Źródła normatywne kościelne jako podstawa do badań nad szpitalnictwem w Polsce przedrozbiorowej

Charity and care of the poor, the sick, the old, vagrants, cripples, the homeless, the handicapped and those struck by other misfortunes were from the earliest times a pressing, difficult and sensitive social problem. From the beginning the Church's charitable activities concentrated around the hospitals which it founded. But synodal statutes, which were the main source of Church legislation in Poland, contain hardly any laws or decrees concerning hospitals until almost as late as the mid-sixteenth century. The pre-Tridentine synods took no direct interest in hospitals, dealing instead with various noninstitutional forms of helping the poor. This lack of interest in hospitals on the part of the pre-Tridentine synods certainly shows relative independence of hospitals from the Church, and the considerable influence municipal authorities had on their management. A breakthrough for the Church's charitable undertakings came at the Council of Trent, which totally subordinated hospitals to the Church, charging the latter with responsibility for founding new hospitals and care of the needy. The Council's constitutions greatly affected the model and the development of hospital care. Postconciliar Church legislation more and more frequently dealt with the problems of Church hospitals. A document of fundamental importance for subsequent legislation regulating the model, functions and internal organization of hospitals in all Polish dioceses was a pastoral letter known as "The Pastoral". It was issued at the synod of the diocese of Cracow in 1601 by Bishop Bernard Maciejowski and then announced at the provincial synod at Piotrków in 1607. Later Church legislation, though frequently dealing with matters of charity and welfare, did not contribute much to the problem of hospitals. The frequent editions of The Pastoral and its reprints in the records of later 17th and 18th century synods show that the questions of welfare and hospital organization it dealt with remained a live issue for about 150 years. This demonstrates the stability of the Polish model of hospital care in the post-Tridentine period.