Századok – 2002
Tanulmányok - Csukovits Enikő: Bűn és bűnhődés. Vezeklő zarándoklatok a középkori Magyarországon II/303
326 CSUKOVITS ENIKŐ Thydricus son of Arnold and other things. The murder was committed by Hermannus Bank, who consequently had to make a pilgrimage with three companions to Rome, thence to Bari and then back to Rome again. From the Eternal City two of his companions were allowed to return home, but the remaining two had to go on to Compostela and finally to Aachen. Most of our sources consist in agreements made before the authorities of different towns, preserved by the Stadtbücher. The most urban pilgrimages (among them the earliest) have been preserved by the town-book of Selmecbánya, but similar cases can also be found in those of Besztercebánya, Pressburg and and Zagreb as well as in two charters issued in Sopron. On the basis of the known sources it can be safely concluded that the practice of penitential pilgrimage was known and widely used in medieval Hungary. A basic precondition of the pilgrimage was the agreement between the interested parties. The agreement was generally concluded by the closest kinsmen of the victim with the culprit himself. The peace was mediated by arbitrators, the fulfilment of the obligations defined as the preconditions of the settlement frequently being guaranteed by warrantors. The latter took on considerable responsibility, for in the case of the culprit's failing to carry out one of his obligations, they were bound to act as substitutes, and thus to pay the blood money or make a pilgrimage to one of the remote shrines in Europe. The agreement was put to writing by the local authority before which the opposing parties had come to terms. In the towns it was customary for the culprit to be deleted from the town-book for his crime. Generally a deadline was also set for the pilgrim, and sometimes even the day of departure was defined. The two destinations most frequently preferred were Rome and Aachen. Rome was determined as a place to be visited in 38 cases out of 44, whereas Aachen was set as a destination for 24 culprits. The farthest shrine, that of Compostela, had to be visited by three murderers. A destination within Hungary is mentioned by a single source, whose importance lays precisely in its mere existence. For the occurrence of Bâta among the destinations shows that Hungarian shrines were also used for penitential purposes, although obviously only the sites of general reputation could be used in this respect. The most spectacular part of the long procedure required from penitent pilgrims was the public act of asking pardon, during which the culprit, followed by his kinsmen, and dressed in the traditional pilgrim's cloths, in a shirt, barefooted and with loosened belt, appeared before the family of the victim to ask remission of his sin. It was also then that the blood money or part of it was handed over. The use of penitential pilgrimage may have been more frequent in some places and communities than elsewhere. It was a regular punishment in urban communities: in 37 cases out of 44 it was before one of the town authorities that the penitential pilgrimage was inflicted on the culprit. Although some noblemen also turn up among the penitential pilgrims, this kind of punishment seems to have been preferred by the urban communities. Among the nobility the ways of avoiding worldly and other-worldly punishment seem to have been more drastically separated. The nobleman who committed a capital sin naturally wanted to secure the redemption of his soul through pious deeds, but the stain on his honour could only be washed off with blood. One of the cornerstones of Hungarian noble mentality was that nobility was based on military virtues. According to the political theory first articulated by Simon of Kéza in the 13th century, if the nobility (nobilitas) corresponded to the nation (natio), it was because it deserved the name by its virtus. This idea is perfectly reflected in the well-known custom which made possible for secular punishments to be redeemed by military service.
