Berthold (, , ; c. 1182 – 23 May 1251) was the count of Andechs (as Berthold V) from 1204, the archbishop of Kalocsa from 1206 until 1218, and the patriarch of Aquileia from 1218 until his death.
Early life He was born around 1182, as a younger son of the Bavarian count Berthold IV of Andechs, who was elevated to a duke of Merania by Emperor Frederick Barbarossa in 1183. His mother was Agnes of Rochlitz, a member of the Saxon Wettin dynasty. Among his siblings were Duke Otto I of Merania, French queen Agnes, Hungarian queen Gertrude, and Saint Hedwig of Silesia.
Berthold, chosen for an ecclesiastical career, became provost at the cathedral chapter of the Archdiocese of Bamberg in 1203, due to the intercession and influence of his elder brother Ekbert, the local bishop. Berthold served in this capacity until 1205.
Archbishop of Kalocsa Controversial election Berthold followed his sister Gertrude to the Hungarian court under King Andrew II, who in the first half of 1206 had his brother-in-law nominated Archbishop of Kalocsa, succeeding John. The cathedral chapter elected him under the pressure of the Hungarian royal couple. Andrew II sent a letter to the Holy See in order to request the papal confirmation of his election. However, the appointment was not acknowledged by Pope Innocent III; according to his letter to King Andrew II in June 1206, the pope initiated an investigation on Berthold's age and education under the direction of Eberhard von Regensberg, Archbishop of Salzburg. The process revealed that Berthold may have been 25 years of age or slightly older and did not have an adequate education of canon law to become a suffragan. Consequently, Pope Innocent refused his election in April 1207, citing the violation of the canon of the Third Council of the Lateran. Upon the request of the king and the cathedral chapter (postulatio), however, the pope confirmed Berthold as Archbishop of Kalocsa in December 1207. The pope entrusted his papal legate Cardinal Gregorius de Crescentio to deal with the issue. Nevertheless, Berthold was styled as archbishop-elect until 1212. It is plausible he turned 30 that year, which was a condition for the election of a bishop, and Pope Innocent III sent his pallium shortly thereafter.
Following his confirmation, Berthold immediately left behind his archdiocese in order to study at the University of Vicenza. The pope was outraged at this decision. His letter to Andrew II in January 1209 says that Berthold caused public outrage, because – as a prelate – he studied among ordinary students exposing his incomplete knowledge and demonstrating his unworthiness for the archbishopric. According to the pope, the archiepiscopal see was in a more severe status than if it had been a sede vacante. Pope Innocent instructed Berthold to return to Kalocsa, where he can discreetly begin his theological studies, otherwise he threatened to deprive him of his office. In the same time, the pope rebuked King Andrew for misleading him with his "urgent requests" when, yielding to pressure, he appointed an uneducated man to be the "bishop of bishops" (i.e. archbishop).
Episcopal activity Shortly after his return to Hungary in 1209, Berthold followed the path of his predecessor, John, and questioned the primacy jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of Esztergom, considering his archiepiscopal see as coequal. Taking advantage of his royal family connections, he sought to extort concessions and privileges for himself within the church hierarchy in Hungary against John, who this time was a defender of the interests of Esztergom. In response to Berthold's attacks, Archbishop John requested Pope Innocent to confirm his dignity's right of the coronation of the Hungarian monarch in 1209. Nevertheless, Berthold achieved partial success; a proposal for the compromise settlement of the resurgence of the quarrel was made by a committee of bishops belonging to the two archdioceses, which was presented to the pope by bishops Robert of Veszprém and Peter of Győr in 1211. The proposal contained that the right of coronation should belong to the role of archbishop Esztergom, except in case of deliberate rejection, obstacle, deteriorated health condition or sede vacante, when the process must be performed by the archbishop of Kalocsa. The so-called "second coronations" (during festive events) must be celebrated jointly. In addition, the document attached the collection of tithe after the coinage to Esztergom, but John had to waive his all right (i.e. superintendence over the royal churches, abbeys and provostries, ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the royal officials) in the territory of the church province of Kalocsa, in accordance with the proposal. The theses of the document was promoted by Andrew II himself too. However Pope Innocent, upon the complaint of the cathedral chapter of Esztergom, refused to countersign the document on 12 February 1212, referring to its "harmful consequences" for the Kingdom of Hungary.
Berthold had important role in the settlement of the Teutonic Order to Transylvania in 1211. The area Burzenland (), granted to the Teutonic Order by Andrew II in that year, belonged to the Diocese of Transylvania, a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Kalocsa. Berthold considered the settlement of the knights along the Southern Carpathians would have been a defense factor for his ecclesiastical province, which contributes to the political strengthening of Kalocsa in the conflict of jurisdiction against Esztergom. Berthold also sought to establish a separate Roman Catholic diocese for the Transylvanian Saxons and to launch missions in order to convert the Cumans. In this endeavor, he attempted to transform the provostship of Szeben (present-day Sibiu, Romania), which was established around 1189 in order to represent the Transylvanian Saxons and was not subject of the Diocese of Transylvania, into a bishopric within the ecclesiastical authority of Kalocsa. However, Pope Innocent III refused this plan; the pope argued that step would violate the rights of the Bishop of Transylvania, which obviously means that the new bishopric would have united all the German churches in Transylvania and the provostship of Szeben, which would have been the basis of the planned bishopric, was under the spiritual jurisdiction of either the Apostolic See or the Archbishop of Esztergom.
Berthold possibly rebuilt the Kalocsa Cathedral into Gothic style on the model of French cathedrals with ambulatory. The walls of the existing 11th-century cathedral were not used in the walls of the new church. Based on the consistency reflected in the stone carvings from the new building, art historian Imre Takács envisioned a rapid, almost campaign-like construction, which may prove that the renovation of the cathedral can be linked to the contemporary church policy rivalry between archbishops John of Esztergom and Berthold of Kalocsa. Berthold judged over various lawsuits involving the possessions – Sala (present-day Diakovce, Slovakia) and Dinnye – of the Pannonhalma Abbey in the period between 1211 and 1214. He also acted as an arbiter in the lawsuit between Bishop Robert of Veszprém and Uros of Pannonhalma regarding the collection right of tithes in Somogy County.
Rise and fall As an unusual phenomenon in Hungary, Queen Gertrude applied for and received a share in the government system. Her favoritism towards her German entourage were aggrieved numerous Hungarian barons, who feared to permanently lose their court positions and influence. Berthold was the main beneficiary in this political situation. Despite his ecclesiastical career, he also held secular dignities, which was not a widespread practice in Hungary at that time. Replacing Bánk Bár-Kalán, Berthold served as Ban of Slavonia from 1209 to 1212. He was styled as "Dalmacie Croacieque dux" in this capacity in 1211. Thereafter, Berthold was made Voivode of Transylvania, serving from 1212 to 1213. He was also referred to as ispán of Bács and Bodrog counties in 1213. The influence of Berthold and his kinship shows, when provost Adolph was granted royal donation of lands upon the intercession of Gertrude and his brothers in 1209. It is plausible that Andrew II sent the provost to Altenburg to convince Otto IV, Holy Roman Emperor of the brothers' innocence in the case of the assassination of Philip of Swabia.
When Andrew II prepared a military campaign to Galicia–Volhynia, he appointed his wife Queen Gertrude and Berthold as regents in early September 1213 during his absence. Andrew's generosity towards his wife's German relatives and courtiers discontented the local lords. Berthold's undue preference at the instigation of his sister disgusted the Hungarian magnates. On 28 September 1213, while the king marched into Galicia–Volhynia, a group of lords led by Peter, son of Töre dared a raid into a queen's hunting camp in the Pilis Mountains and murdered Gertrude and several of her courtiers, while Berthold – who was physically abused by the rebels – narrowly escaped his life with Leopold VI of Austria, according to the interpretation of historian Gyula Pauler. Only the Galician–Volhynian Chronicle confirms Berthold's presence during the assassination. Despite the doubtful authenticity of the chronicle's report, historian Tamás Körmendi accepted the information on Berthold's presence, since a letter of Pope Innocent III to Archbishop John of Esztergom in January 1214 refers to the assault on Berthold. According to the pope's letter, during the rebellion many clergy and monks in the Archdiocese of Kalocsa suffered physical insult and material damage. Innocent instructed John to excommunicate the perpetrators. In addition, the pope also sent a letter to the "dukes of Poland" not to give any refuge to the perpetrators who might flee abroad. When Andrew II heard of Gertrude's murder, he returned to Hungary and ordered the execution of Peter, son of Töre. Upon the request of Andrew II, bishops Peter of Győr and Robert of Veszprém escorted the unpopular and endangered Berthold until the Austrian border in late 1213, protected by the episcopal armies of Győr and Veszprém. However, Berthold took with him the treasures of his late sister, worth a total of 7,000 marks, which aroused the wrath of Andrew II, who complained this to the pope and threatened to indemnify the royal treasury from the proceeds of the archdiocese. The case may have been settled soon, because Bertold was able to return to Hungary in the first half of 1214.
Although Berthold returned to Hungary in 1214, King Andrew II certainly learning from previous experiences, no longer gave him as much political influence or territorial power as before. Berthold confirmed a donation letter of Stephen I, Bishop of Zagreb in 1215. Along with Archbishop John and several Hungarian suffragans, Berthold participated in the Fourth Council of the Lateran in 1215. Returning Hungary, Berthold ordered a compulsory reading of the hagiography of Saint Stephen I of Hungary (written by Hartvik) in the churches of his archdiocese and his suffragans' sees with the pope's permission in the same year. Pope Honorius III, in 1216, confirmed Berthold's right to freely appoint rectors of those churches, which have no pastoral duties. The Hungarian monarch commissioned him to oversee the delivery of salt to the canons of Zagreb in Szeged in 1217. Before launching the Fifth Crusade, Andrew II entrusted his eldest son and heir Béla to Berthold in the first half of 1217. Berthold took his nephew, the 11-year-old Béla to Steyr in the Duchy of Austria. Other historians identified this castle with Stein ("Stahin") in the Holy Roman Empire (today Kamnik, Slovenia).
Patriarch of Aquileia Ghibelline prelate