BAKÓCZ, TAMÁS

BAKÓCZ, TAMÁS. — Cardinal, primate of Hungary, archbishop of Strigonia, b. in 1442 at Erdőd to a serf, d. at Strigonia in 1521. One of his brothers, a parish priest, had him study first in his homeland and then at Ferrara and Padua, where he obtained a doctorate. Upon returning to Hungary, he became secretary to the bishop of Agria, the Italian Gabriele Rangoni; then, owing to his humanistic culture, he won the favor of King Mattia, who appointed him first his secretary and then his counselor. In 1490 he was elevated to the rank of chancellor by Ladislao II. Taking advantage of this king’s illness and weakness, B. became the true ruler of the country, so much so that the Venetian ambassadors in Buda called him, in their reports, “the second king of the Country.” He was one of the greatest statesmen of his time, and Venice, the emperor, and almost all the European sovereigns vied for his support. His greatest diplomatic victory was to reconcile the emperor with the Pope and Venice in order to combat the Turks. In 1492 B. obtained the bishopric of Agria; in 1498 he persuaded Ippolito d’Este to exchange the archbishopric of Strigonia, primatial see of Hungary, with him. In 1500, through the intervention of Venice, he was appointed cardinal, and in 1507 patriarch of Constantinople. He was the only Hungarian cardinal ever to be seriously considered for the papacy: an able man of great ambition, in the Conclave held after the death of Giulio II he was one of Giovanni de’ Medici’s most dangerous adversaries, owing to his ability, his wealth, and the support given him by the Serenissima. Leone X appointed him legate for all northeastern Europe and, by a bull, authorized him to begin preparations for a crusade against the Turks. The crusade was indeed proclaimed on 16 April 1514, but degenerated into an uprising of Hungarian peasants against the magnates. With the death of Ladislao II, B.’s influence definitively declined.