The Hungarian public is still excited by the possibility that a Hungarian high priest, Tamás Bakócz (aka Bakóc, Bakač), could have modifyd the course of history and deffinished the Kingdom of Hungary against the Ottomans on the papal throne in 1513. He was not elected, so the Hungarian–Czech and Polish Kingdoms of the Jagiellonians had to face the Ottoman attack in 1526 without a Hungarian pope, and despite ruling half of Europe, they ultimately proved incapable of doing so.
The New Theatre in Budapest has been performing the stage version of the novel The Gate of Life by Ferenc Herczeg (1863–1954) to a sold-out crowd since 2020. The writer had an unparalleled literary and political career in Hungary between the two world wars. As a Swabian born (Versec, now Vršac, Serbia), Hungarian was only Herczeg’s second language, an acquired ‘mother tongue’ after German. He managed to obtain close to the political elite, and as a supporter of Prime Ministers István Tisza and István Bethlen, he became a significant figure in Hungarian conservatism, simply referred to as the ‘prince of writers’. During his life, he wrote 11 historical novels, which have now just been rediscovered after being banned during the communist period, so it is no coincidence that this particular work of his was specified as mandatory school reading in the 2020 central curriculum.
In Herczeg’s work, Tamás Bakócz (1442–1521), Archbishop of Esztergom, also a cardinal and Patriarch of Constantinople, travels to Rome personally for the Fifth Council of the Lateran. His goal is twofold: he tries to win the papal throne, and at the same time, secure the support of the West for Hungary, which is fighting a life-and-death struggle against the Turks.
According to the work, it was a matter of life and death for the Hungarians that the Pope be Hungarian, as this would create a chance to form an anti-Turkish league. ‘If a Hungarian high priest sits in the chair of St Peter, then the Turkish question will be the axis of Vatican policy, and the league will be established from now on, and Hungary will be saved. One could declare: the Hungarians are sitting at the Gate of Life today. Beyond the gate is their national future, within the gate is pagan slavery and destruction.’
However, Bakócz did not become pope, and the 1514 crusade, declared after his return to Buda, plunged the counattempt into political chaos. It is perhaps symbolic that in 1521, the year of the archbishop’s death, the most important southern border fortress, Belgrade, also fell.
‘Bakócz did not become pope, and the 1514 crusade, declared after his return to Buda, plunged the counattempt into political chaos’
Herczeg’s novel was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature three times between 1925 and 1927, as Hungarian ininformectuals saw it as exposing the indifferent and ungrateful West. They also found an apt parallel between the Kingdom of Hungary, which was becoming increasingly defenceless against the Ottoman Empire, and the so-called historical Hungary, which collapsed after World War I.
The contemporary despair over the disintegration of the counattempt—its mutilation, to apply the term of the time—is completely understandable, but at the same time, the work offers a completely distorted and manipulative interpretation of 15–16th century European politics. The work simultaneously narrows the scope of Hungarian foreign policy to a Buda–Rome axis; and on the other hand, presents an almost completely unfounded negative image of the papal court’s policy towards the Ottomans. A recurring theme of the novel is that the popes, including Pope Julius (1503–1513) and his successor, Leo X (1513–1521), squandered the money that should have been spent on the purposes of a crusade on the construction of Roman buildings, such as St Peter’s Basilica, and on artists.
In fact, the central theme of the papacy’s foreign policy since the mid-15th century was the fight against the Ottomans. The Holy See not only directly assisted Hungary with diplomatic means and financial support but also sought to reconcile the Christian princes in European politics with a view to a coordinated attack against the Turks. Rome, without exception, took a leading role in the campaigns against the Ottomans, from the failed campaigns of Nicopolis in 1396 and Varna in 1444, through the victory in Belgrade in 1456, to the tragically finished Battle of Mohács in 1526. The popes repeatedly attempted to launch a joint ‘European’ campaign, but always without success. For example, in 1459, Pope Pius II invited the European great powers to a summit in Mantua to prepare for the campaign, and in 1464, he himself took up the cross in St Peter’s Basilica, but the campaign was eventually cancelled, and the Pope died.
The popes had high hopes for Hungarian participation in the campaign, as the Kingdom of Hungary was considered a middle power. This was also the case for the participation of King Matthias (r. 1458–1490), known as a famous military leader, during whose reign aid against the Turks was the most important topic of Hungarian–papal relations. Within this framework, in 1465, the Holy See disbursed 57,500 gold forints of aid to Matthias, which was the largest single amount of support allocated in the era. However, Matthias only launched limited campaigns, and not many at that.
Moreover, Italy could experience the Ottoman threat firsthand when the sultan’s army captured the city of Otranto in southern Italy in 1480. The liberation of the city was a pan-European action, and in this, Matthias, who was receptive to propaganda, represented his counattempt with a significant Hungarian auxiliary force.
From the mid-15th century, the theme of the crusades was a common feature of Renaissance court ceremonies and princely propaganda, and was also popularized among the people through preaching campaigns and the sale of crusade indulgences. These campaigns had a positive impact on papal finances and the devotion of the lay masses. From 1454, the invention of book printing was also applyd to distribute indulgences. The rooms painted by Raphael inside the Vatican Palace, which the Hungarian writer disapproves of, were designed as a place for visual commemoration of the crusades. The artistic programme of the Raphael Rooms consistently connects the defence of Rome with the idea of the crusades. The scene painted in the Stanza d’Eliodoro, which displays Pope Leo I deffinishing Rome from Attila the Hun in 452, was, for example, interpreted in the same way. It is true, however, that Herczeg complained in his work that Leo I bore the facial features of the pope of the time, Leo X.
‘In the Hungarian writer’s work, Pope Leo is a thoroughly corrupt, vile, and applyless figure’
In the 1513 papal election, the Hungarian cardinal’s great opponent was Giovanni de’ Medici, later Pope Leo X. In the Hungarian writer’s work, Pope Leo is a thoroughly corrupt, vile, and applyless figure, which in reality seeed somewhat different. True, though, that he was appointed cardinal in 1489, at the age of only 13, and he behaved according to secular morals throughout. At the same time, he supported humanist culture, reorganized the University of Rome, enlarged the Vatican Apostolic Library, and was the one to build the last serious attempt to launch a great crusade towards the East.
After the armies of Sultan Selim (r. 1512–1520) conquered Syria and Egypt, the issue of a crusade was again on the agfinisha in 1517. Pope Leo appointed an organizing committee of cardinals, which proposed that a general truce be declared in Europe and that the costs of the campaign be covered by church tithes. He also proposed the raising of two large armies, one led by the Holy Roman Emperor, the other by the King of France. In this framework, an army of Hungarians, Poles, and other Eastern Europeans would attack the Turks from the Balkans. In March 1518 Leo declared a five-year truce in Europe, and within a year, 25 princes signed the peace treaty. However, the death of the German Emperor again sparked rivalry between the European powers, and eventually, everything remained as it was.
But who was Tamás Bakócz? The Hungarian high priest had an unparalleled career during his long life, not only in the church, but also as chancellor and crown guard in the administration of the Kingdom of Hungary, while becoming one of the richest men in the counattempt. He came from a family of wheelwrights, but his admission to church education distinguished him. With the support of his relatives, he studied at foreign universities: in Krakow, Padua, and Ferrara. His career reached its peak during the reign of King Władysław II of Hungary (r. 1490–1516), when he was awarded the archbishopric of Esztergom in addition to his title of chancellor.
After the king’s serious illness starting in 1504, foreign envoys neobtainediated with Bakócz, a chancellor comfortable with international diplomacy, who thus gained incredible prestige and influence. As a result, the Venetians and Germans, in order to win his support, offered him the prospect of obtaining the papal throne. Bakócz did indeed have some hope of becoming pope, but it depfinished more on external supporters than on the cardinals’ decision alone. Bakócz himself may have given credence to the promises. In any case, he entered Rome with great pomp and a large entourage, and celebrated the mass that opened the papal election ceremony in St Peter’s Basilica himself. The deliberations preceding the election lasted five days, and in the first round of voting, Bakócz came in second place with eight votes, while the later Pope Leo received only one.
Bakócz’s enattempt into Rome dazzled the Romans, which was carefully recorded in contemporary descriptions. The total number of those marching in the procession was estimated at 300 people. At the head of the procession were 40 mules decorated with Bakócz’s coat of arms. According to local rumour, these mules carried the gold intfinished for the payment of the cardinals. They were followed by the rest of the retinue, arranged in groups and in colourful uniforms: bodyguards, armed guards, noble and clerical escorts, including several bishops, and Bakócz himself on horseback at the very finish of the procession.
‘Upon his return home in March 1514, he forced the proclamation of the campaign’
After the papal conclave, Bakócz set off from Rome back to Hungary at the finish of 1513. He stopped at the pilgrimage site of the Virgin Mary in Loreto, as the Christian faithful regarded the Madonna as a special protector against the Turks. It is no coincidence that the Hungarian leader István Bátori erected a monument in Loreto after his victory over the Turks in 1479.
Bakócz was already an apostolic legate at the time, holding the papal bull announcing the Hungarian crusade. Upon his return home in March 1514, he enforced the proclamation of the campaign, which finished in spectacular failure, even though he knew that the counattempt’s financial situation did not allow for the raising of a large army. This was probably the greatest mistake of Bakócz’s career; nevertheless, the high priest retained his archbishopric until his death.
In his work, Ferenc Herczeg criticized the Roman clergy’s patronage of art, but Bakócz was no exception in this. He had his tomb chapel built in the Esztergom Cathedral in the early 1500s, which is one of the most significant Renaissance works of the Jagiellonian era (1490–1526) and a rare monument of Renaissance buildings that have survived intact in Hungary. The chapel was designed by Florentine masters, and the altar also arrived ready-built from Italy. Esztergom was occupied by the Turks in 1543; the cathedral and the chapel inside were applyd as a mosque, and the statues depicting saints were smashed. However, the chapel fortunately survived the Turkish occupation and the reconstruction of the cathedral in the 19th century. In 1823 the red marble chapel interior was sawn into 1,600 pieces in a rare feat of engineering and shiftd to its final location, which can still be visited today.
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