Councils of Esztergom in the 19-20. century

XI. Pope Pius also urged the decision of the Great Episcopal Conference in Vienna in 1849 to hold councils, so Prince Primate János Scitovszky (1849-1866) decided to convene a provincial council. The council opened on September 19, 1858, with the participation of 69 people, and lasted until October 3. His most important decision was about the church, which essentially foreshadowed the teaching of the First Vatican Council about the pope. Scitovszky's intention was to put the decisions of the provincial synod into the diocesan synod. This Synod was held on July 24-28, 1860. 102 people attended and passed 51 decisions. As the Ecclesiastical Code, published in 1917, required the holding of diocesan councils, Cardinal Justinian Serédi (1927-1945) complied. However, he had to postpone the planned and already prepared council from 1939 to 1941. Another diocesan council, held on November 11-12, 1941, with the participation of 97 church members, followed exactly the structure and schedule of the code. The volume traces the preparation, course and afterlife of these three councils in Esztergom. The partially preserved documents were collected and analyzed by Gábor Adriányi, an external member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and a senior researcher of the program, within the framework of the OTKA NK 83799 research program.