Summary

Documents on the foundation of Zamūšė (Šiupyliai) parish in 1623 and the 1788 
inventory

Translated from Polish and prepared for publication by Aivas Ragauskas

The texts of the Zamūšė (Šiupyliai) parish church foundation privileges (March 16, 1623) and the inventories (February 4, 1788) done for the Zamūšė (Šiupyliai) parish church, its falwark and its filial–Gruzdžiai church–translated into Lithuanian are given. The first document is translated from a published copy, and the rest ones from manuscript copies of 1814.

According to the foundation privilege the village of Šiupyliai was legally attached to the church; later the privilege was applied also to a part of Gruzdžiai town. Žemaičių elder J. Valavičius got the right to appoint a church dean, and after the elder’s death this right had to go to the sovereign. The document reveals that, according to the sovereign’s representatives at the beginning of the 17th century, the best place to build a church was the site ‘on a hill’. The data of inventories enable to grasp the economic state of the church and its exterior at the end of the 18th century and to find out about the liturgical items used at that time. Comments on some rare terms, especially those related to church interior and liturgical items, are also presented in this publication that can be useful for Lithuanian sacral art investigators.