Prendre soin du détenu, surveiller l’enfermement. Les Compagnies de la Miséricorde dans l’espace belge de l’Ancien Régime aux Révolutions (1600-1830)

Abstract

At the end of the Ancien Régime, not only did punitive confinement become more firmly established in the landscape of urban societies, but the circulation between the interior of the walls and the surrounding society evolved. Some of these circulations and exchanges between inside and outside the walls were ritualised and structured in one of the major frameworks of sociability: that of the religious brotherhoods, in particular those of the Misericordia or of Saint-Jean Décollé, patron saint of the tortured and the prisoners. Born out of concern for the accompaniment of the dying during the great epidemic of the Black Death, some specialised in accompanying prisoners to the final torture. Taking care of the poor prisoner became a marker of social belonging and of the city’s charitable model. During the revolutionary upheavals, these religious associations were transformed as their activity was directed towards the care of the condition of all prisoners.

Keywords

• prison
• confinement
• confraternities
• revolutions
• Low Countries
• charity