Fraternity-Testvériség, 1959 (37. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1959-11-01 / 11. szám
FRATERNITY 11 Leopoldina. The Protestants of the whole country sent a petition to the king, asking him to make a clear-cut explanation of the religious situation. In reply the Explanatio set out that Protestants would be allowed to express their faith in either of the two forms, Reformed or Lutheran, and were to be permitted to practice their faith openly in all places named in the article. These “articulated” places might support ministers, conduct public worship, perform all religious activities, such as baptisms, marriages and funerals, without receiving permission from the local priest and paying for the privilege. Ministers could do nothing but what was specifically laid down in the article, nor were they to preach anywhere but in the stipulated places. Within the family circle it was permitted to read the Bible or other religious literature, but only members of the family could be present at the reading. People were to be allowed to travel to those specified places from the countryside, in order to share in public worship, to have their children baptized and in order to be married. But all fees therefor were to go to the priest. But since the minister could not leave the “articulated” places to go to the country to his people, the priest was to bury the dead in those places instead of him. This Explanatio became the basis of the relationship between church and state for the next one hundred years, and consequently contributed to the very great weakening of the Reformed Church that took place in every aspect of its life In 1701 Leopold issued another edict, in which he clarified the former Explanatio, by saying that its terms applied only to the old royal estates that were already in existence in 1681, while it did not apply to the newly recovered territories; in the latter only the Roman Catholic Church was to have the freedom that the Reformed Church asked for itself. Finally, in 1702, the king enunciated that the 1687 agreement was never intended to apply for all time. (To be continued)
