“We Have Quite Good Conversations with His Eminence…”

The Relationship between Jusztinián Serédi and Miklós Horthy in Light of Miklós Esty’s Notes

Abstract

This study uses Miklós Esty’s diary to trace the development of relations between Jusztinián Serédi and Miklós Horthy between 1933 and 1944. Miklós Esty (1895–1973) served as gentiluomo and personal attendant to successive archbishops of Esztergom and, beginning in 1933, he recorded his experiences and the information that came to his attention in great detail. Esty had a distinctive perspective: because of his confidential relationship with Serédi, he had insight simultaneously into personal matters, issues of ecclesiastical policy, and—since his office also made him the prince-primate’s “chief of protocol”—the symbolic relations developing between Church and state.
In historical memory, Serédi has been remembered as a prelate who knew politics well but never liked it, and whose monastic disposition and reserved, retiring nature made him fundamentally better suited to scholarly work. His position was not made easier by the fact that the country was headed not by an “apostolic king” but by a Calvinist regent, while the worldwide Catholic Church, as part of the “second confessional age,” was seeking to strengthen the loyalty and confessional identity of the faithful. Contemporaries therefore often held that, as the diplomat György Barcza put it, Serédi saw Horthy first and foremost as a Calvinist, and only secondarily as head of state.
Miklós Esty’s diary does not fundamentally alter this picture, but it does add important nuance. Serédi’s rank as cardinal and prince-primate, the expectations of the Apostolic See, and the explicit provisions of canon law substantially limited his room for maneuver vis-à-vis the regent. Yet his conduct was not characterized by rigid opposition. Rather, he sought to use the opportunities available to him to improve both his personal and institutional relations with the head of state. In doing so, he succeeded in accumulating a degree of trust with Horthy that enabled him to take firm, principled positions on sensitive issues, such as the question of the deputy regency. The cardinal’s gentiluomo also played a role in this process, as he generally advised his employer to pursue “fair play,” the discussion of problems, and open communication.