RELIGION, CHURCH
FOLK BELIEFS

RELIGION, CHURCH

In the decades after king Sigismund's death Hungary managed to convince the Holy See, that popes should accept the fact that bishopric and archbishopric offices be controlled by the king (or governor and the royal council), because he has the right to present and appoint nominees. Rome had to accept and support the suitable nominees. However, if the Holy See refused to support the nominee, the candidate of the king could lead his local parish and enjoy its incomes as an elected bishop (electus), moreover, he could take part in the meeting of the royal council. The pope could exercise his right to appoint office bearers in the event of prelates dying in Rome. King Matthias, however, achieved his objectives even then: after Archbishop John Aragon's death in Rome, in 1486 he appointed his relative, the 7-year old Hippolit Estei to be the head of the Hungarian church through the connections of his wife.

Sometimes the king did not exercise his right to appoint nominees but let one of his followers do so: Michael Ország Guti was allowed to appoint someone to be the bishop of Nyitra, although the king soon withdrew this privilege. As a result of his conquests, Matthias used his advowee's right outside Hungary, which explains how Orban Nagylúcsei got to the lead of the bishopric of Vienna. Systematic church policy did not change during the Jagellos, either. When Pope Alexander VI re-affirmed the right of the pope to appoint nominees for the benefices of the papal court, the 1495 parliament put forward a resolution: those who did not receive their estates from the king himself should be drowned in water. Stephen Werbőczy's Triple Book, which had a great influence on the thinking of the centuries to follow, recorded the king's right of advowee in four paragraphs.

Rome's Support Against the Turks

The compliance of popes concerning the right of advowee was closely related to the struggle against the 'faithless' Turks. Rome knew that stopping further conquests of the Osmans in a surface war was impossible without the participation of Hungary. Hungarian leaders also knew that the country could not push back the approaching Osman troops without the help (money, organisation and connections) of the papacy. The Holy See entrusted the important figures of papal diplomacy, for example, Cardinals Giuliano Cesarini and Juan de Carvajal as legates, with the organisation of the crusades (1444, 1456). Popes Pius II, Paul II and Sixtus IV sent significant amounts of money to Hungary for this purpose during Matthias's reign. Between 1459-1476 250,000 golden forints were sent, but since the king had no active Turkish policy these benefits were withdrawn, but then resumed in the 1500s.

In the Jagello age Hungary's relationship with the Vatican was maintained by permanent representatives from both sides, in Buda and Rome. The Vatican - as it was against the Turks - treated Hungary as her most important diplomatic partner, and therefore had important representatives in Buda: the most talented diplomats of Rome tried to organize the Turkish war (although they sometimes hindered opportunities to make peace). In 1513 Thomas Bakócz, who had earlier been a candidate for papal election, became the legate to organize the crusade, but it turned into a peasants' revolt. Papal ministers, the best-known of whom was Antonio Burgio, were allowed to take part in the meetings of the royal council, so they could also intervene in domestic matters. With the approval of the papal minister, a great quantity of church relics - made of precious metals - was collected before the battle of Mohács, and used for the benefit of the country.

Prelates in Politics

Prelates, as the ecclesiastical part of the barons of the country, were official members of the royal council and parliament. Prelates were the two archbishops and the 14 bishops (including the church leaders of the Szerém region, Bosnia, Croatia, Modrus and Tinn), the chapter of Székesfehérvár and the prior of Vrána, the leader of the Johannite order in Hungary. While during the reign of Matthias the ruler could control the power of prelates, in the age of the Jagellos the prelates became the political leaders of the country - as office bearers in the chancellery. Their power in politics was linked directly to their wealth. The majority (two thirds) of their income came from the tithe, which was collected by their own network of tithe collectors or alternatively reached them as tithe rent. As they had a greater income than secular landlords, they had to provide a defined number of soldiers in the event of war.

According to the 1498 law, paragraph 20, church dignitaries had to provide 7,000 mounted soldiers, 4,100 of these by the bishops. Church dignitaries gave much more money for the defence of the country than other social groups. In the decades before the battle of Mohács the defence of the country was based on church banderies besides royal armies of fortresses along the border. Several talented prelates, such as Peter Beriszló or Paul Tomori, surpassed their secular colleagues as military leaders. Several senior church positions were united, as they wanted to centralise the defence of the country. This was a common phenomenon in 15th-century Europe, but in most of the cases it served the material interests of prelates, enabling them to support also cultural activities. From their incomes prelates had to pay tithe for the papal court, and perform other duties and services for the papal bull at appointments (servitium) and the annata.

From among church people only prelates took a collective part in domestic politics. However, the whole Hungarian church did not turn into a separate political body during the development of the estate system. This was in part due to the fact that in Hungary the ratio of church estates was insignificant compared to other European countries (being about 15 %). Apart from some huge estates belonging to prelates (the archbishopric of Esztergom, the bishopric of Eger, Várad, and Pécs, the abbey of Pannonhalma - which were equivalent to medium-sized estates of secular landowners, barons) the majority of church institutions were medium-sized or small holdings. The number of fortresses owned by the church was also insignificant (about 12 %), and these did not become centres of mansions. Church estates - in principle the estates of patron saints - were generally scattered on large territories, in the country, and in contrast with secular estates, this fact made their defence more difficult, and increased their maintenance costs.

Canons in the Service of Politics

In the Middle Ages there was no group of clerks centrally paid for government, juristic or diplomatic...etc. duties. In the early period (11-12th centuries) the king entrusted learned church persons, that is clerks (especially canons of chapters) with working for the government. From the 13-14th centuries, however, the employees of the royal court (royal secretaries, judging masters, clerks of the chancellery and office holders of the treasury) were paid or rewarded by receiving a church estate. Because of the small numbers of bishopric chairs, the honours of canons at chapters were quite suitable for this purpose, as nominees for these honours were appointed by the king from the 14th century, thanks to his advowee's right. The financial support of students studying at foreign universities was also provided by canon estates in the lack of a scholarship system.

Church Serving Society

The Upper and Middle Layer

Canons in secular offices, who studied or taught abroad, rarely stayed at the chapter, where their regular duties were performed by their substitutes. By the 15th century chapters became institutions which financially supported the intellectual activity of the clerks in the country. Many of these clerk-intellectuals, who joined the church because they were forced to, or were required to do so by society and who held offices as canons or bishops, had a basically secular world view. They did not really want their offices, they accepted them reluctantly, as bishopric nominees (for example, George Szatmári and Ladislaus Szalkai). They tried to do their best in their prelate duties too. The first primate of the age of Matthias was Cardinal Denis Szécsi, who tried to re-introduce strict principles in church with synods at church districts and his official visits.

Priests and Believers in Villages

Church persons lower down in the hierarchy, such as priests of smaller parishes and chaplains, often copied the life style of their superiors. There are data in source material even on breaking celibacy. They were in direct contact with the people: they celebrated mass, preached, gave the sacraments, controlled and checked the keeping of Sundays and holidays - there were about 100 such days. Their work and their life styles were supervised by their direct superiors, that is deans, who were chosen from among them (from bigger parishes) and who lived in the same place at the residence of their church districts. They sent their report to the chief deans to the centre of the church district where the deans lived as members of the chapter. They sometimes paid a visit to the parishes.

In 15th-century Hungary there were hardly any settlements which did not have a church. These churches made of stone or sometimes wood served as a shelter for the village people in times of emergency. In Transylvania the so-called fortress churches were built for this very purpose. Newer village churches were founded as the subsidiary (filia) of the nearest parish church. There were serious debates between the mother church and its subsidiaries about the income of the parish derived from the believers. At Buda the priest of the church of the Virgin Mary was against the separation of its subsidiaries as independent parishes.

Employing village priests was the right and duty of the advowees, but common people could also intervene in the election of the parish priest in the 15th century, not only in cities and market towns, but also in small villages. The management of the church supported the rights of the believers, the guardians of the churches chosen from among them dealt with the church estate, and sometimes they could check the parish priest himself. Local priests usually came from serf families, but by the end of the Middle Ages their education was quite good. Most of them had already had all the basic liturgical books. Priests were not only pastors of their villages but also the spiritual leader and advisor of the people, the preservers of local traditions. It is not by chance that they took part in the 1514 peasant war in great numbers. In contemporary texts there are references to lustful priest, who frequented drinking houses, or to despotic priests.

Priests and the Believers in Cities

By the end of the Middle Ages religion was still very popular, but it changed, becoming more intimate and personal. City life also influenced religion, and new forms of religious life were born, such as the different religious associations with secular members (confraternitas). Most of them were founded under the name Body of Christ, and they were distinguished associations of patricians. Guilds also functioned as religious communities, too, which set up a (winged) altar in their churches from their money, and organised their feasts together, at which they celebrated with their family members. The bourgeoisie gradually took control over taking care of the poor and sick, which had earlier been the privilege of the church. Institutions controlled by the town, and maintained by the church were hospitals and old people's homes.

The priests of 15th-century privileged churches considered their offices merely a source of income, and in contrast with their colleagues in villages, having the whole tithe guaranteed a comfortable life for them. They hardly ever appeared at their parish, their tasks were performed by their substitutes, the chaplains. The chaplains were in the same position as village parish priests. The believers gave a lot of money and contributions to the church in the hope that they could encourage the salvation of the dead and shorten the time spent in the purgatory. An altar or a chapel played an important role in supporting the clerical-intellectual layer through land and money contributions. Both priests and the believers frequently misused the graces of the mass.

The Church in Everyday Life

Because of the high rate of infant mortality people were encouraged to take new-born babies to church very soon (within eight days) to be baptised by emersing the child under water three times, in order to make them members of the church. Confirmation - a sacrament that enriches the soul with the presence of the Holy Ghost, so that he/she could live according to his/her faith - also took place at a young age, at a similar time to the first confession. By that time children had to know the necessary prayers, the Lord's Prayer (Pater Noster), the Ave Maria and the Credo (Symbolum). The believers usually made a confession and received the sacrament once a year. The sacrament of marriage could be received from the age of 14 for boys, and from the age of 12 for girls, according to canon law. In cases of emergency and illness a priest was called to render to the child the extreme unction. They could also declare their last will at this point, which was written down by the local priest, who also checked whether it was kept.

The dead were buried in the cemetery around the church. Only those advowees and dignitaries could be buried in the church itself who had made a donation towards the building of it. Pagans, excommunicated people and those who had committed suicide or a deadly sin were not buried according to church ceremonies. Funerals and other important events, and feasts were performed according to special colourful ceremonies, and liturgical activities which could vary in different church districts. Some of these ceremonies were quite spectacular, such as the procession. At Latin ceremonies the faithful usually took part as an audience, but in the 15th century there were vernacular variants of liturgical hymns, such as Mary songs. The faithful asked for the saints' help if they were in trouble in everyday life.

Church and Education

At the end of the Middle Ages the training of village priests took place at the parishes, in accordance with old traditions. Candidates had to take an exam in front of a bishopric committee on their knowledge necessary for performing liturgy and parish administration. They had to know basic texts by heart, and they also had to be able to sing and read. Higher knowledge was available only in chapter schools, some of which became the centre of Hungarian humanism in the 15th century (Pécs, Várad). The third Hungarian university was also founded in a chapter residence. It was founded in Pozsony (Academia Istropolitana, 1467) with the help of King Matthias and John Vitéz. Due to the lack of royal and archbishopric support it was closed by the 1490s. Almost half of Hungarian canons and bishops studied at foreign universities.

Efforts for Reforms at Monastic Orders

The originally observant monastic orders - the Benedictines, Cistercians and Premontreans - dealt mainly with liturgical tasks, and were declining by the end of the Middle Ages. They did not pay enough attention to the education of their members. The lucky ones were the monasteries which had special functions besides their original tasks, such as Báta, which was a place of pilgrimage, and Kapornak and Garamszentbenedek, which were outstanding credible places. There was a reform movement against collision at the beginning of the 16th century under the leadership of Matthew Tolnai, the chief abbot of Pannonhalma. The aim of the movement was to unite originally independent monasteries. The union of monasteries under the authority of royal advowees - Pannonhalma, Pécsvárad, Szekszárd, Báta, Somogyvár, Zalavár, Garamszentbenedek and Bakonybél - took place in 1512, but it was not very successful.

The reform of the Cistercian order was specially encouraged by king Matthias, while the reorganisation of the Premontreans was led by the prepost of Ság, Francis Fegyverneki, connected to the reform movements of the French mother monastery, and was also supported by Thomas Bakócz. Besides being credible places (the biggest organisation issuing charters was at Lelesz in the late Middle Ages) the Premontreans were pastors, as it was their task to be regular canons. They did this against the will of the secular priests, bishops and deans several times, because monks were not allowed to work as pastors. They became very popular because of their commitment. In the 15th century nine Benedictine and ten Premontrean monasteries functioned as credible places, while there were no Cistercian credible places. They also refused to bury the dead in their churches.

Flourishing Hermit and Popular Begging Orders

There was no need to reform the four Carthausian monasteries, as they followed their original ideas consequently, and their foreign relations - especially Austrian and German - also helped them in this. They were very good at copying and writing codices (first of all Lövöld). The Paulians not only managed to keep their popularity, but were also able to found more monasteries, and the number of their cloisters grew to 90 by 1450. Founders were kings, prelates, aristocrats and dignitaries. Instead of building monasteries the Dominicans kept their influence in cities by careful pastoring, and scientific work was also common for their members. Their college in Buda (studium generale) was the most permanent Hungarian university in the Middle Ages, the last date on it was 1530.

The task of the Dominicans in the church was to find heretics, that is inquisition. After pushing back Hussitism in the middle of the 15th century, they did not have too much work. In 1483 the Pope appointed one of the lecturers of the Dominican college of Buda (Michael Kassai) to be inquisitor, this honour had not been given to anyone for a very long time. There is little evidence about the activities of late medieval inquisitors. In the years before the battle of Mohács they had to fight against the Lutheran reformation, mainly in Buda and in some German cities. The foreign circles of Queen Maria were in favour of this new discipline. Laws were enacted at parliaments against the followers of the new belief (1523:53 and 1525:4). Their punishment was execution and confiscation of their animals, then death by burning. In fact, however, there were only one or two executions.

From among the begging orders the biggest change took place with the Franciscans. The Hungarian Franciscan order founded only 8 new monasteries after 1350, the last one in 1425. With this a reform movement started within the order in the 14th century, which placed an emphasis on keeping St Francis's strict regulations (this is why they were called Observants). This movement was against the old one called the Conventual, or marian movement, which focused on common wealth and settlement in convents. The other branch of the Franciscan order (which was later called the salvatorian branch) spread from the Bosnian district to Hungary at the end of the 14th century. An independent Hungarian province was set up in 1448, after they had taken over control in several monasteries from the conventuals. In principle the unity of the Franciscan order was preserved until the end of the Middle Ages, but in fact the observants could be considered as an independent monastic order. Total separation was officially declared in 1517.

The observants were supported by rulers and dignitaries, and the number of their monasteries increased significantly: around 1440 they had 25 convents, in 1475 they had 49 monasteries in ten districts (custodia), around 1500 there were 67, and before the battle of Mohács 70 convents. In these there lived 1500-1700 monks. The reason for their popularity was that they were pastors in smaller towns and villages. Minutes recording John Kapisztrán's canonisation prove that folk religion was born as a result of their work. There was a great need for their activities on the southern border, where Osman missions were converting people. Their criticism of society, which lasted for several decades, - especially through the work of Pelbárt Temesvári and Osvát Laskai - played an important role in the preparation and outbreak of the Dózsa peasants' war.

Nuns

Mainly the Dominicans and Franciscans controlled the religious life of the communities of nuns, which belonged to their monastic order: tertiary nunneries and begina houses. There were not many nunneries in Hungary, but the nuns living there came from the most respected dignitary families. The most famous Dominican nunnery was the one on the Island of Rabbits (Margaret Island), which was as popular at the end of the Middle Ages as in St Margaret's time in the 13th century. The Franciscan Clarissans had only 5 or 6 nunneries in Hungary, and the best-known was the one was founded by Queen Elisabeth (Louis the Great's mother) in Óbuda. Their job made them the most popular governesses in female aristocratic society - there were nuns who later returned to secular life - and they also were the creators of codex literature in Hungarian.

Outside the Catholic Church

The Jews

Jews living in Hungarian towns were considered royal chamber servants, so they were under direct royal protection. Since the Anjou times their leader was the "judge of the Jews", appointed from among secular dignitaries, with the task of keeping a record of their possessions, and with the responsibility to collect tax from them. With king Matthias's reforms in the treasury John Ernuszt founded a so-called national Jewish organisation, which replaced the old office and was led by a Jewish person who had the power to protect the rights of the Jews. At the end of the Middle Ages sources mention Jews in 38 settlements, but the situation for these 15,000-20,000 people had deteriorated by the end of the Middle Ages. The church did not attack them, but the weakening royal power was not able to protect them from the hostility of society - a reaction to their wealth and economic status. In 1525, for example, the house of Emeric Szerencsés, a Jewish man, was attacked in Buda.

Greek Catholics

The fate of Greek Catholic ethnic groups (Serbians, Rumanians, Ruthenians), who were growing in numbers in the southern and eastern parts of Hungary because of the Turkish push-forward, was not influenced by the union of the Western and Eastern churches in 1439 in Florence after long negotiations. Although they had a Greek-traditioned, but Catholic bishop, lack of data made it difficult to decide how seriously they took the disciplines of the union. The residence of the bishop was in the Greek Catholic monastery of Körtvélyes, founded by the predecessors of the Drágfi family in 1391, or in the monastery of Munkács, which had the rights of Greek Catholic bishops from 1491. The leaders of these monasteries (iugumens) gained the right to consecrate Greek Catholic priests in Hungary from the patriarch of Constantinople. George Brankovics, Serbian despot and his family remained Greek Catholic, so there were Greek Catholic bishops in and around their estates, which was consecrated as the bishopric of Nándorfehérvár.

FOLK BELIEFS

The most important of the 15-16th-century places of pilgrimage in Hungary was St Ladislaus's tomb in Várad. The tomb of the knight king, who was canonised in 1192, was visited by people from everywhere, even Hungarian kings felt it was their duty to make a pilgrimage to Várad. There were four other significant tombs in medieval Hungary: St Stephen's in Székesfehérvár, St Margaret (Béla IV's daughter)'s on the Island of Rabbits (Margaret Island) (although Margaret died in 1270, she was canonised only in 1943), Hermit St Paul's in the Paulian monastery of Budaszentlőrinc with his relics taken from Venice in 1381, and John Kapisztrán's in Újlak, who died in 1456.

The network of Hungarian places of pilgrimage was made richer by the holy blood places of pilgrimage, which appeared from the second half of the 14th century: the first ones were Esztergom and Kassa. The Benedictine monastery of Garamszentbenedek was another very popular place, which also had the holy blood relic, just like the church of Ludberg in Slavonia, but the most famous holy blood relic was kept in Báta, in the Benedictine monastery. Hungarian places of pilgrimage were visited primarily by peasants and the lower layers of bourgeoisie. Clerics were represented by priests from the lower part of the church hierarchy, and the nobility by simple, common noblemen, but no aristocrats or prelates were seen at these places.

Hungarian pilgrims visited not only Hungarian places, but foreign ones too, albeit only the most significant ones. Their most usual destinations were Rome, Aachen and Jerusalem, but they also reached the distant Santiago de Compostella, the French Rocamadour, the Italian Bari and Loreto and St Patrick's purgatory in Ireland. Pilgrims heading for Aachen visited other important places on their way: Cologne, Trier, Düren and Regensburg. The nearby church of Mariazell became a popular place of pilgrimage for Hungarian pilgrims from the end of the 14th century, after Louis the Great's donation.

Pilgrims from Hungary went abroad mainly for graceful purposes. Because of the great distances the poor and the sick could not go on foreign pilgrimages - they rather visited Hungarian places of pilgrimage. Hungarian pilgrims were the bourgeoisie of towns and wealthier noblemen. The bourgeoisie preferred Aachen, but many of them went to Rome, where people from all kinds of social groups could go: Aachen was visited when the big pilgrimage took place every seven years, while Rome was visited in jubilee holy years.

Due to difficulties and high costs only aristocrats reached the Holy Land. As far as church people were concerned there was no big difference between priests of the lower part of the hierarchy and prelates: they could be found at all kinds of places of pilgrimage. Two detailed descriptions of a journey have survived from the beginning of the 16th century, written by church authors. One of them was written between 1514-1517 by a Franciscan monk, Gabriel Pécsváradi, who stayed in the Holy Land, and in the other one we can read about the Transylvanian canon, John Lászai's journey in a diary written by his friend and travelling companion, Felix Faber, who was a Dominican monk.

Before leaving, the pilgrim had to collect the money for his journey. If he went to the Holy Land he had to ask for papal permission for the journey, and he also had to take care of his possessions and family at home (for example, he could postpone his trials). The costs of an average pilgrimage to Rome or Aachen were 30-40 golden forints, the costs of a journey to the Holy Land were four or five times more. The pilgrimage of a baron cost much more, because he took his servants and armed soldiers with him: it was an outstanding event in Italy when the Bosnian king, Michael Újlaki went to Rome in 1475, and in 1502 prince John made a pilgrimage to Loreto at the head of an army of 100 people.

Folk Religion

Christianity and ideas outside Christian beliefs - about supernatural beings and power - were not contradictory. For example, even the most educated persons believed in beating someone with the naked eye, in cursing or in magic. These ideas contradicted official church principles only when they were considered profanation, or were used together with heretic disciplines, or if they caused harm to others. In such cases magicians were brought to court, the case examined according to the usual procedure, and the sentence declared. There are no data on major, hysterical persecution of magicians in medieval Hungary.

Folk healing and magic were closely related to each other. Women who knew herbs - they were called enchanters or watchers - recited rhymes which had the power to heal the patient. The word watcher referred to a connection with the other world. Watchers were able to find lost treasures or animals, and could talk to the souls of the dead. They used human hair or secretion or animal organs for their magic. The consecrated objects of the church were very important, e.g.: altars or Jesus' or St John's scrapped eye from a portrait. However magic with these objects was very risky, as it was punished with death by burning if discovered.