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increasingly moved to consolidate, control, and professionalize the hospital movement. This transition was gradual but not always smooth. In fact, much of the documentary evidence for administrative activity in the hospitals of northern Italy includes letters of complaint regarding mismanagement, visitation records by church officials responding to complaints, or official responses to proceedings. This chapter will examine the jurisdictional disputes which reflect the transition in hospital governance from the lay initiative of individuals founders, through the assertion of
Most people would agree that the hospital functions as one of the 'first duties of an organized society' as a public service for those members of the community who are in need. In the thirteenth century, hospitals represented a nexus of exchange between church officials, the community, the needy, and the pious or ambitious individual. This book presents a survey that offers an overview of the role of the hospital in affairs of the urban community, suggesting how changes within that community were reflected in the activities of the hospital. It locates the rise of the hospital movement in northern Italy within the context of the changing religious, social, and political environment of the city-states. The book introduces the hospital's central function in the distribution and administration of charity. It illustrates how the hospital and other charitable organizations played a role in the appropriation of power and influence by urban citizens. A comprehensive investigation of twelfth and thirteenth century hospitals' foundational charters follows. The book then delves into a detailed description of the physical plant of the hospital, the daily life of individuals, and rules and statutes followed by its members. It considers the social composition of donors, workers, and recipients of hospital services. Jurisdictional disputes among the city leaders, the community, individual religious orders, ecclesiastical authorities, and larger political forces. Finally, the book explores the process of consolidation and bureaucratization of hospitals in the fifteenth century and the emergence of state control over social services.
provides an analysis of the groups and individuals who administered the hospitals and their affiliations with other larger religious and community entities. Chapter 4 delves into a detailed description of the physical plant of the hospital, the daily life of individuals, and rules and statutes followed by its members. Chapter 4 also considers the social composition of donors, workers, and recipients of hospital services. Chapter 5 tracks the jurisdictional disputes among the city leaders, the community, individual religious orders, ecclesiastical authorities, and
hospitals were also implemented in reaction to mismanagement and jurisdictional disputes which became even more pronounced in the aftermath of the plague decades. The view of this crisis by civic leaders is articulated in the foundational charter of the Ospedale Maggiore of San Marco in Bergamo, written in 1457: Though both in the city and its suburbs there are many hospitals and religious institutions in which divine worship, the fabric, and the relief of the poor are neglected, and where the revenues are consumed
community's existence. The jurisdictional disputes of the thirteenth century reflect the difficulty of shared governance and the evolution of civic participation and governance. Individual and group piety gave way to greater attention to civic and economic concerns. Increased attempts at the assertion of ecclesiastical oversight often resulted in resistance from institutions and groups. Leadership of hospital management became politicized, as did membership for some in the hospital staffing community. Urban citizens became more engaged in the
appreciated the delicate balance needed to maintain influence within these hospitals. The contribution of a vibrant, active laity who wished to assist the spiritual and physical needs of its congregants helped to alleviate the increasing strain on the episcopate's resources and labour supply caused by massive urbanization and increased social ills. Yet this enthusiasm had to be weighed against the challenge of controlling the development of an independent social institution that would no longer need ecclesiastical support. The jurisdictional disputes and administrative
Feudalism, venality, and revolution is about the political and social order revealed by the monarchy’s most ambitious effort to reform its institutions, the introduction of participatory assemblies at all levels of the government. It should draw the attention of anyone interested in the sort of social and political conditions that predisposed people to make the French Revolution. In particular, according to Alexis de Tocqueville’s influential work on the Old Regime and the French Revolution, royal centralization had so weakened the feudal power of the nobles that their remaining privileges became glaringly intolerable to commoners. Feudalism, venality, and revolution challenges this theory by showing that when Louis XVI convened assemblies of landowners in the late 1770s and 1780s to discuss policies needed to resolve the budgetary crisis, he faced widespread opposition from lords and office holders. These elites regarded the assemblies as a challenge to their hereditary power over commoners. The monarchy incorporated an administration of seigneurial jurisdictions and venal offices. Lordships and offices upheld inequality on behalf of the nobility and bred the discontent evident in the French Revolution. These findings will alter the way scholars think about the Old Regime society and state and should therefore find a large market among graduate students and professors of European history.
, mediate disputes within the community, and repeatedly issue reiteration of rules and statutes gives us a picture of the challenges faced by members living in close proximity and their attempts at living a pious life of service. Many of these tensions led to or were caused by jurisdictional disputes between management, staff, church leaders, and civic authorities. Charting these disputes over time provides a picture of the evolution of this hospital movement from a grassroots lay movement, to the assertion of ecclesiastical authority, and finally, to appropriation and
inconclusive jurisdictional disputes with his episcopal neighbours: to the east with the diocese of Burgos over their respective claims to the territory of Asturias de Santillana; to the west with the see of Lugo over ownership over a group of parishes. 19 Last, and most important of all, Pelayo waged a vigorous campaign to maintain the independence of his see from the metropolitans of Toledo and
. They both suffered destruction and were critical components of revitalization efforts. As we shall see in Chapter 5 , they often became a battleground for the jurisdictional disputes between various constituencies. Whether built close to city gates or repurposed in existing buildings, hospitals became such an integral part of a neighbourhood that they often took on civic tasks outside their purview, such as contributing to the building or repairing of bridges or roads, or the mediation of communal disputes. 41 They had to coexist with