The National Archives of Hungary (Budapest, 2006)

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

BY ANDOR LAKATOS AN OVERVIEW OF CATHOLIC ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHIVES CATHOLIC ARCHIVES IN THE LAST THOUSAND YEAR /HISTORY/ T

he founding of the Hungarian state and its relationship to Christianity is directly attributable to the influence and work of one man, Hungary's first monarch: Saint Stephen, who established the country over a millenium ago. Theses two institutions were maintained through the written word. In particular, the administration and day to day operations of the Chruch were invaribly performed in writing.The influence of the Church, the spreading of the use of written records and this usage became more and more important and prevalent during the operation of the state. These facts indicate that there has been from the beginning of the Hungarian state a co-operation and connection with the Church for many centuries. As a result we can assert that the ecclesiastical archives are inextricably intertwined with Hungary's in her thousand year history and the existing documents in them are important sources for understanding Hungarian history. After mentioning the ecclesiastical archive, it is not surprising that if we examine the material of Middle Ages of the catholic ecclesiastical archives we can find, numerous superlatives, 'the very ..., the most

..., the first.

..' data. For example, the very first existing royal document András I's land-grant for the Benedictine Monastery of Tihany, (the oldest wax seal in good condition) Saint Ladislas' suspended seal from about 1090, and the first surviving Hungarian papal document, Pope Paschalis

' document from 1102 are all kept in the Archives of Benedictine Abbey in the settlement of Pannonhalma. Furhtermore, the first known, original existing private, individual document can be found in the Archives of Cathedral Chapter of Veszprém, Guden granted his lands to the chapter of Veszprém, 1079. The only Hungarian royal document with lead seal, King Géza II grants salt to Esztergom Church in 1156 can be found in the Archives of Cathedral Chapter of Esztergom and we could list many other examples. The archives of Esztergom, Pannonhalma and Veszprém have very important medieval collections and they keep all together more than ten thousand documents from before the battle of Mohács.