apostolic kingdom, church tithe, advowson

St Stephen
Harvesting
King Stephen and Queen Gisela
apostolic kingdom

Bishop Hartvic historically approved the rights of his king to intervene in church governing - which was opposed by Gregorian papacy - in his work, the St Stephen legend. He based his theory on the fiction, according to which King Stephen received a crown from the Pope as a reward of his converting activity with the privilege that he could organise and govern the Hungarian church on "both rights" (that is divine and wordly) at his own discretion. As an outer sign of his privileges and apostolic activities the Pope sent a double cross to the ruler, who was veryr ambitious in his converting work. In the 12th century the Hungarian rulers legal claim for apostolic ministery - in the possession of which they could prevent the direct assertion of the interests of the Holy See in the questions of inner power in the country - was based on Hartvic's theory. Pope Ince III approved the text of Hartvic's legend only after eliminating the expression of "both rights", as an official reading in King Stephen's office. In 1238 Béla IV also raised his claims for the rights of his dynasty-founding predecessors, but neither he nor any of his successors gained the papal approval of this during the Middle Ages. In spite of this, the theory that the Hungarian ruler was an apostolic king, survived till modern times. This was presented to Maria Theresa by the Pope - though without any rights - only in the 18th century.

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church tithe

It was a tax in land products under the name of tithe or tenth - after its Latin name. In accordance with the church rule based on the Old Testament, wich was amde compulsory first at the synod in year 585, people had to give one tenth of their land products and incomes to the church. The most important source of income of the church, however, was approved by secular power only in the late Middle Ages. In Hungary St Stephen's law declared that paying tithe was compulsory, and the 1092 synod of Szabolcs reulated the method payment in detail. In spite of this at the end of the 12th century the Archbishop of Esztergom had a question to the Pope enquiring what they should impose tax on. The Golden Bull of 1222 regulated paying tithe; instead of paying in land products, it preferred paying in minted coins. From the incomes of the king only the Archbishop of Esztergom and the bishops got tithe. Secular estate owners and later noblemen did not pay tithe, only those had to pay it who cultivated their lands themselves.

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advowson

At the beginning of the 12th century the proprietary rights of the owners of churches (concerning a church institution)were divided into honourable rights by the creators of canon law. According to these the founders of churches, temples...etc. had their special places in the church (usually on the chorus), they could be buried in the church, they could raise a memorial tablet with their name on it, their names were mentioned during the mass, they could influence the bishop in appointing the successor to the place of a dead priest, and in case of impoverishment they could raise their claims for material support from the incomes of the church. Bigger rights required bigger duties: the advowees were obliged to defend the church, and support it financially, guarantee the continuity of services in it and tidy up the church building. In reality advowson rights did not differ from proprietary rights. The secular or ecclesiastical land owner's advowees related to the church or church institution on his land. The king's so-called main advowson right related to all church institutions which did not belong to any private advowees in the country, but this was not acknowledged by canon law. The privileged settlers or settlements often received the right for free election of the priest, in this case the advowee of the church was the town and the representatives of the town authority. After introducing the advowee the priest was approved by the Archbishop of Esztergom in churches belonging to royal advowson, and in churches belonging to private advowees the priest was approved by the county bishop or the prelate of the monastic order. Advowson was transferable, but Hungarian clans did not share it when they divided their properties, they practised this right by turns.

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