Kraków Dominicans in the accounts of ordinations of bishops of Poznań

Abstract

The analysis of inventories and accounts of ordinations occupies a prominent role in the prosopographical study on medieval and modern clergy. The reading of these materials makes it possible to reproduce the process of formation of the clergy through taking further ranks in minor and major holy orders. These materials are also important in the study of the clergy derived from religious communities, especially from Mendicant orders – due to the fact it was friars from Mendicant orders who often took holy orders because of the pastoral tasks they undertook.

Studies on the ordination of the Dominicans from the Monastery of St. Trinity have so far focused on the analysis of the accounts of ordinations kept by the bishops of Kraków (research by Father J. Szczepaniak), but the initial query performed in the files of bishops from other dioceses showed that some of them contained important data reflecting preparations for pastoral work of brothers from the Krakow monastery of the Order of Preachers. The accounts of ordinations, kept by the bishops of Poznań from the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, are of significant help in such kind of research. A query carried out on these accounts made it possible to draw up a list of nine monks from the monastery of St. Trinity, who in the years 1597–1628 were ordained subdeacons, deacons and presbyters by the Poznań suffragan bishops.