# CHURCH HISTORY #### ST STEPHEN'S HERITAGE BETWEEN THE EMPEROR AND THE POPE IN THE SHADOW OF THE PAPACY ### ST STEPHEN'S HERITAGE #### A country of many languages and traditions In the course of their migration the Hungarians got acquainted with monotheistic religions which accompanied them to the Carpathian Basin. Till the Tartar Invasion of 1241 there were Muslim people living in Hungary in quite a significant number. They were called Böszörménys, Ismaelites, Káliz-s or Moors. There were isolated communities of Muslims in 80 villages of 26 counties. It was the third biggest Muslim population in contemporary Western Europe after the Iberian peninsula and South Italy. They were very active in royal financial matters, and many of them were tradesmen or mercenaries defending the border. Some of them came to the Carpathian Basin together with the Hungarians at the end of the 9th century, others settled down later spontaneously, for example, together with the Petchenegs, as tradesmen in the course of military recruitment. The synod of Szabolcs tried to convert them into Catholicism by transferring half of the Muslim population to other places, the synod of Tarcal decided to build Catholic churches in their villages and obliged them to mixed marriages. Between 1150-1220 a peaceful assimilation started among them, but the harassment in the age of Andrew II put an end to it. According to some theories there might have been several Jews among the members of the Khabar tribes which joined the Hungarians. From the 11th century the Jews lived in urban settlements in smaller communities (in diaspores). The synod of Szabolcs prohibited the mixed marriages with Christians, or keeping Christian servants, or working on Christian holidays. King Coloman ordered to settle them to bishopric residences, and to make sealed documents in case of any deals made with them. In the 1220s they were attacked partly because of their role in royal financial matters, partly in concert with the resolution of the 1217 synod of Toledo. Béla IV appointed the royal treasurer to be the judge of Jews. In 1251 a royal charter assured their personal defence and the defence of their properties. It also regulated their obligations concerning taxation. As a result of Saint Stephen's converting work Christian conversion was quite successful among the Hungarians. The weakening of the pagan belief is shown by the fact that the 1046 pagan riot led by Vata - which broke out because of King Peter's violent methods - was not against the Christian belief, but against the Christian system of institutions and the Christian social order. In 1060 Béla I could easily suppress Vata's son's, János's revolt. At the end of the 11th century making sacrifices at wells was in fact - though in principle forbidden - tolerated. Though western historiographers described Hungarian Christianity negatively still in the middle of the 12th century - because of political reasons - but conversion of the population to Christianity was actually completed in the country by the end of the 11th century. Immigrants might have caused some problems concerning Christian conversion. At the end of the 11th century the Pecheneg settlers, who came in small groups, soon assimilated into the Christian culture. The Cumans, however, who were received into the country in 1238-1239 by Béla IV in one unit, stuck to their old religion for four decades, and only Ladislaus IV's Cuman Laws ordered their conversion. The most significant remain of Christian conversion by Byzantine rite was the name of the Transylvanian church district, which was organised in the territory of tribe of the one-time "gyula". This did not receive its name after its center, but after the territory itself, in accordance with Greek traditions. Although Byzantine rite did not have the necessary social base in the age of the Árpád dynasty, monasteries were founded for the members of the royal family who supported the Byzantine rite. The Veszprémvölgy nunnery was founded for Prince Emeric's fiancée, and the Oroszkő of Tihany for Andrew I's wife. The Greek precedents of the monastery of Szávaszentdemeter and the archbishopric of Bács became the victims of the spread of Latin church organisation. However, around 1204, there was a possibility to organise all the Hungarian orthodox believers into one independent church district, but the reason for this was rather the temporary termination of the Byzantine Empire. At that time the nomadic population, who came from the Balcans, did not built temples yet. As there were no more believers, Greek church institutes were taken over by Latin priests and monks. #### The first inheritors The first chapters of St Stephen's Exhortations to his son, Prince Emeric, and indirectly to all his successors, were dedicated to the question how a king should be related to the church and ecclesiastical people, and what a big patience is needed to convert people. His first successor, King Peter, however, did not take his advice at all. After the model of the German emperor, he made the church pay taxes, and replaced two bishops during the very first years of his reign. The violent method, by which Peter tried to apply western patterns in Hungary made church people worry. The bishopric board - with the lead of Gerald - acted against him, and declared him unsuited to the throne. They wanted to expunge even his memory, so the foundation of the chapter of Óbuda and the constructions of the Pécs Cathedral was attributed to someone else. Peter's successor, Samuel Aba, ruled in accordance with the expectations of the bishopric board in every aspect. The eloquent testimony of his ecclesiastical measures is that he sent the bishops he appointed up to Rome. Secular dignitaries objected to him because he tried to accomplish the regulations of the Early Church concerning communal property during his reign. It was very similar to the patriarchal relations of the age of Christian conversion, when poor members of clans were protected by belonging to the clan. The bishopric board, however, supported king Aba till his defeat at Ménfő. After his death the king was buried in a monastery at Sár, and the news about him being a saint also spread. The events which put an end to King Peter's second rule showed that the fear of the bishops was not at all unfounded. With the lead of Vata from Békés a pagan revolt triumphed over the rule of the tyrant. A lot of bishops and clergymen died as a martyr in this battle - so did Bishop Gerald. Only those three bishops survived who supported Andrew I - who suppressed the pagans -, as Mór, bishop of Pécs appointed by St Stephen. The ruler, who restored the Christian order, received the adjective "Catholic" later, but the Chronicle mentioned that the reason he did not have any grandsons was that he let Christian priests killed at the beginning of his rule. There were no objections against King Andrew's strict measures. This fact shows that paganism was only a concomitant of the events then. One of Andrew's famous orders was that people had to keep a three-day fast before St Peter's celebration (June 29). His younger brother, Béla I's laws concerned the church as well. He ordered to change the date of markets, from Sunday to Saturday, to protect the significance of the Christian holiday with this. #### The Consolidation of the New Belief Andrew I's death lead to a fight for the throne, and this was a good chance for the Pope to intervene in the home matters of the country. By supporting the ruler, he tried to carry out his plan, namely, that Hungary should accept the superiority of the Holy See. Pope Gregory VII supported Géza and Ladislaus against Salamon. In his letter to Géza, written in 1074, he explained that God took the reign from Salamon and transferred to them, because Salamon supported the emperor and so he caused grievance to St Peter (translatio regni). Meanwhile Géza refused the Pope's demands in a very polite way in St Stephen's larger legend. According to this - through St Stephen's offer - Hungary became Virgin Mary's heritage, and Mary preceeds Peter in the hierarchy of the Saints. During the reign of St Ladislaus, then his successor, King Coloman the Christian belief and institution system were finally stabilised in Hungary. It was shown by the growth of church organisation and the fact that ecclesiastical jurisdiction became more intensive, which determined the forms of the Christian way of life. In some measure Ladislaus reorganised the existing church districts (for example, he moved the residence of the Bishop of Kalocsa to Bács, and that of Bihar to Várad), he attached the newly-conquered territories, Slavonia and Croatia, to the country by organising a bishopric in Zagreb. The new church district - its bishop was a Czech prelate appointed by the king - was supervised by the only archbishopric, that of Esztergom. The necessary service books were also brought to Zagreb from Esztergom. The southern bishopric got under the supremacy of Kalocsa only after giving an archbishopric status to the bishopric of Kalocsa. 1083 was a significant year in the life of the Hungarian church, when under the order of King Ladislaus - and surely without the approval of Pope Gregory VII - King Stephen and Prince Emeric (at Székesfehérvár), Bishop Gerald (at Csanád), the hermits of the Vg valley - Zoerard-Andrew and Benedict - (at Nyitra or Zobor) were canonised. Ladislaus had a synod called together at Szabolcs in 1092. The king and his counsellors took measures in questions urged by the reform papacy, like the celibacy of priests, restoring old churches and building new ones, and the keeping Sundays and holidays strictly. Concerning church disciplines, he regulated the receiving of immigrant priests, the paying of church tithe, and marriage affairs were put under the authority of ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Among the forty holidays discussed at the synod of Szabolcs we can find the celebrations of the first Hungarian confessor and martyr saints, like King St Stephen (August 20), Prince St Emeric (November 5) and St Gerald (September 24). ### BETWEEN THE EMPEROR AND THE POPE #### Coloman and the Church Reform During King Coloman's reign, around 1104 and 1112, there were two (clearly ecclesiastical) synods held at Esztergom. With Archbishop Lőrinc as chairman, and his ten bishops participating, the synod focused on making church disciplined stricter. It regulated the most important duties of priests, it banned pagan rituals for believers, protected ecclesiastical property against the encroachments of the prelate. It also took measures about church government and the celibacy of priests, the way of life, economic and social situation of canons, monks and village priests and also the order of services. He put the crime of bewitching, magic and adultery under the authority of ecclesiastical jurisdiction. The second synod of Esztergom made celibacy stricter, and it ordered - for the first time - that marriages be performed in churches. The first canons of the second synod at Esztergom declared crimes against the king as crime against religion, which should be punished by excommunication. The king's rights concerning church government were also uncurtailed then. Around 1113, in case of the foundation of the bishopric of Nyitra - started by King Ladislaus - Coloman acted without the approval of the Pope, like his predecessor in case of Zagreb. The king answered Pope Orban II's letter, in which he demanded obedience to the Holy See, in St Stephen's third legend. In this Bishop Hartvik approved King Coloman's right for governing the church in historical aspects - inbedded in the theory of sending a crown by the Pope. His theory (supporting the Sicilian ruler) guaranteed a special situation for the Hungarian king throughout the 12th century. The Pope could not send a legate to the country without his permission, and the Hungarian clergy could keep in touch with the Holy See only with the approval of the ruler. Though in 1201 Pope Ince III gave permission to use the Hartvik legend as a reading in St Stephen's office only with the restriction that he took a part out of it - namely the one according to which St Stephen could take measures in church matters using "both of his rights" -, the Hungarian ruler's demands for being an apostolic king were still existing in the 13th century as well. In 1238, during King Béla IV's Bulgarian military campaign, the king asked the Pope to let him use these rights in the conquered territories: an apostolic cross should preceed him, and he wanted to establish the church organisation freely. #### The century of the Monks The most outstanding feature of the history of the church in 12th-century Hungary was the appearance of various monastic orders. The 11th century was the time of Benedictine supremacy. The basic structure of Hungarian monasticism was just in the making then: monasteries were founded privately, or by the king. After King St Stephen almost each Hungarian ruler founded his own monastery, which became his burial place later in most of the cases. Andrew I was buried in Tihany in 1055, Béla I in Szekszárd in 1061, Géza I in Garamszentbenedek in 1075 and Ladislaus I in Somogyvár in 1091. in the first half of the century secular dignitaries expressed their religious beliefs by giving donations to monasteries, but later they also founded monasteries to guarantee their salvation and a burial place of their own. Bailiff Otto from the Győr clan founded a monastery at Zselicszentjakab in 1061, Peter from the Aba clan in Százd, on his estate near the Tisza river, in 1067. The Premontre canons settled down in Váradhegyfok during the reign of Stephen II, whose aim was to perform pastoring duties. The Cistercians, who reformed the Benedictine way of life strictly, and who played an important role in the spread of modern agriculture and Gothic culture, were invited to Cikador, near Bátaszék, by King Géza II in 1142. However, they settled down in a greater number only during the reign of King Béla III. The monasteries of Egres, Zirc, Szentgotthárd, Pilis and Pásztó were founded then, and they became the parent monasteries of later abbacies. The special characteristic feature of the spread of the new orders in Hungary was that the majority of Cistercian houses were transferred to Hungary directly from the most significant French parent-houses, eliminating the German mediating monasteries (for example, Cikador was transferred from Heiligenkreuz). The other local characteristic feature was that the spread of orders was in inverse ratio compared to that of Western Europe: the Cistercians, who were very popular in the west, had only about 20 monasteries in Hungary, while the Premontrians established about 40 parent-houses. While the Cistercians were not very keen on taking up the advowson of secular estate owners, and they belonged under the patronage of the king almost without exception, the Premontrians accepted dependence on secular persons and their advowees were buried in their churches unimpededly, in contrast with the Cistercians. The growth of the prestige of the country in the 12th century showed that Christianity became stronger in Hungary. It revealed itself in the fact that both the Pope and the German emperor claimed the support of the Hungarian ruler. After the double pope-election of 1159 King Géza II first took sides with Frederic Barbarossa, but after 1160 - under the influence of the Archbishop of Esztergom - he consistently supported Pope Alexander III, like his successors, till his triumph in 1177. The debate between Archbishop Lucas and King Béla III was the starting point of the competition between the two archbishoprics: Esztergom and Kalocsa. In the first decades of the 13th century Esztergom finally became the leading archbishopric of the country. Its position is first mentioned in sources in 1239. Lucas might have had a role in founding the St Thomas prepostery in Esztergom, as it was named after his one-time school-mate, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket. In Hungary the orders of knighthood were represented by the Johannites of Esztergom since 1147, and by the knights of the church of Vrána since 1169. They played an important role in sick-nursing and fighting. Religious ideas gained strength, which was shown by the fact that Hungary joined the fights for the liberation of the Holy Land through the crusades. In 1217 King Andrew II lead the fifth crusade, and both orders took part in it, as in the battle of Muhi in 1241 against the Tartars. By the end of the 13th century the number of Johannite houses was around 30. The members of the German order of knighthood spent the shortest time in Hungary. King Andrew II entrusted the Barcaság to them in 1211, but because of their strive for independence the Hungarian ruler was forced to chase them away from the country in 1225. The Johannites of Esztergom was an order founded in Hungary, but besides their main monastery they had houses in the Holy Land as well (in Jerusalem and Akkon). #### The Organisation of the Church The turn of the 12-13 centuries brought the growth of the church. The ruler established two preposteries around 1186 and in 1198, in Szeben and Szepes, for the Saxons who settled down in Transylvania. The bishopric of Milko was organised by the Dominicans in 1228, who converted the Cumans, while the bishopric of Syrmia, approved in 1229, was founded privately by Ugrin Csák, the Archbishop of Kalocsa with the aim that it should stop heresy coming from the Balcans. When the Dalmatian region and the southern ends were permanently owned by Hungary, the Bosnian bishopric - with the residence of Diakóvár - and church district and bishoprics in the Dalmatian Spalato also joined the Hungarian church. By the 13th century the network of parishes was established in the country. ### IN THE SHADOW OF THE PAPACY #### New Monastic Orders As an answer to poverty at the urban settlements of the 13th century an new monastic movement was born: the begging orders. In 1221 Paulus Hungarus, the dean of the university of Bologne, participated in the ceremony at the foundation of the Dominican order. He became the leader of the first group sent to Hungary. The number of their houses, after Győr and Székesfehérvár, reached ten by the time of the Tartar Invasion. The first house of the Franciscans was founded by a German province in Eger; by 1233 their houses in Hungary were organised in separate garrisons, by 1238 in separate order-provinces. The third order, which played an important role in Hungarian history, was founded in Hungary. It was the Paulian order. Bartholomew, Bishop of Pécs, collected the hermits of Jakab-hill into a monastery in 1225. In 1250 he founded a monastery near the village of Kesztőc, in the honour of the Holy Cross, for the hermits living in the Pilis mountains. In 1256 he named them the order of Hermit St Paul. To the urging of St Thomas Aquinas, Pope Alexander IV acknowledged the new order. Under the influence of begging orders and economic changes the monastic orders were pushed back, the great age of the Benedictine and the Cistercian orders came to an end around 1240. #### Legates in Hungary During the 13th century papacy, which gained strength in the investiture fights, had a great influence throughout Europe. At Pope Ince III's repeated invitation, in 1217 political interests forced King Andrew II to complete his fathers promise for a crusade. In the middle of the 1220's the Pope worked out the theory of inalienation of royal properties - in opposition to the wasteful estate policy of the Hungarian ruler. This served as a base for King Béla's policy to take back royal estates. During the century two papal legates visited the country. In 1233 Jacob of Pecorar, Bishop of Palestrina, made a deal with the ruler in the forest of Bereg, and made him promise to keep the basic privileges promised in 1222 (ecclesiastical persons belonging to ecclesiastical courts and immunity from taxes), and he guaranteed the salt-monopoly of the church. Pope Nicholas III sent Philip, Bishop of Fermo, to Hungary to restore the king's reputation and solve the problem of the pagan Cumans. After settling the Cuman question legate Philip called a synod together in 1279 in Buda, the aim of which was to guarantee the liberty of the Catholic belief and church and improve the way of life and morals of both ecclesiastic and secular people. #### Church and Society in the Age of the Árpád Dynasty The structure of Hungarian church orders became stabilised during the 13th century. It was headed by the board of prelates, who had the same rights as the secular barons, and they formed the majority of the royal council. Under them stood the chapters with their preposts and the abbots of monasteries. The middle layer consisted of the canons, who could afford to study at foreign schools and quite often they were members of the royal chapel. Parish priests and pastors, benefice-priests - who substituted canons in the choir - and choir priests, who all had very low income, belonged to the lower layer of the church. The prelates and prestigious monasteries had huge uninheritable estates. Church estates were scattered estates, the work organisation of which - with servants grouped according to their services - guaranteed a dynamic development in the early period. However, in the 13th century secular estates took over the leading role, and the scattered ecclesiastical estates were on the decline. Meanwhile the role of priests became fixed in public life, too. The synodic courts of the Coloman age had already shown that secular society claimed the church taking up public roles. Bishopric residences, which played important roles at red-hot iron trials, gradually began to perform written duties in the countryside. The first institutes of it were the great residential chapters and royal preposteries (Veszprém, Székesfehérvár, Győr, Esztergom and Buda). They were followed by monastic convents, the Benedictine and the Premontrian, form the 40's of the century. Theoretically at the end of the 12th century the question of appointing prelates was solved, but in fact the ruler had all the means to help his candidate to the bishopric chair. Besides centralising church disciplinary matters into the papal High Court of Justice, this was still a difficulty in the relation between the Holy See and Hungary. Since Béla IV did not get any serious help from the papacy in the course of the Tartar Invasion, he reproached the head of the Church. The vital force of Hungarian Christianity is shown by its missionary activities. The Dominicans undertook the search for the Eastern Hungarians and the conversion of the Havasalföld Cumans. The King took the responsibility for organising and supporting converting work in the Balcans, and creating the structure of the church. Till the age of Ladislaus IV the pagan Cumans provided the possibility for inner missions. The reputation of the Archbishop of Esztergom seemed strong already in the 1230's, and in the second Golden Bull, in 1231 he received the right for resistance. From the middle of the century he tried to provide priests for the church at synods. The archbishop was the first person, who had an important role in secular government as a prelate - he became the perpetual bailiff of castle district Esztergom. At the end of the century the personality of archbishop Lodomer shows most clearly the place and role of the Hungarian church in society. The Archbishop of Esztergom took the lead of the ecclesiastical movement, which undertook the reorganisation of Hungarian society - weakened in the age of Ladislaus IV - following the most modern European models, that is transferring early feudalism to Hungary. The death of Lodomer in 1298 was symbolical: it closes the first period of the history of the Hungarian church. |