PT Journal
AU Sramek, J
TI Benedictine Provostries in Moravia (A Note on the Development of Church Administration until the Hussite Wars)
SO Historica Olomucensia
PY 2017
BP 13
EP 54
VL 52
IS 1
DI 10.5507/ho.2017.001
DE Church administration; monasticism; Benedictines; provostry; medieval transformation
AB Dependent or subordinate houses of medieval monasteries with the status of provostry have not represented a very frequent issue in the Czech historiography, although its potential has been already emphasized many times. Particularly, a topic of establishment of hierarchically interconnected monastic houses in the Benedictine monastic movement is remarkable, because the basic normative source, the Rule of Saint Benedict, does not count on anything like that and it introduces only abbey as a basic unit. Despite this, at latest in the 13th century, sources began to witness an existence of Benedictine dependencies. The article concentrates on Benedictine provostries in Moravia, so that monasteries in Rajhrad, Luh (Komarov), Merin, Brezova, Zabreh na Morave, Uhercice. The recent research interpreted provostries such as administrative units of which establishment was caused by the increase of monastic estates' service. In spite of the fact that it is undoubtedly true, it has been shown that there might be much more factors which led to the establishment of provostries. A part of provostries emerged around objects of a sacral character, either cells (Rajhrad), or later around parish churches (Uhercice, Zabreh), where friars tried to achieve incorporation. A reduction of provostries to economic or administrative units would be an oversimplification of historical facts. Subordinate monasteries probably substituted missing components of parish network which was still constituted during the 13th century. Benedictine provostries indicate that the Benedictine "order" was not so rigid and inflexible as secondary literature often says.
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