Considerations Regarding the Intellectual Background of the Bishops
of Oradea in the Middle Ages up to the Year 1526

Abstract:

The present study aims at proving the fact that the bishops of the dioceses in Eastern Medieval Hungary were men of notable culture acquired in the great European universities of the time. The knowledge they mastered was of scholastic and humanist nature, two specific tendencies of that epoch. The fact that some of the prelates had undertaken academic studies was to be a catalyst of their social and ecclesiastic ascension, which culminated with the promotion to the bishopric. Up to 1526, there existed 11 bishops of Oradea with academic studies (mentioning that three bishops headed both Oradea and Alba Iulia episcopal. The attended universities were in the Italian Peninsula, especially Bologna and Padua. This situation accounts for the relative closeness to Rome, the religious centre of the Catholic world, as well as to the specialization in canon law of the Italian universities, the fame of these academic institutions, to the strong bounds between the Italian territory and the Hungarian one, especially during the times of Matthias Corvinus. It is important to consider that the academic studies of the ecclesiastical personalities countedas a major factor of their religious and secular ascension. Many of the bishops were notable humanists, contributing decisively to the outspread of the Renaissance ideas and spirit throughout Hungary and Transylvania. The activity of the academically educated bishops placed the ecclesiastic life of Hungary in the European pattern of the epoch.

Keywords:

Oradea, bishop, university, diocese, Humanism