ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the three cases involving lay devotional associations in Cluj, Braov and Bistria. It analyses the complex relationship between mendicants, laity and charity in the late medieval period by looking in detail at three case studies from urban centres in Transylvania: the confraternity of the Dominican convent of Cluj; the fellowships of the journeymen of Braov; and the confraternity of the Rosary from Bistria. The mendicant ideal sought through the living experience of its members to embody humility, poverty and simplicity, all qualities that could be equated with charity. Yet lay affiliation with the mendicant orders was not restricted to death. In the late middle Ages a member of the laity wishing to embrace a pious way of life could become affiliated with the religious orders of the age, be supervised by mendicant friars or join one of the confraternities functioning in the friaries.
