Folia Theologica 3. (1992)
Charles Duggan: Decretal letters to Hungary
6 C. DUGGAN The indispensable starting-point for a study of these letters is the work of Walther Holtzmann, notably in his essays on „Alexander III and Hungary” in 1926, his critical edition of nine Hungarian decretals in 1959,2 and his materials preparatory to a regesta of all decretals in the collections.3 With the publication of the Decretales ineditae saeculi XII in 1982, the age-long process of printing the decretals was brought up to date, including certainly one and probably two previously unprinted letters to Esztergom.4 The purpose of the present paper is to re-consider the corpus of Hungarian decretals in the collections, noting especially their first appearance in the collections and later transmission. A striking feature is the extent to which the Hungarian letters appeared first in English or Anglo-Norman collections, or preserve better texts in them, or were significantly transmitted through them. This feature is above all remarkable in the English Cottonian and Peterhouse collections (which in fact provide about half of all the new texts in the Decretales ineditae). Three Hungarian decretals are discovered only in Cott. and Pet., a further letter is found only in Tanner, Sangermanensis and Abrincensis prima, and a fifth only in Cheltenhamen- sis, Tann., Sang, and 1 Abr. The integrity of a sixth Hungarian decretal is established in Cott., Pet., Tann. and Sang.5 In some letters the historical details or editorial emendations are better in these works, especially in the English and Rouen manuscripts. The trans-channel links between the canonists of Lincoln (and Oxford) and Rouen were doubtless a factor after the translation of Walter of Coutances from Lincoln to Rouen in 1184-85 (conf. 17 November 1184, received in Rouen, March 1185). The letters assembled here are of interest, not only for their immediate contexts, but also for the light thrown on the state of the Hungarian 2 W. HOLTZMANN, „Papst Alexander III. und Ungarn", Ungarische Jahrbücher 6 (1926) 397-426; idem, „XII. századi pápai levelek kánoni gyűjteményekből", Századok 93 (1959) 404-17. 3 In preparation by S. CHODOROW and C. DUGGAN, for the MIC series. 4 Respectively, Decretales ineditae 1603 no. 91: Porro licet, and 169-71: Amara nimis; see part III, below. 5 Cf. below, parts III, Amara nimis and Porro licet, and IX, Licet litteras: in Cott. and Pet. only; part I, Nuntios, in Tann., Sang, and 1 Abr. only; part VII, Volentes vos, in Chelt., Tann., Sang, and 1 Abr. only; part V, Ad apostolice sedis (abcde), sections in many collections, but the integrity of the letter (previously WH 14 + 309, JL15196 + 15213) is established in Cott., Pet., Tann. and Sang.
