"Diarium patris ministri", a Jesuit view of social structures at the break of 18th century in south-west Bohemian town of Klatovy.

Abstract

The Jesuit college in the Czech town of Klatovy was founded in 1636 and canceled in 1773. It had its own grammar school and numerous contacts with local nobility and church dignitaries. The college was the most important house of a catholic order in the area and baroque festivities organised by the jesuits were visited (or it would be better to say taken part in) by a wide spectrum of members of the local society. The Jesuits concerned not only on careful arrangement of their ecclesiastical celebrations, but also on presence of the important guests. They recorded numbers of the guests who visited the college and their social status in the college manuscripts. The records were then used for an internal need of the order. Till the present day three manuscripts related to the college in Klatovy have been preserved. The most interesting records of the guests are in the diary of father "minister" of the college. The article focuses on a reconstruction of a not very conventional view of social structure in an average Czech town in the beginnig of 18th century. I'm trying to describe the social situation from the jesuit point of view using internal records of the order.