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 HUNGARY

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HUNGARY

Father contented himself with admonishing the king in a paternal manner to remove the abuses and to avoid infringing on the rights of the Church.

During the reign of Louis I, the Great (I342-S2), the son of C^harles Robert, Catholicism reached the height of prosperity in Himgaiy. Nimierous mon- asteries and other religious foundations came into existence in this reign; above all, the Hermits of St. Paul enjoyed the king'.s special favour. In 1381 > Louis obtamed from the Republic of Venice the relics of St. Paul the Hermit, which were taken with great ecclesiastical pomp to the Pauline monastery near Buda. Among his pious acts must be counted the building of the church at the place of pilgrimage, Gross-Mariazell in Styria, and of the chapel dedicated to St. Ladislaus at Aachen. Splendid churches were also built in Hungary, as at Gran, Eger, and Gross- wardein (Nagy-Varad). In filling ecclesiastical of- fices the king was careful that the dioceses should receive well-trained and competent bishops. In order to promote learning he founded the university at Pecs (Funfkirchcn). Louis also sought to bring about the conversion of the Slavonic peoples living to the south of Hungary, who held to the Greek Church, the Serbs, Wallachians, and Bulgarians. His attempts to con- vert them led to repeated conflicts with these races. In this reign began the struggle with the growing power of the Turks, against whose assaults Hungary now became the bulwark of Europe. Internal dis- orders broke out again in the reign of Maria (1382- 95), the daughter of Louis, in which the Church suffered greatly in the southern part of the kingtlom, especially in Croatia. In Hungary proper the queen sought to further the interests of the C'hurch. The most important measures passed at a synod at Gran were decisions regarding the training of the clergy. Maria built several churches of the Perpetual A<lora- tion. From 1.387 her rule was merely nominal, her husband Sigismund being the real ruler. After Maria's death he became her successor.

In one of the first years (1397) of Sigismund's reign (1395-1436), the decrees of the Diet of 1387 were renewed. These declared that no ecclesiastical benefice could be bestowed on a foreign ecclesiastic. Sigismund, however, paid little attention to this regulation. Immediately on entering upon his reign Sigismund came into conflict with the Hunga- rian oligarchy. This led to open war, and even, for a time, to the imprisonment of the king. In 1403, King Ladislaus of Naples appeared as rival king; nevertheless, Sigismund was able to maintain him- self on the throne. His reign was coincident with a large part of the Great Western Schism, and the two great reforming Councils of Constance and Basle were held while he was on the throne. In the Great Schism, Hungary adhered to the oljedience (or party) of the Roman claimant to the papacy. Louis I, the Great, had supported L^^rljan VI, and his suc- cessors, Maria and Sigismund, also sided with the Roman Curia. Sigismund, indeed, in 1403 renounced Boniface IX, because this pope supported the ri\'al King Ladislaus, yet he did not recognize Benedict XIII. At a later date he recognized Innocent VII and subsequently supported the Roman Curia. In 1404 the Diet declared that in future ecclesiastical benefices in Hungary could only be bestowed by the king, consequently the rights both of spiritual and secular patrons were annulled, and the jus placeti introduced, according to which papal Bulls and com- mands could only be accepted and proclaimed in Hungary after they had received the royal approval. Supported by these enactments Sigismund at once asserted his right to appoint bishops. Naturally, the Curia did not recognize this claim and refused to give the investiture to the bishops chosen by Sigis- mund. Upon this Sigismund, in 1410, appealed to John XXIII, from whom he requested the recognition

of this right. John did not accede to this request, although he granted investiture to the bishops ap- pointed by the king and thus tacitly recognized the royal right of filling benefices, a right which, as a matter of fact, the king continued to exercise.

After his election as King of the Romans, Sigis- mund endeavourec-1 to bring the schism to an end. The unity of the Chiu-ch was restoreil by the Council of Constance, and the concordat matle with Germany was also authoritative for Hungary. While the coun- cil was in session, after the deposition of Bene- dict XIII, Sigismimd obtained for himself and his successors the right of naming the bishops. This right was, indeed, not put into dociunentary form, but Stephen Werboczi, in his collection of the Hun- garian laws, "Opus Tripartitum juris consuetudinarii regni Hungarice ", asserteil that this right was con- ceded to the King of Hungary at the Council of Con- stance, and Cardinal Peter Piizmany also referred to it at a later date. The council further decided that in Hiuigary ecclesiastical cases should be tried in the country itself, and not brought before the Roman Curia, that only appeals could be taken to Rome. After the council had closed Sigismund claimed to the fullest extent the rights which had been conceded to him by the council. The Kepul^lic of Venice having seized Dalmatia, the Archdioceses of Spalatoand Zara, with their suffragans, were lost to Hungary. This

Cathedral, Eger (see .\ijIU.\)

is the reason why in Hungarian official documents for many years these dioceses were given as vacant. In Hungary proper the Church maintainetl itself with difficulty in the northern districts, on account of the incursions of the Hussites, who traversed all upper Hungary, plundering the churches and laying waste the country. They also gained adherents in the southern districts, where, however, the movement was soon suppressed, thanks to the missionary ac- tivity of the Franciscan monk James of the Marches. The chief source of anxiety to the government of Hungary in Sigismund's reign was the growing power of the Turks. Since 1389 when Servia was conquered by the Osmanli power at the battle of Kosova (also called Amselfeld, "Field of the Blackbirds"), the Turks had slowly but steadily advanced against Hungary. In 1396 Sigismund undertook a cam- paign on a large scale against them, but met with a severe defeat at Nicopolis. To safeguard the Hun- garian frontier, Sigismund obtained from Stephen Lazarevi'cs, ruler of Servia, by the Treaty of Tata (Totis), in 1426, the Servian fortresses on the border of the two countries, but he was not able to hold them against the Turks. The siege of the fortress of Galam- bocz (1428) ended with his defeat and narrow escape from death. The power of the Turks steadily in-' creased, and Sigismund's successors were only able to check momentarily the westward advance of the Ottoman Empire. Sigismund was succeeded by his