During the Modern Age, the Catholic Church was one of the main owners of movable and immovable property in Spain. This resource deals with the economy of ecclesiastical institutions through the Cathedral Chapter of Barcelona. Its economic administration was divided into nine bodies, each with its own legal personality and its own sources of funding. The bodies were: the Caritat, dedicated to the control and payment of the canons; the Pia Almoina, oriented towards charity through two subsections, the Administració General and Majordomia; the Beneficis Units, which helped the financial endowment of the canons; the Sacristy and the Obra de la Seo, whose functions were the sacramental administration (the former) and the maintenance of the building (the latter). The income derived from the performance of funerals corresponded to the Manna, and the distribution of bread rations among the staff was the task of the Passtrim. For its part, the chapter did not collect the rents directly; rather, it leased them as a way of obtaining economic benefit or in kind, and each administration was responsible for negotiating its leases. Throughout the 17th century, a process of administrative centralisation took place and progress was made in the professionalisation of management, with a more efficient system which, together with the system of leases, further reduced the organisational infrastructure. The centripetal ecclesiastical economy, with the conception of “dead hands” land ownership, clashed with the new forms of private property that appeared in the transformation from the Ancien Régime to the bourgeois state, and the lands were subject to subsequent confiscations.
Collection: Graphics
Project: 10. Churches and religions in Europe.
Chronology: XVII
Scope: Secondary Education, Baccalaureate, University
Resource type: Graph
Format: Hierarchy chart
Source: Fatjó Gómez, p. (1999). "Organización y gestión de una hacienda eclesiástica en la Cataluña del XVII: la Catedral de Barcelona", en Revista de Historia Económica, XVII, nº 1, p. 105.
Language: Spanish
Date: 1999
Owner: Pablo Ballesta Fernández (Modernalia)
Copyright: ©Revista de Historia Económica ©Pedro Fatjó Gómez
Abstract: Resource showing the administrative division of the chapter of Barcelona Cathedral, as well as its functions and powers.
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Tags
Administración eclesiásticaCabildo Catedralicio de BarcelonaCleroDesamortizaciónHistoria EconómicaIglesia CatólicaManos MuertasSiglo XVII
