Conservation of parish widows

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The conservation of parish widows and daughters at the parish office , also known as parish conservation or parish conservation , was a common legal custom after the introduction of the Reformation in Northern Germany, especially in Mecklenburg and Pomerania , but also in other Protestant countries in Central and Northern Europe. according to which the successor to office had to marry the widow or daughter of his predecessor in order to get to a pastorate . The preservative , so preserving the widow or daughter of the pastor, remained a reliable means the widow supply to the 19th century.

This procedure was a common practice in the early modern period of social security for widows and orphans. They also existed in a similar form with craft guilds or long-distance traders.

history

With the introduction of the Reformation in Pomerania in 1534 and Mecklenburg in 1549, the Protestant clergy were allowed to marry. As before, the pastors were initially provided for mainly from the traditional benefices , which, however, were often not enough to support a parish family. The Pfarren received their income from the livings of the congregation predominantly in the form of natural products and to a lesser extent also as cash payments. The rural parishes mostly operated agriculture, for which the parish had to do arable farming and haulage services. Due to the secularization that followed the introduction of the Reformation and as a result of the Thirty Years' War and the turmoil of the post-war period, many parishes lost their land holdings. Likewise, due to the impoverishment of the peasants and the reduction of farm positions through peasant laying (expropriation of the peasants), the amount of the tithe income decreased .

If a married pastor was unable to build up financial reserves, providing for his bereaved family members became a problem in the event of death. They were granted a grace year or grace period in which they were granted the full income of the deceased. Occasionally the widows were granted a small share of the benefices afterwards, and in some cases an extension of the year of grace, but mostly they were then penniless.

The parish candidates who secured a parish post through the conservation were able to take advantage of the situation of the women: The parish widow brought her entire inventory into the marriage, that is, the successor moved into a fully furnished and equipped parsonage. She also brought with her all the experience needed for the activities of a pastor's wife, which included, among other things, the production and processing of agricultural products, running a large household and instructing the staff.

The candidates, who often live in miserable economic conditions, were able to compensate for possible deficiencies in their training or their exams through the preservation in order to get to the pastor's office. Moral reasons such as mercy , compassion and Christian duty towards the widow and the children of the predecessor must also be taken into account.

Mecklenburg

While the first Mecklenburg church ordinance of 1552 only warned “that ire poor women and children should not die hunger”, the following church ordinances from 1602 onwards regulated the care of the parish widows and the year of grace in more detail. The attempt in 1757 to abolish the year of grace for the sovereign church patronage and instead to pay the bereaved half of the previous income in each case failed and was completely revised in the church ordinance of 1779. After the end of the year of grace, however, the pastor's widows were mostly left with no income, because only the rich parishes could afford to raise additional funds to support the bereaved.

In Mecklenburg the first documented conservation took place in Röbel in 1551 , and an accumulation occurred after 1580. Conservation often proved to be a tried and tested means of providing for widows for a long time and was soon seen as a legal claim. The passages contained in the church ordinances, in which preference was given to a candidate for a pastor who was willing to marry, were mostly interpreted as a command or even an obligation. The legality of this preference was questioned by some dukes such as Christian I , who had a legal opinion drawn up in 1660, presumably at the University of Wittenberg . The clear rejection in this report, as well as that of the Rostock lawyer Johann Quistorp , who compared the conservation with a woman’s rule, was not followed by any improvements in widows' care controlled by the rulers.

At the beginning of the 18th century, conservation as the safest form of providing for survivors in Mecklenburg reached its peak. In 1704, about a third of the married Mecklenburg pastors had married the widow or daughter of their predecessor, with the number of daughters at 67 slightly outweighing the number of widows at 54. Without taking into account the four largest cities of Rostock , Wismar , Schwerin and Güstrow , in which this practice could be pushed back with the help of widows' funds, the proportion of preservation reached more than 42 percent. In the state patronages in Mecklenburg-Schwerin , the proportion of conservation was almost twice as high as in the knighthood.

The common conservation practice made the early emergence of insurance-like alternative care more difficult. At the end of the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th century, the first widow's coffers, funds or foundations were set up in Mecklenburg, which were established by individual or several local pastors in order to end the conservation. There were also foundations of wealthy parishioners, church patrons and members of princely houses. The Sophienstiftung , established in 1623 by the Duchess Sophie von Mecklenburg , who was widowed in 1592 , saw parish widows among its beneficiaries in addition to providing for noble and middle-class widows. Widows' funds supported by the sovereign were founded in the second half of the 18th century, among others at the suggestion of the Rostock theologian Bernhard Friedrich Quistorp . The Grand Ducal Widows' Fund of 1835 was the first widow's pension institution in Mecklenburg to include all church servants. The last preservation for Mecklenburg is documented in the middle of the 19th century.

Pomerania

Pomerania was the only Protestant German country in which conservation was as important as in Mecklenburg.

The Pomeranian General Synod of 1545 saw no other possibility of providing for widows and therefore approved conservation. With the "Consilium Pomeranicorum Theologorum de anno gratiae" of the Synod of 1572, the marriage of the widow or daughter of the predecessor was declared a moral duty. Opponents of conservation, such as the Stralsund superintendent Jakob Crusius , did not succeed in restricting this practice. Crusius ruled in 1575 that the churches would be left to the parish widows and parishioners as a fiefdom for dowry . Duke Philipp Julius supported the conservation and intervened in favor of the wishes of widows and preachers' daughters.

On Rügen , the pastor, who was the owner of the rectory ( Wedeme ) according to the Wendisch-Rügischen land use, had to pay for the maintenance of the house and the enclosure himself. The costs incurred could be recorded as so-called "inheritance money" in the rectory. Since up to 800 Sundisch Marks accrued here in individual cases, this could mean an unacceptable burden for the successor. Due to the conservation, the payment of the inheritance money could be avoided, which contributed to its spread on the island.

In 1663, the Swedish government in Pomerania confirmed the resolutions of the Pomeranian synods in the “Main Commission Recess”. In Swedish Pomerania in the 17th and into the 18th century, the assignment of a pastor's position was tied to the candidate's consent to any desired or necessary conservation. During the Danish occupation of northern Western Pomerania in the Great Northern War , the Danish King Frederick IV ordered the repeal of this procedure. However, the Danes did not solve the actual problems of providing for widows, apart from building parish widow houses, such as the one built in 1720 in Groß Zicker . With the return of the part of the country to Sweden, the old conditions were reintroduced and remained in effect in New Western Pomerania and Rügen until the middle of the 18th century.

Objections from church patrons successfully thwarted conservation as early as the 17th century, the opposition gained numerous support, so that the high point of parish widow conservation in the Pomeranian parts of the country was already passed in the first half of the 18th century. In 1775, a "General Preacher-Widows and Orphans-Catering Society" was founded in Swedish Pomerania based on the model of a Mecklenburg institution of the same name. In Western Pomerania and Old Western Pomerania the practice of conservation was pushed back with the support of the Brandenburg-Prussian sovereigns.

Other territories

There is evidence of conservation in other parts of northern Germany as well, such as in the Mark Brandenburg, in the Electorate of Saxony, in the Duchy of Saxony-Gotha and in East Prussia. In addition, this practice is attested for Sweden and Finland.

Brandenburg

In the Mark Brandenburg , preservation is documented for the 17th century. According to the current state of research, no statements can be made about the scope. Elector Friedrich III. 1698/99 issued a "Juramentum simoniae" for parish candidates to abolish the practice, which was probably also widespread here, which was viewed as buying offices.

Central Germany

In the Electorate of Saxony , the first parish widow's funds were set up as early as the middle of the 16th century, so that conservation was not as widespread as in northern Germany. In 1618, Elector Johann Georg I rejected the wish of the Wittenberg consistory to have a pastor's daughter on site.

In the Duchy of Saxe-Gotha , between 1650 and 1750, the successors married a widow or daughter of their predecessor in 29 of 114 parishes. For most of the 876 pastors during this period, however, information on the wife is missing, so that the actual number could have been higher.

East Prussia

Ännchen von Tharau

The story of Anna Neander is documented here , who lived in the 17th century and married two successors in office of her first husband. She inspired the folk song Ännchen von Tharau .

Sweden and Finland

The hereditary position of pastors was expressly denied in the Swedish church ordinance of 1571 and in the church law, but the preference for pastors' sons or sons-in-law in the election of pastors was also prescribed. This type of preservation of the heritage was also common in other areas of life.

literature

  • Hanna Würth: Parish widow care in the Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin from the Reformation to the 20th century. Dissertation to obtain a doctorate, accepted by: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen , Philosophical Faculty, April 20, 2004, ( PDF ; 20 MB)
  • Georg Krüger: The pastors in Stargard since the Reformation. In: Association for Mecklenburg history and antiquity (ed.): Yearbooks of the association for Mecklenburg history and antiquity . - Vol. 69, 1904, pp. 1–270 ( digitized version )
  • Martin Meier:  Danish church policy in Western Pomerania north of the Peene 1715–1721 . In: Society for Pomeranian History and Archeology (Hrsg): Baltic studies . New series vol. 90, Ludwig, Kiel 2004, ISBN 3-937719-02-4 , p. 157 f.
  • Theodor Woltersdorf: The preservation of the parish widows and daughters in the parishes and the call to preaching in New West Pomerania and Rügen due to marriage. In: German magazines for canon law. 3. Volume 11 (1901) 177-246. 3. Volume 13 (1902) 1-54. 3. Volume 13, second issue (1903) 182-209.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Krüger: The pastors in the country of Stargard since the Reformation. In: Yearbooks of the Association for Mecklenburg History and Archeology . Vol. 69, 1904, p. 94.
  2. ↑ Martin Meier: Danish church policy in Western Pomerania north of the Peene 1715-1721. In: Baltic Studies . New episode 90, Ludwig, Kiel 2005, pp. 157–158.
  3. ^ Würth: Parish widow care. P. 77ff.
  4. ^ Würth: Parish widow care. Pp. 94-95.
  5. ^ Johann Quistorp: Pia desideria illustrata. Rostochii 1663. p. 97.
  6. ↑ Brigitte Metz: The church visits on the island of Rügen 1580 to 1587 . In: Baltic Studies . New episode band 85 . NG Elwert, 1999, ISSN  0067-3099 , p. 53-54 .
  7. ↑ Martin Meier: Western Pomerania north of the Peene under Danish administration 1715 to 1721. Establishing an administration and securing power in a conquered area Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2008, ISBN 978-3-486-58285-7 , p. 159f.
  8. ^ Würth: Parish widow care. P. 178
  9. ↑ a b c Würth: Parish widow care. P. 180ff.
  10. ^ Würth: Parish widow care. P. 157
  11. ^ Simo Heininen, Markku Heikkilä, Matthias Quaschning-Kirsch: Church history of Finland. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2002, ISBN 978-3-525-55444-9 , pp. 98f.

Web links

This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on September 29, 2008 .