Pécs

Who holds it

Name

Kalán, of the Bár-Kalán kindred

Title

Bishop of Pécs

Since

1186

Confidence

high

Born 1150-55 to the Bár-Kalán kindred, with family land in Baranya and round Esztergom. Béla III made him governor of Croatia and Dalmatia in 1193-94, the first Hungarian prelate to hold a secular office alongside his see, and he wears the pallium by special privilege, like an archbishop. His cathedral is finished about 1200. He is suing the abbot of Földvár before the pope, denying the abbey's exemption from his jurisdiction.

In 1203 Emeric accuses him of an affair with his niece (never proved); in 1204-05 the Esztergom canons elect him archbishop but Innocent rejects him. Dies late 1218.

What it holds

• Pécs: lordship of the town and its cathedral castle
• The see's estates in Baranya and beyond (not drawn)

How it was acquired

St Stephen founded the see in 1009.

How things stand that morning

Held. Kalán is in neither brother's camp on the record; Emeric turns on him in 1203.

Wealth

Town dues and markets; the see's estates.

Threats

• Royal suspicion
• The Földvár lawsuit at Rome

Advocates and rivals

The townsmen; the Benedictines of Földvár, whose exemption he contests; the king, who comes to distrust him.

Places of note

• Pécs cathedral: Finished about 1200

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Kalán's career is from Wikipedia; the bishop's town lordship is from Wikipedia's article on Pécs, which does not date it. The campaign notes' account of the Földvár quarrel (charters seized, abbot imprisoned) goes beyond the sources read but does not contradict them.

On the map: A disc for the town only; the see's estates are not drawn.

Primary sources for Hungary

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• Chronicle of Alberic of Trois-Fontaines, Alberic of Trois-Fontaines (about 1227 to 1241, at the Cistercian abbey of Trois-Fontaines in Champagne). The widest net of any Latin chronicle for 1200, compiled from dozens of sources, many now lost. Read online
• The Austrian and Salzburg annals (kept in the 12th and 13th centuries, with continuations to the late 13th century). A family of monastic annals from Austria, Styria and Salzburg, printed together. Read online
• The Hypatian Chronicle (the Kievan Chronicle compiled about 1200 at the Vydubichi monastery; the Galician-Volhynian Chronicle in the 13th century). The southern record. Read online
• History of the bishops of Salona and Split, by Thomas the Archdeacon, Thomas of Split (about 1266). Written two generations later by a Split churchman born about 1200. Read online
• History of the doges of Venice (about 1229, with a continuation). The earliest surviving Venetian narrative close to the events. Read online
• The Deeds of the Hungarians, by the Anonymous Notary of King Béla, Anonymus (P. magister) (about 1200 to 1210, the date disputed). Not a record of events but a picture of the kingdom's nobility and geography as a courtier of about 1200 wished to see it: the clans and their lands, the castles and counties, the Vlachs, Cumans and other peoples of the Carpathian basin, all projected back onto the conquest. Read online
• The Book of Census of the Roman Church, Cencius Camerarius (Cencio Savelli, later Pope Honorius III) (1192, with later additions). The papal rent roll: every church, monastery, town and kingdom that owed a census to Rome in 1192, diocese by diocese, with the sums, followed by lists of papal lands and castles, the ceremonial Ordo and copies of charters. Read online
• The Registers of Pope Innocent III for 1199 to 1201, Innocent III and the papal chancery (22 February 1199 to 21 February 1201). The pope's outgoing letters for the year, in his chancery's own copy, touching nearly every realm in the atlas. Read online

4 more in the sources library for Poland, Hungary and the Adriatic.