History of Christianity in Hungary
[5] A decorated casket-mount depicting the marriage at Cana and other scenes from the Bible was unearthed in the canabae, or civil settlement, at the fort of Intercisa (now Dunaújváros).
One of the earliest tombstones with a Christian inscription—"Live in God"—was erected for Aurelius Iodorus, "a Greek citizen from Laodicea area", and his two children in the colonia, or city, of Savaria (now Szombathely).
[15] Although none of the towns of Pannonia Prima and Valeria are documented as episcopal sees, the historian András Mócsy emphasises that bishoprics must have existed in the provincial capitals, Sopianae and Savaria.
[17] The writer Sulpicius Severus (d. c. 425) adds that Martin of Tours (d. 397) who had been born to pagan parents in Savaria in 316 or 317 was expelled from the city by Arian clergy after he converted his mother to Nicaean Christianity.
[20] The Romans allowed the Marcomannic queen Fritigil and her people to settle in Pannonia Prima after she converted to Christianity and convinced her husband to surrender to imperial authority around 396.
[26] By the early 6th century, the Gepids became the dominant power in the lands to the east of the river Tisza, and another Germanic group, the Lombards seized Pannonia.
Nicetius (d. c. 566), Bishop of Trier, addressed a letter to Chlothsind (d. c. 568), the Frankish wife of the Lombard king Alboin (r. 560–572) in the winter of 565–566, urging her to convert her Arian husband.
Although the Keszthely fortress and the basilica were destroyed, most probably during a Avar civil war around 630, the community survived, developing new cemeteries in the region, but their distinctive culture quickly disappeared.
Both prelates appointed evangelising bishops to direct proselytising missions in the region, but few archaeological finds indicate the existence of Christian communities during the first half of the 9th century.
Pribina built a fortress, Mosapurc, in the swamps near Lake Balaton (at present-day Zalavár), and settled Slavic, Bavarian and Swabian colonists in his estates.
[67] Kocel persuaded the Pope to appoint Methodius as bishop of the "see of St Andronicus" in Pannonia, which limited the jurisdiction of the archbishopric of Salzburg and the bishopric of Passau.
[76] Ahmad ibn Rustah, Abu Sa'id Gardezi and other medieval Muslim geographers who preserved earlier scholars' records of the 9th-century Magyars described them as star- and fire-worshipers.
The Byzantine historian John Skylitzes (d. after 1101) claims that Hierotheos converted many Hungarians, but archaeological finds do not substantiate a mass conversion to Eastern Orthodoxy.
[96][99] A Benedictine monk, Wolfgang (d. 994), left the Einsiedeln Abbey to proselytize among the Hungarians in 972, but Piligrim (d. 991), Bishop of Passau, forbade him to leave his diocese, which may indicate a rivalry for the leadership of the missions in Hungary.
[96] Modern historians tentatively associate Bruno with "Bishop Prunwart" whom the necrology of the Abbey of Saint Gall credited with the baptism of Géza and many of his subjects.
[100] Géza stabilized central authority and promoted Christianity in parallel through warring against pagan chieftains,[101][102] but contemporary sources indicate that he and his wife Sarolt (d. after 997), remained half-pagans.
[F] The chronicler Thietmar of Merseburg (d. 1018) states that Géza offered sacrifices to pagan gods even after his baptism; and the missionary Bruno of Querfurt (d. 1009) accuses Sarolt of mixing Christian and heathen practices.
Born into paganism as Vajk, Stephen was baptised at the latest before he married, on his father's initiative, Gisela of Bavaria (d. 1065), a relative of the Holy Roman Emperor Otto III (r. 996–1002).
[124] Stone churches mainly followed Italian patterns as it is demonstrated by the Acanthus spinosa carved on the chapiters of the columns in the Romanesque Veszprém Cathedral.
[129][130] Gerard of Csanád completed his Biblical commentary entitled Deliberatio supra hymnum trium puerorum ('Meditation of the Hymn of Three Young Men') in Hungary.
[140] The neglected lords dethroned him and elected one of their number, Samuel Aba, king,[138] but the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry III, invaded Hungary and restored Peter.
[158] The synod allowed the married priests to live with their wives in clear contradiction with the idea of clerical celibacy, promoted by the Gregorian Reform.
[161] The preamble to his law-code described Hungary as a fully converted Christian realm, but his decree ordering burials in graveyards shows that this was not a general practice.
[165] Most churches were dedicated to the Virgin Mary, George of Lydda, the Archangel Michael, Martin of Tours, Nicholas of Myra, and Peter the Apostle, but the first Hungarian saints' cult quickly spread after their canonization.
[174] Géza's son and successor, Stephen III, renounced the right to appoint the abbots of the royal monasteries and to administer the goods of vacant bishoprics.
[178] Job, Archbishop of Esztergom, entered into an unfriendly correspondence with the Byzantine Emperor Isaac II Angelos about the differences between Catholic and Orthodox theologies.
[178] Béla's elder son and successor, Emeric, proposed Pope Innocent III to appoint a Catholic bishop to administer the Greek monasteries in Hungary in 1204.
[185] Andrew II made generous grants to the aristocrats, threatening the social position of the royal servants and castle warriors (small landholders who had been directly subject to the monarch or his officials).
[183][187] The Golden Bull also confirmed the clerics' exemption of royal taxes, but limited the prelates' right to trade in salt and prohibited the collection of the tithe in cash.
[193] The new document exempted the prelates' estates of the jurisdiction of the ispáns and established the monopoly of ecclesiastical courts in matters relating to marriage and dowry.
