THE PRICE OF THE “SPIRITUAL BREADS” IN THE PYRIATYN PROTOPOPY OF THE SECOND HALF OF THE 18TH CENTURY

Abstract

The aim of the work is to analyze the interaction of legislative prescriptions and everyday tradition in the matter of monetary payments for the rituals on the basis of contracts between the priest and parishioners in the Pyriatyn Protopopy. The results. The article examines the legal regulation of ceremony payment in the 18th century. Through the analysis of the cases of the ordination of a new priest to the parish, it was found out how the issue of monetary payments for services was settled at the parish level. The structure and contents of the agreements concluded between the parishioners and the priests of the Pyriatyn Protopopy were reviewed and analyzed. The influence of official norms on the everyday practice of payments for rituals has been studied. We traced factors that influenced the price policy in the payment of ceremonies. Conclusions. It has been established that at the legislative level, attempts to regulate the prices for ceremonies were made in the Appendix to the Spiritual Regulations and specified in the Synod decree of 1765. However, the legislative prescriptions did not cover all the claims submitted by the Church and therefore did not establish specific payment amounts. Individual provisions of the laws were vague and did not determine the exact fee, besides, there were no punishment mechanisms for violating the legal prescriptions. In the researched protopopy, payment norms were regulated by contracts between the priest and the parishioners. Contractual relations were formed even before the appearance of the decree of 1765 and continued to be concluded after that. The agreements contained a much wider list of requirements than the legislative acts. The prices indicated in the contracts did not always correspond to the legally established norms, however, the bishops ignored such facts based on the fact that the agreement signed by both parties is legitimate and will guarantee harmony in the parish. This allows us to assert that the tradition of the issue of payment for needs dominated over the legislative prescriptions.