Kariere duhovnikov na Slovenskem v zgodnjem novem veku. Vzvodi, okoliščine, (samo)reprezentacija

The book ('Priestly Careers of the Slovenian Clergy in Early Modern Times') is the first monograph dealing with the secular priests of non-noble origin who held various positions in the Roman Catholic Church in the Slovene lands during the period from around 1500 to 1780. The first part of the book focuses on the factors that either enabled the priests to move up (family, local environment, contacts with influential relatives and friends, personal skills, higher education) or made them move down the hierarchical ladder (diciplinary measures against concubinage and excessive drinking, illness, etc.). In the second part of the book, the author analyzes the estate inventories and testaments of thirty priests, as well as several tombstone and other inscriptions related to secular clergy, with regard to self-representation. The objects of the priests occupying higher positions were, typically, more valuable than the objects possessed by lower-ranking clergy. The properties they bequeathed were fairly substantial and the monuments they erected to commemorate themselves were quite remarkable. Some of the lower clergy members examined in the study present, however, notable exceptions to this rule. A considerable part of the monograph is based on hitherto unpublished primary sources.