Dr. Péter Balázs: Guide to the archives of Hungary (Budapest, 1976)

A Váci Püspökség Levéltára (Vác Episcopal Archives)

The archival material totals 320 running metres. The most ancient record dates from 1289 (in a later copy). A source material of outstanding value is a monument of the Turkish times, a Memoriale led from the 1560s, describing the situation of the parishes of the diocese. The archival material beginning in the 1700s has been divided into 192 "fontes", following each other without any logical order. The journals of the canonical visitations (1673-1892) are not only the sources of ecclesiastical history in 24 volumes, but also a treasure of the populational, economic, social and art history of the period. The material of the first visitation (1673-1674) is a copy of the original, preserved in Vienna. Populational, economic, religious and cultural data on the diocese are found in the tables made at the occasion of the Visitationes liminum Apostolicorum (17121856), the conscriptions of parish revenues (1700-1855), the ecclesiastical censuses (1769-1920), the conscriptions of parishes and pastors ordered by Joseph II (1782-1788), the lists of the capital of parishes and religious houses (1783), the accounts of parishes (1854-1859), finally the statistical tables drafted by the various parishes (1922-1938). Records on the foundations (1780-1949) and on the "congrua" of the poorer clergymen (1885-1942) occupy separate groups. In connection with the government of the diocese various "fontes" contain the papal bulls, brevia and mandata (1721-1848), the correspondence with the Roman Curia directly, later through the nuncio of Vienna, or Budapest, respectively (1856-1943), the episcopal circulars and the drafts of the publications in the official diocesan bulletins (1782-1849), the records on the foreign and local missions (1873-1931), the Catholic autonomy (1848-1866), the district assemblies of the archdeacons (1761-1809), the diocesan synods (1821, 1848, 1858), the cathedral chapter (1723-1935), the cult of the orthodox Greeks (1725-1789), the activity of the Actio catholica (1943-1947), the printing permission of religious books (1786-1945), the ecclesiastical jurisdiction (1748-1944). For cultural history the wills of clergymen and the probate records (1710-1947) are significant. Other "fontes" contain the affairs of Catholic institutions and associations, so the religious orders of the diocese (1720-1949), the episcopal seminary (1720-1946), the admission to the seminary (1760-1920), the Pension Institute of Priests (1876-1945), the Institute for Deaf and Dumb (19001926), the Vác Public School (1898-1931) and the various religious corporations (eighteenth century). Records on schools form a separate body in the archives (1736-1948).