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Abstract

This study deals with the compulsory reading of the public announcements in churches during the eighteens century. The focus is on the diocese of Skara. The ambition to make a comparison between the parish of Skara and the parish of Gårdstånga, earlier investigated by Elisabeth Reuterswärd, failed due to few archives from the parish of Skara. My study takes a broader perspective of the signification of the announcements to the reverends and to the churchgoers. It was an obligation to the reverend to read, collect and save the announcements and the churchgoers were by law obligated to go to church every Sunday. Neither the clergymen nor the laymen were always happy with this duty. The reverends tried to get rid of the duty but did not. It is my view that the duty was fulfilled in about the same way in Skara as elsewhere in Sweden.