INTEGRATION THROUGH RELIGION? DONATIONS FOR THE HOSPITALS OF MEDIEVAL BRATISLAVA
Judit Majorossy (Budapest)
This paper aims at presenting some conclusions drawn mainly from fifteenth-century civic wills of Bratislava (Pozsony/Pressburg) and, to a certain extent, its close neighbouring town, Sopron (Ödenburg). More than six hundred wills from Bratislava and the so-called account book of its Saint Ladislas hospital, two hundred and fifty wills from Sopron, and five accounting documents, also from Sopron during this period were investigated with regard to some specific questions.
Firstly, the number, location and status/dominance of the hospitals are discussed and compared among the towns, that is, how these charitable institutions were physically integrated into the life of the towns. Secondly, analysing the data collected from last wills raised another question, namely, what place the hospitals occupied in people's minds, and what the ratio of donations given to them was in comparison with other ecclesiastical institutions in the town, that is, how were the hospitals mentally integrated into the life of the towns. Moreover, the issue of how the poor were handled outside these institutions is also investigated (mainly the so-called household poor, but also the poor relatives, priests, students, etc.). The nationality and social status of the donators as well as the inmates of the hospitals will also be discussed, although only insofar as information is available in the wills themselves.
Altogether, the central question of the paper is: On the basis of their special function, to what extent and in which social segment, were hospitals integrated into the life of these two towns?