Vilniaus vyskupijos katedros kapitulos laikinieji koadjutoriai XIX a. : genezė, raidos bruožai, personalijos

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Abiejų Tautų Respublika (ATR; Rzeczpospolita Obojga Narodów; Žečpospolita; Sandrauga; Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth); Antikatalikiška politika; Katalikų bažnyčia; Laikinasis koadjutoris; Rusijos imperija (Russian Empire); Vilniaus vyskupija; Vilnius, katedra, kapitula, koadjutoriai; Anti-Catholic politics; Catholic Church; Russian Empire; Temporary coadjutor; Vilnius Diocese; Vilnius, Cathedral, the Chapter, coadjutors.

ENThe temporary coadjutors of the Cathedral Chapter – a specific trait of the development of the Vilnius diocese in the 19th century, conditioned by the policies of the Russian Empire carried out in regard to the Catholic Church. After the government of the Russian Empire in the territories it occupied after the partition of the Republic of Both Nations forbade dioceses to maintain direct relations with the Apostolic See, the tradition to appoint coadjutors of the members of the cathedrals’ capitulas with the right cum futura successione, reserved for the pope ended. Administrator of the Vilnius diocese Strojnovski made use of the situation that developed in the Cathedral Chapter as a pretext in place of the former coadjutors cum futura successione that existed until the partitions of the state to appoint temporary ones. Strojnovski confirmed the prepared in 1810 provisions for Temporary Coadjutors. The provisions were not presented to the Highest Government of the Empire for confirmation. The legal norm the compliance to which was required for the Chapter as a corporation, as well for each of its members, became the decision of the Chapter when they were entered into the statutes of the Chapter. The government of the Empire tolerated the appointment of temporary coadjutors as long as the imperial decree issued in 1798 by which the right to appoint the members of the Chapter’s coadjutors was reserved for the bishop was valid. The first temporary coadjutors to the capitula of the Vilnius cathedral were installed in 1810, the last – in 1827. During this period 16 clergymen were nominated as temporary coadjutors, 2 of them two times. One of the clearest traits of the group of the temporary coadjutors was education (in addition to the diocesan seminaries a majority had studied at or graduated from Vilnius University).A no less important feature to the collective portrait of this group was the ambition to climb the stairs of a Church career. The prelates and canons of the Chapter chose as their coadjutors active persons as a rule already having experience in priestly service and having a position in Church structures. A majority of them used their service as temporary coadjutors as the opportunity to become real members of the Chapter. The course of the nominations of the temporary coadjutors was abolished on the initiative of the imperial government in the first half of 1828. It was sought urgently to create the impression that the abolishment of the duties of temporary coadjutors, or more precisely of the nominations to these duties was the will of the clergy of the Chapter or possibly of the archbishop metropolitan. The statement about the reestablished direct relations of some churches with the Apostolic See and therefore, supposedly, the disappearing need to change the coadjutors cum futura successione with temporary ones, presented as the main argument, conditioning the abolishment of the process of the nominations of temporary coadjutors was clearly demagogic. The abolishment of the duties of the Temporary Coadjutors of the Vilnius cathedral Chapter initiated by the government of the Russian Empire should be accurately evaluated as one of the first expressions of the anti-Catholic policies carried out by the imperial government in the territories annexed by the Russian Empire after the partitions of the Republic of Both Nations making use of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. [From the publication]

• Teologija / Theology
• Istorija / History