Salvation and Disciplining of Charity in 18 th Century Southern Moravia Tomáš Malý As a rule, works dealing with the charity system and religious practice of the 18 th c. point out that the Enlightenment brought about a separation of the strategy of sal- vation (and dying) from charitable acts, and thereby a decline in support for tra- ditional charitable institutions. Based mainly on changes in testamentary practice, researchers have noted a wide variety of forms of decline of traditional charity re- lated to a decline in piety. As a pioneer in this research M. Vovelle demonstrated a fall in charitable bequests in Provence in the second half of the 18 th c. and togeth- er with other researchers explained them not only through socio-economic chang- es (improvements in charitable care), but mainly through widening dechristiani- sation and the end of concerns over salvation of the soul (the terrors of purgatory and hell faded from popular consciousness). 1 Tis decline in charitable bequests and the “dechristianising of charity” during the second half of the Enlightenment century was also documented in other regions, be these German Catholic towns where in essence bequests to the poor disappeared entirely, or Modena or locations in Upper Austria. By comparing old and new charitable giving M. Pammer came to the view that a preference for new institutions may have grown at the expense of traditional charity, but overall the importance of charitable bequests declined, even if private alms at least maintained their place. 2 Te study which follows is devoted to just this issue. Using the example of one specifc location I will attempt to show that there existed regions in which the situation could be somewhat diferent, although at frst glance it need not seem that way. Te focus of my attention will be Brno, a royal town with some 15 to 20 thousand inhabitants and the administrative centre of Moravia (part of the Lands of the Czech Crown and thus of the Hapsburg hereditary lands), which underwent rapid economic growth in the 18 th century and social changes linked to this. Te town was notable for the conditions suitable for accepting Enlightenment think- ing. Above all, representatives of the so-called “honoratiores” who in essence in- 1 Michel Vovelle, Piété baroque et déchristianisation en Provence au XVIII e siècle. Paris 1978, esp. 244; Cissie C. Fairchilds, Poverty and Charity in Aix-en-Provence, 1640 –1789. Baltimore – London 1976. In this regard it is useful to refer also to the work of Heinz Kittsteiner, which shows – using the example of the Lutheran setting – the abandonment of the baroque forbidding and quite concrete representation of hell during the 18 th c. Heinz D. Kittsteiner, Die Entste- hung des modernen Gewissens. Frankfurt a. M. 1995. 2 Rudolf Schlögl, Glaube und Religion in der Säkularisierung. Die katholische Stadt – Köln, Aachen, Münster – 1700 –1840. München – Wien 1995, 268 269; Susan V. Nicassio, „… For the beneft of my soul”: A preliminary study of the persistence of tradition in eighteenth-century mass obligations. In: Te Catholic Historical Review 78 (1992) 181; Michael P ammer, Glaubensabfall und wahre Andacht. Barockreligiozität, Reformkatholicismus und Laizismus in Oberösterreich 1700 –1820. Wien – München 1994, 212 232.