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FORMS OF CHARITY IN SILESIAN TOWNS IN THE MIDDLE AGES (Formy dobroczynnosci w miastach slaskich w sredniowieczu)

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Wólkiewicz E.

Kwartalnik Historii Kultury Materialnej

2010

vol. 58

issue 2

211-230

Christian ethics made charity one of the basic duties of a good Christian. In Silesia both hospital endowments and individual acts of supporting the poor and the sick were initially connected solely with dukes and Church hierarchs. The first mentions of the charitable acts of burghers come from the first half of the 14?th c. This form of devoutness was first adopted by the burgher élite and it spread to wider circles only at the turn of the 15th c., when varied forms of charity were developed. The most common form of charitable support was a legacy for footwear and clothing for the poor. Clothing was distributed in the form of the locally-produced, therefore the cheapest, woollen cloth. Fifteenth-century sources also mention that ready garments were sometimes distributed. Legacies intended to finance food were less common, although some benefactors formulated their wills in a flexible way, recommending the purchase of food instead of footwear and garments at the time of food shortage. The food distributed was mostly rye (or wheat) bread, rarely rolls. There were also legacies specifically intended for the purchase of fish (primarily herrings) or meat, or beer. A common charitable act was to fund the use of baths for the poor. Such charitable baths were usually organized on Mondays, which was connected with the eschatological dimension of charitable foundations (Monday was customarily the day of prayers for the dead, in which the poor had to participate). There are a few examples of scholarship funds, usually directed at persons known to the donors. There is also an early example of a dowry fund for prostitutes. The endowments could have a symbolic aspect. It was quite common to donate to groups of the apostolic number of 12 or 13 people. Food was usually distributed during the major Church holidays (Christmas, Easter, Whit Sunday), so that the poor could celebrate and pray for their benefactors. Care was taken to distribute fasting food during Lent. Some legacies were utilitarian and adapted to seasons - they provided for bread during the period preceding the new harvest and for footwear and clothing in winter. In the general structure of pious legacies charitable donations had a secondary role. Sometimes they were conditional (they were effective only in case of the proper inheritor's death or when a liturgical foundation could not be executed) or they concerned old and worn out things. It is quite clear from the sources that in the late Middle Ages both the Church and the municipal authorities treated charitable funds in an instrumental way.

THE OLD MAN AND THE TOWN. OLD AGE AND OLD PEOPLE IN SIXTEENTH-CENTURY SILESIAN DIARIES (Stary czlowiek i miasto. Starosc i ludzie starzy w szesnastowiecznych pamietnikach slaskich)

100%

Wólkiewicz E.

Kwartalnik Historii Kultury Materialnej

2010

vol. 58

issue 1

47-60

One of the crucial types of sources used in the research on old age and the social and physical condition of old people are diaries. This article explores sixteenth-century diaries and chronicles of burghers from Wroclaw (Breslau), Swidnica (Schweidnitz) and Nysa (Neisse). The analysis concerned two issues: the authors' reflections on their own aging and the descriptions of their relationships with old people from the close circle. As to the latter topic, the most interesting data were found in the diary by Daniel Scheps, a doctor from Swidnica, written in the years 1574-1608. Scheps diaries contain several dozen mentions about elderly people, noted down, as can be inferred, in order to record unusual events. Those mentions indicate what age was considered the borderline between maturity and senility at that time, and to what extent people were aware of their own age in various social groups. The diary also provided some data on illnesses and the causes of old people's deaths. The diaries analyzed confirm historians' and demographers' findings as to the differences in old people's living conditions dependent on their sex. They also partly confirm previous findings on the significant share of old people in authorities.

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2 Kwartalnik Historii Kultury Materialnej

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2 Wólkiewicz E.

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FORMS OF CHARITY IN SILESIAN TOWNS IN THE MIDDLE AGES (Formy dobroczynnosci w miastach slaskich w sredniowieczu)

THE OLD MAN AND THE TOWN. OLD AGE AND OLD PEOPLE IN SIXTEENTH-CENTURY SILESIAN DIARIES (Stary czlowiek i miasto. Starosc i ludzie starzy w szesnastowiecznych pamietnikach slaskich)