Samdinys ar gerasis ganytojas? Prūsijos dvasininko mobilumo galimybės XVI-XVIII a.: Klaipėdos valsčiaus atvejis

ENWe notice an increase in clerical mobility across Europe during the Early Modern Period. This involved places of origin, and an increase in places for clerical education and professional mobility. Here we seek to show how these tendencies coincided and separated at local level in the Klaipėda District during the sixteenth-eighteenth centuries. This is not an extensive study or analysis but a basic outline of areas for future more detailed study. A shortage of local clergy in sixteenth-century Prussia led to an import of pastors migrating from German lands, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and other regions. The foundation of a university in Königsberg ensured a stable longterm process of clerical production, which created a supply of local clergy. These tendencies are visible clearly in the Klaipėda District. Most of the sixteenth-century clerical cohort comprised newcomers from other German lands. During the seventeenth century, and especially the eighteenth we see quite a clear tendency for clergy mostly of Prussian origin to serve in local district parishes.Mostly only graduates of Königsberg University served parishes in the Klaipėda District. Only a few pastors studied at university in Frankfurt, Rostock, Halle, Wittenberg or Dorpat. The service mobility or the geographical scope of the professional mobility of local clergy was quite narrow and was restricted to the district of Klaipėda or its surrounding areas. Clergy changed posts on average only once or twice during their career. This leads us to suppose that the professional mobility of Klaipėda-district clergy was not particularly dynamic, and the area over which they migrated was quite small. It is significant that most clergy served the parish to which they were appointed until death and that the average length of service in a given parish was 10-15 years. Attention should be paid to that fact that in general during the sixteenth-eighteenth centuries the regulation of clerical activity was strict, involving appointment, dismissal and transfer, the ordinary movement of clergy was restricted, as were the journeys they took.