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Stjepan Brodarić: Epistola ad Clementem VII (26 March 1526)

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Stjepan Brodarić, recently appointed chancellor of Hungary, wrote this letter to Pope Clement VII on 26 March 1526. He tells the pope that the kingdom is in the greatest danger and has no hope after God except in him, and begs him, for the love of Christ, to provide for its safety at once. For his own part, raised to his office chiefly by the pope’s favour and authority, he promises to do whatever his service can, small as it is, and mentions that his health, especially his eyes, is not good. Later he explains that he accepted a bishopric of little value and in a dangerous place not by choice but because of the chancellorship he holds.

The letter belongs to a series written by Brodarić to Clement VII, preserved in the Vatican archives of the Secretariat of State, which document Hungary’s desperate appeals for help in the months before Mohács. It shows Brodarić as the pope’s man at the Hungarian court, owing his promotion to papal support. His frank remarks about his bishopric of Srijem, on the Ottoman frontier, add a personal note to the political picture.

About this edition. The Latin text comes from Croatiae auctores Latini (CroALa), University of Zagreb (edition: Bessenyei József, Siječnja 2012), through Corpus Corporum (University of Zurich), licensed CC BY 4.0. Every word has been analyzed with LatinCy, a neural language model for Latin — click or tap any word for its dictionary form, part of speech, and complete morphology, together with the full entry from Lewis & Short’s A Latin Dictionary.

Latin · Letters
Epistola ad Clementem VII (26 March 1526)
Stjepan Brodarić · every word parsed
1
Segr. Stato, Principi, 4, f. 59.
Beatissime pater et domine clementissime! Post oscula pedum Sanctitatis Uestre beatorum et seruitutis mee humillimam commendationem.
Publica ex publicis cognoscet Uestra Beatitudo, hoc et ex publicis, et ex his meis: nos, si unquam alias, nunc maxime in extremo periculo uersare et nullam habere spem post Deum, nisi in Uestra Sanctitate. Uestra Sanctitas, per amorem Ihesu Christi, cuius uicarium agit, cogitet quamprimum de salute nostra et eam modis omnibus procuret. Ego, quod ad me attinet, ad hunc magistratum Uestrae potissimum Sanctitatis fauore et authoritate euectus nihil pretermittam, quod meis seruiciis prestari possit – quod quidem non ignoro, quam sit exiguum. Sed, qui fecit, quod potuit, legem impleuit. Ualetudo, presertim oculorum, non satis bene mihi obsequitur. Sed hanc quoque spero, Deus adiuuabit. Ceterum iam Uestra Sanctitas intellexit me cum cancellariatu episcopatum etiam Sirmiensem suscepisse, imo propter cancellariatum solum, id quod Uestram Sanctitatem ex literis domini baronis, non dubito, plenius intellexisse. Is, qui Sirmiensis erat, contentandus mihi fuit cum beneficiis cuiusdam amici Itali, Regiensis28, uiri docti, et qui alias a domino cardinale Estensi episcopatum Agriensis diu rexit. Is ipse optauit a me, et ego id ei fretus benignitate Sanctitatis Uestrae libere spopondi recompensationem29 aliquam a Uestra Sanctitate pro beneficiis ipsius impetraturum. Supplico Uestrae Sanctitati, domino meo clementissimo, dignetur ei dare aliquid loco beneficiorum ipsius, que ascendunt usque ad quingentos ducatos et amplius. Ipse non optat, nisi ducentos, uel etiam tanto minus, quantum 27 Subscriptio desideratur. 28 Hodie Reggio. 29 In originali: recompensam. Sanctitati Uestre uidebitur, uel in officiis, uel in beneficiis. Scio ego hanc petitionem meam paulo fortasse aliquibus inuerecundiorem uisum iri, quasi, qui post tot et tantos Uestrae Sanctitatis in me fauores, quos nunquam merui, talia etiam expetam, quae Uestrae Sanctitatis seruitoribus essent pocius permittenda. Non nego equidem id ita esse, sed Uestrae Sanctitatis benignitas pacietur, si credit me (prout supplico humilime, credere dignetur) episcopatum illum non magni alioquin momenti et in loco periculoso situm non uoluntate, sed ob hunc magistratum, quem gero, suscepisse, magistratum autem hunc non causa mea, sed spe boni publici difficilimis temporibus subiisse. Me in his, quae suscepi, ab eo rebus omnibus adiuuari, qui causas publicas tocius Christiane reipublice et maxime horum finium, qui reliquam Christianitatem tuentur, tueri etiam ex professo debet. Uestra Sanctitas, et hoc, quod nunc ab ea pro isto amico meo peto, et, si quid in posterum in me conferre uoluerit (in quo ego tamen non ero importunus), nihil supplico, conferat in me, unquam causa mea priuata, sed causa publica illo uno excepto, quod a Uestra Sanctitate, dum conclaue (in quo nutu Dei et for- tuna reipublice Christianae in pontificem electa est), ingrederetur, et quod rursus a Sanctitate Uestra iam pontifice petiui, excepto, quod cuiusmodi sit, credo, bene recordatur. Sed ad rem. Supplico Uestrae Sanctitati, dignetur in hac non magna re preces paruuli seruitoris benigne exaudire.
In cuius gratiam seruitutem meam humiliter commendo. Bude, XXUI Marcii, anno Domini MDXXUI. Iste amicus meus imo pro quo suplico appellatur Ioannes Bonzagnus Regiensis Iuris utriusque doctor30 Uestre Beatitudinis humilimus seruulus Stephanus Brodericus cancellarius
5
Annotatio: Pars datum subsequens ipso a Stephano Broderico scripta est.
30 Bonsagnum Hippolytus Estensis secum in Hungariam tulit. Iam anno 1512 in regno se continet, anno 1516 gubernator episcopatus Agriensis, anno 1528 legatus regis Hungariae apud Uenetos. Anno 1529 praepositus Uaradiensis, in testimonio Stephani Broderici eodem tempore dato ut olim episcopus Chanadiensis inuenitur.
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Text: Perseus Digital Library, licensed CC BY-SA. Dictionary: Lewis & Short (Perseus, CC BY-SA). Morphology: LatinCy — machine parsing, corrected against the AGDT & PROIEL treebanks and Morpheus.
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