Silences And Sounds: confraternity

Showing posts with label confraternity. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 21, 2026

Riddle me this! Transcription and the Waldsee Register

Gee, what do you do all day when you’re on fellowship in a manuscript archive? Well, most days I do a LOT, but some days I just come up against a puzzle, and sit with it, and stand with it, and then sit with it some more.

And today was a puzzle day. The early prospects looked good – I was transcribing a document that the sisters of Waldsee had copied in their Register (Freiburg Universitätsbibliothek Cod. 182) so that I can talk about it later. It was pretty straightforward, or so I thought, just a copied entry recording a 1669 agreement about the sisters’ involvement with a local confraternity that they had included in the first third of the book. I had the gist of the content from my fast-pass reading yesterday, but today I wanted a polished transcription.So I did as one does, and started at the top. Some of it took some peering – that “R” in “rubric” looks nothing like an “R,” grumble grumble grumble. But most of it went quickly enough.

My practice when I think I might publish a document is to prepare two separate transcriptions and then merge them with a letter by letter verification, and this one was pretty easy. “Tipell”? No, “Capell,” of course. That thing that looks like an es-zet (ß)? Wow, that’s the capital P for “Pfleger.” And so on.

And then, oh, then, then then then, I came to the devil’s own challenge:

die Z… , die Z… uhh, die Z__g__n? Z__h__n? Die Zeig… , Die Zeug… , Die Zwig…

Yes. I looked. And I looked. And I looked up words in the Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch.

And then I looked some more. Was it “ri” as in “Brieder” (the regional variant for “Bruder”)? Was that an “i” with its dot, or is it “u” with an umlaut?

Eyestrain got me nowhere, though I flailed at it for well over an hour.

The context didn’t help, either. The passage was an echo of obligations – but the early passage named only two of the three – and of course they were the two I could read:

the sisters, however, shall henceforth supply the hosts as has long been customary, work the wax free of charge, and themselves arrange to have the [UNIDENTIFIED] made.

Hostien, hosts: yup.

Wachs, wax: got it.

Z….: still stuck.

And that’s when it finally struck me: I should go look at words having to do with the confraternity! They may not have transcribed my document, but maybe, just maybe, the lists of “things needed for worship services” would give me a clue.

And yep, that’s when I found it. Bless those 19^th and early 20^th century antiquarians and their friends the local historians.

It turns out that in the Confraternity of Saint Sebastian at Waldsee, there were tokens – little metal emblems called Sebastianzeichen -- which were purchased at time of entry! They were to be brought to all the services, and they were the guarantee that you’d get your prayers said upon your death – the family surrendered the token, the administrators wrote your name in the book, and everyone offered up the appropriate prayers. (Statute summary and further bibliography in Selig p. 66ff; discussion of the Sebastianzeichen is pp. 68-70.)

The token is kind of like a predecessor to your modern-day campus ID card: it gets you into the building, lets you access confraternity services, and will serve as the necessary ID when it’s time to close out your accounts (ahem). (I do expect retirement and death to differ, so this analogy should only be taken so far!)

And so, yes, the sisters will obtain their own supply of, are you ready for this, Z – e – i – c – h – e – n – n, Zeichenn, or confraternity tokens.

Puzzle solved.

So I finished my transcription, took a celebratory walk in the beautiful sunshine, and then came back and worked up the translation.

Text and translation (and dear-to-me bibliographic citation) given below if you’re interested.

And that, friends, is what I do at the HMML archives.

RESOURCES

Freiburg, Universitätsbibliothek Cod. 182, HMML #43114, fol. 19r.

Theodor Selig, “Bruderschaften und Bündnisse im Landkapitel (Wurzach-)Waldsee,” Diözesan-Archiv von Schwaben 23 (1905), continuation, pp. 65–79, especially p. 70.

Edition:

Copia der Růbric so in daß Register der Lobt: Bruederschafft. S. S. Sebastian, neu gesetzt wurden.

Copy of the entry which was newly entered in the register of the praiseworthy Confraternity of St. Sebastian [from Freiburg, Universitätsbibliothek Cod. 182 (HMML #43114), fol. 19r]

Alß Anno 1669. die Brieder vn Schwesteren der Lobl. Bruederschafft S. Sebastiney in ain Neůeß

Register geschriben wurden, haben die Můtter vnd schwesteren der Claůßer alhir, bey der Herrn Pfleger Mündtlich angebracht, vnd vurgeben, Alß were bey Anfangs der Bruederschaft Nachuolgender verglich mit ihnen gemacht werden daß man alle schwestern in die lobl. Bruederschafft vergebenß, Ein schreiben vnd besingen wolle die Schwysternn hin gegen die Nathwendige Hastien in die Capell vergebenß geben vnd das Waches ohne Lohn machen sollen Wellichem vorgeben die Herren Pfleger (wie billich) glauben gegeben, vnd vermög deß war gegebnen vergliches, die Můetter sambt ehren schwosteren allen vorgebens eingeschriben, vnd sollen auch vergebenß besůngen werden, aber fürthin die Hostien, wie von Alten dargeben vnd daß Wachs vorgebenß machen Wie auch die Zeichenn selber machen lassen sollen */*

When, in 1669, the brothers and sisters of the praiseworthy Confraternity of St. Sebastian were entered into a new register, the mother and sisters of the local Klause orally submitted to the stewards and stated that, at the founding of the confraternity, the following agreement had been made with them: all the sisters would be enrolled in the praiseworthy confraternity free of charge and have services sung for them; the sisters, in return, would provide the necessary hosts for the chapel free of charge and work the wax without payment. The stewards gave credence to this statement (as was fitting) and, in accordance with the [previously concluded] agreement, enrolled the mother together with all her sisters free of charge. They shall also have services sung for them free of charge; the sisters, however, shall henceforth supply the hosts as has long been customary, work the wax free of charge, and themselves arrange to have the [confraternity] tokens made.

YOU MIGHT ALSO BE INTERESTED IN:

A Day In the Life of a Carpenter Fellow at HMML: Microfilm, manuscript comparisons, coffee, and walks beside the lake: a pictorial glimpse of research life at HMML, where a small difference between profession formulas can happily consume the week.

Discovering Johannes Nider on the fly: A binding fragment from Thalbach: Another archival puzzle, this time involving abbreviated Latin and old printed leaves reused in a binding. Follow the clues as a tantalizing fragment begins to reveal its identity.

Bregenz Shooting Confraternity of 1498: Shooting was only part of the arrangement. Translated regulations reveal a confraternity’s obligations of worship and remembrance, including sung services, candles, payments, and provision for deceased members.

Sunday, December 7, 2025

Bregenz Shooting Confraternity of 1498

This post on the Bregenz “Schützenbruderschaft” is organized into three parts. Part 1 presents extended excerpts from the Bregenz Schützenbruderschaft regulations of 1498, based on transcriptions from a 1711 copy, given here in my own translations. (If you want the transcriptions, message me; I didn’t have the energy to give them final polish and put them up here, but I’m pretty happy with the translations.) That is followed by a discussion that explores the Bruderschaft’s civic, devotional, and memorial practices, placing them in both local and broader European contexts. Finally, I give a substantive works cited with archival sources and secondary literature for anyone who wants to dive deeper.

PART 1: Translated excerpts from the Bregenz Schützenbruderschaft Regulations of 1498; sections 2-6 quoted in full. Transcribed from the copy of 1711, Bregenz, Vorarlberger Landesarchiv, Ohne Herkunftsangabe, 5652 (“Die Armbrust- und Büchsenschützen zu Bregenz stiften eine Bruderschaft”); translations are the author’s own.

Know and understand all those who see, read, or hear this letter, that the common rifle and riflemen here in Bregenz, according to the principle, consider and decide that friendship, unity, and brotherly cooperation, where faithfully observed, is pleasing to God and brings peace and benefit to the people here in this time …. [Listing of various leaders who approved the brotherhood. All these] have conceived and established a brotherhood as follows:

Firstly, in the honor of the holy and indefatigable Trinity of the highly praised Virgin Mary and Mother of God, and of the dear saints named Saint Sebastian, Saint Anthony, Saint Gallen, Saint Agatha, and Saint Barbara, with these aforementioned ordinances and decrees, Namely, such a brotherhood shall henceforth, as long as it is worthy, stand in common rifle and crossbow shooting authority… [discussion of how it is to be constituted, with leadership including both riflemen and crossbowmen].

Secondly, the brothers shall have two annual services every year, namely on St. Sebastian's Day and St. Agnes' Day, and begin in honor of the aforementioned patron saints, with a sung service and several spoken masses, as many as two members of the brotherhood are able to perform, which shall always be announced to all brothers and sisters.

Thirdly, if someone in the brotherhood dies, a sung memorial service shall be held for them, and announced to all brothers and sisters on the Sunday before, and the brotherhood shall place two bare candles, and after the memorial service take them back and keep them, and give St. Gallen one schilling pfennig from them.

Fourthly, whoever wishes to join such a brotherhood who is a crossbowman or rifleman, shall give eight marks from himself and his wife at the beginning of the year, and if he has no wife, still pay as many, but whoever wishes to join such a brotherhood who is not a marksman, a soldier or woman, shall be summoned before the four marksmen masters. And those who are common marksmen from both lords as mentioned above, will then be taken into the brotherhood by them according to form and fairness.

Fifthly, all who join such brotherhood, whether they are members or not, shall give one schilling pfennig each, and one woman or girl alone shall also give one schilling pfennig on St. Sebastian's Day, for as long as she is alive. However, whoever does not give the schilling, is not obligated to do anything else in connection with such brotherhood.

Sixthly, The more people join such brotherhood, the more worship is promoted and maintained.

Seventh, the four rifle and crossbow masters shall be selected once a year on St. Sebastian's Day,...

Eighthly, ...the four marksmen shall and may, as often as they deem necessary, summon the marksmen to gather for a Viertel (quarter) of wax. Anyone who does not come, and does not present a sufficient excuse, is liable to pay the Viertel of wax without exception. The validity of the excuse shall be judged by the four Schützenmeister…

Lastly, ...the aforementioned gentlemen, mayor and town council, shall know and agree to increase or decrease in one or more articles, always in the manner and occasion as is proper and necessary… [Followed by a lengthy list of those who approved these statutes.]

DISCUSSION

I spent some time on the Bregenz shooting confraternity regulations, partly because confraternities are inherently interesting as a social force to be reckoned with, and partly because the regulations gave such helpful details about liturgical services at the parish church of St Gall. This mixture of civic, devotional, and occasionally quasi-military functions is exactly what scholars describe as typical of late medieval shooting brotherhoods; for example, Brown and Small emphasize that crossbow- and rifle-guilds across the Low Countries cultivated both military practice and socially cohesive festivity.

Section 2 reminds us that the Bruderschaft is more than just a shooting club; it provides two sung church services for its members along with “several spoken masses,” with an emphasis on abundance; this salvific work was an important motivation for joining a confraternity during the period of its foundation. Alyssa Abraham’s study of early modern confraternities stresses that liturgical visibility – the ability to stage sung or massed devotions – was a core way that such groups asserted corporate identity, and Bregenz fits that larger pattern. In Bregenz, these ceremonies are centered on St Sebastian’s Day, January 20^th, and St Agnes’s Day, January 21^st, so these Bruderschaft celebrations are essentially a mid-January event for which more remote members might come to town. This is also the date for the annual election, so there is a combination of salvation work and regular business meeting.

Section 3 continues into the memorial functions of the group. Confraternities of the period frequently held services for the deceased, and the Bregenz group is no exception. There is a sung memorial service, with enough lead-time that the members of the Bruderschaft can arrange to attend. Moreover, there is a candle-as-coin allusion, the “two bare candles,” used in the service, and then subdivided as a physical, material good, held by the Bruderschaft, but with a portion – one schilling pfennig – as alms for the parish church where that memorial was held. Jonathan Glixon’s research has shown that confraternities across Italy and the Low Countries played highly structured roles in funerals. Confraternities’ duties ranged from preparing bodies, processing to the church, and providing sung laude. (He even finds evidence for polyphony; I should be so lucky!) Although Bregenz services are less elaborate, their sung memorial service and candle obligations sit very comfortably within this wider funerary economy.

Wax is money during the service, and it is also the funds for the meetings during the year, for which a “Viertel (quarter) of wax” is due whether or not you attend. The organization is also funded by joining fees (8 marks) and by annual dues (1 schilling pfennig). And the organizers clearly understand the “more is merrier” trope, noting that the larger the Bruderschaft grows, the more involved and complex the church services can be (Section 6). Such wax-based economies match a long-standing Northern European pattern: Brown and Small note that archery confraternities were routinely fined in either sous or wax, and statutes from Bethune (1413) even required members to provide a wax candle each year for Corpus Christi processions. Material obligations supported ritual visibility.

While the initial affiliation of the Bregenz confraternity was with the holy Trinity, it became known as the Sebastian Bruderschaft over time. Of course, that listing of saints in clause 1 of the Bregenz Bruderschaft regulations allowed and perhaps encouraged such slippage over time. There is something wickedly delicious about the fact that the martyr, shot full of arrows, becomes the patron for a shooting organization. Comparable organizations elsewhere – in Modena, as researched by Alyssa Abraham, or in Rheinfelden, Switzerland – often had ties to Sebastian’s role as plague intercessor. Sebastian’s popularity grew rapidly over the fifteenth century, which saw repeated waves of plague, and it’s not impossible that the Bregenz confraternity founding had both his roles in mind. (I have discussed Sebastian’s presence in plague prayers in articles.)

The Bregenz confraternity leaves various footprints across the legal landscape over the next two centuries. In 1505, six years after its founding, the steward of the Bruderschaft was involved in a property transaction at court. As the Bruderschaft matured, it became the object of pious donation; Jakob, Bishop of Ascalon, Auxiliary Bishop and Canon of Constance, for instance, left legacies both to the clerics at the parish church of St Gall in Bregenz and to its Riflemen's Association there. (He also donates both to the women of Hirschtal and those of Thalbach, and provides for cousins. Generous guy!). Pious legacies of this sort are well attested elsewhere: Abraham observes that confraternities actively cultivated visual and devotional presence precisely because such visibility attracted bequests, commissions, and ongoing obligations of prayer. The Bregenz confraternity was still going strong in the mid-18th century, when it was involved in various bond transactions. That longevity likewise parallels the endurance of Sebastian confraternities elsewhere. From Andernach to Hagnau to Dornbirn, Sebastian confraternity statutes and indulgences show similar patterns of devotional stability and periodic updating.

The importance of such community organizations can be seen during the counter-Reformation as well. In Bregenz, a signal moment came with the establishment of the Holy Rosary confraternity at the Parish church in 16 July 1617. While that’s the story for another post, it is still worth noting that the persistence of the shooting Bruderschaft into the seventeenth century in Bregenz suggests that, as in Venice or Florence or Bruges, confraternities could coexist with new post-Tridentine devotional forms rather than being supplanted by them.

WORKS CITED:

PRIMARY SOURCES (consulted via monasterium.net)

Bregenz Schützenbruderschaft Regulations of 1498 in a copy of 1711: Bregenz, Vorarlberger Landesarchiv, Ohne Herkunftsangabe, 5652 (“Die Armbrust- und Büchsenschützen zu Bregenz stiften eine Bruderschaft”)
Jörg Berkmann as steward to the confraternity: Bregenz Stadtarchiv, Urkunde 381: 1505 Dezember 10
Jakob, Bishop of Ascalon, pious legacy to the “Priesterbruderschaft und der Schützengesellschaft” in Bregenz: Bregenz Stadtarchiv, Urkunde 606: 1565 Oktober 24, Konstanz.
Bond transactions for the Bruderschaft:
- Bregenz Stadtarchiv, Urkunde 7005, 20. Dezember 1749
- Vorarlberger Landesarchiv, ohne Herkunftsangabe 6175, 28. August 1766
Founding of the Holy Rosary confraternity confirmed: Bregenz Stadtarchiv, Urkunde 771, 1620 April 15, Konstanz

SECONDARY LITERATURE

Abraham, Alyssa. “Iconography, Spectacle, and Notions of Corporate Identity: The Form and Function of Art in Early Modern Confraternities.” In A Companion to Medieval and Early Modern Confraternities, edited by Konrad Eisenbichler, Brill's Companions to the Christian Tradition, Vol 83 (Brill 2019): 406–432.
Anonymous, “The Brotherhood of St Sebastian [in Rheinfelden]” [undated post], Living Traditions in Switzerland [Website] https://www.lebendige-traditionen.ch/tradition/en/home/traditions/the-brotherhood-of-st-sebastian.html
Brown, Andrew, and Graeme Small. “Civic society and the Court Jousts, shooting fraternities and Chambers of Rhetoric in Court and civic society in the Burgundian Low Countries c.1420–1530.” In Court and Civic Society in the Burgundian Low Countries C.1420–1530, edited by Brown and Small (Manchester UP, 2007): 210-238.
Cyrus, Cynthia J. “Prayers Against Pestilence from Women’s Monastic Communities.” Early Modern Women 16.1, [Forum on Early Modern Women and Epidemics, edited by Bernadette Andrea, Julie Campbell, and Allyson M. Poska] (Fall 2021): 63-71; https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/715811.
Cyrus, Cynthia J. “Five Strategies in Sixteenth-Century Tertiaries’ Prayers Against Pestilence.” Academia | Letters (March 2021): Article 479; https://www.academia.edu/45687714 .
Wegeler, Julius, “Das Schiitzenbuch der St. Sebastianus--Bruderschast in der Stadt Andernach, beginnend im Jahre 1426.” Annalen des Historischen Vereins für den Niederrhein, 1859, https://www.vr-elibrary.de/doi/pdf/10.7788/annalen-1859-7-jg01
According to the Vorarlberger Landesbibliothek (https://vlb.vorarlberg.at/), statutes for similar Bruderschaften appear to be available in (somewhat) modern printed guise, but not to me, at least, not without interlibrary loan:
- Die Bruderschaft vom heiligen Sebastian zu Hagnau: ihre Statuten, Ablässe und Gebete (Freiburg/Breisgau: Herder, 1888)
- Bruderschaft unter dem Titel und Anrufung des hl. Martirers Sebastian in der Pfarrkirche zu Großdorf (Feldkirch: Sausgruber, 1901)
- Statuten der Bruderschaft zum Heiligen Martyrer Sebastian in der Pfarrkirche Dornbirn-Oberdorf (n.p.: n.p., 1968)

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