This study focuses on the role of monasteries in the medical provision of the late eighteenth-cen... more This study focuses on the role of monasteries in the medical provision of the late eighteenth-century Hungarian Kingdom, with a special interest in monastery pharmacies located in rural environments. These pharmacies and their apothecaries were gradually disappearing agents of the medical marketplace from the 1770s as a result of the strengthening endeavor of the Habsburg rulers to control the professional standards and business activity of the medical personnel in their realms. This effort coincided with the introduction of new church policies that aimed at reducing the number of monasteries and channeling their resources into pastoral care. By pointing at the impact of ecclesiastical reforms on the medical oeconomy, I argue that state interference did not merely fill the gaps in the medical supply, but it also redefined the already existing networks and activity of various practitioners, as it can be seen from the examples of the apothecary-surgeon brothers of religious orders. I will present three case studies through which I will shed light on the local embeddedness of three monastery pharmacies, namely: the Franciscans of Keszthely, the Capuchins of Hatvan, and the Paulines of Lepoglava. I will explore how successfully (or unsuccessfully) the dissolution of these monasteries could put an end to the activity of the lay brothers who were in charge of running their pharmacies and often fulfilled the tasks of surgeons, too, both inside and outside their monasteries. By exploring the ambiguities surrounding these healers, who were simultaneously associated with a stable place and with the image of itinerant healers and who routinely crossed the borders between domestic and public, charitable and commercialized, professional and popular healing practices, I will also show why they could not be compatible with the standardizing endeavors of the state.
REDISTRIBUTING THE PROPERTIES OF THE DISSOLVED MENDICANT ORDERS DURING THE REIGN OF JOSEPH II. TH... more REDISTRIBUTING THE PROPERTIES OF THE DISSOLVED MENDICANT ORDERS DURING THE REIGN OF JOSEPH II. THE ASSETS OF THE CAPUCHIN MONASTERY IN HATVAN During the reign of Joseph II, between 1782 and 1790, around a third of the monasteries in the territory of the Kingdom of Hungary were dissolved. The suppression of entire religious orders was discontinued after 1786, so the remaining monasteries were able to receive the assets and resources distributed during the dissolution. In the case of mendicant orders, such as the Franciscans, Capuchins and Minorites, it also meant that the inhabitants of the dissolved friaries did not necessary leave the order, but moved to the remaining monasteries. Simultaneously, the tasks of transporting, storing and managing the assets of the disbanded monasteries began to exceed the capacity of the administrative apparatus both in terms of manpower and space. Parishes were able to receive mainly church implements, albeit in small amounts, and the modest fixtures of the monasteries of the mendicant orders promised very little profit for the religious fund. Since the reform measures encouraged monastic priests to perform the duties of secular priests, an obvious solution was to give the less valuable implements of the disbanded monasteries to the surviving monasteries of the order instead of the parishes, which meant that most of the administrative tasks, as well as the transportation costs of this distribution, were passed onto the friars. This study sets out to present the emergence and development of this procedure, using the Capuchin Monastery in Hatvan as an example. It describes in detail how the immaterial assets, fixtures and church implements were entered into stock and redistributed, and briefly also discusses the conflict of interests between the diocese and the state, regarding the utilisation of buildings, especially the monastery’s church building. The case of the Capuchin Monastery in Hatvan reveals elements of the suppression that were either unknown or less well known in the literature. The redistribution of assets still owned by the Capuchins could be managed by the order internally: although the process was supervised by the state authorities, there was no direct state intervention. The case of the Capuchins of Hatvan is an excellent example of how the internal system, communication channels and logistics capabilities of the mendicant orders were mobilised during the process, following the dissolution of the Pauline Order. By reconstructing the movement of items, as well as the process of bargaining and negotiating, it describes the operation of the state and church apparatus in charge of the dissolution, as well as their communication channels and limitations, presented on the level of everyday practices. This case also reveals the interests and tensions that facilitated or hindered the timely and costeffective implementation of the dissolution, which could also significantly influence the decision-making processes and plans for the disbanding and regulation of monasteries, as well as the scheduling of the implementation.
The article sets into focus the everyday practices of caring the sick in the Poor Clares’ convent... more The article sets into focus the everyday practices of caring the sick in the Poor Clares’ convents of Bratislava, Trnava, Zagreb, Buda and Pest with a time scope focused on the era of Maria Theresa’s and Joseph II’s church reforms. It evinces that each convent had an infirmary, in which the sick nuns could be separated from the rest of the community and nursed according to the instructions of a doctor, but the investigation of the rooms and their equipment also reveals significant differences among them. While the infirmary was merely a sickroom with three or four beds in the case of the smaller communities of Zagreb and Pest, the bigger convents’ infirmaries – that accommodated nine-twelve patients – consisted of a complex set of interconnected spaces with various functions, including storage rooms, cooking facilities and places for making medicine. The infirmary chapels of Bratislava and Trnava and the liturgical equipment in the bigger, hall-like sickroom in Buda represent the interconnectedness of spiritual and medical care. The study also sheds light on possible correlations between self-supply and services provided by external lay practitioners, as it presents the strategies of the convents to reduce medical expenses, e.g. by producing medicaments, accepting novices with surgical-apothecary knowledge or contracting surgeons and physicians for a fixed annual salary. Finally, the paper points towards further research directions suggesting a more sophisticated analysis of the correlations between the nuns’ demand for proper medical care and their agency at the time of the abolition of their order in 1782.
This study focuses on the role of monasteries in the medical provision of the late eighteenth-cen... more This study focuses on the role of monasteries in the medical provision of the late eighteenth-century Hungarian Kingdom, with a special interest in monastery pharmacies located in rural environments. These pharmacies and their apothecaries were gradually disappearing agents of the medical marketplace from the 1770s as a result of the strengthening endeavor of the Habsburg rulers to control the professional standards and business activity of the medical personnel in their realms. This effort coincided with the introduction of new church policies that aimed at reducing the number of monasteries and channeling their resources into pastoral care. By pointing at the impact of ecclesiastical reforms on the medical oeconomy, I argue that state interference did not merely fill the gaps in the medical supply, but it also redefined the already existing networks and activity of various practitioners, as it can be seen from the examples of the apothecary-surgeon brothers of religious orders. I will present three case studies through which I will shed light on the local embeddedness of three monastery pharmacies, namely: the Franciscans of Keszthely, the Capuchins of Hatvan, and the Paulines of Lepoglava. I will explore how successfully (or unsuccessfully) the dissolution of these monasteries could put an end to the activity of the lay brothers who were in charge of running their pharmacies and often fulfilled the tasks of surgeons, too, both inside and outside their monasteries. By exploring the ambiguities surrounding these healers, who were simultaneously associated with a stable place and with the image of itinerant healers and who routinely crossed the borders between domestic and public, charitable and commercialized, professional and popular healing practices, I will also show why they could not be compatible with the standardizing endeavors of the state.
REDISTRIBUTING THE PROPERTIES OF THE DISSOLVED MENDICANT ORDERS DURING THE REIGN OF JOSEPH II. TH... more REDISTRIBUTING THE PROPERTIES OF THE DISSOLVED MENDICANT ORDERS DURING THE REIGN OF JOSEPH II. THE ASSETS OF THE CAPUCHIN MONASTERY IN HATVAN During the reign of Joseph II, between 1782 and 1790, around a third of the monasteries in the territory of the Kingdom of Hungary were dissolved. The suppression of entire religious orders was discontinued after 1786, so the remaining monasteries were able to receive the assets and resources distributed during the dissolution. In the case of mendicant orders, such as the Franciscans, Capuchins and Minorites, it also meant that the inhabitants of the dissolved friaries did not necessary leave the order, but moved to the remaining monasteries. Simultaneously, the tasks of transporting, storing and managing the assets of the disbanded monasteries began to exceed the capacity of the administrative apparatus both in terms of manpower and space. Parishes were able to receive mainly church implements, albeit in small amounts, and the modest fixtures of the monasteries of the mendicant orders promised very little profit for the religious fund. Since the reform measures encouraged monastic priests to perform the duties of secular priests, an obvious solution was to give the less valuable implements of the disbanded monasteries to the surviving monasteries of the order instead of the parishes, which meant that most of the administrative tasks, as well as the transportation costs of this distribution, were passed onto the friars. This study sets out to present the emergence and development of this procedure, using the Capuchin Monastery in Hatvan as an example. It describes in detail how the immaterial assets, fixtures and church implements were entered into stock and redistributed, and briefly also discusses the conflict of interests between the diocese and the state, regarding the utilisation of buildings, especially the monastery’s church building. The case of the Capuchin Monastery in Hatvan reveals elements of the suppression that were either unknown or less well known in the literature. The redistribution of assets still owned by the Capuchins could be managed by the order internally: although the process was supervised by the state authorities, there was no direct state intervention. The case of the Capuchins of Hatvan is an excellent example of how the internal system, communication channels and logistics capabilities of the mendicant orders were mobilised during the process, following the dissolution of the Pauline Order. By reconstructing the movement of items, as well as the process of bargaining and negotiating, it describes the operation of the state and church apparatus in charge of the dissolution, as well as their communication channels and limitations, presented on the level of everyday practices. This case also reveals the interests and tensions that facilitated or hindered the timely and costeffective implementation of the dissolution, which could also significantly influence the decision-making processes and plans for the disbanding and regulation of monasteries, as well as the scheduling of the implementation.
The article sets into focus the everyday practices of caring the sick in the Poor Clares’ convent... more The article sets into focus the everyday practices of caring the sick in the Poor Clares’ convents of Bratislava, Trnava, Zagreb, Buda and Pest with a time scope focused on the era of Maria Theresa’s and Joseph II’s church reforms. It evinces that each convent had an infirmary, in which the sick nuns could be separated from the rest of the community and nursed according to the instructions of a doctor, but the investigation of the rooms and their equipment also reveals significant differences among them. While the infirmary was merely a sickroom with three or four beds in the case of the smaller communities of Zagreb and Pest, the bigger convents’ infirmaries – that accommodated nine-twelve patients – consisted of a complex set of interconnected spaces with various functions, including storage rooms, cooking facilities and places for making medicine. The infirmary chapels of Bratislava and Trnava and the liturgical equipment in the bigger, hall-like sickroom in Buda represent the interconnectedness of spiritual and medical care. The study also sheds light on possible correlations between self-supply and services provided by external lay practitioners, as it presents the strategies of the convents to reduce medical expenses, e.g. by producing medicaments, accepting novices with surgical-apothecary knowledge or contracting surgeons and physicians for a fixed annual salary. Finally, the paper points towards further research directions suggesting a more sophisticated analysis of the correlations between the nuns’ demand for proper medical care and their agency at the time of the abolition of their order in 1782.
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During the reign of Joseph II, between 1782 and 1790, around a third of the monasteries in the territory of the Kingdom of Hungary were dissolved. The suppression of entire religious orders was discontinued after 1786, so the remaining monasteries were able to receive the assets and resources distributed during the dissolution. In the case of mendicant orders, such as the Franciscans, Capuchins and Minorites, it also meant that the inhabitants of the dissolved friaries did not necessary leave the order, but moved to the remaining monasteries. Simultaneously, the tasks of transporting, storing and managing the assets of the disbanded monasteries began to exceed the capacity of the administrative apparatus both in terms of manpower and space. Parishes were able to receive mainly church implements, albeit in small amounts, and the modest fixtures of the monasteries of the mendicant orders promised very little profit for the religious fund. Since the reform measures encouraged monastic priests to perform the duties of secular priests, an obvious solution was to give the less valuable implements of the disbanded monasteries to the surviving monasteries of the order instead of the parishes, which meant that most of the administrative tasks, as well as the transportation costs of this distribution, were passed onto the friars. This study sets out to present the emergence and development of this procedure, using the Capuchin Monastery in Hatvan as an example. It describes in detail how the immaterial assets, fixtures and church implements were entered into stock and redistributed, and briefly also discusses the conflict of interests between the diocese and the state, regarding the utilisation of buildings, especially the monastery’s church building.
The case of the Capuchin Monastery in Hatvan reveals elements of the suppression that were either unknown or less well known in the literature. The redistribution of assets still owned by the Capuchins could be managed by the order internally: although the process was supervised by the state authorities, there was no direct state intervention. The case of the Capuchins of Hatvan is an excellent example of how the internal system, communication channels and logistics capabilities of the mendicant orders were mobilised during the process, following the dissolution of the Pauline Order. By reconstructing the movement of items, as well as the process of bargaining and negotiating, it describes the operation of the state and church apparatus in charge of the dissolution, as well as their communication channels and limitations, presented on the level of everyday practices. This case also reveals the interests and tensions that facilitated or hindered the timely and costeffective implementation of the dissolution, which could also significantly influence the decision-making processes and plans for the disbanding and regulation of monasteries, as well as the scheduling of the implementation.
among them. While the infirmary was merely a sickroom with three or four beds in the case of the smaller communities of Zagreb and Pest, the bigger convents’ infirmaries – that accommodated nine-twelve
patients – consisted of a complex set of interconnected spaces with various functions, including storage rooms, cooking facilities and places for making medicine. The infirmary chapels of Bratislava and Trnava and the liturgical equipment in the bigger, hall-like sickroom in Buda represent the interconnectedness of spiritual and medical care. The study also sheds light on possible correlations between self-supply and services provided by external lay practitioners, as it presents the strategies of the convents to reduce medical expenses, e.g. by producing medicaments, accepting novices with surgical-apothecary knowledge or contracting surgeons and physicians for a fixed annual salary. Finally, the paper points towards further research directions suggesting a more sophisticated analysis of the correlations between the nuns’ demand for proper medical care and their agency at the time of the abolition of their order in 1782.
Conference Presentations
During the reign of Joseph II, between 1782 and 1790, around a third of the monasteries in the territory of the Kingdom of Hungary were dissolved. The suppression of entire religious orders was discontinued after 1786, so the remaining monasteries were able to receive the assets and resources distributed during the dissolution. In the case of mendicant orders, such as the Franciscans, Capuchins and Minorites, it also meant that the inhabitants of the dissolved friaries did not necessary leave the order, but moved to the remaining monasteries. Simultaneously, the tasks of transporting, storing and managing the assets of the disbanded monasteries began to exceed the capacity of the administrative apparatus both in terms of manpower and space. Parishes were able to receive mainly church implements, albeit in small amounts, and the modest fixtures of the monasteries of the mendicant orders promised very little profit for the religious fund. Since the reform measures encouraged monastic priests to perform the duties of secular priests, an obvious solution was to give the less valuable implements of the disbanded monasteries to the surviving monasteries of the order instead of the parishes, which meant that most of the administrative tasks, as well as the transportation costs of this distribution, were passed onto the friars. This study sets out to present the emergence and development of this procedure, using the Capuchin Monastery in Hatvan as an example. It describes in detail how the immaterial assets, fixtures and church implements were entered into stock and redistributed, and briefly also discusses the conflict of interests between the diocese and the state, regarding the utilisation of buildings, especially the monastery’s church building.
The case of the Capuchin Monastery in Hatvan reveals elements of the suppression that were either unknown or less well known in the literature. The redistribution of assets still owned by the Capuchins could be managed by the order internally: although the process was supervised by the state authorities, there was no direct state intervention. The case of the Capuchins of Hatvan is an excellent example of how the internal system, communication channels and logistics capabilities of the mendicant orders were mobilised during the process, following the dissolution of the Pauline Order. By reconstructing the movement of items, as well as the process of bargaining and negotiating, it describes the operation of the state and church apparatus in charge of the dissolution, as well as their communication channels and limitations, presented on the level of everyday practices. This case also reveals the interests and tensions that facilitated or hindered the timely and costeffective implementation of the dissolution, which could also significantly influence the decision-making processes and plans for the disbanding and regulation of monasteries, as well as the scheduling of the implementation.
among them. While the infirmary was merely a sickroom with three or four beds in the case of the smaller communities of Zagreb and Pest, the bigger convents’ infirmaries – that accommodated nine-twelve
patients – consisted of a complex set of interconnected spaces with various functions, including storage rooms, cooking facilities and places for making medicine. The infirmary chapels of Bratislava and Trnava and the liturgical equipment in the bigger, hall-like sickroom in Buda represent the interconnectedness of spiritual and medical care. The study also sheds light on possible correlations between self-supply and services provided by external lay practitioners, as it presents the strategies of the convents to reduce medical expenses, e.g. by producing medicaments, accepting novices with surgical-apothecary knowledge or contracting surgeons and physicians for a fixed annual salary. Finally, the paper points towards further research directions suggesting a more sophisticated analysis of the correlations between the nuns’ demand for proper medical care and their agency at the time of the abolition of their order in 1782.