The cost of restoration after 1584

Restoration after 1584 was totally different from the repairs after the first iconoclasm of 1566. The previous chapter discussed the finances of the first restoration and the various ways the parish collected income for the repairs. After 1584 income grew and this increasing trend is also visible in the expenditure of the ordinary churchwarden accounts after 1584. Here, the category ‘miscellaneous expenses’ increased sharply and after the period of Calvinist rule it became the main category in the total annual expenditure of the churchwardens. The total annual expenditure would remain above 200 pounds, in absolute numbers, at least until 1590. This was multiple times the expenditure of the churchwardens in the period 1562-1584, when they spent on average a little more than 35 pounds. Figure 15 below illustrates the growing importance of the category

592 See general introduction and introduction chapter three.

593 Muller, St. Jacob’s Antwerp Art and Counter Reformation in Rubens’s Parish Church, 34–38.

‘miscellaneous expenses’ in the accounts. It alone is responsible for the rise in the total expenditure, as ordinary expenses decreased.

Figure 15 Graph share of 'miscellaneous expenses' in the total annual expenditure of the

ordinary churchwarden accounts of St James in Flemish deniers groten (1562-1590)⁵⁹⁵

The growth in miscellaneous expenses can be almost entirely explained by the increase in the payments the churchwardens made for repairs. Whereas after the iconoclasm of 1566 the first repairs were not mentioned in the records until two years later, the first repairs after Calvinist rule were registered in the accounts immediately. In the ordinary churchwarden accounts of 1583-1585, St James spent about the same amount of money on repairs as it had done in the much-discussed accounting year 1568-1569. In the following accounting year (1585-1586), the expenditure on repairs and materials was more than double that of the first set of accounts (114 pounds). Moreover, this did not include everything as there was a separate restoration account for 1584-1586, which recorded many more repairs.⁵⁹⁶ Restoration works at St James church and the repayment of loans totalled an additional 950 pounds in the two years following the fall of the Calvinistic Republic. In the ordinary accounts too, part of the expenditure was on the repayment of loans contracted with parishioners in the previous years.⁵⁹⁷

The years that followed 1586 show a gradual decrease in expenses for repairs, but at least until 1590 the money spent on repairs alone amounted to more than the median of the total annual expenditure of St James in the twenty years before 1584. The fact that

595 The expenditure of the accounts of the two year period 1583-1585 are divided over two years in this graph.

596 RAG, OKA St Jacobs Gent, no 25.

0 10000 20000 30000 40000 50000 60000

miscellaneous expenses other expenses

expenditure in the ordinary categories dropped in the first years after the Calvinist Republic and that transactions for repairs and loans increased in absolute terms again illustrates that inflation was not responsible for the rise in expenditure. The normal functioning of the church had received a body blow and this showed in the diminished expenses for masses, candles and wax. Restoring the church building had become the top priority.

Figure 16 Expenses paid by the churchwardens of St James for repairs and the repayment of loans in Flemish deniers groten per set of accounts (1562-1590) (based on the ordinary churchwarden accounts only)

Figure 17 Graph expenses paid by the churchwardens of St James for repairs and the repayment of loans in Flemish deniers groten per set of accounts (1562-1590) (includes the separate repairs accounts of 1584-1586)⁵⁹⁸

598 The expenditure registered in the special repairs accounts of 1584-1586 was added to the expenditure of 0

1562-1563 1563-1564 1564-1565 1566-1567 1567-1568 1568-1569 1570-1571 1572-1573 1574-1575 1575-1576 1577-1578 1581-1582 1582-1583 1583-1585 1585-1586 1586-1587 1587-1588 1588-1589 1589-1590

repayment of loans

1562-1563 1563-1564 1564-1565 1566-1567 1567-1568 1568-1569 1570-1571 1572-1573 1574-1575 1575-1576 1577-1578 1581-1582 1582-1583 1583-1585 1585-1586 1586-1587 1587-1588 1588-1589 1589-1590

separate repairs accounts

Figure 17 shows the same information as Figure 16, but here the amounts registered in the separate accounts of 1584-1586, specifically for repairs, are included to show the significance of these expenses. Both graphs clearly illustrate the intensity of the repair work at St James and the sharp increase in expenditure after 1584. Graph 17 illustrates the extraordinary situation in 1584-1586, when expenditure skyrocketed to never before seen heights. The separate 1584-1586 accounts recorded the first repairs that took place after the fall of the Calvinist Republic. The timeline for these repairs is shown in more detail in Figure 18.

Figure 18 Graph monthly expenditure on the repairs at St James in Flemish deniers groten, registered in the various accounts (1584-1586) + expenditure on the repairs of 1568-1569.

Figure 18 illustrates the expenditure on repairs per month, for the two first years following the Reconquista. It is important to note that the data from the separate repairs accounts of 1584-1586 are relatively complete as almost every transaction registered was dated. This is not the case for the churchwarden accounts of 1583-1585 and 1585-1586, where the share of the expenditure that is not linked to a specific month is not shown in the graph. Thus, for the period from May 1586 to October 1586, the expenditure portrayed in Graph 18 should be considered a minimum rather than the exact amount spent on repairs during those months. Nevertheless, the amounts would have been less than those in the previous period. The graph further illustrates that the churchwarden accounts that officially covered the period 1583-1585 also registered the repairs of the first half of 1586, and the 1585-1586 accounts include the repairs of the second half of 1586. The repairs mentioned in these accounts thus follow on chronologically from the repairs recorded in the separate repairs accounts of 1584-1586. For comparison, Figure

0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000

expenditure on repairs (separate repairs accounts 1584-1586) expenditure on repairs (ordinary accounts 1583-1585)

expenditure on repairs (ordinary accounts 1585-1586)

expenditure on repairs (ordinary accounts 1568-1569)

18 includes the highest amount spent on repairs before 1584, namely in the accounting year 1568-1569. Interestingly, this shows that the amount spent on the restoration of the church in one year after the first iconoclasm is comparable to that spent in one month after 1584. Inflation played a minor role in this development, but does not explain the considerable increase in expenditure.

If we compare the monthly expenditure on repairs with the large collections held in that period for St James, we see a clear link. The first general and largest collection took place in November 1584 and the second smaller one in September 1585. Indeed, the expenditure on repairs shows a sharp increase from November 1584 to February 1585. A smaller but clear rise is also seen in the expenditure between July and November 1585, with a peak in September, the month that the collection took place. Thus there is an evident link between the collection of income by the churchwardens and the increase in repairs.