THE LEVEL OF EDUCATION
AUTHORS, GENRES, WORKS

THE LEVEL OF EDUCATION

The age of the Angevine rulers brought a significant change in the history of literature in Hungary: originally the mother tongue of the ruling family was French-Italian, and their political and cultural intentions were defined by the origin of the dynasty throughout the age. The Italian relationships had their effects first of all on the style, interest and genres of Latin literature. The range of genres in literature became impoverished, compared to that of the age of the Árpád dynasty, but the tone of literature became secular. The language of literature remained Latin in most cases: historical literature was written mostly in Latin, but besides this several works were written in German at the court.

The Saxon mastersinger, Heinrich of Mügeln, compiled the history of the Hungarian people in his mother tongue, based on one of the Hungarian chronicles. But not only foreigners wrote in German: historical records were done in German at Szepesszombat throughout the 14th century, and around 1370 the Saxons of Szepes wrote down their law book (Zipser Willkür) in their mother tongue, too. After 1405 the German citizens of Buda did the very same thing (The Law Book of Buda). Moreover, the expansion of Hungarian literature can also be dated to this century. In its background there was the secularisation of church culture, and its authors were the current movers of the lay movement, the monks of begging orders, who made Latin translations for nuns who did not speak Latin.

According to some views, the Hungarian translation of the biography St Margaret of the Árpád dynasty, who was very popular with the Dominican nuns, was written at the beginning of the 14th century by a nun, who spoke Latin. It was probably rewritten in the second half of the century. At the end of the century this was followed by the first complete Hungarian codex, the Jókai codex with the translation of the legend of St Francis. We must not forget about the activities of the evangelising begging orders, since their preachings were the transmitting media of ecclesiastic culture and the creators of the standard Hungarian literary language at the same time. It is also very important that around 1420-30 two priests from the Szerémség , Thomas, an altar priest from Kamanc, and Bálint Újlaki, the parish priest of Belcsény, who got acquainted with the teachings of Hussitism at the university of Prague, translated the bigger part of the Bible into Hungarian.

Their translation was preserved by later copies (the Vienna codex around 1450, the Munich codex from 1466, the Apor codex at the end of the 15th century). The birth of the Hussite Bible was the sign of a new spiritual wave and the requirement of new demands, according to which religion became a personal issue in contrast to earlier collective forms. The movement of the Franciscans - who stayed within the boundaries of the church - was supplemented with Husz's teachings, though in concert with official opinions, it was against the philosophy of the church. Word lists, which give the Hungarian equivalents of Latin expressions are proof of the close relationship between the mother tongue and Latin. They are also important sources of the history of the language.

The first such list was born between 1380-1410, when George of Slavonia copied the Beszterce word list, which contained 1316 words grouped around different topics. At the same time, before 1410 an unknown copier made the Schlägl word list, which kept the thematic order, but the number of words included are over two thousand. These might have been made for educational purposes, in contrast to Student John of Rotenburg's Latin coursebook, in which he provided Hungarian word lists for foreigners, probably Germans, It was made between 1418-1422 at Buda. The explanations were the Latin and German definitions of the most important Hungarian expressions, which were necessary to make contact with people in Hungary.

Oral traditions and secular literature

Besides literacy, oral tradition also presented some reliable sources. Till the end of Sigismund's reign there must have been some historical songs, that told the heroic deeds of a certain nobleman. In János Thuróczy's chronicle the author tells the story how the nobleman Stephen Kont - who rebelled against King Sigismund - faced his hangman in 1388, referring to Hungarian historical songs. In the 16th century there were some songs about Felician Záh's murderous attempt, and similar ones about Pipó Ozorai. The fragment of a song about Lawrence Tar's visions, who descended to the Irish St Patrick's purgatory in 1411, was also included in Sebestyén Tinódi's chronicle written in verse.

Although the Toldi legend is a later literary relic, which was written down only in the 16th century, its elements clearly show that the basic story was formed during Sigismund's reign at the latest, and the model it followed was the popular French genre of the age, the chanson de geste. These examples of court literature are partly the relics of historical folk songs, partly the works of Latin court poetry , which survived in translation. In all probability the legends and adventure stories created by 11-13th-century chroniclers reached the authors of folk epics through secular minstrels and poets, and vice versa: the figure of St Ladislaus, who was resurrected from his tomb and helped the Hungarians against the Turks, might have also been transmitted from folk songs to historical literature.

The spread of literacy: nonprofessional literacy

The 14th century is known as the age when literacy spread widely. Several priests thought to make good use of their knowledge in a worldly career: so the Latin clericus (= clergyman, member of the clerical order) gradually became the synonym of litteratus (= learned, educated, lettered person) and the Hungarian word meaning student [deák].At first these persons who left the clergy were employed as clerks at credible places or boroughs (like Bartholomew, clerk of Vasvár and Stephen, the head of the credible place at Pannonhalma), but during the century the royal chancellery also hired secular men who were able to read and write (for example, Master Stephen of Őr), and the offices of the Royal High Court of Justice were regularly headed by lay judges (for example, Jacob Szepesi, later Chief Magistrate of the country).

The appearance of secular educated men damaged the prestige of those who did not leave the church. It was probably due to the conflict of the two social layers that in the middle of the 14th century Master John Uzsai tried to exclude clerks (students) from the circle of people who enjoyed the privileges of priests. Besides secular intellectuals, who lived on their ability to read and write, and sometimes made a good career, there were the representatives of aristocracy, such as Benedict Himfi, who corresponded with his friends belonging to begging orders and his villeins in Temes in Latin, and was also the minister of King Louis at the Papal court of Avignon. The interest in begging orders and lay culture were closely interwoven in his personality.

The expansion of space

Lawrence Tar might have composed his letter to the members of his family personally. In the age of the Árpád dynasty the representatives of secular society could get in contact with western aristocracy only through royal weddings. In the 14th century not only foreigners came to Hungary, but King Louis I's Italian campaigns and King Sigismund's European travels and the expanded diplomatic and religious contacts also created brilliant opportunities for the Hungarian aristocracy to meet the Italian, French, English culture in their homelands and adopt the traditions, world view and philosophy there.

Louis' Hungarian leaders of mercenary troops often stayed in Italy after finishing the campaign, and Sigismund's lords took advantage of the ruler's willingness to travel to learn about western culture. A significant sign of this was the increase of interest in literature and the demand to get to know it. The visions of Lawrence Tar - who, as it was mentioned above, could read and write - show that the lord, who came back from St Patrick's hell, (independent of the clerk, who wrote down these visions) must have known western visionary literature. Enterprises abroad broadened the mind of ecclesiastic authors: there are evidences in John Kétyi's work about King Louis's campaigns that the author himself took part in the events.

Education

In the age of the Angevine rulers, after the receding of the chaotic decades at the beginning of the century, Hungarian students still preferred foreign universities. At the end of the age of the Árpád dynasty most students preferred Italian universities to those of Paris, and this situation did not change even in the 14th century. According to contemporary data students studied law at Italian universities, either in Bologne or Padua, although it is also known that there were three students who got their magister's degree in Paris in 1366. After the campaigns against Naples, King Louis started to send his young followers and chaplains to the best-known law schools, and during the time of their studies he took care of them through ecclesiastical incomes. This is how Bálint Alsáni, Benedict Himfi junior, Emeric Czudar and John Kanizsai completed their studied in Italy and as a result of their results, made a successful career.

Besides the famous old schools new ones also appeared: the universities in Prague (1348), in Cracow (1364) and the universities of Vienna (1365). These universities were visited by Hungarian students in great numbers: the university of Prague from the 1380s, the university of Krakow from the beginning of the 15th century, the university of Vienna from 1368. At this latter one the Natio Hungarica, an organisation uniting Central-European students, was formed in 1384. In 1367 at the request of King Louis, Pope Orban V agreed to set up the university of Pécs, where humanities and law were taught till 1390, when it was closed. Among the chancellors (e.g.: Bálint Alsáni, Bishop of Pécs) and lecturers (e.g.: Galvano di Bologna) of the university there were ex-students and lecturers of the university of Bologne. After its closing up the students were taken over by the university of Prague. For example, Peter Wyderai, who took his 'baccalarius' degree at Pécs in the 1380s.

King Sigismund's aim might have been to replace the university of Pécs, when around 1390 he started to found a university at Óbuda. The university was accepted in 1395 by Pope Bonifac IX, who appointed Lucas Szántai, Prepost of Óbuda, as the first chancellor. After a long period of hesitation, the university was refounded in 1410, when four faculties were established with the privileges of the Paris, Bologne, Oxford and Cologne universities. Students could study theology, both kinds of law, medicine and humanities. The university, that also had its own coat-of-arms, took part at the synod of Constanz with its four faculties. The university of Óbuda was also closed after a short boom at the beginning of the 15th century, so the main reason for founding the Academia Istropolitana was that Hungary did not have a university. Concerning the colleges of begging orders, the Dominicans' Buda college (end of the age of the Árpád dynasty) was followed by the studium generale of the Franciscans in Esztergom, which was mentioned by sources since 1411.

Secular persons could still obtain their practical knowledge at chapter schools. In some of these the standard of education was very high in the 14-15th centuries. The records of the 1397 Esztergom church visits regulated the duties of reading canon (lectors), who was engaged in spreading literacy then, and those of his deputy (sublector), who directed the chapter school, in details. It underlined the fact that the school should teach poor students and the relatives of the canon free of charge. The range of education varied from teaching reading and writing to the teaching of arts at universities, where a big emphasis was put on the art of composition (which also included the basic skills of literary creation!), a branch that developed from ancient rethoric. In the middle of the 14th century the reading canon of the chapter school of Eger, John Uzsai, compiled his own collection of sample texts for this, and between 1419-1423 Tomas Zákáni, the teacher of the Esztergom school, made his four students copy a codex which summarised the contemporary material taught.

Besides chapter schools, the system of colleges - connected to university education - was also a great help in education. On the one hand there was independent teaching in the college, on the other hand the institution gave financial support to its students for their further studies. At the end of the 14th century in the chapter of Esztergom John Budai, the chief dean of Bars, established a foundation from the income of four of his houses at Buda, called Collegium Christi pauperum scolarium (= Christ College of poor students), the aim of which was to support the studies of poor, but talented students. The institution, which was approved by Pope Bonifac IX in 1399, functioned well till the middle of the 16th century: its own library enabled the students to absorb deeply in the sciences.

Books and libraries

Since the 14th century books were not treasures any more as they became available for more and more people. The demand for books required cheap production, so by the end of the century paper codices appeared and instead of the earlier decorative writings (textualis) the practical writing (cursiva) - used in charters - was used in codices. The place of writing was not the scriptorium of monasteries any more, but the copy room of the royal court, the manufacture of universities, where textbooks were made; in other words secular copying places. Just a few decorative codices survived, which might refer to the fact that demands have changed: the emphasis was put on the contents.

There was a copy room at the court of the Angevine rulers, the products of which have been preserved. The Illustrated Chronicle and the Secreta secretorum codex, which is kept in Oxford, were made in the 1370s at a very high standard. Their miniator was identified as Michael Meggyesi. The same can be told about the decorated Bible of bishop and cardinal Demeter Nekcsei. It is possible that the Hungarian Angevine Legendarium was also made here. These manuscripts were made for presents or for the education of a member of the ruling family, so not for practical but representational purposes. In contrast practical codices were very simple and undecorated, they were made in Franciscan and Augustine scriptoriums.

As the secular demands put the emphasis of teaching writing on chapter schools, chapter libraries became more and more significant. Several lists of books survived from the chapter of Veszprém from the first third of the 15th century, and the list of the Pozsony chapter - from the same time - is also known. We can see from these lists that chapter libraries tried to satisfy practical demands to a greater extent. The majority of the books mentioned were law books, that helped practical education in the school and the jurisdiction of chief deans living in the chapter. Besides these there were theological and liturgical books, rarely some books from Cicero or Aristotle, and the works of medieval chroniclers. At the beginning of the 15th century there were 225 books in the book list of the Zagreb chapter, the majority of them were liturgical books, or works about preaching and church government, but we could find some university course books, too. It can be claimed that the books of chapters represent the book products of the previous two or three centuries. The library of the 24th parish priests' brotherhood (confraternities) of Szepes must have been of a similar type.

AUTHORS, GENRES, WORKS

Foreign authors still kept coming to Hungary in great numbers. Heinrich of Mülgeln, German mastersinger must have gone to Buda after leaving the court of the Czech king and emperor. At the latest in 1333 he summarised Hungarian history for his patron, Rudolf IV, Austrian prince, in his mother tongue. Besides the Stephen legend of Hartvic his source was a chronicle version, whose references to the age of Géza II and Stephen III have been lost in their original form for today. Around 1361 he offered his Latin historical work, the Rhythmic Chronicle for King Louis I, in which he compiled the history of the Hungarian people till 1072 in four parts, written in different rhythmic and rhyming phases. Lorenzo de Monacis was a Venetian minister at Queen Mary's court, so he might have written his epic poem about the unsuccessful reign of Charles (Little) II (Carmen seu historia de Carlo II cognomento Pravo, rege Hungariae) here, which he offered to the Queen. Thuróczy adopted this into his chronicle in prose.

The relics of historiography from the age of the Angevine rulers

The Minorite of Buda from the age of Charles

The 14th century was the golden age of interest in the past, and historical literature dominates literature due to its richness of genres and extent. The population of cities and members of ecclesiastic institutions start to record historic memories at that time (for example, the Szepesszombat Chronicle). The representatives of the new religion, the Franciscans brought great changes to Hungarian historiography in the age of the Angevine rulers. In the first half of the 1330s a new demand appeared for a comprehensive national history, in contrast with the earlier monographic gestas. In all probability a Franciscan from Buda, whose name is unknown, united the relics of historiography of the end of the 13th century, that is Simon Kézai's and Master Ákos's works, and he continued the text till 1334. As an author he not only continued the summary of history, but also created a new part: horrified by Felician Záz's deed he wrote the story about ban Bánk.

The author was strongly influenced by his inclination to tell anecdotes - which is typical of Franciscan historiography. This might be the reason why some episodes were discussed in details: how King Otto lost his crown, how the people of Buda excommunicated the Pope, or how King Charles changed clothes with Dezső Szécsi. Though there is some looseness in the structure, its style is lively, he deliberately uses the rhythmic prose, similies, metaphors and adventurous turns. Seemingly the aim of the author was to fascinate his readers with his art. His work did not survive in its individual form, only the codices of the Buda Chronicle preserved it.

The Illustrated Chronicle

In 1358 - probably at the King's request - another historiographic work was born, the aim of which was to show Hungarian history in a representative form. Though he did not name himself, the author is thought to be Mark Kálti, canon of Székesfehérvár, who was in charge of the royal treasury and archives. His method was the same as that of earlier chroniclers: he partly united earlier texts, and partly included new paragraphs. He used popular structures of the age of Charles as the basis of his work and interpolated shorter or longer texts from earlier chronicles into it.

In all probability he was the first editor, who used the old gesta called Gesta Ladislai regis, which was written at King Coloman's court, and put this in the focus of his work. By doing so he made King St Ladislaus, the ideal of court culture of the Angevine rulers, the hero of the chronicle. He adopted long parts from a gesta written in the age of Stephen III. We can see from the work that the author was a court priest. His views and methods of writing were strongly influenced by the ideals he wanted to represent. He wrote a prologue in front of his work, which might as well be a short essay, in which he summarised the essence of the ideal of the king - which substituted the ideal of the state of the Angevine age. According to this, all power is from God, and God places the kings on their thrones to govern their people in peace and welfare, following the model of God Heavenly kingdom, and this way bring the souls in front of God to be judged. At the end of the Middle Ages the ideal ruler of the Carolingian age was clearly shown here.

The author must have been highly educated, especially in theology, as in his prologue he refers to Petrus Comestor, the "Master of History" (magister historiarum = he is represented on the famous miniature of the Illustrated Chronicle) besides other authors. He also quotes from him and Nicolas de Lyra as well. With its tone, style and deliberate structure, the chronicle shows that its author lived at the court and was very different from his Minorite ancestor concerning their world views. His work did not survive in its original form, only in a copied manuscript from around 1370, which was probably a present for someone. This version stops at the events of 1330 (some say it was because of Mark Kálti's death). It was also preserved in the chronicle family of the Illustrated Chronicle.

John Küküllei

The real change of historic view was shown by the appearance of the genre of biography. John Küküllei, who started as a secular literate man at the royal court then continued his career in the church from the first half of the 1350s, started to write a biographical work, entitled Chronicon de Ludovico rege, in the 1360s. In the first 25 chapters he summarised the events of the campaigns against Naples as a witness. After 1382 he complemented his work with 30 more chapters, in which he focused on the old King's deeds and characteristic features. He followed the model of the biography of King St Louis (IX), who was respected by the Angevine rulers, written by Guillelmus de Nangis.

It is typical of Küküllei that as a member of the chancellery he could read charters, so he included parts from charters (arengas, narratives) in his work word by word to a great extent. At the same time he did not refrain from changing some facts in order to create an ideal picture of the ruler. His work is the modern version of early medieval royal mirrors and late medieval biographies of holy kings, in which the material is modified by the ideal he wanted to represent. The author applied a clear and careful structure and regularly used rhythmic prose. His sources were King Louis's favourite reading, the Secreta secretorum, in which the hero is compared to Alexander the Great (the codex of this, which was made at King Louis's court, is kept in Oxford), and he also refers to Aristotle and Vegetius. Küküllei's work did not survive in an independent form, but it was included in the Buda and Dubnic Chronicles besides John Thuróczy's chronicle.

The Unknown Minorite

In the focus of the fragment of a chronicle, which survived in the text of the Dubnic Chronicle, we can also find the detailed description of the events at Naples. It was verified long ago that it was part of a longer, independent chronicle, the author of which must have been a Franciscan monk living in the King's environment, who wrote his work between 1345-1355. With full knowledge of these facts the focus of attention turned to John (Egri) Kétyi, who was the confessor of the king and his mother. The author insisted on the Franciscan tradition of historiography, the work was based on the author's inclination to tell anecdotes, and not on a planned structure. As a result of this he recorded many detailed, short story like anecdotes and the local events. Its language and tone is sometimes rough (he recorded a Hungarian sporadic relic!), but he also tries to fascinate the reader with his turns of style and richness of metaphors.

His Latin differs from the usual, in contrast to rhythmic, it is rather archaic, so he prefers folk-like rhymed prose. He starts the story with the murder of Prince Andrew, and prepares the reader for further events emotionally. In his work he focuses on the ideal of court culture, which makes the final sense when he tells the story of Ladislaus, the Angevine rulers holy king, when he resurrected from his tomb in Várad to help Andrew Lackfi's troops. In the spirit of this the story becomes the series of reviews of troops, duals and individual deeds, which makes the work of the unknown Minorite special in medieval Hungarian literature.

The beginnings of church history

In the first half of the 14th century the interest in the past of certain church institutions began to grow. Around 1334 in Zagreb the statututes of chapters were compiled, headed with a chronicle telling history from the foundation of the chapter till 1354, as historical background. Where the chronicle mentions national events it summarises 14th-century chronicles. According to the Zagreb Chronicle in 1374 Emeric, the reading canon of Várad (1370-1376), put the same chronicle at the head of the statututes of the Várad chapters (Várad Chronicle), but he corrected the text of the Zagreb Chronicle (Chartularium capituli Varadiensis) in concert with one of the codices of the Buda Chronicle and supplemented that with the list of bishops of Várad. The latter text tells the events from the foundation in the age of St Ladislaus till 1354. The first part of both text survived in a broken form, and the second part consists of 22 chapters.

The Franciscans' interest in the history of their order was probably influenced by the effort of the strict branch of the order to verify their existence and viewpoint with the facts of the past. Balázs Szalkai, the eleventh vicar of the Bosnian order (1420-1433), which was founded in 1339, started to collect the material: he compiled the list of vicars and the documents of the order. The person who continued this work adopted the precedents of the foundation from the universal history of the order, then later he obtained data from the traditions of the order and other sources. From this work, which started with the event of 1313, we know that in the 1320s Hungarian Franciscans joined the dispute of Papacy and begging orders, and several of them wrote essays on whether it was heresy or not to preach about common property.

Religious literature

Sermon-literature

The Buda, Dubnic chronicles and John Thuróczy's chronicle preserved specially detailed and colourful descriptions about King Charles's death and funeral. In spite of the fact that the story was written down later, the author was undoubtedly a contemporary witness, whose introductory words were followed by the funeral farewell speech by Archbishop Csanád Telegdi. For the author this latter one gave the inspiration to compose his own thoughts. In addition to the fact that emotional impressions were replaced with rethoric pictures, the structure and chain of thoughts of the archbishop's speech and his method of reasoning shows a surprising relationship with those of the Funeral Oration and Prayer. The only reason for this could be that the structure of speech made over the dead body became a liturgic formula in Hungary from the early Middle Ages. The most popular genre among educated priests was necessarily the sermon, preaching, which made the clergy the transmitters of literature. The role of preaching priests in raising folk language to the level of literature was very significant. Although there were several reports about Hungarian authors who wrote sermons we have only a few relics.

Hagiography: the Gerald legend

In spite of the fact that the admiration of saint kings was booming at the court of the Angevine rulers, dealing with the biography of saints meant copying codices in the age of the Angevine dynasty, and only a few original works survived. Reliable data prove that near St Stephen's tomb, under the supervision of the canon of Székesfehérvár, in the royal treasury a special codex of the Hartvic-type St Stephen legend was kept, which was considered authentic throughout the whole country. This may be the reason why the Abbot of Pannonhalma sent the convent clerk to Székesfehérvár in 1349 to have a certain part of the Stephen legend copied into a charter at the credible place of the local chapter. This part was about the donation of the tithes of Somogy to Pannonhalma. When in the same year Louis ordered the chapter of Székesfehérvár to examine the St Stephen legend in the matter of the freedom of the Cracow castle villeins, the chapter answered that he could not perform this duty as Louis's father had the legend brought to Visegrád.

There certainly is some originality in the St Gerald legend, which was written at the end of the 14th century based on a 12th-century ancient text. The work called the Larger Legend summarised the early text, recomposed the text in many places, sometimes with smaller interpolations, and finally there was a supplementary part about Gerald's miracles. In the last chapter the unknown author describes that Queen Elisabeth, King Charles I's widower was cured by Gerald, so she had a decorated silver coffin made for Gerald's relics. Finally he noted down that Elisabeth died in 1381 (according to modern time in 1380) and she was buried in the Clarissan cloister of Buda, which she founded herself. Maybe it was Queen Elisabeth's admiration of Gerald and the demands of the court that encouraged the making of the new legend.

The story about how Hermit St Paul's relics were brought over to Hungary

At the start of the war with Venice Louis I promised that if he won he would have the relics of the denominative saint of the Pauline order brought over to Hungary. Finally in 1381 the king made peace with Venice, and in concert with the peace treaty he had the bones of St Paul, the Theban Hermit brought over to Buda. He had these placed to the central monastery of the Pauline order in Budaszentlőrinc in the midst of a bright celebration. On this occasion a literary work was written, entitled 'Historia de translatione Sancti Pauli Thebaei cognimento primi eremitatae', which told the story how the relics were brought over connected to the traditions of medieval hagiography which ordered the recording not only the biography of saints but also to keep their bones as evidence. The genre of this work of art was translatio, and it survived in Pauline breviaries.

This short historical work was made as the next part of St Jerome's St Paul biography. It consists of seven chapters, which tells the story how the relics were brought to Venice through Constantinople, it also tells of the king's promise and order of the peace treaty, and finally how Bálint Alsáni. Bishop of Pécs and Paul Hortáti, Bishop of Zagreb brought the relics home to Hungary and put them in their final place. The author must have belonged to the environment of the learned Bishop of Pécs. The world of thoughts in this short work shows the ideas connecting court culture with the early renaissance: it focuses on the desire to be famous and heroic, and the praise of the important and amiable (insignis et amoenissmius) natural environment. Its style can be characterised by chancellery type sequence of sentences, but we can find the desire for persuasion in each of its words (pulcher v. decorus stylus, affatus facundus).

Visionary literature

The folk-secular branch of religious literature. Visionary literature has left hardly any trace in Hungarian Latin literature. But it left its trace at places, where the visions of the Hungarians were noted down with the purpose of making it authentic. Since the 12th century the favourite place of pilgrims who were attracted to miraculous revelations was St Patrick's Irish purgatory, a sulphureous cave in the province of Ulster. Several Hungarian people visited this, but only two pilgrimages were recorded in contemporary literature: George (Krizsafán's son)'s pilgrimage in 1353 and Lawrence Tar's in 1411. An unknown Augustine author wrote about the visions of the pilgrim from the age of the Angevine rulers, and the royal clerk of Dublin recorded the revelations of King Sigismund's baron, who also included Lawrence Tar's own notes in his work.

Both visionary stories contain visions which seem to be original, but there are several ones, which might originate from the themes of the manual for visitors of hell, the 12th-century story of Knight Oenus. There is the evidence of Lawrence Tar's pilgrimage in literature other than the Dublin notes. In connection with Hungarian court epic we had already mentioned that at the beginning of the 15th century a Hungarian song about Master Lawrence's visions must have been born, but also there was a Latin song about him. The literary value of these examples of visionary literature is quite high: on the one hand the openness of genre offers a large scope to the authors imagination, the simple story becomes literature. On the other hand the personal voice of religious doubt in the stories prepared the way for a new world of ideas, called humanism, with its individual viewpoint.

Literary works: charters, letters, formula books

The 14-15th centuries was the period of the development of the practice of making charters. The different types of medieval charters have developed and the formulae of separate types became fixed and permanent. School books have had their effects on their style. Letters with private tones also appeared, and became the forerunners of modern private and missile letters. The material of relics became richer not only in quality but also in the social aspect. We can see noblemen writing their own letters (Benedict Himfi, Lawrence Tar) and the most typical figure of the age: the clerk [student], the secular literate man, who - in the possession of his knowledge - undertook forging charters, too (damned clerk John).

Jurisdiction became a wide-spread and permanent practice, and many relics survived, the content of which was built up in concert with the rules of making charters. The main institute of court literacy, the chancellery became rather official. At that time, vice-chancellor Tatamér had the identifications of the chancellery written on the charter itself so that responsibility could be identified, then the text was recorded in registers (later called royal books). During the 14th century the institute of chancellery was strongly differentiated, different matters were dealt at different departments. Besides credible places in the countryside the organisation of court literacy started to function: it was the royal chapel.

The new style of the chancellery can be examplified by the deeds of gift, which recorded the event when King Charles gave Felician Zách's estates away. This sentence also referred to his relatives and descendants through generations. The violence of crime and punishment was represented in the chronicles, too, but the objection of the court was echoed by narrations of charters for years. These charters did not emphasise the merits of the donor (their duty should have been this), but they described the wickedness of the assassin by applying a lot of rhetoric figures, interesting scenes and surprising turns. We can find the most dramatic description in the juristic document (proscription) of the assassin from the year 1330.

After the description of the hoplessness of the decade following the extinction of the Árpád dynasty, the composer of the charter contrasted it with the peace of the age of Charles - creating tension with this. Then he quickly started to write about the murderous attempt: Felician, possessed by the fox-like devil (vulpinae dolositatis astutia), the ill and impudent dog (morbidus et impudicus canis) - whose name is connected to 'pain' etymologically; he was also called or rather nicknamed unhappy (Infelicianus) - was not ashamed to satisfy his meanness by killing, and wanted to kill the whole royal family. Because of his deed he became hatred not only by the divine wife, but also by all the people of the Earth and Heaven. The punishment was inflicted on him by God's holy right.

Formula books helped to teach how to compose charters. These were made in the workshops of literacy in great numbers. There are 14 (charter) drafts in the codex which preserved the Gyulafehérvár lines, which were compiled by Franciscan monks around 1320 at Székesfehérvár. In this collection we can find complete charters in connection with the government of the order and preaching. The other relic survived in Bartholomew Tapolcai's codex, which contained university notes. The owner copied an unbroken collection of 34 pieces - the pieces of which were connected by the topic - into it around 1385, which was supposed the make judgement easier for the chief dean in cases of marriage.

Besides formula books there were rhetorical and law school books as well in Hungary. Between 1346-51, after his studies and being a dean at Bologne, the leader of the chapter school of Eger, reading canon John Uzsai compiled a course book with references to real legal cases. His aim was to help teach practical law, and this, of course, included the introduction to the art of writing. His Parisian type ars dictaminis, or rather ars notaria consisted of a prologue and four parts. It was actually used in the chapter of Eger in the next one hundred years. Besides the theoretical grammatical pieces of advice, which were based on the late antique grammatics of Donatus, it contains different formulae of charters, which included the most generally used charter types.

Poetry

Even though hagiography was poor in the 14th century, liturgic poetry was booming. There were hymns, sequences, rhyming prayers from this time proclaiming the glory of Hungarian saints. Unknown authors wrote sequences about the saints of the Árpád dynasty, which fitted the interest of the Angevine rulers: about Kings St Stephen and St Ladislaus, St Elisabeth, a hymn about King St Stephen, a rhyming prayer about Prince St Emeric. At the same time the canons of Esztergom composed an antiphony in a 14-line distichon in honour of the patron saint of their cathedral, St Adalbert. The monk authors strengthened the consciousness of connectedness of the order by their poem about the saints of the order. A Pauline author wrote a sequence about Hermit St Paul, and around 1300 a Dominican poet wrote the office of St Margaret.

The memory of the Leonine hexameter survived in John Thuróczy's chronicle. After the funeral farewell speech by Csanád Telegdi, before John Küküllei's chronicle there is a 15-line text written in hexameters about King Charles's death. It might have been written by a contemporary author, just like the prosaic farewell speech. Secular lyrics completed itself in Heinrich of Mügeln's poem about Hungarian history. All the parts (consisting of several verses) of the famous master singer's Rhyming Chronicle were different and specific in their verse form, and it was accompanied by an independent melody (which also survived). The poet noted when the melody and the verse were not his own, but adopted from a contemporary poet.

In the era when culture became rather secular, in some works of medieval poetry church critique also appeared. Around 1310 a Hungarian clergyman wrote a poem, entitled the 'Priests' lament' (Planctus clericorum), which described Hungarian fights for the throne, the Pope's intervention and the undeserved richness of Hungarian prelates with miserable words. The same collection from Styria preserved the other poem, the 'Rambling student's lament', which was written by another clergyman or clerk, which described the pityful life of learned students who did not get a job, and the rottenness of the world in sad verses. With these poems, with the strong voice of critique, medieval lyrics met the demands of the renaissance.