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Sisters of early modern confraternities in a small town in the Southern Netherlands (Aalst)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 December 2012

ELLEN DECRAENE
ELLEN DECRAENE*
Affiliation:
Centre for Urban History, University of Antwerp, Prinsstraat 13 – D330, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium
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Abstract:

This article analyses female agency within the religious confraternities active in an early modern town in the Southern Netherlands in order to gain an insight into women's positions within a (semi-)public urban network and thus beyond the household. The analysis suggests that confraternities did not provide women with opportunities to develop a significant public role within the town. Nonetheless, while there is little evidence that early modern religious confraternities functioned as social networks, female agency on the religious level of confraternal life did exist. It is argued that many of these women were active agents in their own spiritual lives.

Type
Research Article
Information
Urban History , Volume 40 , Issue 2 , May 2013 , pp. 247 - 270
Copyright
copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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13 However, due to the fact that we cannot fall back on lists of memberships for the confraternity of the Holy Mother of Halle and only fragmentary records for the late eighteenth century have been preserved, this confraternity will play only a marginal role within the analysis.

14 MAA, CA, Brotherhoods, no. 627, fol. 1, 1632; no. 706, fol. 2, 1743; no. 652, fol. 1, 1699; no. 622, fol. 2; no. 634, fol. 3, 1664; no. 660, fol. 1, 1760; no. 672, fol. 3, 1610.

15 For a detailed overview of the gender composition per confraternity over time see appendix Table 1.

16 Ryckbosch and Decraene, ‘From civil society to social relations’, 9.

17 MAA, CA, Brotherhoods, no. 706, fol. 6; no. 660, fols. 34–5; no. 652. fol. 1.

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30 While the boards often contained male members of the laity as well as of the clergy, the majority of the members of the different confraternity were lay people.

31 Ryckbosch and Decraene, ‘From civil society to social relations’, 13.

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34 MAA, CA, Brotherhoods, no. 677, fol. 3.

35 ., no. 706, fol. 1, 1743.

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44 Ibid., no. 652, fols. 1–2.

45 Ibid., no. 652, fols. 1–2.

46 Ibid., no. 706, fols. 7–8.

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54 MAA, CA, Brotherhoods, no. 699, fol. 7.

55 ., nos. 642, 639, 631, 690.

56 The probate inventories are being placed at my disposal by Dr Wouter Ryckbosch. After elimination of incomplete or unreliable inventories, this has left us with a total of 421 inventories. MAA, Old Archive of Aalst (OAA), nos. 1790–801, 1861–6.

57 I used the following website to carry out a random sample: www.ethologie.nl/methoden/random.htm. Margin of error: 0.85%.

58 MAA, OAA, nos. 264, 269, 273, 277.

59 See Table 2 in appendix.