GRAN
722
ORAN
creased, so that it was reduced to one hundred at the
beginning of the seventeenth century. Under the
great Peter Pazmany, the zealous opponent of Protes-
tantism, conditions were improved, and after his death
there were 1S5 parishes. To-day the number is given
as 480, and the total number of clergy in the archdio-
cese 92.3, of whom 729 are occupied with the cure of
souls. There are 5 seminaries for the training of
priests, the central seminary at Budapest, that of
Gran, the Pazmaneum at Vienna, and the preparatory
seminaries at Presburg and Tyrnau. There is also an
archiepiscopal gymnasium connected with the Tyrnau
seminary. The students number about 2(32. There
are in the archdiocese 134 religious houses of men and
women, whose members number collectively 2487.
In the three vicariates of the archdiocese (1909) there
are 1,480,531 Catholics, and 1,057,282 members of
other creeds.
The already existing See of Gran was raised to met-
On account of the part played by its archbishops,
the history of the Archdiocese of Gran is closely con-
nected with that of Hungary. Up to the sixteenth
century the archbishop resided at Gran, but when the
Turks overran Hungary after the battle of Mohc-lcs, in
which the primate, Ladislaus Szdlkiln (1524-26), was
slain, Paul Vardai (1527-49) removed the seat to Pres-
burg, and when Gran also fell into the hands of the
Turks, to Tyrnau, which remained the seat of the
archdiocese until 1820. This period is one of the sad-
dest epochs in the history of the see. Ecclesiastical
discipline became relaxed, and notwithstanding the
efforts of Nikolaus Olah (1553-68), Protestantism
gained more and more territory. After the death of
Anton Veranotius (1569-73), the episcopal see re-
mained vacant for twenty-three years. It was the
greatest of all the archbishops of Gran, Peter Paz-
many ( 1616-37), who stemmed the decline of Catholi-
cism in Gran. He succeeded in reconciling with the
ropolitan rank by St. Stephen (c. 1000-38), first King
of Hungary, who converted the country to the Catho-
lic Faith and organized the Church there. He chose
for the metropolitan see Gran, at that time the richest
and most important city in Hungary and the royal
residence. St. Adalbert, Bishop of Prague and mar-
tyr, was chosen patron of the archidocese. It was
Adalbert who converted the royal family to the Catho-
lic Church and evangelized the country. The metro-
politan church of Gran is dedicated to him, the titular
patron being the Blessed Virgin. The first cathedral
was begun by St. Stephen in 998. The foundation
stone of the present building was laid by Alexander
von Rudnay (archbishop 1819-31), and it was finished
under Johann Simor (1866-92). In 1198 the royal
palace at Gran was given to the archbishop for his resi-
dence. The first archbishop was Astericus Anastasius
(Astrik-Anastaz) (990-c. 1036), who was the most
loyal co-operator of King Stephen in organizing Catho-
lic Hungary, and who was sent by .Stephen to Rome to
beg papal approval for the organizatiim of the Church
in Hungary, and to ask for (lie crown. It was also
Astericus who, in the year 1000, crowned Stephen as
first King of Hungary with the crown sent by Pope
Sylvester II.
Primate. Gran
Church many influential families of Hungary, and
thus brought about the ecclesiastical reorganization of
the country. A pulpit orator of distinction, he earned
imperishable fame by his cultivation of the Hungarian
language and won a lasting place in the history of
Hungarian literature. For the advancement of the
Catholic religion and the promotion of learning, he
founded at Vienna the Pazmaneum, a seminary for
the training of priests. The University of Tyrnau
was also founded by him, but was transferred to Budat
(Ofen) by Maria Theresa. In 1891 Klaudius Vaszary
was appointed archbishop.
In virtue of his dignity as Primate of Hungary, the Archbishop of Gran possesses a number of extraordi- nary privileges. Johann von Kanizsai (1387-1418) was the first to be mentioned as Primate of Hungary, though the primacy was connected with the Archdio- cese of Gran as early as 1279. The primate is entitled to hold national synods, is Legatus Natus of the Holy Roman Church, has therefore the right, inside of his legation, to have the cross carried before him, and deals directly with the Holy See. As primate he has the right to visit the episcopal sees and the religious houses in Hungary, with the exception of the exempt Archabbey of Pannonhalma (S. Martinus in Monte
