W wydanej przez Narodowy Instytut Kultury i Dziedzictwa Wsi publikacji „Chłopi polscy na przestrzeni wieków”, pod redakcją prof. Jolanty Załęczny i prof. Mateusza Wyżgi, autorzy podjęli się opracowania wielu istotnych kwestii związanych z historią i tożsamością polskiej wsi.
In the article Peasants in Church estates in the 16th-18th centuries, included in the publication, Prof. Radoslaw Lolo has taken up the theme of peasant society in church villages. This is an element worth discussing in terms of the narrative of the history of peasant culture.
The number of church towns in the Crown at that time is calculated at 101 (this is 16% of the total number of towns). The situation of peasants living on church estates was similar to that of the rest of the rural population. However, there were some differences between them. Among the groups living on land belonging to the clergy, poorer peasants who engaged in gardening stood out. Occasionally, peasants would make the transition to the clerical state and become monks or curates.
As a point of interest, it is worth mentioning that in the village of Targovka in the 18th century, more than 80% of the peasants doing serfdom on Church-owned land were married, and each marriage had an average of two children.
Land ownership
Land ownership belonging to the Catholic Church was formed in Poland as early as the Middle Ages. The size of church lands varied from province to province. At the end of the 16th century, in the Cracow province, the area of church lands was 3467 sq. km. In the Sieradz province it was already smaller (2247 sq. km.), while in the Greater Poland province a total of 594 settlements with a total area of 4664 sq. km. belonged to the Church.
In Kuyavia and Dobrzyń lands, 162 villages belonged to church institutions. Priests collected fees from peasants for the upkeep of these lands, which were the property of the Church. The tax was not unusual. Peasants had to have income to pay rents in order to inhabit church lands.
The craft activities of peasants and the professions they practiced
The rural population that inhabited the lands belonging to the clergy was not only engaged in farming. They also engaged in craft activities related to food production. They were engaged in bread making, for example, and the mill and farm settlements that belonged to the clergy at the time accounted for about 26% of the total. In total, there were 20 such settlements in the Łęczyca and Sieradz provinces.
Fishermen were also an important group in rural settlements, and they were required to deliver a portion of their fish catch to the kitchen tables of priests conducting clerical activities in their respective parishes.
The fishermen of Pultusk, in turn, were obliged to pay a lump sum to the castle twice a year, which in those days amounted to 24 cents. An additional condition was to sell fish only at the market in Pultusk. There, fish were purchased for the castle's kitchens.
From the countryside to the cities
A phenomenon that happened in those days was the movement of peasants from villages to cities. Peasants migrated from smaller villages to church towns. They were usually ambitious people of age and rather not poor. Peasants who changed their place of residence to a larger town had to be able to afford to pay the taxes that applied there.
Between the 16th and 18th centuries, peasants from neighboring villages, including Szwelice, Gnojna, Pniewo, Poplaw, and Białowieża, settled in Pultusk. Very often whole families moved to the church towns. Episcopal towns accepted peasants willingly, but up to a certain point. In 1616, a ban was imposed on the admission of strangers and noble subjects to larger urban areas. However, this ban was not strictly enforced.
The peasant community of church estates was diverse between the 16th and 18th centuries. As the author concludes, it is worth taking a more in-depth look at this thread, which can be an excellent topic for further research work on the complexity of the social group living on estates owned by the clergy.
You can learn more about the situation of peasants in church estates from the article Peasants in Church Estates in the 16th-18th Centuries, included in the publication Polish Peasants over the Centuries, published by the NIKiDW. The state of research and research perspectives. Read the article.
The book Polish Peasants Through the Ages is available in the publisher's online store.
Elaborated. Arkadiusz Olszewski on the basis of.
artykułu Radosława Lolo Chłopi w dobrach kościelnych w XVI−XVIII wieku, [w:] Chłopi polscy na przestrzeni wieków. Stan badań i perspektywy badawcze, red. M. Wyżga i J. Załęczny, Narodowy Instytut Kultury i Dziedzictwa Wsi, Wyd. Akademii Humanistycznej, Warszawa 2023, s. 55-70.
Graphic: Peasants at work in an engraving from the 16th-century Aesop's Life of Frye (public domain)
