The Late Medieval Churchwarden's Accounts
of Sibiu / Hermannstadt (1505-1511)

Abstract:

In the medieval Catholic towns the church fabric (fabrica ecclesie), the material found dedicated to the construction, repair and maintain of the parish church maintenance building and all that belonged to it (churchyard, chapels, treasury, and so on), was separated from the founds dedicated to the parish priest (dos ecclesie), and was administrated and controlled by the churchwardens (vitricus), elected by the urban communities. In my paper I would like to present and analyze a churchwarden's account, which refers to Sibiu preserved between 1505 and 1511. As far as I know, this document is the one and only urban churchwarden account remained from medieval Transylvania. In my presentation I intend to investigate the historical source in se, the churchwardens` persons, their income and expenses, and finally I would like to compare the churchwardens` budget to that of the magistrate of Sibiu.

Keywords:

Transylvania, parish church, financial administration, churchwarden's account, towns