Garázda Péter – A Collector of Benefices as Political Victim?

Abstract

Péter Garázda is an emblematic figure of the history of Hungarian humanism: his case has generally been used as an excellent illustration of king Matthias’s autocratic policies. Garázda, who was born sometime in the early 1450s, started both his ecclesiastical and poetical career under the guidance of János „Vitéz” of Zredna and Janus Pannonius. He went to Italy at a young age in 1465, and studied at the universities of Florence and Padova, although he obtained no degree. But after a splendid start his career was allegedly broken by the conspiration organised by his mentor, archbishop Vitéz against king Matthias, whereupon he too, as a member of the prelates’s circle, would have been given a cold shoulder after his return from Italy in 1473. Not only was his church career halted, but he also had to dispense with his humanist activities. As a slight recompense, after the death of Matthias he could once again visit Italy, and would have obtained the provostship of the collegiate chapter of Saint Stephen the Protomartyr at Esztergom (a hypothesis based on his tombstone that was found there). He is thought to have died in 1507. During his research into the history of the cathedral chapter of Esztergom, the author of the present study has come accross some sources which contradict the picture that has been traditionally formed about the life of Péter Garázda. On the basis of this new information it can be stated that the conspiration led by archbishop Vitéz had no consequences for the church career of Garázda; indeed, after his return from Italy in 1473 new benefices were added to his provostship of Pozsega and canonical prebend at Pécs. From 1474 he was archdeacon of Nyitra and thus a canon of Esztergom, and for some ten years, beginning in the erly 1470s, he also held the lectorship in the chapter of Pécs. Thus, he held at least four ecclesiastical benefices simultaneously. Moreover, he received them from archbishop John Beckensloer, the most determined adversary of Vitéz and Janus Pannonius. On the other hand, his holding the lesser provostship at Esztergom is certainly pure fiction, as from the period concerned we have a continuous list of incumbents. The surviving evidence shows that he did not return to Italy after the death of Matthias, for he too died sometime before the summer of 1492. It can thus be concluded that, far from being a victim of political oppression, Péter Garázda can rarther serve as a classic example of the benefice-collecting clerics.