H. Kolba Judit szerk.: Historical Exhibition of the Hungarian National Museum Guide 2 - From the Foundation of the State until the Expulsion of the Ottomans - The history of Hungary in the 11th to 17th centuries (Budapest, 2005)
ROOM 7 - Transylvania and Royal Hungary (second half of the 16th century-17th century) (Judit H. Kolba)
language in their activity, as Protestants did. First, the overwhelming majority of the aristocrats were reconverted to Catholicism. By the mid-century there was scarcely a Protestant aristocrat to be found, and later, under pressure, a part of the lesser nobility, burghers and peasants followed their example. The greatest figure of the Counter-reformation in Hungary was Péter Pázmány (1560-1637). Born in Várad (Oradea) into a Reformed Church family, he attended a school run by Jesuits, and was subsequently converted to Roman Catholicism and entered the Jesuit order. His star was rising: in 1616 he was archbishop of Esztergom, then cardinal. His theological, apologetical works and excellent sermons show him to be an outstanding figure of Early Baroque literature. Pázmány attached great importance to education, to that of girls as well. In 1623, he founded a new seminary, later named after him, the Pázmaneum (in Vienna), and in 1635 he founded the University of Nagyszombat (Trnava). Jesuits and the newly arrived Piarists were supported by him in founding schools. Pázmány turned their own weapons against the Protestant preachers; the majority of the written theological controversies went in his favour. In the age of Pázmány, a new artistic style appeared in the western part of the country: Baroque. In 1629 the first Baroque building, the Jesuit church in Nagyszombat (Trnava), was erected under the guidance of Italian architects supported by Miklós Esterházy. The inner furnishing of the churches - liturgical objects (chalices, standing crosses) as well as paraments still bear Late Renaissance characteristics, such as the exhibited chasuble, embroidered in ladies ' work in gold and silver threads, decorated with flowers (Fig. 69), and the prelate's mitre. The crozier bears the coat of arms of Jakab Haskó, bishop of Rozsnyó (Roznava); the font is a work of the Selmecbánya (Banská Stiavnica) silversmith Weigl (Fig. 69). The engravings show the centres of the Counter-reformation: Nagyszombat (Trnava), the facade of its Jesuit church, and Kassa (Kosice); here the Counter-reformation was started in the cathedral with a proclamation against Protestants. THE NOBILITY OF ROYAL HUNGARY, THE COUNTIES The ruler of Royal Hungary was the Habsburg monarch, living in Vienna or Prague, but crowned king of Hungary in Pozsony. A coronation was always an important event, and the archbishop of Esztergom, who was in charge, placed, amid scenes of magnificence, the Holy Crown, representing continuity, on the head of the king. The crowning of Matthias II (1608) illustrated in the engraving, had a special importance, because the way along the route of the coronation was covered with a red-white-green carpet; this being the first representation of the Hungarian tricolour still in use. Under the reign of Matthias II, the Estates, the Hungarian nobility, strengthened. In the 17th century in Transdanubia the greatest lords held court, the Nádasdys at their centre at Sárvár, the Esterházys at Kismarton (Eisenstadt), the Batthyánys at Borostyánkő (Bernstein), and the Zrínyis at Csáktornya (Cakovec). These great landowners not only played a role in political life, but also felt themselves bound to protect culture. In their residences building activity was conducted and sumptuous wall paintings executed, mostly in Baroque style, by Italian and German masters. Middle-grade government and the administration of justice in the western part of the country were performed by the noble counties, led by an aristocratically-born lordlieutenant and a deputy lord-lieutenant, the latter chosen from the county nobility; the