The Wealth of the Polish Church in the XVIth Century: Its Effect on the Nobility
One of the most potent causes of the spread of the Reformation in Poland in the sixteenth century was the enormous wealth of the Polish church. Owing to the liberality of princes, kings, magnates, and pious devotees, the church became a great economic power. Its large landed estates and great financial resources were both exasperating and enviable. It was one of the largest landowners in the country. Its financial resources were greater than those of the crown. It happened not infrequently that the king had to come to the powerful church dignitaries to ask them for financial contributions to the state treasury for purposes of government and defense. By the side of the baronial estates and princely incomes of some of the Polish bishops the wealth of even the most powerful magnates faded into insignificance.
In Great Poland, out of a total of 33,000 “łanów kmiecych,”[267] or hides of land under peasant cultivation, the church was in possession of 3,430 łanów or of 10.33 per cent.[268] In some districts and palatinates the estates of the church were more concentrated than in others. In the Palatinates of Poznań and Kalisz, for instance, they formed only 6 per cent. of the total land area under peasant cultivation, while in the Palatinate of Inowrocław they rose to 12 per cent., in the Palatinate of Brześć to 16 per cent., and in the Palatinate of Łęczyce to 22 per cent.[269]
In Little Poland, out of a total of 5,455 villages and 205 towns, the church owned 772 villages, 83 sections, or parts of villages, and 28 towns.[270] Allowing 5.3 villages to a square mile, the proportion then prevalent, 2 sections to a village, and a quarter of a mile to a town, we find that the landed property of the church in Little Poland in the sixteenth century covered an area of 160 square miles in a total of 1,013 square miles, and constituted about 15.5 per cent. of the total estimated land area of the province.[271] This property was about equally divided between the secular clergy and the monastic orders, the former owning 360 villages, 65 sections, and 12 towns, and the latter 372 villages, 18 sections, and 16 towns.[272] Fully one-half of the ecclesiastical lands in Little Poland,—388 villages, 49 sections, and 9 towns, or between 440 and 450 landed estates,—were located in one palatinate, namely, that of Cracow.[273]
Mazovia had an area of 578.3 square miles, 5,990 villages numbering 23,361 hides of land under peasant cultivation, and 94 towns. The church here was in possession of 15 towns and 505 villages comprising 5,849 hides of land. This was 16 per cent. of the towns, 8.7 per cent. of the villages, and 25 per cent. of the land under peasant cultivation.[274] The church lands in Mazovia were very intensively cultivated; for while the general proportion of “łanów kmiecych” to a Mazovian village was only 3.9, within the area of ecclesiastical estates the proportion was 11.5.
The Palatinate of Podlasie consisted of an area of 173.72 square miles, and numbered in the sixteenth century 1,304 villages, 26 towns, and 14,455 “włók wiejskich,” or village hides of land.[275] Of the 1,304 villages 30, or 2.3 per cent. containing 678.75 “włók wiejskich,” or 4.7 per cent. of the total acreage under village cultivation, were in possession of the Roman Catholic clergy.[276] The apparently small landed property here of the bishopric and the cathedral chapter of Łuck was further supplemented by various income producing privileges like fishing rights, rents, and tolls. For instance, besides his lands the bishop of Łuck had the right to maintain and operate a “liburnam et navigium” on the River Bug near the town of Drohiczyn. On account of its productiveness the operation of this ferry became a bone of contention in 1570 between Christopher Iwanowski and the bishop.[277]
In Volhynia the bishopric of Łuck owned several tracts of land numbering 14 villages with an area of 2.77 square miles, and the cathedral chapter of Łuck was in possession of 5 additional villages of 64 hides of land, covering an area of 0.8 of a square mile.[278] Besides the Latin bishopric of Łuck, there were in Volhynia two Greek Orthodox bishoprics, Łuck and Włodzimierz. The two owned together good sized landed estates. The figures for the totals are lacking. But one of the estates of the Greek Orthodox bishop of Łuck numbered 6 villages of 33 hides of land. The estates of the bishop of Włodzimierz consisted of two sections, including 13 villages and 1 town and covering an area of 4.38 square miles.[279] In Podolia the estate of the bishop of Kamieniec consisted of 13 villages and 1 town and had an area of 2.4 square miles. This was further supplemented by a few other smaller properties.[280]
When we come to Red Russia, we find that in that part of Poland the landed property of the church was composed of 98 villages and 8 towns, forming 3 per cent. of the total land under peasant cultivation in Red Russia.[281] Here most of the ecclesiastical lands were located in the “Ziemie” or districts of Sanok, Lwów, and Halicz. In the first they made up 5 per cent. of the total peasant cultivated lands, in the second 4 per cent., and in the third 3 per cent., although in the districts of Lwów and Halicz they maintained a percentage of four.[282]
In Ukraina by far the most extensive and the best located estates were those of the Latin clergy. The largest contribution in the nature of a land tax paid into the Commonwealth Treasury in 1581 was that of the cathedral and the cathedral chapter of Wilno, 158 and 133 Polish florins respectively. The only other large land owners, approaching anywhere near the clergy, were the Wiśniowieckis and the Kmitas, the former paying a contribution of 110 złp. and the latter of 90 złp. All the rest averaged only 35 złp.[283]
It is evident, therefore, that the Polish church belonged in the sixteenth century to the class of large property owners. Even in the eastern provinces of Podlasie, Volhynia, Podolia, Red Russia, and Ukraina, where its lands constituted a smaller percentage of the total land area cultivated by peasants than in the western provinces, the ecclesiastical estates were invariably large. Compared with the individual holdings of the Polish nobility and even of the crown, the estates of the bishops, cathedral chapters, and monastic institutions were everywhere baronial.[284]