Levéltári Közlemények, 92. (2021)

Magyarországi főegyházmegyei méltóságok - Tusor Péter: „Et a pensare al successore in caso”. Szelepchény György és a rendi szervezkedés. (Egy nunciusi jelentés forrásértéke)

Magyarországi főegyházmegyei méltóságok

difficile a mantenersi

dall’aviditá de Principi

convicini

e

potenti,202

ma

ehe

le

di

lui

[fol. 638r]

manifatture tendevano a verificar la subordinazione, ehe

deve

l’Ungheria e la Transilvania al Pontefice, il

quale

in

ogni caso

mediante la

legitima

investitura di quel

Regno

e Stati in un

Prencipe

, ehe

canonizzasse

per degno dei lor utile Dominio, poteva con 1’accordo d’un competente tributo goder

dell’homaggio d’ubbidienza, ehe rendevano

con

il

di

lui mezzo

Popoli cosi riverenti et

osseguiosi al suo

Santissimo

nome.”

202 A

forrásban a

de Principi

e potenti aláhúzva.

Péter T

usor

“ET A PENSARE AL

SUCCESSORE

IN

CASO” György Szelepchény and

the Intrigue of the Estates (Source value of a nuncio’s report)

The focus of this study is the report of Giulio Spinola,

Papal

Nuncio in Vienna, dated November 1665. The dispaccio reports that György

Szelepchény,

Archbishop

of Kalocsa

and

Bishop of Nitra,

Hungarian

Chancellor at Court, presented an alternative concept of public law to Pope Alexander VII through the nuncio on behalf of the ecclesiastical order {status ecclesiasticus).

The

essence of the concept was to place the Kingdom of Hungary and Transylvania under the patronage of the Pope. Practical implementation was not envisaged by means of annexation by the Apostolic See, but by means of a legal investiture of the new monarch by the Pope, or in the form of an annual tax to be paid to the Holy See in return. From the nuncio’s report it is clear that the concept was conceived in the event of a vacancy on the Hungarian throne. As of June 1665, the 25-year-old Leopold I was the only male, however unmarried and childless member of the Austrian Habsburgs. Contrary to Hungarian public opinion, the question of the Austrian succession was not even on the table in European politics at that time yet. In his reply, Nuncio Giulio Spinola

summarily

rejected the idea put forward by Szelepchényi. Thereafter,

the supreme clergy collectively distanced itself from the anti-Habsburg conspiracy, known as the >Magnate Conspiracy<, which reached its climax in 1670. The question of the Austrian succession, as is well known, did not finally become an acute problem until 1740.

102