Calvin Synod Herald, 1999 (99. évfolyam, 2-4. szám - 100. évfolyam, 9-12. szám)
1999-11-01 / 11-12. szám
CALVIN SYNOD HERALD 7 In ensuring a uniform church order, the Debrecen Synod of 1567, by its adoption of the Helvetian Confession, became an important milestone in the life of the church bodies in the Eastern part of the country. Reformed Church Districts were formed one after another in the northern, eastern, and western regions of the country, as well as in the territories occupied by the Turks, without any conflict with the Lutherans. The Hungarian Reformed Church was greatly strengthened by the most important spiritual achievement of the period, the translation of the complete Bible (Old and New testaments) into Hungarian. Gáspár Károli, Reformed minister and senior at Gönc (north-eastern Hungary), prepared this translation together with his co-workers, and had it printed with the aid of rich and powerful magnates at Vizsoly (near Gönc) in 1590. The Vizsoly Bible and the Psalter, the work of Albert Szenczi Molnár in 1607, are still read and sung respectively by our congregations. The Counter-Reformation of the 17th Century The 17th century brought a time of severe trials and persecutions to the life of the Hungarian Reformed Church. King Ferdinand II (of the House of Hapsburg), and the Jesuit Archbishop Peter Pázmány, turning on its head the popular theological explanation of the Turkish catastrophe, affirmed that the whole disaster was due to the fact that our nation had turned away from the Virgin Mary, the “Patroness of Hungary”. The strategy of the Counter-Reformation in Hungary was to wage a war against “Protestant heresy”, on political and literary levels simultaneously. With the help of the King, Pázmány soon succeeded in reconverting to Catholicism 30 of the noblest families in Hungary. And, at his suggestion, the principle of cuius regio, eius religio (so far unknown to Hungarian public law) was practised against Protestants left without patrons. The aim of the Counter-Reformation was to convert the entire Protestant population of the country to the Catholic faith. Those pastors who resisted were summoned before and extraordinary court at Pozsony in 1673. In the Hungarian Highland, 32 Lutheran and one Reformed ministers were accused of revolting against and calumniating the Catholic Church. A royal pardon being offered, one Protestant minister was converted, and the others resigned their ministry. Encouraged by this result, Protestant ministers and schoolmasters were summoned from the entire territory of the kingdom. Those who, despite grave threats, were not willing to be converted, were imprisoned, and then driven on foot from Pozsony to Trieste where they were sold as galley-slaves. The whole Protestant world was moved to ransom them, and, after many difficulties, the Dutchman Admiral Ruyter set them free. Their liberation by the fraternal help of Western Protestantism was a glorious example of faithfulness and of the preserving love of God. The so-called “Decade of Mourning” (1671-1681) was not only an indication of the forceful policy of re-catholicisation on the part of the Hapsburgs; it was also a lasting testimony to the confessing courage and the solidarity of the Reformed believers in Europe. A pillar commemorating those galley-slaves has been erected in the memorial garden behind the Great Church in Debrecen. The Protestant countries of Europe became aware of the persecution of Hungarian Protestants. The state, which recatholicised by means of military force, had to pay a greater price for some converts. Although the Protestants published written repudiations of the charges brought against them, they were further exposed to a great number of violent acts: there came a fresh wave of persecutions, Church buildings were confiscated, the Reformed College at Sárospatak was seized, and so on. It was in such circumstance that a long-awaited event occurred: the expulsion of the Turks from Hungary. This was followed by a more moderate wave of catholicisations, which lasted for another century. The law enacted by the Catholic “defenders of the faith” caused a great number of difficulties in the lives of Reformed congregations. However, the Age of Enlightenment and tolerance commenced in Europe, especially in the Protestant countries. The seemingly irresistible rage for re-Catholicisation and Counter- Reformation was somewhat mitigated. The Struggles of the 18th Century and the Edict of Tolerance In 1781, Joseph II, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and King of Hungary, issued an Edict of Tolerance (Edictum Tolerantiae), in which he regulated the public religious practice of non-Catholic believers, thereby putting an end to hundred of years of oppression. Protestant congregations were allowed to be organized in every settlement with at least 100 Protestant families. They were entitled to a pastor of their own, and were not obliged to pay for the services of a Catholic priest. They were also allowed to build churches, but with no entrances from the street and with no tower or steeple. This was obviously not total freedom of religion. The First Presbytery It could already be seen during the period of the Reformation that its Calvinist trend was (and still is) the “Hungarian Religion”, whilst the country’s German-speaking ethnic group was devoted to the Augsburg Confession. In the Transdanubian areas, however, the Lutheran and Reformed Churches separated only in the 17th century. At that time the constitution of the Reformed Church in Hungary was not yet built on Calvinist or Genevan foundations; rather, it mirrored the so-called consistorial type established by Luther and Melanchthon. The consistory was an elected board, but in Hungarian usage it also meant the synod which, in the 16th century, consisted only of ministerial members. (To be continued in our next issue)
