NOEL OREGAN, JESUITS, CONFRATERNITIES AND MUSIC IN ROME

Ignatius was instrumental in the foundation of a number of Roman confraternities in the late 1530s
and early 1540s: the Casa di Santa Marta for former prostitutes and battered women, the
Conservatorio di Santa Caterina delle Vergini Miserabili for the daughters of prostitutes and young
girls thought to be in danger of turning to prostitution, and the Confraternita di S. Giuseppe dei
Catecumeni/Neofiti for converted Jews and others. Two of these, S. Caterina and S. Giuseppe went
on to be important sponsors of music, the former in its church of S. Caterina dei Funari and the
latter at S. Maria ai Monti. Ignatius approach, as characterised by Lance Lazar, was to inspire their
foundation, find some committed patricians and others to run them and then withdraw, so that one
cannot say that he had any influence on their subsequent uses of music.

Two later confraternities were indirectly inspired by Ignatius and his Jesuit followers: S. Maria della
Piet dei Poveri Pazzi established in 1548 by a group of Spanish emigrants, and the Arciconfraternita
della Piet dei Carcerati founded in 1579. Neither confraternitys archive yields information about
their use of music during the period before 1650 but they would undoubtedly have had at least the
usual levels of musical activity.

Jesuits were influential, though not directly involved in, the founding of the Roman Confraternita
della Dottrina Christiana in 1560. The materials of the Spanish Jesuit, Fr. Jacques Ledesma, were
used and provided very simple musical formulae for chanting the common prayer such as the Ave
Maria, Pater noster and the Creed. I will touch on this in my paper and it will also be dealt with by
Daniele Filippi in his.

Jesuit Colleges, particularly the Collegio Germanico, the Collegio Inglese and the Seminario Romano,
were important centres for musical consumption and also provided singers for confraternities
patronal feasts. They have been dealt with by Raffaele Casimiri, Thomas Culley, T. Frank Kennedy
and others. They particularly sponsored Marian confraternities which were patrons of music in
various forms.

One significant contribution to our knowledge of how music was used in Rome is that provided by
the Jesuit writers Raphael Riera and Gregory Martin. The former published a detailed description of
all the devotional activities which occurred in Rome during the Holy Year of 1575 and frequently
mentions music and the impact both communal chanting and polyphony had on those who heard it,
particularly in confraternity processions. My paper will include some quotations from him.
Similarly, the English Gregory Martin, who was in Rome 1576-78, wrote a detailed account of
Romes religious and charitable institutions, including music in his descriptions of processions and
other liturgical activities. Both books were clearly written as propaganda, painting Rome under
Gregory XIII as the ideal Christian city.

Finally, and not connected to confraternities, Im attaching a short paper I gave in Barcelona three
years ago which examines the motet Cum Beatus Ignatius by Toms L. de Victoria. Referring to
Ignatius of Antioch, Loyolas name saint, it seems to me to be inspired by the Jesuit approach to
mission and to music, in its attempts to illustrate through vivid music the torments suffered by
Ignatius, perhaps as an inspiration to those likely to face persecution for their faith.