Some remarks on chapels in knight and magnate residences in late-mediaeval Poland

Abstract

The article is devoted to private chapels in the houses of knights and magnates in the late mediaeval Poland, with focus on the region of Lesser Poland. A private chapel is understood here as a sacred place inside a residence, allocated to liturgical purposes. Such a chapel did not have to be institutionalized; services could be conducted sporadically and “if need be”. The main criterion is the function, marked by a fixed or portable altar due to which a place gained the sacred status and could be used for liturgy. The topic of private chapels is part of a larger issue, that of the space of personal piety in late-mediaeval Poland. The issue includes two basis research areas, in turn comprising more detailed questions: one is the functioning of private sacred space at home and the other is the relationship between the human and the sacred. This article focuses only on smaller issues connected with the identifying and functioning of private sacred space in a knight’s or a magnate’s house, and also with prestige games between chapels and parish churches, for which sacred
space was used. A chapel was a recurrent element in residences of magnates and knights. Its form was
varied: chapels were located in detached buildings, gates, towers, single separate rooms or bay windows. They were sometimes temporarily arranged with the use of portable altars. Portable altars were used when travelling, also in churches and public chapels or in private houses. This practice is indirectly evidenced by data on the Jagiellon dynasty (e.g. the circumstances of the death of Duke Zygmunt Kiejstutowicz (Sigismund Kęstutatis)). The surviving foundation acts of castle chapels, though scarce, if combined with mentions
from inventories (even from much later times) and data on the income of priests in the Cracow diocese, make it possible to fi gure out the functioning of the chapel in a residence, the owner’s obligations to the chaplain (e.g. to provide him with a dwelling place and to supply some goods) and the services required from the chaplain (e.g. the number of masses on weekdays and feasts, intentions). Direct mentions of chapels and chaplains are rare; research is based on very limited source material and on analysing indirect sources, such as the evidence of building (or buying, or restructuring) a residence and at the same time gaining the privilege of using a portable altar, which had both religious and prestigious signifi cance. Several telling examples are known (e.g. the actions of Piotr Sancygniowski), which indicate that such events did not coincide by chance; most likely those were planned actions aimed at acquiring a new, prestigious residence with a chapel. In some cases, they were parallel to efforts to found a parish church in the centre of the estate.
Chapels in private residences, whether they were permanent or arranged ad hoc for occasional liturgy, had both religious and prestige-building functions. As an institution, a chapels manifested the founder’s piety, served the memory of his ancestors and was supposed to contribute to his family’s salvation. In special circumstances (e.g. illness) it helped in fulfi lling the obligation to attend the mass. It seems that it could also be treated as an exclusive area of fulfi lling religious duties by a limited group, i.e. the owner, his family and retinue. Regardless of the religious use, a chapel also had important social functions and contributed to the owner’s prestige. An impressive, richly furnished residence highlighted the position of the owner and the
privilege of having liturgy conducted in it raised his status even higher.