confraternity
/kɒnfrəˈtəːnɪti
/noun (plural confraternities)
A brotherhood, especially with a religious or charitable purpose.Furthermore, clergy gave no encouragement to lay organisations such as religious confraternities or voluntary societies....
- A host of new religious orders and lay confraternities were founded to preach, teach, tend the sick, and care for the poor.
- Unlike their precursors, these new cycles focused almost exclusively on the founders or ideological leaders of the various religious orders or confraternities.
Origin
Late Middle English: from Old French confraternite, from medieval Latin confraternitas, from confrater (see confrère).