Page 156 - Upland Families, Elites and Communities

Sandro Guzzi-Heeb

derestimated in studies on Catholic societies. The numerous, omnipresent
and very popular devotional confraternities were the most important as-
sociation structures in early modern Catholic Europe. It was especially one
of the only opportunities for horizontal association in a very hierarchical
society. If this is significant for men, it is even more crucial for women, who
had very few possibilities to gather outside their homes and to become vis-
ible on the public stage.
As several studies have pointed out, confraternities had a wide array
of important functions within the religious calendar of rural and urban
parishes – especially managing the frequent and very popular local pro-
cessions. These associations are therefore important pillars sustaining the
unity and the solidarity of the local communities – of the parish as well as
of the political corporation.
Among their principal and conspicuous tasks, besides the processions,
we can mention the organization and the management of local feasts, the
maintenance of altars, and the participation in particular cults – especial-
ly the devotions to the holy figures championing the association, most of-
ten Jesus, the Holy Virgin, or popular Saints (see, for example, Froeschlé-
Chopard 1988). Moreover, many confraternities exerted important welfare
functions, visiting and, if possible, supporting the sick and the poor among
their members and in the parish and participating in the funerals of de-
ceased members, probably helping the widows and young children in dif-
ficult situations. In the Alpine region, credit was a further important task
of many confraternities.
The booksoftheBlessedSacrament in Liddesallow us tograsp thein-
ner organization of this society. Apart from the ordinary members, the
registers list a complex hierarchy with a prior and a vice-prior for the men,
a prioress and a vice-prioress for the women, bell-ringers, visitors to the
sick, male and female singers, a director of the processions, various cross-
bearers, torch-bearers, etc. This structure underlines the centrality of the
very popular processions among the activities of the brotherhoods (mgsb,
apl, f9).
In some cases, cooperation within a common confraternity cemented
solidarity between several villages and hamlets of a large parish and helped
to preserve its unity: this was probably the case with the ancient confra-
ternities of the Holy Spirit in the large parishes of the Val de Bagnes or the
Val d’Anniviers, which survived from the Middle Ages until the beginning
of the nineteenth century, whereas other, similar, associations waned as
large parishes split (Vianin 1954; Guzzi-Heeb 2014, 19–34). In such cases,

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