The National Archives of Hungary (Budapest, 2006)

ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHIVES - An Overview of Catholic Ecclesiastical Archives by Andor Lakatos

The territorial changes of World War I influenced the ecclesiastical organization to a great extent. Much of ecclesiastical material was sent abroad and was never returned (only a few). Mainly from the successor states of dioceses which had been severed by the reconfiguration of political borders. Between the two World Wars, the immense quantity of material caused problems. Because of the haphazard manner in which they were sorted out, as in the cases of agricultural archives, which were usually kept in a separate building: the building of bailiff. In 1925 the old, agricultural documents thought to be valueless and were sorted out in the Veszprém bailiff office. Only a part of the collection were acquired by the Hungarian National Museum -H.N.M. later. During the same period, these materials were sorted out in Veszprém town hall, too. Among the collection, there were old documents of general assemblies, documents on Turkish taxation The annual report of the Hungarian Minerva gave an overall picture of the Catholic Ecclesiastical Archives, together with a numerous collections found within the borders of current Hungary. There were bishop's or archbishop's chapters, cathedral chapter archives in the following towns: Eger, Esztergom, Győr, Kalocsa, Pécs, Székesfehérvár, Szombathely, Vác, Veszprém. Only one common social joint chapter archives existed in Sopron. The number of the monastic archives was very substantial: The Franciscans, 21, the Piarists, 7, the Capuchins and the Benedictines, each had 4, the Dominicans 3, the Premonstratensians, the Minorit, the Minorites, the Carmelites, the Brothers/Sisters of Mercy, the Cistercians each had 2 and the Servites had only one institution. In analyzing and comparing the current data we can discern that the documents and written material of bishopric and chapter archives were able to survive even though their quantity grew while the number of monastic archives decreased from fifty to six! It is regrettable that these monastic archives have been irretrievably lost. This kind of comparison leads us to the events after World War II. In the spring of 1945, most of the Transdanubian archives had been severely damaged such as Sopron, Szombathely, Esztergom, Pécs and Veszprém. In the first two cases, chapter archives and in the others, the agricultural documents of bailiff were bombed. The next important event in the life of archives was the legislative act concerning their disposition. The Act no. XXI ratified in 1947, ordered the archives of the Catholic Church to be private, and individual archives to be made public interest. It was the first time that the law prescribed technical supervision for the ecclesiastical archives, but it could not be fulfilled because of the change in the polictical climate of the country The decree-law no. 29 of 1950, abolished the authentic places archives of chapters and convents and instructed the district state archives to take over their materials. But taking over the archives of authentic places was delayed, and carried out only in