Folia Theologica 3. (1992)
Charles Duggan: Decretal letters to Hungary
DECRETAL LETTERS 19 * * * WH 514a (olim 276), JL 13970 (abc) + 12411 (d), Ferentino, 25 October 1174-10 October 1175. For the complex transmission of the letter in whole or sections, see „Kan. Erg.”, QF 38 (1958), 101-03 no. 115. VII. To recipients in the diocese of Nitra Volentes vos reddere Alexander III to recipients in the diocese of Nitra, on the presentation and institution of chaplains within the diocese The mandate Volentes voí reddere survives only in four English and Anglo-Norman collections — Chelt., Tann., Sang, and 1 Abr., and its transmission raises many problems. No manuscript names the pope who sent the letter, but Tann., Sang, and 1 Abr. have the single word Idem, which refers back to Alexander III, while Chelt. omits the sender’s name and has the problematical heading Niterinensi ecclesie pertinentibus, which had evidently caused the scribe some difficulty. The more recent re-binding of the volume in the British Library confirms the problem, in revealing the same hesitant transcription in a scribal guide-line down the edge of the inner margin —NiteRinesi (? Niterinensi) ecclesie pertinentibus21 Holtzmann recognized the possible corruption of Nitriensis in this reading, identifying Nitra/Neutra, a suffragan of Esztergom, now in Czechoslovakia. But although he would not base an identification on this single dubious reading, the suggestion of Nitra remains a most probable working hypothesis. The letter appears in Sang, within the title De acquirenda et retinenda possessione ecclesiarum et de collusione possessorum punienda. In this letter the pope orders the recipients to show due obedience and reverence to their diocesan bishop; they must not institute chaplains in their churches in his diocese, unless the appointees are first presented to him; and they must answer to him de spiritualibus, and to them de temporalibus. They must observe his interdicts, attend his synods, and answer other lawful 22 22 A similar scribal uncertainty is seen in the corrections and variations in the incipit — the large coloured initial of Volentes has been corrected from Nolentes in Chelt., and the initial N is left uncorrected in Sang.; and nos appears as nos in 1 Abr.
