Ordinances and instructions as sources for the history of hospital law in Gdańsk in the 17th and 18th centuries

Abstract

This article analyses Gdańsk’s 17th- and 18th-century hospital law (ordinances and instructions) as a system of internal normative acts regulating the functioning of caretaking foundations in a city with secular jurisdiction yet deeply rooted in Christian tradition. These acts encompassed property, organizational, moral, and penal regulations, constituting both a management tool and a code of ethics for the community of residents. The legal relationship was based on a life annuity agreement, which transferred the resident’s assets fully to the management of the foundation, ensuring lifetime care in return. The provisional trustees, as an executive and quasi-judicial body, combined legislative, administrative, and disciplinary powers, implementing legal provisions without the possibility of appeal to an external authority. The system of sanctions was symbolic and material in nature (deprivation of benefits, relegation) and aimed to protect the hospital community and that of the municipal commune. The ordinances encompassed extensively the sphere of religious and moral norms: commands of communal prayer and work, the obligation to maintain order, and respect for God’s name. Traces of customary law can be found in the statutory law provisions; therefore, Gdańsk hospitals reveal a multielement model – secular in its legal structure, but normatively rooted in the Christian ethos and the tradition of European foundation law.