Folia Theologica 3. (1992)
Charles Duggan: Decretal letters to Hungary
22 C. DUGGAN IX. To the archbishop of Kalocsa • Licet litteras Alexander III to the archbishop of Kalocsa, concerning the translation of bishop Prodanus to the see of Zagreb. Litteras vestras, to the archbishop of Kalocsa, is known only in the Cottonian and Peterhouse collections. The pope appears simply as Idem in the manuscripts, but was certainly Alexander III, within the period 1163-72. The decretal records his receipt of letters from the king of Hungary, the king’s mother, the archbishop and others, in support of the translation of bishop Prodanus to a see whose name is corrupt in the extant texts. From these letters and from the king’s messengers, the pope has learned of no necessity or usefulness to justify his consent to the request, and asserts that translation should not be made without good reason. Nevertheless, in consideration of the king’s devotion and the bishop’s character and learning, he grants the request with clement dispensation. But he does not wish to be petitioned frequently about similar translations, and the archbishop must induce the king to refrain from them. The internal references point to Stephen III as the petitioner, within the years 1163-72,26 since his brother and successor Béla III imprisoned Euphrosyne, the queen mother, whose support for the translation the decretal records. But the English scribes of the only surviving copies had evident difficulty in deciphering the name of the diocese in question. The earlier transcription, in the badly mutilated Cottonian manuscript, records the petition pro uen.fr. n. prodan. [...] o in culpa uen. ecca. transferendo, while the slightly later Peterhouse manuscript has the still more garbled version pro uen.fri. nostro prodan. epo. in cupa uen.fr.ecca. transferendo (presumably repeating uen.fri....uen.fr. in scribal confusion). On the advice of Schünemann, Holtzmann proposed the emended solution pro venerabili fratri nostro Prodano episcopo in Culpanensem ecclesiam transferendo (that is, in culpa uen. ecca. = in culpanensem ecclesiam). The ecclesia Culpanensis, taking its name from the river Culpa/Cupa or Kulpa/Kupa (cf. cupa in Pet.), identifies the church of Zagreb or Agram, then a suffgragan of Kalocsa, now itself an archbishopric; and bishop 26 GYŐRFFY, „Saint Thomas à Becket", 47-8.
