Itt-Ott, 1992 (25. évfolyam, 1/119-3/121. szám)

1992 / 1. (119.) szám

vetic reformers proceeded to organize their church separately under the leadership of Melius, drew up their own eclectic theological propositions, and removed themselves from the Unitarian movement. Voivod John Sigismund openly announced his Unitarian convictions, which resulted in the conversion of most of his subjects to the antitrinitarian God concept.

Dávid, who recognized that he could not reconcile the many foreign and conflicting ideologies, deplored the limited nature of his understanding, as he wished to believe with reason alone. “My intellect is not capable of understanding the Trinity. Logic weakens faith. I cannot pray to such an uncertain, plural God... three gods cannot sit on one heavenly throne... It is strange, because one God carries out the command of another God, and a third intervenes while the first is sitting in Heaven (Dávid n.d.b, Három személyü Isten...).”

The theologians of Western Europe also entered into the Transylvanian religious controversy, and among them was Georg Maior, professor at Wittenberg. He forced Dávid into a vigorous debate, even condemning him in books (Maior 1569). The “ever patient” Dávid replied, “You can return to the masses of the popes, to their sacraments, and descend with them into hell.”

Dávid and Stephan Bazilius, who was still his faithful companion, answered Maior’s writings together in their book, Refutatio Scripti Gregorii Maioris, which appeared in 1569 (Dávid n.d.). Dávid propounded his stand dressed in Christian garb. His followers received the self-revealing document as if it had come from someone “who had taken Christ from the tomb after he had been buried by the popes (Heltai 1568).”

Among the never-ending synods that of Alba Julia was important for three reasons: first, it was there that the doctrine of the Trinity was debated in all its essentials; second, since the comparative history of the time had established the spiritual connection between Dávid and Servetus, the ideas of Servetus were thoroughly debated there; and third, since the debaters did not find a substantiating text, they called Erasmus’ writings as witness and his prestige was placed above the Holy Scriptures. “See Erasmus and you will understand (Mátrai 1961, 8:16).”

When Beza wrote with indignation from Geneva that Transylvania had become a hotbed of sects, these were not empty words. Leder, a modem Jesuit scholar, affirms Beza’s statement, saying “Transylvania was a Babel of religious confessions.”

Dávid, the unbelieving believer, came under several more similar influences and headed toward an intellectual crisis. Contrary to all human efforts, he failed to organize his church with a solid doctrine, and when he was eliminated from the Unitarian realm, an age of epigones followed, and compromise became a virtue. Even today Dávid’s successors, the Unitarian-Universalists, rebuke his tradition and propose to delete the name of God the Father from its founding statement of principles. After the first discriminating step in the sixteenth century was made to eliminate the divinity of Christ, the next logical step is to ask whether there is a God anywhere.

A brief discussion of Dávid’s selected sermons,

published in 1569 under the title The first part of the Holy Scripture, which still reflect his more moderate theological views, close this arduous presentation. In sixty sermons Dávid preached about God, the Father, the promised Messiah, and the Holy Spirit. With his genius he became the father-preacher not only of his own congregation, but also of the whole denomination. With his intellectual richness he could mobilize his own generation, and when he succeeded in renovating his followers spiritually, he kept them under his control. His spoken and written sermons were highly controversial, yet at that time he still formulated his message on the basis of Scripture only. As preacher, Dávid assumed, as it were, a role like Elijah’s, and his pulpit became Mount Carmel, where he declared judgment between Jehovah and the new priests of Baal. When, however, rational enlightenment became involved in his sermons, the result was that the mystical union with Christ, which should have been the basis of his sermons, was lost.

The construction of his sermons was simple and lucid in order to reach out to the uneducated laymen. With one eye held toward the ruling and supporting classes, he also included now and then in his sermons the suggestion that it would be advantageous for society if the lower classes were religious, because they would sooner abide by secular law.

In contradiction to his later teachings, Dávid still stressed that only by faith and not by good works could salvation be received. He also proclaimed a degree of free choice concerning belief, because God had not locked himself into a tiny catechism.

In summary: On his final etappe to Damascus, Dávid reached the following conclusions:

1. God is One.

2. Christ was human, in consequence praying to him is in vain.

3. The concept of the Trinity is of Hellenistic origin and unbiblical.

4. The Lord’s Supper as a sacrament is no longer valid because “we took Christ’s presence out of the bread.”

5. Baptism is no longer necessary because God has forgiven all sins via Adam.

6. Love and good works are more important than faith to obtain salvation.

7. By nature man is good and able to work out his own salvation.

In one thing Dávid remained constant: he was faithful to St. Paul’s advice to the Thessalonians. Test everything - omnia probate.

It is apparent that the religious life of the sixteenth century was new because it placed the Bible in the forefront. Francis Dávid in his own way joined the new development because he wanted to make the Bible the central point in the lives of his people. He became the hero of the new confession, but not of the new paganism of the later Enlightenment, which was a science of sophists. The man of the Enlightenment was, in a sense, only half a man, because the metaphysical instinct was lacking, as has been pointed out by one of Dávid’s apologists, László Iván.

The decisive synod for Dávid came in 1579. The

28 nr-OTT 25. évf. (1992), 1.(119.) szám