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

Okhlopkova Viktoriia ORCID: 0009-0002-1184-5896 Postgraduate student, Faculty of History, Lomonosov Moscow State University 1B Leninskie Gory str., Moscow, 119991, Russia ohlopkovava@my.msu.ru

Introduction

In the Russian scientific literature from the XIX century. ^[1-4] to the present day ^[5-6] there is a tangible interest in the history of church charity in pre-Petrine Russia. Nevertheless, paradoxically, very little attention has been paid to one of the central concepts in the framework of this issue – "charity".

The so-called patriarchal alms played a special role in the social assistance provided by the Russian Church to those in need. Information about her payments is most fully presented in the account books of the Patriarchal State Order of the second half of the XVII century. The books, in turn, consisted of chapters corresponding to certain items of expenditure.

The concept of "alms" evokes distinct associations mainly with beggars, not only at the household level, but also at the stage of acquaintance of the researcher with the above-mentioned source, one of the chapters of which (usually the third) was devoted to expenses "for alms to beggars." However, as I. M. Snegirev rightly noted in the middle of the XIX century ^{[1, p. 12]} and current researchers N. V. Kozlova ^{[7, p. 27]}, I. A. Ustinova ^{[8, p. 11]}, N. V. Vorobyova ^{[6, p. 204-210]} note, patriarchal alms were not only relied on by beggars. The pre-revolutionary researcher I. I. Shimko called such payments "benefits to the needy", however, in fairness, we note that he briefly mentioned this category of payments, without including it in his classification of alms along with handwritten and daily alms ^{[9, p. 242]}. As a rule, within the texts of the expense books, alms for non-poor recipients was mentioned in the chapter (usually the eighth) "For all kinds of ordered expenses".

The purpose of this article is to find out what significance the patriarchal alms had for non–beggarly categories of the population. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to solve the following tasks: identify these categories, analyze the individual characteristics of patriarchal financial assistance for each of them.

Patriarchal alms for the servants of Patriarchal orders

The chapter "For all kinds of official expenses" of the expense books of the Patriarchal State Order could also be called "In the order of all ranks of people and alms." First of all, it included the transfer of a kind of "social benefits" for the servants of the Patriarchal Court (i.e. all Patriarchal orders: State, Palace, Discharge), somewhat anachronistically named by I. A. Ustinova as "employees" of it ^{[8, p. 11]}: from a bookseller to a watchman, from a secular clerk to an elder treasurer. The latter two, therefore, were not only responsible for giving out the patriarchal alms, but in some cases could also act as its recipients themselves.

It is noteworthy that the same author observed that payments to employees of the royal court in the XVII century were also in some cases called "alms" ^{[8, p. 11]}. This fact indicates to historians some similarities between the Patriarchal Court and the monarch in terms of the organization of social assistance. At the same time, it should be noted that the issuance of patriarchal money could, if necessary, be carried out to representatives of other (non-Patriarchal) orders.

The money given out as alms was often intended for the burial of relatives and for the restoration of housing after a fire. These payments were irregular and were caused more by extraordinary circumstances in people's lives than by a permanent difficult financial situation. At the same time, the possibility of a combination of these circumstances cannot be excluded.

The texts of the expense books indicate that the amounts of these payments were not fixed for people of the same social status or with a similar problem. Apparently, the decision on each petition was made on an individual basis. However, unfortunately, the fact that the primary documentation for the compilation of expense books – "expense pillars" (column records management) and "commemorative notebooks" (book records management) – has not been preserved, does not allow us to reconstruct the mechanism of making these decisions.

However, beggars could also receive payments for similar reasons by submitting a petition. Accordingly, for beggars, in addition to "daily" (paid regularly to some of them) and "handwritten" (handed out during patriarchal outings) alms, there was another option relevant to life situations that cause special needs for money.

The essential difference between such payments for servants of the Patriarchal House and for beggars was that in most cases beggars asked for financial assistance in connection with the death of close relatives, whereas for people directly involved in the Patriarchal Court, this was only one of the possible reasons (along with, first of all, "fire devastation"), however, it cannot be called predominant. This state of affairs is probably due to the obviously higher mortality rate among the poor population of Moscow and the surrounding area.

The names of the chapters corresponding to the ordered expenses could specifically mention the cost of burial. In particular, chapter five of the expenditure book for 1696 has the title "In the order of all ranks of people, and for household parcels, and for burials" ^{[10, l. 241]}.

Patriarchal alms for participants of memorial services for spiritual and secular persons

Another circle of irregular alms payments was associated with memorial services, including after the burial of the patriarchs, and represented an alternative salary to all those who participated in the ceremony: priests, protopops, deacons, protodeacons, clerks, etc.

These payments were irregular both in terms of frequency and amount. In this sense, the example of the burial of Hieromonk Dorotheus, the confessor of Patriarch Joachim, in 1676, is indicative, when it was possible to record only the total amount of money given to priests without a named list of recipients ^{[11, l. 160ob-161]}. This is due to the fact that the patriarch in this case gave the money "by hand", which in general is much more typical of patriarchal alms for the poor.

The clergy from the Patriarchal Court did not necessarily receive the money. Moreover, they were not necessarily clergymen in principle, especially if it was a question of such a large ceremony as the burial of the patriarch – they could also be secular persons who helped in the preparation and conduct of the funeral. For example, in 1672, when Patriarch Pitirim was buried, payments were made to the following participants in this process: "The Assumption bell ringer is sixteen people, two altyns for three money to a person, the guards of the Annunciation are four people, the Archangelsk ones are one, the Rozhdestvensky <...> two <...> there are twenty-nine people in total, two altins per person" ^{[12, L. 435ob-436]}.

At memorial services related to the anniversaries of death (and the deaths of both secular and clerical persons), the issuance of handouts to beggars was practiced: see below an example from the account book of 1670, related to the memorial service for Evdokia Lukyanovna Streshneva, who died in 1645, and an example from the account book of 1676, concerning the memorial service for the patriarch Filaret, who died in 1633.

· "On August 17, on the 17th day, His Holiness the Patriarch was in the Ascension Monastery, sang a ponakhida for the blessed Tsarina and Grand Duchess Evdokia Lukyanovna, and after the ponakhida, alms were distributed to beggars in the stable yard, three rubles seven altyns two money were given <...>" ^{[13, l. 151ob]}.

· "On May 3, on the 3rd day, His Holiness the Patriarch served the divine liturgy for His Holiness Patriarch Filaret Nikitich of Moscow and All Russia <...> the beggars of the entrusted alms have been given two pieces of money <...>" ^{[11, l. 162ob]}.

Patriarchal alms for former polonians

"Benefits to the needy" (according to I. I. Shimko's terminology) could also be received by those who were captured in the border territories of the state and suffered losses while they were in captivity. The wording "for complete patience" corresponded to the records of such payments.

The expense books of the Patriarchal State Order mainly mention the "Turk and Crimean" polonians: researchers of foreign policy in the second half of the XVII century, whose research interests include the relationship between the Moscow state, the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Khanate, point to the prevalence of the practice of "rozmen" of Russian, Crimean and Ottoman polonians ^[14-15]. And if the "rozmen" were the mission of the Embassy Order, then the Patriarchal State Order took upon itself the task of providing material support to Russian polonians who had already been redeemed and had recently returned to their homeland.

The distribution of alms to the polonians was carried out mainly according to their petitions, for example: "On March 21, according to the petition for the mark of the deacon Perfil Semennikov, the polonianist reitar Timofey Shmakov, for full patience, two rubles were given to the reception of Ivashka Neustroev. Timofey Shmakov took two rubles of money, and instead of it Ivan painted the city of Rylsk Afonasyevskaya, at his command he put his hand" ^{[16, l. 189ob]}.

I must say that there were no fixed amounts for full-time employees. The amounts received depended on the individual situation and personal circumstances of the polonyans, which were indicated in petitions (including collective ones), which is especially clearly seen in the example of a situation when a polonyank widow needed a dress worth a certain amount of money for tonsuring: April 16 on the day of the petition for the litters of clerks Denis Dyatlovsky, Perfil Semenikov the cities of Livna to the Crimean polonyanka Ageevskaya, the wife of Potapov's son Yuriev, the widow Varvaritsa Fedorova, the daughter for a haircut for the purchase of a black dress, two rubles <...> Varvara's widow took two rubles for a haircut to buy a black dress. Instead of her, Ivan the Lesser Vasiliev, the son of Grigorov, was painted" ^{[17, l. 269ob]}.

If we talk about food, it was possible to eat for at least several weeks with the amounts given, respectively, this money was not symbolic, but quite weighty, and could really help former full-time residents adapt to the socio-economic realities of the Moscow state after returning. Let us also draw attention to the fact that, whatever the social stratification of the polonians, the compilers of the books of the Patriarchal State Order do not differentiate them by social status. It does not matter what their ranks are, they are not even indicated: it is assumed that all these people equally deserve financial support. Thus, it must be concluded that foreign policy circumstances were an important factor that could influence the change in the volume of expenses of the Moscow Patriarchal House for charity: the more prisoners the Embassy Order and the Full-time Order accountable to it buy out, the more prisoners will potentially be able to submit petitions and claim alms, the more the expenses for alms to full-time workers will be. The personal circumstances of the petitioners could also have an impact on the change in the amount of expenses in this direction, especially given that collective petitions of former full-time employees were a common practice.

Patriarchal charity for prisoners

If the beggars received daily, hand-me-down alms and irregular payments due to difficult life circumstances, then the prisoners received the so-called "specified" alms. They included prisoners from prisons of all orders, not excluding the Patriarchal ones. "Indicated" is a term directly from the source, related to the fact that alms (however, in fact, not only such) were issued according to patriarchal decrees – both on church holidays and on the basis of petitions:

· " On July 9, on the 9th day, a ruble was given to the great prison of the specified Sunday <...> from Levka Vetoshkin's reception, the painting in the money of prison inmates in the pillar (expendable. – V. O.)" ^{[13, l. 146]}.

· "On August 15, by the decree of His Holiness the Patriarch, alms were distributed for the feast of the Assumption of the Most Holy Theotokos by order of kolodnik in the judgment hall in Volodimersky by ten people, in the Moscow tritzati by one person, the Grand Palace by ten people, in the Stable by ten people <...> given from the reception of Elizarka Fedorov, a personal painting in the rosokhodny pillar and the prison yard painting" ^{[13, l. 150-151]}.

· "(Entry without date. – V. O.) According to the petition for the mark of the deacon Ivan Kalitin Zemsky, three rubles were given by the kolodnik and kolodnits for charity, and Levka Vetoshkin was accepted, they were painted in money on the same petition" ^{[13, l. 238]}.

Often, the records of the expense books of the Patriarchal State Order indicated the number of beggars to whom alms were given (this does not apply to cases of giving alms). The specificity of the "specified" alms for "prison inmates and prisoners" ^{[1, p. 13]} is that both options were possible with it, as evidenced by the above quotes.

Accordingly, in cases where the number of prisoners remains unknown, it is impossible to find out the answer to questions about how money was distributed inside prisons after the total amount was issued, whether, for example, money intended for kolodniks and kolodniks was differentiated by quantity. Perhaps this information could have been found in the primary documentation, primarily in the "expenditure pillar", but, due to the fact that it has not been preserved, our research opportunities in this direction are extremely limited.

Conclusion

"Patriarchal alms" is a concept that includes payments that could be intended, in addition to beggars, to full–fledged prisoners, participants in large funeral services for spiritual and secular persons (patriarchs, monarchs), as well as any servants of the Patriarchal Court, among whom, in turn, were both spiritual and secular ranks.

"Alms" in the view of the compilers of the accounts books of the Patriarchal State Order is an action aimed at helping not only the poorest residents of Moscow and the surrounding area, but also all those who needed financial support at the time of making the payment. The payments for the participants of the memorial services were significantly closer to the salary, but in fact they were not and were called alms.

Patriarchal alms, in addition to daily and hand-me-downs, included "allowances for those in need" (according to I. I. Shimko's terminology). Servants of the Patriarchal Court, among others, could apply for "benefits to the needy" if they were in a difficult life situation, first of all, a fire or the death of a close relative. Alms with a special name – "indicated" - were distributed in prisons: the Church sought to show mercy even to those who were alien to Christian virtues. Alms for the poor, which helped them gradually and relatively painlessly return to a peaceful life, despite previous hardships and injuries, did not have a special name.

Thus, the patriarchal financial assistance was intended not only for the poor, but for a wide range of those in need. This observation leads to a simple but important conclusion: the patriarchal alms given by the Moscow patriarchs at the turn of the Russian Middle Ages and Early Modern Times was by no means a formality, a "decoration" to strengthen the authority of the Church – it was designed to provide real financial assistance to those who really needed it, whether they were beggars or those who He was not a beggar at all, but by the will of fate he found himself in difficult life circumstances.