Questo volume è stato pubblicato con il contributo del Dipartimento di Discipline Storiche dell'Università di Bologna e del Ministero dell'Università (MURST)
Il volume è consultabile sul sito www.guaraldi.it
1999 Guaraldi/Gu.Fo Edizioni per il service editoriale
Via Covignano 302 - 47900 Rimini
www.guaraldi.it
ISBN 88-8049-173-3
Proceedings of the Twelfth International Economic History Congress
ACCUMULATION AND DISSOLUTION
of large estates of the regular clergy in early modern Europe
presented and edited by
Fiorenzo Landi
Essays and researches with an english summary by
Maximiliano Barrio Gozàlo (Vallodolid),
Régis Beltrand (Aix-en-Provence),
Marcella Campanelli (Napoli),
Elena Catalan Martìnez (Bilbao),
Francesco Dandolo (Napoli),
Aurelio de Oliveira (Oporto),
Dominique Dinet (Parigi),
Maria Angeles Faya Dìaz (Oviedo),
Alfeo Giacomelli (Bologna),
Massimo Carlo Giannini (Milano),
Zbyszko GÓrczak (Poznan),
Fiorenzo Landi (Bologna),
Antonio Luis Lòpez Martìnez (Siviglia),
Alberto Marcos Martìn (Vallodolid),
Marco Moroni (Ancona),
Ofelia Rey Castelào (Santiago de Compostela),
Mario Spedicato (Bari), Karl Otmar von Aretin (Darmstadt)
Guaraldi
Indice
FIORENZO LANDI, Introduction / Introduzione
ANTONIO LUIS LÒPEZ MARTÌNEZ, Mecanismos de adquisición de los elementos que integran la empresa agraria de los Jesuitas en España (siglos XVI-XVIII)
MAXIMILIANO BARRIO GOZÀLO, La economia monastica en la Castilla interior durante la epoca moderna
ALBERTO MARCOS MARTÌN, La actividad crediticia del clero regular castellano en la edad moderna
MARIA ANGELES FAYA DÌAZ, Desmembración y venta de señorìos monasticos de la corona castellana en el siglo XVI
OFELIA REY CASTELAO, El clero regular gallego en la edad moderna: evaluacion de su poder economico
ELENA CATALAN MARTÌNEZ, La formación de la propiedad burguesa en una ciudad mercantil. Bilbao (1700-1850)
AURELIO DE OLIVEIRA, The Clergy and the Church in Portugal. Goods and estates during the early modern period
DOMINIQUE DINET, Les grands domaines des Réguliers en France (1560-1790): une stabilité apparente?
REGIS BELTRAND, La révolution française et les bâtiments du clergé régulier. L'exemple provençal
FIORENZO LANDI, The great estates of the regular male clergy: distinctive characteristics of a managerial and accounting system
ALFEO GIACOMELLI, Monasteri bolognesi
MASSIMO CARLO GIANNINI, Clero regolare e clero secolare nella definizione di uno spazio fiscale italiano della Santa Sede: il caso dello Stato di Milano (XVI-XVII secolo)
MARCO MORONI, Formazione, gestione e vicende del patrimonio fondiario di un grande santuario europeo: la Santa Casa di Loreto
MARIO SPEDICATO, Fasi congiunturali e gestione dei patrimoni monastici nel regno di Napoli in età moderna (secc. XVII-XVIII)
MARCELLA CAMPANELLI, Consistenza e gestione del patrimonio ecclesiastico regolare nel Mezzogiorno d'Italia alla metà del XVII secolo
FRANCESCO DANDOLO, La ricostruzione patrimoniale degli ordini religiosi nel Mezzogiorno continentale nell'età della Restaurazione
ZBYSZKO GÓRCZAK, Economic activity in Polish monasteries from the end of the 15th to the beginning of the 20th century
KARL OTMAR VON ARETIN, Il clero tedesco e la canonistica del Settecento
INTRODUCTION
Fiorenzo Landi
Recently, Maurice Aymard (1) asked if the regular clergy (2) had truly been history's mal-aimé, victim of an unjustified oversight, neglected as a topic by historians of Italy. This volume of studies allows us to extend that question to much of Europe, dealing as it does with many of Europe's Catholic countries (including, in addition to Italy, Portugal, Spain, France, Germany and Poland), and covering a period of time that begins with the Protestant Reformation and ends with eighteenth and nineteenth century secularization.
These studies demonstrate that the regular clergy's socio-economic weight was far greater than its position in society might lead one to think and that research into the real implications of this situation is lacking (3). The simple attempt to unite researchers from different countries in a common project brought to light the difficulty of identifying reference points in this field, even in countries where the regular clergy had played an extremely important role throughout the entire Early Modern period. In some of the countries not represented in this volume, the fact that this field of research is often monopolized by the individual religious orders, which end up being simultaneously the subject and the sponsor of the research, made finding participants impossible.
In comparison with the secular historical tradition's reluctance to investigate the significance of the regular clergy's role in ancien regime society, the religious historical tradition has produced a great deal of research, but it is usually celebratory in intent and almost always very unwilling to address the specific issue of accumulation of wealth and the purposes income was put to.
There are exceptions. A great deal of research has been done in Spain. Broken down by region, it deals with the regular clergy's economic role in general and with the ways it produced and disposed of its income. It also deals with the theme of desamortisacione and the role confiscation played in the process of transforming the national economy. Italy is also, to some degree, an exception, although the political-institutional fragmentation of the peninsula and the presence of the Papal State makes it difficult to draw broad conclusions. Research is particularly lacking in the other countries considered in this volume (Portugal, France, Germany, Poland).
One might think of the regulations set down by the Council of Trent as the unifying element in a field of research otherwise so varied and full of gaps. Policies and directives, meant to discipline all the regular clergy in all Catholic countries, were dictated by the council, which established the congregations - the centralized organs individual convents had to answer to - and also defined the ways in which the regular clergy was autonomous from and subordinate to secular clergy. But these studies demonstrate above all that the Tridentine regulations regarding the regular clergy were very rarely instituted, a fact that was highlighted in the debate at the International Conference (Congress) of Economic History in Madrid. Apart from some of the Italian states, the countries in which those norms were put into action were the exception. In general, the regular clergy sought compromise with the strong powers of the territory, both secular and ecclesiastical, through exemptions granted in exchange for payment - as in the German case - which at times completely distorted the Tridentine decisions.
The goal of the religious historical tradition, often explicitly declared, has been to sing the praises of individual convents, congregations and orders, and the research thus produced has tended to be celebratory. But the liberal historical tradition, which traces its origins to the first Enlightenment Age opponents of the regular clergy and follows completely different lines of interpretation, misrepresents the actual situation as well. The intention of early Enlightenment or liberal historians was to pressure local governments into enacting measures that limited the regular clergy's power or confiscated their property. This led to the falsification of 'statistics.' In fact, in order to give their own denouncements more weight and to make the prospect of the seizure of goods more appealing to the sovereigns, Enlightenment historians deliberately altered data and their estimates regarding the extent of patrimonies and income.
The nineteenth century assault on ecclesiastical property in the wake of the Napoleonic invasions or on the part of liberal governments led to the seizure of nearly all the regular clergy's possessions. Still there was no lack of parties interested in distorting the issue. It is easy to find descriptions of the same events that contain conflicting figures and data. Historians of suppressed religious and charitable organs magnified the extent of damage and the amounts confiscated, while secular historians kept silent or minimized them.
The old adage that history is written by the victors and endured by the vanquished might be banal but in our case it bears repeating. In fact, researchers have often been led or even forced by a general lack of historical interest in the regular clergy's socio-economic position to treat documents of the Enlightenment and liberal historical tradition as sources, thus regarding calculations and parameters that were actually part of a violent political debate, in which no holds were barred, as reliable historical evidence. This explains why it is so difficult to classify the possessions and income of religious and charitable organs or to describe their size with even a minimum of precision.
If the religious and liberal historical traditions have left behind so many possibilities for misunderstanding, or diminishing, the significance of one of the key figures in the socio-economic context of the ancien regime, the solution to the problem would seem to lie in the systematic use of direct sources. In fact, especially where socio-economic aspects are concerned, it is possible to take advantage of the infinite archives of convents and congregations and especially of series of accounting records that were conserved over centuries.
This volume is an example of what the use of accounting records in reconstructing the system of economic relationships that rotated around convents and congregations can yield. But we must not ignore one of the most insidious aspects of accounting records.
As an instrument for measuring income, accounting shares fundamental characteristics with other units of measurement employed in ...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Go to the beginning of the document
Go to previous page
Go to next page
Go to the end of document
