Starea materială a clerului de mir din Ţara Românească în secolele xv-xvii

Abstract

Not all the secular clergies had the same material condition. There were significant differences between the clergies from the rural area and those from the urban area. The secular clergies didn’t receive any payment nor monthly remuneration, and they had to earn their living through their own work. Those from village earned their living by practicing agriculture, gardening, cropping grapevine and fruit trees, animal breeding, beekeeping and so on. The clergies who didn’t own land, or the parishes that didn’t have land properties, had to work on the boyar estates. The documents show us that many secular clergies managed to buy land properties. Those who managed to purchase land properties, were ministers in the villages of the wealthy peasants and those from urban area. The situation was not equal among the priests from the rural area because some of them could only buy fields, whereas the others could get estates. The clergies from the urban area bought land properties, especially in the suburban areas, then, they also had the chance to buy estates in the villages. The secular clergies couldn’t buy land properties, they had to learn and practice different crafts such as: building wooden churches, church painting, wood carving, calligraphy, bookbinding, printing and so on.