The distribution of patriarchal alms to non-beggarly categories of the population in the second half of the 17th century

The subject of the study is the records of the expense books of the Patriarchal State Order, which provide information about the financial assistance provided by the Moscow patriarchs to non-beggarly categories of the population: servants of the Patriarchal orders, participants in memorial services for secular and spiritual persons, prisoners of war who had previously been released from captivity, prisoners of prisons of all orders. The purpose of the study is to determine what the significance of patriarchal alms was for representatives of these categories. The author examines in detail the mechanism of giving alms in relation to each of them. Special attention is paid to the source aspect: petitions of potential recipients of alms were an important element of the clerical system of the Patriarchal State Order. They were part of the primary documentation that has not reached our days and can be partially reconstructed based on the texts of the expense books. The research is based on the methodological tools of auxiliary historical disciplines: first of all, Russian paleography, which opens up opportunities for analyzing the handwriting of officials who issued patriarchal alms and its recipients, as well as historical metrology and historical chronology. The analysis carried out allows us to form a detailed picture of the recipients of patriarchal alms who are not beggars. It should be noted that insufficient attention is paid to non-poor categories of the population in the modern historiography of Russian church charity. The results of the study indicate that such recipients could be those who are not necessarily poor in general, but currently in need of financial assistance, for example, servants of the Patriarchal Court who have fallen into difficult life situations. The same remark applies to former prisoners and "prison inmates and prisoners". Payments for participants of memorial services for secular and ecclesiastical persons – primarily for monarchs and patriarchs – were substantially closer to salaries and were carried out for performing certain functions at these ceremonies, however, in the text of the source they were also referred to as alms. It is concluded that the patriarchal alms was intended not only for the urban poor, but for those in need in the broadest sense of the word, which indicates its great importance for the Moscow society of the second half of the XVII century, makes it not a formality and exclusively part of the ceremonial, but a really important action from a socio-economic point of view of the Moscow patriarchs.

The Russian Church, Patriarchal Government Order, Patriarchal orders, Patriarchal House, Patriarchal charity, alms, patriarchal alms, polonyaniks, expense books, account books