C. Tóth Norbert: Az esztergomi székeskáptalan a 15. században, I. rész. A kanonoki testület és az egyetemjárás - Subsidia ad historiam medii aevi Hungariae inquirendam 7. (Budapest, 2015)
A felhasznált irodalom és forráskiadványok, valamint a rövidítések jegyzéke
170 The Cathedral Chapter of Esztergom in the Fifteenth Century based on the five letters of attorney, offering an exceptional possibility to reconstruct the personnel of the Esztergom cathedral chapter, complemented by other related sources, has yielded mixed results. In the decade examined, the majority - 75 per cent - of those holding a benefice could be identified, which, moreover, meant that practically almost the entire possible personnel of the chapter - 1451: 23,1452: 24,1453: 33,1454: 22,1455: 22,1456: 36,1457: 31, 1458: 39, 1459: 39, 1460: 34 — could be reconstructed. With the exception of a handful of them, most of the canons are more than pure names to us. It is also worth emphasising that only a tenth among the 54 known canons are lacking either a family name or a place of origin, and, somewhat surprisingly, all six of these persons shrouded in obscurity were office-holders within the chapter. The personnel of the chapter thus reconstructed, and the chapter itself, were consequently subjected to a manifold investigation, with the involvement of further sources. In the first part I have examined the number of the Esztergom cathedral chapter as well as the seating or ranking order of the canons. I have found that in the 15th century the chapter numbered 40 canons, one place being nominally occupied by the ruler to date as rex canonicus. The chapter of canons was headed by the high provost, followed by three lower provosts (those of Esztergom-Szentgyörgymező, Esztergom-Szentistván and Esztergom-Szenttamás); then came the archdeacons (those of Nyitra, Nógrád, Bars, Hont, Gömör, Komárom, Zólyom and Sasvár). Although the order of precedence of the latter was not fixed, it was clearly not influenced by the chronological sequence of canonical installations. Next in rank beyond the archdeacons stood two rectors of chapel (heading the chapels of the Corpus Christi and Holy Virgin respectively), whose position was determined not by the age or wealth of the chapel itself but by the time of installation of the incumbent canon. After the office-holding canons came twenty-two simple canons. In their case the traditional view of scholarship can be confirmed, namely that while the order of precedence was basically adjusted to the chronological order of canonical installations, in practice it may also have been influenced by factors that remain unknown to us. In the second part I have examined the careers of those 54 canons who possessed a prebend in the period between 1451 and 1460 from different standpoints (family background, church career, accumulation and duration of benefices). The emerging view was, at least for me, surprising and controversial. True, as can be judged from similar rease- arch carried out so far, no great divergences were experienced with regard to other Hungarian chapters in terms of university studies or the number of those who entered the chapter as the result of previous activity as a public notary. In two areas, however, the differences apparently proved fairly significant. Nearly a quarter of the canons boasted a university degree — it was these persons who, having completed their university studies and obtained their degrees in the last phase of king Sigismund's reign, thanks partly to the disappearence of the preceding generation, gradually entered the highest ranking dignities within the chapter in the late 1440s and early 1450s. Yet
