The National Archives of Hungary (Budapest, 2006)

ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHIVES - An Overview of Catholic Ecclesiastical Archives by Andor Lakatos

are rich bequests and manuscripts in these archives due to the intellectual and scientific work of monks. Perhaps the above mentioned list demonstrates that the Catholic Archives, not only contains material on the history of the Church for researchers, but also other interesting materials as well. The documents relating to parishes and bishoprics would be indispensable to any writer of regional history Researchers of education can find cogent information on school inspectorates for public elementary school, secondary school, school boards, and the education given by monastic orders. The economic historians can find rich sources of material among the documents of ecclesiastical properties. The confessions of manor courts and the Holy See records will be of great value for ethnographers. Details of bequest inventories for researchers in lifestyle, information of registers for family genealogists, blueprints and descriptions of old buildings for art historians, inspections of landmarks or details of nicely drawn maps for geographers and censuses data of registers for demographers. The list can go on indefinitely, therefore, we should realize that even if the source material remains unchanged there will always be an endless and fertile source of data for the inquisitive and eager researcher. THE PRESENT AND RECENT PAST OF CATHOLIC ARCHIVES (DATA AND TASKS, PUBLICATIONS AND STUDY-AIDS) At present according to the act of archives of 1995, there are 18 registered Catholic Public Private Archives in Hungary -out of them 12 of dioceses, 6 monastic institutions. The number may initially seems miniscule. The reason being is that the bishop's and chapter archives are usually considered one institution from the point of view of supporting staff. Formerly the bishop's and chapter archives were registered as separate professional archives. The 18 institutions kept 7630 linear metres of written material as of the year 2 000 -out of which 620 linear metres were of monastic material. The documents held in the individual parishes cannot be examined on their premises. According to the data of an older survey the amount of material held there is a total of 3 500 linear metres. The total quantity of Catholic Archives is more than eleven thousand linear metres. As of the year 2000, there were 34 staff members responsible for maintaining and taking care of the archives. Among them 16 were employed full-time; this is less than half of the total number.