Distancing or Breaking? The Relation of the Hungarian Hospitaller Priory to the Central Convent of the Order in the late Middle Ages: Hospitallers

Abstract

In the course of recent historiography it has been debated that the Hungarian-Slavonian Hospitaller priory became detached from the Order’s central convent in Rhodes by the late Middle Ages: local Hospitallers failed to pay the regular taxes and other dues, they disregarded the centrally appointed priors, and elected their superiors locally. More recently, it has even been suggested that the Hungarian-Slavonian priory, known as the Priory of Vrana, may have also broken away from the administrative structure of the Order. Based on international analogies of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the article argues that despite the loosening of the administrative burdens, the Hungarian-Slavonian priory remained an integral part of the Order of the Hospital. Several other priories and bailwicks of the Order showed similar features in the period under query. The author argues that the internal changes of the Hospital, inter alia, the growing independence of the bailiwicks forced the Convent to react: the intensity of visitation manifestly increased in the fifteenth century. On the other hand, one of the most serious constraints that retained the Hungarian priory in the Order was the exemption/privilege that functioned as a basis of the Order’s economy, which the local knights could not renounce.