ABSTRACT
Since the beginning, the Teutonic Order has had in Italy a network of local familiars. As shown in the first section of this chapter, some of them were associated with the Order as lay confratres-consorores who were originally individuals who donated themselves and their properties to the Order. Thereafter, this institution evolved and being confrere had a much wider meaning: some of those persons even administrating the estates of the Teutonic brethren. Not all familiars were also confreres and there were several categories of persons related to the Order and its activities, among them also members of some minority groups, such as the Jewish community in Sicily. The Order's collaboration with these minorities, observed in the second section, was based on the idea that their members were dynamic but not “powerful” men, representing no risk of usurpation.
