Serving God and Mammon: Wage formation and career mobility among protestant clergy in the Friesland area, 1580-1795

This paper addresses the differences in wage levels among reformed preachers in the Friesland area, in the northern part of the Netherlands, in the 18th century. The historiography on the profession of preacher, their social status and career pattern, usually differentiates between urban and rural preachers. Preachers in urban environments received fundamentally higher salaries and enjoyed a higher professional prestige than their counterparts in rural parishes (Van Lieburg 1996, Van Rooden 1991). I have at my disposal a large dataset containing information about 515 preachers from the Friesland area, including their income and furthermore occupations of their fathers, grandfathers and children. A first preliminary inspection of the income data suggests that the classical urban-rural dichotomy is an unsatisfactory explanation for the high income differentials, and rather a regional pattern emerges between the more prosperous north and the poorer southern parts of the area. This pattern could be brought about by the land revenues that were higher in the northern clay-areas and that made it possible for parishes in these areas to pay higher salaries. In the largely agricultural area, landownership was an important source of income for parishes. But still, intra-regional differences remain significant. I aim to analyze the arrangements on a municipality level, with additional attention to the question whether other types of income or exemptions played a role (that is: whether my information is incomplete)