Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.21857/mwo1vcz12y
The Foundation and Early History of the Latin Bishopric of Syrmia
Bálint Ternovácz
; Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem, Budapest. Hungary
Abstract
The bishopric of Sirmia founded in 1229 was established as a private foundation of Archbishop Hugrin Csák. This is the only verified privately founded bishopric in the history of the Hungarian church. The bishop of Sirmia did not operate as the auxiliary bishop of the archbishop of Kalocsa, but as a residential bishop with full episcopal rights, because – as the papal decree on the foundation declares – Archbishop Hugrin established this bishopric separating it from the territory of his own archdiocese. The seat of the bishopric, Kő (Banoštor), had its own cathedral church and the chapter from the beginning and some decades after the foundation, there are charter evidence that the chapter of Szenternye had a provost and the bishops of Sirmia were from 1254 onwards constantly present in the dignitaries of the royal privileges among prelates.
The main purpose of the bishopric was missionary activity and it is proven by its denomination. In the Latin Church, the missionary bishoprics gained their names from the territory, not from the episcopal seat. By the beginning of the fourteenth century, the bishopric of Sirmia had lost its missionary character and changed its name to the one derived by its centre, as was generally accepted custom in the Latin Church.
In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the bishopric of Sirmia included not only the Further Sirmia (Sirmia Ulterior), South of the Sava river, but some of the territories between the Danube and the Sava (so-called Hither Sirmia, Sirmia Citerior) – for example Kő, and by the fourteenth century, the archdeaconry of Pazova as well. It is not known how far it extended in the Further Sirmia, since borders were not drawn clearly, due to the missionary character of the bishopric. It may be assumed by the location of the archdeaconry of Obona that the border was somewhere 40-50 km South of the Sava or even a little more to the South.
Keywords
the Bishopric of Syrmia; Syrmia (Srijem/Srem/Szerem); Mačva; ecclesiastical history; the Middle Ages
Hrčak ID:
194926
URI
Publication date:
29.12.2017.
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