William Penn Life, 1999 (34. évfolyam, 2-12. szám)
1999-08-01 / 8. szám
Founder ’ s riage alliances. Chieftains who opposed the change were dealt with ruthlessly. Crowning Achievement Géza's son Vajk (975-1038) continued his father's policy. Already baptized, he had himself crowned king in the year 1000, adopting the name Stephen (István). There were three sources from which he could have obtained a crown for this purpose. One was the Byzantine Emperor in Constantinople, personifying Eastern Orthodox Christianity. The second was the Holy Roman Emperor, and a third was the Pope. Stephen chose the third. He wished to identify with Western Christianity, but without giving allegiance to the Holy Roman Emperor. In accepting Pope Sylvester II's crown, he acknowledged the importance of the papacy. King Stephen's purpose was to forge the Hungarians, süli divided into clans, and the country's other inhabitants into a centralized, independent, Christian state within the Western cultural sphere. The most important move in this direction was to establish the institution of private property. Stephen defeated by force of arms the last Day Why the Feast of St. Stephen is Hungary’s biggest holiday (On Aug. 20, Hungary will celebrate its official State Festival: the Feast of St. Stephen, Founder of the State. The following text, provided by the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, explains why St. Stephen (right) and his feast day are held in such high regard.) After the Magyar Conquest of the Carpathian Basin in 896, the Magyars did not wholly abandon their nomadic, horse-riding, pastoral way of life. They worshipped pagan gods and maintained a social structure of tribes and clanship. There was a danger that they, like many peoples in the great migration of the Dark Ages, would break up, merge with other peoples and vanish from the pages of history. This danger was seen by a descendant of Árpád (d. 907), the prince who had led the Magyar Conquest. Prince Géza (d. 997) realized the Hungarian nation could survive only by making peace with Otto I, the Holy Roman Emperor, by adopting Christianity and by abandoning a nomadic way of life in favour of farming. Géza requested the Emperor send German evangelists. He made some territorial concessions to Otto. He also established good relations with neighboring realms through mar-8 William Penn Lile, August 1999
