Admonitions

The edition used here prints the book from a fifteenth-century paper manuscript at Vienna, under a title that addresses it to Duke Emeric. It speaks throughout as a father to “my son”, who is to reign after him. Its ten chapters deal in order with the Catholic faith, the standing of the church, the honour due to bishops, the magnates and warriors, judgement and patience, the welcome of foreigners, counsel, the example of forebears, prayer, and mercy with the other virtues.

The sixth chapter is the one most often cited. Guests from abroad, it says, bring different languages, customs, learning and arms, which adorn the royal court, and a kingdom of one language and one way of life is weak and fragile. The annals record the death of Stephen’s son Henry in 1031 (Annals of Pressburg); if he is the Emeric of the title, as the editor of the king’s Life takes him to be, the book was written before that year. Whether the king composed it himself or a cleric wrote it for him the text does not say.