Dmitry Aleksandrovich Begovatov,
Candidate of Historical Sciences, Tver State University, Tver, Russia, e‑mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Inviolable Capital as a Tool for Material Support of the Urban Provincial Clergy in the First Half of the 19th Century (Using the Example of the Tver Diocese)
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2025-4-8
The role of emergency capital in the material support of the urban clergy and poor clergy in the Tver diocese in the first half of the 19th century is analyzed using archival and published sources. The article notes the growing popularity of this charity tool for providing churches, clergy, and the sphere of care for clergy, highlights its weaknesses, classifies deposits by intended purpose, defines the circle of donors, establishes a list of institutions that are custodians of capital, and identifies strategies for managing financial resources. It demonstrates an increase in the number of deposits and their size since the 1820s, as a result of which by the mid‑19th century 82,9 % of city churches in the Tver diocese had interest on capital as one of their income items, while on average they accounted for 7,3 % of all receipts in favor of clergy. The formation of emergency capital to provide for the sphere of spiritual care began in the Tver diocese even before the emergence of specialized guardianship. Since the 1820s, there has been an intensive accumulation of funds in the form of deposits in credit institutions (by 1860, an increase by almost 8 times), but in most cases these amounts did not bring current income and were aimed at the “increase” of capital. In the late 1850s, a change in financial strategy occurred, when a choice was made in favor of receiving interest to provide assistance to indigent clergy. By 1860, income from “perpetual deposits” became the third most important for the Tver diocesan trusteeship and provided 21,9 % of all cash receipts of this body. A conclusion is made about the widespread use of “perpetual deposits” among the urban parishes of the Tver diocese, the importance of target capital for the Tver diocesan trusteeship, but a relatively modest role in the matter of material support of the clergy.
Publishing: 28/08/2025
The article has been received by the editor on 29/04/2025
How to cite: Begovatov D.A. Inviolable Capital as a Tool for Material Support of the Urban Provincial Clergy in the First Half of the 19th Century (Using the Example of the Tver Diocese) // Historical Courier, 2025, No. 4 (42), pp. 113–127. [Available online: http://istkurier.ru/data/2025/ISTKURIER-2025-4-08.pdf]
Links: Issue 4 2025
Keywords: emergency capital; target capital; “eternal deposit”; bank deposit; Tver diocese; Orthodox clergy; city clergy; material support; spiritual care; Tver diocesan guardianship