Benedikt Vinković

Benedikt Benko Vinković (1581 – 2 December 1642) was a Croatian prelate of the Catholic Church who served as the bishop of Pécs from 1630 to 1637 and the bishop of Zagreb from 1637 to his death in 1642.

Early life
Vinković was born in 1581 in Jastrebarsko. While some contemporary sources say his parents, Petar and Magdalena, were free peasants, others, including Toma Kovačević, claim they were serfs. During his early years, Vinković was educated by Jesuits in seminaries in Erdelj, Zagreb, and Vienna. In 1606 Vinković became rector of the Ilyrian College in Bologne, and in 1608 he received a PhD in philosophy.

In 1610, Vinković became a canon of the Diocese of Zagreb and organised the foundation of the Croatian College in Vienna. As a representative at the Diet of Hungary in Pressburg, he staunchly defended the interests of Croatia.

In 1611, he became archdeacon in Čazma; in 1612, he became archdeacon of Komarnica. In 1619, Vinković served as an envoy of the Croatian Diet sent to the Emperor to discuss Serb-related issues. In 1622, he was appointed as cathedral archdeacon.

Due to Vatican policies on Ottoman-controlled territories in Europe, several Jesuit priests who fluently spoke different Slavic languages were appointed to higher positions in the Catholic church. Vinković was appointed bishop in Ottoman-controlled Pécs in 1630. Aside from his native language, he also used Latin and Hungarian in his correspondences. Vinković was a supporter of Martin Borković's counter-reformation activities in Međimurje.

Relations with the Eastern Orthodox
Vinković is among the notable clergy that tried to unite the Eastern Orthodox populace and clergy on the territory of the Military Frontier that belonged to the Diocese of Zagreb with the Catholic Church.

According to Serb historian Slavko Gavrilović, Vinković (and Petar Petretić) wrote numerous inaccurate texts meant to incite hatred against Serbs and Eastern Orthodox Christians, some of which included advice on how to Catholicize the Serbs. Vinković also targeted the bishop of Marča, Maksim Predojević, whom he reported to the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith after refusing to support the conversion of the population of his bishopric to Catholicism.

Vinković estimated the number of Serbs in Slavonia to be about 74,000. In 1640 Vinković requested Predojević's deposition from the Roman Curia in his 1640 letter to the Pope's nuncio in Vienna. Vinković claimed that Predojević was subordinate to him and Vinković expected to receive some income from him. He also intended to appoint Rafael Levaković as bishop of Marča instead of Predojević.

In the same year, he reported that Serbs still used the Cyrillic script. In a 1673 letter, Vinković reported that some Serbs from Istria, Senj, and Vinodolski had been converted to Catholicism.