The Role of the High Clergy of Croatia, Dalmatia And
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Mišo Petrović POPES, PRELATES, PRETENDERS: THE ROLE OF THE HIGH CLERGY OF CROATIA, DALMATIA AND SLAVONIA IN THE FIGHT FOR THE HUNGARIAN THRONE IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY MA Thesis in Medieval Studies Central European University CEU eTD Collection Budapest May 2015 POPES, PRELATES, PRETENDERS: THE ROLE OF THE HIGH CLERGY OF CROATIA, DALMATIA AND SLAVONIA IN THE FIGHT FOR THE HUNGARIAN THRONE IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY by Mišo Petrović (Croatia) Thesis submitted to the Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Master of Arts degree in Medieval Studies. Accepted in conformance with the standards of the CEU. ____________________________________________ Chair, Examination Committee ____________________________________________ Thesis Supervisor ____________________________________________ Examiner ____________________________________________ CEU eTD Collection Examiner Budapest May 2015 POPES, PRELATES, PRETENDERS: THE ROLE OF THE HIGH CLERGY OF CROATIA, DALMATIA AND SLAVONIA IN THE FIGHT FOR THE HUNGARIAN THRONE IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY by Mišo Petrović (Croatia) Thesis submitted to the Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Master of Arts degree in Medieval Studies. Accepted in conformance with the standards of the CEU. ____________________________________________ External Reader CEU eTD Collection Budapest May 2015 POPES, PRELATES, PRETENDERS: THE ROLE OF THE HIGH CLERGY OF CROATIA, DALMATIA AND SLAVONIA IN THE FIGHT FOR THE HUNGARIAN THRONE IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY by Mišo Petrović (Croatia) Thesis submitted to the Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Master of Arts degree in Medieval Studies. Accepted in conformance with the standards of the CEU. ____________________________________________ External Supervisor CEU eTD Collection Budapest May 2015 I, the undersigned, Mišo Petrović, candidate for the MA degree in Medieval Studies, declare herewith that the present thesis is exclusively my own work, based on my research and only such external information as properly credited in notes and bibliography. I declare that no unidentified and illegitimate use was made of the work of others, and no part of the thesis infringes on any person’s or institution’s copyright. I also declare that no part of the thesis has been submitted in this form to any other institution of higher education for an academic degree. Budapest, 20 May 2015 __________________________ Signature CEU eTD Collection Abstract This thesis examines the intricate connections between the popes, the prelates, and the pretenders while considering the roles they played during the succession crises for the Hungarian throne at the beginning and the end of the fourteenth century. The focus is on two succession crisis periods. The first (1290-1310) was a successful attempt by Charles Robert, backed by the Apostolic See, especially Pope Boniface VIII, to claim the throne. The second crisis (1382-1409) was a failed effort of Boniface IX and King Ladislas of Naples to take the throne from King Sigismund. In both cases it was the high clergy that found themselves confronted between their obedience to the pope, and their fealty to the king. Therefore the primary research focus was on the relationship between the pretenders and ecclesiastical structures, but particularly of the prelates of the dioceses of medieval Croatia, Dalmatia and Slavonia and their roles, functions and loyalties that have not been thoroughly researched before. By dividing my work into three chapters I contextualized the connections between the Apostolic See and the various pretenders it supported or confronted, while showing how the development of the election process and the possibilities for papal or royal intervention were used for political purposes, as well as analyzing the position and the role of the prelates within their dioceses. The thesis has revealed that during both aforementioned periods a crisis of the central CEU eTD Collection government occurred which helped spread the papal influence to inner Hungary. The main weapon of controlling the Church was the appointment of the prelate. This development happened within the Church, where the pope came to influence the election process, and very soon after that used it for political purposes. Yet during the first succession crisis the pope was able to achieve a better control over the prelate and his actions, while during the second crisis i this control shifted in favour of the rulers. One key aspect was the formulation of the legitimacy of the pretender the Apostolic See and the prelates supported. During the first period, the legitimacy was successfully disseminated from a single center, enabled by a coordinated effort from Pope Boniface VIII, Charles Robert and the prelates. Yet during the second one, it mostly rested on the individual actions of the prelates, which proved to be unsuccessful. During the succession wars the prelate’s position was weakened because it was shown that to effectively rule his diocese in the times of crises; a prelate had to rely on the help from either the king or the pope. This help mostly arrived with a price. The appendix contains the archontology of prelates of the researched dioceses and gives their short biographies together with the respective sources. CEU eTD Collection ii Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor, Professor Katalin Szende, for her patience, interest, and time she invested into my thesis. Her constructive criticism helped me focus my research and write this thesis. I would also like to thank Thomas Rooney for providing me with many useful comments on improving the thesis. Several people also made this thesis possible: Zsuzsa Reed for carefully proofreading it, Igor Razum for giving me many suggestions on how to improve the thesis, Dejan Zadro for obtaining for me most of my bibliography, Ivan Jeličić and Kristian Bertović for obtaining several unobtainable books, and Antun Nekić for helping me with the idea of the topic. Furthermore, I would like to thank my friends from Zagreb for keeping in constant contact with me, maintaining my morale and providing me with material to laugh. For their spiritual guidance special thanks goes to “Malo vijeće”. But above all, I would like to thank to my mother, my sisters, and my father for the support they provided me all these years. Their unwavering support for me to pursue my dreams has never ceased, and it is because of them that I was able to write this thesis. CEU eTD Collection iii Table of contents Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1. The Apostolic See and the Kingdom of Hungary ......................................................... 9 1. Unam sanctam ....................................................................................................................... 10 2. Placetum regium ................................................................................................................... 17 3. Conclusion to the First Chapter ............................................................................................ 25 Chapter 2. Electio, Translatio, Postulatio ..................................................................................... 27 1. The Period of Papal involvement in Split and Zadar ............................................................ 29 2. The Period of Papal Involvement in Zagreb ......................................................................... 35 3. The Height and Downfall of Papal Provisions ..................................................................... 38 4. Conclusion to the Second Chapter ........................................................................................ 43 Chapter 3. “To the Supreme Pontiff, we Owe Obedience. To the Ruler, we Owe Fealty” .......... 46 1. The Pope and the Prelate....................................................................................................... 47 2. Southern Prelates in the Service of the Pretenders ............................................................... 54 3. Spiritual Leader and Secular Prince ...................................................................................... 61 3. 1. The “Continental” model .............................................................................................. 62 3. 2. The “Coastal” Model .................................................................................................... 67 4. Defining the Legitimacy ....................................................................................................... 70 5. Conclusion to the Third Chapter ........................................................................................... 74 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 76 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................. 81 Appendix 1 – Maps ....................................................................................................................... 88 Appendix 2 – The Archontology of the Prelates .......................................................................... 92