Collationes de Beata Virgine : A Cycle of Preaching in the Dominican Congregation of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Imola, 1286-1287

But in contrast to the political activism of the fideles, the Society of the Virgin aimed to counter the influence of local Cathar heretics by contrary example, through organized devotion to the Mother of God. [...] The Confraternity of St Mary of Mercy in Arezzo, established about 1262, took this title because the members saw the society as having been founded in order to 'obtain divine mercy through works of mercy' under the inspiration of the mother of mercy herself.27 By the following century this company in Arezzo had become very rich and powerful, and supported the majority of the social programs in the [...] The one constant in this development is preaching: Peter of Verona preached to his soci- eties of the Virgin; the confraternities of the mid-thirteenth century fo- cussed on confession, mass, and a sermon; and even after the singing of laude was introduced into the order's Marian companies, an impor- tant place was still given to hearing 'the Mother preached gloriously in the faith of the Son.'30 [...] A lost letter of con- fraternity issued in 1389 by Dominican master-general Raymond of Capua still listed the singing of laude as first among the devotional practices of the company.37 Thanks to generous benefactions and bequests, the Imolese Congregation of the Blessed Virgin was very wealthy by the third quarter of the fourteenth century. [...] Piero della Francesca's panel for the Misericordia of Borgo San Sepolcro is one of the most famous examples; another is the Madonna della Miseri- cordia of the Bigallo in Florence (commissioned 1342), where the Virgin wears a cloak on which are written the names of the seven corporal works of mercy and beneath whose folds the entire city of Florence is embraced.