The primate Cardinal, Janos Vitez (1408-1472), at the beginning, and the primate, Cardinal Tamas Bakocz, at the end of the reign were men of eminent ability and the highest culture.
Unfortunately Tamas Bak6cz, her leading diplomatist from 1 499 to 1521, was as much an egotist as the other magnates, and he sacrificed the political interests of Hungary entirely to personal considerations.
The visible signs of this contemptuous point of view were (1) the suspension of the august dignity of palatine, which, after the death of Tamas Nadasdy, " the great palatine," in 1562, was left vacant for many years; (2) the abolition or attenuation of all the ancient Hungarian court dignitaries; (3) the degradation of the capital, Pressburg, into a mere provincial town; and (4) the more and more openly expressed determination to govern Hungary from Vienna by means of foreigners, principally German or Czech.
With approximate certainty may be ascribed also to Tamas and Balint the original of the still extant transcript, by George Nemeti, of the Four Gospels, the Jciszay or Munich Codex (finished at Tatros in Moldavia in 1466).