Belényesy Károly: Pálos kolostorok az Abaúji-Hegyalján (Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén megye régészeti emlékei 3. Miskolc, 2004)

PAULINE FRIARIES IN THE ABAÚJ HEGYALJA REGION

soon became a popular pilgrimage center, confirming the prestige of both the site and the order. The total number of the monasteries outside Hungary can be estimated around eighty. Pauline monasteries were founded in Poland, Austria, Germany, Portugal, and their residence in Rome, the Santo Stephano Rotondo is also well known.

16 The history of the order in the sixteenth century clearly indicates decline. The rapidly extending Reformation movement deprived the order from the supporting background of small landowners. The vanishing donations and donators, as well as the Ottoman occupation endangered the physical existence of the communities. The center of the order was moved to the inner, safer territories of the Hungarian Kingdom, and the new center became Maria Thai (Máriavölgy). Only few monasteries survived with serious difficulties on the periphery of the conflict zone (Lád, Újhely). After the reoccupation of the Ottoman territories, Pauline monks started to renew traditions and reoccupy their once estates, incomes. Simultaneously, Peter Pázmány started the modernization of the order, by reorganizing the communities following the model of the Jesuit Order. After a hundred years of flowering in the Modern Period, in 1786 King Joseph II dissolved the order in the territories of the Habsburg Empire.

17 MAIN DIRECTIONS OF PAULINE RESEARCH Concerning the history of the Pauline order, the written tradition of the community has always been considered to be the most fundamental and remarkable evidence. The origin of these documents is the appreciated and innumerably quoted work of Gergely Gyöngyösy. He is one of the most famous personalities of his order, who, being general prior in the 1520s, completed the history of Pauline monasteries

18 that is generally known nowadays as Vitae fratrum)

9 The period of the Ottoman occupation in the sixteenth-seventeenth centuries raised new aspects for the investigations. From the seventeenth century (Pázmány, Eggerer

20

), the main cause for making inventories was to collect the lost Pauline goods. Consequently, these evidence are excellent documents concerning the postOttoman situation of the monasteries. Besides the list of 16 About Pauline monasteries outside Hungary, see: Die Pauliner, 1984. 17 Further on, monasteries existed for a short time, but after the secularization, the center of the independently founded congregation became Czçstochowa in Poland. 18 Inventarium 19 Hervay, 1988. 20 Pázmány, 1629, and Eggerer, 1663. Gyöngyösy, early modern inventories used the archives of the still existing communities. Among these, the central archives of the Pauline Order must be mentioned, which collection was fled to Máriavölgy, the modern center of the order.

21 The hermits, searching for their ancient lands can rightly be considered the predecessors of modern scholars, although, their aims were basically different. Nevertheless, in the Modern Period the basis for the existence of the order became the general demand for the renewal of those communities that survived the Ottoman Occupation until 1786, when their activity was terminated in the Habsburg Empire, as well as in Hungary. New scholarly interest in the Pauline Order's history appeared in the second half of the nineteenth century. On the one hand, the collection and analysis of written material of the monasteries continued. On the other hand, special emphasis was put on the survey, or sometimes the archaeological excavation of the once monasteries' ruins. First, the work of Iván Ádám must be noted. Besides expertly describing monasteries in the Upper Balaton Region (Tüskevár, Badacsony), based on experiences from these studies, he wrote a through analysis about the architectural traditions and site selection of the order.

22 In addition to examining individual communities, the global research of the order also developed.

23 Regrettably, the investigations in the twentieth century with rare exemptions are not comparable to the precise studies of Iván Ádám. New essays were published about the Tüskevár monastery,

24 Sajólád monastery,

25 and new, still unfinished research had started in the center, Budaszentlörinc.

26 Later, the history of the Pauline Order was worked up by Emil Kisbán,

27 however, his accuracy is questionable in many ways. At the same time, his work is part of the research as well, and it perfectly indicates the deficiencies in the professional historical study of the order. These gaps were partly filled by Elemér Mályusz, who, from 1925 onwards, published analytical studies about the source material of the order.

28 In 1945,

29 and, in strong inherence with this, thirty years later, in 1971,

30 wrote down his ideas about the history and organization of the order. His essays are still noted as remarkable pieces of the scholarly discussion. The period after World War II did not favor studies of ecclesiastical orders, very few publications 21 Elenchus, 1970. 22 Ádám, 1878, 1883, 1886a. 23 Rupp, 1870. 24 Molnár, 1936. 25 Szabó, 1940. 26 About the history of its research, see: Bencze-Szekér, 1993. 27 Kisbán, 1938-1940. 28 Mályusz, 1925. 29 Mályusz, 1945. 30 Mályusz, 1971.