Egyháztörténeti Szemle 15. (2014)
2014 / 1. szám - SUMMARIES IN ENGLISH - C. Tóth Norbert: The Second Visitation of the Provostry of Esztergom-Szentistván
Summaries in English The Second Visitation of the Provostry of Esztergom- Szentistván C. Tóth, Norbert The author analyses the registers of the second ecclesiastical visitation of the collegiate chapter which was established in 1390 in the castle of Esztergom by archbishop János Kanizsai (1387-1418) in honour of Saint Stephen Protomartyr. The surviving copy is a mere draft prepared about the visitation: it only contains the answers, and is dated neither by the year nor by the day. Thus one of the aims of the analysis of the text, which is published in extenso in the appendix of the present study, was precisely to locate it in time, and thus to determine the time of the visitation itself. Further archival sources, together with the data of the archontology containing the dignitaries of the cathedral chapter of Esztergom, seem to prove that the visitation in fact took place sometime around the year 1408. Evidence surviving from this year and from early in 1409 attest that a general visitation of churches in the province of Esztergom was then ordered by archbishop János Kanizsai. One of the reasons must have been the recent restoration to the prelate of his residence. For the castle of Esztergom had in November 1403 been occupied by the troops of king Sigismund in connection with the revolt against the king led by archbishop Kanizsai himself, whereupon the castle had been administerd upon royal delegation by Stibor, voevode of Transylvania, for one decade and a half. The revenues of the archbishopric had equally been confiscated and diverted to the royal treasury. The archbishop was gradually restored to his dues: he received the castle late in 1407, and the revenues in 1408-1409. Lay administration of the seat of his province and of his revenues justified sufficiently the decision taken by Kanizsai to hold a general inquest in order to measure the damages sufferred and the state of ecclesiastical discipline. The second aim of the analysis was the study of the surviving text of the second visitation and its comparison with the description provided by the first visitation. For the first visitation of the church of Esz- tergom-Szentistván was undertaken in august 1397, a mere six years after its foundation, and its booklet-form text, truncated at the end, has survived among the documents of the provostry of Szentistván, and appeared in print a good centuiy ago. Upon comparison of the texts of the two visitations it can be stated that 1) among the 22 questions posed in 1397 only two remained unanswered in 1408: both questions concerned the consecration of churches and altars, and their absence can thus be easily accounted for; 2) the surviving draft example contains the essential part of the visitation: all that is missing is the frame, that is, the date of the inquisition, the person responsible for it and the names of the prebendaries in the collegiate chapter; these were added in the presumed fair copy, a notarial document now lost.
