A Domonkos-rend konfraternitásáról a középkori Magyarországon
About the Spiritual Confraternity of the Dominican Order in Medieval Hungary

Summary/Abstract: The history of the medieval Dominican spiritual confraternities remains poorly known due to the lack of written testimonies and, moreover, due to the lack of monographs on the topic. Though scanty and heterogeneous (28 “letters of benefits” preserved or attested, a dozen mentions in the registers of two convents in Transylvania, and a single testamentary clause), the Hungarian sources still reveal certain aspects of the problem. They show how early the Hungarian faithful have started to enter the spiritual confraternity of the Preacher Brothers (as early as 1270), as well as the rapid expansion of this religious practice in the second half of the 15th century, in the wake of the Observant reform. Moreover, it seems that at the level of each convent, admission to the spiritual confraternity was not sold for money, but it was a compensation for previous donations. Often mixed with other spiritual rewards, it did not necessarily leave any written evidence, and as such, it largely escapes the attention of the historians.

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