Hungarian Church Press, 1949 (1. évfolyam, 4-13. szám)

1949-10-16 / 13. szám

- 10 -At the outset of the New Age whole Europe massed, through a mighty oconomióal change. Amidst these great changes*’neither the organisation* of the Church could remain unchanged. In the Church of the Middle Ages the poor and the rich, the burgher and the nobleman alike, accepted'their priests, bishops and the pope as their leaders in religious qestions . But it was something different the poor man strived for here on earth, and it was different what the rich man aimed at. The world beyond looked different in the imagination of the burgher, and it took another nicture in the mind of the nobleman. These and other contrasts came up in the Church of the Middle Ages in the shape of heretic movements, in the revolution of the Valdens.cs and the Hussites against the .official Church, while the or-Eend-ieant orders were formed against the wealthy priesthood. But at the beginning of ^the New Age this contradictive tendencies could not remain any longer within the Roman Catholic Church. Now religions, new Christian Churches were formed.

This religious movement is called the Reformation. The Reformation started with^Martin Luther /1517/ in Germa ny and was continued by John Calvin in Switzerland. Different reasons accounted for the spreading of the Reformation in the various European countries.

Originally Christianit*; was tte religion of the slaves and of the poor, teaching the equality f man, but later at many places these teachings of Jesus were pushed inco the background. It was especially the landowners, who forgot the Christian teachings of the equality of man. The re forma tors aimed at restoring the religion of the time of Jesus. Therefore in most countries a cart of the peasants joined the Reformation. At several places, especially in South-Germany it even came to a mighty peasant rebellion. 71525/ But these rebellions were overthrown everywhere. In the western European countries at that time the middle-class was already dcvelopped. To*the mind of the burghers there was no difference between church or wordly land owners. They supposed the Catholic religion to be the religion of landowners, and therefore many joined 'Protestantism, the new religion.

At the outset of the Reformation it was not merely the poor and the rich and the burghers and the feudal noble-men that stood opnosite

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each other. Also the wordly and the church-landowners were anxious to get hold of all the more land. Th° teaching•» of Christ on thc^poverty of the Christian Church was more than welcomed to the feudal squires.Church estates were confiscated /called secularisation/ in order to acquire all the more serfs.. That is how some emnerors and noblemen joined the Reformation. Circulation of money spread over more and more countries. Even church-taxes were to be paid in money already. A considerable part of these taxes, however, did not remain the country. It was taken to the pope to Rome. It was especially the merchants, who were greatly displeased by that, as they would have preferred all money to bo left in the country. Therefore they joined, instead of the Catholic Church with its international organisation, one or the other Protestant Church comprising one country only.

l 0 J-°* Hungarian Church Press