BAKÓCZ, TAMÁS

BAKÓCZ, TAMÁS. - Cardinal, Primate of Hungary, Archbishop of Strigonia, b. in 1442 at Erdd of a serf, d. at Strigonia in 1521. A brother of his, a parish priest, had him study first in his homeland and then at Ferrara and Padua, where he obtained the title of doctor. Returning to Hungary, he became secretary to the bishop of Agria, the Italian Gabriele Rangoni; then, on account of his humanistic learning, he entered the good graces of King Matthias, who appointed him first his secretary and then his counsellor. In 1490 he was raised to the rank of chancellor by Ladislaus II. Taking advantage of the illness and weakness of this king, B. was the true ruler of the country, so much so that Venetian ambassadors at Buda called him, in their reports, “the second king of the land.” He was one of the greatest statesmen of his time, and Venice, the emperor, and almost all the European sovereigns contended for his support. His greatest diplomatic victory was to reconcile the emperor with the Pope and Venice for the purpose of fighting the Turks. In 1492 B. obtained the bishopric of Agria; in 1498 he persuaded Ippolito d’Este to exchange with him the archbishopric of Strigonia, primatial see of Hungary. In 1500, through the intervention of Venice, he was made a cardinal, and in 1507 patriarch of Constantinople. He was the only Hungarian cardinal ever to be seriously papabile: a man of great ability and high ambitions, in the conclave held after the death of Julius II he was one of the most dangerous opponents of Giovanni de’ Medici, because of his ability, his wealth, and the support given him by the Venetian Republic. Leo X appointed him legate for all north-eastern 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 it degenerated into an uprising of Hungarian peasants against the magnates. With the death of Ladislaus II the influence of B. came to an end once and for all.