A FRIAR-BISHOP IN THE EPISCOPAL SEAT OF TRANSYLVANIA
A FRIAR-BISHOP IN THE EPISCOPAL SEAT OF TRANSYLVANIA

Summary/Abstract: Focused on the election of the bishop of Transylvania at the beginning of the fourteenth century, this study aims to present the circumstances in which friar Benedict, member of the Dominican Order, reached the episcopal seat of the Transylvanian diocese. However, in order to acquire this position, the first mendicant bishop of Transylvania had to file a litigation that claimed time, money, and numerous trips. Taking into account the ecclesiastical electoral practice from the turn of the thirteeenth-fourteenth centuries, as well as the regulations of canon law, the present study will also try to identify the political factors that influenced the election and ordination of friar Benedict. Since the occupation of the episcopal seat of Transylvania also had repercurssions on the strengthening of the central power, held to a greater or lesser extent by King Carol I of Anjou, a process in which the Holy See was also actively involved by sending the papal legate Gentilis, the study will try to explore the factors that ultimately led to Benedict’s acquisition of the most important ecclesiastical office in medieval Transylvania. Finally, the study proposes a brief presentation of the career of Benedict, the Dominican who became a bishop, the role he played in the recovery of the Holy Crown from Voivode Ladislau Kán, and the activity carried out for over a decade as bishop of Transylvania.

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