Stephen (I) Báncsa (Hungarian: Báncsa (I.) István, Latin: Stephanus de Bancha; died 9 July 1270) was the first Hungarian cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. Prior to that, he served as Bishop of Vác from 1240 or 1241 to 1243, then Archbishop of Esztergom from 1242 until his creation as cardinal.
He was born around 1205 as a descendant of the gens (clan) Báncsa, an original settler family from Bács County (today Bač, Serbia). His father was Orbász I (or Vrbas), who was mentioned as comes in 1213, according to historian János Karácsonyi. He was buried in the lobby of the St. Adalbert Cathedral in Esztergom. It is possible that he is identical with that certain Orbász, who served as ispán of Komárom County in 1216. Stephen mentioned his father only once in a charter of 1252, which narrates he was involved in a lawsuit in the early 1240s in the case of ownership right over the estate Urkuta against Györk Atyusz, son of Ban Atyusz III Atyusz. Accordingly, Stephen had established a mass-endowment for his late father's spiritual salvation and financed its operation from the income of Urkuta, while its lawfulness was denied by Györk and his patron Benedict, Archbishop of Kalocsa.
Stephen had at least two brothers: Vincent (Bencenc) was mentioned as ispán of Esztergom County in 1244 (same time, when Stephen functioned as archbishop), who married an unidentified daughter of Keled Kórógyi. Their two sons were Stephen II, also a royal chancellor and Archbishop of Kalocsa from 1266 to 1278, who entered ecclesiastical career under the influence of his uncle Cardinal Stephen Báncsa, and Cletus (fl. 1278), who married a daughter of Michael Rosd. Stephen and Vincent also had a younger brother Peter, who had two sons Orbász II, provost of Pozsega (today Požega, Croatia) then chancellor for Dowager Queen Elizabeth the Cuman. He was the first Hungarian to obtain a doctorate from the University of Padua (1264). Peter's other son was Thomas, ancestor of the late 14th-century powerful Horvat (or Horváti) family through his only son Paul. It is possible that Stephen also had another (unidentified) brother, who might be was the father of his two nephews, Carulus (canon of Veszprém, then Esztergom) and John (dean of Győr, Zala, then chaplain for Cardinal Báncsa). Historian Dániel Bácsatyai considered this brother is identical with that "Denis of Hungary", who escorted Queen Violant to the Kingdom of Aragon in 1235, where he became progenitor of the influential Dionisii noble family.
Báncsa first appeared in contemporary records as Provost of Bács and Chancellor of King Béla IV on 9 January 1238, when the king listed and confirmed the landholdings of the Order of Saint John in Hungary. Still in 1238, he appears in the same capacity in a charter of Palatine Denis Tomaj, when they jointly judged over a possession lawsuit between Bartholomew, Bishop of Veszprém and the Pannonhalma Abbey. Historians Tibor Almási and László Koszta consider that Báncsa was member of the collegiate chapter in Bács and became chancellor due to the intervention of his ecclesiastical superior Ugrin Csák, Archbishop of Kalocsa, who also served as chancellor during the reign of Béla's father Andrew II.
In the next year, Báncsa was transferred to Titel, where he functioned as provost too, from 1239 to 1240. He was a member of an ad hoc council summoned by Denis Tomaj to judge in the case of Sala church estate which had several jurisdictional conflicts over the years. The document is preserved by the abbey's Liber ruber. Báncsa is last mentioned as chancellor on 21 March 1240, when the Cistercians were granted patronage of four parishes in Burzenland (Barcaság), Transylvania. Two royal documents suggest that Báncsa presumably still held the court office during the Mongol invasion of Hungary in 1241, but their credibility is highly questionable.
After the death of Robert, Archbishop of Esztergom on 1 November 1239, Matthias Rátót, Bishop of Vác was elected as his successor in the same month, which was confirmed by Pope Gregory IX in March 1240. Báncsa's autobiographer Gergely Kiss argues that Báncsa was elevated to the position of Bishop of Vác in the same year to replace Rátót. However, in contemporary documents, he is first referred to bishop only in May 1241. According to Roger of Torre Maggiore's Carmen Miserabile, Báncsa and two companions (Albert, provost of Arad and an unidentified provost of Csanád) were entrusted by King Béla to escort his spouse Queen Maria Laskarina to the Austrian border, escaping from the growing Mongol threat. Thus, he was not present in the Battle of Mohi on 11 April 1241, when majority of the prelates, for instance Matthias Rátót and Ugrin Csák were killed in the battlefield. After their victory, the Mongols sacked and burned numerous towns, including Pest and Vác, Báncsa's episcopal see. The Mongol invasion and its consequences significantly contributed to Báncsa's rapid ascension within the church hierarchy. Béla's letter to Pope Gregory on 18 May 1241 suggests that Báncsa, who fled Austria for Italy, personally reported the tragic events in Rome. Emperor Frederick II's letter to Henry III of England (3 July 1241) confirmed that Báncsa, as Béla's envoy negotiated with Frederick in Faenza to seek assistance, before his departure to Rome. There Pope Gregory commissioned him to organize a crusade against the Mongols, but no reinforcements arrived from abroad. Pope Gregory soon died in August, while his successor Pope Celestine IV occupied the throne for only seventeen days before his sudden death. It was followed by one and a half year period of sede vacante, which prevented effective assistance to Hungary.
Returning home, Báncsa joined Béla's companion, who fled to Dalmatia, after a Mongol detachment chased him from town to town as far as Trogir on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. There Báncsa was elected as Archbishop of Esztergom in the spring of 1242, he was first mentioned in that capacity by Thomas of Split in his work Historia Salonitana. As archbishop-elect, Báncsa retained his post of Bishop of Vác too. While Béla returned to Hungary in May 1242, Báncsa remained in Klis with the royal family until his homecoming in September. The town of Vác was rebuilt and inhabited by German colonists under his direction.
Pope Innocent IV, elected on 25 June 1243, confirmed Báncsa's appointment as Archbishop of Esztergom, being transferred from the Diocese of Vác with the permission of the Roman Curia, granted on 7 July 1243. On 19 July 1243, Pope Innocent wrote a letter to Báncsa, appointing him Apostolic Legate in Croatia and Dalmatia. Accordingly, he was instructed to take action against the "growing heresy" in the province. However this document again refers to Báncsa as archbishop-elect, in addition to the charter of the Cathedral Chapter of Esztergom in August 1243, where Báncsa appears as procurator of the archdiocese. According to Gergely Kiss, this transitional status lasted until the first half of 1244.
After 1244, Stephen Báncsa sought to strengthen the authority of the Metropolitan Archdiocese over the chapters and monastic orders in Hungary. His most important mainstay was Pope Innocent in these endeavors. For instance, Albert, provost of Arad was forced to acknowledge the supremacy of Esztergom over his chapter in 1246. Pope Innocent ordered the monks of the Mount of Saint Martin (Pannonhalma) to promise obedience to the Archdiocese of Esztergom as their exarchate in 1247. When Béla confirmed the privileges of the hospes in Beregszász (today Berehove, Ukraine) in December 1247, the king assigned the jurisdiction of Esztergom to the Saxon community. The Premonstratensian provostry of Hatvan was also a subject of the archdiocese's spiritual jurisdiction. The acquired area was settled with colonists by Báncsa since the early 1240s. Báncsa expanded the archbishopric' landed property with purchases, exchanges and donations. He donated the tithe of wine production to the canons of the St. Adalbert Cathedral in 1244. Upon his request, Nicholas, custos of Esztergom and dean of Sasvár (today part of Šaštín-Stráže, Slovakia) and the Esztergom Chapter were granted the estates of Szőlő and Rendvég (belonged to Nógrád Castle) by Béla IV in 1248. Báncsa donated the land of Tyrna to the collegiate chapter in 1250.