BROTHERHOODS, P,Euctors. Societies in stituted for pious and benevolent purposes, numerous in the Middle Ages and in the Roman Catholic Church of modern times. They are in stituted especially for those who wish to have the help of organization and common aims, but are not conscious of a vocation to join the strict ly religious orders. In some eases they appear as affiliated societies to the latter. as in the ease of the Third Order of Saint Dominic and Saint Francis (see TERTIARY), In the Middle Ages a number of brotherhoods sprang up which either did not seek or did not obtain ecclesiastical recognition, and finally assumed the character of sects, with more or less of heretical tendency. To this class belonged, among others, the Beg hards and Bel:nines (q.v.), the Apostolic Breth ren (q.v.), and the Flagellants (q.v.), who, while tolerated by the Church for a while, at last in curred its censure and were severely repressed. We may also reckon among religious brotherhoods the old building corporations from which sprang the order of Freemasons (see Masons, FREE), the character of whose secret societies indicated, in the opinion of the Church. a peculiarly dan gerous tendency to Gnosticism: in modern times, of course, the well-known association of free masonry on the Continent of Europe has given more ample ground for its condemnation by various Popes on the charge of atheism. Nearly all the professional and trade organizatiohs of the Middle Ages had, in accordance with the spirit of the time, an essentially religious character: and this side of their activity was of equal importance with the secular side in the minds of their founders. (See Guam.) A full
idea of the extent to which this view of the mat ter prevailed in England even in the Sixteenth Century may be found in Gasquet, The Ere of the Reformation (London, MO). Other confraterni ties which came into existence with the sanction of the Church devoted themselves to the promo tion of religion, and, under its direct influence, to the performance of many practical works of charity, by assisting strangers, travelers, the un protected. the oppressed, the destitute, and the sick. Typical examples of these medieval broth erhoods are the Bridge building Brotherhoods (q.v.), and, especially. the Fratelli delta Miseri cordia at Florence, still existing. whose work it is to bury the dead, and under whose picturesque costume are frequently concealed the features of members of the noblest Italian houses.
The last two centuries have witnessed the growth of a great number of Roman Catholic confraternities, both for men and women, based on the same principle as these earlier ones. Many of them are more or less associated with the religious orders: thus the League of the Sacred Heart or Apostleship of Prayer. with millions of members all over the world, under the direc tion of the Jesuits: the Rosary sodalities of the Dominicans; and the eonfraternities of the Scapular of the Carmelites.