The Legal History of the Order of the Holy Spirit in Hungary. Facts and Doubts
The Legal History of the Order of the Holy Spirit in Hungary. Facts and Doubts

Summary/Abstract: The settlement of the Order of the Holy Spirit in Hungary is unknown. The first Hungarian source remained about the order was found in Nagyszeben (Sibiu) in 1292. This source explains that on 24th June 1292 the city council of Nagyszeben handed over a house with all of its belongings to the order. This house had been used earlier as a hospital with the purpose of holding church services and of taking care of poor and sick people. The order used to own several hospitals in the territory of the Hungarian Kingdom. The cessation of the operation of the order is connected to the development of the embourgeoisement, in the course of which the infirmaries and pharmacies of the order gradually ended up under the supervision of the city councils by the 15-16th centuries. The non-consistent use of the terms cruciferi, hospitalis and Spiritus Sanctus in medieval Latin documents makes it difficult to identify the houses and hospitals operated by the order unambiguously.

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