Cseri Miklós, Füzes Endre (szerk.): Ház és ember, A Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum évkönyve 10. (Szentendre, Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum, 1995)

KECSKÉS PÉTER: Vallásos társulatok Gyöngyösön

RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES IN GYÖNGYÖS The societies of volunteers that had organized themselves since the 13th century in the Carpathian Basin, mainly to pursue pious aims and promote public interest, had names like coetus, sodalitas, confraternitas, congre gatio, guild or brotherhood. These associations operated, and have been revived, mostly in market towns, first of all with the help of the Roman Catholic Church and its monastic orders. The paper gives a picture of such societies in the market town of Gyöngyös, based on today's oral contributions and religious practices against the background of 18th and 19th century sacral and other objects, some of them owned by such a society. Manuscripts of public and private ownership have also been drawn on as well as archival and ecclesiastical sources from the 16th to the 19th century. Thus 15 confraternitates are presented, some of them still in existence. The majority of members were grape-growers and wine-makers. In organization and inspection the Franciscans had a decisive role. In the 15th-19th centuries some 12 to 18 craftsmen's guilds, too, operated in the town. Their rules were similar to those of the brotherhoods. The comparative examination of constitutions, regulations and the surviving sacral objects and objects of use leads to the conclusion that in the highly stratified society of the oppidum, further divided by the division of labour, the archaic-patriarchal features of company and family life were preserved and high value was set on the moral of democratically regulated private and public work. The group-consciousness of the burghers, engaged in grape-growing, wine-making and selling the wines, was intense. They helped each other and distinguished themselves, in respect of customs and mentality, from both craftsmen and the nobility. They were deeply religious and laid great stress on rites. From puritan features, dating back to times before the Council of Trent, to baroque characteristics they have preserved a rich tradition almost up to these days.