Outline of the evolution of the office of the chancellor of Vilnius diocese in the nineteenth century

In the nineteenth century, a diocesan chancellor’s duty was to take care of the documents resulting from the activities of diocesan institutions that used to be stored in the archives of a cathedral chapter and the diocese. The seventeenthcentury foundation act of the office, according to which the chancellor was delegated the supervision of the execution of all the foundations and privileges of the members of the cathedral and the bishop remained in force during the period in question. The diocesan chancellor was an active defender of the property interests of the clergy of the diocese (he prepared excerpts of the documents necessary for court proceedings and often participated in the proceedings in person). In the nineteenth century, as in the time of the Republic of the Two Nations, the right of decision on the appointment of a clergyman as diocesan chancellor belonged to the bishop and the cathedral chapter. The position was included in the list of the offices of the cathedral chapter and the name of the clergyman occupying it was written after that of the canons. The diocesan chancellor did not have the status of a full member of the cathedral chapter. He did not attend meetings of the cathedral chapter during the period in question. The office of the diocesan chancellor was attractive among the nineteenthcentury clergy. At different times between 1798 and 1863, five diocesan clergymen held the office of the chancellor. This position was seen both as an opportunity for advancement in the Church and as a reward for merit. One of the more distinctive features of the collective portrait of this group is education. The absolute majority of them (four out of five) had degrees in theology or canon law. Some (two out of five) were engaged in academic work, which they continued after becoming diocesan chancellors. The evolution of the office of the diocesan chancellor was interrupted at the turn of the 1860s. In the context of the secularisation of the land holdings of the Catholic Church initiated by the imperial government in the early 1840s, the diocesan chancellor loses the holdings of the foundation that used to be his source of income. The secularisation process resulted in the development of a model of material provision for the Catholic clergy initiated by the imperial authorities. The model is based on full-time pay from the imperial treasury. The office of the diocesan chancellor was not included in the list of paid positions. The conducted analysis leads to the conclusion that there was a causal link between the material basis of the position and its disappearance