Fraternity-Testvériség, 1959 (37. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1959-11-01 / 11. szám

FRATERNITY

9

HISTORY

OF THE

HUNGARIAN REFORMED CHURCH

By

IMRE REVESZ, Th. D.

Translated by

GEORGE A. F. KNIGHT

II

THE VICTORY OF THE COUNTERREFORMATION

1608—1715

(Continuation)

February 11, 1676, is a date that will never be forgotten in the Reformed Church of Hungary. On that day the galley-slaves regained their freedom. The Dutch admiral, De Ruyter, who was then at anchor in the bay of Naples, was bidden take them on board his own ship. When his eyes fell on the poor emaciated bodies of those suffering men, he is reported to have said: “I have many battles to my credit against all kinds of enemies, but this is my finest victory, in that I have been permitted to set free Christ’s innocent servants from an unberable burden.” One of the ministers sought to express the thanks of all to De Ruyter, but the latter stopped him, and said that it was not he who should be thanked, but God, for it was God who had wrought their freedom. But to that the minister replied: “Yes, but we ought also to give thanks to the instruments that God uses.”

De Ruyter took them to Venice, the 26 of the 41 who had survived. By the terms of the agreement they could not go home, of course, and so they set off for the hospitable lands of Switzerland, Holland and England that had gladly offered them asylum.