In September 1513, Pope Leo X authorized Tamás Bakócz, the archbishop of Esztergom, to expel Augustinian friars from their cloister in the small town of Körmend in western Hungary. Following claims about the scandalous behavior of the Augustinians, in 1517 Bakócz implemented the decision and introduced observant Franciscans into the priory. The Augustinians appealed to Rome to reclaim their cloister, arguing that Bakócz had unfairly removed them at the instigation of the Franciscans. In response, Leo ordered the bishop of Pécs to lead an investigation into the matter. To pursue their inquiries, the investigators took evidence from forty-nine witnesses from Körmend and the surrounding area. The results were sent back to Rome where the records of this investigation have remained in the Vatican Library. Gabriella Erdélyi's very rich and nuanced analysis of this affair is based upon her close reading of these valuable records. This book adopts some microhistorical techniques that serve to offer wonderful insight into the world of lived religion in late medieval and early modern communities. We have something akin to incident analysis, with detailed accounts of exceptional circumstances used to uncover the rules of the game of early sixteenth-century Catholicism. Interest in this book should by no means be restricted to those seeking to understand more about the state of Hungarian religious life, as Erdélyi's work is enriched throughout by thoughtful historiographical contextualization to reflect broadly about the character of pre–Reformation Catholicism.

Surviving records of the 1518 investigation at Körmend allow us glimpses of a world about to be reordered by dramatic political and religious change, not least the calamity of the Battle of Mohács in 1526 and also the spread of Lutheran ideas across Hungary. As Erdélyi argues, knowledge of the imminent impact of the Reformation tends to frame our understanding of earlier relations between clergy and communities. Some historians have been quick to see signs of anti-clericalism and decline in early sixteenth-century Catholicism. Other historians have been anxious to demonstrate that the Catholic Church was capable of internal reform and have emphasized the cohesive and harmonious character of late medieval Catholic communities. Erdélyi considers these debates through a snapshot of recorded opinions about the Augustinians in Körmend. The outcome does not seem to have been in much doubt, and the Franciscans remained in the town's cloister. The fact that these inquiries took place at all may speak to the declining influence of Tamás Bakócz in Rome. However, at a local level, the views of Bakócz and his nephew Péter Erdődy, who was the most significant local landowner, certainly held very great sway. Erdélyi considers the reliability of the surviving evidence of the investigation. Overall, she concludes that the proceedings were in line with contemporary expectations about how such investigations should be conducted. As the author notes, less than half of recorded witnesses were drawn from the ranks of ordinary folk, with the other witnesses being gentry and parish priests. There are no female voices recorded among these witnesses, and we do not hear much from the Augustinians themselves in defense of their conduct.

Erdélyi's analysis reveals a complex picture of social interaction between the Augustinians and the people of Körmend but also of frustration and anger about some aspects of the friars' behavior. A common refrain was that “many of the Christian faithful have been scandalized by the extravagant lifestyle of the Augustinian friars” (111). While some people knew the friars well enough to provide details about their drinking habits in taverns, others actively avoided contact with them. Witnesses explained their grievances and set out attempts that had been made to modify or reform the Augustinians' behavior. The dissolute lifestyle of the friars led to heartfelt concerns that they were neglecting their duties. People were resentful that the friars failed to conduct services and thereby “disturbed the economy of the sacred, jeopardizing the spiritual and physical security of the community” (143). The behavior of the friars also challenged communal moral norms. Popular opinion did not seem offended by the long-term and stable relationships of parish priests living in households that their neighbors could recognize and respect. However, the male witnesses at this tribunal expressed concern about the activities of women who visited the cloister or worked for the friars. On one occasion while a friar was preaching in the church, members of the congregation discovered that his girlfriend was waiting in his room for the service to end. They burst into the room and escorted the woman from the premises. Even long-term and stable relations between friars and local women were deemed inappropriate as they formed no households and challenged conceptions of family and honor. Erdélyi uses the surviving testimony of witnesses to piece together the complex relations between clergy and community, with popular sentiment indignant that the friars did not perform valued rituals and failed to conform to expectations about their behavior. The community's own efforts, through censure and occasional violence to alter the friars' behavior, came to nothing. The initiative for change was only successful when taken up by Erdődy and Bakócz. Religious reform in Körmend was therefore effective when clergy, church patrons, and community found common cause in pursuit of shared goals of civic harmony and collective salvation. Erdélyi's work highlights in particular the crucial role played by the laity in processes of religious reform before the Reformation spread to Hungary.