Testaments were written (or dictated) by magnates and noblemen, townsfolk, farmers and the clergy usually in old age or during serious illness, regardless of their religious beliefs, family and material situation. A testament was one of the elements during the preparation for death, with its inevitability that everyone was aware of. During the last few tens of years, many valuable editions of old-Polish testaments have been presented, publishing extracts from the last wills of representatives of various social groups in Poland. Against this background, it is clear to see that there is very little interest in the testaments of the clergy, who represented a separate old-Polish social group which is difficult to classify. Focusing only on the varying background, material situation and church duties undertaken by the church clergy of the Krakow diocese, it is clearly visible that there is a lack of editing of Catholic clergy testaments. One of the chances to fill the gaps in the image of the old-Polish clergy is the use of testaments created by priests. The testaments represent a basic reconstruction of the material world, in which the lives of contemporary curates, vicars and canons took place. Thanks to the testaments, we can recreate the material world of the clergy, the property they possessed and define the material situation and life of priests in the social-economic structure of eighteenth-century Poland. The article presents the last wills of Catholic clergy, for example, the testament of the parish priest of Poręba Wielka and Wolbrom, Father Maciej Karwat. The testament published in extenso derives from the group of materials “Testaments of the XVII–XVIII Centuries” stored in the Metropolitan Archives of the Church Curia in Krakow. For the needs of this edition, a testament written in Polish was chosen (containing many macaronicisms) as, besides its cognitive values, it shows the strength and wealth of eighteenth-century Polish. Old-Polish testaments are a real treasure chest of news about a world which has irreversibly passed and which, for descendants, is an excellent source of knowledge and understanding of factors conditioning the daily life of people from previous eras.
