Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T04:56:06.223Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Consumption of the Sacred: Popular Piety in a Late Medieval Hungarian Town

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2011

GABRIELLA ERDÉLYI
GABRIELLA ERDÉLYI
Affiliation:
Institute of History, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 1014 Budapest, Úri u. 53, Hungary; e-mail: erdelyigb@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper interprets late medieval religious culture by considering lay expectations of and attitudes towards the clergy. The analysis is prompted by and framed around a convent controversy, which was extensively documented in the course of an ecclesiastical trial. Contemporary ‘convent reform’ is not conceived as an ecclesiastical event, but rather as a symptom of the changing relationship between town and convent. The description of religious provision in the town shows that there was a strong lay demand for the clergy and the rituals performed by them, and that parishioners were ready to invest financially in maintaining local priests, even if it involved considerable additional expenses. The conflict between town and convent can therefore be considered as a result of a liturgical deficit in the spiritual market of the town. The parishioners' behaviour is interpreted as a symptom of the eucharistic and penitential devotional culture of the time, which was regulated in practice by the principle of intercession and the institution of good works. The paper argues that the divergent strands of late medieval religious culture generated a ‘consumption’ of the sacred. The mendicant friars had a special role in the late medieval religious market as they provided opportunities for religious experiences which differed in kind from parish observances.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 63 , Issue 1 , January 2012 , pp. 31 - 60
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Processus, fo. 17r. Quotations are translated by the author.

2 Vilmos Fraknói, Erdődy Bakócz Tamás élete [The Life of Thomas Bakócz of Erdőd], Budapest 1889; György Székely, ‘Reform und Politik im Leben des Kardinals Bakócz’, in S. Hoyer (ed.), Reform-Reformation-Revolution, Leipzig 1980, 68–84.

3 The register was probably compiled in Buda, the capital of Hungary, before being sent to Rome on 18 June 1518. It is 108 folios long, written on paper, with the authentication of the apostolic and royal notary public on fo. 110r. The notary was Iohannes Miletinczi, who in his colophon summarised his procedure in preparing the registrum. According to him, the transcription of the witness depositions was based on the one hand on his original, obviously Hungarian, shorthand notes and, on the other hand, on the revised protocol-like form (‘ex prothocollis et notis meis … extraxi … , transcripsi et exemplavi’). The first part of the protocol contains the documents produced or presented during the first part of investigation in Buda (fos 2r–17v), and was written up by a disciple of Miletinczi. The second part, the witness depositions were transcribed by the notary himself.

4 András Kubinyi, ‘Írástudás és értelmiségi foglalkozásúak a Jagelló-korban’ [‘Literacy and the lay intelligentsia in the Jagiello era’], Magyar Herold i (1984), 186–208 at pp. 193, 204.

5 Eduard Fuchs, Az újkor erkölcstörténete [The history of morals of modern times], I: The Renaissance, Budapest 1926; H. Horváth (ed.), Az apácafőkötő: Régi olasz novellák [The nun hood: a collection of old Italian short stories], Budapest 2003. On theological, legal and penitential literature see Dyan Elliott, Fallen bodies: pollution, sexuality, and demonology in the Middle Ages, Philadelphia 1999, passim.

6 Processus, fo. 17v.

7 Ibid.

8 Ibid.

9 For the medieval history of Körmend see Zsuzsanna Bándi, Körmend a középkorban [Körmend in the Middle Ages], Körmend 1987. For the development of the town system see Vera Bácskai, Magyar mezővárosok a XV. Században [Market towns in fifteenth-century Hungary], Budapest 1965.

10 On petty nobles in general see István György Tóth, ‘Szabadosok és kisnemesek’ [‘Libertines and petty nobles’], in Ferenc Szvircsek (ed.), Magyarország társadalma a török kiűzésének idején [Society in Hungary at the time of the expulsion of the Turks], Salgótarján 1984, 55–67. On the nobility of Vas county see Kálmán Baán, ‘Vas vármegye 1554: évi nemesi összeírása’ [‘The register of the nobility of Vas county in 1554’], Magyar Családtörténeti Szemle vi (1940), 97–102, 140–2, 163–8, 185–215, 237–40, and Gyula Balogh and Márton Szluha, Vas vármegye nemes családjai [The noble families of Vas county], repr. Budapest 1999.

11 The notion of cultural dialogue used here is that proposed by Carlo Ginzburg in relation to inquisitorial processes: ‘The inquisitor as anthropologist’, in his Clues, myths and the historical method, Baltimore 1989, 156–64.

12 A suggestive phrase to describe this phenomenon is the ‘archives of repression’: Dominique Julia, La Religion: histoire religieuse, Paris 1974, ii. 137–67 at p. 147.

13 Csaba Pléh, ‘A narratívumok mint a pszichológiai koherenciateremtés eszközei’ [‘Narratives as tools of psychological construction of coherence’], in Hagyomány és újítás a pszichológiában: Tanulmányok, Budapest 1998, 365–84 at pp. 369–71.

14 Processus, fo. 47r.

15 Theories of psycho-social identity are summarised in Ferenc Pataki, ‘Élettörténet és identitás: Új törekvések az én-pszichológiában’ [‘Life story and identity: new perspectives in ego psychology’], Pszichológia xv (1995), 405–34; xvi (1996), 3–47.

16 For a similar treatment of diocesan visitation records see Angelo Torre, Il consumo di devozioni: religione e comunitá nelle campagne dell'ancien régime, Venice 1995, pp. xi–xiii. For the narrative approaches of legal documents and witness-hearings see, for example, Miri Rubin, ‘The making of the host desecration accusation: persuasive narratives, persistent doubts’, in S. Marchand and E. Lunbeck (eds), Proof and persuasion: essays on authority, objectivity, and evidence, Brepols 1996, 100–23; Laura Gowing, Domestic dangers: women, words, and sex in early modern London, Oxford 1996, 232–62 (narratives of litigation); Karin Telste, ‘A tale of courtship or immorality? Some reflections on court records as narratives’, in Sølvi Sogner (ed.), Fact, fiction and forensic evidence, Tid ok Tanke i (1997), 75–82; and Cohen, Thomas V., ‘Three forms of jeopardy: honor, pain and truth-telling in a sixteenth-century Italian courtroom’, Sixteenth Century Journal xxix (1998), 975–98CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

17 On the reconstruction of the trial see Gabriella Erdélyi, Egy kolostorper története: hatalom, vallás és mindennapok a középkor és újkor határán [The story of a convent's case: power, religion and everyday life at the turn of the Middle Ages and modern times], Budapest 2005, 21–53.

18 Several cases are analysed in the abundant German literature of ‘Klosterreform’. See, for example, Stievermann, Dieter, ‘Die württembergische Klosterreformen des 15. Jahrhunderts: ein bedeutendes landeskirchliches Strukturelement des Spätmittelalters und ein Kontinuitätsstrang zum ausgebildeten Landeskirchentum der Frühneuzeit’, Zeitschrift für württembergische Landesgeschichte xliv (1985), 65–121Google Scholar at pp. 93–9, and Bernhard Neidiger, ‘Stadtregiment und Klosterreform in Basel’, in K. Elm (ed.), Reformbemühungen und Observanzbestrebungen im spätmittelalterlichen Ordenswesen, Berlin 1989, 539–69.

19 Francis X. Martin, The Augustinian order on the eve of the Reformation, Louvain 1967; Mályusz, Elemér, ‘Az ágostonrend a középkori Magyarországon’ [‘The Augustinians in medieval Hungary’], Egyháztörténet i (1943), 427–40Google Scholar.

20 See the letter of the provincial, Blasius Dézsi, in 1514 to the Italian friars concerning the activity of the Italian lector in Hungary: ‘we do not need our friars to be exercised in subtleties and argumentations, but they should rather be trained in the holy scriptures and in more simple studies (“in planis scientiis”), especially the things concerning the hearing of confessions (“in casibus conscientie”), which they need much more’: Szűcs, Jenő, ‘Ferences ellenzéki áramlat a magyar parasztháború és reformáció hátterében’ [‘The movement of the Franciscan opposition in the context of the Hungarian Peasant War and the Reformation’] Irodalomtörténeti Közlemények lxxviii (1974), 409–35Google Scholar at p. 423. On the ‘pragmatic Franciscanism’ of observant Franciscans in Hungary see more recently the synthesis of Marie-Madeleine de Cevins, Les Franciscains observants hongrois de l'expansion à la débâcle (vers 1450–vers 1540), Rome 2008.

21 Erdélyi, Gabriella, ‘Crisis or revival? The Hungarian province of the order of Augustinian friars in the late Middle Ages’, Analecta Augustiniana lxvii (2004), 115–40Google Scholar.

22 See the argumentation of Beatrix F. Romhányi, ‘A koldulóbarátok szerepe a xv.xvi. századi vallási megújulásban’ [‘The role of mendicant friars in the religious renewal of the fifteenth-sixteenth centuries’], in Beatrix F. Romhányi and Gábor Kendeffy (eds), Szentítrás, hagyomány, reformáció: teológia- és egyháztörténeti tanulmányok, Budapest 2009, 151–2.

23 On the model sermon collections of Pelbárt Temesvári (Pelbartus de Themeswar) (c. 1435–1504; author of Stellarium, Basle 1498, and Pomerium, Hagenau 1499) and Osvát Laskai (Oswaldus de Lasco) (c. 1450–1511, provincial in 1497–1501 and 1507; author of Biga salutis, Hagenau 1498–9, and Gemma fidei, Hagenau 1507) and their widespread European use as shown by their many reprints in the first half of the sixteenth century see Gedeon Borsa, ‘Laskai Osvát és Temesvári Pelbárt műveinek megjelentetői’ [‘The publishers of the works of Osvát Laskai and Pelbárt Temesvári’] Magyar Könyvszemle cxxi (2005/1) http://epa.oszk.hu/00000/00021/00044/Ksz2005-1-01.htm. See some of the sermons at http://sermones.elte.hu. On the preaching activity of the friars in Hungary see Tímár, Károly, ‘Ferencrendi hitszónokok a xv. és xvi században’ [‘Franciscan preachers in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries’] Religio lxix (1910), 260–2Google Scholar.

24 Cf. Stanko Andrić, The miracles of St John of Capistran, Budapest 2000.

25 Szűcs, Jenő, ‘A ferences obszervancia és az 1514: évi parasztháború: egy kódex tanúsága’ [‘Franciscan Observants and the Peasant War of 1514’], Levéltári Közlemények xliii (1972), 213–63Google Scholar at pp. 235–6.

26 Erik Fügedi, ‘Koldulórendek és városfejlődés Magyarországon’ [‘Mendicant orders and urbanisation in Hungary’], in his Kolduló barátok, polgárok, nemesek: tanulmányok a magyar középkorról [Mendicant friars, burghers, noblemen: studies on the Hungarian Middle Ages], Budapest 1981, 83–4.; János Karácsonyi, Szent Ferencz rendjének története Magyarországon 1711-ig [The history of the order of St Francis in Hungary until 1711], i–ii, Budapest 1922–4, i. 58–9, 331, 38–9, 356.

27 Erdélyi, ‘Crisis or revival?’, 115.

28 Fügedi, ‘Kolduló barátok’, 71.

29 See, for example, the events in Várad (Oradea, Romania), which was the scene of one of the earliest religious disputes in the 1530s: János Horváth, A reformáció jegyében: a Mohács utáni félszázad magyar irodalomtörténete [Engaged with the Reformation: Hungarian literary history in the sixteenth century after the battle of Mohács], Budapest 1957, 162–3, 181 (for another militant anti-Lutheran observant Franciscan, Demeter Csáti). The convent and town of Sárospatak was another Franciscan centre during the early years of the Protestant Reformation: Szűcs, Jenő, ‘Sárospatak reformációjának kezdetei’ [‘The beginnings of the Reformation at Sárospatak’], A Ráday Gyűjtemény Évkönyve ii (1982), 36Google Scholar.

30 This is suggested by the fact that after the Augustinians had been removed, and the scandals had ceased, the lord was no longer interested in restoring the convent buildings notwithstanding the Franciscans' repeated requests for financial help.

31 Processus, fo. 55rv.

32 For the elaboration of the concept see Robert W. Scribner, ‘Cosmic order and daily life: sacred and secular in pre-industrial German society’, in his Popular culture and popular movements in Reformation Germany, London 1987, 2–16.

33 Processus, fo. 54r: Friar Blasius drinking wine right before starting mass. For comments on Friar Anthonius hearing confessions although not yet ordained see n. 119 below.

34 For an urban example of this lay demand see Elemér Mályusz, Egyházi társadalom a középkori Magyarországon [Ecclesiastical society in medieval Hungary], Budapest 1971, 140.

35 For this use of the term see Torre, Il consumo di devozioni.

36 Remig Békefi, A káptalani iskolák története Magyarországon 1540-ig, [The history of chapter schools in Hungary until 1540], Budapest 1910, 440–1.

37 Romhányi, ‘A kolduló barátok szerepe’, 145–6.

38 Judit Majorossy, ‘Church in town: urban religious life in late medieval Pressburg in the Mirror of Last Wills’, unpubl. PhD diss. Budapest 2006.

39 Lajos Pásztor, A magyarság vallásos élete a Jagellók korában [The religious life of Hungarians in the age of the Jagiellos], Budapest 1940, repr. 2000.

40 Enikő Csukovits, Középkori magyar zarándokok (Hungarian pilgrims in medieval Europe], Budapest 2003; Majorossy, ‘Church in town’. For confraternities see (with further literature) Judit Majorossy, ‘A Krisztus Teste Konfraternitás a középkori pozsonyi polgárok életében’ [‘The Corpus Christi confraternity in the life of the citizens of Bratislava’], in E. Csukovits and T. Lengyel (eds), Bártfától Pozsonyig. Városok a 13–17. században [From Bártfa to Bratislava: cities in the 13th–17th centuries], Budapest 2005, 253–91, and Marie-Madeleine de Cevins, ‘Les Confrèries en Hongrie à la fin du moyen âge: l'exemple de la confrérie “Mere de Miséricorde” de Bardejov (1449–1525)', Le Moyen Âge cvi (2000), 347–68.

41 Christine Peters, Patterns of piety: women, gender and religion in late medieval and Reformation England, Cambridge 2003, passim.

42 The most comprehensive work on late medieval eucharistic piety is Miri Rubin, Corpus Christi: the eucharist in late medieval culture, Cambridge 1991. For some aspects in Hungary see Maria Crăciun, ‘Rural altarpieces and religious experiences in Transylvania's Saxon communities’, in R. Muchembled and W. Monter (eds), Cultural exchange in early modern Europe, iv, Cambridge 2006, 191–217.

43 The classic work is Thomas N. Tentler, Sin and confession on the eve of the Reformation, Princeton 1977.

44 The nomination of the parish priest was not included in the town's letter of privilege of 1244: Bándi, Körmend a középkorban, 14. The ius patronatus could occasionally be separated from the right to nominate the parish priest in instances when the patron conveyed this right to the community: András Kubinyi, ‘Plébánosválasztások és egyházközségi önkormányzat a középkori Magyarországon’ (‘The nomination of parish priests and self-government of parish communities in medieval Hungary’), in his Főpapok, egyházi intézmények és vallásosság a középkori Magyarországon [Prelates, ecclesiastical institutions and religious life in medieval Hungary], Budapest 1999, 270.

45 See n. 66 below.

46 On the contest between the middle and the lower clergy over the tithe in the diocese of Győr (Iauriensis) and elsewhere see Mályusz, Egyházi társadalom, 49–53.

47 On the incomes of parish priests see Ferenc Kollányi, A párbér jogi természetéhez [On the legal character of ‘párbér’], Budapest 1908; Mályusz, Egyházi társadalom, 138; István Szabó, A középkori magyar falu [The medieval village in Hungary], Budapest 1969, 200–4; and Solymosi, László, ‘Egyházi és világi (földesúri) mortuarium a 11–14: századi Magyarországon’ [‘Ecclesiastical and secular (manorial) mortuarium in Hungary in the eleventh–forteenth centuries’], Századok cxxi (1987), 547–83Google Scholar at pp. 547–62.

48 Among the legacies of testators in Sopron the ones ‘zum paw’ were the most frequent: Katalin Szende, ‘A soproni középkori végrendeletek egyház- és tárgytörténeti tanulságai’ [‘The church- and material historical lessons of the medieval wills of Sopron], Soproni Szemle xliv (1990), 268–72 at p. 269. On votive masses see n. 58 below.

49 András Kubinyi, ‘Egyház és város a késő középkori Magyarországon’ [‘Church and city in late medieval Hungary’], in his Főpapok, 287–300, 295.

50 Joannes de Halogÿ, an altarist in Körmend in 1562, had also been a chaplain previously: Haus- Hof- und Staatsarchiv, Familienarchiv Erdődy, Kt 96, fasc. 8, no. 15. According to Mályusz, the living standards of chaplains rose in the later medieval period due to the increase in lay liturgical demands: Egyházi társadalom, 142.

51 Elias, priest from Morác: Processus, fos 64v–65r; Nicholaus, priest from Szecsőd: ‘Dicit etiam testis habuisse conversationem cum dictis fratribus, quoniam etiam ibidem cum aliis scolaribus propter defectum fratrum fuisset vocatus et cantasset missam’: fo. 79v. Blasius, priest from Gyarmat: fos. 74v–77r.

52 Remig Békefi, A népoktatás története Magyarországon 1540-ig [Popular education in Hungary until 1540], Budapest 1906, 21–51.

53 ‘in oppido Kermend et in platea magna oppidi eiusdem in domo circumspecti Iohannis Zabo tunc iudicis dicti oppidi, ubi testis convenisset ad videndum representari per scolares et rectorem scole ascensionem Domini’: Processus, fo. 74rv; cf. Jenő Házi, Sopron középkori egyháztörténete [The ecclesiastical history of Sopron in the Middle Ages], Sopron 1939, 240–3.

54 For example a village with a mill and two meadows as an altarist benefice (in Illava, by the magnate Balázs Magyar, in 1489): Mályusz, Egyházi társadalom, 147–9. For examples of chapel foundations see Pásztor, A magyarság vallásos élete, 77, 90, 91.

55 Of the medieval wills of the burghers of Sopron 80% have donations propter anime salutem. Only a small part of them (18 persons) could afford to found an altar, some of them for their own sons. The number of perpetual chantries (weekly masses) was higher 16%: Szende, ‘A soproni középkori végrendeletek’.

56 On the altars to the Virgin Mary and to the dead see Bándi, Körmend a középkorban, 71–2, 91 n. 120. On the incumbents of the Holy Cross altar see István György Tóth, Jobbágyok, hajdúk, deákok: a körmendi uradalom társadalma a 17. században [Peasants, soldiers and students: the social history of the Körmend manor in the 17th century], Budapest 1992, 140. On the altarist of the St Nicholas altar see Processus, fo. 27v.

57 The community of Pozsony (Bratislava, Slovakia) raised a chapel to the honour of St Sebastian at the time of the 1502 plague, and established a gild in the Franciscan church to maintain it: Tivadar Ortvay, Geschichte der Stadt Pressburg, ii/4, Pozsony 1903, 526, 528. The city of Sopron also built a chapel in the second half of the forteenth century, which was then maintained by the citizens' gild: Házi, Sopron.

58 For the wills of town-dwellers and their pious donations see MOL, DL 46538, and Egyháztörténelmi Emlékek a Magyarországi Hitújítás korából [Sources on church history at the time of the Reformation in Hungary], ed. V. Bunyitay, R. Rapaics and others, i–v, Budapest 1902–12, i, no. 66.

59 Processus, fo. 93v.

60 For such ‘material’ excuses of the Augustinians see the testimonies of the parish priest of Körmend (ibid. fo. 88r), and the townsmen Gregorius Polgár and Andreas Csuti (fos 90v, 92r).

61 Ibid. fo. 86r.

62 Ibid. fo. 57r.

63 The nobleman Andreas Sáli from the village of Sál: ibid. fo. 42v.

64 Ibid. fo. 69v.

65 Ibid. fo. 39v.

66 ‘frequentissime redarguisse et corripuisse fratres predicti monasterii de tanta negligentia divinorum officiorum et de tanta desolatione monasterii et scandalosa eorum vita …. Et de scandalo testi constat, quatenus aliquando populus oppidi Kermend sibi conquesti fuissent de divinorum offitiorum negligentia et de desolatione’: ibid. fo. 88r. For the complaints to the parish priests of the villages of Kölked and Szentkirály see fos 74r, 75v.

67 Ibid. fos 73r, 72v.

68 See the deposition of two townsmen, Simon Rosos and Matthias Tapasztó, ibid. fos 83v, 100v.

69 Paulus Nagy mentioned the ‘rebellion’ of the friars: ‘Dicit preterea testis se scire, quod fratres ipsi aliquando insurrexissent contra eorum provincialem, dum ipsos visitasset et pro huiusmodi eorum excessibus corrigere voluisset ita, quod se in eiusmodi eorum delictis emendari facere non permisissent’: ibid. fos 72v, 84r (Simon Rosos).

70 Sopron had 3,000 inhabitants with ten ecclesiastical institutions (including a Franciscan convent). Calculating 100 clergymen (in the parish church alone there were 20 side-altars) the ratio of clergy to laity was 1:30: Szende, ‘A soproni középkori végrendeletek’, 270.

71 Processus, fo. 87r.

72 ‘Scit etiam testis fuisse dictitatum sepius inter cives dicti oppidi, quod propter negligentiam eorundem fratrum Augustinensium in divinis, non deberent dare eis elemosinas’: ibid. fo. 100v.

73 Ibid. fos 69v, 73v.

74 The concept is constructed and discussed in detail by Robert Scribner, ‘Cosmic order and daily life: sacred and secular in pre-industrial German society’, in his Popular culture, 2–16.

75 Rubin, Corpus Christi, 12–35, 83–107.

76 The Fourth Lateran Council (1215) made Easter confession to the parish priest and communion obligatory: Conciliorum oecumenicorum decreta, ed. J. Alberigo, J. A. Dosetti Perikle and others, Bologna 1973, 245. On the practice of confession see Tentler, Sin and confession, 70–82, and Reinburg, Virginia, ‘Liturgy and the laity in late medieval and Reformation France’, Sixteenth Century Journal xxiii (1992), 539–41Google Scholar.

77 A veszprémi egyház 1515: évi zsinati határozatai [The synodal decretals of the diocese of Veszprém in 1515], ed. L. Solymosi, Budapest 1997, 98, lines 1397–9. The central role of communion is well reflected by the fact that the Synod of Veszprém added the most detailed and lengthiest amendments to earlier decrees when describing the sacraments of confession and communion, and its liturgy in both kinds. (These amendments will be signalled below in brackets). On earlier diocesan synods see Szentirmai, Alexander, ‘Die ungarische Diözesansynode im Spätmittelalter’, Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte, Kanonische Abteilung xlvii (1961), 266–92Google Scholar.

78 A veszprémi egyház, 60, lines 397–8.

79 The general practice is revealed by the abuse of the greedy parish priest of Szentpéter and Nagyszentpál, who demanded more: MOL, DL 14548 (1452). See moreover Házi, Sopron, 334.

80 See the exempla concerning confession in the model sermons of Pelbárt Temesvári, Pom. Quad., i, 12, N. As sermons were designed for and used by the lower clergy in their preaching to the simple folk, it is possible to consider them as a source for the knowledge and behaviour of the lower clergy.

81 Sacra Concilia Ecclesiae Romano Catholicae in regno Hungariae celebrata ab anno Christi MXVI usque ad annum MDCCXXXIV, i–ii, ed. C. Péterffy, Pozsony 1741–2, i. 192–211 at p. 193.

82 MOL, DL 14548; DL 14694 (1453); DL 105546 (1526). See moreover the expression of fear of sudden death without taking the eucharist in manuscript prayer books: Molnár, András Ferenc, ‘Két régi ima az oltáriszentségről’ [‘Two old prayers on the eucharist’], Nyelvtudományi Értekezések cxlviii (2000), 16–17Google Scholar.

83 See the privileges of indulgence granted for churches under construction: MOL, DL 15499 (1460), 14671 (1453). For further examples see Pásztor, A magyarság vallásos élete, 144–5.

84 Temesvári, , ‘Sermo de confessione frequenter facienda pro gratia amplianda’, Pom. Quad., i, 35Google Scholar. Antoninus Florentinus (1389–1459), archbishop of Florence, in his very popular manual on confession (Confessionale), published also in Buda in 1477, recommended monthly confession: Régi Magyarországi Nyomtatványok, 1473–1600 [Old Hungarian printed books, 1473–1600], i, Budapest 1971, no. 3. For papal dispensations for private confessors see XV. századi pápák oklevelei [Breves of fifteenth-century popes], ed. P. Lukcsics, i–ii, Budapest 1931–8, passim.

85 Peter Browe, Häufige Kommunion im Mittelalter, Münster 1938, 28–9. Ecclesiastical literature stressed the importance of clerical communion on behalf of the laity: Rubin, Corpus Christi, 50.

86 A veszprémi egyház, 98, lines 1388–96 lines (amendment).

87 Caroline Walker Bynum, ‘Women mystics and eucharistic devotion in the thirteenth century’, in her Fragmentation and redemption: essays on gender and the human body in medieval religion, New York 1992, 119–50.

88 Peters, Patterns of piety, 15–19.

89 Florentinus, Confessionale, 24.

90 Molnár, ‘Két régi ima’, 26–8 (prayers for elevation). For the liturgy of elevation see A veszprémi egyház, 99–100, lines 1432–9 (amendment). See also Charles Caspers, ‘The western Church during the late Middle Ages: Augenkommunion or popular mysticism?’, in C. Caspers, G. Lukken and G. Rouwhorst (eds), Bread of heaven: customs and practices surrounding holy communion: essays in the history of liturgy and culture, Kampen 1995, 83–97; Rubin, Corpus Christi, 62–73; and Pásztor, A magyarság vallásos élete, 72.

91 Eamon Duffy, The stripping of the altars: traditional religion in England, 1400–1580, New Haven 1992, 95–102.

92 Processus, fo. 72r. For others testifying to the everyday attendance at mass see fos 45r, 60v.

93 Pásztor, A magyarság vallásos élete, 71–2; A veszprémi egyház, 72, lines 716–20 (amendment).

94 Jacques Le Goff, The birth of purgatory, Aldershot 1984, esp. pp. 133–76.

95 Peters, Patterns of piety, passim.

96 Duffy, Stripping of the altars, 338–54 (the pains of purgatory). Temesvári, Pomerium de sanctis, pars hyemalis, 8, discussing the last judgement, says that those of saintly life reach heaven at once, and only those end up in hell like Herod, Pontius Pilate and Judas and the like, meanwhile the rest of the souls suffer in purgatory.

97 Antal Schütz, Dogmatics: Dogmatika: A keresztény hitigazságok rendszere [The system of Christian truths of belief], i–ii, Budapest 1937, ii. 572–7 (indulgence), 698–705 (purgatory); Robert N. Swanson, Religion and devotion in Europe, c. 1215–c. 1515, Cambridge 1995, 37.

98 Roberto Rusconi, L'ordine dei peccati: la confessione tra medioevo ed etá moderna, Bologna 2002, 105–60; Miccoli, Giovanni, ‘Gli ordini mendicanti e la vita religiosa dei laici’, Storia d'ltalia, ii, Turin 1974, 793–875Google Scholar; Rubin, Corpus Christi, 87–9, 109–12; Zafarana, Zelina, ‘La predicazione ai laici dal secolo xiii al xv’, Studi Medievali xxiv (1983), 265–75Google Scholar; David L. d'Avray, The preaching of the friars: sermons diffused from Paris before 1300, Oxford 1985. For the preaching of the observant Franciscans in Hungary see n. 22 above.

99 Temesvári, , ‘Sermo de partibus satisfactionis et de pervalore earum ac dispensatione’, Pom. Quad., i, 48Google Scholar, P. See moreover Pásztor, A magyarság vallásos élete, 18–19.

100 Temesvári, Pomerium de sanctis, pars hyemalis, 3, L: ‘all Christians will be finally judged according to good works of piety’; Pom. Quad., I, 5, U: ‘God has more mercy on a true penitent than through the intercession of all saints. If someone in the state of mortal sin refuses to confess his sins, God will not forgive him, even if asked by the Virgin Mary and all saints’.

101 ‘Sermo de partibus satisfactionis et de pervalore earum ac dispensatione’, Temesvári, Pom. Quad., I. 48, U: ‘alms have the merit of prayer and fasting …, deserves more grace, since the one, who receives it, is obliged to pray for the benefactor’.

102 Clive Burgess, The parish, the Church and the laity in late medieval Bristol, Bristol 1992, 4–6.

103 Békefi, A népoktatás, sources, no. 141.

104 For a list of Corpus Christi confraternities see Pásztor, A magyarság vallásos élete, 23–7; András Kubinyi, ‘Vallásos társulatok a késő középkori magyarországi városokban’ [Religious confraternities in late medieval Hungarian cities], in Főpapok, 346, 350.

105 Majorossy, ‘Corpus Christi’, 268–72.

106 Rubin, Corpus Christi, 50; Pásztor, A magyarság vallásos élete, 81. Although the practice went against regulations, priests often celebrated twice or thrice a day, which also reflects the scale of lay demand.

107 The belief in the increased efficacy of votive and festive masses is an argument of Lajos Pásztor based, on the one hand, on German cases, when this unorthodox lay belief generated complaints from the clergy, and, on the other hand, on the rich missal literature of Hungary describing votive masses: A magyarság vallásos élete, 73–5.

108 For a similar interpretation see Duffy, Stripping of the altars, 109–16, 125–7.

109 Processus, fos 91v–92r (Andreas from Csut), fo. 95r (Laurentius from Körmend). See Berta, Péter, ‘A túlélők teendői: a posztmortális szolgálatok rendje későközépkori városaink vallásos közösségeiben’ [‘The obligations of survivors: the order of post mortem service in late medieval Hungarian urban congregations’], Századok cxxxii (1998), 765Google Scholar–92 at p. 782.

110 Processus, fo. 82v.

111 Ibid. fos 43v–44r (Benedictus Sibrik), fo. 69v (Franciscus Nádasdy). Simon Rosos, citizen of Körmend (fo. 83v), also ‘knew for sure that in different periods though, the friars did not celebrate mass for many days in the convent church’.

112 Ibid. fo. 54v.

113 Ibid. fo. 60v.

114 Ibid. fo. 84r.

115 Ibid. fo. 86r. The Augustinians' confraternity is not otherwise documented.

116 For aristocrats see Kornél Szovák, ‘Meritorum apud Dominum fructus cumulatorum. Megjegyzések a 14. század főúri vallásossághoz’ [‘Notes on fourteenth-century aristocratic piety’], in P. Tusor (ed.), R. Várkonyi Ágnes Emlékkönyv, Budapest 1998, 79–97 at p. 82. For citizens see the case of a citizen of Buda who was member of eight religious confraternities: F. Romhányi Beatrix, ‘“Mereretur vestre devocionis affectus…”: Egy vallásos középkori budai polgár: Söptei Péter, kancelláriai jegyző’ [‘A pious citizen from medieval Buda: Péter Söptei, notary of the chancellery’], in B. Romhányi, A. Grynaeus and others (eds), ‘Es tu scholaris’: studies in honor of András Kubinyi, Budapest 2004, 37–44. For more examples see Karácsonyi, Szt Ferencz, i. 345, 351, 355, 357, 381, etc. For conflicts over burial right see Romhányi, ‘A kolduló barátok szerepe’, 146–7, 150–1.

117 The Fourth Lateran Council prescribed confession to the parish priest, but added that ‘if someone has a good reason to confess his sins to someone else, he should first ask and receive permission from his own priest’: Conciliorum oecumenicorum decreta, 245.

118 Processus, fo. 60v (L. from Mindszent), fo. 63r (N. Pondor).

119 Ibid. fos 67r, 87r, 105r.

120 In the late fifteenth century widows with no heirs often gave very generous pious bequests to single friars, who supported them spiritually and financially in their old age: Romhányi, ‘A kolduló barátok szerepe’, 149–50.

121 For urban preaching positions see Mályusz, Egyházi társadalom, 317–19. There is a reference to the preaching of the Augustinians in Körmend at Processus, fo. 62r.

122 The restoration work was mentioned by several witnesses, for example Processus, fos 45v, 84v, 86v.

123 The members of the confraternity were Paulus Nagy, the dean of the confraternity, Georgius Király, who was also town judge, and Simon Rosos, all citizens of Körmend: ibid. fos 84v, 86v, 99r. The lay confraternity in Körmend is otherwise not documented: Kubinyi, ‘Vallásos társulatok’, 346.

124 A veszprémi egyház, 63, lines 477–80.

125 This process is described by Charles Zika as a strategy of certain clerical elites in order to maintain control over access to the sacred: ‘Hosts, processions and pilgrimages: controlling the sacred in fifteenth-century Germany’, Past and Present cxviii (1988), 25–64.

126 Processus, fo. 88r.

127 György Bónis, ‘Az egyházi bíráskodás fejlődése a Mohács előtti Magyarországon’ [‘The development of ecclesiastical jurisdiction in medieval Hungary’], in Szentszéki regeszták: iratok az egyházi bíráskodás történetéhez a középkori Magyarországon [Register of records of ecclesiastical courts: documents on the history of ecclesiastical jurisdiction in medieval Hungary], ed. G. Bónis, Budapest 1997, 655.

128 Processus, fo. 95rv.

129 For a general description of the late medieval rural parish clergy see Mályusz, Egyházi társadalom, 37–170, 209–304. For comparisons see A. Pettegree (ed.), The Reformation of the parishes: the ministry and the Reformation in town and country, Manchester 1993.

130 Peters, Patterns of piety, 4.