Életmód és művelődés Veszprém megyében a 16-18. században (Veszprémi Múzeumi Konferenciák 10. 2000)

Tóth István György: Misszionáriusok a 17. századi török hódoltság területén: a hódolt Dunántúl délszláv szemmel

István György Tóth MISSIONARIES IN THE TERRITORY OF THE 17

TH CENTURY TURKISH OCCUPATION: OCCUPIED TRANSDANUBIA THROUGH SOUTHERN SLAV EYES The paper describes the meeting of two Southern Slavs during the 17

th century occupation of Transdanubia. On 2 April 1626, on the Thursday before Palm Sunday, a lively dispute occurred in the Mohács rectory. Don Simone Matkovich, the parish priest of Mohács possessed of missionary authority, received an interesting guest. The parish priest, who on the testimony of his letters sent to Rome was possessed of an almost unbridled desire to tell stories, must have said a great deal to his visitor. He was happy to receive a man into his home, who not only spoke the same Southern Slav native language, i.e. Serbo-Croat, but a person had knocked on the door of the modest rectory in this market town living under the Turks, who was a man who had seen the world and was a cultured humanist writer. And what must have been of no less importance to Don Simone, the visitor was not only a writer and composer, but was also under a secret commission from the Emperor Ferdinand II, a diplomat sent on a confidential mission, and a spy - and Don Simone was at least as happy to frequent the courts of the lords, as he was to visit his destitute parishioners. He had previously been to the courts of the Pope in Rome and the Sultan in Istanbul, to obtain support for the Catholics under occupation. I was able to find the reports of both participants in the meeting, the Dalmatian diplomat-spy and the Bosnian priest, in the historical archives of the council of cardinals for the co-ordination of Catholic mission work throughout the world, the Holy Congregation for the Propagation of Faith, in Italian, Sacra Congregazione de Propaganda Fide, with the present day name of Sacra Congregazione per l'Evangelizzazione dei Populi. They were found in a bundle containing varied documents, 31