Lucas (; 1120 – 1181), also known as Luke, was a Hungarian prelate and diplomat in the 12th century. He was Bishop of Eger between 1156 and 1158, and Archbishop of Esztergom from 1158 until his death in 1181.
Lucas is believed to have come from a wealthy and influential family, but sources are uncertain of his origin. He was one of the first students of the University of Paris. When he returned to Hungary, his ecclesiastical career ascended quickly into the highest dignities. As a confidant of Géza II in his last years, Lucas had a significant impact on the country's foreign policy and diplomatic processes. Lucas was a staunch supporter of Stephen III during the struggles in the Árpád dynasty following Géza II's death, where Stephen III's reign was contested by his two uncles. The archbishop opposed both the intervention efforts of the Byzantine Empire and the Holy Roman Empire. Lucas had an ambivalent relationship with Stephen's brother and successor Béla III. The strict and uncompromising nature of his extremist Gregorianism challenged and weakened his partnership and alliance with the Holy See in the last decade of his archiepiscopal tenure, which coincided with the pontificate of Pope Alexander III.
Ancestry Lucas is said to have been born to a wealthy and illustrious noble family in the early 1120s, but his origin is uncertain and undetermined. His brother was Apa (or Appa), a powerful lord in the royal court of Géza II of Hungary. Apa came into prominence after the fall of Beloš, and served as the ispán of Bodrog County in 1156 and then as the Ban of Slavonia from around 1157 to 1158. According to an inauthentic charter he was also Judge royal in 1158.
From the 18th century onwards, several historians and genealogists attempted to connect Lucas and his brother Apa to various notable genera (clans) in the Kingdom of Hungary. András Lehotzky and Iván Nagy proposed that Lucas was a member of the Bánfi (Bánffy; lit. "son of a ban") de Alsólendva family, originating from the Hahót clan, while other historians proposed he descended from the Bánfi (Bánffy) branches of the Tomaj and Gutkeled clans. Nándor Knauz called him "Lucas Bánffy de Alsó Lindva de genere Guthkeled" in his work, the Monumenta ecclesiae Strigoniensis (1874), whose proposal is faulty. Aside from surnames being anachronisms for the time, the Felsőlendvais were the ones who originated from the Gutkeled clan (and there is no such "Bánffy de Felsőlendva" kinship) instead of the Bánffys de Alsólendva. Both families adopted their surname in the 14th century after their distinguished members, Nicholas Gutkeled and Nicholas Hahót respectively, bore the title of ban. Historian Ubul Kállay rejected the aforementioned theories and argued Apa and Lucas were the sons of Alexius, a Ban of Slavonia during the reign of Stephen II of Hungary. Therefore, Kállay referred to Lucas with the surname "Bánfi" anachronistically and theorised he was a member of the Gutkeled clan and brother of Martin Gutkeled, who erected the Benedictine abbey of Csatár. Later academic works and historians – including Gyula Pauler, Bálint Hóman, Gyula Kristó and Ferenc Makk – refer to him as simply "Archbishop Lucas".
Education and early career
From around 1150 to 1156, Lucas studied at the University of Paris, where he was a student of Gerard la Pucelle, a scholar of canon law and later the Bishop of Coventry. He was one of the first Hungarians who attended a foreign university and the first known Hungarian alumnus of the newly established University of Paris. He acquired a high degree in church law and earned the respect of the other students there. Lucas could be the first Hungarian cleric who became familiar with Decretum Gratiani, an early-mid 12th century collection of canon law compiled as a legal textbook. Among his fellow pupils was supposedly English chronicler Walter Map (Gualterius Mappus), who recalled Lucas in his only surviving work De nugis curialium. He described Lucas as a highly educated man and a gracious Christian; he stated that Lucas unselfishly shared his goods and meals with his fellow students. Map added that Lucas had his own accommodation and personnel within the university (supporting his upper-class origins) and gladly made donations. However, Map (born around 1140) was definitely younger than Lucas and attended the school a decade later in the 1160s, suggesting that he heard the anecdote secondhand.
As a student, Lucas established productive relationships with English scholars and clerics like John of Salisbury. In the following decades, John of Salisbury and Walter Map became acquainted with Thomas Becket, a significant and powerful prelate in 12th-century England. Historian György Györffy compared their careers and found several similarities between the pro-papal activities of Lucas and Thomas Becket in the upcoming decades. According to Györffy, they did not know each other personally (Thomas Becket was a secretary of Theobald of Bec by the time Lucas resided in Paris), but they knew about each other through mutual acquaintances and used similar ecclesiastical tools to defend their interests against the secular royal power. As Map narrated in his anecdote about Lucas, Hugh of le Mans, Bishop of Acre informed him about Lucas' later encounters with the warring Árpád dynasty of Hungary, which Becket learned through Map.
When he returned to Hungary, Lucas was elected Bishop of Eger in 1156. He was still referred to as bishop-elect throughout in 1156 until March 1157. When Gervasius, Bishop of Győr interceded with Géza II to grant the right to collect salt to the Archdiocese of Esztergom at Nána and Kakat (present-day Štúrovo, Slovakia), he was addressed as bishop during his act as witness to the document. His election was confirmed by Pope Adrian IV in the previous weeks. Due to a lack of sources, there is no record of Lucas' activity or function as the Bishop of Eger; his name only appears in the list of dignitaries of the various royal charters issued by Géza II. In 1157 political unrest occurred in Hungary; chronicler Rahewin records that King Géza II's youngest brother, Stephen, began conspiring with their ambitious uncle, Beloš, and other lords against the monarch. Géza II expelled his rebellious brother and sentenced him to death, while Beloš lost his influence over the royal court and fled Hungary in the latter half of the year. His departure resulted in Apa's political ascent to the position of Ban of Slavonia in late 1157. It is plausible Apa supported the growth of Lucas' ecclesiastical career and had a role in his brother's return to Hungary. After their failed rebellion, Géza II's two brothers, Ladislaus and Stephen sought refuge in the Byzantine Empire by 1160, where they found shelter in the court of Emperor Manuel I Komnenos at Constantinople.
Archbishop of Esztergom Influence over Géza II
Martyrius, Archbishop of Esztergom died in the spring of 1158 and was soon succeeded by Lucas. Apa and Lucas became the strongest proponents of Géza II during his last regnal years and respectively held the most distinguished secular and ecclesiastical dignities. When the king made a donation in favor of the Cathedral of Saint Domnius and its archbishop Gaudius twice in 1158, the brothers only appeared in his accompaniment by name. Lucas' sympathized with the reformist wing in the Roman Curia, which also affected Géza II's foreign policies in the following years. He was dubbed as the "representative of extreme Gregorianism" in Hungary by later scholars. As theologian József Török expressed, Lucas "vigilantly guarded the interests of the legitimate Pope [Alexander III] and the Church" during his first years as archbishop. He was one of the first Hungarian prelates who thought on a whole European and Christian universalist scale and integrated into the contemporary mainstream school of clerical theology. Literary historian János Győry suggested that Lucas sympathized with the heretic movements prevalent in the region – Albigensians, Patarenes and Bogomils, but the majority of scholars do not share this fringe theory.
Initially, Géza II supported the efforts of Frederick Barbarossa against the pro-papal Italian communes (that were later known collectively as the Lombard League), and even sent Hungarian auxiliary troops to accompany the Holy Roman Emperor to Italy between 1158 and 1160. Barbarossa forced the Italian towns to surrender in September 1158. However, Milan and Crema openly rebelled against the emperor's rule after the Diet of Roncaglia ordered the restoration of imperial rights. Géza II sent his envoys to Barbarossa's camp and promised to dispatch further reinforcements against the rebellious towns. The death of Pope Adrian IV on 1 September 1159 divided the college of the cardinals: the majority of the cardinals opposed Barbarossa while a minority supported him. The first group elected Alexander III as pope, but Barbarossa's supporters chose Victor IV instead. Barbarossa convened a synod to Pavia to end the schism. Géza II sent his envoys to the church council where Victor IV was declared the lawful pope in February 1160. However, Archbishop-elect Lucas remained loyal to Alexander III and persuaded Géza II to start negotiations with Alexander III's representatives. Géza II switched allegiances after most of the other European monarchs joined Alexander III. Géza II's envoys announced his decision to Alexander III in early 1161, but he only informed the emperor of his recognition of Alexander III in the autumn of the same year. A letter from Lucas to his ally, Eberhard, Archbishop of Salzburg, who was the leading pro-Alexander figure in the Holy Roman Empire, revealed his influence carried significant weight with Géza II when he changed the direction of his foreign policy. Lucas presented the case as if he alone had been responsible for Géza II's recognition of Pope Alexander, as he wrote "I have managed through appeals to cause our Lord the King and our whole church to accept Alexander". Several historians – including Gyula Pauler and József Gerics – accepted the letter's contents and considered Lucas' significant role in negotiating with the pro-Barbarossa envoy, Bishop Daniel of Prague in 1161 at Easter before Daniel's official meeting with Géza II. However, Ferenc Makk notes there is no other source which emphasises Lucas' role in the events beside his own letter.
Géza II and Pope Alexander III's envoy, papal legate Pietro di Miso signed a concordat in the summer of 1161 that Lucas mediated. It guaranteed that Géza II would not depose or transfer prelates without the consent of the Holy See, the Holy See could not send papal legates to Hungary without the king's permission, and Hungarian prelates were only allowed to appeal to the Holy See with the king's consent. Pope Alexander, who was fully aware of Lucas' allegiance and foreign policy activities, showed his appreciation by sending Lucas the archiepiscopal pallium in July 1161, confirming that Lucas' election occurred three years earlier. According to a decretal of Pope Alexander III issued in 1167 or 1168, when the papal legate, cardinal Pietro di Miso was sent to Hungary to hand over the pallium to Lucas, the archbishop's brother "Alban" (most scholars identified him with Apa) provided a horse for the legate when Pietro and his escort entered the Hungarian border via Dalmatia across the Adriatic Sea. The letter stated that Archbishop Lucas worried this step could be seen as simony in the Roman Curia. Pope Alexander reassured the prelate with Biblical phrases and warned Lucas not to disturb him with trivial matters. The decretal, which later became part of Decretales Gregorii IX (or Liber extra), reflects Lucas' rigid individuality, excessive strictness, and extreme Gregorian views which characterized his reign as Archbishop of Esztergom.