A Debreceni Déri Múzeum Évkönyve 1968 (Debrecen, 1970)

Mesterházy Károly: The spread of Byzantine Christianity in Hungary during the Árpád Dynasty (11th–14th centuries)

of the new church bears very near resemblance to those of Byzantine basilicas with domed crossing. (Fig. 17.) This assumption is further confirmed by the founder's extensive connections with Byzantium.

17 In the vicinity of the present church the foundations of ancient-christian buildings (7th-8th century) were unearthed by József Csalog before World War II. It is hoped that the excavations going on at the site will turn up further valuable data about the interesting history of this monastery. Further centres are known to have existed in the region east of the river Tisza, in Szabolcs county (cat. 71.), in Bihar county (cat. 1-25) and along the lower Tisza area (cat. 258, 177, 199, 93, etc.,). The territory lying north of the Danube, the district of Eger, Gömör county and Tranaylvania still await investigation. We have given a detailed analysis of groups in Bihar county in one of our ealier papers (Arch. Ért. 1969. No. 1.). For a similar cause there seems to be no reason to examine the worship of Byzantine saints among the population of Southern Hungary, since papers published by H. Gelzer, Géza Fehér, György Györffy and Gyula Moravcsik have pointed out that the eastern church had influential centres in this area (Szávaszentdemeter-Mitrovica, the archiepiscopacy in Bács county, etc.). Our historical connections do by no means exclude the possibility of a direct Byzantine influence. The information gained through the investigation of patron saints is completely in accordance with historical facts. But strangely enough, all our relics concerning Byzantine Christianity are contradictory in some way or other. Monasteries with the ritual of eastern Christianity are known to have existed in Hungary, but one of them have been found and explored so far. The carved architectural fragments uncovered at better known places display no Byzantine characteristics (e.g. Visegrád). A monastery with a Byzantine ground-plan has been found which, however, was built for a Benedictine order (Szekszárd), then a church built with Byzantine building techniques and made the see of a westers archbishop (Kalocsa), a church built by Byzantine masters showing no characteristics of Byzantine architecture (Ancient Buda, St. Peter Cathedral), another church for an eastern christian congregation, whose ground-plan is completely identical with those of our 13th century village churches (Zeykfalva).

138 This dualism can also be observed in historical sources. Pope Innocent III wrote in one of his letters to King Imre of Hungary: "... since it is neither a new thing, nor is it forbidden for the various nationalities in your country to serve God together, according to rules common to all people, let there also be a Latin order among them, because there are several Greek ones there as well."

13B Contrary to this, we know only of a very few Greek monasteries at the turn of the 12th13th centuries, our historical sources do not mention any. We only know that Greek monks or nuns used to live in some of them. (e.g. Pentele). The investigation of patron saints itself presents another dichotomy

: it can be proved that the cult of the favourite saints of the Byzantine church (St. George, St. Nicholas, St. Demetrius, etc.,) reached Hungary from the east and not through the western church. Our map shows beyond doubt that the worship of Byzantine saints and the spread of eastern rituals went hand in hand. But this is not the whole truth, because we would have a totally distorted idea if we considered it to be the case. (Take for example Ercsi, Madocsa, Lébény, Ják, etc., just to mention a few of the more important Benedictine monasteries in the 12th-13th centuries). The great problem to be solved is the following: what is the reason why eastern Christianity, when it appeared in Hungary, became manifest rather as a tendency than as a process taking a topical, concrete from? The great majority of historians seek to find the soultion by emphasizing the so called Italian-Byzantine influence.

144 As it appears to us, this arguments holds little water, since it is evident from what has been expounded above, that the strongest Byzantine influence reached this country from the south. Most important to us seems the general political orientation of Hungarian kings. During the period when Christianity was introduced and firmly established in Hungary (970-1050), there was a stronger orientation to the west (Germany Italy, Lorraine),

141 than to the east. It entailed a highly important consequence: the large-scale conversion of the population by western missionaries with the Treaty of Quedlinburg having opened the gates to the priests of Germany and other nations. In a great number of cases conversion was carried out by using force, as is known from the example of Thonuzóba (he was buried alive for not being "resolute in faith".) Benedictine monks came from Passau, Regensburg, Salzburg, Prague, Monte-Casino, etc., and received any kind of help they needed from the King. No Byzantine missionary activity is known to have been going on in the 11th century, there are no data thereof in historical sources. So when the propagation of Christianity was at its height, Byzantium took no part in the competition, and in due course it was to make its effect felt, because the great masses of the population became members of the Roman church. Since the schism took place only in 1054 and its consequence took a long time to manifest itself, the results, of the Byzantine mission in the 10th century were to survive over a considerable period of time. In addition, the familiy contacts of our kings and nobility with the 180