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‘Our Gracious Benefactors’: The Charitable Activities of the Vilnius Cathedral Chapter in the Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries

Using the acts of the cathedral chapter and annual income-expenditure registers, this article focuses on the charitable activities of the Vilnius Cathedral Chapter in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. The first section of the article is concerned with the chapter’s support for charitable institutions (hospitals, a dowry fund, a home for aged and infirm priests) under its patronage. The second section focuses on the patterns of occasional almsgiving.


Introduction
As was usual throughout the medieval and early modern Europe, cathedral chapters formed a clerical, political, economic, and cultural élite. Also, as senior clergymen, prelates and canons -and the secular élites as well -were under the moral obligation to provide for their poorer sisters and brothers. Thus, cathedral chapters, with their vast As pointed out by David Lepine, prelates and canons had a dual relationship with charity: personal and institutional 4 . Undoubtedly, as individuals, they gave alms to anonymous beggars and assisted their struggling friends or impoverished subordinates. However, personal charitable activities were mostly spontaneous, unsystematic, irregular, and thus rarely well documented 5 . Whereas institutional documentation reveals the charitable activities of the chapter as a corporate body, this article focuses on the rather well documented institutional charity and seeks to reveal the chapter's involvement in charitable activities -the support for charitable institutions under its patronage as well as the practices of almsgiving. It is important to stress that traditionally the works of mercy were motivated primarily by the biblical imperative of neighbourly love and the giver's hope of achieving salvation 6 ; however, the sources are silent on religious (or any other) motivations to perform acts of kindness towards the poor. Thus, this article primarily deals with the material aspects of the chapter's charitable activities.
This article uses the acts of the Vilnius Cathedral Chapter (Acta Capituli Vilnensis) and the annual income-expenditure registers covering the period from the beginning of the sixteenth to the end of the eighteenth century. The acta reveal the chapter's decisions regarding the functioning, financing, and control of charitable institutions and other related issues. The annual income-expenditure registers give information on the cathedral chapter's common income and expenditure, including payments to charitable institutions and sums distributed as occasional alms.
It should be noted that, although the chapter's properties extended well beyond the city limits, the sources show that prelates and canons directed their charitable initiatives mainly towards poor relief institutions in Vilnius and the local poor. The first section of this article looks at the relationship between the cathedral chapter and the charitable institutions under its supervision, while the second section discusses the patterns of almsgiving.

Prelates, Canons, and Charitable Institutions
The statutes of the Vilnius Cathedral Chapter did not specify any formal obligations or duties to assist the poor 7 ; however, prelates and canons not only distributed occasional alms (as will be discussed in the following section) but also established, supervised, and supported a range of charitable institutions that provided indoor and outdoor relief. Among them were three hospitals 8 , a home for aged and disabled priests, and a fund providing dowries for poor unmarried women. Although prelates and canons hardly ever assisted the poor personally, however, their efforts, through financial and organisational support for charitable foundations, to ensure the wellbeing of the city's poor were, nonetheless, also an expression of their charitable incentives and Christian brotherly love.
The chapter had a diverse relationship with the three hospitals. The Hospital of SS Job and Mary Magdalene (later -St Mary Magdalene), the very first hospital in Vilnius, was founded by the canon and medical doctor Marcin of Duszniki in 1518 9 . From the very beginning it functioned as the 'capitular' (capitularis) 10 hospital and was controlled by the chapter, which was entitled the right of patronage and collation. The chapter had a similar relationship with the Hospital of SS Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus established in 1631 outside the Aušros (Ostra) Gate. For the first few decades the hospital was supervised by the city's magistrate; however, the chapter was entitled the right of patronage and collation (jus patronatus, et collationis) in the second half of the seventeenth century 11 . Nevertheless, this hospital was never referred to as 'capitular' or 'cathedral'. The third hospital associated with the chapter was originally established by Jan Jarołowicz and several Franciscan Tertiaries Eremites (Ordo Sancti Francisci Eremitarum Tertiae Regulae) who all perished in the Great Plague of 1709-1711. In 1713, the bishop of Vilnius Konstanty Kazimierz Brzostowski, together with the cathedral chapter, re-established and reformed the institution and transferred its control to the newly founded Merciful Brothers of St Roch (Fratres Misericordiae sub titulo S. Rochi), also known as rochitae or rochici 12 . The brothers were accountable directly to the bishop and, to a lesser extent, to the cathedral chapter; therefore, the hospital was known as 'cathedral' (cathedralis) 13 .
The chapter exerted collective control and influence over the hospitals through a variety of ways. As patrons and collators of charitable institutions, prelates and canons shaped the organisational structure of the hospitals by appointing the provosts (praepositus) who celebrated Mass, administered sacraments, and managed the day-to-day affairs of the hospitals, such as admitting new paupers, distributing weekly alms to the inmates, 8 In total, there were eleven Catholic hospitals established in Vilnius in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. 9 ROWELL, Stephen C. maintaining buildings and properties. The chapter also made decisions concerning their finances and properties, and from time to time inspected the institutions themselves to ensure their steady functioning and appropriate provision for the poor. However, besides the collective efforts to ensure the steady functioning of the hospitals and to maintain their internal order, the chapter's commitment to the poor was primarily reflected through the financial support of charitable institutions. Through the distribution of annual sums as well as occasional payments the members of the cathedral chapter retained close, albeit usually indirect, links with the inmates of the hospitals. The chapter's financial support for hospitals served a dual purpose of both providing their inmates with additional funds and expressing the compassion and generosity to their poorer brethren and sisters. Throughout the period the chapter supported the charitable institutions under its direct patronage as well as the Pasvalys Parish Hospital, which belonged to the chapter's property, and the Hospital of St Stephen in the Rūdninkai (Rudniki) suburb of Vilnius. Although until the late 1730s the latter hospital was supervised by the city's magistrate, which elected the annual overseers (provisor, prowizor) to manage the institution's property 14 , the chapter supported it with occasional payments already in the seventeenth century and later provided the hospital with regular financial assistance.
Prelates and canons gave to the hospitals in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but the payments were irregular and varied in value from several to 100 or more złotys 15 . It was only in the 1710s that a pattern of regular support for charitable institutions began to emerge in the annual income-expenditure registers. In the years 1716-1728, equal, albeit growing, sums were distributed by the chapter to the hospitals of SS Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus and St Stephen 16 . At least in 1742-1743, when the chapter's income-expenditure registers became more formulaic and laconic, fixed payments for certain hospitals were introduced. With one exception, they remained unchanged for more than five decades (see Table 1).  Steady income collected from the common property, or mensa communis, individual prebends, and interest rates enabled the chapter to provide regular support to the hospitals. Although the chapter's income grew significantly in the second half of the eighteenth century 18 , the payments did not increase. The only exception was the Hospital of St Roch; the surviving income-expenditure registers reveal that its funding increased considerably (from 140 to 840 złotys) in 1770. However, this change could have happened a few years earlier, because the sum of 700 złotys came from the bequest (ex legatione) of the bishop of Vilnius Michał Jan Zienkowicz who died in 1762 19 . At that time, the Hospital of St Roch was certainly the largest in the city and provided medical care for dozens of patients infected with various internal and venereal diseases 20 . Thus, the decision to support this hospital probably represented the pressing needs of a large hospital: the demand for large amounts of medicines and rations for patients as well as wages for the medical personnel, nursing staff, and labourers. Other hospitals, however, functioned as almshouses and provided care for only a few aged and / or disabled individuals. The chapter's contribution amounted to 2,520 złotys, or more than eighteen percent of the total income. However, that year the chapter paid off its debts for three years (840 złotys annually). Thus, the figure does not reflect the actual significance of the chapter's financial support 21 .

in złotys) distributed yearly (1742-1795) to the hospitals of SS Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus (A), St Stephen (B), St Roch (C), St Mary Magdalene (D), Pasvalys Parish Hospital (E), payments to hospitals in total (F), percentage of total annual expenses distributed as financial support for hospitals (G) 17
The annual payments to the hospitals usually constituted less than a half percent of the chapter's total annual expenses. Nevertheless, this should not be understood as a sign of the chapter's reluctance to give to the poor. It must be stressed that the hospitals had several sources of income: resources provided by the founders as well as occasional bequests in the wills and other charitable donations by lay and ecclesiastical benefactors. Thus, the sums distributed by prelates and canons, although important to the institutions, did not constitute the principal source of income. However, the chapter's financial support for the hospitals was not limited to annual payments. Confronted with unbearable hardships, the hospitals' inmates had the possibility to approach prelates and canons for immediate relief. For instance, in 1715, only a few years after the Great Plague ravaged the city and the country, the destitute inmates of the St Mary Magdalene Hospital appealed to the chapter -'our gracious benefactors' (dobrodzieie nasi miłosciwy) -asking for assistance in time of acute need 22 . Their voices were indeed heard, and the poor received ten złotys to alleviate their misery, for which they, as usual, promised to pray for the members of the cathedral chapter. This instance of the poor speaking up for themselves is important not only because of its rarity, but also because it demonstrates that the inmates clearly understood their relationship with the prelates and canons who were considered to be the principal benefactors ensuring their wellbeing.
Whereas hospitals were charitable institutions where the poor and the sick were provided with assistance of a more diverse nature, other charitable foundations focused their activities on a specific category of the poor. The chapter supervised a fund, universally known as the 'St Nicholas' Chest', that provided poor unmarried women with dowries. The acts of the cathedral chapter reveal that the initiative to establish the fund came from canon Ambroży Beynart who bequeathed a sum of 1,000 kopy of groszys and obligated the chapter to provide dowries for poor unmarried women 23 . Afterwards, the fund was endowed with additional resources by the bishops of Vilnius 24 . Andrzej Karpiński demonstrates that the chapter provided marital and convent dowries for 330 poor females in the first half of the seventeenth century (1620-1654), and up to ten women were supported every year 25 . As the income-expenditure registers reveal, in the later period the patterns of chapter's support for women shifted, and a modest dowry, usually consisting of eighty złotys, was provided for only one woman every year. Only in 1747-1748, 400 złotys were distributed to several women 26 . Undoubtedly, such minor financial obligations, which were inconsistent with inflation, allowed the institution to function steadily. As the officials inspecting the poor relief institutions in Vilnius noted in 1790, dowries were provided punctually, 'because every year the chapter pays fifty złotys from its treasury to a maiden, known for her exemplary life' 27 . Undoubtedly, there were many more women in need of a dowry, so the chapter's support only meagrely improved their lives. Nonetheless, regular payments were a sign of the chapter's concern, at least nominal, with their material and moral condition. As noted by Ole Peter Grell and Andrew Cunningham, in post-Tridentine Catholic Europe, providing young poor women with dowries served a double purpose of not only improving their social status but also of preventing them from falling into prostitution and disgrace 28 . As senior clergymen of the diocese, the prelates and canons, together with the bishop, were responsible for the wellbeing of priests burdened by old age, disability or poor health. In a capitular session on 20 February 1617, bishop Eustachy Wołłowicz proposed a plan to establish a home for aged and infirm priests 29 . Five years later, canon Marcin Szulc donated two houses in the Skapo (Skopowa) street, which belonged to the chapter's jurisdiction, 'to build an asylum (ptochodochium) for infirm priests' 30 . It seems that several years later the asylum was already functioning near the Church of the Holy Cross 31 . Although too little is known about the activities of this institution and the number of inmates, multiple subsequent endowments to poor priests by bishops and canons reflect the internal solidarity of the clergy and reveal yet another charitable initiative of the cathedral chapter.
Undoubtedly, prelates and canons were involved with the hospitals and other poor relief institutions not only collectively as members of the cathedral chapter but also as 25  individual benefactors. However, the collective support certainly had a more considerable impact. More or less regular contributions from the chapter's common treasury ensured a modest but substantial and, most importantly, permanent financial support.

Pauperibus supplicantibus: Occasional Almsgiving
In addition to the chapter's annual contributions to various charitable institutions, the prelates and canons of Vilnius also distributed occasional alms to struggling individuals. Considering the unsystematic character of such payments and the scarcity of sources, it is almost impossible to quantify the portion of the annual expenses that went to alms. Nonetheless, 110 mentions in the financial records and the chapter's acta reveal that occasional alms constituted a very small fraction of the chapter's expenses. Usually, alms came from the chapter's treasury, whereas in the 1780s and 1790s funds were also collected from fines imposed on prelates and canons for being absent at the vesper service in the cathedral 32 .
In most cases, the chapter's financial records present only a summary of annual expenses; therefore, it is hardly possible to tell whether alms were distributed on some specific days or feasts. However, some more comprehensive accounts suggest that alms were usually distributed at the time of the chapter's annual general sessions, when prelates and canons gathered in Vilnius on 8 May (martyrdom of St Stanislaus) and especially on 27 September (translation of St Stanislaus's relics) 33 . Certainly, prelates and canons also gave alms on Christmas, the Holy week, Easter, Pentecost, and other major feasts; however, they must have done that as private individuals, because there are no mentions about such actions in the chapter's acts or financial records.
The available data suggest that in most cases payments were usually distributed once to every single individual, which confirms the unsystematic, spontaneous character of this type of charity. However, there are several exceptional cases of repeated almsgiving. For instance, Tomkowiczówna, an unmarried woman, received three złotys in 1695 and two złotys in 1696 34 . Meanwhile, in 1698, Owłoczyńska, a noblewoman (szlachcianka), was given two and five złotys on separate occasions 35 . Undoubtedly, there should have been many more similar cases, but the lack of evidence makes it difficult to provide any far-reaching generalisations.  There were no fixed rates for alms, and usually the poor received from one to ten złotys (see Table 2). Thus, it is obvious that paupers could not rely on prelates and canons as their sole benefactors and had to 'migrate' between churches, convents, and hospitals to survive.
The entries in the chapter's records rarely provide more information on the causes of poverty. Therefore, it is difficult to establish a correlation between the causes of poverty and the sum given to a certain individual. However, scarce evidence suggests that larger sums were distributed to individuals who found themselves in extraordinary circumstances, especially after their conversion to Catholicism, when they broke ties with their kin and community. Therefore, these payments had a dual function of relieving the converts' hardships as well as sustaining their hopes and expectations of a new life, thus preventing them from apostasy. The records show that Jewish as well as Protestant converts received single payments amounting from twenty to sixty and even a hundred złotys. For instance, on 21 May 1674, the chapter paid twenty złotys to an orphan (virgini derelictae) convert (nuper conversae) Rodówna 36 . A Jewish convert received sixty złotys 'for clothing' (na odzienie) in 1713 37 . That same year, an anonymous female Calvinist convert received a sum of 100 złotys 38 .
In other cases, larger sums were distributed to ailing and destitute diocesan priests. For example, in 1639, a paralysed (paralitico) priest Grzegorz Swirewicz was paid two kopy of groszys 39 . Another old and infirm priest, Mikołaj Fames, received a sum of 100 złotys on two occasions in 1713 40 . Moreover, infirm priests were supported not only by occasional distributions in cash but also by paying for their hospital stay. For instance, in October 1713, the chapter paid for the treatment of two ailing priests, Stankiewicz  internal solidarity of the clergy, which motivated the establishment of a home for aged and infirm priests in Vilnius, but also other forms of assistance to poor priests. Considerably smaller sums, from one to ten złotys, were distributed to other individuals, about whom little is known except their names. Limited evidence suggests that some of them were 'usual' relief recipients, such as widows 42 or individuals crippled by old age 43 . Unfortunately, most entries do not reveal any additional details, and it is impossible to tell what caused them to turn to begging.
Thirty mentions in the acta as well as financial records of the chapter reveal that large sums, varying from 100 to even 1,000 złotys, were distributed to the anonymous 'poor' (pauperibus supplicantibus, ubogim). For instance, the chapter gave 100 złotys on 22 October 1745 44 and 1,000 złotys on 29 October 1767 45 . However, the recipients, the exact sums of cash they received individually, and the number of paupers who were supported with these generous payments remains unknown. Only meagre mentions reveal some very imprecise details on the number of recipients. For instance, on 21 October 1768, priest Józef Gradowski was distributing alms to a 'numerous crowd of begging paupers' (numerosa turba pauperum supplicantium) 46 . Nonetheless, such a deed, as one description in the acts of the chapter suggests, must not have been as chaotic as it could appear. On 11 October 1785, 110 złotys and 19 groszys were distributed to the poor, but by 'judging the quality of persons, and their indigence' (attenta qualitate personarum, et eorum indigentia) 47 . Thus, it could be claimed that the generosity of the cathedral chapter was not unlimited, and canons practised discrimination in almsgiving by differentiating between 'worthy' and 'unworthy' poor 48 .  As mentioned above, inscriptions in the chapter's records provide information on the recipients' gender. Table 3 demonstrates that most paupers receiving alms were female, which is hardly surprising. Unfavourable social and economic conditions, limited opportunities to work and provide for themselves outside the family economy were the decisive factors that aggravated women's situation 49 . Therefore, women, usually widows, constituted the majority of individuals receiving outdoor and indoor poor relief 50 . How-ISSN 1392-0456 E-ISSN 2029-7181 Straipsniai ever, what is striking in this case is that almost one-fourth of recipients were unmarried women. Previous research on early modern England by Amy Froide shows that unmarried women, usually still young and able-bodied, albeit destitute, were perceived as the 'undeserving' poor and were expected to provide for themselves, whereas widows had much more opportunities to receive public relief 51 . This seems to have been the case in Vilnius as well, because unmarried women, excluding the disabled, were rarely admitted to the hospitals 52 . Although the sums distributed to unmarried women were very modest (from one to five złotys), occasional alms and systemic provision of dowries demonstrate the chapter's effort, albeit very limited, to alleviate the misery of struggling young women and thereby save them from the many dangers of destitution.

Conclusion
As this article makes clear, the prelates and canons of the Vilnius Cathedral were involved in a wide range of charitable activities from supporting hospitals, a dowry fund and a home for aged and infirm priests to occasional almsgiving to common beggars or newly converted Catholics. Hence, the chapter, as a collective body, assisted a highly diverse group of individuals drawn from different social and economic backgrounds, who became destitute because of accidental and structural causes.
The sources reveal that the pattern of financial support for hospitals shifted significantly from irregular payments in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to systemic, regular assistance in the eighteenth century. This shift probably reflects the emergence of a more rational, premeditated approach towards the chapter's responsibility to provide for the inmates of the hospitals. However, the number of dowries provided for poor unmarried women annually changed significantly from up to ten in the first half of the seventeenth century to only one in the eighteenth century.
The chapter's financial support for charitable institutions was, to say the least, modest. Despite considerable growth of the chapter's income from common property, it never exceeded more than one percent of its total annual expenditure. Moreover, the sums remained fixed despite significant inflation. And yet, this modest financial support, alongside other sources of revenue, constituted an important share of the hospitals' annual income because of its stability and continuity over the long term.
It is difficult to assess whether the chapter's charitable activities met the needs of the city's poor and had a considerable impact on their lives. On the one hand, the hospitals of St Mary Magdalene and SS Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus functioned ISSN 1392-0456 E-ISSN 2029-7181 Articles as almshouses and provided care and shelter for only a few infirm or aged individuals. Although alms distributed by prelates and canons remained a source of income to the city's begging poor, paupers could not rely on the chapter as their sole benefactors due to the irregular nature of almsgiving. On the other hand, the chapter's support for the large Hospital of St Roch which provided medical assistance to dozens of poor patients infected with various internal and venereal diseases represented an active attempt to respond to a pressing public health issue. The charitable activities of the Vilnius Cathedral Chapter were not only a response to the pressing social issues but also served additional purposes about which the sources are mostly silent. As the early modern poor relief was traditionally based on the Christian imperative of neighbourly love, giving to the poor was considered as a means to ensure the salvation of the benefactors' souls in the afterlife. Moreover, as pointed out by Marco van Leeuwen, the involvement in poor relief enhanced the givers' social prestige and legitimised their privileged position in society 53 . Thus, prelates' and canons' charitable initiatives enabled them to form a mutually beneficial spiritual link with the poor and solidify their status as generous benefactors.