Chama, also Sayna or Chemma ( or ''Soma''; died between 1171 and 1176), was a Hungarian prelate in the twelfth century. He was successively
Bishop of Eger from 1158 to around 1166, then
Archbishop of Kalocsa between around 1169 and 1171.
Early career
There are several uncertainties regarding his life and career. He succeeded
Lucas in the position of Bishop of Eger. In this capacity, his name first appears chronologically in a document without the exact date. Accordingly,
Géza II ordered
Ded of Vác and Chama of Eger to rededicate the Szentjobb Abbey (present-day
Sâniob in Romania) with the consent of Archbishop Lucas. Consequently, the narration occurred sometime between 1158 (Lucas' ascension to the see of Esztergom) and 1162 (the death of Géza II). The aforementioned document was issued by Géza's son and successor
Stephen III of Hungary, who narrated in his charter that the Benedictine monastery of Szentjobb was attacked and plundered by the sons of a certain "
Palatine
A palatine or palatinus (Latin; : ''palatini''; cf. derivative spellings below) is a high-level official attached to imperial or royal courts in Europe since Roman Empire, Roman times. Paul" thereafter. As a result, Archbishop Lucas
excommunicated
Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to deprive, suspend, or limit membership in a religious community or to restrict certain rights within it, in particular those of being in communion with other members of the con ...
them. The charter was later transcribed by both
Béla III of Hungary and
Charles I of Hungary
Charles I, also known as Charles Robert (; ; ; 128816 July 1342), was King of Hungary and Croatia in the union with Hungary, Croatia from 1308 to his death. He was a member of the Capetian House of Anjou and the only son of Charles Martel of A ...
and preserved until the 18th century. Its text was published and annotated by Croatian historian
Baltazar Adam Krčelić
Baltazar Adam Krčelić (5 February 1715 – 29 March 1778) was a Croatian historian, theologian and lawyer. After Vitezović, he was the most prominent figure in the Croatian cultural life of the time. Biography
He was born in Šenkovec near Za ...
in his work ''Historiarum cathedralis ecclesiae Zagrabiensis partis primae tomus I'', and it is the only surviving text form as the original charter is lost. Historian Tamás Körmendi questioned the validity of the issuance, which suffers from 18th-century misinterpretations, explanations, anachronisms and factual errors made by plausibly Krčelić, thus the authenticity of the original lost royal charter is also uncertain. Chama was also mentioned as Bishop of Eger by two unquestionably authentic contemporary documents, issued in 1165 and October 1166 (he was called Chemma in the latter royal charter).
Archbishop
Sometime between 1166 and 1169, Chama was transferred to the archiepiscopal see of Kalocsa, succeeding
Mikó, who last appeared in this capacity in 1165. Following the end of the
Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...
intervention, which characterized the first years of Stephen III's reign, a Hungarian army invaded
Dalmatia
Dalmatia (; ; ) is a historical region located in modern-day Croatia and Montenegro, on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea. Through time it formed part of several historical states, most notably the Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Croatia (925 ...
and
Syrmia
Syrmia (Ekavian sh-Latn-Cyrl, Srem, Срем, separator=" / " or Ijekavian sh-Latn-Cyrl, Srijem, Сријем, label=none, separator=" / ") is a region of the southern Pannonian Plain, which lies between the Danube and Sava rivers. It is div ...
around early 1167 in order to recapture those lands from
Emperor
The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...
Manuel. Chama was among those prelates, who escorted Stephen III in his military campaign to Dalmatia. He acted as a witness, when the Hungarian monarch confirmed the privileges of
Šibenik
Šibenik (), historically known as Sebenico (), is a historic town in Croatia, located in central Dalmatia, where the river Krka (Croatia), Krka flows into the Adriatic Sea. Šibenik is one of the oldest Croatia, Croatian self-governing cities ...
in 1169 (or still 1167), proving that the town accepted Hungarian suzerainty after the invasion. He again functioned in this capacity in that year (according to others, it occurred in 1171), when Stephen III concluded a
concordat
A concordat () is a convention between the Holy See and a sovereign state that defines the relationship between the Catholic Church and the state in matters that concern both,René Metz, ''What is Canon Law?'' (New York: Hawthorn Books, 1960 with the
with the Holy See, renouncing the control of the appointment of the prelates. The document preserved only the first letter of his name "C." or "Ch."; 17th-century French scholar Felix Contelorus unlocked the abbreviation with "Cosmas" in his work "''Acta concordiae Alexandri III. Pontificis cum Frederico imperatore''" (1632). This solution was often adopted by many scholarly works in the next centuries, but such an archbishop of Kalocsa with this name never existed, and notable historians, including Gyula Pauler, Imre Szentpétery and Gyula Városy identified this person with Chama.
Chama was last mentioned as Archbishop of Kalocsa in 1171. Stephen III died on 4 March 1172. Thereafter, his younger brother Béla III of Hungary">Béla
Béla may refer to:
* Béla (crater), an elongated lunar crater
* Béla (given name), a common Hungarian male given name
See also
* Bela (disambiguation)
* Belá (disambiguation)
* Bělá (disambiguation) Bělá may refer to:
Places in the Cze ...
returned to Hungary from Constantinople. He was unanimously elected king by the barons of the realm, but the coronation was delayed, because Archbishop Lucas, refused to perform the coronation. Lucas feared that the influence of "East–West Schism, schismatics" would increase under Béla's rule. Béla III sought the assistance of the Holy See against Archbishop Lucas. Upon his request,
authorized the Archbishop of Kalocsa to anoint Béla king and "place the crown on his head". It is possible that this unidentified prelate, who performed the coronation on 18 January 1173, is identical with Chama, if he was still alive. The next known office-holder was
in 1176, a strong opponent of Béla III's rule, thus his involvement is less likely.