Saint Gerard of Cenad

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Saint Gerard of Cenad: Tradition and Innovation Saint GerardofCenad Tradition andInnovation Claudiu Mesaroș, ClaudiuCălin Trivent Publishing Edited by Saint Gerard of Cenad Tradition and Innovation

Edited by Claudiu Mesaroș, Claudiu Călin

Trivent Publishing, 2015

Series: 2015 Philosophy, Communication, Media Sciences

Volume: Saint Gerard of Cenad: Tradition and Innovation

Cover illustration: Anjou Legendarium

Trivent Publishing 1119 Budapest, Etele út 59–61. Hungary

ISBN 978–615–80340–2-9 Table of Contents

Introduction ...... 5 Claudiu Mesaroș, Claudiu Călin

THE SOURCES AND WORK OF SAINT GERARD

Socrates and the Theory of Virtues in the Deliberatio supra hymnum trium puerorum by Gerard of Cenad ...... 8 Claudiu Mesaroș Mind and Religious Experience in Saint Gerard of Cenad ...... 23 Ionuţ Mladin Saint Gerard of Cenad and the Intellectual Disputes of the Year 1000 ...... 30 Gabriela Tănăsescu

THE AGE OF SAINT GERARD

L’Église et l’État en Hongrie dans la première moitié du XIe siècle, avec un regard spécial sur Legenda Sancti Gerardi et Deliberatio ...... 44 Remus Mihai Feraru Considerations Regarding the Beneficial Policy Led by the Popes ofAvignon in the Diocese of Cenad in the Fourteenth Century ...... 65 Răzvan Mihai Neagu The Medieval Idea of Legitimacy and the King’s Two Bodies ...... 85 Lorena Stuparu

SAINT GERARD AND THE MODERNITY

Saint Gerard in the Serbian Textbooks of the 19th Century ...... 97 Svetozar Boškov The Bollandists’ Life of Saint Gerard ...... 103 Boris Stojkovski

THE HERITAGE OF SAINT GERARD

Bishop Augustin Pacha (1870–1954). The Years of Imprisonment and His Release Shortly before His Death ...... 116 Claudiu Călin Die Rolle des hl. Gerhard im sozio-kulturellen Leben der Banater Christen . . . . . 132 Franz Metz Western Biblical Studies in the Work of Roman-Catholic and Orthodox Theologians 1867 – 1918 ...... 140 Alin Cristian Scridon

Catholic Priests from the Diocese of Csanád in the Hungarian Revolution and the War of Independence (1848 – 1849) ...... 146 Péter Zakar Der Widerstand gegen Rechtsextremismus: Die antitotalitäre Haltung der Banater Eliten in der Zwischenkriegszeit ...... 153 Mihai A . Panu Christening Names in Cenad ...... 163 Dușan Baiski Christological Accents in “The Lives of Saints” and Their Impact in the Social and Religious Formation of Believers . . . . . 174 Iacob Coman The Metropolitan Bishop and Academy Member Nicolae Corneanu (1923 – 2014). Patristic Scholar and Tireless Promoter of the Inter-Religious Dialogue . . . . 183 Ionel Popescu

4 Introduction

The Saint Gerard of Cenad International Symposium, Second Edition “Saint Gerard of Cenad: Tradition and Innovation”

Claudiu Mesaroș, Claudiu Călin

The papers in this volume are the result of the second edition of the Saint Gerard of Cenad In- ternational Symposium, ”Saint Gerard of Cenad: Tradition and Innovation,” held in Timișoara between November 13th and 14th 2014 and organized by the West University of Timișoara (the Faculty of Political Sciences, Philosophy and Communication Sciences); the Centre for Research in the Historiography of Philosophy and the Philosophy of the Imaginary; and the Roman-Catholic Diocese of Timișoara, under the high patronage of His Excellency Mar- tin Roos, Roman-Catholic Bishop of Timișoara, Doctor Honoris Causa of Fulda University, Germany . we express our gratitude to his Excellency for the precious help and good will in supporting our symposium, as the direct successor of Saint Gerard at the diocese of Timișoara. The life of Saint Gerard of Cenad was recorded in two medieval sources known as Leg- enda Minor and Legenda Maior, both later compilations of an earlier lost version. Although for centuries the information in the two biographical sources was taken for granted, recent research has shown that their hagiographical character is highly relevant and historical data should be reconsidered. Gerard was a Benedictine monk of Venetian origin, deeply involved in the Christianisa- tion of Pannonia and Banat and in paideic acts; as the first bishop of the Diocese of Cenad, he organized the province, built a school, and debated on the relation between spiritual instruction and devotional life, fully aware of the philosophical features of his own time, such as the debate between the dialecticians and anti-dialecticians, or the status of reason for the Christian effort of approaching God. The only extant work of Saint Gerard, the Deliberatio supra hymnum trium puerorum ad Isingrimum Liberalem, survived in only one copy (München Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 6211) and was edited for the first time in 1790 by the Bishop Ignatius Batthyány of Alba Iulia, who added to it a scholastic introductory study and named Gerard a philosopher. The Deliberatio appears as a work of biblical hermeneutic pertaining in a context when the distinction between theology and philosophy was a matter of moral profile and sanctity, and not as much a problem of method or argumentative discourse: for Gerard, the hermeneutical tools taught by authors such as Aristotle, Plato or the donatist Tychonius, were equally valid to the extent that their user was a follower of the amor vitae and considered Saint Peter a philosopher model.

5 Claudiu Mesaroș, Claudiu Călin

The importance of this work is enormous. It was the first text written on the territory of today’s Romania, edited seven centuries later in Alba Iulia by the Transylvanian Bishop Ignatius Batthyány, and re-edited in the twentieth century twice. Only one partial translation of the text exists in Romania which dates from 1984. However, it is selective and repressive to the original text. The academic research of the original Deliberatio is therefore mandatory not only for the Romanian academia but also for the Central European researchers in general. During the first edition of the Saint Gerard of Cenad International Symposium, we en- couraged academics to get involved in studying the little-known work of St. Gerard of Cenad, Deliberatio supra hymnum trium puerorum ad Isingrimum Liberalem. It was a great success which resulted in valuable contributions to the volume Filosofia Sfantului Gerard in context cultural si biografic (The Philosophy of Saint Gerard in cultural and biographical context) Claudiu Mesaroș (ed.), Szeged, Jate Press, 2013. We continued the study of Saint Gerard and his work which resulted in this second volume of contributions. The second edition aimed to explore the subject on a deeper level and to enlarge the perspectives on the life and work of Gerard. Following the proposals made by the participants to the first edition, we broadened the perspectives of investigation on St. Gerard’s work, life, and heritage. The symposium was open to interdisciplinary debates and a large variety of subjects: theology, hagiography, philosophy, history of science and intellectual history, local and ecclesiastical history, philology, cultural geography and cultural studies, classical and medieval studies, palaeography, archaeology, arts, history of arts and musicology, which could range from the Early Middle Ages to modern times. We are honoured to mention the participants, although some of them could not contribute with their full papers, but hopefully will in the future editions: Előd Nemerkényi, OTKA Budapest: The Classical Tradition and the Deliberatio of Bishop Saint Gerard of Csanad; Cristian Gașpar, Central European University Budapest: Through a Glass, Darkly: St. Gerard of Morisena in the Distorting Mirror of Hagiography; Béla Zsolt Szakács, Cen- tral European University Budapest: The Spatial Organization of the Medieval Cult of Saint Gerard; Boris Stojkovski, University of Novi Sad: The Bollandist’ Life of Saint Gerard; Svetozar Boškov, University of Novi Sad: Saint Gerard of Cenad and Banat in the Serbian Textbooks of the 19th Century; Nicoleta Demian, Museum of Banat Timișoara: “Under the sign of Clio.” The Activity of Some Roman-Catholic Clerics in the Society of History and Archaeology in Southern Hungary (1872–1918); Gabriela Tănăsescu, Romanian Academy Bucharest: Saint of Gerard Cenad and the Intellectual Disputes of the Year 1000; Coman Iacob, Institutul Teologic Penticostal Bucharest: Christological Accents in the “Lives of Saints” and their Impact in the Social and Religious Formation of Believers; Ramona Băluțescu, Oradea Press: Two Visits to the Church of Santa Maria e San Donato from Mu- rano, at the Relicts of St . Gerard; Radu Cernătescu, Universita degli Studi di Milano: The Birth of “Occult Egypt” Theme in Medieval Theology; Franz Metz, Gerhardsforum: Die Rolle des hl. Gerhard im sozio-kulturellen Leben der Banater Christen; Felician Rosca, West University of Timișoara: Musique et les vaisseaux de Tăuteni; Péter Zakar, University of Szeged: Catholic Priests from the Diocese of Csanád in the Hungarian Revolution and the War of Independence (1848 – 1849); Doina Hendre Biro, Batthyaneum National Library Alba Iulia: Contributions of Bishop Ignàc Batthyány (1741–1798) to the Study of Church History. His Manuscript «Sancti Gerardi episcopi Chanadiensis Scripta et Acta inedita, cum serie episcoporum Chanadiensium», Preserved in the Batthyaneum Library in Alba

6 Introduction

Iulia; Mircea Măran, Training College “Mihailo Palov” Vrsac: Gheorghe Mocioni and the Castle in Vlajkovac; Dorel Micle, West University of Timișoara: Cenad in the Context of the Medieval Defence System of the Banat Plain; Călin Timoc, West University of Timișoara: Christian Buildings on the Lower Mureş River in Light of the Archaeological Information (11th-13th centuries); Feraru Remus Mihai, West University of Timișoara: Église, royauté et héresie en Hongrie dans la première moitié du XIe siècle; Mihai Panu, West University of Timișoara: Alternative Diplomacy and the Political Role of the Clerical Elites: The Ro- man Catholic Church as an Ideological Counterforce in the Interwar Banat; Răzvan Mihai Neagu, Technical College Turda: Considerations regarding the Beneficial Policy Led by the Popes of Avignon in the Diocese of Cenad in the 14th Century; Ramona Lorena Stuparu, Romanian Academy Bucharest: The Medieval Idea of the Legitimacy and the Two Bodies of the King; Florin Lobonț, West University of Timișoara: Anselm – An Anti-Cartesian Ally of the British Idealists; Ionuț Mladin, West University of Timișoara: Mind and Religious Experience in St . Gerard of Cenad; Claudiu Mesaroș, West University of Timișoara: The Cosmic Harmony in Gerard of Cenad; Alin Cristian Scridon, West University of Timișoara: Western Biblical Studies in the Works of Roman - Catholic and Orthodox Theologians from Banat. 1867–1918; Claudiu Călin, Roman-Catholic Diocese of Timișoara: Bishop Augustin Pacha (1870–1954). The Years of Imprisonment and his Release Shortly before his Death; Dușan Baiski, Banaterra Association: Christening Names in Cenad; Ramona Băluțescu, Oradea Press: How did St. Istvan, the Disciple of St. Gerard, Become an Orthodox Saint?. A special point is the contribution of Father Ionel Popescu, administrative vicar of the Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese of Timișoara, dedicated to the memory of the Orthodox Metropolitan Archbishop of Banat and member of the Romanian Academy Dr. Nicolae Corneanu (1923–2014). He was one of the most beloved personalities in Timișoara because of his ecumenical and inter-religious open-mindedness, as well as his permanent dialogue with all the Christian confessions in Banat, including the Jewish community. The Metropolitan Corneanu was also a high-class intellectual, with solid preoccupations for the Patristic literature, and that is, in our opinion, an argument for Ionel Popescu to consider the late hierarch among the followers of the spirit of Saint Gerard. The members of the organizing committee were: Claudiu Mesaroș (West University of Timișoara); Claudiu Călin (Roman-Catholic Diocese of Timișoara); Teodora Artimon (Central European University, Budapest); Cristian Nicolae Gașpar (Central European Uni- versity, Budapest); Constantin Jinga (West University of Timișoara). Media partnership was offered by Ramona Băluțescu (Oradea Press). Special thanks go to Teodora Artimon and Monika Jetzin from Trivent Publishing for their inestimable help in organizing the event and in preparing the papers. My colleagues and students who supported and offered a helping hand are deeply cherished.

7 Claudiu Mesaroș Socrates and Theory of Virtues in the Deliberatio supra hymnum trium puerorum by Gerard of Cenad

Claudiu Mesaroș

The aim of this paper is to investigate one of the philosophical directions of Gerard of Cenad’s Deliberatio, namely, the link between acknowledging Isidore of Seville’s suggestion that Socrates was responsible for giving the subject of cardinal virtues to philosophy, in their turn important for the development of Gerard’s discourse, and the further development of Gerard’s discourse on virtues, more precisely, his identification of the cardinal and theological ones, as in István Bejczy’s hypothesis.

Keywords: Gerard of Cenad; Socrates; theological virtues; cardinal virtues; medieval philosophy; charisms.

I. Introduction The Deliberatio supra hymnum triorum puerorum ad Isingrumum liberalem raises essential questions regarding its functioning in the cultural context, philosophical sources and especially the personal way, if any, Gerard relates himself to certain historical figures he often mentions such as Aristotle, Plato, and others. There are many places he mentions and even makes judgments on ancient philosophers and yet we are aware his knowledge on them was only indirect and most probably dependant on Isidore of Seville’s Etymologoies (Nemerkényi, 2004). The title of the Deliberatio is disputed as well. At the beginning of Book II Gerard himself makes us expect an “educated deliberation” (eruditam deliberatio- nem), a judgment that should not be trivially criticized (et discurse non potest, quemadmodum nec oportet, examinari inexaminatis taxationibus praecipue ad eruditam deliberatio- nem...). It seems to announce a hermeneutical endeavor but it could as well be a deliberatio in the sense of epichereme . If we are to take Isidore’s Etymologies as the main source for Gerard’s text, as it it the case, then it is important to note that deliberatio was, for Isidore, a kind of epichereme . Here is what Isidore says at 2.9.7; 16–1 in his Etymologies: “7. There are two types of inference. First is the enthymeme (enthymema) ... The second is the epichireme (epichirema), a non-rhetorical, broader syllogism. (...) 16. ... epichireme, deriving from inference as broader and more developed than rhetorical syllogisms, distinct in breadth and in length of utterance from logical syllogisms, for which reason it is given to the rhetoricians. This consists of three types: the first, of three parts; the second, of four parts; the third, of five parts. (...) 18. The five-part type accordingly has five members: first the major premise, second its proof, third the minor premise, fourth its proof, fifth the conclusion. Cicero puts it thus in his art of rhetoric (On Invention 1.9): “If deliberation (deliberatio) and demonstration (demonstratio) are kinds of arguments (causa), they cannot rightly be considered parts of any one kind of argument – for the same thing can be a kind of one thing and part of another, but not a kind and a part of the same thing,” and so forth,

8 Socrates and theory of virtues in the Deliberatio supra hymnum trium puerorum . . up to the point where the constituents of this syllogism are concluded.” 1 Deliberatio could mean then, as in Cicero’s definition taken after Isidore, a broader and more developed form of inference, consisting in five parts: major premise, proof, minor premise, proof, conclusion. Gerard will most probably try to follow Ciceronian structure in his own Deliberatio, which means Gerard’s work is an intentional rhetorical structure of syllogistic composition, where each premise is tested before attempting any conclusion. It is obvious that the abundant Biblical quotations play most times this role of proofing different premises in the text; also, massive chunks of text from Isidore of Seville’s Ety- mologies might have the same function most of the times. The text should be able to offer interesting surprises from this regard. Gerard’s sources of education are not clearly known; his early studies in Venice have been polemically disputed especially after Gabriel Silagi’s edition of the Deliberatio,2 On these grounds, Ronald Witt3 argues that no solid evidence of schools in Veneto existed in Gerard’s times, although some suppositions might be made since serious stylistic practice can be found in different compositions of the time. Assuming the realism of the passage in Deliberatio 41 (“In Platone quippe disputationes quondam apud Galliam constitutus quasdam de Deo Hebraeorum confidenter fateor me legisse et de caelestibus animis”), Witt says,4 after Silagi, that Gerard encountered Chalcidius’s translation of Plato’s Timaeus, probably other texts as well, while visiting or living in Francia; presumably, no similar richness and not even sufficient quantity of writing support were available for him afterwards in Hungary (as another presumed realistic note in Delibeatio goes: “Multa dici possunt, sed penuria scriptorum atque membranorum non patitur.” – Book VIII, 177).5 As the influence of Denis the Areopagyte is concerned, it is clear that he had direct access to the Latin translation of the Corpus Areopagiticum.6 The cult of Denis had spread as far as England before the eleventh century;7 on the continent, a more lively tradition of copying and studying Denis and Eriugena had developed much before Gerard and therefore it was not uncommon during his time to use Denis in Eriugena’s translation as a preferred source for biblical interpretation.

1 Stephen Barney, W. J. Lewis, J. A. Beach, Oliver Berghof, The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville (Cambridge: University Press, 2006, 72. From now on we will be referring to the Etymologies in the text, giving only the annotations from this edition and abbreviated as Etym . 2 Gabriel Silagi, Gerard of Csanád . Deliberatio supra hymnum trium puerorum CCCM 49 (Turn- hout: Brepols, 1978). 3 Ronald G. Witt, The Two Latin Cultures and the Foundation of Renaissance Humanism in Medi- eval Italy (Cambidge: University Press, 2012), 134–135. 4 Ibidem, 135. 5 We will be referring to Gerard’s text by the number of the Liber from now on (Book I to Book VIII), in the text. The text is that of Gabriel Silagi, Gerard of Csanád, corroborated with the edition: Ignatius Batthyány, Sancti Gerardi episcopi Chanadiensis scripta et acta hactenus inedita cum serie episcoporum Chanadiensium. (Albae-Carolinae. 1790). 6 More on this in Előd Nemerkényi, Latin Classics in Medieval Hungary 11th Century. (Budapest: Central European University Press, 2004), 73–156. 7 Luscombe, “The reception of the writings of Denis the pseudo-Areopagite”, in Tradition and Change: Essays in Honour of Marjorie Chibnall. (ed. D. Greenway, Ch. Holdsworth, J. Sayers, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985, 115–144), 125–6.

9 Claudiu Mesaroș

II. Why Christians should praise Socrates

Gerard mentions Socrates only once, at the beginning of Book IV, in a very dense philosophical passage, together with Gorgias, Aristotle, Hermagoras, Tulius, Quintilianus, Tha- les of Miletus, Varro, and Plato. The passage discusses one of the most constant explicit philosophical subjects of Deliberatio, that is, the relation between the wisdom of academic (pagan) philosophers and the wisdom of uneducated practitioners of Christian virtues, having Saint Apostle Peter as supreme model. Book IV starts with a digression regarding the method of discourse, asking whether we should prefer straight and direct investigation of the text to be interpreted according to its internal order and disposition, or we should rather prefer amplifications and digressions of style. Gerard will continue using a digressive style, this fourth book probably being the richest in philosophical subjects. He will discuss about pagan philosophers’ merits as a figure ofdeliberatio in the Cicero- nian sense discussed above, that is, by establishing a proof for one of his premises. First he makes some clarifications on the relational meaning of benedictio and laus, as they appear both in Dan. 3,6, with reference to the Divine powers (“Benedicite – ait – omnes virtutes Domini Domino”) and in the Psalms of David, which are called laudis; Gerard admits their similitude (“vera benedictio, id est eterna laus”) and will consequently be driven to the necessary question regarding whom we can praise. Gerard quotes the sacred text in Romans 12.14, which says: “Benedicite persequentibus vos, benedicite, et nolite maledicere” and asks whether we are to be praising creatures of God even if some of them persecute us. The answer seems to be affirmative in some way, to the extent that we are not praising humans as such, according to their corrupted and mortal nature (tantum mortales) but their beautiful spirits (“pulchra ingenia”). This discussion is more meaningful to the extent that Gerard is not simply taking here the concept laus from the Etymologies of Isidore (2.4.5.: “Demonstrative argument ... has two species: laus and vituperatio”), but is bringing the theological relation of laus-benedictio to help his purpose. In other terms, Gerard surely had the description of Isidore in front of his eyes but considered important to clarify the theological laus in turn. In the same Book IV he will say that we must praise (laus) pagan philosophers for their spirit (ingenium) and merit (iure) as divine creations, as every human person was gifted by God: “Laudare itaque antiquorum ingenia et iure debemus;” still, they must not be blessed. Benedictio (blessing) is not suited for them; we should not bless (and here Gerard is using lists from Isidorus of Seville’s Eymologies, 2) Gorgias, Aristotle, Hermagoras, Tullius, and Quintilianus, the inventors and translators of rhetoric. Should we rather bless Thales of Miletus, the first researcher of nature, or Varo, for distinguishing the two noble disciplines of dialectic and rhetoric, showing their finality? Should we bless Plato, for dividing Physics in four (arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy)? These rhetorical questions impose severe limits: for all their merits, pagan philosophers must only be praised. This is the place when Socrates is mentioned for his own specific and important merits, namely, for instituting moral dispute in searching for the good life (bene vivendi) and especially the four cardinal virtues (“animae virtutibus”): prudence, fortitude, temperance, and justice (prudentia, fortitudine, temperantia, iustitia).

10 Socrates and theory of virtues in the Deliberatio supra hymnum trium puerorum . .

III. Socrates and the divisions of Philosophy in Gerard

Logic was added added to Ethics, for the reason of investigating the rationality of moral discourse, and was then divided in Dialectic and Rhetoric. Thus the three divisions of Phi- losophy are, following Isidore of Seville’s Etymologties 2.24.3: Physics, Ethics and Logic, all grounded, Gerard admits, on the Scriptures. The Genesis and The Ecclesiast are physical, The Proverbs is ethical and The Epithalamium (Canticum Canticorum) is logical (see Etymologies, 2.24.8), in the sense of rhetoric, just discussed, as Isidore says (Etym . 1.39.18) that “epithalamiums (epithalamium) are wedding songs, which are sung by rhetoricians in honour of the bride and groom.” As the divisions of philosophy are concerned, Gerard follows Isidore and associates Thales, the first physics investigator, with Socrates, inventor of ethics, and Varro, as seen above, for his definition of Logic.8 In fact, Gerard is discussing logic twice, quoting two different passages from Isidore. First, he quotes Etymologies 2.23.1–2 when he says that Varro defined rhetoric and dialectic: “et Varro, qui nobiles geminas disciplinas definiendo sic distinguere dignatus est dicens, quod altera ab altera in manu hominis pugnus adstrictus et palma distensa . Una verba contrahens, alia distendens . Una ad disserendum acutior, altera ad ea, quae nititur instruenda, facundior . Una ad coessentes, alia ad forenses procedit . Quarum una studiosos requirit rarissimos, altera facundissimos populous.” Then a few lines lower he quotes Etymologies 2.24.7 when saying that the twin disciplines of dialectic and rhetoric were added to Socrates’ ethics: “subiungens logicam, quae rationalis vocatur, per quam discursis rerum morumque causis uim earum rationabiliter perscrutatus dividens eam in supra praedictas geminas disciplinas, dialecticam utique et rhetoricam.” Merits for logic are shared in a vague manner between Plato and Varro, whereas Thales and Socrates have priority in natural science respectively ethics, as Gerard is able to learn from Isidore. Nevertheless, it is important to note that Gerard is not commenting nor criticizing Isidore but rather takes him as unique and granted information source.

IV. Socrates, cardinal and theological virtues Although Socrates is only mentioned once in the Deliberatio, the context plays a crucial role in identifying some biases and hermeneutical directions for Gerard’s text in general. As seen before, Gerard considers Socrates as the father of ethics and especially the origi- nator of the cardinal virtues theory. The fragment reads as follows: “tuusque Socrates, ad corrigendos mores componendos primus instituens et ad omne studium eius bene vivendi disputationem perducens eamque in quattuor virtutibus animae dividens, nimirum prudentia, iustitia, fortitudine, temperantia, subiungens logicam, quae rationalis vocatur, per quam discursis rerum morumque causis uim earum rationabiliter perscrutatus dividens eam in supra praedictas geminas disciplinas, dialecticam utique et rhetoricam, in quibus tribus generibus philosophiae etiam divina eloquia tota a peritis constare vi- dentur” (Deliberatio, IV). The text is taken from Isidore again (Etym ., 2.24.5–6), but only in part. Gerardus is

8 David Lindberg, The Beginnings of Western Science: The European Scientific Tradition in Philo- sophical, Religious, and Institutional Context, Prehistory to A.D. 1450 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992), 137. See also: Etym., 2.23.

11 Claudiu Mesaroș not copying the meaning of cardinal virtues as in Isidore’s text but we may suppose he is assuming them. In the Etymologies they are described as follows: “6. Prudence (prudentia) has to do with how the bad is distinguished from the good in affairs. Fortitude (fortitudo), how adversity may be borne with equanimity. Temperance (temperantia), how passion and the desire for things may be reined in. Justice (iustitia), how to each is distributed his own by right judging.” The most interesting fact about these passages is not what Gerard does to Socrates, as he is actually not doing anything besides taking notes from Isidore, but the way he associates Socrates with the cardinal virtues and, via cardinal, to the theological virtues. Gerard takes part to a tradition, starting with the eleventh century, of associating cardinal virtues with theological virtues in a manner that is entirely new. Before the eighth century, in the works of Ambrose, Jerome and Augustine, it was assumed that faith brings virtues with it and therefore cardinal virtues were secondary in respect to the Christian faith; on the contrary, early medieval thinkers such as Peter Damian and John of Fecamp, got to re-evaluate this ancient association and started praying to God to confer both cardinal and theological virtues upon naming God largitor et conseruator uirtutum, urging for the need to live by the cardinal virtues in order to receive full faith and grace from God.9 Subscribing to this re-discovery of ancient association, Gerard of Cenad and his contemporary John of Fruttuaria (or Iohannes Homo Dei, +1049) assume the cardinal virtues and theological virtues as similarly essential for Christians. In his De ordine vitae, Iohannes defines virtues directly according to Isidore of Seville’s De differentiis, then explains that the four cardinal virtues are primary in our instruction and must be taught in adolescence, augmented in young adulthood and perfected at a mature age. They are called “weapons” or “chariot of the four virtues,” that must be well steered (“bene rege hanc quadrigam virtutum, et sede in ea firmus, ut isto vehiculo vehi altius”) by the soldier of faith so that finally he will enter God’s three-roomed house and receive the theological virtues. Iohannes calls cardinal virtues intermediary (virtutes mediae), because they can be used well or badly, therefore are corruptible, but still essential for our development as they prepare humans to receive the theological virtues: faith, hope and charity.10 Cardinal virtues became usually associated with theological virtues in later authors, such as the next generation’s Guibert of Nogent (1055–1125/6), who, based on the model of Gregory, presents the four cardinal virtues as essential spiritual qualities that make humans similar to God by destroying sins.11 Gerard of Cenad wrote his Deliberatio during the approximately same time with Io- hannes Homo Dei and we find many similarities between the two. The most important resemblance is the unification of the cardinal virtues (prudence, fortitude, temperance, and justice) with theological virtues (faith, hope, and charity) under one single edifice and arguing in different ways for some kind of efficiency of cardinal virtues: as long as we cultivate our “chariot” of four, it will transform our condition and turn us into saints. Therefore, the claim goes, it is the cardinal virtues that bring about the theological virtues and not vice- versa, as the simple but virtuous life is a condition for spiritual ascension. The fourth book of the Deliberatio is dedicated to discussing the meaning of virtus, as the

9 István Bejczy, The Cardinal Virtues in the Middle Ages: A Study in Moral Thought from the Fourth to the Fourteenth Century (Leiden: Brill, 2011), 44; 47. 10 Ibidem, 45–46. 11 Ibidem, 43.

12 Socrates and theory of virtues in the Deliberatio supra hymnum trium puerorum . . last sentence of the third Book announces (de virtutibus in quarta denuntiatione disputare adoriamur), but we will discuss separately the multiple usages of the word “virtus” in Gerard. A. Simple life as a virtue In Book I, Gerard interprets the biblical three young boys as signifying all the persons who offer help to the weaker, live a simple life like the Apostles and decorate themselves with the acts of virtues: “et simplicem vitam expetunt, ut apostoli fecerunt, virtutum decori redduntur operibus” (Deliberatio, Book I). There are many more places in the text where Gerard considers the simple life of the uneducated as virtuous in itself and able to raise the subject to a superior understanding of God. Every human, we read again in the Book III, who abandons vices and cupidity for the virtuous deeds, must be named celestial and not terrestrial because they truly live a celestial life, even if they have a corrupt body that tends to tear them down: “Omnes, qui relictis viti- is et cupiditatibus ad infernos animas mergentibus in virtutum actionibus versantur unici Domini nostri sequentes exemplum, caelestes et non terreni dicendi, in caelo vero, non in mundo, quamquam terrena aggraventur habitatione corpore adstricti corruptivo” (Book III). They are the true servants of God (in Book VIII: “servi Dei, qui se regit ad virtutes et non ad vitia”). Such simple men are elected by God to receive illumination. It is the case of Peter for example. St. Peter is the master model for the simple practitioner whose faith is built on cardinal virtues and finally receives understanding of divine wisdom. Along with Saint Peter, Moses is another figure who was empowered by God. In the Vulgata, he is said to have had a face of horn (“cornutus in facie”), and therefore the entire church is seen through Moses’ horns in Book VIII, being given virtue and power in order to frighten its enemies (“Cornua virtutem et potentiam demonstrant;” “cornua virtute divina;” “Exaltabuntur cornua iusti”). In David’s house, God erected horns (“In hac quippe domo cornu erexit”) and so by His virtue it was enlarged to comprise the whole world (“dum sua virtute et potentia per totum mundum usquequaque illam dilatavit”). In consequence, just like in the later case of Peter, God will erect His church on Moses: “Si exaltatur ecclesiae cornu, id est virtus sibi data a Christo essendi, ubi Christus est” (Book VIII). B. Virtue as power to share the divine word with others The hermeneutic of the sacred text presupposes that there is an ability of the interpreter to share the meaning of the text with the others. The interpreter’s act is blessed by God and the reader himself is one of the perfectores, forerunners of faith, a bishop. In Book III, we encounter a paragraph where Gerard says that, due to the ignorance of the mortals, there are many who speak successfully to the crowds although their word is not according to the divine wisdom. At the same time, the real wisdom is hidden among the saints. Still, we can take distance from the teachings of these tricky “stulti sapientes” and share wisdom with the many according to some intrinsic virtue “circa virtutem impertiamur” (Book III), and, of course, according to the mystery of the Divine power. The prologue to Book VI, announces that we are expected to understand the core of the song that is not captured neither in literary forms nor in the philosophers’ medium [terms], but has a virtue of its own (“ubique diffusum in toto enim et a toto, ipsumque totum, medium vero, a quo prima et media et ultima, longe a philosophorum mediis, quamquam sua virtute haec”). This virtue rests on the Spirit which is the aim of faith; there is a beautiful phrase that could serve as a motto to the present paragraph as well:

13 Claudiu Mesaroș

“Fides non quaerit tumorem eloquii, sed spiritus virtutem – Faith does not search for the flourishing of eloquence but to the virtue of spirit” (Book VI). Gerard is seeing himself as an authority obliged to transmit the sacred word and this is how he takes his hermeneutical endeavour on the Song of the Three Young Boys: according to the virtue (“circa virtutem” – Book VI). And, when ending Book VII, he concludes once more: “I have not followed the murmurs of the orators nor the deliriums of the rhetoricians, who merely imitate the beauty of the word but not the power of the mysteries” (Book VII). In the same book, the mysteries are called “gifts given to the Church” (”virtutum inenarrabilium Dei munera ecclesiae condonata” – Book VII). C. Virtue as divine power: creation, order and restoration Another sense of virtue regards the divine power, most of the times with the meaning of creative power. We encounter interesting occurrences at the end of Book I when Gerard describes the heresies, once more following Isidore of Seville’s Etym . 8.5. These occurrences are not directly linked to our subject as Gerard, after Isidore, is using the concepts with disdain and almost non-referentially. For instance, a “virtue” meaning “creative power” appears in the sentence about the Simonians (Simoniani), saying that the creatures come from a superior power not from God (creaturam non a Deo, sed a virtute quadam superna crea- tam); this occurrence equals virtue with creative power, hard to link to the cardinal virtues for the moment. A few lines below we read that according to Ophites, the serpent brought in Heaven the knowledge of virtue (“in paradiso induxisse virtutis cognitionem”). Here the concept is strangely different; it seems to be rather close to the virtu of the Renaissance Humanists, a term accompanied by the anthropocentric idea of self-sufficient trust in one’s qualities: Melchizedechians say that Melchisedec was not a human being, but a Virtue (i.e. “a member of the angelic order of Virtues,” as in Etym 8.5.17). God’s virtus is present in the entire creation and can be seen within it from the very beginning of the world (see Romans, 1,20 quoted by Gerard in the same Book VI: “Invisibilia ipsius a creatura mundi per ea, quae facta sunt, intellecta conspiciuntur, sempiterna quoque eius virtus et sapientia, ut sint inexcusabiles,” but also Romans 15, 17–25, 29 several lines below), so that the interpreter of the stars and saints and all creatures must identify the meanings according primarily to God’s mind apart from human creativeness („divinae aptanda animi virtute, non humani ingenii deliberatione” – Book VI). The divine power of creation can be present in creatures as well. A significant occurrence in Book II says that the three young boys arrived to such level of virtue (“ad tantam virtutum devenerunt, ut visibilia et invisibilia omnia uno vocis articulo pariter conglom- erarent ad benedicendum superbenedicendum”) that by a single vocal call they brought together everything that is seen and unseen in the created realm in order to praise by super- praising. This gesture is the same kind as creative power since the entire nature is transformed into a praying entity. As a consequence, creative virtue may be seen as the multiplication and order of creation. Here, in Book II but also in Books VI and VII, Gerard quotes a biblical passage from 1 Corinthians 12.28 (see as well 12.10) where it is stated that God organized the hierarchy in Church as follows: first there are the Apostles, then the Prophets, Doctors (doctores), Virtues (Virtutes, or Miracles), then gifts of healing (gratias curationum), then the service of helping the weak (opitulationes), then administration of goods (gubernationes), and ultimately the diversity (or interpretation) of tongues (genera linguarum) and so on (see esp.

14 Socrates and theory of virtues in the Deliberatio supra hymnum trium puerorum . .

Meyer’s commentaries on this).12 This is one of the most essential subjects regarding the hierarchy of church. Virtue, within the present context, is usually interpreted as the power of miracles gifted by Christ (as Christ is the wisdom and virtue of God – “Christus . . ipse Dei virtus et sapientia,” in Book VII) to certain members of the Church, for it is Christ who has given to the Patriarchs the wings of virtue, and with these wings John flew above everything as he revealed the mystery of the Deity (“In ipso enim [Christus] virtutum omnium pennae” and “Ipse dedit pennas has patriarchis, ipse prophetis, ipse apostolis et ceteris, qui in caelestibus gloriantur. His pennis volavit supra omnia Ioannes, quando expressit deitatis archanum” – Book VII). Similarly, the creative virtue is described in Book VIII as a power by which supernatural Physics is introduced by God into the world, and the power which demonstrated the inestimable Ethics and supernatural Logic (“Potenti virtute insinuatur supernaturalis physica, demonstratur inaestimabilis ethica et logica principalis”); by this virtue God is revealed as the source of everything, that surpasses all, and without whom philosophers speak empty words. Again, in Book VIII, Gerard is speaking about the great power that the Holy Scriptures have, so great that nobody can understand it completely (“Denique quantae virtutis divina sit scriptura, paene a paucis, immo a nullo comprehendi potest”); then: “truth masters everything, Divine power shines everywhere” etc (“Ubique in eis veritas regnat, ubique divina virtus irradiat, ubique panduntur humano generi profutura”), and again: “the Scrip- ture is full of all the power and word that does not fall empty” (“Lectio cuncta virtutum est verbum non inaniter cadens”). Another meaning is the power of God as restorative . At the beginning of Book V Gerard cites the biblical quote “virtus Dei et sapientia” from 1 Corinthians 1, 24, to illustrate the supreme power of God to restore all the creation in Heaven: “Cum exaltatus fuero a terra omnia traham ad me ipsum.” By this we understand that, says Gerard, the Church has been chosen by Christ. Restoration is visually represented by the episode when Christcleans the disciple’s feet: a miracle sacrament destined to all nations, a power which saves the world from the claws of death (“cuius virtute est salvatus totus mundus de manu mortis” – Book VII). D. The three levels of virtue in Book IV Book IV of the Deliberatio is dedicated to discussing the concept of virtue (virtu) according to the biblical song and it starts with the virtutes Domini that are said to be praising God (“Benedicite omnes virtutes Domini Domino”) and belong to the Angels that stay firm in their positions (per quas omnes optime remanentes). But Gerard says the celestial powers have been treated by the Areopagyte and is not insisting on them (“virtutes” names, to this extent, one of the Areopagytic hierarchies: “throni et dominationes, quemadmodum angeli et archangeli, virtutes vero principatus ac potestates et cherubim et seraphim” – in Book VIII). Rather, he passes on to the virtues in the world. Still, several places of Biblical nature inspire Gerard to meditate on this greatness incompatible with human powers, like in these two beautiful sentences in Book VI: “O virtus, o potentia Dei in hominibus magna et inaestimabilis dicenda”; “Non enim a mundanis meditari possunt insignia perfectorum,

12 A. W. Meyer, Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (T. Clark, Funk & Wag- nalls, 1884).

15 Claudiu Mesaroș nec illorum fortia sequi” or by quoting that the virtue of Christ has broken gold and silver, brass and iron and skull (“et solita virtute fretus aurum et argentum, aes et ferrum et testam comminuit” - Book VI). A special and intricate passage at the end of Book VI meditates on the intelligibles as powers or incorporeal virtues: intelligible natures were created factually immortal and have their permanence according to God’s will (“Ergo intellegibilia proprie existentia ut immor- talia facta et aeterna sicut infinita voluntate Dei permanentia oportet dicere”), therefore they are intermediary: eternal according to the Divine will, non-eternal as they have a created nature (“quae et aeterna, incorporales virtutes a Deo conditas, non tamen coaeternas Deo”). Gerard says that these intermediary natures or virtues are, for instance, heaven and stars, as they are bodily but at the same time more subtle (“subtioliora”), and they were created before light was created. We turn back to Book IV in order to encounter the second level of universal virtues. Starting from the phrase “Benedicite omnes virtutes Domini Domino,” Gerard observes an implicit division: whereas some virtues do not belong to God and do not bless Him, some other virtues bless God (“quaedam virtutes, ut audisti, Domini, quae Domino benedicunt, quaedam, quae non”). There are negative powers, virtues that have risen against God and against Divine justice (“contrariae sint virtutes et contra iustitiam rebellantes”), and they cannot be defeated without God’s weapons (“armatura Dei indui monet . Sine hoc enim contrariae fortitudines non prostrantur”). The powers of faithful are multiple: first, those who have spread the Evangels (“evan- gelium denuntiaverunt”), namely, the apostles and their followers, who have fortified their faith and became stronger than evil; they are not Angels, not learned but simple fishermen who strengthened their power to such level that they subjugated the world (“non eruditos, sed piscatores, non dialecticos, sed simplices, quorum vestigio totus orbis subiugatus”). This kind of virtue is the power of simple life, able to turn people into philosophers and saints. The saint-philosopher is able to reach theoretical wisdom starting from practical virtues, a state of mind compared in Book II with supersapiens, the wisdom of St. Peter, who is taken by Gerard as paradigm for practical philosophers who are therefore named “people of Peter:” they practice Christian virtue and therefore reach a superior condition (“segregari in splendoribus reformativis”). Saints have “wings of virtue” to ascend to the heights (“sancti intellegendi, qui virtutum pennis ad alta conscendunt”). In Book IV, Gerard says: “He who received the potency (qui accepit potestatem caeli) of Heaven and the mastership of the entire world after God knew better how to catch fish than how to read. (...) But after they were gifted by the Holy Spirit, they were able to transcend the whole wisdom of deadly philosophers and became more skilful and learned than all” (Book IV). However, suffering is not uncommon in the life of the apostles and their followers, therefore they can face difficult endeavours to the extent that their power or virtue be tested to the limit. In Book V there is a quote from 2 Cor. 1, 8–10: “supra modum gravati sumus supra virtutem ita, ut taederet nos etiam vivere” (“we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life”13). The second divine power is a gift and belongs to the followers of the Apostles (“omnes horum vestigia imitantes”): the noblest testifiers, the sanctissimos perfectores and all the divine orders and those who fought against heresies, those who suffered and got impris-

13 Cf. King James Version.

16 Socrates and theory of virtues in the Deliberatio supra hymnum trium puerorum . . oned or crucified for Christ, stepping against evil. All these men and women are vessels (vasis fictilibus) of Christ and their power is supernatural, mysterious and together with all the powers of this second kind form the Church: in Book VI Gerard says that the church is ornated with virtues that are unknown (“multis virtutibus a quibuspiam incognitis”), or that the doctrines together with the virtuous actions enlighten God’s family (“virtutumque operum lampadibus dominicam familiam omni tempore”). Returning to Book IV, we observe that those who rely on natural virtues or human powers cannot ascend by themselves to such heights: neither Darius, nor Xerxes, nor Arthaxerxes, Ochus Arthaxerxes, Alexander Macedo, Ptolemaeus, Ptolemaeus Phila- delphus, Ptolemaeus Evergetes, etc, could ever become vessels of Christ. Pagan philosophers were far from such gift: Platonists, Stoics, Academics, Peripatetics, Epicureans, Gymnosophists, according to a list given by Gerard after Etymologies 8.6, were, at their turn, not gifted to be Christ’s vessels as only the humble, silent and trembling ones were targeted (“humiles et quieti et trementes” – Book IV). The earthly philosophers were in error, especially those who reduced the power of God to atoms, to elements or to an infinite series (“dixerunt virtutem Dei in atomis, et mundum non finiendum praesentem, Deum verum de quattuor elementis factum et orbem divina potentia” - Book VIII). Nevertheless, the entire creation is concatenated with the Divine in one single strong unity called “divina societas” (“virtutum concatenationem, qua constringitur divina societas” - Book VII). Third, there are the evil powers (diabolicae virtutes) of several kinds. One of them is heretics, those who have separated themselves from God’s unity of the Church (“virtutum concatenationem . . abnuunt” – Book VI) and have fallen apart. Some of these are already defeated, such as Eunomius or Arius, but they are still called diabolical powers because they have the intention to weaken the power of the Church and therefore fight against it with the support of the Antichrist: beasts that, when heard of, we understand devil or Antichrist, who is served by all, who desire flesh (“Bestiam, quam audis, diabolum sive Antichristum intel- lege, cui serviunt omnes, qui carnis desiderium”- Book IV). Another kind of evil power refers to fallen angels, as it is said in Book VI: “mind wants to know about the others, like there are stars other than those in the skies, as we have said about the waters and powers” (“ut de aquis in superioribus et virtutibus”). This perverted power or virtue appears to be caused by the rejection or separation from the concatenation of the Divine virtues, a separation that has been effectuated by the very power of the Holy Spirit (“Spiritu, cuius virtute ipse proiectus est” – Book VIII). Men of evil powers are continuously tormented by the evil “spiritus procellarum” (Book VIII, “windstorms”), that is, the “impetus omnium vitiorum” (attacks of the vices), raisers wars against the virtuous. E. Cardinal virtues or the power of nature to ascend to the Divine In order to be able to take part in the prayer, natural elements must have some power to respond to the three young boys’ chant. Human beings, as well, have a natural power to ascend to God in certain conditions. However, be it natural elements or human nature, they can be recognized as functional cardinal virtues, to say so, only within the Church. Perhaps one of the most suggestive passages sustaining this idea can be found in the middle of Book V, where Gerard explains the natural powers in terms of sun, moon and Church, starting from the commentary of the verse in Dan, 3,62: “Benedicite sol et luna.”

17 Claudiu Mesaroș

The text goes like this: “Quemadmodum luna ex magnitudine mense, quae nunc bicornis, nunc sectilis, nunc media, nunc plena videtur ad eadem denuo tendens . Est itaque ecclesia bicornis gemina dilectione, est sectilis utriusque testamenti eruditione, est dimidia, quia adhuc solius in fide nititur et spe. Erit autem plena, quando erit Deus omnia in omnibus. Efficitur autem iterum de plena dimidia et de dimidia sectilis, demumque bicornis, dum descendit imbecillibus membris suis ad ea, quae istius mundi sunt necessaria, sine quibus non subsistit sui innumerositas, providens unicuique circa mandatum” (Book V). The symbolism of sun and moon reproduces the relation between the Apostolic teaching and the Church: the moon receives light from the sun just as the Church is illuminated by the sacred revealed word. As well, the Church is dynamic in its extension, sometimes being smaller due to those who choose to serve Satan. Full will be the Church, Gerard says, when God will be everything in all (Deus omnia in omnibus). There are seven moon magnitude phases, according to the quantity of light and to the increase respectively decrease of light, as in Isidore’s Etymologies 3.54: (1) The new moon with two horns (bicornis), ascending, and the Church has two horns due to the twin love (gemina dilectione); (2) the quarter moon (sectilis), ascending: the Church is foursome due to the teaching of the each testaments; (3) the half moon (dimidia), ascending, because symbolically the Church is grounded in faith and hope only (in fide nititur et spe); (4) the full moon (plena), and descending, it is the plenary Church symbolizing the end of time (quando erit Deus omnia in omnibus); (5) the half moon, descending, then the (6) quarter moon, descending again, and finally, (7) the new moon, are symbols for the descending Church, that is, the church that knees and helps the weaker, without whom it could not subsist (“descendit imbecillibus membris suis ad ea, quae istius mundi sunt necessaria, sine quibus non subsistit sui innumerositas”). Immediately, Gerard says that the first four symbols are the cardinal virtues predicated by the Apostle Paul (“virtutes principales quattuor”), the next two signify the twin testaments, and the last, charity (caritas), is the ornament of the sons and daughters of the Church. An- other symbolism associated to the moon’s phases represents the seven gifts of the Church (“septem divinissima dona”): (1) Patriarchs, (2) Prophets (3) Apostles (4) Evangelists, and after them there is no diminishing. Still, the full moon (4) may represent again the apostles and martyrs, and then (5) the diminishing half are the Confessors and the Virgins, then (6) the descending quarters represents the fighters, and, ultimately, the (7) final new moon with two horns are the Penitents. On this ground, Gerard attempts to explain why the cardinal virtues (“virtutes principales”) have such a strong role together with the theological virtues: their symbolic powers are linked in a reciprocal interdependence, so that the natural virtue of the Apostles depends on the real light of Heaven which cannot be compared to the natural light (“Apparente luce vera cum virtute et maiestate sua omnia caelorum obscurabuntur luminaria”, and again several lines below: “si sol in virtute sua resplendens”). Without it, humans fall and their virtue fades, as it happened to Origene and others. The symbolic meaning of the eclipse is this: the sacred word ceases to enlighten humans during critical times, for instance when humans are do not have the dignity to assist in a divine event like Christ’ death (“ut Christo in crucem ascendente haec se soli obbiceret”). Doctors of the Church may as well be obliterated by an eclipse of the sacred truth, but the crowds they address to become subject to this darkening as well. There is no greater bitterness for a doctor than the lack of control over the students (“Quid doctori amarius subditis inordi- natis”). Therefore, a doctor should be preoccupied with the practice of the sacred discipline at

18 Socrates and theory of virtues in the Deliberatio supra hymnum trium puerorum . . the school of the sacred virtues (“in schola virtutum sacram exerceat disciplinam”). There are still several other places where Gerard is speaking about this sense of virtue, such as in Book II, where we read: “Hoc autem de angelis, quod amodo ad caelos circa virtutem perueniendum” (this was said about the angels so that we may arrive at the heavens according to our own virtues). This natural or intrinsic power to ascend to God is our necessary resource for engaging onto the redemption path; not sufficient, still, since theological virtues must be added to it, but nevertheless, sine qua non . In Book III, Gerard will have a generous introduction to heterodox philosophies. Pagan and non-Christian philosophers are in their turn subject to such power, even when they lived during the Christian era. Tychonius was one of the most learned among Donatists (”inter suos quondam doctissimus”) but still worth praising for his seven rules of interpretation, which Gerard extracts from Bede’s interpretation to the Book of Revelation. Therefore Tychonius, even if a Donatist and therefore blasphemous, must be embraced (“quanquam Donatista nimis amplectendus in istiusmodi regulis atque ceteris a perfectoribus correc- tis”), as they apply to the entire Scripture, but it is virtue, namely, one of the cardinal virtues, that may allow us to observe such connections (“in omni canonica scriptura et praecipue prophetica vigere si prudens lector accesserit”). Bede himself, the divine priest and perfect healer, says Gerard, praised Tychonius for his ingenium and by imitating him in part he could become a model in Christian virtues (“eiusque imitator, ex parte ipso referente ves- tigium, qui virtutum in Christi ecclesia est cunctis factus exemplar” – Book III); many other ancient authors followed Tychonius and only time and forgetting obliterated him. It is God himself who calls humans to respond with their natural virtues to God’s challenge, as it was the case with Moses. One of the most powerful passages in Gerard’s De- liberatio reads that we must obey our mind to heretic writings sometimes, after the model of the chosen people when ordered to take Egyptians’ golden and silver vessels: “Verum tantum est nobis nonnumquam mortalium ac seducentium accommodare animum lectioni- bus, quantum extitit Dei populo iubente Domino per Moysen sacrum vasa argentea et aurea mutuo accipere Aegyptiorum” (Book III). It may be important to note that this Biblical allegory makes the whole difference for understanding Gerard’s meaning of nature and natural powers: within creation there are good things and bad things, good fish and bad fish, clean animals and unclean beasts (“Sunt quippe pisces boni, sunt et mali, sunt animalia munda, sunt et inmunda . Corvus extra ar- cam, columba in eadem perhibetur” – Book III): it is gold and silver everywhere and therefore nothing should be wasted. This human natural power to ascend to God corresponds to the similar force every natural creature has to participate to the redemption. In the third Book Gerard explains why the three young boys summon the waters among the natural powers to praise God. It is a long and significant passage where Gerard speaks more about virtue: „Benedicite – ait – aquae omnes, quae super celos sunt, Domino; benedicite omnes virtutes Domini Domino . Aquas quidem supra caelos esse non solum humani, sed etiam divini tradunt libri. (...) Philosophi vero saeculi solis ignem dicunt aqua nutriri et a contrario elemento virtutem luminis et caloris accipere . Unde saepissime rorans et madidus conspicitur a mortalibus” (Book III). Here, Gerard starts interpreting from Dan. 3, 60–61, the meaning of summoning waters above the skies to the prayer, and concludes that mundane philosophers did see in waters only natural powers of heat and light received from the sun and from the contrary element (Etym ., 3,49). But philosophers did not see that there are two kinds of waters, the waters

19 Claudiu Mesaroș above the skies (“omnes aquae quae super caelos sunt”) and the earthly waters. The summoning for prayer seems to be addressed to the superior waters: “Ergo quae inferius sunt, vacant, superius quae sunt, insistunt circa hortamentum” (Book III), for the natural waters share the fallen status of the corrupted angels (“quae non supra celum sunt, ruentes demonstrare figurative vult recitatio angelos”). Nevertheless, as the superior waters never ceased to take part in the celestial angelic prayer, it is necessary that the whole creature, including natural waters, is the object of calling: “Ac per hoc non absurdum dicendum ad illos sub typo aquarum hortamentum factum .” Natural elements, then, have a ”power” (in the sense of virtue) to take part to the prayer. The element of water has allegorical meanings throughout the Scriptures as well. A few paragraphs below Gerard says that, according to the Revelation (17.1), waters signify peoples and nations and languages (“ubi meretrix sedet, populi sunt et gentes et linguae”), but this only confirms what has already been said because theology methodologically relies on the reciprocal signification and substitution of things (”Consuetudo theologiae inolevit quaedam pro quibusdam et pro aliis alia ponere”- Book III). In Book VI, Gerard offers a long discussion about gems, with similar meanings for virtue: sardonyx is varied just as the virtues of Christ, the topaz has many colours to signify the virtues of all saints, the chrysopraze is golden and green, meaning the wisdom and the virtue of justice, the chrysolite is golden and sparks its virtues towards everybody close to it etc. F. The arch of seven virtues Much of the Book VIII is dedicated to the virtues, especially to the discussion of the three Church virtues and then the four cardinal virtues, which he actually names pure virtues or spirits or charities, respectively the four “wings” of the soul, or powers. There is a fragment in Book VIII which says that there are some virtues that humans courageously follow to strengthen themselves and become one with God (“Virtutes nimirum, quibus cum Deo unus efficitur homo”). Sometimes these virtues are called spirits (“in sacris dictis virtutes con- suevit demonstrare nonnumquam per vocabulum spirituum”), and it is said that God rests on the wings of winds, and that they are the powers of our soul (“virtutes animarum volunt nostrates”), “according to Pope Gregorius.” This fragment of Book VIII allows a functional comparison between cardinal and theological virtues as described by Gerard according to Isidore’s Etymologies 13. As virtues are compared to winds, Gerard says that the principal virtue alias winds are four in number (Subsolanus, Auster, Favonius, Septentrio), but there are other eight subordinated (“non dubitamus, quod principales ventorum sint quattuor spiritus horumque suffraganei octo”). The circle of the world is surrounded by winds according to the divine order (“ordinatione divina et imperio Dei”) and this is why wings are attributed to the heavenly spirits, so that their rapidity be suggested (“eorum instar ventorum celeritas”). The comparison between winds and virtues rests on the existence of two worlds: the physical world and the inner world of Spirit; each has its own “winds” and consistency: the physical world consists in Sky, Earth and See, whereas the spiritual world consists in charity, hope, and faith (“cari- tate, spe et fide”). Sky is the charity or love, as they seek upwards, earth is hope for harvest, that is, for the promise of God, and the see is faith, as they both suffer from storms of persecution. These are the three theological virtues (“spiritualibus tribus virtutibus”), of a pure kind (“incontaminatae”), on which Christ has grounded His Church. The four cardinal virtues of the church established by the forerunners (“doctissimorum

20 Socrates and theory of virtues in the Deliberatio supra hymnum trium puerorum . . deliberatio perfectissima virorum”) are prudence, fortitude, temperance, and justice (“pru- dentiam, fortitudinem, temperantiam et iustitiam” – see Etymologies, 2.24.5). Together with the theological virtues they create one single formation of seven spiritual virtues (“septem virtutum spiritualium”), which Gerard understands as seven spirits spreading over the Earth (according to John’s Revelation 5.6), or as seven charismas given to the Church, according to Zachariah 4.2, Exodus 25.31. These seven charismas are interpreted as well as the six arms of the holy chandelier, made of the purest gold ever, with Christ in the middle. They enlighten, bring redemption, protect and save all humankind. According to the Revelation 37.17, these seven arms are tightly related: they spread together from Christ like arms, knots, cups, and lilies (“calami, spherulae, sciphi ac lilia procedunt”). Gerard says little about the four virtues, once more following the example of Isidore (Et- ymologies, 2.24.6) but still expresses his own descriptions. Prudence (prudentia), the first of them, rests on honesty and reason (“consideratione honestissima et ratione circa rationem amplectitur”); fortitude (fortitudo) is patience and suffering, temperance (temperantia) consists in control over flows and contempt of the world, and justice is to examine according to the highest truth and distribution according to tight measurement (“quae verissima ex- aminatione et erogatione sensata astringitur”). Still, the four cardinal virtues surround the three theological virtues of the Church (“His nimirum ventis, id est spiritualibus virtutibus Christi ecclesia ... circumagitur” – Book VIII). Along with the seven, there are two other “winds” or spirits, namely, Aura et Altanus, that is, the contemplative and the active life, protecting the Church from every part (“quae ex omni parte ecclesiam reddidit munitam”). This interpretation results in rendering the cardinal virtues in a continuous system with theological ones, a part of a larger set of considerations regarding the relation between the mortal condition of humans and the heavenly stage of the redeemed. Continuity from cardinal to theological virtues is also necessary for the very reason that cardinal virtues should be able to allow one to praise God. This is something like a practical argument, sustained by authority. Thus, at the very beginning of Book I Gerard was comparing the human condition with the superior state of happiness: he refers to laus and superlaus, alternatively superexaltatio (“Laudare in saeculo, superexaltare in regno. Ergo hic laus, alibi superlau- datio, quemadmodum in utroque benedictio”) as two different forms of praising God, both admitted but each specific to a different stage: laus is specific to human condition which takes place here, in the reign of tribulations (“tribulando igitur sancti laudant”), whereas superexaltatio refers to the superior post-life condition of laetitia. Gerard takes arguments of authority (ratio ex auctoritate) for the equivalence of the two, according to what appears to be his specific methodological practice: “Utrumque ut autem admittatur, ex utroque auctoritas loquatur”, and: “saints praise while in tribulations, hyper-praise while being joyous” (“sancti tribulando laudant, laetando superexaltant” - Deliberatio, I). This ratio ex auctoritate counts as practical proof rather than a logical argument as we would be inclined to consider, meaning rather something like an article of faith. It is the very key to understanding why Gerard puts together ancient philosophers and biblical quotations: philosophers can be confirmed by the articles of faith, and if so, then Gerard has a serious reason (practical ground, that is) to praise philosophers for their condition of being able to reach the divine truth, as reaching the divine truth is at its turn a practical proof for the efficiency of cardinal virtues.

21 Claudiu Mesaroș

V. Conclusion

Socrates is mentioned only once in the Deliberatio so the legitimate question why we paid so much attention to him in the title of our paper will be answered twofold. First, it is true that we cannot argue that Socrates presents much importance for Gerard. But it is the context which brings important contributions. Gerard takes for granted Isidore’s suggestion that Socrates was responsible for giving the subject of cardinal virtues to philosophy, in their turn important for the development of the epicherematic discourse of Gerard. Second, the aim of this study was to investigate Gerard of Cenad’s identification of the cardinal and theological virtues, as in István Bejczy’s hypothesis. We reached the conclusion that there is rather unification than identification, that is, Gerard unifies the seven virtues into one system or formation of spiritual virtues that have been gifted to the Church.

References

Barney, Stephen A., W. J. Lewis, J. A. Beach, Oliver Berghof. The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Batthyány, Ignatius. Sancti Gerardi episcopi Chanadiensis scripta et acta hactenus inedita cum serie episcoporum Chanadiensium. Albae-Carolinae, 1790. Bejczy, István P. The Cardinal Virtues in the Middle Ages: A Study in Moral Thought from the Fourth to the Fourteenth Century. Leiden: Brill, 2011. Lindberg, David C. The Beginnings of Western Science: The European Scientific Tradition in philosophical, Religious, and Institutional Context, Prehistory to A.D. 1450. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992. Luscombe, D. “The reception of the writings of Denis the pseudo-Areopagite”, in Tradition and Change: Essays in Honour of Marjorie Chibnall, ed. D. Greenway, Ch. Holdsworth, J. Sayers, 115–144. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985. Meyer, A. W. Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. T. Clark, Funk & Wagnalls, 1884. Nemerkényi, Előd. Latin Classics in Medieval Hungary 11th Century. Budapest: Central European University Press, 2004. Silagi, Gabriel. Gerard of Csanád . Deliberatio supra hymnum trium puerorum CCCM 49. Turnhout: Brepols, 1978. Witt, Ronald G. The Two Latin Cultures and the Foundation of Renaissance Humanism in Medieval Italy . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.

22 Mind and Religious Experience in Saint Gerard of Cenad

Ionuţ Mladin

In Deliberatio supra Hymnum Trium Puerorum (Meditation on the Hymn of the Three Young Men), St. Gerard of Cenad envisages, among other topics, the philosophical problem of mind as an important element in the act of faith . The mind has no human value than the interpretation of the Evangelical writings. With love, faith, and godliness, thoughts are mostly related to the heart, and this is the way of access to Christian virtues. Mind enlightened by the Holy Spirit is the key to understand symbols in the Scripture, understanding the mysteries of creation in general.Concern for the mind itself is not a pointless search, because the mind is a means by which man comes closer to God .

Keywords: Mind; faith; love; heart; symbol.

Deliberatio supra Hymnum Trium Puerorum is not an easy text to analyze as it is written in a predominantly allegorical manner. Its composition can be misleading as we are tempted to believe that it might be somewhat primitive. In fact, St. Gerard expresses both theological and philosophical ideas as it is rooted in the medieval spirit of his time.1 The difficulty of analyzing this writing is not only because of its allegorical character: there are many passages inserted from the Bible for illustration and argumentation, as well as references to philosophy and philosophers such as Plato, the ideas do not follow a detailed logical and conceptual thread, but are interposed throughout the eight parts of the text; furthermore, St. Gerard uses the second person. The purpose of this study is to point out the philosophical ideas in Deliberatio, more precisely to discover the landmarks for a philosophy of mind, which involves capturing the connection between the mental and the experiential. The mind appears as a component of the religious experience, but without the central role the heart has. Knowledge is not a purely intellectual approach, but also faith, love, and dedication. However, we discover in St. Gerard’s text the appearance of two antagonistic types of philosophizing: first, from the perspective of a simple mortal and second, from that of a created human close to God, who knows the divine nature. Obviously, the second type of knowledge is the authentic and true one. Understanding the essential truth conveyed through the Bible not only implies faith and awareness, but an effort of interpretation which opens the path of truth through faith and love. The experience which opens the path of truth is a deep, mystical one as it is the foundation of understanding the divine as divine and the divine in man.

1 See Claudiu Mesaroş, “Deliberatio supra Hymnum trium puerorum, a philosophical text” in Fi- losofia Sfântului Gerard de Cenad în context cultural și biografic [The Philosophy of Saint Gerard of Cenad in Cultural and Biographical Context] (Szeged: Jate Press, 2013), 69–91.

This work was co-financed by the European Social Fund through the Sectoral Operational Programme Human Resources Development 2007–2013, project number POSDRU / 159 / 1.5 / S / 140863, Competitive Researchers in Europe in the Field of Humanities and Socio-Economic Sciences. A Multiregional Research Network.

23 Ionuţ Mladin

I. A conceptual analysis of the mind in Deliberatio

It is necessary to make the distinction between two levels with comparative value concerning the concept of mind in Gerard’s work and in general. In the first instance, on a logical level, we find references to the mind characterized through its rational aspect, based on reasoning, whose purpose in knowledge is pure instrumental. In the second instance, we take into account a tropological level, in which the mind relates to the heart, with the purpose of discovering the truths of biblical texts by interpreting symbols. The access of the mind and heart to the truth is not direct but mediated by symbols, “even if the literal meaning sometimes appears obvious on the surface, the deeper meaning is hidden in the inside part even for the most skilled readers. As long as the human mind is not opened from the heaven above, he acquires theological knowledge.”2 Without divine grace, the access to the meaning of biblical texts remains suspended, books thus remain closed. The tropological aspect of the biblical texts is just an illustration of the mysterious character of fundamental significance. Opening the mind and heart through faith, accompanied by divine grace, is a form of knowledge and truth. Gerard’s conception may be included in the positive knowledge of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, a fact wich becomes obvious as one reads Deliberatio. We can describe the human being, that is, the creation, by its attributes or by God’s ways of manifestation. The creation may be designated by a name, although “these revealed names (Human Be- ing, Life, Light, Truth) have not been given to us to understand them.”3 All these names, which are descriptions of the ways God is present in the world, are objects of exaltation also known as, for instance, “Mind, Reason (Word), Knower.”4 Thus, in essence, the knowledge of divine truth is secret, God cannot be known with the mind as He is the Mind. We can have mind, which means having a divine attribute, only through faith and love, and this feature distinguishes us from other creatures. Through this religious experience, our mental possibilities can be fulfilled, otherwise we are similar to animals; the divine, mystic contempla- tion cannot be achieved only with the mind, but with the mind and heart together, and the divine grace that works in both.

II. Two types of philosophies in St. Gerard’s text

We discover in St. Gerard’s writings a distinction between two ways of making philosophy: a philosophy of heaven and a philosophy of mortal beings. We shall further on describe these two philosophies, with the specification that only the philosophy in the service of heaven is considered by Gerard as the knowledge and truth bearer. The philosophy of heaven has the following descriptive elements as characteristics: • Through the intuitions of his mind, the philosopher of heaven contemplates over the secret meanings of the Scripture

2 Deliberatio supra Hymnum Trium Puerorum, Book II. All fragments from this study are used according to the Latin edition of Batthyány (1790), translation by Marius Ivaşcu, mss. All English translations are mine. 3 Claudiu Mesaroş, Filosofii cerului. O introducere critică în filosofia evului mediu [The Philoso- phers of Heaven. A Critical Introduction to the Philosophy of the Middle Ages] (Timişoara: Edi- tura Universităţii de Vest, 2005), 73. 4 Mesaroş, Filosofii cerului, 74.

24 Mind and Religious Experience in St. Gerard of Cenad

• Fulfilment, the superior type of understanding, metascience • Interpretations come from the bottom of the heart • High science follows love, life • The mind endowed with the Holy Spirit, meditates on the infinity of the divine • Thoughts come from the heart: “the philosopher Plato proves to be utterly stupid when he says that human thoughts do not come from the heart but from the brain.”5

Considering Gerard’s evocation of Plato, certain aspects of the Platonic theory of mind may be considered. This is relevant in order to highlight the fact that the philosophy of heaven may meet at a certain point with the classical Platonic philosophy. I do not have in mind here the tripartite division of the soul or the two ways of knowledge illustrated in the Al- legory of the Cave,6 which deal with a general treatment of Plato’s theory of mind. The issue of virtue and of remembering ideas is treated in Meno, but it contains a theory of mind in its substratum. Virtue, that is reason, is a component of the soul, and “when knowledge guides the soul, mental qualities become beneficial, and when ignorance guides them, they become harmful.”7. The mind not only designates a better use of reason, but it is also a tool for discovering the knowledge acquired by the soul prior to its life on earth. Socrates guides Menon’s slave on the path of remembering the solution to the problem proposed, by drawing the square with a double surface. By repeating, knowledge becomes mastery, so the slave reaches the right solution, “although it was never obvious, in the slave’s mind, who never studied geometry, that knowledge was present in the virtual state.”8 In this particular sense, we note how the mind is in relation to the divine not directly but mediated by soul, thus the mind does not have access to essential knowledge. One cannot only through knowledge of the mind, through learning, find what is the nature of virtue, but “the excellence of good people comes to them as a dispensation awarded by the gods, without any knowledge – such as a politician with the ability to make someone else an expert politician too.”9 This parallel between St. Gerard and Plato is meant to show a certain resemblance between the two starting from the seemingly radical difference Gerard makes on the origin of thoughts not in the brain, criticizing Plato’s view. Knowledge is possible through the Holy Spirit, says St. Gerard, and Socrates also places knowledge next to divine grace, therefore̋ ̋ ̋ ̋ ̋ ̋ knowledge is not a mental, intellectual act. Furthermore, this knowledge cannot̏ ̋ be learned, ̋ ̋ ̋ thus comprised with the mind, although Plato believes that certain “gifted̏ ̋” people could transmit it to others. Similarly, St. Gerard shows that the biblical teachings of the apostles are allegorical and involve symbolic interpretation with an open heart and mind: “As long as the human mind is not open by God, he cannot acquire theological knowledge.”10 Nev-

5 Deliberatio, Book VI. 6 See Plato, The Republic (San Diego: ICON Group International, Inc., 2005), especially Book VII, 488–524. 7 Plato, Meno and Other Dialogues.Translated with an Introduction and Notes by Robin Waterfield . (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 127. 8 Viorel Colţescu, Istoria filosofiei: filosofie veche, medie si moderna [History of Philosophy: An- cient, Medieval and Modern Philosophy] (Timişoara: Editura Universităţii de Vest, 2002), Vol. I, 137. English translations are mine. 9 Plato, Meno and Other Dialogues, 142. 10 Deliberatio, Book II.

25 Ionuţ Mladin ertheless, one must be cautious because the mystical and rational knowledge of the divine involves essential level differences. The philosophy of mortals is characterized by the following aspects: • Delights the mind • Is deceptive • Heretic statements, descriptions, thoughts and writings • Fall into doubt • Interpretation without the Holy Spirit • Calculations to understand the sun and sky • Thoughts come from the mind

Gerard sees the philosophy of mortals as lacking knowledge and truth, as a useless approach deprived of love for life, and of God’s presence. The true philosophy, that of the heaven, is gained through the understanding of the symbolic secrets found in the Bible. Nevertheless the Bible also refers to profane philosophy:

Still, wisdom admits to the fact that the inconstant philosophy of mortals is sometimes mentioned in the divine Scriptures through the symbol of honey: For the lips of a harlot are like a dropping honeycomb (Prov. 5.3). She is rightly called a harlot because she has no man who would grow to hate her dishonest nature and to punish her for her misleading words. A dripping honeycomb because through the sweet ordinance and appropriation of meters, delights the minds of those who cultivate it, even if it is plenty teachings.11

Nevertheless, Gerard does not fully deny the useful character of philosophy and of the profane sciences in general. After all, they both come from divine wisdom, but they are not driven by love and the Holy Spirit, thus they lack divine knowledge earned through faith. Gerard believes that profane philosophy leads to doubt, to lack of faith. Related to this aspect, one might highlight the fact that Descartes’ methodical doubt was a method of privileged access of the subject to his own mind. Doubting reality, Descartes discovers a fundamental truth of his philosophy: thinking implies existence. Through doubt, however, he also discovers the nature of his imperfection, “so doubt, inconstancy, sadness and similar feelings, cannot be in Him” (God);12 therefore, doubt is born from human imperfection compared to divine perfection. The truth about personal existence, discovered by analyzing his own thought, leads Descartes to the conclusion that this thought comes from God. Knowing the world and the personal rational existence would not be possible without the mental deduction of a supreme, perfect existence – “But after the knowledge of God and the soul has proven this rule, it is very easy to understand that the dreams which we imagine in our sleep should not make us in any way doubt the truth of the thoughts which we have when awake.”13 By reducing a reality in its various forms to the absurd, the Cartesian doubt is a method which first of all highlights the limits of a strict natural knowledge, and secondly, it shows the possibility of a rational discovery of the existence of the soul and God.

11 Deliberatio, Book III. 12 René Descartes, Discourse on Method and Meditations (New York: Dover Publications, 2003), 25. 13 Ibidem, 27.

26 Mind and Religious Experience in St. Gerard of Cenad

This historical parallel was done in order to illustrate the fact that the mystical and the rational types of knowledge, although distinct as methods of including the divine, can reach the relatively same conclusion: knowing the nature of God is the source of all essential knowledge.

III. The symbolic education of the mind

An intriguing aspect of Deliberatio supra Hymnum Trium Puerorum, is that it educates to find Biblical symbols. The Scripture can be understood as history, as an in-depth explanation through the mind. The Biblical teachings are primarily in the heart, and then revealed to the mind. In a reductionist way, the religious type of experience “can simply be understood as an emotional reaction to religious representations.”14. I do not intend to follow this approach. Thus, understanding the Bible does not depend on the sharpness of mind. Following the words of St. Gerard, God opened the minds of the Apostles by the fact that the teachings were engraved in their hearts and “the brightness of apostolic preaching is everywhere a brightness which the Spirit allegorically hides in divine speech and is called sun.”15. The sun does not symbolize enlightenment on a purely rational way, but the apostolic preaching where divine understanding may be disclosed. With this fundamental access to biblical significance, the mind develops from appreciating to understanding the holy meanings, “the meanings of God’s mind, not those invented by the ingenuity of the human mind. For where the body is weary, sweat is in vain; where the Spirit works, there will undoubtedly be spiritual work.”16 The symbolical education of the mind is thus understood as a superior type of access to the essential knowledge of the divine, a capacity acquired to discern between good and evil. Divine reward is given depending on the level of this education: “we must understand that according to each person’s capacity, the rain and dew and drizzle are made through mind meditation and utterance.”17 In St. Gerard’s opinion, rain is eternal damnation, while drizzle is forgiveness following repentance and (re)-conversion. In conclusion, three symbolic features of the mind found in Deliberatio should be highlighted: • The interpretation of the Biblical symbols is a religious experience itself “when the pious mind is convinced about its truth and the use of preaching”18 • The mind enlightened by the Holy Spirit does not need a master: “Everything started from the initial intellect, from which all illumination and, at the same time, the peak of opacity came from”19 • The truth is revealed by the eyes of the heart and mind: “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God” (Mt. 5, 8)

14 Ilkka Pyysiäinen, “Cognition, emotion, and religious experience” in Religion in Mind, ed . Jensine Andresen (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 71. 15 Deliberatio, Book V. 16 Deliberatio, Book VI. 17 Deliberatio, Book VII. 18 Deliberatio, Book VIII. 19 Deliberatio, Book VIII.

27 Ionuţ Mladin

Of course, the Bible presents a variety of religious experiences, and their meanings generated numerous debates in the philosophical, theological, and even in exact science fields. Gerard points out the fact that understanding the essence of these meanings assumes to be anchored in religious experience, and their analysis from the outside does not represent knowledge, but only information:

All Biblical stories of spiritual experience speak to some degree of the longing people have always had for intellectual, emotional, psychological, and spiritual fulfilment from others; and especially from that infinite, transcendent, wholly other person, God. Most of those Biblical reports directly inform us on the nature of genuine spiritual experience and authentic religious practice.20

Continuing this analysis with the religious experiences from a theoretical point of view, William James relied on the possibility of their understanding on a pure subjective level, through psychophysical manifestations in the first instance, making analogies with other manifestations of the affective spectrum. However what is remarkable here is the fact that with this analytical perspective, James managed to establish the supremacy of the individual’s religious experience over the theoretical or even institutional considerations:

Religion, therefore, as I now ask you arbitrarily to take it, shall mean for us the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they may consider the divine. Since the relation may be either moral, physical, or ritual, it is evident that out of religion in the sense in which we take it, theologies, philosophies, and ecclesiastical organizations may secondarily grow.21

In other words, James emphasizes the personal, and mystical side, of the religious experience, and of the man trying to relate to the divine. Going through Deliberatio, one understands that St. Gerard mainly considered this mystical side of religious experience, but from the perspective of its practice. Allegory is a way or a method to signify the mystical side of the religious experience, accessible only in the human and divine essence.

IV. Conclusions

The first conclusion based on the Deliberatio text, is that divine philosophy, although it does not need earthly masters, is the teaching transmitted by Christ, and the Bible is the symbolic testimony on how to gain access to this knowledge. Secondly, St. Gerard’s text is not a philosophy of mind, but a philosophy about mind from the religious experience perspective. Deliberatio supra Hymnum Trium Puerorum contains theological and philosophical ideas which can be developed, harmonized, (re)-considered by analogy with others more or less recent texts. This aspect gives a wide dimension to this historically and spiritually important text, at least in the Central-Eastern European space.

20 J. Harold Ellens, Understanding Religious Experiences: What the Bible Says about Spirituality (Westport: Praeger Publishers, 2008), 21. 21 William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study of Human Nature (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2002), 31. Source: http: //www.gutenberg.org/files/621/621-h/621-h.html (last time accessed: October 21, 2014).

28 Mind and Religious Experience in St. Gerard of Cenad

References

Batthyány, Ignatius. Sancti Gerardi episcopi Chanadiensis scripta et acta hactenus inedita cum serie episcoporum Chanadiensium. Albae-Carolinae, 1790. Translation by Marius Ivaşcu, mss. Colţescu, Viorel. Istoria filosofiei: filosofie veche, medie si modern [The history of philosophy: ancient, medieval and modern philosophy]. Timişoara: Editura Universităţii de Vest, 2002. Descartes, René. Discourse on Method and Meditations. New York: Dover Publications, 2003. Ellens, J. Harold. Understanding Religious Experiences: What the Bible Says about Spirituality. Westport: Praeger Publishers, 2008. James, William. The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study of Human Nature. The Pennsylvania State University, 2002. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/621/621-h/621-h.html (last time accessed: October 21, 2014). Mesaroş, Claudiu. “Deliberatio supra Hymnum trium puerorum, a philosophical text.” In Filosofia Sfântului Gerard de Cenad în context cultural și biografic [The Philosophy of Saint Gerard of Cenad in Cultural and Biographical Context], 61–99. Szeged: Jate Press, 2013. _____. Filosofii cerului: o introducere critică în gândirea evului mediu [The philosophers of the sky: a critical introduction to medieval thought]. Timişoara: Editura Universităţii de Vest, 2005. Plato. The Republic. San Diego: Webster’s German Thesaurus Edition, ICON Group International, 2005. Plato. Meno and Other Dialogues, ed. Robin Waterfield. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. Pyysiäinen, Ilkka. “Cognition, emotion, and religious experience.” In Religion in Mind, ed. Jensine Andresen, 70–94. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.

29 Gabriela Tănăsescu Saint Gerard of Cenad and the Intellectual Disputes of the Year 1000 Gabriela Tănăsescu

This paper aims to situate St. Gerard of Cenad’s position in apocalyptic millenarianism as differentia specifica in genus proximum of the doctrinal position of the Church, subscribing to the thesis that Gerard’s position constituted an attempt to connect the Jewish apocalyptic literature and the Christian millennarialism. It argues that St. Gerard of Cenad used the hymnal poetry of the prophet Daniel not only in order to invocate as theological argument “the inter-Testamentary unit” ‒ the fact that, in hermeneutic terms, the Old Testament announces the New Testament or “the coming of Jesus” ‒, but also to criticize the arbitrary and unbelieving power and to transmit to it and to all those who “rise” against the faith, alike Nebuchadnezzar in olden times, an apocalyptic admonishment.

Keywords: Millenarianism; Apocalypse; Heresy; Political Authority; Jewish Tradition; Christian Truths of Faith.

I. Research purpose on Deliberatio

The assumption of the paper is that the critical, polemical, and apologetic writing of Saint Gerard, Deliberatio supra hymnum trium puerorum, illustrates in a specific, original manner the doctrinal position of the Church in the context of the Western intellectual disputes around the year 1000 and also in the context of local heresiarchs and ideological opponents to the Christian faith. The specificity of the Gerardian demarche is identified in the fundamental theological arguments formulated in his “philosophical treatise” wherein the philosophy is understood dichotomously: in the desirable condition of the interdependence with the theology ‒ the sacred philosophy or the wisdom,1 “the complete philosophy accomplished with the light of the Spirit,”2 ‒ or in the undesirable condition of the delimita- tion from theology. The paper aims to situate St. Gerard of Cenad’s position in the context of the year 1000 – “the great year of the West”3 ‒ significantly marked by the restlessness, fear and terror of the “end of men” and the “twilight of the world,” but equally by hope and religious efferves- cence. It situates St. Gerard’s treatise in the context of the doctrinal positions of Church and magistri of time, but also in that of the attempts to connect the Jewish apocalyptic literature to the Christian millenarianism. It shows that, by choosing a hymnal poetry of Daniel –

1 Deliberatio contains many interrogations which concern the status of philosophy: on the true philosophy, on the lack of identity between philosophy (as teaching of the heretics) and wisdom (sapientia), on the philosophy as teaching of “mortal” things, on the wise who worships only the truth etc. 2 Gerard de Cenad, Armonia lumii sau tălmăcire a Cântării celor trei coconi către Isingrim Dascălul [The harmony of the world or interpretation of the Song of the three children to Isingrim the Teacher] (Bucharest: Meridiane, 1984), 97. 3 Henri Focillon, Anul 1000 [The Year 1000] (Bucharest: Meridiane, 1971), 34.

30 Saint Gerard of Cenad and the Intellectual Disputes of the Year 1000

“a minor apoctif” from an apocalyptic writing – as a source of its impressive apologetic approach from Deliberatio supra hymnum trium puerorum, St. Gerard of Cenad intended, on the one hand, to invocate an inter-Testamentary framework4 or “a common teaching” which, in a hermeneutical perspective, highlights that the Old Testament announces the New Testament, namely “the coming of Jesus, creator of all things,”5 as a convincing theological argument to the heretics, Jews or to the Christians formally converted, more specifically to the king Sámuel Aba, as well as to those who had prevented “the search for truth”6 and the fame of God’s Son, and thus the recognition of the superiority of Christianity. On the other hand, the frame created by choosing the hymnal poem from Daniel, one without dogmatic significance, is understood as being appropriate for a harsh criticism of the categories involved in the disputes of the time: the contesting of the divine nature of Jesus, the dechristianization of “our people” “who see”, who “guided by me towards the happy Light”7 or enlightened by faith „abandon Jesus” and the “God’s law,” the attaching to the worldly things and not to the Light of Spirit, the violence, the arbitrariness and despotic monarchical power etc. Finally, the Gerardian option for a Jewish apocalyptic writing as a pretext of his apologetic and hermeneutical approach is presented as having meant to be symbolically – for the recipients who refuse the eternal sapientia of the Christian faith, as Nebuchadnezzar refused in the olden times the three youths’ faith in God – an imminent, totalizing, and apocalyptic caveat. In what follows, I shall refer to the Gerardian connotation of philosophy and to the ideologies considered by Gerard of Cenad as rivals to the Church doctrine and to its truths of faith, to his particular perspective on the millenarianism and apocalypse, circumscribed to the official position of the Church, and to his criticism of the categories involved in the intellectual disputes and in the religious and moral failures of the time and space in which “has he shepherded.”8

II. Gerardʼs philosophical contemporaneousness and the mystical sects

What makes Gerard’s work so precious is primarily the courage of his polemic spirit en-

4 Constantin D. Rupa uses the expressions “inter-testamentary cohesion” and “inter-testamentary unit.” See “An 11th century philosophical treatise written in Banat and its surprising revelations about the local history,” in International Workshop on the Historiography of Philosophy: Repre- sentations and Cultural Constructions 2012, ed. Claudiu Marius Mesaros, Florin Lobont, György Geréby, Teodora Artimon (Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2013) 204. 5 “… that treasure of wisdom belonging equally to ancients, Jews, and Christians, but which was fully understood only by the Apostles.” Ibidem. 6 Gerard de Cenad, Armonia lumii, 89. 7 Ibidem, 80, 109. 8 At Cenad (Csanád), in the newly-founded Catholic diocese and “missionary bishopric” following Achtumʼs defeat ‒ and the placement of the Banat Voivodship, probably starting with 1030, under Hungarian suzerainty ‒, in an impressive and difficult “missionary epopee” between 1038 and 1046. The newly established episcopate was used by the King Stephen I for the administrative, political, secular organization of the newly-conquered territory. See in this respect Florin Curta, “Transylvania around A. D. 1000,” in Europe around the year 1000, ed. Przemyslaw Urbańczyk (Warsaw: Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, 2001), 142 sq.

31 Gabriela Tănăsescu

gaged in the dispute with the non-sacred philosophy and with the various heresies of the time, especially with the mystical ones. Gerard was an exponent of the post-Carolingian era, a time of revitalization of education and, with it, of philosophy, that culminated with thinkers such as Anselm ‒ “a major transitional figure”9 towards a more technical, “academic,” “argumentative” construction, ‒ and Abelard ‒ the most important and original philosopher, who claimed the ascendance of “reason over authority.”10 The thinkers who preceded them, among them St. Gerard of Cenad11 and some of his contemporaries ‒ which treated various philosophical themes in a still unsystematic manner, but in a “visionary” mode, having ample recourse to “the Neo- Platonist tradition”12 ‒ have legitimized the philosophy within the dominant model of the post-Carolingian era. As revealed by Ignác Batthyány,13 the perspective from which Saint Gerard approached philosophy was that of the necessary interdependence between philosophy and theology of what Ian Scotus Eriugena aimed by the equilibrium or “the harmony” between the two. For the “enlightened rationalist”14 of the Middle Ages, Ian Scotus Eriugena, philosophy, as “faith and reason”15 which constitutes the only way of salvation, can never enter in conflict with the authority ‒ the theology ‒ which is indeed legitimate. As such, “the true philosophy is the true religion, and vice versa, the true religion is the true philosophy.”16 Following this model, Gerard, essentially legitimized philosophy in the condition of disciplinarity, namely in a distinct condition but in “a meaning which does not exceed the boundaries of faith.”17 Thus, the proper condition of philosophy or what he named

9 Paul Vincent Spade, “Medieval Philosophy”, in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2009, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/medieval-philosophy/ (last time accessed: June 22, 2015). 10 Ibidem. 11 The Bishop of Cenad, having significant knowledge of physics and astronomy, was inspired by the works of the most important authors of Christian apologetic and patristic philosophy, particularly Gregory of Nyssa, St. Augustine, Boethius, Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, Ian Scotus Eriugena. 12 Dermot Moran, “John Scottus Eriugena”, in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2004, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/scottus-eriugena/ (last time accessed: June 22, 2015); Carlos Steel and D. W. Hadley, “John Scotus Eriugena,” in A Companion to Philosophy in the Middle Ages, ed. Jorge J. E. Gracia and Timothy B. Noone (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2002), 399. 13 The Roman Catholic Bishop of Transylvania between 1780 and 1798, the first and most important among the exegetes of St. Gerard who highlighted his philosophical concerns in Sancti Gerardi Episcopi Chanadiensis, Scripta et acta hactenus inedita, cum Serie Episcoporvm Chanadiensivm, Albo-Carolinae, Typis Episcopalibus, 1790. 14 Dermot Moran, “Nature, Man, and God in the Philosophy of John Scottus Eriugena,” in The Irish Mind, ed. R. Kearney (Dublin and New Jersey: Wolfhound Press and Humanities Press, 1985), 91. The initiator of Scholastic tradition in the West and also “the first great Europe- an mystic”, Eriugena, “stimulated by Saint Augustine”, developed an understanding of the cogito” and a philosophy of subjectivity in which “the human subject is essentially mind” pursuing its own course of intellectual development and enlightenment. See Dermot Moran, The philosophy of John Scottus Eriugena. A study of idealism in the Miggle Ages, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), XII-XIII. 15 Étienne Gilson, La philosophie au Moyen Age, I: De Scot Érigène a S. Bonaventure (Paris: Payot & CIE, 1922), 14. 16 Joh. Scotus Eriugena, De divina praedestinatione liber, L, 1, 16, citing Augustine’s De uera religione 5, 8, apud Dermot Moran, “John Scottus Eriugena.” 17 Gerard de Cenad, Armonia lumii, 98.

32 Saint Gerard of Cenad and the Intellectual Disputes of the Year 1000

“the true philosophy,” “honest explaining,” the true science,” and the “wisdom”18 “the complete philosophy accomplished with the light of the Spirit,” is the philosophy which search- es “the sacred principles of all things” and understands “the sapient mysteries,” namely the invisible part of the God which is part of human spirit or of human realm of ideas which keeps the human mind “in the highest admiration for the splendour of God.”19 Contrari- wise, the improper condition of philosophy is that of science of principia, the teaching of “mortal” or “visible” things, the non-sacred philosophy which rejects the mystery of occult things or the archetype of wisdom and which denies Jesus. Gerard’s conception of sacred philosophy or of the philosophy as search of divine wisdom is placed in a symbolic mode of world understanding, characteristic for the beginning of the eleventh century, which spread inside the neo-Platonic tradition and struck with the realistic and logical thought (logica vetus) of Aristotle.20 The fact that it “struck” was considered an interruption of “the natural doxology by the parenthesis of heretic philosophy” and an interpretation of it “under the Aristotelian category of substance.”21 For Gerard, since only God has the attribute of entire wisdom, and only He is wise according to his substance, not to accident, divine wisdom must be the main concern of philosophy. Gerard considered that those who preach the wisdom should not be “overlooked” because “not being themselves perfected, as it is appropriate,” as well as those who “raise their voices in squares shouting in front of crowds,” those who “sing and urges all the parties of nature without any remorse” but do not “utter aright.”22 Those unprepared to see with the eyes of mind “the high sayings and to reflect on them” are imperfect, unaccomplished, because they do not “begin by praising the Creator of all creatures.”23 The un-readiness and the imperfection prevent “an honest discerning” of the high teachings and “the congruence (concordia) with the good teachers.”24 As a result, that kind of philosophies are surpassed by “learned people with no literacy,”25 but full of grace, truth, and revealed knowledge, Peter thus being “deeper” than Aristotle, Paul a better orator than other rhetoricians, John “higher in his words than the sky”26 and Jacob more skilled than Plotinus. The philosophers of elementa thus bend in front of “the fisherman’s philosophy” since “the primordial essence cannot be seen with the eyes...”27 The explanation lies, as in the case of the three youths from the Song added to Daniel, in the “strength of virtue”28 with which they brought together, in a single utterance, all visible and invisible things, into glorification. Gerard, like other contemporary Christian thinkers, expressed from this point of view the confi- dence in the possibility of intuitive understanding and speculative knowledge of the junc- tion between the visible and the invisible world, at the crossroads of space and time, at the

18 Ibidem, 74, 87, 88, 90. 19 Ibidem, 99. Rupa, “An 11th century philosophical treatise,” 197. 20 Known at that time through Boethiusʼ early translation of Porphyrysʼ Isagore. Gerard, as well as his contemporaries, probably knew Porphyrysʼ work from a medieval epitome. Ibidem. 21 Ibidem. Jean de Fécamp and his work the Liber meditationum Sancti Augustini (1028) is quoted. 22 Gerard de Cenad, Armonia lumii, 74. 23 Ibidem, 71. 24 Ibidem 74. 25 Ibidem, 79. 26 Ibidem. 27 Ibidem, 150–151. 28 Ibidem, 79.

33 Gabriela Tănăsescu encounter between cosmos, microcosm, nature, morality, and faith. This spiritual attitude, amply shared by scholars and theologians around the year 1000, has underlined the belief in the existence of an essential cohesion and harmony between that part of the universe which man can understand through the senses and that part which eludes the senses. The knowledge of the permanent, intimate and infinite correspondence between nature and the supernatural as divine is the one which opens the way of the mystical illumination and which fortifies and completes the faith and the moral condition of the human being. In a similar manner to that which the three youths29 have remained unmoved in their faith in God and in His miracles, they have been rescued by angels and have exalted to God the glorification and fervent blessing. The three young men had the moral strength to oppose the King who desired to change their faith, have refused to please the King, “a mortal man, who is today , and tomorrow will no longer find any trace of his on the face of earth.”30 Thus, for Gerard, the condition of perfection included “the open mind” towards “the true meaning”, towards “faith and love”31 and, equally, towards moral strength and firmness. The philosophy which has not fallen into this condition remains useless, bypasses wisdom and remains the teaching of the perishing, mortal things. Instead, the philosophy situated in the condition of wisdom seeks the Truth. The philosophy fallen in the condition of wisdom or “the treasure of wisdom”32 is that which leads to faith, the one not reached by the famous rulers of antiquity who acquired and divided the world, neither the Stoics, nor the Platonists, the peripateticians, epicureans, or gymnosophists. Gerard radically combats the claim of some philosophers like Marcobius, Zenon, Menandros to investigate “the secret things” “in the darkness,”33 as well as the nox- iousness of the heretics and sectarians. Also, Gerard combats the Manichaeism with Balkan origin (of the preachers who came from across the Danube in the years 1014–1018), that with oriental origin specific to the Turanian pechenegs, the Cathar heresy and the Asian su- perstitions, probably Karaite (Khazar), brought by Pechenegs or even by Hungarians, along

29 The reason for St. Gerard’s addition to The Book of Daniel has been debated. The Prayer of Azari- ah or the Song of the Three Holy Children (Hananiah, Mishaʼel, and Azariah, by their Babylonian or Chaldean names Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego) was one of the (apocryphal) additions to Daniel (along with “Susannah and the Elders” and “Bel and the Dragon”), considered by the Catholic and Orthodox Churches a deuterocanonical book, one belonging to the second canon. The additions were considered parts of the Old Testament but are not part of the Hebrew Bible. Al- though the Book of Daniel was traditionally classified as prophetic, its literary style is considered today as apocalyptic, comprising apocalyptic prophecies on the end of the world, e.g.: the raising of a shameless king who will commit unbelievable devastations, will succeed in everything he begins, will destroy the mighty and the saintly people, will rise against the Lord of lords, and he will be crushed but not by human hand. It is the story of the Babylonian King Nebuchadnez- zar who tried to introduce the worship of a new idol for the Jews. The Song of the three youths contains the lamentation regarding “the lawless people and the worst amongst ungodly ones, an unjust king, the worst on earth,” the unwavering faith in God and in His miracles, the angel of the Lord who descended and touched with dew whiff the flame of furnace where Azaria and his friends were and the worship and fervent blessing of God by the three happy saved. 30 Gerard de Cenad, Armonia lumii, 80–81. 31 Ibidem, 84. 32 Ibidem, 107. 33 Ibidem, 73.

34 Saint Gerard of Cenad and the Intellectual Disputes of the Year 1000 with the views of certain obscure heretics which are mentioned in the writings of some He- brew theologians. In the list of heresies inspired by Isidore of Sevilleʼs work, Etymologiae, Gerard includes the Jewish sects which were contemporary to the emergence of Christianity (Simonians, Nicolaitans, Cerinthians, Ophites, Cainites, Melchisedecs), the early Christian groups derived in the first and second century from the rabbinical interpretations (Menan- drians, Cerdonians, Marcionites, Archontics), the Hermogenians, Heraclitians, the communities which did not join the Episcopal Church organized in the third century (Novatians, Noetians), the Arab Judaizing trend of Ebionites, the agnostics and Cathars or Bogomils which were, for Gerard, the main ideological opponents. Contrariwise, the opposite exemplifications of the wisdom which leads to faith, according to Gerard, who quotes here from Corinthians II, are Dionysius, Irenaeus, Ignatius, Poly- carp, all situated “in a complete philosophy”34 and, as the three young men from the hymnal poem added to the prophetic book of Daniel, “perfected with the light of Spirit.”35

III. Millennial and emotional contemporaneity and the “harmony of the world” The Bishop of Cenad was contemporary to the millennium turn, the fundamental date of “the world story,” “the great year of the West”36 or the millennial year of fears and belief in the end of the world. The idea of the end times in the year 1000 and the fears generated by it are located in the Christian millennialism ‒ in the belief that Christ should rule the world for a thousand years ‒, following an ancient Judaic tradition.37 For the early Christianity, this belief involved the supreme struggle against the enemies of the Lord, Christ’s return, the Doomsday, and the foundation of a glorious kingdom on earth. As commentators highlighted within recurrently enriched interpretations,38 the Jewish apocalyptic literature is not entirely a millenarian one, since in the Old Testament, in the Psalms, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, the Messianic kingdom is endless as duration. As the distinction between the coming of the Messiah and the revelation of the divine Judge was introduced, the Messianic Kingdom begins to be limited in duration. Thus, Baruch limited the Messianic Kingdom but he only specified that it would last until to the end of theworld corruption, thereby introducing the distinction between the Messianic kingdom, in which

34 Ibid, 97. 35 Ibid, 97. 36 The year 1000 was named as such in his Historiae (Historiarum libri quinque ab anno incarnatio- nis DCCCC usque ad annum MXLIV) by Raoul (Rodulfus) Glaber. Amongst other contemporary historians of the year 1000 were Adémar of Chabannes ‒ the author of Historiae and Chronicon Aquitanicum et Francicum ‒ and Theitmar of Meerseburg , who wrote Chronicon. 37 That line of argumentation, developed by Henri Focillon in his reference book LʼAn Mil (Paris: Armand Colin, 1952) and, meanwhile, established as a commonplace of the literature, belongs to Adolf von Harnack, who formulated it in his article “Millenium” in Encyclopaedia Britannica, Vol. 16 (9th ed., New York: Scribnerʾs, 1883), 314–318, in an exemplary configuration of the history of millenarian doctrine and of its philosophical and religious grounds. See: Henri Focillon, Anul 1000, 33. 38 Among them Adolf von Harnack, Edmond Pognon, Henri Focillon, Leon Morris, John Barton, Vern Poythress.

35 Gabriela Tănăsescu the world is still struggling against sin, and the kingdom of Glory. In the Apocalypse of Ezra and in the Talmud, the Messianic kingdom lasts for 400 years, but also the Jews pre- ponderantly attributed one millennium to the Messianic kingdom, a day of the Lord, a day of a thousand years. In the Middle Ages, however, the vision of the great week reappeared, i.e. the seven days which represent the seven ages of the world, the last of which, Messiah’s kingdom, being the Sabbath. However, as Focillon pointed out following Harnakʼs thesis, neither the evangelical literature (scriptural) nor the apostolic one (dedicated to the manner in which Christ and the authors of the New Testament used the Old Testament) did not confine the duration of Messiah’s kingdom, with the exception of St. John’s Book of Revela- tion (The Apocalypse), which is, according to Henri Focillon, “a strange testimony of the survival of Judaic conception to the Asian Christians.”39 According to St. John’s Apocalypse, after a thousand years, Satan would appear for a short time but would be destroyed, the dead would rise from their graves and would be judged, and a new universe would be conceived, a kingdom of Glory. The idea of millenarianism becomes an essential element of Christianity, accompanied by a sense of hope, of an 40 “awake” or “pending” consciousness guided by the belief that, as the Lord had come the first time, He would return and would build a renewed world. Thus, there is a striking contradiction between the evangelical humanism, that brings peace, and the apocalyptic Judaism ‒ Baruch argued that the earthly reign is not the reign of virtue and peace, but “the unfolding of fall and redemption drama, a drama full of disasters and collapses”41 ‒, and the apocalyptic Judaism harbinger of fear. From the perspective of the soul, however, this contradiction proves to be the cause of a complementarity. In West- ern religious thought after the year 1000, the Apocalypse and the commentaries on it were no longer strictly linked to millenarianism, but the year 1000 has had a huge symbolic value. From the perspective of historical interpretations, the meaning of anno Domini and anno Passionis 1000 reunited the apocalyptic (“revelatory”) belief in the “final moment when God’s ways are revealed as imminent”42 and Christ’s return (Parousia), as well as the millennial belief or the eschatological expectation anticipated at the turn of a millennium (set in motion by the ecclesiastical teaching of the sabbatical millennium). In its chiliastic versions, these expectations referred to an end which would bring about a thousand years period of peace, harmony, and joy on earth for those who are favoured on the Judgment Day.43 It should be mentioned that in the modern historiography the most prominent interpretation paradigms of the year 1000 are that of the “eschatological fervour” ‒ “arousing hope in the oppressed and terror in the oppressors”44 ‒, created by the Romantic historians of the mid- nineteenth century,45 and that of “anti-terrors school” or radical revisionist position, created

39 Henri Focillon, Anul 1000, 34. 40 Ibidem. 41 Ibid, 36. 42 Richard Landes, “The Fear of an Apocalyptic Year 1000: Augustinian Historiography, Medieval and Modern,” Speculum 75 (2000): 101 43 See for these conceptual distinctions Richard Landes, “The Fear of an Apocalyptic Year 1000,” 101. 44 Ibidem, 97. 45 And especially championed by Jules Michelet. See Jules Michelet, L’histoire de France (Paris, 1835), Vol. 2, 132, apud Richard Landes, “The Fear of an Apocalyptic Year 1000,” 97.

36 Saint Gerard of Cenad and the Intellectual Disputes of the Year 1000 by the positivist historians of the late nineteenth century,46 who dismissed the apocalyptic expectations mainly because of “the utter absence”47 of documentation attesting them and since the little evidence that survived is not directly related to 1000, but to dates such as 968, 1010 and 1033. In fact, the ample emotional waves caused by the apocalyptic expectations concerning the year 1000, the feeling that the entire Christianity will step as one body the threshold of the year 1000, the unclear, but gloomy, perspective of a great “spectacle of death”48 and depression have covered about half a century, namely the period between 980 and 1040 and especially the interval 1000–1033 circumscribed by the two “millennial anniversaries” ‒ the Birth and the Passion and Resurrection of Christ. Landes has shown that the apocalyptic year 1000, as all great “dates,” affected the period before and after and that “two generation stepped in an apocalyptic Zeitgeist.”49 To the observations which concerned the evidence and the documentation, the historians who have re-launched the critical study of the history of “obscure millennium”50 replied by searching the cultural behaviour according to the social differences and the specificity of the phenomena of collective psychology. Essentially, their studies have been circumscribed by the reiteration of the fact that the Christian leaders of the Roman Empire and “the institutional superstructure” of Christianity have emphasized “the ill effects of a too passionate and too immediate sense of the end” and that the most prominent figures of the Christianity, such as Jerome and Augustine, have dismissed most forms of apocalyptic expectations and chiliastic hopes by pointing to the absence of any valid text that might hold out them.51 The Augustinian tradition ‒ “Augustine’s radical agnosticism”52 ‒, which culminated with Ab- bon of Fleuryʼs position, maintained that one cannot know the end and that the Texts are not to be taken literally. Furthermore, as the anti-apocalyptic voices of the “sober” clerical elites53 rarely appeared in the texts, a “consensus of silence” was set up, and “the chiliasm

46 Summarized in 1901 by George Lincoln Burr as a new consensus among the American and Eu- ropean historians in relation to the thesis that the arrival of the year 1000 did not provoke any apocalyptic expectations. See George Lincoln Burr, “The Year 1000 and the Antecedents of the Crusades,” American Historical Review 6 (1901), 429–439, apud Richard Landes, “The Fear of an Apocalyptic Year 1000,” 97. 47 Richard Landes, “Apocalyptic Expectations around the Year 1000” 1, http://www.mille.org/ scholarship/1000/1000-br.html (last time accessed: June 22, 2015). 48 Georges Duby, L’an mil (Paris: Gallimard, 1980), 9. 49 Richard Landes, “Apocalyptic Expectations around the Year 1000,” http://www.mille.org / scholarship/1000/1000-br.html (last time accessed: June 22, 2015). 50 Amongst them especially Marc Bloch, Lucien Febvre, Henri Focillon sau Edmond Pognon and the leading representatives of Annales: Georges Duby, Jacques Le Goff, Jean Delumeau, Philippe Aries, etc. 51 See Richard Landes, “The Fear of an Apocalyptic Year 1000,” 105. 52 Richard Landes, “The Apocalyptic Year 1000: Then and Now,” 7, http://www.mille.org / scholarship/1000/1000then_now.html (last time accessed: June 22, 2015). 53 The “two, fundamentally opposed stances about the nearness of the Apocalypse in any religion with a strong eschatological tradition like Christianity” are the “roosters and owls.” “Roosters crow the dawn is imminent, owls that the night is still young. In periods of rising apocalyptic expectation, the roosters crow in chorus, rousing and disturbing listeners sympathetic and hostile alike; the hoots of the owls are straw in the wind. After the failure of the apocalyptic expectations (historically one of the constants of apocalyptic moments ‒ they have all failed), the roosters are

37 Gabriela Tănăsescu disappeared from the West from Augustine’s day (early fifth century) until Joachim of Fio- re’s (late twelfth).”54 But this ample impact was primarily on scribal production and not on Christianity as a whole. Thus, medieval writers, who were churchmen, bishops, and monks, and who thus reflected “a closed mentality,”55 avoided the subject of the millennium or used euphemisms, maintained that men must not interpret current events in terms of an apocalyptic scenario, and must interpret 1000 as an allegorical number symbolizing perfection, not as a fixed number of years before the Parousia. They were interested ‒ in the miser universe and in the highly hierarchical medieval society ‒ only in exceptional cases, in strangeness, in what broke the well set order of things ‒ “signs and wonders,” warnings that God sent to his creatures miracles, predictions,56 prophecies, disasters: earthquakes, comets, lightnings, eclipses of the sun and moon, famines, plagues, invasions of the Danes, beached whales, monstrous births, widespread outbreaks of sacerignis.57 The meaning of this “web of wonders,” “correspondences” and “cosmic” cohesion58 could not avoid the apocalyptic sentiment at the approach of the millennium. For the political elite, the clergy and the usually passive mass of the population, the annals, chronicles, and historical works, reveal ,the pending of Parusia, the increasing of purification acts, individual and collective rituals of penitence, royal donations,59 oath of fasting, penitential practices, prohibitions and renunciations, gathering of people to which numerous reliquaries and holy relics were brought. These gatherings meant to revive peace and establish the holy faith, to suspend hostilities during the most sacred periods of liturgical calendar ‒ the armistice of God, proposed to knights as a form of asceticism suited for their rank ‒, pilgrimages understood as a preparation for death and as a promise of salvation. These privations were considered “the means by which the people of God could persuade divine vengeance, clear currently the scourges and prepare itself for the day of wrath”60 and the core of the collective consciousness which was under the empire of a disturbing expectation. At the same time, they also expressed the intensification of the religious experience, the propensity for the spiritual and personal dimension of eschatology, and “the way in which the Last Things are realized for each believer in his or her inner experience of Judgment and the Kingdom of Heaven.”61

either soup or silent, and the owls dominate the discourse. Given the last laugh, the owls also dominate the documents and the archives, and in a religion whose elite is profoundly shaped by so towering an owl as Augustine, this translates into a documentary record ‒ particularly in periods of little writing and imperfect preservation ‒ into a paltry record of apocalyptic expectation.” Richard Landes, “Apocalyptic Expectations around the Year 1000.” 54 Richard Landes, “The Fear of an Apocalyptic Year 1000,” 106. 55 Georges Duby, L’an mil, 30. 56 As that from 960, year in which the Lotharingian computists were predicting the end for the year 970, because the Annunciation and the Crucifixion coincided: Friday, March 25, when Adam was created, Isaac sacrificed, the Red Sea crossed, Christ Incarnated, Christ Crucified, and the Arch- angel Michael would defeat Satan. 57 Richard Landes, “The Apocalyptic Year 1000.” 58 Richard Landes, “The Fear of an Apocalyptic Year 1000,” 102. 59 Which take on a symbolic form when the sovereign, anointed of the Lord, imitates Jesus’ deeds during Easter. 60 Richard Landes, “The Apocalyptic Year 1000”. 61 Paul Magdalino, “The Year 1000 in Byzantium,” in The Medieval Mediterranean Peoples, Econo- mies and Cultures, 400–1500, ed. Hugh Kennedy, Paul Magdalino, David Abulafia, Benjamin

38 Saint Gerard of Cenad and the Intellectual Disputes of the Year 1000

According to the Church doctrine, only God can decide on the end of the world, thus priests discouraged speculation, and pleaded “for exhorting the faithful to prepare themselves individually for Judgment here and now, regardless of the future of mankind.”62 Notwithstanding, “the diffuse feeling of ʽthe twilight of worldʼ and the sadness of discouraged spirit attending the progressive decay of civilization... after the German”63 and Turanik invasions were not purely intellectual but in agreement with a religious belief which went, in the middle of the tenth century, though an intense crisis, a doctrinal resurgence manifested not only in the chancellery, but also in the Church and in the public consciousness. The official position of the Church, imposed more strongly at the end of the tenth century through the voice of Abbon of Fleury (Liber apologeticus), is not to date the Judgment and not to force the mystery of divine providence. It is interesting to notice that Abbon de Fleury declared that he opposed the belief in the coming of Antichrist at the end of the thousand years with the help of the Gospels, the Book of Revelation and Daniel, and this declaration put him closer to Gerard. The fear of the end of the world and the fright of the disappear- ance of the human race exacerbated in the second half of the tenth century, but tempered even in the year 1000 as a consequence of the “prudent position of the Church”64 and renewed in the entire course of the eleventh century, was so intense that it was interpreted as a new Spring of the world. According to a contemporary writer, “the chronicler of the year 1000,” “the greatest historian of this period,” “the best witness of his time,”65, Raoul Glaber, “around three years after the year 1000,” the earth “shook off the dust of the ages and covered itself with a white mantle of churches.”66 The prudent position of the Church, namely the canonical prudence in relation to the revealed text of Apocalypse, made as “the value of Apocalypse remain outside any possible challenge,” but, as Focillon had shown, to be “a somewhat un-temporal value, a sort of perpetual calendar of great spiritual anxieties, of a fear of the Last Judgment,”67 a fear with a great moral potential. According to Gerard of Cenad, the apocalypse does not mean a “pass” or destruction of heaven and earth, but the time of “a new heaven and a new earth” (Revelation), namely a change towards the better, towards a more beautiful state. The earth, as the Ecclesiastes show, which Gerard quoted, “will stand forever.” God will provide a world in which only its face will pass, but wherein the truth that removes the bondage of corruption will remain. The darkening of the sun and moon are not meant to end the world, because God would not allow the ending of the world, but they are meant to improve it. Undoubtedly, the Sun would eventually return to its normal state, but it will be stronger, lighted by an unseen Sun, a lamp, that of the Lamb, and this light will be of an incomprehensible clarity. So, as John showed, the first Heaven and the first earth will end, but there will be a new heaven and a new earth in which everything that was subjected to corruption has been removed. Thus, the corruption and degradation will pass, making room for the limpidity of faith and for God’s glory. The earth will be purified by fire, washed by water, and will become a clean

Arbel, Mark Meyerson, Larry J. Simon. Vol. 45 ‒ Byzantium in the Year 1000, ed. Paul Magdalino (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2003), 234–235. 62 Ibidem, 241. 63 Henri Focillon, Anul 1000, 39–40. 64 Ibidem, 53. 65 Georges Duby, L’an mil (Paris: Gallimard, 1980), 16, 21 66 Henri Focillon, Anul 1000, 52. 67 Ibidem, 54.

39 Gabriela Tănăsescu earth on which nobody masters. The Apocalypse will therefore take place when the Lord will be pleased with the spiritually-renewed and purified Heaven and Earth. The condition of the world that is to come can be perceived only from that state of spiritual perfection and love that surpasses everything. Through perfection and love “the mystery of the greatest significance,” “the mysterious chant” of “the world harmony,”68 can be researched – that harmony in which the sky and the earth, the sun and the stars sing to the Lord. The worship and singing for the Lord, as in the case of the three young people, is with the word, with the mouth, but especially with the deed. “The deed is that which sings”69 and thus contributes to the largest extend to the preaching of God and of divine law.

IV. Historical contemporaneity and the criticism of the King as mortal

Gerard probably perceived in the most acute manner that the century’s end was manifested as a phenomenon which looked, Janus-like, both to the future and to the past.70 The Venetian who became Bishop in Cenad, in the vicinity of a suzerain territory whose population was Chris- tianized around the year 1000 by the Archbishop of Prague, St. Brunon, ‒ the White Hungary ‒ and by the Archbishop of Bohemia, St. Adalbert ‒ the Black Hungary or the descendants of the Magyar hordes, of the Kavars and the Kuns, had an important and difficult missionary task. It is worth noting in this respect that Rome and Byzantium, which “were competing for the souls of the east European peoples … were anxious to add the Hungarians to their bag.”71 The Christianity of the year 1000, before the great schism, was already divided between the Church of Rome ‒ with its weakened authority caused the lengthy scandals of the Popes of Tusculum, with complaints on dogmatic and liturgical issues, and with a deep and deaf contradiction caused by habits, states of spirit, traditions of different environments ‒, and the Greek Church with its different approach, with its orthodoxy, with its distinct political role. In essence, it was a world of disunity, rebellions, intrigues, “a world of feudal beasts and simonies.”72 It should be added that this great Western anxiety of mind of millenarian origin was parallel, as Focillon showed, to “a great moment of the history,”73 namely the construction of the Holy German-Roman Empire on the ruins of the Carolingian Empire (lasting until 1804) the end of the Capetian dynasty , the “great political constructions of the Normans,”74 but also, especially in Central Europe, the return of Hungarians, who in the tenth century burned the monasteries from Gallia, against the peoples of the steppe, and established (in the year 1000) the apostolic monarchy, constituting themselves as “defenders of Christian Europe.”75

68 Gerard de Cenad, Armonia lumii, 99. 69 Ibidem, 112, 70 Like all centuries end, according to the theory of periodicity argued by Hillel Schwartz. See Hillel Schwartz, Century’s End: A Cultural History of the fin-de-siècle from the 990s to the 1990s (New York: Doubleday, 1990). 71 C. A. Macartney, Hungary: A Short History (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1962), 8. http://mek.oszk.hu/02000/02086/02086.htm (last time accessed: June 22, 2015). 72 Henri Focillon, Anul 1000, 118.. 73 Ibidem, 57. 74 Ibidem. 75 Ibidem.

40 Saint Gerard of Cenad and the Intellectual Disputes of the Year 1000

St. Brunon christened the Hungarian King Gönz (Géza) of the Árpád dynasty, called, and changed his name to Stephen. The Emperor Otto III received Stephen after the baptism, on the day of the martyr Stephen, and gave him absolute power over his kingdom and allowed him to wear the saintly lance everywhere. Stephen’s son, Vajk, was also baptized by St. Brunon as Stephen (István), with the condition to determine his people to convert to Christianity. He finalized a matrimonial alliance with the Bavarian House: Stephen married Henry III’s sister, Gisella in 996. The Hungarian Kingdom was recognized by Rome in 1000 and the new kingdom was linked to the Holy See under the title of apostolic monarchy, while its king was known as “one of those rulers by the Grace of God whose legitimate rights his fellow-princes could not infringe without sin.”76 Furthermore, Stephen was canonized in 1083 as Stephen I, together with his son, Emeric, and the Bishop Gerard of Cenad. The Hungarians were Christianised under Saint Stephen’s order, thus the missionary activity “worked from top to bottom, introducing not the popular Christianity of Peace councils and pilgrimages, but that of monarchical and episcopal authority,” in contrast to the West, where the impact of apocalyptic beliefs “tended to work from the bottom up, trig- gering large demonstrations of collective piety.”77 Consequently, the Hungarians “joined the ranks of the Christian kingdoms of Europe, together forming Christian Europe.”78 Thus, the Danube River and the Banat Voivodeship became Rome’s natural frontier to the north and the frontier of Romanity lay far to the south of the Danube, what assured a remarkable stability of the Empire Eastern frontier.79 After Stephen’s death, in 1038, riots affected the Voievodeship of Banat, but at the time the Hungarians were already part of Christian Europe, of a “supra-nation” understood as being the very essence of Christianity, a spiritual agreement or an universal society, a community of different traditions, languages, seniorities, and status of civilization.80 After Stephen, the Venetian Petro Orseolo (1038–1041) succeeded to the Hungarian throne. He was the son of Stephen’s sister, who ruled in an authoritarian policy which ended in a rebellion resulting in his replacement with Samuel Aba (1041–1044) - who was probably Stephen’s brother-in- law, the husband (or the son of the husband) of Gézaʼs daughter. Descending from a family headed by the Kabar tribes which seceded from the Khazar Khanate and which joined the Hungarians in the nineth century, Sámuel Aba executed many of his opponents and eventually came into conflict with St. Gerard of Cenad. The throne was reconquered by Petro

76 In a favorable context in which Pope Sylvester II and Emperor Otto III were “remarkable figures” and had “a unique relationship” in which the Pope, Ottoʼs tutor, friend, and mentor, determined Otto to see his dreamed “renewed Empire” “as an oecumenical community of Christian nations and as a Germanic temporal dominion.” C. A. Macartney, Hungary: A Short History, 8. 77 Richard Landes, “Apocalyptic Expectations around the Year 1000”, http://www.mille.org/scholarship/1000/ 1000-br.html (accessed March 27, 2015). 78 Kees Teszelszky, “In Search of Hungary in Europe: An Introduction,” in A Divided Hungary in Europe: Exchanges, Networks and Representations, 1541–1699, ed. Gábor Almási, Szymon Brzeziński, Ildikó Horn, Kees Teszelszky and Áron Zarnóczki, Vol. 3 The Making and Uses of the Image of Hungary and Transylvania, ed. Kees Teszelszky (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014), 6. 79 See Paul Stephenson, “The Balkan Frontier in the Year 1000,” in The Medieval Mediterranean Peoples, Economies and Cultures, 400–1500, ed. Hugh Kennedy, Paul Magdalino, David Abu- lafia, Benjamin Arbel, Mark Meyerson, Larry J. Simon. Vol. 45 Byzantium in the Year 1000, ed. Paul Magdalino (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2003), 109–110. 80 Henri Focillon, Anul 1000, 126.

41 Gabriela Tănăsescu

Orseolo (1044–1046) with the help of the Holy Roman Emperor Henry III, whose vassal he became. He was killed in the rebellion of Vata, which also martyred St. Gerard, a rebellion which sought the abolition of Christianity and the restoration of paganism in Hungary. What it is meritorious, impressive, and particularly actual for our society is the manner in which Gerard of Cenad had the courage to question authority in general and the king in particular, the person who was the temporal leader and who was not to be an abusive lay- man or an opponent of the Church and faith, nor a heretic or a mystical interpreter of the Bible. Like the three young men who lamented the existence of the lawless people and the worst amongst ungodly ones, an unjust king, of the unwavering faith in God and in His miracles, and of the angel of the Lord who descended and touched with dew whiff the flame of furnace where Azaria and his friends were and worshiped and fervently blessed God, Ge- rard of Cenad bemoaned those who did not have the “strength of virtue,”81 the priests who, yielding to pressure, detach themselves from Jesus and renounce the faith. He deplored those who did not have the courage to affirm conscience and dignity, those who “just mur- mur,” who “did not dare to scold not to offend the prince’s ears,” those who “feignedly grin so that they or their relatives not be removed from their services” or removed from offices.82 The Bishop of Cenad bemoaned those who were afraid of people and of their habits, those who were afraid of offending any “mortal man” even if he was the King, “who exists today, and tomorrow one will find none of his trace the face of earth.”83 In other words, Gerard of Cenad rejected the voluntary, cowardly, and irresponsible submission to the “injustice which masters the world,” to the greed, looting, and persecutions led by those placed at the top of the power, to everything which infringed the divine law, including the philosophers who served masters, who were attached to the treasures of this world and not “to the un- speakable treasure”84 of the heavenly kingdom, and who did not react against the violence, tyranny, arbitrariness, and despotism of the monarchical power. From this radical perspective, Deliberatio supra hymnum trium puerorum ad Isingrimum liberalem represents not only an impressive work of Christian apologetics but also a lucid apologetics of maximal moral and political values.

References Curta, Florin. “Transylvania around A. D. 1000.” In Europe around the year 1000, ed. Przemyslaw Urbańczyk, 141–165. Warsaw: Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, 2001. Duby, Georges. L’an mil. Paris: Gallimard, 1980. _____ . L’Europe au Moyen Âge. Paris: Flammarion, 1984. Focillon, Henri. Anul 1000 [The Year 1000], Trans. Tudor Ţopa. Bucharest: Meridiane, 1971. Gerard de Cenad. Armonia lumii sau tălmăcire a cântării celor trei coconi către Isigrim Dascălul [The harmony of the world or interpretation of the Song of the three children to Isingrim the Teacher], trans. Radu Constantinescu. Bucharest: Meridiane, 1984. Heitzman, James, Wolfgang Schenkluhn, ed. The World in the Year 1000. Lanham, Maryland/Oxford: University Press of America, 2004. Landes, Richard. “The Apocalyptic Year 1000: Then and Now”, http://www.mille.org/ scholarship/1000/1000then_now.html (last time accessed: June 22, 2015).

81 Gerard de Cenad, Armonia lumii, 79. 82 Ibidem, 80. 83 Ibid, 80–81. 84 Ibid, 136.

42 Saint Gerard of Cenad and the Intellectual Disputes of the Year 1000

_____. “Apocalyptic Expectations around the Year 1000”, http://www.mille.org/scholarship/1000/1000- br.html (last time accessed: June 22, 2015). _____. “The Fear of an Apocalyptic Year 1000: Augustinian Historiography, Medieval and Modern,” Speculum 75 (2000): 97–145. Macartney, C. A. Hungary: A Short History. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1962. http:// mek.oszk.hu/02000/02086/02086.htm (last time accessed: June 22, 2015). Magdalino, Paul. “The Year 1000 in Byzantium.” In The Medieval Mediterranean Peoples, Econo- mies and Cultures, 400–1500, ed. Hugh Kennedy, Paul Magdalino, David Abulafia, Benjamin Arbel, Mark Meyerson, Larry J. Simon. Vol. 45 Byzantium in the Year 1000, ed. Paul Magdalino, 233–271. Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2003. Moran, Dermot. “Nature, Man, and God in the Philosophy of John Scottus Eriugena.” In The Irish Mind, ed. R. Kearney, Dublin and New Jersey: Wolfhound Press and Humanities Press, 1985, 91–106. Rupa, Constantin D. “An 11th century philosophical treatise written in Banat and its surprising revelations about the local history.” In International Workshop on the Historiography of Philosophy: Representations and Cultural Constructions 2012, ed. Claudiu Marius Mesaros, Florin Lobont, György Geréby, Teodora Artimon (Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2013), 196–203. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2013. Schwartz, Hillel. Century’s End: A Cultural History of the fin-de-siècle from the 990s to the 1990s. New York: Doubleday, 1990. Stephenson, Paul. “The Balkan Frontier in the Year 1000.” In The Medieval Mediterranean Peo- ples, Economies and Cultures, 400–1500, ed. Hugh Kennedy, Paul Magdalino, David Abulafia, Benjamin Arbel, Mark Meyerson, Larry J. Simon. Vol. 45 Byzantium in the Year 1000, ed. Paul Magdalino, 109–133. Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2003. Teszelszky, Kees. “In Search of Hungary in Europe: An Introduction.” In Divided Hungary in Europe: Exchanges, Networks and Representations, 1541–1699, ed. Gábor Almási, Szymon Brzeziński, Ildikó Horn, Kees Teszelszky and Áron Zarnóczki. Vol. 3 The Making and Uses of the Image of Hungary and Transylvania, ed. Kees Teszelszky, 1–15. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Schol- ars Publishing, 2014.

43 Remus Mihai Feraru L’Église et l’État en Hongrie dans la première moitié du XIe siècle, avec un regard spécial sur Legenda Sancti Gerardi et Deliberatio

Remus Mihai Feraru

Notre étude porte sur les relations entre l’Église et l’État en Hongrie, dans la première moitié du XIe siècle et leur implications sur le plan politique, idéologique et religieux. La relation étroite entre l’Église et la royauté hongroise caractérisait l’organisation politique de la Hongrie mediévale. Notre recherche se fonde particulièrement sur la biographie anonyme de l’évêque Gérard de Csanád (Legenda Sancti Gerardi) et Deliberatio, une traité théologique et philosophique appartenant au même Gérard ; ces deux sources reflétent les rapports entre l’Église et l’État pendant les règnes des Étienne Ier (997–1038) et ses successeurs Pierre Orseolo (1038–1041; 1044–1046) et Aba Sámuel (1041–1044).

Mots clés : Église; État; christianisation; politique religieuse; Hongrie médiévale; Saint Gérard de Csanád; Étienne Ier; Legenda Sancti Gerardi; Deliberatio.

I. Introduction

L’installation des tribus magyares dans la Pannonie, vers 8961 et leur organisation sous la forme d’un royaume médiéval puissant ont eu des conséquences capitales sur le rapport des forces de cette partie de l’Europe. À la fin du Xe siècle, le jeune État magyar se trouvait dans une zone d’interférence des deux grands pouvoirs de l’époque, l’Empire romain germanique à l’ouest et l’Empire byzantin, à l’est. Sur le plan interne, le grand-prince Géza (972–997) jeta les bases de l’État médiéval hongrois, consolidant le pouvoir central. Dans les deux dernières décennies du Xe siècle, le jeune État magyar est devenu une mise importante dans la dispute entre le Saint-Empire romain germanique et Byzance qui voulaient l’attirer dans leur sphère d’influence. Le roi Étienne Ier (997–1038) paracheva l’œuvre politique et de christianisation des Hongrois initiée par son prédécesseur, Géza. L’extension du christianisme en Hongrie a été possible grâce à l’activité des missionnaires latins, parmi lesquels on compte le moine bénédictin Gérard, le futur évêque de Csanád (1030–1046), qui fut une personnalité éminente de l’époque.

1 Ioan-Aurel Pop, Românii și maghiarii în secolele IX-XIV. Geneza statului medieval în Transilva- nia, (Cluj-Napoca: Centrul de Studii Transilvane, 1996), 61–62. D’après une lettre de Theotmar, archevêque de Salzburg, adressée au pape en 900, la Pannonie était dévastée par les incursions des Magyars et des Moraves des années précédentes si bien que, à ce moment-là, dans toute la Pannonie il n’y avait plus aucune église, (« … in tota Pannonia, nostra maxima provincia, tantum una non apparet ecclesia »), György Györffy, « La christianisation de la Hongrie », in Harvard Ukrainian Studies XII-XIII, 1988/1989 (Proceedings of the International Congress Commemorating the Mil- lenium of Christianity in Rus’-Ukraine, éds. Omeljan Pritsak et Ihor Ševčenko), (1990), 65.

44 L’Église et l’État en Hongrie dans la première moitié du XIe siècle ...

Le biographie anonyme de Saint Gérard (Legenda Sancti Gerardi)2 et Deliberatio3 – un traité théologique et philosophique – dont l’auteur est l’évêque de Csanád lui-même reflè- tent les relations entre la royauté magyare et l’Église pendant les règnes d’Étienne Ier et de ses successeurs Pierre Orseolo (1038–1041; 1044–1046) et Aba Sámuel (1041–1044); en même temps, les deux sources nous fournissent des renseignements précieuses sur l’activité d’évangélisation initiée par Saint Gérard dans l’évêché de Csanád, ainsi que sur la relation entre l’évêque et les trois rois magyars. C’est bien sur la valorisation des informations fournies par Vita Sancti Gerardi et De- liberatio (sans ignorer d’autres sources aussi, qui concernent la même époque) que notre étude se propose d’aborder la problématique des relations entre l’Église et l’État en Hon- grie, pendant la première moitié du XIe siècle et leurs implications sur le plan politique, idéologique et religieux. En même temps, nous nous proposons – sur la base des renseignements donnés par les sources – de découvrir la relation entre Saint Gérard et les trois rois magyars, Étienne Ier, Pierre Orseolo et Aba Sámuel.

II. Le grand-prince Géza et la christianisation des Hongrois

Après avoir consolidé leur pouvoir dans leur nouvelle patrie, les Hongrois ont déclenché de nombreuses expéditions de pillage tant dans l’Europe occidentale et centrale, que dans l’Europe du Sud-Est. Le 10 août 955, l’empereur Otton Ier a remporté la victoire contre les Hongrois dans la bataille de Lechfeld. Cette défaite fut fatale pour les Magyars, qui n’ont plus osé initier des raids de pillage contre le centre et l’ouest de l’Europe. Mais comme la christianisation des Magyars ne fut plus une priorité pour Byzance4,

2 Legenda Sancti Gerardi episcopi (Vita Sancti Gerardi) est une ample œuvre hagiographique qui a comme sujet la vie et l’activité du Gérard de Sagredo (977/980–1046). En 1030, après la défaite du voïevode Ajtony, Gérard est devenu l’évêque titulaire du nouveau diocèse de Csanád. Le texte de la biographie de l’évêque Gérard de Csanád a été conservé sous trois formes de base : la Légen- de reflétée dans les images, Legenda minor et Legenda maior. Selon l’opinion des historiens magyars, partagée par les chercheurs roumains aussi, les deux Legendae ont été elaborées, quelque part, dans l’intervalle situé entre la fin du XIe siècle et la moitié du XIIe siècle, dans le contexte de l’élaboration des premiers textes à caractère hagiographique de la Hongrie médiévale. Legenda maior constitue un développement de la Legenda minor, texte rendu définitif au XIVe siècle. Il est la version utilisée de préférence par les médiévistes; pour la discussion concernant la datation des versions de la Légende de Saint Gérard, voir Șerban Turcuș, Sfântul Gerard de Cenad sau despre destinul unui venețian în jurul anului 1000, [Saint Gérard de Csanád ou sur la destin d’un véne- tien vers l’an 1000] (București: Carom, 2004), 36–39. 3 L’oeuvre Deliberatio Gerardi Moresenae Ecclesiae Episcopi supra Hymnum Trium Puerorum ad Isingrinum Liberalem se présente sous la forme d’un traité théologique et philosophique dedié à « Isingrim le maître », sans doute un personnage fictif. On ne connaît pas la date exacte de l’élaboration de l’ouvrage, qui a subi des changements successifs jusqu’à la dernière année de la vie de Gérard (1046), voir Radu Constantinescu (éd.), Gerard din Cenad: Armonia lumii sau tălmăcire a cântării celor trei coconi către Insingrim dascălul, [Gérard de Csanád: L’Harmonie du monde ou interprétation du chant des trois garçons dedié à Isingrim le maître] (București: Meridiane, 1984), 158–159 ; sur la traité Deliberatio, voir aussi Előd Nemerkényi, Latin Classics in Medieval Hungary eleventh Century, (Debrecen-Budapest: 2004), 73–156. 4 Pour arrêter les attaques dévastatrices des Magyars qui avaient lieu sur les territoires byzantins, l’empereur Constantin VII Porphyrogénète (913–959) conclut avec les tribus magyares une alli-

45 Remus Mihai Feraru après 955, ils se tournèrent vers l’Église de Rome. En 963, le chef tribal Taksony manda une délégation à Rome pour demander la nomination d’un évêque qui puisse entreprendre une action d’apostolat parmi les Magyars païens. Le pape Jean XII confia alors à l’évêque Zachée la mission d’évangéliser les Magyars, mais l’empereur Otton Ier (936–973) empê- cha celui-ci d’entrer en Pannonie5. Le geste de l’empereur s’explique par le fait que, après la défaite des Magyars à Lechfeld (955), il s’érigea non seulement comme défenseur du monde chrétien, mais aussi comme responsable de l’expansion missionnaire parmi les populations païennes de l’Europe orientale. Plus précisément, Otton Ier a assumé la mission d’évangéliser ces populations, voulant ainsi se substituer à la papauté. L’empereur avait obtenu même le soutien de l’Église allemande qu’il avait transformée en une institution centrale de son gouvernement. Otton Ier avait élaboré un système ecclésiastique impérial – le soi-disant Reichskirchensystem – au cadre duquel les évêques, investis par le monarque, recevaient différentes dignités politiques, étant considérés comme vicaires impériaux et fonctionnaires de l’État. Il recrutait les conseillers parmi les ecclésiastiques, auxquels il accordait en échange de nombreux privilèges et immunités. C’est ainsi que la nouvelle organisation ecclésiastique était fondée sur la convergence entre sacerdotium et regnum. L’Église était devenue l’instrument le plus important pour l’exercice du pouvoir au cadre de l’État des successeurs d’Otton le Grand et des monarques saliens6. L’objectif d’Otton Ier était que les évêques chargés d’évangéliser les peuples païens de l’Europe orientale soient envoyés non par le pape, mais par l’empereur. La raison de cette politique était d’obtenir la soumission envers la cour impériale de ces princes païens et de leurs sujets, tous désireux de conversion. C’est pourquoi Otton le Grand a mis au point – par l’intermédiaire de son archichapelain, l’archevêque de Mayence, et dans le but spécial d’évangéliser ces princes et les territoires qu’ils contrôlaient – une procédure de consécra- tion d’un moine d’une abbaye impériale (Reichsabtei)7.

ance de type clientélaire par laquelle il s’obligeait à leur accorder un tribut annuel; il s’agissait de dons offerts régulièrement aux chefs tribaux. L’alliance avec les Magyars fut scellée par la conversion au christianisme des chefs tribaux Termatzu et Bulcsu en 948 et respectivement Gyula en 953. La défaite des Magyars à Lechfeld (955) où perdit la vie leur chef même Bulcsu, qui était le principal allié des Byzantins, a compromis en totalité la christianisation des Magyars par Byzance. Dans ces conditions, le basileus décida d’arrêter le paiement du tribut aux chefs magyars ce qui déclencha les hostilités entre Byzance et Magyars. Vers 957, probablement, avec la conversion au christianisme de la princesse russe Olga de Kiev, Byzance décide d’orienter la direction d’évangélisation vers l’Europe orientale, plus précisément vers l’espace russe, vezi Györffy, « La christianisation », 66–67. 5 Scriptores rerum germanicarum: Liudprandi opera, éd. Joseph Becker (Hannover und Leipzig: Hahnsche Buchhandlung, 1915), VI, 163: « […] et Zacheum virum reprobatum, divinarum atque humanarum inscium litterarum a domno papa episcopum noviter consecratum et Ungariis ad praedicandum … ». 6 Alexandru-Florin Platon, Laurențiu Rădvan, Bogdan-Petru Maleon, O istorie a Europei de Apus în Evul Mediu. De la Imperiul Roman târziu la marile descoperiri geografice (secolele V-XVI), [Une histoire de l’Europe de l’Ouest dans le Moyen Âge. De l’Empire romain tardif aux grandes décou- vertes géographiques (Ve-XVIe siècles)] (Iași: Polirom, 2010), 205. 7 L’exemple le plus significatif est en ce sens la consécration, en 961, d’Adalbert, moinedu monastère Saint Maxime de Trier, dans le but de diriger une mission d’évangélisation en Russie. Après l’échec de sa mission à Kiev, Adalbert deviendra le premier archevêque de Magdebourg et, dans cette qualité, il enverra, en 968, une mission chez le prince polonais Mieszko, mission diri-

46 L’Église et l’État en Hongrie dans la première moitié du XIe siècle ...

La christianisation systématique des Magyars commença avec le règne du duc Géza (972–977) qui a sollicité dans ce but l’aide de l’empereur Otton Ier. Le prince Géza ne s’adressa à l’empereur pour lui solliciter un évêque qu’après avoir appris le mariage – cé- lébré à Rome en 972 – entre Otton II (973–983), fils d’Otton Ier, et la princesse byzantine Théophano, nièce de l’empereur byzantin Jean Tzimiskès. Ce mariage devait affermir l’alliance entre les deux Empires rivaux. Vu cette conjoncture défavorable, Géza était obligé de se chercher un protecteur ; il se rendait très bien compte que cette alliance constituait une menace à l’adresse de la Hongrie, qui était entourée des deux Empires, le Saint-Empire romain germanique et l’Empire byzantin8. L’empereur Otton Ier répondit avec promptitude à la sollicitation du prince Géza. En 973, par l’intermédiaire de l’évêque Pilgrim de Passau, Otton Ier fit venir en Hongrie le moine Bruno-Prunward du monastère Saint-Gall. Celui-ci fut, sans doute, sacré évêque à la de- mande de l’empereur, en qualité de membre d’une abbaye impériale, par l’archevêque de Mayence. D’ailleurs, l’évêché de Passau considérait dès lors l’ancienne Pannonie comme sa zone d’influence9. Bruno-Prunward baptisa le prince Géza et les membres de sa famille ; parmi ceux-ci se trouvait Vajk, le fils de Géza et de Sarolt, baptisé en 996 sous le nom d’Étienne. Mais les légendes et les chroniques magyares du XIe siècle attribuent à l’évêque Adalbert de Prague la conversion de Vajk-Étienne. Cette information est infirmée par l’œuvre Vie de Saint Adalbert, écrite par Bruno de Querfurt, qui relate que c’est l’évêque de Prague qui a envoyé ses représentants en Pannonie ; ce fut lui, personnellement, qui se rendit en Hongrie pour s’y établir vers 995, mais il ne réussit pas à convertir à la foi chrétienne les chefs tribaux magyars10. L’évêque Bruno-Prunward avec les autres prêtres missionnaires envoyés par l’évêché de Passau convertirent au christianisme environ 5000 Hongrois. Les sources nous informent que le prince Géza a soutenu l’action d’évangélisation initiée par Bruno, comprenant que

gée par l’évêque Iordan, Györffy, « La christianisation », 68; Idem, « Structures ecclésiastiques de la Hongrie médiévale », Miscellanea historiae ecclesiasticae V, (Colloque de Varsovie, octobre 1971), (1974), 160–161; voir aussi Jacques Brosse, Histoire de la Chrétienté d’Orient et d’Occi- dent, de la conversion des barbares au sac de Constantinople, (406–1204), (Paris: Albin Michel, 1995), 757. 8 Györffy, « La christianisation », 68; Idem, « Structures ecclésiastiques », 161; pour les relations entre l’Empire romain germanique et Byzance, voir Platon, Rădvan, Maleon, O istorie a Europei de Apus, 199. 9 Ibid., 68; Györffy, « Structures ecclésiastiques », 161; Turcuș, Sfântul Gerard de Cenad, 23; Jerzy Kloczowski « La nouvelle chrétienté du monde occidental. La christianisation des Slaves, des Scandinaves et des Hongrois entre le IXe et le XIe siècle », Histoire du christianisme des origines à nos jours, IV: Evêques, moines et empereurs (610–1054), éd. Jean-Marie Mayeur, et al. (Paris: Desclée, 1993), 891. 10 Ibid., 69; Turcuș, Sfântul Gerard de Cenad, 24–25; Gyula Kristó, Histoire de la Hongrie médiéva- le, Tome I: Le temps des Árpáds, préface de Sándor Scernus et Noël-Yves Tonnerre, traduit du hongrois par Chantal Philippe, (Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2000), 36; cf. Brosse, Histoire de la Chrétienté, 757 ; à propos de l’activité de Saint Adalbert en tant que missionnaire en Hongrie, voir récemment Marianne Sághy, «Aspects de la christianisation des Hongrois aux IXe-Xe siècles », Early Christianity in Central and East Europe (Congress of Commission Inter- nationale d’Histoire Ecclésiastique Comparée, Lublin 2–6 septembre 1996), éd. P. Urbańczyk, (Warszawa: 1997), 60–64.

47 Remus Mihai Feraru la collaboration avec l’Église contribue à affermir son autorité politique11. En 996, le prince Géza fonda le Pannonhalma, premier monastère de rite latin de Pannonie, d’après le modèle du monastère de Břevnov-Prague, fondé par le Saint Adalbert. Radla, collègue d’études et ami de Saint Adalbert, fut nommé premier abbé de ce monastère ; on suppose que, ultérieu- rement, Radla devint le deuxième évêque des Magyars sous le nom de Sébastien12. L’acte de la christianisation des Magyars par Bruno-Prunward – acte soutenu par Géza et souvent accompli par l’utilisation de moyens de conversion violents, a eu un caractère politique, reliant définitivement la Hongrie à l’Occident européen.

III. La politique religieuse d’Étienne Ier

Le prince Géza désigna comme successeur au trône son fils Étienne. En 996, Étienne épou- sa Gisèle, la fille du prince bavarois Henri II dit « le Querelleur », devenant ainsi le beau-frère d’Henri IV, le nouveau duc de Bavière (995–1002) et futur empereur de l’Empire romain germanique (1002–1024)13. Le mariage d’Étienne avec Gisèle a contribué ainsi tant au ren- forcement de son pouvoir politique qu’à la christianisation de rite latin de la Hongrie. Grâce à sa femme, Étienne établit des liens très forts avec le duché de Bavière et l’Église romaine. Il accueillit en Hongrie des prêtres bavarois – qui faisaient partie de la suite de Gisèle – et de nombreux missionnaires et chevaliers allemands14. La mort de Géza (997) engendra une vive dispute pour le trône, dont les prota- gonistes furent Étienne, le fils de Géza, et Koppány, le fils de Tar Szerénd, descendant de la famille dynastique d’Árpád. En qualité du plus âgé descendant masculin de la maison d’Árpád, Koppány revendiqua alors le pouvoir suprême. En même temps il demanda la main de la princesse veuve Sarolt, mère d’Étienne, selon la très ancienne habitude païenne du lévirat15. Dans sa dispute avec Koppány, Étienne avait joui du soutien des chevaliers allemands, amenés de Bavière par sa femme Gisèle. Dans la confrontation entre les deux leaders hongrois, Étienne représentait l’organisation étatiste et le christianisme et Koppány, la liberté tribale et le paganisme. La bataille décisive entre Étienne et Koppány – qui eut lieu à Veszprém – finit par la victoire du premier16. A. Le couronnement d’Étienne Ier comme roi « apostolique » des Hongrois En 998–999, après la défaite de son rival Koppány, Étienne entreprit des démarches auprès du pape Sylvestre II pour obtenir la couronne royale. Il voulait, en même temps, obtenir l’acceptation et le soutien du pape pour l’organisation de l’Église en Hongrie. Étienne fut obligé de demander le soutien de l’Église de Rome, car il craignait, à juste raison, de deve- nir le vassal de L’Empire ottonien s’il avait sollicité l’aide de l’empereur pour le couron- nement17. Selon les affirmations de l’évêque Thietmar de Mersebourg, le chroniqueur du règne

11 Ibid., 69; Kristó, Histoire I, 33–34. 12 Györffy, « La christianisation », 70; Turcuș, Sfântul Gerard de Cenad, 28; Kristó, Histoire I, 36; 13 Kristó, Histoire I, 35; Platon, Rădvan, Maleon, O istorie a Europei de Apus, 203. 14 Ibid., 36; Platon, Rădvan, Maleon, O istorie a Europei de Apus, 343. 15 Ibid., 36. 16 Ibid., 36–37. 17 Ibid., 38.

48 L’Église et l’État en Hongrie dans la première moitié du XIe siècle ... d’Otton III, «Vajk, le beau-frère d’Henri, duc de Bavière, après avoir fondé des évêchés dans son royaume, reçut une couronne et des bénédictions par la faveur de l’empereur et grâce à ses recommandations » 18. Malgré l’expression ambiguë et tendancieuse de Thiet- mar, il n’y a aucun doute qu’Étienne n’eût pu obtenir la couronne royale et les bénédic- tions que du pontife romain19. Cependant, il ne faut pas oublier que le pape avait accordé à Étienne la couronne et sa bénédiction par la faveur de l’empereur Otton III et grâce à sa recommandation. En 999, par la volonté d’Otton III, son précepteur Gerbert, originaire d’Aurillac (en Au- vergne) était devenu pape sous le nom de Sylvestre II (999–1003)20. Otton III avait trouvé en Sylvestre II un allié prêt à placer l’autorité papale au service de son projet de restauration de l’Empire romain (renovatio imperii). L’empereur avait adopté l’interprétation romaine de l’idée d’empire, revendiquant ainsi le pouvoir universel. Il s’était proclamé empereur romain (Imperator Augustus Romanorum) et avait établi sa résidence officielle à Rome, sur le mont Palatin (998)21. De plus, l’idéologie politique ottonienne avait récupéré, à quelques modifications près, la théologie chrétienne du pouvoir impérial, élaborée au IVe siècle par Eusèbe de Césarée. Par analogie avec la conception d’Eusèbe, l’Empire romain germanique était conçu comme imperium christianum ; il devait réunir l’ensemble du peuple chrétien, c’est-à-dire l’Église, au sens large et intégral du terme. L’empereur exerçait un pouvoir donné par Dieu et, tout en étant une image de celui-ci (imago Dei), il était considéré comme son instance unique et universelle de gouvernement ; en vertu de son pouvoir absolu, sa compétence s’étendait tant sur l’empire que sur l’Église, tant sur les laïques que sur les ecclésiastiques. La nature quasi-sacerdotale du pouvoir du monarque lui donnait la qualité de « chef » (caput) et protecteur de l’Église, ce qui justifiait son intervention dans les problèmes de l’Église, tandis que la souveraineté du pape était limitée au domaine religieux seul. En qualité de « serf des Apôtres » (servus Apostolorum) et de « serf de Jésus-Christ » (servus Christi), l’empereur s’assumait une primauté incontestable dans le monde chrétien. Il avait ainsi le droit de diriger l’ensemble de l’oekoumène chrétien, plus précisément la totalité des terres chrétiennes et de celles qui étaient en train d’être christianisées22. Revenant à l’événement du couronnement d’Étienne, il est fort probable que le pape Sylvestre II a accordé les insignes de la royauté au grand-prince magyar au vu et au su d’Ot-

18 Die Chronik des Bischofs Thietmar von Merseburg und ihre Korveier Überarbeitung, éd. Robert Holtzmann, (Monumenta Germaniae Historica Scriptores. Nova Series), (Berlin: Weidmann, 1935), IV, 59, 199 (anul 1001): « Imperatoris autem predicti gracia et hortatu gener Hinrici, ducis Bawari- orum, Waic in regno suo episcopales cathedras faciens, coronam et benedictionem accepit ». 19 Marianne Sághy, « L’organisation des Églises en Hongrie autour de l’An Mil : Le cas de l’évêché de Csanád », Archivum Bobiense – Studia IV: Gerberto d’Aurillac da abate di Bobbio a papa dell’anno 1000, (Atti del Congresso internationale, Bobbio, 28–30 settembre 2000) éd. Flavio G. Nuvolone, (Bobbio: Associazione culturale Bobbio / Pc; Amici di Archivum Bobiense, 2001), 472. 20 Bertrand Fauvarque, « Sylvestre II et Otton III : politique, réforme et utopie. Aspects eschatolo- giques », Archivum Bobiense – Studia IV: Gerberto d’Aurillac da abate di Bobbio a papa dell’anno 1000, (Atti del Congresso internationale, Bobbio, 28–30 settembre 2000) éd. Flavio G. Nuvolone, (Bobbio: Associazione culturale Bobbio / Pc; Amici di Archivum Bobiense, 2001), 558–561. 21 Fauvarque, « Sylvestre II et Otton III », 548–549; Platon, Rădvan, Maleon, O istorie a Europei de Apus, 203. 22 Ibid., 567 ; 577–579 ; Platon, Rădvan, Maleon, O istorie a Europei de Apus, 204.

49 Remus Mihai Feraru ton III. Cette réalité est confirmée par une légende conservée dans La Vie de Saint Étienne (Legenda Sancti Stephani), écrite par l’évêque Hartvic, vers l’an 1100. Selon ce que relate Hartvic, le prince Étienne aurait délégué l’abbé Astrik pour qu’il aille à Rome dans le but de demander au pape la couronne royale et son consentement pour pouvoir fonder des évêchés ainsi qu’un archevêché à Esztergom. À la veille de l’arrivée de l’émissaire des Magyars, le pape Sylvestre eut un rêve : un ange fit son apparition pour l’avertir que l’émissaire d’un peuple inconnu allait se présenter devant lui. En même temps, l’ange conseilla au pontife romain d’accorder la couronne royale au prince des Hongrois. Après avoir écouté le rapport d’Astrik sur l’œuvre d’évangélisation menée par Étienne, Sylvestre II aurait envoyé au jeune prince non seulement la couronne royale, mais aussi une croix ; le pape aurait affirmé : « Moi, je suis apostolique, mais lui, il est vraiment apôtre du Christ, si Christ a pu convertir tant de peuples par lui. C’est pourquoi, nous lui laissons la possibilité de disposer des églises et de ses peuples selon les deux lois » 23. Le premier jour du nouveau millénaire chrétien (le 25 Décembre 1000), le prince Étienne fut oint roi des Hongrois par Astrik – nommé légat papal pour la Pannonie – dans l’Église Saint Adalbert d’Esztergom. Astrik remit au premier roi magyar les insignes du pouvoir royal, la lance et la couronne, envoyées par le pape Sylvestre II. Le couronnement d’Étienne Ier consacra ainsi la fondation du Royaume magyar chrétien qui eut lieu en même temps que celle de l’Église. On suppose que la confirmation de l’investissement d’Étienne Ier et la décision concernant l’organisation de l’Église magyare aient été approuvées au cadre du synode de Ravenne, du 4 avril 1001, lequel eut lieu dans la basilique Sant’Apollinare in Classe. À cette occasion, le pape Sylvestre II – en présence de l’empereur Otton, de l’abbé Odilon de Cluny et des ermites de Pereum, Bruno de Querfurt et Romuald – a signé la Charte de fondation de l’Église hongroise24. Le premier archevêché de Hongrie fut fondé, conformément au désir du roi Étienne Ier, à Esztergom (Strigonium / Gran) en 1001. La fondation d’un archevêché à Esztergom – qui était la résidence royale d’Étienne – reflétait le désir du roi magyar de réunir de cette manière le centre du pouvoir royal et la capitale religieuse du pays25. Le couronnement d’Étienne et la fondation de l’Église magyare n’ont été accompa- gnés d’aucune prétention de suzeraineté, ni de la part de l’empereur, ni de la part du pape.

23 « Legenda Sancti Stephani regis ab Hartvico episcopo conscripta », in Scriptores rerum Hun- garicarum tempore ducum regumque stirpis Arpadianae gestarum, éd. E. Szentpétery, (Buda- pest: 1938), II, 412–414: « […] sum apostolicus, ille vero merito Christi apostolus, per quem tantum sibi populum Christus convertit. Quapropter dispositioni eiusdem, prout divina ipsum gratia instruxit, ecclesias simul cum populis utroque iure ordinandas relinquimus », apud, Sághy, « L’organisation des Églises », 473, nota 6. 24 Le synode de Ravenne du mois d’avril 1001 fut précédé d’un autre synode qui eut lieu le 1er janvier 1001 au monastère S. Maria in Pallara de Rome. À cette occasion, le pape Sylvestre II, l’empereur Otton III et le duc de Bavière, Henri IV, prirent en discussion l’organisation de l’Église magyare et le titre qui allait être accordé au grand prince Étienne, voir en ce sens, Heinz Wolter, Die Synoden im Reichsgebiet und in Reichsitalien von 916 bis 1056, (München-Wien: F. Schöningh, 1988), 189–196, apud Sághy, « L’organisation des Églises », 474. 25 József Török, , « Il primo re d´Ungheria e l´organizzazione della Chiesa ungherese », Archivum Bobiense – Studia IV: Gerberto d’Aurillac da abate di Bobbio a papa dell’anno 1000, (Atti del Congresso internationale, Bobbio, 28–30 settembre 2000) éd. Flavio G. Nuvolone, (Bobbio: As- sociazione culturale Bobbio / Pc; Amici di Archivum Bobiense, 2001), 458, 459, 460–461.

50 L’Église et l’État en Hongrie dans la première moitié du XIe siècle ...

L’organisation d’une Église magyare indépendante « portait une grave atteinte aux intérêts de l’Église impériale », ce qui explique l’absence du synode de Ravenne des archevêques et des évêques allemands26. Donc, l’investissement d’Étienne comme roi de Hongrie et la fondation de l’Église magyare représentent les premiers fruits de la politique concertée de l’empereur Otton III et du pape Sylvestre II. B. L’organisation de l’Église magyare Les vies de Saint Étienne rédigées à la fin du XIe siècle ainsi que les homélies composées en l’honneur du roi lui attribuaient le rôle d’apôtre et d’évangélisateur de la Hongrie27. Dans la collection d’enseignements adressés par le roi magyar à son fils Émeric (Libellus de institutione morum), Étienne, expliquait à ce dernier, qu’en vertu de sa signification éty- mologique, le qualificatif d’augustus, attaché au titre de rex, obligeait le roi à faire accroître (augere) l’Église, ce qui signifiait que sa fonction était celle de contribuer à l’extension du royaume et de la chrétienté (christianitas)28. La même source citée plus haut – Libellus de institutione morum – incluait le cliché selon lequel l’image de l’Église comme corps du Christ se reflétait dans l’Église et le royaume magyars29. L’organisation de l’Église dans la Hongrie médiévale fut presque exclusivement l’œuvre du roi Étienne Ier. Legenda maior de Saint Étienne relate que le roi, en vertu de sa délégation apostolique, avait fondé des évêchés et des monastères30. Il avait créé dix évêchés et un archevêché, Esztergom ; pendant son règne, les églises, les chapitres et les monastères fleu- rissent partout et de nombreux clercs, atteints du Saint Esprit, quittent leurs sedes propriae pour se mettre au service du roi-apôtre. Étienne I fit ériger, à l’endroit appelé « le mont sacré» (Pannonhalma), un monastère placé sous la protection de Saint pape Martin, qui protège le royaume magyar à côté de Georges, guerrier et martyr, de la Vierge Marie, à qui le roi consacre la Hongrie, et à côté, bien sûr, du Christ auquel Étienne lui-même s’identifie in ore, in corde et in cunctis actibus31 . L’organisation administrative territoriale de l’Église dépendait du contrôle que le roi exerçait sur le territoire du royaume. « L’Église magyare, créée grâce aux donations fon- cières du roi ou bien, grâce aux territoires conquis sur les ennemis fut par excellence une Eigenkirche » 32. L’organisation territoriale des évêchés, initiée par Étienne Ier dès le début de son règne, fut réalisée en même temps que l’organisation administrative du Royaume magyar en comitats (comitatus). Le territoire du royaume fut divisé en 50 comitats ; ceux-ci avaient

26 Sághy, « L’organisation des Églises », 474; vezi și László Koszta, « L’organisation de l’Église chrétienne en Hongrie », dans Les Hongrois et l’Europe. Conquête et intégration, éd. S. Csernus, K. Korompay, (Paris-Szeged: 1999), 300. 27 L’homélie De Sancto Stephano loue la conversion des magyars « païens » («gentils») qui devien- nent « des humains » grâce à leur saint roi, apôtre et législateur, voir Dominique Iogna-Prat, « Constructions chrétiennes d’un espace politique », Le Moyen Age. Revue d’histoire et de Philoso- phie, 1, (2001): 66. 28 Iogna-Prat, « Constructions chrétiennes », 66. 29 Ibid., 62. 30 Ibid., 66–67. 31 « Legenda Sancti Stephani », 683, 381, 387, 392, apud Iogna-Prat, « Constructions chrétiennes », 66, les notes 67 și 69. 32 Sághy, « L’organisation des Églises », 474.

51 Remus Mihai Feraru

été créés autour des forteresses confisquées aux chefs des clans magyars et aux territoires qui en dépendaient. Les territoires des 50 comitats correspondaient, en grandes lignes, aux zones contrôlées initialement par les chefs des 50 clans des tribus magyares et khazares qui avaient conquis la Pannonie33. Chaque comitat comprenait un territoire bien délimité, ayant pour centre un endroit fortifié qui servait comme siège pour un comte (ispán) nommé par le roi. Saint Étienne confia l’administration des comitats aux membres de sa famille ; ainsi, Doboka, père de Csanád, administrait le comitat du même nom, créé au nord de la Transylvanie après 1003 ; à Csanád, neveu d’Étienne Ier, on confia le comitat de Csanád, fondé sur le territoire où régnait le duc Ajtony. Zoltan fut nommé ispán du comitat Féher, ayant pour résidence Al- ba-Iulia (Gyulafehérvár) en Transylvanie, arrachée au prince Gyula. En échange, le prince Émeric, fils du roi, avait sa résidence à Biharea (Nagyvárad)34. La plupart des évêchés créés par Saint Étienne avaient pour siège une fortification, où habitait soit un membre de la famille royale, soit un de ses proches, et ceux-ci devaient administrer le territoire qui leur était confié. Entourés par leurs suites armées, ces ducs assuraient la sécurité de l’activité missionnaire des évêques et de leur Église35. Mais, l’organisation de l’Église s’appuyait aussi sur les résidences fortifiées des comtes. Aux alentours des forteresses, sous la protection des comtes, furent créées les premières paroisses qui de- vinrent au XIe siècle les résidences des diacres et des archidiacres. Cela explique pourquoi en Hongrie le territoire des archidiaconés correspondait, dans la majorité des cas, au territoire des comitats36. Les sièges des évêchés magyars se situent dans les parties centrales du royaume, ce qui prouve que l’idée de consolidation interne de l’État a été l’un des facteurs décisifs dans le choix des sièges épiscopaux. Un autre aspect remarquable de l’organisation ecclésiastique du Royaume magyar concerne la configuration géographique des territoires des évêchés qui se déployaient en éventail vers les régions périphériques du Bassin des Carpates. Les diocèses magyars avaient des frontières ouvertes vers les périphéries du royaume, ce qui facilitait l’extension immédiate de leur contrôle sur les nouveaux territoires conquis. D’ailleurs les historiens du Moyen Âge sont unanimes à accepter que la configuration des diocèses ecclésiastiques situés à l’est de la rivière Tisza (fr. Theisse ou Teysse) se réalisa au fur et à mesure de l’extension vers le Bassin des Carpates (en Transylvanie et dans le Banat) du territoire conquis par les Magyars et de l’organisation dans cet espace des comitats de frontière (en hongrois határvármegye), dont la principale tâche était la défense des frontières orientales du royaume37. Le plan de création des diocèses, influencé par la collection Pseudo-Isidorienne, très répandue à l’époque, prescrit l’installation d’un siège métropolitain et de dix ou douze

33 Györffy, « Structures ecclésiastiques », 162 ; Idem, « La christianisation », 73; Kristó, Histoire I, 43. 34 Idem, « La christianisation », 73; Kristó, Histoire I, 44–46. 35 Idem, « Structures ecclésiastiques », 161; Kristó, Histoire I, 46–48. 36 Idem, « Structures ecclésiastiques », 162 ; Idem, « Les débuts de l’évolution urbaine en Hongrie (à suivre) », Cahiers de civilisation médiévale, 46, (1969), 140 ; Kristó, Histoire I, 47. 37 László Koszta, « State Power and Ecclesiastical System in Eleventh Century Hungary. (An Outline to the Dynamics of the Development of Hungarian Christian Church) », dans ″In my spirit and thougth I remained a European of Hungarian origin″. Medieval Historical Studies in Memory of Zoltan J. Kosztolnyik, éds. István Petrovics, Sándor László Tóth, Eleanor A. Congdon, (Szeged: JatePress, 2010), 72; Kristó, Histoire I, 45.

52 L’Église et l’État en Hongrie dans la première moitié du XIe siècle ...

évêchés, pour former une province ecclésiastique (provincia)38. Étienne Ier suivit ce plan pour organiser l’Église magyare. Selon la tradition magyare, pendant ses 41 ans de règne, le roi aurait créé 10 évêchés et 2 archevêchés39. Le roi acheva le projet en trois étapes. En une première étape, comprise entre 997 et 1003, furent fondés les évêchés de Veszprém (997/1000)40, d’Esztergom (1001), de Györ (1003) et, probablement, de Transylvanie (après 1001/1003). Dans la deuxième étape, furent fondés les évêchés de Pécs41, d’Eger et de Ka- locsa. Dans la troisième étape, le roi Étienne Ier fonda l’évêché de Csanád (1030), dont le vénitien Gérard de Sagredo fut le premier évêque (1030–1046)42. Après la défaite du duc Ajtony – dont le pouvoir s’exerçait, en grandes lignes, dans la partie sud-ouest de l’actuelle Roumanie – défaite infligée par l’armée magyare dirigée par Chanadinus (1028), leroi Étienne Ier imposa petit à petit son autorité sur le territoire conquis. Il entreprit l’organisation ecclésiastique du territoire pris en possession précédant ainsi l’organisation politique sous forme de comitat, réalisée probablement au début du XIIe siècle43. C. Le roi Étienne et l’Église Le roi s’est pleinement impliqué dans la vie ecclésiastique et dans l’organisation de l’Église magyare. Dans son premier décret émis au début du règne, Étienne avait imposé l’obligation pour chacun (« les plus grands et les plus petits, les hommes et les femmes ») d’aller à l’Église, le dimanche, à l’exception de ceux qui surveillaient le feu44. Le roi avait

38 Horst Fuhrmann, « Provincia constat duodecim episcopatibus », Studia Gratiana, XI, (1967), 394–398. 39 « Legenda maior. Vita Sancti Gerardi, Moresanae ecclesiae episcopi » dans Documente privitoare la istoria Mitropoliei Banatului, [Documents concernant l’histoire d’archêveché du Banat] éds. Ioan D. Suciu, Radu Constantinescu, (Timișoara: Mitropolia Banatului, 1980), 11, 30: « … nunc enim voluntatis meae fuit ut duodecim episcopatus, quos in regno meo statuere decreveram, episcopis implerem » (« car maintenant, je pense nommer par décret des évêques dans les douze évêchés que j’ai voulu fonder dans mon royaume »). 40 Selon l’historien magyar Gyula Kristó « il est possible que l’évêché de Veszprem soit créé dans les dernières années du prince Géza ». D’après d’autres sources, l’évêché de Veszprém fut fondé par la princesse bavaroise Gisèle, femme d’Étienne Ier. Sa grande étendue confirme la primauté de Vesz- prém parmi les évêchés magyars. En 1009, le territoire de Veszprém englobait certains comitats qui, plus tard, furent subordonnés à Esztergom, Kristó, Histoire I, 36, 46; Sághy, « L’organisation des Églises », 473; Török, « Il primo re d´Ungheria », 459–460. 41 Conformément à la charte de fondation, l’évêché de Pécs fut créé le 23 août 1009. Il fut sacré par l’évêque Azo de Ostie, le légat du pape Jean XX : « … nos [Stephanus Hungarie rex] cum consensu sanctissimi apostolici et in presencia eius nuncii Azonis episcopi … », voir Przemysław Nowak, « Das Papsttum und Ostmitteleuropa (Böhmen – Mähren, Polen, Ungarn, vom ausgehenden 10. bis zum Beginn des 13. Jahrhunderts) mie einer Neuedition von JL 9067 », dans Rom und Die Regionen. Studien zur Homogenisierung der lateinischen Kirche im Hochmittelalter, Band 19, Herausgegeben von Jochen Johrendt und Harald Müller, (Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter, 2012), 343, la note 42. 42 Nowak, « Das Papsttum und Ostmitteleuropa », 343; Koszta, « State Power », 70–71; Kristó, Histoire I, 46–47. 43 Le comitat de Csanád est attesté par les documents á peine dans 1197. 44 A Szent István, Szent László és Kálmán korabeli törvények és zsinati határozatok forrásai (De fontibus legum et decretorum synodalium e temporibus sancti Stephani, sancti Ladislai et Colo- mani oriundorum), éd. Levente Zárodszky, (Budapest : 1904), IX, 23 : « A sacerdotibus vero et comitibus commendetur omnibus villicis, ita ut illorum iussu omnes concurrant die dominica ad

53 Remus Mihai Feraru facilité l’accomplissement de ce devoir par ses sujets en faisant bâtir des églises dans les endroits où se tenaient les foires ; ainsi, les gens pouvaient-ils se diriger de la foire directement vers l’Église45. Le deuxième décret promulgué par Étienne Ier stipulait l’obligation que l’on construise une église tous les dix villages, ce qui permettait au peuple de participer ré- gulièrement aux offices religieux. Chaque groupe de dix villages devait entretenir l’Église, mettant à la disposition de ses serviteurs, une maison, des domestiques, des chevaux et des vaches. Le roi avait la tâche de doter les lieux de culte de vêtements ecclésiastiques et d’objets spécifiques. Les évêques avaient l’obligation de nommer les prêtres et de munir les églises de livres liturgiques46. La participation active du roi et sa bienveillance étaient res- senties à tous les niveaux de l’organisation de l’Église magyare, depuis l’évêché jusqu’aux paroisses des villages. Le culte de la vierge Marie en qualité de protectrice du Royaume magyar a contri- bué au développement du culte marial dans la Hongrie médiévale dès le début du XIe siècle. Quoiqu’il ne fût devenu populaire en Occident qu’à partir du XIIe siècle, le culte de la Sainte Vierge acquit une importance exceptionnelle dès le commencement du règne d’Étienne Ier ; ainsi, les principaux édifices de culte de la Hongrie ont-ils été consacrés à la Mère de Dieu : l’Église familiale qui était aussi le lieu d’enterrement du roi à Székes- fehérvár, les cathédrales d’Esztergom et Györ, le monastère bénédictin de Pécsvárad et le monastère de religieuses de Veszprémvölgy47. Selon la Legenda maior de Saint Étienne, la Vierge Marie aide le roi dans la lutte contre son rival l’empereur Conrad II le Salique. Finalement, le roi va placer le royaume magyar sous la protection de « Marie, de per- pétuelle virginité et mère de Dieu »48. Chaque année, Saint Étienne participait à côté du clergé à la fête de la Dormition de la Mère de Dieu, célébrée dans l’Albe Royale. À cette occasion, le roi avait décidé le rassemblement des dirigeants magyars qui reconnaissaient son autorité, ainsi que la réunion du synode du clergé magyar49. La vénération de la Sainte Vierge, dans sa qualité de protectrice du Royaume magyar, est attestée surtout dans la Legenda maior de Saint Gérard50 ainsi que dans son ouvrage Deliberatio, dans lequel l’évêque de Csanád l’invoque à maintes reprises51. La dévotion spéciale de Gérard envers la Vierge Marie s’explique tant par la dévotion que lui accorde le roi Étienne que par l’accent mis sur le culte marial en Occident, aux Xe-XIe siècles, probablement sous l’influence

ecclesiam, maiores ac minores, viri ac mulieres, exceptis qui ignes custodiunt ». 45 Le souvenir de cette obligation persiste encore en hongrois où le mot « dimanche » – vasárnap – vient du terme vásárnap, qui signifie « jour de foire, de marché » Györffy, « La christianisation », 73. 46 A Szent István, éd. L. Zárodszky, II, 1, 153: « Decem ville ecclesiam edificent, quam duobus mansis totidemque mancipiis dotent, equo et iumento, sex bubus et duabus vaccis, XXX minutis bestiis. Vestimenta vero et coopertoria rex prevideat, presbiterum et libros episcopi ». 47 Gábor Klaniczay, « Rex iustus. Le saint fondateur de la royauté chrétienne », Cahiers d’Études hongroises, 8, (1996), 51–52. 48 « Legenda maior », 16, 35: « Factum est autem postquam beatus rex Stephanus ad lucem fidei Christianae Pannoniam convertisset, eam sub patronicio beatae Virginis resignans …». 49 Ibid., 8, 27: « Factum est autem, cum beatus rex Stephanus pro coelebrando festo beatae Virginis annuali Albam venisset, tunc mos erat convocare abates et episcopos, ut sacrae solempnitati simul interessent ». 50 Legenda maior du Saint Gérard consacre une chapitre à la Vierge Marie. 51 Gérard de Csanád, Deliberatio Gerardi Moresenae Ecclesiae Episcopi supra Hymnum Trium Pu- erorum ad Isingrinum Liberalem éd. Gabriel Silagi (« Corpus Christianorum: Continuatio Medi- aevalis » 49), (Turnhout: Brepols, 1978), passim.

54 L’Église et l’État en Hongrie dans la première moitié du XIe siècle ... de l’ordre de Cluny52. Selon la Legenda maior, au moment de sa mort, le roi Étienne aurait consacré la Hongrie à la Vierge Marie : « Son nom, de Mère du Christ, n’est pas prononcé par la nation hongroise, qui l’appelle seulement la Dame. D’où le nom donné par le Saint roi Étienne de famille de la bienheureuse Vierge. […] Après que l’heureux roi Étienne avait amené la Pannonie à la lumière de la foi chrétienne, la laissant sous la protection de la bienheureuse Vierge, le jour de la Dormition de la Mère de Dieu, délivré de son corps, il trépassa vers l’éternel repos »53.54 Accordant dans sa légende un rôle central au fait qu’au moment de sa mort, le roi Étienne avait mis le pays sous la protection de la Vierge Marie, le biographe de Saint Gérard voulait mettre un contrepoids aux prétentions de la papauté de garder son autorité sur la Hongrie, prétentions dissimulées par une mise en valeur de « la protection » de Saint Pierre. Par cet artifice, l’auteur de laLegenda maior essaye d’amplifier outre mesure la protection de la Sainte Vierge sur le Royaume magyar au détriment de celle de Pierre et de son successeur, le pape ; ainsi, il ne fait autre chose que « contester l’obédience féodale de la Hongrie par rapport au Saint Siège, obédience telle qu’elle avait été contractée par le roi Étienne Ier et continuée jusqu’à l’époque de Boniface VIII »55. Pendant la deuxième moitié de son règne, d’après le modèle des Francs, le roi Étienne Ier a élevé l’Église de Székesfehérvár (Alba Regia) au rang de chapelle royale, la soustrayant à l’autorité de l’évêque. Ainsi, Székesfehérvár est devenu la deuxième ville ecclésiastique de Hongrie après Esztergom et, plus tard, elle fut transformée en sanctuaire dynastique (lieu de couronnement et sépulture) des rois magyars56. Les débuts du monachisme en Hongrie sont liés au règne d’Étienne Ier, auquel on doit la fondation de 10 abbayes, dont 8 bénédictines et 2 basiliennes ou de rite grec57. La construction de l’abbaye de Pannonhalma – premier monastère de Hongrie – commencée pendant le règne de Géza et consacrée en 1002, est liée au nom d’Étienne le Saint ; à celle-ci viennent s’ajouter encore cinq monastères bénédictins fondés par Étienne Ier : les abbayes de Zalavár (1019), Pécsvárad (1038), Bakoybél (fondée probablement pendant la deuxième moitié du règne d’Étienne Ier), Zobor et Somlóvásárhely58. Le roi Étienne Ier s’avéra particulièrement tolérant envers les monastères de rite grec oriental de Hongrie, auxquels il avait accordé toute une série de privilèges et même de donations. La charte de donation en faveur du monastère grec de religieuses de Veszpré- mvölgy représente la preuve la plus évidente du respect et de la défense de la présence religieuse byzantine en Hongrie. Cette charte avait été rédigée, à ce qu’il paraît, pendant le

52 On sait que l’abbé Odilon de Cluny (962–1048) était un fervent adorateur de la Vierge Marie, à qui il avait dédié quatre homélies et un hymne, voir Klaniczay, « Rex invictus », 52–53. Selon une information que nous n’avons pas pu vérifier, les détails fournis par le biographe de Saint Gérard seraient susceptibles de suggérer que la dévotion mariale à Csanád suivait les règles ob- servées dans l’Église d’Aquilée, apud, Ioan D. Suciu, Radu Constantinescu (éd.), Documente privitoare la istoria Mitropoliei Banatului, (Timișoara: Mitropolia Banatului, 1980), 61, nota 13. 53 « Legenda maior », 13, 32 ; 16, 35. 54 Klaniczay, « Rex iustus », 52; Turcuș, Sfântul Gerard de Cenad, 110–111. 55 Kristó, Histoire I, 47; Györffy, « Structures ecclésiastiques », 162–164. 56 Turcuș, Sfântul Gerard de Cenad, 33–34; cf. Györffy, « Structures ecclésiastiques », 164. 57 Kristó, Histoire I, 48. 58 Gyula Moravcsik « The Role of the Byzantine Church in Medieval Hungary », American Slavic and East European Review, 6, (1947), 3–4, 143–144.

55 Remus Mihai Feraru règne d’Étienne Ier59. La Legenda maior de Saint Gérard nous fournit une autre preuve éloquente du fait que Saint Étienne mettait sur le même pied d’égalité le christianisme de rite latin et celui de rite oriental, coexistant dans le Royaume magyar. Selon la Legenda maior, le duc Ajtony s’était converti vers 1002 ou 1004, à la religion chrétienne de rite oriental. Il avait fait construire une cité fortifiée, à Marosvár, y plaçant son siège ducal ainsi qu’un monastère dont le patron était « Saint Jean-Baptiste » où il avait fait venir des moines grecs et y avait installé un higoumène de Byzance60. Après la conquête du duché d’Ajtony par les Magyars et la fondation de l’évêché de rite latin de Csanád (1030), l’évêque Gérard de Csanád éta- blit sa résidence épiscopale dans le monastère grec fondé par Ajtony ; les moines grecs furent transférés au monastère « Saint Georges », fondé par Gérard de Csanád (Chanadi- nus) à Oroszlámos (aujourd’hui Banatska Arandjielovo en Serbie). La Legenda maior nous relate que le transfert des moines grecs de Csanád à Oroszlámos s’était fait en toute tran- quillité, ce qui montre que ceux-ci avaient reconnu l’autorité hiérarchique de Saint Gérard. Donc, la Legenda maior reflète la coexistence des moines de rite latin et de ceux de rite grec dans l’espace du Royaume magyar, pendant la première moitié du XIe siècle61. La relation spéciale entre la royauté magyare et la papauté a fait que le roi reçoive le pri- vilège important de nommer les occupants des hautes fonctions ecclésiastiques, droit que la papauté refusait à l’empereur. Ceux qui étaient nommés dans les fonctions ecclésiastiques faisaient partie des gens de la suite du roi. Si certains prélats nommés ainsi étaient, en même temps, membres de la Cour royale (Curia regis) prouve clairement l’étroite unité entre trône et autel. D’ailleurs, selon J. Szúcs, « la première construction politique arpadienne fut basée sur les gens de la suite du prince (Gefolgschaft), suite formée de deux cercles concentriques. Le premier cercle était constitué par l’Église et l’aristocratie tribale, définie par le roi Étienne dans Libellus de Institutione morum comme « milice », non pas comme « service ». Le deuxième cercle était formé par une masse rurale hétérogène » 62. La majorité des collaborateurs ecclésiastiques du roi venait d’Allemagne. Il y a des preuves directes et indirectes qui attestent le fait que plusieurs notaires de la chancellerie impériale, les secrétaires des archevêques Heribert, Bruno et Egilbert, étaient venus de Hon- grie où ils avaient déployé leur activité initiale comme notaires, pour être nommés ensuite évêques63. La Legenda maior de Saint Gérard nous fournit des informations intéressantes sur la relation entre Étienne Ier et l’évêque Gérard de Csanád, ainsi que sur le soutien accordé à l’Église par le roi. En 1015, Gérard – alors, moine bénédictin au monastère San Giorgio de Venise – arriva à la cour du roi magyar. Étienne Ier convainquit Gérard de rester à la cour royale ; il le chargea de s’occuper, en tant que magister, de l’éducation du prince Émeric, l’hé-

59 « Legenda Maior », 10, 28: « … secundum ritum Graecorum in civitati Budin fuerat baptizatus ; … construxit in praefata urbe Morisena monasterium in honore beati Joannis Baptistae, constitu- ens in eodem abbatem cum monachis Graecis, juxta ordinem et ritum ipsorum ». 60 Șerban Turcuș, « Monahismul ortodox în Transilvania la începutul celui de-al doilea mileniu » [« Le monachisme orthodoxe dans Transylvanie au début du deuxième millénaire »], Tabor, 2, (2011), 79, 82. 61 Apud Iogna-Prat, « Constructions chrétiennes », 62. 62 Györffy, « La christianisation », 72. 63 « Legenda maior » 1, 22 ; 9, 27: « Gerardus nacione Venetus, de civitate Veneciensi natus in pa- lacio patriciae familiae […] … fecitque eum filii sui Hemerici ducis magistrum diebus multis », Turcuș, Sfântul Gerard de Cenad, 57–66, 77, 82–83, 97.

56 L’Église et l’État en Hongrie dans la première moitié du XIe siècle ... ritier du trône du Royaume magyar. En 1030, après la défaite d’Ajtony, Gérard devint évêque titulaire du diocèse de Csanád, nouvellement fondé. Jusqu’à sa mort, en 104664, le destin de Saint Gérard fut étroitement lié au territoire situé au sud-ouest de l’actuelle Roumanie, lequel, à partir du XVIIIe siècle, est connu sous le nom de Banat. Dès la fondation de l’évêché de Csanád, le soutien accordé à l’Église par Étienne Ier fut une priorité pour sa politique religieuse ; le roi magyar se servit de l’évêché nouvellement créé pour organiser du point de vue administratif le territoire conquis. Le roi assura Gérard qu’il aurait, en peu de temps, à sa disposition le personnel – un clergé instruit – ainsi que les ressources nécessaires pour administrer l’évêché et accomplir sa mission pastorale65. C’est dans ce but qu’Étienne Ier prit la décision d’instituer la dîme ecclésiastique en céréales, dans les contrées placées sous l’autorité pastorale de Gérard66. On suppose aussi que le tiers des revenus obtenus des taxes perçues pour l’exploitation du sel était versé à l’évêché de Csanád67. De plus, il ne serait pas exclu que tous les monastères qui se trouvaient sous la juridiction de Saint Gérard fussent dispensés du paiement de la taxe sur le sel. Par analogie avec d’autres cas documentés tant en Occident que dans Byzance68, on pourrait supposer que Gérard eût bénéficié d’importants revenus obtenus par l’exploitation et la valorisation du sel69. Les donations importantes faites par Étienne Ier pour construire des endroits de culte prouvent le soutien incontestable accordé à l’Église par la royauté. Selon la Legenda maior, le roi magyar contribua avec 1000 marks à l’érection du monastère Saint Georges

64 Ibid., 11, 30: « Sed quia clericos, quibus solet decorari praesul ecclesiasticus ad praesens non habemus in obsequium vestri, tollamus ecclesiarum et monasteriorum clericos et monachos, qui secundum ordinem ecclesiasticae institucionis sint nobis in divino officio adjutores […] Tantum- modo exercitate in Christi obsequio officium vestrum praedicando, baptizando, ac infideles ad Christum convertendo ». 65 Ibid., 11, 30: « Ego autem comitibus meis praecipiam ut a populo tempore suo decimas exigant in bladis, quibus utaris », (« Et moi, j’ordonnerai à mes comtes de prétendre à temps du peuple des dîmes en céréales, dont tu userais »). 66 Geza Kovach, « Date cu privire la transportul sării pe Mureș în secolele X-XIII », [ « Données concernant le transport du sel sur Maros dans Xe - XIIIe siècles »] Ziridava, XII, (1980), 193–199, apud Turcuș, Gerard de Cenad, 112, la note 24. 67 Beaucoup de monastères d’Occident et de l’Empire byzantin détenaient des salines et jouissaient des revenus obtenus par l’exploitation du sel. Ils disposaient des moyens nécessaires et de la main d’œuvre spécialisée pour l’exploitation et la commercialisation du sel. Par exemple, en Lorraine, l’évêque et les églises de Metz détenaient le droit de son extraction. Dans Byzance, le monastère « Saint Démétrius » de Thessalonique et le monastère copte de Saint Siméon de la Haute-Égypte possédaient des salines. Par un édit émis en 688/689, l’empereur Justinien II accordait à l’Église « Saint Démétrius » de Thessalonique la possession d’une saline et de ses revenus et l’exemption de toute charge ou impôt, Turcuș, Sfântul Gerard din Cenad, 112, note 25; 113–114; Georgije Os- trogorski, Histoire de l’État byzantin, traduit de lʼallemand par J. Gouillard, (Paris : Payot, 1996), 161, note 1. 68 D’après ce que relate Jean de Lyon, vers les années 1184–1185, on apprend que l’évêque de Csanád obtenait 2000 marks de la valorisation du sel, Petru Iambor, « Drumuri și vămi ale sării din Transilvania în perioada feudalismului timpuriu » Acta Musei Napocensis, 19, (1982), 76. 69 « Legenda maior » 15, 34: « Ad opus quoque sancti Georgii martiris mille marcas promisit, quas in diebus suis integraliter juxta promissum adimplevit », (« Pour les besoins du [monastère] du Saint martyr Georges, il promit mille marks et il tint sa promesse du temps de son vivant »).

57 Remus Mihai Feraru

de Csanád, dont le fondateur fut l’évêque Gérard70. Dans le même monastère, Étienne Ier fit ériger un autel en l’honneur de la Vierge Marie, protectrice du Royaume magyar71. En 1037, Saint Gérard fonda à Csanád le premier monastère bénédictin dédié à la Vierge Marie, mo- nastère qu’il choisit comme lieu de sépulture. Ce monastère avait été érigé avec le soutien de la royauté, étant muni par le couple royal, de 500 marks et d’autres dons précieux pour sa décoration72. La Legenda maior fait seulement des allusions aux relations d’Étienne Ier avec l’évêque Gérard, sans fournir des détails. Le biographe anonyme de Saint Gérard écrit que « ce que beaucoup de nobles ne pouvaient obtenir du roi, c’est seulement lui [Gérard] qui pouvait l’obtenir »73. Mais l’évêque avait gagné en égale mesure la confiance et le respect du clergé, dont il soutenait la cause devant le roi chaque fois que cela était nécessaire74. Selon les sources que nous avons consultées, l’évêque Gérard aurait fait partie de la suite royale, à l’occasion de la visite faite à Rome par Étienne Ier , vers 1035. Il paraît que, lors de cette visite, l’évêque Gérard aurait obtenu l’approbation du pape pour qu’il soit enseveli dans l’église consacrée à la Vierge Marie, église qu’il avait fondée lui-même à Marosvár75.

IV. La politique religieuse des rois Pietro Orseole et Aba Sámuel

Après la mort de son unique fils, le duc Imre (1031) – l’héritier légitime du trône du royaume magyar – Saint Étienne fut obligé de chercher un autre successeur au trône. Finale-

70 Ibid., 13, 32: « … principale quoque monasterium, quod in honore beati Georgii martiris ad litus Morosii construxit, sedem Morisenam appellavit. Beatus autem rex Stephanus ipsam nobiliter dotal- ibus muneribus exornavit, in quo monasterio aram ad honorem Dei Genitricis erigens et ante ipsam thuribulum argenteum fixit, duos provectae aetatis adhibens homines, in ministerio ad vigilandum, quatenus ad nullius horae spaciumibi odor thymiamatis deest ». (« …et il nomma le plus important monastère, qu’il avait érigé sur le bord du Maros, siège marosien. Et l’heureux roi Étienne le fit orner très honorablement avec des dons ; il y éleva un autel à la gloire de la Théotokos et plaça devant l’autel un encensoir d’argent et choisissant deux hommes plus âgés, leur ordonna de veiller à ce que dans le monastère il n’y ait pas une heure sans l’odeur de l’encens »). 71 Ibid., 15, 34: « Monasterio autem beatae Virginis, ubi sibi locum sepulturae elegerat, illa vice qu- ingentarum marcarum summam a domino rege obtinuit, cum decem peciis purpurarum vel quin- quaginta peciis pannorum, a regina vero quatour pecias purpurae ac totidem sindones »; (« Pour le monastère de la bienheureuse Vierge, où il avait fixé le lieu de sa sépulture, il reçut alors cinq cents marks de la part de son maître, le roi, ainsi que dix morceaux de pourpre et cinquante morceaux de drap; de la part de la reine, il reçut quatre morceaux de pourpre et tout autant de morceaux de fine toile »), voir aussi Dumitru Țeicu,Geografia eclesiastică a Banatului medieval, (Cluj-Napoca: Presa Universitară Clujeană, 2007), 22. 72 Ibid., 15, 34: « … et multitudo nobilium ei veniam impetrare nullatenus potuisset, iste solus obtinuit ». 73 Ibid., 15, 34: « Diebus autem quibus erat apud regem, episcopi, abates, nobiles, sacerdotes et clerici erant congregati, qui admirabantur de conversacione et sanctitate ejus Deum glorificantes », (« Et pendant les jours où il se trouvait chez le roi, des évêques, des higoumènes, des nobles, des prêtres et des ecclésiastiques qui s’y trouvaient aussi, admiraient son comportement et son caractère saints, louant Dieu »). 74 Turcuș, Sfântul Gerard de Cenad, 107. 75 Pierre Orseole est né du mariage du doge de Venise, Otton II, avec la fille du roi Étienne erI , voir Turcuş, Sfântul Gerard de Cenad, 65, 120–121.

58 L’Église et l’État en Hongrie dans la première moitié du XIe siècle ... ment, il désigna comme successeur, son petit-fils, Pierre Orseole, qui vivait à Venise76. Cette décision attira le mécontentement de Vazul et de Szár László (Ladislas le Chauve), les fils de l’oncle paternel d’Étienne, eux aussi prétendants au trône. Le qualificatif deszár (au crâne rasé) indique que Ladislas était païen. En échange, Vazul – dont le nom est une variante du grec Basileos – était probablement chrétien, mais de rite grec. Le fait d’avoir choisi Pierre Orseolo comme successeur au trône montre que pour le roi Étienne Ier , il était essentiel qu’il maintienne le christianisme de rite latin en Hongrie. En 1032, Vazul se révolta contre le roi. Il fut aveuglé par ordre d’Étienne Ier, qui le rendit inapte de régner. Les trois fils de Vazul, Levente, André et Béla, furent chassés de Hongrie77. À la mort du roi Étienne Ier (1038), ce fut Pierre Orseolo qui monta sur le trône (1038– 1041). En ce qui concerne la politique religieuse, le roi Pierre contribua de manière subs- tantielle à l’expansion de l’Église. Il fonda le chapitre collégial de Buda (Óbuda) et fit ériger la cathédrale de Pécs. Autour de l’an 1040, il fonda l’évêché de Vác (Waitzen)78. D’autre part, le roi prit une série de mesures abusives par lesquelles il se fit de nombreux ennemis, parmi les aristocrates laïques et au sein de l’Église. Il décida de destituer deux évêques et de chasser de la cour royale les aristocrates laïques d’orientation païenne, remplaçant les der- niers par des étrangers, surtout des Allemands et des Italiens, qui soutenaient sans réserve le pouvoir royal. Les aristocrates magyars tombés en disgrâce et chassés de la cour dressèrent un complot contre le roi Pierre. En septembre 1041, ils élurent roi le beau-frère d’Étienne Ier, Aba Sámuel, qui avait détrôné Pierre ; celui-ci fut obligé de se réfugier à la cour du roi allemand, Henri III, tandis que Aba Sámuel, l’usurpateur du trône, fut excommunié par le pape79. Le début du règne d’Aba Sámuel fut marqué par un acte de vengeance : les partisans du roi usurpateur tuèrent tous les collaborateurs de Pierre. Aba Sámuel abolit les lois et les im- pôts que Pierre avait institués. Pour légitimer son autorité royale, le roi usurpateur fit appel à l’évêque Gérard, sollicitant son aide pour le couronnement. Selon la Legenda maior, Aba se rendit à Csanád pour être couronné par Saint Gérard. Le roi arriva à la cathédrale épisco- pale de Csanád, accompagné par une suite d’évêques qui n’avaient pas respecté la décision du pontife romain de l’excommunier. Le Dimanche de la Résurrection, les chefs tribaux et les évêques partisans d’Aba Sámuel prièrent l’évêque de Csanád de couronner le roi usurpateur. Malgré le refus de celui-là d’oindre Aba roi, les évêques qui lui étaient dévoués le couronnèrent avec une grande pompe. Dans ces conditions, Saint Gérard monta dans l’ambon et, reprochant à Aba Sámuel les atrocités qu’il avait commises, il fit la prophétie de sa chute imminente80. Cet épisode dont le déroulement réel n’a pas encore été entièrement prouvé, peut être compris plutôt dans le sens d’une réitération de l’appartenance de Gérard au courant réformiste philo-romain81. Les chroniques magyares décrivent le comportement inaccoutumé d’Aba Sámuel. Le roi est accusé d’avoir toujours méprisé les nobles, leur

76 Kristó, Histoire I, 49–50. 77 Nowak, « Das Papsttum und Ostmitteleuropa », 343–344; Kristó, Histoire I, 47; László Koszta, « State Power », 72; Idem « La fondation de l’évêché de Vác», Specimina Nova Pars Prima. Sectio Mediaevalis I, (Pécs : Martha Font, 2001), 87–105. 78 Kristó, Histoire I, 51–52 ; Turcuș, Sfântul Gerard de Cenad, 121. 79 « Legenda maior » 16, 35. 80 Turcuș, Sfântul Gerard de Cenad, 122. 81 Szegfű László, « Eretnekség és tirannizmus » [L’Hérésie et tyrannie], Irodalomtörténeti Közlemé- nyek, (LXXII), 5, (1968), 514.

59 Remus Mihai Feraru

préférant la compagnie des paysans roturiers à côté desquels il montait à cheval et faisait la noce ; on lui reprochait aussi qu’il soutenait l’idée que les maîtres et leurs domestiques devaient jouir en commun des biens qu’ils avaient ; de plus, Aba Sámuel ne reconnaissait pas le saint sacrement de la confession, ni, en général, les saints sacrements de l’Église ; il méprisait aussi le serment82. Le comportement du roi pourrait s’expliquer par le fait qu’Aba Sámuel, suivant les conseils des évêques, voulait rétablir en Hongrie les principes du christianisme primaire. Cependant, on peut aussi constater qu’il encourageait les élé- ments païens et hérétiques qui visaient à annihiler l’Église et l’État. Sans doute, l’évêque Gérard fait-il allusion, dans son ouvrage Deliberatio, au roi Aba Sámuel et aux difficultés auxquelles se heurtait l’Église pendant son règne. Plus précisément, Saint Gérard accusait un roi magyar, dont il ne mentionne pas le nom, de vouloir confisquer les biens de l’Église et faire les évêques payer des impôts ; il avait, en même temps, marginalisé les hiérarques de l’Église et réduit au silence les prêtres83. Gérard plaint en même temps la situation grave de l’Église qui était affectée par « l’inouïe hérésie du siècle » dont les adeptes contestent l’autorité des évêques et du clergé, méprisant les règles et les enseignements de l’Église84. L’hérésie à laquelle fait allusion l’évêque Gérard est le bogomilisme, apparu en Bulgarie au début du Xe siècle. De la Pénin- sule Balkanique, l’hérésie bogomile s’est répandue en Hongrie; elle fut embrassée, paraît-il, par le roi Aba Sámuel lui-même. Les chroniques magyares nous laissent entendre que le comportement du roi et ses principes coïncidaient avec les enseignements du bogomilisme.

82 Deliberatio IV, 51: « Non aestimes frater carissime minorem persecutionem et haeresem antiqui- oribus hanc esse [...] Prohibemur iam loqui, et episcopi nominamur constituti etiam sub tributo [timore humano], quibus totus committitur divino imperio mundus. Nam quorundam, nisi fallor, intentio est, quo ecclesiastica virtus suffragantibus Methodianistis atque dignitas apud nos circa hae- reticorum libitum tota quandoque infirmetur », (« Ne pense pas, très cher frère, que cette persécution et cette hérésie soient moindres que celles des temps anciens... On nous défend de parler et quand nous sommes nommés évêques, nous sommes déjà obligés à payer des tributs, par peur des hommes, quoique le monde entier nous soit confié par ordre de Dieu. Si je ne me trompe, l’intention de certains est que le pouvoir ecclésiastique soit affaibli par les adeptes de Méthode et que toute notre dignité soit mise à la disposition des hérétiques »); voir aussi Deliberatio IV, 54; VII 119. 83 Deliberatio IV, 50–51: « Pro dolor, vero nunc multi pullulant in ecclesia, immo iam totum oc- cupant orbem, et nemo est, qui talium ineptiis contradicat. O quantos sentio diaboli filios, quibus loqui non patior. [...] Hoc tempore omnes maledixerunt apud nos concitati zelo non solum divinis ritibus et ecclesiae et sacerdotibus, quin etiam ipsi Dei Filio Iesu Christo Domino nostro. Omnibus inaudita saeculi haereses [sic!] repetere elemosinas pro animabus defunctorum Christianorum more expensas ... Omnes uno paene simul ore carnis negant resurrectionem, qua iniquitate nulla umquam in mundo maior iniquitas arbitranda », (« Mais hélas! Beaucoup d’hérétiques pullulent maintenant dans l’Église et il n’y a personne pour combattre leurs inepties. Ô combien, je les con- nais, sont les fils du diable, dont je ne supporte même pas de parler ! Pendant ce temps-là, tous ont proféré des blasphèmes, s’enflammant non seulement contre les règles ecclésiastiques, de l’Église et des prêtres, mais même contre le Fils de Dieu, Jésus Christ, notre Seigneur. L’hérésie inouïe de notre temps est que tous, ils refusent la coutume de faire, par pitié, des dons pour les âmes des chrétiens défunts...Tous, presque d’une seule voix, nient la Résurrection, or, il n’y a au monde plus grand blasphème que cette iniquité »). 84 Saint Gérard fait deux fois une vague allusion à l’extension des hérésies en Hongrie; il se rapporte explicitement aux péchés et à la simonie qui se sont répandus en Pannonie, Deliberatio III, 37; V, 70; vezi și László, « Eretnekség és tirannizmus », 509–510 ; pour l’apparition et l’extension du bogomilisme, voir Ostrogorski, Histoire de l’État, 295–296.

60 L’Église et l’État en Hongrie dans la première moitié du XIe siècle ...

Cette hérésie avait aussi de nombreux adeptes dans la suite du roi.85 Le gouvernement despotique d’Aba Sámuel diminua le nombre de ceux qui le soutenaient, dont les intérêts avaient été considérablement lésés. Les opposants du roi s’adres- seront à l’empereur Henri III, lui demandant de faire cesser les actes de violence du roi magyar. Après avoir reçu l’autorisation du pontife romain, Henri III infligea une terrible défaite à Aba Sámuel dans la bataille de Ménfő (près de Györ), le 5 juillet 1044. Avec le soutien du souverain allemand, Pierre Orseolo devint pour la seconde fois roi de Hongrie (1044–1046). Il prêta le serment de fidélité envers le souverain allemand, tout en acceptant l’établissement des troupes militaires allemandes sur le territoire de la Hongrie86. En 1046, la Hongrie fut enflammée par la révolte des Magyars contre Pierre Orseolo, qui avait mis les possessions du royaume à la disposition des Allemands et des Italiens. Après avoir détrôné Pierre Orseolo, ses opposants firent venir de Pologne, avec l’assentiment de Saint Gérard, les princes arpadiens André et Levente (les fils de Vazul), auxquels on pro- posa le trône de Hongrie. L’évêque Gérard fut directement impliqué dans le détrônement de Pierre Orseolo. D’ailleurs, on le sait : la conspiration contre le roi fut déclenchée à Csanád, ce qui implique que l’évêque se trouvait sûrement à la tête des conspirateurs87. À la fin de l’été de l’an 1046, les dirigeants des tribus magyares se réunirent dans l’Albe Royale, d’où Saint Gérard, accompagné par trois évêques (Bistriza, Böd et Beneta) par- tirent pour Buda pour accueillir les deux princes arpadiens, André et Levente. Ce fut en même temps qu’éclata en Hongrie la révolte des Magyars païens ayant à leur tête Vata, qui demandaient que le pays revienne à « l’époque d’or » des nomades magyars, et donc, ils demandaient aussi la persécution du clergé chrétien, coupable de l’abandon des traditions ancestrales. Gérard lui-même tomba victime de cette révolte, étant tué à Pest par les partisans de Vata (le 24 septembre 1046)88. Les fils de Vazul, André et Levente, reçurent une aide importante de la part des masses païennes dans la lutte contre l’ancien roi Pierre Orseolo ; les partisans de Vata s’adonnèrent à des massacres abominables contre les membres du clergé et détruisirent de nombreuses Églises chrétiennes. Après la défaite de Pierre Orseolo, André monta sur le trône de la Hongrie (1046). Il chassa les païens et se consacra à l’organisation interne du royaume magyar. Le nouveau roi ordonna au peuple d’abandonner les traditions païennes et de vivre selon la loi d’Étienne Ier .

Conclusions

Le couronnement d’Étienne Ier comme roi de Hongrie (1001) a constitué un moment décisif dans le procès de transformation du gouvernement magyar en Pannonie : d’une simple union de tribus, celui-ci est devenu État chrétien, solidement articulé. Depuis le règne d’Étienne Ier, l’étroite relation entre l’Église et la royauté magyare a caractérisé l’organisation politique de la Hongrie médiévale. D’ailleurs, dans la vision du premier roi magyar, la fondation d’un État chrétien se trouvait en étroite liaison avec l’organisation de l’Église. Le roi Étienne Ier se servit de l’Église comme d’un instrument nécessaire à l’accomplissement de ses projets politiques. L’acte de christianisation des Magyars a eu un caractère politique, re-

85 László, « Eretnekség és tirannizmus », 514–515; Kristó, Histoire I, 52. 86 Kristó, Histoire I, 52–53. 87 Kristó, Histoire I, 53. 88 « Legenda maior », 17–18, 35–37.

61 Remus Mihai Feraru liant définitivement la Hongrie à l’Occident de l’Europe. L’ascendant de l’Empire romain- germanique sur les Magyars ainsi que les étroites relations entre la royauté magyare et les ducs de Bavière ont eu comme principale conséquence leur christianisation selon le rite occidental. La reconnaissance papale du titre de roi et le couronnement de Vajk-Étienne avec l’accord du pape ont établi entre la royauté magyare et le Saint Siège une relation de dépendance spirituelle, ce qui explique le caractère apostolique de propagateur de la nouvelle foi, associé, dès le début, au jeune État magyar. L’organisation de l’Église magyare fut presque entièrement l’œuvre d’Étienne Ier. Ce processus présente une certaine parenté avec le modèle ecclésiastique allemand de l’époque. À la différence de l’Église impériale d’Allemagne, l’Église magyare n’a pas joué un rôle tout aussi important dans le fonctionnement de l’État. Le souverain magyar avait à sa disposition et sous son commandement direct le système de comitats (comtés) qui, dans le domaine de l’administration, de la juridiction et de l’organisation militaire repré- sentait les intérêts du pouvoir royal central. Il n’était pas obligé de se baser sur le soutien de l’Église comme c’était le cas des monarques allemands. L’évêque Gérard de Csanád a joué un rôle fondamental dans l’implantation des structures administratives magyares sur le territoire de son diocèse. Le couple Gérard – Étienne le Saint représente un modèle significatif d’équilibre et de collaboration entre sacerdotium et regnum. Gérard apparaît ainsi comme un représentant du courant réformateur, qui avait commencé dans le milieu monastique, en culminant avec Grégoire VII, le pontife qui allait introduire l’évêque de Marosvár parmi les saints, en 1083. Sans l’affirmer nettement, Saint Gérard partageait l’idée que les pouvoirs temporel et spirituel avaient la même dignité et la même justification, bien que dans sa vision, le second fût supérieur au premier, puisque c’était Dieu qui avait confié aux ecclésiastiques le monde entier. À certains moments, l’Église, par les pouvoirs civil et politique accordés à ses évêques, s’était substituée aux autorités civiles de l’État. Ainsi, dans les conditions de la crise déclenchée à la fin du premier règne de Pierre Orseolo (1041), l’Église s’est manifes- tée comme un facteur de décision sur la scène de la vie politico-religieuse du royaume magyar. En 1046, l’Église, grâce à l’évêque Gérard, a eu une contribution décisive dans l’effort de sauvegarder de la dissolution l’État magyar par la répression de la révolte païenne de Vata et l’avènement au trône du prince André. La convergence entre l’Église et la royauté magyare d’une part, et la relation directe avec Rome, d’autre part, a eu deux conséquences importantes : la Hongrie n’a pas été affec- tée par les mouvements politiques par lesquels ont dû passer les autres États monarchiques européens, dans le contexte du conflit entre la papauté et l’Empire romain-germanique des Xe – XIIIe siècles. Dans sa qualité d’ « avant-poste » du catholicisme en Europe centrale et de sud-est, la royauté magyare a toujours été loyale à la papauté, dont elle a eu besoin de manière permanente. D’autre part, le droit des rois de nommer des ecclésiastiques dans les fonctions hiérarchiques de l’Église a créé une sorte d’étatisme précoce dans les rapports de la royauté avec le clergé magyar ; cet étatisme ne fut rencontré nulle part en Europe à cette époque-là. La fidélité des rois magyars envers Rome a été doublée par la loyauté de l’Église de Hongrie envers sa propre royauté.

62 L’Église et l’État en Hongrie dans la première moitié du XIe siècle ...

Bibliographie selective Sources primaires

A Szent István, Szent László és Kálmán korabeli törvények és zsinati határozatok forrásai (De fontibus legum et decretorum synodalium e temporibus sancti Stephani, sancti Ladislai et Colomani oriundorum), édité par Levente Zárodszky. Budapest: 1904. Chronik des Bischofs Thietmar von Merseburg und ihre Korveier Überarbeitung, édité par Robert Holtzmann (Monumenta Germaniae Historica Scriptores. Nova Series). Berlin: Weidmann, 1935. Gérard de Csanád, Deliberatio Gerardi Moresenae Ecclesiae Episcopi supra Hymnum Trium Pu- erorum ad Isingrinum Liberalem édité par Gabriel Silagi (« Corpus Christianorum: Continuatio Mediaevalis » 49). Turnhout: Brepols, 1978. “Legenda maior. Vita Sancti Gerardi, Moresanae ecclesiae episcope” in Documente privitoare la istoria Mitropoliei Banatului, [Documents concernant l’histoire d’archêveché du Banat] édité par Ioan D. Suciu, Radu Constantinescu, 22–63. Timișoara: Mitropolia Banatului, 1980. “Legenda Sancti Stephani regis ab Hartvico episcopo conscripta” II, in Scriptores rerum Hungari- carum tempore ducum regumque stirpis Arpadianae gestarum, édité par E. Szentpétery, Buda- pest: 1938. Scriptores rerum germanicarum: Liudprandi opera, herausgegeben von Joseph Becker, Hannover und Leipzig: Hahnsche Buchhandlung, 1915.

Ouvrages, études et articles

Gerard din Cenad: Armonia lumii sau Tălmăcire a cântării celor trei coconi către Insingrim dascălul, [Gérard de Csanád: L’Harmonie du monde ou interprétation du chant des trois garçons dedié à Isingrim le maître], étude introductive, sélection, traduction et commentaires par Radu Constan- tinescu, avant-propos par Răzvan Theodorescu. București: Meridiane, 1984. Fuhrmann, Horst. “Provincia constat duodecim episcopatibus.” Studia Gratiana, XI, (1967): 389– 404. Györffy, György. “Structures ecclésiastiques de la Hongrie médiévale.» Miscellanea historiae ecclesiasticae V, (Colloque de Varsovie, octobre 1971), (1974): 159–167. _____. “La christianisation de la Hongrie.” Harvard Ukrainian Studies XII-XIII, 1988/1989 (Pro- ceedings of the International Congress Commemorating the Millenium of Christianity in Rus’- Ukraine), édité par Omeljan Pritsak et Ihor Ševčenko, (1990): 61–74. Iogna-Prat, Dominique. “Constructions chrétiennes d’un espace politique.” Le Moyen Age. Revue d’histoire et de Philosophie, 1, (2001): 49–69. Klaniczay, Gábor. “Rex iustus. Le saint fondateur de la royauté chrétienne.” Cahiers d’Études hongroises, 8, (1996) : 34–58. Kristó, Gyula. Histoire de la Hongrie médiévale, Tome I: Le temps des Árpáds, préface de Sándor Scernus et Noël-Yves Tonnerre, traduit du hongrois par Chantal Philippe. Rennes: Presses Uni- versitaires de Rennes, 2000. Koszta, László. “State Power and Ecclesiastical System in Eleventh Century Hungary. (An Outline to the Dynamics of the Development of Hungarian Christian Church).” ″In my spirit and thougth I remained a European of Hungarian origin″. Medieval Historical Studies in Memory of Zoltan J. Kosztolnyik, édité par István Petrovics, Sándor László Tóth, Eleanor A. Congdon, 67–78. Szeged: JatePress, 2010. László, Szegfű. “Eretnekség és tirannizmus” [L’Hérésie et tyrannie]. Irodalomtörténeti Közlemények, (LXXII), 5, (1968), 501–516.

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Nowak, Przemysław. “Das Papsttum und Ostmitteleuropa (Böhmen – Mähren, Polen, Ungarn, vom ausgehenden 10. bis zum Beginn des 13. Jahrhunderts) mie einer Neuedition von JL 9067.” Rom und Die Regionen. Studien zur Homogenisierung der lateinischen Kirche im Hochmittelalter, Band 19, Herausgegeben von Jochen Johrendt und Harald Müller, 331–370. Berlin/Boston: Wal- ter de Gruyter, 2012. Platon, Alexandru-Florin et Laurențiu Rădvan, Bogdan-Petru Maleon. O istorie a Europei de Apus în Evul Mediu. De la Imperiul Roman târziu la marile descoperiri geografice (secolele V-XVI), [Une histoire de l’Europe de l’Ouest dans le Moyen Âge. De l’Empire romain tardif aux grandes découvertes géographiques (Ve-XVIe siècles)]. Iași: Polirom, 2010. Sághy, Marianne. “L’organisation des Églises en Hongrie autour de l’An Mil: Le cas de l’évêché de Csanád.” Archivum Bobiense – Studia IV: Gerberto d’Aurillac da abate di Bobbio a papa dell’anno 1000, (Atti del Congresso internationale, Bobbio, 28–30 settembre 2000) édité par Flavio G. Nuvo- lone, 469–481. Bobbio: Associazione culturale Bobbio / Pc; Amici di Archivum Bobiense, 2001. Török, József. “Il primo re d´Ungheria e l´organizzazione della Chiesa ungherese.” Archivum Bo- biense – Studia IV: Gerberto d’Aurillac da abate di Bobbio a papa dell’anno 1000, (Atti del Con- gresso internationale, Bobbio, 28–30 settembre 2000) édité par Flavio G. Nuvolone, 455–466. Bob- bio: Associazione culturale Bobbio / Pc; Amici di Archivum Bobiense, 2001. Turcuș, Șerban. “Monahismul ortodox în Transilvania la începutul celui de-al doilea mileniu” [Le monachisme orthodoxe dans Transylvanie au début du deuxième millénaire]. Tabor, 2, (2011): 78–90. _____. Sfântul Gerard de Cenad sau despre destinul unui venețian în jurul anului 1000 [Saint Gérard de Csanád ou sur la destin d’un vénetien vers l’an 1000]. București: Carom, 2004.

64 Considerations Regarding the Beneficial Policy Led by the Popes of Avignon ... Considerations Regarding the Beneficial Policy Led by the Popes of Avignon in the Diocese of Cenad in the Fourteenth Century

Răzvan Mihai Neagu

The main purpose of this study is to present and investigate the involvement of the popes of Avignon in the diocese of Cenad. In the case of the bishopric of Cenad, the interference of the French popes in the fourteenth century did not register significant proportions, as it happened in the bishopric of Transylvania or that of Oradea. Nevertheless, the popes’ interference existed, influencing the activity of the diocese, which was integrated in the vast general governing mechanism of the Catholic Church, issued and developed by the popes of Avignon. The first canon appointed by a pope, registered in documents, was Nicholas. He was appointed on February 25 1333 by Pope John XXII. Although the preserved documents do not allow for a detailed analysis of this papal interference mechanism, the ones that were preserved indicate the involvement of the French popes in the life of the diocese of Cenad, especially visible in the appointment of ecclesiastic positions, as well as in the taxation system. Documents attest that the pontiffs had fifteen interventions in the diocese during the times of the Avignon papacy, appointing or confirming ecclesiastic benefits. They appointed six clergymen as canons, while another six received archdeaconship positions or dignities in the cathedral chapter, which subsequently involved owning a canonship. The French popes also granted at Cenad two unmentioned positions in the cathedral chapter, as well as an unspecified ecclesiastical benefice.

Keywords: Papacy; Cenad; beneficial policy; cathedral chapter; papal taxation.

Introduction

The main purpose of this study is to present and investigate the involvement of the popes of Avignon in the diocese of Cenad. Starting from the fourteenth century, the various major ecclesiastical offices (bishoprics, abbeys) or even the minor ones (from the mere positions of parsons up to capitular dignities) are offered by the French popes, at the request of certain civil or ecclesiastical authorities, to certain clergymen, who were in their entourage or under their influence. The ecclesiastical benefits could be requested even on one’s behalf, especially with regard to the poor clergymen (the pauperes). Thus, the beneficial policy of the papacy is a right held by the pontiff which refers to the distribution of the ecclesiastical positions either in the case of appointments or in that of confirmation. From the point of view of the canon, the beneficial policy started to be encoded in the year 1265 through the Licet ecclesiarum decree drafted by Pope Clement IV. During the Avignon times (1305–1378) the beneficial policy of the papacy was enwidened to upper limits, being one of the governmental means of the Church, especially starting with the times of Pope John XXII (1316–1334). In 1316, John XXII issued the Ex debito apostolical constitution which reserved his own right to distribute all ecclesiastical benefits from Christianitas, both the major and the minor

65 Răzvan Mihai Neagu

ones.1 It is important to underline that this policy was universal, therefore the French popes applied it in the dioceses on the territories starting from the Iberian kingdoms up to Eastern Hungary (the case of the diocese of Cenad), as well as in the English dioceses down to those in the Kingdom of Sicily. The Diocese of Cenad, part of the archbishopric of Kalocsa, was also incorporated in this fourteenth-century phenomenon, altough in a reduced proportion. Unfortunately, Romanian historiography was less preoccupied with this part of ecclesiastical history, although it is quite well represented on European level.2

The Beginnings and the Ecclesiastical Institutions of the Diocese of Cenad The bishopric of Cenad is the first ecclesiastical unity of Western rite attested on the present territory of Romania. Its foundation is related to the names of two personalities: the Italian monk who originated in Venice, Gerardo3 (the first bishop) and Saint Stephen I (997–1038), the first king of Hungary. The Hungarian historian Kristó Gyula recently remarked that the diocese of Cenad is among the fewest in medieval Hungary whose foundation is linked to a precise date. Thus, the Italian Gerardo was appointed bishop of Cenad in 1030.4 This study will not insist on the historical evolution of the bishopric, as much has already been written on this topic.5

1 Jorge Díaz Ibáñez, ’’Notas y documentos sobre la politica beneficial de Urbano V en la diócesis de Sigüenza (1362–1370),’’ Revista de estudios de Guadalajara 28 (2001): 37–48. 2 From the vast European bibliography dedicated to this field, we mention the following titles: Loius Caillet, La papauté d’Avignon et l’église de France. La politique bénéficiale de Pape Jean XXII en France (1316–1334), (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1975); Péroline Bousquet, ’’Papal Provisions in Hungary, 1305–1370,’’ Annual of Medieval Studies at the CEU (1994– 1995): 101–111; Jörg Erdmann, Quod est in actis non est in mundo. Päpstliche Benefizialpolitik in sacrum imperium des 14. Jahrhunderts, (Tübingen 2006); Jorge Díaz Ibáñez,’’La provisión pontificia de beneficios eclesiásticos en el reino de Castilla durande el período aviñonés. Estado de la investigation,’’ Lusitania Sacra 22 (2010): 63–84. 3 Gerardus nacione Venetus, de civitate Veneciensi natus cf. Legenda major. Vita Sancti Gerar- di, Moresanae ecclesiae episcopi in I. D. Suciu, Radu Constantinescu, Documente privitoare la istoria Mitropoliei Banatului [Documents regarding the history of the Metropolis of Banat] (Timişoara: Editura Mitropoliei Banatului, 1980), 22 (henceforth Legenda major). For the discussion regarding the apparition of the bishopric of Cenad see Dumitru Ţeicu, Geografia ecleziastică a Banatului Medieval [The Ecclesiastical Geography of Medieval Banat], (Cluj-Napoca: Presa Universitară Clujeană, 2007), 14–15. 4 Kristó Gyula, ’’The Bishoprics of Saint Stephen, King of Hungary’’ in In honorem Paul Cerno- vodeanu, ed. Violeta Barbu (Bucureşti: Kriterion, 1998), 62; István Petrovics, ’’The Bishopric of Csanád/Cenad and the Ecclesiastical Institutions of Medieval Temesvár/Timişoara,’’ Transylva- nian Review XXI, Supplement No. 4 (2013): 241. 5 For the history of the bishopric of Cenad see the works and episcopal biographies of Juház Kál- mán: A csanádi püspökség története [The History of the bishopric of Cenad], I-VIII: 1000–1699 (Makó: 1930–1947); Die Strifte der Tschanader Diozese in Mittelalter (Münster: 1927); A csaná- di püspökség [The bishopric of Cenad] (Arad: 1927); ’’Ein Italienischer Arzt Als Ungarischer Bis- hof Giacomo da Piacenza († 1348)’’ Zeitschrift für katholische Theologie, Band 80, Heft 4 (1958): 567–579; ’’Benedikt, Bischof von Tschanad/1307–1332’’ Königsteiner Blätter VII/4 (1961): 115–126. Recently, a very valuable monography of the bishopric wrote the current bishop of Ti- mişoara, Martin Roos: Die alte Diözese Csanád. Zwischen Grundlegung und Aufteilung. 1030 bis

66 Considerations Regarding the Beneficial Policy Led by the Popes of Avignon ...

It must be highlighted once more that the bishopric of Cenad was suffragan to the archbishopric of Kalocsa (the second medieval Hungarian town in terms of importance). Papal documents which recorded the payment of the tithe in the fourteenth century, reveal that Cenad was divided into seven archdeaconries: Timiş, Arad, Cenad, Torontal, Sebeş, Caraş, and the archdeaconry across the Mureş6. An ephemeral ecclesiastical unity belonging to this bishopric was the archdeaconry of Keve (Cuvin), mentioned in 1288, but which no longer appears on the lists of the collectors of the papal tithes. This archdeaconry was dis- solved and its parishes were integrated in the archdeaconships of Timiş and Torontal.7 From a geographical point of view, the diocese of Cenad was delimited by natural borders. On the West, the River Tisza separated the territory from that of the diocese of Bács; on the North, the border went beyond the River Mures, neighbouring the archdeaconry of Pâncota, which belonged to the diocese of Eger. On the Eastern part of the diocese, mountains and hills stretched from the River Mures down to the Danube.8 The Episcopal residence was at Cenad (Urbs Morisena), the old capital of the Ahtum Voivodeship. According to the Legenda major, the first cathedral of the diocese was the Saint John the Baptist Monastery of Eastern rite.9 Subsequently, the headquarters was the Saint George Monastery, built at the initiative of Gerard, the first bishop, between 1036 and 1042.10 Gerard comissioned with King Stephen I an abbey dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Later on, Cenad was reconstructed with the direct support of Queen Elisabeth of Hungary, the wife of King Charles Robert of Anjou, before the year 1361.11 At least two other churches existed at Cenad: one dedicated to the Savior (ecclesie Sancti Salvatoris), attested in the second half of the thirteenth century, and the Saint Anne Church mentioned in 1345, which also functioned as a hospital.12 An important Cistercian abbey, that of Igriş functioned on the territory canonically vassal to the bishop of Cenad. It was founded in 1179, by monks who came from Pontigny (France), which had a branch at Cârţa (in the Country of Făgăraş).13 Three chapters functioned on the territory of the diocese of Cenad. Two of them were in Cenad – that of the cathedral and that of the church of the Saviour (collegiate), whereas

1923. Teil 1: Von den Anfängen bis zum Ende der Türkenzeit 1030–1718 (Szeged-Csanád, Groß- Betschkerek, Temeswar: 2009). A notable importance is also constituted by the schematisms of the diocese: Schematismus cleri Diocesis Csanadiensis. Pro Anno Jubilari MDCCCC (Timişoara: 1900). 6 István Petrovics, ’’The Bishopric of Csanád/Cenad….’’ 242. 7 Dumitru Ţeicu, Geografia ecleziastică… 19. 8 Ibid., p. 15–16. 9 Legenda major, p. 47. 10 Dumitru Ţeicu, Geografia ecleziastică… 153. 11 Adrian Andrei Rusu, Dicţionarul mănăstirilor din Transilvania, Banat, Crişana şi Maramureş [The Dictionary of the Monasteries of Transylvania, Banat, Crisana and Maramures] (Cluj-Napo- ca: Presa Universitară Clujeană, 2000), 100. 12 Ioan Haţegan, Ligia Boldea, Dumitru Ţeicu, Cronologia Banatului, vol. 2, Partea 1: Banatul între 934–1552: repere cronologice: selecţie de texte şi date [The Chronology of Banat, vol. 2, Part 1: Banat between 934–1552: chronological landmarks: selection of texts and data] (Timişoara: Editura Banatul, 2007), 84 (henceforth Cronologia Banatului). 13 Şerban Turcuş, Veronica Turcuş, At the Edges of Christendom. The White Monks’ Arts and Institu- tion in Transylvania (The Twelfth-Fifteenth Centuries), (Cluj-Napoca: The Romanian Academy, The Transyvanian Center of Studies, 2012), 141–208.

67 Răzvan Mihai Neagu a collegiate chapter dedicated to Saint Martin functioned in Arad, It must be mentioned that in the medieval period, apart from the main ecclesiastical position, the chapters also held the role of places of authentification (loca credibilia), where various documents were issued.14 The beneficial policy of the French popes in the diocese of Cenad can be divided in three components: the appointment or confirmation of the bishops; the involvement in various appointments in the cathedral chapter; and the collection of the ecclesiastical taxes. We have already dealt with the first issue in one of our previous studies.15 In the current material we are going to deal with the last two aspects of the beneficial policy of the Holly See in Cenad. After the bishop, the next most important ecclesiastical institution in a diocese was that of the cathedral chapter. In the case of Cenad, it was founded by the first bishop of the diocese, Gerard, who brought along some monks in order to support him administer the new bishopric. Thus, among the members of the first cathedral chapter of Cenad were the Benedictine monks from Pannonhalma (Philip, Henry, Leonard, Conscio) as well as the monks of the abbeys of Pecsvarad (Stephen and Anselm), Bel (Ulrich and Walter), Zala (Konrad and Albert), Zobor (Crato and Tasilo)16. The fact that the forst chapter was formed exclusively by monks reinforces the fact that Christianity was still living its early phases in South-East of Hungary and thus Gerard’s role in the area was missionary. Returning to the capitular institution, this was comprised of canons, among whom some also held dignities (dignitarius): provost (praepositus), precentor (primicerius, cantor), chancellor (scholasticus), treasurer (custos), dean (decanus) etc. The chapter also included seven archdeacons, as well as the ordinary canons. Each of these had an income known as canonical prebend. In the beginning, the access in the chapter was possible in two ways: cooptation or nominalization by the local bishop.17 In the fourteenth century, papal appointment was most frequently made at the request of a laic or ecclesiastic potentate. Each chapter had a certain functioning status which indicated the internal organization. In the case of Cenad, this status was not preserved, and neither were they preserved in the case of the majority of cathedral chapters in medieval Hungary, except for the one of Oradea.18 Therefore, the exact number of canons of Cenad cannot be known; nor can we know who was effectively leading the chapter. Regarding this last issue, the leader of the chapter was, probably, the provost of Cenad. This may be argued based on the analogy with the neigh-

14 Francisc Pall, ’’Contribuţii la problema locurilor de adeverire din Transilvania medievală (sec. XIII-XIV),’’[Contributions to the issue of the places of authentification in Medieval Transylvania (thirteenth and fourteenth centuries)], Studii şi Materiale de Istorie Medie II (1957): 391–407; Gálfi Emőke, ’’Transylvanian Places of Authentication and Eccelsiastical Intellectuals in the Mi- ddle Ages,’’ Transylvanian Review, XXI, supplement no. 2 (2012): 139–155. 15 Răzvan Mihai Neagu, ’’Episcopii de Cenad şi papalitatea de la Avignon. Intervenţia papalităţii în dieceza Cenadului în secolul al XIV-lea’’ [The Cenad Bishops and the Avignon Papacy. The Intervention of the Papacy in the diocese of Cenad in the fourteenth century], Banatica 23 (2013): 527–545. 16 Şerban Turcuş, Saint Gerard of Cenad . The Destiny of a Venetian around the Year One Thousand, (Cluj-Napoca: Romanian Cultural Institute, Center for Transylvanian Studies, 2006), 59–60. 17 Gabriel Le Bras, Jean Gaudemet, Le Gouvernement de l’église a l’ époque classique, tom. VIII, vol. II. Le Gouvernement Local (Paris: Cujas, 1979), 186. 18 See the Statutes of the chapter of Oradea in Documenta Romaniae Historica, series C Transylva- nia, vol. XIV (1371–1375) (Bucharest: Editura Academiei Române, 2002), 681–779 (henceforth DRH C, XIV).

68 Considerations Regarding the Beneficial Policy Led by the Popes of Avignon ... bouring dioceses (those of Transylvania and of Oradea), where the provost led the cathedral chapter. The provost was endowed with judicial competences by the pope, as an act issued on the 4th of July 1341 mentioned, in which Benedict XII ordered the provost of Cenad to participate in the resolution of the controversy between the parson and the Dominican and Franciscan friars in Bistriţa.19 The provost administered the capitular patrimony, collected the revenues, which he administered and distributed to the canons. He had under subor- dination a large mechanism composed of agents similar to those of laic seniors.20 One of the most notable provosts of Cenad in the Avignon papal period was Ladislaus, the son of Thomas. He is mentioned in a document dating from the 20th of January 1352 as being the chaplain of King Louis of Anjou, archdeacon and canon, waiting for the prebend, at Cenad. Ladislaus was a clergyman in the diocese of Pécs, canon of Veszprém and Buda21 and later, he was appointed provost of the church of Eger. Subsequently, he was transferred to Cenad, where he was provost between 1353 and 1355.22 On the 20th of May 1353 Ladislaus is mentioned as count of the royal chancery.23 An important member of the cathedral chapter was the chancellor. Apart from his ecclesiastical duties, he also led the capitular school, where the future priests were educated.24 On the 28th of January 1350, a papal document attested that Peter the Red (Petrus Dominici Ruffus), chancellor of the chapter of Cenad, died in Avignon.25 He died in the papal residence in 1348, therefore the position of chancellor of the Cenad cathedral chapter remained unoccupied between 1348 and 1350. The presence of Peter the Red at Avignon can be interpreted in two ways: he may have been there for a visit ad limina, or he may have been on a diplomatic mission, accomplished, most probably, for the king of Hungary. On the 4th of September 1359, in Cenad, a certain Nicholas son of Mark is mentioned as lectorem seu scholasticum 26. This is a notable fact because it attests the continuity of the capitular school at Cenad. The school is attested from the eleventh century, being the first mentioned on the present territory of Romania. Another important character in the chapter was the precentor,

19 Documente privind istoria României, veacul XIV, seria C Transylvania, vol. IV (1341–1350) [Documents regarding the Romanian History, the fourteenth century, series C Transylvania, vol. IV (1341–1350)] (Bucharest: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Române, 1955), 36 (henceforth DIR C, XIV, IV). 20 Gabriel Le Bras, Jean Gaudemet, Le Gouvernement de l’église…, 189. 21 Bossányi Árpád, Regesta Supplicationum. A Pápai Kérvénykönyvek Magyar Vonatkozásu Okmányai Avignoni Korszak, I. Kötet, VI. Kelemen Pápa 1342–1352 [Regesta Supplicationum. The Hungarian Related Documents of the papal Books of Petitions in the Avignon Period, vol. I Pope Clement VI 1342–1352] (Budapest: Stephaneum, 1916), 286 (henceforth Regesta Sup- plicationum I); Documenta Romanaie Historica, seria C Transilvania, vol. X (1351–1355) (Bu- charest: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, 1977), 106 (henceforth DRH C, X,); Cronologia Banatului, 91. 22 Borovszky, Samu, Csanád vármegye története 1715-ig [The History of the Csanád county until 1715] (Budapest: A Magyar tudományos Akadémia Palotájában, 1896), 388 (henceforth Csanád vármegye története). 23 Cronologia Banatului, 92. 24 Gabriel Le Bras, Jean Gaudemet, Le Gouvernement de l’église…, 189. 25 DIR C, XIV, IV, 527. 26 Ibid., p. 97. Nicholas son of Mark was a clergyman in the diocese of Kalocsa, holding this position since 1355. He is mentioned in the documents up to the year 1361 cf. Regesta Supplicationum I, 283.

69 Răzvan Mihai Neagu whose main duties were the instruction of the canons onecclesiastical music and the supervision of the liturgical ceremonies, controlling them and the canons performing them.27 The position of the canon sometimes implied performing certain diplomatic missions for the papacy. However, this could cause inconveniences, like it happened to one of the canons of Cenad. On the 4th of December 1375, Pope Gregory XI asked the bishops of Transylvania and Vác to absolve Gregory from the Benedictine abbey of Pannonhalma, who was sent by the pontiff with letters to King Louis I of Anjou, but was retained there by the monks.28

The popes of Avignon and the inferior ecclesiastic positions in the diocese of Cenad The popes from Avignon created a practice of intervening, directly and indirectly, in the appointments of all ecclesiastical positions, from that of bishop to those of archdeacons and canons. Although not less visible than elsewhere (probably because many documents were not preserved), this papal interference was present in the bishopric of Cenad, influencing its activity and incorporating it within the general governmental mechanism of the Church led by the French popes. The first canon mentioned in a document as being appointed by a pope at Cenad was Nicholas, the son of Sanctus. He was appointed on the 25th of February 1332 by Pope John XXII.29 This is the single extant appointment made by John XXII in Cenad. It is highly probable that he made several other similar appointments, but the documents were not preserved. The beneficial policy was vigorously recommenced by Clement VI (1342–1352). On the 11th of October 1345, at the request of Count Pavel, the emissary of King Louis I of Anjou, Clement appointed Benedict, the son of Elijah, as chaplain of the royal ambassador at Avi- gnon. The appointment document suggests that the newly appointed also held a canonship at Oradea, but was also waiting for a dignity in the Church of Transylvania, which he was willing to refuse.30 The papal act does not mention the dignity this prelate desired, but this statement suggests a position which had a jurisdiction attached. Benedict was a priest at Folkos in the diocese of Veszprém.31 During the time of Clement VI, on the 25th of January 1345, at the request of Bonioan de Campello, archdeacon of Arad, the pope granted a canonship at Cenad to Martin of Segadino.32 Firther more, Bonioan de Campello asked the pontiff for a dignity in the Church of Cenad for Peter, deacon of Transylvania.33 On the 22nd of February 1345, Pope Clement

27 Gabriel Le Bras, Jean Gaudemet, Le Gouvernement de l’église…, 189. 28 DRH C, XIV, 558; Cronologia Banatului, 125. 29 Documente privind istoria României, seria C Transilvania, veacul XIV, vol. III (1331–1340) [Documents regarding the Romanian History, the 14th century, series C Transylvania, vol. III 1331–1340] (Bucharest: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Române, 1954), 256 (henceforth DIR C XIV, III). 30 DIR C, XIV, IV, 264. 31 Regesta Supplicationum I, 287. 32 DIR C, XIV, IV, 331; Regesta Supplicationum I, 286. 33 This Peter is the nephew of provost Thatamerius of Székesfehérvár and he had initially been canon of Eger, but he could not assume that position, as he was oppressed. Therefore he was ap-

70 Considerations Regarding the Beneficial Policy Led by the Popes of Avignon ...

VI granted the archdeaconry of Sebeş in the diocese of Cenad to George, son of Chanadin, a position previously held by Bonioan of Campello34. On the 12th of July 1348, Stephen, the provost of Buda, obtained from Clement VI a canonship at Cenad for Ladislaus, a clergyman from Pécs, who held another two canon- ships at Veszprém and Buda.35 The bishops of Cenad could also request various favours in order to name their close connections in positions in their dioceses. Thus, on the 13th of September 1349, Bishop Gregory obtained from the pope the archdeaconship of Arad, for the canon John of Cenad, an Episcopal chaplain, who, in order to receive this position, had to renounce the parish of Nart, from the diocese of Zagreb.36 The popes also acknowledged requests from various laic authorities for the positions of canon or those inside the chapter. On the 28th of January 1350, count Nicholas, a knight at the royal court of Hungary, obtained from Clement VI the position of chancellor (head of the capitular school) at Cenad, for Nicholas, a clergyman in the diocese of Kalocsa.37 Because of their influence, the people in the papal entourage, especially the cardinals, did not hesitate to impose their close relations in ecclesiastical positions. This was, most often, the result of various loyal services done for them which had to be paid back. On the 6th of June 1352, Pope Clement VI provided John of Scherffenbergh, the King’s chaplain, with a canonship, a prebend and the archdeaconry of Arad.38 Cardinal Guillaume of La Jugié (deacon cardinal of the church Santa Maria in Cosmedin from Rome) intervened for this appointment.39 The same high prelate also obtained from Pope Innocent VI, on the 27th of June 1353, the archdeaconry of Arad for John Pelvos, his chaplain and commissioner in Hungary40. It must be added that the archdeaconry of Arad was declared vacant, as John of Scherffenbergh had been appointed canon and provost at Győr. Similarly, nepotism was a widely spread practice when appointing ecclesiastical positions. On the 20th of February 1358, Innocent VI offered a canon position at Cenad, as well as an ecclesiastical dignity to Peter, the son of John, for whom the knight Nicholas Lackfi, his relative,41 intervened. It is important to mention that Peter also held another canon position, a prebend, as well as the position of treasurer at Arad42. The Hungarian emissaries at Avignon also intervened by the pontiff in order to support

pointed at Cenad cf. Regesta Supplicationum I, 285. 34 Ibid., 226. 35 Ibid., 449. 36 Ibid., 498. 37 Ibid., 527. 38 Regesta Supplicationum I, 286. 39 Bossányi Árpád, Regesta Supplicationum. A Pápai Kérvénykönyvek Magyar Vonatkozásu Ok- mányai Avignoni Korszak, II. Kötet, VI. Ince Pápa 1352–1322. V Orbán Pápa 1362–1370. VII Kelemen EllenPápa 1378–1394, [Regesta Supplicationum. The Hungarian Related Documents of the papal Books of Petitions in the Avignon Period, vol. II Pope Innocent VI 1352–1362, Pope Urban V 1362–1370, antipope Clement VII 1378–1394] (Budapest: Stephaneum, 1918), 268–269 (henceforth Regesta Suplicationum II); DRH C, X, 137. 40 DRH C, X, 221. 41 We mention the fact that the Lackfi family was one of the most powerful and influential families in Hungary in the Angevine period. 42 Regesta Suplicationum II, 319; Documenta Romanaie Historica, series C Transilvania, vol. XI (1356–1360) (Bucharest: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, 1981), 230 (henceforth DRH C, XI).

71 Răzvan Mihai Neagu their close acquaintances in ecclesiastical positions in Cenad; on the 18th of May 1359, Benedict, the Hungarian king’s emissary, obtained from Innocent VI a benefit at Cenad for Blaise, the son of Andrew (a clergyman in this diocese), but without being allowed to have an annual income greater than 18 silver marks.43 Cardinal Guillaume of La Jugié also intervened in order to appoint his close connections in various positions. On the 12th of November 1359, he obtained from Innocent VI the appointment of Thomas of Darabous, his vicar in Hungary, as canon at Cenad.44 Thomas also had benefits in the churches of Kalocsa and Pécs. Although the following ecclesiastical appointments are not linked to the diocese of Cenad, the mechanism of their distribution perfectly illustrates the European character of the beneficial policy led by the French pontiffs. We have chosen as an example the case of the bishop of Cenad, Dominic I of Bebek (1360–1373). When appointing someone in a bishopric (a superior ecclesiastical dignity), that person was obliged to renounce all positions previously held. Evidently, such a situation needed papal approval. Thus, the canon and prebend positions the bishop Dominic had at Pécs were transferred (on the 28th of July 1360) to Conrad Sculeti, the archdeacon of Nitra, for whom the cardinal Guillaume of La Jugié had intervened, as the archdeacon was his chaplain.45 As a result of a request of King Louis I of Anjou, the provost position of the Saint Martin Church from Zips, previously held by Dominic, was given by the pope on the same date to Benedict, the son of George, a royal chaplain and student in canon law at the University of Padua46. The canon and prebend positions belonging to Dominic in the cathedral chapter of Eger were transferred, through papal decision, to Peter of Monasterio, a priest from Limoux (Kingdom of France), the representative of cardinal Guillaume of La Jugié,47 whereas the prebend and the canonship held by Dominic at Esztergom went to Nicholas of Levoca, who held the position of precentor of the cathedral chapter at Nitra48. These examples are useful in order to highlight the way the popes from Avignon elaborated a rigorous evidence mechanism for all ecclesiastical dignities, which shortly after their vacancy were to pass from one holder to the other, for whom an influential person intervened – in this case the King of Hungary or a cardinal. These facts prove that when a new bishop was appointed, it was mandatory for him to give up on all ecclesiastical positions previously held. Pope Gregory XI also intervened in the diocese of Cenad. On the 14th of January 1374, he ordered the bishop Demetrius of Transylvania to confirm the appointment of George, the son of Blaise, canon of Cenad, in the archdeaconry across the Mureş, belonging to the same diocese. The document that evokes this papal decision contains information highly notable on the beneficial policy in the diocese, concerning the bishop’s rights to appoint the archdeacons. Thus, we learn that the archdeaconry across the Mureş remained vacant because its tenured, John, the son of Pancras, had been appointed archdeacon of Timiş by the bishop of Cenad: “he peacefully peacefully gained the archdeaconry of Timiş of the same bishopric, vacant at that time, which was administered on the grounds of the Episcopal authority based on the canons, by our vulnerable brother Dominic of Oradea, during the time the bishop of Cenad, as the

43 Regesta Suplicationum II, 387. 44 Ibid., 428–429. 45 Ibid., 525. 46 Ibid. 47 Ibid., 526. 48 Ibid., 527.

72 Considerations Regarding the Beneficial Policy Led by the Popes of Avignon ... beneficence and the appointment in that archdeaconry across the Mureş originate in an ancient and assented custom, kept in peace so far, by the bishop of Cenad, in hold of the position; he conceded and appointed, according to the canons, based on the above mentioned authority, the already mentioned archdeaconry across the Mureş, thus made vacant, to that George, if the apostolic reservations did not offer resistance.”49 The information in this act allows to make certain considerations related to the position of the archdeacon. Thus, the archdeacon was one of the closest collaborators of the bishop, who, being in charge of the local district, ensured the connection between the parish (on the local level) and the bishopric (on the central level). The archdeacon was playing the role of the bishop’s auxiliary, being appointed by the latter;50 moreover, he was a member of the cathedral chapter and he also held a canonry. The papal words in the act cited above highlight the perpetuation of the old custom of appointing an archdeacon by the bishop of the diocese. Although preserved, this procedure needed, in the fourteenth century, the papal consent, the only one to make it legitimate. Thus, in the first stage, the archdeaconry across the Mureş was given by the bishop to the newly-appointed titular, according to the canons, on the strength of the Episcopal authority, but in order to completely hold this position, the appointed one had to have the papal consent, which consolidated his appointment, through the bishop of Transylvania. A similar case occured on the 9th of March 1375, when Pope Gregory XI ordered the bishop Emeric of Oradea to reinforce the canonry and prebend of Rudolph, the son of John, that he had received at Cenad, from the bishop Nicholas. The pontiff asked the bishop of Oradea to undertake an investigation in order to see whether the beneficence made by the hierarch of Cenad was preserved on the Holy See, more exactly that the bishop of Cenad indeed had the right to offer the beneficence and it was not under the exclusive authority of the Holy Father. If that specific beneficence respected the canon law, then the bishop of Oradea had the mission of consolidating it.51 In the diocese of Cenad, the intervention of the papacy in appointing various ecclesiastical dignities was not a vast one - appointments in positions such as canons, sometimes archdeacons or chapters members have been registered. Seemingly, the local bishop also had influence in the appointments of ecclesiastical authorities, although the final decision belonged to the pope.

The educational preparation of the clergymen and the foreign elements in the diocese of Cenad The educational preparation of the clergymen in the diocese of Cenad in the fourteenth century was extremely precarious. The names of only two canons who had academic studies were registered in the cathedral chapter,. Unfortunately, the documents attesting the appointment by the pope in the positions they held were not preserved. Thus, in 1352, the canon Ladislaus, son of Thomas, is mentioned, who had academic studies in an unknown institution. His qualification was canon law.52 This clergyman was an interesting charac-

49 DRH C, XIV, 440. 50 Gabriel Le Bras, Jean Gaudemet, Le Gouvernement de l’église…, 313–314. 51 DRH C, XIV, 538. 52 Csanád vármegye története, 423; Tóth, Péter, ’’A csanádi székeskáptalan kanonokjainak egyetem- járása a későközépkorban,’’ [Canons of Csanád at Universities in the Late Middle Ages] Magyar Egyháztörténeti/Vázlatok. Essays in church history in Hungary 1–2 (2007), 37–59.

73 Răzvan Mihai Neagu ter, being a nobleman belonging to the Hont-Pázmány family, as well as a collector of ecclesiastical dignities. Thus, he was provost of the Saint George Church near Esztergom (preposituram sancti Georgii prope Strigonium) between 1336 and 1352, a position which also comprised the archdeaconry of Esztergom; also, he was the provost of Eger starting with 1352 and canon of Cenad, and afterwards provost (1353–1355). According to the act of appointment at Eger, Ladislaus was in iure canonico provecto, and also held the position of the king’s chaplain.53 The second canon of Cenad who studied in a European university was a notable character in the Hungarian ecclesiastical history, Emeric Czudar, who subsequently became the bishop of Oradea (1374–1377) and afterwards the bishop of Transylvania (1386–1389).54 He studied at the Caroline University in Prague, and afterwards at an unknown university in Italy,.55 It is certain however that he received the title of “magister in artibus.” 56 Emeric Czudar was appointed canon at Cenad in 136957. Emeric had an impressive career: he held the position of archdeacon of Satu Mare ( 1366 ), he was the provost of Kalocsa (1367), a canon at Eger and Pécs, the provost of Székesfehérvár (1371), royal chaplain, the bishop of Eger (1377–1384), and voivode of Galitia along with his brothers.58 Usually, the canons appointed or confirmed by the pope in the cathedral chapter at Cenad were subjects to the Hungarian king. However, for the period of time analysed in this paper, in the cathedral chapter can also be identified certain foreign elements. Thus, the papal tithe register recorded the presence in the chapter of canon Peter of Padua (Petrus Paduanus), an Italian.59 Another clergyman of Italian origin, who held dignities in the diocese of Cenad was Bonioan de Campello. He was originally from the small town of Campello, in the Um- bria region. He was a notable figure at the Hungarian court, chaplain of King Charles Robert of Anjou; also, he was very influential under the reign of Louis I the Great, who sent him on a diplomatic mission to Avignon. Bonioan de Campello held many religious benefices, in more than one dioceses, such as archdeacon of Sebeş (1345), archdeacon of Arad (1345– 1347), canon at Oradea (before the 15th of October 1348). 60 Later on, he became the bishop of Bosnia (1348–1349) and bishop of Fermo (1349–1363).61 His high rank is certified on

53 Regesta Supplicationum I, 187, 229–230. 54 Jakubinyi, György, Romániai Katolikus, Erdélyi Protestáns és Izraelita Vallási Archontológia [The Catholic, Transylvanian Protestant and Israelite Religious Archontology from Romania] (Cluj-Napoca: Verbum, 2010), 91, 25. 55 Tóth, Péter, ’’A csanádi székeskáptalan…’’ 44. 56 Tóth, Péter, ’’A csanádi székeskáptalan…’’ 45; magister in artibus, qui ut asseritur, in iure canonico studet cf. Monumenta Romana Episcopatus Vesprimiensis, tomus II 1276–1415 (Budapest: 1899), 204–205; Veress, Endre, Olasz Egyetemeken Járt Magyarországi Tanulók Anyakönyve és Iratai 1221–1864, [The Matriculation Register and Study Documents of Hungarian Students who Studies at Italian Universities 1221–1864] (Budapest: Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, 1941), 397. 57 Csanád vármegye története, 423. 58 For further details concerning the life and activity of Emeric Czudar see our study ’’Cariera politică şi ecleziastică a unui important episcop al Transilvaniei din secolul al XIV-lea: Emeric Czudar’’ [The political and ecclesiastical career of an imortant bishop of Transylvania in the 14th century: Emeric Czudar] Marisia. Studii şi materiale XXXII-XXXIII Istorie (2013): 9–15. 59 Csanád vármegye története, p. 422; DIR C, XIV, III, 222. 60 Csanád vármegye története, 408, 416. 61 Konrad Eubel, Hierarchia Catholica Medii Aevi sive Sumorum Pontificum , S.R.E. Cardinalium

74 Considerations Regarding the Beneficial Policy Led by the Popes of Avignon ... the 12th of May 1347, when the pope allowed him to gather, for a period of 5 years, the incomes of his benefices, even though he did not permanently dwell there.62 This indulgence was an important concession made by the pontiff, but one of the requirements for holding an ecclesiastical position, at least on a theoretical level, was the permanent residency in the current ecclesiastical unit. There was a German presence as well. On the 11th of September 1345, Ppope Clement VI confirmed that Herman of the Würtzburg diocese, held a canonry and a prebend at Cenad, with an annual income of 6 florins. This fact appears in a document through which Nicholas was asking the chancellor of the Hungarian king for priest Herman from the diocese of Würtzburg, the dean position of that chapter.63 An unusual presence in the chapter of Cenad was the French cardinal Guillaume of La Jugié (1317/1318–1374), the nephew of Pope Clement VI.64 On the 25th of December, the cardinal received from his uncle the dignity of archdeacon of Torontal from the diocese of Cenad.65 Guillaume of La Jugié had a remarkable ecclesiastical career in Hungary holding numerous religious dignities: provost of Esztergom as well as of Pécs, chancellor of Bács, chancellor of Kalocsa, precentor of Vác, precentor of Nitra, archdeacon of Sirmium, Torontal, Alba Iulia, canon of Scepus, Zagreb and Oradea. All these offices were offered to the clergyman by the pope, in order to raise his incomes, even if a permanent residence for the papal nephew was, undoubtedly, out of the question. He collected his earnings that resulted from the respective benefits through some procurators. The presence of the foreign elements in the diocese of Cenad in the 14th century proves its connection to the religious European ecclesiastical realities of the time, as well as the fact that it was part of the beneficial policy led by the French popes.

The Beneficial policy and the papal fees in the diocese of Cenad

One of the most visible consequences of the beneficial policy was the fiscal development.66 Before starting to analyse the fiscal policy of the diocese of Cenad, one must acknowledge the fact that this religious unity was one with limited financial possibilities. This situation can be noticed starting from the thirteenth century when the bishop of Cenad and the canons of the cathedral chapter approached the pontiff, complaining about the poor financial state they were facing. On the 17th of Novemeber 1226, Pope Honorius III wrote , to Robert, the archbishop of Esztergom, informing him that “the bishop and his beloved sons of the chapter of the church of Cenad informed us through their letter that the revenues of that chapter had diminished so much because of the battle and various grudges, that certain canons

Ecclesiarum Antistitum Series Ab Anno 1198 Usque Ad Annum 1431 Perducta E Documentis Tab- ularii Praesertim Vaticani Collecta, Digesta, Edita Per Conradum Eubel, Monasterii Sumptibus et Typis Librariae Regensbergianae (1913), 142, 249. 62 DIR C, XIV, IV, 358. 63 DIR C, XIV, IV, 252; Regesta Supplicationum I, 285. 64 About the life of the cardinal we recommend : François Du Chesne, Histoire de tous les cardinaux François, vol. I, (Paris: 1660), 513–514; Gaetano Moroni, Dizionario di erudizione storico- ecclesiastica, vol. XXXI, (Venezia: 1845) 137–138. 65 Regesta Supplicationum I, 108–109. 66 See our study Răzvan Mihai Neagu, ’’The Papal Taxes Collected in Transylvania During the Time of the Avignon Popes (1307–1377)’’ Acta Musei Napocensis, 49, Historica, II (2012): 25–46.

75 Răzvan Mihai Neagu of that church were absent from their prebends because they could not live on them.”67 This state of poverty had severe consequences, so that the pope determined that the church started to be deprived of the ordinary religious services. Therefore, the Roman pontiff suggested increasing the canonical prebends under the surveillance of the archbishop Robert: “allowing the increase of the prebends of those canons from the incomes of the chapels in the diocese of Cenad, until the situation betters, as well as the state in which the church finds itself.”68 However, the level of the fiscal policy was not overlooked by the popes of Avignon, as it was part of the beneficial policy. A series of documents which attest the papal fiscal system were preserved at the diocese of Cenad, a fiscal system which weighs mostly on the bishops’ shoulders. These documents are unique, as similar documents were not preserved neither for the bishopric of Transylvania, nor for that of Oradea. In order to maintain the vast governing and bureaucratic mechanism, the Holly See instituted a series of taxes with a permanent character, which had to be paid by the clergy. Thus, the holders of major ecclesiastical benefices had to pay a tax called servitia communia, in a fixed rental for each diocese or abbey, the sum depending on the annual incomes of that bishopric or abbey. For the bishops of Cenad, the rental of this tax was of 900 florins, the same as that of the bishopric of Veszprém.69 This papal taxation was a confirmation tax. From the point of view of the amount of this tax, the bishopric of Cenad followed the bishoprics of Oradea (2000 florins) and of Transylvania (1500 florins). The first novelty on this tax dates back to the 19th of May 1345, when the bishop Greg- ory of Cenad acknowledged certain debts of his predecessors to the Apostolic Camera. The sums represented the arrears servitia communia. According to Gregory’s confession, bishop Stephen had to pay other 400 florins and 5 solidus, whereas bishop Galhard of Carceribus had to pay 900 florins and 5 solidus70. In September 1361, the bishop Dominic paid to Gaucelmus, bishop of Nîmes and papal legate in Hungary, the sum of 80 florins and 23 solidus, which represented the tax ofservitia communia 71. This sum was only a part of the confirmation tax, as attested by a document on the 9th of August 1364, in which it is stated that Dominic had also paid, through James, the chancellor of the cathedral chapter in Cenad, 364 florins out of the rental of this tax72. The same bishop had also acquitted to the papal fiscal system, on the th5 of May 1367, an arrears of his predecessor’s tax, worth 88 florins, 55 solidus and 6 denarius.73 Dominic also paid another part of his confirmation tax (servitia communia) on the 5th of May 1367, worth 5 florins and 53 solidus.74

67 Documente privind istoria României, seria C Transilvania, veacul: XI, XII, XIII, vol. I (1075– 1250) [Documents regarding the Romanian History, series C Transylvania, XI, XII, XIII centuries, vol. I 1075–1250] (Bucharest: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Române, 1951), 226–227. 68 Ibid., 227. 69 Csanád vármegye története, 353; Konrad Eubel, Hierarchia Catholica…, 179. 70 DIR, C, XIV, IV, p. 242. 71 Documenta Romanaie Historica, series C Transilvania, vol. XII (1361–1365) (Bucharest: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, 1985), 97. 72 Ibid., 318. 73 Documenta Romanaie Historica, series C Transilvania, vol. XIII (1366–1370) (Bucharest: Editu- ra Academiei Române, 1994), 355. 74 Ibid..

76 Considerations Regarding the Beneficial Policy Led by the Popes of Avignon ...

The next bishop of Cenad was Paul II, who indented, on the 26th of February 1377, to pay to the Apostolic Camera a part of his servitia communia for his appointment, worth 165 florins, which were to be paid in two instalments.75 One can notice that the servitia communia was not annulled once a bishop was transferred to another diocese, but it still had to be paid, even if the hierarch spent less time in that bishopric. Moreover, one can notice the difficulties in paying these taxes to the papal pantry, as they were considerable burdens for bishops. It must be mentioned that the pope shared this tax with his cardinals. The holders of minor benefices and practically all the clergymen appointed or confirmed by the pope had to pay a tax called annates, which represented the income for the first year of that benefit. We find information on the collection of this tax on the territory of the Hungarian bishoprics, kept in records with significant gaps. Thus, for the years 1350–1354, one knows that Arnold of La Caucina collected from Hungary 4739 florins, but this money came from the annates of the vacant benefits in the following dioceses: Esztergom, Kalocsa, Transylva- nia, Pécs, Sirmium, Zagreb, Vác, Veszprém, Eger, Oradea, Cenad, Nitra, Győr, and Bosnia.76 Arnold collected 40 florins from the diocese of Cenad, paid byAlbertus Ulrici for his appointment as chancellor, a position that was vacant because of the death of Peter, the son of Domi- nic. Furthermore, 49 florins were paid by John, the son of Henry, the archdeacon of Arad, for his appointment as provost at the Saint Albert Church in the diocese of Győr.77 All the clergymen of Western rite had to pay the papal tithe, which represented the tenth part of their incomes. This tax was part of the duties of both the secular clergy and of the members of the chapter, including the bishop of the diocese. The most important collection of papal tithes on the intra-Carpathian territory underwent between 1332 and 1337. This action also included the diocese of Cenad, and payments were registered for the years 1333 and 1335. Thus, 76 marks, 3 fertuns, and 3 grosses and a half78 were collected from Cenad. This sum is insignificant in comparison to the neighbouring diocese. 1835 silver marks, 3 silver coins, 3 grosses, and 1 dinar were collected from Transylvania, whereas 1406 marks were collected from the diocese of Oradea.79 These sums reveal once more the diminished economical force in the diocese of Cenad in the fourteenth century. The last two popes from Avignon, Urban V (1362–1370) and Gregory XI (1370–1378) hardened the fiscal policy, as they needed funds for the fight against the enemies of the Church, especially in Italy. This was also visible in Hungary and implicitly in the diocese of Cenad, under Gregory XI, who initiated a new campaign for collecting tithes, as well as the incomes of the vacant ecclesiastical benefits. The papal decision was not also the will of King Louis I of Anjou, who asked for the exemption of the Hungarian clergy from these taxes, although his plea did not come true. In a document from the 18th of December 1372, the pontiff showed the king that he could not approve the exemption of the Hungar- ian clergy, because there was need for funds for the battle against Bernabo and Galeazzo Visconti. Such an exemption would represent a precedent for similar requests from prelates

75 Documenta Romanaie Historica, series C Transilvania, vol. XV (1376–1380) (Bucharest: Editura Academiei Române, 2006), 130. 76 DIR C, XIV, IV, 221. 77 DRH C, X, 1. 78 DIR C, XIV, III, 248. 79 Camil Mureşan, G.S. Ardeleanu, ’’La politique fiscale de la papauté en Transylvanie au cours de la première moitié du XIV siècles’’ Nouvelles etudes d’histoire (Bucharest, 1955), 225–240.

77 Răzvan Mihai Neagu from Germany, Bohemia, and other territories.80 The papal firmness determined the Hungarian clergy to implement all obligations towards the Holly See. We find information on the sums collected in the document preserved by the papal delegate, Peter son of Stephen, who was in Hungary between 1373 and 1375. He had the mission of collecting both the tithes and the incomes from the vacant ecclesiastical benefits in Hungary. In the case of the diocese of Transylvania, the bishop Demetrius (1368–1376) paid 850 florins for himself and 1545 florins for his clergy, as papal tithe.81 Likewise, the bishop Dominic of Cenad (1360–1373) paid 214 florins for himself and 40 dinars for his clergy, whereas the bishop Dominic of Oradea (1373–1374) paid 303 florins for himself and 121 florins in old dinars, 79 gold florins, and 30 Hungarian dinars for his clergy.82 Peter, the son of Stephen, accurately recorded in his registers the situation of the vacant benefits from Hungary for the fourth, the fifth and the sixth year of Urban’s papacy, as well as for the first four years of the papacy of Gregory XI. We will continue by rendering this situation recoded by the papal collector in the bishopric of Cenad. On the 4th of February 1368, Pope Urban V gave the position of provost of the Collegiate Church of the Saviour to Michael, the son of Thomas, who paid 38 florins. On the 22nd of February 1369, Urban V, gave to Emeric Czudar,the provost of the church of Kalocsa, a position of canon and a prebend at Cenad, for which he paid 12 florins through an intermediary, John called Nepos.83 Gregory XI also intervened in the diocese of Cenad, imposing his beneficial policy there. Thus, on the 15th of October 1371, the French pontiff offered the position of provost of the Collegiate Church of Saint Martin from Arad to Nicholas Garazda, who had to give up on the position of provost of the church from Cenad,84 which was to be offered to Ladis- laus Chibak. In the third year of his papacy, Gregory XI offered to Gregory, the son of John, a position of canon in expectance for the prebend at Cenad, that he did not take charge of, and on the 29th of August 1373, Ladislaus, the son of Peter, received the position of chancellor of the church of Cenad, which was to become vacant after James, the son of James, was named precentor of the church of Oradea.85 The fourth year of Gregory’s papacy registers a more acute intervention of the pontiff in the diocese of Cenad, whereas the collector Peter, the son of Stephen, records that all those appointed were indebted to the Apostolic Camera. Thus, Gregory, the son of Blaise, received on the 14th of January 1374 the archdeaconry across the Mureş, but he was in debt. So was James, canon of Cenad, who became on the 25th of January 1374 the provost of the church of Cenad, which was to become vacant, as Ladislaus, the son of Michael, was to marry. Peter, the son of Matthias of Posega, was also in debt, but he was given on the 20th of March 1374 the position of provost of the church of Arad, which had become vacant after the death of provost Nicholas. On the 15th of July

80 DRH C, XIV, 290. 81 Ibid., 303. 82 DRH C, XIV, 303; Monumenta Vaticana Historiam Regni Hungariae Illustrantia. Series Prima. Tomus Primus. Rationes Collectorum Pontificorum in Hungaria. Pápai Tized-Szedők Számadá- sai. 1281–1375 [Monumenta Vaticana Historiam Regni Hungariae Illustrantia. Series Prima. To- mus Primus. Rationes Collectorum Pontificorum in Hungaria. The Papal Tax Collectors Financial Reports] (Budapest: 2000), 456–457 (henceforth Monumenta Vaticana Hungariae I). 83 DRH C, XIV, 311. 84 Ibid. 85 Monumenta Vaticana Hungariae I, 515.

78 Considerations Regarding the Beneficial Policy Led by the Popes of Avignon ...

1374, Nicholas, the son of Michael, received the archdeaconry of Cenad, which became vacant after the death of the cardinal who had been in charge of it, but the new titular was in debt. Stephen, the son of Dominic, canon of Pécs, became on the 10th of September 1374, the provost of the Collegiate Church of the Saviour from Cenad, which was to become vacant due to the appointment of Michael, the son of Thomas, as provost of the chapter of Bács. Stephen, the son of Dominic, is indebted to the Apostolic Camera.86 Analyzing the data on the various papal taxes and assessments, one may conclude that the financial state of the clergy in the diocese of Cenad was precarious, an evident fact throughout the Avignon period. Another fact which attests the funds penury in the bishopric of Cenad was related to the appointment of Bishop Stephen. Thus, on the 26th of May 1343, Pope Clement VI allowed the new bishop of Cenad, Stephen, to keep the position of canon, the prebend and the position of provost of the Church of Pécs.87 This measure taken by the French pontiff was exceptional, because when a clergyman was appointed bishop, he had to abandon his other ecclesiastical dignities. The papal gesture towards the bishop of Cenad can only account for the fact that the bishop found himself in an unfavourable financial state. Preserving the dignities in the Church of Pécs, Stephen had two additional income sources, coming from the prebend of canon and from the incomes that his position of provost implied.

Final considerations

The intervention of the popes of Avignon was visible up to the fringes of the Christian territory, where the bishopric of Cenad found itself. Although the papal documents preserved do not allow a detailed analysis of this mechanism of papal intervention, the preserved documents indicate an involvement of the French popes in the life of the diocese of Cenad, which was visible especially on the level of appointments in ecclesiastical positions, as well as on the level of the fiscal system. Based on documents, the pontiffs of Avignon had, in the diocese of Cenad, fifteen interventions, appointing or confirming ecclesiastical benefits. They appointed six clergymen as canons, and another six as archdeaconries or dignities in the chapter, which implied the tenure of canon. The French popes also appointed two unspecified capitular dignities, as well as an unspecified benefit. Regarding the two unspecified capitular dignities, they refer to a position which had a jurisdiction attached. In the end, it must be mentioned that these figures are the result of the investigation of the preserved documents. A possible explanation of the reduced papal intervention in the diocese of Cenad could be the reduced resources that the diocese disposed.

86 DRH C, XIV, 312; Monumenta Vaticana Hungariae I, 516. 87 DIR C, XIV, IV, 142–143.

79 Răzvan Mihai Neagu was was ap - in an unspecified an in unspecified an in parish in the diocese of Zagreb. He dignity in the church of Transylvania which Other information and comments Other Avignon in the cathedral chapter of Cenad Avignon He was appointed canon by Pope John XXIII. VI Clement Pope by appointed was beneficiary The VI. He was appointed canon by Pope Clement VI Clement Pope by appointed was beneficiary The He was appointed archdeacon of Sebeş and therefore canon, office previously occupied by Bonioan Campello, with the consent of Pope VI. Clement VeszprémHe andalso Buda.had He two offices of canon in VI. pointed by Clement of archdeacon appointed was bishop, the of chaplain beneficiary, The Arad, but had to abandon a VI. appointed by Clement The beneficiary was appointed chancellor of the cathedral chapter of VI. Cenad, and therefore canon. He was appointed by Pope Clement dignity in the diocese of Cenad and he holds one canonical office at Oradea and expected a he was willing to give up. dignity in the diocese of Cenad. Date of appointment 11 October 1345 11 25 February 1332 February 25 25 January 1345 25 January 1345 1345 February 25 12 July 1348 13 1349 September 28 January 1350

for the appointment for Count Paul, ambassador of Louis I the Great, king of Hungary Bonioan de Campello Stephan, provost of Buda elected bishop Gregory, of Cenad Nicholas Lackfi, knight of the royal court The person who asked Bonioan de Campello

by the pope Name of person appointed/ confirmed the son of Elijah Nicholas, the son of Sanctus Benedict, deacon in the Peter, - Transyl diocese of vania Ladislaus of Pécs John of Cenad - Nicholas, clergy man in the diocese of Kalocsa Martin of Segadino George, the son of Chanadin 1 2 4 6 7 8 3 5 No. Table 1. Canons and other holders of ecclesiastical benefits appointed by the popes Table

80 Considerations Regarding the Beneficial Policy Led by the Popes of Avignon ... was post of canon, of post was appointed was appointed canon asked Demetrius, Bishop of Transylvania to con - asked Emeric, bishop of Oradea to confirm the of - dignity and the office of treasurer of the collegiate chapter Arad of Pope Gregory XI firm him the office of archdeacon across the Mureş in the diocese of Cenad. Pope Gregory IX fice of canon and the prebend given by bishop Nicholas Cenad. by Pope Innocent VI. by Pope Innocent He is appointed canon and archdeacon of Arad by Pope Clement VI. Arad by Pope Clement He is appointed canon and archdeacon of He was chaplain of He the cardinal in Hungary and his attorney. of appointment the following vacancy Arad, of archdeacon appointed John Scherffenbergh, provost and canon in Győr. He VI. by Pope Innocent a received Lackfi, Nicholas of relative beneficiary, The a VI. from Pope Innocent He obtained from Innocent VI, an unspecified ecclesiastical benefit at Cenad whose annual income does not exceed the sum of 18 marks silver. dig - has and Hungary in cardinal the of vicar the was beneficiary The nities in the dioceses of Kalocsa and Pécs. He 14 January 1374 9 March 1375 6 June 1352 27 June 1353 1358 February 20 18 May 1359 12 1359 November

Cardinal Guillaume de La Jugié Cardinal Guillaume de La Jugié Benedict, ambassador Cardinal Guillaume de La Jugié Nicholas Lackfi, knight of the royal court of the king Hungary

Rudolph, the son of John George, George, the son of Blaise - John of Scherffen bergh John Pelvos Blaise, Andrew the son of Thomas of Darabous Peter, Peter, the son of John 9 11 15 14 10 12 13

81 Răzvan Mihai Neagu

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84 The Medieval Idea of Legitimacy and the King’s Two Bodies The Medieval Idea of Legitimacy and the King’s Two Bodies Lorena Stuparu

Starting from Ernst Kantorowicz’s work The King’s Two Bodies this paper intends to show that the idea of the sacred nature of political power, of the legitimacy which transcends the secular institutions is still alive in collective mentality. Analyzing the symbolism of the duality of the king’s body (divine and human), Ernst Kantorowicz argues that the ideological foundations of the modern state are founded on in the idea that the kingdom is a mystical body whose head is the king – this is possible through the divine hypostasis of his body. According to the fundamental Christian ideology of kingship, in the first centuries of the Middle Ages, the king is human by nature and divine by grace. Also according to medieval mentality, the human side of the king embodies a veritable quantity of opposite characteristics – the mystery of the modern state can be interpreted on the level of a political philosophy which does not exclude the theological dimension of the secular society.

Keywords: King; state; mystical body; political body; symbolism of duality; sacred legitimacy

I. Introduction: on legitimacy in the frame of traditional domination

Whether one discusses the medieval idea of legitimacy in an argumentative manner, the idea of the king’s two bodies emerges, which was synthesized by English lawyers in 1571 and, explained, interpreted, and updated in Kantorowicz’s famous work The King’s Two Bodies.1 Throughout history, the idea of legitimacy is linked to both the authority of tradition and to the tradition of authority. While in the modern era, the political authority col- lides with the individual autonomy thesis, in the Middle Ages, the idea of legitimacy was equivalent to the individual’s authority-king, since the king himself expressed a principle. Generally, nowadays the legitimate power expresses a social will assumed by the political system, which is promoted on behalf of general purposes, defined as the common good.2 This sociological observation (which also has an ideological flavor) is valid historically for “the common power” built by yielding individual powers and mandating a person or a group of people.3 As Tom R. Tyler shows, legitimacy can be read as a “psychological property” of an authority, of an institution, or a social contract which determines those related to these forms to believe that they are appropriate and fair.4

1 Ernst H. Kantorowicz, The King’s Two Bodies: A Study in Medieval Political Theology (Princ- eton: Princeton University Press, 1957). 2 Georges Burdeau, Traité de science politique, tome I : Le pouvoir politique (Paris: Librairie Gé- nérale de droit et de Jurisprudence “R. Pichon et R. Durand-Auzias”, 1949), 57–59. 3 Pierre Manent, Originile politicii moderne. Machiavelli/Hobbes/Rousseau [The origins of modern policies: Machiavelli/Hobbes/Rousseau], trans. Alexandra Ionescu (Bucharest: Nemira, 2000), 68. 4 T. R. Tyler, “Psychological Perspectives on Legitimacy and Legitimation.” In Annual Review of Psychology 57 (New-York: New-York University, 2006), 375.

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However, the power’s legitimacy and illegitimacy contexts emphasize the function of symbols associated to the idea of its sacred or “magic” dimension. Lucien Sfez argues that “the politics belongs to the field of the symbolic” and the presentation of political symbolism also means defining the areas of politics, its borders, and its variations because “politics is only about legitimacy, i.e. beliefs and memories validated, i.e. symbols.”5 According to the dogmatic theology based on the biblical hermeneutics of St. Paul, the principle of power is a divine one, and the terrestrial authority is an instrument in relation to the divine court which guides goodness and justice.6 Regarding the mentality of legitimacy in the frame of traditional domination and of its extension to modernity and post-modernity, the work of Ernst Kantorowicz The King’s Two Bodies can be considered a demonstration of the fact that the idea of the political power’s sacred nature, of the legitimacy which transcends secular institutions is still alive in collective mentality. Using the metaphor of the king’s two bodies Ernst Kantorowicz argues that the symbolic and ideological foundations of the modern state are found in the idea that the kingdom is a mystical body whose head is the king – due to the divine dimension of his body. According to the fundamental Christian ideology of kingship in the first centuries of the Middle Ages, the king is human by nature and divine by grace.7 Compared to this model, paradoxically, any perishable politician carries a perpetual form of the power, which is spiritual. In a certain sense, this form is recognized in democracies by those who invest in the political man by voting him. Also according to medieval mentality, apart from the physical body of the king, his body also embodies the state - the mystery of the modern state can be interpreted on the level of a political philosophy which does not exclude the theological dimension of the secular society. From the analysis of the juridical, executive, and legislative dimensions of power (in terms of political imagination and of a polymorphism manifested in representations that uses myths, symbols, analogies, fictions), one can deduce that people allow to be governed by others because the political mystery emanates (even in secular societies) from the their belief that secular power comes to the elected officials from elsewhere – that is, that it is transferred from a higher court which remains hidden and inaccessible to ordinary people. This is even better visible in modern mass societies where power condenses such a force that “it requires an transcendent imaginary8 This is the current perception through mass media: “The politics never ceased to confront with theology”9 asserts Wunenburger. The same author considers that it is not certain whether policy could, despite the efforts of con- tractualist texts, to invent autonomous categories which should not have “affiliation with theology and its representations of God.”10 Furthermore, the ideas of sovereignty, of general will, of omnipotence, of state policy applied to the immanent order of the political soci-

5 Lucien Sfez, Simbolistica politică [Political symbolism], trans. Diana Sălceanu (Iassy: Institutul European, 2000), 13. 6 Jean Jacques Chevallier, Histoire de la pensée, II – La pensée chrétienne (Des origines à la fin du XVI-e siècle) (Paris: Flammarion, 1976), 173; 177. 7 Ernst H. Kantorowicz, Cele două corpuri ale regelui. Un studiu asupra teologiei politice medi- evale [The King’s Two Bodies: A Study in Medieval Political Theology], trans. Andrei Sălăvăstru (Iassy, Polirom, 2014), 57. 8 Jean Jacques Wunenburger, Imaginariile politicului [The imaginaries of the politics], trans. Ionel Buşe and Laurenţiu Ciontescu-Samfireag. (Bucharest: Paideia, 2005), 21. 9 Ibidem, 22. 10 Ibidem, 23.

86 The Medieval Idea of Legitimacy and the King’s Two Bodies ety derive, without a doubt, from “intelligible forms of divinity, without losing symbolic substrate.”11 in order to support these assertions, Wuneneburger’s work invokes Dumezil, Castoriadis, and Eliade. Although modern state’s leaders abandoned their magic-religious attributes (like the healing power of the kings of France), they kept some other astounding prerogatives (like the right of pardon, the state reason), through which they may be characterized as “holders of a right to life and death which can not be easily justified in terms of rationality.”12 In most European countries, power is attached to a cohort of prerogatives (way of living, material benefits) which may seem incongruous with democracy, a “regime where any citizen, even the first, is neither above the law, nor above condition,”13 But would a state leader (who would otherwise live in a modest way as a private individual) having the attributes of his office, answer “to the collective imaginary expectations?”14 asks Wunene- burger. An affirmative answer can be given to this rhetorical question through the example of the President of Uruguay, who was characterized in 2012 as “the poorest head of state”15 and can be considered as a model for ethical legitimacy consecration. From theocracies to the most advanced democracies, the political systems are psycho- logically based on the belief that the source of power is of a transcendent order (whose office is not necessarily a sacred one, especially in the modern era), and that the power is transferred from a different court than those to which ordinary people relate. The representatives of the ruling class have the same mentality immortals do: they are the owners of functions, the masters of an imaginary empire extended to public decisions which become signs of their power. In the pre-modern era, the political and personal authority was legitimized by the principle of the hereditary monarch, by the sacredness of this function. From this point of view, in the medieval West (but also in the Eastern areas of Europe) the political legitimacy implied the dualism of power which (in the formula of Pope Gelasius) confirmed the coexistence of the spiritual power (of the Church) with the political power (of the kings). But while the power embodied by the Church was raised to the level of “auctoritas,” the royal power was designated as “potestas.” Thus, the distinction between authority as founding power and authority as executive power emerges with clarity. The first is a plenary power, a source of legitimacy; the second is a factual power and it implies administration and governing. This involves the obedience of the political authority in a well-defined area, that of redemption. However, it does not imply the mutual submission of the spiritual authority.16 The idea of legitimacy from both historical and philosophical perspectives was broadened and defined with the help of Pope Innocent III. His conception went along the thoughts of Gregory VII, Urban II, and Alexander III, and his actions transformed Western society in a theocratic state directed by the pope, “God’s representative and therefore empowered to

11 Ibidem, 58, 87. 12 Ibidem, 22. 13 Ibidem, 94. 14 Ibidem, 23. 15 Vladimir Hernandez, “Jose Mujica: The world’s ‘poorest’ president” In BBC News Magazine, 15 November 2012 http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-20243493 (last time accesed: June 23, 2015). 16 Jeannine Quillet, Cheile puterii în evul mediu [The keys of power in the Middle Ages], trans. Maria Pavel (Bucharest: Corint, 2003), 15.

87 Lorena Stuparu appoint and depose sovereigns and lead nations.”17 Such principles, shows Ludovico Gatto, were expressed in the famous theory of the Sun and the Moon. The pontiff is the sun, while the king is the moon who receives energy from the sun, i.e. from the pope, who awarded the two epees, of the spiritual and temporal power. Pope Innocent manifested his influence over Sicily, Philip II August in France, John Lackland in England, and during the Albigen- sian Crusade (1208–1209). He ended the heresies spread in southern France and northern Italy, he suppressed the Cathars, while he also inspired the initiation of the Fourth Crusade (1202–1204).18 We can consider that the astral symbolism of political power (sharing between the celestial diurnal body and the nocturnal heavenly body) foreshadows the symbolism of the duality of the king’s body. This body incorporates a number of opposing characteristics. After the Hundred Years’ War, the English royal absolutism was consolidated under the Tudor Dynasty. Previously, for thirty years, the kingdom was crushed because of the War of the Roses, between the Lancasters and the Yorks. The fighting ended with the enthronement of Henry VII (1485–1509) from the Tudor family, closely-related to the two rival houses.19 Similarly, other territories also consolidated the absolutism of the monarch, based on the same political concept. The faith perspective of the medieval man intersects at a certain moment with the legal perspective of the political elite. Also, the political structure and the cultural structure forge a “forma mentis” of the West “both on its Atlantic front and on its Mediterranean front,” embodying one of the “foundations on which the modern civilization will be built.”20 The symbolic idea of legitimacy is obvious within the mentality of the medieval society. Georges Duby analyzes “the triangle scheme on which, in the spirit of the bishop from the year 1000”21 (Adalbero of Laon) the paradigm of society was built, “one and divided into three, like the divinity who created it and who will judge it.”22 He believes that this representation is a structure concealed in another one, “deeper, broader, encompassing,” as the first function “states, in the name of heaven, the order, the law” and legitimizes the power.23 Nowadays certain perspectives are rethinking the fundamental criterion for defining legitimacy, so that the prevalent belief in the legitimacy of power becomes popular belief “in the social value of institutions and the system capacity of maintaining this belief.”24 The only thing collective memory preserved from the idea of traditional domination (based on

17 Ludovico Gatto, Secretele evului mediu. Societate, politică, economie și religie într-un mileniu de istorie [The secrets of the Middle Ages. Society, Policy, Economy and religion in one historical millennium], trans. Constantin Vlad (Bucharest: BIC ALL, 2005), 112. 18 Ibidem. 19 Ibidem, 170. 20 Răzvan Teodorescu, “Prefaţă” [Preface], in George Duby, Arta și societatea 980–1420 [Art and society, 980–1420], trans. Marina Rădulescu. (Bucharest: Meridiane, 1987), 18. See also: Georges Duby, Le temps des cathédrales. L’art et la société, 980–1420 (Paris, Éditions Gallimard, 1981). 21 Georges Duby, Cele trei ordine sau imaginarul feudalismului [The three orders or the imaginary of feudalism], trans. Elena-Natalia Ionescu and Constanţa Tănăsescu (Bucharest: Meridiane, 1998), 15. 22 Ibidem. 23 Ibidem. 24 Seymour Martin Lipset, Political Man (New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., Glencoe, 1960), 91.

88 The Medieval Idea of Legitimacy and the King’s Two Bodies the belief that the intangibility of the hereditary monarch conferrs legitimacy to its prog- eny), is the size of the “sacredness” of power. The representatives of the power do everything possible to maintain this state of mind, despite the demagogic democratic discourse. However, beyond the sacredness” or the ”magic” of power, the specialists of the imaginary also considered another dimension, less transparent: the ”mystery” as part of the horizon of understanding through which the power is credited by the citizens, whether they are people who accept this phenomenon as it is, or they aspire to rule themselves. There is a time of the beginning, as Ballandier showed, “the moment when royalty occurs from magic and religion” and “the sacredness of power consists of the relationship between the sovereign and the subject.”25 A socio-anthropological perspective on the contemporary epoch allows Pierre Bouvier, to present, through the concepts of “ritual” and ”ritualization,” our society as one which, besides the behaviours reflecting a willingness to transform and even a socio- political human “mutation,”26 is still dependent on a mentality which conceives the foundation in symbolic order.27 The recovery of the forgotten symbolic thinking seems necessary today in both the public and private space, as we can infer from some pertinent observations according to which “we come to the original contradiction of a society known in detail, but not understood as a whole.”28 The fact that politics is sometimes expressed in a trivial manner does not exempt this obscure area of being related to mystery. If all leaders should be distinguished from other citizens and they should govern them by virtue of special qualities, of grace, of heroism or extraordinary good deeds, it would be natural to believe in the miraculous emergence of such rulers. But the paradox consists in the fact that this association with the mysterious “sacredness” of power confers in reality legitimacy to the political man, irrespective of his behaviour: ranging from the psychological foundation of the subjective belief in the “goodness” of the leader, to the objective forms of recognition.

II. From the idea of the King’s two bodies to the idea of the political body

In a certain sense, a sort of invisible power confers legitimacy in the contemporary world too, although the democratic legislation does not include the concept of the leader’s “mystical body.” Beyond the discovery of the metaphysical foundations of the state, Kantorowicz argues that the ideological matrix of the modern state lies in the medieval “political theo-

25 Georges Balandier, Anthropologie politique (Paris: PUF, 1967). [Georges Balandier, Antropologie politică, trans. Doina Lică (Timişoara: Amarcord & CEU, 1998), 119]. 26 P. Bouvier, “Lectură ’socio-antropologică’ a epocii contemporane” [A social-anthropological “reading” of the contemporary times] in Mituri, rituri, simboluri în societatea contemporană [Myths, rituals, symbols in the contemporary society], ed. Monique Segré, trans. Beatrice Stanciu (Timişoara: Amarcord, 2000), 27. See also: D. Hall, “The Middle Ages,” in The Perthshire Book, ed. Donald Omand (Edinburgh: Birlinn, 1999), 59–73. 27 Lorena Stuparu, “Simbolismul şi resemnificarea politică a discursului mitico-simbolic” [The symbolism and the political reinterpretation of the mythical-symbolic discourse], in Teorii ale legitimităţii puterii [Theories of the legitimacy of power], ed. Gabriela Tănăsescu (Bucharest: Institutul de Ştiinţe Politice şi Relaţii Internaţionale Publishing House) 274. 28 Marcel Gauchet , Ieşirea din religie [Exiting religion], trans. Mona Antohi (Bucharest: Humani- tas, 2006), 146.

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logy” and more specifically in the idea that the kingdom is a mystical body whose King is the head, leading to a community where power is incorporated. Thus, studying the theme of royalty, according to his own statement in the Introduction to his book, he notes the essential role of the mystical, legal and political “fictions” for the definition of power institutions.29 And among these complex intellectual constructs, the most original is the one concerning the king’s two bodies which emerged in the late medieval jurisprudence. Kantorowicz ex- poses the idea of the double body as it was formalized by the lawyers of Elizabeth I of England in the early seventeenth century and staged in Shakespeare’s Richard II. The idea of the king’s two bodies implies that the first body of the king is mortal and natural and the second body of the king is supernatural and immortal. Quoting the ”Plowden’s Reports,” Kantorowicz describes the transformation of the idea of the King’s two bodies, in the idea of political body: In 1571 an English jurist issued the ‘Plowden’s Reports’ which tried to resolve the tan- gled disputes which arose in connection to the notion of two kingly bodies and from the concepts of monarchical authority deduced from the concept of the King’s Two Bodies. Plowden highlighted the central points:

that by the Common Law no Act which the King does as King, shall be defeated by his Nonage. For the King has in him two Bodies, viz., a Body natural, and a Body politic. His Body natural (if it be considered in itself) is a Body mortal, subject to all Infirmities that come by Nature or Ac- cident, to the Imbecility of Infancy or old Age, and to the like Defects that happen to the natural Bodies of other People. But his Body politic is a Body that cannot be seen or handled, consisting of Policy and Government, and constituted for the Direction of the People, and the Management of the public weal, and this Body is utterly void of Infancy, and old Age, and other natural Defects and Imbecilities, which the Body natural is subject to, and for this Cause, what the King does in his Body politic, cannot be invalidated or frustrated by any Disability in his natural Body.30

Another paragraph recorded by Kantorowicz from Plowden’s Reports shows that:

[T]he King has two Capacities, for he has two Bodies, the one where of is a Body natural, consisting of natural Members as every other Man has, and in this he is subject to Passions and to Death as other Men are: the other is a Body politic, and the Members thereof are his Subjects, and he and his Subjects together compose the corporation, as Southcote said, and he is incorporated with them, and they with him, and he is the Head, and they are the Members, and he has sole Government of them: and this Body is not subject to Passions as the other is, nor to Death, for as to this Body the King never dies, and his natural Death is not called in our Law (as Harper said) the Death of the King, but the Demise of the King, not signifying by the Word (Demise) that the Body politic of the King is dead, but that there is a Separation of the two Bodies, and that the Body politic is transferred and conveyed over from the Body natural now dead, or now removed from the Dignity royal, to another Body natural.31

29 Ernst H. Kantorowicz, Cele două corpuri ale regelui. Un studiu asupra teologiei politice medi- evale [The King’s Two Bodies: A Study in Medieval Political Theology], trans. Andrei Sălăvăstru (Iassy, Polirom, 2014), 19; 35. 30 Kantorowicz, The King’s Two Bodies, chapter one http://pages.uoregon.edu/kimball/Kantorow- icz.htm (last time accessed: June 16, 2015). Kantorowicz, Cele două corpuri ale regelui, 22. 31 Kantorowicz, The King’s Two Bodies, chapter one http://pages.uoregon.edu/kimball/Kantorow- icz.htm (last time accessed: June 16, 2015); Kantorowicz, Cele două corpuri ale regelui, 27.

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Based on these, Kantorowicz notes that “the King’s Two Bodies thus form a single in- divisible unit, each being fully included in the other. However, there is no doubt about the superiority of the political body over the natural body.”32 Ernst Kantorowicz was always fascinated by the problem of the State as embodied in the personality of Frederick II (1194–1250), who was a Nietzschean superman who infused the medieval imperial attributes and the universal claims of imperial Rome as opposed to the universal claims of the Pope. Finnaly, the figure of the monarch can be found in the invisible political body consisting of the King and the State, rather than in the monarch’s body of flesh. The sacredness of the power is associated with the invisible political body and with the mystery of the state, and this problem is researched by Ernst Kantorowicz in his book on the King’s two bodies, but also in other works of his.33 In other words, the sovereignty of the monarch necessarily escapes death and this sacred body of political power is not subject to biological corruption. The idea of the immortal “political body“ is itself a theological-political idea, as it comes from the secularization of the conception of the church as mysticum corpus, as it was promoted by St. Paul.

III. From the idea of the King’s two bodies to the idea of the president’s body Relying on the work The King’s Two Bodies: A Study in Medieval Political Theology, Pierre Manent argues that although its idea about the corporation34 ” seems bizarre today,” it has, however, more than a cultural construction, a logical order, difficult to describe, but highly important. This is because the term ”political body” was used in Europe for a long period of time to denote a generic term of political organizations such as cities, principalities, or kingdoms. According to Pierre Manent, a body is more – and something else - than a body. And this is so because in a body, the whole is present in every part, the same life animates every part and enlivens the whole. Thus, Manent considers that the idea of body applied to political communities is not a mechanical idea, but on the contrary, it is a complex and spiritual idea. Such an idea implies that each member of a political community is himself a part of the whole and he lives his own life and equally the life of the whole. From this point of view, any political community is, in some way, a body.35 Kantorowicz noted that the conception of a symbolic body, which represents the nation and never dies, is a Christian theological one, because for a Christian, the Church is the body of Christ on Earth. The symbolic body was inviolable and through this symbolic body the king exercised his responsibility of divine right.36 However, this doctrine is a secularization of the Christological model of the two bodies of Christ: a human body and a mystical

32 Kantorowicz, Cele două corpuri ale regelui, 24. 33 Ernst H. Kantorowicz, “Mysteries of State: An Absolutist Concept and its Late Medieval Ori- gins,” Harvard Theological Review, Vol. XLVIII, 1955; Ernst H. Kantorowicz, “Pro Patria Mori in Medieval Political Thought,” The American Historical Review, Vol. 56 (3), 1951. 34 ”(…) the other is a Body politic, and the Members thereof are his Subjects, and he and his Sub- jects together compose the corporation.” See: Kantorowicz, The King’s Two Bodies, chapter one http://pages.uoregon.edu/kimball/Kantorowicz.htm (last time accessed: June 16, 2015). 35 Pierre Manent, O filozofie politică pentru cetăţean [A political philosophy for the citizen], trans. Mona Antohi (Bucharest: Humanitas, 2003), 220–222. 36 Kantorowicz, Cele două corpuri ale regelui, 348.

91 Lorena Stuparu body. By researching the medieval foundations of this thought, one discovers that in the early Middle Ages, when kingdoms were “founded on the image Christ,” the King is already “human by nature and divine by grace.”37 However, this liturgical kingship disappears in the twelfth century, “giving way to a new royalty structure centred on the sphere of law.”38 The perishable man carries the perpetual form of humanity. This conception prepares all the “republican,” simply parliamentary forms of corporal dualism.39 As already shown, “the transmutation of the royal figure has as starting point the model of the two natures of Christ.”40 Edouard Delruelle explains this view, arguing that beyond the mimetic rivalry between the secular power and the Church, its accomplish- ment eventually passes through a temporal life which confers on the invisible political body of the King (and his ancestors and successors) and his present and future community, a higher legitimate reality than the monarch’s physical body. Furthermore, beyond the discovery of the state metaphysical foundations, Kantorowicz argues that the ideological matrix of the modern state lies in the medieval “political theology,” specifically in the idea that the kingdom is a mystical body whose King is the head, a community in which power exists consciously41. In another recent interpretation, it appears that we are all susceptible to have two bodies because we are all susceptible to exercise responsibility. Our responsible body, our body engaged in action is different from our physical body, it is the tool for action and responsibility and we live according to this action and responsibility. Each man is engaged in action, and from this point of view he has two bodies similar to the king’s bodies: the physical body and the responsible body. The physical body is fed, cared for, maintained, while the responsible body is instrumentalized. The physical body knows things; the responsible body believes things because it acts with beliefs. But this hypothesis of the two bodies receives meaning only if we assume that the dialogue between the two bodies is not perfect.42 Reading Kantorowicz leads to the conclusion that the exercise of power has for a long time been associated with the sacredness of the person who embodies the reign, but it was desacralized by the exaggeration of this dimension. For example, the label of Versailles puts the formerly-rebellious nobility in the service of smaller daily acts of the royal person: each courtier running for the privilege of attending the monarch in his morning rise, his meals, walks, sunset, etc. The most innocuous events of the life of the king and his courtiers make the joy of newspapers like Le Mercure Galant, which, though not limited to this kind of information, provide the same effects as tabloids. Louis XIV’s entire life is dedicated to the representation of absolute power and to the aestheticization of royalty

37 Patrick Boucheron, «Les Deux Corps du roi d’Ernst Kantorowicz », in http://www.histoire.presse. fr/livres/les-classiques/les-deux-corps-du-roi-d-ernst-kantorowicz-01–12–2006–4673 (last time accessed: June 16, 2015). 38 Ibidem. 39 Ibidem. 40 Edouard Delruelle, «Démocratie et désincorporation », Noesis. http://noesis.revues.org/1353 (last time accessed: June 16, 2015). 41 Edouard Delruelle, «Démocratie et désincorporation », Noesis. http://noesis.revues.org/1353 (last time accessed: June 16, 2015). 42 Bruno Jarrosson, « Les catastrophes possibles et irréelles (2): les deux corps du décideur », in Philo Contemporaine, http://iphilo.fr/2013/12/02/catastrophes-possibles-et-irreelles-2/ (last time accessed: June 16, 2015).

92 The Medieval Idea of Legitimacy and the King’s Two Bodies confounded with himself. Political representation is identical with artistic representation, which announces the contemporary paradigm of publicity.43 Thierry Saussez applied Kantorowicz’s theory of the king’s two bodies to Francois Hol- lande. The author explains how both are coexisting functions of the President of the Repub- lic. Saussez highlights the trap of “normality,” this rather vague concept that corresponds to everything that is consistent with the standard, that neither surprises nor disturbs: the negation of the exception, a function, a destiny. He analyzes the phobic obsession of the President which consists in doing the opposite of Nicolas Sarkozy.44 But Nikolas Sarkozy was also the subject of a conference talk by Pascal Lardellier in 2011 in Bucharest suggestively titled «Le double corps» du Président . Une analyse sémio- anthropologique des «deux corps sarkoziens».45 According to the French republican political tradition, the President is the heir of the symbolic prerogatives of the monarchs. As the real body is the support for the symbolic political power, the analysis of the public management of the body of President Nicolas Sarkozy through the intermediary of images in mass media, develops a discourse on the two bodies in different contexts. Similarly, a title like «Berlusconi, le corps du chef» written by Marco Belpoliti46 is suggestive for the exploratory and hermeneutical value of the formula known as ”the king’s two bodies” which is used more or less ironically in order to decipher the ”mystery” of a political leader. As a historian, Kantorowicz is interested in documents, but as the documents studied by him show the connections between the theological principles and politics, he discovers a kind of interpretive technique in political theology which becomes creative hermeneutics, an original and useful tool for understanding the essence of the past and present political phenomena. Furthermore, “bringing together liturgical works, images, and polemical material, The King’s Two Bodies explores the long Christian past behind this ’political theology.’ It provides a subtle history of how commonwealths developed symbolic means for establishing their sovereignty and, with such means, began to establish early forms of the nation-state.”47 Kantorowicz’s theory inspired thinkers such as Pierre Legendre, Régis Debray or Mar- cel Gauchet, who share the idea that politics can find legitimacy by defending the rights of the Institution, by the call to the Symbolic Order in a renowned world without landmarks. They also highlighted the idea that politics is not to pierce the nimbus to whom the state power conceals the actual mechanisms of exercise, but to legitimize this power as it “embodies” the only possible resistance to disséminantes market forces and media.48

43 http://www.atlantico.fr/decryptage/louis-xiv-politique-people-avant-heure-politiques-sont-people-comme-autres-jamil-dakhlia-435641.html#eShhvbpISkUdDTIO.99 (last time accessed: June 16, 2015). 44 Thierry Saussez, Les deux corps du président (Paris:Éditions Robert Laffont, 2013) https:// books.google.ro/books?id=ezo2KvfBUwcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Thierry+Sausse z,+Les+deux+corps+du+pr%C3%A9sident.+Un+an+apr%C3%A8s,+pourquoi+Hollan de+est-il+au+plus+bas%3F&hl=ro&sa=X&ei=_nuQVdW-IZKV7AawyIvICQ&redir_ esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false (last time accesed: June 29, 2015) 45 http://wwwzoepetre.blogspot.ro/2011/06/le-double-corps-du-president.html (last time accesed: June 29, 2015) 46 http://www.lemonde.fr/livres/article/2010/11/19/berlusconi-le-corps-du-chef-de-marcobelpoli- ti_1442314_3260. html (last time accessed: June 16, 2015). 47 http://press.princeton.edu/titles/6168.html (last time accessed: June 16, 2015). 48 Edouard Delruelle, « Démocratie et désincorporation » http://noesis.revues.org/1353 (last time

93 Lorena Stuparu

Kantorowicz’s book helps me question through a speculative approach the problem of today’s power, especially the specificity of its legitimacy. The updates and comments related to the Heads of State or contemporary politicians are interesting: we could rightfully say that they also have two bodies. In the end, I would like to recall Plato’s requirements to the political man. He should be able to master both the political science and the political art. His legitimacy consisted of the respect to laws and especially of the practice of a policy which became “art” (such as the military) which “interweaved” a “wrapper” that “included all people from cities,” as well as the fulfilling of the purposes of happiness.49 The characteristics of the political man stated by Aristotle in Politics are nobleness, property, citizenship (freedom), warlike bravery and the spirit of justice.50 Obviously, this refers to the ancient notion of justice, much different from that of today. The profile of the political man has evolved over time from this classical type to the modern traits involving for example, according to Machiavelli, the cunning, the ruthless- ness to achieve a goal. In other words “Machiavelli opposes the idealism of classical political philosophy with a realistic approach of political matters.”51 The “virtue” of the political man in Machiavelli’s vision is based on the concept of politics as an activity dominated by force, cunning, corruption, cupidity, and self-interest: just all of these imply the amorality of the political man. Thus, far from the traditional conceptions of “virtue,” the Machiavellian “capable man” is characterized by ambition, calculated ability to keep the power, cruelty if necessary, capacity to adapt to any new situation. While these characteristics of the political man can easily be recognized in the modern and postmodern history, certain traits like courage, energy, self-control, forecasting ability, and the force of character are rare to find. I think that today, the political man can supply the absence of the mystical body through a series of personal qualities which would inspire trust, so that his legitimation be related to what has been called “the belief in legality.”52 And today, the citizen does not want to find himself in the political leader, but in a higher principle. In my opinion, the empty place of “the mystical body” in democracy can be met by a legitimating process set above the elec- toral majority principle and beyond the more or less transparent political games, a process which should be based on a second axiological principle, which is yet to be found. In conclusion, both the Church and the secular law have imposed the idea of the sacredness of power which lasts up until today in the collective mentality.

accessed: June 16, 2015). 49 Platon, Omul politic [The political man], trans. Ena Popescu, 304 a, 305 e, 311c, in Opere Com- plete [Complete works] IV, ed. Petru Creţia, Constantin Noica and Cătălin Partenie (Bucharest, Humanitas, 2004), 172, 175, 185. 50 Aristotel, Politica [Policy], Cartea III. Despre stat și cetățean. Teoria guvernământului și suvera- nitatea. Despre regalitate [Book III. On the state and the citizen. The theory of governing and suzerainty. On royalty], 1, 6, https://archive.org/stream/Aristotel-Politica_05__/Aristotel-Politi- ca_05___djvu.txt (last time accessed: June 16. 2015). 51 Luc Ferry, Philosophie politique 1. Le droit: la nouvelle querelle des Anciens et de Modernes (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1984), 55. 52 Jos de Beus, Benno Netelembos, How to Signal and Label Democratic Crisis – Rethinking Politi- cal Legitimacy, Working Paper Politicologen Etmaal (Amsterdam, 2008), 18 http://www.slide- share.net/Nostrad/how-to-signal-and-label-a-political-crisis-2008 (last time accesed: June 29, 2015)

94 The Medieval Idea of Legitimacy and the King’s Two Bodies

References

Boucheron, Patrick. Les Deux Corps du roi d’Ernst Kantorowicz, http://www.histoire.presse.fr/livres/ les-classiques/les-deux-corps-du-roi-d-ernst-kantorowicz-01–12–2006–4673 (last time accessed: June 16, 2015). Bouvier, Pierre. ”Lectură «socio-antropologică» a epocii contemporane” [A social-anthropological reading of the contemporary times]. In Mituri, rituri, simboluri în societatea contemporană [Myths, rituals, symbols in contemporary society], ed. Monique Segré, trans. Beatrice Stanciu. Timişoara: Amarcord, 2000. Chevallier, Jean Jacques. Histoire de la pensée, II – La pensée chrétienne (Des origines à la fin du XVI-e siècle). Paris: Flammarion, 1976. Duby, Georges. Cele trei ordine sau imaginarul feudalismului [The three orders or the imaginary of the feudalism], trans. Elena-Natalia Ionescu and Constanţa Tănăsescu. Bucharest: Meridiane, 1998. Delruelle, Edouard, “Démocratie et disincorporation.” Noesis [En ligne], http://noesis.revues. org/1353 (last time accessed: June 16, 2015). Ferry, Luc. Philosophie politique 1. Le droit: la nouvelle querelle des Anciens et de Modernes. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1984. Gauchet, Marcel, Ieşirea din religie [Exiting religion], trans. Mona Antohi. Bucharest: Humanitas, 2006. Gatto, Ludovico. Secretele evului mediu. Societate, politică, economie și religie într-un mileniu de istorie [The secrets of the Middle Ages. Society, politics, economy and religion in one historical millenium], trans. Constantin Vlad. Bucharest: BIC ALL, 2005. Jarrosson, Bruno. “Les catastrophes possibles et irréelles (2): les deux corps du décideur” Philo Contemporaine, http://iphilo.fr/2013/12/02/catastrophes-possibles-et-irreelles-2/ (last time accessed: June 16, 2015). Kantorowicz, Ernst H. Cele două corpuri ale regelui. Un studiu asupra teologiei politice medieval [The King’s Two Bodies: A Study in Medieval Political Theology], trans. Andrei Sălăvăstru. Iassy: Polirom, 2014. _____. The King’s Two Bodies: A Study in Medieval Political Theology. Princeton: Princeton Univer- sity Press, 1957. Manent, Pierre. O filozofie politică pentru cetăţean [Political philosophy for the citizem], trans. Mona Antohi. Bucharest: Humanitas, 2003. Plato. Omul politic [The political man], trans. Ena Popescu. In Opere Complete [Complete works] IV, ed. Petru Creţia, Constantin Noica and Cătălin Partenie. Bucharest: Humanitas, 2004. Quillet, Jeannine. Cheile puterii în evul mediu [The keys of power in the Middle Ages], trans. Maria Pavel. Bucharest: Corint, 2003. Saussez, Thierry. Les deux corps du président. Un an après, pourquoi Hollande est-il au plus bas? http://www.laffont.fr/site/les_deux_corps_du_president_&100&97 82221138199 .html (last time accessed: June 16, 2015). Sfez, Lucien. Simbolistica politică [Political symbolism], trans. Diana Sălceanu. Iassy: Institutul Eu- ropean, 2000. Stuparu, Lorena. ”Simbolismul şi resemnificarea politică a discursului mitico-simbolic” [The symbolism and the political reinterpretation of the mythical-symbolic discourse]. In Teorii ale legitimităţii puterii [Theories of the legitimacy of power], ed. Gabriela Tănăsescu. Bucharest: Editura Institu- tului de Ştiinţe Politice şi Relaţii Internaţionale Publishing House, 2014. Teodorescu, Răzvan. “Prefaţă” [Preface]. In George Duby, Arta și societatea 980–1420 [Art and society, 980–1420], trans. Marina Rădulescu. Bucharest: Meridiane, 1987. (Georges Duby, Le temps des cathédrales. L’art et la société, 980–1420. Paris: Éditions Gallimard, 1981).

95 Lorena Stuparu

Wunenburger, Jean Jacques. Imaginariile politicului [Political Imaginaries], trans. Ionel Buşe and Laurenţiu Ciontescu-Samfireag. Bucharest: Editura Paideia, 2005. https://archive.org/stream/Aristotel-Politica_05__/Aristotel-Politica_05___djvu.txt, (last time accessed: June 16, 2015). http://press.princeton.edu/titles/6168.html, (last time accessed: June 16, 2015). http://www.lemonde.fr/livres/article/2010/11/19/berlusconi-le-corps-du-chef-de-marco-belpoli- ti_1442314_3260.html, (last time accessed: June 16, 2015). http://topub.unibuc.ro/conferinta-%E2%80%9Ele-double-corps-du-president%E2%80%9D- sustinuta-de-pascal-lardellier/, (last time accessed: June 16, 2015). http://www.atlantico.fr/decryptage/louis-xiv-politique-people-avant-heure-politiques-sont-people- comme-autres-jamil-dakhlia-435641.html#eShhvbpISkUdDTIO.99, (last time accessed: June 16, 2015). http://www.decitre.fr/livres/les-deux-corps-du-roi-9782070714162.html, (last time accessed: June 16, 2015).

96 Saint Gerard in the Serbian Textbooks of the 19th Century Saint Gerard in the Serbian Textbooks of the 19th Century

Svetozar Boškov

Textbooks represent a peculiar and intriguing way of historical reception. They are used for educating children and students, but in the particular setting of the nineteenth-century Austrian-Hungarian Empire, they were printed, translated, and published in a variety of political, ideological, and cultural, circumstances. The personality of Saint Gerard was refected in a number of different Serbian textbooks in the nineteenth century. The majority of these textbooks was published in South- ern Hungary, i.e. now part of Serbia and the Romanian region of Banat. The aim of this paper is to present what was written on the character, work, and aims of Saint Gerard in the nineenth-century Serbian textbook. Through author biographies, curriculums, and the textbooks themselves, it is possible to highlight the importance of theHungarian medieval history in textbooks and the role of Christianity not only in the textbooks themselves, but in the educational system, as well .

Keywords: Saint Gerard; Serbian textbooks; reception; medieval history; history of Chris- tianity.

Saint Gerard is a personality in Hungarian history. A lot has been written in modern Hun- garian historiography on his life and work, but almost nothing in modern Serbian historiography. This is the reason for presenting his figure in Serbian textbooks in the nineteenth century. This study is the result of my continuous research on the history of teaching in Serbian schools and on Serbian textbooks, during the nineteenth century. The Serbian nation went through a particular type of struggle in the nineteenth century. A part of it was trying to liberate itself and the country from centuries of Ottoman Turkish occupation, whereas the other part was fighting to preserve its own national and cultural identity within the frames of the Habsburg and, later on, the Austro-Hungarian Empire. That struggle led to the opening of the first schools for educating Serbian youth within the Empire. Those schools were the following: The Pedagogical School in Sombor (founded in 1778), The Gymnasium in Sremski Karlovci (founded in 1791), The Orthodox Theological Seminary in Sremski Karlovci (founded in 1794), and finally The Gymnasium in Novi Sad, founded in 1810.1 During this research, it was necessary to study Serbian textbooks used in teaching different subjects because the majority of subjects taught included historical events and processes. Besides history, these subjects included Biblical history, Science on Christianity, catechesis, and also geography, rhetoric, and Serbian and world literature. In the first half of the nineteenth century, the study of Christianity had a dominant role. Particularly, when

1 S. Boškov, “Udžbenici antičke istorije u srpskim školama u 19. veku,” [Textbooks of Ancient History in Serbian Schools in the 19th century] In Antika i savremeni svet, ed. Ksenija Maricki Gađanski (Beograd: Društvo za antičke studije Srbije, 2007), 21.

97 Svetozar Boškov teaching history, religious events were stressed as initiators of the historical event in discussion. This is most obvious in the fact that most histories in textbooks begin with the Biblical story of the Creation (Genesis). This kind of practice however stopped after the 1848/49 Revolution and from that point onwards, textbooks did not include any more religious events or characters as the initiators of the history they were telling. From this time onwards, authors only explained at the beginning of their texts how history was written and which were those relevant historical sources which could and should be used in writing and studying history. This does not mean that topics such as religion and Christianity disappeared from history textbooks in the second half of the nineteenth century. The important matter is that those issues were argued in a different manner, organized in a completely different way, in the chapters which discussed culture or the identity of a particular nation. In other words,, they received their own place in the textbooks. The first example of such a textbook which completely evaded religious elements is the World history written by Aleksandar Sandić.2 He insisted on erasing religious influences from history textbooks while being a prominent figure who persisted with his belief that catechesis and science on Christianity should be taught in Theological seminaries, not in Gymnasia, nor in Pedagogical schools.3 In order to find remarks ob Saint Gerard in the Serbian textbooks of the nineteenth century, those textbooks which deal with medieval history had to be studied. In most cases, these are general, world histories, but from the year 1867 and the Austro-Hungarian Compromise (Composition) onwards, Hungarian history has become a compulsory subject in schools. Therefore, besides textbooks on world history, it was necessary to thoroughly study the textbooks dealing with Hungarian history in order to find the place of Saint Gerard of Cenad within them. Most of the Serbian textbooks which treat medieval history as their main subject were based on German textbooks, namely the Grundriss der Geographie und Geschichte. Der Staaten des Alterthums fur die obern Klassen eines Gymnasiums by the German gymnasium professor Wilhelm Pütz.4 He wrote this textbook in 1833. I do not have information when he has written the textbook in medieval history, but its English translation appeared in 1854, under the title Survey of the Geography and History of the Middle Ages A.D. 476–1492.5 Based on the text of Putz, the teacher Aleksandar Sandić from the Novi Sad

2 Zapisnik druge učiteljske skupštine sviju ovostranih srpskih učitelja, koja je u Novom Sadu 15. aprila održana, [Record from the second Assembly of all Serbian teachers in Hungary held on 15. April 1871], Novi Sad 1871. 3 S. Boškov, “Antička tradicija u obrazovanju srpskih učitelja u Somboru u 19. veku,” [The An- cient Tradition in the education of Serbian Teachers in Sombor in the 19th century] In Evropske ideje, antička civilizacija i srpska kultura, ed. Ksenija Maricki Gađanski (Beograd: Društvo za antičke studije Srbije, 2008), 33; Aleksandar Sandić, Svetska istorija. Stari vek, knj. 1 [World History. Ancient History book 1] (Novi Sad: štamparija Ignjata Fuksa, 1869), 272; Aleksandar Sandić, Svetska istorija. Srednji vek, knj. 2 [World History. Medieval History book 2] (Novi Sad: štamparija Ignjata Fuksa, 1868), 112; Aleksandar Sandić, Svetska istorija. Novi vek, knj. 3 [World History. Modern History book 3] (Novi Sad: štamparija Ignjata Fuksa, 1871), 76. 4 Wilhelm Pütz, Grundriss der Geographie und Geschichte. Der Staaten des Alterthums fur die obern Klassen eines Gymnasiums (Koln: Verlag von Renard und Dubyen, 1833), 120. 5 Wilhelm Pütz, Survey of the Geography and history of the Middle Ages A.D. 476–1492 (London: Varty and Owen 1854), 334.

98 Saint Gerard in the Serbian Textbooks of the 19th Century

Gymnasium wrote his History of the Middle Ages in Serbian language .6 The only difference between these textbooks is that Sandić added some parts from Serbian medieval history. However, he was not the only author who wrote a textbook based on the work of Wilhelm Putz. A French textbook written by Victor Dury was also translated into Serbian, under the same title, History of the Middle Ages.7 There is also a valuable testimony of different influences in Serbian textbooks, particularly in a textbook written by the Hungarian historian Otton Varga.8 Professor Milan A. Jovanović translated this textbook. Nevertheless, none of these textbooks mention Saint Gerard. This is understandable because they only give a general impression of the medieval world. Wilhelm Pütz’s textbook includes only one brief lesson on Hungarian medieval history,9 while Dury does not mention Hungary at all. Varga, naturally, elaborates on Hungarian medieval history, but he does not give any information on Gerard either. Because of this peculiar situation, the attention had to turned to the specialized textbooks on the history of Hungary. However, here too, we came across a problem. After the year 1867, it bacome obligatory to learn Hungarian and a new subject called History of Hungary was introduced. Therefore, there was no need to translate Hungarian textbooks into Serbian, because every student had to understand Hungarian. Only at the very end of the nineteenth and the beginning of twentieth century, some Hungarian textbooks were finally translated into Serbian. The above-mentioned high school teacher Milan A. Jovanović translated two Hungarian textbooks. The first textbook was that of the prominent nineteenth-century Hungarian teacher, historian (mainly of the ancient history), geographer Ferenc Ribáry, the author of the first grammar of the Basque language in Hungarian.10 His textbook was published in Serbian in 1879. In this textbook, one encounters the first mention of Saint Gerard. He is briefly mentioned in about the history of the persecution of the Christians during the uprising of Vata in 1046. During this riot, one of the persecuted was Saint Gerard, who was, alongside his associates, thrown from the cliff in Buda into the Danube River, that cliff bearing his name now. The second translated textbook was compiled by two prominent Hungarian historians. One is most significant for his studies in the history of the Banat Region: Lajos Baróti. The other one is well-known to any historian of Medieval Hungary: Dezső Csánki. The title of this textbook, which was published in 1904, was The History of Hungary for the third grade, part one. This book contains an entire chapter dedicated to Saint Gerard, and it is significant to stress that up to these days this is the most extensive biography of Saint

6 Aleksandar Sandić, Svetska istorija. Srednji vek, knj. 2 [World History. Medieval History book 2] (Novi Sad: štamparija Ignjata Fuksa, 1868), 112. 7 Viktor Diri, Istorija srednjeg veka [Medieval History] (Beograd: Knjižara Velimira Valožića, 1894), 151. 8 Oton Varga, Istorija sveta. Stari vek. Knj. 1 [World History. Ancient History. book 1] (Novi Sad: Braća M. Popović, 1898), 201; Oton Varga, Istorija sveta. Srednji vek. Knj. 2 [World History. Medieval History. book 2] (Novi Sad: Braća M. Popović, 1898), 198; Oton Varga, Istorija sveta. Novi vek. Knj. 3 [World History. Modern History. book 3] (Novi Sad: Braća M. Popović, 1898), 256. 9 Wilhelm Pütz, Survey of the Geography and history of the Middle Ages A.D. 476–1492 (London: Varty and Owen 1854), 297–302. 10 Ferenc Ribari, Istorija Ugarske [History of Hungary] (Novi Sad: Srpska narodna zadužna štamparija, 1879), 41–42.

99 Svetozar Boškov

Gerard of Cenad in Serbian language, not only in the textbooks, but also in historiography. It is apparent that the Legenda maior was the main source for this chapter, as the legend describesGerard’s life. The authors write that the saint was born in a pious Venetian family and that his parents prepared him for priesthood in a Benedictine monastery. He had a desire to go to pilgrimage to the Holy Land but destiny brought him to Hungary. For a while, he stayed at the bishop of Pécs, Mauricius. Because he was well-educated man and a learned man in rhetoric, King Stephen I entrusted him with the education and upbringing of his son Emericus. After finishing his duty with the prince’s education, Gerard went to the Bakony woods for seven years. Afterwards, King Stephen summoned him and Gerard was named the bishop of Marosvar, later on known as Canad/Cenad. His duties included baptizing people and he was given ten monks to assist him. Because of his many merits, the king and queen offered him many gifts, while he was, in return, founding churches, convents, and a school for educating priests. The death of King Stephen brought turbulent times to Hungary and his heirs to the throne did not prove as worthy of ruling the country. Peter was deposed only three years after he started to rule, and Aba Samuel was then enthroned. Hun- garian noblemen were not fond of the close cooperation between Aba Samuel and the Ger- man Emperor Henry III so they conspired to replace him with Prince Andrew. When Aba Samuel found out about these intentions, he summoned his nobles in Cenad for a meeting, where he executed fifty of the most prominent ones. That infuriated Gerard who predicted to Aba on the Easter service that he would be killed. The prediction came true after the Battle of Győr in 1044, when Henry III killed kill Aba Samuel. After that, Peter returned to the throne, but he was overthrown two years after, as he has pledged fidelity to Emperor Henry III, and the Hungarian nobility insisted on independence. At another meeting held in Cenad, the nobles deposed Peter and brought Andrew I to the throne of Hungary. Andrew was in Russia at the time, and he accepted this call, but on his way to Hungary, a riot under Vata broke out. It was a pagan riot which then became anti-Christian oriented. King Andrew himself did not know whether only a part of the people or their majority wanted to return to ancient paganism. Saint Gerard fell as a victim of these persecutions. He was on his way to Pest to greet the new king, but he was attacked and stoned by Vata’s supporters. He did not resist; quite the opposite, he prayed for them, which made attackers even angrier, eventually dragging him up the hill and throwing him off the cliff. Hearing this, King Andrew ordered that Gerard’s body be found and buried in a church in Pest, from where his relics were transferred to Cenad. 37 years after these events, Prince Emeric canonized Gerard. This is also the end of Gerard’s biography in the textbook.11 As already stated, not even the twentieth and the twenty first centuries have an extensive biography of Saint Gerard in Serbian. Even the capital work titled History of Hungarians which was published in 2002 in Belgrade and written by four prominent Novi Sad professors, only briefly mentions Gerard, mostly in connection to his work on spreading Christi- anity and his death.12 Some scarce notes are given on him in articles and books that elabo- rate on the history of Banat, church history of the region, and so on. As far as textbooks are concerned, the aforementioned two textbooks are the only ones in Serbian historiography to

11 Lajoš Baroti, Deže Čanki, Istorija Ugarske [History of Hungary] (Novi Sad: Štamparija braće M. Popovića, 1904), 23–26. 12 Petar Rokai, Zoltan Đere, Tibor Pal, Aleksandar Kasaš, Istorija Mađara [History of Hungary] (Beograd: CLIO, 2002) 22–41.

100 Saint Gerard in the Serbian Textbooks of the 19th Century ever mention Gerard. However, this is not peculiar since his ties with the area of nowadays Serbia are not strong and are connected only with parts of what is today known as Serbian Banat. It is important to stress that in Serbian historiography and textbooks, there are no complete biographies of other relevant Hungarian personalities, who had stronger ties with Serbs, such as Sigismund of Luxembourg or Matthias Corvinus, so the case of Saint Gerard is not particular. As far as this topic is concerned, it is important to stress that a nineteenth- century textbook bears the most extensive and complete biography of Saint Gerard. Al- though the authors were Hungarians, they gave the largest contribution in presenting the figure of Saint Gerard of Cenad to Serbs.

References

Baroti, Lajoš. Čanki, Deže. Istorija Ugarske [History of Hungary]. Novi Sad: Štamparija braće M.Popovića, 1904. Boškov, Svetozar. “Udžbenici antičke istorije u srpskim školama u 19. veku.” [Textbooks of Ancient History in Serbian Schools in the 19th century] In Antika i savremeni svet, ed. Ksenija Maricki Gađanski, 21–34. Beograd: Društvo za antičke studije Srbije, 2007. _____. “Antička tradicija u obrazovanju srpskih učitelja u Somboru u 19. veku,” [The Ancient Tradi- tion in the education of Serbian Teachers in Sombor in the 19th century] In Evropske ideje, antička civilizacija i srpska kultura, ed. Ksenija Maricki Gađanski, 29–36. Beograd: Društvo za antičke studije Srbije, 2008. Diri, Viktor. Istorija srednjeg veka [Medieval History]. Beograd: Knjižara Velimira Valožića, 1894. Pütz, Wilhelm. Grundriss der Geographie und Geschichte. Der Staaten des Alterthums fur die obern Klassen eines Gymnasiums. Koln: Verlag von Renard und Dubyen, 1833. _____. Survey of the Geography and history of the Middle Ages A.D. 476–1492. London: Varty and Owen, 1854. Ribari, Ferenc, Istorija Ugarske [History of Hungary]. Novi Sad: Srpska narodna zadužna štamparija, 1879. Rokai, Petar. Đere, Zoltan. Pal, Tibor. Kasaš, Aleksandar. Istorija Mađara [History of Hungary]. Beograd: CLIO, 2002. Sandić, Aleksandar. Svetska istorija. Stari vek, knj. 1 [World History. Ancient History book 1]. Novi Sad: štamparija Ignjata Fuksa, 1869. _____. Svetska istorija. Srednji vek, knj. 2 [World History. Medieval History book 2]. Novi Sad: štamparija Ignjata Fuksa, 1868. _____. Svetska istorija. Novi vek, knj. 3 [World History. Modern History book 3]. Novi Sad: štamparija Ignjata Fuksa, 1871. Varga, Oton. Istorija sveta. Stari vek. Knj. 1 [World History. Ancient History. book 1]. Novi Sad: Braća M. Popović, 1898. _____. Istorija sveta. Srednji vek. Knj. 2 [World History. Medieval History. book 2]. Novi Sad: Braća M. Popović, 1898. _____. Istorija sveta. Novi vek. Knj. 3 [World History. Modern History. book 3]. Novi Sad: Braća M. Popović, 1898. Zapisnik druge učiteljske skupštine sviju ovostranih srpskih učitelja, koja je u Novom Sadu 15. aprila održana, [Report from the second Assembly of all Serbian teachers in Hungary held on 15. April 1871], Novi Sad, 1871.

101 Svetozar Boškov

Fig. 1. Title page History of Hungary by Ferenc Ribari

Fig. 2. Title page History of Hungary by Lajoš Baroti and Deže Čanki

102 The Bollandists’ Life of Saint Gerard Boris Stojkovski

In this paper I will provide some commentaries on the structure of the Bollandists’ “Life of Saint Gerard,” which can be found in the sixth volume of the Acta Sanctorum Septembris. The Life itself consists of four parts: a sort of preface, i .e . a historical commentary, a chronology of the most important events in the life of Saint Gerard and Vita, which is, in fact, a version of the well-known Legenda minor, and some appendices. The foreword is of the most scholarly value because it lists many interesting older works used by the Bollandist writer .

Keywords: Saint Gerard of Cenad; Acta Sanctorum; Bollandists; Legenda minor; hagiography

I. Introduction

The Roman Catholic Church has venerated Saint Gerard of Cenad for more than nine centuries. His life and martyrdom can be found in almost every collection of the Lives of the Saints of the Roman Catholic Church. Therefore, it is logical and expected that this saint is also mentioned and described in the Acta Sanctorum. This paper focuses on the section in the Acta Sanctorum referring to the Life of Saint Gerard of Cenad. The Bollandists’ Life of Saint Gerard has been widely used in historical studies, but mostly only the brief Vita that is incorporated into a much larger and more extensive hagiographical unit in the Acta Sanctorum Septembris . Hence, the aim of this paper is to give an overview of the entire Life of Saint Gerard of Cenad contained in the Acta Sanctorum. It will provide an explanation of the contents of the Life of Saint Gerard and to more profoundly study the sources that were used. It should first be pointed out that the largest value of this hagiographic piece is the use of some older works, particularly from the late medieval and early modern periods, and some rarely used sources. This paper will present this Bollandist hagiographic work, its contents, value and the sources used for this peculiar and very interesting account of Saint Gerard of Cenad. The sources, i.e. works by earlier authors, that the Bollandist hagiographer consulted and cited in this edition of the Life of Saint Gerard of Cenad are not always the most reliable. There- fore, this paper will try to provide a critical overview of these sources or works by other medieval and early modern authors and to attempt to make additional attempts to understand these sources and their background. The Bollandist author used a vast number of different bibliographical units. The criticism provided by this author is quite good, considering the fact that in the 18th century critical hagiography and historical science were not fully developed. Nevertheless, there were many omissions and errors which emanated from the use of unreliable sources. However, all this is a consequence of the period in which the Acta Sanctorum was written, as well as certain mistakes and oversights by the author himself. It is also important to note that the author of the Life of Saint Gerard used the works that were accessible to him, although some of them were not representative works.

103 Boris Stojkovski

II. Authorship, structure and manuscripts

Without a doubt, the Acta Sanctorum is one of the key sources for hagiographical research of almost any kind. This is particularly important for those researching the saints of the ancient and early medieval Christian church, as well as Roman Catholic saints of the medieval and early modern periods. One of the medieval Roman Catholic saints who found his place in this extensive publication is Saint Gerard of Cenad. The Life of Saint Gerard, or as it was originally entitled in the Acta Sanctorum: De Sancto Gerardo episcopo martyre prope Danubium in Hungaria, is of particular interest . This Life of Saint Gerard of Cenad was published in the sixth volume of the Acta Sanctorum Septembris, which was printed in 1757 in Anvers/Antwerp . The author of this Vita was the Jesuit Johannes Stilting (1703–1762), also known among researchers of hagiography (an in particular, those interested in medieval Hungary) for his Vita Sancti Stephani regis Hungariae. He was one of the key scholars who continued the work of Jean Bolland himself, even though they never actually met due to Bolland’s much earlier death. Stilting was the author of almost 250 hagiographic works in the Acta Sanctorum . His first bibliographical units and lives of the saints were written in the first volume for the month of August which covered the saints celebrated on the fifth of the month, and finished with the saints whose lives were described in the first volume and on the first day of the month of October. It is noteworthy that Johannes Stilting worked in the Hungarian libraries for some time alongside Constantine Suyskens (1714–1774), another prominent Bollandist who wrote around 130 articles in the Acta Sanctorum. They worked together in Germany, France and the Habsburg Empire (Hungary) from 1752–1753; they had even an audience at the court of the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa. Besides Vita Sancti Stephani regis Hungariae the most prominent works of Joannes Stilting are the Acta Sancti Aurelii Augustini, Acta sanctae Rosaliae (perhaps his most famous work), in addition to some other Vitae and Acta he also wrote Quaestio an verissimilie sit S .Paphnulium se in concilio Nicaeno opposuisse legi de continentia sacerdotum et diaconorum.1 The part in the Acta Sanctorum Septembris dedicated to Saint Gerard comprises almost 14 full pages (pp. 713–727).2 In the historiography and hagiography, the authors mostly relied only on the brief Vita, which will be addressed later. This is not of such great significance for either history or hagiography even though it is generally significant and interesting. However, the structure is slightly different. The Bollandist chapter dedicated to Saint Gerard can be divided into the five chapters or sections of this hagiographic work. The first and the largest section is De Sancto Gerardo episcopo martyre prope Danubium in Hun- garia commentaries praevius, which is a kind of preface, but is more extensive than the Vita itself.3 The second part is a chronology of the life of Saint Gerard of Cenad, followed by an analysis of different sources, and is also longer than the actual Vita.4 The veneration and cult of Saint Gerard is the key topic of the third chapter of the De Sancto Gerardo episcopo martyre prope Danubium in Hungaria.5 Only the fourth part is the Vita, which is simply

1 K. J. Derks, “Stilting (Joannes).” In P. C. Molyhusen en P. J. Blok (eds.), Nieuw Nederlandsch Biografisch Woordenboek, Tweede deel (Leiden: A. w. Sijthoffs Uitgevers-maatschappij, 1912), col. 1376–1377; idem, “Suyskens (Constantinus).” NNBW II, col. 1396–1397. 2 Acta Sanctorum septembris, tomus sextus (Antverpiae: 1757), 713–727. 3 AA SS septembris VI, 713–715. 4 AA SS septembris VI, 715–719. 5 AA SS septembris VI, 719–722.

104 The Bollandists’ Life of Saint Gerard another version of well-known Legenda minor.6 At the end, there are two very valuable and remarkable appendices, which will be discussed in further detail.7 At the very beginning of the first chapter entitled De Sancto Gerardo episcopo martyre prope Danubium in Hungaria commentaries praevius, the author, Johannes Stilting, mentions the manuscript according to which he published the Vita of the Bishop of Cenad. It is a manuscript from the Augustinian (Canons Regular) priory of Corsendonck/Corsendonk in Brabant8 (now a famous Belgian brewery and a hotel complex). According to Stilting, the same manuscript was, re-published in Krakow in 1511. It is in fact an edition of the Life of Saint Stanislas, Bishop of Krakow by the well-known Polish medieval historian, Jan Dlugosz.9 To date, scholars are aware of three manuscripts of the Saint Gerard’s Legenda minor, which is the core of the Bollandists’ Life of Saint Gerard of Cenad. The first one is the Co- dex Venetus, which is kept in the Biblioteca Nazionale di San Marco in Venice. This codex originates from the 13th century. A younger manuscript is the Codex Parisiensis, which is in fact the previously mentioned manuscript from abbey of Corsendonk. This manuscript dates from the end of the 15th century, and is now in the Bibliothèque Mazarin in Paris. The last one is from the Legende Sanctorum Hungariae, a compilation of the lives of different saints that did not enter into the Legenda aurea (Golden Legend). The first edition is from 486–489, which was printed in Strasbourg. One version of the Life of Saint Gerard (the Legenda minor) was reprinted and edited by Dlugosz in the work previously mentioned. 10

III. The Bollandists’ Life of Saint Gerard: structural analysis

In the opening of this chapter dedicated to Saint Gerard, Joannes Stilting first provides strong criticism of earlier authors who had either written the Life of Saint Gerard or about it. His critique is first directed towards the work of Laurentius Surius, a German Carthusian hagiologist and church historian. Surius wrote and compiled De probatis Sanctorum his- toriis, a well-known work often cited in the early modern period, that was first published

6 AA SS septembris VI, 722–724, with the annotata in pp. 724–725. 7 AA SS septembris VI, 725–727. It also has annotata on p. 727. 8 On the history of this abbey cf. Ch. Van Hulthem, dél., Bibliotheca Hulthemiana. Manuscrits (Gand, 1837), 147; Joseph Delmelle, Abbayes et béguinages de Belgique (Bruxelles: Rossel Édi- tion, 1973), 41. 9 Ian Dlugossus, Vita beatissimi Stanislai Cracoviensis Episcopi. Nec non Legendae Sanctorum Poloniae, Hungariae, Bohemiae, Moraviae, Prussiae et Slessiae patronorum, in Lombardica his- toria non contentae. (Cracoviae: 1511), 239–243. 10 For manuscripts and edition see Szovák Kornel-Veszprémy László, “Krónikák, legendák, intelmek-utószava” In: Scriptores rerum Hungaricarum II, ed. Emericus Szentpétery, Budapes- tini, 1999, 781; [Szovák Kornel-Veszprémy László, “Chronicles, legends, institutions-epilogue”] On the Legendae sanctorum and Legenda aurea cf. Tóth Péter, “Szent Demeter magyarországi legendája” In: Tóth Péter (ed.), Szent Demeter. Magyaroország elfeledett védőszentje (Budapest: Balassi, 2007), 44–47 [Tóth Péter, “The Hungarian legend of Saint Demetrius” In: Tóth Péter (ed.), Saint Demetrius. The Forgotten protector saint of Hungary]; Legendae sanctorum regni Hungari- ae is digitalized and accessible at (links here are for the Life of Saint Gerard) http://oszkdk.oszk. hu/storage/00/00/41/72/dd/1/Inc_463_0025.html http://oszkdk.oszk.hu/storage/00/00/41/72/ dd/1/Inc_463_0026.html http://oszkdk.oszk.hu/storage/00/00/41/72/dd/1/Inc_463_0027.html all accessed on January 11, 2015

105 Boris Stojkovski in 1575.11 Stilting then mentions a Benedictine monk named Arnold Wion (1554–1610) as being the least knowledgeable source and who had made numerous mistakes in his version of the Life of Saint Gerard. Wion wrote a work printed in 1597 in Venice under the title Vita S. Gerardi, e Veneta familia de Sagredo, martyris et Hungarorum apostoli, notationibus illustrata . Like all of Wion’s other works (the most well-known being a history of the Bene- dictine order known as the Lignum Vitæ) the Life of Saint Gerard is full of mistakes and has been widely criticized by many for its lack of seriousness. Nevertheless, it was widely used and quoted. One of the authors who made extensive use of the works of Wion was Jean Mabillon, another Benedictine monk from France, known as the father and the founder of paleography and diplomacy. Mabillon also wrote the Acta Ordinis S. Benedicti where he discusses Gerard and quotes Wion. This is firmly opposed by Stilting.12 In the Commenatarius praevius Stilting pointed out some of the most, in his words, “pa- tently ridiculous” mistakes by earlier authors, especially Arnold Wion. For instance, there is a well-known part in the Vita of Saint Gerard (in both the Legenda maior and Legenda minor) where it is written that Gerard was preparing to go on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, but his ship was stopped on the Dalmatian coast. Gerard never went on to fulfill his wish to complete the pilgrimage, and instead left for Hungary. Stilting disagrees with Wion, stating that Wion had written in his Life of Saint Gerard that Saint Gerard had in fact preached at the monastery of Saint Jerome in Bethlehem, in the Holy Land. This certainly false information most probably was derived from a part in Legenda Maior where it is stated that Gerard wished to visit this monastery in the event of being able to visit the Holy Land. There are also further examples which will not be dealt with here. However, it should be noted that Stilting provides additional criticism of earlier compilers of the life of this Hungarian protomartyr.13 The next chapter is entitled Chronotaxis Vitae supplementum ex aliis scriptoribus et asserta variorum exainata . As the title itself suggests, here Stilting provides a chronology of Gerard’s life drawn from different sources, then combining them and challenging those not consistent with each other. Here he also challenges information given by Wion including disputing the year of Gerard’s birth. In this chapter, Johannes Stilting studies different aspects of Saint Gerard’s life, for example his origin or his arrival in Hungary and the foundation of the Church of Cenad. He discusses the year of Gerard’s arrival to Hungary, stating that he thinks that Gerard arrived in Hungary around 1030, while he places the foundation of Bishopric of Cenad around 1037. Stilting very strongly argues the chronology of the foundation of the Bishopric of Cenad, and provides an extensive chronology of the rule of Saint Stephen and the most important events from 1000 until his death. The purpose of this was to provide, as accurately as possible, the date the new bishopric was founded.14 In addi-

11 According to Stilting, the work of Surius on Saint Gerard was mutato stylo, AA SS septembris VI, 713. On Surius see Hildegard Hebenstreit-Wilfert, Wunder und Legenden. Studien zu Leben und Werk von Laurentius Surius (1522–1578) (Universität Tübingen 1975). 12 AA SS septembris VI, 713–714. Stilting also criticizes Wion for using only two out of five editions of Gerard’s Vita in his own edition of the Life of Saint Gerard. Stilting further argues how and why Wion did not use earlier editions. About Wion and his work cf. Réginald Grégoire OSB, “Wion, Arnold, bénédictin († 1613, ou 1610)”, Dictionnaire de spiritualité, t. 16: U-Z, Ubald d’Alençon-Zypaeus, (Paris: Beauchasne, 2004) col. 1479–1482. 13 AA SS septembris VI, 714–715. Cf. SRH II, 481. 14 The date of the founding of the Bishopric of Cenad could be mostly accepted as quite precise and correct, since in the historiography an opinion is adopted according to which the Bishopric of

106 The Bollandists’ Life of Saint Gerard tion, Stilting argues with some earlier authors that Gerard also founded the Servite monastic order or the order of the Carmelites.15 In the following paragraphs Stilting then mentions parts from the Legenda maior of Saint Gerard and discusses events from the life of Saint Gerard and some details about the Cenad bishopric, but with some omissions and errors. It is pointing out that Stilting did not have critical editions of almost any source, nor was he familiar with Hungarian medieval history in depth. Concerning the Cenad bishopric, in the Acta Sanctorum Saint Gerard is described as episcopus Morisanae who built a monastery in Bel, and it is argued that in he lived in this monastery alongside a monk named Mauricius. There is no historical evidence for this, since this passage in the Legenda maior follows the hagiographic topos from the life of Saint Benedict in the Legenda aurea.16 Although on the other hand, Mauricius was the Bishop of Pécs who, according to the Legend Maior, invited Gerard and brought him to Hungary. Another important point to note is that the monastery in Bakonybél is dedicated to Saint Mauricius. Therefore, there a mistake must have been made by combining these events. As far as monastery in Bakonybél is concerned, Stilting is a bit confusing here. He came to a very interesting conclusion, which was that Gerard did not live in the monastery, but in a place called Bél in the woods of Bocon where he had made some kind of monastic cell for himself . Even though the Legenda maior mentions that he built himself some kind of a small room or cell where he had lived as a hermit and where he had fasted, prayed and wrote his numerous works, uncertainties still remain about this part of the Gerardüs legends. King Stephen I, on the recommendation and advice of Saint Gunther, cousin of Queen Gizella, most probably founded the actual monastery. It is even argued in the Acta Sanc-

Cenad was founded after 1030, cf. Juhász Kálmán, A csanádi püspökség története. Alapításától a tatárjárásig, (Makó: Csanád vármegye közönsége 1930), 37–46 [Juhász Kálmán, The history of the bishopric of Cenad. From founding to the Tartar invasion]; Györffy György, István király és műve (Budapest: Gondolat, 1983), 296, 326, 366–367 [Györffy György, Saint Stephen and his work]; Vincent Múcska, ’’Az első magyarországi püspökségekről’’ Fons XII (2005): 23, 27. [Vincent Múcska, “On the first Hungarian bishoprics”]; Zsoldos Attila, Magyarországi világi ar- chontológiája 1000–1301, (Budapest: MTA TTI, 2011), 86 [Zsoldos Attila, The laic arhcontology of Hungary 1000–1301]. 15 AA SS septembris VI, 716–717. For example, Filippo Ferrari (1551–1626) was a Servite monk, geographer and hagiographer who composed one work entitled Catalogus sanctorum Italiae in Menses duodecim distributus . This book was published in 1613, and there Ferrari writes that Ge- rard was the founder of the Servite order. Philippus Ferrarius Alexandrinus, Catalogus sanctorum Italiae in Menses duodecim distributus, (Mediolani: Bordonius, 1613), 115–116. Stilting criticizes this opinion, stating that the Servite order was founded almost two centuries after the death of Saint Gerard. The same criticism was directed towards the work of Juan Baptista Lezano, a Span- ish Carmelite theologian and writer, best known for the Annales sacri, Profetici et Eliani Ordinis Beatissimæ Virginis María de Monte Carmelo published in Rome in 1656. He was an authority on canon law and theology, but as a historian, he was quite poor. Johannes Stilting cites Mabillon who already corrected some of Arnoldus Wion’s the mistakes concerning Gerard as the founder of the Carmelite order. Mabillon also, according to Stilting, corrected Johannes Trithemius, author of the Annales Hirsaugienses. This German monk and occultist wrote that Saint Gerard founded monastery of Saint Gregory in Rome, which is false. cf. AA SS septembris VI, 716. 16 Előd Nemerkényi, Latin Classics in Medieval Hungary. CEU Medievalia VI (Debrecen-Buda- pest: University of Debrecen-Central European University, 2004), 75.

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torum whether Gerard was an abbot of the monastery or a monk at the church in Cenad.17 Stilting also discusses the last years of Saint Gerard’s ministry, and he mentions a work called Ovo Rex, which is most probably the name of the Hungarian king Aba Samuel. It is worth noting once more that he often relied on some non-critical editions of the sources, and not only in connection to this part. He also made extensive use of a work by János Thuróczy, who is not a contemporary source or particularly reliable in terms of early medieval Hun- garian history. This is also true for Antonio Bonfini, whom Stilting also makes use of. For instance, Stilting had doubts as to whether the Bishopric of Cenad was founded after death of King Stephen I in 1038, since it had been mentioned by Bonfini. The last paragraphs of this chapter are dedicated to Gerard’s final years and to his martyrdom. This is the least useful part for historians from the entire Bollandist Life of Saint Gerard of Cenad. It contains a dispute concerning the chronotaxis of the last years of the first Bishop of Cenad. Stilting mostly discusses the rule of Aba Samuel, Peter Orseolo, and the date of Saint Gerard’s martyrdom. The Bollandist writer again mostly relies on Thuróczy and his Chronica Hunga- rorum which, as already mentioned, is not that trustworthy a source for the early medieval period of Hungarian history.18 The next part is dedicated to his relics, as well as his cult and devotion. In this chapter, entitled Posthuma sancti Gloria ex corporis translantionibus, canonizatione, cultu, miraculis, etc, the reader learns of Saint Gerard’s canonization around 1083 during the time of Saint Ladislas.19 There is also a short paragraph on the veneration day of the saint, a story about the translation of his relics, and that some of his relics are allegedly in Prague. Stilt-

17 AA SS septembris VI, 717–718; SRH II, 481–490. On Gunther and the foundation of the monastery of Saint Mauricius Érszegi Géza, “Jegyzetek” in Érszegi Géza (ed.), Árpád-kori legendák és intelmek, ford. Csóka J. Gáspár et al., (Budapest: Szépirodalmi, 1987), 196 [Érszegi Géza, “’Notes” In: Érszegi Géza (ed.), The Legends and Institutions of the Age of Árpád] . See also Küh- ár Flóris, “Szent Gellért Bakonybélben” Pannonhalmi Szemle, II (1927): 304–319 [Kühár Flóris, “Saint Gerard in Bakonybél”]. 18 AA SS septembris VI, 718–719. The martyrdom of Saint Gerard is mostly described according to the Legenda maior, and Stilting quotes it, even though again his main source was also János Thuróczy. All chronological debates which Stilting writes about, are already well-known, and they consider the exact year of Aba Samuelüs coming to throne, come back toPeter Orseolo, and at the end, the precise date of his execution by the pagans. For establishing the exact date of Gerard’s martyrdom, Stilting consulted Cesar Baronius, but also compared it with other authors like Mabillon or Samuel Pitiscus’ Lexicon antiquitatum romanarum (printed in 1713). The (wrong) conclusion Stilting drew is that the Vata uprising occurred in 1047. To compare the text in Sacta Sanctorum and Legenda maior, see SRH II, 500–503. On the chronology of the events cf. Érszegi G, Jegyzetek, 198; Kristó Gyula, “Megjegyzések az ún. “pogánylázadások” kora tör- ténetéhez”, Acta Universitatis Szegediensis de Attila József Nominatae. Acta Historica 18 (1965) 1–57 [Kristó Gyula, “The notes to the history of the so-called age of the pagan revolts’’]; idem, Szent István birodalma. A középkori Magyarország története (Budapest: História-MTA TTI, 2001), 29–30 [idem, The Realm of Saint Stephen]; Font Márta (ed.), Dinasztia, hatalom, egyház. Régiók formálódása Európá közepén (900–1453) (Pécs, 2009), 290 [Font Márta (ed.), Dinasty, power, church. The formation of regions in the Central Europe (900–1453)]. 19 Cf. On that topic Klaniczay Gábor, “Az 1083. évi magyarországi szenttéavatások” in: Fügedi Erik (ed), Művelődéstörténeti tanulmányok a magyar középkorról (Budapest: Gondolt, 1986), 15–33 [Klaniczay Gábor, “Hungrian canonizations in 1083” in: Fügedi Erik (ed.), Studies in medieval Hungarian cultural history].

108 The Bollandists’ Life of Saint Gerard ing makes an omission here when he states that there is no information concerning Saint Gerard’s funeral. When referring to saint’s burial at the Church of the Virgin Mary in Pest, Johannes Stilting quotes Arnold Wion and his edition of the Legenda maior. At that time it was the only edition of the Legenda maior Stilting could have used. Stilting almost con- sistently follows Legenda maior, but he also consults other Hungarian writers (sometimes referring to them as scriptores Hungarici without stating who they are). For instance, when he writes about a stone with the blood of Saint Gerard that could not be washed for seven years, he takes the story from the Legenda maior. Furhtermore, along with Bonfini and Thuróczy, Wion is also a main source, for the story about the translation of Saint Gerard’s relics to Marosvár (Cenad), the seat of the bishopric he founded. The following paragraphs of this chapter are dedicated to the days of veneration of Saint Gerard. Here, Stilting quotes and analyzes various martyrologues and gives his critical opinion. This was done in the manner of Jean Bolland himself (and later this methodology was further developed by Hippolyte Delehaye). According to them, martyrologues are one of the key sources, but they are not of equal value and one who studies them should approach them with caution. It is, though, very impressive that in the 18th century Stilt- ing managed to conduct a rather sophisticated critical evaluation of these peculiar sources. In this chapter, in particular, Stilting cites some of the martyrologues that places the cel- ebration of Saint Gerard on February 23, which is the day of the translation of his relics to Murano. He corrects mistakes in different sources and explains omissions. In certain cases, when the dates had been mixed up, Stilting provided an explanation and corrigenda. Of course, as expected, the vast part of this chapter is about the adoration of Saint Gerard in Murano, where his relics had been translated. He is still very much respected there, and his relics are, even today, a place of pilgrimage for many believers from Hungary and other countries. At the end of this chapter, the Bollandist hagiographer writes about the relics (duo notabiliter magna ossa) of Saint Gerard allegedly located in Prague. In addition to Prague, Stilting mentions a part of the relics that were translated to Bologna, but has doubts about both of these possibilities. According to Stilting, no relics of Saint Gerard were donated anywhere prior to the transfer of his entire body to Murano. 20 As was previously mentioned, Johannes Stilting mentions the miraculis, i.e. the miracles

20 AA SS septembris VI, 719–722; SRH II, 502–505. For his veneration in Venice cf. the newest study by Karen McCluskey, “Official Sanctity alla Veneziana: Gerardo, Pietro Orseolo and Giaco- mo Salomani”, Conserverie mémorielles 14 (2013), http://cm.revues.org/1718 (accessed on Janu- ary 10, 2015) as far as the possible transfer or donation of relics, the source he quotes concerning the Prague cathedral (Tomáš Jan Pešina z Čechorodu and his Phosphorus septicornis (Pragae: 1673). 518) does mention those relics. He also writes that those relics arrived there as a donation in 1304, which Stilting directly quotes. But, we find out from the later literature that there was no earlier mention in the inventories of Saint Vitus cathedral on the relics of Saint Gerard and some other saints mentioned by Pešina. The only relic that was brought to the cathedral from Hungary in 1304 was the blood of Saint Demetrius. Cf. Antonín Podlaha, Eduard Šittler, Chrámový poklad u sv. Víta v Praze : Jeho dějiny a popis. (Praha : Dědictví sv. Prokopa, 1903), 11, footnote 19 [The Church treasury of Saint Vitus in Prague. Its’ history and description]. See also Ernő Marosi. “Saints at Home and Abroad. Some Observations on the Creation of Iconographic Types in Hun- gary in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries” in: Ottó Gecser et al. (eds.), Promoting the Saints. Cults and Their Contexts from Late Antiquity until the Early Modern Period. Essys in Honor of Gábor Klaniczy for his 60th Birthday, (Budapest-New York: CEU University Press, 2011), 188. As far as the Bologna problem is concerned, we find no evidence whatsoever.

109 Boris Stojkovski of Saint Gerard of Cenad. After the paragraph on the relics of Saint Gerard in Prague and Bologna, the chapter ends. The miracles are not mentioned anywhere in the Bollandist work on Saint Gerard, even though they are listed in the title of the chapter. It is widely known from the Legenda maior that many miracles were attributed to Saint Gerard of Cenad. For example, he cured a German girl of a cataract, many people recovered from swellings and sore eyes, and one of Saint George’s canon priests recovered after three days from a massive stroke, all by the grace and miracles of Saint Gerard. Another priest named Peter recovered his eyesight while lying on a bier in Marosvár. Even the widow of comes Bech, who belonged to the circle close to the widow of Ajtony, was miraculously cured by Saint Gerard when she visited his grave. These are just some of the miracles that have been attributed to Saint Gerard and were explained extensively in the Legenda maior.21 It is not clear why they were not incorporated into the Bollandist Life of Saint Gerard. The most often cited part of this Life in the historiography and in critical hagiography is certainly the Vita itself, i.e. the hagiographic overview of the life of this saint, bishop, and martyr. This chapter is, in fact, another version and edition of the Legenda minor, or the Minor Legend of Saint Gerard. Even the question of which is older, the the Legenda maior or the Legenda minor, it is still a matter of debate among historians and other scholars, however, most researchers agree that this smaller, minor legend is actually a part of a liturgical scripture read during Church masses. The beginning of this legend (incorporated in the Acta Sanctorum by Stilting) clearly states that Gaudia, que Christi participibus dies hodierna contulit . The words dies hodierna could lead to the conclusion that this life of Saint Gerard was used in lectures on Church services. If the currently most commonly used critical Latin editions of the text (from the second volume of the famous Scriptores rerum Hungricarum, in which a critical edition of Saint Gerard’s legend is provided by Emericus Madzsar-Madzsar Imre), is compared with the Vita given in the Acta Sanctorum by the Stilting, it can be seen that the text is almost entirely the same. One of these differences is, for instance, the number of chapters. Madzsar has seven of in his edition in the Scriptores rerum Hungaricarum, while in the Bollandist Life of Saint Gerard of Cenad Joannes Stilting divided his edition of the Legenda minor into 13 chapters. It is not clear what the reasoning is behind the way Stilting decided to divide the chapters. Often there are no differences in the text or even in word order, but the structure of the chapters does not match. For instance, the end of the first and the beginning of the second chapter differ with this sentence: Igitur dum animi sinceritate sanctam vitam duceret, placuit ei Dominicum visitare sepulchrum, quatenus Christum, proper nos egenum factum, inops et pauper sequeretur . In the Bollandists’ hagiographic work, the first chapter ends with this sentence, i.e. with the desire of Saint Gerard to visit the Holy Land and the Holy Sepulcher. However, in the edition of the Legenda minor by Madzsar this division of chapters (paragraphs) is more logical. In this edition, the future Bishop of Cenad’s longing to make a pilgrimage is locatedat the beginning of the second chapter. The Vita then continues with the unsuccessful journey to the Holy Land, Gerard’s arrival in Hungary, and so on. Since both texts are derived from almost the same manuscript, or better stated, manuscript and edition (with the already stated exclusion of the Codex Venetus), it is quite logical that the text itself would be very much alike. These imprecise divisions of chapters are not something that significantly changes the structure of the work, and neither do the more

21 SRH II, 505–506.

110 The Bollandists’ Life of Saint Gerard important language differences. Therefore, a closer inspection of the text of this Bollandist hagiographic work about this first Hungarian martyr and first Bishop of Cenad shows that the commenatrius previus and the addenda that come after the Vita itself would actually be more valuable and more interesting for study. A possible critical edition of this text would be very interesting, since it is a thought-provoking testament to early historical criticism in hagiography, as well as in connection with medieval Hungarian history. The Vita itself is yet another version of Legenda minor found in many editions, and of course, in the critical one that appears in the Scriptores rerum Hungaricarum.22 Next, two very important and interesting appendices can be found here. One of which is the Elogium provided in 1493 by Petrus Natalibus. It is a very brief life of this saint, and a valuable literary testament of the late medieval Renaissance. The historical value of his piece, the famous Catalogus sanctorum et gestorum eorum ex diversis voluminus collectus, editus a reverendissimo in Christo patre Domino Petro de Natalibus de Venetiis Dei gratia episcopo Equilino, has already been considered rather dubious by Daniel Paperbroch, another prominent Bollandist. The Elogium in the Bollandist Life of Saint Gerard of Cenad is from the 1493 edition published in Vicenza. It is very interesting that in this edition there is no mention of Gerard being from the noble Venetian Sagredo family. This only appears in the 1516 edition of Catalogus. In the 1543 edition, however, again, this supposed origin of Saint Gerard is omitted.23 The second appendix is another very interesting and outstanding document. These are lectures of the church in Murano, i.e. Lectiones officii antique ecclesiae Muranae. These six lectures were actually excerpted from the work of the 18th century Italian writer and historian Flaminio Corner.24 There are some similarities in the lectures with the Legenda minor in the text as well as in the chronology of the life of Saint Gerard. In them can be found, for example, that Gerard was from the Sagredo family. The lectures also mention Pannonia a few more times than in the Legenda minor as the area where he preached and lived. Flaminio Corner persistently used Pannonia when referring to Hungary, naming even the country in which the king, and later saint, Stephen I lived and ruled as Christianissimus

22 Cf. AA SS septembris VI, 722–725 and SRH II, 471–479. 23 Petri de Natalibus, Catalogus sanctorum et gestorum eorum ex diversis voluminus collectus,(Vicenza: Enrico di Ca’ Zeno: 1493), (ristampa anastatica, Spoleto: Fondazione C.I.S.A.M. 2012); idem, Catalogus sanctorum et gestorum eorum ex diversis voluminus collectus, (Venetiis 1516): cc. 99v-100; idem, Catalogus sanctorum, Lugduni, 1543, fol. LI (cca 114). On Petrus de Natalibus and his work cf. Emore Paoli. “Il Catalogus sanctorum di Pietro Nadal. Alcune ’istruzioni per l’uso” in Catalogus sanctorum, (Spoleto: Fondazione C.I.S.A.M. 2012) pp. IX-LIII; idem, “Natali, Pietro de’” in: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Volume 77 (2012) http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/pietro-de-natali_(Dizionario_Biografico)/ accessed on Janu- ary 10, 2015 24 He lived from 1693–1778. His most famous work is certainly the Ecclesiae Venetae antiquis monumentis nunc etiam primum editis illustratae ac in decades distributae in 8 volumes, with four on Venetian monuments, one volume of Supllementa, one of the Indices and finally three volumes dedicated to the monuments and antiquities of the Ecclesiae Torcellanae . Paolo Preto, “Corner, Flaminio” in: Dizionario biografico degli Italiani Volume 29 (1983), http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/flaminio-corner_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/ accessed on January 10, 2015. From the second volume, Johannes Stilting took the Lectiones and incorporated them at the end of the hagiographic piece on Saint Gerard of Cenad. (Ex editione Cl . Viri Flaminii Cornelii part. 2 Eccl. Torcel, AA SS septembris VI, 726)

111 Boris Stojkovski rex also as Pannonia. This is directly taken from Legenda minor, which is the key source for these lectures. If a comparison is made between these two texts, it can be seen that a vast majority of the scripture has been taken and copied directly from Legenda minor. Bigger differences can be found at the beginning, since in the Legenda minor there is no mention of Gerard’s alleged origin from the Sagredo family from Venice, while in the first lecture this is the key message of the first sentence.25 Thus, the first lecture begins with the following words: Gerardus hujus lucis limen per Venetos parentes Sagredae prosapiae fortitus, Dei gratia praeveniente . . . .,26 whilst the Legenda mimor commences with Gaudia, quae Christi participibus dies hodierna contulit, ex beatis patris nostri Christique meritis Ge- rardi fluxere. Hic enimlucis limen per Venetos parentes sortitus, Dei gratia preveniente…27 This is a classical interpolation on the part of the writer in order to stress Saint Gerard’s supposed Sagredo origin. The Legenda minor is also shortened in some places in Flaminio Corner’s lectures. This is clearly stated by Stilting himself, who says that “auctor… lectiones ex Vita contraxit.” The last lecture (no. 6) which coincides with 7th chapter of the Legenda minor (according to Madzsar’s version in the SRH) is essentially an abbreviated version of the latter. The end of Corner’s lecture is completely different from that in the Legenda minor. In the lecture, the ending mentions how Saint Gerard martyrizatus est anno domini millesimo centesimo sexagesimo nono, octavo kalendae Octobris, post beatum Thomam martyrem Cantuarien- sem episcopum, qui illo tempore fuit . This is a clear mistake, since Saint Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was martyred more than a century after Saint Gerard. Corner has two errors here, as Saint Thomas Becket died in 1170, not a year before, while it is already known that Gerard was executed during the Vata pagan uprising in 1046.28 However, Corner’s work becomes problematic from a historiographical point of view. Unlike in his work on the history of Venice, the Ecclesiae Venetae antiquis monumentis nunc etiam primum editis illustratae ac in decades distributae, or his other work, the Creta Sacra, in the Ecclesiae Torcellanae, from which the Bollandist writer took a passage, Flaminio Cor- ner did not provide any notes. Readers and scholars do not know which documents or sources he used when compiling this work. It is, nevertheless, a remarkable piece of literary work. It would seem that in this phase of his work, Corner becomes more of a hagiographer, a writer that creates his work under strong spiritual influence. It was not important to him to cite ar- chival documents, sources or earlier authors, but to create a work full of Christian devotion. In this work on the churches of Torcello, Flaminio Corner is more a pious essayist than he is a church historian. On the other hand, both of his works on Venetian churches, and especially Creta sacra, are still of considerable value for historians. When compiling both of them, Cor-

25 Both appendices are in AA SS septembris VI, 725–727. As far his origin from the Sagredo family is concerned, it is most likely that either some tradition and hagiographic mistake, or simply a forgery created by Petrus Natalibus. Luigi Canetti, “Gerardo di Csanád”, in: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Volume 53 (2000) http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/gerardo-di- csanad_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/ accessed on January 10, 2015. In the only completed preserved work of Saint Gerard, the Deliberatio, he also uses the term Pannonia instead of Hungaria, see E. Nemerkényi, Latin Classics, 75. 26 AA SS septembris VI, 726. 27 SRH II, 471. 28 AA SS septembris VI, 7 in the Annotata Johannes Stilting already resolved most of the confusions that occur while reading and comparing Legenda minor with Corner’s sermons.

112 The Bollandists’ Life of Saint Gerard ner used the archives of the Republic of San Marco, and he even consulted the papal archives for his work on Cretan bishops of both the Greek and Latin rites.29

IV. Concluding remarks

To conclude, within the context of the eighteenth century, the Bollandists’ Life of Saint Gerard written by Johannes Stilting in the Acta Sanctorum is, in and of itself, a valuable source about the saint; but even more, it is a worthy source for a reception of the cult of Saint Gerard in the 18th century. Even though Stilting shows a sophisticated level of criticism and an effort to provide a trustworthy and reliable Life of Saint Gerard of Cenad, the first Hungarian martyr, he still made a considerable number of errors. On the other hand, his desire to provide as critical an edition of the Vita as possible deserves to be acknowledged. Johannes Stilting followed Bollandist methodology, i.e. he followed some research methods of historical science and applied them to this critical hagiography. Stilting consulted a vast number of sources, even though some of them were not of particular importance. He also consulted different compilations of the lives of the saints of the Roman Catholic Church, even though they were of uneven quality and reliability for historians and researchers. As was stressed by Jean Bolland, when writing for Acta Sanctorum, one of the key tasks of the hagiographer is to differentiate the reliable sources from those that should not be used in critical hagiographic analysis. Therefore, the efforts of Johannes Stilting in this particular case concerning the Life of Saint Gerard and the appendices he provides are even more worthy of appreciation as he cites many rarely used authors and gives an important contribution to medieval and early modern history, hagiography, and also literature at the same time.30 Of course, Stilting’s Life of Saint Gerard of Cenad does have numerous deficiencies. He did show a high level of criticism in his studies of hagiography, but there is still lack of critical approach to some sources and especially towards the work of certain authors. It does seem strange that Johannes Stilting decided to publish Legenda minor rather than the more extensive Legenda maior, even though it is obvious that he knew of it and used it extensively through the work of Arnold Wion. Perhaps the the reason for this is that Stilting had a manuscript from the Belgian abbey of Corsendonk and the edition by the Polish medieval historian Jan Dlugosz from 1511, while the manuscripts of the Legenda maior were not available to him. The Bollandist Life of Saint Gerard of Cenad is a valuable document for studying the life of the first bishop of Cenad and Hungarian protomartyr. In spite of being older and with problematic methodology, from the point of view of modern hagiography and historiography, it would be worth further study from various aspects of this Bollandist piece.

29 “L’ultima fase della serenissima-Cultura e civilta. La cultura.” In Storia di Venezia (1998) http:// www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/l-ultima-fase-della-serenissima-cultura-e-civilta-la-cultura_(Sto- ria-di-Venezia)/ accessed on January 11, 2015 30 Cf. Hippolyte Delehaye, “Les légendes hagiographiques” (Bruxelles: Société des Bollandistes, 1906), 1–140, 168–190, 241–260; Flor Van Omeslege, “Acta Sanctorum i Bolandistička metodologija u izučavanju hagiografije’’ In: Sergei Hackel (ed.), Vizantijski svetitelj (Beograd: Pra- voslavni bogoslovski fakultet, 2008), 212–221 [“Acta Sanctorum and Bollandist methodology in studying hagiography” in: Sergei Hackel (ed.), Byzantine saint]. If one takes a closer look at the methodology suggested by Delehaye and other Bollandists, both before and after him, it is clear that Johannes Stilting fulfilled most of the steps that founders of critical hagiography considered, and still consider, to be the most important ones.

113 Boris Stojkovski

References

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Press, 2011. McCluskey, Karen. “Official Sanctity alla Veneziana: Gerardo, Pietro Orseolo and Giacomo Salo- mani.” Conserverie mémorielles 14 (2013) http://cm.revues.org/1718 (accessed on 10th of Janu- ary 2015). Múcska, Vincent. “Az első magyarországi püspökségekről.” [On the first Hungarian bishoprics]. Fons XII (2005): 5–28. Nemerkényi, Előd. Latin Classics in Medieval Hungary. CEU Medievalia VI . Debrecen-Budapest: University of Debrecen-Central European University, 2004. Paoli, Emore. “Il Catalogus sanctorum di Pietro Nadal. Alcune ’istruzioni per l’uso.’” In Catalogus sanctorum. Spoleto: Fondazione C.I.S.A.M. 2012, IX-LIII. _____. “Natali, Pietro de’”. In Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Volume 77 (2012) http://www. treccani.it/enciclopedia/pietro-de-natali_(Dizionario_Biografico) (accessed on January 10, 2015) Pešina z Čechorodu, Tomáš Jan. Phosphorus septicornis . Pragae, 1673. Petri de Natalibus. Catalogus sanctorum et gestorum eorum ex diversis voluminus collectus. Vicenza: Enrico di Ca’ Zeno: 1493. (ristampa anastatica, Spoleto: Fondazione C.I.S.A.M. 2012. Petri de Natalibus. Catalogus sanctorum et gestorum eorum ex diversis voluminus collectus. Venetiis, 1516. Petri de Natalibus. Catalogus sanctorum. Lugduni 1543. Podlaha, Antonín-Šittler, Eduard. Chrámový poklad u sv. Víta v Praze : Jeho dějiny a popis. Praha : Dědictví sv. Prokopa, 1903. [The Church treasury of Saint Vitus in Prague. Its’ history and description]. Preto, Paolo. “Corner, Flaminio.” In Dizionario biografico degli Italiani Volume 29 (1983), http:// www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/flaminio-corner_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/ (accessed on Jan- uary 10, 2015). Szentpétery, Emericus ed., Scriptores rerum Hungaricarum II. Budapestini: Nap, 1999. Szovák, Kornel and László Veszprémy. “Krónikák, legendák, intelmek-utószava.” [Chronicles, legends, institutions-epilogue]. In Scriptores rerum Hungaricarum II, ed. Emericus Szentpétery, 720–799. Budapest: Nap, 1999. Tóth, Péter. “Szent Demeter magyarországi legendája” [The Hungarian legend of Saint Demetrius]. In Szent Demeter. Magyaroország elfeledett védőszentje [Saint Demetrius. The Forgotten protector saint of Hungary], ed. Tóth Péter, 40–93 . Budapest: Balassi, 2007. Van Hulthem, Ch. dél.. Bibliotheca Hulthemiana. Manuscrits. Gand. 1837. Van Omeslege, Flor. “Acta Sanctorum i Bolandistička metodologija u izučavanju hagiografije.” 210– 221 In Sergei Hackel ed. Vizantijski svetitelj [“Acta Sanctorum and Bollandist methodology in studying hagiography” in Byzantine saint]. Beograd: Pravoslavni bogoslovski fakultet, 2008. Zsoldos, Attila. Magyarországi világi archontológiája 1000–1301 [The laic arhcontology of Hungary 1000–1301] . Budapest: MTA TTI, 2011.

115 Claudiu Călin Bishop Augustin Pacha (1870–1954) The Years of Imprisonment and His Release Shortly before His Death Claudiu Călin

Augustin Pacha, Bishop of the Diocese of Timisoara, shepherded the Catholics of Banat for over three decades. He lived through the dualist monarchy, the First World War, as well as through the social changes of the interwar period. An enemy to nationalism and socialism, and a supporter of the German Christian Catholic identity of the Swabians in Banat, Pacha was a member of the intellectual elite persecuted and even eliminated by the communists after 1948. Arrested in 1950 and sentenced to prison in 1951 in a show trial, the old bishop was released in the summer of 1954. The communist regime knew he was dying. This decision is interesting in the context of the time and even today, 60 years later.

Keywords: bishop; diocese; Augustin Pacha; imprisonment; trial; Catholic Church; communists; swabians

I. Instead of an Introduction: Secret internal debates of the Political Bureau of the Romanian Workers Party about the liberation of an old Catholic bishop

The trials and tribulations underlying the release of Augustin Pacha (1870–1954), Doctor Honoris Causa of the University or Münster in Germany, from the communist prison where he was thrown in the summer of 1950, and the following sentence to prison in 1954,1 represented a genuine enigma for many people for a long time. Before public access to the archives of the former Securitate and the creation of CNSAS (National Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives), those who made all sorts of suppositions were not few and far between. The Securitate (Secret Police) seems to have done field research about the bishop and the people’s reactions to a possible amnesty. Honorary canon Georg Wetzl, who was simultaneously a curate in the district of Timișoara IV Iosefin (German: Josefstadt), said that already before Pacha was released, he had been asked questions about the octogenarian bishop. Wetzl said that Pacha had always been a reconciliatory man, who did not aim to become a martyr. The bishop’s situation was as such because of an intransigent American papal nuncio, who had once been sent to the Nunciature in Bucharest. Wetzl also added that in the spring of 1954 there was already talk around the city that Bishop Pacha would be released.

1 *** Procesul unui grup de spioni, trădători şi complotişti în slujba Vaticanului şi a centrului de spionaj italian, Bucureşti, 10–17 septembrie 1951 [The Trial of a group of spies, traitors and plotters in the service fo the Vatican and the Italian centre for espionage, Bucharest, 10–17 September 1951], published by The State Publishing House for Scientific Literature, Bucharest, 1952, was one of the numerous texts printed for propaganda by the communist party in Romania with the aim to compromise the Catholic Church in Romania and its clerics. This brochure deals with the trial of the “Pacha lot” from the point of view of the regime and following its own interests.

116 Bishop Augustin Pacha (1870–1954)

A very significant document that sheds some light on the matter of Bishop Augustin Pacha’s release, as well as on the release of his younger brother in Christ, Márton Áron, was published in 2006 in Pro Memoria, a journal of ecclesiastic history, run by the Roman Cath- olic Archdiocese of Bucharest. It is actually an excerpt from the stenograph of the meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Romanian Workers Party on May 25th, 1954. The participants counted Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, Emil Bodnăraş, Alexandru Drăghici, Iosif Chişinevschi and Alexandru Moghioroş, who also made their contributions to the discussion. The unanimous opinion was that, after the death of Archbishop Alexan- dru Theodor Cisar of Bucharest, which took place in January 19542 in mysterious circumstances even for the communists, the situation of the Romanian Roman Catholic Church was extremely delicate. The two archdioceses recognized by the communist regime – the one in Alba Iulia and the one in Bucharest-Iaşi – had thus no leaders, and the members of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Romanian Workers Party were afraid that the Holy See would soon take steps by appointing at least one successor. Such a step would not have been approved by the communists, as it would have proven once again that the Catholic Church in Romania was dependant on Rome. Upon analyzing the situation, the Bureau members concluded that there were already two bishops in Romania who could be considered as replacements: Augustin Pacha, who was 83 years old, retired with a state pension, and still a titular, in “Vatican documents” of an Episcopal see that was disbanded by the government, but who “according to catholic canons, still has the privilege to confer to another priest the grace to fulfil the position of a bishop;”3 and Márton Áron (arrested on June 21st, 1949)4 of Alba Iulia. The discussions showed that the members of the Political Bureau wanted a solution to the issue of the Catholic Church, with the approval of the Holy See, and they tried, as a long-term step, to attract the good will of the people, as well as of the two above-mentioned bishops. The communists were openly showing that they could not completely trust the attitude of the two bishops, but that they were generally regarded as temperate, intelligent people, one of whom was very old and even dying, but still “usable,” while the other one was younger but deemed easy to work with. In brief, it seems that – similar to the communists in neighbouring Hungary – there

2 Dănuţ Doboş, “Arhidieceza de Bucureşti în perioada 1948–1989” [The Archdiocese of Bucharest during 1948–1989], in Biserica Romano-Catolică din România în timpul perioadei comuniste (1948–1989) [The Roman Catholic Church in Romania during the communist period (1948– 1989)], edited by the National Commission for the Study of the History of the Roman Catholic Church in Romania, (Iaşi: Sapientia Publishing House, 2008) 43. 3 Arhivele Militare Române (AMR – Romanian Militay Archives), Fond Microfilme (Microfilmes Found), rola (roll) AS1–409, c. 593–599 in Adrian Nicolae Petcu, Aspecte ale Represiunii Anti- religioase în anii ’50. Dosarul 15.563 [Aspects of the Antireligious Repression in the ‘50es], in Pro Memoria. Revisă de istorie Ecleziastică [Magazine for Ecclesiastical History], Nr. 5 / 2006, 232 (the article contains, as supplement, a note of the meeting of the Politic Bureau of the Central Comity of the Romanian Workers Party from the 25th of May 1954. The idea of using Pacha as a possible consecrator was expressed in that meeting by Emil Bodnăraș, the Minister of the Armed Forces (Defence), in that moment). 4 Arhivele Naționale Istorice Centrale (ANIC - The Central National Historical Archives in Bucha- rest), Section “Ministry of Cults, Department for Studies”, File 2/1939, sheet 2 (the file contains the translation from Latin into Romanian of the Pope’s appointment of Dr. Márton Áron for the Episcopal see in Alba Iulia and some data about his activity, including information about his arrest).

117 Claudiu Călin was a wish for the appointment and consecration of some bishops nominated by the state, with the approval of the Holy See that (according to the knowledge of the Political Bureau members) would have been willing to “accept two archdioceses within the country.”5 n this respect, it was necessary for Pacha to be released and for Márton Áron to be brought to Bucharest for “treatment.” Thus, from a canonical point of view, there was the possibility for existing bishops to be used for the consecration of one or several bishops approved by Rome and proposed by the communists. Moreover, Pacha was very old, ill and dying, and there was no need for him to be unnecessarily turned into a martyr. His wish was to die home, and, moreover: “He is no ordinary man; in my [i.e. Gheorghe Gheorghiu Dej] opinion, this will create, among the Catholic population, a new and favourable atmosphere for us.”6 [my translation] Striking indeed is the resemblance between the description made by Emil Bodnăraş (which seems to have also been known by Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej) and the report of lieutenant colonel I. Saltuţiu on May 14th, 19547: “He is disciplined, content with the way he is treated, has a respectful attitude; he is sorry to have ended up in prison; he wishes for freedom. By the way he talks, he wants to show that he is not hostile. In his condition, he is powerless.”8 my translation] Following the discussion thread and the details of the stenograph excerpt of the meeting of May 25th, 1954, it is clearly revealed, on the one hand, that communist leaders were distrustful of the Catholic bishops and clergy in Romania, while on the other hand, that they were confident to find a solution: “We believe that Pacha’s release from prison will enable a solution, with Vatican’s consent, to appoint other men due to his release, as well as to the steps we aim to take regarding Márton Áron, thus facilitating the elimination of the problem. The Hungarians also managed to solve the problem without recognizing some prerogatives and without external interference in internal matters.”9 Affirmation by Emil Bodnăraş [my translation]) The initial fear of the Political Bureau members concerning the Catholic clergy’s “espionage actions” now transferred to the sects, which – in Gheorghiu-Dej’s opinion – had multiplied too much in that period. He wanted the involvement and the support of the historical cults in order to stop the proliferation of the sects. Gheorghiu-Dej even declared that Catholic bishops had to submit reports to the Vatican about their dioceses; it may thus be noticed that he considered this a normal and common practice. Overall, discussions prove that, despite their desire to control the existence and functioning of the Roman Catholic Church in Romania, the members of the Political Bureau wanted an elegant sand satisfacto- ry solution for both parties of this, in their opinion, troubling political and religious matter. As regards Bishop Pacha, Bodnăraş said at the end of the discussion: “For Pacha, we are writing the pardon decree today,” to which Gheorghiu-Dej added: “It will have favourable consequences for the faithful and the Catholic clergy.”10 [my translation]

5 Adrian Nicolae Petcu, Aspecte ale Represiunii . . [Aspects of the Repression…], 232. 6 Ibid. 236. 7 Marius Bucur, Lavinia Stan, Persecuţia Bisericii Catolice în România. Documente din Arhiva Europei Libere 1948–1960 [The Persecution of the Catholic Church in Romania . Documents from the Free Europe Archives 1948–1960], (Târgu Lăpuş: Galaxia Gutenberg Publishing House, 2005), 37. 8 Adrian Nicolae Petcu, Aspecte ale Represiunii . . [Aspects of the Repression…], 232. 9 Ibid. 232. 10 Adrian Nicolae Petcu, ed., Partidul, Securitatea şi Cultele 1945–1989 [The Party, the Securitate

118 Bishop Augustin Pacha (1870–1954)

II. The liberation and the return of Bishop Pacha to Timișoara. The old and sick man and his new work

At the end of May 1954, one of Bishop Pacha’s nephews, stomatologist Gustav Sattler, was summoned to Bucharest where he was told that he would have to visit his uncle together with an official from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in the custody of this Ministry; the purpose of the visit was to persuade Bishop Pacha to sign a formal pardon request. It seems Pacha had been brought to Bucharest and kept in the custody of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Dr. Sattler said afterwards that upon his arrival in the capital, he was taken to a room within the Ministry building and left there to wait for the prisoner. It was three o’clock on a Monday afternoon, May 31st, 1954. At a certain point, he heard the shuffling of someone’s feet and the noise made by a hand groping for the door handle. A few moments later, he was face to face with the octogenarian cleric, who immediately asked: “Is it you, Franz?” – thinking he was looking at his nephew-in- marriage, former deputy Franz Kräuter. Then Dr. Sattler realized the bishop was almost blind and he had to introduce himself. Soon afterwards Pacha started asking about his sister Anna, about his relatives, about that year’s crop and how the people were doing at home. The bishop thought he had simply been allowed a visit from his relatives. It was then that the Internal Affairs official, who had attended the meeting from the very beginning, broke in the conversation and told the bishop that the government was willing to offer him a pardon and release him from prison, and all he had to do was sign a formal request addressed to the president of the republic. The document would only oblige him to abide by the laws of the country and to request the pardon. Visibly frightened, Pacha answered: “I haven’t held a newspaper in a long while. I don’t know the country’s laws any more, especially those regarding the Church and, because of this, I can’t oblige myself to anything.”11 my translation] The official assured him that the laws were the same as when he had been free so he should not hesitate in writing the formal request. The bishop replied: “I am already old, I can’t work anymore. Instead, release my clerics!” [my translation] The official told him that now it was all about him, the bishop, after whom the other priests would follow. To this Pacha answered: “I don’t know what my superiors will tell me about this.”12 my translation] Again the official assured him that everything was all right. Then Pacha inquired whether Stanciu Stoian was still the Minister of Cults. The answer was a negative one, the name of the current minister was Constantinescu-Iaşi. Having thus been updated about the situation, the bishop agreed to submit the request although he clearly mentioned that he was unable to write after the long years of imprisonment. His nephew, Dr. Sattler let his pen-holding hand on the sheet of paper and thus the pardon request was written in just a few lines and signed. Upon exiting the room, the official took the request from Dr. Sattler’s hand and gave it to the Minster of Cults, who had been waiting in the hall.13 That same evening, on May 31st, 1954, the Official Bulletin was published, containing a decree with only

and the Cults 1945–1989], (Bucharest: Nemira Publishing House, 2005), 231–236. (On p. 231, see note 8: AMR, Section Microfilms, roll AS1–409, c. 593–599). 11 Dr. theol. Franz Kräuter, Erinnerungen an Bischof Pacha. Ein Stück Banater Heimatgeschichte, (Bucharest: ADZ Verlag, 1995), 188 12 Ibid. 188–189. 13 Ibid., 187–188.

119 Claudiu Călin

one article, issued by the Board of the Grand National Assembly of the Popular Republic of Romania, which made public the pardon offered to Bishop Augustin Pacha.14 As concerns the release of Bishop Pacha from the communist prison, there were, as already mentioned, many suppositions. There were opinions worth taking into consideration, according to which the somewhat relaxed atmosphere following Stalin’s death made this government act possible.15 This assumption is of course correct, yet the main motivation for the act was different: it was not a humane act, related to charity, but done to capture the good will of the Catholic population and clergy, and especially to find a quick and state-favourable solution in the “Catholic matter”. The possible involvement of Petru Groza in this odyssey may be considered. Having known Pacha for many years, it is possible for Petru Groza to have influenced some of the Political Bureau Fig. 1. Bishop Pacha after his release. Picture taken in the garden of the Iosefin Parrish, members in this respect; Groza’s family, more Timișoara specifically the Timişoara living daughter of the “last bourgeois”, benefited from medical care in the well-equipped facilities of the Benedictine nuns of St. Lioba16 (the St. Anna maternity ward) in the Elizabethan district of Timişoara III. Nevertheless, what Franz Kräuter,

14 Archivum Dioecesanum Timisoarense (ADT – Archives of the Diocese of Timișoara), Fond Epis- cop Augustin Pacha [Fond Ep. A.P. – Section Bishop Augustin Pacha.], Folder „Rundschreiben 1950/ Requirierung 1951/ Gerichtsurteil 1951/ Begnadigung 1954”, excerpt from the Official Bulletin, not numbered. To be more specific, it was an excerpt from the Official Bulletin of the PRR no.26/31 May 1954, which includes Decree no. 209 for the pardon of Bishop Augustin Pacha, issued in Bucharest on May 31st, 1954; the document was signed by the President of the Board of the Grand National Assembly, Dr. Petru Groza and the secretary of the Board of the Grand National Assembly, Avram Bunaciu. See also William Totok, Episcopul, Hitler şi Securi- tatea. Procesul stalinist împotriva „spionilor Vaticanului” din România [The Bishop, Hitler and the Securitate. The Stalinist Trial against “Vatican Spies” in Romania], (Iaşi: Polirom Publishing House, 2008), 83. 15 Dr. theol. Franz Kräuter, idem, 187. 16 Petru Groza’s daughter, who lived in Timişoara, gave birth to two children in the above-mentioned maternity ward. Sr. Hildegardis Wulff OSB writes in her memoirs that Petru Groza adopted at the time an unusually amiable attitude towards nuns, something that did not however prevent him from bitterly disappointing them later on. Nonetheless, Sr. Hildegardis defends Petru Groza, explaining that he did not help the Church because he himself did not have a very stable political position. For this, see: Nikolaus Engelmann, Franziska Graf, Peter Krier, Eduard Schneider, Die Liobaschwester Dr. Hildegardis Wulff. Weg, Werk und Vermächtnis, Herausgegeben von der Landsmannschaft der Banater Schwaben, Landesverband Bayern, (Wangen: Walchner Druck GmbH, 1996), 107, 129, 140.

120 Bishop Augustin Pacha (1870–1954) doctor in civil law, former deputy and Pacha’s nephew, and Friedrich Müller, Evangelical Lutheran Bishop of Sibiu, declared in favour of this hypothesis may be taken into consideration only as credible suppositions, verified solely by their personal and family experiences or by hear-say, as they did not bring any arguments to support their affirmations.17 It is certain that Bishop Pacha was released on May 31st, 1954. The authorities tried to prepare the prisoner, especially because his physical condition was lamentable. For six weeks he was lodged at the Roman Catholic Archdiocese palace in Bucharest, where he was consulted by doctors and from where he was taken to several university hospitals within the capital for medical investigations. It was here that various visitors from not only Bucharest, but also from Timişoara came to see him. The first to come was thegeneral vicar, Dr. Ferdi- nand Cziza, who talked to the bishop about the state of the diocese, the budget, the parishes and the faithful. The only free canon was Iván Frigyér, who also held the position of ordinarius substitutes,18 and who had already sent the bishop a telegram to congratulate him on his return home. He also sent the bishop a letter for the same event on June 11th, where he wrote about having searched, together with Dr. Sattler, for a house for the now free man. The Episcopal palace “was full to the roof” by tenants who were housed there after the bishop’s arrest. Another canonical house had already been rented, so Dr. Sattler was going to ask the state attorney if the bishop could live in the parish house in the Iosefin district. That house had two rooms that could be tidied up for the bishop. Moreover, the canon mentioned the joy of the faithful in the parishes where he had been to anoint people with Chrism when they heard about the bishop’s return home.19 On July 1st in Bucharest, the bishop wrote a short circular by which he announced his arrival home. The text was neutral, the stress exclusively on the spiritual side, particularly focusing on his gratitude to God for having watched over him all those years, and there was no reference to the regime in power20 all these must have displeased someone… That is why, a new circular – whose contents were similar to the first, but which alluded to the “good will” of the government and which urged the faithful to be “good citizens of our homeland, the Popular Republic of Romania”, where everybody must contribute through their diligent work to world peace and contentment – could be made public only on July 15th, 1954 in Timişoara and then sent to all parishes to be read from the pulpit.21 Meanwhile, the bishop was still in the capital, where he wrote a letter, dated July 7th 1954, to the Minister of Cults, in which he requested to move back to his home in Timişoara; furthermore, “as, according to the rules of the Roman Catholic Church, I hold my canoni-

17 Franz Kräuter (Doctor in civil law), Erinnerungen aus meiner christlich-demokratischen Dien- stzeit, Manuskriptdruck, (Freiburg: Rota-Druck, 1967) 22, Bischof Friedrich Müller, Erinnerun- gen. Zum Weg der siebenbürgisch-sächsischen Kirche 1944–1964. Bearbeitet von Hanelore Baier, (Bukarest: Kriterion Verlag, 1995), 105. 18 Dr. theol. Franz Kräuter, idem, 188–189. 19 ADT, Fond Ep . A .P ., Folder „Korrespondenz (amtlich wie privat) nach der Entlassung aus dem Gefängnis“, Letter of ordinarius Frigyér to Bishop Pacha on June 11th, 1954, not numbered. 20 ADT, Fond Ep . A .P ., Folder „Korrespondenz (amtlich wie privat) nach der Entlassung aus dem Gefängnis“, Bishop Pacha’s circular written on the occasion of his return to his diocese, versions dated July 1st, not numbered. 21 ADT, Fond Ep . A .P ., Folder „Korrespondenz (amtlich wie privat) nach der Entlassung aus dem Gefängnis“, Bishop Pacha’s circular written on the occasion of his return to his diocese, versions dated July 15th, not numbered.

121 Claudiu Călin cal jurisdiction”22 [my translation], Pacha clearly mentioned the fact that he was aware of the current legal status of the parishes over which he held jurisdiction and that he agreed to their inclusion in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Alba Iulia. He also requested his right to exercise his strictly spiritual duties as a bishop, and he obliged himself to observe the laws in force. He ended the letter by thanking the Board of the Grand National Assembly and the “Distinguished Government for the good will it has showed me” [my translation], assuring the authorities of his own loyalty, of the clergy and of the faithful, to the homeland “Popular Republic of Romania.”23 Also on July 7th, Bishop Pacha was informed by his appointed general vicar, Ferdinand Cziza, who was then in Alba Iulia, that with the help of the Minister of Cults the issue of the house had been arranged, and that he had been allowed to live in the parish house of Timişoara IV Iosefin district. Cziza also mentioned that the matter of scheduling the sacrament of the Chrism in the parishes and the person to perform it, details already settled by Frigyér, were again part of the bishop’s responsibilities. The substitute ordinary was no longer necessary, according to papal norms as soon as the bishop was no longer prevented from exercising his prerogatives.24 Although the diocese was recognized by the state only as an archpriestship, and the bishop was retired, from an administrative point of view, his diocesan territory depending, according to state decisions, on the diocese of Alba Iulia, on July 11th, 1954, Augustin Pa- cha appointed a general vicar, namely Ferdinand Cziza, who on the very same day took the pledge of faith, as were the canon laws. At the same time, Pacha chose a secretary, namely Franz Kräuter, a fact that seems to have been accepted by the authorities because they were aware of the bishop’s poor health and weak eyesight. Although the appointment (actually the confirmation of Cziza for this post since he was already occupying the position) and his pledge as a general vicar both took place, according to the time’s documents, in Timişoara on July 11th, 195425, the same secretary Franz Kräuter specifies in his work dedicated to Bishop Pacha that he arrived in the city only on July 12th, and that the appointments were made on July 17th. Kräuter also writes that everything occurred in the presence of several witnesses: Georg Wetzl, honorary canon and curate of Timişoara IV Iosefin district, arch- dean Dr. Adalbert Blaskowitsch, as well as curates Eduard Kandler, Joseph Schäffer and Stefan Balog, who had all come to see the bishop. In a short speech given in Latin, the bishop made a brief presentation of the difficult situation of the diocese, of the priests in prison and of their parishes left with no curates, only to conclude by addressing the general vicar and saying “Confido tibi totaliter!” (I trust you completely).26 Even if some of his responsibilities were no longer recognized by the state, the bishop retained the right to give special licenses, to make replacements among the clergy, etc. The general vicar was going to get the state to agree with any step the bishop would take, as long

22 ADT, Fond Ep . A .P ., Folder „Korrespondenz (amtlich wie privat) nach der Entlassung aus dem Gefängnis“, Bishop Pacha’s letter of July 7th, 1954, to the Minister of Cults, not numbered. 23 Ibid., Bishop Pacha’s letter of July 7th, 1954, to the Minister of Cults, not numbered. 24 ADT, Fond Ep . A .P ., Folder „Korrespondenz (amtlich wie privat) nach der Entlassung aus dem Gefängnis“, Letter of general vicar Cziza to Bishop Pacha on July 7th, 1954, not numbered. 25 ADT, Fond Ep . A .P ., Folder „Korrespondenz (amtlich wie privat) nach der Entlassung aus dem Gefängnis“, The appointment of priest Ferdinand Cziza as general vicar and the pledge, both dated July 11, 1954, not numbered. 26 Dr. theol. Franz Kräuter, idem, 191.

122 Bishop Augustin Pacha (1870–1954) as this was necessary. This reconsideration of the situation eliminated any unclear issues related to canonical jurisdiction, which had appeared during the period when Cziza also worked as a teacher at the Alba Iulia Seminary.

III. Secret nominations in the canonical succession. Visits, visitors and an active implication in dangerous ecclesiastical and political problems

Another step, this time a secret one, was to appoint a new “Ordinarius Substitutus” for the diocese, should the bishop have been prevented to exercise his power.27 According to a document signed by Pope Pius XII on July 29th, 1948, entitled “Nominatio substitutorum,” each resident bishop had to appoint two priests, who would, in turn, succeed him as manag- ers of the diocese affairs, and who would exercise executive power just like the diocesan bishop. It was a way to ensure the management of Catholic dioceses in Romania in case of a time when it were impossible to maintain contact with the Holy See. When contact with Rome had been remade, the provisions of the document were no longer valid. All the bishops in the country were informed about this document during 194828 by the regent of the Apostolic Nunciature, Gerald Patrik O’Hara. Therefore, Bishop Pacha appointed priest Konrad Kernweiss as the first of the ordinaries in July 1954. The next one, i.e. the one who would succeed Kernweiss, was Ferdinand Hauptmann. As proven by administrative documents, Kernweiss occupied the position between 1954 and 1981, whereas Hauptmann between 1981 and 1983. The fifth ordinary (after Joseph Plesz 1950–1951 andIván Frigyér 1951–1954) was Sebastian Kräuter, who took over in 1981, was granted the title “ad nutum Sanctae Sedis,” which meant that his occupying the position was sanctioned by the Pope.29 He was appointed Bishop of Timişoara by Pope John Paul II on March 14th, 1990, and anointed on April 28th, 1990, by Archbishop Angelo Sodano, State Secretary and special envoy of the Holy See in this respect. Kräuter was the second cleric to have ever borne this title.30 At a certain time, Konrad Kernweiss was thought to have been imposed by the state and the Pope to have had no say in the matter. This is wrong, as Bishop Pacha was the one who, relying on the special provisions of “Nominatio substitutorum,” appointed his own successors, who only observed until 1983 what their superior had decided.31 As a man of order and discipline, even though in poor health, the bishop set his daily routine immediately after his release from prison: at 7 o’clock in the morning he would receive Communion, brought by his secretary, priest Franz Kräuter, after which he would pray in private. He could recite or sing many of the morning prayers by heart. Then a light

27 Ibid., 191–192. 28 ADT, Fond: Nunţiatura Apostolică (Section: Apostolic Nunciature), Folder: „Facultates extraordi- nariae 1948–1949”, „Nominatio Substitutorum”, not numbered. The document is machine typed in Latin and has 17 sheets of paper, the last one bearing the signature of the Nunciature regent, Archbishop of Savannah, Gerald Patrik O’Hara. 29 *** Schematismus Dioeceseos Timisoarensis pro Anno Domini 2005–2006, (Timişoara: Typis Typographiae “Mirton”, 2005), 10. 30 ADT, Fond Episcop Sebastian Kräuter (Section Bishop Sebastian Kräuter), Folder containing the papal certificate of appointment as bishop, dated March 14th, 1990, not numbered. 31 Dr. theol. Franz Kräuter, idem, 192.

123 Claudiu Călin breakfast followed. Before 9 o’clock, he would rise, do some exercise (a habit he had kept from a young age), wash, get dressed and go out into the yard of the parish house for a stroll with his sister. Although she had a strongly affected memory, the bishop would talk to her a great deal. Afterwards, he would have the secretary read the received correspondence, and the bishop would dictate the answers. At 10 o’clock he would have a snack, after which he would receive visitors. When there were no more visitors, he had someone read to him from “The Lives of Saints,” the edition edited by Dr. Anton Schütz. The people in charge of this moment were Konrad Kernweiss, at the time also the secret confessor of Notre Dame nuns, and Péter Pázmány, the Iosefin district chaplain. At one o’clock in the afternoon he would have lunch and a rest. For most of the afternoon the bishop would remain by himself. From five to seven o’clock in the evening a priest from around the city would come to keep him company. They would often laugh at the collection of stories the bishop himself had written in the mid-1940s. He would have dinner at 7 o’clock in the evening, after which his relatives from Timişoara would visit him: Heinrich Metzenrath with his wife and daughter, Dr. Gustav Sattler and his wife, Hedwig Schmidt and her family. At 9 o’clock in the evening he would retire for bed. He patiently bore his poor eyesight neighboring on blindness. He never complained. He summoned an eye specialist in the city, Dr. Popovici, who prescribed him a treatment. There were modest improvements. He would always pray, using the prayer of another old bishop: “Dear God, leave me my eyes, for he is poor who cannot see. But Lord, if you take my eyesight, leave me the light of reason, for he is poorer still who has lost clarity of thought. But if you, Lord, take this as well, then please leave me the light of faith so that I may see You surrounded by Your everlasting light.”32 [my translation] Bishop Pacha briefly mentions his poor eyesight in a letter written in Latin on July 20th, 1954, to prelate Mons. Traian Jovanelli,33 vicar of Bucharest. Pacha was also thanking him for having been a guest at the Episcopal palace in Bucharest, where Jovanelli himself had been the host.34 After moving to the parish house in the Iosefin district of Timişoara, other formal visits – albeit very amiable – followed. The Metropolitan Bishop of Banat, Dr. Vasile Lăzărescu visited Bishop Pacha, openly showing his joy for the latter’s return home. A few days later, when his health allowed it, Pacha returned Lăzărescu’s courteous visit. Simple people, such as the women employees of a red pepper powder laboratory, located in the basement of the parish house, paid the bishop an ad hoc visit one afternoon, bringing him a big bouquet of roses to show their happiness for their spiritual shepherd’s return from prison. The fact that at an old age, during hard times and after a four-year absence because of imprisonment, Bishop Pacha came back to the leadership of the diocese in actual fact and not just as an honorary member, is reflected in the letters he sent his priests. He wrote not only official but also spiritual correspondence with several priests, of whom we mention here priests Lajos Párvy of Gărâna, Josef Pettla of Totina, Julius Wünsche of Recaş and his chaplain, Eugen Gebhard. Each of them wanted something solved: Párvy the Chrism sacrament in his parish, Pettla a solution to the issue of “imposed domicile” for Totina,

32 Ibid., 192–193. 33 Acta Apostolicae Sedis [AAS], Commentarium Officiale, Annus XXVI - Series II - Vol. I, Romae, Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, MDCCCCXXXIV [1934], 575. Stanislau Traian Jovanelli was nominated on the first of March 1934 supernumerary secret papal chamberlain, and inhabitet the title of Monsigniore. 34 ADT, Fond Ep . A .P ., Folder „Korrespondenz (amtlich wie privat) nach der Entlassung aus dem Gefängnis“, Bishop Pacha’s letter to vicar Jovanelli, dated July 20th, 1954, not numbered.

124 Bishop Augustin Pacha (1870–1954) while Wünsche was celebrating his gold jubi- lee since having been consecrated as a priest.35 Still with regard to administrative matters, he had a long correspondence with the parish of Maria Radna, managed by Franciscan monks, where the jurisdiction of the parish administrator was unclear, while the convent’s spiritual guardian, Pater Odorik Szentmártoni OFM requested this in writing (on August 9th, 1954). In this respect the bishop even appointed two consultants; considering it was a parish with a convent, i.e. including regular clergy, the two consultants were a regular cleric and a secular one: P. Paulus Weinschrott SDS and priest Dr. Josef Schwartz, professor of theology.36 It has to be mentioned that, even if they were officially disbanded, the orders were still recognized on a diocese level. Still in relation to the bishop’s activity about the management of the parishes, we exemplify the special licenses for mixed marriages at Făget and Gătaia (July- 37 Fig. 2. Monsignore Konrad Kernweiss, ordi- September 1954). narius substitutus of the Diocese of Timișoara True to the spirit of Canon 1579 of the Ro- man Catholic Church Code of Canon Law, Bishop Augustin Pacha appointed a new ecclesiastical court for the Timişoara Diocese on September 18th, 1954. The members of this court had to be at the bishop’s house on Sep- tember 23rd, 1954, where they would take the pledge. The court was composed of: Iván Frigér – officialis, Adalbert Blaskowits – vice-official, Dr. Josef Schwartz – notary public, Peter Pázmány – “advocatum pauperum,” Franz Kräuter – promoter of justice and “defen- sor vinculi”. Pro-synodal judges were appointed: Iván Frigér, Georg Wetzl, Adalbert Blas- kowits, P. Johannes Blum SDS, P. Stefan Christ SDS, P. Carolus Haubenreich SDS, Konrad Kernweiss and Stephan Schultz.38 Two letters written in Latin and addressed to the Holy See are particularly interesting and bear the signature of Bishop Pacha. It is unknown whether these letters were actually sent, or whether they reached their destination, and if they did, how the delivery was made; one letter is dated October 1st, 1954, while the other October 10th. The then ordinary of the diocese of Alba Iulia, Adalbert Kovács, who was also a curate of Covasna, had trouble in exercising his

35 ADT, Fond Ep . A .P ., Folder „Korrespondenz (amtlich wie privat) nach der Entlassung aus dem Gefängnis“, letters to various priests, not numbered. 36 ADT, Fond Ep . A .P ., Folder „Korrespondenz (amtlich wie privat) nach der Entlassung aus dem Gefängnis“, correspondence with the spiritual guardian of Maria Radna, not numbered. 37 ADT, Fond Ep . A .P ., Folder „Korrespondenz (amtlich wie privat) nach der Entlassung aus dem Gefängnis“, Episcopal licenses 1954, not numbered. 38 ADT, Fond Ep . A .P ., Folder „Korrespondenz (amtlich wie privat) nach der Entlassung aus dem Gefängnis“, document for the appointment of the members of the ecclesiastical court on Septem- ber 18th, 1954, not numbered.

125 Claudiu Călin authority. The same was true for the ordinary of Satu Mare, Károly Pákocs. Pacha wrote in his letter that several priests from the above-mentioned dioceses did not obey these two superiors, claiming they had neither the acceptance of the state nor of the appropriate cathedral chapters in order to exercise this function. Because of this, upon the request of the two ordinaries and as a solution to eradicate spiritual anarchy, the bishop from Banat asked the Holy See to confirm the two as leaders of their respective dioceses or to designate him, as a bishop and older member of the same metropolitan province, to clarify the matter. Furthermore, the bishop requested explanations about jurisdiction and succession between a general vicar and a substitute ordinary, or between the two substitute ordinaries appointed by the bishop. He mentioned the fact that his general vicar, Dr. Ferdinand Cziza, was in Alba Iulia, where he also worked as a teacher of theology, answering to the ordinary there in terms of matters and problems pertaining to the disbanded diocese of Timişoara. It is of particular interest the manner in which he wanted to receive the answer: not only by post, but also by means of the shows broadcasted in Latin, Romanian, German or Hungarian on Vatican Radio.39 Another delicate pastoral matter touched on by Pacha as early as July 22nd, 1954, was his pastorate and the financial situation of the faithful and of the Roman Catholic priests deported by the communist authorities to Bărăgan. In a letter addressed to his general vicar, bearing the above-mentioned date, he asks the general vicar to investigate the matter. Of the priests, László Túry and Zoltán Buding had been deported, both of them rather young at the time. We do not know vicar Cziza’s reply, but it is certain that on September 21st, the general vicar of Bucharest, canon Stanislau Traian Jovanelli, sent the bishop of Timişoara a short report, dated September 4th, a document in which the curate of Brăila, Falewski, summed up the holy High Mass services, the weddings, the christenings, the funerals and the first Com- munions that took place at Zagna, Măzăreni, Vădeni-Zagna and Urleasca. The phrase that “all Masses happen out in the open” clearly shows the living standards of those villages.40 Pacha’s courageous attitude is referred to in a project requesting the return of the diocesan library books, confiscated in October 1951. The books were then in the city library of Timişoara, which did not want to give them back unless a new decision was made in this respect by the Ministry of Cults. We have not managed to find out whether the request was submitted, but it is certain that the books were never returned41. To return now to Pacha’s pastoral activity, it is known that, although almost blind and extremely weak, the bishop used to take part to Sunday Mass in the parish church of Iosefin district, which was very close to his home. On his way out, along the central aisle of the church, he would bless the faithful. There were many who burst into tears, deeply touched by the bishop’s gesture and by the physical condition of their spiritual father. On the last Sunday of every month, the bishop would take part in a solemn mass at the Dome of St. George (the Roman-Catholic cathedral of Timișoara), also because in 1954 they celebrated one hundred years since the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception

39 ADT, Fond Ep . A .P ., Folder „Korrespondenz (amtlich wie privat) nach der Entlassung aus dem Gefängnis“, two letters to the Holy See (October 1st and 10th, 1954), not numbered. 40 ADT, Fond Ep . A .P ., Folder „Korrespondenz (amtlich wie privat) nach der Entlassung aus dem Gefängnis“, correspondence on the issue of the people deported to Bărăgan, not numbered. 41 ADT, Fond Ep . A .P ., Folder „Korrespondenz (amtlich wie privat) nach der Entlassung aus dem Gefängnis“, request for the return of the Episcopal library books, September 18th, 1954, not numbered.

126 Bishop Augustin Pacha (1870–1954) of the Virgin Mary. On the last Sunday of September, Pacha attended his last Mass at the Dome. When he was drawing closer to the cathedral, the big Episcopal bell was told in his honour; he himself had given the bell to the religious building when he was ordained a bishop. Deeply touched – say the eye-witnesses – he may not even have thought to hear these bells for the last time.42

IV. The last days and the death of Bishop Pacha. The Funeral and the succession

Even if after having been released from prison, the bishop’s health improved as much as possible given his old age (he even gained 10 kilograms in weight), fatigue appeared more and more often. He never complained, although he sometimes made comments about the paleness of his hands or about his general condition. On October 24th he experienced severe pain, which Pacha also had during his imprisonment. His doctor, Emmerich Bauer, was fetched and he gave the bishop a sedative. It was not very well known if it was intesti- nal cancer or a condition of the prostate. Following the discussion with family members, surgeon Ion Danicico, the manager of “Clinicile Noi” Hospital, was also consulted. The doctors prescribed him powder sedatives, which could be administered even if there was no doctor around. On the last day of October, the pains returned no less than four times. On November 1st the pains were so severe that Dr. Bauer gave the patient a considerable dose of morphine. The next day the patient experienced intermittent moments of uncon- sciousness. This is when the bishop’s confessor, P. Stefan Christ SDS, was called in order to give him the sacraments for the dying. As the bishop’s state worsened and hospital care was imminent, secretary Franz Kräuter conferred the Final Anointing on him, granting him general absolution and the papal blessing with plenary indulgence. At lunchtime, on No- vember 2nd, Bishop Pacha was taken to hospital in an ambulance. Medical investigations performed at the hospital did not bring any necessary clarifications to establish a diagnosis. On November 3rd, the doctors decided to proceed with the surgery. Surgeon Ion Danicico believed that waiting for too long could only contribute to further weakening the patient. That very same day surgeons Ion Danicico and Pius Brînzeu removed a prostate tumour from the bishop’s body and also did a hernia operation on him. Pacha survived surgery but recovery was all about his old age. Despite all this, the patient never woke back from anes- thesia. Pneumonia, however, complicated the entire situation. On the morning of November 4th the bishop was brought back home, to the parish house of Iosefin district. As his vital signs were getting weaker, at half past six in the evening, a candle was lit for the dying man and appropriate prayers were begun. In a matter of hours, the octogenarian cleric passed away. While the priest who was praying out loud first said “Lord, may he rest in peace!”, none of the people present could reply because of tears. Augustin Pacha was immediately dressed in pontifical vestments and funeral arrangements began. As his death occurred on a Thursday, November 4th, at half past six in the evening, and the priests could not be absent from their parishes on Saturday and Sunday, the date for the funeral was set at nine o’clock in the morning on Monday, November 8th, 1954, of which the other dioceses in the country and the civil authorities were informed. On Friday evening,

42 Dr. theol. Franz Kräuter, idem, 194.

127 Claudiu Călin

Fig. 3. The Obituary of Bishop Pacha in Latin

November 5th, in the presence of relatives, priests and the nuns who had looked after him, a first ceremony was performed in the deceased’s room of the Iosefin district Parrish house. The local curate, honorary canon Georg Wetzl and both his chaplains recited the prayers.43 Immediately afterwards, the body of Bishop Pacha was moved to the Dome St. George, as the funeral place was the crypt of that cathedral, according to his last will and testament.44 Although Stefan Fiedler, Bishop Emeritus of Satu Mare and Oradea, former colleague and former general vicar of Pacha’s, announced his arrival to perform the funeral service, his health prevented him.45 Instead, he designated the only canon still free, Iván Frigér. Saturday and Sunday were genuine pilgrimage days to the distinguished bishop’s bier for the faithful in the city as well as from nearby villages. On Sunday, the long line of people who passed by the bier to pay their last respect was literally endless. At nine o’clock on Monday morning the funeral began with a Requiem. Even though it was a working day, the crowd inside the Dome and in the Union Square was immense. Those who had not managed to enter the cathedral had to stay outside to at least be a part of the funeral procession. Among the ones present were Adalbert Kovács, ordinary of Alba Iulia, canon Adalbert Schriffert from Oradea together with his secretary Ferenc Bélteky, Msgr. Károly Pákocs from Satu Mare, and Vasile Begu on behalf of the Archdiocese in Bucharest. Representing the Metropolitan see of Banat, there were Dr. Nicolae Corneanu (counselor at the time), archpriest Vuia and another counselor cleric. The protestant cults were represented by Pastors István Debreczény (Reformed), Leo Peuker (Reformed), and Pál Matos (Evangelical Lutheran). The Serbian Or-

43 Ibid., 197–200. 44 ADT, Fond Ep . A .P ., Folder: „Tod-Beisetzung-Beileidsschreiben-Testament 1948/1954”, Augus- tin Pacha’s last will and testament, dated September 27th, 1949, not numbered. 45 ADT, Fond Ep . A .P ., Folder: „Tod-Beisetzung-Beileidsschreiben-Testament 1948/1954”, Bishop Fiedler’s telegram to announce his attendance at the funerals, dated November 6th, 1954 (Satur- day), not numbered.

128 Bishop Augustin Pacha (1870–1954)

Fig. 4. The inscription of the tomb of Bishop Pacha in the crypt of the Dome St. George in Timișoara

thodox general vicar, Stefan Tomici, also attended the service, as he was an old acquaintance of Pacha’s. The Israeli community was represented by rabies Dr. Maximilian Drexler and Dr. Ernest Neumann. The Ministry of Cults in Bucharest sent as representatives’ general direc- tor Marin Surică and regional inspector Sever Popescu. The “Popular Counsel” (i.e. the City Hall) of Timişoara also had two representatives at the funeral.46 According to the prescribed rites, the priest conducting the funeral was assisted by a deacon, Konrad Kernweiss, by a sub-deacon Ferdinand Hauptmann, and by honorary deacons Dr. Ferdinand Cziza and P. Johannes Bulm SDS. Acolytes were P. Gottfried Borth SDS and brother Pius Hoffmann SDS. Sebastian Kräuter and Wenzel Demele were turiferari. Franz Kräuter presided over the ceremony. Of the diocese clergy 108 priests were present at their bishop’s committal. The praise of the deceased bishop was spoken in Romanian, German and Hungarian by canon Iván Frigér. It was also he who performed by himself the actual burial rite in order to avoid jurisdiction issues. After that, the coffin was carried by priests towards the Dome exit, under the choir balcony. There, the representative of Măureni village, Pacha’s birthplace, gave a short farewell speech. A small bag of earth from Măureni was brought for the occasion and it was placed in the Dome crypt together with the simple oak coffin. Bishop Pacha, the most beloved clergyman of the Banat Swabians was placed below the high altar, next to the final resting place of Bishop Nikola Stanislavich (+1750), who had also been cherished by local Bulgarian ethnics. In front of the open niche, the new diocese ordinary, Konrad Kernweiss, introduced himself to the clergymen present as such, similar to Elisha taking over prophet Elijah’s mission in the Old Testament.47 The marble slab covering the niche now bears the bishop’s coat of arms and the inscrip- 46 ADT, Fond Ep . A .P ., Folder: „Tod-Beisetzung-Beileidsschreiben-Testament 1948/1954”, the list of representatives of other cults and officials, not numbered; Dr. theol. Franz Kräuter, idem, 204 47 Dr. theol. Franz Kräuter, idem, 201–205.

129 Claudiu Călin tion: “Dr. Augustin Pacha, primus episcopus Timisoaraensis 1870–1954.” as well as the motto: “Beati mortui, qui in Domino moriuntur!”

V. Conclusions The trial of the Pacha lot represents one of the grandest juridical frame-ups in the history of Romania. An iniquitous political and ideological instrument used by the Secret Police, the trial was a perfect example of manipulation and diabolic construction of a “case” that was meant to be set an example for those who would dare, from then on, to even flirt with the West. From a different point of view, this trial was meant, on the one hand, to show how corrupt the political class before August 23rd, 1944 had been, and on the other hand, to denigrate and disgrace the Catholic Church in the eyes of the populace, and why not, of its own faithful. The Catholic Church was seen by communists as being one of the greatest enemies of the “popular democracy regime” not only through its political influence, but also and especially through its supranational structure and the loyalty of the clergymen and the faithful. Bishop Pacha was one of the victims of this frame-up, as he was reserved, despite his very old age, the leader position of this “lot,” which also borrowed his name. Both as a simple man and as a cleric, Bishop Pacha was several times in the wrong place at the wrong time. He honestly thought that he could change or at least influence the Nazis’ attitude, beginning with Adolf Hitler and ending with the youth he had greeted with the Nazi salute at their demonstrations in Timişoara and Aradu Nou. Some studies consider the cleric of Banat as a triple victim: first, a victim of his own illusions for having assumed that Hitler would agree with his appeal and that the Catholic Church of Banat would no longer suffer from the national socialist propaganda; second, a victim of the Nazis in Romania, who saw him as the tool of universal, anti-national and anti-racist Catholicism; and third, a victim of the communists who used him and his fame to denigrate the Catholic Church and make an example out of him in terms of the communist fight against supranational Ca- tholicism in Romania, according to Kremlin expectations. The bishop’s personality and his religious, cultural and political choices should never be forgotten. Deeply rooted in the traditions and the German people of Banat, Pacha always tried to provide his conationals with peace and quiet, and a constant Catholic spiritual course, at least from the point of view of denomination and of the influence he held in political environments.

References

Acta Apostolicae Sedis [AAS], Commentarium Officiale, Annus XXVI - Series II - Vol. I, Romae, Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, MDCCCCXXXIV [1934]. Bucur, Marius and Lavinia Stan. Persecuţia Bisericii Catolice în România. Documente din Arhiva Europei Libere 1948–1960 [The Persecution of the Catholic Church in Romania. Documents from the Free Europe Archives 1948–1960], Târgu Lăpuş: Galaxia Gutenberg, 2005. Doboş, Dănuţ. “Arhidieceza de Bucureşti în perioada 1948–1989” [The Archdiocese of Bucharest during 1948–1989], in Biserica Romano-Catolică din România în timpul perioadei comuniste (1948–1989) [The Roman Catholic Church in Romania during the communist period (1948– 1989)], edited by the National Commission for the Study of the History of the Roman Catholic Church in Romania. Iaşi: Sapientia Publishing House, 2008. Engelmann, Nikolaus and Franziska Graf, Peter Krier, Eduard Schneider. Die Liobaschwester Dr .

130 Bishop Augustin Pacha (1870–1954)

Hildegardis Wulff. Weg, Werk und Vermächtnis, Herausgegeben von der Landsmannschaft der Banater Schwaben, Landesverband Bayern. Wangen: Walchner Druck, 1996. Kräuter, Franz (Doctor in civil law). Erinnerungen aus meiner christlich-demokratischen Dienstzei. Manuskriptdruck. Freiburg: Rota-Druck, 1967. Kräuter, Franz (Doctor in Theology). Erinnerungen an Bischof Pacha. Ein Stück Banater Heimatge- schichte. Bucharest: ADZ Verlag, 1995. Müller, Friedrich (Bischof). Erinnerungen. Zum Weg der siebenbürgisch-sächsischen Kirche 1944– 1964. (Bearbeitet von Hanelore Baier). Bukarest: Kriterion Verlag, 1995. Partidul, Securitatea şi Cultele 1945–1989 [The Party, the Securitate and the Cults 1945–1989], ed. Adrian Nicolae Petcu. Bucharest: Nemira Publishing House, 2005. Petcu, Adrian Nicolae, Aspecte ale Represiunii Antireligioase în anii ’50. Dosarul 15.563 [Aspects of the Antireligious Repression in the ‘50es], in Pro Memoria. Revisă de istorie Ecleziastică [Pro. Memoria. Magazine for Ecclesiastical History], București, Nr. 5 / 2006. Procesul unui grup de spioni, trădători şi complotişti în slujba Vaticanului şi a centrului de spionaj italian, Bucureşti, 10–17 septembrie 1951 [The Trial of a group of spies, traitors and plotters in the service fo the Vatican and the Italian centre for espionage, Bucharest, 10–17 September 1951]. Bucharest: The State Publishing House for Scientific Literature, 1952. Schematismus Dioeceseos Timisoarensis pro Anno Domini 2005–2006. Timişoara: Typis Typograph- iae “Mirton”, 2005. Totok, William. Episcopul, Hitler şi Securitatea. Procesul stalinist împotriva „spionilor Vaticanului” din România [The Bishop, Hitler and the Securitate. The Stalinist Trial against “Vatican Spies” in Romania]. Iaşi: Polirom Publishing House, 2008. Arhivele Naționale Istorice Centrale (ANIC - The Central National Historical Archives in Bucharest) Fond: Ministerul Cultelor. Direcția de Studii (Section “Ministry of Cults, Department for Studies”). Archivum Dioecesanum Timisoarense (ADT – Archives of the Diocese of Timișoara), Fond: Episcop Augustin Pacha (Ep. A.P. - Section Bishop Augustin Pacha). Fond: Nunţiatura Apostolică. Fond: Episcop Sebastian Kräuter (Section Bishop Sebastian Kräuter).

131 Franz Metz Die Rolle des hl. Gerhard im sozio-kulturellen Leben der Banater Christen Franz Metz

Nur kurze Zeit nach dem Märtyrertod von Bischof Gerhard begann man im Banat seiner in Legenden und Berichten zu gedenken. Im Laufe der Jahrhunderte hat dieser Gerhardskult viele Änderungen erlebt, ihm zu Ehren wurden Gedichte geschrieben und Lieder komponi- ert. Selbst nach der Teilung seines ehemaligen Csanader Bistums nach dem ersten Weltkrieg wurde er in allen drei Nachfolgediözesen nicht nur als erster Bischof des Banats sondern auch als ein Heiliger geehrt. Durch die Folgen des zweiten Weltkriegs, die Vertreibung der Donauschwaben aus den südslawischen Ländern unddie spätere Auswanderung des größten Teils der Banater Schwaben nach Deutschland gelangte der Gerhardskult auch in dieses Land. In Stuttgart wurde so das St. Gerhards-Werk gegründet, in München aber das Gerhardsforum Banater Schwaben.

Keywords: Banat; Hl. Gerhard; Mittelalter; Donauschwaben; Kommunismus; Rumänien; Deutschland; Gerhardsforum; Gerhardswerk

Durch die aus den Ländern Ex-Jugoslawiens und Ungarns 1944–45 vertriebenen Donauschwa- ben und durch die aus dem rumänischen Banat nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg ausgewanderten Katholiken wurde der Gerhardskult auch nach Deutschland verpflanzt. Dadurch konnte in der Zeit des Eisernen Vorhangs wenigstens durch die in Deutschland lebenden Donauschwaben aus dem Südosten Europas die Erinnerung an den hl. Gerhard wachgehalten werden. Man suchte nach dem Beispiel anderer deutscher Hilfswerke (z.B. Bonifatiuswerk) einen Namen, um seine Identität und seine Herkunft am besten zu verdeutlichen. Der Name von Bischof Gerhard war deshalb für die aus den südöstlichen deutschen Siedlungsgebieten angekomm- enen katholischen Flüchtlingen, Vertriebenen und Aussiedlern geeignet, um ihre Identität am besten zu verdeutlichen. Für viele aus dem Banat stammenden Aussiedler bedeutete das Stutt- garter Gerhardswerk auch eine Hilfe in der Bewältigung ihrer ersten Schritte in der Bundesre- publik Deutschland. So manche Hilfen für Kirchen und Seelsorger des Temeswarer Bistums kamen zwischen 1960–1989 auch von diesem Hilfswerk (Bild 1.). Das St. Gerhards-Werk ist aus dem „Arbeitskreis südostdeutscher Katholiken e.V.“, gegründet 1952 in München, hervorgegangen. Im Jahre 1955 wurde dieser Arbeitskreis in St. Gerhards-Werk e.V. umbenannt und im Jahre 1957 fand dessen Übersiedlung nach Stuttgart statt. Seit dann ist dieser kirchliche Verein in der Diözese Rottenburg-Stuttgart

Bild 1. Titelseite des Mitteilungsblattes „Gerhardsbote,“ Stuttgart (Ausschnitt)

132 Die Rolle des hl. Gerhard im sozio-kulturellen Leben der Banater Christen

Bild 2. Titelseite des Mitteilungsblattes „Gerhardsforum,“ München

133 Franz Metz angesiedelt. Dazu wurde auch ein Parallelverein für jüngere Mitglieder ins Leben gerufen, die „Gerhardsjugend“. Diese war dem Verein besonders in der Organisation von Wallfahr- ten, Wochenendtagungen und Auslandsfahrten behilflich. Ab 1958 wurde das St. Gerhards- Werk vom Jesuitenpater Wendelin Gruber geleitet, der kurz davor durch Intervention von Bundeskanzler Dr. Konrad Adenauer aus jugoslawischer Haft freigekommen war. Er war auch der Begründer der seit 1959 jährlich stattfindenden großen Gelöbniswallfahrt der Do- nauschwaben nach Altötting (Bayern). Sein Nachfolger war ab 1965 Prälat Josef Haltmay- er, der u.a. auch das Mitteilungsblatt Gerhardsbote regelmäßig herausgegeben hat. Dieses Mitteilungsblatt erscheint auch heute noch zweimonatlich mit einem Umfang von 12 Seiten. Das St. Gerhards-Werk setzte sich seit dem Beginn seiner Existenz ein für die Integra- tion der Vertriebenen und Aussiedlern in Deutschland, organisierte regelmäßig Studientage zur Geschichte und Religion der Donauschwaben, Eingliederungsseminare für Heimatver- triebene und Aussiedler, Wallfahrten, Maiandachten und Gottesdienste. Im Rahmen des St. Gerhards-Werks wurden auch einige Bücher und Sammelbände zur Kirchengeschichte der Donauschwaben veröffentlicht. Heute gehört das St. Gerhards-Werk zum Arbeitskreis Ka- tholischer Vertriebenenorganisationen der Diözese Rottenburg-Stuttgart (Bild 2.) Das Gerhardsforum Banater Schwaben e.V. wurde im Jahre 2009 in München ins Leben gerufen. Als Logo des Vereins hat man das in den Sarkophag aus Tschanad einge- meiselte Kreuz genommen. Zu den Zielen und Aufgaben dieses kirchlichen Vereins zählt u.a. die Pflege der kirchlichen Traditionen der Banater Schwaben und Donauschwaben, die Aufarbeitung und Bekanntmachung der Kirchengeschichte der Banater Diözesen, die Ver- anstaltung von Wallfahrten, Gottesdiensten, Maiandachten, Symposien und Kirchenkonzer- ten, die Veranstaltung von Studienfahrten und Gedenktagen wie auch die Unterstützung von verschiedenen kirchlichen Projekten im Banat. Der Verein gibt zweimal jährlich das um- fangreiche Mitteilungsblatt GERHARDSFORUM heraus und setzt sich ein für den Ausbau Zusammenarbeit zwischen den landsmannschaftlichen Organisationen in Deutschland und den Kirchen im Banat. So wurde 2011 die Partnerschaft zwischen den beiden Wallfahrtskir- chen Maria Ramersdorf in München und Maria Radna im Banat ins Leben gerufen. Diese wird stets lebendig gehalten durch gegenseitige Besuche, gemeinsamen Wallfahrten und durch einen regen Austausch. Am 31. August 2014 fand in St. Pius, München, gemeinsam mit Renovabis (Freising) ein Symposium statt, bei welchem die Situation der Heimatkir- chen im Banat und über verschiedene kirchliche Hilfsprojekte gesprochen wurde. Auch die Ökumene spielt dabei eine große Rolle. Im Jahre 2011 wurde im Rahmen des Gerhardsfo- rums das Katholische Gesangbuch der Donauschwaben veröffentlicht (Bild 3–4.). In der Zwischenkriegszeit versuchte man durch zahlreiche Publikationen den Gerhards- kultus im Banat auch in deutscher Sprache wieder zu verbreiten. Nach nur wenigen Jahren ist zum Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts bereits die Erscheinung des Temeswarer St . Gerar- dusblattes eingestellt worden und auch das in Werschetz erschienene Mitteilungsblatt Sct . Gerardus. Religiöses Sonntagsblatt für das katholische Volk hatte keine lange Lebensdauer. So erschienen z.B. in deutschsprachigen Banater Zeitungen nach 1919 Artikeln von Béla Schiff, im Katholischen Volkskalender brachte man mehrmals verschiedene Aufsätze über das Leben und Wirken des hl. Gerhard und man begann von kirchlicher Seite aus die Pfarr- kirche von Tschanad als Wallfahrtskirche zu etablieren. Pfarrer Dr. Koloman Juhász veröf- fentlichte in der Zwischenkriegszeit seine Arbeiten zur Kirchengeschichte des Mittelalters wie auch seine Forschungen zum Wirken des hl. Gerhard. Der erste Bischof des Banats wurde so in den kleinsten katholischen Pfarrgemeinden bekannt und im Religionsunterricht

134 Die Rolle des hl. Gerhard im sozio-kulturellen Leben der Banater Christen

Bild 3. Logo des Gerhardsforums Banater Bild 4. 10 Hauptaltarbild der römisch- Scheaben e.V., München: das Kreuz auf dem katholischen Kirche in Schag (Josef Sch- Sarkophag des hl. Gerhard in Tschanad weininger: Hl. Gerhard) konnte die Schuljugend darüber Einzelheiten erfahren. So malte z.B. um 1930 der Kan- torlehrer Josef Schweininger aus Schag ein Bild für den Hauptaltar seiner Heimatkirche – eigentlich eine Kopie nach dem bekannten Gerhardsbild von Gyula Túry aus der Zeit 1896/97. Bischof Martin Roos hat in seiner Arbeit Gerhard von Csanád – Protomärtyrer des christlichen Ungarn aus dem Jahre 1991 über dessen Persönlichkeit und Verehrung aus- führlich geschrieben (Bild 5.).

Bild 5. Titelseite der Schrift „Gerhardusb- latt“ (Ausschnitt)

135 Franz Metz

Bild 6. Manuskript des Gerhardsliedes (Temeswar 1946) Die kirchliche Situation änderte sich im Banat schlagartig 1947 mit dem Verbot der konfessionellen Schulen in der Diözese Temeswar, den kirchlichen Restriktionen und der Einschränkung des religiösen Lebens. Ab Herbst 1944 wurden die Banater Schwaben aus dem Serbischen Banat vertrieben, ab Januar 1945 wurden viele Banater Schwaben aus dem rumänischen Banat zur Zwangsarbeit nach Russland deportiert, danach in den Baragan. Der Kreuzweg der katholischen Kirche des Banats und ganz Rumäniens hat damit begonnen. Bis zur Wende von 1989 war die römisch-katholische Kirche in Rumänien nur noch eine geduldete Kirche und viele Priester und Bischöfe wurden erst Anfang der 60er Jahre aus den kommunistischen Gefängnissen entlassen. Trotz der Unterdrückung durch die totalitäre kommunistische rumänische Staatsmacht, wurde in den Reihen der katholischen Gläubigen versucht, die bisherigen kirchlichen Traditionen aufrecht zu erhalten. Und dazu gehört auch die Verehrung des hl. Gerhard. Gerade in der schwersten Zeit von Verfolgung, Not und Unterdrückung, im Jahre 1946, entstand das bekannteste Gerhardslied, das Messlied zu Ehren des hl. Gerhard, dessen Text von Pfarrer Dr. Franz Kräuter stammt und von den beiden Kantoren Hans Weisz und Paul Wittmann vertont wurde. Dieses mehrstrophige Lied entstand anlässlich des 900. Todestags des hl. Gerhard und wurde am 24. September 1946 zum ersten Mal gesungen. Im Sinne der traditionellen Messlieder war jede Strophe für einen bestimmten Teil des Ordinariums vorgesehen. Paul Wittmann hat die im ungarischen Volkston gehaltene Melodie von Hans Weisz für verschiedene Besetzungen harmonisiert (Bild 6.).

1. Sankt Gerhard, frommer Gottesmann, (Refr.) dich flehen deine Kinder an, Schau gnädig auf das Ackerfeld, o Schutzpatron das du als Sämann einst bestellt. bei Gottesthron! Hüt deine Saat, Zu dir ruft unsres Lebens Not, schirm das Banat. sei unser Helfer jetzt bei Gott Du kamst als Gottes Bote her, in Angst und Not, du pflanztest hier des Kreuzes Lehr. vor Krieg und Tod. Hüt deine Saat, schirm das Banat!

136 Die Rolle des hl. Gerhard im sozio-kulturellen Leben der Banater Christen

2. Du lehrtest hier das Wort des Herrn, 4. Schütz deiner Herde Priesterschar, du gabst dafür dein Leben gern. lass fest sie stehen zum Altar. Du Gottes Held, Lass ihre Reihn von ihm bestellt! dem Herrn sich weihn, Mehr unsern Glauben, mach ihn stark, dass sie wie du mit frommem Sinn lass treu uns sein und ohne Arg. uns führen zu dem Heiland hin. O, steh uns bei, Ihr Lebenswerk, hilf uns aufs neu. (Refr.) den Glauben stärk! (Refr.)

3. Reich führend deine heilge Hand, 5. Schirm den, der heut die Bürde trägt der Jugend hier in Stadt und Land. und deiner Herde Schifflein hegt. Führ sie zurück Den Hirten hüt, zum wahren Glück. der uns jetzt führt. Dass Glaube, Reinheit, Ehr und Treu Erfleh ihm Weisheit und Geduld, die Richtung ihres Lebens sei, zum Opfer Kraft und Gotteshuld. im Lebensstreit, Halt von ihm fern sei hilfbereit. (Refr.) des Unglücks Stern. (Refr.)

Trotzdem man dieses Lied nicht veröffentli- chen durfte, wurde es in fast allen katholischen Kirchengemeinden verbreitet und meist am Tag des hl. Gerhard, also am 24. September, im Got- tesdienst gesungen. Derselbe Text wurde etwas später von Msgr. Paul Lackner, der viele Jahre als Priester in Re- schitza tätig war, vertont. Dieses Banater Ger- hardslied ist in der Melodie (ebenfalls in Moll) einfacher und schlichter gehalten als die Verto- nung von Weisz und Wittmann und war außerhalb Reschitzas kaum bekannt. Die Tradition der Gerhardslieder vor1946 ist im Banat recht überschaubar. Wir kennen zwar die Titel einiger dieser Lieder, doch fehlt der Rest in den schriftlichen Überlieferungen. So wurde im Kantorenbuch der Kirchengemeinde Traunau zwar ein Lied zu Ehren des hl. Gerardus, als dem Patron der Csanáder Diöcese genannt, doch hat der Kopist das Lied nicht mehr aufgeschrieben. Im Jahre 1980 kam der Auftrag vom damaligen Ordinarius, anlässlich des Gerhardjubiläums ein neues Gerhardslied zu komponieren, das aber zum Singen einfacher sein sollte als jenes aus dem Jahre 1946. Der Text stammt aus der Feder von Bild 7. Titelseite der Broschüre „Der Gerhard- Hans Mokka: sweg“ (verfasst von Pfarrer Egmont Franz Topits)

137 Franz Metz

1. Gepriesen sei dein Name und strahlend über Zeit, vollbrachtest Wunderbares in der Vergangenheit. Geheiligt sei dein Name, gepriesen deine Tat, du warst der erste Bischof, Sankt Gerhard im Banat.

2. Du richtest auf die Menschen in ihrem Bittgebet, gibst jedem innre Ruhe der vor dir dankend steht. Geheiligt sei dein Name, gepriesen deine Tat, du warst der erste Bischof, Sankt Gerhard im Banat.

3. Du schützest uns vor Argwohn, steh bei in unsrer Not, du schützest vor der Armut, reichst jedem Heil und Brot. Geheiligt sei dein Name, gepriesen deine Tat, du warst der erste Bischof, Sankt Gerhard im Banat.

In einer kleineren Auflage hat das Gerhardsforum Banater Schwaben (München) an- lässlich der Studienreise im Jahre 2013 ins Banat die wertvolle Arbeit von Pfarrer Egmont Franz Topits veröffentlicht: Der Gerhardsweg. Wallfahrt auf den Spuren des heiligen Ger- hard. Gerhardskirchen und Heiligtümer der Donauschwaben in den drei Nachfolgestaa- ten . Es ist eine geschickt zusammengestellte Handreichung für jeden Wallfahrer, der sich europaweit auf den Weg macht, auf den Spuren des hl. Gerhard zu pilgern. Geschichtliche Daten, Gebete, Gesänge, Meditationen und viele touristisch Tipps lassen diese Broschüre kurzweilig erscheinen. Darin finden wir auch eine weniger bekannte Gerhardshymne von Emerich Csicsáky, das der ehemalige Pfarrer von Neuarad, Johann Baptist Mayer (1872– 1935) aus dem Ungarischen übersetzt hat. Die Melodie stammt von F. Gaal.

1. Sankt Gerhard preiset unser Lied, Sankt Stefans treuem Freunde, der sein heimatliches Gefild verließ zu unserer Freude. Und im schönen Pannonien ein großer Apostel war, der des Heidenvolkes Schrecken, der Christen Schutz immerdar.

138 Die Rolle des hl. Gerhard im sozio-kulturellen Leben der Banater Christen

2. Im altehrwürdigen Tschanad der erste Bischof war er. Drum segnete mit Fried´ und Gnade Ihm tausendfach Gott der Herr. Oh, könnte ich Euch erzählen, was Gerhard für uns getan, dass das Kreuz zum Hort wir wählen und dies´ Land Christi sei dann!

3. Segne deine Schäflein alle! Deine Treuen segne sie! Dass unsre Seel´ nicht verfalle, vor dem Bösen rette sie. Später Zeiten schwache Kinder Hilf nun finden deine Spur das Kreuz glänze herrlich wieder und die Tugend blühe nur.

4. Hohe, hehre Schutzfrau Ungarns mit Gerhard bete zu Gott! Dein treues Volk auch bitte, warn´s wenn öffnet sich der Hölle Pfort´. Für Christus hast einst gelitten St. Gerhard du treuer Hirt. Oh mögest du Gott nun bitten dass unsre Seel´ nicht verirrt.

References

Juhász, Koloman. Die Stifte der Tschanader Diözese im Mittelalter. Ein Beitrag zur Frühgeschichte und Kulturgeschichte des Banats. Münster in Westfalen, 1927. _____. A Csanádi Püspökség Története. Alapitásától a Tatárjárásig (1030–1242). Makó 1930. _____. Gerhard der Heilige, Bischof von Maroschburg, München: 1930. Dániel, Géza und Ábrahám István. Szent Gellért és a csanádi püspökség rövid története. Szeged: 1980. Dedek, Ludwig Crescens. Das Leben des Heiligen Märtyrers Gerardus, ersten Bischofs von Csanad. Budapest: 1900. Roos, Martin. Erbe und Auftrag. Die alte Diözese Csanád. Band 1. Temeswar: 2009. _____. „Gerhard von Csanád – Protomärtyrer des christlichen Ungarn,“ in: Glaube in Volk und Hei- mat. Festgabe für Prälat Josef Haltmayer. Stuttgart: 1991.

Topits, Egmont Franz. Der Gerhardsweg. Wallfahrt auf den Spuren des heiligen Gerhard. Gerhard- skirchen und Heiligtümer der Donauschwaben in den drei Nachfolgestaaten. München: 2013. Archiv des St. Gerhards-Werkes, Diözese Rottenburg-Stuttgart. Archiv des Gerhardsforums Banater Schwabene.V., München.

139 Alin Cristian Scridon Western Biblical Studies in the Work of Roman-Catholic and Orthodox Theologians 1867–1918

Alin Cristian Scridon

During the dualistic period (1867–1918), the historical Banat region in Romania had two active Churches: the Roman-Catholic and the Orthodox churches . Of course, there were also Greek-Catholic and Protestant (Lutheran and Calvin) churches, but most Christians belonged to the Roman-Catholic and Orthodox communities. Because of ethnical sepa- rations, the orthodox were further divided into the Romanian Orthodox Church and the Serbian Orthodox Church. The Romanians of Banat were led by two Bishopric Centres: Caransebes and Arad. Both bishoprics were canonically dependent on the Transylvanian Metropolitan Church with its headquarters in, Sibiu. The Roman-Catholic Bishopric of Timisoara led valuable activities, having a clerical school in its jurisdiction. Therefore, historical Banat had three theological study centres: Arad, Caransebes, and Timisoara – although Arad was not officially part of the historical Banat.

Keywords: The Diocesan Theological Institute of Caransebeş; the New Testament; the Bible; Theology; Church.

On the 23rd of September 1865, the Romanian Theological Institute of Caransebes (the sec- tor transferred from Vârşeţ in Serbia) started its classes, while the Theological Institute of Arad was founded in 1822.1 In the Theological Institute of Caransebes, several renowned professors in the Habsburg Empire and Romania taught classed on the New Testament. Iosif Iuliu Olariu (1859–1920) was one of them. He published, in 1894, the thesis titled Manual exegetic la Sfânta Scriptură a Testanmentuluĭ nou. Evangheliile după Matei, Marcu şi Luca comentate de Iuliu Olariu. The book is well documented and extremely thick (644 pages) for those times. By the end of the work, Iosif Iuliu Olariu makes the following remark:

I made the translation on the Tischendorf text, corrected by O. V. Gebheardt (Novum Testamen- tum graece ex ultima Tischendorfii recensione, edito stereotype minor, Lipsiae 1887. B. Tauch- nitz) blending with Vulg. Rec. and Romanian translation (of Bucharest, Blaj, Buzau, Saguna).2 Furthermore, Iosif Iuliu Olariu also studied the latest exegetic literature: Carl Friedrich Keil, Frederick Brotherton Meyer, Hermann Olshausen, Johannes Weiss, Peter Schegg, etc.

1 Pavel Vesa, Învăţământul teologic de la Arad 1822–1948 [Theological Education in Arad 1822– 1948], (Deva: Editura Episcopiei Devei şi Hunedoarei, 2013), 11. 2 Iuliu Olariu, Manual exegetic la sfânta Scriptură a Testanmentuluĭ noŭ. Evangheliile după Mateiŭ, Marcu şi Luca comentate de Iuliu Olariu, volumul I, Sinopticii [New Testament Exegesis. The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke], (Caransebeş: Tipografia Diecezană, 1894), V.

This work was supported by the strategic grant POSDRU/159/1.5/S/140863, Project ID 140863 (2014), co-financed by the European Social Fund within the Sectoral Operational Program Human Resources Development 2007–2013.

140 Western Biblical Studies in the Work of Roman-Catholic and Orthodox Theologians 1867–1918

Iosif Iuliu Olariu closed the exegetic circle of the gospels by publishing the exegetic work of the Gospel of John in 1897 (although the cover bears the year 1898) in Caransebes at the Diecezana Printing House. In the foreword of this study, written in the Feast of the Cross (the 14th of September) in the year 1897, Olariu noted that he used the same bibliographical sources (especially German) used in the synoptics, and in the work published three years earlier.3

Fig. 1. Exegetics manual for the Holy Fig. 2. Gospel of John explained by Dr. Iuliu Scripture of the New Testament. Gospel of Olariu Matthew, Mark, and Luke commented by Iuliu Olariu. The turn of the nineteenth century represented a prolific period for Olariu’s work. Every second to fourth year, he published a vast piece of work, which entered the scientific circuit, but which was most helpful to theRomanian students of theology, given that they could not access the information before because of the language barrier. Therefore, in 1901, the Di- ecezana Printing House of Caransebes published his Explicarea Psalmilor din Ceaslov de Dr . Iuliu Olariu . This scientific endeavour was based on the theory that “the Psalter plays an important part in the godly cult of the Orthodox Church, which can be seen more clearly in the fact that the Fathers comment on it and praise it a numerous times.”4 Furthermore, Olariu also addressed the Psalms in order to “enable the understanding of the psalms which

3 Iuliu Olariu, Evanghelia după Ioan explicată de Dr. Iuliu Olariu [Gospel of John explained by Dr. Iuliu Olariu], (Caransebeş: Tipografia Diecezană, 1897). 4 Iuliu Olariu, Explicarea Psalmilor din Ceaslov de Dr . Iuliu Olariu [Explanation of the Psalms of Ceaslov by Dr. Iuliu Olariu], (Caransebeş: Tipografia Diecezană, 1901), 3.

141 Alin Cristian Scridon

are used in divine service, as they are placed in the Horologe.”5 This work on the Psalms was based on western exegetical sources and authors such as Valentin Thalhofer, Peter Schegg, Franz Delitzsch, Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg etc.6 The results and analyses on these works were brought into the Romanian space with the help of Iosif Iuliu Olariu. The editorial debut of Olariu came with “Introduction to the Old and New Testament books (Introducere în cărţile sânte ale T.V. şi N de Dr. I. Olariu) The book was published at the Diecezana Printing House in 1891, expanding over 381 pages (23×15,5).7 The first major work of the biblical scholar from Caransebes revealed the fundamental elements of biblical isagoge to the Roma- nian public, all of which which are essential to theologians. of the work is written from a historical-critical perspective. In prepar- Fig. 3. Explanation of the psalms of the Horolo- ing his thesis, Olariu used the theological gion by Dr. Iuliu Olariu works of Karl August Credner, Édouard Guillaume Eugène Reuss, Wilhelm Martin Leberecht de Wette, Clement Schrader, etc. Moreover, professor Isidor of Onciul from Cer- nauti had a significant role in shaping the book. Another theologian from Caransebes, Petru Barbu (1864–1941), highlighted the fact that he used western theology works when completing his books – such as Henri Louis Rémy Didon and the German Constantin von Tischendorf. The book Jesus Christ with the words of the holy scriptures (Isus Cristos cu cuvintele sântei scripturi) is the largest biblical research of professor Petru Barbu. Before presenting the life of Christ in his 173 pages, the author justifies the purpose of his study in the preface:

The Lord and Saviour of our world Jesus Christ, Son of God, is the founder of our church. It’s not possible to be a true member of this churchunless you know the earthen life of its founder. (…) In chronological stringing moments of the life of Jesus and the establishment of parallel places we kept in mind the thinking of the exegets and the authors of the Savior’s life, especially the authors R. P. Didon (Romanian translation) and I.B. Lohmann. The text is of the spoken Bible in the righteous Romanian church and it’s related to the Greek one (Tischendorf ed. XX). At this place I bring thanks to those Christians that, subscribing my book, rushed her reading. 8

5 Ibidem. 6 Ibidem. 7 Petru Călin, Tiparul românesc diecezan din Caransebeş, 1885–1918, vol. 1 [Romanian Diocesan Printing of Caransebeş],(Reşiţa: Banatica, 1996), 77–78. 8 Petru Barbu, Isus Cristos cu cuvintele Sântei Scripturi [Jesus Christ in the Words of the Holy

142 Western Biblical Studies in the Work of Roman-Catholic and Orthodox Theologians 1867–1918

On the other hand, the Roman-Catholic favored the theological Diecezan Institute from Timisoara. The analysis of existing documents in the archive of Roman-Catholic Bishopric shows that in every decade since the second half of the nineteenth century, the number of students has been increasing as shown in the table below.

Table 1. Number of students enrolled in the Theological Seminary of Timisoara during 1875, 1886, 1896, and 19139

Number of students Year Year I Year II Year III Year IV Total 1875 8 4 6 6 24 1886 16 12 11 9 48 1896 16 14 8 9 47

During the Austro-Hungarian dualist period at the Theological institute, New Testa- ment studies were taught by the theologians Johann Nep. Engels (1866–1868), Josef Grosz (1869–1883), Stefan Patzner (1884–1885), Matthias Palmer (1885–1887), Franz Blaskov- ics (1887–1894), Matthias Ferch (1895–1899), Emerich Pager (1900–1902), GeyzaSzanthó (1902–1909), Aurel Martin (1909–1914), Matthias Ferch (1914–1919)10 – all with higher education degrees in European universities. While Orthodox theologians benefited from scholarship programs, more so did the Ro- man-Catholics. Only one of nine teachers of the Department of Bible studies did not study abroad. All the rest benefited from western education. The table below shows the higher education institutes attended by the Roman-Catholic students from Timisoara.

Table 2. Teachers of New Testament studies from the Diecezan Institute. University and graduation year11

Years of study University Student name 1889–1892 Budapest (Austro-Hungary) Matthias Ferch 1900–1905 Budapest (Austro-Hungary) 1906–1907 Freiburg (Germany) Aurel Martin 1904–1906 Löwen (Belgium) 1862–1866 Vienna (Austria) Johann Nep. Engels 1878–1882 Vienna (Austro-Hungary) Stefan Patzner 1881–1885 Vienna (Austro-Hungary) Matthias Palmer 1882–1886 Vienna (Austro-Hungary) Franz Blaskovics 1888–1892 Vienna (Austro-Hungary) Emerich Pager 1862–1868 Innsbruck (Austria) Josef Grosz

Scripture], (Caransebeş: Tipografia Diecesană, 1902), II. 9 A.E.R.C.T., Schematismus Cleri Diocesis Csanadiensis pro Anno Domini, MDCCCLXXV, Temesvárini, Typographiae Dioecesis Csanádiensis, 1875, p. 174; Ibidem, 1886, p. 210; Ibidem, 1896, p. 207–208; Ibidem, 1913, p. 251. 10 A.E.R.C.T., Neue Banater Bücherei..., p. 3. 11 Idem, p. 10–11.

143 Alin Cristian Scridon

Fig. 4. The Isagoge works published by Josef Grosz in the late nineteenth century

Of the Roman-Catholic theologians who taught New Testament studies at the Theo- logical School in Timisoara, Josef Grosz was distinguished for publishing two papers on isagoge in Biblical Studies, in the late nineteenth century. The Isagoge of Old Testament written by Josef Grosz was published in 187912 and that of the New Testament, one year later, in 1880.13 Therefore, when studying the writings on the New Testament, from the second half of the nineteenth century to the first decades of the twentieth century in the historical region of Banat in Romania, one can notice an effervescent activity on this Roman-Catholic and Orthodox territory. One may say that the two lungs of the universal Christianity, Roman- Catholicism and Orthodoxy as developed in Banat, made significant contributions to the Biblical studies.

References

Arhiva Episcopiei Romano-Catolice din Timişoara [Archives of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Timişoara] (A.E.R.C.T.). Schematismus Cleri Diocesis Csanadiensis pro Anno Domini. Timişoara: Typis Ernesti Steger, 1875, 1886, 1896, 1913. Barbu, Petru. Isus Cristos cu cuvintele Sântei Scripturi [Jesus Christ in the words of the Holy Scrip- ture]. Caransebeş: Tipografia Diecezană, 1902.

12 Josef Grosz, Introductio in libros sacros Veteris Testamenti, Typis Dioecesis Csanadiensis, Timişoara, 1879. 13 Idem, Introductio in libros sacros Novi Testamenti, Typis Dioecesis Csanadiensis, Timişoara, 1880.

144 Western Biblical Studies in the Work of Roman-Catholic and Orthodox Theologians 1867–1918

Călin, Petru. Tiparul românesc diecezan din Caransebeş [The Romanian Diocesan Printing of Caransebeş]. Reşiţa: Banatica, 1996. Grosz, Josef. Introductio in libros sacros Veteris Testamenti. Timişoara: Typis Dioecesis Csanadien- sis, 1879. _____. Introductio in libros sacros Novi Testamenti. Timişoara: Typis Dioecesis Csanadiensis, 1880. Olariu, Iuliu. Exegeza Noului Testament. Evangheliile după Matei, Marcu şi Luca [New Testament Exegesis. The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke]. Caransebeş: Tipografia Diecezană, 1894. _____. Evanghelia după Ioan explicată de Dr. Iuliu Olariu [Gospel of John explained by Dr. Iuliu Olariu]. Caransebeş: Tipografia Diecezană, 1897. _____. Explicarea Psalmilor din Ceaslov de Dr. Iuliu Olariu [Explanation of the Psalms of Ceaslov by Dr. Iuliu Olariu]. Caransebeş: Tipografia Diecezană, 1901. Vesa, Pavel. Învăţământul teologic de la Arad (1822–1948) [The theological Education in Arad (1822–1948)]. Cluj-Napoca: Presa Universitară Clujeană, 2013. All photographs were taken by the author.

145 Péter Zakar Catholic Priests from the Diocese of Csanád in the Hungarian Revolution and the War of Independence (1848 – 1849) Péter Zakar

The Church, mainly the local clergy, played an important, galvanising role in Hungary in 1848. In the spring of 1848 the possibility of a democratic transformation in the Catholic Church seemed to be a crucial point. The liberal priests started a strong movement in the heart of the Diocese of Csanád. Alajos Magyari, a teacher in the seminary of Temesvár wanted to abolish celibacy and to create a new democratic Catholic Church government. The supporters of Church modernisation adopted the philosophy and culture of Enlighten- ment, Liberalism, and Romanticism, creating an immanent theology on these bases. Ten priests from the Diocese of Csanád joined the Honvéd Army and took up weapons, while another ten priests served as army chaplains . The Revolution and War of Independence resulted in the formation of a unique revolutionary theology.

Keywords: Church history; Diocese of Csanád; the Hungarian Revolution of 1848–1849; liberal clergymen in Hungary; priests in the National Guard; priests in the Honvéd Army; revolutionary theology; the liberal clerical interpretation of the Revolution.

Introduction

In 1848, Hungary was part of the Habsburg Empire in Europe and had its own liberal government from April 11, when the Monarch sanctioned the new civil laws in the Parliament. As a consequence of the changes, the tithe (decima), the tax which had been paid to the Church for centuries, was abolished and a total equality of rights was ensured for the Catho- lic, Lutheran, Calvinist, Unitarian, and Orthodox Churches. In their sermons delivered at the urge of the state authorities in the spring of 1848, clergymen welcomed the changes and offered support to the new state. The new laws were explained to the illiterate population not only by Catholic priests but also by Protestant ministers.1 Before the revolution in 1848, the position of the Catholic Church in Hungary was not independent of secular politics. On the one hand, the state, like anywhere else in Eu- rope, intervened in the Church affairs quite strongly. As for the Protestant and the Orthodox Church, the freedom of religion was guaranteed by law, but they were also under the state’s right of supervision. On the other hand, the Catholic Church wanted state support against the increasing worldliness. The educated population became more and more indifferent to religion. This new challenge provoked fundamentally different answers within the Church. There were those, who wanted liberal reforms to help solve this crisis while others insisted on the traditional ways of religious life.2

1 Domokos Kosáry, The Hungarian Revolution of 1848 in the Context of European History (Buda- pest: Collegium Budapest Institute for Advanced Study, 2000), 4–10. 2 Gábor Adriányi, Die Stellung der ungarischen Kirche zum Österreichischen Konkordat von 1855

146 Catholic Priests from the Diocese of Csanád in the Hungarian Revolution ...

It was necessary to explain the laws when mistaken views spread among the populace, for instance to the effect that no one would have to pay taxes following the reforms. Similar misunderstandings had to be clarified in connection with the organisation of the National Guard, and later the Hungarian Army. As for legality, the reform took place lawfully, peacefully, and (relative to other changes in Europe) extremely rapidly. There may have been few revolutions whose leaders and participants laid as much emphasis on legitimacy (or its appearance) as the Hungarians did. The laws regulating the basic principles of the reforms were successfully passed and sanctioned quickly, and the Batthyány government was not regarded as a provisional government, as opposed to numerous other governments of the age on the way of reforms.3

I. The Diocese of Csanád in 1848

The Church, mainly the local clergy, played an important, galvanising role in Hungary as well as in Italy in 1848.4 In 1848, the Diocese of Csanád covered the whole territory of Csanád, Torontál, Temes, and Krassó counties along with the military frontiers and some parts of Csongrád County also belonged to it at that time. The number of Catholics was about to 450 000, whose spiritual care belonged to 188 parishes. There were two centres of the liberal clergymen in Hungary: one in Pest-Buda belonging to the Archbishopric of Esztergom and the other in Temesvár, the centre of the Diocese of Csanád. On March 22, 1848 four altars were set up on the main square of Temesvár: one for the Catholics, one for the Lutherans, one for the Orthodox, and one for the Jews. “Te Deum” for the new civil laws was said to the Catholics by Kristóf Adams, parish priest of Kleinbetschkerek who was later the recruiter of the Honvéd Lieutenant-General Josef Bem as well as a representative in the Hungarian national assembly. He was assisted by Péter Moor parish priest in Bruckenau and György Nátl from Orcifalva.5 In the spring of 1848, the possibility of a democratic transformation in the Catholic Church seemed to be a crucial point. As for Temesvár, there were a lot of priests teaching in the seminary or in the lyceum and supporting liberal reforms, such as Kristóf Adams, János Arnold, Antal Bódy, Marcell Dániel, Pál Hegedűs, Antall Krumm, József Róka and József Szabados. The clergymen with liberal convictions had a completely different view of history from the traditional clerical thinking of the age. While the latter was based on metaphysical foundations and built up from eschatological elements, the liberals regarded the European revolutions as proof of Providence and development.6 The liberal priests started a strong movement in the heart of the Diocese of Csanád. Alajos Magyari, a teacher in the seminary of Temesvár, wanted to abolish celibacy and to

(Rome: Linotypia-Tipografia Dario Detti, 1963), 9–28. 3 A Concise History of Hungary: The History of Hungary from the Early Middle Ages to the Pres- ent, ed. Tóth, István György (Budapest: Corvina, Osiris 2005), 383–392. 4 Mike Rapport, 1848, Year of the Revolution (London: Little Brown, 2008), 109. 5 Jenő Szentkláray, Temes vármegye története összefoglaló rövid előadásban a legrégibb kortól az 1867. évi alkotmányos kiegyezésig. [The History of Temesvár County from the Ancient Times until 1867] (Budapest: Apolló Irodalmi Társaság, 1912, 382. 6 Sándor Kováts, A Csanádi Papnevelde története. A mai papnevelde megnyitásának első évfor- dulója alkalmából. 1806 – 1906. [The History of the Seminary of Csanád. 100th Anniversary of the Opening. 1806 – 1906.] (Temesvár: Csanádegyházmegyei Könyvnyomda, 1908), 359–361.

147 Péter Zakar create a new democratic Catholic Church government. The main point was to change the Church government in order to work as the liberal secular society did. Although bishop József Lonovics, who was also the leader of the Conservative Party in the Temes County, banned their meetings, József Pfeiffer, dean of the Arad-Hegyalja deanery asked two representatives of every deanery district to go to Temesvár. The Points of Csanád were published in Temesvár on 15 June 1848 demanding the introduction of a liberal election system in the Catholic Church, democratic synods, dissolving the indissolubility of priesthood, publicity of the processes at the ecclesiastical courts, the introduction civil law in marital cases, the wearing secular clothes, the introduction of Hungarian instead of Latin, and the abolition of monastic orders.7 Under the influence of the revolution, the political attitude of each denomination was reformed, and a relatively significant liberal stratum appeared on the scene, attaining even more political influence in the favourable social atmosphere. As a result, the denominations themselves became increasingly divided, and the role of nationalism in their awareness of identity became more marked. Supporters of modernisation of the Church, adopting the philosophy, emotional atmosphere and culture of Enlightenment, Liberalism and Roman- ticism, were creating an immanent theology on these bases. The tensions within the denominations became enhanced, and this led to an increasing temptation to settle the internal conflicts with “secular” aid. As a logical consequence of these changes, under the flag of national unity, such liberal clergymen not only condemned the denominational quarrels, but also took part in the War of Independence. The priests participated in the organisation of the National Guard as well. In the book written by Martin Roos, one can read about a lot of priests, who became militiamen: János Arnold from Temesújfalu, Lajos Mihálkovics from Istvánföldi, István Lukácsevics from Angyalkút, Mihály Jerney from Bresztovác, József Brassay from Csatád, Jakab Nuszbaum from Csernya, Péter Kimmel from Párdány, Ferenc Schuszták from Bozovics, Ferenc Vuchhetich from Ruszkabánya, Antal Stein from Kis- Teremia, Ferenc Bezdány from Bogáros, Imre Berecz from Óbesenyő and Lajos Wittner from Detta.8 New historical researches have proved that some more priests served in the Nation- al Guard, for example, János Oszeczky from Perjámos or Béla Timáry from Szentanna. Timáry wrote to the vicar on July 10, 1848:

…as a militiaman myself, I wanted to set an example to the militiamen in Szent-An- na encouraging them to defend the country. So as to help the county authority in these difficult circumstances, I started out for Pécska together with the other militiamen. In such miserable times when our sweet country is surrounded by enemy attacks from all directions, I think that it is the duty of every true patriot to take the sword and fight for the country and if it comes to die.9

7 Atyánkfiai, tisztelt paptársaink! [Dearly Priests, our Colleagues!] (Temesvár: Beichel József Könyvnyomdája, 1848) Nyomtatvány [printed publication]. Temesvári Római Katolikus Egy- házmegyei Levéltár [Church Archive of Temesvár] Horváth Mihály 1848–1849. 1848: 1143. 8 Martin Roos, Die alte Diözese Csanád. Zwischen Grundlegung und Aufteilung 1030 bis 1923. [Band I.] Zwischen Grundlegung und Aufteilung 1030 bis 1923. Teil 2/b 1800–1850 (Timisoara: Im Selbstverlag der drei Bistümer Szeged-Csanád, Groß-Betschkerek, 2012) 294. 9 Temesvári Róm. Kat. Egyházmegyei Levéltár [Archive of the Catholic Diocese of Temesvár] Personalien Timáry Béla 1848: 1294.

148 Catholic Priests from the Diocese of Csanád in the Hungarian Revolution ...

Important changes took place in the Diocese of Csanád between 1848 and 1849 which led to a political diversity in its government. The former bishop József Lonovics became the Archbishop of Eger. He belonged to the Conservative party. The new bishop, Mihály Hor- váth, was the follower of Kossuth. One of the two vicars, Ignác Fábry in Temesvár, did not support the revolution, while József Róka, the other vicar in Makó, had a good relationship with the Hungarian revolutionary government. These circumstances facilitated the military service for liberal priests, which was strictly forbidden by ecclesiastical laws.10

II. Priests as soldiers

Ten priests from the Diocese of Csanád joined the Honvéd Army and took up weapons. All these priests had disciplinary matters. László Baross, who served as a sergeant in the 5th Honvéd Battalion, loved playing cards. He was not able to pay his debts, so he went to the army.11 Some of them were living in very poor conditions and during their military service they could reach even the rank of officer in the army, such as István Kovács, Roman Catho- lic administrator from Bocsár, major of the Hungarian Army, organiser and commander of the “Battalion of Torontál.”12 Those who became army chaplains did not fight with guns, but continued their activities as priests. Another ten priests also served as army chaplains from the Diocese of Csanád in the Honvéd Army and three of them were Germans (Paul Rosen, Florian Lukesch und Anton Schaeffer). They nursed and comforted the wounded and were the guardians of humanity in the army. One of them (Alajos Magyari) protested against the compulsory celibacy, others (József Brassoványi, Xaver Ferenc Tóth) had a conflict with the bishop and the parish priest. Some of them were converted to the Lutheran or Calvinist Church (Flórián Lukesch, Jakab Varjasi) and married. A lot of priests (József Kornis, Frigyes Kerényi, Béla Krix, Anton Schaeffer etc.) fled from the Serbian rebels fighting against the Hungarian troops and later joined the Hungarian Army. János Brandisz, a Catholic chaplain from Rékás was rejected as army chaplain in June 1849, because there were not any free army chaplain positions.13 An important effect of the War of Independence was the nationalist ideology that emerged increasingly in all denominations. In addition to this, an even larger number of clergymen became more actively interested in secular politics. The preaching of liberal priests and ministers also reflected the strengthening of the Left in Hungarian politics. In the spring of 1849, political legitimacy was no longer embodied by the king, but by the notion of liberty, the constitution, and faithfulness to the Hungarian nation, independence from

10 Péter Zakar, A Csanádi egyházmegye kormányzata 1848 – 1849-ben [The Governance of the Diocese of Csanád in 1848 – 1849], Aetas 26/4 (2011): 82–101. 11 Baross László – Tisztelt püspök atya {Lonovivs József}! [Brief of László Baross to Bishop József Lonovics] Komárom, 1848. július 31-én. Temesvári Róm. Kat. Egyházmegyei levéltár [Archive of the Catholic Diocese of Temesvár] Personalien Baross László 1848: 1404. 12 Gábor Bona, Tábornokok és törzstisztek az 1848/49. évi szabadságharcban [Generals and Field Officers in the 1848/49 Hungarian War of Independence] (Budapest: Heraldika Kiadó, 2000), 458–459. 13 Péter Zakar Csanádi egyházmegyés paphonvédek a szabadságharcban II. Csanádi egyházmegyés tábori lelkészek 1848/49-ben [Priest-soldiers from the Diocese of Csanád in the Hungarian War of Independence in 1848–49. II. Army Chaplains from the Diocese of Csanád], Századok 147 (2013): 585–622.

149 Péter Zakar

the Habsburg Empire, and the existence of Hungary as a sovereign state with Lajos Kos- suth as governor. The clergy in Hungary played an important role in the process of social communication. Their contribution to strengthening the idea of an independent nation had been preserved by phrases such as “the God of the Hungarians,” “the altar of the country” or “Moses of the Hungarians.”14 Thus, the Revolution and War of Independence resulted in the formation of a unique revolutionary theology. The Jewish-Hungarian parallel originated in Protestant sources, formed a common treasure of preaching, crossing the borders of the different denominations as early as the nineteenth century. In a speech to students in Debrecen on March 22, 1848, Calvinist Professor Bálint Révész explained that God put “the magic wand of Moses” in the hand of Kossuth “to guide our nation.”15 Similar expressions are to be found in the preaching of Catholic priests, for example in Arad, on April 23, 1848, when a Catholic priest asked for eternal life for Lajos Kossuth, who led the Hungarians to Canaan like Mo- ses led the Jews.16 Preaching incorporating a political content had been usual to some degree before the revolution, but priests and ministers subsequently began to place greater emphasis on analyses of worldly events. For example, Alajos Magyari celebrated a mass to the 5th Honvéd Corps in Új-Arad on April 22, 1849:

Today we have come together with great thankfulness to God. Even during this time of fighting, we offer our country’s affairs to the Almighty and dedicate this day to His glory. We say grateful thanks to the Lord for the new victories on the battlefield. Thanks to God, the Hungarian national matters win everywhere because they are on the way of righteousness and righteousness should not fail. Dearly loved Brethren! I do not need to detail the state of our country as you are aware of the events of the recent days. A man can be kept in shackles for a while but the feelings of the heart cannot be destroyed. As we have a constitution, we cannot even be repressed by the king. On April 14 this year, something happened, which made this day a remarkable date in history forever. On this special day, the representatives of the Hungarian nation gathered to decide that Hungary shall be free and independent. At last our Parliament stated peace towards the neighbouring nations and there is a hope that with the consent of these nations we can face our enemies. All these resolutions stated to the Parliament by Lajos Kossuth were accepted by common consent. Kossuth, the founder of our freedom was introduced to be the Governor-President of Hungary.17

14 A szabadság szent igéi. A tiszántúli református egyházi vezetés és a Debreceni Kollégium 1848/49-ben [The Saint Words of Freedom. East-Hungarian Leadership of the Hungarian Re- formed Church and College of Debrecen in 1848/49.], ed. Botond Gáborjáni Szabó, (Debrecen: Tiszántúli Református Egyházkerületi Gyűjtemények, 1999), 21–24.. 15 A szabadság szent igéi. A tiszántúli református egyházi vezetés és a Debreceni Kollégium 1848/49-ben [The Saint Words of Freedom. East-Hungarian Leadership of the Hungarian Re- formed Church and College of Debrecen in 1848/49.], ed. Botond Gáborjáni Szabó, (Debrecen: Tiszántúli Református Egyházkerületi Gyűjtemények, 1999), 24–25. 16 Complexul Muzeal Arad, Aradi Ereklyemúzeum [Museum of Arad, Relics Museum Arad], Nyomtatványok [printed publications] MR 2864. 17 Ottó Lakatos, Arad története [History of Arad] Vol. I. (Arad: Gyulai István nyomása, 1881) 190– 191.

150 Catholic Priests from the Diocese of Csanád in the Hungarian Revolution ...

III. Enemies of the Revolution

At the same time, there were a few enemies of the revolution in the Diocese of Csanád. For example, József Arleth in the village of Csanád, who was arrested by Hungarian solders on April 24, 1849, and Josef Novak in Bogáros who sent József Brassay, parish priest of Csatád to prison after the revolution. Novak was the author of the so-called “Petition of Bogáros,” in which he detailed the Schwabian national claims in the autumn of 1849.18 There was also Alexander Bonnaz, parish priest of Triebswetter, who escaped from the Hungarian National Guard in the autumn of 1848, when they attacked his parish. In 1850 he was appointed to be the supervisor of the German and Hungarian schools in the Serbian Voiwodina and the Banat of Temes. He became the bishop of the Diocese of Csanád in 1860.19 Antal Kreminger, a provost from Szeged, was a conservative clergyman following the spirit of Josephinism. Since the Emperor sanctioned the April Laws, Kreminger supported the changes in the spring and summer of 1848, which can be proved by several source materials in connection with the consecration of the 6th Honvéd Battalion’s flag. However, he soon realized that the transformation was against the interests of the Emperor and the Government of Vienna. From autumn his opposition to the defensive warfare became more and more definite. He did not send the circulars which supported the revolution, except for one. He also censored the Hungarian Government’s decrees, and tried to turn the congre- gation against the War of Independence. Szeged was under the control of the Hungarian Honvéds until August 1st, 1849. The Hungarian authorities examined Kreminger’s three cases. As a result, The Ecclesiastical Court of Csanád, with its seat in Makó at that time, restored him to his benefice. Later, on July 27, 1849 Mihály Horváth, Minister of Religion and Culture removed him, but finally, The Ecclesiastical Court of Csanád, with its seat in Temesvár, restored him again to his former benefice. Antal Kreminger did not support the War of Independence, but when the Emperor turned back to the Constitution in 1860 and 1867 Kreminger willingly followed his example.20

Conclusion

A large-scale reprisal was carried out against priests by the Austrian authorities because of their activities during the War of Independence. On these occasions, the liberal or radical priests had to suffer mainly because of their political activities. Their contribution to the organisation of the Hungarian Army, the vilification of the monarch or the dynasty, as well as the announcement of the Declaration of Independence were all regarded as extremely serious offences. A lot of priests from the Diocese of Csanád were investigated by the military tribunal, but the majority of them were released. Some of them were removed by the consistory from their office, and sent to a cloister for penitence. In the meanwhile, in the spring of 1851, there were still four priests from the diocese in prison: József Róka vicar,

18 Anton Peter Petri, Biographisches Lexikon der Banater Deutschtums, (Marquartstein: Th. Breit Druck + Verlag GmbH, 1992), 1374–1375. 19 Lyceum Temesvariense. ed. Stevan Bugarski (Timişoara: Fundaţia DIASPORA, 2008), 537–539. 20 János Reizner, A régi Szeged. I. A negyvenes évek és a forradalom napjai Szegeden [The Old Szeged. The 1840s and the Days of Revolution in Szeged] (Szeged: Burger Gusztáv és társa, 1884), 227–231, 289–290.

151 Péter Zakar

József Mihalovics canon, József Pfeiffer dean of the Arad-Hegyalja deanery, and János Stverteczky (Szittya) parish priest from Rékás.21 The real importance of the liberal clerical interpretation of the Revolution and War of Independence of 1848–1849 lies in the fact that the population of the Diocese of Csanád that had previously never engaged or was only weakly engaged in politics, was won over to the cause of transition into a civil society.

21 Haus-, Hof-, und Staatsarchiv (Wien), Kabinetsarchiv, Geheimakten Nachlass Schwarzenberg Kt. 10. Fasc. IV. Nr. 245.

152 Der Widerstand gegen Rechtsextremismus: Die antitotalitäre Haltung der Banater Eliten in der Zwischenkriegszeit

Mihai A. Panu

Soon after World War I, the entire European continent experienced major socio-political transformations. The emerging structural economic and political imbalances triggered an unprecedented radicalization of various societal relations and attitudes which eventually reached a culminating point during World War II. This paper investigates the manifestations of National Socialism in interwar Banat and the key role played by the Catholic Church as an ideological counteracting force. In this highly controversial and disproportionate relation not only the pure facts or end results represent a historiographical stake but also the key public figures which somehow managed to influence or change the course of history. In the interwar Banat, a decisive public role in the struggle of containing the impact of the Nazi ideology was played by the catholic bishop Dr. Augustin Pacha.

Keywords: NS-ideology; Banat; political extremism; Augustin Pacha; propaganda.

I. Einleitung

Im Kontext der zunehmenden Radikalisierung des sozial-politischen Systems in Europa der Zwischenkriegszeit, gewann der ideologische Faktor in allen Bereichen des öffentli- chen Lebens stark an Bedeutung. Die unerwarteten Konsequenzen des Ersten Weltkrieges und die systemischen Schwächen des Parlamentarismus, verursachten in vielen Staaten Europas eine rasche Entwicklung der radikalen politischen Phänomene. Auf der geopolitischen Bühne Europas, zwei wichtige ideologische Akteure beanspruchten die Vormacht: National-Sozialismus und Kommunismus. Aufgrund ihrer revolutionären weltanschauli- chen Programme, versuchten beide Regimetypen ihre Interessensphären auszudehnen bis zu dem Punk wo der generalisierte Konflikt unvermeidlich war. Zu Beginn des Zweiten Weltkrieges war Europa ideologisch schon stark polarisiert. Mit dem Zerfall der politischen gemäßigten Mitte, begann ein kontinuierliches Eindringen der beiden extremen Polen des politischen Spektrums in die öffentlichen Sphäre der meisten europäischen Staaten. In diesem Prozess der strategischen ideologischen Eroberung möglichst vieler Gesellschaftsseg- mente, die effizienteste Methode und zugleich, das Hauptinstrument zur Verwirklichung dieser ideologisch motivierten Zielvorgabe, war die Propaganda. Das Hauptziel der vorliegenden Arbeit besteht darin, die Erscheinungsformen der national-sozialistischen Propaganda im Banat der Zwischenkriegszeit zu analysieren und die Rolle der römisch-katholischen Kirche als ideologischer Gegenfaktor in diesem besonderen Kontext zu untersuchen. Die nazional-sozialistische Propaganda entwickelte sich im Banat in der obenerwähnten Zeitspanne, besonders nach der Machteroberung Hitlers anfangs 1933. In Rumänien die

153 Mihai A . Panu

Nazi-Propagandakampagnen erfolgten unter besonderer Kontrolle der zentralen Naziver- waltung und hatten als Ziel vorwiegend eine Neukonfiguration der ideologischen Orien- tierungen und Präferenzen, sowohl der verschiedenen gesellschaftlichen Klassen als auch der rumänischen politischen Eliten. Diese, von den National-Sozialisten instrumentalisierte Propaganda, fand auf rumänischem Gebiet, in vielen Fällen, günstige Bedingungen, aufgrund einiger präexistenten Verhältnisse. Diese favorisierende Faktoren widerspiegeln die politische und sozio-kulturelle Entwicklung Großrumäniens nach 1918. Für die rumänische politische Elite, die Verwaltung eines multiethnischen und multikonfessionellen sozialen Korpus erwies sich als problematisch von Anfang an. Die Verwirklichung in 1918 des „Na- tionaltraumes“ aller Rumänen wurde kurz danach eine politische Herausforderung für die unvorbereitete und stark fragmentierte rumänische politische Klasse. Rumänien war nicht in der Lage die Loyalität der verschiedenen nationalen Minderheiten zu gewinnen und auch keine Kohesion des gesamten nationalen Korpus zu sichern. Das Fehlen eines Gemeinschaftssinnes in Großrumänien verursachte in der ersten Phase eine Art, Demütigungsgefühl sowohl bei der ethnischen Mehrheit, deren Erwartungen, aufgrund mangelhafter politischen Partizipation und unterentwickelter materiellen Lage (im Vergleich zu den Minderheiten, vor allem Juden und Deutsche),1 kurzfristig nicht erfüllbar waren, als auch bei den Minderheiten, die politisch unterrepräsentiert waren und über ein, vom rumänischen Staat ausgegebenen, Minderheitengesetzt nicht verfügten.2 Der rumänische Zwischenkriekszeitnationalismus ging zum Teil aus diesen sozio-politischen Gegebenheiten hervor. Als Folge der politischen Unfähigkeit Großrumäniens die Interessen aller ethno-kulturellen Gruppen zentralistisch zu vertreten, und somit eine au- thentische nationale Identität zu fördern, verschlechterten sich die sozialen Beziehungen vor allem zwischen den zwei bereits polarisierten Kategorien: Mehrheit und Minderheiten. Diese Polarisierung wurde von den neu entstandenen politischen Gruppen rechts-extremer Orientierung, sofort ideologisch instrumentalisiert. Die rumänischen Rechts-Extremisten gewannen langsam an Bedeutung auf der politischen Bühne und shafften auch eine überraschende institutionelle Entwicklung in allen Regionen des Landes. Solche extremistische Organisationen3 hatten einen raschen Aufstieg nach der Entstehung Großrumäniens und erreichten ihre Blütezeit gegen Ende der 30er Jahren. Die Krise des Parlamentarismus ermöglichte die soziale Legitimation dieser radikalen Organisationen. Man konnte leicht diese Tatsache in der wachsenden Anzahl der Anhänger erkennen. Die Entwicklung des rumänischen Nationalismus in der Zwischenkriegszeit hatte einen direkten Anschlag in allen Schichten der Gesellsch- ft. Die Anhängerschaft dieser Organisationen bestand nicht nur aus einfachen, leicht beeinflussbaren Personen sondern auch aus Individuuen mit einem gewissen Bildungs- niveau. Im rumänischen Banat die Erscheinungsformen des Nationalismus waren frühzeitig erkennbar. Das soziopolitische Profil der Banater Gesellschaft war traditionell pluralistisch und aus diesem Grund, als inkompatibel mit Radikalismen jedwelcher Art betrachtet, aber

1 Sugar Peter: Naţionalismul est-european în secolul al XX-lea, Bucureşti, Curtea Veche, 2002, S. 236. 2 Maner Hans Christian: Parlamentarismul în România 1930–1940, Bucuresti, Editura Enciclope- dica, 2004, S. 305. 3 Es handelt sich vorwiegend um: L.A.N.C (Liga Apărării Naţional Creştine/Bund der Nationalen Christlichen Verteidigung, A.d.Ü) oder die später entstandene Eiserne Garde.

154 Der Widerstand gegen Rechtsextremismus ... auch diese Region der vorausgesetzten Toleranz, blieb von den Auswirkungen des politischen Extremismus nicht verschont. Beginnend mit dem Aufstieg des einheimischen Nationalismus, verschlechterte sich kontinuierlich die soziale Lage im Banat. Die ethnokulturellen Antagonismen wurden von der extremistischen Propaganda stark betont und wiederholt im öffentlichen Diskurs repro- duziert. Die Auswirkungen der Propaganda waren auch in der Banater Gesellschaft frühzei- tig erkennbar. In der lokalen Banater Presse, z.B. in der von L.A.N.C finanzierten, „Svastica Banatului,“4 einen heftigen Antisemitismus wurde systematisch schon in dem ersten Jahr- zent nach der Enstehung Großrumäniens propagiert. Später, als die Nazional-Sozialisten in Deutschland die politische Macht beanspruchten, jubelte die radikale Banater Presse und zeigte die ideologische Verwandschaft des deutschen und rumänischen Nationalismus auf:

„Heil Hitler. Hervorragender Erfolg der deutschen Antisemiten bei den allgemeinen Wahlen am 14. September. Ungefähr 6.5 Millionen Stimmen auf der Liste mit dem Hakenkreuz. Das Judentum in der ganzen Welt schreit, wie aus dem Schlangenmaul. Da nähert sich das Urteil des internationalen Judentums. (...) Der bewundernswerten antisemitischen Partei, die sich Nationalsozialistisch nennt (mit einem Programm nahezu identisch mit dem des „Bundes der Nationalen Christlichen Vertei- digung“ in Rumänien) unter der Führung des deutschen Helden Adolf Hitler ist es gelungen, die zweite Position (nach der Zahl der Abgeordneten) im politischen System Deutschlands zu erobern. (...) Nach dem Erfolg von Hitler sind wir berechtigt unsere Überzeugung zu äußern: die Zukunft gehört uns! Nur wir sind in der Lage das verarmte Europa zu retten. (A.d.Ü).“5

Die ideologischen Gemeinsamkeiten der beiden radikalen politischen Strömungen in Deutschland und Rumänien, bereiteten den Weg für das Eindringen der Nazi-Propaganda in das Banat. In diesem Kontext, der gemeinsame Nenner, welcher die entscheidende Rolle spielte, sowohl in der deutschen als auch in der rumänischen Gesellschaft, war den Antise- mitismus. Unter diesen komplexen geopolitischen Bedingungen, wenige gesellschaftliche Akteure waren in der Lage einen konstruktiven Widerstand gegen den propagandistischen Druck der Extremisten zu leisten. Im rumänischen Banat einer der wichtigsten Akteuren, der systematisch versuchte die Auswirkungen des Totalitarismus zu bekämpfen, war die Römisch Katholische Kirche. Unter der Führung des damaligen Bischofs dr. Augustin Pacha, erwies sich die katholische Diözese in Temeswar als einer wahrhaften Oppositionsfaktor sowohl des rumänischen Rechtsextremismus als auch des deutschen Nationalsozialismus. Pacha, der als Bischof der Temeswarer Diözese am 16 Oktober 19306 ernannt wurde, setzte sich im Laufe seiner Amtszeit als gesellschaftlicher und politischer Akteur durch, besonders im Kontext der zunehmenden antiklerikalen Politiken des, im Banat wirkenden Nationalsozialismus. Die später umstritten gewordene Persönlichkeit des Bischofs (besonders aus ideologischer Sicht) wurde in den rumänischen politischen Kreise als besonders prolematisch betrachtet, wenn man z.B. bedenkt dass der anfangs 1934 stattgefundene Besuch Pachas bei Adolf Hitler, heftige Aufregung in der rumänischen Öffentlichkeit erregte. Die Rolle Pachas als Exponent der klerikalen Autorität im Banat kann nicht untersucht werden ohne dass die

4 Banater Swastika (A.d.Ü). 5 Svastica Banatului, Jahrgang IV, Nr. 31, 15 September 1930. 6 Kräuter Franz: Erinnerungen an Bischof Pacha. Ein Stück Banater Heimatgeschichte, Bukarest, ADZ Verlag, 1995, S. 109.

155 Mihai A . Panu systemischen Beziehungen zwischen Politik und Religion in Betracht gezogen werden. Die Relevanz dieser Beziehungen im Kontext der Entstehung und Entwicklung totalitärer Re- gime ist äußerst wichtig. Aus geopolitischer Sicht, die Nationalsozialsten betrachteten die Katholische Kirche von Anfang an, als eine Art ideologischer Konkurrent. Diese Rivalität zeigte sich später als die politischen Entscheidungsträger des Nazi-Regimes versuchten, die traditionelle Position der Katholischen Kirche im gesellschaftlichen Bewusstsein zu untergraben. Sowohl die Kirche als auch die Politik beanspruchen (selbstverständlich in verschiedenen Formen) eine gewisse Autorität auf gesellschaftlichen Niveau. Die von der katholischen Kirche ausgeübte Autoritätsform ähnelt sich in vielen Hinsich- ten der typischen Machtausübung der politischen Regime, (wie der deutsche Theoretiker Carl Schmitt behauptete): „The political power of Catholicism rests neither on economic nor on military means but rather on the absolute realization of authority.”7 Die Rivalität zwischen Kirche und Politik ergibt sich eben aus diesen übereinstimmenden Machtpositionen. Als totalitäre Ideologie beanspruchte der Nationalsozialismus die totale Macht d.h. in allen Bereichen des öffentlichen Lebens. Eine Teilung dieser Macht mit anderen Akteuren (z.B. die Kirche) war aus ideologischer Perspektive nicht akzeptabel weil die Existenz anderer Machtforen, für den Nazionalsozialismus einfach eine Entlegitimierungsgefahr darstellte. Im rumänischen Banat, die Römisch-Katholische Kirche spielte eine wichtige soziale Rol- le vor allem in den Reihen der Banater-Schwaben. Unter der Führung dr. Pachas verwaltete die Temeswarer Diözese mehrere konfessionelle Schuleinrichtungen sowie verschiedene kirche- nahen Organisationen wie zum Beispiel „Der Deutsch-Katholische Jugendbund” oder „Die Katholische Deutsche Mädchenkränze.“8 Diese, von der katholischen Kirche kontrollierten Organisationen, sind schnell ein strategisches Ziel für die Nationalsozialisten geworden, vor allem weil die Jugendlichen die Haupmitgliedschaft darstellten. Solche Organisationen waren (zusammen mit den konfessionellen Schulen) das Hauptziel der Propagandakampagnien weil eine der wichtigsten Strategien der Nationalsozialisten war dafür bestimmt möglichst viele junge Personen ideologisch anzuziehen und somit eine effiziente Indoktrination der jungeren Generationen zu ermöglichen. Für die politischen Entscheidungsträger des Nazi-Regimes, die strategische Relevanz der Katholischen Kirche im rumänischen Banat ergab sich aus dem Potential dieser Institution ein traditionsgemässes, gesellschaftlich wünschenswertes Erzie- hungssystem anzubieten. Eine, von der Kirche erzogene Gemeinschaft, benimmt sich in der Regel skeptisch gegenüber Politik und Ideologie und kann aus diesem Grund schwer politisch indoktriniert werden. Um die Loyalität der Menschen zu gewinnen musste der Nationalsozi- alismus propagandistisch agieren um die Position der Kirche zu schwächen und ihre erzie- herische soziale Rolle zu beenden. Diese Tatsache stellte im Banat den Schwerpunkt in den Auseinandersetzungen der Katholischen Kirche mit dem Nationalsozialismus.

Die antitotalitären Strategien der klerikalen Eliten im Banat

Nach der Enstehung Grossrumäniens (1918) nahm die Zahl der deutschen Schulen kontinuierlich zu. Die rumänische Regierung versuchte die Loyalität der deutschen Bevölker-

7 Schmitt Carl: Roman Catholicism and Political Form, Westport, Greenwood Press, 1996, S.18. (Die politische Macht des Katholizismus beruht weder auf wirtschaftlichen noch auf militärischen Mitteln, sondern vielmehr auf der absoluten Erkenntnis der Autorität. A.d.Ü). 8 Der Ruf, Temeswar, Januar 1937, S. 4, Archivum Dioecesanum Timisoarense.

156 Der Widerstand gegen Rechtsextremismus ... ung zu gewinnen indem den Zugang zum deutschsprachigen Unterricht für alle rumänische Staatsbürger deutscher Abstammung garantiert war. Ebenfalls versuchte man durch diese Massnahmen das ethno-kulturelle Bewusstsein der deuschen Minderheit nach jahrelanger Madjarisierung zur Zeit der Donaumonarchie, zu erwecken. Die Neugestaltung einer kulturellen Identität der Banater Schwaben gehörte zu den Leitlinien der rumänischen Politik in der Zwischenkriegszeit. Neben den, vom Staat verwalteten Schulen, entwickelten sich systematisch auch die konfessionellen Schulen:

„Im Banat war die Zahl der katholisch-konfessionellen Schulen gewachsen, auch in mehreren Mädchenmittelschulen des Notre-Dame Ordens war allmählich die deutsche Unterrichtssprache eingeführt worden und die kath. deutsche Lehrerbildungsanstalt stellte neben dem Realgymna- sium die zweite tragende Säule des Banater deutschen Schulwesens dar. Ebenso konnte die enge Zusammenarbeit zwischen der nun gefestigten neuen schwäbischen Volksführung und der führen- den Geistlichkeit als Beweis dafür gelten, dass im Banat auch die katholische Kirche Beschützerin des angestammten Volkstums sein kann.“9

In diesem besonders günstigen politischen Kontext, die Banater Schwaben hatten die Möglichkeit ihre kulturelle und Bildungsinfrastruktur zu erweitern. Die Katholische Kirche und die von dieser Kirche kontrollierten lokalen politischen Organisationen, spielten in diesem Prozess eine entscheidende Rolle. Das institutionelle Gewicht der Katholischen Kirche ermöglichte eine konstante Vertretung der Volksgruppeinteressen sowohl auf lokalem als auch auf zentralem politischen Niveau. Die klerikalen Kreise förderten kontinuierlich die Gründung verschiedener Schuleinrichtungen und erzielten eine möglichst erweiterte Schul- autonomie der deutschen Minderheit. Eine kurze Übersicht über das Banater schwäbische Schulwesen zwischen 1934 – 1936, zeigt die folgende Situation auf:10 • 16 konfessionelle mittlere und höhere Schulen mit rund 2000 Schülern und Schül- erinnenund 140 deutschen Lehrkräften (Die „Banatia“ hatte nun die frühere Stellung des „Realgymnasiums“ eingenommen und war zum wichtigsten Kulturzentrum des Banater Deutschtums geworden) • Etwa 65 konfessionelle Volksschulen mit rund 9700 Kindern und 165 deutschen Leh- rern. • Ein staatliches Knabenlyzeum mit rund 500 Schülern und 12 deutschen Lehrkräften. • Und etwa 115 staatliche Volksschulen mit rund 21500 Kindern und 300 deutschen Lehrkräften.

Diese stark entwickelte Bildusngsinfrastruktur der Banater Schwaben blieb von den ideologischen Tendenzen der damaligen Zeit nicht verschont. Der geopolitische Druck der NS- Ideologie hatte konkrete Auswirkungen in Rumänien besonders nach 1933 aber die ersten Er- scheinungsformen des Nationalsozialismus im Banat waren früher erkennbar. Als Vermittler dieser Ideologie gelten nicht nur die pan-europäischen radikalen politischen Strömungen die eine institutionell-strukturierte Verbreitung der NS-Hauptideen ermöglichten sondern auch einzelne Personen die als ideologische Vektoren agierten. Rumänien war von den europäi- schen politischen Weltanschauungen nicht komplett isoliert. Man konnte schon in den ersten

9 Hügel Kaspar: Abriss der Geschichte des Donauschwäbischen Schulwesens, München, Verlag des Südostdeutschen Kulturwerks, 1957, S. 18. 10 Ibidem, S. 18–19.

157 Mihai A . Panu

Jahren nach der Großunion von 1918 eine gewisse Empfänglichkeit der Bevölkerung für Na- tionalsozialismus und Kommunismus (betrachtet al ideologische Zwillinge der Zwischen- kriegszeit) feststellen. Unter diesen Umständen, das ethno-kulturelle Profil der deutschen Minderheit in Rumänien spielte eine entscheidende Rolle für die politische Orientierung vieler Rumäniendeutschen. Die Verinnerlichung der nationalsozialistischen Denkstrukturen vor allem durch die Jugendlichen erfolgte aus diesem Grund quasi automatisch. In diesem Fall handelt es sich nicht um eine Art kultureller Determinismus obwohl die kulturelle Identität und die ethno-kulturellen Kompatibilitäten vorgegeben sind. Die Empfänglichkeit eines Teils der deutschen Bevölkerung in Rumänien für Nationalsozialismus war kulturell ermöglicht (z.B. das Fehlen der sprachlichen Barrieren die das Verstehen der Nazi-Propaganda ermög- lichte) aber nicht kulturell bedingt. Dieser Aspekt ist entscheidend für eine geeignete Untersu- chung der politischen Geschichte der deutschen Minderheit in Rumänien. Die Tatsache dass die Rumäniendeutschen zum gesamteuropäischen deutschen Kulturkreis gehörten und ihre ethno-kulturelle Identität vorwiegend dadurch konstruiert war, verursachte eine frühzeitige ungehinderte ideologische Beeinflussung dieser Minderheit. Im Banat die Vorreiter des Nationalsozialismus agierten als überzeugte politische Akti- visten indem sie ein revolutionäres sozial-politisches Programm förderten.

„Der Wegbereiter der nationalsozialistischen Erneuerung im Banat ist Oberst Karl von Möller. Seit 1922 hielt er die Verbindung zur NSDAP aufrecht . Er kam jedoch erst 1931 zum Aufbau der ersten nationalsozialistischen Gruppen. Die ersten entstanden in Hatzfeld (Möller und Peter Mau- rusz), Neu-Arad (Franz Stoss und Peter Bernath), Perjamosch (Rudolph Ferch und Franz Adam Minnich) und Temeschburg (Geisa Buding und Peter Schmidt).“11

Die Verbreitung der NS-Ideen in Rumänien erfolgte in vielen Fällen durch die Beteili- gung der Jugendorganisationen. Solche Organisationen (z.B. der antiklerikale „Jungschwä- bische Klub im Banat“12 oder die „Wandervogel“)13 hatten einen gemeinsamen Nenner und zwar den romantisch-revolutionären Anspruch, die sozio-politischen Verhältnisse der damaligen Zeit neuzudefiniren. Die meisten politisch orientierten Organisationen der Banater Schwaben übernahmen die ideologischen Leitlinien der, am 22 Mai 1932 von Fritz Fabri- tius gegründeten N.S.D.R – „Nationalsozialistische Selbsthilfebewegung der Deutschen in Rumänien.“14 Das Eindringen des Nationalsozialismus in die Banater Gesellschaft erfolgte schrittweise und erreichte einen Höhepunkt zur Zeit des Zweiten Weltkrieges als die von Berlin kontrollierte Organisation „DviR - Deutsche Volksgruppe in Rumänien“ von der rumänischen Regierung als Person des öffentlichen Rechts annerkant wurde: „(...) am 20 November wurde die DViR durch Antonescu im Sinne der Karlsburger Beschluesse von 1918 in einem Volksgruppen-Dekret zu einer Person des öffentlichen Rechts erklärt.”15

11 Hockl Nik. Hans: Das deutsche Banat. Seine geschichtlich-politische Entwicklung und Aufgabe, Temeschburg, Buchdruckerei Anwender&Sohn, 1940, S. 57. 12 Ibidem, S.54. 13 Ibidem, S. 57. Diese Organisation gab es im Banat schon im Jahre 1926. Unter der Führung von Nikolaus Hans Hockl und mit Beteiligung verschiedener ideologisch stark motivierten Rumänien- deutschen (z. B. Paul Kindl, Peter Maurusz, Peter Lindacher, Sepp Komantschek, Sepp Schmidt, Stefi Heinz) wurde die Banater Wandervogelorganisation ein Instrument der NS-Propaganda. (A.d.V.) 14 Ibidem. 15 Milata Paul: Zwischen Hitler, Stalin und Antonescu . Rumäniendeutsche in der Waffen-SS, 2.

158 Der Widerstand gegen Rechtsextremismus ...

Die Entwicklung der NS-Ideologie im Banat war nicht ausschliesslich die Konsequenz verschiedener Einstellungen oder Prefärenzbildungsprozessen innerhalb der Banater deutschen Minderheit sondern auch das Resultat systemischer Ungleichgewichte in der rumäni- schen sozial-politischen Sphäre. Die Radikalisierung des politischen Systems und die Krise des Parlamentarismus verursachten eine zunehmende Polarisierung der gesamten rumäni- schen Gesellschaft. In Folge dessen die sozialen politischen Orientierungen und Präferen- zen richteten sich allmählich nach dem bestehenden ideologischen Angebot. Die wichtigste institutionelle Erscheinungsform des Nationalsozialismus im Banat war die DViR. Diese, in September 194016 gegründete Organisation, funktionierte aufgrund ihrer, vom rumänischen Staat garantierte Autonomie, wie eine Art Staat im Staate. Unter der Füh- rung Andreas Schmidts, ein am 24 Mai 1912 in Donnersmark17 (Siebenbürgen) geborener SS-Offizier,18 der an der Spitze der DViR, direkt vom Leiter der Volksdeutschen Mittelstelle (VoMi-Chef SS- Obergruppenfuehrer Werner Lorenz) ernannt wurde,19 begann die ideologische Einmischung in die inneren Angelegenheiten der Katholischen Kirche im Banat. Unter diesen Umstände begann die Temeswarer Diözese langsam die strategische Initia- tive gegenüber den ideologischen Druck der NS-Ideologie zu verlieren. Nach wiederholten Anforderungen der DViR, musste die Katholische Kirche im Banat an alle Jugendverbän- de und Frauenorganisationen verzichten. Dies geschah offiziell durch das Rundschreiben nr. 1537/1941 am 6 Mai 1941.20 Ein Jahr später, im Mai 1942 wurden auch die, von der Katholischen Kirche verwalteten konfessionellen Schulen, von der Deutschen Ethnischen Gruppe in Rumänien übernommen. Diese Übernahme geschah nich nur mit der alleinigen Zustimmung Bischof Pachas sondern auch mit der formellen Einwilligung Vatikans (durch die diplomatische Vertretung des Heiligen Stuhls in Bukarest):

„Als einige Wochen später der Päpstliche Nuntius in Bukarest einem Vertreter der Volksgruppen- führung gegenüber die Versicherung der Zustimmung gegeben hatte, wurde es von Bischof Pacha und dem Volksgruppenführer Andreas Schmidt am 16 März 1942 unterzeichnet, am 6 Mai 1942 durch Unterrichtsminister Petrovici bestätigt und am 26 Mai 1942 im Amtsblatt veröffentlicht.”21

In diesem äußerst ungünstigen ideologische Kontext, versuchte Augustin Pacha die spe- zifischen Interessen des Katholizismus zu vertreten. Aufgrund einer zunehmend ungünstig gewordenen, institutionellen Beziehung zwischen Religion und Politik (besser gesagt zwischen Katholizismus und Nationalsozialismus), da diese Beziehung die damaligen strategischen Machtbeziehungen widerspiegelte und somit eine Machtbeziehung zu Gunsten des

Auflage, Köln, Böhlau, 2009, S. 77. Cf. Böhm Johann: Die Deutschen in Rumänien und das Dritte Reich. 1933–1940, Frankfurt am Main, Peter Lang Verlang, 1999, S. 313. 16 Milata Paul: Zwischen Hitler, Stalin und Antonescu . Rumäniendeutsche in der Waffen-SS, 2. Au- flage, Köln, Böhlau, 2009, S. 77. 17 Böhm Johann: Nationalsozialistische Indoktrination der Deutschen in Rumänien. 1932–1944, Frankfurt am Main, Peter Lang Verlag, 2008, S. 109. 18 BArch, NS 19/1077, S. 9. 19 Milata Paul: Zwischen Hitler, Stalin und Antonescu . Rumäniendeutsche in der Waffen-SS, 2. Au- flage, Köln, Böhlau, 2009, S. 77–78. 20 Archivum Dioecesanum Timisoarense, ungeordnet. 21 Hügel Kaspar: Das Banater deutsche Schulwesen in Rumänien von 1918 bis 1944, München, Verlag des Südostdeutschen Kulturwerkes, 1968, S. 87.

159 Mihai A . Panu politischen Faktors war, musste Pacha seine Kommunikationsstrategien anpassen und die Diplomatie als geeignetes Handlungsinstrument in Betracht ziehen. Die antiklerikale Propa- ganda und alle, gegen die Kirche gerichteten, Maßnahmen der Nationalsozialisten, konnten nicht einfach nur durch die traditionellen, vorwiegend von der symbolischen Macht gepräg- ten, Handlungsinstrumente der Kirche bekämpft werden. Pacha versuchte zunehmend eine politische Rolle in der Öffentlichkeit zu spielen, in der Hoffnung dass eine grundsätzlich politisch und ideologisch definierte gesellschaftliche Ordnung kann nur durch gleichartigen d.h. politisch zielorientierte Handlungsstrategien beeinflusst werden. Die Anpassungsfähig- keit Pachas an die damaligen ideologischen Verhälnisse und seine wiederholten Versuche, die Politik zu Gunsten der Kirche zu beeinflussen, sind, wenn man seine Tätigkeit auch aus politischer Perspektive analysiert, leicht zu erkennen. Ein Beispiel dafür ist die Initiative Pachas, hochdiplomatisch zu agieren und sogar Adolf Hitler, bezüglich der zunehmenden Bedrohung der Banater kirchlichen Ordnung durch die NS-Ideologie, anzusprechen.22 Augustin Pacha hatte persönliche Kontakte mit Hitler schon im Februar 1934 aufge- nommen. Das Treffen zwischen Hitler und Pacha bleibt heutzutage immer noch ein umstrit- tenes Thema weil diese Begegnung besonders von der rumänischen Öffentlichkeit als ein Zeichen der endgültigen nationalsozialistischen Orientirung des Banater Bischofs betrachtet wurde. Pacha versucht den Kontext seines Treffens mit Hitler in einem unveröffentli- chen, im Archiv der Temeswarer katholischen Diözese aufbewahrten Text23 zu erklären: „(...)Ermutigt durch den Eindruck auf einige Nazis, habe ich mich entschlossen Hitler zu begeg- nen und ihm über unsere Sorgen zu berichten. Hitler hörte mir sehr höflich zu und schien von meiner Präsentation beeindruckt zu sein. Aber am nächsten Tag die deutsche Depeschenagentur veröffentlichte eine Erklärung und berichtete dass ich dem Führer Adolf Hitler, die Würdigungs der Banater Schwaben präsentiert hätte. Diese ungenaue und später rektifizierte Nachricht, hatte kein anderes Ziel als meine Entehrung in Bukarest zu Gunsten und wahrscheinlich nach der An- forderung meiner Nazi-Gegner. Ich habe es begriffen, dass in unserem Kampf gegen den Nation- alsozialismus nicht mehr, wie in der Vergangenheit, auf die Bekümmertheit der Berliner kulturellen Interessen für unser Volk zählen können. Berlin beschäftigte sich offiziell nicht mehr mit den Interessen des deutschen Volkes sondern mit den Interessen des Nationalsozialismus. Wer kein überzeugter Nationalsozialist war, wurde automatisch als Feind betrachtet.( A.d.Ü).“24 Pachas antitotalitäres Verhalten ist, aufgrund seiner öffentlich angenommenen, politisch-orientierten Rolle, nicht für alle Historiker und Zeitzeugen deutlich genug. Ihm wurde eine gewisse Mitschuld im Prozess der nationalsozialistischen Indoktrination verschiedener sozialen Schichten im Banat, vorgeworfen: „Die katholische Kirche bildete keine ideologische Front gegen die Erneuerungsbewegung. Bischof Pacha nahm von Anfang an eine neutrale Haltung ein und behielt diese auch gegenüber

22 Es handelt sich um einen Brief, der von Pacha am 31 Dezember 1940, an die Führerkanzlei in Berlin geschickt wurde. Cf. PA AA, R93351/189, S. 198. 23 Archivum Dioecesanum Timisoarense, Manuskript. Es handelt sich um ein ungefähr 100 Seiten langes Manuskript, mit dem Titel „Zur Geschichte der Deutschen in heutigen Rumänien“ das im Arhiv der katholischen Diözese in Temeswar aufbewahr ist. Der Name des Autors wurde vom Deckblatt entfernt aber aufgrund verschiedener stilistischen und biographischen Hinweise, kann man davon ausgehen dass das Manuskript höchstwahrscheinlich dem Bischof Augustin Pacha gehört.(A.d.V.). 24 Archivum Dioecesanum Timisoarense, Manuskript, S. 10–11.

160 Der Widerstand gegen Rechtsextremismus ...

der Volksgruppenführung Schmidt.”25 Die Beziehungen zwischen der Katholischen Kirche im Banat und den verschiedenen, vom Dritten Reich kontrollierten NS-Organisationen waren notwendigerweise Machtbe- ziehungen und die Nazis, aufgrund ihrer geopolitisch überlegenen Position, ergriffen in den meisten Fällen die Initiative. Dem Bischof war es bewusst dass die Katholische Kir- che gegen den Nationalsozialismus keine ideologische Front bilden kann weil die Vertreter dieser Kirche als Kleriker, im Kampf gegen eine totalitäre Ideologie keine ideologieartige Diskursstrategien verwenden können. Die Bekämpfung der NS-Ideologie durch eine Art kirchliche Gegen-Ideologie, würde automatisch eine Entlegitimisierung der Katholischen Kirche bedeuten. Augustin Pacha versuchte dieser Entlegitimierungseffekt zu vermeiden indem er seine Handlungsstrategien gegen den Nationalsozialismus vorwiegend als politische und diplomatische (und nicht als ideologische) Aktionen einsetzte. Pacha ging davon aus dass eine ideologische Auseinan- dersetzung der Kirche mit dem Dritten Reich keine realistische Strategie ist, weil die Kirche nicht über legitime, ideologie-ähnliche Diskursinstrumente verfügt. Außerdem, die Kirche hatte nicht das gleiche Propagandapotential und geopolitische Überlegenheit wie die tota- litäre Ideologie des Nationalsozialismus. Unter diesen ungünstigen Umständen, vesuchte Pacha die sozialen Auswirkungen der NS-Ideologie in der Banater Gesellschaft einzudäm- men, vor allem durch nicht-ideologische Maßnahmen.

Abschließende Bemerkungen

Die Amtszeit Augustin Pachas stimmte mit dem Aufstieg der extremistischen politischen Bewegungen überein. Die ideologisch-religiösen Auseinandersetzungen im Banat der Zwischenkriegszeit hatten vorwiegend einen strategischen Charakter. Die Katholische Kirche versuchte schrittweise und zielgerichtet nicht unbedingt einen totalen Widerstand gegen die NS-Ideologie zu leisten, (weil eine solche Strategie unrealistisch und sogar ge- fährlich wäre), sondern vielmehr die Auswirkungen dieser Ideologie auf gesellschaftlichen Niveau zu bändigen. Das strategische Ziel des Dritten Reiches bestand darin, die von der Katholische Kirche kontrollierten Organisationen (darunter auch die konfessionellen Schulen) zu übernehmen und somit die Mitglieder dieser Organisationen (vor allem Ju- gendliche) von dem Einfluss der Kirche zu trennen. Das menschliche Kapital spielte für die Indoktrinationsstrategien der Nationalsozialisten eine entscheidende Rolle. Besonders die Jugendlichen, deren Emfänglichkeit gegenüber revolutionären Weltanschauungen frühze- itig ausgeprägt war, bildeten die strittige und ideologisch wünschenswerte soziale Katego- rie. In 1934 existierten im rumänischen Banat die folgenden, von der Katholischen Kirche verwalteten Organisationen:26 • Deutsch – Katholischer Jugendbund: ungefähr 5000 Mitglieder • Der Katholisch-Deutsche Frauenverein und Mädchenkranz: ungefähr 7000 Mitglieder • Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Jungpriester: ungefähr 40 Mitglieder

Wenn man bedenkt dass in diesen Organisationen die Mitgliedschaft vorwiegend aus Jugendlichen bestand, wird auch der propagandistische Druck des Dritten Reiches leicht

25 Hartl Hans: Das Schicksal des Deutschtums in Rumänien, Würzburg, Holzner, 1958, S. 44–45. 26 PA AA, Bukarest 136/2587, Dossier I.A-3: Vermittlungsmission Dr. Scherers.

161 Mihai A . Panu

erklärbar. Der totalitäre Anspruch der NS-Ideologie erforderte die Loyalitätsgewinnung möglichst breiter Gesellschaftsschichten. Sowohl die Politik als auch die Religion (betrachtet als generische institutionalisierte Suprastrukturen) benötigen eine kontrollierbare An- hängerschaft um sich zu legitimieren. Wenn man davon ausgeht dass das (politische) Verhalten der Gesellschaft von der institutionellen Suprastruktur bestimmt ist d.h. wenn eine radikale Ideologie zur Suprastruktur wird und das institutionelle Design eines Staates (und somit das alltägliche Leben) prägt, die gesellschaftlichen Prozessen (Einstellungen gegenüber ethnokulturellen Pluralismus, politische Präferenzen etc.) werden ebenfalls ideologisch geprägt. Dieser Struktur-Akteur Determinismus hat eine besondere Relevanz für die aktuelle Geschichtsschreibung. Das daraus resultierende Erklärungsmuster ist aus mehreren Perspektiven am besten geeignet um den sozio-politischen Kontext im Banat der Zwischenkriegszeit zu erklären.

Bibliographie

Böhm, Johann. Die Deutschen in Rumänien und das Dritte Reich. 1933–1940. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang Verlang, 1999. _____. Nationalsozialistische Indoktrination der Deutschen in Rumänien. 1932–1944. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang Verlag, 2008. Hockl, Nik. Hans. Das deutsche Banat. Seine geschichtlich-politische Entwicklung und Aufgabe. Temeschburg: Buchdruckerei Anwender&Sohn, 1940. Hügel, Kaspar. Abriss der Geschichte des Donauschwäbischen Schulwesens. München: Verlag des Südostdeutschen Kulturwerks, 1957. _____. Das Banater deutsche Schulwesen in Rumänien von 1918 bis 1944. München,: Verlag des Südostdeutschen Kulturwerkes, 1968. Kräuter, Franz. Erinnerungen an Bischof Pacha. Ein Stück Banater Heimatgeschichte. Bukarest: ADZ Verlag, 1995, S. 109. Maner, Hans Christian. Parlamentarismul în România 1930–1940. Bukarest: Editura Enciclopedica, 2004. Milata, Paul. Zwischen Hitler, Stalin und Antonescu . Rumäniendeutsche in der Waffen-SS, 2. Auflage. Köln: Böhlau, 2009. Schmitt, Carl. Roman Catholicism and Political Form. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1996. Sugar, Peter. Naţionalismul est-european în secolul al XX-lea. [Der osteuropäische Nationalismus im 20 Jahrhundert], Bukarest: Curtea Veche, 2002. Archivquellen

Der Ruf, Temeswar, Januar 1937, S. 4, Archivum Dioecesanum Timisoarense. Svastica Banatului, Jahrgang IV, Nr. 31, 15 September 1930, Biblioteca Judeţeană Timiş, Secţia Doc- umentar-Periodice. ***, Zur Geschichte der Deutschen in heutigen Rumänien, Archivum Dioecesanum Timisoarense, Fond Politic, ungeordnet. BArch, NS 19/1077, Andreas Schmidt, Volksgruppenführer der Deutschen Volksgruppe in Rumän- ien.- Differenzen mit dem SD in Rumänien, Verwendung bei Kriegsende in einem Einsatzkom- mando, Das Bundesarchiv, Berlin Lichterfelde. PA AA, R93351/189, Reichs- und Volksdeutsche in Rumänien, I. Das politische Archiv des Auswär- tigen Amtes, Berlin Mitte. PA AA, Bukarest 136/2587, Römisch-Katholische Kirche, Dossier I.A-3: Vermittlungsmission Dr. Scherers, Das politische Archiv des Auswärtigen Amtes, Berlin Mitte.

162 Christening Names in Cenad Christening Names in Cenad Dușan Baiski

The subject of this article deals with the Christening names of Orthodox Romanians from the town of Cenad, Romania . The Study was done based on documents related to christening between 1976–1903 and 2011–2013. In Christening names in the registers of religious cults in Cenad have changed, in time, based on various influences, adaptations, and spell- ings. Until the beginning of the twentieth century, the most dominant names were those of Biblical influence, regardless of the child’s nationality. After 1989 however, christening names specific to other regions started to emerge because of the influence of mass media, the freedom to travel, the freedom to marry foreign citizens, but also because of the influence of new inhabitants of Cenad who originated elsewhere. While Biblical names used to be dominant, they now entered the minority sphere .

Keywords: Cenad; name; biblical; time; influence; cult; adaptation; minority.

Motto: Nobody will stand by the Gates of Heaven to check if a name is in line with the Christian calendar, in order to open the Gates or not. The Gates will open according to our faith and deeds .

Anonymous priest

While the problem of christening names is more or less problematic, it becomes critical when a new-born appears in the family. Of course, one must overlook the fact that the most desired children were boys which resulted in numerous family dramas. Even in the contemporary society, men are bestowed with the role of the “warrior” (defender or conqueror), while women remain in secondary role: being a mother and a housewife – consequently, the names must also incorporate these roles. This analysis must start with the definition of the noun “name,” taken from the Roma- nian Explicative Dictionary:1

NAME, names. A word or a group of words which denote a person, a thing, an action, a notion, etc., through which this person, thing, action, notion, etc. identifies. ◊ Christening name = first name. Family name = a name worn by all the members of the same family and which is transmitted from parents to children. Name day = a day in which on celebrates his/her name.2

What is of interest in this definition is the christening name or the first name. There is a wide literature dealing with this subject which supported the present study – among which, the names of the Greek-Orthodox inhabitants of the Cenad settlement between 1876 and 1903, as well as between 2011 and 2013; furthermore, extracts from Church records

1 Because the study based on the christening names of the people of Cenad, a Romanian dictionary had to be used. See: http://dexonline.ro (last time accessed: July 6, 2015). 2 See: http://dexonline.ro/definitie/nume (last time accessed: July 6, 2015).

163 Dușan Baiski were used, as well as a series of analyses and considerations regarding the past and present tendencies in anthroponymy. It should be highlighted from the beginning that there are two aspects of the Cenad christening name problematic: one regarding the position of the Church towards christening names and the other regarding the position of lay authorities – the two not being intercon- nected anymore. Therefore, although until the twentieth century, the child had to be christened immediately after birth, the fist concern of parents today is to declare the new birth to the authorities and only afterwards to christen the child. Concerning christening names, Greek-Orthodox churches have their own Synaxaria.3 Nevertheless, as laity is not always in concordance with the written and non-written Church laws, it often happens that the two institutions enter conflict. While, for instance, most autocephalous eastern churches christen with any name (except those with satanic implications), the Russian Orthodox Church had a more strict position, its priests refusing to perform the Holy Mysteries on Christians christened in local churches if their names were not in the calendar. As a consequence, the Patriarchate of Moscow had to intervene. The successive arrivals of Slavic people who settled on the Balkans (thus also in the Banat region, which incorporates Cenad) had a profound impact on the christening names of local Wallachians. Furthermore, the introduction of Old Church Slavonic as the liturgical language in the area had a final impact in the names. The first ones who adopted Slavic names or names derived from Slavic were members of the local nobility. Therefore, some Romanian regions (such as Moldavia) incorporated as much as two thirds of Slavic names. The first Wallachian voivodes and their relatives bore Slavic names such as Dragoş, Bog- dan, Litovoi, Seneslav, or Tihomir, all known from documents and chronicles. Some of these names are accompanied by a number of Slavic derivates, to which some other derivates were added later on, in the Romanian language.4 Others however, although they accept the large share of Slavic names in Romanian anthroponymy, consider that “…it is too large, but not because of objective reasons, but subjective ones, of the authors of collections of etymologies; more precisely the authors of dictionaries or etymology works did some condemnable insufficiencies, such as not applying the principle of internal etymology … as well as not applying the principle according to which ”5 Furthermore, the names in the Ardeal and Banat region of today’s Romania went through a transition towards the Hungarian language both in the way they were written and in the way they were pronounced. Being unhappy about this outcome, the local Romanian intellectuals sought to avoid such influences by updating the Latin onomasticom, which did not have names with Hungarian connections.6 The Romanian priests and teachers of Cenad

3 Synaxaia are lists of the saints arranged in the order of their anniversaries. 4 Ana Marin, Considerații privind interferențele româno-sud-slave în antroponimie [Consider- ations regarding South Slavic Romanian interferences in antroponymy] (Constanța: Ovidius Uni- versity Annals of Philology Vol. XIII, 2002), 149–158. 5 Ioan Pătruț, Originea și structura antroponimelor românești [The origin and the structure of Ro- manian names] in Dacoromania VII – VIII (2002 – 2003): 159–163. 6 Gheorghe C. Moldoveanu, Antroponimia, parte integrantă a tradițiilor culturale românești [An- throponymy, as an integral part of the Romanian cultural traditions] (Iași: Revista română), 16. http://astra.iasi.roedu.net/pdf/nr62p15–17.pdf (last time accessed: July 6, 2015).

164 Christening Names in Cenad quickly adapted to this new current as it will be seen further on. Because minority first names were changed with Romanian equivalents during the communist period (Erzsébet – Elisabeta; Miklós – Nicolae; Tibor – Tiberiu; Gyula – Iuliu; György – Gheorghe), the Hungarians started to use original Hungarian names which did not have a Romanian equivalent: Csaba, Béla, Levente, Zsolt (for boys), and Csilla, Gyöngyvér, Réka, Emese (for girls). Similarly, Serbian names were now transcribed according to the Romanian orthography and alphabet: Jeftić - Ieftici, Dušan - Dușan, Jadranka - Iadranca, Božidar - Bojidar. Furthermore, the weak education of some public workers in Romania (thus, also in Cenad), ended up “torturing” a number of names belonging to minorities. One such example is that of the family name Jeftić (written Јефтић in Serbian orthography with Cyrillic letters), which was written as differently as Ertin, Eftin, Eftici, or Ieftici and which led to numerous pronunciation problems of this name. Unfortunately, the Latin alphabet as adapted by the neighbours of Romania is scarcely taught in Romania, just like these neighbours do not each in their schools the specific letters of the Romanian alphabet. As a consequence, Romanians are often “re-christened” when crossing the Romanian borders: Șerbănescu becomes Serbanescu; the Romanian citizen of Serbian ethnicity named Cedomir becomes Țedomir when crossing the border (the letter “c” of the Serbian Latin alphabet is the equivalent of the Romanian letter “ț”). There are other examples as well: Jadranka – Iadranca - Iadranța, Božidar – Bojidar – Boiidar, etc. Returning to christening names: the monk Petru Pruteanu from the Republic of Moldova (priest in Portugal from July 2012), being unhappy about the fact that the synaxarium edited annually by the Russian Orthodox Church (on which the Orthodox Church of Moldova depends) does not contain the names of all the Western saints and very few names of the Christian East (of up until 1054), created a list of Eastern orthodox saints who belonged to the Universal Church up until 1054. His list (published on his blog www.teologie.net) gath- ers over 600 names. He argues: “Therefore, you have the occasion to read not only a list of names of some people from the past, but also the names of some saints whose lives were nothing less than those of the saints of the East (of whom we still do not know a lot, but at least we know their names).”7 He concludes: “Therefore, dear priests, do not seek to only name children with Christian names, but also teach them to live a Christian life and to bless their names! And if, following the discussion with their parents, you manage to convince them to name their children with saint names, then talk to them about the life of that saint and about the ways in which they can resemble the saint’s life. ”8 It must be highlighted that Petru Pruteanu also edited a version of the synaxarium for clerics and Christians in the Republic of Moldova, noting that “with some exceptions (mentioned in the footnotes), it can also be used by the clerics and Christians in Romania.”9 The online publication Lumina,10 (edited by the Basilica Media Centre of the Romanian Patri-

7 See: www.teologie.net (last time accessed: July 6, 2015). 8 Ibidem. 9 Monk Petru Priteanu, Iarăşi despre numele de botez. Un scurt Sinaxar al Sfinţilor ortodocşi din Apus [On christening names, once more. A short synaxarion of the Orthodox saints in the East] on the “Liturgică și misiologie ortodoxă” blog. http://www.teologie.net/2013/09/06/iarasi-despre- numele-de-botez-un-scurt-sinaxar-al-sfintilor-ortodocsi-din-apus/ (last time accessed: July 17, 2015). 10 See the article “Răspunsuri duhovniceşti: Copilul să primească un singur nume la Botez, căci are

165 Dușan Baiski archy) has an imperative opinion on christening names: “The child must only receive one name when (s)he is christened, because (s)he has one single soul.” As the anonymous author writes, “when christened, the child received a sole name because the man has only one birth and only one soul. The christening name represents the soul of the name united with God through the christening, through the rightful faith and through good deeds.” Further on, the author highlights: “It is prohibited to name the child with two or even three names at the christening, although this is in fashion today. The name of the saint, given to the child at the christening, makes the newly-christened the disciple of that saint. Through this, the saint becomes the helper and the protector of the Christian child in front of God, during his lifetime, after death, and also at the Last Judgement. A Christian without the name of a saint remains in life without protection and without a constant mediator to God. What is worse than this?” Unfortunately, some parents do not always realize that they are parents and that they must take certain responsibilities. They have to be conscious that each and every act they do regarding their child may have negative outcomes in the future of their child. This does not have to do with love anymore, but with the truth – a truth which begins at the town hall when declaring the birth of the child. This is the place where one of the parents (usually the father) not only has to acknowledge his heir, but also has to name him/her. And as the Church is no longer a landmark, the place of saints is often taken by football players, actors, film characters, and so on. The Romanian site www.one.ro created a list of illegal christening names in 10 countries, among which Romania. According to this list, some parents tried to name their children with names such as Tatula Does the Hula From Hawaii (New Zeeland). This name was forbidden but others were allowed such as: Number 16 Bus Shelter, Violence, Metal- lica, IKEA, Veranda, Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116 and Q. „Google” in Sweden. Malaysia adopted a list which did not conform to its religious traditions with names such as: Chow Tow (Dirty Head), An Chwar (Snake), Khiow Khoo (Hump), Sor Chai (Madman) or Woti (Sexual Act). In China (a county where one seldom finds a rare name), one family wanted to name its child with the sign @, which resembles the Chinese expression “love him/her,” but the authorities refused the name. Furthermore, Denmark has a list of about 7000 illegal names. In the case of Romania, we cite an entire paragraph from the afore-mentioned site:

With the support of the authorities, we have among us joyful children with names such as Mirel (first name) Joacă-Bine [plays well], Mariano-Monamur Stelian (first name) Ion, Superman (first name) Sava, Batman Bin Suparman, Bred (first name) Pit, Beckham Figo Zidan (first name) Poe- naru, Alexandru-Dick (first name) Păsărică, Tom-Mac-Bil-Bob-Constantin (first name) Cojocaru, Verginica (first name) Vacăgrasă [fat cow]. Other first names are as following: Strugurel (little grape) appears at 192 people, Portocala (orange – the fruit) - 65 people, Ministru (minister) - 22, Lămâia (lemon) - 18, Poliția (police) - 3, Justiția (justice) - 2, Semafor (traffic light) -1.11

un singur suflet” [Clerical answers: let the child receive only one name when christened, because (s)he has only one soul] in the Lumina newspaper. See: http://ziarullumina.ro/raspunsuri-duhovnicesti-copilul-sa-primeasca-un-singur-nume-la-botez-caci-are-un-singur-suflet-54618.html (last time accessed: July 17, 2015). 11 See: www.one.ro (last time accessed: July 6, 2015).

166 Christening Names in Cenad

The registers of the National Archives of the County of Timiș (to which Cenad belongs) contains dozens of confessional registers. The process of administrative separation from the Serbian Orthodox Church started with the Congress of 1864 in Sremski Karlovci12 organized for the election of the patriarch, where the deputy Vincenţiu Babeş presented a document on August 5, 1864, which stood at the basis of the separation. However, the actual separation only began in 1865, after the Hungarian Royal Chancellery issued an act with reference to the settlements with mixed Orthodox churches, allowing them to “break according to their nationality in two different groups.”13 The Romanian Orthodox Church was established in 1872 by the separation of the Met- ropolitan Church of Ungrovlahia and the Metropolitan Church of Moldova from the Patri- archate of Constantinople and by naming the Metropolitan of Ungrovahia (also the archbishop of Bucharest) as the Metropolitan of Romania. The “Descent of the Holy Spirit” Romanian Orthodox Church of Cenad was built between 1888 and 1889 and consecrated on June 9, 1889 on the day of Pentecost. The church starts to have its independent registers, in Romanian, starting with 1876, when the first registered child (on January 7th) is Vasile, the son of Mitru Nicolasiu and Jela (being married), while the second registered child is Eva (on January 9th), the daughter of Teodoru Galetariu and his concubine Saveta. Based on its moral norms, the church imposed a special heading, titled “Married or not?” The Following register starts with the last registrations of children christened in 1890 – this is where the importance of the Christian ethics regarding the legitimacy of new-born children is visible. Therefore, a column titled “Legitimate or Illegitimate” was inserted after the registration number, the date of birth and of christening, and after the name and sex of the child – therefore before the names of the parents. Naturally, there were many illegitimate children and the syntagm “child of flowers” (used in Romanian for illegitimate children) followed them imposed by the Church itself. Moreover, a girl “of flowers” was even christened with the name Floare (Flower). One may notice in the christening records of Cenad names ending in a deaf u, which also exsited in old Romanian but eventually disappeared. Also, names starting with the letter J eventually changed their letter J to I as in: Joanu (Ioan), Jela (Iela) etc. In order to simplify the statistics, I noticed that some names were spelled differently Ana, Anna; Catița, Catitia, Katitia; Maria, Mărie, Măria, Marie), but the shortened versions of the names as well as the Slavic versions of the names were kept (Jela, Iella, Ielița, Ielitia).

12 Sremski Karlovci – a settlement in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, Serbia . This was where the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the Habsburg Empire lived starting with 1713. 13 Michaela Bedecean, Separația bisericească de Mitropolia din Carloviț în Episcopia Aradului, oglindită în presă (1865–1873) [Church separation in the Metropolitan Church of Karlovci in the Bishopric of Arad, as mirrored in mass media (1865–1873)] (Cluj-Napoca: Anuarul Institutului de Istorie „George Bariţiu“- Seria Historica). http://www.historica-cluj.ro/anuare/AnuarHistori- ca2009/05.pdf (last time accessed: July 6, 2015).

167 Dușan Baiski

Table 1. Most frequent boy christening names (1876–1903):

Name Total Name Total Georgiu, George, Georgie 180 Terentiu, Terentie 2 Joan(u), Ioan, Ion 149 Stefan(u) 2 Petru 48 Romulus(u) 2 Nicolae, Nicolau 48 Romul 2 Pavel(u) 42 Alexa 1 Teodor(u), Todor 29 Vincetiu 1 Traian(u), Trajan 26 Victor 1 Antonie, Antoniu 26 Valerie 1 Lazar(u) 24 Urosiu 1 Dimitrie, Dimitriu 23 Traian Ilie Dimitrie 1 Vasilie, Vasiliu, Vasilia, Vasalie, Văsălie 22 Terentiu 1 Sava 20 Silviu 1 Mi(c)hail(u), Michai(u), Mihai(u), Mihaila 17 Roman (Romulusu) 1 Ilie 16 Rada 1 Aureliu, Aurel 13 Partenie 1 Meila, Meilă 12 Ovid-Corneliu 1 Mitru 11 Octavian 1 Jovan(u), Iovan 11 Nestor 1 Gavrila (ă), Gavriliu 10 Mircea Virgil 1 Tanasiu, Tanasie, Tănasiă 7 Mircea 1 Savu 7 Mia 1 Marcu 6 Julian 1 Filip(u) 6 Joan-Josifu 1 Simion(u), Simeon 4 Iosif 1 Paia 4 Iancu 1 Damian(u) 4 Horia Tiberiu 1 Atanasie, Atanasiu 4 Dima 1 Vichentia 3 Constandinu 1 Mircu 3 Andreiu 1 Jeremia, Irimia, Irimie 3 Alia 1 Cuzman 3 Alexandru 1 Toma 2 TOTAL 818

This table clearly distinguishes the popularity of christening names based on saint names from the Romanian Orthodox Synaxarium: George, Ioan, Petru, Nicolae, Pavel, Te- odor. The seventh name in terms of popularity, Traian, is surely given following the name of the Roman Emperor Trajan, the conqueror of Dacia. In this last case, one may suspect this is because of the influence of the School of Ardeal, in terms of national empancipation – between 1876 and 1890, 8 children were christened as Traian, between 1891 and 1900, ten were christened Traian, and between 1901 and 1903, another eight. During these 27 years, only one triple name was registered (Traian Ilie Dimitrie – 1902, the son of Ștefan and Maria Blagoie) and four double names (Joan-Josifu – 1885, the son of Teodor and Floare Rusu, godparents Josif Müller and Ioana Soceri; Mircea Vir- gil – 1895, the son of the local priest Gheorghe Telescu and his wife, Floare; Ovid-Corneliu – 1897, the son of the local priest Gheorghe Telescu and his wife, Floare; și Horia Tiberiu

168 Christening Names in Cenad

– 1899, fiul preotului local Terentiu Oprean și al soției sale, Aurelia). Therefore, of the five multiple names, three belonged to children of local priests. This happened regardless of the Church’s argumentation for a single christening name. It is easily observable however, that these names were inspired by the priests’ culture and nationalism, Cenad being, during those times, part of Hungary. Table 2. Most frequent girl christening names (1876–1903):

Name TOTAL Name TOTAL Ana (Anna) 109 Maria (Măria, Mărie, Marie) 88 Valeria 2 Flo(a)re 72 Solomia (Solomie) 2 Elen(n)a 62 Silvia 2 Jela (Iella), Ielița, Ielitia 39 Sida 2 Roxa (Rocsa) 37 Paraschia 2 Marta (Martha) 35 Marina 2 Saveta (Savetha) 33 Ioana 2 Sofia 26 Giula 2 Elisaveta 25 Elena Floare 1 Juliana, Iuliana 20 Zsivca 1 Ecat(h)arina 18 Victoria Gizela Persida 1 Mi(i)a 16 Veturia-Emilia 1 Eva 16 Teodora 1 Catița (Catitia, Katitia) 16 Tecla 1 Persida 14 Sabina 1 Lucre(ț)ia 14 Roxa-Sofia 1 Lena 12 Rea-Silvia 1 Vio(a)ra 8 Rachila 1 Ileana (Ilena, Iliana) 7 Petra 1 Alca 7 Milca 1 Sara 5 Lillia 1 Magdolina (Magdolna), Magdalena 5 Leontina 1 Letitia 5 Lena Ielitia 1 Veta 4 Jesica Sofia Liubitia 1 Paulina 4 Florica 1 Anastasia 4 Fema 1 Stanca 3 Elița (Ielița) 1 Nasta 3 Elisauca 1 Militia (Miliția) 3 Bosilca 1 Lenca 3 Aurora Livia Adriana 1 Eufemia 3 Aurelia 1 Emilia 3 Angelina 1 Dinca 3 Alesandra 1 C(h)ristina 3 Victoria 2 TOTAL 769

A relatively popular name was Meilă (Meila), found 12 times during the studied period. The names of Slavic origin were less popular: Urosiu (Uroș), Mirco (Marcu), Paia, Rada,

169 Dușan Baiski

Jovan (Iovan) being the most popular (11 times). Curiously, in 1897, the name Alia (Alija, the Muslim version for Elijah) appears at the child of Ion and Marta Soceri. Another curios- ity is the name Cuzman, with origins in the Iberian Peninsula, but also found in Romanian and Serbian names in the Banat and Crișana Regions. The name of Mia appears only once (1898), probably a shortening for Mihai and Maria for girls. As a conclusion, 64 christening names were used in the studied period and another three (Virgil, Tiberiu, and Corneliu) were additional names in multiple christening names. A series of names were given to children in Romanian-Serbian mixed marriages, the christening being done in the Romanian Orthodox Church of Cenad. Analyzing the table with the names, it is interesting to notice that out of the 820 boy names, 329 (thus 40,12%) belong to two names only: George and Ioan, deriving, of course, from their Latin roots - Georgius and Joannes. It should be noted that they are different from the other forms used in other Romanian territories such as Gheroghe and Ion. How can this popularity be explained? It is difficult to believe that the priests of the time explained to their parish the significance of these names, but it may be that they highlighted the importance of the two saints who bore these names: Saints George and John. The significance of the names: Geroge – the worker of the land in Greek; a first name particularly frequent in Romanian naming, being on the third place after Ion and Nicolae. Ioan – the mercy of God, in Hebrew; the most popular name in Romanian and European naming. Nevertheless, in Cenad, the name George is more frequent than Ioan on the period studied. I believe that in this case, the iconography (including church iconography and icons of the saint in people’s houses – in calendars, books, etc.) was determinant. Thus, the image of Saint George slaying the dragon equalled the image which was probably suggested by the priests of the time – that of national liberation. This contrasted the image of Saint John the Baptist who was a model of humility with a tragic end (being decapitated by King Herod and having a suggestive iconography representing this event). In the case of girls, one may find three triple names:Aurora Livia Adriana – 1893, the daughter of the local priest Gheorghe Telescu and his wife Floare; Victoria Gizela Persida – 1901, the daughter of Nicolae and Ana Dămian; Jesica Sofia Liubitia (derived from the Serbian Liubița) – 1903, the daughter of Aurel and Lucreția Nicolaș. Furthermore, one may find five double names:oxa-Sofia R – 1894, the daughter of Ioan and Eva Regep; Rea- Silvia – 1887, the daughter of the teacher Georgiu and Miliția Minisianu; Veturia-Emilia – 1892, the daughter of the priets Gheorghe Telescu and his wife Floare; Lena Ielitia – 1899, the daughter of Valeriu and Floare Terzeu; Elena-Floare – 1900, the daughter of Nicolae and Maria Vințean. The priest Gheorghe Telescu and his wife Floare are once more visible in christening cases with double and triple names. In the case of girl names, one also encounters Slavicized names: Jela (Iella), Ielița, Ielitia – shortened versions of Elena; Catița (Catitia, Katitia) – shortened from Eca- terina; Lenca – shortened for Elena. Furthermore, one can notice even Slavic names in this list: Bosilca – the feminine for Busuioc; Militia, Miliția – corectly Milița; Zsivca (read Jivca); Milca; Dinca (possibly the short version for Radenka or Radinka). There are also less usual Slavic names such as Ferma and Elisauca (possibly a form of the Serbian name Savca). All these changes were most likely the result of the influence of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Alca is a name which derives from the Muslim name Alka, derived itself from the name Alia (Alija, in Bosnia and Herzegovina). It seems that collective memory had its influence

170 Christening Names in Cenad on both names (Alia and Alca): after 164 years of Ottoman domination in Banat, one may still find in Cenad the family name of Regep (Rejep), which is surely of Turkish origin, although one cannot speak of Turkish families in Cenad. In the table 2., one may clearly distinguish the popularity of the name Ana (109 entries) and Maria (88 entries). However, should one gather all the names of Elena with its derivates Ileana (Ilena, Iliana) and its Slavic forms (Jela - Iella, Ielița, Ielitia, Lenca), this name should appear as the most popular one (120). The significance of the names: Ana – meaning goodwill, mercy in Hebrew; one of the most well-known and popular name in Christian naming because of its history and its direct origin from the Old and the New Testament; Maria – meaning sea of sadness in Egyptian, beloved; feminine fist name with the largest spreading within all the continents; Elena – helene = torch, fire; or selene = moon (Greek), one of the most popular female names in Romania. Christians consider Saint Anna to be the mother of Virgin Mary and the grandmother of Christ – this is one explanation for the popularity of the name in Cenad. As for the name Elena (Saint Helen being the mother of Emperor Constantine the Great, the Romanian Or- thodox Church celebrating the two saints together), with its derivates Lena, Ilena, Ileana: its popularity may be explained in terms of fashion because the iconography of Saint Helen is not as frequent and expressive as that of the Virgin Mary, for instance. Between 1976 and 1903, 16 pairs of twins were recorded in Cenad, five of which were boys, seven girls, and the other four mixed. Two of these pairs (George and Mitru from the parents Terentiu Minisian și Veta Covaciu; and Ioan and Saveta from the parents George și Saveta Rezsep) were born on the same day: January 17, 1878. As a final observation, making a numerical analysis, the number of new-borns was in a permanent decline during the studied period. Most children were born in the year 1878 (75 children), and the less were born in 1891 (39). The total number of boys (1876–1903) was 820, and that of girls was 769 – there were 51 more boys born than girls, as if nature was preparing itself for the First World War (1914–1918). During the last four years which were studied (2010–2013), 170 children originating fom Cenad were registered, 78 of whom were boys and 92 girls. However, this is not a study of birth rates, but of name trends in Cenad. Therefore, although until recently, mixed marriages were rare and parents together with their families and godparents preferred to choose classical names, especially inspired from religion (Ioan, Maria, Andrei, Pavel, Gheorghe, Ana, etc.) or flower names (Florica, Viorica). In the present however, they opt for new or foreign names. Some of the reasons for this may be television, cinematography, and, lately, the time spent by parents or godparents working in foreign countries. Furthermore, while until recently double, triple, or multiple names were rare, now single names became just as rare, most people preferring at least two christening names for their offspring. The statistics generated based on the registers of the Cenad Town Hall, reveal that the most popular names for boys between 2010 and 2013 are: David, Daniel, Sebastian and Patrick (Anglo-Saxon names, although there are no Irish, English, or Scottish inhabitants in Cenad).

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Table 3. Most popular boy names (2011–2013):

David Daniel Patrick Sebastian Marius Andrei Mario Adrian Denis Georgian Bogdan Bogdan Alexandru Daniel David Daniel Patrick Sebastian Marius Andrei Mario Alexandru Florian Sebastian Lucian Bogdan Ionuț Florin David Patrick Sebastian Marius Andrei Daniel Mario Catalin Sebastian Marian Nikolas Paul David Patrick Sebastian Daniel Nicolae Victoraș Valentin David

Valentin David

Other names: Adelin Marian, Antonio Vasile, Bojidar, Călin Gabriel, Cătălin Marina, Ciprian Marian, Claudiu Ionuț, Cosmin Constantin, Darius Mitruț, Emanuel Alexandru, Er- vin Atila, Fabian Gabriel, Flavius Cristian, Ioan Paul, Iosif Adrian, Iustin Gabriel, Leonard, Luca Adrian, Lucas Țvetomir, Lucian Gabriel, Mădălin Alin, Manuel, Marco, Miroslav Ste- van, Narcis Anton, Nicholas, Nicolas Dragoș, Norbert Denisz, Ovidiu, Paul Dragoș, Peter, Petru Cristian, Rareș Alexandru, Rareș Mihai, Raul Ilie, Raul Ionuț, Răzvan Andrei, Robert Cristian, Robert, Sergio Cosmin, Stefan Daniel, Vlad Emanuel, Zlatan Ionatan. This study only analyzed the first name of the multiple christening names, the order of preferences thus becoming clear. However, should one also consider the second or third christening names, the situation would suffer alterations. In the case of girls, the diversity of names is somewhat larger, the most popular being Natalia (Natașa), Giorgiana (Georgiana), and Maya (Maia). It should be noted that although the name Maria appears only once as a first preference, it is found 13 times as a second option.

Tabelul 4. Most popular girl names (2011–2013): Natalia Georgiana Maia Alesia Amalia Daria Albertyna Simona Maria Florina Evelin Raluca Giorgiana Natalia Giorgiana Alesia Amalia Daria Maya Albertyna Ioana Ștefania Stefania Maria Natalia Giorgiana Maya Alessia Amalia Daria-Ionela Ariana Ioana Alessia Gabriela Stefania Natalia Giorgiana Maya

Ștefania Mădalina Ioana Nataşa

Mileva

Other girl names: Adelina Daniela, Adriana Daria, Adriana Radmila, Aida Denisa, Al- exandra Cristina, Alexandra Gabriela, Alexia Adelina, Alexia Rebeca, Ana Maria Lucreția, Andra Maria, Andrada Ionela, Andreea Valentian, Andreea Victoria, Antonia, Ariana Alex- andra, Beatris Andreea, Bianca Maria, Camelia Julia, Clara Ildiko, Corina Simona, Cristina

172 Christening Names in Cenad

Mihaela, Cristine Ioana, Delia Florina, Diana Casandra, Diana Georgiana, Elena Andrada, Elisa Mariana, Erika Gabriela Ildiko, Evelina Maria, Eveline Vivian, Ianna Maria, Ioha- na, Irina Victoria, Isabela Maria, Iulia Maia, Izabela, Julia, Karina Maria, Karina Maria, Kataleya Maria, Laura Eliza, Lavinia Maria, Lidia Monica, Lorena Maria, Madalina Giani- na, Maria Mirabela, Miriam Ioana, Miruna Roberta, Narcisa Adriana, Nicol Stefania, Ni- coleta Giorgiana, Olivia Paula, Patricia Alexandra, Patricia Maria, Romina, Roxana Ioana, Roxana Maria, Sara, Simona Flavia, Slagiana, Slagiana Milena, Stefania Amalia, Svetlana, Svetlana Maria, Tamira Andrada, Tania Alina, Vesna Ana, Viorica Florina In the case of mixed marriages, one may notice that some names were given according to the nationality or tradition of one of the parents (usually, following the nationality of the father). Based on all this information, one may conclude in the end that everything changes, including names. Having no constraints (religious, moral or administrative), the christening name has no significance anymore (both in Cenad, and generally speaking as we may continue broadening this study on a more general setting). The christening name thus remains a trifle of the parents, dictated by fashion, feelings, passions, etc.

References

Serviciul Județean Timiș al Arhivelor Naționale [The National Archives of the County Service of Timiș], Fond 4, Colecția Registre de stare civilă [The collection of marriage registers], Parohia Ortodoxă Română Cenad [The Romanian Orthodox Parish of Cenad], file no. 1 – Christened between 1876–1890 and file no. 2 – Christened between 1891–1904. Consiliul Local Cenad, Primăria Cenad [The Local Council of Cenad, Town Hall of Cenad], Ghidul cenăzeanului [The Guide of the Cenad citizen]. Years 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013. Popovici, Bogdan-Florin. Considerații pe marginea prelucrării colecţiei de registre de stare civilă [Considerations on managing the collections of marriage registers] on https://bogdanpopovi- ci2008.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/stare-civila-ver-2.pdf. (last time accessed: July 8, 2015). Dicționarul Explicativ al Limbii Române [The Romanian Explicative Dictionary] on http://dexonline. ro/ (last time accessed: July 8, 2015). Pruteanu, Petru, Iarăşi despre numele de botez. Un scurt Sinaxar al Sfinţilor ortodocşi din Apus [On christening names. A short synaxarion of Orthodox saints in the East] on http://www.teologie.net/ data/pdf/sfinti-ortodocsi-apus.pdf(last time accessed: July 8, 2015). Răspunsuri duhovniceşti: Copilul să primească un singur nume la Botez, căci are un singur suflet [Clerical answers: Let the child receive only one name when christened, because (s)he only has one soul]. In Lumina, 14 August 2008. On http://ziarullumina.ro/agenda-crestinului/raspunsuri- duhovnicesti-copilul-sa-primeasca-un-singur-nume-la-botez-caci-are-un (last time accessed: July 8, 2015). Moldoveanu, Gheorghe C., Antroponimia, parte integrantă a tradițiilor culturale românești [Antrop- onymy, an integral part of the Romanian cultural traditions]. Iași: Revista română. On http://astra. iasi.roedu.net/pdf/nr62p15–17.pdf (last time accessed: July 8, 2015).

173 Iacob Coman Christological Accents in “The Lives of Saints” and Their Impact in the Social and Religious Formation of Believers Iacob Coman

In the history of literature, hagiography is taken as a literary rudimentary-religious dowry through which the foundations of later literature are set. Usually, these writings are given a mythological-historical value which is why they are not considered clear segments of literature, while from the perspective of literary historians, they are not acknowledged as sacred writings either. The present research provides a meeting point between the Protestant dogmatic theology and the lives of saints. That is, a general observation on how the lives of saints (and not only) contain the traits of the holy man and the characteristics of holiness of our Lord Jesus Christ. Given the importance that Jesus Christ gives to holiness, this article will show how the Holy Spirit has maintained in the saints the existential character of our Lord Jesus Christ and the basic paradigms of the life He desired. In the conclusions of this study we will report the perspective of Jesus Christ on holiness and the life of repentance, and the way in which the Tradition preserved them . Details on how the life of St. Gerard of Cenad preserved and gave new insights to holiness and to the social life preached by Jesus Christ will also be presented.

Keywords: Jesus’ holiness; holiness of people; life of repentance; holiness tradition; holiness as prospects for the future.

Introduction

Reducing the Holy Scriptures to a radical synthesis, from the perspective of the development of the salvation of God’s people, we find that the entire Bible is a history of meditation on life, customs, beliefs, and ideals of God’s people. Starting with the second century AD, the salvation of God’s people continues. The writings of the Apostles are canonized, marking – in the living memory of Christianity and in its written memory – the information regarding some Christians who remained as landmarks in the history of ministry. In this research, which is different from historiography, hagiography and other writings on saints, but not excluding them, we will evoke the portrait of St. Gerard of Cenad in a surprising manner of dogmatic theology, in terms of theological discourse, his impact and religious dimension. Our research unfolds in Protestant manner, uncritical and lacking polemical arguments. The scientific discourse responds to the rigours of scientific research, but also the rigours of the biblical text, taking account of the religious literary qualities ranging from hagiography, from the dogma on saints and sanctification to the complexity of the historical discourse regarding impact of the lives of some Christians. Under these conditions, we call into question in a textual biblical manner, from a theological perspective, some biblical ideas regarding the birth of saints, especially regarding the birth of Saint Jesus Christ. We do this in order to understand if both the ideas of sacred

174 Christological Accents in “The Lives of Saints” ... and holy lives derive, through reflection, from God. Setting this paradigm we continue with the thesis regarding belonging. Saints belong to God and His community. In other words, holiness does not isolate us, but gives saints back as examples to the society and the community of the redeemed, as a sample of life to be immortalized. We are already talking about a remembrance of the saints, that is, an inheritance which is the subject of God’s pride and the object of His happiness. In the last part of our research we will appropriate the life, work, the quality, and historical impact of St. Gerard of Cenad, in terms of theological ideas regarding the birth of the saints, the belonging of the saints and the memory of the saints. The fourth part, Saints image in St. Gerard of Cenad, proposes and develops the collective holiness of Gerard of Cenad’s ancestors and how it is updated in him, so that, later on, he remains alive for future generations. The entire dogmatic scientific discourse aims to detect the Christological accents in the life of true believers and their later impact on the social formation of Christians, as well as their religious formation. Addressing this topic and the way the subject is dealt with can be an inter-confessional challenge and, at the same time, a sample regarding the discussion on a dogma that radically separates the theology of the traditional churches from the evangelical ones.

I. The Birth of Saints

The idea of saints necessarily involves taking into account the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, both in terms of prophecy, that is the writings of the Old Testament, and in terms of its fulfilment, meaning, the New Testament writings. The Old Testament considers the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ from many perspectives, the most significant being: Immanuel – “God is with us”1 (“Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14)), “Prince of Peace” (“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6)) and “the Holy One” (“Because you will not leave my soul in hell, neither will you suffer your Holy One to see corruption” (Psalms 16:10). These Biblical notations on Jesus Christ provide us, from several Old Testament perspectives, the complexity of this saintly status. Immanuel, God with us, the name given to Jesus “when He was born as a man”2 indicates the presence of God among men, and with them, in terms of His holiness, justice and providence. Prince of Peace, that is, the God of conciliation, suggests holiness from the perspective of relationships between Him and man. Between God and men, the fel- lowship can only take place under the auspices of bringing to a common denominator of the existential condition, that of holiness. The message of the angel to the shepherds on the hills of Bethlehem was clear: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward

1 Anania Valeriu Bartolomeu, Cartea profetului Isaia [The Book of Prophet Isaiah] (Bucharest: Anastasia Publishing, 1999), 48. 2 Tertulian Langa, Dicţionar teologic creştin din perspectiva ecumenismului catolic [Christian Theological Dictionary from the Perspective of Catholic Ecumenism] (Cluj-Napoca: Dacia Pub- lishing, 1997), 86.

175 Iacob Coman men.” (Luke 2:14) In other words, the reign of peace and God’s peace are relevant only in those who please Him – that is, those who acquire the holiness that comes from God. The expression “Your Beloved,” from Psalm 16, is not less significant in the sense of the idea of holiness. On the contrary, quoting Psalm 16, the Apostle Peter reveals the semantic fullness of the expression “Your Beloved” stating in flagrante “your Holy One.” “Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope: Because you will not leave my soul in hell, neither will you suffer your Holy One to see corruption.” (Acts 2:27) Evoking the appellation “Your Beloved” from Psalm 16 and replacing it with “your Holy One” exceeds the status of spiritual interpretation and necessarily requires a qualitative content. Being God’s beloved one involves being God’s holy man. In the New Testament, the situation does not change at all. The dialogue between the Archangel Gabriel and Mary clearly appreciates this quality of Jesus, Man-God, when these words are said: “And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon you, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow you: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of you shall be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:35). The human nature of Jesus Christ is clearly associated with holiness. Jesus Man-God is the Saint. This is “the sublime statement of the Incarnation.”3 The way in which Jesus identifies Himself through His humanity with men, becomes the sample for the way in which men will identify themselves through holiness with Jesus and, thereby, with God. When we talk about saints referring to people, we refer to a life that tends to overlap as much as possible with the life and ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Greek agios, implies someone or something “devoted to God; that appropriates or learns the state of holiness and reaches sanctification and that is holy.”4 This cannot be foreign to those who have met Christ. In other words, each person who has known Christ and was born again must have holiness as the essence of his existence. On this New and Old Testamentary pattern, mentioned above, certain conclusions concerning the birth of saints and their existence are required. The biblical commandment “Be- cause it is written, Be you holy; for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16) does not envisage a strange category of believers, but implies a state of normality and sought among those who are Christians. The saints are born! For this reason, those who are born again through Baptism specifically accede to a life of holiness and the status of saints. Moreover, if for Peter the appellative “Your Beloved” can be understood as “Your Holy One,” by analogy all appella- tives, “dearly beloved,” from the New Testament, used by Paul, Peter, John, Judah, etc. can be understood in this sense: You, saints! In these circumstances the idea of holiness must be an existential and relational landmark to every believer, more evident to those who are canonized. In conclusion, when we talk about the birth of saints, we are talking about a group of people who live through Christ. The most obvious Christic accent in Christian life must be holiness. This order of existence is not about standardizing ethics and human civilization based on humanistic cohabitation, but this holiness is related to the way in which we commit our lives in communion with God as liturgical act, i.e. the participation in the Holy

3 Macdonald William, Comentariu la Noul Testament [Commentary on the New Testament] (Biele- feld: CLV Christliche Literatur-Verbreitunge.V., 1998), 194. 4 Ioan Mircea, Dicţionar al Noului Testament [Dictionary of the New Testament] (Bucharest: Pub- lishing House of the Mission and Bible Institute of the Romanian Orthodox Church, 1995), 473.

176 Christological Accents in “The Lives of Saints” ...

Eucharist, and as a way of being, that is our deification. As a liturgical act, that is the communion with the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, we talk about “a wedding of the soul with the groom Christ,”5 a wedding in which the communion confirms our birth in God’s holiness and His sanctity. This reality represents and recognizes our quality of being holy. As a way of being, it considers the deification of the human being, “a development through grace of a potency implanted in man,”6 a development through which the com- munality of our existence is a divine one. This complex phenomenon in its Eucharistic and deifying dimension, expresses the birth that took place in the lives of believers. Under these conditions, the expression “that holy thing which shall be born of you” (Luke 1:35) finds its fulfilment and reflection in the expressionsaints who will be born from Him.

II. God’s Saints

The idea of being God’s saints, necessarily involves their recognition and accreditation. We are dealing with a declaration of memberships where the communion between man and God as well as the process of sanctification which man has joined to, is clearly highlighted. Talking about the saints of God, involves, once more, talking about Jesus Christ. In Him we have the model and reality of such accreditation and belonging. When Jesus Christ enters the synagogue in Capernaum He encounters a demonized man who inquires, through the demon that possesses him, Christ’s status: “Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with you, you Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God!” (Mark 1:24) This accreditation of Jesus Christ is a parable in which the identity of each of His followers must be retrieved. The cornerstone of saintly behaviour was and remains martyrdom. St. Ignatius of Antioch wore the spell of this accreditation since his lifetime: “Martyrdom – notes Jian Laporte on Ignatius – it is the testing through which he must clearly prove he is a disciple by his deeds; but when unsuccessful, there are only words and he is a liar. The general rule of imitating God and Christ means to him (St. Ignatius of Antioch) the need to follow Christ in His Passion and to bear His cross.”7 That is to be a martyr. Talking about the saints of God, implies talking about people who “take part to the holiness of God, the supernatural life of God.”8 This, which is an accreditation and existential phenomenon, should be seen as a necessity for every believer, in general, and as a title for every canonized saint, especially. The Apostle Paul, speaking to believers in Philippi uses the following words: “Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in anything you be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you” (Philippians 3:15). The expression “many as be perfect” envisages the accreditation of a Christian community, of a people who belonged to God through Jesus Christ. In the past, “saints were called all the Christians that, cleansed from sin by the grace of Baptism remained in it and increased

5 Nichifor Crainic, Sfinţenia împlinirea umanului [Holiness, Human Fulfillment] (Iaşi: Publishing House of the Metropolitan of Moldavia and Bukovina, 1993), 117. 6 Dumitru Stăniloae, Trăirea lui Dumnezeu în ortodoxie [Experiencing God in Orthodoxy] (Cluj- Napoca: Dacia Publishing, 1993), 182. 7 Jian Laporte, Părinţii greci ai Bisericii [Greek Fathers of the Church] (Târgu Lăpuş: Galaxia Gutenberg Publishing, 2009), 6. 8 Langa, Dicţionar teologic creştin din perspectiva ecumenismului catolic, 241.

177 Iacob Coman it; we speak thus about all the saints and even about brothers saints .”9 These people, this mass of believers is the Church. Approaching the Church of Christ necessarily implies going towards holiness, because it is holy and in it holiness is celebrated and the affiliation is declared. “The Church is defined simultaneously – notes Boris Bobrinskoy – that is through the work of Christ and the presence of the Holy Spirit, both of Whom are the two hands of the Father, this double intercession making us sons of the Father.”10 But this simultaneity is considering the believer that becomes a member of this “body” and participates in the life and holiness of this existential Body. Therefore, when we talk about God’s saints and their impact on social and religious formation of the faithful, we speak about the participation of each of us. In and through us the life and holiness of the Church is extended into the world. The connection between Church and us through a saint is one of continuity, of transfer of holiness from God towards and into believers. It does not have to be one of separation or substitution. All the saints in the biblical history commit themselves in experiencing the Body of Christ, serving and being served by all other “members,” thus placing the body in an inseparable communion with Him Who is the Head, that is Jesus Christ. The saints of God are thus the Church, the Church as a place of love and of expressed love. Christological accents in the lives of the saints of God are not theological, but communional. The meeting between the saints of God as Church and into the Church, is the feast of love. In this theandric reality “love is a huge plus of knowledge while producing a huge plus of life in the beloved and the lover, dissolving to maximum his being and mine.”11 In other words, we take part in the formation of the heavenly identity. Those who bear the emblem of canonized saints have to have this quality to spring the love for heavenly identity. At the same time they dissolve their history in our history by participating in “our” formation, that is the Body of Jesus Christ that captures the existence of every believer from the perspective of unity, communion and love with Him Who is the Head. In these circumstances the Christological records in the lives of saints are the records of love. Love is, after all, the only reality with a social and religious formative impact in the life of the faithful.

III. The Memory of Saints

When we talk about saints’ memory, we talk about God’s memory, about what God has preserved with the value of eternity and not with nostalgia. It is a legacy that God has in and with those who have chosen to be pleasing to Him. This reality is clearly expressed by St. Paul, in the following words: “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty

9 Ioan Mircea, Dicţionar al Noului Testament [Dictionary of the New Testament] (Bucharest: Pub- lishing House of the Mission and Bible Institute of the Romanian Orthodox Church, 1995), 473. 10 Boris Bobrinskoy, Taina Bisericii - Le Mystère de l’Église, cours de théologie dogmatique (Alba- Iulia: Reîntregirea Publishing, 2004), 75. 11 Stăniloae, Trăirea lui Dumnezeu în ortodoxie, 168.

178 Christological Accents in “The Lives of Saints” ... power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places…” (Ephesians 1:17–20) The riches of the glory of God and of His inheritance is in the saints. Believers cannot be saints without being part of the wealth of God’s glory. There is no private holiness, holiness is always communautaire – it is relational. For this reason, to be a saint necessarily entails being in the richness of God’s saints, to be God’s heritage, to be His memory, to be assimilated in His existence. “Christians are saints not only by simply choosing by the virtue of the covenant, but by the fact that they are introduced into the community of God through Jesus Christ.”12 This is the way by which the memory of the saints appears. The man who is holy is crossed by the presence of God in a way similar to how Jesus Christ was crossed by heavenly glory on the Mount of Transfiguration. In these circumstances the memory of the saints from the perspective of God is a kind of overlapping of the divine glory with the glory which every believer can attain through grace. We can talk about the encounter within Himself, at the level of the divine glory, carried on by God and in which we are included. When we talk about the memory of the saints we consider a three-dimensional value of the holiness and of the holy, as well as an affiliation of the holiness and of the holy. In other words, we talk about a divine value, a religious value and a human communautaire value. Every saint belongs to God, belongs to the Church and belongs to a community of believers. This three-dimensionality of affiliation escapes the power and intent of humanity and it must belong to the power and work of the Holy Spirit. The memory of the saints as an inheritance of God belongs to the infinite work, but completed in believers by the Holy Spirit. “It is true that salvation and sanctification of men is a joint work of the three Persons of the Holy Trinity, but it takes place through the participation of the divine life communicated by the Holy Spirit.”13 We note that the Holy Spirit does not commu- nicate a form of life at the level of information, but the form of life which He commu- nicates is at the level of existence. Holy Spirit does not speak about saints, but the Holy Spirit represents Himself in the life of the saints, in their plenar existence. In other words, God expects holiness from all the faithful. “Such experience is expected from everyone, because the Holy Spirit Who, in the Old Testament was given only to a limited number of persons, now, through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, became the possession of all.”14 The expression of Jesus Christ “Receive the Holy Ghost!” from John 20:21–23 (“Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive you the Holy Ghost: Whose soever sins you remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins you retain, they are retained.” (John 20:22)) is surrounded by some severe specifications. You are sent by Me as I am sent by the Father and you will keep sins and you will forgive sins as I keep and as I forgive. This is not an administrative authority, but it is a transcendent spiritual one. It claims a prestigiously Christic spiritual attitude. Keeping and forgiving sins does not require administration, but involves spirituality, holiness, and spiritual fullness. We are dealing with a continuous presence in the present tense

12 Ion Bria, Dicţionar de teologie ortodoxă [Dictionary of Orthodox Theology] (Bucharest: Publish- ing House of the Mission and Bible Institute of the Romanian Orthodox Church, 1994), 344. 13 Eduard Ferenţ, Pneumatologia [Pneumatology] (Bucharest: Publishing House of the Roman- Catholic Archdiocese, 1999), 341. 14 John N. Oswalt, Chemaţi să fie sfinţi [May They Be Called Saints!] (Oradea: Cartea Creştină Publishing, 2008), 150.

179 Iacob Coman of the expression from the prayer Our Father: “… Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10) In conclusion, when we talk about the memory of the saints, we talk about a divine presence of the Holy Spirit in some of His chosen ones. The Christological accent, in this case, is exactly the Holy Spirit. From the Father through Christ in the Holy Spirit the heavenly holiness has an impact which derives from God in the social and religious formation of the faithful, in general, and of the saints, in particular. This memory captures not only the remembrance but also captures the divine inheritance in the saints, a legacy that includes God’s love, Jesus Christ as Easter sacrificed in the communion of those taking part to the divine life and the Holy Spirit as the One Who locks into the eternal time the way of being of saints.

IV. The Image of Saints in St. Gerard of Cenad

The name saint given to Gerard of Cenad should be stressed not only because of the canonization offered by the Church, but also from the springs of his complex existence, at the human level and faithful bishop. Maria Micle notes the following: “…involved in the evangelization of Central Europe, he notes in his writings observations, religious and political attitudes…”15 This few-worded record shows us Gerard of Cenad as a European, as an observer of the European society and as one who has both religious and political attitudes. He must be regarded as a man of the people, but at the same time as a believer of the believers. Referring to his spiritual dimension, Martin Roos notes the following: “Gerard’s spiritual image is also dominant, which on the political and ecclesiastical realm lies before us, in the light of history, clearer and brighter than any other figure of the Early Catholic Church in Hungary.”16 Under these circumstances we do not only talk about St. Gerard of Cenad, but we talk about an amount of historical images of saints and people found within him, which he re-offers to us. The evocation of Gerard of Cenad’s personality should be of third millennium value. The contemporary society is becoming more contemporary with the existence of every saint believer. “The third Millennium – notes Nicolae Corneanu – transforms Fa- thers’ thought and spirituality into a safe base for getting closer and, finally, the reunification of Churches.”17 In other words, St. Gerard of Cenad should have a role in the present and the future. We have to retrieve and expose his thinking so as, through his personality, to influence the religious value of the contemporary Christianity and to determine it positively. The saintly image in St. Gerard of Cenad should be seen through the idea of their birth and his birth. The schismatic Christian era, an age which asks for his birth, significantly emphasizes the importance of his birth to become saint. Moreover, he pays his debts in the most honourable way possible to the expectations of the centuries in which he lives. “His position within the episcopate from Hungary, especially in the era of the tumultuous

15 Maria Micle, “Re-lectură a scrierii lui Gerard de Cenad din perspectivainterferenţelor culturale” [Re-reading Gerard of Cenad’s Writings from the Perspective of Cultural Interference], in Filosofia Sfântului Gerard de Cenad în context cultural și biografic[ The Philosophy of St. Gerard of Cenad in Cultural and Biographical Context], ed. Claudiu Mesaroş (Szeged: JATE Press, 2013), 190. 16 Martin Roos, “Izvoare istorice cu privire la Vita Gerardi” [Historical sources on Vita Gerardi] in Filosofia Sfântului Gerard de Cenad în context cultural și biografic [The Philosophy of St. Ge- rard of Cenad in Cultural and Biographical Context], ed. Claudiu Mesaroş (Szeged: JATE Press, 2013), 28. 17 Nicolae Corneanu, Miscellanea Patristica (Timişoara: Amacord Publishing, 2001), 12.

180 Christological Accents in “The Lives of Saints” ... struggles for the throne carried around King Samuel Aba, constitutes a dominant attitude, of leadership, but at the same time it is exposed and dangerous. His violent death was nothing but the result of this courageous involvement and it is considered the first Christian martyrdom on the Hungarian Pannonian territory.”18 This way, the birth of saints, as divine providence, as well as the memory of the saints, as divine inheritance, find their meaning and statement in what was Gerard of Cenad through his faith, for which he would pay the ultimate and holy price. The expressions birth and memory in the context of our research have the purpose of marking the particularity of the exceptional life of Gerard of Cenad to universalise the important impact of this life. This universality is not only an evocative one, but also one through which we present in a contemporary light the image of the believers until him for the illumination of those following him. Within the idea of God’s saints, Gerard of Cenad earns his primacy and place through birth, education, and ministry. He was born in the late tenth century, in the middle of one of the greatest crises of Christianity. Due to an illness, “…his parents were concerned and made a covenant that if he recovered his health, they would offer him to God and thus at only five years of age, he was sent to the Benedictine Monastery of San Giorgio…”19 This birth and childhood aligns with the history which claimed his existence. We speak about his education, about a passion for the existence of God and the universality of knowledge. “Saint Gerard of Cenad , but also reflect his own, rather bold, thinking.”20 This reality was suggested by the Prophet Daniel when he spoke of the wise: “And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever” (Daniel 12:3). Finally, his ministry is nothing less. The way Gerard of Cenad knows how to believe, to write, and to live is successful and unique. “As Protomartyr of Pannonia, Gerard becomes the true image of the Christian ideal since the beginning, who knows how to blend, in an extremely tight manner, in only one being, faith and life.”21 He takes the image of the Holy Martyrs, customizes it in himself, becoming saint and martyr, but at the same time, offers to future generations this image, at the level of meditation and of practical life of faith. In conclusion, the evidence of his life highlights the nuances of Christ’s existence. This highlighting remains to us through his writings and life as an impact in the social formation of later generations, but also as a religious impact for the formation of the life of faith of Christians.

18 Martin Roos, “Izvoare istorice cu privire la Vita Gerardi,” 28. 19 Ştefan Grosu, “Viața Sfântului Gerard, de la legendă la adevăr” [Life of St. Gerard, from Legend to Reality] in Filosofia Sfântului Gerard de Cenad în context cultural și biografic [The Philoso- phy of St. Gerard of Cenad in Cultural and Biographical Context], ed. Claudiu Mesaroş (Szeged: JATE Press, 2013), 61. 20 Ştefan Grosu, Viața Sfântului Gerard, de la legendă la adevăr (Life of St. Gerard, from Legend to Reality), in: Claudiu Mesaroş (coord.), Filosofia Sfântului Gerard de Cenad în context cultural și biografic (Philosophy of St. Gerard of Cenad in Cultural and Biographical Context), Szeged: JATE Press, 2013, p. 59. 21 Martin Roos, Izvoare istorice cu privire la Vita Gerardi (Historical sources on Vita Gerardi), in: Claudiu Mesaroş (coord.), Filosofia Sfântului Gerard de Cenad în context cultural și biografic (Philosophy of St. Gerard of Cenad in Cultural and Biographical Context), Szeged: JATE Press, 2013 p. 28.

181 Iacob Coman

References

Anania Valeriu, Bartolomeu. Cartea profetului Isaia [The Book of Prophet Isaiah]. Bucharest: Anas- tasia Publishing, 1999. Bobrinskoy, Boris. Taina Bisericii - Le Mystère de l’Église, cours de théologie dogmatique . Alba- Iulia: Reîntregirea Publishing, 2004. Bria, Ion. Dicţionar de teologie ortodoxă [Dictionary of Orthodox Theology]. Bucharest: Publishing House of the Mission and Bible Institute of the Romanian Orthodox Church, 1994. Corneanu, Nicolae. Miscellanea Patristica. Timişoara: Amacord Publishing, 2001. Crainic, Nichifor. Sfinţenia, împlinirea umanului [Holiness, Human Fulfillment]. Iaşi: Publishing House of the Metropolitan of Moldavia and Bukovina, 1993. Ferenţ, Eduard. Pneumatologia [Pneumatology]. Bucharest: Publishing House of the Roman-Catho- lic Archdiocese, 1999. Grosu, Ştefan. “Viața Sfântului Gerard, de la legendă la adevăr” [Life of St. Gerard, from Legend to Reality]. In Filosofia Sfântului Gerard de Cenad în context cultural și biografic [The Philosophy of St. Gerard of Cenad in Cultural and Biographical Context], ed. Claudiu Mesaroş. Szeged: JATE Press, 2013. Langa, Tertulian. Dicţionar teologic creştin din perspectiva ecumenismului catolic [Christian Theo- logical Dictionary from the Perspective of Catholic Ecumenism] Cluj-Napoca: Dacia Publishing, 1997. Laporte, Jian. Părinţii greci ai Bisericii [Greek Fathers of the Church]. Târgu Lăpuş: Galaxia Guten- berg Publishing, 2009. Micle, Maria. “Re-lectură a scrierii lui Gerard de Cenad din perspectiva interferenţelor cultural” [Re- reading Gerard of Cenad’s Writings from the Perspective of Cultural Interference]. In Filosofia Sfântului Gerard de Cenad în context cultural și biografic[The Philosophy of St. Gerard of Cenad in Cultural and Biographical Context], ed. Claudiu Mesaroş. Szeged: JATE Press, 2013. Mircea, Ioan. Dicţionar al Noului Testament [Dictionary of the New Testament]. Bucharest: Publish- ing House of the Mission and Bible Institute of the Romanian Orthodox Church, 1995. Oswalt, N. John. Chemaţi să fie sfinţi[May They Be Called Saints!]. Oradea: Cartea Creştină Publish- ing, 2008. Roos, Martin, “Izvoare istorice cu privire la Vita Gerardi” [Historical sources on Vita Gerardi]. In Fi- losofia Sfântului Gerard de Cenad în context cultural și biografic [The Philosophy of St. Gerard of Cenad in Cultural and Biographical Context], ed. Claudiu Mesaroş. Szeged: JATE Press, 2013. Stăniloae, Dumitru. Trăirea lui Dumnezeu în Ortodoxie [Experiencing God in Orthodoxy]. Cluj-Na- poca Dacia Publishing, 1993. William, Macdonald. Comentariu la Noul Testament (Original title: Comentario biblico). Bielefeld: CLV Christliche Literatur-Verbreitunge.V., 1998.

182 The Metropolitan Bishop and Academy Member Nicolae Corneanu... The Metropolitan Bishop and Academy Member Nicolae Corneanu (1923–2014). Patristic Scholar and Tireless Promoter of the Inter-Religious Dialogue Ionel Popescu

The Metropolitan Bishop Nicolae Corneanu served the Church for 52 years, from 1943 until his death in 2014, as the archbishop of Timisoara and metropolitan bishop of Banat. Nicolae Corneanu had a particular interest in studying The Holy Fathers, the patristic spirituality, a field which was very difficult to research in the atheistic communist years. In addition to being a patristic scholar, he was also a very well known and appreciated ecumenist. His authority and competence in this area were confirmed by his participation in numerous theological and ecumenical meetings in Romania and abroad.

Keywords: Metropolitan Bishop; Corneanu; patristics; ecumenist; translator; Member of the Academy

Born on the 21st of November 1923 in Caransebeş (Romania), into a priest’s family (to father Liviu and mother Elena), Mihai Nicolae Corneanu walked on the church paths from early childhood, just like the Holy Fathers, whose works he will study later on. After he finished the courses of the renowned “Traian Doda” High School in his hometown, he went on to study at the Faculty of Theology in Bucharest. Parallel to his undergraduate studies, he enriched his cultural horizon by studying classical philology and philosophy.1 Consequently, starting with his early years at the university, he acquired a solid knowledge in classical and modern languages, specializing in philology and philosophy, which helped him in his research, stretching over a period of 70 years. Furthermore, the Metropolitan Bishop Nicolae Corneanu also served the Church from 1943 until his death in 2014, as the archbishop of Timisoara and metropolitan bishop of Banat for 52 years. The will he wrote on the 8th of September 2011 is a straightforward, impressive, and moving testimony, with a profound spiritual character. Te archbishop first of all expressed his “gratitude to The Almighty God, who gave me a long life, to my parents who cared for me all this time, to all my teachers and bishops who guided me on my earthly path, to the Church which held me in its arms and to the good Christians who loved me and whom I represented...” He then emphasizes on the fact that he always tried “to do good to everybody,” asking forgiveness “for all my trespasses to God and to anyone of my people.” He continued: “All my life, I have gathered only things I needed and especially books of all kind,

1 Other information regarding the life and work of the Metropolitan Bishop Nicolae Corneanu can be found in the following: Mircea Păcurariu, Dicționarul Teologilor Români [Dictionary of Romanian theologians] (Bucharest: Univers Enciclopedic, 1996), 119; Liviu Mărghitan, Iulian Negrilă, Membrii Academiei Române originari din judeţul Caraş-Severin (Secolele XIX-XX) [The members of the Romanian Academy born in the Caras-Severin County (Arad: Multimedia In- ternational, 2006), .83–91; Dicţionar al Scriitorilor din Banat [Dictionary of the writers from Banat], ed. Alexandru Ruja (Timişoara: Editura Universităţii de Vest,, 2006), 190–196.

183 Ionel Popescu which made me wiser and enlightened the path of my life. In fact, they were the only things which belonged to me, I gave up freely everything else...”2 The inventory done at the metropolitan residence revealed nearly 13.000 volumes which the metropolitan father had left, belonging to various fields: theology with all its branches (biblical, historical, practical, and systematic), history, philosophy, philology, ecumenism, secular and religious art, monographs, etc. The registered documents were placed into 141 archive boxes, containing manuscripts of published and unpublished works, translations, correspondence, book extracts, newspapers, and magazines in various fields. The life of the Metropolitan Bishop Nicolae was filled with hard work related to the Church and in the fields of theology and humanities, as he testified himself: “All these years, except in my activities as a teacher, official ecclesiastical, priest and bishop, I have felt like an ordinary Church member, concerned with the challenges of life, with all the questions that every believer is asking himself and I was not less interested in the solu- tions from the Church to our various problems, as we were all a community, [...], I was passionate about writing, I was interested in the most various things and I felt the need to get closer to people, to their needs and hopes [...] When I went through everything I published in the various magazines and newspapers, through the studies and the volumes, I nearly could not understand where I found the time and energy needed to put all that together. With the help of our Merciful Lord, everything becomes possible. May He be glorified forever!”3 The Metropolitan Bishop Nicolae Corneanu had a particular interest in studying The Holy Fathers, the patristic spirituality, a field which was very difficult to research in the atheistic communist years. Before 1948, the bishop published numerous articles and studies, especially in the journal known as Foaia Diecezană in Caransebeş. However, the journal ceased to appear after that year and the young theologian had his information and documentation possibilities restricted. As soon as the journal “Altarul Banatului” [“The Banat Altar”] from Caransebeş was transformed into the metropolitan journal newly-known as “Mitropolia Banatului” [“Metropolitanate of Timişoara”], the column “Studies” was created and, after 1990, that of “Patristic pages,” where numerous articles were published on the life and teachings of the Holy Fathers, but also translations of their works.All this was possible with the support and encouragement of the Metropolitan passionate about patristics, Nicolae Corneanu. Also under his care, the archdiocesan printing house from Timişoara published two important works on Patristic theology, written by his former professor and doctoral supervisor from the Faculty of Theology in Bucharest, priest Dr. Ioan G. Coman: ...Şi Cuvântul Trup s-a făcut [And the Word was transformed into flesh] (1987)4 and Frumuseţile iubirii de oameni în spiritualitatea patristică [The beauty of loving the mankind in the patristic spirituality] (1988).5

2 Nicolae Corneanu, Mărturie testamentară [Metropolitan Bishop Nicolae Corneanu, Testamentary Message], in the journal “Învierea” [The Resurrection], Timişoara, year XXV, 27 (561), New Series, September 2014, 10 3 Nicoale Corneanu, Credinţă şi viaţă. Culegere de studii teologice [Faith and life. Anthology of theological studies] (Cluj-Napoca: Dacia, 2001), 5. 4 Ioan G. Coman, ...Şi Cuvântul Trup s-a făcut [And the Word was transformed into flesh] (Timişoara, 1987). 5 Ioan G. Coman, Frumuseţile iubirii de oameni în spiritualitatea patristică [The beauty of loving

184 The Metropolitan Bishop and Academy Member Nicolae Corneanu...

As a patriarchal exarch, the Metropolitan Bishop Corneanu was in charge, for a certain period of time, of the Romanian orthodox communities living abroad. He paid several canonical visits to the USA, Canada, Western Europe, Australia, and New Zeeland. During this time, he had the opportunity to visit church libraries and book shops rich in theological literature, and to meet theologians, professors, researchers, priests, and bishops who familiarized him with the new directions in the theological research and with recently published works, especially in the patristic field, which he then used in his own works. His long research in patristic studies started when he was 20 with his first article titled “Autoritatea episcopala după Sfântul Ciprian” “The Bishop authority according to Saint Ciprian of Carthage,”6 published in the journal “Foaia Diecezană” in Caransebeş and continued with valuable contributions, some pioneering the Romanian patristic spirituality, such as the ones published in the Cum Patribus collection: Studii patristice. Aspecte din vechea literatură patristică;7 Quo vadis? Studii, note şi comentarii teologice;8 Viaţa şi petrecerea Sfântului Antonie cel Mare;9 Credinţă şi viaţă. Culegere de studii teologice;10 Scara raiului precedată de Viaţa pe scurt a lui Ioan Scolasticul şi urmată de Cuvîntul către Păstor 11 ( followed by other two editions at the same publishing house and seven editions at “Invierea” Publishing House, belonging to the Archiepiscopate of Timişoara), Viaţa Fericitului Pahomie;12 Origen si Celsus. Confruntarea crestinismului cu paganismul;13 Farmecul scrierilor patristice;14 Patristica – filosofia care mângâie; 15 Actualitatea vechii literaturi creştine.16 The exceptional contribution of the Metropolitan Bishop Nicole Corneanu to the development of Romanian patristic studies, as well as his love and interest for the life and work of the Church Fathers were expressed by his open attitude to the publication of other works of the same kind in the archdiocesan publishing house in Timişoara. Here are some of them: Lactantius, Instituţiile divine;17 Lactantius, Despre mânia lui the mankind in the patristic spirituality] (Timişoara, 1988). 6 Foaia Diecezană, Caransebeş, year LVI, nr. 34/22nd August, 4–5. 7 Nicolae Corneanu, Studii patristice. Aspecte din vechea literatură patristică [Patristic studies. Aspects of old patristic literature] (Timişoara: Mitropolia Banatului, 1987). 8 Nicolae Corneanu, Quo vadis? Studii, note şi comentarii teologice [Quo vadis? Theological studies, notes and commentaries] (Timişoara: Mitropolia Banatului, 1990). 9 Nicolae Corneanu, Viaţa şi petrecerea Sfântului Antonie cel Mare [The life and path of Saint An- thony the Great] (Timişoara: Amarcord, 2001). 10 Corneanu, Credinţă şi viaţă. 11 Nicolae Corneanu, Scara raiului precedată de Viaţa pe scurt a lui Ioan Scolasticul şi urmată de Cuvîntul către Păstor [The ladder of Devine Ascent, preceded by the life in brief of John Scholasticus and followed by the word to the Sheppard] (Timişoara: Amarcord, 1994). 12 Nicolae Corneanu, Viaţa Fericitului Pahomie [The life of the blessed Pachomius] (Bucharest: Anastasia, 1995). 13 Nicolae Corneanu, Origen si Celsus. Confruntarea crestinismului cu paganismul [Origen and Celsus. Christianity versus paganism] (Bucharest: Anastasia, 1999). 14 Nicolae Corneanu, Farmecul studiilor patristice [The Charm of Patristic studies] (Bucharest: Anastasia, 2002). 15 Nicolae Corneanu, Patristica – filosofia care mângâie [Patristics - the comforting philosophy], (Cluj-Napoca: Eikon, 2004). 16 Nicolae Corneanu, Actualitatea vechii literaturi creştine [The actuality of the ancient Christian literature] (Timişoara: Învierea, 2007). 17 Lactantius, Instituţiile divine [The Divine institutions] (Timişoara: Învierea, 2004), translation and notes by Petru Pistol and introduction by the Metropolitan bishop Nicolae Corneanu, intro-

185 Ionel Popescu

Dumnezeu;18 Sfântul Ioan Gură de Aur, Predici despre viaţa de familie;19 Patericul sau apoftegmele Parinţilor din pustia Egiptului.20 The reputed and respected patristic scholar was also the initiator and coordinator of the collection “The treasures of wilderness”, published by Anastasia house in Bucharest.21 The Metropolitan Bishop Nicolae Corneanu is therefore one of the most worthy Roma- nian patristic scholars who gave the Church a richly documented work, extremely useful to theologians, ordinary Christians, and to whomever might be interested in the patristic spirituality. The Metropolitan Bishop was not only a patristic scholar, but also a very well known and appreciated ecumenist. In his message addressed to His Eminence on his 90th birthday, the Patriarch Daniel said that “the rich theological and cultural work, the administrative rigor and his openness to cooperation in the religious and social field with other faith representatives are the major characteristics of his activity.”22 Thus, he was known in the international theological world for his openness towards other denominations and his permanent dialogue with all the Christian cults in Banat and the Jewish community. The Bishop promoted, for over fifty years, a practical ecumenism based on meetings for prayer and on the cooperation with all religious representatives for the organisation of events oriented towards the knowledge and the confession of the Gos- pel nowadays. He was the initiator of prayer sessions at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Timişoara, at the Catholic Dome in the Union Square in Timişoara, in the Greek-Catholic cathedral in Lugoj, at the synagogues in Timişoara and in the Prayer houses of the protestant and evangelical cults. At the same time, he participated together with other Christian representatives at the week of prayer for the unity of Christianity at the Orphans’ Christmas and he always invited all the religious leaders in town to the Christmas and Easter receptions at the metropolitan residence. His authority and competence in this area were confirmed by his participation in numerous theological and ecumenical meetings in Romania and abroad, where he presented lectures, dissertations, and reviews published in Romanian or foreign journals. In 1962 he was elected permanent member of The Patristic Study Group founded by the “Faith and constitution” Board of the European Churches Ecumenical Council. Between 1978 and 1981, he was a member of the Central Board of the European Churches Ecumenical Council and he represented the Romanian Patriarch at the installation of Pope John Paul I and John ductive study by Claudiu T. Arieşan. 18 Lactantius, Despre mânia lui Dumnezeu [About our Lord’s vexation (De ira Dei)], trans. Petru Pistol (Timişoara: Învierea, 2006). 19 Sfântul Ioan Gură de Aur, Predici despre viaţa de familie [Saint John Chrysostom, Preaches about family life], (Timişoara: Învierea, 2008), translated by the priest Marcel Hancheş and introduction by Lucian Lugojanul, vicar Bishop at Timisoara Archiepiscopate, with a bibliographical study by dr. Claudiu T. Arieşan). 20 Patericul sau apoftegmele Parinţilor din pustia Egiptului [The Paterikon or the apothegms of the Fathers from the Egyptian desert] (Timişoara: Învierea, 2009). 21 Aquilina Birăescu and Diana Zărie, Scriitori şi lingvişti timişoreni (1945- 1999) [Writers and linguists from Timişoara (1945–1999) (Timişoara: Marineasa, 2000 61). 22 Patriarch Daniel, The gift of life as time to grow one’s spiritual gifts, His Eminence, Father Nico- lae, Metropolitan Bishop of Banat at 90 years of life, in the volume His Eminence Nicolae Cor- neanu, Archbishop of Timişoara and Metropolitan Bishop of Banat, Honorary member of the Romanian Academy, The Man and his work (Timişoara: Învierea, 2013), 8.

186 The Metropolitan Bishop and Academy Member Nicolae Corneanu...

Paul II. He was also part of the Romanian legations which visited the Bulgarian Patriarchy (1966), the Ancient Oriental Churches from Armenia, Egypt, Ethiopia and Syria (1969, 1979, 1997), the Russian Patriarchy (1971), the Greek Church (1971), the Roman-Catholic Church in Belgium (1972), the Lutheran Church in Sweden (1987), the Ecumenical Patri- arch (1978, 1981, 1989), the Serbian Patriarchy (1981, 1995), the Patriarchy in Alexandria (1998), the Patriarchy in Jerusalem (2000). He also participated to various meetings, congresses, and conferences with theological and ecumenical character in the USA, Germany, United Kingdom, Denmark, France, Fin- land, Switzerland, and Czechoslovakia. In 1961, he went to the General Assembly of The Christian Conference for peace in Prague, and in 1980, to the International Symposium on “Search for peace beyond ideological differences.” The Metropolitan Bishop Nicolae was then elected vice-president of the Christian Conference for peace, member of the committee work and participant to all the general meetings of this organisation. He took part in the General Assembly of the Ecumeni- cal Council of Churches (Uppsala, July 1968), where he had a speech on Dr. Visser’t Hoof’s conference: “The Ecumenical movement mandate.” Also, after the General Assembly in Nairobi (1975), he became a member of the Churches Commission for International Affairs and after 1977 he was a member in its Central Committee. On the same line of ecumenical contacts, his collaboration with the Ecumenical Institute “Pro Oriente” in Vienna must be mentioned, where he presented several essays and built a friendship with the cardinal Franz König. Furthermore, he was delegated to be a member in the international orthodox-catholic and orthodox-Lutheran committees. His important contributions to the ecumenical field were published, together with other materials, in Quo vadis? Studii, note şi comentarii teologice. Two sections of this volume, “Bisericile creştine şi ecumenismul” [Ecumenism and the Christian Churches] and “Terminologia ecumenistă” [Ecumenical terminology] are the result of the Metropolitan Bishop’s participation in various “pan orthodox meetings, inter- churches and inter-religious dialogue committees, congresses, conferences, colloquia, and symposia” and highlight “the necessity of dialogue between the world’s greatest religions and the joint efforts of their adherents to support the hope for better of the humanity.”23 In his published ecumenical work, the Metropolitan Bishop Nicolae Corneanu showed a “moderate but thorough perspective, based on a realistic vision of restoring Church unity [...], his contribution in this area being, undoubtedly, one of the most important Romanian input, which could be a valuable inheritance for the present and the next generations of theologians.”24 After 1948, the Greek-Catholic churches of Timişoara were estranged. However, after 1990, he Metropolitan Bishop decided to return all these churches to their rightful holders, an initiative which may be included in his line of practical ecumenism. Based on the same brotherly relationships with the Roman-Catholic Bishopric of Timişoara, several orthodox priests in villages which did not have an Orthodox church, perform their religious service in Catholic churches. It is worth mentioning that His Eminence published some of his works in specialized journals of other Christian confessions from Banat: Egyik, Románia teriileté 23 Corneanu, Quo vadis?, 109. 24 Robert Lazu, Î.P.S. Mitropolit dr. Nicolae Corneanu – membru de onoare al Academiei Române [His Eminence, Metropolitan Bishop dr. Nicolae Corneanu- honorary member of the Romanian Academy], in the volume Academia Română, filiala Timişoara. Istoric, 1951–1999 [The Roma- nian Academy, Timişoara branch. History, 1951–1999] (Timişoara, 1999, p. 142–143) .

187 Ionel Popescu levõ, régi baptisztérium theológiai bizonysága, in the journal “Református Szemle”,25 “Goa- na după senzaţional (Evanghelia Sfântului Toma),26 and Felfedeztek egy uj Evangéliumot?27 Nicolae Corneanu was also bishop to the Romanians living in the Serbian Banat, therefore he visited them numerous times and contributed to the setting up of the Orthodox Episcopates in Serbia and Hungary, which were suffragan to the Metropolitan of Banat for a period of time. His remarkable contribution to the modern ecumenical movement and especially his articles, essays, translations, and scholarly researches published in Romania and abroad place the “scholar bishop from Banat”28 amongst the theologians, scholars and ecumenists of international fame. His research in the patristic literature and spirituality were rewarded with his election as a member of the “International Association of Patristic Studies” in Paris. As a result of his activity, he was invited, together with professor Ioan G. Coman, to the fourth International Congress of Patristic Studies in Oxford (16th-21st of September 1963), where he presented the paper titled The Romanian translators’ contribution to the spreading of Saint John Climacus’s “Ladder.” On the 27th of May 1970, he was a guest at the Evangelical College of Humboldt University (Berlin), where he presented a lecture on The Bishop and missionary Ulfila, translator of the Bible.29 His vast contribution to the ecumenical field was rewarded by universities from Romania and abroad with the title of doctor honoris causa, amongst them, the Protestant Institute in Cluj-Napoca. In conclusion, the Metropolitan Bishop Nicolae Corneanu is rightfully placed among the Banat bishops of high moral and academic conduct, as the creator of an impressive academic work, which is still waiting to be analyzed and systematized. The dignified bishop from Banat is regarded as an leading personality of our Church and contemporary society, a man of exemplary kindness, modesty, and piety, given to his mission with body and soul, an ecumenist and “a scholar of national significance, whose studies have an obvious international interest.”30

25 Egyik, Románia teriileté levő, régi baptisztérium theológiai bizonysága [The theological confession of an old baptistery in Romania], in the journal “Református Szemle”, Cluj, year LXX, no. 1, (January-February 1977): 8–10. 26 See paper Goana după senzaţional (Evanghelia Sfântului Toma) [Chasing the sensational (St. Thomas’s Gospel)], in the journal “Metropolitanate of Timişoara”, Timişoara, year XXV, No. 4–6 (April-June 1975), 271–274. 27 “Felfedeztek egy új Evangéliumot?” [Did they find a new Gospel?], Református Szemle 4 (July- August 1976): 269–272. 28 Stefan C. Alexe, “Preocupări patristice ale Î.P.S. Mitropolit Dr. Nicolae Corneanu” [His Eminence Metropolian Bishop Dr. Nicolae Corneanu’s patristic interest] Biserica Ortodoxă Română, Bu- charest, year CV 3–4 (1987): 19. 29 Ioan G. Coman, “Participarea delegaţiei Bisericii Ortodoxe Române la lucrările Congresului al IV-lea Internaţional de Studii Patristice de la Oxford” [The Romanian Orthodox Church participation at the fourth International Congress of Patristic Studies in Oxford] Biserica Ortodoxă Română, Bucharest, year LXXXI 11–12 (1963): 1109. The papers presented on this occasion were also published in the Berlin Congress papers, “Studia Patristica,” in the collection Texte und Untersuchungen and in the journal “Zeiken der Zeit”, Berlin, no.10/October 1970: 375–379. 30 Virgil Nemoianu, Jocurile divinităţii [Divinity games] (Bucharest: The Romanian Cultural Foun- dation, 1977), 38.

188 modern times. to Ages Middle Early the from range which arts, of history and arts palaeography,archaeology, culturalstudies, medieval and classical and studies, geography cultural philology, and history, local history,ecclesiastical intellectual and science of history philosophy, a and debates interdisciplinary to opened it so broadened were heritage and life, work,Gerard’s St. investigationon perspectivesof The saint. the of a Liberalem Isingrimum workGerard,Saint of little-known the on focused volume first the While Gerard. Saint of This volume is the second one in a of effort Christian the for reason approaching God. of status the or anti- dialecticians, and dialecticians the between debate the as such time, own his of features philosophical the of aware fully life, devotional and a first bishop of the Diocese of Cenad, he organized the province, built the as acts; paideic in and Romania) of part (now Region Banat the and (Hungary) Pannonia of Christianisation the involvedin deeply a was Cenad of Gerard Saint ISBN 978-615-80340-2-9 school, and debated on the relation between spiritual instruction spiritual between relation the on debated and school, deeper level and enlarges the perspectives on the life and work and life the on perspectives the enlarges and level deeper variety of subjects including theology, hagiography,theology, including subjects of variety Deliberatiosupra hymnum puerorumtrium ad , this second volume explores the subject on subject the explores volume second this , Benedictine monk of Venetian origin, Venetian of monk Benedictine series dedicated to the life and work

Saint Gerard of Cenad: Tradition and Innovation Saint GerardofCenad Tradition andInnovation Claudiu Mesaroș, ClaudiuCălin Trivent Publishing Edited by