John Hont-Pázmány (; died September–October 1301) was a prelate in the Kingdom of Hungary at the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries. He was Archbishop of Kalocsa between 1278 and 1301. In this capacity, he closely cooperated with fellow Archbishop Lodomer in order to restore royal authority over the kingdom. After Lodomer's death, John became head of the royal council from 1298 to 1301, initiating profound constitutional changes in the parliamentary system. He crowned Wenceslaus, one of the pretenders to Hungary, king in 1301, provoking the wrath of the Holy See.
Family John was born into the Forgács branch of the wealthy and prestigious gens (clan) Hont-Pázmány around 1240.Engel: Genealógia (Genus Hontpázmány 6., Forgács branch) The ancestors of the kindred, Swabian knights Hont and Pázmány arrived to the Principality of Hungary in the late 10th century, according to the chronicle of John's contemporary Simon of Kéza. John's father was Andrew, who erected castles near Turóc and Gímes (present-day Kláštor pod Znievom and Jelenec in Slovakia, respectively) following the First Mongol invasion of Hungary. He was a faithful confidant of Béla IV, then Stephen V. Andrew served as count of the tárnoks (financial officials) from 1249 to 1256, and ispán of Bánya (Árkibánya) ispánate on several occasions, which laid in the territory of Nyitra County. John's mother was Maria Nánabeszter.
John had several siblings, who also rose to prominence during the last decades of the 13th century. Thomas functioned as Judge royal (1291–1293), then Master of the horse (1293), and was considered a strong ally of his brother John in the royal advisory council. Andrew and Ivánka were skilled soldiers and served faithfully King Andrew III in his campaigns against the oligarchs. Both of them were killed in battles against the powerful rebellious lord Matthew Csák. Through his elder son, Andrew was ancestor of the Forgács (or Forgách) noble family, which still exists and provided several magnates for the Hungarian elite in the following centuries. John's another brother was Nicholas, who was mentioned between 1295 and 1297. He also had two sisters, Yolanda and an unidentified one, who married Atyócs of Zólyom and Peter Szikszói, respectively. John owned Rimóca (present-day Lehota nad Rimavicou, Slovakia) and was involved in a lawsuit over an intermediate land with his distant kin comes Nicholas, who owned the neighboring Kecege (today Kociha, Slovakia) in 1298.
Early career It is plausible that John attended the University of Bologna, where obtained a degree of doctor of canon law (). He was styled as "magister" throughout his ecclesiastical career. When he returned to Hungary, his ecclesiastical career ascended quickly into the highest dignities. He functioned as a royal chaplain in the court of Stephen V from 1270 to 1272. He retained his position following the ascension of Ladislaus IV to the Hungarian throne. Beside his office in the royal court, John also served as archdeacon of Gömör in the Archdiocese of Esztergom between 1273 and 1274. He was granted the villages Újlak and Özdöge (present-day Veľké Zálužie and Mojzesovo in Slovakia, respectively) for his faithful service by Ladislaus IV in October 1273. The young monarch also donated a land called Harsány in Nyitra County to John for the same reason in July 1274.
John became count (head) of the royal chapel () by August 1276. Beside that, he also functioned as archdeacon of Nyitra (Nitra) during that time. In that year, he and his brothers were granted the village of Nemcsics, which laid near their castle of Gímes. According to the charter of Ladislaus IV, the Hont-Pázmány brothers successfully defended the fortress during the wars with the Kingdom of Bohemia. According to a document with doubtful credit, John served as vice-chancellor of the royal court and provost of Buda in August 1277. He succeeded Benedict in the latter dignity. He was also a member of the cathedral chapter of Esztergom. He sold some portions from his land in Ilmér (later Ürmény, present-day Mojmírovce, Slovakia), belonging to Szolgagyőr (Galgóc) ispánate, and entrusted his bailiff, a certain comes Egidius to define and draw new boundaries. John participated in the national diet of prelates, barons and noblemen in May 1277, when the young monarch Ladislaus IV was declared to be of age. Thereafter, when Ladislaus IV confirmed his political alliance with Rudolf I of Germany against Ottokar II of Bohemia in July 1277, John was a member of that Hungarian diplomatic mission, which was sent to Vienna. By the next year, in the summer of 1278, John was styled as vice-chancellor and provost-elect of Székesfehérvár, succeeding Thomas. Both Ladislaus IV and the collegiate chapter of Székesfehérvár petitioned to the Roman Curia to request the confirmation of John's election. Rudolf also wrote a letter to Pope Nicholas III, in which he expressed to support the case.
Archbishop of Kalocsa The Cuman question Before his confirmation as provost of Székesfehérvár, John was elected as Archbishop of Kalocsa sometime around October 1278. He succeeded Stephen Báncsa in that dignity, who died in the summer of that year. John was also styled as chancellor of the royal court between November 1278 and March 1279. John was first referred to as archbishop-elect on 14 November, when transcribed and confirmed the privileges of the hospes (foreigner) gold miners of Rimaszombat (today Rimavská Sobota, Slovakia), who belonged under the suzerainty of the Archdiocese of Kalocsa despite the great distance. Around the same time with John's election, Pope Nicholas sent Philip, Bishop of Fermo, to Hungary to help Ladislaus IV restore royal power and to arrange a number of Church irregularities in Hungary. The papal legate arrived in the kingdom in early 1279. The pope instructed Philip on 13 June 1279 to investigate the circumstances and regularity of John's election. On the same day, the papal legate appointed Lodomer as Archbishop of Esztergom on behalf of Pope Nicholas. In the midst of an escalating situation between the Holy See and the Hungarian royal court, the election in the Archdiocese of Kalocsa remained a marginal issue, as a result, the investigation process and the subsequent papal confirmation of John's election were delayed for years; he was still referred to as archbishop-elect throughout the years 1279 and 1280 too.
The arrival of papal legate Philip deepened the turmoil in Hungary. Initially, with the legate's mediation, Ladislaus IV concluded a peace treaty with the Kőszegis. Bishop Philip soon realized, however, that most Cumans were still pagans in Hungary. He 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. An assembly held at Tétény passed laws which, in accordance with the legate's demand, prescribed that the Cumans should leave their tents and live "in houses attached to the ground". The national diet also authorized John Hont-Pázmány and four other bishops, whose dioceses were inhabited by a significant number of Cuman tribes, to visit and baptize the Cumans, to liberate Hungarian prisoners and to examine the noble lands surrounded by the tribes. Following that the papal legate convened a synod in Buda on 14 September 1279, where the two archbishops, Lodomer and John, along with their suffragans attended.
The Cumans did not obey the laws, however, and Ladislaus IV, himself a half-Cuman, failed to force them. In retaliation, Philip of Fermo excommunicated him and placed Hungary under interdict in October. Ladislaus joined the Cumans and appealed to the Holy See, but Pope Nicholas III refused to absolve him. The policy of the papal legate, who had no regard for local political conditions, forced the Hungarian prelates to decide between the Hungarian monarch and the Roman Curia. Under such circumstances, Archbishop John was dismissed as royal chancellor sometime after March 1279. Following Ladislaus' step, when the Cumans seized and imprisoned Philip of Fermo in early January 1280, the prelates, who expressed "the liberty of the Church", turned against the royal power, and became his relentless opponents. Soon, Ladislaus was also captured. In less than two months, both the legate and the king were set free and Ladislaus took a new oath to enforce the "Cuman laws". This resulted a series of rebellions by the Cumans, who also pillaged and plundered the territory of the Archbishopric of Kalocsa, especially the area of Baja, whose inhabitants fled to the church of the Hájszentlőrinc Chapter. In the following years the archbishopric became a location of acts of war, when Ladislaus launched military campaigns against the rebellious Cumans.
Bishop Philip of Fermo left Hungary in the summer of 1281. Before his departure, he finally confirmed John's election, which occurred two and a half years earlier. Pope Martin IV already styled John as simply archbishop on 18 June 1282. In this letter, the pope ordered John to consecrate Thomas, the provost of Vasvár, who was elected Bishop of Várad. Before that, papal legate Philip refused to confirm the election, because Thomas was not ordained to the priesthood despite the decrees of the Second Council of Lyon. The cathedral chapter argued the decree applied only to the provosts dealing with pastoral care. Pope Martin accepted the argument and instructed Thomas' superior John to consecrate him.
Lodomer's ally Since 1279, Lodomer and John Hont-Pázmány worked closely together in order to restore strong royal power, which was utterly weakened during the reign of Ladislaus IV. John actively supported his colleague in all efforts against the monarch. When Pope Nicholas IV proclaimed a crusade against Ladislaus and the Cumans at the turn of 1288 and 1289, John began to gather an army against his pagan subjects in the territory of the Archdiocese of Kalocsa. Around the same time, Duke Albert I of Austria launched a massive royal campaign against the Kőszegi family along the western border of Hungary, capturing dozens of castles. Ladislaus did not oppose the conquest because of the Kőszegis' continuous anti-royal uprisings. Four prelates, Lodomer, John, Andrew, Bishop of Győr and Benedict Rád, Bishop of Veszprém sent a letter to the monarch to change his way of life and behavior because the people will turn against him, according to the contemporary Steirische Reimchronik ("Styrian Rhyming Chronicle"). With the consent of Lodomer (and plausibly John), the Kőszegis offered the crown to the king's distant relative Andrew the Venetian, who arrived to Hungary in early 1290. Soon, Ladislaus was assassinated by three Cumans in July 1290.