Wojnicki kościół grodowy
The Wojnicz Town Church

Summary/Abstract: In Polish historiography study of the beginnings of the parish is continued. In connection with the study town churches (ecclesia castrensis) are said to be the oldest parishes, but constitutive features of such churches are not searched for. On the example of this kind of church in Wojnicz (southern Małopolska) the author tries to establish these features. In the conclusion he says that the town church is: 1. A church built in the 10th-12th century functioning in a town that is not a ruler’s residence, but exercises the monarch’s power in the adjoining area. 2. Canons – there are usually three of them – apart from ecclesial duties (officium dominum) do some work for the ruler (e.g. they record the people’s tributes). 3. The clergy participate in the ruler’s income; hence their remuneration has the character of a stipend (stipendium) and its amount depends on the amount of the ruler’s income. 4. Within a more or less advanced reform of the Gregorian type at the break of the 11th century bishops effect a break of the ties with the ruler; however, they keep the sources of their income, which is the beginning of the tithe. 5. The churches become legal entities and eo ipso they gain the right to exercise curam animarum (baptism, marriage, funeral). 6. Depending on the amount of remuneration that receives the character of the benefice (beneficium), the clergy organize college chapters, or simply parishes with a greater number of priests. Churches in magnates’ towns (proceres), organized on the pattern of the prince’s ones, passed through an analogous process.

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