Along with these brotherhoods, there appeared Confraternitaties more closely resembling the present associations. Their chief object was care for the poor souls. Among these might be included the associations devoting themselves to the spiritual welfare of the dying and their burial. Of the confraternities of the dead, only examples can be cited from the earlier centuries, but these show sufficiently clearly how widespread these must then have been. According to an inscription in the Church of Ss. Cosmas & Damian in Rome a number of priests and bishops in Rome formed themselves into an association of sodales (c. 985), each promising that on the death of a member he would immediately sing forty Masses for the repose of his soul.