Editing Stephen I of Hungary (section)

=== ''Admonitions'' ===
{{Main|Admonitions}}
According to Stephen's ''Greater Legend'', the king "himself compiled a book for his son on moral education".{{sfn|Györffy|1994|pp=166–167}} This work, now known as ''Admonitions'' or ''De institutione morum'',{{sfn|Györffy|1994|p=166}} was preserved in manuscripts written in the [[Late Middle Ages]].  Although scholars debate whether it can actually be attributed to the king or a cleric, most of them agree that it was composed in the first decades of the 11th&nbsp;century.{{sfn|Berend|Laszlovszky|Szakács|2007|p=343}}{{sfn|Györffy|1994|p=167}}

The ''Admonitions'' argues that kingship is inseparably connected with the Catholic faith.{{sfn|Berend|Laszlovszky|Szakács|2007|p=343}}{{sfn|Györffy|1994|p=167}} Its author emphasized that a monarch is required to make donations to the Church and regularly consult his prelates, but is entitled to punish clergymen who do wrong.{{sfn|Berend|Laszlovszky|Szakács|2007|p=343}} One of its basic ideas was that a sovereign has to cooperate with the "pillars of his rule", meaning the prelates, aristocrats, ''ispáns'' and warriors.{{sfn|Györffy|1994|p=167}}

{{Blockquote|My dearest son, if you desire to honor the royal crown, I advise, I counsel, I urge you above all things to maintain the Catholic and Apostolic faith with such diligence and care that you may be an example for all those placed under you by God, and that all the clergy may rightly call you a man of true Christian profession. Failing to do this, you may be sure that you will not be called a Christian or a son of the Church. Indeed, in the royal palace, after the faith itself, the Church holds second place, first constituted and spread through the whole world by His members, the apostles and holy fathers, And though she always produced fresh offspring, nevertheless in certain places she is regarded as ancient. However, dearest son, even now in our kingdom the Church is proclaimed as young and newly planted; and for that reason she needs more prudent and trustworthy guardians lest a benefit which the divine mercy bestowed on us undeservedly should be destroyed and annihilated through your idleness, indolence or neglect.|Stephen's ''Admonitions'' to his son, Emeric{{sfn|O'Malley|1995|pp=46–47}}}}