuracy remains disputable69 - it is clear that prostitution was of widespread concern in sixteenth-century Roman society. Public examples of corruption soon caught the eye of the reformminded. For Savonarola, Rome had become 'the New Babylon/ or, as others said througout Italy, 'Rome seen, faith lost' (veduta Roma, perduta fede).70 This reputation was putty in the hands of the reformers, particularly those in northern Europe, who had cultivated the metaphor of Rome as Babylon and the pope as the Antichrist with withering effect.71 Luther's publication in 1522 of his German New Testament with illustrations of the events of the Apocalypse by Lucas Cranach the Elder is representative.72 Here Rome is the new Babylon, the harlot city of the Apocalypse; the Great Whore of Babylon is shown wearing a papal tiara, while off to the side the condemned city of the Apocalypse is a tumbling version of Hartmann Schedel's well-known Imago Romae of 1493.73 For many, Protestants as well as Catholics, Rome stood as a microcosm of the Church: the pagan caput mundi had long since been transformed into the head of the mystical body of Christ, the Church.74 And since the higher clergy were also a large part of the problem, they were hardly at the forefront of reform. Yet as the arrival of syphilis and increased warfare drove ever greater numbers of poor into the city, the symptoms grew unavoidable.75 From being a threat to urban morality, prostitutes became a threat to urban health, and in the eyes of the pious the condition called for action. Help soon came in the form of a confraternity from Genoa. The Compagnia del Divino Amore (Confraternity of Divine Love), founded in 1497, was the first institution to help 'the incurables' (those suffering from syphilis).76 By the second decade of the sixteenth century, one of the founders, Ettore Vernazza, was nursing syphilitics by

Training the Vine: S. Marta and the Compagnia della Grazia 47

the church of St James near the Campo Marzio in Rome.77 It was a short step from syphilitics to prostitutes, who were seen as the spreaders of the disease, and the young Compagnia del Divino Amore soon began to raise funds for them as well. By 1520, under the auspices of Cardinal Giulio de' Medici (later Pope Clement VII), work had started on the new monastery of St Mary Magdalen of the 'reformed prostitutes' (convertitc).^ That same year, Giulio secured official approval from his cousin Leo X with the bull Snlvator noster Jesus, and had his own recently founded Confraternity of Charity placed in charge of its administration. 74 In place of a life of unbridled lust, the founders of the new institution proposed for the prostitutes a cloistered life of prayer, repentance, and labour. The routine of spinning, sewing, and embroidering would mark their days, for idleness was the devil's handmaiden.80 Gregory Martin, who lived in Rome from 1576 to 1578 and had first-hand experience of the Magdalen convent, summed up the repentance of these 'convertites' for his English audience: 'These be therefore so called by cause they are converted from their naughty life, and of common whores and harlots made good Christian wTemen.'81 The Magdalen convent represented an initial step down the road of reform, but it took a crisis to prompt more decisive action writh regard to the prostitutes. That crisis soon came, at the hands of the imperial troops, with the Sack of Rome in 1527.82 The Sack brought the golden age of Rome to an end, and with it, the age of the elite courtesan. Contemporary Romans and Italians saw the Sack as God's righteous judgment upon them, and as an unmistakable signal to initiate reform, especially given Rome's privileged status as universal head of the Church. 8 ' Even the Curia's winking acceptance of clerical concubinage was to change; a new attitude developed among the ecclesiastical hierarchy after the Sack, as they considered the causes of God's harsh castigation: 'Because all flesh has become corrupt, because we are not citizens of the holy city of Rome, but of Babylon, the city of corruption ... We have all sinned grievously, let us reform, turn to the Lord, and He will have pity on us.'84 Within a few years, Pope Paul III, who has been called the first 'Counter-Reformation pope,' appointed a commission of reformminded cardinals to address specifically the issue of corruption in Rome and the papal court.85 Deeply enmeshed in the political posturing taking place between the pope and the European powers, the commission was charged with making wide-ranging recommendations for ecclesiastical reform in anticipation of a new general council. In 1537

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the commission issued its famous report, entitled Consilium de emendanda ecclesia, which among many other suggestions included the following criticism specifically of prostitution in Rome: This city and church of Rome is the mother and teacher of the other churches. Therefore in her especially divine worship and integrity of morals ought to flourish ... In this city harlots walk about like matrons or ride on mules, attended in broad daylight by noble members of the cardinals' households and by clerics. In no city do we see this corruption except in this model for all cities. Indeed they even dwell in fine houses. This foul abuse must also be corrected.'86 A page had been turned. Through the end of the sixteenth century, the popes and governors of Rome legislated an increasing array of restrictive measures.87 The prostitutes' traditional Carnival race was ended, and sumptuary laws were tightened; the prostitutes themselves were forbidden entrance to the Vatican, required to attend public sermons, and barred from riding in horse-drawn carriages, a measure adopted to distinguish them from women of virtue.88 Perhaps the most zealous pope with regard to prostitutes and moral offenders, Pius V issued an edict on St Mary Magdalen's day, 22 July 1566, requiring courtesans to leave the city within six days. Since their compliance might severely have depleted the population of the city, he was persuaded to rescind the order after having repeated it a number of times, but it stands as a testimony to the popes' new hard line with respect to prostitution.89 In 1569, Pius V also began to build a walled ghetto for the prostitutes, the 'bad garden' (ortaccio, an inverted Garden of Eden along the Tiber) consisting of the area of the Campo Marzio around the Porta di Ripetta.90 As the census of 1527 had shown, this area, located nearest to the pilgrim hostels by the northern gate, had the highest concentration of prostitutes. Prostitutes continued to live and work in Rome, but their visibility was sharply curtailed, as was the freedom of contemporaries to publish comments about them.91 Clearing the streets of pimps and hookers went hand in hand with the physical rejuvenation of the city; it provided a moral counterpart. Yet it left corrupt financial practices intact.92 Reforms directed toward financial abuses and nepotism, for instance, would have conflicted with the private family interests of the ecclesiastical community, from Pope Paul III Farnese down.93 Public efforts at reform undertaken by the ecclesiastical hierarchy therefore focused primarily on the spiritual realm, in aiming at increasing traditional piety and charity, educating the clergy, preventing the spread of

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false doctrine, and removing 'likely suspects' in the form of obvious moral offenders, whereas ecclesiastical revenues and benefices were largely left untouched. On the other hand, cardinals were expected to direct much of their incomes to enhancement of the physical appearance of the Eternal City, by financing the construction arid renovation of churches and palaces and so presenting a material and tangible result of these new reform efforts.94 Indeed, between 1527 and 1580 at least forty-six churches and oratories were built in Rome, more than four times the number founded in the previous century.95 These spectacular new churches helped burnish Rome's tarnished image, and by the beginning of the next century Rome had assumed the foremost position in the production of new art and architecture in Europe.96 Even the modern visitor cannot help but notice the impressive footprint of Baroque Rome. It is in this context of a great Renovatio Romae, and its multivalent efforts of rejuvenation, reform, and coercion, that the early development of the new charitable confraternities belongs.97 The First Jesuit and Prostitutes Shortly after their arrival in Rome in the fall of 1537, Ignatius of Loyola and two of his original companions embarked upon a variety of ministries.98 They had come to Rome to gain the blessing of Pope Paul III for a mission to the Holy Land, but at Paul's suggestion they made Rome their Holy Land. Before they had a stable home for themselves, they were operating a soup kitchen to provide food for as many as 3,000 poor, who were starving and freezing in the particularly harsh winter of 1538.99 These ministries coincided precisely with the period of deliberation on how the companions should proceed, whether to join another order or start their own, and they left a telling mark.100 The first companions were constantly involved in preaching, teaching theology at Rome's 'La Sapienza' university, administering the sacraments (particularly confession and communion), teaching Christian Doctrine to children, and directing the Spiritual Exercises for the elites. Following Matthew 25, they took on the additional works of mercy of serving the sick in hospitals and visiting prisoners. In short order, this work was extended to orphans, prostitutes, and Muslims and Jews. For while the age-old call to repentance was heard as applying to all layers of Early Modern society, prostitutes, Jews, and Muslims especiallyhigh-profile figures who were seen to be outside God's grace - stood out as symbols of the need for conversion. 01

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But whereas some women chose, either treely or out of desperation, the life of the convertite, with its cloister and its severe penances, clearly that life was not an attractive choice for every prostitute who felt a call to reform. Moreover, for those prostitutes who were married and estranged from their husbands, taking monastic vows was usually not an option at all.102 It was precisely to provide other alternatives that in 1541 and 1542, after Paul III had given provisional approval to the new order, Ignatius established a new kind of institution, the Casa di S. Marta, with a confraternity, the Compagnia della Grazia, in charge of its administration.103 The important innovation was the provision of a place for women to stay for a limited period before deciding whether to take monastic vows, be reconciled with their husbands, get married, or (in a few cases) be placed as domestic servants of aristocratic women. The house of S. Marta was hardly the first example of Ignatius's special attention to female piety and chastity. Noblewomen such as Inez Pascual and Isabella Roser were among his earliest supporters, from the days in Manresa and Barcelona.104 Indeed, the spiritual direction of women helped shape the Spiritual Exercises from the outset, even though over time women made the Exercises less frequently.105 Ignatius also struggled with the questions of admitting women to the Society of Jesus and of sponsoring women's convents, but in both cases, after early experiments, he decided the Society should not.106 Throughout his life, he recognized (and his order benefited from) the enormous financial support and influence that women, especially noblewomen, could provide.107 But he was also aware of the potential for scandal in association with women. Ignatius himself had been the target of accusations of impertinent relations, and he grew ever more careful in the counsel he gave to new Jesuits: T would have no dealings with young women of the common people except in church and quite publicly ... Above all I would never talk with a woman behind closed doors or in a secluded place, but in public where they can be seen, so as to forestall any criticism or suspicion.'108 As I argued in chapter 1, Ignatius's return to his home town of Azpeitia for three months in 1535 provides an important key to understanding his attitudes toward social justice and his view of the place of women in the reform of society.109 Ignatius launched four initiatives in Azpeitia, all directed to the laity, and one specifically to women.110 He arranged for statutes containing tough penalties for single women who wore the hats reserved for married women. Such a concern for sump-

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tuary legislation clearly indicates a sensitivity in Ignatius to those living in a manner outside the societally and ecclesiastically approved manner. In particular, Ignatius sought to target and uproot priestly concubinage, by imposing penalties on clerics and women who through public affiliation openly flaunted sexual mores and ecclesiastical law. Priestly concubinage represented a traditional concern among proponents of social reform, but both the public and the unrepentant nature of these sexual transgressions were what attracted Ignatius's attention, and he gave teeth to the laws by means of increasing fines and periods of banishment from Azpeitia. Although not yet a priest, he also preached so fervently against fornication that five women leading wayward lives repented." 1 In Rome, of course, Ignatius could not possibly exercise the same influence as in Azpeitia, where he was a member of the principal family. Nevertheless, within a short time he began to direct his attention to prostitutes.11"" His views were unequivocal: when others objected that such women were hardened in their vice, would easily fall back into their former ways, and therefore would hardly profit from zealous concern for their conversion, Ignatius responded: That is not so. If with all my care and trouble I can persuade but one of them to refrain from sin for a single night for the sake of my Lord Jesus Christ, then I would leave nothing, absolutely nothing, undone in order that she should at least during that time not offend God - even if I knew for certain that she would immediately afterwards return to her former vice/11' Ignatius gathered pious men and, in particular, many noble matrons interested in giving these women a new start. Pedro de Ribadeneira later recalled: At the time when the House of St. Martha was being established at Rome and some leading courtesans were beginning to turn away from their evil business and to confine their activities to works of salvation and pious tears, Ignatius made a habit of accompanying them in the public street not several at once, but now this one, now that. It was a wondrous sight to see the Holy Man - a footman, as it were running before a young and pretty street girl, in order to save her from the clutches of the most cruel tyrant and to lead her into safety in the hands of Christ ... He went with them either to the newly established convent or to the house of some highborn lady, in which the girls were to be at first accustomed to domestic tasks and then, spurred by the example and admonitions of other girls, to a life of virtue." 4

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While this recollection is clearly intended to edify, it reveals the early Jesuits' familiar contact with the underworld of Roman prostitution and provides insight into their first, informal efforts to remove women to a more salutary environment. The Casa di S. Marta: Foundation and Earliest Years Leaving aside Jesuit historians, S. Marta has received more attention from art and architectural historians primarily interested in the church and ceiling decorated by Giovanni Battista Gaulli ('II Baciccia') than from scholars interested in the institution itself.115 Among Jesuits, beginning with Ignatius himself, S. Marta was exploited from the outset as a model for emulation and an important element of the Jesuit 'way of proceeding.'116 Despite this early and continuous attention, much of the chronology regarding the foundation and development of the house remains in question. Juan de Polanco, Ignatius's secretary and confidant from 1547 on, placed the informal beginning of all Ignatius's charitable initiatives, including S. Marta, in 1538, but this is likely a hazy recollection.117 Later in his Chronicon, Polanco suggests 16 February 1542 as the date of inauguration, but this is merely a misdating by one year (1543) of Paul Ill's bull of approbation, Divina summaque Dei.118 The papal bull constitutes the canonical erection of the confraternity, and designates its purpose, legitimacy, and title 'della grazia.'119 It also specifies some offices, privileges, indulgences, and so on, and thus in itself is a sign of a degree of organization. However, while it does authorize the confraternity to build a tiny church with a humble bell-tower and adjoining rooms, courtyard, and cemetery, it does not address the actual state or condition of the site.120 A better indicator that the institution was up and running is a letter datable between March 1543 and January 1544, which refers to twenty-four women who have entered the 'casa de las mugeres peccadoras' (house of sinning women), and refers to Cardinal Rodolfo Pio de Carpi as the house's cardinal protector.121 Ignatius fully recognized that the selection of the cardinal protector was a crucial early step toward solvency and viability for any confraternal body in Rome: '[Ignatius] would make his decision known to sober and wise men who were particularly inclined to works of charity ... Having all discussed and examined the difficulties of the task they wanted to accomplish, they went to present it to noble, rich, and devout men, so that with their authority and alms the work could begin and be sus-

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tained. The first task was to elect some Cardinal of the Holy Church who seemed to them right for the job of Cardinal Protector. Then they set up the confraternity, wrote its statutes, put in place rules, and gave the orders by which to govern it and keep it afloat.'122 A letter of Ignatius from August 1543 confirms that Pietro Codacio was in charge of governing the Jesuit Casa Professa (professed house) along with the new house of S. Marta.123 Other early letters offer an important glimpse at the nature and function of S. Marta.124 These earliest descriptions of the house and the fluctuation in the number of women resident there are consistent with a relatively rapid turnover, and suggest a stay of six months to a year.125 Ignatius also emphasizes that, unlike the Magdalen convent, this house is for all women, whether married or unmarried, who seek a life of chastity and obedience until they return to their husbands, marry, or enter a convent.126 His description underscores the nature of the house as truly a halfway house ('casa del refugio' or 'casa del soccorso/ as it was sometimes called) that accepted women in different states in life and provided them with a haven before their selection of a new state. Whereas houses for women that did not require a vow for admittance, however rare, had existed in Italy and elsewhere, the emphasis on short-term residency and the focus on the will of the inmate were both new and characteristically Ignatian.127 What is most striking about the institutional goals are their emphasis on the free choice accorded to women on the margins, and the psychological penetration of the resources they made available to such women.128 Each woman who came to live in the house was first asked a set of thirteen questions, and had her responses recorded, concerning the circumstances of her past life and her reasons for seeking refuge. She was asked about the details of her connection to the Christian community - her age, origin, family, children, current marital status, and possible previous affiliation with a religious order - as well as about her health and finances, and any crimes outstanding. Her motivations were also sought: Did she have an intent to marry or enter the religious life? Did she come to the house out of passion or desperation? By means of the questions, she learned what to expect of the life inside. She was asked to consent to obeying the prioress and officers. She was also advised that she could not leave the house or have contacts outside it without the permission of the confraternity; if she departed without such consent, she would forfeit her belongings and might face public punishment. Finally, she was required to make a general confes-

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sion and receive communion - a quintessentially Ignatian detail which from an ecclesiastical standpoint would provide her with a clean slate on which to write a new life. In their preamble, the confraternity's statutes outline the vital need in the Christian Republic for stable home life and for honesty between spouses.129 In principle, then, they set the stage for the return of these women (both married and single, living in fornication) to the bosom of society. But the path of that return is to be paved not by coercion, but as a result of their own free election, guaranteed and helped along as much as possible for the greater praise and glory of God.130 By giving these women a haven and the ordered life of the house - a pause from the exigencies bearing down on them - Ignatius in effect provides them with the opportunity for a formation leading to the election of a state of life that occurs at the end of the Second Week of the Spiritual Exercises.131 The house is designed as a retreat, a detour from the regular pace, and with the guidance of their Jesuit confessors the women are helped to make right choices for themselves. Although they would not actually be making the Spiritual Exercises, and of course were bound by the limits and obligations of the house, the spiritual opportunity made available to these women - mostly from the lowest rungs of society - approached that available only to the highest classes. Ignatius influenced the new house in numerous other ways. Both in the statutes and in various letters, we find testimony to Ignatius's personal spiritual direction of the women inside: 'Besides providing confessors, preachers, and all the elements most necessary for its spiritual care, [Ignatius] often visits it himself to take perfect care of its souls.'132 The pious response of at least some of the women can be judged from a letter sent by their prioress: 'Most reverend Father in Jesus Christ, salvation and peace! I with all my daughters beg and implore Your Reverence please to preach us two sermons tomorrow, one in the morning, the other in the evening, so that we may have some little consolation ... Your unworthy daughters of St. Martha.'133 Even after Ignatius ceased to visit the house himself, in early 1546, he continued to send Jesuits to preach and to hear confessions there; Hieronymo Bassan, for example, visited during Lent in 1547.134 Ignatius even sent Jesuits to live in S. Marta, who would thus exercise still closer spiritual care of the women staying there.135 The presence of Jesuits within an enclosed house for women was partially responsible for some of the denunciations that plagued the house in 1545 and 1546. In three libel cases, we can see Ignatius's

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involvement both in guiding the house and in countering its detractors.136 In 1545, Mattia Gerardi, called 'delle Poste' on account of his office as papal postmaster, began publicly to libel the house as a seraglio of the Jesuits. 1 v Isabella Roser, who was then living at S. Marta as its prioress, suggested that he was motivated to these denunciations because his own mistress was dwelling inside.138 Concerned for the reputation of the Jesuits and of S. Marta itself, Ignatius pursued a judicial inquiry, which decided in the Jesuits' favour. A more vociferous complaint came from the Spanish Franciscan Valentin Barbaran, who was himself a member of the Compagnia della Grazia. 1 "9 He protested to Pope Paul III that S. Marta had no apostolic authorization, that the Jesuits were seeking to reform the whole world, and that they planned to expel all prostitutes from Rome. He also advocated that all Jesuits between Perpignan and Seville be burned. 140 Ignatius responded with the famous retort, 'I wish that [Barbaran] and all his friends not just between Perpignan and Seville, but in all the world,, might be enflamed and consumed by the Holy Spirit.'141 Here also Ignatius marshalled support from many of Rome's elites, including Margaret of Austria, and from a number of cardinals, including S. Marta's protector Carpi, and Marcello Crescenzi, the protector of the Catechumens, and the outcome once again favoured the Jesuits. The third crisis came from the very heart of S. Marta, from Isabella Roser herself. 14 " A widow from Barcelona, she had come to Rome by November 1543 in order to continue her spiritual guidance under Ignatius, and had begun to help with S. Marta immediately after her arrival. She had hoped to take vows of obedience to Ignatius as a 'Jesuitess' and waited patiently for two years, but at the end of 1545 she petitioned Paul III to compel Ignatius to accept her vows. Paul assented, and on 25 December, Roser and two other women took solemn vows. But by the following October, Ignatius had made a definitive break with Roser, and this time Paul agreed that the Jesuits would not take charge of women bound by vows, and commuted the obedience of Roser and the others. By November, Roser had moved out of S. Marta - not without complaining bitterly to the cardinal protector, Carpi - and by May 1547 she had left Rome for Barcelona, where eventually she was reconciled with Ignatius. While this episode only tangentially affected S. Marta's reputation, it certainly heightened tensions within the house. Added to the other two scandals and to Ignatius's growing burdens in governing the Jesuits, it likely contributed to Ignatius's decision in 1546 to limit his direct involvement with S. Marta.

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Ignatius's hand may be discerned in the naming of the house as well. Unlike the confraternities for S. Caterina and the Catechumens, the Compagnia della Grazia did not receive an existing church around which to build its conservatory. Since it inherited no names, the choice of a name for the church and the house remained open. Whereas the confraternity's name (della grazia) was fixed by Paul's bull, the first surviving mention of the name S. Marta in reference to the house occurs in a letter of January 1545; it is referred to as the 'casa de las arrepentidas' or 'de las peccatrices' (house of repentant women or of sinning women) and other variations both before and after that date.143 Ignatius gave the first large financial contribution to the house at the beginning of 1544 (100 scudi earned from the sale of classical statues uncovered from the building site of S. Maria della Strada, the future church of the Gesu), and it is likely that only at that time did work on a chapel begin and so necessitate dedication to a particular saint.144 The early letters also contrast the new house with its predecessor, the Monasterio di S. Maria Maddalena, and even the papal bull made specific reference to that sister institution, so it is not surprising that Ignatius should name it after the figure commonly regarded as the Magdalen's sister, Martha of Bethany.145 Besides invoking the family affinity, the name provided just enough emphasis on the active life to anticipate reinsertion into society for many of the women.146 In addition, Martha did not share the stain of her sister's sin, and as the patroness of hospitality she provided many positive associations. 147 Ignatius thus placed his stamp on the new organization in many ways. He provided its initial raison d'etre as a halfway house for women not otherwise accommodated by the Magdalen convent, and he sanctioned its name in order both to link it to and to distinguish it from that institution. He shaped the statutes and modus operandi of the house, and placed particular emphasis on the formation of the will of the women staying there. He took charge of its spiritual direction, and when he no longer visited the house himself, he sent other Jesuits there to continue various ministries. When the house ran into controversy, he acted in its defence and was instrumental in securing favourable judgments from leading prelates. In the next two subsections, I will discuss two additional means whereby Ignatius set the institution on course: the selection of the members of the confraternity and the establishment of its financial foundation.

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The Brothers and Sisters of the Compagnia della Grazia

The list of the early members of the confraternity is a virtual who's who of mid-sixteenth-century Rome.148 It includes 15 cardinals and 7 bishops and archbishops; 11 women from the finest Roman noble families, such as the Colonna, Orsini, della Rovere, and Farnese; and some highly placed Spanish supporters of Ignatius, especially Leonora Osorio, the wife of Juan de Vega, the imperial ambassador and future viceroy in Palermo. Thus, already in this earliest of Roman initiatives, we find the Jesuit model of enlisting the social elites for the service of those at the margin. In July 1543, just a few months after Paul's bull of erection, Ignatius wrote to inform Francis Xavier that the house was supported by 'a confraternity of prelates, noble Roman men, and other good and suitable persons.'149 In 1546, Ignatius's secretary Ferrao described the membership as consisting of 'only noble and devout persons.'150 These assessments are confirmed in the membership list, which presents a snapshot of Roman elites committed to charitable activities and of the supporters of the Jesuits in Paul Ill's court.1'"11 Of nine principal supporters of the confraternity of the Orphans, erected by Paul III in 1540, seven appear as members of S. Marta.152 In addition, Paul's grandson, Cardinal Alessandro Farnese; his secretary, Biagio Pallaio; the vicar of the Diocese of Rome, Filippo Archinto; and the papal almoner, Francesco Vannucci, were members, along with other officials of Paul's court. It is not surprising that in a clerically dominated city such as Rome prelates took precedence, beginning with the cardinals and archbishops and descending from there. And indeed, more than half the 170 listed members have an ecclesiastical affiliation of one kind or another. This affiliation is representative more of Rome than of the confraternal membership pursued by Jesuits in other Italian cities. It conforms, however, to the general strategy for missionary activity that became codified around the time of the Second General Congregation of the Jesuits in 1565: the primary guideline for Jesuits when entering a new town was to seek out the local clergy and work with them as closely as possible.153 The membership list also provides a look at the nuclei of Ignatius's many support networks. Along with Ignatius, five other Jesuits made the list, and two men who would later join the Society of Jesus (their names attest to a link between confraternal activity and future religious profession). Ignatius had previously encouraged a group sub-

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scription of Jesuits to the confraternity of the SS. Sacramento in the Dominican church of the Minerva around 1541, so it is not surprising to see professed Jesuits included here as members.154 Certain other priests enlisted for S. Marta were later drawn to one of the new reformed orders, as the inclusion of three future members of Filippo Neri's Oratorians attests.155 The supporters of other Jesuit charities also appear in S. Marta's list, such as Cardinal Federico Cesi, who became cardinal protector of the confraternity of the Vergini Miserabili di S. Caterina; Antonio Frangipani, who had provided apartments for the Jesuits until they moved to S. Maria della Strada in 1541; and Alessandro da Foligno, one of the earliest Jewish catechumens converted to Christianity by Ignatius. The list also informs us of the national circles in which the first Jesuits worked: while the majority of members are of Roman origin (attesting to Ignatius's success in enlisting local support), the next highest national group represented are the Spanish, who account for no fewer than twenty-seven of the listed members. Spaniards dominated Italian politics throughout the sixteenth century, especially following the settlement of Cateau-Cambresis in 1559, and the Jesuits were quick to make use of their strong Spanish ties in promoting confraternal charity. Another distinctive feature of S. Marta was the presence of a network of noblewomen, whose efforts were incorporated into the concept of the house from the outset, and who were accordingly an integral part of its foundation. The statutes do not specify that the highest elected officers (two presidents, a secretary, and a treasurer) are to be men, but that was the unquestioned assumption. The statutes do stipulate, however, that 'a capable and expert woman be elected with the consent of the protector and the whole congregation of members' (who, as per Pope Paul's bull, would be both women and men).156 Ignatius noted generally that by 1544 'many women had entered the confraternity, to help [the inmates of S. Marta] with their necessities, and therefore this work, by the grace of our Lord, is very wellfounded.'157 Numerous letters record the initiatives on the part of these women in far greater detail. The highest-ranking woman in Ignatius's circle was La Madama, Margaret of Austria, Countess of Carpi.158 We have already noted how Isabella Roser petitioned her to exercise her substantial influence regarding the denunciations of Mattia delle Poste. Margaret lent her support to S. Caterina and the Catechumens as well, as we shall see. Although her name is not on the membership list, a member of her

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household does appear, as do staff members of the households of her husband, Ottavio Farnese, and of Cardinal Carpi - a sign that not all the corps of S. Marta came from the elite.159 The Marchesa of Pescara, Vittoria Colonna, was next, after the Countess of Carpi, in the social hierarchy.160 She is recorded as intervening on a number of occasions; in one instance, she brought to her own apartments a nobleman's daughter who had been tempted by sex, and then entrusted the woman to Ignatius and to men belonging to the imperial ambassador, Juan de Vega, to be escorted to S. Marta.161 The wife of Juan de Vega, Leonora Osorio, became one of the Jesuits' most devoted collaborators in Rome, and later in Sicily, when her husband became the viceroy in Palermo. By 1545 she was already credited with bringing five or six women to S. Marta, and she even employed a woman specifically to visit prostitutes' homes in order to persuade them to convert. According to the reports, in a dramatic encounter that took place in the church of S. Agostino, near Rome's most concentrated red-light district, she persuaded an elite courtesan to repent and to return home with her, before finally placing the woman in S. Marta.162 So great was her zeal for the work of S. Marta that 'when she saw that the house was getting too small to take in so many women, she boldly went to speak to His Holiness [Paul III], and on this subject alone, showing him the need of enlarging the house and acquiring some of the adjoining buildings. She asked the Pope to buy these houses, and His Holiness generously agreed to her request.'163 The earliest surviving records, in S. Marta's archive, of payments made by the confraternity for building projects date from 1 June 1546. The master carpenters Lucha da Morcho and Bernardo da Vicho were employed to do a considerable amount of walling and miscellaneous construction, most likely related to the purchases and expansions described above.164 Isabella Roser, for all her efforts on behalf of S. Marta but especially as its governess, came to be known as the madre de orfanos.16^ Despite the sour circumstances of her departure from the house in 1546, by July or August 1547, Ignatius was able to report to Leonora Osorio: 'Since the contradictions have outwardly ceased, a company of noble Roman ladies has been formed to favour and serve this pious work. Thus to three of them we have given all three keys with which the doors of the monastery of S. Marta can be locked, so that no man or woman can go in or out without their leave and by their hand. These ladies are very pleased to have this work and their numbers increase daily, thus promoting the work to the greater glory of God.'166 As all the correspon-

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dence referred to above shows, the circle of noble Spanish and Roman matrons contributed their money (and that of their wealthy husbands), their influence, and their energy in order to seek out, to convert, to house, and to govern women living at the margins. Thus, S. Marta represents not only the reform of women, but also reform by women, a goal that was typical of Jesuit charitable initiatives in Rome and elsewhere.167 But what motivated these women to exercise coercive authority over other women in positions of relative powerlessness? Was this one of only a few avenues of expression left open to them in a world of narrowing opportunities for women? Certainly, they were participating in the promotion of traditional Mediterranean values of honour and shame as those values were associated with female chastity.168 But both their individual and their corporate participation are also important reference points in the ongoing discussion regarding the status of women in the Early Modern period, a discussion given a stimulating focus by Joan Kelly-Gadol's provocative question as to whether women indeed had a Renaissance.169 Among the ocean of responses, a number of promising methods and inquiries have emerged, one of which is to focus on the group affiliations and charitable initiatives undertaken voluntarily by women.170 This line of inquiry seeks to balance the relative decline in status faced by women in the fifteenth century with the new opportunities made available, though channelled, by new kinds of philanthropy.171 Accordingly, precisely because many of the new reform initiatives addressed both the spiritual well-being and the social welfare of women, many women became ardent supporters of those initiatives.172 Broader research into the laws and practices surrounding the control of the dowry has also expanded scholarly appreciation of the ingenuity and inventiveness of (predominantly aristocratic) women in securing and maintaining substantial control over their own dowries and over the resources available to their husbands and kin.173 On the local level, in many ways S. Marta stands at the beginning of a new wave of institutions founded for and by women in Early Mod1 7A ern Rome. It was certainly not the first: in 1440, the confraternity of S. Monica had been erected in the church of S. Agostino as a mutual aid and devotional confraternity made up entirely of women and governed by women officers.175 What continued in the sixteenth century as a trickle, involving women such as Vittoria della Tolfa, Giovanna d'Aragona Colonna, and Isabella Feltria della Rovere Sanseverino, by

Training the Vine: S. Marta and the Compagnia della Grazia 61

the mid-seventeenth century had become a flood of institutions founded and supported by women.176 The Orfane Mendicant!, begun by a group of women in 1650, and then supported by the Duchessa di Latera and adopted by the Jesuit Pietro Caravita; the convent of S. Maria Regina Coeli, begun by Anna Colonna in 1654; the Bambino Giesu, started by an orphan, Anna Moroni, in 1661; the Zitelle Viperesche, founded by Livia Viperesche in 1668; the Divina Clemenza, begun by a group of parish priests but made possible by the financial support of Principessa Maria Camilla Orsini Borghese - these are but a few examples, and it is for this context that the network of women supporters of S. Marta provides an important early model.177 Finances As we saw in chapter 1, establishing 'spiritual works which continue longer and are of more lasting value, such as pious foundations' took precedence for the Jesuits over other 'less durable' works.178 Ignatius 'went to present [the idea] to noble, rich, and devout men, so that with their authority and alms the work could begin and be sustained/179 We have also seen how he buttonholed members of the papal court and influential persons such as Paul's grand-daughter-in-law, La Madama (Pope Paul's daughter Constantia Farnese and daughter-in-law Girolama Orsini were also members of the Compagnia della Grazia).180 But despite the importance of securing financial support for the operating costs, Ignatius recognized the absolute necessity of covering the fixed costs for the women in S. Marta, that is, of placing a roof over their heads. By being given a respite from the need to earn a living, the women were freed to focus on their repentance and spiritual conversion. Accordingly, when insufficient funds had been amassed by the beginning of 1544, Ignatius ordered the sale of some fragments of statues serendipitously discovered during excavations for the first Jesuit house near S. Maria della Strada. Although the 100 scudi were sorely needed for the Jesuits' own construction, Ignatius had grown impatient while waiting for significant contributions for the establishment of S. Marta, and quipped, 'If no one wants to be the first, then I will be, and let them follow me.'181 As I have suggested, this may have provided the occasion for the original construction and dedication of the chapel to S. Marta. Ignatius's example must have proved effective: as we have seen, Leonora Osorio persuaded the pope to contribute to S. Marta in 1545;

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and by April 1546, Ignatius's secretary, Bartolommeo Ferrao, was able to boast that the confraternity had accumulated about 700 scudi for the large building works undertaken at S. Marta at that time.182 Among the many supporters approached by Ignatius, Ribadeneira highlighted three in his Vita: Those on whom he most depended were Giacomo Crescenzi, a noble Roman, a close friend and given to all works of piety; Francesco Vannucci, the Apostolic Almoner of Paul III; and Lorenzo [Virili] del Castello. From these our father [Ignatius] received much benefit, not only due to their advice, but by applying their influence and industry.'183 All three are listed among the members of the Compagnia della Grazia. Crescenzi was a relative of Cardinal Marcello Crescenzi, who became the first cardinal protector of the Catechumens. Lorenzo da Castello was a priest who supported the Jesuits in a number of ways, notably by giving them a house in Tivoli in 1554 to use as a college. But, without question, the individual with the greatest charitable means at his disposal was the papal almoner, Francesco Vannucci. By enlisting Vannucci's aid for S. Marta and his other initiatives, Ignatius went directly to the purse at the centre of the papal system of charity.184 While Paul III generally did not assign specific benefices entailing monthly incomes to any of his charities (a practice that became regular only with Gregory XIII and Sixtus V, later in the century), he did provide for a potentially large and regular source of revenue by granting three plenary indulgences in his bull of erection.185 On the feasts of the Nativity, the Immaculate Conception, and Mary Magdalen, scattered throughout the year, individuals seeking indulgences by visiting the church on those days (and reciting five prayers) might also fill its coffers. This could be a substantial means of raising funds, because indulgences continued to be valued and accumulated. The indulgences granted by Paul III to the Corpus Christi confraternity in Perugia meant that after one year a pious and diligent confratello could have liberated over a hundred souls from purgatory, spared himself several hundred thousand years, and had his sins forgiven five times over, including any for which absolution was reserved to the pope (assuming he needed it).186 Because the many travel guides to Rome, along with their descriptions of the churches, specified at which churches indulgences could be obtained on which days, such feast days would frequently produce a crowd.187 Despite the wealth of indulgences granted by Paul III, the actual statutes of the Compagnia della Grazia are explicit in separating pay-

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63

ments from merit. Those who are not able to participate in the work of the house are required to contribute alms each month, as guided by the love of God; but those who attend the meetings regularly and help out are not otherwise required to contribute: in theory, therefore, it was possible for persons of varying means to be members of the same confraternity.188 The refusal to make financial contributions obligatory (especially for those who will gain spiritual benefit from participating in the regular meetings) is another Ignatian feature that finds confirmation in a recollection of Ribadeneira. Ignatius ordered, Tor those gentlemen who are devoted to the Society [of Jesus] ... do not ask for the Procurator to request alms from them, so as not to weary them with minor details, but rather wait to receive what they contribute of their own will.'189 Ignatius also turned down contributions that came with too many strings attached. The day of the definitive break with Isabella Roser over her status as a 'Jesuitess/ she hinted that a gift of 200 ducats to the house of S. Marta would follow a decision in her favour. A report of the meeting records Ignatius's reply: 'Whether she gives the 200 ducats or not will not affect my decision, which has been made for God's greater glory.'190 Despite the 'hands-off financing policy, it is striking how many of the contributors to S. Marta were also involved with other Ignatian foundations. As a further example, Luis de Torres, bishop of Monreale from 1548, was a S. Marta member who later became a principal supporter of S. Caterina. He bequeathed funds to provide numerous dowries for the zitelle, as well as for decoration of his funeral chapel in the church of S. Caterina. Donations made directly to the Jesuits in the Casa Professa also show heightened attention to a circle of Jesuit charities. Numerous testators bequeathed sums to two or more Ignatian initiatives in Rome; a Belgian inquisitorial notary named Simay, for example, remembered the Catechumens, S. Marta, and S. Caterina in his will.191 Jesuits ministering to the dying were admonished not to mention the Society of Jesus itself as an outlet for charity, but they might recall to the testator's mind 'the poor or some pious institutes.'192 The pattern is clear: individuals who spent time within the Jesuit orbit eventually forged links with one or more of their confraternal satellites. o Admission, Daily Life, and Exit The varied methods of recruiting new charges provide important insights into the character of the institution, including both the indi-

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viduals who made it function and those whom it sought to serve. Hortatory preaching was a primary method, always noted by clerical observers. For instance, the Sienese priest Camillo Fanucci, in discussing charities for reprobate women, found the cause of their conversion in the preaching and exhortations of preachers and other pious individuals, but especially in divine inspiration.193 The English priest Gregory Martin gave less credit to God in his assessment, and more to the female members of confraternities: Two waies there are to work their Conversion, [the one] by continual preaching ... the other is by honest and wise matrones of Rome, which either visit them sometime, or invite them to their company, and vouchsafe them their familiarity, by that meanes to win them, ... not fearing the stayne of their honour by the company of such,... and so by their wordes and behaviour and promises and liberality toward them, they winne them to honest life, and by Gods merciful hand working with exceding charity they plucke them out of the deepe pitte of dayly fornication, as it were raysing dead stinking carcasses out of their graves.194

Martin here reflects the common sixteenth-century notion that women were most effective in influencing other women. He develops this point later, in offering as an example a statute of the SS. Sacramento confraternity in Bologna: 'They shal appoint good wemen of the Companie to visite poore wemen, and to understand their necessities.'195 We have seen instances of how the female members eagerly placed individuals in the house of S. Marta. But the male members of the confraternity were equally charged with recruitment, as Martin indicates: 'And not only wemen which may do it more conveniently, but men also of passing zeale have adventured their good name to enter into their houses, only for this purpose to persuade them with them, and to bring them out of that Hel, and so they have done many, and provided for them abrode where to live in most honest conversation.'196 As the reputation of the house spread, others, outside the confraternity, would also bring women to S. Marta; Filippo Neri, it was later recalled, brought numerous women.197 Even Paul III intervened on at least one occasion to place a woman in S. Marta.198 But bringing a woman to the door was only the beginning of the process. As rule #13 of the statutes spells out, there were three steps or 'probations' before a woman could be admitted.199 The first was to ascertain her circumstances, along with her intent and will, through

Training the Vine: S. Marta and the Compagnia della Grazia 65

the thirteen questions. As I have suggested, the woman's questioning was also an opportunity for her to learn about the life inside, the better to anticipate what would be required of her. Then, her responses to the questions would be brought before the next meeting of the entire congregation, who would vote on her admission. Finally, she would make a general confession before the confessor of the house, and receive communion. Once inside, the women could expect a regulated and orderly life on the model of a convent. Even though they took no formal vows, they were asked during their entrance interrogation to promise obedience to the 'prioress' and other superiors of the house (question 8); and throughout the confraternity statutes, those inside are referred to as 'suore' (sisters). Each day, the live-in chaplain would offer mass, and throughout the year, confession and any other sacraments the women might require (rule #10). Each Sunday, the sisters would be called together for a sermon in Italian on a subject selected by the spiritual director (originally Ignatius, as we have seen), but throughout the week they would commit themselves to other 'prayers and devotions' chosen by the spiritual director. Their attendance at the weekly sermon was obligatory, and absences would be punished by the prioress. The prioress/governess was also responsible for organizing and setting the salaries of those who provided certain services for the sisters, such as reading from 'holy and honest books' while they were engaged in work. Because idleness was seen as the devil's handmaid, the sisters were kept busy throughout the day. The governess also apportioned responsibility for cooking, cleaning, and other necessary activities to those who showed inclination (rule #12). Textile labour, including sewing, lace-making, knitting, and weaving, became the primary occupation and a way of breaking the tedium.200 On a number of occasions the Jesuits took pride in the penitential exuberance of some of the inmates of S. Marta. During the Lent of 1545, they noted, thirteen or fourteen of the women chose to consume only bread and water for the forty days, and others undertook other abstinences and mortifications of the flesh. Even throughout the year, most abstained from meat or wine for the good of their souls and as penance for their past lives.201 In this way the strict and regimented life in S. Marta anticipated the life of rules and obligations the women could expect in a convent. But the particular variation on the Rule of St Augustine used by the convertite was even more severe regarding penitential practices than the usual rule for Augustinian nuns.202 Fasting

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was frequently encouraged or imposed as a penalty for transgressions and faults, which the sister zelatrice was responsible for exposing in a weekly convocation.203 For more serious infractions and/or disobedience to the prioress, a convertita could expect ritual shaming (her sisters would have to walk over her as they entered the refectory) as well as time in the prison with which each such convent was outfitted.204 Occasionally, even women outside the community of convertite might be sent there in punishment, as happened to a 'false saint/ Sor Giulia Bizoca, in July 1615.205 Nevertheless, life in S. Marta offered the women shelter, security, and stability, perhaps more than many of them had ever had, so it is not surprising that a number of them sought, as a next step, to take vows and enter a convent as a nun. But because many convents prohibited women with tarnished reputations from entering,206 or because the dowry necessary for entering a convent was too high,207 the options were limited. Almost inevitably, therefore, in February 1547 the confraternity, with the approval of Paul III and the financial support of Paul's grandson Ranuccio, divided the house into two separate and enclosed units, one a halfway house, serving the original purpose of the establishment, and the other a cloister serving as a convent for Augustinian nuns.208 For unmarried women who did not opt for life in a convent, the confraternity assumed the burden either of securing or providing dowries that would enable them to marry, or of placing them under a long-term service contract in aristocratic households. Providing dowries to enable poor women to marry was one of the principal charities of all Italian confraternities. Dowering women had been primarily an expression of individual charity in Rome in the Middle Ages, but by the end of the fifteenth century, and especially in the sixteenth century, this charitable activity fell more and more within the competence of confraternities.209 The Flemish lawyer Dirk Amayden summed up in 1625: 'Nothing helps better to administer a republic than the modesty of its women. Grave problems result if its women are constrained to lead the life of a public prostitute, so what charity could be better than to see that they can live chastely?'210 Amayden proceeded to catalogue the dowries awarded throughout the year by more than a hundred institutions; if Duplessis-Mornay, Isaac Casaubon, and Luther himself had only known the breadth of such charity in Rome, he said, even they would have admitted their error in attacking the pope and the city.211 But just as many convents had limitations on the candidates

Training the Vine: S. Marta and the Compagnia della Grazia 67

they would accept, so many of the confraternities awarding dowries had labyrinthine regulations governing the selection and exclusion of candidates for their charity.212 Thus, the responsibility for providing a dowry for an ex-prostitute often devolved to the Compagnia della Grazia itself, and this complication may have extended the stay of some of the women.213 In some ways, the dowry with which an ex-prostitute was provided by a confraternity could serve as a kind of diploma, permitting a woman to return to society, at least to its lower rungs, with some honour restored.214 Evolution of the House Starting from its compact and clearly defined original goals, S. Marta underwent a remarkable series of transformations that show how flexible the statutes and the administering confraternity needed to be in order to accommodate new circumstances and exigencies. The story of these transformations also provides a glimpse at the intertwining networks of aid functioning within Rome; the development of S. Marta's mission took place not merely out of its own internal momentum, but within a context of competing organizations. Its innovatory character as a refuge for women without vows meant both that tongues would wag and that the purpose of the confraternity would not always be easily understood, as indicated by the three early crises of 1545 to 1546, described above. But after this rough start S. Marta thrived to the point of becoming a victim of its own success, and thereby caused the confraternity to alter radically the function and institutional purpose of the house. Once inside the house, enough of the women admitted chose to remain that in 1547 the original space was divided in order to accommodate a convent for professed nuns following the Rule of St Augustine. By 1559 the divided convent had once again become too small to house the inmates, so a nearby property was purchased, and named S. Maria Felice, for the accommodation of the malmaritate, women, often battered, who were married but could not live with their husbands.215 Gregory Martin again provides a contemporary description: These are women so called by occasion of misliking, displeasure, or falling out betwene their husbands and them. [They] are so provided for, that they may live safely and quietly apart, til their husbands call for them agayne, and be reconciled unto them. Which is a very charitable provision

68 Working in the Vineyard of the Lord for such good women as have churlishe, cruel, fierce, and wicked husbands. Such as are to[o] many in al places, but in few places [is there] so good a remedy for the party oppressed. Albeit many times the fault may be in the woman, and yet God forbid she should be cast away, and have no place of refuge, whiles she makes pardon, and winne the favour of her husband agayne.216

In 1563 a new arrival from Milan had a significant impact on S. Marta as well as on Rome - Carlo Borromeo. After the death of his brother and his own interior experience of conversion, Borromeo came under the influence of the Jesuit Juan Bautista Ribera, and in July and August made the Spiritual Exercises under his direction.217 Soon thereafter he began to show a keen interest in some of the Ignatian-sponsored charities in Rome. Perhaps because the Compagnia della Grazia was straining under the triple responsibility of the divided S. Marta house and S. Maria Felice, Borromeo founded a new refuge named the Casa Pia so that efforts directed to prostitutes could once again be concentrated.218 He established the house near the Pantheon under the supervision of the Clarissan convent of S. Chiara, but he placed its administration in the hands of the SS. Dodici Apostoli (which Ignatius had begun for the poveri vergognosi), who in solemn procession brought the unprofessed single women from S. Marta to the Casa Pia.219 Interestingly, the Casa Pia suffered the same fate as S. Marta. The spaces available were gradually filled by professed nuns, until in 1615 another institution was started by the Discalced Carmelites in the church of S. Croce della Penitenza in Trastevere to meet precisely the same need that Ignatius had anticipated in the 1540s. With the single women gone, the entire house of S. Marta was left for the nuns, so it became exclusively a convent of repentant prostitutes (although a few malmaritate stayed on in the neighbouring house of S. Maria Felice). Then, when S. Marta's original cardinal protector, Rodolfo Pio de Carpi, died in 1564, Carlo Borromeo was elected in his place.220 Under Borromeo's zealous new tutelage and with his financial support, in 1567 the Compagnia della Grazia began the construction of a new and elegant convent and church, which was consecrated on 11 May 1570.221 Attracted by the spacious new accommodations, women who had not been prostitutes sought to join S. Marta, and as a sign of its new status Pius V moved the last three anchoresses of the Basilica of St Peter to the convent of S. Marta in 1571 on the advice of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese.222 Since it was not proper to mix these virgins

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with prostitutes, even penitent ones, in 1573 Pope Gregory XIII made S. Marta a convent exclusively for virgins, and in 1578 he enriched it with further privileges.223 The nuns still followed the Rule of St Augustine, but, with ex-prostitutes no longer among them, in 1573 they were able to take on the education of girls, a traditional activity under the Augustinian Rule, when not amended for convertite.224 Thus, over the course of forty years, from 1543 to 1573, S. Marta evolved from an innovative refuge for women of all states to an elite convent of Augustinian nuns. S. Marta's elite status and the legacy of the Buoncompagni pope Gregory XIII were still evident in the 1660s and 1670s, when the convent and church were once again enlarged and decorated (Giovanni Battista Gaulli's stuccoes and frescoes of the vault are from 1671) under the patronage of the abbess, Maria Eleonora Buoncompagni, and of other nuns, especially the Milanese sister Maria Scolastica Colleoni225 (for a plan of the church and convent buildings in 1748, see fig. 6). Fanucci records that the lay confraternity ('di secolari') that founded S. Marta still administered it in 1601.226 The confraternity served as an intermediary for the building work of the 1660s, although its lay character is no longer clear. Meanwhile, the Jesuits remembered their original bond with S. Marta by continuing to direct the Spiritual Exercises for its nuns.227 Fanucci also mentions that in 1601 the confraternity still administered the nearby refuge of S. Maria Felice, although he notes that few women were entering by that date owing to competition from the Casa Pia. Both S. Maria Felice's and the Casa Pia's days were numbered, however, because with the arrival of the energetic new Florentine family of the Barberini, attention to prostitutes again became a means of demonstrating reforming zeal. In 1628, Francesco Barberini funded the construction of a new convent of convertite at S. Giacomo in Settignano, across the river in Trastevere along the Via Longara, to take the overflow from the convent of S. Maria Maddalena. At the same time, he suppressed both the house of S. Maria Felice and the Casa Pia, which by that time contained mostly nuns, and moved their inmates to houses contiguous with S. Giacomo.228 The same year, Antonio Barberini, Urban VIII's Capuchin brother, expanded the Barberini claim to reform by publishing a catalogue of revised rules for all women's convents in the Papal States.229 Then, in 1640 and 1644, the Barberinis published a newly reformed Augustinian Rule for the convertite.230 Over the next century, another three institutions would be founded

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to provide work for young women so as to keep them from turning to prostitution. The Divina Providenza, founded in 1672, was a rigorously organized workhouse. The conservatory of S. Pasquale Baylon, founded in 1732, also offered its inmates a wage for the hours they spent at work. And the Conservatorio Pio, approved by Pope Pius VI in 1775, was a functioning wool mill, with women and men working in a coordinated capacity.231 Once the Jesuits were reinstituted after their suppression, they jumped back into the field by supporting the lay women's congregation of the Suore di S. Dorotea, which undertook the free education of girls.232 In 1804 and 1872 another two institutions were established for the reform of fallen women and the prevention of the moral decay of girls.23*3 The pattern is simple: almost like clockwork, approximately every thirty years, a zealous new preacher, or a new papal nephew, or a new family looking to make a dramatic statement would take up the baton and seek to evangelize the prostitutes, because the momentum of the previous institutions had slackened. But the inspiration for and even the vocabulary used to describe the charities remained remarkably the same. Much like a standing wave in a fast-flowing river, which retains its shape as the water passes through, so institutions designed to alleviate the conditions and prevent prostitution shared remarkably similar trajectories. Emulation and Dispersion Given the repetition of the model in Rome alone, it is not surprising that the Jesuits attempted to transplant S. Marta to other cities to which their mission extended. Indeed, precisely because it was in Rome and had the special attention of Ignatius, S. Marta became the most copied Jesuit confraternity before the advent of the Marian congregations. Already by 1547, houses similar to S. Marta had been founded in Bologna, Agrigento, and Palermo (here, once again through the good offices of Leonora Osorio).234 In 1550-1 another four houses were begun, in Trapani, Messina, Casola in Lunigiana, and Modena. Florence, Padua, and Venice would have their refuges by 1577, and S. Marta served as a model for a house in Naples in as late as 1628.235

CHAPTER THREE

Protecting the Roots: Daughters of Prostitutes and the First Jesuits: The Compagnia delle Vergini Miserabili di S. Caterina della Rosa

'St Philip Neri and St Ignatius established [the conservatory of S. Caterina], which consists of Augustinian nuns, and the orphans and daughters of noble parents, who pay a pension. The orphans are called the children of the institute and the only recommendation for admission is to be poor and an orphan. These are treated like the daughters of the nobles, and are better off than those in the other conservatories.'1 Thus did the Irish-American priest William Neligan describe the conservatory of S. Caterina in the 1850s, when he was living in Rome. By that time, the conservatory had become little more than an elite boarding school, among some twenty other similar institutions for women.2 The last boarders left in 1937, when the monastery buildings were sold, and today only the church and a small office for the confraternity remain.3 The Conservatorio di S. Caterina endured many metamorphoses and vicissitudes during its four hundred years, but it still enjoys pride of place among such institutions, because it was Rome's first. 4 Ignatius's experience with ministries to prostitutes alerted him to a related condition, the presence and possible indoctrination of young girls into the business. Accordingly, soon after the establishment of the Casa di S. Marta, Ignatius helped to establish another confraternity and charitable institution, the Conservatorio di S. Caterina dei Funari. As was the case with the halfway house for prostitutes, the example set by Ignatius was followed in numerous other cities by the early Jesuits. At its inception in the early 1540s, S. Caterina represented a new kind of institution, the goals of which were to rescue girls from poverty and its familiar companion, prostitution: The maids [who are accepted should be] daughters of courtesans, or other bad women, or else be in

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extreme poverty ... such that if they are not accepted, they are sure to go bad themselves/5 S. Caterina was innovative in three ways. First, it carried out focused intervention: besides waiting for new girls to be brought to the conservatory by relatives or neighbours, the brothers on occasion would seek out and remove children living in brothels and other houses of ill repute. Second, it was commited to internment: the girls would stay in the strict cloistered care of women (later nuns) often for ten years or more. Third, it aimed for reintegration: most of the girls married and returned to society, others took a monastic vow and departed for another convent, and a small number remained at S. Caterina. Because of its members' efforts to seek out the vulnerable poor, to provide them with skills and discipline, and to return them to society, S. Caterina represents an important departure from medieval practices of poor relief.6 Until recently, scholars engaged in a confessional search for the sources of modern attitudes toward and institutions of poor relief, seeking to pin the paternity on the Protestant Reformation or on Catholic Reformation initiatives. Lately, scholars have shown that attitudes toward poor relief tended to cross confessional boundaries, and responded more to local circumstances. Rather than emphasizing predominantly the element of social control, some historians such as Brian Pullan have argued that the most telling legacy of sixteenth-century schemes for the poor was the expansion in the scope of organized charity - not only to support the poor, but actively to redeem them as well. The new institutions sought to amend the character and behaviour of the outcast poor in order to integrate them within a highly disciplined Christian society.7 By seeking out 'poor virgins' in danger of becoming prostitutes, the house and confraternity of the Vergini Miserabili di S. Caterina stood at the forefront of this trend.8 Jesuits and Daughters of Prostitutes Ignatius's experience and contact with prostitutes through the Casa di S. Marta alerted him to a related social concern: the initiation of young girls, often the daughters of prostitutes, into the business. The Roman census of 1517 contains the entry 'Johanella and Laura her daughter, courtesan' - just one of many examples of women who practised their trade alongside their daughters so as to live more comfortably from the combined earnings.9 Other mothers counted on their daughters as a

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form of pension plan, and served as procuress for their daughters once their own age removed them from the market. In 1589, for example, confraternity officers recorded the reluctance of one prostitute to have her daughter placed in S. Caterina; she promised 'she would see to it that her daughter always had bread to eat.'10 Other women, who had too many mouths to feed and no other means of support, became prostitutes themselves, or initiated their older daughters. Veronica Franco, perhaps the most erudite courtesan in Venice - a city even more famous than Rome for prostitution - appealed to the Senate shortly before 1577 with a telling description: 'Women in need sell the virginity of their own innocent daughters, and launch them on the sinful path that they themselves have walked.'11 Children growing up in bordellos were also frequently at risk from their elders' pimps and clients. Benvenuto Cellini in his autobiography boasts, for example, of taking advantage of a prostitute's 13-year-old servant girl while his friend was occupied with her mistress.12 There were other cases recorded by the Jesuit Juan de Polanco of women who were not themselves prostitutes, but who out of poverty and desperation sold their virgin daughters.13 Indeed, the fates and material well-being of mothers and daughters have perennially been linked, as much recent research confirms.14 Almost simultaneously with the founding of S. Marta, Ignatius supported the foundation of the Compagnia delle Vergini Miserabili di S. Caterina specifically to break this cycle of prostitution. The Earliest Years Because very few documents survive in the archive of the Compagnia delle Vergini Miserabili from before 1550, and especially because, in the first printed edition of the statutes (1582), no specific mention of the foundation is made other than in the time of Paul III (1534-49), it is not known precisely when the institution and its confraternity began.15 The Sienese priest Camillo Fanucci, in his genre-making work of 1601, the Trattato di tutte le opere pie de I'alma cilia di Roma, dated the foundation of the pious work to 1536, but he does not mention any founders.16 Later, writers such as Piazza, Vasi, Moroni, and Armellini accepted the 1536 dating but credited Ignatius with the foundation - a conclusion that the Jesuit historian Pietro Tacchi Venturi has shown to be impossible, since Ignatius did not arrive in Rome until 1537.17 From 1538 to 1541 Ignatius and his companions lived in a house they rented from Antonino Frangipane, and from which they conducted their ministries

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to the poor.18 The house was located at the Torre del Merangolo on the Via Delfini, just one block from the present church of S. Caterina. Ignatius was familiar with the area and may have begun to place girls there while living in the vicinity. Tacchi Venturi suggests that the institution began in late 1545, a suggestion based primarily on a letter, dated 12 April 1546, of Bartolommeo Ferrao, Ignatius's secretary at the time.19 A portion of the letter bears quotation: 'In all these things our Father [Ignatius] has taken no little trouble upon himself, to say nothing of the task of getting young girls out of the houses of the courtesans and placing them in pious establishments, which have been set up here in Rome by order of his Holiness, so that these girls may not be seduced by the enemy through bad example, but may be removed from danger.'20 And Juan de Polanco, Ignatius's later secretary, wrote in his chronicle of the Society that in the year 1546 'girls living in the homes of prostitutes under a terrible example, receiving a bad education, and close to the precipice, were ripped from the mouth of the devil and placed in pious establishments.'21 Yet Tacchi Venturi's later dating seems contradicted by the fact that Federico Cesi was made cardinal protector of the confraternity in 1544.22 As we saw in chapter 2, Ignatius preferred to select a cardinal protector right at the outset of a new confraternity. The conservatory of S. Caterina is said to have begun in 1543 in Cornelis Galle's life of Ignatius, published just over sixty years later.23 This date is confirmed in the archives of S. Caterina, in the Alfabeto ddle zitelle del monastero, which mentions that 'Domenica alias Menicuccia, deacon of the girls, entered the monastery in the beginning of 1543 in January.'24 As a final reference, in 1640 a sister living at S. Caterina wrote an anonymous history of the church and the confraternity; about the foundation of the conservatory, she wrote, 'Some poor girls, and a few women for governing them, began to inhabit the house in the year 1542.'25 Whenever the conservatory may have begun, with the foundation of the Compagnia 'utriusque sexus' delle Vergini Miserabili in 1544, it came under the administration of ecclesiastics and pious individuals in the spanophile world revolving around the figure of Ignatius of Loyola.26 Stone, Brick, Plaster, and Paint The site itself and the buildings provide important documentation for the development of the institution. The church and conservatory of S. Caterina were believed until recently to rest on the ruins of the Circus

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Flaminius, but these ruins were identified in 1960 as the cryptoporticus of Lucius Cornelius Balbus (dating to the third century BCE).27 Before the ninth century, a fortress known as the Castellum Aureum was constructed among the ruins of the cryptoporticus. Later, in the tenth century, a church dedicated to the Madonna was built in the fortress, and it is recorded in 1192 as S. Mariae Dominae Rosae in Castello Aureo.28 The 1640 anonymous manuscript history of S. Caterina dei Funari explains that the medieval church was named S. Maria Dominae Rosae after an image of the 'Christ Child holding a rose at the breast of his mother, the Ever-Virgin Mary.'29 The cult of St Catherine of Alexandria became associated with the church at least as early as the beginning of the fifteenth century. Ropemakers (funnri), who were concentrated in the area, used spinning-wheels and the long corridors between the ruins of the Crypta Balbi in order to twist their ropes (St Catherine was their patron because her symbol is the wheel on which she was to be martyred).'° In addition, during the pontificate of Innocent VII (14046), nuns from the convent of S. Caterina near the portico of St Peter's Basilica were transferred there.31 By the early sixteenth century the church and monastery of S. Maria Dominae Rosae were widely known as the church and monastery of S. Caterina della Rosa. Of course, the association of Catherine of Alexandria with the education of girls made her all the more appropriate as namesake and patron of the conservatory and confraternity. 32 The oldest detailed map of Rome (1551) records the medieval threeaisled church as S. Caterinae de Monaserio (sic), and the 1558 guidebook of Lucio Mauro is the last to record the old church, by then in a state of disrepair.-^ Cardinal Cesi financed some construction work on the adjoining buildings of the conservatory between 1551 and 1561. Indeed, Cesi may have played an important role in having the parish seat moved from S. Caterina to a nearby church in 1561, thus leaving the church of S. Caterina as the private chapel of the confraternity. Then Cardinal Cesi was free to demolish the old church and construct the spectacular new church that stands today.34 Although the church was nearly finished in 1564 after only four years of construction, Cesi's death in earlv 1565 kept him from participating in the dedication on 18 November, a week before St Catherine's day. The design, with its sumptuous facade in travertine, modelled closely on Antonio da Sangallo's church of S. Spirito, and the plain interior, with five richly decorated private chapels, make the church a true showcase of Roman mannerism.

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With the church complete, the living accommodations once again became the focus of attention. The anonymous history of 1640 records that Cesi rebuilt the church and monastery from the foundation up (a fundamentis), and goes on to say that the governors of the time determined to replace the secular women caring for the girls (zitelle) with some of the older inmates themselves who showed an inclination to the religious life and chose to remain under the Rule of St Augustine.35 A portion of the buildings accordingly was partitioned off for these nuns. The buildings were again enlarged beginning on 5 October 1581, by Pier Donato Cesi, the second cousin of Federico and the third cardinal protector of the confraternity.36 By the first third of the seventeenth century, the buildings had been sealed by three doors that functioned as filters between the exterior and the interior, separating the first two zones - the entrance and the courtyard, into which visitors were allowed from the cloister area. The first great door, on the street, was closed by the caretaker from the outside every night at the ringing of the Ave Maria. Two more doors passed into the cloister area.37 In the 1630s the monastery was expanded again through the munificence of Cardinal Antonio Barberini, the Capuchin brother of Urban VIII38 (for views of the church and convent buildings in 1625 and 1748, see figs 5 and 6). A separate house, the widows' house (casa delle vedove), located across the street next to the house of the Delfini, was also built around a courtyard with its own well, and every evening it too was closed by the caretaker from the outside. According to de' Rossi's 1645 guidebook, it had its own chapel and was 'furnished with all that is necessary for those who come to it whether spontaneously or out of poverty, or for discord with their husbands. They are fed and provided with everything necessary not only for the body, but also for the soul. [They are] often visited by Confessors and religious persons with sermons, and led in other spiritual exercises by two nuns placed there by the confraternity for governing those women. [It also contains various prisons,] where they place those who lead a dishonest life/39 In addition to widows, this house accepted women mistreated by their husbands (malmaritate) and, generally for a short time, the 'girls in jeopardy' who could not be placed in the conservatory 'because they were sick': 'If they did not have mothers [who would take them back to cure them], they placed them there to heal so as not to infect the others.'40 Alumnae or women in difficulty were also taken in for free or for payment, even for short periods, such as one Caterina, the wife of a

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certain Lorenzo Giberto, who asked to be accepted for a month, or the alumna Apollonia Galaveria, for as long as her case against her husband was before the Rota.41 Thus, what began as a decaying church and monastery expanded over the course of a century into a newly resplendent church and conservatory with room for 150 girls and up to 20 nuns, and a separate widows' house to accommodate temporary overflow. A Structure Rises Like most confraternities, the Compagnia delle Vergini Miserabili began more informally, with its members dividing tasks and obligations as they arose. But in order to receive the viva voce recognition of Paul III and, especially, the juridical recognition granted by Paul IV in 1558, the young institution required written constitutions, rules, or statutes. Unfortunately, the first redaction of the constitution (probably an expensive manuscript written on vellum) has not survived.42 But, as was often the case, the experience of the years and the accumulation of both inmates and a patrimony made it necessary for those statutes to be reviewed and brought up to date. To that end, Pier Donate Cesi, the third cardinal protector of the confraternity, set up a commission of high-ranking clerics and laymen. After numerous special meetings led by Cardinal Gesualdo, the vice-protector, the commission sent the revised constitutions to Cardinal Cesi, who had them approved in a general meeting and published.43 These constitutions established, first of all, the organization of officers. To elect a cardinal protector, the current officers would, by secret ballot, draw up a slate of four candidates for a secret vote to be held at the next general meeting. The candidate with the greatest number of votes would be the one selected, and deputies would be chosen to ask the cardinal to accept the office. The cardinal protector would sometimes preside over the monthly general meetings and was obliged to visit the conservatory at least once a year to become acquainted with whatever needed to be done.44 Though this is not explicitly stated in the constitutions, virtually all decisions would be subject to his approval, and he also served as a guarantee that the confraternity's interests in civil and ecclesiastical courts would be supported. Three deputies (Deputati) orchestrated the administration of the confraternity, conservatory, monastery, and widows' house. One of the

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deputies was to be at least a bishop (and was officially called Prelate) and was placed above the other two, who could be laymen but had to be at least 50 years old. The deputies ran the monthly meetings and maintained contact with the prioress, at whose election by the nuns they were present. They oversaw the spiritual life of the conservatory, ensuring that all inside took communion and confessed frequently. They also met regularly with the cardinal protector, with other cardinals and prelates, and with the pope's almoner in order to secure a constant inflow of funds.45 The three deputies were followed by two overseers (Provveditori}, elected every six months, who were responsible for the physical running of the conservatory, with respect to food, clothing, and maintenance. Two six-month deputies were elected to seek out a dowry every time a marriage was arranged. Two other deputies supervised the church services, making sure that masses were said according to the funds left in Cardinal Federico Cesi's will, and that the services had candles and were conducted with proper decorum. The secretary (Secretario) was generally also a notary, and maintained the books recording past decisions, payments, lists of brothers, detailed lists of the girls, and the order of business. One treasurer (Camerlengo) was responsible for the debits and credits of the conservatory, while another kept track of the incomes and expenses of the church. Two visitors (Visitatori) were elected to visit married alumnae twice a year, to see how they were getting along and whether they needed help, and to ensure that they were living respectably. Two auditors (Sindici) doublechecked the yearly financial statements and reviewed the monthly reports from the treasurers and caretaker. Two building managers (Deputati) inspected and oversaw the integrity of the buildings. In addition to these annually or bi-annually elected officers, a caretaker and two or more chaplains were selected for long-term service and were given a salary and living accommodations. The chaplains saw to the daily Divine Office, vespers, and masses, and the caretaker did the maintenance work and handled unforeseen daily expenses. As the need arose, brothers would be deputized to visit prospective entrants to the conservatory, or those asking for marriage to one of the inmates. Thus, there were twenty-two officers in all, of whom about twelve, on average, attended to the business of the confraternity at the weekly meetings, usually held on Sunday.46 Despite the delineation of responsibilities in the constitutions, an officer's title was only rarely recorded

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in the official minutes of the meetings, and numerous extemporaneous deputizings indicate a working flexibility in the carrying out of tasks. Indeed, many of the various officers' responsibilities overlapped, so that the greatest amount of supervision, particularly with regard to financial matters, would be provided. Whether this was specified or not, every member was encouraged to help in raising funds, the need for funds being an ever-recurring theme in the minutes through the early seventeenth century. The Brothers and Sisters Every confraternity in Early Modern Italy kept a membership list, and many were inscribed on vellum - a sign of the importance of having one's name on the list, since it entitled one to participate in the meritorious work of the institution. Some confraternities even cajoled delinquent members into greater activity by threatening to strike their names from the list.4' We know that the Compania delle Vergini Miserabili also had a book of brothers because such a book is mentioned in the constitutions, but no membership list survives in the archives today. 48 Thousands of pages of mass obligations do survive, however, and from these it might one day be possible to piece together a plausible list of the membership, though of course one weighted toward those who left bequests.49 Nevertheless, because many of the minutes of the weekly meetings have been preserved, a general idea of the confraternity leadership may be gained.^ A high-ranking cleric, either the P rein to or his substitute (who himself was often a bishop), presided over all the meetings. The various other offices, particularly those of visitor and deputy, were held almost exclusively by laymen, at least into the early seventeenth century (for which period the minutes are preserved most regularly). As one might expect, although the confraternity was officially open to both sexes and indeed had aristocratic female members such as Margaret of Austria, no woman ever appears as an officer at the weekly meetings, although some women attended them. When women do appear in the archives as members of the confraternity, it is usually as benefactors. And while some Roman confraternities specified both brothers and sisters in their published statutes, the Compagnia delle Vergini Miserabili uses only the unisex fratello. Thus, while women could belong, and could certainly contribute to the pious work of the confraternity, they did not exercise an active role in its administration.

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An outside observer of the confraternity also gives us a glimpse at its membership. An anonymous manuscript from 1558 describing charity in Rome notes, '[The members of the company] are Prelates and gentlemen, either officials or good merchants, with the protection of a cardinal, who at present is Mons. Most Reverend di Cesis/51 Once again, because Rome was dominated by clerics, it is not surprising that they were given precedence, and this clerical emphasis is borne out in the constitutions, where prelates could be accepted as new members of the confraternity by simple acclamation, whereas other candidates required a two-thirds majority of the vote. The constitutions also prescribed that new members should be 'prelates, members of the curia, and persons of good customs and exemplary life, ready to be of service to the company/52 One of the more active and committed of the lay members in the sixteenth century was the successful Bolognese financier Giulio Folchi. After arriving in Rome in 1546, Folchi administered the incomes and financial portfolios of a number of the most important men in Rome, among them Cardinals Alessandro Farnese and Guido Ascanio Sforza and Duke Paolo Giordano Orsini. In close contact with bankers and merchants who dealt with the Curia, he arranged three well-placed marriages and financial alliances for his three daughters. Connected with numerous religious orders and various confraternities, he was even given the rare and coveted honour of being allowed to fish in the Tiber. He was so close to the Jesuits that in 1573 General Everard Mercurian allowed him to participate in the merits of the Society.53 His papers outline a figure typical of the sixteenth-century mercantile bourgeoisie dedicated at the same time to business and works of piety.54 In his 1591 testament he left half his fortune to be shared among three confraternities, two of which were founded by Ignatius of Loyola - S. Caterina, the monastery of S. Maria Maddalena, for reformed prostitutes, and the Collegio dei Catecumeni; taking turns, each was to reap the income for a five-year period. He was buried in a private chapel in the church of the Gesu.55 Besides bringing girls into the institution, personally guaranteeing many dowries, and serving as a regular officer at the weekly meetings, Folchi was also the author of a pious treatise, 'On the Marvellous Effects of Charity, and Memorable Quotations Regarding It.'56 This succesful treatise went through at least six editions in Latin and Italian from 1574 to 1591. It is a collection of stories, saints' lives, sermons, letters, and selections from the Old and New Testaments all developing

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the theme of charity and the rewards to those who practise it. Folchi comments that only a man of stone ('huomo di sasso') would not be moved to compassion for the girls cared for by the confraternity, when presented with the word of God in the scriptures and with so many saintly examples and exhortations. Significantly, the work was published at the period of perhaps greatest financial difficulty for the confraternity. Folchi's letter of dedication provides still another indication of the membership of the confraternity at that time, but also of the intended audience and pool of potential new members and/or contributors to the confraternity. He greets 8 cardinals in 1574 and 13 cardinals in 1586 (9 of whom were new) before moving on to 'other Prelates, Gentlemen, and Brothers of the Company of Poor Virgins ..., my most worthy sirs.0/ The five endowed chapels inside the church also help fill in the mosaic of S. Caterina's membership. The first three chapels were commissioned before 1583 by three Spanish clerics, all members of the confraternity. In fact, two of these clerics were related to founders of the confraternity, who were also among Ignatius of Loyola's first supporters in Rome.^ In addition, the high number of dowries for S. Caterina's inmates provided by the Confraternity of St James of the Spanish confirms a strong Spanish influence in the early years. Those who made contributions large enough to be individually recorded were predominantly clerics and high-ranking laymen. Because no membership lists survive, we may never know how many of the confraternity's members came from the artisanal classes. Fanucci tells us of one Albentio Calabrese, an Italian layman who dressed as a hermit and sought alms for S. Caterina and other confraternities before moving on to found the tiny Hospital of the Ascension for Hermits.59 S. Caterina's constitutions prohibited members who were in debt to the confraternity by more than 25 scudi from voting and speaking at the weekly meetings, and once the confraternity instituted an annual contribution, it would have been difficult for poorer members to keep up; but such members would not be removed from the confraternity.60 As we have seen, however, particularly during the hardest years, the confraternity targeted wealthy members. While perhaps never a member of the confraternity, Filippo Neri must be credited for his role (co-founder, according to the anonymous history of 1640). He raised money and continued as spiritual director of the inmates for many years. Among the other founders and sustainers of the pious work were Cardinal Gian Pietro Carafa (the future

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Pope Paul IV) and Ferrante Ruiz, the chaplain of S. Caterina, who later founded the Hospital of St Mary of Pity for the Insane, also the first institution of its kind.61 Piety and Devotion Many Early Modern Italian confraternities spelled out in their statutes the texts of favourite prayers and litanies, or other formulas with which to open and close their meetings.62 While no such prayers are written in the constitutions of the Compagnia delle Vergini Miserabili, they do record that the 'Prayer of the Holy Spirit' opened every meeting and that a Te Deum Laudamus was sung at the acceptance of a new cardinal protector, a standard practice among Roman confraternities.63 According to the testament and endowment left by Cardinal Federico Cesi, the chaplains celebrated mass every Sunday, said the Divine Office and vespers, and kept the church open at least six hours every day.64 The mass was likely informally incorporated into the weekly officers' meetings, as well as into any general meetings. Care for dying and deceased members and benefactors wras also an integral part of the activity of every confraternity.6D As a confraternity accumulated bequests, it also accumulated obligations for anniversary masses. Some confraternities appointed officers specifically to manage their intricate calendar of memorials.66 Often, after years had passed, a perpetual memorial for an individual benefactor would be deleted and incorporated into the communal memorial for all deceased brethren and benefactors during the week of the feast of All Souls. The brothers and sisters of the Compagnia delle Vergini Miserabili were obliged to attend such an annual commemorative mass at the beginning of November. In addition, whenever a member died, the brothers and sisters said a Crown of the Virgin (rosary) or the Seven Penitential Psalms, and those who were priests were obliged to say a mass. The members were also required to attend the funeral mass in the church of S. Caterina to pray for the good of the deceased member's soul.6/ Most would then carry large white candles in the procession to the burial place. The Compagnia delle Vergini Miserabili did not participate in the Holy Thursday solemnities, in which the majority of Rome's confraternities wound their way to St Peter's Basilica in a mile-long procession. Instead, they processed along with all the girls on 25 November, the feast of St Catherine.68 They did not wear robes, hoods, or distinctive clothing in this procession, but they carried a large ornamental tableau,

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and after passing the Jesuit church of the Gesu and the Dominican church of the Minerva, they would return to S. Caterina for a cardinalate chapel.69 Cardinalate chapels took place on twenty-four set occasions throughout the liturgical year. Many of the cardinals in Rome would attend, and at S. Caterina the mass was sung by a bishop with the help of the cardinalate choir and pontifical cantors.70 The church was ornamented with its finest furniture and candles, and each cardinal would present one gold coin to the confraternity. Thanks to the crowds attending the spectacle, the confraternity would also receive a greater return in smaller contributions on that day/1 Financial Foundations On 19 October 1560, Filippo Ruiz, apostolic secretary, left the conservatory a bequest of 120 scudi, the first recorded bequest in a series of sometimes conspicuous gifts and donations.72 Numerous cardinals and popes made contributions in money or goods in the early years, including Cardinal Chamberlain Guido Ascanio Sforza, who donated over 1,400 pounds of salt in 1551, as did his successor, Cardinal Vitellozzi, in 1567/3 Pope Julius 111, at the instigation of Ignatius, made numerous financial contributions, and assigned indulgences to the parish of S. Caterina (then still meeting in the church). While they brought in no money directly, daily indulgences and, especially, the plenary indulgence granted on St Catherine's day helped replenish the coffers by filling the church with the faithful. Pope Paul IV greatly increased the prestige of the confraternity by transferring the parish to the nearby church of S. Lucia della Tinta while leaving its income to S. Caterina, which thereupon became the confraternity's private chapel.74 He also allowed twelve of the inmates to become nuns following the Augustinian Rule and to take over the education of the remaining girls. Pope Pius IV in 1560 also granted an exemption from the tax on wine.75 The most conspicuous early donation of course came from Cardinal Federico Cesi, the first cardinal protector.76 Even before starting to build the church of S. Caterina, his special favouring of this institution is clear: in his testament he intends to leave it more than double the bequest to any other institution.77 During the construction of the church, he added a special codicil guaranteeing its completion, and before his death in 1565 he added a final codicil that was later published along with the confraternity's constitutions. In this last, he left forty annuities in the Monte della Farina to provide perpetual funds

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for dowries, two chaplains, and the current expenses of the church, along with silver altar ornaments and fine clothing and fabrics for the mass. Cesi was always considered a great supporter of the Jesuits, and this character is borne out by his testamentary gifts to the best known Ignatian-inspired institutions in Rome (the Orfani, S. Caterina, the Catecumeni, and S. Marta). For the next three generations, the Cesi family continued the tradition of supporting the Compagnia delle Vergini Miserabili and the Jesuits. Federico's nephew and universal heir, Angelo Cesi, left 50 scudi. Angelo's wife, Beatrice Caetani, left 4,000 scudi from her dowry to various Roman charities, and also specified silver candelabras for the church of the Gesu and 20 scudi per year on the day of her death in perpetuity. She stipulated that her daughters' dowries should be paid and then left her eldest son, Federico, as universal heir; but in the event that her wishes were somehow contravened, she stated, all her wealth should be split evenly among S. Caterina, S. Maria Maddalena, and the Casa Professa of the Gesu. Similarly, Olimpia Orsini, the wife of the aforementioned Federico, besides leaving funds to many convents of nuns in Rome and Aquasparta (where the Cesi had a palace), left 25 scudi each to S. Maria Maddalena, the Catecumeni, S. Caterina, and three other houses for orphans.78 Cardinal Pier Donate Cesi, the third protector of the fraternity, followed in his elder cousins' footsteps by undertaking the expansion of the conservatory starting in 1581 (on top of the enormously expensive construction of the Chiesa Nuova of the Oratorians).79 He also left an amount of 500 scudi to dower ten zitelle. As a sign that the Conservatorio di S. Caterina was becoming accepted as an institution worthy of Roman charity, even some prostitutes made voluntary contributions to its upkeep. Isabella de Luna, a famous courtesan from Spain, left in 1573 enough income to dower four zitelle a year starting in 1584.80 Courtesans were often the target of special taxes and fees that were applied for various ends, even road maintenance. Special punitive taxes were also not uncommon (for example, Sixtus IV condemned a German who raped a girl near the Tiber to pay a fine of 100 ducats to help build his Sistine bridge over the Tiber).81 Since the reign of Leo X, the law had required that a fifth of an inheritance from a courtesan go to the monastery of S. Maria Maddalena unless the woman had received a dispensation,82 but no such legal requirement for the wills of courtesans was ever added to the support of S. Caterina. A telling contribution, although certainly not the largest, came from

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Lucrezia Albini, an alumna of the conservatory, who in 1585 contributed all her possessions.83 Dowries supplied by the confraternity to alumnae who later died without children were to be restored to the confraternity by order of Clement VIII, but in practice such restitution was often not possible, either because the husband had disappeared or because he was unable to make the repayment.84 The confraternity also kept careful custody of the funds and possessions brought in by the girls, and if they died without relatives, the confraternity was the de facto beneficiary. Other wealthy nobles, both members and non-members of the confraternity, left important legacies. Two noble laymen, Marc Antonio Pietra and Cosimo Giustini, left half their wealth to the confraternity in the first two decades of the seventeenth century.85 Cosimo Giustini was mysteriously assassinated in front of his house by ruffians who were never discovered, and his heirs fought in Roman courts for nearly twenty years to keep the confraternity from getting this bequest. But the confraternity eventually won, and the outcome provides a vivid example of one of the ways in which a cardinal protector could be instrumental in defending a confraternity's interests.86 Many other records of court cases disputing contributions are contained in S. Caterina's archives.87 Both the tenacity of the confraternal members and their eventual independence of the Jesuits are graphically evident in a suit begun in 1611 between the Compagnia di Gesu and S. Caterina over an annuity (census vitalitii). Regrettably, the records do not reveal who won the dispute.88 Such bequests eventually came to form the backbone of S. Caterina's financial patrimony. Before 1600, however, the confraternity led a far more precarious existence, relying on smaller, individual contributions as its primary source of funding. Indeed, the 1582 constitutions include a special request that each member contribute what God inspires him to give, particularly at the time the zitelle were married.89 And owing to the difficult financial straits in which the confraternity found itself in the 1570s and 1580s, a monthly contribution was mandated after 1583 for members attending the general congregations.90 The repeated publication of Folchi's 'On the Marvellous Effects of Charity' also attests to the leanness of these years. Another source of funds was the marble slot by the entrance of the church, for anonymous donations. As I have noted, contributions always increased on St Catherine's feast day, 25 November, and these helped pay the expenses of the great number of girls who entered the conservatory on that day.91

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Despite the variety of sources of income, it is clear from the weekly meeting minutes and the 'List of the Girls' (Alfabeto delle zitelle) that each girl was taken in as an individual case, and that her dowry, whether for marriage or for taking vows, was paid on a similarly individual basis. The great majority of the girls admitted had either no money or insufficient money for a dowry. Every effort was made at the moment of entrance to secure the 50 scudi (by the end of the sixteenth century, this had increased to 80 or 100 scudi) for marriage or the 150 or more scudi needed for entry to a monastery.92 Since, at the end of the sixteenth century, a waller would receive a wage of 25 baiocchi per day, a dowry of 50 scudi was the equivalent of two hundred days' labour, and a dowry of 100 scudi the equivalent of four hundred days' labour. First, the confraternity's visitors solicited contributions from any known relatives of the girl, and sometimes friends or neighbours stepped in to guarantee the dowry. The next option was to seek a donation from the clerics and lay members of the Compagnia delle Vergini Miserabili itself, and even from other confraternities (because S. Caterina's inmates were presumed virgins, unlike those of S. Marta, other confraternities would often provide dowries). The two most frequent suppliers of funds were the exclusively noble confraternity of S. Girolamo della Carita, and that of the Annunziata in the Dominican church of S. Maria sopra Minerva. Every year the Annunziata dowered more than two hundred women in a highly ritualized ceremony presided over by the pope.93 A sizeable number of dowries was also guaranteed by the Confraternity of St James of the Spanish, testimony to a perduring spanophile bent at S. Caterina's.94 The zeal and commitment of the members kept them seeking every possible means of funding. The relatively frequent changes in the number of girls allowed to enter the conservatory and the kinds of girls accepted, along with the gradual increase in the number of nuns, from 12 to 20, by the end of the century, are telltale signs of financial difficulties. But it is important to note that the confraternity never allowed the number of nuns to rise beyond 20, even though there were financial incentives to do so - there being no need to pay for a wedding or a costly convent dowry for those who stayed at S. Caterina. Entering the Conservatory As set forth in chapter 19 of the constitutions, eligible girls were between the ages of 10 and 12 and were healthy, nice-looking, and without

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physical impairment. 9 ^ No blood sisters would be accepted except for a legitimate and urgent reason. The confraternity stipulated that it would accept only those girls who were in an urgent state of moral jeopardy, and who, if not removed from their present environment, would surely succumb to prostitution. Accordingly, girls under 10 were deemed not at risk, whereas girls over 12 were believed to be already corrupted.96 But in practice, as we shall see, these rules could be bent. The constitutions dictated a lengthy admission process so that each girl would be judged fairly. Typically, a confraternity brother or a family member recommended a girl to the conservatory. During their weekly meetings, the officers discussed the proposed candidates and held a secret vote to determine whether a girl's living situation placed her in sufficient jeopardy to warrant an investigation. If the majority agreed to pursue the case, two brothers were deputized to explore, independently, the candidate's situation in life and to inform the administration of their findings in separate written statements. If warranted, two more brothers would submit separate written opinions as well. If all four reports were in agreement, the secretary read them aloud to the congregation and a secret vote was held, requiring a twothirds majority for acceptance. If the four were not in agreement, two more deputies were dispatched to investigate. An examination of the weekly minutes and written reports, however, shows that only rarely have all four reports survived, and the frequency of instances of four reports dwindles significantly after 1580.9/ In addition, there was a provision for particularly grave situations requiring swift intervention. If necessary, the officers could forgo their lengthy investigations and ask the public authorities to help seize a girl from her bad environment and conduct her immediately to the conservatory. Gregory Martin, the English priest living in Rome in 1576-8, wrote of this practice: The maydes of the citie called Citelle that are of better parentage, but their houses fallen to decay, or such whose mothers are or have been harlots: such are placed in S. Catharines de Funari, yea these later taken from their mothers by force if neede be, and here are brought up in al vertue and good life.'98 Once the widows' house was acquired, girls brought by the police (sbiri) would stay there for a time, until a final determination of their status was made. 99 Since the widows' house was a separate building and had prison facilities as well as rooms for temporary stays, it was regarded as the most suitable location for such girls, whose residence there would not affect morale in the conservatory proper.

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But the overwhelming majority of the girls were admitted to the conservatory as the result of a petition from a relative or friends.100 A not insignificant proportion were placed there by their mothers, some of whom were about to remarry and whose prospective husbands were either unable or unwilling to take on children of previous unions.101 Phantasilea, alias 'la bella bustachina/ provides another kind of example. She was a prostitute of the lowest level, and had already been warned by the police at the instigation of her neighbours. Her daughter represented a weight and a problem for her, and perhaps had provided the motivation for her prostituting herself. When she came to the confraternity, she explained that 'if her daughter Elisabetta were only accepted and placed in the monastery she believed she could turn to a more honest life and therefore the confraternity would save two souls at once/102 Whether she intended to change her life or not, she certainly knew the kind of language the confraternity members wanted to hear. Lastly, the whole process could be circumvented by the pope's intervention and placement of a girl in an institution. Gregory Martin recounts a typical example: A woman of il[l] life her self, but having three daughters, virgins of goodly beautie, and nowe of ripe years to good or ill, for the love that she had to kepe them honest, made her complaynte to the Pope in open filde as he passed by, and shewed her daughters which might be honest women if it pleased him to provide for them out[side] of her house. Whereupon [Gregory XIII] allowing eche of them an hundred Crownes, placed them in such a house of religious wemen, where they might for the time be vertuously brought up, and afterward either be professed Nonnes, or if they would marie, he would give them honest dowries.'103

Martin earlier records that Pope Gregory XIII, besides directly funding confraternities, had contributed to them about 2,000,000 crownes an amount of truly biblical proportions that should not be taken at face value. But Gregory was indeed well known for largesse of this kind, as even Michel de Montaigne reported when visiting Rome in 1581.104 And his reputation for direct intervention is borne out in the list of girls admitted: at least ten cases record placement by order of Gregory XIII.105 The confraternity records show that the officers were serious about the entrance requirements regarding good health and virginity. The

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confraternity's limited resources were meant for raising, educating, and protecting young women in preparation for marriage or the convent; there were no funds to spare on sickness or infirmity, and other confraternities and hospitals existed to address those needs. On at least nine occasions, girls were sent back to their families on account of illness.106 Verginia, the daughter of a goldsmith, was returned to her mother when it was discovered that she was lame.107 In addition, the girls had to be virgins, so as not to be lost already and in a position to corrupt the other inmates. In the case of Doralice, it was later discovered that she was not a virgin; she was immediately dismissed from the conservatory and returned to her mother.108 Afterwards, the confraternity instituted the practice of using mammane, elderly women or possibly nuns, to verify a prospective applicant's virginity before her admission. The officers also appear to have stayed close to the guidelines regarding the age of the girls entering the conservatory.109 Of the 170 recorded ages at admittance between 1560 and 1590, 92 per cent were 10, 11, or 12 years old (23, 45, and 24 per cent respectively). Another 4 per cent were recorded as 9 years old, and the remaining 4 per cent, aged from 13 to 17, can almost all be accounted for as having been placed in the conservatory by Gregory XIII or by a cardinal. The ban on the admission of blood sisters was broken only three times during the period, so here too there was close adherence to the rules. Dimensions and Growth After its informal beginnings in 1542 or 1543, the work of rescuing young girls from danger was still precarious in 1546, when Bartolommeo Ferrao described Ignatius's continuing placement of girls in the homes of nobles such as La Madama d'Austria and Ottavio Farnese.110 By scouring the surviving references, Franca Fedeli Bernardini has been able to count at least 8 zitelle who entered the institution between 1543 and 1550.1n But this number is surely too low when comparison is made with the house of S. Marta, which recorded helping more than 200 women in its first seven years.112 In 1559 an anonymous observer counted 108 zitelle and women governing them, with 3 chaplains.113 In 1578, Gregory Martin estimated 150 girls with 18 nuns in charge of them.114 In 1601, Fanucci reports an original limit of 100 and its increase to 160.115 Fedeli Bernardini finds in general a regular increase from 1543 to 1570, and then a few years of decline before a return to a

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regulated maximum of 150 after 1584. In the last years of the century, however, she notes a decline in the duration of stay. That means that while the maximum number of inmates remained constant, more zitelle passed through the conservatory because their time in the institution decreased. Which Girls? and What Kind of Help? The constitutions stipulate that only girls who are daughters of prostitutes or who live in such poverty that they will likely succumb to prostitution, and who have been living in Rome for a minimum of two years, are eligible for entrance.116 This primary group, however, evolved over time. By examining baptismal records, Fedeli Bernardini has determined that the percentage of inmates for whom only the mother's name was known (often the case with prostitutes) reached a peak in the years 1561-5, at nearly 50 per cent. In the years 1556-60 and 1566-70 it was 30 per cent and 24 per cent respectively, and it stayed at about 10 per cent or less thereafter, although it never completely disappeared.117 This finding conforms with other decisions made by the confraternity, such as to take on paying boarders after 1581 and to accept the children of the shamefaced poor (poveri vergognosi); the drift away from the original focus and purpose of the confraternity is evident. While the recording secretaries did not indicate whether the girls had been in Rome for more than two years, they were meticulous in cataloguing their origins, at least when they were non-Roman. For the period from 1560 to 1590, the origins of 221 girls are recorded. The overwhelming majority (72 per cent) are listed as having one or both parents from an Italian city other than Rome. Twenty per cent originate outside Italy, especially in Spain, Germany, and Flanders. Eight per cent are specified as coming from Rome, although this number is almost certainly an underestimate resulting from omission.118 Nevertheless, we are left with a demographic profile of a group even more transient than was typical for Rome, which had one of the most transient populations in the Early Modern period.119 This pattern mirrors the demographics of prostitution in present-day Italy, where foreigners (particularly from North Africa, South America, and areas of the former Yugoslavia and Eastern Europe) are overrepresented.120 Perhaps this data underscores the perennial vulnerability of individuals who have no safety net of familial or other strong social relations when faced with increasing economic pressure.

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The dowry promised in the constitutions of 50 scudi plus a wedding dress finds confirmation in the records of the girls.121 Of the seventyfour marriage dowries recorded between 1560 and 1590, 58 per cent were of 50 scudi, and 12 per cent were of 60 scudi, a difference that in some cases may simply have reflected the cost of the dress. Other dowries ranged from 55 to 225 scudi, the highest recorded in the period. Convent dowries were always higher, starting at 150 scudi and increasing to over 400 scudi. The wedding dowries tended to increase later in the period (perhaps reflecting inflation), and Fanucci records in 1601 that the standard dowry was increased to 80 scudi so as to remain competitive.122 Beyond the promise of a suitable dowry and husband at the end of the residence at S. Caterina, the confraternity members provided what they saw as far more important: the preservation of virginity, virtue, and honour. It was common in the preface of confraternity statutes to include a prayer or a pious explanation outlining why a particular good work was deserving of praise or effort. A detailed explanation was not included in S. Caterina's constitutions, but from the letter of dedication attached to Giulio Folchi's 'On the Marvellous Effects of Charity' we gain an insight into how at least some of the members looked on their work: Other companies, according to their good statutes either endeavor to heal wounds or nourish and sustain bodies. Yet our company, almost lifting itself higher, not only nourishes the bodies, but conserves the innocence of the bodies, and souls, and secures them from desperate men. Who knows how many scandals, rapes, and almost infinite sacrilege would be committed if our company did not collect and preserve these young virgins? Other companies, and truly with great merit, will present to the sight of the angels of God the human bodies made sound; but ours will present the souls, which are of a higher worth ...: the souls that are freed and preserved from innumerable sins and the mouth of the inferno.123

Life inside the Conservatory During their residence in the conservatory, the girls received both religious instruction and lessons in needlework aimed at preparing them for future roles as homemakers. The nuns, who followed the Rule of St Augustine and were themselves all alumnae of the conservatory, were directly responsible for the care and education of the girls. Discipline

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and stringent rules prevailed: the girls were raised to be devout and God-fearing. They were taught to read and write and were instructed in Christian Doctrine, with an emphasis on the proper way to confess and to receive Holy Communion124 (for an image of one of the Augustinian sisters handing a girl a book, see fig. 4). They learned prayers, practised devotions, and heard frequent sermons, even once a week from Filippo Neri.125 In the earliest years the Jesuits preached there, as during the Lent of 1547, when Ignatius sent a young Jesuit named Hieronymo Bassan.126 Later the Oratorians had a greater role, particularly while Pier Donato Cesi was cardinal protector.127 The girls also learned the rudiments of music, and some became known for their musical talent, such as Utilia, who became a nun and died at S. Caterina in 1579 after having sung for many years as 'a soprano with a miraculous voice/128 The cultivation of practical skills with good earning potential was especially encouraged: the girls were trained in sewing, lace-making, knitting, and weaving.129 The income from their work made a not insignificant contribution to the income and financial viability of the institution.130 In addition, the girls were allowed to keep a portion of the earnings from the sale of their work to apply to their own dowry upon departure. Their domestic activities thus served a threefold purpose: they provided current income for the conservatory; they kept the girls from being idle - idleness being seen as an open door for the devil; and they enabled the girls to cultivate skills that would prove valuable in later life. Indeed, some of the prospective husbands who came to S. Caterina to seek a bride first asked to see some of her embroidery work.131 The girls lived in strict seclusion. Officially, they were permitted to meet with any parents or relatives only four times a year, in the presence of the prioress, after written permission had been obtained from the cardinal protector.132 In practice, visitation and contact with the outside took place far more frequently. Some nearby buildings were close enough and tall enough to allow for contact, even the exchange of gifts through the window, as in the case of Alessio Laurentani, a 35year-old beadle, and Lucrezia Casasanta.133 Also, access through the main door and visitors' grate was occasionally very easy: one prioress was replaced after a successful abduction of one of the girls.134 In some cases, girls left the conservatory to live and work for aristocratic families. They were sent as domestic help, with the stipulation that the girl be retained for a period usually of six years, and that the host family provide the girl with a marriage dowry of 150 scudi upon

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completion of her service. In a few instances, a girl returned to the conservatory because of an unsatisfactory living situation or the failure of one of the parties to meet the terms of the agreement.135 Once a year, on St Catherine's feast day, the girls walked in procession from the conservatory past the Gesu to the Minerva and back to the conservatory. At the time of Ignatius's canonization in the 1620s, an individual testified that the girls passed by the Gesu in memory of Ignatius's involvement with the institution.136 Their inclusion of the Minerva probably confirmed the number of dowries supplied by the confraternity of the Annunziata, located there. The younger ones were dressed as various saints and angels, and the older ones wore simple white robes. Giacinto Gigli, Rome's approximation of Samuel Pepys, noted that the practice was discontinued in 1612 but resumed in 1640, after twenty-nine years without a procession. In 1640, Gigli recalls, they left on 1 May (the feast of the apostles Philip and James) and went to the basilica of the SS. Dodici Apostoli before returning to the monastery. There were 157 girls at the time, and not all participated. He notes that the practice was discontinued because one girl disappeared or was stolen en route, and suggests that it was resumed because the girls were no longer receiving offers of marriage. The processions served as an important means of advertisement.137 Interestingly, when the processions were revived, they went to the basilica of the SS. Dodici Apostoli, which is affiliated with the Franciscans but was also home to the confraternity of the Dodici Apostoli, another confraternity founded by Ignatius in the 1540s to help the poveri vergognosi, or shamefaced poor.138 These poor were frequently the members of aristocratic families who had fallen on hard times but because of their social status could not be seen begging; the confraternity provided them with support in secret (although they could help members of the artisanal classes as well. Since at this time the conservatory of S. Caterina was accepting many children of the shamefaced poor (the cardinal protector, Antonio Barberini, had endowed two of them each year), perhaps this gesture was a means of expressing gratitude for past contributions, or hope for new contributions. Departure: Sickness, Death, Marriage, or Vows Because the conservatory was not a hospital - though it did have a sister 'druggist' (speziala) - in the event that a serious or infectious sickness threatened the other children, the nuns, or the widows, the sick

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girls were returned to their mothers or relatives, who agreed to bring them back to the monastery when they returned to health. In the decade between 1597 and 1607, at least fifteen girls were returned to their mothers or relatives. Upon recovering, the children were returned to the conservatory. Those who died were buried in the Sepulchre of the Little Virgins near the altar of the church of S. Caterina.139 The girls who married tended to marry men of the same social class as they, generally artisans such as shoemakers, butchers, and servants, and almost never peasants or shepherds; only in rare cases did they climb or descend the social scale. The girls sometimes had a long wait before a dowry could be assembled, up to seventeen years.140 Although the minutes show that the confraternity made diligent efforts to evaluate each marriage proposal fully and to assess the seriousness and trustworthiness of the applicant, the making of a marriage was subject to numerous variables and pressures: the many older inmates awaiting their turn, the personality and beauty of the individual girl, and the wishes of relatives outside, whose cooperation played a role in the producing of a happy marriage.141 On the day on which a woman at S. Caterina was to be married, she received her dress, perhaps any belongings she may have had upon entry, and a notarized certificate. She was most often married in the church of S. Caterina.142 The confraternity's responsibility did not end with the departure of the alumna and her husband. De' Rossi explains in 1645, Tor the widows, they try to find another husband; for those married [but unhappy] they try to reunite them with their husbands, and those who live licentiously, they keep in the [widows'] house, nor do they release them except after a long practice, emendation of life, and change from bad habits to good for the glory of God and the good of their soul.'143 De' Rossi might have added that those kept on account of licentious living also helped safeguard the honour of the conservatory, because the alumnae came to be called ihefiglie del luogo, the daughters of the place, and the confraternity members regarded their honour or shame as they would that of their own daughters.144 Since divorce was not or was only rarely an option (in the form of an annulment), those who were not happy with their new husbands entered the category of malmaritate and might be taken back into the widows' house for short periods. The conservatory also accepted the daughters of their alumnae, and so completed the circle. Between 1560 and 1580 at least six of the girls were daughters of previous inmates, ihefiglie dellefiglie del luogo. This

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fact testifies to a perduring relationship between the conservatory and the girls, one that extended to their life outside the institution and included visits to them for ten years or more after their departure. In some cases, alumnae received additional financial support upon the birth of children. The visitations served more than one purpose: besides monitoring the continued solvency of an alumna, the visitors would also seek the return of her dowry in the event that she died childless. In the event that an alumna was widowed, the visitors would ascertain whether she had enough support from her deceased husband's family or would need more, and whether she fell into prostitution.14a Like the establishment of the widows' house, the acceptance of an alumna's daughter was a response to a naturally resulting need not originally anticipated by the confraternity. It also exposed the all too common cycle of poverty and the difficulty of breaking out from its tenacious grasp. 146 The constitutions forbade the giving of a dowry by the confraternity to any zitclln who had spent less than seven years at S. Caterina.147 The force of this stipulation is confirmed by the archival records, which show that only in special circumstances did zitelle leave before seven years, and, in the period between 1560 and 1590, generally they stayed an average of 9.8 years. The mean duration was even higher, 11 years.148 The duration of residence tended to decline slightly in the last years of the sixteenth century, when the confraternity made a special effort to relieve the increased poverty brought on by the epidemics, famines, and lawlessness that were part of a general crisis at the end of the century in Italy and beyond. 14m, Prxcipua Christianas pietatis capita complectens ... (Antwerp, 1589). See also his Dottrina Christiana nella qunle si contengono i principali Misteri della nostre Fede ... (Rome, 1591). 138 Carolyn FL Wood, 'Giovanni da San Giovanni and Innocenzo Tacconi at the Madonna dei Monti, Rome,' Burlington Magazine 143 (2001): 11-18; see also her 'Tacito predicatore: The Annunciation Chapel at the

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Notes to page 124

Madonna del Monti in Rome/ Catholic Historical Review 90:4 (2004): 634-49. 139 MHSI, Epist Mixt II, pp. 299-301; and Pastor, The History of the Popes, vol. 12, pp. 96-9. 140 A serious offence; see Filippo Tamburini, ed., Ebrei saraceni cristiani: Vita sociale e vita religiosa dai registri delict Penitenziaria apostolica: Secoli 14.-16. (Milan, 1996), and Santi e peccatori: Confession! c suppliche dai registri della Penitenziaria deU'Ardnvio segreto vaticano: 1451-1586 (Milan, 1995). 141 While the Jesuits did work toward establishing an institution, its house and confraternity were not stable until 1590; see Mario Marzola, Per la star in della chiesa ferrarese nel secolo XVI (1497-1590), 2 vols (Turin, 1976), I, pp. 620-3. 142 Carlo Borromeo's Milanese diocesanal decrees provided for a catechumens house and for attendance at obligatory sermons; see Stow, Catholic Thought, pp. 208-9. A Collegio de Neofiti was functioning no later than 1604. See Danilo Zardin, 'Convertirsi e convertire. Itirverari del messagio religiose in eta moderna/ Ricerche per la storia religiosa di Roma 10 (1998): 30-50. 143 Masini, Bologna perlustrata, vol. 1, p. 354, says it was run by twelve noblemen and noblewomen, and was started in 1568. See also Browe, Die Judenmission, p. 177. 144 Browc, Diejudenmission, p. 177; Hoffmann, Ursprung und Anfangstatigkeit, p. 123. 145 On Mantua, see Shlomo Simonsohn, History of the jews in the Duchy of Mantua (New York, 1977), pp. 26-8. Work with catechumens in Naples had begun as early as 1573, with Bishop Mario Carafa's contact with Cardinal Sirleto, the protector of the catechumens house, in Rome, and was followed up with Bishop Burali d'Arezzo; see Pasquale Lopez, Clero eresia e magia nella Napoli del viceregno (Naples, 1984), pp. 57-114. 146 Pullan, The Jews of Europe, p. 273; Capitoli ed ordini per il buon Governo delle Pie Case de' Cattecumeni di Venezia ... (Venice, 1737), p. 37. 147 Stow, Catholic Thought, p. 200, cited in Andrea Balletti, Cli ebrei e gli Estensi (Modena, 1913), pp. 176-94. In Genoa, catechumens were housed along with other groups receiving aid; see Pullan, The Jews of Europe, p. 273. 148 See Luigi Passerini, Storia degli stabilimenti di beneficenza e d'islruzione elementare gratuita della citta di Firenze (Florence, 1853), pp. 116-19; and also, more recently, Roberto G. Salvador!, Gli ebrei di Firenze: Dalle origini ai giorni nostri (Florence, 2000), pp. 70-80. 149 See Luciano Allegra, 'Modelli di conversione,' Quaderni star id 78 (1991): 901-15; and Allegra, 'L'ospizio dei catecumeni di Torino,' Bolletino storicobibliografico subalpino 88:2 (July-December 1990): 513-73.

Notes to pages 124-8 243 150 Jacopo Bcrnardi, Ospizin A?' catecumeni in Pinewlo: Cenni storici (Pincrolo, 1864). 151 Roberto, Salvador!, Breve storm degli ebrei toscani: IX-XX secolo (Florence, 1995), pp. 71ff. 152 See Montaigne, Montaigne's Travel journal; Martin, Roma sancta; Coryate, Coryat's Crudities Hastily gabled (London, 1611); and Francis Mortoft, Francis Mortoft: His Book, being his travels through France and Italy, 1658-1659, ed. Malcolm Letts (London, 1925), tor instance, as well as the Oiario of Giacinto Cigli. Chapter 5: Working in the Vineyard 1 Stierli, 'Devotion to Mary/ pp. 19-20 2 Martin, Roma sancta, p. 260. 3 In 1557, student confraternities were founded in Florence, Genoa, Ferrara, and Siracusa. See Villaret, Les congregations mariales, pp. 28-32; Tacchi Venturi, Storia, vol. 1.1, p. 267; Marzola, Per la storia della cliiesa ferrarese, vol. 1, p. 619; Wicki, Lc Pere Jean Leunis. 4 Acquaviva discouraged the use of any other statutes. See Elder Mullan, SJ, La congregazione mariana studiatn nei documenti (Rome, 1911), The Sodality of Our Lady Studied in the Documents (New York, 1912), document 4. 5 William V. Bangert, SJ, To the Other Towns: A Life of Blessed Pierre Tavre, First Companion of St. Ignatius (Westminster, MD, 1959). See also Dictionnaire de spiritualite axetique et mystique, doctrine et histoire, ed. M. Villcr et al. (Paris, 1937- ), s.v. 'Communion frequent'; Paul Dudon, SJ, 'Le "Libellus" du P. Bobadilla sur la communion frequente et quotidienne,' AHSJ 2 (1933): 25879; Dudon, 'Sur un regie pour la coinmunion frequente donnee a Parme en 1540,' Rec/ierches de sciences religeitse 1 (1910): 174-9; Dudon, Pour la communion frequente et quotidienne, Le premier livre d'un jesuite sur la question (1557) (Paris, 1910). See also an early (1550s) manuscript of the rules written byFa v re in the Archivio di stato di Parma, 'Statuti S. Giovanni Decollate'; and [Pietro Zarotti] Brevi cenni storici inlorno alia pia istituzione della Dottrina cristiana in Parma (Parma, 1897). 6 William V. Bangert, SJ, Claude lay and Alfonso Salmeron: Two Early Jesuits (Chicago, 1985). 7 See Mario Scaduto, L'epoca di Giacomo Lninez, II goivrno, 1556-1565 (Rome, 1964). 8 William V. Bangert, SJ, Jerome Nadal, S.J., 2507-7580: Tracking the First Generation of Jesuits, cd. Thomas McCoog (Chicago, 1992). 9 See O'Malley, The First Jesuits.

244 Notes to page 128 10 Agrigento (1547), Bologna (1547), Palermo (1547), Casola in Lunigiana (1550), Trapani (1551), Messina (1551), Modena (1551), Florence (1554), Padua (1557), Venice (1577), and Naples (1628). Agrigento: Tacchi Venturi, Storia, vol. 2.2, p. 299. Bologna: Tacchi Venturi, Storia, vol. 2.2, p. 250; MHSI: M Lain I, pp. 59-61; Po Chron I, p. 216 n!77. Palermo: Tacchi Venturi, Storia, vol. 2.2, p. 300-1; Danielle Bartoli, Dell'istoria delta Compagnia di Giesu: L'ltalia; prima parte dell'Europa (Rome, 1673; repr. Florence, 1994), book 2, chap. 1, p. 115; MHSI, Litt Quad I, pp. 47-53; Antonino Mongitore, 'Monasteri e Conservator!/ Bibl Com Pal, E 5, 7; MHSI, Po Chron I, p. 238 n!93, p. 287 n248, p. 380 n373; III, pp. 204-29. Casola in Lunigiana: Tacchi Venturi, Storia, vol. 2.2, p. 171; MHS7: Litt Quad I, pp. 213-74, especially 257; Epist Mixt I, pp. 564ff; II, pp. 57ff, 328ff; Po Chron II, p. 234. Trapani: MHSI: Po Chron II, p. 234; M Nadal I, p. vii; Salvatore Girgenti, La compagnia dei Bianchi di Trapani: 1555-1821 (Trapani, 1988). Messina: MHSI, M Nadal I, pp. 107-8, 274. Modena: MHSI: Po Chron II, p. 450; M Nadal I, p. 330; see also Gusmano Soli, Chiese di Modena, 3 vols, ed. Giordano Bertuzzi (Modena, 1974), I, pp. 63-73. Florence: MHSI, Po Chron IV, p. 168; V, p. 101; see also Mario Scaduto, L'epoca di Giacomo Lainez, L'azione, 1556-1565,2 vols (Rome, 1974), II, p. 643, stating 1557. Padua: Tacchi Venturi, Storia, vol. 1.1, p. 385; MHSI, Litt Quad 1, p. 616. Venice, the Casa del Soccorso: among others, Franca Semi, Gli 'ospizi' di Venezia (Venice, 1983); Ellero, L'archivio IRE. Naples: Lopez, Riforma cattolica, pp. 86-7. 11 See Tacchi Venturi, Storia, vol. 2.2, pp. 254-5; MHSI, M Bra, p. 338. 12 For vergini periditanti: Trapani (