The Cathars:  Cathar Beliefs:  Ceremonies:  Convenenza

The oportunity to undergo the Consolamentum on one's death-bed presuposed that death would not come quickly. (The problem is similar to that of modern Catholics who believe in the efficacity of the Last Rights or Extreme Unction). In time of War, the problem was more accute as men were often left conscious, but dying and deprived of speach. The solution was a ceremony called Convenenza. It was not itself a Consolamentum, but it fulfilled the parts of the Consolamentum that required the candidate to respond and make undertakings. The Consolamentum could then be administered subsequently if the canditate was wounded and could not speak.

The Convenenza seems to have been common before battles and during sieges. We have a first hand account of this practice, taken from the Déposition de Guillaume Tardieu de la Galiole (translated by Jean Duvernoy «Le Dossier de Montségur : interrogatoires d'lnquisition 1242-1247»):

«... Then, on this Perfect's request, I devoted myself to God and the Gospel and promised to no longer eat meat, eggs, cheese and fat apart from oil and fish. I also promised not to swear in all my life, and to forsake the sect out of fear of fire, water and other kinds of death. After this oath, I recited the Pater Noster in the Parfaits' manner, then the Perfait held the book above my head and read the Gospel of Saint John. After this, they gave me peace first with the book and then with the mouth, kissing me twice across the mouth and prayed God, amidst much kneeling and "venias"»