engleski

Authorities in conflict: canon law, lay power and episcopal appointments in the Zagreb bishopric 1433–1466

From 1433 to 1466 the Papal Curia was experiencing great difficulties in applying its canonical authority in the Zagreb Bishopric. Three appointments, two episcopal ones and one for the diocesan administrator, were all challenged by the Royal Court and the local magnates. They claimed to be the patrons of the diocese and promoted their own episcopal candidates or governed the bishopric by themselves for their own reason and interests. The claims of the royal house were based on the centuries-old tradition ; the king had always had a great influence on the episcopal appointments in the Hungarian-Croatian Kingdom. This political heritage was even more strengthened during the period of King Sigismund, whose reign was the role model for the Royal Court in its efforts to run the ecclesiastical affairs independently from the Papal Curia. The local magnate families, on the other hand, used the Ottoman threat at the Kingdom’s borders as an excuse for the fabrication of their own right of patronage. These conflicts led to a schism within the bishopric and the formation of parallel diocesan governments. In order to resolve them and enforce the canon law in practice, the Papal Curia initiated several investigations. This paper analyses the judicial procedures dealing with the disputes which arose after the episcopal appointments in the Zagreb Bishopric, as well as the activities of the involved papal legates, delegated judges and executors of papal bulls. The study of this case indicates to what extent the canon law could be effectively enforced regardless of the political power of the king and the local nobility. The paper specially emphasizes the propaganda and the strategies used by all the parties involved and attitudes which lay patrons and episcopal candidates had towards the regular canonical procedures regarding the appointments of bishops.

episcopal appointments; Zagreb bishopric; Hungarian-Croatian king; right of patronage; papal legates; judicial procedures

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