Cuman laws
The Cuman laws were two provisions, issued on 23 June 1279 and 5 or 10 August 1279, regulating the social status and lifestyle of the Cumans, a nomadic people in the 13th-century Kingdom of Hungary.
Since the mid-13th century, the Cumans were a significant element of the Hungarian military organization, but their lifestyle and pagan religion gave rise to numerous conflicts with the majority Christian society. The half-Cuman monarch Ladislaus IV could not restore royal power in Hungary amid a civil war between rival baronial factions. A papal legate, Philip, bishop of Fermo, came to Hungary to help Ladislaus consolidate his authority, but the prelate was shocked at the presence of thousands of pagan Cumans in Hungary. Under his supervision, the Diet of Hungary adopted the Cuman laws in the summer of 1279. The authenticity of the second document is questioned by some historians.
Ladislaus IV hesitated to enforce the law, which only increased the tension. Ladislaus promised that he would force them to adopt a Christian lifestyle, but they refused to obey the legate's demands. Ladislaus decided to support the Cumans, for which Philip of Fermo excommunicated him. The Cumans imprisoned the legate, and the legate's partisans captured Ladislaus. In early 1280, Ladislaus agreed to persuade the Cumans to submit to the legate, but many Cumans preferred to leave Hungary. Ladislaus vanquished a Cuman army that invaded Hungary in 1282. Their defeat marked the beginning of the "feudalization" of the Cuman subjects to the political, social and cultural structure of majority society, which lasted throughout the 14th century.
Background
The Cumans, a Turkic nomadic people from Central Asia, first appeared in East-Central Europe in the middle of the 11th century. In the midst of imminent danger of the Mongol invasion, the first Cumans settled in the Kingdom of Hungary, after King Béla IV of Hungary offered refuge to Khan Köten and his people in 1239. The king's decision caused social, economic and political tension and the settlement of masses of nomadic Cumans in the plains along the river Tisza gave rise to many conflicts between them and the local villagers. When the Mongols reached the border and invaded Hungary in the spring of 1241, several Hungarians accused Köten and their Cumans of cooperating with the enemy. The Cumans left Hungary amid plunder, after an angry mob massacred Köten and his retinue in Pest. With their departure Béla lost his most valuable allies and the Mongols decisively defeated his royal army in the Battle of Mohi on 11 April 1241. Following the withdrawal of the Mongols in the next year, Béla invited the Cumans to return and settle in the depopulated plains between the rivers Danube and Tisza, in return for their military service. He even arranged the engagement of his firstborn son, Stephen, who was crowned king-junior in or before 1246, to Elizabeth, a daughter of a Cuman chieftain.The issue of the social integration of the Cumans had marginalized in the following decades. Their military value became a significant portion within the Hungarian royal army, which also contributed to the formation of the light cavalry structure. Cumans participated in military campaigns abroad, for instance during the fights against the Duchy of Austria and the Kingdom of Bohemia. In the civil war between King Béla IV and his son Stephen, both sides tried to gain Cuman support. During this conflict, in 1264, Béla sent Cuman troops to fight his son Stephen, despite that the Cumans officially belonged to the suzerainty of the latter, who had taken the title of "Dominus Cumanorum". After Stephen's victory in the civil war, significant number of Cumans intended to leave Hungary amid looting and plunder, however, they were important militarily to the royal authority. Around April 1266, Stephen successfully persuaded them to remain in Hungary, when launched a punitive expedition against them.
After the death of Stephen V in 1272, the 10-year-old Ladislaus IV ascended the Hungarian throne under the regency of his mother Elizabeth the Cuman, but in fact, baronial parties administered the kingdom. Hungary fell into feudal anarchy, when various groups fought for supreme power. Between 1277 and 1279, Ladislaus, who was declared to be of age, has temporarily succeeded in domestic and foreign policy.
Papal initiative
appointed Philip of Fermo as papal legate with "full jurisdiction" to Hungary and its adjacent territories, Poland, Dalmatia, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Galicia–Volhynia and Cumania on 22 September 1278. Despite Philip was not a member of the College of Cardinals, he was granted the rank legatus a latere, consequently he was the "alter ego" of the pope and thus possessed full plenipotentiary powers. This reflects the importance that the pope attached to the legation. As a result of his rank legatus a latere, Philip was mandated to donate church benefice; he could appoint his clergy as canons in any chapter; he was authorized to grant indulgence; he could also enforce the imposition of his measures with censure, in addition to lifting those punishments. Immediately after his appointment, Philip became de facto head of the Catholic Church in Hungary and was able to convene and preside provincial and national synods. He also acted as the supreme appeals forum for church litigation cases. The pope marked his chief duty in assisting King Ladislaus IV of Hungary to consolidate his authority and restore royal power, in addition to defend the rights and freedoms of ecclesiastical institutions against tyrannical secular lords. Philip was also instructed to strive to enforce canon law in Hungary and the neighboring countries. Beyond that, one of his main tasks was to settle the situation of the Archdiocese of Esztergom, which had been sede vacante for 7 years.The timing of sending the papal legate to Hungary can be traced back to uncertain reasons. Although, the kingdom fell into feudal anarchy in 1272, when the minor Ladislaus was crowned king, and in the following years baronial groups fought for supreme power which also affected serious damage to ecclesiastical property, by the time Philip was appointed, Ladislaus IV had achieved significant results in the field of political consolidation: after he was declared to be of age in May 1277, he successfully eliminated the dominion of the Geregye clan, while forcing the powerful Kőszegi family to retreat temporarily. Simultaneously, the joint German–Hungarian army decisively defeated the Bohemians and killed the archenemy King Ottokar II of Bohemia at the Battle on the Marchfeld in August 1278. The 14th-century Illuminated Chronicle emphasizes that Philip came into Hungary specifically due to Ladislaus's non-Christian habits and mores, but there is no trace of this in contemporary sources before the legate's arrival, so the chronicle pointed out this reason retrospectively. Historian Jenő Szűcs argued the papal documents containing the appointment also do not mention any objectionable behavior of the king. Jenő Szűcs and Attila Zsoldos considered the Holy See revived those Gregorian aspirations, which claimed Hungary was a papal fief as Saint Stephen "received the governance and crown" from the Pope in the 11th century, as papal legate Philip declared, when he opened the national synod in Buda. Based on Ottokar aus der Gaal's Steirische Reimchronik, historian Viktória Kovács considered the appointment of a papal legate could have been preceded by a request in Hungary. Presumably, some members of the country's ecclesiastical and secular elite were dissatisfied with the king's consolidation efforts and did not trust the monarch. Bruno von Schauenburg, the Bishop of Olomouc in 1272 already informed Pope Gregory on the "dangerous situation" of Christianity in Hungary, for which he made the Cumans primarily responsible. According to a near-contemporary Austrian chronicle, the Continuatio Vindobonensis, Philip was sent to Hungary not just to convert the Cumans but to "recall the Christian Hungarians, who had nearly forgotten the Christian life to the Catholic faith".
First law
Shortly after his arrival to Hungary, papal legate Philip was shocked at the presence of thousands of pagan Cumans in the kingdom. Thereafter, Philip marked as his main political-diplomatic task in persuading King Ladislaus IV to withdraw support from the Cumans and in converting them into Christianity. Cumans were important militarily to the royal authority and political stability: disturbing the cause of the Cumans in this way was neither timely nor desirable, as the impatient and violent action of the papal legate in order to convert the Cumans to Christianity and end their nomadic traditions threatened this strategic alliance. On 23 June 1279, Philip convened an assembly to Buda with the participation of the monarch, barons and prelates of the realm, and the Cumans' two chieftains, Usuk and Tolon. During the meeting, the papal legate extracted a ceremonious promise from the Cuman chieftains of giving up their pagan customs, and persuaded the young King Ladislaus to swear an oath to enforce the keeping of the Cuman chieftains' promise. The monarch vowed to settle the Cumans to permanent settlements, to end their violence against Christians, and to return the church and secular estates occupied by the Cumans to their owners.Some historians considered the 23 June 1279 regulations as the First Cuman Law, while others – e.g. Jenő Szűcs – argued it contained only a "draft" or the legate's dictations for the only Cuman law, a second text as the only binding law issued on 5 or 10 August 1279. András Pálóczi Horváth referred to the August regulations as the Second Cuman Law. In contrast, Nora Berend argued the first text is the only authentic binding law. A pro-Ladislaus prelate, vice-chancellor Nicholas Kán formulated the document itself. Taking hostages from all seven Cuman tribes ensured the success of the preparation of the first Cuman law. The articles also prescribed sending papal commissioners to verify compliance with the provisions of the law.
In the final formula of the charter, the monarch promised to confirm and issue the provisions made so far and to be made at the next diet in the form of a ceremonial privilege. The earliest document which preserved the text of the first law is found in the Vatican Apostolic Archive, because, in 1339, Pope Benedict XII entrusted Johannes de Amelio, the archdeacon of Fréjus, to make copies of the documents to be inserted into the papal archives, which were then located in the monastery of Assisi, and then transport them to Avignon.