Századok – 2001
TANULMÁNYOK - Tóth István György: Galántáról Japánba. Olasz misszionáriusok a 17. századi Magyarországon és Erdélyben IV/819
870 TÓTH ISTVÁN GYÖRGY clercs instruits, mieux formés que celle de la Réforme qui pouvaient se lancer dans un débat avec les prêtres protestants au marché du chateau et près de la table du seigneur. La consistence des activités des missionnares italiens est une question primordiale dans l'histoire hongroise du XVIIè siècle, mais non pour l'histoire ecclésiastique, plutôt à celle de la civilisation. Les missionnaires italiens vinrent de l'Italie, un des centres de la culture du monde d'alors. Ils importaient des livres, des peintures, ils transmettaient l'instruction. Les paysans des villes, les nobles des curia de la campagne, par l'effet de la présence d'un missionnaire italien, entreaient en connection avec la culture la plus moderne du monde catholique. Cet effet était beaucoup plus remarquable qu'ils reconvertirent - peut-être définitivement, plutôt d'une façon provisiore - quelques centaines de protestants. FROM GALANTA TO JAPAN. ITALIAN MISSIONARIES IN HUNGARY AND TRANSYLVANIA IN THE 17th CENTURY by Tóth István György (Summary) The Holy See has sent many Italian missionaries to Hungary in the seventeenth century. Some of them were Dominicans and Capuchins, but most Italian missionaries in Hungary belonged to the Franciscan order. On the basis of a publication of the documents of the Holy Congregation for the Propagation of Faith of Rome (in print) the author examines the activity of these Italian missionaries. The missionaries came from all parts of Italy, from Trent to Sicily, but especially from the territory of the papal state. In this case the head of the Catholic Church was their monarch too, there was no conflict of interest between the loyalty of these missionaries to the state and to the Church. Few missionaries, those who have spent a longer period in Hungary, learned the Hungarian language, however most of the missionaries were not able to speak it. Some of them had translators, generally lay brothers, others spoke Polish, a language that the Slovaks understood in Northern Hungary. Generally, however, these missionaries converted the people in Latin which was a widely understood and even spoken language in the seventeenth century in Hungary. These missionaries suffered from the cold climate, strange food and the raw manners of Hungarians. Their conviction, that the Italians were all pious saints and the "ultramontani" lascivious people, was in sharp contrast with the general view on Italians in Europe. The activity of these Italian missionaries was an important chapter in Hungarian cultural history. Even if they did not convert too much Protestants, they transmitted the modern Baroque culture of Counter Reformation Italy to the villages and noblemen's manors in Hungary.
