Egyházigazgatási határok a középkori Erdélyben (I. közlemény)
Borders of Ecclesiastical Administration in the Medieval Transylvania (Part 1)

Summary/Abstract: In a positivist manner, this study tries to correct and to enlarge our knowledge about Transylvanian church administration and its references to historical geography, still confused even after a century of scientifi c investigation. Chapter 1 summarizes the results of the special literature concerning the medieval ecclesiastical borders: their coincidence with the borders of early lay administration (shires, respectively villages) and their conservative (hardly changing) character. Due to these characteristics, lay analogies and data from different periods of Hungarian Middle Ages can be used in our investigation. In chapter 2.2 the author analyses in detail the most important historical source of the theme: the list of papal tithe from 1332–1337. He deals with the careers of tax-collectors, reveals the procedure of collecting and hereby the steps of the list’s birth. He considers, that the subcollectores from the Transylvanian diocese didn’t visit the spot: the local priesthood (belonging usually, but not exclusively to the same ecclesiastical unit) sent his duty twice a year by their elected principals (usually deans). The notes brought by these, containing the names of taxpayers, meant the primary components of the list, which gained its fi nal form through a long process of editing. Meanwhile, being copied twice (by subcollectores, then in the offi ce of the chief-collector), the names of taxpayers and of parishes became deformed, and their order several times corrupted – so, that they should be used carefully in reconstructing the church administration of that time. Using these general aspects and setting out from the newest map of Transylvanian diocese, chapter 2.3 contains rectifi cations to the borders of three archdeaconate: Alba/ Fehérvár, Ozd/ Ózd and Cluj/Kolozs. The author shows, that the fi rst one included (in a single block) not only the territory of late medieval Alba/Fehér shire, but even the northern half of Saxon regions and a part of Hunedoara/Hunyad shire and of Secuime/Székelyföld. He proves that every Transylvanian archdeaconate was founded before 1224, and all of them – even Ózd – had an equivalent shire or county (shire Ózd had disappeared between 1303 and 1318). After 1224 the changes in lay administration didn’t result a new archdeaconate any more, at most a new decanatus, staying on the lower level of church hierarchy. The following part 2 of the study will examine the ecclesiastical jurisdiction and borders from the area of Saxon settlements.

• Details
• Contents