Fedeles_Tamas_A_penz_utja

The fourteenth century brought decisive changes in the papacy’s financial policies and the closely related tax administration. Prelates’ appointment fees and taxes imposed on minor benefices became prevalent in the particular churches during the Avignon Papacy. These were supplemented by tithes collected from the local clergy and other revenues. During the pontificate of John XXII (1316– 1334), the highest level of financial administration, the Apostolic Camera, evolved into a well-organized central office that established and maintained a tax collection network spanning the entire Western Christendom. In the first decade of the fourteenth century, the jurisdiction of papal tax collectors operating in the Central European region included the territory of the Holy Roman Empire, as well as the Czech, Moravian, Polish regions, and the Carpathian Basin. The formation and eventual consolidation of tax collectoria was a lengthy process, during which the Czech, Moravian, Polish, and Hungarian territories merged into a unified East-Central European tithes collectorium. As a result of various transformations, between 1317 and 1337, the Kingdom of Hungary operated as an independent collectorium, and between 1338 and 1391, the joint collectorium also included the Kingdom of Poland. The money collected could be used or moved at various junctions. When necessary, the entire sum or a portion of it could be spent directly in the collectorium, for example, on purchases made for the Curia, or on the expenses of papal diplomats and messengers operating there. Alternatively, the collected taxes could be transported by papal legates and clerics traveling to the Roman Curia, or by the tax collectors themselves. However, the trading companies and banking houses, such as the firms of the Alberti, Spini, Medici, and Bardi—primarily of Tuscan origin—played an increasingly important role in delivering the monies to Avignon, and later to Rome. The study seeks answers to the following questions: How was the collection of taxes payable to the Holy See organized in the Carpathian Basin between the beginning of the fourteenth century and the mid-fifteenth century? Did the money transport have any regional characteristics? What routes were used to deliver the money? Which banking houses provided services to the Hungarian clergy?