The Confraternity of St. Rocco in Svetvinčenat in 1619

Abstract

The A. explains the appearance of this enthusiastic movement with the deep crisis provoked in Istria by the War for Gradisca (the Uskok's War), after which a general renewal - and a moral revival among other things - was needed. The Counter Reformation movement also influenced the intensification of the religious life (comprising night processions, penitential liturgy, wearing of penitent dress, auto-flagellation etc.), particularly in Istria, because some of the most important advocates of heretical ideas came from the peninsula. The A. describes the rules of the confraternity,which demanded radical changes in the religious practices exercised till then. In spite of it, the confraternity of St. Rocco had the biggest number of adherents in that period. As an introduction, the A. describes the case Ivan Libric, a shoemaker from Labin, who was declared to be a heretic, as is discernible from a relation by the papal legate Augustino Valier in 1580.