Till prästens bruk och nytta : Jord till prästgårdar i Sverige under medeltid och tidigmodern tid

Sammanfattning: The thesis examines the origins and the subsequent developments of glebes and parsonages in Sweden. How was land for the provisioning of parish priests, i.e. the glebe, allocated in areas that were already owned, settled and cultivated? The establishment of glebes is examined in the context of a theoretical framework that prioritises relations between spatial form and social processes. The empirical study comprises two blocks of investigations. The first is an explorative examination of the spatial structure of glebes and parsonages in four counties during the 17th and 18th centuries. The sources are land survey maps and ecclesiastical registers. The second block of investigations focuses on the social processes pertaining to the creation and changing of glebes and parsonages during the 13th to 15th centuries. This is conducted through thirteen case studies of medieval documents. It is shown that glebes and parsonages, in some cases, were established long after the churches were built. These results differ from the commonly held view concerning the founding of glebes in Sweden. The manner in which a parish priest was provisioned was apparently not fixed after the building of the first parish church, but was subject to continuous change that was dependent on place-bound circumstances. Glebes and parsonages were often single farms where land was held in severalty. The background of this process of separation from other farms may have had as its rationale a desire by the church to regulate the social relations between the clergy and the commoners by spatial means.