Szili Ferenc: A hatalom és az erőszak természetrajza a XVIII-XIX. századi somogyi panaszlevelek tükrében - Somogyi Almanach 54. (Kaposvár, 1997)

Resume - The nature of power and force in the view of letters of complaint from Somogy county in the 18th and 19th centuries

and their officers. The beatings of the innocent, often brutally, are commonplace things. These letters are the pearls of folk literature in which the humiliation of man is described. We can also read appaling stories about the women's subordination and defencelessness, they are tricked out of their property, they have to bear the brutal husband and the machinations of his family whether it be a serfs wife or a noble lady. Divorce is barely practicable, and the wife who abandons her husband is taken back by the arms of the law and is compelled to live by the vow taken is church. The conclusion of the religious offenses holds good even today. We can read about the prosecution of the protestants and the discrimination against the Jews not only in general, but as it hit the individual. And we can also see what faith meant to the man living in that age and why he would adhere to it despite the prosecutions. Through the crimes, robberies and muggings we can get to know the various forms of crime and the criminals themselves, the uncouth shepherds, the soldiers on the run, the administration of justice and the strictness of the verdicts. We show the excesses of the estate owners, the ravage of the army, the unbearable taxation, the collective punishment, the people's faith in justice which they would seek in the offices of the sub-prefect, the bailiff and the chief judge of the county and finally we make public the letters of complaint written to the king. Who can have written these letters of complaint the number of which is so immense a wailing wall could be erected from them? The writers remained in the mist of anonimity since they had every reason to cover their identity. On every level, those in power would regard as enemies everyone who put in words the offenses of the defenceless and had them sent to the people in charge. These literate men living together with the people were usually hired at the manors and several of them suffered offenses too. But in their ranks we also find the priests, teachers and notaries sympathetic with the folks. Despite taking into account the expectations of the privilidged and using subtle words, they were rightly scared of their revenge. The style of the letters may sound obsequious today, but then this was the natural conduct of the serfs, they had no civic selfconsciuosness yet.