TAMÁS FEDELES: Do all roads lead to Rome? Ordination of Hungarian clerics in the Roman Curia (1426–1523) (CVH I/25), Budapest – Rome 2025 (363 p. + 20 map supplement)
Among those who visited the Eternal City, there were occasionally individuals—either arriving independently or in small or larger groups—who sought to receive various degrees of holy orders within the Roman Curia, or to advance matters related to their ecclesiastical promotion. This phenomenon—aptly termed "ordination tourism" (turismo delle ordinazioni) by international scholarship—gained particular prominence from the fifteenth century onward.
This naturally gives rise to numerous important questions: Who undertook the arduous journey to Rome, and for what reasons? What prerequisites were imposed on those seeking ordination? What were the specific components of the Roman ordination process? Which social strata within the clergy were represented among those ordained in the Curia? What proportion of the clerics arriving in Rome held benefices in the Kingdom of Hungary? From which parts of the Carpathian Basin did these ordinands originate, and in what distribution? To what extent did the geographical distance from Rome affect the willingness to travel? Were these journeys influenced by domestic and international political developments? Is there evidence of any correlation between ordination tourism and the Reformation?
This newly published volume, addressing a longstanding gap in the scholarly literature, seeks to answer these and other compelling questions. It is based on the sources presented by the author in his 2021 documentary collection (CVH I/18), supplemented by additional materials from the Vatican and Hungarian archives, and enriched by the results of previous research in the field.
Drawing on data concerning approximately 800 Hungarian clerics—most of whom were previously unknown—the author seeks to clarify a range of issues. An interdisciplinary research methodology is employed, integrating approaches from ecclesiastical and liturgical history, archival studies, palaeography, historical and cultural history, geography, as well as political and social history.
The work significantly expands the corpus of Hungarian diplomatics and enhances our understanding of the subject with new findings. Moreover, it is closely aligned with current trends in European church and social history, and thus represents a major contribution not only within Hungary but also more broadly within Central and East-Central Europe.