AZ ORSZÁGOS SZÉCHÉNYI KÖNYVTÁR ÉVKÖNYVE 1960. Budapest (1962)

IV. Könyvtár- és művelődéstörténeti tanulmányok - Summaries

of the communist party made itself also felt in poetry, so that the persecution of the poets of the age was, in fact, the fight of censorship against communist influence. The study follows events in a chronological order. To illustrate the conflict between poets and censors, documents of contemporary law-suits, incriminated poems and presscuttings are quoted. As a motivation for the instituting of legal proceedings, the censors advanced one or all of the following pretexts: attempt at the overthrow of the existing social order, abuse of religion, outrage upon decency, but most frequently of all, incitement to class hatred. The men themselves, against whom the legal machinery was directed, did not make an organized stand against the regime. They were poets, some of them very outstanding ones, whose works may be called classic by now; there were also other less-talented among them. They were united in their criticism of the grave social conflicts existing during the Horthy-régime. Some of these men are not alive any more

: by the end of the era, censorship did not any longer use the tool of intimidation, but showed its real face

: Attila József, Miklós Radnóti, László Fenyő and many others were driven to death. The indirect aim of the study is to paint a realistic picture of an era deemed „free" by many. Printed documents connected with the indulgence proclaimed in Hungary 1500—1503. G. BORSA In Hungary the Church several times preached crusades against the Tartars and the Turks towards the end of the Middle Ages. From 1450 onwards jubilee indulgence (during the jubilar ,,holy year") was brought into connection with such crusades, and this was the case in 1500 also. The occasion was a coalition formed against the Turks by the papacy, France and Venice. They also wanted to draw Hungary into it, as the main bulwark against the Turks. As the king of Hungary, Wladislas II., was badly in need of financial support, the members of the coalition promised him such help. So the pope levied a tithe on all the ecclesiastical benefices in Europe for a period of three years to enable the covering of expenses of the planned crusade, and assigned considerable amounts to Hungary, among others from the income of the jubilee indulgence fo the year 1500. After such preliminaries the indulgence was being announced in Hungary in the summer of 1500. The large-scale joining of forces against the Turks got slowly under way. But the Turkish military successes in the summer of 1500 aroused public feeling. The College of Cardinals decided to send out legates to the various European countries with the task of speeding up the income from the jubilee indulgence. To Hungary they sent Peter Isvalies, archbishop of Reggio. He arrived to Buda at the end of January 1501, and soon brought about a preliminary agreement between Hungary, Venice and the papacy about the terms of their military alliance. In the meantime Cardinal Isvalies, as supreme commissioner for indulgence in Hungary, in March of 1501 solemnly preached crusade against the Turks, and prolonged the propagation of the jubilee indulgence. The conditions of receiving indulgence are described in detail, based on surviving documents. As the king received a share in the income, he was greatly interested in both, propagating the indulgence and collecting the money for it. This accounts for his numerous arrangements and orders urging the diffusion of the indulgence. The planned alliance having been sanctioned by the participants, the treaty was signed ceremoniously on 12th May 1501 in Buda. Of both the ceremony and the festivities following it the report of an eyewitness is extant, with the title,,Die Ordnung zu Ofen wider den Türeken", surviving in two various printed editions, one of which, according to its imprint, was made in the Strasbourg printing office of Matthias Hupfuff, the other, after a study of its types, was determined as a product of Schaur's press in Augsburg. As to the war, military action was going on very languidly in the second half of the year 1501. Wladislas II., himself did not move against the enemy despite of his having undertaken an obligation. The indulgence for the cause of the crusade having been propagated throughout Europe, public opinion showed great interest for the latest news in connection with it. Thi^ is also indicated by the 352