Despite the paramount importance of confraternities (especially to males) in medieval European society, scholars have tended to neglect not only the social role they played but also the influence they had on the art, drama, music, and thinking of the society in which they not only existed but thrived. This collection of essays serves to illuminate this oft-ignored facet of medieval society, and each essay carefully examines some element of the influence of confraternities on society and its products.